The Thirsty Vegan

Confession: Thursday nights are the new Friday. In other words, Thursday nights are the nights that college students have their fun. One of the few area bars has a special on Thursday, aptly named All You Can Drink (known, affectionately, by its truncated version “AYCD” from us students).

What happens, though, when you are:

1. Fresh and new to the whole bar scene (and vastly uninterested in it for the most part)
2. Newly 21
3. Vegan

Combine all of these factors and you have….ta da…..me!!

Let it stand, again, that I am never one to miss a good time. A few friends and I went out last night and I found myself so intimidated by the bar that I stuck with a Pabst Blue Ribbon — it’s light and I knew it was vegan. Plus, drinks are intimidating to me in the way that the Starbuck’s menu is foreign to the non-coffee drinker…just plain scary and might as well be written in Greek.

I did my research before the night began and found some awesome resources for vegans who want to have a drink or two. If beer is your thing, check out PETA’s list of beers for vegans. You might be asking yourself: How can a beverage made of grains be non-vegan? Some companies use fish bladders, casein and other dairy ingredients and byproducts in the filtering and distilling process. A simple search will tell you everything you need to know.

What if mixed drinks or wine or other liquors are what you fancy? Check out Barnivore! This vegan super couple has compiled a huge database of vegan wines, beers and other liquors. Unfortunately, there isn’t a mobile app but the site is so comprehensive, you can easily use it on your iPhone or Android while you are at the store or at the bar.

I’ll drink to that!

So my meals for the day:

Breakfast: Green smoothie! 1 cup water, kale and raspberries. I was in a hurry this morning. I never actually measure out anything besides the water — I just eyeball it. I find myself adding more and more kale/greens than I did at first.

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat. Apple. Coffee with Silk Very Vanilla.

Dinner: It’s been a long week. I had laundry to do. I was tired. I guess you could say, pure and simple, I was a lazy vegan tonight. All I really wanted to do tonight was have a low-key, minimal effort night in with me, myself and a few of my favorite movies. I really need to go to the store but I really had no desire to do that tonight so I did what any lazy college student would do — I put in a pizza order. Hey, it’s Friday! Kirksville has a few options: Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Bellacino’s and a local dive called Pagliai’s. You can research any chain restaurant and check out the allergen/ingredient information. I did a little investigating of my own and saw that Papa John’s (my personal favorite chain pizza joint) has crust that is sans dairy and egg free. AND you can get super creative when ordering your pizza. Things got a little crazy and saucy in my apartment tonight and by that I mean the pizza variety.

Vegan pizza and “The Great Gatsby” — what more could a girl ask for?

Under the “cheese” tab, simply select “no cheese” and let your imagination romp! I love pineapples, black olives and mushrooms, so that’s what I opted for. I think next time, I’ll get extra sauce and maybe add green peppers. At any rate, I have some delicious leftovers for tomorrow’s dinner!

How do you guys navigate pizza? What are some of your favorite toppings and way to go cheese free?

Have a happy Friday and a WONDERFUL start to Labor Day Weekend, for all of my American followers.

You guys are great!

 

“Is That Vegan??” — A novel by yours truly

If I had a quarter for every time I asked this question (internally, of course), I would have the funds to buy all of the chia seeds that I wanted. I have a pretty good handle on what is and isn’t veg-friendly at this point (see some of my previous posts!) but there are still some ingredients that are just plain mysterious. And there has to be an easier way to decipher the ingredients on the food label, right?

I did a lot of reading of “Main Street Vegan” today and in her book, Moran talks about certain applications that vegetarians and vegans can use to locate veg-friendly restaurants, find new recipes and more. How had this not already occurred to me?!

A simple search on the iOS or Android app store of “vegan” will yield an abundance of really cool results ranging from free digital magazines, recipe databases, restaurant finders and more. I found two great applications:

• Is It Vegan? 

Is It Vegan?

Available on iOS (I’m actually not sure about Android…definitely check), this free app prompts you to simply search any given brand of any given food item to find out how vegan the contents are. To make your life even easier, just scan the bar code of the product and watch the little green meter point accordingly — you want it to be on “V” for vegan. After you scan an item, it’ll tell you how vegan-friendly your product is and tell you if any of the ingredients are in question and why. For example, the mono- or diglycerides in some foods might be animal, not plant, derived. How easy is that? It is going to revolutionize the way I grocery shop.

• Animal-Free

Animal-Free

Also free on the iOS app store (again, check availability on the Android market), Animal-Free is a comprehensive list of every single ingredient you could ever possibly have a question about. Simply search the ingredient you are curious about and it will tell you whether it is animal or plant derived (red for animal, green for plant) and exactly where the product comes from on the plant/animal organism. Knowledge is power with this handy app. You can also search foods or scan them like you can with “Is it Vegan?” but I found that it was clunky and only scanned properly about 30 percent of the time.

Happy iPhone + happy vegan + happy grocery shopper + happy blogger = Happy Danielle. I am excited about these tools, indeed. I hope you give them a chance, too.

As for an update about “Main Street Vegan,” I am more than halfway through! Venturing through the world of animal products/testing used in fashion, cosmetics and cleaning products, I am truly seeing how veganism isn’t just a dietary switch but a lifestyle change that benefits the world in ways we never could have anticipated. Those chapters were especially hard to get through but Moran handles the subject with grace, tact and sensitivity.

