Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Hi, welcome to the Deficient Vegans Podcast. This is episode 36. I'm the Muscle Deficient Vegan here with the Protein Deficient Vegan. Do you want to say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:06

Hi.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:07

Hi, everybody. So this is the last week of Veganuary.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:10

Woo!

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:12

So this week we're going to do a crash course on the vegan diet, kind of like a going plant-based 101.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:18

Because just because it's the end of Veganuary, doesn't mean you should start eating meat again. Don't do it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:23

Then we'll also go over our myth of the week this week, which is that you have to lift heavy to build muscle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:29

Interesting.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:30

But first up, new news.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:32

New news.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:34

So first up in the news, Mondelez, the company that makes Oreos as well as a lot of other snacks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:40

Like Sour Patch Kids.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:41

Right. Has halted their funding for animal testing based on the PETA campaign.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:49

But they still have animal products.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:52

And they've joined PETA's Eating Without Experiments program.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:56

Which is great, but they still have animal products.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:59

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:00

I don't know. The hypocrisy is palpable. But anyways, you can guilt-free eat Oreos again, guys. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:10

So PETA approved Oreos once again.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:12

This is exciting because I pulled all the Oreos out of my recipes that had Oreos during this whole thing. Oreos are so back.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:20

So anyway, I guess baby steps. Yeah. Okay. Next up, Beyond released a clear protein drink. If you haven't had clear protein, think like flavored water, but it happens to have protein in it instead of like a typical protein shake that's really creamy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:37

Yeah. And it also has this really nice slimy snot texture when you drink it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:43

They have to put the protein somewhere.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:45

I know. I just, I guess I'm never going to find a protein drink I enjoy. Yeah. Wait, did you like it?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:53

I don't, I liked the concept. I don't think I liked the specific flavor I got. So when I went to buy it, the only one that was in stock was orange tangerine, which is not like a good flavor combination in my opinion. But they did have some flavors. I can't remember what they are right now, but they had a couple of flavors that looked like I would probably like them. Because I do like flavored waters, Carbonated waters, stuff like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:12

How did you feel about the texture?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:14

It was okay, but yeah, there was a little bit of stickiness in your mouth, I guess. A little strange. But for the people who don't like protein shakes, it's probably a viable alternative if you need extra protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:25

Yeah, and you don't have like weird textural hang-offs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:28

Yeah. They have two different kinds. They have a same-size can, but they have a 20-gram protein version and a 10-gram protein version. And the price is like not that much different. So I think there's not much of a reason to get the 10-gram one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:42

It might have less slime.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:43

Though. Yeah, unless it's just, like, better mouthfeel or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:46

Which could be worth it. Yeah. Because that mouthfeel took me out. But I will say, before I went vegan, they had something similar. And then, you know, the non-vegan space with whey. And it had that same, like, slimy thing. So it's definitely not unique to this. So if you have liked those clear protein shakes before, you'll like this.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:05

Yeah. Next up, Dutch startup called Time Traveling Milkman is making a protein from sunflower.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:11

That's a fun name. I know. Everyone should have fun company names like this.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:15

I'm really jealous.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:17

Yeah, you might need to change your name.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:20

Yeah, they already had a flagship product, which was like a non-dairy cream alternative made from sunflowers. So now they're turning that process into what they're calling a zero waste process because they're taking the byproduct from the process they use to make the cream and they're using it to make a texturizing sunflower protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:41

Like TSP, textured sunflower protein?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:44

Something like that, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:45

That's really cool. Seems like we're seeing a lot of these like textured whatever proteins coming up, which I think is great because a lot of people have soy allergies.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:53

Yeah. And also saw in there that the process they used to get the protein out was pretty light touch for that kind of thing. It was said it was like really mild, not a lot of chemical extraction, anything like that. So that's the news. Let's go ahead and get into our main segment. So first off, maybe we should define the difference between plant-based and vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:13

Yeah, they get used interchangeably a lot, which I guess is like semi-fair on the diet front. But the meanings behind these are completely different. And you can piss a lot of people off by using the wrong one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:26

Yeah. A lot of people are touchy about this kind of thing for some reason.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:30

As they should be. I'm not plant-based. I'm vegan, bitch. So plant-based is like you adhere to a mostly plant-based diet. and I think this is where it gets a little confusing because some people say plant-based but they're not like, fully plant-based, they're like, mostly plant-based.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:48

Yeah, a plant-based diet is not even always technically a vegan diet.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:52

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:52

Because it'll be predominantly plant-based. So you might still have some fish and meat and stuff like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:57

Yeah, even Morningstar doesn't know what the hell plant-based is because they write plant-based on their vegetarian products, which I'm not sure what tree eggs come from, but it pisses me off.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:07

Yeah, I can understand in the context of plant-based diet, meaning there might still be some animal products, But having a product, say plant-based, feels like it should just be plants.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:18

Feels like it's pretty misleading, Morningstar. Maybe PETA should get up Morningstar's ass. So anyways, so plant-based is diet-focused. And most people go plant-based for health reasons. Some people do it for environmental reasons. Or all the other reasons that we talked about on last week's podcast going over different documentaries.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:38

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:39

But then vegan is for animals.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:42

Right. Yeah. It's, you know, the main tenet of veganism is reduction of animal harm and like the belief that animals aren't here for our use and things like that. So the scope of that is much larger than the diet. It includes things like clothing, accessories, shoes, beauty products, cosmetics, even certain little types of food you might not think about, like honey and gelatin and things that are fortified with lanolin that comes from sheep.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:09

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:10

And then also alcohol and toilet paper.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:13

Yeah, like a whole array of things that you probably need to look into if you go vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:17

Right. Yeah, you can find a lot of lists online about things to look out for and particular products that are like vegan-friendly cosmetics and stuff like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:24

Vegan-friendly alcohol.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:25

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:26

I wouldn't know what to recommend to you other than there is a vegan bourbon company called what? The Brothers?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:33

Blood Brothers Bourbon?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:34

Blood Brothers Bourbon. We only know this because we watch Vampire Diaries and one of the guys from Vampire Diaries is vegan. And so they started a vegan bourbon company. But there's lots of good lists out there. We just don't have them for you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:49

Well, it really depends on what you're looking for. Yeah. You know, there's lists for all these different areas of interest and things like that. So we do have an article we're going to list in the show notes where you do cover a lot of those types of things. So you kind of got your own list for a couple of various areas.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:05

I'm just not like a purse expert or like a fancy shoe expert. So I can't really tell you which ones are vegan approved. But there are lots of people doing good work out there. And if you Google it, you'll definitely find lists of, like, shoes, purses, cosmetics, all that stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:20

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:21

Okay. Just to let you know to look out for that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:24

Now you know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:25

The more you know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:27

All right. So now let's dig into the vegan diet itself.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:30

Yeah. Which is also the plant-based diet, but.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:34

A vegan diet is plant-based. A plant-based diet, not always vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:37

Yeah. It's like those little word things that were on, like, the ACT, you know? Oh, yeah. Not all these are that and not all those are this.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:45

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:46

Anyway.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:50

So, first off, one of the things that you probably, a lot of people have the hardest time with when they go to try a vegan diet is how to deal with the things they have, like cravings for, hyperpalatable foods, which just means like really, that tastes really good. Yeah. And you want to eat more of them. And then things with sentimental ties, so like family traditions, holiday meals, a lot of stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:10

Or convenient stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:11

Yeah, convenient stuff. You go to snacks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:13

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:13

That kind of thing. So, we'll talk about a couple of the components that kind of make up a lot of those dishes typically. And the first one is cheese substitutions.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:23

Yeah. When I went vegan, this was the one I was most concerned about because I remember trying vegan cheese at like a pretty young age. I don't know why because I was vegetarian, but I remember trying it and it was really bad. But this was like 20 years ago.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:38

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:38

But they've gotten great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:40

And cheese is very often like the last hang up. Like, people are like, I would go vegan, but cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:46

Well, cheese is literally addictive. Yeah. Like, actually addictive. So, I don't know. I've heard the advice that once you go vegan, you should stay off of any cheese or any vegan cheese for a couple months and then come back to vegan cheese and you'll like it better. I went straight into vegan cheese and enjoyed it fine. So I think it really depends on what you use it on because it does have like some of like a lot of the ones you buy in stores have more of like a like a sticky texture. Like if you're melting it on pizza, the mouth feels going to be a lot different. But if you're putting it inside of a quesadilla, like I don't notice it so much.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:21

Yeah. I think the main difference is like vegan cheese doesn't really have any protein. Yeah. The texture is a little different.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:27

Yeah. They're most of them are coconut oil based.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:29

Yeah. Yeah, but there are a lot of really good ones, and you've got a couple that you like specific for, like, specific use cases.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:36

Yeah, so I really like Follow Your Heart Parmesan, the one that's in a little tub. That's my favorite because it browns really well in the oven. Like, if you put it on broil, it browns, and it gets kind of crispy, so I like it on pretty much anything, like, casseroles, it's good. I know a lot of people use it on pizza. I don't usually use that one on pizza, but I like it on casseroles. Sometimes I'll just toss broccoli in the oven with it, a little bit of that, and a little browned parmesan on top, and it's excellent.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:04

Yeah, it's really good for that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:05

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:06

And then you can get, if you like grating the block of Parmesan on your pasta or something like that, Veal Life makes a really good one for that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:14

Yeah, that one's good. It's flavorful. That's the one I would eat if I wasn't cooking it. Like, if you're going to be cooking a Parm, I think the Follow Your Heart's the one to do that with. There's also, like, a couple other really good Parms. We've been having this one. Was it Madly Hadley?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:30

Something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:31

It's like a shaker Parmesan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:33

Yeah, I would eat a shaker Parm, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:35

That's really good. That one's really good. It's, like, very flavorful. I think that one's cashew-based. There's a smaller company that I think you can really only order online unless you're next to a large vegan cheesery or where her location is. But Peaceful Rebel Cheese is actually really good. They have a Parmesan block that's, like, kind of nice and melty. And they also have other blocks of cheese that you can melt. And a lot of them are tofu-based. So they have a little bit more protein than your average, like, store cheese.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:03

No, that's nice. and then you know shredded cheese is another big one people use on all kinds of recipes we usually go for via life for these they have like a mexican they have a colby jack which is actually tastes a lot like yeah colby jack um they have cheddar mozzarella pretty much everything you would find in a shredded cheese yeah this

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:19

Is like probably my favorite for shredded cheese i feel like it melts really well the thing with vegan cheese though if you're trying to get it to melt is the key to vegan cheese melting is humidity so just keep that in mind when you're trying to get it to melt.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:34

Yeah moisture

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:36

Helps it melt.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:37

Right um oh that's why like if you have a piece of sliced cheese and you're trying to melt it on like a vegan burger patty you can put a lid or something over it yeah melt around the patty yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:48

Maybe like drop a couple drops of water in the pan to up the humidity and then lock it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:53

In yeah yeah we learned that trick by watching um the chef max at herbivore cook at a festival one time that's true Thank you. All right. Daiya cheese, I think that's, like, one of the original ones. It is. They seem to be the most popular vegan cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:09

