Week Five

Are you interested in starting veganism? Or making a change in your life like cutting out animal-based products? This week, we are discussing vegan recipes as well as some tips from one of my close friends, Faye. 

First, let's start out with some tips and tricks from a vegan herself. My great friend, Faye, has been vegan for a long time and she has always been transparent about her lifestyle. Especially with living in a small college town with limited access to vegan friendly restaurants and fresh produce, she discusses her diet and how she adjusts to small town living while being vegan. 

Tips from Faye

When preparing for this week’s entry, I asked Faye for some tips to make cooking vegan easier, specifically for college life. Her first piece of advice is to be open to trying things that seem unfamiliar, but do not remove the taste combinations that work in non-vegan cooking. She says, “What tastes good, tastes good.” Her second piece of advice is to boil tofu to infuse more flavor. Check out this link to see different methods for cooking tofu, as well. Her final piece of advice is that if you are just beginning your vegan journey, start with learning how to make vegan side dishes. Faye added that “cooking side dishes is way easier when you start”

Being vegan does not have to be hard and it especially does not have to be a rough lifestyle change. Finding recipes that fit within your routine and your preferences is super important. Do not be afraid of trial and error. If you are looking for some inspiration for vegan meals, as always, look at apps like Pinterest and TikTok for inspiration. Based on my research some good website or creators to follow are: 

• Naturallie Plant-Based

• World of Vegan

• From My Bowl

• Nzinga Young

• Nicole from @veganbeautygirl 

• Max from @runthekitchen

Each website or influencer offers a different look into vegan living and cooking. Depending on what you are looking for it should be fairly easy to find some website or influencer to relate your cooking back to. 

Recipes

Next, I want to explore some recipes that Faye has recommended from her personal recipe saves on social media. 

The first recipe from Faye’s collection is crispy rice paper dumplings from the creator @veganchallenge for you. The recipe contains rice paper, a variety of vegetables, tofu, different sauces and oils, and the ingredients needed for the dipping sauce. To find the recipe and video click this link to try the dumplings. 

The next recipe from the collection is a strawberry cheesecake overnight oats that are perfect for meal prep from @the.vegan.inspiration. Piggybacking off of last week's entry, just because you are vegan, does not mean you can’t meal prep. And, this simple overnight oats recipe is perfect for just that. With only five ingredients all plant based, this recipe is perfect for my busy bee vegans. To see the recipe, click this link to watch the recipe video and find instructions. 

Next from Faye’s list are vegan banana bread cinnamon rolls from @freshandflavourful. Like Faye said, just because you are vegan does not mean that you have to lose all of the yummy flavors of non-vegan food. This recipe does just that by combining two comfort foods to make one yummy breakfast or dessert. This recipe uses vegan butter and almond milk, but the rest are natural or baking ingredients with no substitute required. Check out the recipe and video at this link.

Directly from @runthekitchen, is a recipe for a pasta favorite, carbonara. This recipe uses tofu and other vegan substitutes like vegan whipping cream. To check out the recipe, all you have to do is look below! 

I hope that you enjoyed this week's entry. Remember, being vegan does not have to be the end of your yummy food journey, it is just the beginning. Like Faye said, do not give up good flavor combinations just because you are changing your diet, enhance them into vegan recipes to make life easier. 

Next week, we will dive into soups for the fall season. I hope to see you next week and keep cooking!