Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to the Deficient Vegans Podcast. This is episode 26. I'm the Muscle Deficient Vegan here with the protein deficient vegan. You wanna say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:06

Hi.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:06

Hi everybody. So today we're gonna talk about how to survive the holidays as a vegan from the awkward vegan talk with family and friends, maybe some easy things to bring to holiday gatherings that vegans and omnivores will both enjoy, how to survive while traveling to various holiday activities, and maybe just how to handle not going to a couple of them. But first up, new news.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:26

New news.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:27

So in some unfortunate news, Miyoko did not win the bid for buying back her company. The Miyoko's Cheese company we talked about last week.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:34

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:35

We're not really sure who won the bid or what they're gonna do with the company. Hopefully we still have access to Miyoko's products going forward.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:41

Yeah, I'm hoping they keep it all vegan. I mean, I guess we don't really know what they're gonna do, but I have heard a few people say they are having trouble finding Miyoko's products on the shelf, so I think it might be kind of paused currently.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:51

Yeah. Um.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:53

You're looking for a liquid mozzarella recipe? I have one on the site.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:57

Do you have recipes for any of the other things that might go away?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:00

I do, I do not. I'm really hoping the butter doesn't go away 'cause it's my favorite to use. Hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:06

All right. Next, the movie Wicked Two is coming out November 21st, and we mentioned that because it's kind of crazy that both the leads in the movie Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are both vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17

I'm so excited about this movie. The first one was so good. It was so good. And it ended it like the best way possible on, you know, obviously a cliffhanger, but it was so cool. So I don't know. I'm really excited. We're definitely going on Thanksgiving weekend.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:34

Also, Jeff Goldblum, who's in the movie, became a vegetarian after filming the new movie. He said that the themes of animal cruelty and stuff like that in the film inspired his dietary change.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:46

Another reason to love Jeff. Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. It reminds me a lot of the actor from Babe who went, I think either vegetarian or vegan after he filmed Babe.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:55

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:56

And then he adopted a little baby pig and named it Babe.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:59

That's really cute.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:59

I know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:00

Maybe we'll get lucky and Jeff Goldblum will join the vegan ranks one day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:03

Fingers crossed.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:04

The last up on new news Beyond Meat is coming to Hard Rock Cafe menus in North America. This one's interesting because, beyond Meat is having some troubles right now, but also they're making progress in other areas, so hopefully they stick around for a while. It seems like a really nice food option for people who are kind of transitioning or wanting to eat a little less meat, and trying out either vegetarian or vegan diets. So it's nice to have kind of a stopgap product in there. In the market. Mm-hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:26

Yeah. I'll be interested to see if they have vegan cheese, because I hate going to places where they're like, here's a vegan burger, but the cheese isn't vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:34

Yeah. Which is pretty much every place it has a vegan burger.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:36

Yeah. I don't want your stupid burger without cheese.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:38

Mm-hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:39

Give me vegan cheese. Bring me Miyoko's vegan cheese on some burgers.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:43

Yeah. All right, so now getting into the main part of the podcast here, the holidays are coming up for those who celebrate. And while they can be pretty stressful already with basic traveling and planning, uh, it can actually be a lot harder as a vegan because you got some extra considerations.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:59

The holidays have always been stressful for me. My family's always traveling during the holidays, so. I don't really like them that much.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:07

Yeah. Plus you grew up as a vegetarian, even though you're vegan now, you've been vegetarian since you were super young.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:11

Yeah, it definitely makes it more challenging.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:13

One of the issues you can have, especially as a new vegan, is that it's kind of hard to set boundaries, uh, especially with, you know, your family who's obviously known you all your life. The first year that you decide that you know you're gonna be a vegan now, or you're a vegetarian now, it's just new to your family. They're not really tuned into what that even is a lot of the time. So it can be kind of an awkward conversation at first.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:32

Yeah. I think it's really hard because. A lot of people don't really understand what veganism is. They don't really understand what you don't eat, so you're having to explain like this concept and like, honestly, some people get a little taken aback by like, you basically saying, I'm a vegan for moral reasons. Because it's kind of like saying, why aren't you? You know? So like, it, it's like an awkward conversation to breach. And then you also have to explain like what you don't eat, which is gonna create a lot of issues in the kitchen for your family. And they're probably gonna wonder like, Hey, you weren't a vegan last Christmas. Why can't you make this exception for once?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:07

Most of the time it's not because they disagree, they just don't really know what option to give you and they're gonna feel bad and they can kind of feel like you sprung it on them and now you can't eat and you're sitting there awkwardly.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:16

Yeah. I think circumstances are different for everyone. But from my experience, like setting some hard boundaries of just explaining like what I will and won't eat, and trying to explain that stuff. Being upfront and like setting expectations early is pretty helpful. Keeps you from having arguments the day of, or like surprises that. People didn't know like butter wasn't vegan or something like that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:39

Yeah. I think it's probably a worst case scenario if you offend somebody and then you're having an argument the actual day of the holiday.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:45

Oh my God, yes. On Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for nothing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:50

You know? That's not gonna make you feel good. It's not gonna make them feel good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:52