Yeah. It's gotten a lot better. That one used to suck. Yeah. Daiya also has, like, some other products. They have, like, vegan frozen pizzas and cheesecakes and stuff. But, yeah, they have cheese. It's usually not my first pick, but a lot of people like it. Next up is, like, and I don't know if you're going to be able to find this right now because there's a lot of drama around. the Miyoko's brand, but their liquid mozzarella was always like kind of my pick for grocery store options. Yeah. Um, it's a liquid mozzarella made from cashews and it browns up really nicely on a pizza. I don't know if it's ever going to be back.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:47

Luckily, you now have some recipes for pizza.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:50

I do have kind of, I guess it's a dupe. It doesn't taste exactly like it, but it works essentially the same way. Yeah. So you can check that out. Um, nuts for cheese is another good one that's like a little more artisan, smaller company. They mostly have blocks of cheese that you would like cracker cheese, basically. And I think they have a couple of dips, but they are really good. Yeah. They're like a little pricey, but they're delicious.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:16

Yeah. And they have some like some of the more unique flavors. It's not like a standard cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:21

Yeah. Yeah. It's like I actually don't think they're that expensive when you think of like the artisanal dairy cheeses.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:28

Yeah. They can get pretty pricey.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:30

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:32

Then since we're in Chicagoland, we have to mention cheese and thank you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:35

Yes. Cheese and thank you is awesome. And if you haven't been able to find it yet, I hope one day you do. They sell a lot of them at Whole Foods. They have this, I can't remember exactly the name of it, but there's a feta, a cheese and thank you feta. Oh, wow. That you can kind of like work into a pasta sauce pretty easily, just adding it to like a plant-based milk. And it kind of melts down and makes a really nice pasta sauce. um also she has like a line of fresh mozzarellas that are perfect for pizza yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:06

Awesome and then for the cases where you might use a feta cheese follow your heart has some feta crumbles yeah i like these on salad

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:12

A lot yes they are my favorite salad cheese i think view life also has a feta block but i always go with the follow your heart one yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:20

Um and then for cream cheese if you use cream cheese on like a bagel you know you know where you use cream

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:27

Cheese but.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:29

Violife a cream cheese and then actually philadelphia now has plant-based cream cheese which is really

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:34

Good they're yeah that one's really good especially the strawberry one but a note on the cream cheeses is that they are coconut oil based so they are like pretty melty you know like when you throw it on a bagel it's going to semi-melt but also if you're trying to use it in a recipe in which you're making it hot, like, I don't know, a cheesecake, I probably would not use store-bought cream cheese. Now, Miyoko's had a cream cheese that was, I think, either cashew or oat milk-based. I can't, But that one actually worked pretty well in hot things because it wasn't coconut oil-based and it didn't just turn to, like, liquid goo.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:09

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:10

But I don't know what's going on with that one again.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:12

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:12

But you can also make your own with, like, tofu or cashews.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:17

Yeah. And then for sliced cheese, you know, typically it's on burgers and sandwiches and stuff, you can get Follow Your Heart. They have a lot of sliced cheeses, but also Kraft now has vegan sliced cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:26

That's true. They had, like, I think American and cheddar. They might have a couple other ones. Yeah. Veo Life has some pretty good ones, too. And then if you're looking to spend a lot of money on some really delicious cheese, rebel cheese, expensive, but like delicious.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:43

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:43

It's mostly like cracker cheese. Like if you were going to put out like a charcuterie board with like really nice options for like a dinner party or, you know, just like a Saturday night where you just want to eat a plate of cheese. Yeah. Which we've done. Rebel cheese is the best for that. And they also have, like, subscription boxes, which I think saves a little bit of money.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:02

Yeah, cool. Um, so that's kind of the cheese landscape.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:07

And if you have any other cheeses that you really like, let us know and we'll try to find them and try them. For sure.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:13

Uh, next up might be condiments. So these are some, there's only a couple of condiments really that you rely on that have animal products.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:19

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:19

Um, cause like ketchup and mustard, those are typically fine. Those are always vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:22

Right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:23

Uh, but stuff like mayonnaise, mayonnaise has eggs. Uh, so Follow Your Heart has a vegan mayonnaise and then Hellman's has a vegan based mayonnaise.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:30

I personally prefer the Follow Your Heart one. I think it tastes really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:33

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:34

We tried the Just Mayo and I didn't really like that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:40

They should stick to the eggs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:41

Yeah. You can also make your own mayo. Like I make my mayo out of silken tofu if I'm using a bunch. It doesn't stay in the fridge very long. So I wouldn't really recommend making your own unless you're using it all in like a coleslaw or something quickly.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:56

Yeah. Yeah. That's not the like jar of mayonnaise you keep around for three months.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:59

Exactly. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:00

Next up, ranch dressing. Obviously, several animal ingredients typically, but Follow Your Heart has a really good ranch dressing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:06

Yeah, and I think Hidden Valley Ranch has a vegan ranch too, and that one's pretty good. I still prefer Follow Your Heart. And I think Follow Your Heart has a couple other creamy dressings. Yeah, they have a couple. Like Caesar and maybe a couple others, but either way, I like the Follow Your Heart ranch a lot. Yeah. And then I guess while we're on the topic of, like, condiments, does butter fall into condiments?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:29

Sure, because there's not anywhere else on our list.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:31

That's true. Now, if you've been in the grocery store in the last two months, you may have noticed that, like, vegan butter is... I don't know what's going on with vegan butter, but I can't... I mean, we're, like, having to try out all kinds of different new vegan butter because all of the ones we used to buy are gone.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:45

Yeah. Hard to find.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:47

Yeah. My favorite was Miyoko's. Don't know what's going on with that. Um... Earth Balance is pretty good for baking. What other ones have we been trying? Country Crock.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:58

Country Crock has like an avocado oil-based one, and then another one that is a different oil. I can't remember right now. They have two different kinds.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:05

Yeah. Violife has a butter block that's fine. Most of them are pretty much the same. I would say Miyoko's was like the standout in the field because it had like some unique flavor to it, but the rest are kind of like whatever.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:19

I also read recently that I can't believe it's not butter is now accidentally vegan as of fairly recently.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:24

Yeah, I think I saw that on Reddit too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:27

Yeah, so next up is meat substitution. So this is another big one. People really like the texture or taste of meat a lot of the time.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:34

Yeah, some people are actually disgusted by the texture of meat. So the ones that I think are really gross because I don't like the texture of meats might work really well for you if you're really trying to get that texture.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:44

Yeah, the more you dislike it, the closer it is to real meat.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:47

Holy shit. What was the beyond ground beef actually made me cry while I was trying to cook it. I had an actual panic attack. It was just not good for me. So if you really want ground beef.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:01

That's a recommendation. We got to get the beyond cow in.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:08

Yeah. So good. It makes me cry.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:14

Yeah. Some other ones are Gardein. They do a lot of the, like, frozen nugget-shaped type things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:20

They have a lot of good stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:22

Yeah, fish sticks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:23

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:24

Like, chicken tender. Think that kind of thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:25

They do a lot of that. Crab cakes?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:26

Yeah, crab cakes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:28

Oh, I think they also have some, and I don't know if they still have these, but the ones that you can just kind of, like, throw in the microwave in a bag and, like, end up with, like, orange chicken or...

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:37

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:37

I think they had, like, an Alfredo one at some point. I don't know. They've got... Gardein is, like, pretty high on my list of, like, frozen ones I really enjoy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:45

And they actually usually have pretty solid protein in them.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:47

Yeah. The macros are not bad. I think they also have their own... burgers and stuff too yeah i don't think we've really used that too much and.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:53

Then also for uh burgers specifically beyond and impossible i'm sure everybody has heard of these by now but they are kind of the go-to burger patties and ground ground uh meat

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:04

Meat stuff yeah yeah um BOCA also makes a veggie burger that has really good macros um and then let's see there are a couple other ones i think guardian might even have a burger patty yeah either way all around the same macros, pretty burger-y, you know? Yeah. It will meet your burger needs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:25

And then if you're thinking more in terms of sandwiches, Tofurky is a brand that has a lot of tofu-based kind of deli meat type things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:33

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:34

They have a smoked turkey. It's like their main one, I think, but they have a couple others.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:37

And they have a ham, too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:38

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:38

They also sell Tofurky's around Thanksgiving, like a big roast. Yeah. But yeah, the macros on those are always really, they're like pretty comparable to like actual lunch meat.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:47

So. Yeah, those are pretty good for protein. Um, and then in the jerky realm, um, the most popular brand is Louisville Vegan Jerky. And it's also our favorite. Um, they have a smoky Carolina barbecue flavor that's really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:58

Yep. Um... Then there's seitan. Blackbird is like my personal favorite, but they're not at very many stores. For some reason, they put their pizzas in stores, and I don't like their pizzas. Yeah. And I'm like, can you please put your wings and stuff in stores?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:14

Yeah, their wings are great. You just have to, you know, order them a case at a time and keep them frozen. So it's a little.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:19

Then you need to buy an extra freezer. It's like a whole ordeal. So, hey, Blackbird, go put your wings places. We don't want your pizza.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:26

Yeah. If you're in Texas, last time we were there anyway, they did have the seitan, the barbecue seitan and the Korean seitan at HEB. So you might check that out.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:36

Yeah. That was actually where we found it. Upton also has good seitan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:41

Oh, yeah. Upton is really good. I forgot about Upton.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:44

Yeah. They've got like crumbles. And then there are a couple other brands. Daring.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:49

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:50

I really like that. We should try that. They have pretty good chicken.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:53

Yeah. Yeah, Daring has a really good Cajun chicken, specifically if you like spicy stuff. I like that a lot.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:57

I personally haven't tried it because I can't do spicy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:00

And also really good macros, too. Kind of expensive.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:01

Yeah, the macros are really good. And then Just, the makers of Just Egg put out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:08

Yeah, they're Just Meat chicken alternatives.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:10

We haven't had a chance to try that because it's not near us. We haven't found any.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:14

Somebody online told us it was really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:15

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:17

Next up, moving away from meat, are some egg substitutes. So, eggs are another one that are, like, kind of in everything, especially if you're doing baking, things like that. So, it's good to know some substitute options there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:27

Yeah. So, if you're just wanting scrambled eggs, just egg is pretty good. Like, the liquid just egg works pretty well. Yeah. Also, I would recommend a tofu scramble. It is not really super egg-like, but it kind of, like, fills the void of scrambled eggs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:43

A tofu scramble with a bunch of nutritional yeast is pretty

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:45

Close to egg. It's pretty close. The macros are really good. Just Egg also makes frozen patties that work really well in like breakfast sandwiches.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:53

Yeah, egg patties.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:54

Egg patties, yeah. If you're baking with egg, if you're looking for an egg substitute for baking, I don't, I personally don't use Just Egg for baking. Yeah. I really like a flax egg.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:06

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:07

Basically, a tablespoon of ground flax combined with like three tablespoons of water and let that sit for five minutes and that gives you like about an egg.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:15

Yeah. And if you don't want to do that, Bob's Red Mill also sells something just called Egg Replacer.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:21

Yeah. That one's okay.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:23

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:24

I feel like I always go back to the flax egg, but I also like pumpkin puree works well as an egg substitute. So does applesauce or like mashed up bananas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:35

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:35

Some of those will add some extra flavor, but I actually find that pumpkin puree works really well. Yeah. It doesn't have too much flavor on its own. And blended silken tofu is also a good egg substitute.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:44

Silken tofu is good for pretty much everything.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:46

