So You’re Thinking About Going Plant-Based

Veganuary

Veganuary is right around the corner; with that and New Year’s resolutions, it’s no wonder why more people try out a plant-based diet in January than any other month. Going plant-based can be very intimidating, especially if you’ve never tried it before. Hopefully this article full of tips and tricks will make the transition easier and encourage you to try more plant-based foods!

Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about being plant-based, but one of the most prevalent is “Don’t you have cravings for animal based products?”. This is a reasonable question as most people who go vegan or plant-based were omnivorous for part of their lives and grew up on many animal-based products. As with all foods, these could be tied to good memories, comfort, family meals, etc. so it’s important to have a plan for dealing with these kinds of cravings. Lucky for us, imitation meat and dairy alternatives have come a long, long way over the last couple of decades. We’ve tried out pretty much anything we could get our hands on; below is a list of our favorites and what they can be used for!

Cheese Substitutions

• Follow Your Heart Parmesan – this works perfectly on top of casseroles or anything that you would normally bake with Parmesan. It browns and gets crispy in the oven and the flavor is very close to real cheese. I personally wouldn’t use this as cold Parmesan that you would sprinkle on top of something like a salad; this one is definitely best heated up! An easy and awesome way to use it is to just sprinkle it on top of some chopped broccoli and bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes – a perfect side dish for dinner!
• Violife Parmesan Block – I like this one for grating on top of pasta, salad or really anytime you would want cold Parmesan. I think it tastes great but the flavor is not as strong as the Follow Your Heart brand.
• Peaceful Rebel Parmesan Block – this one is great for a melty Parmesan; it has a strong awesome flavor! It’s still a smaller brand so I haven’t seen it in stores yet, but it’s our new favorite for grating over warm pasta!
• Violife Shredded Cheeses – our favorite ones are Cheddar and the Mexican Style blend. They melt really well and work great on nachos or in a quesadilla, which is what we use them in most often. They are also great to addition to your tofu scramble! These are coconut oil based so don’t be surprised when they get a little liquid-y when they melt.
• Daiya also has some pretty good shredded cheese; they’ve improved the formula and it’s a lot better than it once was.
• Miyokos Liquid Mozzarella is amazing for pizzas or casseroles! It browns like real cheese and is shockingly creamy, especially compared against other vegan cheeses. Cannot recommend this one enough!
• Miyokos Artisan Cheeses – speaking of Miyokos, they have some awesome Artisan cheese blocks that work really well for charcuterie boards. My personal favorite is their Sun-dried Tomato block; you can literally just heat it up in a pan with your favorite plant-based milk and you have instant, awesome pasta sauce!
• Nuts for Cheese also has some incredible artisan cheese wedges. My personal favorite is Unbreilievable, but honestly, all of them are great! They are all super creamy and are great on crackers!
• Cheeze and Thank You has some great options that you can find in Whole Foods! If you’re lucky enough to live near Chicago or St. Louis, they often do pop-ups and bring all kinds of new creations you can try out!
• Follow Your Heart Feta crumbles – this is our favorite vegan feta; it tastes a lot like dairy feta. We like to use it cold on salads, but it’s also great in hot dishes like a tofu scramble or stuffed green peppers!
• Violife Cream Cheese is our go to for bagels or spreads. You do not want to use this in hot dishes; it will basically turn liquid when it’s heated up (because it contains a lot of coconut oil) so only use this in cold recipes.
• Philadelphia Vegan Cream Cheese is also really tasty; my favorite is their Strawberry flavored spread!
• Miyokos Cream Cheese is the one you want to use in hot recipes; it’s also a little more savory than Violife or Philadelphia so if you’re wanting something more on the salty side, this would be the one. Keep in mind that the texture of this cream cheese is slightly less smooth than the Violife, but it also doesn’t turn to liquid in the same way since it’s made with cashews.
• If you’re looking for sliced cheeses, Follow Your Heart has some good flavors and Kraft just came out with a dairy-free cheddar and dairy-free American; both of which are awesome and melt great!

Condiments

• Follow Your Heart Mayo is my personal favorite; Hellman’s also has a vegan mayo that I think is equally tasty.
• Follow Your Heart Ranch Dressing is amazing; I think I prefer it to its dairy counterparts.

Meat Substitutions

• Everything Gardein that we’ve tried has been amazing! Highly recommend the Cr’b Cakes, F’sh Fillets, Chick’n Nuggets, Chick’n Strips, Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’n, and Plant Based Meatballs. I’m sure all of their other stuff is equally awesome but these are the ones we have tried and can personally recommend.
• Meati is a pretty new brand that uses mushroom root – the texture is a little too close to meat for my comfort, but we really liked the Carne Asada Steaks!
• Morningstar has a lot of great meat substitutes – personal favorites are their breakfast sausages and their Veggie Corn Dogs!
• Beyond and Impossible are basically your top burger brands. I think they’re pretty equivalent personally and don’t really have a preference.
• Tofurkey Deli Slices are great for cold-cut sandwiches and the macros are pretty good too.
• Plant Based Jerky – Louisville Vegan Jerky is our current favorite brand, specifically the Smoky Carolina BBQ flavor!
• Blackbird Seitan – specifically Original and BBQ flavors! While these don’t directly replace any specific meats, they are awesome and can be used as a meat substitute in many ways; they also have great protein macros!

