Should I go Vegan?

Should I go vegan?

I have a few memories of me mocking my sister at the dinner table for her vegetarian choices. I remember one dinner in particular making my fried chicken bock at her and laughing. I loved meat growing up and I didn't understand where she (or other vegetarians) were coming from-who could ever give up eating meat?!!  Even just a year ago my love for meat rang true when I was doing the Body Beast workouts and trying to pack on the protein-we live in a nation where it is drilled in our head-the more protein the better!!! However, it wasn't until my step-mom came down with cancer, I watched the documentary "Forks Over Knives", and I read the book "The Engine 2 Diet" that realized how wrong my thinking was. Meat is actually causing cancer and many other health problems. Also, we are consuming far more protein then we need to.  I have found the jump from loving meat into becoming a Vegan extremely difficult. So, I am following a lot of principles from the "Vegan Before Six (VB6)" plan. I am trying to eat Vegan as much as possible but a lot of times I end up following more vegetarian principles and then a few times a week I cave in and eat some meat and indulge in ice cream for dessert. I hope to eventually eat all vegan but right now I am taking baby steps. Here are some interesting facts and tips I have learned on my new journey. In another post I will be sharing some recipes I have tried!

1.  Eating less meat and more fruits and vegetables can prevent cancer

2. Take baby steps

3. Plants are great sources of protein

 

Hopefully this information will be helpful to you.  If you are looking for a great Vegan Meal Replacement Health Shake that is packed with vitamins, nutrients, superfoods, etc... check out Shakeology.

 

 

Almost Vegan Cheesy Potatoes Recipe

I am not much of a cook. However, I do have a few staple foods that I get the most compliments on and one of them is my cheesy potatoes. Unfortunately my potatoes are not vegetarian or vegan friendly (they include lots of dairy, processed food and cream of chicken soup). So, I went on a quest for a vegan friendly recipe and I fell a little short. I am sharing my vegetarian friendly recipe and my idea of how to make it vegan (I need to try option number two still myself!) Someone out there might have a better idea (if so I would love to hear) but until this I hope you enjoy this recipe!



Vegetarian/Almost Vegan Cheesy Potatoes Recipe

Ingredients:

2 packages of Alexia's Frozen organic hash browns

One bag of "Go Veggie" shredded cheese (you may want to use two bags depending on how cheesy you want them)

1 can "Amy's" Organic Cream of Mushroom soup (the soup contains cream/milk which prevents it from being vegan-however, there are vegan recipes out there if you want to make your own version of mushroom soup without dairy)

1 package Toffuti Sour cream

two cups corn flakes (you can use crackers instead)

a stick of butter (again-prevents it from being vegan but there are butter substitutes out there to use)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees, I layer the ingredients twice in a pan (put hashbrowns down, spread half of the sour cream and mushroom soup on top and then sprinkle with cheese, repeat)

Melt butter and in a large cup I put the corn flakes and melted butter and use a fork to crush and mix them up-the then spread on the top layer

Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes (may be done a little sooner or longer-you will be able to tell when it is bubbly and warm-just keep your eye on the cornflakes so they don't burn!)

One thing I do want to note-a lot of the ingredients that are dairy substitutes contain processed soy (soy protein, soy milk, soy isolate) which isn't a great alternative but if you can't have dairy it isn't too bad of a replacement-I don't think the normal recipe for cheesy potatoes or this recipe are exactly "healthy" :)

I would love to hear your ideas in the comments section on how to modify this recipe in order to make it vegan.

VEGAN BANANA OATMEAL PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

 

These things are great.  They are from Rip Esselstyn's new book "My Beef with Meat"  My wife and I have been slowly trying to eat more of a plant based/vegan diet.  We watched Rip's documentary "The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue" on Amazon Streaming, and he totally convinced us that we need to eat more of a plant based diet. So,we found this recipe on his website and made them today. They were super easy to make and I devoured them very fast because they were delicious.

 

Here is the Recipe.

 

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tablespoon vanilla
¾ cup natural chunky peanut butter
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups old fashioned oats
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
½ cup non-dairy chocolate chips or raisins

*to make gluten free eliminate whole wheat flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper

Mix bananas, vanilla, peanut butter and maple syrup into a creamy consistency in a large bowl

In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder and salt

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until they are well combined -the batter should be slightly sticky

Fold in the chocolate chips or raisins

Place rounded, heaping tablespoon-sized balls of the batter onto an ungreased baking sheet

Bake for 15-18 minutes

 

-Here is what one of ours turned out like-



They are Fantastic while they are still warm but really good after they have cooled off a little bit too.

The Original Recipe link can be found here.

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