How to Do Halloween as a Vegan: Candy, Costumes, and Kids

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to the Deficient Vegans Podcast. This is episode 72. I'm the muscle-deficient vegan here with the protein-deficient vegan. Do you want to say hi? Hi! Hi, everybody. So this week, we're going to talk about doing Halloween as a vegan. We'll cover, like, what kind of candy you can hand out, what to look for on the label, what to do maybe if you have a vegan kid, and a few more ways to do things that aren't candy-related. But first up, new news.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:21

New news!

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:23

So there was a survey of 2,000 adults in Great Britain, which showed that 69% of people were willing to reduce meat and dairy consumption if it meant greater food security in the UK.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:31

I feel like that number would be way smaller if this was surveyed in the US.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:36

Yeah, I think you might be right. The survey was conducted by the Vegan Society. They didn't just survey vegans, though, obviously. They surveyed like 2,000 people that were representative of the population. 51% of people on the survey were also supportive of policies that were aimed at moving away from livestock farming towards plant proteins to improve UK food security.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:55

Interesting.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:56

Next up, a coalition of 28 plant-based food brands issued a joint statement against the possible expansion of banned food words on labels in the EU. So we've talked about this a couple of times in the past. We talked about like the initial food word ban where they're removing things like chicken, beef, things like that. We talked on another episode about the expansion of the ban, which was I think maybe a couple of weeks ago. And then we've also talked about recently, like 95% of people in a survey were easily able to identify what foods were and were not animal products based on the labels.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:27

Because, duh.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:28

All those things combined led the 28 brands to put out the statement to hopefully head off any current or future legislation around taking these words off the labels.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:38

I like that the, like, plant-based Avengers are getting together to fight the evil meat and dairy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:43

Yeah. There are a lot of brands on that. Beyond Meat and Quorn, or however you say that one with a Q.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:49

I think it's just corn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:50

Corn. Yeah, corn. Anyway.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:52

It's just a big lump with knobs. Did you guys ever watch that video of that little kid?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:56

Well, you showed me that video, and it lives in my brain every time I think of corn now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:00

Corn. It's just a big lump with knobs. It's got the juice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:04

I think of that before I think of the band now, I think, when you say corn.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:07

Oh, I do, too. And I still like the band, so I hope that kid's doing great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:12

Yeah. I wonder if he has a lifetime supply of corn. He should.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:15

Yeah. He's done a lot of work for corn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:18

The last piece of news we have is that a vegan powerlifter named Angeline Berva won Europe's Strongest Woman. She even beat out a two-time World's Strongest Woman winner.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:27

Damn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:28

She has been vegan for 15 years.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:30

That is amazing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:30

It is cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:31

Dude, her arms are huge.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:33

Oh, I know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:35

She looks so strong.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:37

She's pretty strong. Yeah, strong ones where they do like the log press and pick up the stones and all that stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:44

I feel like the strong one, I like it better than bodybuilding.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:47

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:47

Because it's like, oh, no, you're, like, actually super-duper strong.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:51

Yeah. I don't know. You have to, like, do things. Feats of strength.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:54

Yeah, it's like the old-timey Greek stuff, you know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:58

Yeah. I watched, I don't know even how I started watching, I think maybe because it was just on ESPN or something. But I used to watch the strongman competitions a lot when I was growing up. So, it was pretty cool. And that was from an article from Great Vegan Athletes. They did a spotlight on her after the competition. So, that link will be down in the show notes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:16

And if you're trying to like argue with someone saying that you can't build muscle on a plant-based diet, you just send them right over there.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:22

That's right. Yeah, they have like basically a big database of athletes that are vegan and doing really great stuff in their sport. Very hopeful. Are you thinking about yarn right now?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:31

No. Why do you think that? No, did you think that really? Yeah. Why? What did I do?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:38

You were looking at the yarn. Stealing glances lovingly and longingly at the yarn. All right. All right. Let's get into the main segment. So one of the things that's most commonly associated with Halloween is candy, right? Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:50

Yeah. And if you didn't know this and you're like, why are they talking about Halloween? It's because we both used to be children.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:57

Yeah. I don't know if you guys knew this, but I was indeed a child.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:01

I also once was a child.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:04

Yeah. And Halloween is coming up. It's like in two weeks, maybe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:07

Yeah. And it's the best holiday.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:08

That's true. For a lot of vegans, Halloween is the first time you really get into like, what kind of candy is vegan?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:15