Snacks

• LesserEvil has a few really great plant-based snacks that will satisfy your cheesy snack needs – my favorite is the White Cheddar (“No Cheese” Cheesiness) Popcorn! Other great vegan snack brands include: FitJoy, Hippeas, Spudsy!
• Vegan Chocolate has gotten pretty exciting over the last couple of years. Some of the best options in my opinion are:
  • Plant Based Reese’s Cups
  • Plant Based Hershey Bar
  • Lindt Oat Milk Bar
  • Lindt Oat Milk Truffles
  • Unreal Chocolates
• Vegan Ice Cream has also gotten pretty awesome. Literally any non-dairy Ben and Jerry’s is just as good as the original. We also really love Breyer’s Non-Dairy Vanilla (made with Oat Milk), Nada Moo pints, and SO Delicious Ice Cream Bars!
• Cookies – Oreos, Nutter Butters, Sweet Loren’s (you need to bake), and Back to Nature has some great options! Drizzilicious is technically not a cookie, but they are delicious tiny chocolate-drizzled rice cakes.
• Protein Bars – Misfits and Barebell plant-based are the only ones I personally like because they actually have some texture to them.

Restaurants

Now that we’ve got the cravings under control, the next hurdle to being plant-based can be the lack of vegan options at restaurants or when you’re traveling. This is all going to be very dependent on where you are and what your options are, but my best advice is to plan ahead. It might seem annoying to have to look at menus and pick your options before going out to eat, but trust me, it’s much better than getting to a restaurant that only has fries and spending the rest of the day hangry.

Our go-to restaurants when we are traveling and don’t have many options:

• Taco Bell – it’s a vegan and vegetarian cult favorite for a reason. There are so many things you can get off the menu, just make sure to get everything without the sour cream and cheese. Many of Taco Bell’s options have beans which will keep you full better than most vegan options you’ll find at fast food restaurants.
• Chipotle – they have their own plant-based meat called sofritas; it tastes pretty great too! And of course a lot of their menu items are customizable so you can also pack on the veggies and beans!

Also, if you don’t already have Happy Cow downloaded on your phone, please pause reading this article and do it now! This is the most life-improving app I’ve ever used. It’s like Google reviews but just for vegans and vegetarians! I cannot even count the number of times this app has helped us find a place to eat when we thought we had no options!

Social Situations

You might also run into a lack of vegan options at social outings, family gatherings, work functions, etc. so it’s important to let people know your dietary restrictions or to plan ahead by bringing your own food. I have found that the more open you are with others about your choice to be plant-based, the more willing they will be to accommodate. It feels awkward at first but if you’re planning to be plant-based long-term, it’s important to have those conversations.

Cooking

Even though there are a ton of really great plant-based alternatives for your favorite foods and a lot of excellent vegan restaurants depending on where you live, you’ve got to be a good cook! To be honest, a lot of these meat and dairy substitutes can get pretty pricey, and you might struggle to find tasty and filling vegan options at most restaurants. I think one of the most important things you can do to guarantee a successful transition to plant-based or just a not miserable Veganuary is to learn how to cook tasty plant-based food at home! If you’re here reading this, you obviously know that I have a food blog and I highly recommend you check it out; below is a recipe roundup for some easy dishes to make this Veganuary. Aside from my recipes though, there are so many awesome food blogs out there providing free and easy-to-follow recipes. My advice is to try new ingredients, use spices freely and don’t be afraid to try new recipes. Nobody knew how to cook until they knew how to cook!

Best Veganuary Recipes

Now that you’ve mastered finding and eating plant-based at home and in social settings, it’s probably important to talk about the thing you will be asked over and over and over again – where do you get your protein?

Protein

Being plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean it’s harder to get your protein but it does require some additional attention. If you’re going from an omnivore diet and just eliminating animal products and not adding in any plant-based protein sources, you might actually struggle to get enough protein. Cooking with plant-based proteins can be a little overwhelming if you’ve never done it before, but lucky for you we have some articles on how to use tofu and TVP which are some of the most common plant-based protein sources! Other easy ways to add some extra protein are snacking on dry roasted edamame and swapping out your normal pasta with lentil pasta! Seitan and wheat gluten are also incredible protein sources.

