TLDR: I love animals
Since November 2019, I have eaten a plant-based diet. I did it because I view cows, pigs, fish, and chicken as beings to coexist with, not to exploit. All the money I use to spend eating meat, I now donate to wildlife reserves and bee conservation. I didn’t do this to be pretentious. I did it to put my money where my mouth is. All the causes I claim to care about, I want my values and actions to coincide it. It’s not about perfection, its about progress and for me progress in my own journey was becoming vegan. To me, It wasn’t about the taste as much as it was about not feeling guilty about animal slaughter every time I ate. I’d rather pay more for something I know didn’t harm another sentient living creature. I even invested in beyond meat stock. I’m not here to tell you how to live. I am simply sharing my experiences.
I never expected to go vegan. When I was a child, a wwii and Vietnam vet taught me how to fish. He taught me to put a piece of shrimp on the hook and wait patiently until the fish bites. I could feel the string of the reel between my fingers and know whether the fish were biting or not. I would wait for hours. One day, I was out there 6 hours straight and caught about 12 snappers total. I took delight in it. Nowadays I won’t touch fish.
As I got older, I had many opportunities to farm, raise animals, and grow food. When you spend a lot of that time in nature, you begin to build relationships with it. You interact with nature interacting with itself and it is pure bliss. You observe how the hummingbird goes from flower to flower. You hear the sound its wings make when it flaps and stare in amazement when it perches itself still enough that you can see what it looks like up close. The same birds come at the same time each day in my garden. There is a particular sound the grass makes when the wind rushes through it and it’s calming.
Becoming vegan was easier then I expected only because I have access to vegan food. Unlike ten years ago, there are vegan substitutes for everything. It made the transition easier because I didn’t change my meals, I just substituted vegan ingredients. I cook nearly every meal I eat and limit going out so learning how to cook with vegan ingredients was a fun discovery process. I’ve made rookie mistakes like substituting “just egg” for real eggs in a cake recipe instead of looking up a vegan cake recipe. In the process, I’ve also learned that the impossible burger taste the exact same as cow hamburger meat. My local grocery store has recently been selling it in store which wasn’t even an option not even 1 year ago. I buy it in bulk and meal prep all sort of meals. I have been fortunate enough to eat enough variety of vegan brands to know which ones taste better to my preference. Although I’m no expert by any means, I wanted to share a few ones I really like.
hamburger meat: Impossible burger hands down You can use it for burgers, meatballs, taco filling, anything where you would use regular hamburger meat.
Bratz sausage- Beyond Burger bratz (comes in a four pack), they also have a hot Italian flavor that is good.
Vegan chicken: I haven’t found a specific brand but I am a huge fan of soy chicken. In terms of cooking, it has been the best supplement for where pieces of chicken and meat would be. I make vegan orange chicken this way.
Shredded chicken: Uptons natural has this good jackfruit in a green container.
Mac and cheese: Daiya cheddar or Alfredo.
Sour Cream- tofutti
yogurt- silk vanilla yogurt
coffee creamer/thicker creams: oat milk , my second choice is vanilla almond milk.
nondairy ice cream: ben and jerrys
breakfast sausage: maple farms vegan maple sausage
Frozen vegan meat dishes: Gardein
queso: cashew cheese
shredded cheese: True life shredded
fruit snacks/gummys: annies berry patch
Enjoy 🙂
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