Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to episode one of the Deficient Vegans podcast. I'm the muscle deficient vegan and I have with me here the awesome and talented protein deficient vegan who makes our food and recipes. You wanna say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:12

Hi!

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:12

Perfect. We're providing fitness and nutrition information focusing on vegan and plant-based people. Normally vegan fitness stuff doesn't typically focus on like high protein or strength training. You'll see a lot of meals maybe with vegan junk food or just, generic vegan recipes, focusing on salad type things. But, we're not rabbits, so we try to, incorporate some nutrition and, recipe components that have more of a focus on protein. For food, if you do see high protein recipes out there, they're usually using a protein powder. That's fine. Most of the time it's supplementation, but you wanna try to make sure your whole day doesn't revolve around powder forms of protein. So we've got a lot of different vegan forms of protein that we typically use. Stuff like seitan, TVP, tofu, and a bunch of other things that you can see in our recipes. Also, when you typically see vegan nutrition information out there, you'll see a lot of even vegan athletes- they don't typically focus on their macros too much, which can be fine. If you're in a caloric surplus, you can need as much as you want on a plant-based diet, you're usually gonna hit a lot of those goals you really need. But sometimes if you're not deficit or maybe making a transition, just starting to get into fitness, you're gonna have a couple of struggles maybe with trying to hit everything you can as a vegan as far as vitamins, minerals, nutrition and your macronutrients. And then as far as fitness and training goals go, those are pretty similar for most people. It's just that we as vegans have different things that we might be able to do to optimize our progress or really help make up for some of the gaps we have with the things we're maybe missing from a diet that does include animal products.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:47

B12.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:48

That's right. B12 is definitely one thing you have to focus on. So some of the stuff we'll be covering on our website and our videos and podcasts going forward are like general fitness tips, any struggles vegans might have with vitamins, minerals, nutrition, things along that line. Also, we've got a home gym here, so we're gonna try to cover some home gym equipment which you might be able to use without having to go out to a gym. Maybe you live near a gym that's really crowded or maybe even you wanna get some workouts in on the go. We can cover some stuff you might be able to use for traveling. We also try vegan restaurants from time to time. Just recently tried the X Market here in Chicago. It has a bunch of kind of satellite locations for a bunch of local restaurants. So we've actually got a video on protein deficient vegans social media covering our experience at the X Market. So check that out. So going forward, what we're gonna try to do here on the podcast is some weekly roundup of some of the recipes we publish on our website. Do a deep dive into topics from our blog. Try to do a Q&A if anybody has any questions, we've got a contact form on the website. You can also just ask questions in any of our social media comment sections.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:53

If anyone's out there.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:54

If anyone is out there. And then restaurants and vegan products that we come across that are particularly interesting. Lately we've been on a big high protein silken tofu kick. That's one of those things where you can be vegan for a while and never really understand how silken tofu works or what you can do with it. So you've got a lot of recipes now that focus around that and show you some inspiration or if you don't wanna be inspired and you just wanna make food, you just do exactly what the recipe says and you'll have a lot of protein. So, one of our most recent blog articles out there now is actually top 10 vegan protein sources. So typically when you see these lists, you've got like the actual whole food like seitan, TVP, beans, lentils, I mean, you've all seen the vegan protein lists probably, but protein deficient vegan here went a step further and listed out actual products that we typically use in our recipes, but something you can actually just go in the store and buy pre-made products as well as the kind of main protein components. So, I'm just gonna read out the top 10 for you here in reverse order. Number 10 on our list is the Tofurky deli slices. Specifically the hickory smoked variant. Those come in at 50.9% protein. Number nine on our list is nutritional yeast or more affectionately known as nooch at 53.3%. This kind of gives food like a, a bit of a cheesy taste. So we try to throw it on top of everything 'cause it's...

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:16

It looks like fish food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:17

That, that's true. Yeah. So next on the list at number eight is the Sweet Earth mindful chick'n strips. They look kinda like grilled chicken strips. We use 'em in an Alfredo recipe. Those are at 54.3% protein. Seven on the list. Um, kind of surprising, and you probably can't use these to get most of your protein because of be high volume is mushrooms at 57.1% protein. Next on the list is actually a specific prepared product. It's the seitan from Blackbird Foods. The Blackbird Barbecue flavor specifically. We really like Blackbird Seitan because it's high protein and it's really easy to cook. You basically just put it in a pan and make it hot. So, uh, we really like things like that. A lot of days.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:59

Even he can make it!