• A Love Letter to TVP
• All You Need to Know About Tofu

Plant-Based vs. Vegan

So I’m sure you’ve heard the terms plant-based and vegan; sometimes they are used pretty interchangeably. While the act of being plant-based and vegan are pretty similar in terms of dietary choices, the reason behind the two can be pretty different and if you are thinking about going vegan, there may be other things you need to keep in mind.

Plant-Based

Plant-based – a diet consisting largely or solely of foods not derived from animals. Many people will go plant-based for health reasons or maybe to reduce their environmental impact. Basically plant-based eaters do not consume animal products or products derived from animals (eggs, cheese, milk, etc.). You may have also seen the term WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based) – basically same thing as plant-based except the diet consists of only whole foods, so nothing processed. There’s also Raw WFPB which, you guessed it, is raw whole foods!

Veganism

Veganism – a lifestyle/philosophy in which someone eliminates the use of all animal products; this includes foods, but also things like beauty products, clothing, household products, etc. The reason it has a different name than plant-based is because veganism implies it’s for ethical reasons. There are far more eloquently written articles and documentaries around veganism and the meat and dairy industries, so I will not go into this here. But keep in mind that if you’re going vegan for ethical reasons, there are a few things you probably wouldn’t have thought contain animal products that you’ll need to keep an eye out for. I’ll list a few common ones here but there are great comprehensive lists out there that you might also want to check out!

• Clothing/Accessories/Shoes – obviously fur would not be considered vegan, but also avoid leather, suede, anything with “down”/feathers, silk, wool, animal derived glues and dyes. Some things will be obvious but others, not as much. For me, things like shirts and pants were not hard to figure out, but shoes can be kind of tricky. Some larger brands that have vegan shoe options are Hoka, Converse, Nike, Adidas, Doc Martens, and Crocs. There are way more options and lots of comprehensive lists written by people that care about shoes a lot more than I do! Purses also frequently contain animal derived products, so you’ll need to do some research here too.
• Beauty Products/Hair & Skin Care/Cosmetics – this one can feel a little daunting to figure out since you will need to make sure these products don’t contain animal-derived ingredients but also that they aren’t tested on animals. If you see a cruelty-free stamp, oddly enough, that may just imply that they don’t test on animals, but it may not mean that they don’t use animals and animal-derived ingredients in their products. It’s best to look for both cruelty free and vegan. Once again, there are lots of lists out there to point you in the right direction on which products would be considered vegan. There are also quite a few online stores, such as Sephora, that will let you filter by vegan and cruelty free which comes in handy, especially when you’re looking for makeup and other beauty products!
• Honey/Gelatin/Fortified with Lanolin – these are some of the sneakiest ways that foods might not be vegan, which is a bummer. Most gummy worms and bears – not vegan; anything gummy usually contains gelatin which is animal-derived. Vegan marshmallows do exist and, dare I say, they taste better than the non-vegan marshmallows! Honey is not vegan which unfortunately can eliminate a lot of food options that may otherwise be vegan. (Side note – beeswax – also not vegan). Cereals that say fortified with lanolin – not vegan. Don’t get discouraged – there are still many awesome cereals, candies and snacks that are vegan; we just have to pay closer attention. I also have a personal vendetta against food that would otherwise be vegan but contains milk powder, because WHY?
• Alcohol – beer, wine, hard liquor – literally all of these types of alcohol might contain animal-derived products. Never fear though; there are lists made by people that drink more than I do that can tell you what is and isn’t vegan. Fun fact – not sure if you’ve watched the Vampire Diaries but our Salvatore Brothers actually have a vegan alcohol company – Brother’s Bond Bourbon!
• Toilet Paper – this one kind of blew my mind, but most toilet papers actually use gelatin. I don’t think anyone is expecting you to not wipe in public places, but there are a few vegan toilet papers that are just as good as non-vegan ones that you can keep at home. My personal favorite is Who Gives a Crap!

Conclusion

In conclusion, starting a plant-based or vegan journey can be a little intimidating, but hopefully some of these tips and tricks will help! The main things to remember are:

• Find plant-based alternatives for the foods you loved; this will help you not give into cravings, especially in the early stages.
• Learn how to find restaurants with vegan options – the Happy Cow app can help you find restaurants with great vegan options. Planning ahead and looking at the menu is also very helpful.
• Social situations, including work functions can be challenging as a vegan – be sure to plan ahead, whether that’s letting people know about your dietary needs or bringing your own food.
• Improve your cooking skills – try new ingredients, don’t be afraid to try new recipes and use spices like you mean it!
• Focus on protein – it can be easy to overlook protein, especially early into the transition, so make sure you’re incorporating good plant-based protein sources like tofu, TVP, seitan, lentils, etc.
• If you’re going vegan, be aware that a lot of things use animal-derived ingredients – clothes, shoes, purses, cosmetics, gummy bears, etc. – learning how to spot them will help you avoid accidentally purchasing things that go against your values.

If you have any other questions or concerns about going plant-based or vegan, drop us a note!