Yeah, yeah. We don't eat candy outside of Halloween. That would be an adult-like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:21

Yeah, that's true. But Halloween, you're like, a lot of candy. You're looking at a bunch of different types of candy. That's true.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:28

And I'm thinking more about price points of candy because I'm buying a lot, even though only 12 kids show up. And one kid stole our blue bucket. There are a lot of candies that you would have thought were vegan that maybe aren't vegan because of one of a number of ingredients.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:46

Yeah. If you haven't looked into this yet, much disappointment is in your future.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:49

My biggest one is candy corn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:51

Yeah. Candy corn, man.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:53

I fucking miss candy corn so much. I know it's a disgusting food and half the people don't like it, but I love it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:59

You know, everybody says they talk shit about candy corn, but then everybody wants candy corn when Halloween rolls around.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:05

It's so good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:07

It's one of my favorites.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:08

I have not been able to find a vegan candy corn. They don't have it. They don't have it. Last year, I asked about it, and somebody directed me to this tiny little vegan candy store. They were selling 30 individual pieces of candy corn for $17 fucking dollars.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:24

They know they got the market corner.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:26

I'm not buying that because I eat 30 candy corns in one handful. So that would be five seconds of joy to buy it. Yeah. It's not worth $17.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:34

A little expensive. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:36

So the obvious one is milk. If it contains milk, it's not vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:40

Milk is in a lot of things that you wouldn't expect it to be. Even things that aren't like, milk chocolate's obvious. Like, yeah, there's milk in there, but there's milk in a lot of other little things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:49

Right. Like if it says whey, casein, caseinates, milk fat, butter fat, nonfat milk, milk solids, lactose, all of those things are derived from milk.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:59

Yep.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:59

So don't buy those.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:01

That's probably like 80% of the candy aisle right there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:03

It really is. And it does get really sad because you're thinking of like, if you used to trick-or-treat before you went vegan, you're thinking of all your favorite candies, which mine were always the chocolates. And it's like, I never really eat those again.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:15

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:15

Until they come out with a vegan option.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:16

Right. In the U.S. at least, it's pretty easy to spot this one because we have our allergen label. So if it has any of this stuff, the allergen of milk will be listed. And you can just be like, no, I can't do that. Yeah. Also, gelatin is another big one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:28

I mean, if you don't know about gelatin, it's shocking how much stuff gelatin is in.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:32

Yeah. This one shows up in like chewy candies and stuff. Yeah. Like gummies, marshmallows.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:36

And candy corn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:37

Candy corn, yeah. Yeah. There are a lot of gummies and chewy candies that are not made with gelatin. Yeah. So just check the label. You'll see Sour Patch Kids is one that does not use gelatin.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:47

Yeah. And it's just as chewy and delicious.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:49

Swedish Fish, right? Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:51

Love Swedish Fish.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:52

It's actually cool because there's a combo pack of candies that are all vegan. And I think it's like Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish. And what else is in that thing?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:01

I think it's just those two.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:03

Was it just those two? Okay. You can also hand out Twizzlers. Those are chewy, but they don't have gelatin.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:08

Swedish Fish are really nostalgic for me. Because I did this, like, I don't think they have it in other states, but in Kentucky it was called the Governor's Scholars Program. And you basically did college for, like, six weeks between junior and senior year.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:20

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:21

And my aunt made this big care package for me, which had a lot of normal stuff, like, you know, flip-flops so you don't have to stand in a nasty, dirty shower. Shower shoes. Yeah, shower shoes. And it had, like, a shower caddy so I could put my, like, shower supplies and, like, you know, a notebook, like, school-ish supplies. But then she also had, like, a three-pound thing of Swedish Fish.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:46

Oh my gosh.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:46

Because I guess that was her favorite candy that she ate in college. So, yeah, whenever I have Swedish Fish, I think of my aunt.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:52

That's cute. I'm not a big fan of Swedish Fish, but I do like the sour Swedish Fish that Trader Joe's has.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:58

Oh, the Scandinavian Swimmers. Scandinavian Swimmers. Fuck, the Scandinavian, the Scandinavian Swimmers are so good. We are, like, unfortunately, Trader Joe's is, like, over an hour from us. But we should really plan a fall haul Trader Joe's because they have so much stuff I like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:13

Yeah. I think they have a little less vegan stuff now than they used to. Remember last time we went in there, it was kind of slim pickings.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:19

