Vegan Recipes Not Required
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I want to let you in on a little secret: even if you've never tried to follow vegan recipes, you already eat vegan food.
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I want to let you in on a little secret: even if you’ve never tried to follow vegan recipes, you already eat vegan food.
I know it seems like vegans are obsessed with food. We will tell you all about the best place to get a vegan cupcake, or our favorite vegan restaurant, or proudly show you our collection of vegan cookbooks. Is this a strictly vegan practice? I don’t think so. After all, Betty Crocker and Julia Child are certainly not vegan figures, and they’re both household names.
An important part of vegan advocacy that gets overlooked is the fact that vegan food is everywhere – and I don’t mean just the stuff in the special section at your local grocer. Why is it so easy for everyone to forget that the “doctor-prescribed” apple a day is vegan? How about the spaghetti marinara that seems to please a majority of palates? Yep – vegan. Peanut butter and jelly on white bread? Well, that bread might not be the healthiest choice for any of us, but it sure is vegan.
The truth is, sometimes I wonder why we spend so much time trying to “sell” veganism with complicated vegan recipes. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for a tasty dish and I love eating new things now more than I did before I gave up eating animals. But let’s not forget the benefits of grabbing a banana for your lunch bag, or cooking up a batch of rice and beans for this week’s meals. None of these foods should be foreign or exotic to most households; in fact they should already be staples. Let’s play up the staples!
So, I have a proposition. Vegans, the next time someone tells you they could never be vegan because they wouldn’t know what to eat, list five things that most people have in their kitchen. And non-vegans, before you write us all off as gourmands, remember that not everything you consume was once part of an animal. Veganism is easy. It’s time we show each other how.
Photo credit: Dan Iggers via Flickr
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HELLO! I'm KD Angle-Traegner.
Writer, activist, and founder of Four Urban Paws Sanctuary. I’m on a mission to help people live a vegan life. Read more about KD…
Exactly! When people ask me: “What do you even eat all day?,” I tell them that a lot of the things I eat they probably eat, too. And the things they eat that are not vegan could often be vegan with almost no effort. For example, if someone insists on his morning cereal, all he has to do is check the ingredient list to find a vegan cereal and replace the cow milk with non-dairy milk. It’s basically the same meal. What vegans eat really shouldn’t seem like a mystery.
http://www.zeitkritik.com
Great points – I like the idea of demystifying what shouldn’t be a mystery in the first place.
Daria, I like what you’re saying. When I first went Vegan over a year ago, people at work kept hounding me with the same questions we all get.. “What do you eat, you’re gonna be malnourished, where do you get your protein from, blah, blah freegin blah! already!!). :)
Anyways.. I decided to take a more peaceful route with my convincing others that this is the right path for us all. I simply started bringing in my food to work, and eating it where everyone was free to see. I figured, since I run 9+ miles every morning, then follow it up with a lunch-time swim of 2+ miles, and I’m in tip-top shape.. then they’d be able to see for themselves the walking evidence. Thus, I proceeded to set my bananas on my desk, stashed my work drawer with cashews, almonds and pistachio nuts. Bring in strawberries, cherries, grapes and other in season fruits that I munch on at my desk. A myriad of Vegan left overs like, lentil potato curry soup, quinoa salad, black bean and brown rice burritos, vegan spaghetti, etc. I often have people saying.. “what is that that smells so good?!” No longer does anyone say the other two what and where’s that we always here.
My hope is that, in walking my own path others can figure out for themselves that this Vegan thing is not only doable, and sustainable.. but that it actually works!
Peace
Tom
Hi Tom,
Sounds like you’re doing a great job advocating veganism! And wow – you are a seriously active person! Thanks for listing even more foods that are vegan that everyone eats… and for sharing your strategies. We love a good success story!