As those on the other side of the world, frolicking about through sprinklers with delicious coconut milk ice creams, may have forgotten, it’s been winter here. A pretty cold one. The lawn froze, Hank reverted to pooping in the house due to his moral objection to said frozen lawn, and apparently I hibernated for a while. But spring has finally arrived and my fingers have sufficiently thawed enough to be able to type again.

Uni work may have also had something to do with it. As is tradition when faced with an unholy mountain of essay questions, I reverted to one of my more shameful eating habits; a diet comprised approximately 85% of cheese.

No, I didn’t abandon veganism. But I did dive a bit further into the world of vegan cheese (with the expanded waistline to prove the extent of my valiant adventure). Here’s a very small selection of what I’ve been up to:

Mac and cheese

The staple of every student vegan worth their weight in nutritional yeast- mac and cheese. This one is the classic New Farm recipe, or the recipe that I plan to have printed on my tombstone when this dish inevitably kills me. It’s best not to contemplate the fat in this. Every time I make it, I swear it will be the last. It never is.

To my credit, I’ve since discovered Alicia‘s great recipe which doesn’t make me feel as though cardiac arrest is imminent. Progress!

Macadamia brie

Next up, the recipe that was the initial reason I picked up The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions. Vegan fancy cheeses? I couldn’t pass that up. It also gave me a reason to use the cheese knives that I’ve kept around for no apparent reason- until now! I thought this tasted pretty similar to brie, in that it reminded me that I always found brie too sweet and not sharp enough. I guess that’s a success for this recipe? I don’t know. But it sure was fun to make.

Smoky mountain cheese and tomato toasties with creamy tomato soup

Lastly, the smoky mountain cheese from Vegan Diner. I can’t say enough great things about this book- so far it’s probably my favourite new cookbook this year, and this recipe would have to be my favourite in there. There are some really great ones, so that’s a tough call! But this cheese is so easy to make, and unbelievably good in toasted sandwiches. It took me right back to when Chadwiko and I first moved in together and couldn’t afford to eat much more than toasties… only this time we ate them without the crazy mutant cockroaches that used to fly in through the kitchen window in our first apartment.

If I had a time machine (and fingers crossed, one day I will), I would take this post and wave it right in vegetarian, ‘I could never live without cheese!’ me’s face. Because you can. And I sure never had as much fun with cheese as I do now.