So many of us are lactose intolerant these days, but there are so many milk substitutes that it's difficult to know where to turn! Find out where to go, and how to incorporate these substitutes into your cooking.

These gorgeous cookies are Lolo's latest creation over at VeganYumYum. The delicate creations are definitely a labor of love - she baked them and then shaped them herself - but they look totally worth it.

I like Lolo's recipes because she takes chances with her food, swapping butter and whole milk for Earth Balance and soy milk and coming up with mouth-watering results. That's what she did with these cookies, substituting in Earth Balance and what she calls "flax egg," a mixture of ground flax seed and water, and then baking them and quickly shaping them when they came out of the oven.

Lolo filled her cookies with soy almond pudding and strawberries (and chocolate jimmies) but you could fill them with anything you wanted, or dip them in chocolate, or smother them in berries and cream...

• It's spring, and time for salads.
• The bread basket: good or bad?
• Restaurant reviews: Mulan and MKT.
• This Vermont company is making soy milk, tofu, and other alternative dairy products.
• Maple syrup: the first crop of spring in Maine.
• This week's recipes: Vegetable Cutlets, Fromage, Tuna Noodle Casserole, Baked Fennel and Tomato Casserole, Coleslaw, Maple Baked Beans, Lemon-Walnut Loaf Cake, and Nonna Santopietro's Cookies.

I wasn't always a breakfast person. That's changed in the last few years as I've discovered how much better I feel after having a substantial breakfast. Unfortunately, there are some tough choices to make. Most traditional breakfast foods are either all carbs or high in fat, or so it seems. I know there are good choices too, but the bad ones seem easier.

A researcher at the University of Illinois is working on changing that. She is on the tail end of creating a cereal made with as much soy protein as can be packed into it without having off flavors or textures. Apparently those are common problems when working with soy. The cereal also passes the FDA test to claim high fiber and high protein. The developer also worked to make the cereal low in fat.

Sounds great to me, if it tastes good. The researcher says that while it does need to be tweaked, the cereal has compared well with other healthy cereals already on the market in taste tests.

Well, I don't even know if this cereal will ever happen or if it's real in the first place. I do think it sounds promising, though. So what do you think? The perfect breakfast or ...something else?

I've heard rumors that Slashfood used to have an "Ingredient Spotlight" post, but it got lost in the shuffle. Well, never fear, Slashfoodies: it's back.

For my debut post, I'm going to go really crazy and choose...tofu. Okay, stop groaning. I know what you're thinking.

But give it a chance. Tofu is like that nerdy kid in freshman year of high school who wore his pants too high and his shirts too low, and still brought his lunch in those insulated, brightly-colored bags with the matching thermoses when the cool kids were brown-bagging it. You made fun of him all year, but when you came back to school in sophomore year, something had changed. He was...different. He held his head higher, he walked up straighter, and he was wearing khakis and polos. And if you titled your head and squinted your eyes just right, he was almost...cute.

That's like tofu. Despite its pale, jiggly appearance and its dorky past, tofu has a lot to offer if you give it a chance. If you know how to use it, tofu can be the homecoming king of dinners.

The history

Tofu is made by coagulating soy milk into bean curd, similar to the way milk turns into cheese as it ferments. (I'll pause as you salivate). It usually comes in soft, firm, and extra firm/dried varieties, the only difference being that soft has the most moisture in the curds, while extra firm has the least. It can also be fermented, made sweet, fried, or frozen before packaging.

Tofu's main claim to fame is that it's really mild, so it takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with. Its taste and creamy consistency make it a great substitute for most dairy products, a star in smoothies, and a great addition to dressings or sauces.

As a company, once you find a marketing strategy that works, you usually stick with it. Nike had the swoosh, milk has the mustaches, and PETA? Well, they have naked women.

Over the years, PETA has used women celebs like Alicia Silverstone, Eva Mendes, and Cindy Crawford to encourage the masses not to wear fur or eat meat. And while they've gotten a lot of flak, they continue to pay women to drop trou for the good of the animals.

