A big shout-out to you for making the leap, or looking into making the leap!
Everyone has to figure out their own journey in this life, the fact that you are here shows you are thinking about making a change which I think is great!
Like with everything, change can be hard. So when you feel like you aren’t sure if you made the right decision, go back and think about what started you down this path. Frustration may strike when going to grab dinner with friends and the vegan options leave a lot to be desired, you may have a failed recipe that you can’t even begin to eat; that’s okay. You may fall off the vegan train and feel that you can’t get back on. It is totally okay, just hop right back on. Don’t let it get you down, just start again. It’s much easier after a “slip” to get back on the right track.
Look, I know that there are TONS of websites and blogs that you can read to learn more, to get recipes and to help figure out how to make this all work. I’m not a cookbook author, not a longtime blogger nor am I a plant-based doctor. I’m just your average person who was raised (probably just like you) on the standard american diet (SAD) who decided to go vegan when I was 42 (yikes!). I now have 10 years of experience behind me and I have a ton of tips, lots of advice and some cool info on what may or may not work for you.
Even though I went vegan in 2010 and now it’s 2020, I still remember things that I wish I had done differently or paid more attention to. Perhaps some of this “vegan tribal knowlege” that I am sharing will allow you to avoid some of the pitfalls that can be encountered along the way. Maybe by reading this your journey forward will be easier.
I do hope that this information helps you along your path and I hope you can use my website as a reference point. Sharing some of my “do’s and don’ts” from long ago should help you navigate this vegan lifestyle with a bit more ease.
Happy Reading!
Who would have thought that there would be vegan grocery stores? All vegan, all the time. FoodFight! is the local vegan grocery in Portland, Oregon with two stores in the inner SE and SE area of Portland. Any vegan that has been to Portland should have it as their vegan rite of passage to visit the vegan strip mall at SE Stark/SE 12th Ave which houses FoodFight! along with Herbivore Clothing Company, SweatPea Baking Company and Scapegoat Tatoo (all vegan ink). If you haven’t been, it’s vegan nirvana!
Cookbooks, Online Recipes, Tips & Vegan Meal Plans
When it comes to food…cookbooks, online recipes, tips for easy vegan eating and vegan meal plan services…look no further
Cookbooks
- Buy vegan cookbooks if you want, but start out with some easy ones. I went a little overboard when I started, I call it cookbook paralysis!
- Don’t immediately dive into long, intense recipes that take hours to make unless cooking is a huge passion and you have tons of time to cook.
- Taking on the challenge of lengthy recipes may put you off and deter you from your path.
- I bought a ton of vegan cookbooks when I switched.
- I still have an entire bookshelf of them. I love cookbooks. But honestly, some of the recipes are SO long, and so labor intensive, I totally avoid them.
- Unless it’s just something special, I usually don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen for one meal. I’d rather have great meals that take less time so I can do other things like take Gordy hiking or go grab a beer with friends!
Online Recipes
- Search online for vegan recipes. There are SO many amazing vegan recipes online. Just search, you’ll find tons.
- You’ll find that many of the vegan chefs and bloggers that have well followed websites also have cookbooks. Try out some of their recipes first that are free online before you buy to see if the recipes work for you.
- Looking for some great recipes, check out my list of favorite online resources for recipes (coming soon!).
Tips for Easy Vegan Eating
- Try to stay away from recipes that require exotic ingredients or ingredients you don’t normally have on hand.
- If you can’t find something at at your local grocery store, it may become frustrating if you have to go three places to finish your shopping list, you are going to be less likely to continue on your path to eating vegan if you feel like it’s taking too much time to get things you need to simply make your meals .
- It’s okay to “veganize” recipes you already love. I did that with a dish that was my favorite growing up. Instead of chicken I subbed gardein ‘chicken’ strips. It was still delicious and it gave me a familiar taste that I already knew. Do a google search you may find a veganized version is already online.
- Start with meals that take 30 minutes or less hands on time.
- Make things that sound good to you. Even if it’s simple spaghetti, instead of ground beef, throw in some brown or black lentils.
- Think about bowls. Bowls? Yeah, bowls. Grab a big bowl; throw in your favorite grain, veggies, beans, lentils, tofu or tempeh and a sauce. BOOM! It’s a meal and it’s typically really healthy. I love bowl meals they are so quick and so easy and I get in all that goodness in one meal.
- Don’t just eat salads…yes, eat salads but don’t make it your meal every night! That will get old really fast.