Yeah, it's just awkward all around. I actually remember when I was a kid, I was vegetarian and one of my grandmas, she was always trying her best to make sure I was included in Thanksgiving and that she always had options, but she didn't, she did not understand that, uh, fish was not vegetarian. So I just remember like, I don't know if it was the first or second Thanksgiving we went to after I went vegetarian, but we got there and she pulls out this huge platter of shrimp and cocktail sauce. And that was supposed to be what I was eating. And it was so uncomfortable because I obviously, I didn't eat shrimp and like, it was awkward and awful for everyone. And I think, you know, I think everyone was probably a little annoyed with me that I didn't eat it.'cause now I was just like all this shrimp and then they had to eat it, which is like not a Thanksgiving food. It was awkward all around. And I was a little hungry, you know, not having a main. So.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:46

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:46

Um, you can avoid all that by talking about it ahead of time.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:49

Yeah, it does seem to be a pretty common misconception even with vegetarianism, that like fish doesn't count and seafood doesn't count. I don't know where that comes from.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:56

Even chicken. I like, yeah. I had a lot of people when I was vegetarian asking like, do you eat chicken? Do you eat fish? I think because people are like pescatarian or uh. I don't know what chicken is pollotarian. But yeah, I actually think it's a little easier to explain when you're vegan. You're like, I don't fuck with anything that is animal or comes from animal. Yeah. Um.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:20

But it's interesting. Yeah, I never had to deal with that. I went from, you know, a long time of just not really any restrictions to just vegan within like a very short timeframe. So I never went through like the vegetarian transition period and I didn't have to deal with a lot of that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:32

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:33

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:34

Yeah, and I think things can be a little harder when you're a kid 'cause you can't really advocate for yourself in the way that you can when you're an adult. You know, that like, you kind of need your parents to really like, have those awkward conversations with your relatives if you're going somewhere.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:47

Yeah, we, we've actually seen, and, and outside of the holidays you see a lot of posts on Reddit and on the internet of people who still live with their parents. Mm-hmm. And they're trying to do this like vegetarian and or vegan thing. Their parents aren't really on board, so they're like, Hey, what can I do? I've got this like thing that I really want to do, but I, I can't make it work. Yeah. And the way my family cooks and it's a really hard situation.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:07

It's really hard too because I think, um, like a lot of parents don't really understand the veganism vegetarian thing, and they really only know what they've heard on TV or social media, which can paint veganism and vegetarianism in a bad light, especially around like nutrition. Yeah. Like you're going to die of a protein deficiency or you're not gonna have iron and all of these other things. And I think they just get a little worried about their kid. Like, you're not gonna be healthy if you're not eating these things that we've always eaten and I don't know how to cook for you. And now it's like more time in the kitchen and I have to buy different foods. But I think, once you're an adult, you can have those conversations a lot easier.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:44

Yeah, definitely. And it also makes it easier that you're not really relying on your family day to day for your food stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:50

Honestly, I'm a pretty big over planner, so I really like to talk through the menu. Not really to like force our parents to cook more options for us, but more just to make sure that the things they think they're cooking vegan are actually going to be vegan and we can eat them. Because nothing is worse than getting to your family's house and they think they've made this vegan meal for you, but they accidentally use chicken broth or something, and you can't eat it. And now there's like peer pressure to eat it.'cause like I spent all day cooking this and you can't make this exception just once?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:21

Yeah. And I think that is probably one of the ones that would make them feel the most uncomfortable is if they went through the effort to try to make something vegan. Yeah. And it wasn't. And it's really easy, even as vegans sometimes we get caught up on labels or menus or you find something like, oh, I didn't realize it had that in it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:38

Yeah. I mean we did it with Morningstar a couple years ago 'cause it said plant-based on it and then we got it home and it had eggs and we were like, what the fuck?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:45

Yeah. Especially difficult now the things labeled plant-based that aren't vegan. So.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:48

Yeah. And I think, you know, if you're vegan, you, you. Probably have fallen into that trap before and you know what to look out for. But I mean, a lot of our family members cook vegan once or twice a year, so they're really not sure of what to look for on labels and stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:02

Yeah, we have a hard enough time finding servers at restaurants who understand what vegan actually is and what ingredients can't be in there much less, you know, people at home who just don't cook that way ever.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:12

Yeah. Neither of our families has other vegan people in it. So usually for my family, we'll go up there on Christmas Eve and we'll have like dinner, we'll have a veggie pasta, bread and a salad. Pretty easy meal to cook a vegan and omnivore option for. Um, and then usually we'll bring a side dish. Or like a vegan dessert.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:32

Yeah, no, my, my parents have always been more of like a Christmas morning breakfast type thing. So, that is a little more difficult to adjust because that breakfast growing up it was always like the typical breakfast things like bacon, eggs, ham, whatever. Yeah. But there are definitely options. I mean, we always have like vegan pancakes, hash browns are vegan, fruits, things like that. And, my family's been really supportive. Even though my transition kind of came outta nowhere. Um, but yeah, they've been great. And it's usually like, oh, how can I find this vegan thing? I'll buy these vegan pancakes or whatever. So no big deal.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:03

Yeah. And if we don't normally go anywhere on Thanksgiving, we usually kind of stay home and do our own thing. But a couple times we have gone, people have tried making accommodations for that as well, so.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:12

Yeah. So, for the families that are trying to help accommodate you, there are a couple of things that might trip them up. Some of the things they might come across that they don't quite understand, whether it's vegan or not.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:21

Yeah. Um, margarine is one of these, just because it's margarine doesn't necessarily mean it's dairy free. So I would stick with butters that specifically say vegan or plant-based and make sure they don't have dairy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:33

