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Slimming World and Vegan Cheese Review

The Slimming World Plan is a diet (lifestyle) plan that I have done before, and I did have some success, I lost half a stone, but this was during a not so good phase in my life so I didn't stick to it as long term as I should! Since then I have been on and off with it or saying that I am doing it but not being 100% committed. Or flitting between other silly fad diets! But since January this year I have been fully committed to the Slimming World Plan, of course I have had a fair few days where I have been off plan but this is ok, and one of the main principles of Slimming World is not build up an issue with food where you are punishing yourself for enjoying a treat or feeling negative about going off plan and then spiraling into more days of unhealthy eating! Since January I have lost 3kg which I am really pleased about but I do still have about another 6kg to lose.

I have been a vegetarian for over 10 years now and at the beginning of last year I tried going Vegan, the part of this I struggled with the most was cheese! In particular Halloumi cheese, I tried the vegan substitutes which I will review in a moment but ultimately I found it too difficult at that time and so I do now still eat cheese. Perhaps one day I will gradually eliminate this from my diet. I don't have any other dairy products, instead having plant based replacement milks at the moment I am using Almond Milk, and Alpro Soya yogurts if I need them. Since my attempt at Veganism I haven't eaten eggs, this was actually unintentional but I found that after not having them for a period of time I realized the thought of it made me feel a bit queasy! 

In some ways this has made following the Slimming World Plan slightly more difficult as eggs are quite heavily featured in a lot of breakfasts and even lunches. But I have had to be a bit more imaginative, I will be sharing some ideas and recipes for any vegetarians / half vegans like myself!

I am not 100% certain of the allowances for the vegan cheeses on the slimming world plan, so have been having normal cheese at the moment, I might transition to the vegan cheese again soon. 

Violife was the main brand I used:

Violife Original Sliced Vegan Cheese (200g)VioLife Original Flavour Slices 
This was the first vegan cheese I tried and I was pleasantly surprised! Upon opening the packet the smell is very strong, but don't be alarmed, the taste is not as overpowering, these 'cheese' slices are good enough to eat on their own! Even my daughter loved them and would actually to just have some vegan cheese as a snack! They melt well in a grilled cheese sandwich and you really can use them as you would dairy cheese without sacrificing any taste or texture. I would definitely be happy to go back to these!

violife cream cheese



VioLife Creamy Original Flavour
Well, I can honestly say I prefer this to what it is replacing - Philadelphia cheese. I liked the fact that the VioLife version is most definitely lighter in texture and feels cleaner if that is possible! It really is very good, thinking about it I may go and buy a tub and work out the allowances for Slimming World!



violife halloumi vegan halloumiVioLife Mediterranean Style
This is the Halloumi version which I had high hopes for but sadly it is not a great replacement for the real deal, the taste isn't actually bad its more the texture which I found to be chewy and gluey if that can be a description. I attempted to both grill and dry fry this in a pan with a very small bit of oil and was unable to get the consistency I was expecting. It also stuck to the pan a lot and became difficult to turn over and maneuver on to my plate. Hopefully they will modify and develop a Halloumi replacement, but until then I wont be having this on my plate again sadly!



I did once try a Tesco own version the free from cheese slices, but I ended up throwing the pack away as I found the taste to be incredibly artificial.

Which Vegan cheeses have you tried?

Love, Kim x

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