- When you do eat salads, you can make them a whole meat. Throw in some beans or lentils or baked tofu. Add other veggies to the lettuce such as purple cabbage, carrots, green onions, red bell peppers, celery. Make it full of veggie goodness. Find a salad dressing you LOVE that’s healthy.
- If you are subbing “meat” with one of the vegan meats, that’s fine. There are plenty of them out there in the stores. I personally don’t buy a lot of the vegan meat substitutes but sometimes will grab some to have on hand. Boca crumbles and Beyond Meat crumbles are not even noticeable when subbed for ground beef in spaghetti, tacos or burritos. Have a casserole that was chicken based? Grab some Gardein chickun strips.
- Looking for a good sausage sub? My personal favorite is Field Roast, but there are also others like Tofurky, LightLife and the Soy Chorizo from Trader Joes. Yes, it’s a processed product and I do try to eat healthy vegan food, but sometimes throwing some sliced Field Roast italian sausage into a marinara for a plate of spaghetti hits the spot.
- Beware that if you are buying a lot of pre-made or processed vegan products, you’re grocery bill may seem as high as when you were buying meat. These are convenience products and they do come with a price. A vegan candy bar is about 5X the price of a non-vegan one so if you buy a lot of these processed vegan products, you may think eating vegan is expensive (it’s not!).
- Buying specialty vegan products all the time will hit your wallet in the long run. So make those the exception, not the rule.
- A vegan diet is low cost. Especially if you make your beans, lentils, rice, etc from scratch in large batches and freeze them. These items when bought from the bulk section of the grocery store are often times only $1 per pound and that makes a lot! If you have a pressure cooker or InstantPot, these are perfect for cooking batches ahead.
- Batch cook – wait? What? Make up things ahead of time. Make batches of beans, rice, lentils, potatoes, sweet potatoes to have on hand to use for the week. This makes it much easier to grab stuff to throw together at the end of a long day if you have made them ahead of time. It’s also a huge savings for your wallet.
- Make your meals for the week ahead of time. If Sunday is your day to chillax, make up some of your meals for the week. They’ll stay good in the fridge so don’t worry about that.
- When I make or prep meals ahead, I do it while catching up on my favorite shows, movies, podcast or music.
- Making meals ahead is really important if you lead a really busy life, have a long commute or take your lunch to work. Have stuff ready so you can grab and go or eat as soon as you get home is HUGE.
- When you know that you have food waiting for you when you get home, it helps deter you from stopping to grab fast food or picking up dinner to take home. Knowing you ave something delicious in the fridge that just needs a quick heat up will help you stay true to your path.
- So as you can see, having food you can eat on hand is SO important in this journey. This is especially important if you are going vegan and others in your home are not. If you don’t have vegan foods available, you may just throw in the towel and eat what the others in your home are eating.
- Never feel down on yourself for a “slip”. If you fall off the vegan train, no worries, just hop back on. Your vegan ticket allows you to hop on and off if you have a miss.
- No one should be shamed or feel bad about slipping, it happens. The longer you are vegan, the less likely it will happen, but as a new vegan it happens. If anyone makes you feel bad for it, remind them that everyone is human!
- Stick with it. It takes about 30 days for your taste buds to change and 30-90 days for something to become a habit. Stick it out, you’ll make it.
- Believe me, I was NOT at all adventurous when it came to veggies before I was vegan, but after about 30 days, I was craving kale, loving roasted brussel sprouts (which I hated as a kid) and digging collard greens sauteed with garlic and balsamic vinegar.
- Make a list before you hit the grocery store. It’ll keep you on track and hopefully prevent you from grabbing stuff that doesn’t fit your new vegan life.
- And most of all, relax. Don’t stress, take a break if you are getting frustrated. It’s a change and change takes a bit to become the norm.
Vegan Recipe Meal Plans – wait, what?
- If you want to go the vegan meal plan route and subscribe to a vegan recipe service. There are quite a few out there.
- Most of the vegan recipe meal plans offer a 7-14 day trial where you can download the plan for a week or two to try it out.
- Some of them allow you to choose which meals you make for the week and customize it for what your needs are.
- Several are app based or web based (or both)
- Several include the ability to create a grocery list based off the meals you plan to make.
- A few include grocery delivery service (if available in your area) based on the meals you chose and what you put on your grocery list.
