★★★:

Congratulations.
First of all, from the way you’re talking, it seems like you’ve chosen a vegan diet for the health benefits, and if that is actually the case, I’d like to request that you not call yourself a vegan, but just a strict vegetarian. Veganism is not just about what you eat, it is a lifestyle. Vegans choose this lifestyle based on ethics, because they are morally opposed to the exploitation of non-human animals. Unless you are also willing to cut non-dietary animal products (leather, wool, items tested on animals, and personal care items containing animal ingredients, etc.) from your life, than you are not technically vegan according to the original definition.

Aside from that, it’s an excellent choice you’ve made, and I think you did pretty good. I also would recommend some kind of whole grains to accompany your fruit, especially if you’re cutting out coffee. Find some healthy vegan cereals that you like, or try oatmeal. There are tons of ways you can spice up plain oatmeal. One thing I like for breakfast is cooked quinoa with a bit of soymilk and some kind of fruit tossed in. It’s good warm or cold. Apart from teas, Postum is another great coffee alternative. It’s been around for ages & as far as I can remember, it is vegan. You might want to double check that though, b/c I’m not completely sure. That pasta dish sounds delicious! I can never pass up sun-dried tomatoes. I wouldn’t recommend trying to sustain yourself on pre-packaged veggie burgers & other faux meats. They’re good when you’re starting out, because they’re probably the best replacement for that taste & texture you’ve grown accustomed to. They usually aren’t very healthy though, and they’re really expensive in comparison to just buying whole foods & cooking yourself. Tofu and seitan are excellent meaty alternatives. I would recommend getting a few good vegan cookbooks for ideas and recipes. You could also google "vegan recipes" or "tofu recipes", "tempeh recipes", whatever it is you’re interested in…and come up with a ton of options. In my opinion, Sarah Kramer, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and Dreena Burton are the gurus of vegan cookbooks. Anything by them is excellent. Dreena Burton also has a blog where she usually posts some recipes that aren’t included in her books. There are also tons of other great vegan blogs out there, both food/recipe ones, and general lifestyle/frustrations ones. How It All Vegan (Sarah Kramer & Tanya Bernard) is especially good for new vegans…lots of really simple & delicious recipes. You could look on ebay for groups of a few cookbooks sold together for really cheap. As for "cheese", the only commercially available packaged vegan cheeses I like are Tofutti’s Better Than Cream Cheese, and, er, I can’t think of the name of it, but it’s a parmesan style. Maybe it’s just "Vegan Parm"? I’m pretty sure "vegan" is in the name somewhere. Anyway, you’re not going to find any vegan hard cheese, like cheddar, mozzerella, etc. that you can just eat as is. They’re pretty disgusting, and are mainly designed to use in cooking. If there are any areas of your diet where you think you’ll really miss cheese, I would recommend finding some good nutritional yeast "cheese" recipes that will suit your needs. Nutritional yeast is your friend. Good luck!

Alex C:

I dont really know much about this I just wanted to say mcdonalds fries are fried with some beef fat I just wanted to say just in case you care

Olivia C:

Sounds good. I’m not a big fan of vegan cheese, but I love meat substitutes like Smart Bacon and tofu. Make sure that you’re getting enough carbs – most cereals are vegan and are good to have for breakfast along with the fruit. Fruit by itself may not give you enough energy to start the day with. You can have cereal with soymilk – I prefer vanilla soymilk. Also, green tea is a great, healthy, antioxidant rich substitute for coffee.

daisy chain 4 satan:

I haven’t found a non-dairy cheese that’s NOT made with casein (a milk protein) that is very good so far.

However, you mentioned missing the cheese on your pasta and I recently found a recipe on one of my fave vegan blogs (veganyumyum.com) for Basil Cream Sauce that’s made with cashews and it’s so creamy and tasty you won’t miss the Parmesan on your pasta!

Also, another good "cheesy" recipe I’ve found that’s tasty is a recipe for Queso on http://www.veganexplosion.com. It should be the first recipe that pops up when you visit the site.

Just try searching the net and you’ll find lots of helpful and informative vegan blogs and sites out there!

Oh and if you”re afraid you’ll miss ice cream, you must visit one of my fave blogs. http://www.veganicecreamparadise.blogspot.com. I really don’t like many of the vegan ice creams on the market, but these are great and you can choose the kind of milk you use. Good Luck!

Scocasso !:

"I’m a new vegan!…HELP!?"
Is still not a question, even if you put a ? at the end.

hellinore_rigby:

Hullo and congrats!
Welcome to the world of vegans.

Sounds like you are off to an excellent start. I too read "Skinny B***h" (after I was already vegan) and found it interesting. One thing that disturbed me a bit was the meal suggestions in the back. It seemed like each meal relied on a soy substitute. While faux meats are okay in moderation, you should really do some research to make sure that the soy beans were not genetically modified. You might also want to check the sodium content as a lot of the products are super salty.

Your food for the day sounds good. I actually have not come across tasty non-dairy cheeses. As another poster said, most of them contain casein and that’s never a good thing. I’ve learned to just live w/o cheese. I used to love it too! You can look online for recipes that tell you how to make vegan cheese out of nutritional yeast flakes. Or you can go to Food Fight.com. It is a vegan grocery store’s website based out of Oregon. They might carry what you’re looking for and can ship it right to your door.
http://www.vegweb.com has some good vegan recipes as does http://www.vegcooking.com.
Good luck!