Today in Philadelphia, PETA's "lettuce ladies" (women wearing little more than lettuce-shaped undergarments) will be handing out soy turkey sandwiches to promote the company's "Turn over a new leaf: go vegetarian" campaign.

A few points that should be noted, here: PETA rarely uses men to advertise its messages. It did use MTV Jackass' Steve-O, who was nude, but the ad a) only showed his backside and b) was quite obviously in jest, poking fun at the typical oversexed PETA model and keeping in vein with the show's brand of humor. Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix have also done commercial spots for the organization - fully clothed. Somehow, I wonder if the effectiveness of the message is lost when we're too busy ogling Pam Anderson's generous chest to worry about what she's promoting.

Now, I'm all for soy products, either as meat replacements or as an addition to a healthy diet. Isn't it fascinating how, in campaigning to stop exploiting one living thing, another is exploited in its place? Maybe PETA should stop pointing its fingers at others for a second and turn the magnifying glass on itself.

Food for thought.

I eat a lot of tofu, not because I'm vegan/vegetarian and have to eat some sort of protein, but because tofu tastes good to me. (My being Asian and eating tofu all my life might have something to do with this, too.)

Now, it is just way too easy to pick up several blocks of tofu from the market for ninety-nine cents each, sometimes less when it's on sale, but if you have some time on your hands, you can make tofu at home, per the above video above from Cool Hunting. All you need is 150 g of dried soybeans, calcium sulfate, and the foresight to start soaking the dried soybeans the night before.

Health magazine has picked the five healthiest foods that you can get from five different countries. The list isn't complete, of course (I'm not even sure if these are the healthiest foods in the world), but it's a quick guide to the healthy foods that a few different countries have given us.

Spain has given us olive oil, Japan soy, Greece has given us yogurt, and lentils come from India. I've never had kimchi, from Korea, but that's on the list too. You can get recipes for each food at the link above as well.

So readers, what about the United States? What healthy foods have we contributed to the world? And no, Ring Dings don't count.

Tofu is a blank slate for flavors and preparations, but the slightly gelatinous soy product also tends to inspire blankness in the mind of even creative chefs. Stir-frys aside, it can be difficult to figure out how to prepare it if you are not experienced with it. Fortunately, books like This Can't Be Tofu!: 75 Recipes to Cook Something You Never Thought You Would--and Love Every Bite are out there to hold your hand through the basic properties and varied preparations of the high-protein, vegetarian favorite. The book is written by Deborah Madison, who is well known for her other vegetarian books and the accessibly way in which she presents recipes for home chefs.

It starts out with an introduction to the types of tofu and basic things that you can do with it, as well as some instructions for draining, pressing and other prep that may need to be done before using the tofu in a recipe. The recipes themselves, which cover every meal from breakfast through to dessert, are creative and most are quick and simple. With 75 recipes to choose from, one is sure to be appealing, like Scrambled Tofu with Herbs and Cheese, Red Cabbage Salad with Peppered Tofu Crisps, Ice Coffee Frappe and Red Pepper and Miso Soup with Tofu and Black Sesame.

Jonathan mentioned that Oregon Chai has a soy Chai Nog on sale for the holidays for anyone who avoids dairy or is just a fan of chai in general. If you fall into the former category and prefer soy milks to dairy, there is another nog option available: Vitasoy's Holly Nog. Spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, the creamy holiday drink is a good stand-in for traditional eggnog. As an added bonus, it has only 120 calories per serving, a fraction of the dairy-based recipe.

If eggnog - or soy nog - isn't you're cup of tea, Vitasoy also has a new Peppermint Chocolate Soy drink out this year, which it touts as being delicious hot or cold, and an excellent choice for chocolate fans. It is low in fat and makes a great, seasonal creamer for coffee. Both drinks are dairy, lactose, cholesterol and gluten-free and both are USDA certified organic.