- Several offer extra info like coaching, Facebook groups for members, exclusive nutrition and cooking tips and the flexibility to avoid foods you either don’t like or are allergic to.
- I’ve used all of those listed below so I have first hand experience with all of them.
There are also vegan, plant based meal delivery or meal kit delivery services. That’s an option too if you want to go that route. They seem a bit pricey to me, but if it makes it easier for you, go for it! I’ve never used them so I can’t vouch for any of them. If it makes it easier for you and you stay on the vegan path, I’m all for it!
Vegan Meal Plans to Try
I have to start with Happy Herbivore since it truly was the first of it’s kind Vegan Meal subscription service. And it’s the first one I joined and was a member of for SO many years. Lindsay Nixon (the Happy Herbivore) has published several cookbooks and many e-books and guides to living a healthy vegan life. Her recipes are easy and include ingredients you can easily find at your local grocery store. She also incorporates batch cooking and making meals ahead, if that’s something you want to do. There are options to cook ahead, prep ahead, swap out ingredients, etc. There’s also a wonderful, encouraging Facebook group that members can join to share stories, give recipe tips, get info, etc.
If you are looking for something easy where you can create a shopping list, has an app, has printable recipes and gives you more than just meal planning, Meal Mentor is for you.
Engine 2 Plant Strong Meal Planner
If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Rip Esselstyn of Engine 2 fame. Rip is a former Austin firefighter who has been featured in the documentaries – Forks Over Knives and The Game Changers. He’s a former pro triathelete and NY Times best selling author. When he was a firefighter in Austin he introduced the station to a whole-food, plant-based diet to rescue a fellow firefighting brother’s health. To document the success of that experience, he wrote The Engine 2 Diet which shows the irrefutable connection between a plant-based diet and good health. And if the name sounds familiar, his father is the world-renown heart disease reversal and prevention doctor, Caldwell Esselystyn, MD of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease fame.
The Meal Planner gives you so much flexibility. Printable menus and shopping lists. Groceries delivered in select areas, exclusive nutrition and cooking tips. Personalized recipes where you can filter out things you either don’t like or perhaps have an allergy to. I’ve used this service off and on since it came out.
Forks Over Knives Meal Planner
From the folks who brought you the renown documentary Forks Over Knives, the Forks Over Knives Meal Planner brings you a whole slew of healthy vegan recipes. A team of plant-based chefs creates recipes that are healthy and delicious. Most of the recipes mean dinner is on the table in 35 minutes or less. Grocery list creation is part of the app when you choose which recipes to make that week. If you make changes to what you are making, the grocery list automatically updates. You can also prep ahead and batch cook or make all your meals over the weekend. IT also allows you to mix and match what you like and don’t like. I’ve used this service off and on since it came out
From the guys who brought you the documentaries Cowspiracy and What the Health film comes the What the Health Meal Planner. You watched the films and you want to take action? This meal planner will help you shift to a plant based diet to reduce your impact on the environment and animals. It will also give you a more nutritious and compassionate way of eating. Much like the other services, meals can be customized and you can choose meals based on how long they take to make, allergies, kitchen skills and how many people you are feeding. Healthy, delicious meals customized for you. I’ve used this plan in the past when it first came out and it’s great.
Lighter is personalized meal planning and tracking technology that bridges the gap between advice and action.
Lighter is a bit different from the above plans. Are you a huge devotee of a certain vegan guru? I am a huge follower of Dr. Michael Gregor of nutritionfacts.org (more on that to come). I can click on Health Gurus on the Lighter page, choose Dr. Michael Gregor and then get recipes that are Dr. Gregor approved. I’ve used this plan off an on for a few years.
If you are looking for recipes from renown plant based doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, vegan chefs, plant based athletes, working professionals, etc – look no further. As mentioned above, I love getting approved recipes from Dr. Michael Gregor of nutritionfacts.org, How Not to Die and How Not to Diet. I also get them from Dr. Neal Barnard of Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
Looking for more variety you can get recipes from Gena Hemshaw who is a certified nutritionist, cookbook author and blogger at The Full Helping and Julieanna Hever, The Plant Based Dietician and many more.
If you are an athlete and want to see what David Carter, former NFL player who goes by the moniker @300PoundVegan, recommends this site is for you. He’s no ordinary vegan, he’s using his athletic build and celebrity to erase the stigma that people may have about plant based diets. He’s proof, as are so many other plant based athletes, that a healthy vegan diet can not only improve performance, but build muscle and increase endurance.