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:00

So yeah, even I can make it. 57.7% protein. That is tied actually with number five on our list, which is TVP or textured vegetable protein. It's another one you might not really have run into. Even if you've seen it on some list, you might not have any idea how to use it. It is a little intimidating. You have to kind of rehydrate it and then figure out what the hell to do with it. So we've got some recipes that show you how to do things with that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:22

Generally people use it for tacos or maybe like Sloppy Joe's, but lately we've been trying to make cookies out of it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:29

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:30

And you could also use it as a substitute for like rice or quinoa in dishes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:35

Delicious cookies. We'll tell you a little bit more about those here in a few minutes. Number four on the list, extra firm silken tofu, which I mentioned before, is at 62.2% protein. We've got a lot of recipes that are incorporating that now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:47

I'm obsessed with it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:49

Hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:49

Obsessed.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:50

Number three on the list is something called a better bagel. I think it's in the frozen section at Whole Foods. Mm-hmm. So frozen bagels. Basically it is just a very high protein, very high fiber bagel. Maybe if you're new to the vegan thing or the high protein thing, you wanna be a little careful with this one. It's...

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:06

You might shit your brains out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:08

Anyway, the Better Bagel is 62.5% protein. Next on the list number two is another Blackbird flavor of seitan, and it's just their original flavor. It is a 75.5% protein. So you can see why we like that as a kind of a standby in the house.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:25

This one is really good for like something that's just, it's a neutral flavor and you can add to it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:30

Then number one on the list is wheat gluten flour, 77% protein. Again, another one that's a little intimidating to use. We have a really awesome recipe for some high protein donut holes that we made with this. Um. Don't use an air fryer.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:48

We destroyed two air fryers, 'cause they expand.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:51

Yeah, they expand quite a bit. So, uh, be careful with that. But the recipe does mention how to do it and not destroy expensive kitchen equipment, so you should check that out. Also we've got a couple of really cool fall recipes on the website here that just came out. We've got one that is a high protein dirt pudding, a really cool spooky theme for Halloween.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:12

Somehow we managed to get it at 26% protein, but it still has Oreos. And nutter butter cookies. Yeah. And also gummies.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:20

Yeah. Covered in Oreos or Oreos are cookies covered in nutter butters and Oreos. 26% protein. It's hard to beat that. Not sure if you wanna call it a dessert or a protein snack. Uh, that's up to you. So...

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:30

The magic here is in the chocolate pudding, which is extra firm silken tofu. Which we love.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:37

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:37

And we keep using.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:38

Really great, even if you don't wanna put it in, you know, cookies all over it. Um, I don't know what's wrong with you, but the pudding is still delicious by itself.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:45

Well, we also have a chocolate mousse recipe if you're not looking to, you know, have a sugar coma. Yeah. But also it has this vanilla goo that we made out of like vegan whipped cream, coco-whip. And then we just mixed in protein powder and it turned into like a marshmallow fluff texture.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:04

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:04

And we don't know what to call it, but it's vanilla protein goo.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:07

Yeah. We accidentally made a high protein marshmallow fluff, so yeah, we might have to put that out as its own thing at some point. And then another one we just put out recently is TVP Pumpkin Cookies. TVP in this form kind of has the texture of an oatmeal cookie. When you eat it, you really want to think protein cookie and not a delicious chocolate chip cookie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:26

Yeah. Don't bring it to a potluck. People will probably be a little annoyed. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:30

But if you compare it to other protein cookies out there, it's definitely top of the list. You know, Lenny and Larry Cookies. It's better, way, better taste. Taste, kinda like chalk. And they're actually pretty high calories. So these are like less than a hundred calories each 44% protein. So, uh, a pretty good little protein cookie. Yeah. So if you wanna follow us on social media or follow the website, if you go to the show notes we've got links on the top for both the fitness and nutrition, social medias, as well as the protein deficient vegans, social medias, which are focused on the food and recipes and, uh, very delicious things. So

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:01

I'm not actually protein deficient.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:02

Yes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:03

It's a joke.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:06

Yeah. Okay. Thanks for listening. And, um, well, you know, I think the next ones will be better, so stick around.