Tips on making the transition to vegan easier?

Ive been a vegetarian for 3 years and ive tried to take the plunge to be vegan afew times all unsucessful! It feels good to just eat fruits and veggies and grain I feel healthier and happier but I always get those darn cravings for like cheese once in awhile or like chocolate LOL!, What keeps you motivated?

 

I learned how to cook better. You can make the most gnarliest tastiest vegan food ever.

 

For cheese I found out that in milk there's blood and pus, the content is regulated by the state/country your in, and all that blood and pus is concentrated in the cheese to be way more, so I just thought of that with the cheese and it worked for me.

For chocolate, I just bought vegan chocolate, which is much more expensive but tastes so gooooood in my opinion! So it became a treat for me.

Now, if I do eat cheese, I feel extremely oily afterwards, and it drives me nuts. So I avoid cheese as much as possible. (I was vegan for 6 months, now I'm back to vegetarian)

 

cook more.. exactly! www.vegweb.com has a lot of great recipes.. folks post recipes here on HF from time to time too.

don't beat yourself up if you slip back into vegetarianism, just try again.

 

Thanks everyone! and thanks Boog that's true, just keep trying until ya get it

 

Any properly crafted chocolate that isn't milk chocolate should be vegan-friendly. Just read the labels, some still feel the need to junk up pure unadulterated chocolately heaven with milkfat or butterfat.. so you should be good on chocolate as long as you avoid crappy brands like Hershey and the like, who sell only the finest brown sludgy "chocolate-like" substances.

Cheese is different. All I can say is after a while without, you'll stop wanting it. There is nothing vegan that will ever satisfy a cheese craving, you just learn to live without it and to like other things instead. You can still make cheesy like sauces for pasta and stuff. They do have soy and rice based "cheese" but I have yet to find one that impresses me.

 

nutritional yeast flakes! they make a great substitute for cheese. i sprinkle it on spaghetti, popcorn, beans, vegan mayo, and anything that you sprinkle cheese on. i also make a gravy from it that can be made cheesier if need be.

experiment! become a kitchen scientist!

 

Yes.. forgot to mention that in last post. Nutri yeast flakes are essential to a good cheesey-like sauce. Way more nutritional value than real cheese, too.. no cholesterol, full of B vitamins.. can't go wrong

 

Any sites where we can get recipies for this kind of stuff? Cheese was hard for me to get over during my last try, as were things like eggs (LOVE eggs... sowwy).

 

i found it really hard the first 1-2 weeks, because i waas craving carbs. u have to be tough with yourself. just focus on how much healthyer ull be/feel.
and yes, as has been said before, if u find some nice recipies to cook, u dont feel like you are missing out on stuff.

 

what helped me alot was to find an organic fruit and vege home delivery service.
its quite cool, cs u get your goods, and then you look , maybe online etc, what you could do with diffrent fruites or vege.