Up until a month ago, there wasn’t a day I didn’t go without butter, bread, or dairy. My daily meals consisted of a blueberry bagel with butter, some sort of yummy sandwich, and one of my favorite meals of course, mac and cheese. Then, one day, I decided to eliminate all that stuff from my diet and try something I never imagined myself doing, becoming a vegan. Recently, in one of my Women’s Studies classes, we were talking about animal rights and the cruelty animals endure in the fashion industry. We of course then got on the topic of how meat is produced and what happens to the animals during the production process. It got me thinking about a documentary I watched in high school called Food Inc. The film showed actual footage of the insides of animal processing plants and the disgusting mistreatment the animals experience within the industry. I decided it was finally time to make the final leap.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t just snap my fingers and become vegan, it was a bit more complicated than that. I won’t lie though, I said to myself one afternoon that I wanted to try going vegan or at least vegetarian, and on that day I did. For me personally, I jumped right in. I moved all my non-vegan items to a different cabinet in my apartment and went shopping for my new diet the next day. Removing all non-vegan things immediately from my diet, worked best for me, but if any of you are thinking about becoming vegan, I would suggest taking smaller steps, instead of just jumping right in to it.
First, I would start with eliminating the small things and going on from there. I would suggest buying some plant-based cook books, I found a few on Amazon for very cheap. I also bought a small journal called, My Vegan Journal, that helps me track my meals and goals. Now don’t get me wrong, I do sometimes cheat here and there, but I’ve learned not to be too hard on myself because I am still learning about veganism as a whole. If any of you are ever interested in going vegan, it’s especially important not to be too hard on yourself during the process, nobody’s perfect, and you should be proud of yourself for giving it a chance, I know I am.
Here are some vegan replacements that I personally enjoy and recommend for common food items:
- Earth Balance Butter is a great butter replacement for all your buttery needs. I use it all the time for cooking and baking, it’s great on everything, I highly recommend!
- Lightlife Smart Bacon is a plant-based bacon alternate that smells and tastes just like your favorite breakfast food. I’m not a fan of ‘real’ bacon anyway, but this stuff I actually enjoy, I especially love it on my BLT’s.
- Hellmann’s Vegan Mayo, something I swear by, tastes exactly like mayonnaise. I’ve had to read the label a few times just to make sure because it’s THAT good.
- Anything that’s Gardein is absolutely amazing. My personal favorites are their frozen crispy tenders, Mandarin orange crispy chicken, and their frozen turkey cutlet’s, which are a great replacement for Thanksgiving turkey!
- Gardein Frozen Ultimate Burger is a plant-based burger that tastes absolutely amazing. Coming from someone who use to love, love, love cheeseburgers these are amazing!
- Trader Joe’s Cashew Cheese is one of the best cheese alternates I’ve found so far and I melt it right onto my plant- based burgers!
- Annie’s Vegan Mac and Cheese is hands down the best mac and cheese. As someone who used to be a Kraft Mac and Cheese lover, I was scared to try another brand, but now I don’t think I will ever go back to Kraft.
- Silk Vanilla Soy Milk or Oatly Oat Milk are both great milk alternates. I use soy milk in my cereal, smoothies, and in all my cooking and it’s absolutely delicious. Oat milk I’ve found is a great replacement for coffee creamer or for dipping Oreos (and yes, Oreos are vegan!!)
Of course, there are plenty of resources like YouTube, Pinterest, and even TikTok that have plenty of new vegan foods and recipes you can look at as well. These are just a few of my favorite meals and replacements, but I’m excited to try more vegan friendly foods (: