Starting to get into a groove with this. A couple of problems I knew I was going to have I am having, one I should have anticipated but didn't, and one that is becoming a bit of a bummer in its severity.
Tofu I got now. The first time turned out OK like I said, but was just a bit of a mess because the marinade wasn't good. Made some more (I don't remember the first brand I got, but this brand is called Nasoya and was fine). I ignored recipes and did a marinade that I would use on regular meat, except I added a little more acidic flavoring. I didn't freeze (do I do that after pressing it and do I freeze it back into a solid or just to make it very cold?) but I did the press like I did last time except in the morning after the overnight press I used another towel to get more liquid out. Turned out much better.
The thing I didn't appreciate is that I need to plan ahead better. Some of the dishes I'm making are more time and labor attentive than the meat counterparts I would make, so I just need to be more mindful of that. And, if I am hungry and don't have dinner ready, I can't just stop off at a fast food place and grab something quick and cheap. So, something I've done as well is looked in the freezer aisle to see what's there, and it's not much. There's a rice and vegetable stir fry by Amy's (just bought, haven't tried), various frozen faux chicken/hamburger patties (the hamburger ones are dry, so I just use more mustard and make sure to have tomatoes), faux chicken nuggets (tasted exactly like chicken nuggets to me), and eggplant patties (didn't buy). I looked on Amy's website, and I see some other vegan alternatives, but that's the only one my stores carry.
I forgot to look what brand of frozen hamburger patties I bought the first time, but I am trying Boco now. It's the only other brand they have. I'll let you know my thoughts on that one. But, I did get LightLife "smart" bacon and it was so dry and terrible. Might as well just skip eating bacon.
And, as someone who loves mushrooms, they aren't a meat substitute in the slightest for me and I'm starting to get burned out on them because I was trying to treat them as such, so no mushrooms for the next couple of weeks as I experiment more.
The biggest hurdle is the cheese. I've tried two, the only two that are available in the stores nearest to me that I can conveniently get to (more on this in a second). The first was Daiya, which doesn't melt well and has a bit of an aftertaste. If you use a lot of it, like in a pizza, the aftertaste gets worse. The second one was GoVeggie and was inedible. I should have tasted it before using it because I just scraped it off and threw it in the garbage. The aftertaste was terrible and it melts into something that, well, looks incredibly unappetizing to say the least.
I know someone mentioned Follow Your Heart, but it's not at my stores. I haven't looked yet to see if it's at a Whole Foods that delivers to me, or if I'm just maybe going to try and call some mom and pop smaller places and see if they carry it to try it. But, honestly, with the two alternatives I've tried, I'm either going to have to give up cheese completely, which will be very tough for me, or use the real stuff. I just love cheese, of all types, and these alternatives just aren't near close enough for me sadly. I'll try a homemade vegan cheese recipe for mozzarella before deciding. But, I'm leaning towards weening myself off by making less cheese dishes, but when I do need it, I'll use the real stuff, just in lesser and lesser dishes until I no longer do.
I've had a sweet tooth craving, but haven't tried making anything of my own and haven't looked in the store aisles for anything. If I remember correctly, Oreos are sort of vegan depending on the viewpoint of "bone char" for whitening, and if the specific supplier uses it, which can be inconsistent, right? (But the Newman-O's Oreo equivalent might actually vegan friendly because they have better sourcing? I forgot about the "sugar uses bone char for whitening" thing since last time I tried to really do this.)
