The most Midwestern thing about me – besides being born and raised in Ohio – is my love of cheese. Give me a block of cheese and I will make you a meal. (I say block here because my childhood favorite was Colby cheese in all its orange glory.) Give me multiple cheese varietals and I will make you a knock-your-socks-off charcuterie board.
In high school my lactose intolerance really came into its own, and I cut down on pain-inducing former favorites such as milk, ice cream and, yes, cheese. A college semester abroad in France introduced me to the glory that is a well-aged, non-pasteurized cheese. The longer a cheese is aged and the funkier it becomes, the more the French love it and the lower the amount of lactose in the cheese! So I ate aged French cheese to my heart’s content. I also discovered many alternative milk cheeses like goats and sheep cheese, both of which are naturally free of lactose.
Vegan cheese (cheeze?) has come so far in the last year or two. It melts. It’s gooey. Some brands taste exactly like cheese. But still some brands are flavorless and inedible.
What else am I craving right now? In no particular order:
- Cheese
- Chicken wings
- Burgers
- Scrambled eggs
- Croissants
In the case of chicken wings and burgers, I can acknowledge that there are lots of good plant-based replacements (Chick’n, Beyond Burger, Impossible Foods) and that I mostly love these foods for the sauce and toppings rather than for their animal meat. With enough turmeric, salt and nutritional yeast, scrambled tofu can taste like scrambled eggs. Kind of.
Just on Day 4 I wrote that no one In These Times has shown up at my apartment with non-vegan goodies. The universe has proven me wrong. A knock at the door yesterday brought giant box full of milk chocolate goodies. I just about caved. Now I have something to look forward to in February!
If you’re trying to eat more plant-based and are experiencing cravings, know that you are not alone.