Here’s another stellar example of an easily veganized Italian classic that doesn’t skip a beat when it comes to taste. I got to thinking that since it is so easy to make a delicious vegan substitute for ricotta cheese, I needed to be making better use of it! Manicotti was an obvious choice.

I perused the web for recipes for a good long time before settling on this one from VegWeb. I originally intended to steam fresh spinach instead of using frozen, as instructed, but it turned out the spinach I had on hand had been in the fridge just a smidge too long. I didn’t have any in the freezer and I wasn’t about to go get some, so I left it out. You spinach-haters out there will be happy to know that it was still perfectly delicious without the green.

Best of all, this is completely do-able on a weekday night. Let me know what you think!

Vegan Manicotti
Recipe courtesy of VegWeb

Ingredients

1 lb firm tofu, drained
1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained (optional)
2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
3/4 tsp oregano
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
3 or 4 tbs olive oil, divided
1 (8 oz) package manicotti noodles
1 (24 oz) jar tomato sauce
Shredded vegan mozzarella, to taste (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375°F
• Put tofu, spinach, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, yeast flakes and 2 tbs oil in a food processor and pulse until well mixed and smooth
• Pour tomato sauce into a large bowl. Fill jar with 3/4 cup water, put lid back on jar and shake well to further remove any remaining sauce. Add to sauce in bowl, mix well, adding in some olive oil. Ladle 1/2 sauce into a large rectangular baking pan
• Fill large zip lock bag with mixture. Snip about a dime sized hole in bottom corner and pipe mixture into (uncooked) manicotti shells, filling compactly
• Place stuffed manicotti into sauce. Top with remaining sauce and bake, covered 25 min.
• Remove cover and top with vegan mozzarella, if using. Bake another 15 min, until bubbly
• Let stand for a few minutes before serving

Yield: Serves 4

Another day, another horrifying example of animal abuse on a dairy farm.

Yesterday, news broke of Mercy for Animals most recent undercover investigation at a West Texas dairy ranch, E6 Cattle Company. I’m not going to post the video here because I can’t even bring myself to watch it – so I’m definitely not going to force it down anyone else’s throat – but here are the highlights:

• Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – often involving 5 to 6 blows, sometimes more – before rendering the animals unconscious
• Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles
• Workers kicking downed calves (those too sick or injured to stand) in the head and standing on their necks and ribs
• Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs
• Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves
• Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care
• The budding horns of calves burned out of their skulls without painkillers

I wish I could tell you that this is an isolated example. Though some activists are saying it is easily the worst they’ve seen, it’s not that far off from what Mercy for Animals and other organizations and individuals always find during undercover investigations. Not sometimes. Always.

Think about the statistical probability of this kind of abuse just happening to occur every single time animal activists manage to get inside a factory farm. The likelihood that these are isolated incidents is so small as to be considered virtually impossible.

So often people have a hard time understanding the vegan position on dairy and eggs. After all, you don’t have to take an animal’s life to consume these products. As this video makes clear, there are fates worse than death.

Sure, not every dairy or egg farm is run this way, but there is some inherent disregard for the value of the animals in question that runs through the heart of any business model that depends on an animal product for profit. In many ways, I feel dairy cows and egg-laying hens have it worse than those who are raised for meat. Their lives are much longer, which really only means that they endure far more pain and suffering – at the end of which, they’re sent off to slaughter anyway.

Lucky for us, there are a vast array of dairy alternatives available today that make it easier than ever to give cheese and milk the old heave ho! Here, you’ll find a comprehensive listing of alternative dairy products with accompanying reviews. This gives you a great idea of what’s out there and which brands have become most popular with the dairy-free crowd.

Also, in case you’re interested, here’s a list of my faves. Give one of them a try. You might be pleasantly surprised!

My Favorite Dairy Alternatives

Cheese

This is a tie between Daiya and Follow Your Heart. I tend to buy Daiya more, but I will confess that is mostly attributable to laziness since Daiya comes in shreds and Follow Your Heart is only available as a block. Both are excellent.

Milk

Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Vanilla Unsweetened Almond Milk. This is my preference, but really, any almond milk will do.

Butter

Earth Balance.  Earth Balance comes in tubs and sticks and there is zero difference in taste, texture and melting point between it and typical butter or margarine. This is handily the easiest thing to replace in a vegan diet.

Sour Cream

Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream, Non-Hydrogenated

Cream Cheese

Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese

Ice Cream

Tofutti Cuties

Yogurt

Silk Live! Soy Yogurt

I also have a recipe for Ricotta cheese that will knock your socks off. I use it in lasagna.

Tofu Ricotta
Recipe Courtesy of Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

Ingredients

14-16 oz extra-firm tofu, crumbled
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbs chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt

Directions

• Blend everything in a food processor
• Use immediately