It was. I've been getting a few messages. People have been making my Rice Krispie Treats with Trader Joe's. I guess they have like some fall marshmallows. Oh, that's cool. And they said they were really good. And I'm jealous.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:30

Another ingredient you might want to look out for is confectioner's glaze, also known as shellac.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:36

It's like bug stuff, bug secretions. I don't know why they're putting that in candy. Honestly, this stuff's so funny to me, because if you told a child, like, "Hey, these gummy worms actually have pigs in them," Most kids would be like, that's disgusting. I'm not eating that. Right. Or you're like, actually, these jelly beans, they have bug secretions. They'd be like, no, I'm probably not going to eat that either. But it's so normal to just have like bizarre animal parts in candy. It's just weird.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:13

It is weird. So this one is usually what makes a candy shiny. So think of like Lemonheads or Jelly Bellies, that kind of thing. They'll usually have this in there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:22

What it reminds me of is in Zelda where you can like make food and stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:27

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:28

And like if you add bug parts to food, it makes it like, what is it like inedible or something? Or it's like, oh, this is like really gross. And it makes like a wah-wah. That's what this reminds me of. Like, why are we adding monster parts to our food? Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:43

Another one is carmine or cochineal extract.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:48

Which is also made from bugs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:49

Yeah. That is like a red dye. You'll see that a lot in like red candies and pink candies. Another one to avoid, not technically vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:58

Honey, which is in a lot of stuff, including candy corn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:02

Oh, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:02

Which I think is why they haven't figured out like a commercial vegan candy corn. It's like, I've seen a couple that don't actually use gelatin.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:10

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:10

But they still have honey and beeswax.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:12

Yeah, they have like honey, beeswax. I think they even have shellac sometimes. So it's really like got everything in there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:18

So unfortunate.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:19

Yeah. Yeah. And so beeswax is another one you'll see in a lot of candies.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:23

Yeah. If you didn't know honey and beeswax weren't vegan, we have a whole episode on those if you want to learn about bees and honey and beeswax.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:30

Yeah. One interesting note is that a lot of stuff will say may contain milk. That does not mean it has milk. That is just a cross-contamination warning. That doesn't mean it does have milk. It doesn't mean it doesn't have milk. It's just basically to cover their asses. Yeah. Made in the same facility and things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:44

For like allergies.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:45

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:46

But, I mean, I think most vegans will still eat food that says may contain because it's, I mean, it's not intended to be in the food, right? Right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:55

Even the vegan trademark, like the little vegan logo, allows things to say, like, may contain milk or whatever because it's about where it was made and not necessarily about what's in that product.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:04

Yeah. And so something interesting is if you are handing out candy and you have like somebody with a lactose intolerance that comes to the door, just make sure it like you remember that even if it says vegan, it doesn't necessarily mean it's dairy free or allergen free.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:21

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Again, because of potential cross contamination.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:25

The good thing is once you get into like the chocolates, I think a lot of those are just fully vegan on a lot of them can be on like vegan assembly lines so that they don't even really have the cross-contamination concern.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:38

Yep. So let's talk about some specific accidentally vegan candy that you might be able to hand out. So the first one is Oreos.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:45

Yeah, Oreos are a good one because you can get them in those little two packs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:48

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:49

And I think, okay, I don't know if this is your experience from when you used to be a child. Yeah. But, like, for me, I always wanted the chocolates. Like, anything that wasn't chocolate or candy corn, I was pretty much... Like, whatever. Do not give me another fucking Dum Dum sucker. You know, like, I don't want that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:09

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:10

Or, like, bubblegum. Didn't want it. I want chocolate. Right? But it's hard to find reasonably priced vegan chocolate. And so Oreo is kind of like kids will still be happy that they got chocolate. Yeah. You know? I think Oreo's a good one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:23

Yeah, for sure. And the regular Oreo, and a lot of the Oreo flavors are vegan. And the two-pack is just the normal ones, so those are definitely vegan. But there are some of the specials with like some kind of flavor, some kind of coating or something that aren't vegan. So make sure if you're kind of, I don't know, nobody's handing out individual Oreos, I guess, but make sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:39

Yeah. And probably not entire packs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:41

Yeah. Probably not.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:43

Unless you're like rich, rich. Pretzels are another good one. Little individual snack bags. It's kind of like there's some people that will hand out like variety chip bags that you would put in like a kid's lunch or something. Right. And those are exciting to get, right? I don't know. Do kids really like pretzels that much, though? I know I would have been really mad about pretzels.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:03

