Lauren Ornelas is Food Empowerment Project’s founder and serves as the group’s executive director.  Lauren has been active in the animal rights movement for more than 30 years. She is the former executive director of Viva!USA, a national nonprofit vegan advocacy organization that Viva!UK asked her to start in 1999. While Lauren was the director of Viva!USA, she investigated factory farms and ran consumer campaigns. In cooperation with activists across the country, she persuaded Trader Joe’s to stop selling all duck meat and achieved corporate changes within Whole Foods Market, Pier 1 Imports, and others, and she helped halt the construction of an industrial dairy operation in California. Lauren was also the spark that got the founder of Whole Foods Market to become a vegan. In addition, she served as campaign director with the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition for six years. Watch Lauren's TEDx talk on The Power of Our Food Choices. Learn more about F.E.P.’s work at foodispower.org and veganmexicanfood.com.

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Tofu Feta Cheese

Servings: 16 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup Miso (I used half mellow white miso and half red miso)

1/2  cup of organic dry white wine

1/4 cup of organic Mirin (I use Eden brand. Do not be fooled by the Kikoman brand

which calls itself mirin, but is really corn syrup!)

1 lb extra firm sprouted tofu

1/2 lemon

1 Tbs olive oil

1 t. Salt

Step-by- step Instructions:

Start with making a mixture of the miso, the white wine, and the Mirin. Slice the tofu into slices 1/2” thick, and lay out on a dish towel to absorb some of the water. Press down with another dish towel on top, to remove as much water as possible. Marinate the tofu in a glass pyrex casserole dish, big enough so that it can be a single layer. Cover the top and bottom with the miso marinade. Cover and refrigerate the tofu for 1 week.  Remove from the refrigerator and rinse each piece of tofu under running water to remove the marinade. Again, dry tofu on a clean dish towel, and return to the pyrex pan. Make a slurry of the oil, lemon and salt, and rub over each slice of tofu. Let sit for 24 hours in the fridge, before using.