Yeah. Also a lot of breads and rolls have milk and dairy in them for some reason. There are a lot that don't as well, but if you just go and grab a random bread off the shelf, it could have milk in it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:44

Some people don't know eggs aren't vegan. I've heard that question a lot. I get asked that question a lot. But eggs aren't vegan. Obviously dairy isn't vegan, but. Other things that people don't often think about is honey is not vegan and neither is gelatin. So if you're using normal marshmallows for like a sweet potato casserole, those aren't gonna work because they have gelatin for the most part. A lot of salad dressings aren't vegan, so that's one to watch out for. If you're having like side salads or something at your family gathering, you might wanna make sure people know, because like even some like Italian dressings aren't vegan, which you would kind of think would be vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:17

Yeah. Also, some pastas are not vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:19

Yeah. Yeah. And if you're doing any kind of like meat alternatives, you gotta be kind of careful on those because. Like we mentioned before, Morningstar's a bitch and they like to say plant-based when it has eggs and dairy, and I would like Morningstar to let us know what plants eggs and cows milk come from. But as like an omnivore, you might not know that Morningstar's a dick. Yeah. So something to watch out for.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:44

That one's a particularly sensitive topic because Morning, Morningstar for a long time has had a lot of vegan food. Yeah. And then, you know, last year at some point we picked something up that was like right there with all their other vegan food. Mm-hmm. And it actually had some kind of animal product in it. I don't even remember what it was now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:00

I think it was like milk.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:01

Yeah. It was like milk and for, and it said plant based on the package. So like it was more vegan branded than their previous foods, but it was not vegan. So.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:11

And it's really frustrating because Morningstar should know. They're one of like the OG, vegetarian, vegan foods. They know the difference between vegan and vegetarian. They can do better. You can do better Morningstar! Anyway. Um, you can also run into similar issues at work potlucks. I personally like approach it the same way 'cause we used to have work potlucks a lot, like twice a year. Um, but I think the best way to approach it is let people know that you're vegan, then give them the opportunity to surprise you by supporting you. And obviously, you might run into a situation where you tell everyone you're vegan and they say, screw you and bring nothing, and then won't eat your vegan food and throw rocks at you. But maybe, maybe they'll bring vegan food. And that's actually what happened to me. Half the potluck was vegan and it was like, it was very sweet. It warmed the cockles of my heart.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:03

One thing I know for sure is if you don't bring it up, no vegan food is showing up, so you might as well try.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:08

Oh, absolutely. And then like. I brought, um, a cheesecake made with silken tofu and everyone ate it and I didn't tell them it had tofu in it until afterwards. And it was fun to watch all of them be like, I just enjoyed tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:23

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:23

None of 'em had soy allergies. I knew this going in.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:26

I thought tofu was just a mimic meat replacement or something. Right?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:29

Oh yeah. You can make desserts out of it. We actually, uh, fed it to my super not vegan brother, and he really liked it too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:37

Some of the easier things you might be able to bring to your holiday gatherings. Try to stick with things that don't have meat substitutes in them, just because people who are not vegan or vegetarian. Yeah. Can get pretty weird about meat substitutes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:49

Yeah. They. If you bring something that's supposed to be reminiscent of meat, they will pick it apart.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:56

Yeah. And I mean, you know, you're kind of giving somebody something that's supposed to be one of their favorite foods, but not quite. So if they don't expect it, I can understand. I wouldn't want somebody to do that. Yeah. Yeah, so just avoid the meat substitutes in general.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:08

That's what I do, at least. Sometimes, at least Tofu or TVP, but I don't really buy like the beyond. I feel like, especially if it's like a brand name and you didn't make it, they tend to try to pick it apart even more, maybe. Yeah. At least that's been in my experience.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:21

Chili is a really good option. People are pretty used to eating just bean chili. I think there are some kind of like regional wars about what actually goes in chili. You know, some, some people are really strict about no noodles in chili. Some people are about no meat in chili. So, yeah, uh, people are at least aware that bean only chili is a thing and usually won't be too turned off by it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:42

And it's like a nice hardy option. Like if you go and the only option you have is what you brought. You're not gonna be hungry on chili.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:49

What's your opinion on noodles in chili?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:51

I've never heard of such a thing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:52

Yeah. See, I like noodles in chili. We used to have spaghetti noodles in our chili growing up.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:56

Wow.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:56

What do you think about that?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:58

I don't like that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:01

I think you have to try it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:01

We were like a, a tortilla chip in our chili sort of family. Like you put in the shredded cheese and then like you basically eat it with tortilla chips, which I prefer.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:11

We did saltine crackers instead of tortilla chips.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:13

Was your chili thick or thin?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:16

I think it was in the middle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:17

Okay. I like a thick, chunky chili that isn't reminiscent of soup at all.'cause I, I don't like soup.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:24

Okay. We're gonna have to get you on the spaghetti noodle train. I'm gonna, next time you make a chili, I'm gonna sneak in a bunch of spaghetti noodles and see.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:29

Yeah, that should be pretty easy to just sneak in a bunch of spaghetti noodles without me noticing. No, and I, I think I heard that in. I'm pretty sure I was told that Indiana people like peanut butter sandwiches with their chili. Yeah. Have you heard of this?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:45

I have heard of that. That's good. We used to do that too, actually. We'd have, so we'd have, um, like peanut butter and butter with bread at the table, and we'd have our saltine crackers, and then we'd make little peanut butter sandwiches. You dip 'em in the chili.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:54

What is this?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:55

Yeah. I don't know, but it's delicious.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:56