Yeah. Oh, and then if you're looking for an egg white substitute, most people go with aquafaba, which is like the bean water that you would normally drain from a can of chickpeas. So also here is like a really fun fact is that the plant is here on Instagram. We talked about her last podcast. She has a lot of good ideas, guys. But she apparently she told me that she freezes them into like ice cubes so she can use them later. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:14

Oh, the aquafaba?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:15

Yeah. That's really interesting. Which is like genius. Yeah. Because like if you're making hummus, you're probably not also making something that would need egg whites. So yeah, she'll just like drain the can of chickpeas and put it into ice cube molds and have them for later.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:28

That's a super good idea.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:29

She bakes a lot, so it makes sense. But I was like, holy shit, that's genius. It could be life-changing for you if you are someone who bakes and also messes around with chickpeas. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:40

All right. Next up in the snack realm. So a couple of cheesy snacks. Again, these are just things that maybe you munched on before, hyperpalatable foods that you're just having a hard time getting away from. Like if you're trying to go vegan, but you keep going back to the cheetos.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:54

Cheetos, yeah. You have, like, honestly, if you're someone who likes snacks and you're going vegan, you've got to find something that will, like, fill the void when you're having cravings so you don't accidentally go buy a bunch of non-vegan snacks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:07

Yeah. And this is also probably a good point to reiterate the idea that going vegan does not necessarily mean, like, you have to go to healthier food right away. Yeah. Like, those are really two different journeys. Or ever, yeah. So, you can, like, just switch your normal junk food to vegan junk food. And then, like, if you want to get healthier, that's like its own thing. Yeah. And if you want to do them both at the same time, that's great. But there are going to be a lot of people who do want to go vegan, but they're not really ready to do the health thing for whatever reason.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:35

This is for eliminating animal products. Also, we're not like telling you to only eat these foods. This is like really just how do I help my craving so I don't give in to animal products.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:45

Right. But yeah, cheesy snacks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:47

Dude, cheesy snacks always have me in a chokehold. Like... I have eaten a lot of vegan cheesy snacks. And I will tell you, I always go back to, what is it? The Flavor Blast white cheddar hippies are.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:00

Flavor Blast explosion.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:02

Holy shit, they're so good. But like the other hippies are good too. If you want a more protein-y snack, Endurance makes protein chips. Although some of them are so loud right now, which is very annoying. But I like the nacho ones. And you like, which one do you like?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:16

The sweet chili.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:17

Yeah. No. Bada beans has so many flavors. I don't know necessarily they have a cheesy flavor, but they have, like, man, what do I like? The sweet onion and mustard one is my favorite, and you have a couple favorites.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:30

Too. They have a buffalo that I really like.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:32

Yeah. And then another protein snack you might check out is the gym snack. They have a cheddar, and they have, like, a jalapeno cheddar. Yeah. And those are both pretty good, and I think they're, like, 40% protein, so another good little protein snack. And then we actually tried, what is it, Chris Power...

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:50

Oh, yeah, the pretzel bites.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:52

Pretzel bites, yeah. So I tried the cheddar ones. Holy fuck, those are, like, really good and super addictive.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:58

The hot ones are good, too. Yeah. I like those a lot. And hot protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:01

Yeah. We did not like the everything bagel ones. They were kind of mid.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:05

But. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:06

And then they also had, like, a cinnamon sugar one that I wasn't a big fan of.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:09

Yeah, it was pretty mild. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:11

But that cheddar one, we already ordered another box. They're really good. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:16

Um then like for chocolate snacks there's a couple of the big brands that have a couple plant-based options like Reese's and Hershey's both have a vegan version they're kind of hard to find but they are out there yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:28

For some reason CVS seems to have them I don't know why thank you CVS we appreciate you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:34

Yeah CVS for whatever reason actually has a lot of the vegan type options that other places don't keep in stock very well sometimes yeah it's crazy I'm not sure what's going on there, but we really like it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:44

Yeah. Keep it up, CVS.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:46

Next up is Lindt. Not next up. Also Lindt.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:49

Are those the truffles?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:50

Yeah, those are the chocolate truffles. Oh, my God. And they also have the chocolate bars. And those are used as oat milk.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:55

Dude, the truffles are so good. They taste just like the dairy version.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:59

Yeah. They're very creamy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:00

They're good like a little present. Like Valentine's Day is coming up if you want to buy yourself chocolate or chocolate for someone else. Yeah. Those truffles.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:10

Yeah. And then another one of the more popular, I think, vegan chocolate brands is Unreal. They do peanut butter cups and a couple other little chocolatey snack type things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:18

And then there's Chomp Chocolate that you can only order online. They're like on 2.0 at this point. So a lot of their original products are gone. We haven't tried any of their new products, but they're back.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:30

The originals were really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:31

The originals were amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:35

And then if you're using chocolate in baking or cooking, Enjoy Life makes a lot of vegan chocolate chips.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:41

Yeah, that's our go-to. They have just chocolate, and then they also have a white chocolate, and they melt nicely. And they work great for all of your baking convictions.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:51

Yeah. And then on the ice cream front, Ben & Jerry's has a lot of their flavors and a non-dairy version.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:57

Wait, is it Ben's now? Didn't Jerry, like, peace out over all the political stuff?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:02

Yeah, I think there was something there, but I'm not sure. I think it's still called Ben and Jerry's.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:05

Yeah. So I don't know if Jerry wants you to be buying the ice cream right now. So if he doesn't. I'm not sure, Jerry. You can let us know. Breyers makes really good oat milk ice cream.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:17

Like an oat milk vanilla that's super soft.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:19

My parents actually like switched to it because they like it better than the dairy version.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:22

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:23

They also have a couple other flavors too. Yeah. But it comes in the big tub.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:26

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:27

But I really like it. And then you can add your own mix-ins.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:30

That's true. There's a couple other smaller brands like Nada Moo and So Delicious.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:34

Nada Moo is actually really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:36

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:36

And then they have pints.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:39

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:40

And then So Delicious has the ice cream bars that are really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:43

Yeah. A couple options there. And then for cookies, Sweet Lorenz is like a kind of take it home, bake it yourself cookie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:50

Yeah. A lot of good flavors.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:53

And then Drizzleicious is not really a cookie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:56

It's like a little rice cake.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:57

Rice puff with chocolate drizzled on it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:59

They're really good. They're like more of a low calorie snack that kind of hits your sweet tooth. And then I guess for cookies, Oreos are back on the table.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:06

Back on the menu, boys. Yeah. And then protein bars, back in kind of the healthy realm a little bit. Misfits makes a lot of good vegan flavors. And then Bear Bells also make a lot of good vegan. They have a couple new plant-based flavors.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:21

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:21

Although Barebells changed.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:23

They're not as good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:25

Barebells changed their recipe. It's a little different now, so you'll have to try it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:27

I'm going to recommend Misfits.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:28

And then No Cow.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:29

Misfits is fully vegan. And they've got crunch to their bars, which I like when they're crunchy and not nasty.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:36

No Cow is also fully vegan. That's my favorite.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:39

Nobody wants this. I'm just kidding. They have the best macros, but if you like crunchy, that's not it. It's not it. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:47

Cool. So kind of the next phase that you might be looking for food alternatives in is when you go out to a restaurant.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:54

Yeah. So the first recommendation we'll give you is downloaded Happy Cow.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:59

Yeah, definitely. Happy Cow is an app where you can find vegan and vegetarian restaurants pretty much anywhere in the world. So if you just go in there, say, show me restaurants near me, everything in there is at least vegetarian. You can look for fully vegan restaurants or you can just find restaurants with vegan options. Yeah. But yeah, there'll be probably a couple near you that you've never even heard of.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:22

Mm-hmm. And there will be a couple in there that literally they don't have anything on the menu, but someone decided to put it in Happy Cow and give it a four-star rating because they have breadsticks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:30

Yeah, you got to avoid those a lot. It's not as bad on Happy Cow as it is on like the delivery apps, though.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:37

Oh, that's true, yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:39

Some of the big restaurant options, though, that we have seen that are good are Taco Bell. Taco Bell, if you put stuff Fresco style and pick beans, there's a lot of vegan options there, actually.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:51

Yeah, so Fresco style removes the sour cream and the cheese and any other dairy products they have, and it replaces it with...

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:58

Pico de gallo.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:59

Pico de gallo.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:00

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:01

Yeah. So that's a really good option. And, you know, since it's so bean-focused, there's a lot of, like, protein. Yeah. I wouldn't call it high protein, but, like, it's filling for sure.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:10

And it's, like, mostly whole food.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:11

Yeah. It's actually—people make fun of Taco Bell, but it's a really healthy option as long as you're pulling off the dairy products.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:17

Yeah. Um, next is Chipotle, um, kind of the same thing, like a bigger Taco Bell, but they have a, um, flavored marinated tofu called sofritas. Yeah. So you can basically get a very high protein double tofu bowl with a bunch of fresh vegetables and beans and stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:33

Yeah. And it's very customizable. So you can add on whatever you want.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:36

Yep.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:36

The next up is like a noodle bowl, poke bowl, rice bowl restaurant. There's a lot of those around now, which is great because they have great options. Yeah. You can customize your own bowl. You can add on a lot of veggies, usually like a rice base or maybe a noodle base. And then the best part is they almost always have tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:56

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:56

At least one kind of tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:58

We found one near us that uses really good sweet potato noodles. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:01

What is it called?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:02

Bibimbap?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:03

Bibimbap? Bibimbap?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:05

Yeah, bibimbap.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:06

It's super good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:09

And then Asian restaurants. A lot of the Asian restaurants have vegan options. A lot of them have tofu as an option, so another protein option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:15

Like Chinese, Thai, Japanese. Thank you for having tofu. You guys make great tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:24

Indian restaurants, very vegetarian friendly, but a lot of them do have a couple of vegan options as well.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:28

Yeah. And a lot of those will have tofu too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:30

Yeah. Burger King, surprisingly, they have the Impossible Burger still. I know a lot of places are pulling stuff like that off their menu, but Burger King has still got theirs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:39

Holding strong so far. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:40

It does come with, I think, like a mayonnaise you have to take off, but it doesn't come with cheese anyway.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:45

Yeah, it doesn't come with cheese.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:46

Make sure you don't order it with cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:47

Yeah. take it home and put on a slice of your own cheese yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:52

But yeah so it's an impossible burger patty so a little bit of protein there too Mediterranean restaurants not a great protein option but they do have falafel hummus if they have vegan pita bread sometimes you can get that too yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:04

Sometimes they have wraps too like falafel.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:06

Wraps yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:07

Pretty decent option.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:08

Love a good falafel. Mm-hmm. And then smoothie places. A lot of those have plant protein add-ons nowadays. So you can go get a smoothie bowl with a bunch of fruits and add in some plant protein to it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:18

Yeah. They usually will let you add in plant protein powder to the actual smoothie part. And then, like, you can get add-ons like nut butters and nuts and seeds. And then, like, while we're talking about restaurants, we should probably mention, like, social outings or, like, eating out can be, I think, one of the trickier things with going vegan. Like as far as, you know, things that like directly impact the way you've been living.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:42

Yeah, definitely. I know that's one of the big hangups for people. And I think that's one of the main things that makes people go back to not do the vegan diet. It's just like I can't go out with my friends anymore. I have a lot of trouble like trying to coordinate social events with this vegan diet thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:56