A good meatloaf makes a great dinner, but it makes an even better sandwich the next day. I like to use barbecue sauce or ketchup to complement mine, but Jennifer, at Kiss the Hem of Her Apron used soy cheese and mustard to spice up her "meat"loaf sandwich. Soy cheese? I should mention that the delectable looking "meat"loaf that she made is completely vegan, from a recipe that she put together using the vegan loaf generator. Her loaf used primarily rice and beans for the base, but the generator allows you to put together a combination of many different ingredients, including soy-based meats, if you are so inclined to try. Whatever you make your meatloaf out of - beans or beef - a sandwich is surely the best place for it to end up.

As much as we see and hear about its properties as "natural refrigerant, anticancer agent, and cholesterol combatant," many Westerners are at a bit of loss when it comes to including more of it in our diets. Sure, we may add soy milk to our chai lattes or pop some edamame at a Japanese restaurant. We may experiment with grilled tofu, but in the end, there is often the complaint that tofu is just so bland. Ah, but that is the beauty of tofu - because it's so bland, it's the perfect canvas for other flavors, much like a slice of bread or filet of very mild fish. At the same time, many people simply enjoy the faint tofu flavor. Tofu is versatile, and according to an article over at the Japan Times, there's a lot more that can be done with soy, particularly because it comes in so many forms, only one of which if tofu:

• Tofu somen are delicate, thin strands of tofu that could easily be mistaken for regular wheat noodles
• Abura-age and atsu-age are deep-fried tofu, which can be added to miso soup
• Momen dofu is firm, which is good for stir-fries or prepared as tofu steak
• Zarudofu and yosedofu are very soft versions. Both are somewhat sweet so simply serve with top-quality olive oil and sea salt, or a garnish of grated ginger, mustard, or soy sauce.
• Yukiko Hayashi, author of the cookbook Tofu Zanmai, also recommends cooking/baking with soy milk.

Back-to-school season means that more kids will be packing sandwiches with them on a daily basis and, more often than not, the sandwich of choice is peanut butter and jelly. Between nut allergies and simply growing bored with the same old sandwich, non-peanut butters are growing in popularity - which also means that they are more widely available than ever before. A few years ago, almond butter was relegated to health food stores, and now it appears on the regular shelf with cashew butter, soy butters and sunflower seed butter, which is completely nut-free for those with allergies.

These non-peanut butters can be substituted for peanut butter in more than just sandwiches. They make excellent cookies and work well in what would ordinarily be peanut flavored sauces and dressings. Most of the butters come in crunchy and smooth versions, as well.

Do you use non-peanut butters? If you can't find any at a store near your, you can try making your own cashew butter, but once you have a good source, you can branch out into other recipes. And don't forget to try them on toast or in pb&j!

Some folks just don't dig eggs. I'm one and I know there are plenty of us out there. I love chicken ( I doubt they love me) but the thought of eating their eggs makes me ill. I have cooked and baked with thousands of eggs because I was being paid. Paging Dr. Freud.

• Try arrowroot. Known for its easily digestible starch, it can be used to replace eggs in small batch recipes (4 or fewer servings). 2 Tablespoons= 1 egg

• Then there is always cornstarch: 2 Tablespoons= 1 egg.

• Potato starch is good, too: again, 2 Tablespoons= 1 egg.

• 1 heaping Tablespoon soy powder= 1 egg

These four substitutes are meant for use in baking. I have had good results using arrowroot and potato starch in German Potato Salad...but I wouldn't push it any further. When it comes to sauces and dressings, lump it or leave it.

If you can handle egg whites, try 1 tablespoon powdered milk and 2 or 3 whites. Add a few drops of yellow food coloring to make it look real. This would be for smaller, personal and experimental recipes like white omelets or glazes. Don't bother with meringues. If you have to make a pound cake or hollandaise, well, you probably don't have an egg issue. So crack 'em up and enjoy.