I love how I feel since I quit smoking, read Alicia's book, and decided to give it another go with a plant-based diet.  I have not had much trouble with dropping meat or milk.  I am having a difficult time with cheese, I love cheese with a gladd of wine, any suggested replacements?  Also I have found it challenging since I have yet to meet any other veggies in the area.  Let me know if you are in or near Southern Ohio.  I am close to Athens and want to meet others.  If not, than I hope to meet more people on here with the same interests so that I can stay motiivated!

Kate- buy organic vegan wine, nice crackers and order some Dr. Cow cheese. It's made from nuts and is amazing. You can even freeze it.

Can you get it online?  I will have to check it out!

wow>.. i got to look that up.. I also crave cheese big time!!!

Dr Cow is such a great suggestion! Thank you so much -cheese is my major weakness.

I'm so glad I found this!!  I have had a really hard time with cheese.  Not so much with the milk.  But I love cheese and crave it .  I'll check out Dr. Cow too.  Thanks all.

I'm working on cutting out dairy and for the past two days I've had the worst headache.  Is this normal?  The only time it felt a little better today was when I had a few bites of cottage cheese.

Laura - have you read The Kind Diet? You may be experiencing detox symptoms. If you want to cut out dairy, you'll make it harder on yourself by having some now and then. Some people liken what you describe to any addiction - your body feels bad at first, and when you give it some of what it wants, it feels better again, but any time you try to cut it out your body reacts the same way. I'm not saying that's what it is for sure, but it could be a possibility.

Well! I've got the cookbook for you!! The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak. I bought it because my hubby is having a tough time even flirting with veganism. Right now, he's avoiding dairy and ocean fish.

We had Traditional Macaroni and Cheez for dinner. Delicious! The book gives tips for creating cheese-like dishes, using nutritional yeast, and ground nuts, seeds and spices for colour and flavour. It even has charts showing the nutritional content of foods, it's astounding! Example: beans had the same amount of protein as dairy cheese, but beans are 4% fat while dairy cheese is 74% fat! No wonder we'll all fatties!!(no offense-I'm overweight as well).

I've been vegan for a little over 3 months and I really don't miss cheese, but Troy(hubby) is missing it.  Course, he hasn't been away from it very long(few weeks). I've found the Vegetarian Food For Thought podcast especially helpful. There's even a podcast titled, Life After Cheese. I've tried many of the vegan cheeses out there, and they're alright. They serve their purpose. What I have to keep reminding myself is to not compare it to dairy cheese. And to eat the cheeses for what they've been designed for. Certainly cannot eat it like I did cheddar cheese, in blocks.  I've started to eat vegan pizza with no 'cheese', but there are some yummy sounding recipes for pizza in the book that I'll have to try. Even cheesecake recipes. And blocks of cheez.

What I really love about the cookbook, is many of the recipes use nutritional yeast, so B12 is taken care of! :)   Troy is very impressed with the cookbook, and even more excited to try other dishes now that he's tried one! Anyone else try 'cheese' dishes that I need to try? I haven't tried Alicia's yet. It's on my list of dishes that I must try. I'm told it's very good!

I crave cheese as well. the last time i went to a vegan diet after a year i gave in and started eating cheese again! Pizza is my favorite food with mac and cheese very close! 

My husband and I have tried vegan cheese and it just doesn't have the same consistency as dairy... any suggestions with that?   

I did read The Kind Diet and figured my headaches were just detox symptoms.  I just didn't get any after cutting out meat "cold turkey."  I am working on using up the food I have that contains dairy, as to not waste it, but no longer buy food that contains dairy.  I have completely fallen in love with almond milk and will continue to work on being completely dairy free.  I'm so close to being there! =)

The headaches were also gone on day 3!  I have minimal dairy every day, with some days being completely vegan.

I highly recommend the Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix by Leahey Gardens.  It fills the hole left in my heart by cheesey things.  You can order it online from vegan essentials or the vegan shop.  Nacho Mom's Ultimate Vegan Queso is pretty good too (though it's a bit chunky for me).  Daiya cheese is great in moderation on pizzas (Tofurkey makes some pretty good frozen pizzas with it).

Eating something with lots of fat/oils in it can help with cheese craving too.  I recommend trying hummus or avocado instead of cheese.  Hummus on crackers is one of my favorite treats.

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions! I will have to order some. :)

My mother is from Wisconsin, and both sides of my family are pretty much ALL German... so DOUBLE the cheese, and it's on everything. Now that I'm out from under their roof and getting my own two feet firmly on the ground I'm able to say I dont want that anymore! But its sooo hard. I love cheese. I love it on pizza, pasta, crackers, everything. This is my weak point to going vegan. I'm glad I'm not alone. I just wish I didnt have such a dependency on cheese!