Does anyone else do this?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:58

Yeah. I mean, yeah. I don't think my mom invented it, but maybe, Hey, if she did, she needs to have props for it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:04

This is so weird. Peanut butter sandwiches are a meal. I don't, I don't understand what they have to do with chili.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:10

We're gonna change your chili life next time you make chili.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:12

Oh boy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:13

Anyway, bean chili is probably the best thing to bring , it's pretty easy to transport.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:18

And it's in a crockpot already so you don't need to use the oven. Yep. Of other, like if you're traveling to another person's house. I guess my second option would be like Shepherd's Pie. I like to make it with TVP and I don't know, that one's pretty easy to transport as well 'cause it has like that potato topping. Yeah, that kind of keeps everything from like nice and stable when you're traveling in your car.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:38

Pretty much anything that's like semi-solid you can put in a casserole dish.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:40

Pretty good to bring. And that one's like pretty hardy too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:43

Yeah, some of the sides and appetizers you might bring also, since those are super popular, especially for Thanksgiving, but even for, you know, really any holiday or family gathering.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:51

Especially if you're traveling and you're not hosting it, you're probably more likely to bring a side or an appetizer.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:56

Yeah, I don't think anybody's asking you to bring the Turkey for Thanksgiving from out of town.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:59

I will bring a tofurky.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:01

Um, yeah, so scalloped potatoes are really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:04

This one's my favorite because my dad always made scalloped potatoes and he normally made 'em with ham, but he always made me a little section that did not have ham when I went vegetarian. And it's like he always made'em the way his dad made 'em. So I have like a vegan version on the website that's like my interpretation of my dad's that is now Veganized. Um, and he's eaten it. Yeah. And he approves So.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:26

He tried it. He liked it. He went back for seconds, I remember.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:28

Yes, he did. It always makes me happy when my dad goes back for seconds 'cause he doesn't really like vegan food. So.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:34

All right. Uh, next taco Dip. Obviously this is something everybody's pretty familiar with.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:38

Yeah. This is, uh, also one of the other things that I ate a bunch as a vegetarian because there wouldn't be a whole lot of options at holiday parties and stuff. Yeah. Like they always had Taco Dip and that was something I could eat. So yeah. I think it's a good one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:50

Yep. Broccoli Salad is another really good one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:53

Yeah. I like broccoli salad. It's pretty easy to make.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:55

Yeah. Pretty easy. Definitely easy to travel.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:58

Yeah, we've brought broccoli salad to I think both of our Christmases and everyone liked them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:04

Bonus for the broccoli salad. You don't even have to reheat it when you get there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:07

Yeah.'cause it's cold.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:08

Yep. So that's a good one. Spinach or artichoke dip is good. You have to probably bring your own chips too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:14

Yep. I brought this to a work potluck and it was met with good reviews.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:18

Nah. Good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:19

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:21

Holiday cream cheese dip is the last appetizer you might bring.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:24

Yep. And I also brought this to a work potluck and people like that as well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:28

I also like that as well.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:29

Yeah, i'm just saying like, these are omnivore tested, like omnivores don't hate these things. At least the omnivores I have come in contact with.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:37

All right, so next up some desserts that you could take. Silken Pie. We have a couple of different versions of this. They're all outstanding. You just pick your favorite flavor combination from the ones on the website and you're good to go.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:48

Yeah. My favorite one is chocolate. It has a chocolate sandwich cookie crust, and then a peanut butter glaze on top. It takes like, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes to make you chill it in your fridge for like three hours. But no one can tell it's vegan and it has tofu. And so that's what we brought last year. And my brother liked it so much, he took some home. Which you guys don't know my brother, but that, that is saying a lot. If my brother takes home a tofu pie, like I won, I won Christmas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:14

I think you may have won veganism.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:16

I think I won everything. I won life. Hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:20

Also cookies. An old standby. Obviously very easy to take to somewhere else.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:25

Yeah, just sub in vegan butter. And I like to do pumpkin puree where one would normally use eggs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:30

Yeah. And we have a couple different cookie recipes, but really just the chocolate chip cookies are kind of the standard. Hello Dollies, if you've heard of those, tell me what a hello Dolly is.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:38

Um, well we call'em Hello Dollies in Ohio, but I hear other people call them magic cookie bars.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:45

Oh.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:45

It's like basically graham cracker bottom layer. Make sure you get the one without honey, obviously. And then there's like chocolate chips and then there's a nut layer, and then there's coconut, and then there's like a sweetened condensed milk, which they do make vegan. There's a coconut and oat variety. We've tried both. They're both good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:05

I don't remember ever having these before you made them. Maybe I did once or twice as a kid or something, but I really like these. I pretty much like anything with coconut. Yeah. And then graham crackers. I also like a lot from like s'mores and stuff, so, uh, I, I really enjoy these a lot.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:19

Yeah. My family's always been a big Hello Dolly family and we brought these one year and everyone ate 'em. So Omnivore approved.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:26

Then a couple of breakfast options if you're doing more like kind of my family does with the breakfast holiday type situation. Like we mentioned before, the TVP muffins, or any kind of muffins we make all of ours with TVP got a couple different varieties again on the website. These are really easy to make and travel with.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:40

Yeah. And we also have a couple muffins that aren't TVP and this is usually what we'll bring to family dinners.'Cause our parents aren't really that into like the protein thing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:49

