Soy milk

[BabyGrl]

After seeing the Meet your Meat video I am going veg. I am so grossed out by how those animals were treated and I am not going to contribute to it anymore. The only real issue I am having is with milk. I enjoy the taste of milk and used to drink 1-2 glasses per day. I have since switched to soy milk which to me is just gross. Is this an aquired taste that maybe I will get used to or is there anything I can put in it to make it taste better?

[Piglet]

I found it really sweet, but my aunt who has been drinking if for years loves it now. I guess you just have to get used it

[suzilovespiggie]

Milk is/was my biggest problelm also. I love milk. It is the last thing for me to give up.
I started by putting soy milk in my coffee and cereal. I have now started drinking it and taking a calcium tablet. I use vanilla soy milk or the choclate soy milk. I have yet to be able to drink the straight soy milk.
Meet your meat did it for me too. I couldn't even watch but a few minutes.
I buy local chicken eggs. I live in the country where chickens are outside, roamiing an pecking as they choose. I am thinking of getting a few chickens just for eggs of my own.
Good luck with being a vegetarian.

[BabyGrl]

It is too sweet for me also I hope that I can just get used to it, I am trying to drink a little each day. I have started putting it in my cereal which takes the edge off a little bit and I will definitly try it in my coffee. Funny I did not think of that i just started drinking it black. Sometimes my brain stops working.

[Piglet]

Silly you! Black coffee - blech. I too turned vegetarian after watching that video. Of course as time went by I saw other things too which reassured me that I was doing the right thing. I'd been thinking of becoming one yonks ago, but that video convinced me.

[Funnygpigs]

Silk Brand soy milk, I find is the best tasting. I Have been useing soy milk for years now. The Silk brand makes a great coffe creamer (taste just like regular creamer), egg nog (called: Silk Nog), and a chocholate milk that even my 5 yr old loves! The regular soy does take time to get use to the taste.

If milk is you biggest problem, buy organic milk, from small family-run farms. This will help to at least not support big industry dairy farms who are more likely to treat their animals with crulety (sp?). Plus, Organic cow milk, has to come from 100% vegetarian fed cows, that are not treated with hormones or antibiotics. They have to be given acess to grazing land. Their feed has to be organic as well. It is a MUCH more helathier alternative to regular (non-organic) milk. I avoid Horizon brand, Lucern brand (there are others to!), because they are large-scale industrial dairy farmers. Just an alternative idea! Plus dont forget, they make plenty of other types of milks: Rice, Multi-Grain, ect...

[tiny_maggs]

If you find it to be too sweet Silk soy milk makes a unsweetened kind, I've never tried it though so I can't tell you how it tastes, although I imagine not to good. I prefer the original Silk soy milk and occasionally enjoy the vanilla and chocolate.

[laura220]

When I first tried soy milk it was awful! But the second time it tasted fine then I I drank it more it really tasted good. So yes, you need to get used to it. I never drank milk but I always had it in cereal so that way it's good and then I don't need to drink puss(if you know what I mean).

[redrocketpop]

I also didn't like soy milk when I tried it for the first time. Now, I absolutely love it. It's also perfect for someone like me that has a really bad habit of letting real milk spoil before I use it due to the longer freshness period of soy. Silk is definately my favorite brand, but I didn't care for the vitamin fortified kind I bought on accident once. Man, I want a glass of milk now!

p.s. Soy milk and pecan sandies (with or without chocolate chips) = the best snack ever.

[Sabriel]

I like So Good and So Nice. But I am not sure if they sell those in the US. Maybe drive into Windsor for your fix?

I *heart* strawberry soy milk. I have to try the So Good "Egg" Nog.

[BabyGrl]

Maybe drive into Windsor for your fix?

Hmmm. I must say I do love living 30 minutes from the border. I am getting used to the flavor now maybe because I am forgetting how much I enjoy regular milk. The chocolate is pretty good. I will have to find some strawberry somewhere that is definitly my favorite.

[Susan W]

I drink milk. I don't believe its healthy not to have milk and eggs in my diet (though I know vegans believe otherwise). If you buy organic milk the cows are supposed to be treated well and not given all the antibiotics and hormones, and since organic milk tastes noticably better to me than the regular kind, I believe it is true. Soy milk in coffee...bleuuch! I don't care much for soymilk, though I do like oatmeal better made with soymilk than with regular milk. Try it in oatmeal.

[Sabriel]

I don't see how soy milk can be considered less halthy then real milk. Soy milk has more vitamins and minerals in it and less fat. I drink soy milk to increase my iron consumption as cows milk has none. I keep a small carton of cows milk around for cooking and for my husband and use soy milk for drinking and cereal. I drink tea so I don't have to worry about creamer. I can happily have flavoured tea with just sugar.

[Piglet]

Does soy milk have the same amount of calcium though? I still eat eggs susan, but they're organic and free range

[Sabriel]

I am pretty sure the calcium is comparable. I posted once the values from a carton of 2% organic (though not free range. It's pretty hard to find farm fresh stuff in Canada's largest city) and a carton of soy milk. From my iron/B12 deficient point of view the soy milk was better for me.

Here Is my break down of soy vs. cows milk, right off the carton.

[amyjane]

Milk was the first thing I gave up. I used to love milk and one day I just started to really dislike the taste. And of course there's the fact that a certain amount of pus is permitted to be in milk. Yum. I still don't like soy milk very much. I only use it on cereal. To me, Silk is the best brand. They make a great mocha sort of drink that I loooove.

There were some modifications by the FDA as to what is considered organic these days. I misplaced the email, but the requirements to put "organic" on a label have been relaxed. I'll have to look for that.

[smoot]

Almond milk is good. I like the chocolate Almond Breeze.

[Sabriel]

I looked at my cartons last night. Soy milk was 30% of your daily intake of calcium, 2% cows milk was 29%. These may differ from American values though, as these are the values Health Canada and CFIA have determined it to have. The FDA may have it's own idea as to how much calcuim you need in a day.

I know I *should* stop drinking milk and eating cheese and I'm slowly getting there. At home I drink soy milk and use soy cheese when I can (veggie shreads are hard to find in my area of town) If resturants have a veg cheese option I will order it, but that is very rare.

If I was a better cook it wouldn't matter so much, but I am the world's worst cook so my husband and I restort to a lot of pre made food.

[amyjane]

Sabriel -- Have you thought about joining a vegetarian recipe group? Yahoo groups has some, as well as Livejournal. That's how I became a better veggie cook.

Soy cheese...yuck! I've tried it and it just doesn't melt the way cheese should (nor does it taste the same). I find it very hard to cook with and usually end up using regular cheese.

[Sabriel]

It's not so much veg cooking as it is cooking in general. I am talented in many many ways, just not when it comes to food :P

I can screw up the easiest of recipes. Now I have a routine of cooking things I know when my husband is at work (pasta, veg sloppy joes, etc) and cooking new things when my husband is home. That was he can rescue it and see what I am doing wrong.

Hurting my back and becoming a housewife for a couple months has helped a lot. I've improved enough that my husband only wants me to work part time.