Don’t have a cow, man

Giving up eating beef and drinking glasses of milk was pretty easy. Could I go further?

Instances of Avian flu keep turning up in mammals. Most concerning of late to us human mammals are cases in cows in America. Cats drinking raw cow milk haven’t fared well. Not to worry, they say, because pasteurization kills the virus. Or does it? Well, nothing’s been found so far in commercial pasteurized milk. Especially in Canada. But how hard are we looking?

Overall, I don’t know if the potential risk of HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is itself reason enough to cut back on consuming beef and dairy.

I do know that there are plenty of other reasons to consider doing that:

• For your tummy! A lot of people are lactose intolerant. Not everyone who is knows it.
• For the climate! Cows are the most emissions-intensive animals to raise.
• For the cows! The life quality of dairy or beef cattle on factory farms… isn’t great.
• For the humans! Migrant farm workers, in particular, are often exploited.

It’s all got me thinking… Maybe I could at least cut back?

Where’s the beef?

The meat part is done and dusted. I gave up eating beef years ago.

To be honest, I didn’t do it for any of the fine reasons I listed above. Since being a teenager, I’d been a little suspicious of ground beef. I wondered, what was really in that burger? But I didn’t entirely stop eating them until I read Fast Food Nation, which provided an answer:

There is shit in the meat.

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation

(Here I feel compelled to point out that Fast Food Nation was published way back in 2001. Maybe the sanitary conditions have improved since then. Maybe there isn’t so much shit in the meat now. I dunno. I haven’t looked into it.)

Steak, though less shitty, was excised from my diet some time after that, more as a health measure. To follow that general “try to eat less red meat” advice.

Got milk?

Drinking milk all by itself, in a glass, is also something I gave up decades ago. And again, not for any particularly high-minded reasons. At some point, as a teenager, I just decided I preferred drinking other beverages.

But I continued to use milk as an ingredient. Continue. It’s not a past tense thing. But, I have reduced it, without much pain.

Almond milk, for some time now, has become my go-to for smoothies and hot cereals, because I enjoy the almond flavor with those foods. And while almond milk is not the most environmental choice of milk alternative, it’s still more environmental than dairy milk.

It’s also lower in carbs than dairy milk, if you care about that sort of thing.

And while I haven’t tried this yet—because I don’t bake that much—I’ve read that barista-style oat milk is the best substitute for dairy milk in many recipes. Speaking of which…

You’re the cream in my coffee

Finding an alternative to cream for my coffee was initially a challenge, because many non-dairy creamers contain sugar. I don’t like my coffee to be sweetened, and I don’t need any extra sugar in my diet in general.

But Elmhurst makes an unsweetened oat coffee creamer that I like just fine. It also works for me in black tea. Not going to lie—it has a somewhat different taste than milk / cream, so it might not work for you. But could be worth a try. And oat is a really good environmental choice.

I also like oat milk for lattes. Not the Elmhurst oat creamer one, though; a barista-style oat milk, as made by Silk. Again, does have its own sort of oat-y taste, but I find that works fine for the purpose of contrasting coffee bitterness.

Jean’s coffee choice is something that sounds pretty odd: Sproud barista-style pea milk. While it sounds odd, it tastes… quite neutral, kind of like dairy milk. And it’s higher in protein than oat or dairy milk. I like it fine as well, but since it’s harder to acquire (Well.ca stocks it), I mostly leave it for Jean and have the oat.

They call me mellow yellow

Fortunately, things have come a long way since the only butter alternative was margarine. Today’s concoctions, built around coconut oil but with added sunflower, and sometimes cashew, are pretty nice.

My favourite is Miyoko’s Creamery plant-based butter. It’s good on toast, on popcorn, on corn on the cob…

It is kind of pricey, though. Even compared with organic dairy butter.

So I was happy to also find Melt Organic Buttery sticks, which are cheaper than both. Not quite as delicious, I’d say, but pretty good, and definitely fine for baking and sauteing in “butter”. Also quite good on veggies (and pancakes!): Butter-infused olive oil, which is in fact non-dairy.

Warning about the plant-based butters, though: Do not leave them out at room temperature. They will turn into a puddle.

Your love is better than ice cream

There’s fruit-based sorbet, of course, which can be quite lovely. But it’s not ice cream.

It hadn’t really occurred to me to try non-dairy ice creams until some Conservative politician complained about Häagen-Dazs trying to fool people by not telling them their non-dairy ice cream contained no dairy.

I mean, jeez. It says plant-based right on the lid there. And nowhere is this called ice cream!

Anyway. I bought some. It’s oat based, in case you’re wondering. And I pretty much figured that it would be good, given that, you know, it still contains plenty of fat and sugar. And also, added chunks of yummy stuff—peanut butter, caramel fudge, chocolate brownie…

Now if you really focus when eating this, you can detect that the non-chunky bits of “cream” are a little more oaty, and a little less creamy, than traditional ice cream. But who cares. It’s quite delicious.

(While we’re in the dessert category, I’ve tried a couple types of vegan cookies recently, and those were quite good, also.)

Odds and sods

Then there’s yogurt, which I eat regularly. I haven’t tried too many non-dairy options as of yet. I have switched from Greek to organic regular, though, because I read that regular yogurt requires much less milk than Greek. (And sure, results in less protein also, but I doubt I’m low on protein. Not like I’m a body builder.) And the “organic” label does include some consideration of animal welfare.

But I suppose I should also give some vegan options a go just to see how I like them.

Sour cream? Well, I don’t use it a lot anyway. I guess next time it comes up, I could try an alternative.

Whipped cream. There’s good old Cool Whip, I guess, but that sugary “edible oil” is a bit of an over-processed franken-food, I think. I read that coconut milk is about the only alternative milk that will “whip” properly. Bad news if you’re not into taste of coconut. But I like it, myself. Would probably work.

Cheese, please

Le sigh. Now, there are sheep’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses that I like. And, even some vegan cheese are OK. Notably, the Green Goddess non-dairy (also non-cheap, it has to be said) cheese line. I like their version of cream cheese just fine. The halloumi-type cheese also worked pretty well, you could fry it, crisp it.

And their Irish Cheddar… was good! Just not quite as good.

What about grilled cheese sandwiches? Pizza topping? I experimented with Daiya. I did not care for it melted! I found the texture rather slimy and off-putting. I believe Daiya is meant to be reminiscent of processed cheese, which I do not like. (People who do, seem like to Daiya.)

And like, fresh Parmesan? I use so much fresh Parmesan!

This one is definitely the toughest category.