These last couple of months, I have been making steps towards veganism. It has been easier than I thought it would be. Now there are so many good alternatives, brands and products. Below I will share a few of my favorites.
Meat
Vegan alternative
?
Tofu: You can do so much with it!
Burger
Beyond Meat patties: Amazing
Ground beef
Trader Joes beef-less ground beef, Beyond meat ground beef or gardein meatless crumbles: all good
Meatballs
Gardein meatless meatballs
Chicken strips
Gardein crispy tenders, meatless chick’n strips andMorning star chick’n strips
Fajita strips
Jack fruit
Meat or chicken
Mushrooms
Steak
Seitan
Lots of amazing options! Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
Hi everyone 👋 it’s been a while since I’ve introduced myself on here. My name is Alyssa C. I’m the blogger behind Smile without cheese blog. Here are 10 things about me:
1. I have been dairy free for almost 3 years.
2. I am transiting to a more vegan/ plant based diet. I haven’t eaten any meat for 6 months!
3. I love baking and cooking!
4. I like to exercise doing yoga, yoga scuplt, pilates, walking, hiking and biking. @corepoweryoga is the best!
5. I love traveling and can’t wait to travel again in the future. Aruba, Iceland and Europe are high on my list.
6. I love reading. I am currently reading the @hellosunshine book club list.
7. I watch a lot of TV during my summers and this pandemic. I am currently watching one tree Hill. I just finished Grey’s anatomy.
8. I am a teacher. I teach first grade in the Dallas area.
9. I interviewed with @simplyunstoppable and you can view my interview on her page.
10. I am an elite member of @yelp
Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
Most of you already know I have a LUSH obsession. I use LUSH products as a form of self care. I love a good bath. So I thought I would write about my favorite products and what you should try.
Bath bombs: LUSH has the most iconic bath bombs. You just put them into water, they dissolve and leave a scent and color. My favorite is the sex bomb because it is really soothing and has a pink flower in it too. They have really fun ones for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
Bath bomb
Bubble bar: These are my favorite! You have to run them under running water and it makes bubbles in the tub! I love it! I enjoy the calming or citrus ones. They have really fun shapes for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
Bubble bar
Face mask: I love a good face mask. You can catch me in the tub with a bath bomb or bubble bar with a face mask on. They have ones that are fresh and need to be refrigerated that expire in about a week or ones that last awhile. My favorite normal mask is the mask of Magnaminty. My favorite fresh face masks are don’t look at me or oatifix.
Face mask
Body scrub: Something I can’t live without! This is heavenly after along work week. Just rub it into your body and rinse with water. It leaves your skin feeling smooth and refreshed afterwards. I normally rotate between rub rub rub, magic crystals, and mama mia since they are not super harsh on my skin.
Body scrub
Body butter: Following the body scrub I use body butter. It helps smooth after the scrub. It moisturizes and soothes the skin. I rotate between buffy, scrubee, and easy peeler.
Body butter
Bar of soap: LUSH has a wonderful selection of soap. I’ve been using a lavender vida loco that they don’t sell anymore.
Bar of soap
Naked cleansing balm: I wash my face with this before I put on a face mask. It lasts forever! I am currently using sleepy.
Naked cleansing balm
I hope you are excited to try one of these amazing products! I am a huge LUSHie! Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
For Jamba Juice’s birthday this year they had a special birthday cake smoothie. The best part is that it’s vegan. They had it only at select Jamba Juice locations, for a few days and even had a giveaway. I was able to go get it once when they had it.
I was so excited that they had a dedicated vegan smoothie that is birthday inspired. The smoothie is made with oatmilk, oatmilk frozen dessert, mangos, bananas, birthday cake flavored syrup and rainbow sprinkles. It looked amazing and tasted fruity yet exactly like cake. I’m so glad they had the smoothie even for a short time. I hope they offer it again next year.
Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
Since the COVID-19, I have been forced to cook more meals at home. I actucally have been enjoying myself cooking and baking. I’ve tried so many new recipes and I’m loving it. Below I will list different lunch and dinner items I have tried and liked. I will link the digital recipe.
Breakfast
Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf: Recipe by It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. This is amazing! The loaf is very rich and tasty! I will be making this over and over again.
Vegan Banana Muffins: Recipe by It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. These are really light and sweet. The recipe calls for nuts but I’m not a nut person so I omit them. I’ve been on a huge breakfast muffin/ bread kick. Usually during the work week. I’ll make oatmeal with fruit on top. But these have been really easy to make and eat for a week or two.
Cinnamon Streusel Muffins: Recipe by Vegan in The Freezer. The muffins are sweet and soft. I really like it. This recipe is supposed to make mini muffins but I double the recipe to make normal size muffins.
Vegan Cinnamon Rolls: Recipe by It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. I love cinnamon rolls! This recipe makes a lot of them, just to warn you. But they are really good!
Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts: Recipe by Nora Cooks Vegan. This was really good but I haven’t mastered the recipe yet. The next time I make it, I am confident I can get it right.
Lunch
Vegan Nashville Hot Tofu Nuggets: Recipe by Rabbit & Wolves. Crispy, hot tofu nuggets that are very delicious. You can eat them by them self or make a wrap with salad leaves and dairy free dressing.
Vegan Tofu Caesar Wrap: Recipe by It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. When I physically go to work I stick to stir fry meals that I can easily microwave and eat with a fork. Since I am home I have really loved this wrap. I frequently eat it and I’m obsessed with how good and easy it is to make.
Dinner
Vegan Garlic Knots: Recipe by Six Vegan Sisters. These are great! They pair well with any pasta dish! They are perfect to dip into marinara sauce too!
Vegan Crispy Tofu Parm Sandwich: Recipe by Six Vegan Sisters. I was surprised at how much I loved this! My boyfriend and I could eat chicken Parmesan side by side.
Homemade Pizza: Recipe from All Recipes. This recipe is vegan and is really easy to make. All I do is add pizza sauce, vegan cheese and pepperoni. It makes a thick crust pizza.
Vegan Baked Mac & Cheese: Recipe by Six Vegan Sisters. This mac & cheese is really thick and creamy. Absolutely delicious! I will be making this again.
Vegan Seitan Chick’n Tenders: Recipe by Six Vegan Sisters. This recipe helps you to make seitan from scratch . I simply bought pre-made seitan to save time and followed the recipe from there. Really good.
There’s still so many recipes I want to try. I hope you can enjoy some off this list like I have. Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
My mom gave me a real wake up call when it comes to using clean products. She said “most products have chemicals in them that are cancer causing, you are still young it’s not too late for you to switch”. She encouraged me to use my blogging platform to inform, test and share the products I enjoy the most. Everything fell into place when I found the clean beauty store Follain. It was easy to go to the store and find help to replace every day products with clean ones.
Normal Product
Clean Make Up Product
Mascara
Juice Beauty Mascara: This mascara is light and voluminous. It starts to come off during hot yoga but that’s to be expected. You can buy it at Ulta or Amazon.
Eyeliner
Juice beauty eye liner: This eyeliner is light and stays on all day long. It comes in many different shades. You can buy it at UIta.
Face wash or cleanser
Indie Lee Roseship Cleanzer: This has been my favorite face wash so far. It’s not harsh on my sensitive skin and it foams to take off make up in the shower. You can buy it at Follain or Indie Lee’s website. Osea Cleansing milk: This is cleanser for sensitive skin. I like it so far. You can buy it at Follain or Osea’s website.
Facial moisturizer
Chamomile & Rosehip Calming Day Cream: I have enjoyed using this moisturizer. It is light and super calming. I like it but I want to try out other products as well.
Body lotion
Osea undaria algae body oil: Amazing! It’s oil that you can use in place of body lotion. I will be using this for a long time! You can buy it at Follain or Osea’s website.
These are products that I have used or am currently using. I have sensitive skin, I would recommend asking a consultant for which products they recommend for your particular skin type. I plan to try many more products. The transition to clean has been surprisingly easy!
Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
My love for Velvet Taco has grown since moving to Texas. I found a menu item that I love and can’t get enough of. In case you haven’t heard of Velvet Taco they are all over Texas. There are countless locations in Dallas, and I am more than fine with it.
Lately, I have been ordering the Nashville hot tacos. They are vegetarian but can be made vegan. They have to switch the tortillas to corn and leave off the ranch dressing. I happily use my own dairy free ranch dressing from home. I get the tacos with a side of chips and plain tots. I normally don’t like hot things but the tofu is perfectly fried and crusted. I’m obsessed! I am so happy it can be made vegan too!
Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
I love to travel. My boyfriend and I love traveling and taking trips together. We created this bucket list together. We have been lucky and traveled a lot of places. These are the upcoming trips that I will be taking throughout my life. When traveling I love my trips to be near a beach, beautiful scenery, hiking and good food.
Domestic
Disney World, Sea World
New Orleans
Grand Canyon
Oregon
Utah
International
Aruba
Bahamas
Mayan Ruins
Japan
Italy
England
Greece
Dubai
Croatia
Bora Bora
Manchu Pichu
Peru
Panama
Iceland
Of course when I plan these trips they will be dairy free. I can’t wait to share the trip with you afterwards. Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
I was so happy when Veg News put out a post about “16 Vegan Cookies that Ship Nationwide. I was looking for the big, soft cookies and I think I found them with Foxship Bakery. These cookies arrived just in time for quarantine.
I ordered online and patiently waited as they freshly made and shipped my cookies. I ordered the chocolate chip and cookies n’ cream cookies. They come in packs of six. These are huge cookies! Quarter pound cookies!