You would have been mad about it? I would have been mad.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:05

I would have been like, why would you? You might as well have handed me an apple, but I just don't really like pretzels.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:09

I like pretzels. I would have been happy about that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:11

You would have been happy even as a child?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:12

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:13

Okay.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:14

I've always liked pretzels.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:15

Maybe give them the option between pretzels and oranges.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:17

I like to do the bagged pretzels. I like to dip those in mustard.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:21

Oh. No. That would be texturally awful for me. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:27

Another one is like the Zapp's Voodoo Chips. So it's kind of hard to find chips that are vegan a lot of the time. But these are a popular brand and they're vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:35

These are super good, too. It's kind of like, they kind of taste like barbecue to me. You might be able to find other snack pack sizes of vegan-friendly chips.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:45

Yeah, like salt and vinegar. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:46

Or, you know what would be really good? Hippeas. They sell those little bags of Hippeas. That's true, yeah. Oh, I would beat up all the other kids and steal their Hippeas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:55

Those are kind of pricey to hand out for Halloween, though.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:58

No, you can get, yeah, I mean, they're not cheap. You can get, like, an 18-pack for, like, $25. Yeah, yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:04

I don't know. That's interesting.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:05

There are people that hand out entire large chocolate bars on Halloween, so.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:09

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:10

It really depends on, like. The king-sized bars. Yeah, like, how much do you want to delight the neighborhood children?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:15

Another one you can do is Skittles. The original Skittles don't have gelatin or anything in them.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:19

Because, thank God. And you can almost always find, like, a fun-sized bag of Skittles. And they sell like a big pack with maybe some other Sour Patch Kids or something.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:28

Yep, definitely. Jolly Ranchers, another popular one. I loved these when I was a kid. I love these too. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:34

What candy did your dad's, so my dad always stole certain candy. Like it would be like I got home from trick-or-treating and he's like, there's this one specific candy that everything in your basket that is that candy, that is mine. Did your dad do that?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:49

My dad didn't do that, but he did like Jolly Ranchers. So I'd give him Jolly Ranchers.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:53

My dad took all of the chocolate peanut butter cups.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:56

Oh, like Reese's.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:57

Like Reese's, like mini Reese's. He was like, those actually are all mine. That's the dad tax.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:03

Oh, my God. He didn't go out and do the work. That's funny.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:07

Yeah, if you ever want to win him over, give him chocolate and peanut butter.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:10

Yeah. Another one is Warheads. Always popular to torture the kids with.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:15

No, that's a good one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:17

Yeah, I like Warheads.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:17

That's an underrated choice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:19

Especially if it's like a slightly older kid, they probably really like Warheads, actually. But yeah, they're totally vegan. Their wax is carnauba wax. It's not beeswax. They don't have any animal ingredients, nothing like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:30

Airheads. Yeah. Another great choice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:33

I think these might have been my favorite when I was a kid. And they're still one of my favorites.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:36

They're still so good. I feel like they're a good option, too, because it feels like you're getting, as a kid, you're like, this isn't a small piece of candy. This is like a coveted piece of candy. Yeah. If you get the long ones.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:48

Oh, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:49

Yeah. You can make some friends giving those out for sure.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:53

Yeah, definitely. We already mentioned Swedish Fish. That's on our list here, too. But they use carnauba wax as well. So that's why they are vegan. We talked about Sour Patch Kids, but also Sour Punch Straws. Yeah. So we actually got a bag of Sour Punch something the other day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:08

Oh, my God. They have bats and pumpkins, and they're so freaking good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:12

Yeah. So those are all vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:13

I can't remember the name of it. It was like Midnight something. And anyway, we were like, we were singing about it. I was singing about it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:23

We. I joined in, but, you know, I don't know the words to the songs you make up in your head. It's hard.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:29

I try to teach you them. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, if you're looking for like a good gummy without animal bones and shit.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:38

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:39

You got Swedish Fish, Sour Punch Straws, Sour Patch Kids, and then Airheads. All nice, good, like chewy gummy type candy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:46

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:47

Without the animals.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:48

Yeah. Another one is Smarties. I was never a big fan of getting Smarties.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:53

