Becoming A Vegan

So you’re thinking about becoming a vegan, but you have no idea how to get started.  No worries!! Getting started is easier than you think.  In fact, many meals most people already eat are already vegan or can be easily veganized. Pasta and noodle dishes, burritos and other Mexican recipes, salads, Asian veggie and tofu stir-fry’s, pizza, sandwiches and wraps– all are simple to make vegan and often already are.

First thing, replace your animal-based products in your fridge with the plant based equivalents. Instead of dairy milk, buy soy, almond, coconut, cashew, help, or rice milk. (Experiment with different brands, because they do NOT all taste the same.)  You can also substitute sour cream, cream cheese, mayonnaise, and cheese products with vegan versions.  Tofutti, Follow Your Heart, Miyoko’s Creamery, TreeLine, Veganaise, and Just Mayo make some terrific substitutes.  Butter can be easily replaced with margarine or Earth Balance vegan spreads, found in most supermarkets.  Stock up on beans, legumes, hummus, tofu, and meat substitutes, but check the ingredients on the meat substitutes – you want to avoid products made with eggs or dairy!  And speaking of eggs, the Vegg is a wonderful vegan egg product that tastes exactly like the real thing!  You can dip toast in it and never know the difference!  There is also a newer product called the Vegan Egg that is made to taste just like eggs and can be scrambled or made into omelets.  Amazingly it is made of seaweed, yet tastes and looks just like eggs.

There are many resources to help you get started.  Start with the Vegetarian Starter Kit, published by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.  You can read it and download it for free here:
http://www.pcrm.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/health/vsk/pdf

You can also check out The Vegan Society’s How to Become a Vegan.http://www.vegansociety.com/become-vegan/ and Becoming Vegan Kit has some great ideas and recommendations as well.

You can either go vegan all at once like I did or, if you find it easier to ease into it, try that.  For instance, if you can have a glass of almond milk and not miss the dairy version, but must have half and half in your coffee, take those individual steps.  Although Silk Creamers are a fantastic vegan creamer for your coffee (one thing about almond milk – it does not work well as a coffee creamer).

Or perhaps make a deal with yourself to be vegan two out of three meals a day, or five out of seven days a week.  Every step you take will benefit your health and the environment around you, and save the lives of animals, so every step  matters!!