Yeah. So I think, you know, I'm an introvert. So my advice is woohoo, no more social outings. or like you know find some vegans yeah some new vegan friends but also i think my real advice would be maybe look on happy cow try to find some first off like if you have really cool friends they might want to go check out vegan restaurants with you like we have friends that will go out to vegan restaurants with us yeah which is awesome because.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:24

You know everybody can eat vegan food because it's just all the other food that's not the animal product part

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:29

Yeah everyone vegan food is for everybody but you know if your friends are like less inclined to eat vegan food you could always find maybe some omnivore restaurants that have a good vegan option maybe that would work suggest things yeah um i will say like on the work front this comes up a lot yeah definitely but um my recommendation there would be as soon as you decide you're going vegan i would like, As soon as the first work event comes up, you just got to, like, rip the Band-Aid off and tell them so that you don't have to keep, like, if you let it slide once, they'll just kind of take advantage of, oh, this person doesn't really care if there's an option for them. They'll just bring their lunch. So I think my recommendation is to, like, talk to your supervisor or manager, whoever's coordinating a lunch and learn or whatever, or, like, a work outing after work.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:16

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:17

Try to get some vegan options in there.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:19

Yeah. Just slowly, you know, over time, I'm vegan. Oh, I can't go to that. I'm vegan. And then maybe some will eventually show up.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:25

That's true. The next thing up will be cooking, because depending on where you live, you might not have very many vegan options.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:32

Yeah, I will say if you're going to go vegan, you're going to want to learn to cook at least as much as you can.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:40

Yeah, and maybe you can find some really easy meals, but you should, I think for me, that is like my number one piece of advice, period, is like have a couple recipes that you can make and that you enjoy eating. because I don't know. I mean, we're like about an hour from Chicago and Chicago has so many options, but where we live, it's, I wouldn't call it a vegan desert, but it's not real great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 37:02

Yeah, we've only got a few options here that are really reliable.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 37:05

Yeah, and you'll get burned out of those really fast. So I think learning how to cook a couple meals that you really like is like the best advice anyone can give you. And I think vegan cooking can be kind of intimidating because, you know, you're not using all of those things that you were using was vegan meats, It's vegan dairy substitutions.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 37:23

Right. Yeah. Um, also, you know, if you're trying to figure out what to cook and go to the protein deficient vegan website and get a bunch of high protein vegan recipes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 37:33

Yes. And there are also other really amazing recipe sites out there that aren't just mine, you know, but yeah, you should go check mine out. But honestly, there are so many vegan food blogs and vegan baking blogs out there. Like you're going to find something that resonates with you and like, just try some easy stuff. I know, um, when I first went vegan, I actually only made my recipes and Nora's recipes. Yeah. But, like, Nora was a huge lifeline for me when I went vegan because I just didn't know what to do with anything. Like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:03

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:05

So find someone whose recipes that you like and try, like, some easy stuff. Even if it's just eating, like, a quesadilla or, like, a burger. Like, just, you know, you can rely on substitutes early on.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:18

Yeah, for sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:19

Since I have a vegan food vlog, I thought I would just throw out some of my tips that may or may not be useful to you. Or like ideas that may or may not be useful to you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:28

Let's hear them.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:29

Okay. So my first one is important to know that most vegan cheeses are pretty much just coconut oil. So they're not really going to work the same way as their dairy counterparts. For instance, if you're making, if you're trying to make a creamy mac and cheese... Just having shredded vegan cheese is probably not going to make it creamy. It's going to be oily. So you might need to add in like blended cashews or silken tofu. Just because vegan cheese is a lot more oily than dairy cheese.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:04

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:04

So it's something to understand. Same with like the cream cheese, right? Also, if you have been eating a lot of cheese and if you're someone who tracks your protein and calories and stuff, you've probably been getting protein from your cheese and so it's just important to know that you're not getting protein from vegan cheese anymore no.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:23

And i think that's actually one of i've read before like that's one of the reasons um that sometimes you can run into protein issues it's just a normal vegan not thinking about protein or thinking about fitness or anything is because you're getting protein from dairy that you weren't even really thinking about dairy and eggs and stuff like that you hadn't really considered that so you switch and you have these options that aren't really protein centric anymore

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:44

Yeah i think that's true because a lot of times when you're an omnivore you think of like meat and your milk and your eggs as protein sources but like if you've been eating cheese or like if you're a vegetarian and a lot of your protein might have been coming from cheese or something like that a lot of these are not they're not made with protein they're made they're oil based so like they just don't have anywhere near the same macros. So it's just important to know if that's something you care about. And then we already talked about the egg replacer, you know. Think for baking maybe like blended silken tofu or pumpkin puree, applesauce, a flax egg. Okay, next tip would be that a lot of our plant-based protein options, like tofu, TDP, homemade seitan, stuff like that, tempeh, they don't have much flavor on their own. So it's really important that you're very liberal with your spices. I'm liberal and also liberal with my spices. Because that's really where you're getting a lot of your flavor from.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:45

Yeah, it's funny because I'll watch you make your own recipes and you're like, I'm just going to add a little.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:52

Yeah i said like a tablespoon of vanilla but what if i what if i should have more yeah yeah the key.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:00

Difference is if it goes wrong you can only blame yourself

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:03

Yeah and usually like what i wrote down is right right i'm just so used to adding more to other people's to add flavor you're usually going to focus on spices and herbs like fresh herbs really add a lot of flavor, but you can also use things like soy sauce or nutritional yeast or miso to add like an umami flavor and like some additional depth.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:28

Yeah, nutritional yeast comes in clutch in a whole lot of different ways.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:31

We use it all the time. And it's also very high in protein. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:36

Good tip.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:36

It's a good one. Blended silken tofu is also a great way to add protein to like your salad dressings, pasta sauces, smoothies, cheese sauces, soups, and like any other condiments you have like sour cream and mayo. Yeah. But if you don't really care too much about, you know, protein, blended cashews are also a good way to add creaminess to sauces and stuff. just make sure you have a good blender yeah because we made like a cashew mac and cheese before we got a vitamix and it was like very gritty and it was like a good blender and i soaked the shit out of those cashews and it was still gritty yeah this.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 42:11

Is one of the things that actually you know convinced us that vitamix is worth the hype

Protein Deficient Vegan: 42:14

Yeah cashews anything with cashews are going to be better in a vitamix um so if you don't have the money to spend on a vitamix and you don't want a gritty texture, just use silken tofu. That's my opinion.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 42:26

If you are working with tofu a lot, you might need a tofu press to get some of the water out and some of the different types of tofu. And if you don't want to get a tofu press, you can also just stack a bunch of heavy books on top of your tofu to squeeze the water out.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 42:38

That's true. Our textbooks have to be good for something, right? We have like a whole shelf of old college textbooks that we don't look at.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 42:44

Yeah, and if you try to sell it, you'll get $20 for your $300.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 42:47

I know. That's why I held on to them. I was like, you're not making money off this $200 textbook I bought last semester. And so now I have like 50 college textbooks about random chemistry shit that I probably, especially won't be reading now that I'm doing food blogging. So, Yeah, but so for the tofus that you would want to press, it would be like anything that's not super firm tofu or silken tofu. Right. So your firm tofu, your extra firm tofu, you want to press those.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 43:18

Yeah, I don't think pressing silken tofu would work out for a while.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 43:22

Oh, if you do want to press silken tofu, though, you can freeze it first.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 43:26

Oh, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 43:27

And then when you thaw it, it, I don't know, it's crazy. Like it unlocks a lot of the water from it and then you can press it. Yeah. And it makes it look like it's so weird. It adds like these weird like layers. Yeah. It's very meaty. And also, oh, also you can do that with normal tofu too. Freezing and unfreezing and then pressing it actually gives it a meatier texture.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 43:50

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 43:51

So just keep that in your back pocket. But I can't even remember to press my tofu beforehand. So I definitely rarely remember to freeze and unfreeze and then press my tofu. so yeah that's why we buy super firm tofu um, Yeah, so speaking of tofu, a lot of people cube it, which I don't mind. Cubing's fine. But I would also recommend you try shredding it with, like, a vegetable grater.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:20

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:21

Crumbling it by hand or, like, thinly slicing it, which you could do with a knife if you're good at cutting things. Or you could buy, like, a wide vegetable peeler. But the reason these work so well is because you're adding surface area to the tofu, which means that, like, more water can be released, which will give it a meatier texture, but also you can get, like, spices to stick better.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:44

Yeah. Yeah, a big part of making tofu taste good is getting the spices to actually, like,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:49

Adhere to the.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:50

Tofu and soak into the tofu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:52

And getting the water to release, like, if you don't want, like, a soggy, mushy texture.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:57

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:57

So, like, more surface area is your friend. And if you're hellbent on the cubes, maybe try tearing it because if you tear it, you end up with all those like little ridges and stuff and things are going to stick better to that than like very, very smooth lines that you get from cutting with a knife.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:14

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:14

All right. Now that we covered tofu, like some just high level tips on seitan. Needing it is going to make it more chewy and over kneading it will make it rubbery.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:25

So don't do that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:26

So you don't want that. I've heard people use a food processor to knead their seitan. I've seen a lot of people talk about this, like just chuck it in the food processor to knead your seitan. I did this and broke a food processor.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:40

Oh, that's right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:41

And so I don't know. I wouldn't recommend that. I think you could, if you have like a stand mixture, that would probably work because it's used to needing like doughs and stuff. But I personally, I personally would not recommend you use it in a food processor because there's a chance it's going to break your food processor. It like burned the motor out completely. Yeah. I didn't even have it in there that long. So that's a thing I wouldn't recommend. Um wrapping your seitan dough in parchment paper and then aluminum foil keeps it from expanding and that will prevent your seitan from going bready now i make a lot of bready things with seitan but this is specifically advice if you're making like meaty seitan because because it's like a dough you know and it's wheat gluten it has the propensity to like expand and get like airy and doughy so you really need to think of ways that you can keep it from expanding to keep it like dense you know that's like the main thing is like keep it constricted um so double wrapping it is a good method you can also so sometimes i'll make like i have a barbecue seitan recipe on my site yeah but if you saute like the dough first on both sides it kind of keeps it from expanding as well, Um, so that'll keep it from getting light and airy too. And then on that note, vital wheat gluten isn't just for meat replacements. Um, which you already know if you've ever looked at any of my recipes, I use it for like bready stuff, desserts, and also like bready desserts.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 47:18

Yeah. We just finished a loaf of, um, pumpkin bread, like high protein pumpkin bread made from vital wheat gluten.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 47:23

Yeah. So the key is like, okay, so if you're going to use it for like bready stuff, you don't really want to go more than like maybe a one to two ratio of like vital weak gluten to flour. So like one part vital weak gluten to two parts flour. Anything more than that's going to lead it more towards like the seitan. So that's for like breads, pizza doughs, pretzels, bagels, blah, blah, blah. But if you're going to do like desserts, I like to go full vital weak gluten. and the way that I keep it from being like meaty seitan. Is to add ingredients that will, like, disrupt the gluten formation. So things like sugar are really good about that. Syrup. Mashed bananas. Stuff like that. Kind of disrupts the gluten structure from forming all the way. And I also make sure I use leavening agents.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 48:17

Yeah. What does that do?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 48:18

It, like, adds airy springiness to it. So that's why the bread, like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 48:23