I, Smarties have a special place in my heart. Because, okay, my mom went back to work pretty soon after having me, yeah, and my babysitter, she potty trained me on Smarties. She would give me Smarties if I used the bathroom by myself. It's like, like how you would treat a dog. Oh my gosh. How did you get potty trained? Did your family give you candy?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:19

Don't remember that at all.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:22

I think like if you're having trouble potty training your kid, you should try the Smarties approach.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:26

Yeah, give it a shot. If you're enjoying this podcast and you want to stay up to date and hear more, please like and follow and subscribe and whatever else you need to do in your little app. And we really appreciate it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:35

Leave a comment.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:36

Also, I know. So Smarties in the U.S. are like little chalky discs. I don't remember the details, but there's some like there's maybe Smarties or something different in other countries. Or, like, people don't know what Smarties is. I know there's something that was, like, a confusing point that comes up when U.S. people bring up Smarties. Yeah. If you want to know what we're talking about, you have to Google, like, Smarties in the U.S.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:56

Right. And I think the issue is Smarties in not the U.S. are not vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:00

Yeah. And I think, I feel like, I remember, they're, like, a totally different type of candy or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:04

I think, I'm not really sure.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:05

Something weird like that, yeah. Anyway, Google it. Yeah. So, how can you kind of put all this together to set up your bowl to hand out to all these kids? Or sit on the porch for all these kids if you're not very social.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:16

Yeah. I feel like if you want to do it the cheapest way, it's probably to buy one of those big mixed variety bags that has like Like the, you know, fun size Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, maybe Swedish Fish or like maybe the Oreos too. And then maybe let kids pick one or.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:35

Oreos were the other thing I was thinking of that's in some of those combo packs. So they have some combo packs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:39

Oh, yeah, you're right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:39

That are Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids and Oreos. And that's like the go-to if you can find it for the vegan Halloween. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:45

I would say if you have a little bit more coin and you want to give away like a chocolate treat, here are some specifically vegan chocolate things you can buy. So there were a couple of larger brands that had vegan chocolate. There were vegan Lindt truffles and there were vegan Hershey bars.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:04

Lindt also had bars.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:05

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:06

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:06

So those are gone now.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:07

All those are gone.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:08

But we still have vegan Reese's plant-based peanut butter cups. Yeah. And those are really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:13

Those are pretty good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:14

So, they are more expensive, as is most of the vegan chocolate we're going to list. But if you're willing to splurge, or maybe you just want to get vegan chocolate for your kid, there are like vegan Reese's cups.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:29

Yeah, and those say, on the front, they say plant-based. So, it's really obvious which ones they are. They're a little hard to find. I've had some good luck finding them in, like, smaller stores, like, CVS, drugstores, stuff like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:38

Yeah, for some reason, the pharmacy stores carry them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:41

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:41

But you can also buy, like, a 12-pack on Amazon. Yeah, yeah. I almost always get you a 12-pack for Christmas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:46

Yeah, that's nice. They're everywhere. You put, like, a couple in the stocking, one in every Christmas box. It's pretty nice. I like it. I found one of them that's so funny. I was, like, I had a box of stuff, and I found one of the Reese's plant-based cups, like, in June this year. That's so funny. I still had one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:04

I'm going to have to hide him even better this year. Maybe we can last all the way till Christmas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:11

Another big brand is Unreal. So they have a lot of vegan options.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:14

You do need to be careful because they have a couple that are not vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:18

They're not a vegan brand.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:19

Yeah. And it can be kind of confusing and you might like, I would just definitely check it. They have a lot of really good vegan options, but yeah, it's like a mixed bag of which one are you going to get?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:28

So my favorite vegan ones are the coconut ones.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:30

Those ones are super good. They also, I think, hot take, I like their peanut butter cups better than I like the Reese's.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:37

I strongly disagree with that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:38

Do you really? Yeah. Yeah, I think, I don't know. I like the peanut butter they use better than the Reese's.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:44

I do like the peanut butter better, but the chocolate has got like a weird dusty type flavor. That makes any sense. Sorry, Unreal. It's not bad. It's just a little weird.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:56

It's my favorite. Speaking of peanut butter cups, there's also Justin's peanut butter cups, dark chocolate only, because I think they do sell some non-vegan ones.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:05

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:06

But those ones are really good, too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:08

Yeah, those are really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:09

And I think, I don't remember which brand it is, one of them sells a vegan sunflower seed butter.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:16

Oh, yeah, I've seen that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:17

But so then that one's like dairy-free, nut-free, safe for allergies.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:22