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:49

We've brought these pumpkin apple muffins with like a brown sugar crumble and they seem to do pretty well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:53

And also hash brown casserole a really good one. One of my favorites.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:57

Yeah, and this one's really easy to make. You just need some vegan condensed mushroom soup, a bag of frozen hash browns, vegan sour cream, and some vegan cheese. And it, you mix it all up and you throw it in the oven. It's really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:10

So those are some good options that you can take food wise to the holiday gathering. Mainly to make sure you have something to eat, but also maybe to introduce your family to some of the other options out there. And now you've had kind of the awkward conversation about you're vegan, and this is what's gonna happen when you get there. And then you decided what you're gonna bring. So now once you're there, maybe you end up in some more awkward conversations because you know how that goes at family gatherings. People usually have an opinion on a little bit of everything or just wanna hear updates about your life. And it comes out, I'm a vegan now, and so yeah. How do we deal maybe with some of those questions?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:41

Yeah. Well, luckily I don't have too many of those anymore with family because I went vegetarian as a kid and then like I've been vegan for five years. But my brother is very not vegan. And I think last Christmas he brought up that plants have antinutrients and all that jazz, and also I got him to eat tofu. So I feel like it was a win. He also was the guy that's like, I eat twice as much meat as you to cancel out your veganism. Which, you know, he's said since I was a kid, that's fine. Whatever. You know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:11

Little brothers.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:12

Little brothers. Yeah. I mean, you're just gonna, there were some family members. You know, it's just, it's gonna keep happening. So you just kinda let that roll off your back. For work, I've actually had it come up in work a lot.'cause, uh, like if you're joining a new department, it's gonna come up that you're vegan and people are gonna wanna know why you're vegan and they're gonna ask you a bunch of questions and they're all gonna become like experts on how people get protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:33

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:33

So that's the one that I've had to deal with a lot, especially at work, is like, where do you eat your protein? And so what I do. This is a tried and true method is I pull out my FitnessPal and I show them how much protein I get, and then I ask them to let me know how much protein they get and it never comes up again.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:49

Yeah. Because they have no idea. Most people, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:52

It's like, wow, I just actually didn't wanna know this. Yeah. So what do you do?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:57

Yeah, so family. I haven't really run into this. My family has just kind of jumped on board right away. But you know, I talk to people at work about it sometimes, especially around the holidays. And if I have to go to a work thing, I have to bring up like, hey, I'm vegan. Where are we eating? And uh, you know, a couple of questions like, Hey, what made you decide to do that? Yeah. Or like, you kinda get that comment like, oh, I could never do that. But even, even though, "oh, I could never do that" people have come back around a couple times and like, hey, do you have a recipe for this? My. My cousin's vegan, or like my brother's wife is vegan and I wanna make 'em some stuff when they come over. So, I would recommend in general, not being hostile to people who question you about veganism so that eventually, you're there for them to come to with questions. Yeah. If, if like they have a health issue and they need to maybe eat less meat or they get a family member who they find out is vegan or vegetarian. So, I try to stay pretty open to conversations in general.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:46

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I've had a few people I've worked with that now eat a lot more tofu or they try like vegan foods and stuff. Yeah. I'm not saying that's because of me, but you never know. Like you could spark that seed in someone.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:56

Yeah, for sure. Also we, I'm in like a group chat with a bunch of fitness people, and so it comes up with the protein thing sometimes. So we've been able to drop in recipes and talk about protein and like, oh, hey, soy is actually good. So, you know, we're never quite sure if you're converting somebody to try more things, but you're definitely out there like planting the seed all the time. Yeah. So my, my advice in general is whenever you get some questions, try to turn it into a little. Brief, like don't, don't go on a rant or anything, but turn into like a little brief mini educational thing. Like, oh hey, we actually get plenty of protein. It's not a big deal. Do you wanna see like my protein for the day or do you want to like, oh no, it's like, actually I have all kinds of food options. You want like see some examples of some of the food I eat?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:34

Yeah. The people that think you just eat salads, like tell them what you eat.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:37

Yeah. Yeah. Like somebody, the last time I had a work thing, it was like, oh, I'm going to a vegan restaurant. I'm not going to wherever you guys are going. And somebody was like, oh, enjoy your rabbit food. And I was like, I mean, it's not like.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:47

I'm gonna eat a vegan burger with a vegan cheese. It's gonna be sloppy and delicious.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:51

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, we're, we're still working on that perception in general. But, uh, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:57

Yeah. And I think as a general rule, you can tell the questions are coming from like an open curiosity versus like hostile.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:04

Yeah, for sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:05

I think you can pick that out pretty quick. Like if you have a hostile person that's not at all interested and just wants to be a troll in a real life troll, like, you know. Don't fuel the fire. I mean, you know what I mean? I think it's like not great for your mental health if you keep going back and forth with like very hostile people.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:22

Yeah. So far I've not run into that with anybody I knew before the conversation, but I definitely run into that with like random internet strangers.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:29

Absolutely.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:30

Pretty much constantly.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:31

You're not gonna win, like don't let it destroy your mental health trying to argue. But most people you meet in real life will come in with like an open curiosity. Like willing to listen and learn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:40

Yeah, for sure. People are, in general, much less likely to be confrontational to your face, so you can kind of take advantage of that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:46

You might be talking shit behind my back, but I, that's not my business. I don't care.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:49