So it's not stodgy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 48:24

Yeah, it's not stodgy. It doesn't remind you of meat. It's nice and airy and it looks like bread. And it's still like a little chewier than not vital weak gluten stuff, but like taste-wise, it tastes about the same. Yeah. And I would say like as long as you're disrupting the gluten formation and making sure you're adding leavening agents, it's also actually not that chewy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 48:45

I agree. I really like the bready type stuff that you've been doing with it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 48:50

And then just a couple tips on TVP. So I know there are like different methods for rehydrating TVP, but me personally, I like to put dry TVP in a pan with my water and all my spices and mix that up really well before I ever add heat to make sure the spices are all distributed well. and then if you've ever done that you'll notice that like it sticks to your pan no matter how non-stick your pan is so i definitely recommend like a wooden spatula for like i don't know scraping your pan without destroying your pan and then tbp is also great for like baked goods or if you want to replace half of your oats with tbp and oatmeal and, It's also good for, like, high-protein breadcrumbs or making your own high-protein granola.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 49:37

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 49:38

What's your favorite way to eat, TVP?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 49:39

Muffins. Muffins? My favorite way is muffins.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 49:42

That's mine, too. A perfect, easy, high-protein breakfast. And then on the protein realm, like, just swapping pasta for protein pasta. Anytime you eat pasta is, like, a great way to add extra protein without really changing much.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 49:57

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 49:58

You know, like, if you are just going vegan and you have a lot of favorite meals, but you're not really, like, super focused on protein but you want to make sure you're getting enough protein right i think the protein pasta swaps a really easy one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 50:09

Yeah stuff like that the protein this is a little slightly off topic but the stuff like that with the protein pasta swaps is also good for people who are taking those new weight loss drugs because you're not really like doing the fitness thing necessarily but you're getting a little less calories so just swap in something that you're going to normally eat anyway like if you're when you can eat food when you're hungry on that drug you can do something I'm like, protein pasta, just get a little extra protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 50:31

Yeah, that's a good point.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 50:32

So a lot of products, you've seen a lot of products come out now that's like the same thing, but protein. And a lot of that is because of those drugs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 50:38

A lot of those are pretty bullshit, though. Like the protein Pop-Tarts, it's got like, okay, come on.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 50:44

Yeah, you go from one gram to three grams and now you have protein Pop-Tarts.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 50:46

I'm like, you have the same percentage of protein as a potato. You're not a protein Pop-Tart. Yeah, yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 50:51

No, definitely. That's definitely happening.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 50:53

But like, I think protein pasta is a good one because it's usually like 30 to 40% protein. Yeah. Or, like, low-carb wraps are another good one. Oh, those are so good for that. And then, you know, some other, like, little whole food kind of high-protein snack options would be, like, dry-roasted edamame are really good. And so are those bada beans.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 51:13

Oh, yeah. The bada beans are really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 51:15

Yeah. And then, oh, another ingredient you maybe haven't heard of too much is edamame puffs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 51:24

So

Protein Deficient Vegan: 51:24

I like to.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 51:24

Use- Don't tell anybody else about them. We won't be able to order them anymore.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 51:27

I make sure we have stock before I ever mention them. But edamame puffs are great. They're made from basically like soy protein and a little bit of rice starch and they puff up. And I use them in the same way I use puffed rice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 51:42

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 51:42

So, basically, Rice Krispies or, like, homemade granola bars or homemade protein powder, homemade protein bars, that kind of thing. Yeah. I don't know. They're, like, my favorite ingredient.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 51:54

They're so good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 51:54

Homemade puppy chow that you can eat for cereal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 51:57

Man, the puppy chow is so good. And then, obviously, the Rice Krispie treats are, like, outstanding.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 52:01

Yeah. So, we like edamame puffs. You should like edamame puffs. Also, money-wise, they're pretty cheap on a, like, dollar per gram of protein basis. Yeah. If you're in the U.S., I don't really know about outside of the U.S., but anyways, those are like some of my cooking pieces of advice, I guess. Random thoughts.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 52:22

Stream of consciousness on vegan cooking.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 52:27

Take it or leave it. I don't know if it's useful.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 52:30

Definitely good tips.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 52:31

And then for like just some more helpful kitchen type stuff, having a good blender, I think, was the biggest thing for me when I went vegan. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 52:42

Again, like we, we did, we were looking at Vitamix and we're like, oh, really? How much better is it?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 52:47

They're so expensive. I know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 52:49

But yeah, I mean, they're, unfortunately they're much better than other blenders.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 52:53

I know. It's really annoying when like the expensive thing is actually worth the hype. I know. It's very irritating. They have pretty good sales on Black Friday though. So like put it on your wishlist if you don't have one. I do think it's the best blender and it does what it says it does and it is better. And I'm sorry for that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 53:11

Um also uh you can use a steaming basket um for the you mainly use it for seitan i think yeah but you can also steam vegetables and stuff with it that's true it's good to have around

Protein Deficient Vegan: 53:21

Yeah i have those uh i think they're bamboo based yeah but they they're like they stack on top of a pot that i have yeah but they also have collapsible metal ones that kind of fit in whatever pot yeah and so i would recommend that as like a cheap option you just.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 53:36

Put some water in the bottom You sit the thing on top, it sits a couple inches above the water, and then all the steam cooks what you have in the basket. Really simple. And very cheap.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 53:44

Very cheap. And then the next one is you hear a lot about air fryers. And I like my air fryer, but I rarely use it, to be honest. And I know a lot of people use it more. And I also think... A lot of people use it just because they don't want to turn on the oven because it's a lot faster. And that makes sense to me. Yeah, yeah. But if you don't really mind turning on your oven and you want the same kind of performance of an air fryer, I really like a copper crisping tray. It's got like a lot of holes in it. So you get like kind of the same airflow situation as you would inside of an air fryer.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 54:17

Yeah, I've never tried these even before I saw yours, but they would have been nice to have my whole life. They just like cook stuff really evenly. it kind of gives it that little bit of fried texture on the outside even if you don't use oil and stuff

Protein Deficient Vegan: 54:28

They're really yeah you don't really have to like flip stuff over in it yeah i don't know my grandma always had one because she was like she really liked frozen like junk food like like she really liked french fries right so she was like they're so good for french fries but yeah she just like chuck french fries in them and then she got me one for christmas one year and i was like holy shit now we have like three because i cook a lot so yeah but they're a lot cheaper than an air fryer.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 54:52

Yeah. Oh, for sure. And it'll probably last a lot longer.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 54:55

Probably.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 54:56

Yeah. So it'll probably outlive you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 54:57

They probably will.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 54:58

I don't know about the coating on the outside. We have a couple that are kind of chipping, but the actual basket itself.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 55:03

But just be gentle. I'm not very gentle with things.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 55:07

Next, a kitchen scale can be good for both preparing food and tracking your calories. So there are a lot of powders and stuff when you're baking where you can't really use the measuring cups, can't really use the spoons because you're not going to get a very accurate measurement. Yeah. So, you just, you know, put your bowl on the scale, measure out 200 grams of flour or whatever you have going on, and you're off to the races.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 55:27

I think this is especially important for, like, if you're cooking with vital wheat gluten, specifically, because it's so dense. But I think protein powders. Protein powders are, like, kind of crazy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 55:37

You know what? Actually, I just had... So, okay. This is also a little off topic. But I just had... the Veganuary giveaway for personal training. And I had a client that I was just talking to a couple of days ago, and he told me that he's been using protein powder for a while, the same one. And he thought that he was getting like 40 or 60 grams out of his scoops because he was doing a couple servings. But it actually turns out that he went and measured it one time and it was so far off that what he thought was like 50 to 60 grams was actually only 20 grams.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 56:07

That's crazy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 56:08

The scoop itself was so inaccurate

Protein Deficient Vegan: 56:09

Yeah the scoops they give you are garbage like so if you're really really tracking specifically protein powder yeah you should definitely be weighing that shit because their scoops are they're just not good i.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 56:21

Know i did a little short video on it like a year or two ago and the one i looked at was off by like 50 it was

Protein Deficient Vegan: 56:27

Pretty significant yeah you looked at a few of them yeah i.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 56:29

Mean they were all off everyone i looked at was all off the worst offender was like 50

Protein Deficient Vegan: 56:33

Yeah some of them will be off in the direction of like oh no you ate 50 more calories And someone will be off of like, actually, you hardly eat anything.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 56:42

Yeah, it's pretty bad.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 56:43

And you never know what it's going to be.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 56:44

Kitchen scale is a very helpful tool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 56:47

Yeah. And then I just, you know, some random spices that I use or like flavorings that I would recommend. Like if you're just starting like your cooking journey, but you would like an arsenal of things that you can use for almost anything. These are kind of the ones I'd recommend. So garlic powder adds depth, aroma, and a savory flavor. I use it in everything.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 57:13

Yeah. We do have a lot of garlic. I didn't even know I liked garlic until I started eating your cooking.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 57:21

I know. You told me you hated garlic and onions. And I'm like, well, that sucks because it's in everything I cook. And now he's a believer.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 57:28

And she means everything. Anytime the stove comes on, the garlic comes out.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 57:32

Yeah. And it's heart healthy too, isn't it? Isn't it? Yeah. Heart healthy. You should have some garlic.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 57:37

Good for like blood vessels,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 57:39

All kinds of stuff. Yeah. Keeps the vampires away. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 57:41

Very useful.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 57:42

Yeah. It's got a lot of, it's multi-use. onion powder is another good one it's similar to garlic powder you know it adds some depth, aroma savory flavor i think these two are good if you're like wanting the flavor but don't have the time to like be chopping garlic and onions to add the flavor to your dishes i usually use both like fresh onion and garlic and then also spices but like this is a good one to like save you time if you still want the flavor but you don't have time to chop onions and garlic or you don't want to cry right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 58:16

Um also things like chili powder and smoked paprika to get a little bit of that spicy smoky flavor yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 58:21

And then nutritional yeast which we've talked about before but it has like a nice cheesy savory umami flavor like it's mostly good for adding like a cheesy flavor but i also like it just for like the savory earthy flavor it has yeah, Um, basil is good if you're going to be cooking like Italian food. It adds like a sweet, peppery, and like a slightly minty flavor.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 58:47

Yeah. And then one of my favorites is dill. There's a bunch of protein snacks that are vegan that have dill flavor. I really like that. Yeah. But also you use dill when you cook,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 58:55

So. Yeah. It's good for like ranch dressing. Yeah. If you're making your own ranch dressing. Um, yeah, it has like a fresh, grassy, citrusy flavor. But yeah, think that flavor you get from ranch dressing. Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 59:08

Also, extremely easy to grow in your own kitchen.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 59:11

Oh, my God. Yeah. We bought one of those little AeroGrow things. AeroGarden.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 59:15

AeroGarden, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 59:16

Yeah. And we put, wow, holy shit, we had way too much dill. And we were like, I don't know what to do with this. This is just so much dill.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 59:25

And it was just from one little spray.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 59:26

It was crazy. Yeah. So you can grow your own in your own home.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 59:30

As much as you will ever need.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 59:31

For sure. yeah because like fresh herbs are really a great way to add flavor to your stuff especially like vegan cooking and.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 59:39

They're kind of expensive in the store so they are some you can grow

Protein Deficient Vegan: 59:42

And they go bad fast in the fridge so growing your own we should really start growing our again um ground mustard seed you don't see this too often and like i don't know i feel like this is like a second tier if you're like really trying to expand it your uh spices yeah but i like to use it in cheese sauces because it adds kind of like, um, like a tanginess yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:00:04

