the mooing vegan

   Vegan at Restaurants Part 1: IHOP By: Megan     In this series, I will be discussing vegan options at popular restaurants and will be trying them and giving my thoughts on them. I have always loved IHOP. I was randomly wanting IHOP and told my friend we had to go to IHOP; it was non-negotiable really. IHOP really is not the best place for vegan options. They do not have any vegan waffles or pancakes which is a bummer. I ended up getting a serving of Hashbrowns, potato pancakes, and sourdough toast. I would not say this was the most filling meal, but with not a lot of vegan options in the area, it was a nice change. This meal was very carb-filled and I could have easily gotten a fruit cup instead of one of the potato options, but who doesn't love a whole plate of potatoes?      I will start off with the hashbrowns. They were very good. I mean they are hashbrowns, so they are self-explanatory. Luckily, their hashbrowns are naturally vegan, so I did no...

Vegan Taco Bean Recipe By: Megan       I made this recipe as a fairly new vegan. I loved tacos and there were absolutely no vegan ground beef options in any of the stores near me. I was going through a bit of a taco withdrawal and was desperate to find anything that could work for tacos. I opened up the pantry and saw numerous cans of beans and thought "hey, I could work with this." I started pulling out the beans and then saw a can of Rotel. I figured it could not be a bad idea, so I drained and rinsed my beans and threw them into a pan with the Rotel and some taco seasoning. I then spotted some rice and boom my meal was completed. Over the years, I have made this recipe in different ways and have perfected it, but I have never actually used measurements because I tend to add ingredients until it feels right, so y'all are going to have to bear with me on this one. Vegan Taco Beans & Rice Ingredients 1 can Light Kidney Beans 1 can Dark Kidney Beans 1 can Black Be...

Vegan Snacks Part 2: I'm Going Nuts By: Megan     Healthy snacks are sometimes far and few between and can often be kept in the shadows of unhealthy vegan snacks. Nuts are one of my go-to snacks. They are filled with protein and are one of the most filling vegan snacks I have found. There are many different brands and types of nuts and I am going to share just a few of my favorites.  1. Cashews     Cashews are probably one of the most versatile and used nuts in the vegan world. It is used for sauces, dips, and just for snacking. I love cashews because they are very filling. They are very low in sodium and pretty good in calories and protein. There are many different brands of cashews and types of cashews. Raw cashews are probably the healthiest, but there are also flavored cashews in the brands Karma and Sahale Snacks. The Berry Macaroon Trail Mix by Sahale Snacks is very good and the Cocoa Dusted Cashews by Karma are to die for. Cashews are typically high ...

     These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Vegan Chicken Part 5 By: Megan   This post is going to be a variety of different types of chicken. There are not really any products to compare them to because they are stand-alone vegan products. I figured they were important to do a review on because they are very good options for vegans and vegetarians.  1. Gardein Chick'n Sliders     The  Gardein Chick'n Sliders are a good start to a meal or a small snack. They only have 180 calories per slider, so I would not say that is enough for a meal, but paired with chips, and some fruit and veggies it could be a good meal. These sliders have 10 grams of protein, which is a surprisingly large amount,  and 270 milligrams of sodium. These sliders have good flavor and are a good premade meal option. The sliders are approximately $4 and I have found them at Walmart and Target. 2. Gardein Chick'n Florentino     The Gardein Chick'n Florentino is not m...

      A popular misconception in the non-vegan world is that soy will give men feminine characteristics. I have no clue where this myth originated, but it has become a very common thing on social media that has started different terms and phrases such as "soy boy."     Soy is a phytoestrogen meaning they are natural estrogen producers, but they have nothing to do with the endocrine or reproductive systems. In other words, it is plant estrogen, and just like mammalian estrogen cannot affect plants, plant estrogen cannot affect mammals. Phytoestrogens are found in all types of plants such as rice, wheat, and even apples and carrots. The hype comes from soy products because soy is very high in phytoestrogen. Many posts have gone around saying that soy is scary because it gives men breasts. I would just like to say that if soy caused you to have larger breasts, it would be the most money-making industry in the world, and lots of females would be all over that trend ...

Vegan Snacks Part 1: Chips By: Megan      I am a big snack person. If it were up to me, I would eat snacks all the time. When I first became vegan snacks were kind of hard for me. I used to eat a lot of chips that were not vegan like sour cream and onion, and Doritos. Over the years, I have come across some of the best vegan snacks and I would like to share my favorite vegan chips. 1. Potato Chips I know potato chips are kind of a given, but one may be surprised at how many potato chips are not vegan. I prefer the lightly salted wavy potato chips. I buy them in the Kroger and Great Value brand typically. They are also available in the Lay's brand in various flavors just make sure to check the labels. The Bar-B-Que and Classic Lays are almost always safe bets, but if you want to switch it up the Limon and Dill Pickle Lays Potato Chips are also vegan. Potato chips can be found virtually anywhere, but I am usually able to find specialty potato chips in the organic section of...