So the last thing we wanna probably talk about here is travel and finding vegan food on the road. You have to actually get to where you're going for the holidays. So on the way there, you're not at home cooking, obviously, so you might wanna know what some of your vegan options are on the road or maybe like in an airport or something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:04

Yeah, I have a lot of personal experience with this. I don't know what it is, but I feel like I've been traveling to holidays since I was like a baby child. As a kid, we were always like driving six hours to go to like wherever, like always on Christmas. And then like now as adults, we're always like driving to our parents' house on Christmas. And so, uh, one thing you'll run into is a lot of restaurants you normally rely on, those are closed. Yeah, because it's the holiday time.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:29

Except for the Chinese restaurants.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:31

Yeah. The Chinese restaurants are usually open.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:33

And a lot of those do actually, usually have vegan options. Yeah. If you can navigate the menu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:37

Yeah. And have like time to stop on your like little road trip or whatever. Yeah. But something to consider, like some of the things that you might've had access to on your normal road trips to wherever you're going might be closed.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:49

Probably the best thing you can do is just pre-pack some snacks and stuff to take. So like dry roasted edamame, some kind of vegan jerky.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:56

Chocolate seitan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:57

Chocolate seitan. Yeah, that type of thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:59

TVP muffins. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:00

So that's like easy, especially if you're in a car road trip, that's like the way to go, basically.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:05

Yeah, if it's like longer, you know, you might wanna look into some options along the road. Gas stations actually have pretty decent options. I, I don't know about decent, but like they'll have nuts and trail mix and protein bars and protein cookies may, maybe they have dry roasted edamame.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:19

Yeah, they have edible food that you can eat, so yeah. That's nice. Taco Bell, a really good option, uh, obviously everywhere. Pretty reliable for at least a couple of vegan options that have some substance in it and aren't like processed food in a bag.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:30

Al fresco and add, uh, the potatoes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:33

Yeah. Fresco style basically removes cheese and sour cream and adds, uh, the pico de gallo on the Taco Bell menu. You can do that to pretty much anything if you didn't know that already. And then yeah, add the potatoes. Good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:43

Yeah. That's a great little hack to add a little extra volume to it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:47

They can put potatoes on your burrito taco, whatever.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:49

Yeah. Anyways, those are pretty good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:50

And they're usually open during the holidays.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:52

Yes. Taco Bell is a tried and true option during the holiday for the most part.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:55

You can also, and we've done this a couple of times, especially kind of early on when we were trying to figure out what the options even were. Uh, bring some easy stuff that you can make while you're at the hotel or the Airbnb or at your family's house or wherever you're staying.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:07

Yeah. Usually when we're traveling, we're staying at an Airbnb or something. But like most of the stores aren't really open and like restaurants aren't really open because it's Christmas and Christmas Eve. So some of the things that we'll do is we'll bring protein tortillas, canned beans and vegan cheese and you're left with a gourmet feast.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:24

Yeah. Make your own taco bar. Yeah. You can also bring some prepackaged vegan meats. Again, this is like for yourself, the don't take the meat substitutes to your family. Yeah. But you can eat them, you know, pretty easily. You can take 'em, keep 'em in a cooler bag or something, throw 'em in the fridge when you get there. Pretty easy to prepare. They're already packaged.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:40

Yeah. We really like Blackbird seitan for that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:43

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:44

And then, you know, when in doubt take protein shakes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:46

Oh yeah, for sure. Protein shakes always a good standby. Protein bars, same thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:51

Yeah. And honestly like. If you know you're going somewhere that's not gonna have a lot of food, this is also just a good option. Just pregame your food so you're not starving.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:59

Yeah. Especially the case if you've tried to have this conversation like, Hey, I am gonna be vegan, and they're like, well, none of the food I'm making is vegan, so good luck with that. Yeah. Uh, you're probably gonna wanna eat before you even go.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:09

Absolutely. I think it's a good general rule, especially even if you don't know what you're walking into, just like, you don't wanna be stuck somewhere for six hours and you're just hungry and crabby.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:18

Yeah. I would say probably like the first year that you're a vegan or vegetarian, so you're really still getting the feel for how everybody's gonna react. Yeah. And what might be available to you. Just eat before you go.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:26

Yeah. Just a little pre-game eating.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:29

And then the last option, especially if you're having some hostile conversations about how this is gonna go, you can always choose to just not go to that holiday thing that year, or at least until maybe the situation changes. Yeah. That's obviously a personal choice and everybody feels a little differently about their family. Um, but it is always an option. You can say no, you are, you know, in charge of yourself as a person.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:50

Yeah. And I feel like I've been seeing a lot more of this. On like Reddit and threads and stuff with people just being like: Hey, on Thanksgivings like I just don't go. And I think that's because Thanksgiving tends to be a holiday completely around food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:03

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:03

You know, it's not like Christmas where they're also presents and stuff. Like this is the food holidays and some people don't even wanna be around people eating meat. Like, I don't necessarily like being around people eating meat, but like, hey. We'd never see our family, so.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:17

Yeah. And especially like the big family Thanksgivings, it's like everybody made their special dish and brought it and then they want to hear like if you liked it or not. Yeah. It can be awkward and you can't eat a lot of the stuff that they brought.'cause like you can't make everybody make vegan food. Yeah. So it is just Thanksgiving in particular is, uh, kind of tricky.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:32

That's one of the reasons we kind of stay home during Thanksgiving, you know. Aside from the fact that it's like double travel and back to back months, but, um, yeah. Yeah. We, we, we stay home during Thanksgiving and just kind of do our own thing and make our own stuff. But you could also do like a Friendsgiving.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:47