A little bite

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:00:04

Yeah so i would recommend it yeah and.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:00:07

Then you have like the umame blends and mushroom powder type stuff to get that earthy flavor

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:00:12

Yeah so most of those are usually just like some form of mushroom powder i've been really liking this like umame, powder i've been using for a lot of stuff that i think it's mostly shiitake mushroom based but it has like a nice like earthy umame flavor to stuff yeah and then um black salt also known as, kala namak yeah i might have pronounced that wrong if i did i'm sorry but that adds like a really eggy flavor um but it will make your fart smell bad yeah just like eggs because it's like very sulfury yeah and um so like we bought one a couple years ago and it's still going strong because you you barely use any of it like maybe an eighth or a sixteenth of a teaspoon when you're cooking, for that like eggy flavor so it's just really a good way to make your tofu scrambles taste more like yeah like eggs yeah but yeah be very gentle with it be this is the only time i'm ever going to tell you to be conservative be conservative with your black salt um cinnamon is your favorite oh yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:01:17

I use cinnamon in my oatmeal every morning so i really like cinnamon

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:01:20

Yeah it adds like a nice warm flavor it's great for baking anything sweet it's also like could be like a secret ingredient in a chili or something yeah it's good for that um pumpkin pie spice is my favorite it's like the perfect way to make you feel like you're living in fall again yeah it was funny because we made um pumpkin bread two days ago and like i was baking it and i was like holy shit i know it's like negative 15 degrees outside but i feel like it's fall and the leaves are turning colors right now in the kitchen. It was great. Yeah. And then vinegar or lactic acid, if you're going to be making any cheese sauces or, like, making your own cheese, you need either some form of vinegar, whether that's apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, or my currently new favorite is lactic acid. It just adds this acidity, tanginess that, like, makes it feel more like a dairy cheese.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:02:18

Yeah. And then there's vanilla, which is nice for making the whole house smell good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:02:22

Yeah, we use so much vanilla in baking, it's insane. Turmeric is mostly to change your stuff into a yellow color, but it also adds some earthy flavor. It's really good for tricking your brain into thinking that your tofu is actually eggs. Because it adds that yellow flavor, or add it to your cheesy sauces to give it that yellowy, cheesy color, you know? Yeah. Also, doesn't it have a lot of really great properties as well? Yeah. Like anti-inflammatory.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:02:55

It's anti-inflammatory to a certain degree. And I don't know, but you'll give it to that when you do one serving of your food. But it's, you know, herbs and spices, they have a lot of health properties in general.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:03:05

Yeah. And then you've got, like, thyme and sage, which are really good for, you know, like, Thanksgiving-y fall flavors. And then I would say one of the things I keep most often is, like, things like those taco seasonings. I really like those because they're already, like, pre-blended of all the spices. So if you don't have much space for spices, like, taco seasoning, they also have, like, an Italian seasoning. Those are good ones to have around because you don't really need to, like, mix up your own.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:03:33

Even in the bottles, they have a lot of different type of spice blend. Like what was it, Flavor God, they had a couple of different blends.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:03:40

Yeah, they had like a pizza one that we really like. Yeah. But yeah, if you're like low on space or like you don't want to commit to having 30 bottles of spices in your house, blends are a really good like cheaper option to just have those. And my recommendations would be like Italian and taco seasoning, specifically taco seasoning, because those are really cheap because they come in those little paper packets. Yeah. And those are great for like, I don't know, we've been using just straight up taco seasoning with like and throwing it on top of like tofu and veggies and making like tofu fajitas. Right. Super quick and easy meal. And then soy sauce or like coconut aminos, if you are soy free or gluten free. But it adds that savory, umami, salty, like depth of flavor. And then miso paste is similarly good for something like that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:04:30

Nice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:04:31

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:04:31

So that's really helpful to me because, you know, before I started cooking, I would look at the ingredient list and I didn't know what any of this stuff actually did. It was like, okay, we're just using magical ingredients.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:04:44

We're making potions.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:04:47

So, yeah. No, it's really helpful to hear, like, how each of them helps with the recipe and kind of the most popular ones you might keep around.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:04:54

Yeah. I think it's cool to know that stuff in case you're trying to make your own.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:04:57

Yeah. That's where it really comes in. It's like, I want this to taste this specific way. I add a little bit more of this spice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:05:02

Yeah. Or, like, if you're trying to make a recipe and you don't have one of these, like, what else could you use? Yeah. If you don't cook, I'm really sorry because that was probably really boring for you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:05:12

So now we know a little more about cooking in general what to keep in the kitchen some alternatives things like that maybe the next the next thing you'll be asked and the next thing you might ask yourself when you try to switch to a vegan diet is okay where do you get your protein where do I get my protein yeah um so this

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:05:28

Is a hard one to figure out if you're like new to vegan food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:05:30

For sure yeah it

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:05:31

Took me a.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:05:32

While mainly because a lot of the things we end up using for primary protein sources are things you don't use at all if you're not a vegan oh

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:05:38

And like if you're just like, mainstream looking like this is really for if you're focused on protein right right because if you're just looking at mainstream recipe blogs a lot of this stuff isn't even in there yeah you know what i mean like you're not going to really know a lot of this stuff they're not really focused on protein which is fine like and if you're not focused on protein that maybe you don't need this section but like these are like basically we've tried every protein thing on the internet yeah and these are the ones that we keep in our house yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:06:06

So the big one is going to be soy

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06:08

Proteins. Yeah, which makes up a lot of like the proteins that we use.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:06:13

So soy is actually the highest quality protein we have available to us as a vegan. You know, it's a complete protein. It's very similar to like the animal source proteins as far as quality, digestibility, all that stuff. So I would recommend if you're interested in protein, try to focus on the soy protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06:28

Yeah. And it has a very neutral flavor. So it works really well in a lot of recipes because you can just kind of make it taste like whatever you want. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:06:36

Do you have some examples of soy protein?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06:38

I have many examples. Let's go. So my first one, silken tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:06:43

Yeah. I knew you were going to say that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06:44

Yeah, I knew you knew.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:06:45

And not just because it's on the note in front of me.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06:47

I think I am the biggest pusher of silken tofu on the internet. I don't know. And I make no money off of it, which please, silken tofu, give me money. But it's great, like, blended for high-protein sauces or dressings or literally anything that you want to be creamy. Silken tofu. Yeah, it's great to add to smoothies. um next up would be just regular tofu which comes in super firm extra firm firm yeah all have their own use cases but really good i think it's like a pretty good like meat substitute as far as like a whole food plant-based meat substitute yeah um and we kind of already talked about the ways you might use that yeah next would be textured vegetable protein or tvp which is one of my personal favorites it's good for savory stuff and also baking yeah soy curls is one we, I've heard a lot about it, but I only, like, recently started using it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:07:39

Oh, yeah. The soy curls are pretty good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:07:41

So, they're kind of, like, really big TVP chunks, more or less. Yeah. Basically, you just soak them in water for 10 minutes and then squeeze out the water, add spices, and you can eat it in, like, tacos or, like, on top of a pizza or, I don't know, however else you would want to eat. Something like that. Yeah. Like, the size of, like, I don't know, like, chicken strips, basically. Yeah. I don't have, like, a good comparison in the meat world. But, yeah, eat it in the way you would eat meat chunks. It's really good. And it's high in fiber, too. Right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:08:10

Um also there is say grace which is a brand name uh and you have to describe it by the brand name because it's the only thing that exists that is like it and they just call it like say grace chunks but what it effectively is is like super concentrated soy protein in the shape of like meat chunks basically yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:08:28

They have a couple different shapes like they have bits shreds fillets nuggets and i think maybe one or two others yeah but it's like, And it's basically just a super concentrated form of TVP chunks. Yeah. You do need to boil this one. So it does add a little bit of time to it. So keep that in mind if you're like looking into it. But it's 90% protein, which is insane.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:08:52

Extremely high protein for a food.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:08:54

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:08:54

Yeah. A dry roasted edamame is one of my favorites. They're good to keep around for snacks. You can get them in basically little single serving bags.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09:02

Yeah. Or like a big tub. Yeah. Or you can make your own. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:09:04

Or you can make your own. Yeah. Very high protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09:06

They're good on top of, like, salads to add a little crunch. I like them as a snack.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:09:10

If you're somebody who likes snacking on, like, nuts and seeds and stuff, maybe swap that out a couple times for the dry roasted edamame. Very similar, like, crunchy snack, but high protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09:19

And they have different flavors. I'm, like, obsessed with the dill-flavored one right now.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:09:23

Yeah. Oh, the dill, the ranch.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09:25

There's a couple of dill. Yeah, there's a lot of really good ones. Yeah. So next up is tempeh, which we haven't done much with. But I think the whole food plant-based crowd really likes this one, I think, a little bit more. So, I don't really have any recommendations on how to use tempeh. There's lots of recipes out there for tempeh.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:09:40

There are people who really like it. I've tried a couple different ones. I just, I don't like it yet. I'm sure I'll find one eventually that I like, but I'm not there yet.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09:48

We just always choose tofu over it. I don't know. For no reason.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:09:51

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09:53

Anyways, the next one's edamame puffs, which we kind of talked about already. It's like, yeah, soy protein in puff form. Great for homemade protein bars, Rice Krispie Treats, blah, blah, blah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:10:03

Yeah. They're really good. Soy milk. Also, you know, there are a couple of different types of plant-based milk. Soy milk is the one with the highest protein content.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:10:11

Yeah, it's 35% to 40% protein, which is, I think, pretty similar to a dairy milk. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:10:17

We went back and forth. We started out using, like, an almond milk, and then we kind of went to oat milk to get a little more creaminess, and now we've kind of settled on soy milk being our go-to.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:10:24

Yeah, soy milk's my favorite. It was, like, the original, you know, like, plant-based milk option, and I think it should have stayed the only one. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, fine. If you can eat soy. Right. Yeah. And then lastly, this one doesn't get talked about much, but soy flour. This is like defatted soy flour and I use it in some baking. Like it works really well as like, I don't use it fully, but I'll do like half and half flour to soy flour for something that's going to be kind of dense anyways, like brownies. It's a good way to add protein to a baked good recipe. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:10:58

So those are a lot of your soy based options. Again, I would, if you can, if you don't have an issue, I would try to focus mostly on that. But there are a lot of people who have a soy allergy. So let's talk about some of these soy free kind of substitutions or alternatives.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:11:10

Yeah. So soy free tofu is a big one. They make fava bean tofu, which is about, I think, 90% protein. The macros are insane. Yeah. They also make a pumpkin seed tofu and a chickpea tofu. Those, the last two don't have great macros and they're also kind of pricey. Yeah. So I think if you're soy free and you can eat fava beans, I would probably stick with the fava tofu if you're worried about protein. If you can find it. If you can find it, yeah. The next one would be like TPP, textured pea protein, which is basically a direct substitute for textured vegetable protein. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:11:43

I think that's a really good option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:11:44

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:11:45

And then pea protein puffs, kind of similar to the edamame puffs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:11:49

Yep. You can use them pretty much the same way. Yep. And yeah, they kind of have like, they have similar macros. The pea options are a little bit more expensive. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:11:57

