Once in a while, our favorite Sweet Vegan recipe developer, Hannah, does create something savory. And when she does, it always amazes. A recent dinner out at the famed raw food restaurant One Lucky Duck, peaked her interest in a dish she viewed from a distance ...

" ... The way that one particular salad was delivered to an adjacent table dripping with what seemed to be real parmesan flakes, the presentation alone gave me pause. Of course, their “cheese” is very similar to the standard vegan Parma, but in large flakes, providing much more crunchy goodness along with that indescribable cheesy flavor. Resolving then and there in that tiny restuarant to make my own version, I was dreaming up recipes the entire train ride home.

And just like that, easy as can be, I had my own highly passable facsimile. No, not just passable, but exceptional! ...

For the past three years, our popular Non-Dairy Product Lists have connected free-from dieters with thousands of great food options. To keep things current, we spent the past several months updating each listing, and I am happy to announce that the 2010 versions are finally complete. The following are available in an ebook/pdf format in our Go Dairy Free Ebook Store:

• 2010 Complete No Dairy Product List for Multiple Food Concerns (cross-referenced for soy, wheat, gluten, and egg)
• 2010 No Dairy Product List for Multiple Food Concerns - Just the Subs
• 2010 Complete No Dairy Product List
• 2010 No Dairy and No Soy Product List
• 2010 No Dairy and No Gluten Product List

We lamented over the loss of some wonderful food manufacturers, but are happy to report that many new foods and companies have taken their place. In fact, the complete product list has grown by 50 pages since last year! ...

Last month we reported on the new Picky Eater iPhone Application, but this month we have some new information and a review of this inexpensive resource to report. Picky Eater has been renamed to "Allergy Guard" (same product, new identity) and an Allergy Guard Lite has been released for free. The full application is just $1.99, and it sounds to be worth it according to our dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free shopping mom and reviewer, Sarena:

"As anyone who has food allergies or intolerances knows, going to the grocery store and looking at the ingredient list of products can be overwhelming and confusing.  Seriously, I don't know what some of that stuff means.  My new rule of thumb is...if we don't know what it is or how to pronounce it, it goes back on the shelf ...

Levana Kirschenbaum has to be one of the hardest working chefs I know. She teaches kosher cooking classes, has three cookbooks under her belt (with one more on the way!), is starting a new line of dairy-free spelt desserts, she just finished renovating her website, Levana Cooks (adding a blog that she updates regularly), AND she is constantly increasing her knowledge to cater to various special diets with her recipes: 

"I always offer gluten-free recipe options, not just  because  I myself am sensitive, but because it is every bit as delicious. You will be very pleased to see how many of my recipes (maybe up to 90%) are gluten-free in my next cookbook,  which I am hard at work on!"

In the meantime, head over to the New Levana Cooks Website to see what she is up to, and enjoy this delicious, Valentine's Day-worthy brownie recipe from her first cookbook, Levana's Table. After all, what says love more than fresh-from-the-oven, rich and gooey chocolate? ...