Yeah, that's true.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:47

Which I've been seeing, those are like pretty popular right now, especially if you have like a little vegan group of friends. That could be fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:55

Also, sometimes local vegan restaurants and stuff will have a special Thanksgiving menu, so you can go and eat there at the restaurant with the Thanksgiving menu. Some of them even have it where you can like order ahead and pick up a whole Thanksgiving collection basically to bring home and eat.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:08

Yeah. Yeah, I know kitchen 17 in Chicago used to. RIP Kitchen 17. If you didn't know Kitchen 17 is, uh, closing this month, which is really, really sad.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:18

Yeah. I think it'll be closing in like basically a week after this podcast comes out.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:21

Yeah. Um, so if you're in Chicago, you might wanna hit that up before it closes, but yeah, they used to do like a Thanksgiving box or something that you could get. We just ordered a cheese and Thank you one. Yeah.'cause we're local to Chicago, so a lot of good stuff. A lot of your local vegan restaurants offer stuff like this and you can support them during the holidays by grabbing one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:40

Yeah, for sure. Cool. I think that's everything we wanted to talk about for kind of how to deal with the holidays as a vegan. So if any of you guys have any questions or maybe you're trying to navigate a conversation with your family members, you can send us a message. I mean we're obviously not like therapists or anything, but maybe we.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:54

We might destroy your whole relationship with your family member.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:57

No, but maybe, maybe we can get some tips about like how we approach specific situations and that may or may not work for you. Who the hell knows?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:03

But I have like a lot of years of dealing with people not eating meat, so.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:07

Yeah. We've been around the block a little bit. Maybe we can help navigate some of that stuff. Or if you just want to know maybe some more ideas for things you might take. Or you have a family member who like, likes this thing and maybe would they like this thing. Yeah. You can send us a message about kind of any of that stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:20

Yeah. We also have some recipe roundups on under the blog section of my website. proteindeficientvegan.com. Um, like holiday sides. Holiday appetizers, holiday desserts, holiday mains. The Thanksgiving best of section.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:35

Yeah. So next up, our myth of the week. So the myth here is that you should look at grams of protein per 100 grams of weight.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:44

Yeah. I disagree.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:47

So this week we wanted to talk about, um, protein percentage or protein density in food a little bit more.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:53

Mm. This is a controversial topic. Protein percentage. What does it mean?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:57

Which is weird because I mean, really technically it only means one thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:00

Yeah, you would think.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:02

So the sticking point here is that I think a lot of non-Americans are used to seeing their food in per 100 grams. Yeah. Whereas in America, at least, we see our food in like per serving and the serving some arbitrary like 23 almonds or whatever. Yeah. One tablespoon, whatever. So some people think about protein in terms of, okay, if there are 20 grams of protein and a hundred grams of food, that food is 20% protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:26

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:26

Which kinda makes sense for dry food. Something maybe like a cheerio or something. 20 grams of the 100 grams of this stuff is protein stuff. So sure, it's 20% protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:36

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:37

But that really falls apart when you add in like water for one is the big one. Yeah. Obviously because.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:42

Or fat.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:43

Yeah. Or fat. Exactly. So the way the grams kind of work are like one gram of protein is four calories, but one gram of fat is nine calories. So if we're talking about a hundred grams of something, um, if it's got a lot of fat in it, that's gonna really skew the protein density if you're trying to look at it in terms of per 100 grams.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:03

Yeah. Which is why you'll see a lot of people saying that peanut butter is a, is a high protein percentage.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:09

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:09

Or like a good protein source.'cause they're going off of the gram basis.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:13

But peanut butter's also very high fat. So it's got more calories from fat by a substantial amount.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:19

Yeah. And I think if you have a crap ton of calories and you're not trying to hit that high of a protein goal and you just wanna like efficiently eat the least heavy amount of food, I guess, that, you know, like get in the most food you can 'cause you have a lot of calories to eat, you know. Maybe you want to look at it on a gram basis? I guess?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:37

Yeah. Maybe. I just don't think there are many people out there who are like limiting how much food they eat in a day by the grams of weight.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:44

Yeah. I kind of feel like if you're not looking at your food on like, "how many grams of protein am I eating a day", then you probably don't really care so much about the grams of protein on a hundred gram basis anyways. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, if you're doing like macros and calories, I feel like you're more likely to look at percentage on a calorie basis.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:03

Right. So, um, I'm just gonna say. And again, maybe not everybody will agree with this, but the right way to look at at the protein density is the protein percentage in terms of calories. So again, one gram of protein is four calories.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:20

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:21

So if you say, I'm eating 2000 calories today, like you have a calorie limit, which I mean that's like everybody who's tracking their macros and their calories basically has a calorie limit that they're trying to target for the day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:33

And a protein goal. And a protein goal for the most part.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:33

Yeah. So the thing that actually says like. How much protein can I afford to eat? Is your, the real question there is how much protein can I afford to eat without going over my calorie goal?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:44

Right. Yeah, and I think like when you look at it on percent of calories, it really normalizes all the food. So you have like an accurate representation of how that's gonna help you hit your protein goal and stay within your calorie goal versus like a hundred grams of food. And the percentage of those grams that are protein, that's not really normalized data. Like it doesn't really tell you anything else nutritionally. It could be 98% water, you know? Yeah. Or like, it could be 0% water or it could be 50% fat, you know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:16