And then some of the items you might keep around in the pantry, PB Fit is a big one. So think of it as like a higher protein replacement for peanut butter. Yeah. They have both a powder version and a spread version.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:12:09

Yeah. And if you can't find PB Fit, PB2 also makes those as well. I think the macros are slightly less good. Yeah. But if you don't want a name brand option and you want something cheaper, they do just make, uh peanut powder which is as long as make sure it's defatted which it kind of has to be defatted otherwise it would turn into peanut butter um but like i think anthony's makes one that's like cheaper there are a couple other brands as well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:12:35

And then uh protein powder obviously if you're kind of at a protein target keep protein powder in the pantry um you can get um a lot of the protein powders are going to be a blend so they're all going to be high quality as far as like complete protein um but you can get and you can do right brown rice protein um there are a couple that are soy specific soy protein um so yeah a lot of options out there for a protein powder yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:12:58

And i'm i know a lot of people right now are asking about the lead thing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:13:01

Yeah uh so there was that consumer reports thing that came out that said basically plant protein powders have a higher level of lead and they used kind of a very low threshold for lead kind of comes out of california prop 65 guidelines um you know i'm not a doctor i'm not a lead expert but from what i've seen from the people who are experts in this, it seems like that threshold that they used was significantly lower than something like the FDA would normally use. And it doesn't seem like they are really going up to a problematic level. And, you know, it'd be better if all of our food had no lid.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:13:37

Wouldn't that be nice?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:13:38

But that's not really an option. I mean, there's a small amount of lid in a lot of food. Yeah. So what I can say is that based on what I've read and what I've heard from, you know, experts that I trust on this, I'm not really changing any of the protein powders that I use. So you make your own decisions on that kind of thing, read a little more about it. But it does seem like they used a really conservative number for that study.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:13:59

And which ones do you usually use?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:14:01

I use mostly Ghost now. They have a vegan line. They have a vegan cinnamon flavor that I really like. Orgain, if you are concerned about the lead levels, orgain is a really popular one that was also pretty low in the lead levels on that test. So you can still stick with orgain.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:14:16

Orgain's my favorite, and I hate protein powders. Yeah. Okay. Next up would be vital wheat gluten is a great pantry item because you can make your own meat replacements or you can just add protein to like baked goods and stuff like we talked about before.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:14:30

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:14:31

But yeah, it's actually a really cheap option, at least in the US. Protein pasta, which we've also mentioned before, but that's a really good pantry item to keep. They make lentil pasta, which is our favorite. They make chickpea, black bean, edamame, lupini. They make blends of different bean pastas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:14:51

Yeah, and I don't find that they taste much different at all than a normal pasta. No. Especially when you get into an actual recipe. Like maybe if I was sitting there eating pieces of pasta next to each other, I would notice. But inside an actual dish, I can't tell the difference.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:15:01

Yeah, you kind of notice the bites a little bit different if you have leftovers, I feel like. Yeah, I can see that. But I don't know. I like them. They don't bother me, so I eat them. Next is nutritional yeast. That's also like a shelf-stable item. It adds cheesiness, but it also adds protein. So I recommend having that on hand.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:15:20

Lots of it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:15:21

Lots of it. So much of it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:15:22

A big favorite of mine is beans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:15:24

We've been eating so many beans lately.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:15:27

You can get dried beans extremely cheap. You do have to do a little bit of prep with them by soaking them and things like that. But you can also get canned beans pretty cheap. And you can, you know, use them in all kinds of stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:15:38

Yeah. So basically, I somehow got onto BeanTok, which is like this bean propaganda part of TikTok, where like hot girls eat beans right so like yeah i'm gonna eat beans then and so we've been making these bean bowls which i don't know if this will ever be a recipe on the site because it's really ugly but basically so then we've been making bean bowls which i don't know even really what to call them and it probably will never go on the recipe website but basically it's a half a can of black beans with a little bit of black bean juice. This is part important. And then you do two tablespoons of nutritional yeast. And a half of a teaspoon of taco seasoning. You mix that really, really good. And then you sprinkle some like vegan shredded cheese on top. And you throw in the microwave for a minute to a minute and a half. And then it comes out as like, I don't know, cheesy beans. It's really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:16:34

Now, if you've been a loyal listener, I might ask you to recall earlier episodes where I've been made fun of for eating bowls of beans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:16:42

Because he didn't do any. He didn't season them, guys. It's not the same.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:16:47

Anyway i would just like to say i won the battle or

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:16:50

My bean bowls better than your bowls of naked.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:16:53

Beans well yeah oh

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:16:54

Okay so it looks like i won but they're good right they're.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:16:58

Great yeah we

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:16:59

Had them we just had them an hour.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:17:00

Ago it's really simple it keeps you full like whenever we do a bean this bean bowl thing in the morning i feel like i just forget food exists until late in the afternoon it's

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17:09

Great yeah we've been eating them for breakfast.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:17:12

Lentils also kind of closely related to beans. You can use those in soups is kind of the most popular way to use them but there are a lot of other ways to use lentils and those you can also get dried or canned.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17:22

And dried is going to be significantly cheaper.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:17:24

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17:25

Then another one to keep in the pantry protein bars protein cookies that kind of thing protein snacks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:17:29

Yeah. Uh, and also lupini flakes are a new one that you've introduced me to.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17:36

Yeah. So, uh, they're flakes of lupini, which are like, I think, I can't remember the exact percentage. They're really high in protein. Um, we haven't really used them yet, but I heard people mix them into oats or, um, you can use them as like breadcrumb.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:17:51

Okay. Good to know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17:52

We'll have more lupini flake ideas coming for you at some point.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:17:56

You will be the lupini queen.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17:58

I don't know about that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:18:00

Um also some veggies now i mean uh you're not going to get all your protein from vegetables yes there are vegetables that are slightly higher in protein so as you're going throughout the day kind of making your food and your meals and you pick maybe the slightly higher protein vegetables this stuff adds up this

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:18:15

Is for like if you have a protein goal you're having trouble getting your protein maybe this will move the dial a bit like swapping out some veggies that are higher protein So these are like broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, kale, bok choy, cauliflower, green peas, and artichokes are kind of like... The high performers. And that's on a protein percentage. Yeah. Not on like a gram per gram.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:18:38

Protein per calorie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:18:39

Yeah. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:18:41

And then some miscellaneous stuff that doesn't really fit into other categories, which is what miscellaneous means.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:18:48

Thank you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:18:50

Vegan ground beef and burgers we've talked about a little bit already. Might want to keep those around for protein. Just egg. We talked about the egg specifically and also now the just meat chicken alternatives and stuff like that. Seitan, we talked about, a really good vegan protein staple. Vegan chicken nuggets. So, yes, like a fried food. But also, a lot of the vegan chicken nugget brands are like 60% protein or something. No, like 40% protein. So, it's pretty close to what you would look for in a protein bar. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:19:18

You got to check each brand because they all vary quite a bit. But there are a lot of them that are pretty decent protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:19:24

Yeah. And then the low-carb keto tortillas we were talking about earlier.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:19:27

Yeah, love those.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:19:27

Those are because of the nature of the fiber in them. They're actually really high in protein a lot of times.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:19:31

They also make, like, high-protein bagels and high-protein breads.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:19:36

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:19:36

But I would just—those are really expensive, so you just make your own.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:19:39

Yeah, and the tortillas, so you kind of get the double whammy, high-protein and high-fiber. That's true. Good choice. And then the tofurkey deli slices we mentioned before, and vegan Greek yogurt is a big one. Greek yogurt is big in, like, fitness and in baking and stuff like that. Yeah. Try to get some extra protein in. So there are vegan versions of that as well.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:19:56

Yeah, and I think that one's, like, a little over 50% protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:19:59

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:20:00

I don't really like the flavor on its own, but that's just my opinion. I am picky.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:20:05

Yeah, and if you want to see more vegan protein options, we'll have a link in the show notes. So you have a protein database on your website. That's basically a big table. You can sort and filter in a bunch of different products that show, like, how much protein they have per calorie, how much protein they have per dollar. So you can see kind of the most cost-effective, the highest density protein, a lot of stuff like that all in one spot. It's like over 200 different things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:20:24

Yeah, it's quite large. I like spreadsheets. And then I guess we'll move on to like additional resources. So basically, we had a big podcast last week on different documentaries. So we're not going to really dig into these here. So basically, we had a big watching party and you can find all the details on last week's podcast. But these are kind of the ones that we watched and would recommend. Cowspiracy is good for like an environmental perspective, and it also does a little bit on the factory farming and animal stuff. Forks Over Knives, mostly a health-based documentary. Punk rock vegan movie was really cool. If you are into the punk or rock scene, or you just want to hear about how it influenced veganism and animal advocacy. The next one is Game Changers. It kind of follows around like world-renowned athletes so it's more of a health-focused documentary.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:21:21

What the health uh this was about the kind of the food system in the united states so another health-focused one seaspiracy was about industrial fishing uh and kind of its impact on the environment and veganism uh and then the invisible vegan which was a look into kind of veganism and black culture and yeah kind

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:21:42

Of hit all the bases yeah um i could never go vegan also hit all the bases, kind of went through any myths or excuses you might have for not going vegan one by one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:21:52

And Food Inc., another one kind of about the food industry and how it, you know, it'd be better off if we went vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:21:59

Eating animals was pretty good. This one kind of dispelled the myth of like the meat you can get in the grocery stores is from humane farms.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:22:08

Yeah. And then Plant Pure Nation was one that kind of touched on the government aspect and followed like a small town group of people trying out vegan diet, watching their blood work, things like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:22:19

Next up was Vegucated, which followed around three meat and cheese loving New Yorkers who agreed to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. So that was pretty fun to watch.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:22:28

And then Earthlings and Dominion are both really like graphic undercover looks at the actual farms themselves. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:22:36

And we actually didn't wash those, so we don't want to lie. But these are more for if the other ones didn't turn you vegan, these probably will.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:22:44

Also, a couple of books we really like. One is a book that was also one of the movies you just mentioned was Eating Animals.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:22:51

Yeah, this is from Jonathan Safran. Basically, it's part memoir, part investigative reporting, but it examines the morals around veganism, farming, and then the food we eat every day. This is actually the book I read that made me go vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:23:05

Another one I really like is How Not to Die by Dr. Gregor and Gene Stone. um basically this talks about how to prevent a lot of the diseases that we can get This talks about the most common causes of death from disease and how a plant-based diet can basically help with every one of those in various ways.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:23:26

Yeah, this one was really interesting. The third one we'll recommend is The Impactful Vegan by Robert Cheeke. This one's more for like if you're already vegan and you're looking to do more advocacy slash activism work. He discusses how vegans can maximize their impact by using our time, money, and energy so that it goes further. And I thought this one was really insightful on, like, if you're already vegan, like, what can you be doing to move the dial?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:23:53

Yeah, I really appreciated that book. Then we have some websites that might be cool to look at to try to, you know, especially I find that if I'm trying something new, it helps me to go and find some, like, sites to talk about it. Kind of keep them on my bookmarks and look at them once in a while. So a couple that are really cool for veganism, one I really like is Great Vegan Athletes. So this is basically a site that just keeps, you know, profiles of a whole bunch of elite vegan athletes and various sports. So you can go see, oh, who are all the rugby rugby players that are vegan? Who are the Olympians that are vegan? So you can just see, you know, what people can do.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:24:25

