I Have Found Shangri-La and it is Vegan Cream Cheese

I love bagels and cream cheese.  I'll just throw that out there.  They may very well be my desert island food.  I love me a good chewy bagel and a huge schmear of cream cheese, the thicker the layer the better.

So, needless to say, when I decided to follow a vegan diet, I missed my bagels and cream cheese.  I'd have bagels and Earth Balance or bagels and hummus.  But, it wasn't the same.  And, since most vegan cream cheeses, if not all, are soy-based, with my allergies, I resigned myself to not having them.  And, to be honest, bagels and cream cheese were what usually made me fall off the vegan wagon.  They are my vegan kryptonite.

However, with my recent discovery that I can tolerate non-GMO soy products, I decided to check out Galaxy Nutritional Foods' Vegan Cream Cheese.  While it's not a dead ringer for cream cheese, it hits the spot enough for me to not miss the dairy variety.

Nutritionally, the Galaxy is neck and neck with Philadelphia, so if you're looking for what's "healthier," it's a draw in terms of fat, saturated fat, protein, and sodium.  So, you might choose the Galaxy if you don't eat dairy for ethical reasons, or if you're lactose intolerant or otherwise sensitive to dairy.

For me, this product is a perfect example of how you might use processed foods in moderation to make a plant-based or vegan diet more manageable.  I still absolutely believe that a healthy plant-based diet focuses mainly on . . . well . . . plants.  Today, I had a big bowl of avocado and tomato for breakfast, a ginormous spinach, carrot, broccoli, onion, cucumber and sunflower seed salad for lunch, an orange and peanuts as my pre-yoga snack, and leftover farro alfredo with carrots and broccoli for dinner.   But, if eating vegan cream cheese on my (whole grain!) bagels makes me less likely to throw up my hands and start eating dairy again, I'm all for it.