The Friendly Vegan

With today's lactose intolerance craze and veganism on the rise, I felt it was really important to share how to make vegan feta. Feta was one of the things I missed the most. Although the texture is not the exact same, it's pretty darn close. I find that the longer I stay vegan for, the less I remember what animal products taste like. I tend to compare the vegan alternatives less to the animal product which makes me enjoy them much more. The longer I stay vegan, the easier it becomes to enjoy all the food I eat, and it feels so much better to eat too because it's so much healthier, and there is no guilt attached. This tofu feta has a few steps, so you will want to make it a day in advance from when you actually want it, but it stores in the fridge for about a week as well. Ingredients: 4 oz of extra firm tofu 4 tbsp salt  1 tbsp white wine vinegar 2 cups water Directions:  Drain and squeeze the tofu in a tofu press for about an hour. If you don't h...

What could be better than vegan, waste free, DELICIOUS, Caesar dressing in a super cute hand-me-down bowl! Other than combining it with my coco-bacon bits , and my homemade garlicky croutons , I don't really know. I used to love Caesar dressing, but when I found out the horrors of the dairy industry, I didn't eat it for so unbelievably long. I started to follow a lot of vegan people on Instagram and I was seeing all this stuff that I never even considered could be made vegan. Super creamy mac and cheese? Fettuccine Alfredo? Caesar and Ranch dressing?! So I tested some recipes, and figured out the least time consuming way to do it, and voila! The most amazing, and creamiest dressing, that tastes just like the real thing! Ingredients:  1/2 cup of soaked cashews (see directions for quick soak method) 1/4 cups of water 2 tbsp of olive oil 1 tbsp + 1 tsp of lemon juice (fresh is always best) 1/2 tbsp Dijon or sriracha mustard (you can add more if you like the zesty...

         Coconut? For bacon bits?? I'll admit I was skeptical at first, especially since recipes kept telling me I needed this stuff called liquid smoke? Where am I even supposed to get that? I have no idea what it even looks like to be completely honest. So, I just did my own thing, tweaked a few things to my liking, and created something that I just felt really selfish keeping to myself because it is so easy and so yummy! And you can store it in the cupboard for a few weeks so that's a bonus. Its just a few simple ingredients, a lot of which you probably already have on hand! Ingredients: 2 cups of unsweetened coconut shavings 1 tbsp soy sauce  2 tsp paprika 1 tbsp maple syrup 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper Directions Mix well into a bowl until all the coconut is evenly covered. Make sure to work out any clumps of maple syrup.  Then, spread thinly onto a lightly greased oven tray, and bake at 325 Degrees Fahrenheit for about 4-6...

As you might already know by now, I like to buy things in bulk as much as possible, and although my local bulk barn has croutons, they don't have vegan croutons. So I began my search for some crunchy vegan little bites of goodness, tested a few recipes, and came up with the most perfect and flavorful recipe possible. The trick with these, to get nice crispy croutons is to get a loaf of uncut, rye bread, and slice it up yourself, and to use the end pieces! Ingredients: 4 cups of bread (including one end piece on the loaf) 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1 1/2 tsp dried parsley 1/2 tsp salt 3 tsp oil Directions: Cut your rye bead into desired size and shape (I did regular crouton size) and put in a large bowl. Begin by gradually adding the spices as you mix the bread around with your hand, this avoids having all your spices stick to the same piece of bread. Then, carefully mixing the bread around, gradually add the olive oil.  Once your pieces are evenly coated, spread on...