Yeah. So one example I like to use is just thinking about a scoop of protein powder. Let's say I get like a 30 gram scoop of protein powder. It's got 20 grams of protein in it. So then you're saying, okay, 20 grams out of 30 grams of weight, fine. But then I'll take the scoop of protein powder and I dump it in a cup of water, and now I weigh the whole thing as like a protein shake. Now it's gonna be 20 grams of protein for, I don't know, 200 grams, right? Because the water weight, but the calories didn't change. The protein content didn't change. The only thing that changed was the weight of this mixture because of the water.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:50

Yeah. I've gotten into this argument about silken tofu specifically, which is actually incredibly protein dense. It does have a lot of water though, but like who gives a shit?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 37:02

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 37:02

Like you're tracking your calories and you're tracking your protein for the day. You're not tracking how many physical grams mass of food did I eat today? Like nobody has a limit on how many grams of weight of food they eat. It's not like I'm trying to only eat 500 grams of food today. Like that's not a thing. Yeah. So it's just kind of irrelevant. I think. So most tracking apps will actually either give you or you can manually set what your calories and your percentage of different macros is gonna be. So usually like I use MyFitnessPal, so it'll say like, your target is 25% protein. That means 25% of your calories should come from protein. So the way I like to structure my meals, 'cause I'm not a protein powder girly, I don't like protein powder. It makes me gag. So, I try to structure my meals with, like, I'm not going to eat anything for the most part below 25% protein so that I can just eat like basically normal meals and not like supercharged protein dense meals and then low protein meals, if that makes sense. So that's kinda like my philosophy on getting protein and that's what you'll see in my recipes is I tend to stick more around the 25 to 40% protein on a calorie basis on all of my recipes. And then if you're just eating that kind of stuff, you don't really need protein shakes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:22

Yeah. So I think I can call this myth as not true, right? Because again, it's easy for me to visualize because I think if I take a high protein thing and I just add a bunch of water to it, does that make it no longer a high protein thing? I think the answer is pretty obviously: no.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:38

Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah. But then people are like, now it's 80% water. And it's like, but what does that mean? Like water is zero calories. Why do I care? Yeah. What percent water it is. Like percent mass. I don't understand how that's relevant.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:51

So I do wanna say, while we consider the calorie basis to be the right way. I would love to hear from anybody who can tell us how you actually use the per 100 grams and like how you use that in a way that dictates the food you eat for the day. Because I've asked a lot of people this, nobody has really had an answer, so I just don't really understand at all the value of looking at it in terms of per 100 grams.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:15

Yeah, and I would even say if you are using this, I'm gonna bet you're also using what we're talking about.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:22

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:23

If you have a calorie and a protein goal, you have to look at that stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:26

Yeah. I think people are using the calorie thing and they just think they're looking at the same thing in terms of a hundred grams. Yeah. I think they just don't really understand that those other things factor in like the fat and the water. I really think somebody looks at 20 grams for 100 grams and thinks, oh, that's 20% protein, but that's just not how it works.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:42

Yeah. I am honestly just really sick of arguing with people that when I say extra firm silken tofu is 53% protein. They say it's 4% protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:52

If you really want, you can just, you can press out, well, not with silken, I guess, but with like tofu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:56

You kind of can.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:56

Yeah, you can press out the water, drain the water.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:58

Also, who gives a shit? Why do I care how much water's in it?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:02

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:03

I care how many calories of the calories are protein. I don't know. It's silly, but if you have a good explanation. We're obviously like open to hearing it. Sorry for the rant. We argue with people a lot on this'cause I put percentage protein on a lot of my infographics.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:16

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:17

And then people are like, you're wrong.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:19

Yeah. All right. That's it for the myth. Next up the food update we have for the week. You put out a new long form video again, this one is for your high protein pizza crust.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:26

Yeah, this is my longest, long form video ever.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:29

And I think it might be the best looking pizza thumbnail on YouTube.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:32

Uh, I don't know, but maybe, maybe the best vegan pizza for sure. I, I feel like I feel pretty confident. It looks pretty nice. It's like, uh, I dunno, six and a half minutes. But it shows the whole step of what are you supposed to do with the dough, 'cause dough can be kind of tricky to work with. I am not a baker really, you know, I'm just a girl that messes around with food. So if I can do it, you can definitely do it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:53

There's some good tips in there for the dough too, like the stretch and fold method.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:56

Oh yeah. The old stretch and fold.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:57

Yeah. And then you like stretch it over the top of the bowl.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:59

Yeah. Like a drum. It's pretty exciting stuff. Yeah. And then there's actually like a little section in there that tells you how to make the fresh vegan mozzarella that's shown on the pizza. So yeah, two recipes for the price of one video, which is free because they're on YouTube.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:16

All right. Well be sure to subscribe. Try to leave us a review for the podcast if you can. Apple Podcast is usually the most helpful. Leave it wherever you want. Don't leave one at all. If you do, it helps us out.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:24

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:25

Also we've got a link in the show notes where you can send us a text message, and then you can also go to the other links in the show notes for our social media, the website. You can contact us on any of those and we'll get back to you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:35

And hey, if you disagree with us on the protein percentage thing, feel free to rip us a new one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:39

Yeah, I'm very open to changing my opinion on this. I just, I have to know why.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:43

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:44

All right. Well, I think that about wraps it up. Do you wanna say bye?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:47

Bye!

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:47

Bye, everybody!