And then VegNews and Veganuary, I would say, are both really good vegan resources. VegNews focuses more on kind of news, but they also have a lot of recipes. And then obviously we had Stu from Veganuary on and their website is great. It has a ton of resources and recipes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:24:42

Yeah, they do. Next is Veggl. It's a good reference for how to order vegan at various chain restaurants. So a lot of times you really does Arby's, a vegan food or whatever, you find the Veggl article. Not to be confused with Veggly, which is apparently like a vegan dating app, which you could use too, I guess. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:25:00

If you're looking for a vegan partner, you have that as an option. Happy Cow is like, we've already talked about it, but really excellent for finding vegan options near you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:25:11

Also, if you use Reddit or if you Google for anything vegan, you'll probably end up on Reddit.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:25:17

Yeah. But I personally think if you're going vegan, Reddit, you should get Reddit.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:25:21

Oh, there's so much good information on there. Yeah. So a couple of the subreddits, which are basically communities on Reddit for vegans, are, well, there's one called Vegan. Yeah. So that's the main kind of hub for all things vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:25:32

A lot of news. You can also come here with questions as long as they're in good faith. Vegan fitness is probably the one we're on the most.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:25:40

Yeah, that one's really nice for anybody interested in fitness who is a vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:25:43

Yeah, it's like high protein, vegan recipes, fitness health discussions, progress pictures. But like if you have questions around like if you're starting a fitness journey or you're having trouble hitting your protein, I think this one's a really, really good place to go ask questions. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:25:59

It's also the protein deficient vegan subreddit, which is kind of similar to vegan fitness, but no selfies, mostly about recipes and asking questions.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:26:06

And anyone can post there. Yeah. People don't post very often other than me, but you can. and you should yeah um next up is vegan recipes and like uh as the name implies lots of vegan recipes there these.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:26:17

Are all pretty well named

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:26:18

Yeah plant-based.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:26:21

Diet is more about the diet focus and less about veganism so if you're just specifically interested in food you can go there and then

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:26:29

Eat cheap and vegan is one of my favorites this one's like good if you're on a budget and you need recipes they've got a lot yeah and it's a good place to ask questions And then I will say, like... being a vegan can feel very lonely so finding a place where you can find other vegans to talk with or find like you know what i mean or like socialize with i think is really helpful to make you feel like i don't know i i actually heard a lot of people stop being vegan because they feel like so alone in it and they just want to feel like normal and back like part of society again yeah so i think um i don't know places like these reddit communities are really helpful because it makes you feel like you're not like the only vegan in the world out there there's a lot of people that can relate to you um i don't know even like if you're on social media and you want to like start a vegan social media account i think there's a lot of like really good vegan communities on like instagram like you can find people to talk to you know what i mean it's also really.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:27:26

Helpful because as you're going vegan you probably have a lot of questions and there's nobody in your real life that can probably answer right so you can go read blogs and stuff like that but it's helpful sometimes just to have a discussion with a person yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:27:38

So like yeah start social media account that's vegan and like make some friends or you can join our deficient vegans discord where it's uh vegans you can ask vegan questions find a place to find vegans that's my like i would say big advice though so you don't feel alone yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:27:52

For sure so in conclusion some of the actionable takeaways you might have here after listening um make sure you find alternatives for the food you loved if you're trying to go vegan that's going to be really important to making sure that you can stick to it

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:28:04

Yep also.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:28:05

Learn to find restaurants with vegan options the main way we do that is Happy Cow, and I consider that to be the best way. But, um, if you, if you join some of these vegan communities, especially local communities, those can also highlight some restaurants you might not know about.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:28:19

Yeah, and Reddit has a couple different, like, location-based vegan communities. I know we're on, like, vegan, Chicago Vegan a lot, so...

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:28:26

Also, make sure you plan ahead for any social situations. You want to make sure, like, you're going to a restaurant that's going to have something you can eat. If you're going to a family gathering, they're going to have some options for you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:28:35

Or, like, a work, lunch, and learn. Just make sure that you're having these discussions with people so that they know you're vegan. Yeah. I'd say improving your cooking skills is probably one of the biggest takeaways. Yeah. Learn how to cook at least a couple things that you enjoy and that's, like, fun for you or, like, at least pretty simple and easy for you to do.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:28:54

Yeah, definitely. Focus on your protein. Even if you're not necessarily like lifting and have a protein goal, you just be aware that you had a lot of kind of hidden protein before that you weren't paying much attention to. And some of that's probably not going to be there naturally now. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:29:08

I don't think it's a bad idea if you first go vegan to like track your food for a couple weeks just to make sure you're hitting your protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:29:14

Yeah. And your micronutrients. Yeah. And then be aware that a lot of things use animal-derived ingredients that you might not think do.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:29:22

Yeah. It's not just about, if you're going vegan, it's not just about food. Like, make sure you're looking at your clothing and your makeup and your, like, home goods and stuff like that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:29:30

Yeah. One of the big surprises for me was toilet paper. Most toilet paper has gelatin. So, if you're vegan, you can't really ethically use gelatin. So, you might have to make some decisions there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:29:41

We use who gives a crap. It comes in a big box, which is really nice if another pandemic hits. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:29:46

That's pretty much it for the How to Go Vegan 101 Crash Course.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:29:51

Sorry it was long. We had a lot to say.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:29:54

Now let's get into our myth of the week this week. The myth this week is that you have to lift heavy to build muscle. So it depends on what you mean by heavy, I guess. But the weight itself does not necessarily need to be heavy to build muscle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:30:07

So you're saying that people can just do 50,000 reps of two-pound dumbbells and that'll be great?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:30:13

No, don't do that. No, but so what the current science is showing on this is basically, so if you don't know, you have like sets and reps. So you do, you know, you lift the thing five times, you, you know, rest in between, you do that three different times. So you have like three sets of five reps. Okay. So the science is showing that as long as your reps are anywhere from like five to 30, the important thing is that you get close to failing with every set. Okay. So as long as you get within a couple of reps of failing the exercise and your reps are between 5 and 30, those are all equally effective for growing muscle mass, what we call hypertrophy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:30:49

So, okay. Let me see if I get this. Yeah. So, like, if you could lift, if you could do curls with 20-pound dumbbells at five reps. Yeah. But you could also do, the most you could do for 30 reps would be, like, eight-pound dumbbells. You're saying, like, if you only had eight-pound dumbbells, just do 30 reps of those, and that's, like, mostly equivalent?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:31:10

Yeah. As long as that 30 reps still gets you to where, like, oh, I could really only do, like, two more of these. As long as you're still in that same situation, for muscle growth, it looks like it'll be equally effective.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:31:20

That's interesting. I guess it would add time though, right?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:31:22

It would add a lot of time. And then also, if you're interested in getting stronger, which is not always directly related to getting bigger muscles, it changes a little bit. The high rep up in the 30 range does not help a whole lot with getting stronger. It just helps with getting the bigger muscles for the most part.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:31:40

That's interesting. Yeah. So would you not progress as fast if you were in the 30 rep range as far as like moving up in weights?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:31:46

Yeah, potentially, yeah. Okay.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:31:48

Good to know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:31:50

But also, you know, you can use that selectively to help lower your injury risk because if you have something that's really awkward and you have to, like, lug big dumbbells over your head for an overhead press, then you might opt to use lower weights and really jack up the reps. That way, you know, you're safer getting in position. Or if you're doing something like a deadlift or a goblet squat, you have to, like, hold something in your arms for a long time with dumbbells. You might use lighter weights just to make that a little easier.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:32:14

Yeah, or if you're equipment limited, maybe you only have up to 30 pounds.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:32:18

That's a big reason, yeah. Now, if you only have 20 or 30-pound dumbbells, you just keep cranking up the reps a little bit as long as you stay within that 5 to 30 range. And then we don't really need to up the dumbbells until you can do 30 reps with your highest dumbbell you have. So, yeah, a lot of ways to modulate that. But in general, for actual hypertrophy muscle growth, it's not directly linked to, like, literally heavier weights. It's linked to effort.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:32:40

It's good to know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:32:41

Yeah, cool. So, let's talk a little bit about any protein-deficient vegan updates from the last week.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:32:46

You know, still going strong. With Veganuary on all my socials. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:32:51

It's almost over.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:32:52

It's almost over. Yeah. A video day is like kind of rough. But yeah, I also posted my pumpkin bread seitan recipe that we talked about. If you've tried my pumpkin spice seitan cookie recipe, it's very similar to that. It's basically just that recipe plus chocolate chips in a pan at a lower temperature for longer and you get pumpkin bread.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:33:14

So it's a giant bread shaped cookie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:33:17

Sure. That tastes just like pumpkin bread. I think the pumpkin bread cookies are just cookie shaped pumpkin bread. But I was thinking like some people might resonate more with like a loaf form than a cookie form. Like it's a little bit less effortful because you don't have to make individual cookies and yada yada.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:33:39

You know, my favorite thing about it is I get to eat much bigger pieces because a cookie the size of a slice of bread seems ridiculous, right?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:33:45

Yeah. What about you? You got any updates over there?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:33:52

Yeah. So working with the clients that won the January giveaway, that's going really well. And then I also just put out a fitness jumpstart book. It's on my website. I'll put a link in the show notes. but it's like 50 pages and it's just it kind of hits all the highlights that you might need if you've never been to the gym like if you're just getting started and like okay i want to get in shape i want to get healthy i want to start going to the gym for the very first time you can go through and read like a very high level all the basic things you need to know to be successful if you've already been going to the gym for a while if you like building your own programs it's probably not the kind of book that you would find although maybe you'll find some interesting refreshers in there. But it is really focused on like, this is my first time doing this fitness thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:34:35

Yeah. I read through it and I felt like it's definitely great for beginners and it's also like not overly complicated. You just hit the main things that people need to worry about. And I think it'd be very useful for people.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:34:44

Well, thank you. Yeah. So that's on the site. So check it out. Yeah. So we appreciate everybody listening. You know, this was a particularly long one, but we're wrapping up the January.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:34:54

Sorry.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:34:55

It might be something you just kind of take notes on listen to a couple times um and then also again you know kind of our theme with veganuary share this with people who are thinking about going vegan so yeah

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:35:05

And if you have any ideas of like podcasts you or like topics you'd like us to cover uh, Send them our way.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:35:11

Yeah. You can comment on the Spotify. You can comment on the YouTube for the podcast. Also, while you're there, if you could subscribe and give us a review on there or Apple Podcasts, that'd be really helpful.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:35:22

Yeah. And if you do have any ideas, let us know because we basically just make up shit and we don't really know what you guys want to hear about. So if there's like specific stuff you'd like us to cover.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:35:30

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:35:31

We'll try to do that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:35:32

Yeah, definitely. Also on the show notes, you can check out our websites, ProteinDeficientVegan.com, MuscleDeficientVegan.com. and see us on social media if you want to send us a message. That's probably the easiest way is like on Instagram, most likely. And then we have the Deficient Vegans Discord, which is also linked in the show notes and is up to almost 50 people now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:35:51

Yes, and it's a lot more talkative, which is exciting. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:35:53

If you need any vegan friends, especially fitness-minded vegan friends, it's a pretty good place to be right now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:35:58

Come make friends. We also have an accountability channel. Yeah. So, yeah, if you need accountability people, accountability buddies, we got you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:36:10

All right. Well, I think that's it for this week. Do you want to say bye? Bye. Bye, everybody.