Plan to finish it this weekend and have a little book report for you guys!

I’m going out with some friends tonight and have a great little post planned for tomorrow about veganism and alcohol — don’t miss out!

Happy Thursday! Hang in there!

 

Vegan Eating in College

Just because you live in a dorm or rented apartment with limited space (similar to my situation!) doesn’t mean you can’t master the vegan life like a seasoned (pun intended) professional.

So when classes get crazy, nutrition and label-reading might fall second to convenience and what can be scarfed down quickly between classes and meetings. My experience with veganism and college (the stressful first week back, mind you) has been calm and collected.

Instead of running toward the vending machine [in his blog Weight Matters, Yoni Freedhoff explains an average snack out of one of these mystical boxes packs on 433 calories and up to 60 grams of sugar…that’s a pretty nasty offense] — you can stay on top of classes, your vegan diet and your hunger by stocking up on nature’s convenience foods. Some of my favorite things for in-between:

• Carrot sticks and peanut butter
• Celery and peanut butter
• Apple
• Dry granola and banana
• Vegan granola bars
• Larabars (You can actually make your own with dates, cocoa powder and vanilla. I’ve made these so many times, thanks to Chocolate Covered Katie)

You’ll save yourself a ton of calories and probably some change that could be used to pay a parking meter or grab a celebratory soy latte on a Friday.

So for my meals today?

Breakfast: Things got a little crazy in my apartment this morning. I FORGOT to get bananas at the store yesterday so instead of getting frustrated this morning, I yelled “plot twist!!” and threw in a bunch of kale, 1 cup water, a handful of blueberries, a handful of raspberries and a scant teaspoon of wheat bran. Wheat bran adds complex fiber and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that vegans must have a good balance of. It was delightful.

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat with a side of apple slices and carrot sticks (and some more peanut butter for dipping). Wash it down with my Silk Very Vanilla coffee.

Dinner: I’ll admit it: after 4 classes and numerous meetings, I was a lazy vegan tonight. Instead of preparing a soy protein for a taco, I just put some seasoning in some beans, chopped up the most beautiful avocado and a tomato and called it dinner. I’m thinking spaghetti tomorrow.

I am going to have dreams about this beautiful avocado for at least a week.

Look for another touch-base of “Main Street Vegan” tomorrow! I got some work out of the way so I can snuggle in with my Nook under the duvet and knock a few chapters out.

Main Street Vegan (Hey, that’s me!!)

So I started a new book today (and finished a different one but that’s beside the point). I thought Hey, since I am making the switch to vegan, maybe I should read up on it to be the strongest, most well-educated and empowered vegan I can be. Enter Victoria Moran with her book “Main Street Vegan.” As irony would have it, I live on Main Street in a county that has the same name as Victoria’s daughter/co-author of the book….crazy how these things work, no? It’s like the universe wanted me to read this book.

Obviously since I just started it today, I am not all the way done with it. I’m maybe seven or so chapters in and already learning so many new things about amino acids, proteins, carbs for vegans and getting inspiration for awesome new foods and recipes to try. One thing Moran does is put a recipe at the end of each chapter to tie the idea of the chapter together…how cool is that? I am already dying to try her veggie burger recipe with lentils…yum!

My hope is to have it finished by the week so I will give a much more thorough report when I do — I promise to keep you all posted, as always.

As for my meals today:

Breakfast: Green smoothie (water, kale, blueberries, half banana)

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat, banana, coffee with Silk Very Vanilla soymilk

Mid-Afternoon Snack: Ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins) while watching “The Great Gatsby” (If this combination is wrong, I don’t ever want to be right!!!!)

Dinner: Taco (Boca “beef” crumbles, tomato, 1/2 avocado) with a side of vegetarian refried beans and carrots. I had a glass of wine after — Cupcake White Wine. Cupcake Vineyards said in a company email that their wines are vegan with no animal byproducts used in the distillation process, so yay for that.

Evening Snack: Baby carrots and peanut butter. You can never have enough peanut butter in my world.

Navigating the Ingredient List

College has a way, especially at the beginning of the semester, especially at a selective Liberal Arts school, of making you feel like you are are constantly two steps behind in a never-ending game of catch-up. Confession: I made “Blog!!!!” an item on my to-do list for tonight (you know it’s bad when you have one for every day, not just for the week) so I wouldn’t forget or write it off (pun intended).

I won’t let that deter me from sharing another awesome tool I found this morning with you guys!

I have to make another trip to the grocery store tomorrow — just for some produce that I’m out of — and I reflected on how much easier vegan grocery shopping has become just three trips in. This does pose a question: what if I don’t know what an ingredient is on a list?

First, take a deep breath. You’re human! This is normal.

As a vegan and eating plant-based foods, you’re naturally going to avoid chemically processed/treated foods just by default. I’ve stressed it before but I can’t overstate it: always read the food label. If you find yourself in the predicament (and you inevitably will) where you look at an ingredient list and it looks like a mad chemist’s notebook, you might have some reservations about how vegan the ingredients are.

Cue Vegetarian Resource Group… again.

Check out their FAQs on what constitutes a vegan or vegetarian ingredient and then their quick and dirty (but rather comprehensive and immensely helpful) list about any ingredient you could ever want to know about.

After ten years of vegetarianism, I have somewhat mastered this list, but you can never be too careful as a vegan. Cool stuff, no?

Happy eating, guys!