Vegan Chili Recipe By: Megan   Chili is one of my favorite foods whether it is winter or not. I have a few different recipes for how I make my chili, but this one is using a lot of beans. I love to top this chili with the simple truth plant-based sour cream, plant-based cheddar cheese, and Fritos. Ingredients 1-15.5 ounce bag Hurst Hambeens 1/2 a small Vidalia onion 1/2 green pepper 5 cups water 5 teaspoons Vegetable Boullion 2 tablespoons minced garlic 1 cup Picante salsa 1 can pumpkin puree 2 & 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 1 Tablespoon Badia Seasoning Instructions 1. Chop onion and pepper and saute in an Instant Pot until onions are translucent 2. Add in water and vegetable boullion 3. Rinse beans and add to the pot. 4. Put lid on Instant Pot and set to Soup/Stew Mode 5. Turn on to sealing and set for 30 minutes 6. After cooking for 30 minutes, let the Instant pot automatically pressure release 7. After the pressure release, add in g...

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: Vegan Chicken Part 4  By: Megan  To continue my series on vegan chicken, I am now reviewing my favorite vegan grilled chicken strips. There are two different brands I have tried: Morningstar Farms, and Gardein. Morningstar is a company owned by Kelloggs and has been based in Michigan since 1974. Gardein has been based in British Columbia, Canada for about 25 years now.      The first vegan grilled chicken strip I tried was Gardein and I did not like it at all. They had a weird taste and texture and looked really weird. It was a watery taste and there was no seasoning. I do not have much to say about this product other than I bought it about 2 years ago and have avoided it at all costs since then. They are also very spongy and it is the weirdest feeling having them in a meal. At first, I thought it was just me, but a few of my friends also think they are disgusting. Everything else about the product is good; it has approxima...

My Thoughts On The Gardien Soup Part 1 By: Megan       Recently, the brand, Gardein, has released four different vegan soups with mock meat in them. I believe this is one of the first brands that has put mock meat in a soup to be canned. I tried the be'f and vegetable soup and it was pretty good. I used to eat my great-grandmothers vegetable beef soup all the time and of course, nothing will ever be able to live up to that, but it was a good classic soup. The soup was $2.99 a can at Kroger which is pretty expensive compared to other vegan soups. The soup is 230 calories which is pretty good for a meal. The serving also contains 1110 milligrams of sodium and 14 grams of protein. The protein for the number of calories is pretty good, but the sodium is absolutely terrible. The daily intake of sodium should be around 2,300 milligrams give or take and that is almost half of it in one meal. In my opinion, this would be something good to eat half of and half of a grilled ch...

My Deal With Clearance By: Megan            Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the clearance section. It does not matter which store I am or if I have ever been there I will find the clearance section. Sometimes I go and there are so many different products and sometimes I go and it is completely empty. However, it does not matter if I have not found anything in clearance all day, I have to go to the section in every single store. I never really started going to the clearance section until I went vegan. I always thought it was just a bunch of expired food that could not be salvaged. After going vegan, the food I wanted to eat got to be very expensive. To get as much food as possible, I started shopping for the sales. Then, I discovered clearance tags. A lot of products such as yogurts, mock meats, and veggies would be on clearance often. I learned what was most often marked down and where I needed to look in the stores on quick trips. Usually, ...

 What Being a New Vegan Feels Like  By: Megan    Being a new vegan was a very unique experience for me. After finding out the truth about everything that goes on in the dairy, meat, and animal agriculture industry, I just wanted to tell everyone about what goes on. I had been blindsided by the media for 16 years and knew others were as well. What hurts me the most was I knew my friends and family believed what I believed for way too long and wanted to help them find the information that I had found. The problem was that they did not want to hear it. They were very stubborn on what they believed and no matter how loud I would shout they refused to listen. This is what most people would call a "pushy vegan." I do not think it is being pushy though. I equate it to how people used to think about child labor. People knew that it was wrong, but they were told it was fine and perfectly acceptable. When someone is told something over and over again, it starts to become a par...

Responding to Vegan Myths Part 1 By: Megan        Vegan myths are very popular amongst the non-vegan community and are often used to "debunk" veganism or give an excuse for why they cannot go vegan. One popular and very common myth is that dairy is essential for bones to be strong. This is because of the calcium in it and calcium is responsible for bone growth and preventing osteoporosis. However, dairy is not the only thing with a surplus of calcium in it. Kale, broccoli, soy milk, and fortified vegan cereals also have calcium in them. Tofu is a huge source of calcium for vegans because it has roughly  868 milligrams of calcium per cup whereas cow's milk has only 305 milligrams of calcium per cup. There are even a ton of vegan supplemental vitamins that one can take to help get their daily intake of calcium. There are also many different apps in which one could use to track their micronutrients and macronutrients to make sure they are within their goals for the...

 Vegan Buffalo Chicken Dip By: Megan     Before going vegan, I had never had buffalo chicken dip. I thought buffalo sauce was extremely spicy and my sensitive self would not be able to handle it. I found a vegan version and completely fell in love with it. Since then I have changed the original recipe and developed one more suitable for what I liked. You can always change the recipe proportions to be better for your taste, but this is what I have found that is absolutely delicious to me.  Ingredients 1 can jackfruit in water 1/2 cup vegan ranch 1/4 cup buffalo sauce 4 oz simple truth plant-based cream cheese 1/2 cup vegan cheddar cheese  1 tablespoon Badia seasoning 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast Instructions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse off the jackfruit and break the pieces apart; getting rid of any tough pieces. Squeeze out excess water and place it in a small 1-quart baking dish. Stir in vegan ranch, buffalo sauce, and cream cheese. Spr...