So...what do you eat?

The first question I get when I tell someone I'm vegan is, "So what do you eat?"  It's usually followed by, "Where do you get your protein? What about calcium?"  but more on that later.  Switching to vegan was tricky at first, it was a whole new world with foods that I had never heard of before.  At first it's easy to concentrate on what you can't eat:  beef, chicken, pork, eggs, milk, cheese, ice cream (the hardest one!) and yogurt.  But after awhile you start to learn that you aren't just dropping these foods, you are switching them for other foods that you start to enjoy.  One thing that's way too easy to do is to become a "junk food vegan".  Oreos are vegan, along with potato chips and a lot of other snack foods out there that also contain msg, food dyes, and harmful additives.  I guess the proper explanation could be, "I eat a vegan plant-based diet which consists of whole foods and natural ingredients".  But try to fit that on a name tag :)

Here is a short list of foods that I eat on a regular basis.  

oatmeal (not instant)          

whole-grain cereals       

whole wheat bread   

natural peanut butter

jelly/jam with real sugar

soy milk

tofu

brown basmati rice

peppers/onions/garlic

broccoli/carrots/cauliflower

green leaf lettuce

tomatoes

seitan (made from vital wheat gluten)

veggie burritos/enchiladas/tacos

homemade refried beans

whole wheat spaghetti

black bean soup

pinto/kidney/black/garbanzo beans

homemade pizza with tomatoes and onions

homemade vegan muffins

all kinds of fruit

The items above are what we usually have for meals.  It seems that when cooking vegan, there is a list of things that you need to start out with, especially spices. But most recipes use these same ingredients so you don't have to spend a ton of money at the store.  I do love trying new recipes though and I hope to do that more often.  

One of the hardest things is making sure that I am preparing foods without msg (and its alternative names), high fructose corn syrup, food dyes, and the long list of other harmful additives that are in processed foods.  It means I have to make more things, like taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, pizza crust, spaghetti sauce, refried beans, etc.  It was hard at first but once I found good recipes that I liked, it got a lot easier.  It's also less expensive.  

I hope to post some good recipes soon!

And as a side note, my kids do

 not eat vegan all of the time.  They still have cheese and yogurt, but soy milk instead of cow's milk.  We are working on it slowly.  One thing they do love is tofu!