For me it’s hard to pick which cookie I like best because they are equally delicious. Honestly I have been alternating between the two flavors and have been ridiculously happy. You can heat them up in the microwave or oven. In my experience 400 degree in the oven for 5 minutes makes it really soft.
I will be ordering more cookies from Foxship bakery in the future. I can’t wait to try more flavors. I am so glad they ship all the way from Chicago to Dallas. And these vegan cookies are seriously amazing! Everything and more that I could want in a cookie!
Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
At first the idea of never eating dairy again terrified me. I thought I could never do it but with the help of these products I can eat dairy free and enjoy some of the things that I ate before becoming lactose intolerant. When I discovered alternatives existed it completely changed my life and paved the way for me to become completely free of dairy. Moving to Dallas I’ve been exposed to new products, it’s different than what I’ve eaten previously. I’ve been dairy free for two years but I am constantly finding new things I love. Here are the dairy free products I can’t live without:
Daiya cheddar cheese: This was the first dairy free product I have ever bought or been exposed to. I remember the day, my mother came home and said, “Look Whole Food’s has dairy free cheese! You can eat this! Everything’s going to be OK”. From then on everything was OK. This dairy free cheese has the same taste as dairy cheese. The only slight difference is the texture, when it melts it melts differently than dairy cheese. Honestly I love this dairy free cheese so much so don’t mind the minor differences. In my fridge you will also find Daiya mozzarella cheese too. I like both flavors for different meals. I use this product on Mexican and Italian dishes.
Miyokos butter: This butter is vegan butter with the same buttery taste. It is very thick and creamy. I love using this for cooking and on toast or pancakes. If I go out to eat for breakfast I take some of this with me to spread over my breakfast.
Daiya Deluxe Zesty Cheddar Style Cheeze Sauce: I love queso. As soon as I found this I was ecstatic. In my opinion the Zesty is better than the traditional cheddar. I end up adding salsa to the regular cheddar if I can’t find the zesty cheddar.
Silk Dairy free Yogurt: I love using the yogurt for smoothies or to create a yogurt parfait. It is exactly like yogurt with dairy but better in my opinion. It is light but not too thin or too thick like Greek yogurt.
Daiya Pepperoni Pizza: It was very hard for me to accept that I would never be able to eat pizza again. But this frozen pizza has made that possible for me. The pizza is light, very crunchy and cheesy. This is my go to dairy free pizza. I have tried the Margherita pizza but I didn’t like it as much as the cheese.
So Delicious Dairy free Cookie Dough and Cookies N’ Cream ice cream. This dairy free ice cream is amazing. When I am craving ice cream I turn to either of these flavors. They are amazing and the most like eating ice cream with dairy. I highly recommend trying them if you love ice cream.
Ben & Jerry’s Non Dairy Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream: This non dairy ice cream is very chocolaty. It tastes like eating a brownie with ice cream. I am proud of Ben & Jerry’s for creating a non dairy flavors. This was the first non dairy ice cream I came across in the store. I have tried the P.B & Cookies non dairy I didn’t like it that much it tasted too much like peanuts for me, it over powered the cookie part.
Earth Balance Cheddar Squares: This snack changed my snacking game. Sometimes I have a taste for salty food and this snack hits the spot. I can’t believe that vegan cheese squares exist. I never thought I could eat something that resembled cheez-its again. This is a great alternative and snack.
Nacho Vibes Hippeas: Vegan cheetos but better. This was a game changer. So good and so addicting.
Almond milk: I typically drink original unsweetened almond milk from Aldi. It’s a good price since I go through many cartons. I have a glass with breakfast and dinner; I also mix it in with oatmeal too. I have tried regular almond milk that’s sweetened but it’s too sweet for me.
Sieste mild queso: Amazing!! Vegan queso!!
eatpastry vegan cookie dough: edible and cookable. It’s seriously the best!
Beyond meat ground beef: My favorite ground vegan ground beef.
Gardien meatless chick’n strips: Wow, I thought when I went vegan I would miss chicken but this is perfect!
Plant based Alfredo sauce: I love this product. It’s so easy to add to vegan chicken and fettuccine noodles.
You can find most of these products at your local Whole Food’s store or Sprouts. Thank you for visiting and reading! Don’t forget to follow me and comment on this post! Additionally you can follow my Instagram account @smilewithoutcheese New posts every Monday!
Juice Beauty Mascara: This mascara is light and voluminous. It starts to come off during hot yoga but that’s to be expected. You can buy it at Ulta or Amazon. 
Juice beauty eye liner: This eyeliner is light and stays on all day long. It comes in many different shades. You can buy it at UIta.
Osea undaria algae body oil: Amazing! It’s oil that you can use in place of body lotion. I will be using this for a long time! You can buy it at Follain or Osea’s website. 
Smile Without Cheese 