I know what you’re thinking, you read the title and maybe you were already criticising or you let out a little sigh because here’s another person telling you meat is murder and that you’re a bad human being and that you should think of all the poor animals. It’s not like that. I am simply writing this post because I am vegan and I know it’s become kind of popular to be vegan and maybe you’re thinking about it but you’re concerned about what you might eat or whether you’ll be fighting the urge to go back to that chocolate cake or to that fried egg and bacon in the morning. I’m going to share with you my vegan story and a bit about what I eat and what motivates me to stay vegan. And I hope it helps if you’re trying to make the decision of being vegan.
What is veganism? for those of you who don’t know, being vegan means you don’t eat anything that comes from an animal i.e. meat, milk, eggs, cheese. Anything that is produced by an animal we don’t eat. Some extremist vegans also don’t buy any items made out of animal, I want to do this but ultimately it’s quite hard especially because I need leather shoes for reasons I can’t get out of.
How is being vegan different from being vegetarian? Vegetarian’s don’t eat meat but they still eat dairy and eggs so it’s close to the same but slightly more relaxed.
I’ve been vegetarian my whole life, thanks to my Mum, and I have never tried any meat. I’ve had very many people stare at me in wonder and horror at the idea that I’ve never tried meat but I don’t want to so why should I have to? (I may have accidentally tried a piece of fish once, when it ended up in a portion of chips I bought from the shops). I am not one of those people that judge’s others, if you want to eat meat that’s absolutely fine, if you don’t want to eat meat that’s fine too. I have no objections to people living the lifestyle they want to live, if it makes them happy but in return I expect people not to object to my choice of lifestyle. Unfortunately this is hardly ever the case, I get so many strange looks, comments and criticisms from people who find out I’m vegan and it can be quite upsetting and frustrating.
I never ate all that much dairy even when I was vegetarian as too much tended to make me feel a bit sick, but I’d never considered going vegan as it was only dairy on it’s own or in huge quantities (such as a glass of milk, eggs, or lots of cheese on top of pasta) that made me feel sick and I couldn’t stand the idea of not eating cake, ice cream, biscuits (basically all the junk food) but then I watched this life-changing documentary called Cowspiracy which I really suggest you go and watch (it’s available on Netflix), it’s a documentary about the effects cows are having on the environment and it was absolutely horrifying! It made me go vegan, and I think the reason is because although eating meat is killing animals for food and getting milk is torturing cows for their whole lives it doesn’t generally effect me if that’s happening somewhere in the world because I’m not immediately effected by it but when I watched this documentary and realised that the breeding of cows is effecting the environment in ways I never could have imagined then it starts to immediately effect me because I live on this planet and if I contribute to this huge destruction of the planet by continuing to support the keeping of cows then I can be held responsible for a percentage of the end of the world and I don’t need that on my conscience.
Ever since September 23rd I’ve been vegan and I’ve never had a moment of having something non-vegan and I’m really proud of myself for that as I thought it was going to be really hard and that I was going to really miss food (pizza) but it’s actually been okay because I know what I’m doing is for the greater good and I’ve felt healthier and better about myself ever since and I feel like I can achieve more in my life and I feel more positive.
What do vegans eat? Okay, so, let’s set the story straight. I am fed up of people assuming all we eat is salad, I mean, does that sound like a healthy diet that we can survive on? Has it not occurred to you that we must eat something else? Here’s a list of foods I eat on a weekly basis:
- Pizza
- Burgers
- Chips
- Hot dogs
- Risotto
- Mashed potato
- Sausages
- Waffles, onion rings, beans
- Ice cream
- Chicken nuggets
- Party Rings
- Dark Chocolate
- Oreos
- Ginger biscuits
- Cake
- Pasta
- Rice
- Vegetable fingers
- Porridge
- Cereal
- Soup
- Sweets
- Gnocchi
So not all salad, and I know you’re wondering how on earth I eat all of this if I’m vegan and the answer is because it all exists in the world people just never try to find it. It’s much easier to be vegan than I think some people realise. If you make pizza at home you can buy this lovely vegan cheese made out of tofu made by a company called VBites and I personally prefer it to normal mozzarella.
You can buy vegan burgers from a variety of different sources, some of them can be vegetable burgers and some of them can be more meat-styled burgers. My personal favourite burgers are Linda McCartney’s Vegan 1/4 LB Burgers. They also do lovely sausages – Linda McCartney Vegan Sausages.
Gnocchi is normally vegan if you buy the really cheap shops own brand, but not all of them are so make sure to double check.
I get my chicken nuggets from a company called Fry’s and they are so amazing! They are my favourite snack food, and I’ve been known to eat ten all in one go… I also get my hot dogs from Fry’s.
If I’m having vegan cake I usually make my own as it’s hard to buy vegan cake but it usually turns out really, really well and I prefer it to shop bought cake.
There’s a number of vegan ice creams all of which are amazing! If you live in the US, Ben and Jerry’s have started making dairy free ice creams and they look so gorgeous! I really hope they bring them out in the UK! My personal favourite vegan ice cream companies are Swedish Glace and Dream and they taste so ice cream like it’s impossible to tell the difference!
Okay, finally I’m going to talk about milk and then end this post as it’s been going on for quite some time!
There are many different types of milk you can buy that are vegan: Almond milk, soya milk, coconut milk, there are so many and they are all available in most shops. My favourite vegan milk is from a company called Oatly , I usually buy the plain organic drink but I also really love the chocolate one (it usually goes in a matter of hours after purchase!). A quick recipe for a nice warm drink using the plain Oatly organic, and that is: get a mug, put in two teaspoons of sugar (I just use a normal teaspoon not a measuring teaspoon) and then fill the mug up with Oatly, stir it and pop it in the microwave for 1min 40secs (for average sized mugs) and it tastes so nice and it’s really relaxing. You can also put Oatly in tea and it tastes just fine and presumably coffee, but I don’t drink it.
I really hope this post helped you if you’ve been thinking about becoming vegan, obviously this is all just food that I like or that I eat and there are so many other foods out there that can be experimented on and I will continue to experiment over time but those are my current personal favourites and they’re also the things people think they’re going to miss and you don’t have to miss them just buy slightly different products. I also wanted to say that I wasn’t getting paid for any of the things I mentioned, I just mentioned a LOT of company names for your benefit!
Lastly I just wanted to say that this post in no way was an attempt to criticise meat eaters or people that are vegetarian and not vegan, being vegan doesn’t work for everyone, I know that and I have no problem with people eating anything they want. This was just a post saying what I eat and trying to get the message across that we’re not salad-eating starving people. We eat a whole load of foods that are the same as what everyone else eats and I also wanted to make it known what vegan foods there were out there for you to try if you’re already vegan or you’re thinking of becoming vegan. As with all foods there are some vegan foods I’ve tried and absolutely hated and couldn’t even swallow but I used to get that with non-vegan food as well, it’s all about experimentation.
If you liked this post then please click the like button (and the follow button if you want!), if you have any questions or you yourself are vegan and wish to add to my list of vegan foods please leave a comment down below!
Inspired Teen 🙂
lifeofaninspiredteen 