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:23

Because that is something you want to keep in mind. And like, if you're worried about, you know, allergies, maybe you don't want to hand out these ones with peanuts.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:30

Yeah. Another brand is No Whey Chocolate, and whey being like W-H-E-Y.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:36

Yeah, it's a really fun name.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:39

Very punny. But yeah, everything they make is free of milk, peanuts, tree nuts, gluten, soy, and eggs. So it's very allergen-friendly. Kind of like the Abe's breads and stuff. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:51

These ones are good. I personally don't like them as much as a lot of the other ones. They are pretty expensive, too. Yeah, the last one we want to mention is Trupo Treats. Fully vegan. Um, now they are a little expensive. They're like three to four dollars a bar, and I don't think they sell minis. Yeah. But since we already bought them, we'll tell you a secret. You can, they have their, I think, KitKat dupe version that's like, for, for a dollar right now. Right. And you can buy it in a large pack, and that's what we're doing this year.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:23

Also, they were founded by Twin Brothers, so that's kind of cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:26

That is fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:27

So what kind of candy? Like when you buy a bunch of candy to hand out, what's some of the stuff you like sneak away to keep for yourself?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:33

The Swedish fish.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:34

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:34

What about you?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:36

I think a couple of airheads usually. Yeah. It's like, oops, I actually forgot to bring one box of airheads up to give out for Halloween. Guess I'm going to eat it all year long. Bummer.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:46

The good thing is that we plan for 100 kids and then usually only 12 show up.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:51

Yeah. Is that good? Is it good for our calories?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:54

No. But wouldn't you feel awful if 100 kids randomly showed up?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:59

No, no. That'd be terrible. So, you know. Unavoidable, really.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:02

Yeah, what could we do? It's not like you do RSVPs for like, are you trick-or-treating at our house this year?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:09

All right. So I think that pretty much covers like the candy situation. So some of the other things you might be able to do for a vegan Halloween beyond candy are, first of all, something called the Teal Pumpkin Project, which is what we were trying to do with our pumpkin that got stolen.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:23

They stole it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:25

But a teal pumpkin, if you put it out on your doorstep, that means you have, treats that are not food.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:30

Yeah, so that could be like glow sticks, bubbles, pencils, erasers, stickers. Bouncy balls are always my favorite. Yeah. They got the spider rings, but like they're really uncomfortable. I always got annoyed when I got spider rings. Yeah, but kids like them. Vampire fangs are a winner for me. What was your favorite non-candy thing?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:49

Let me think about that for a second. What was my favorite non-candy thing? Oh, you know what it was? Some people in my neighborhood, I think, gave out those wrist slapper things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:58

Oh, my God. I used to love those.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:00

Yeah, those were fun.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:01

The slap bracelets? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I always collected bouncy balls. So, like, if I got bouncy balls, I was like, man, I love that person.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:09

Those are good, too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:10

You know the worst, though, is, like... So we moved to Kentucky when I was 12 and that was the last time we went trick-or-treating. Yeah. And we got fucking like stupid Bible pencils.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:23

Bible pencils?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:24

Yeah. It was like Jesus loves you pencils and it just was really annoying to me. Nice. I was like, I want spooky like mummy vampire witch pencils, not like Jesus loves you pencils. You know what I'm saying?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:38

Yeah, yeah. For sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:38

It was really disappointing. And I remember we got home and my family was like, what's happening in Kentucky? They didn't do shit like this in Ohio.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:47

Yeah. But the point of the Teal Pumpkin Project is so that kids who have like food allergies and stuff can get treats without having to worry about it being an issue. So, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:56

Then everyone can have a good time. So I think like everyone should really do this. Yeah. So like if you, I mean, I think the thing is, is like obviously trick-or-treat in general, if you don't have a kid and you're just passing out candy. It does take effort, right? But like you should do it because you want to do it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:13

Right. Definitely.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:14

And if you want to do it and you want to give kids a good time, then you should try to include all the kids.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:18

Yeah. Another thing you might be able to do is like a vegan trunk-or-treat.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:23

Yeah. So I've heard of a few people that are taking their kids to a vegan trunk or treat. And apparently they have like a vegan group in their area that organized it. I think that that is super cool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:33

And in case you're not familiar, and I've never actually been to one of these, but a trunk-or-treat is basically like where a bunch of people meet up in a parking lot or at a building or something and they all hand out candy from their car. And it's like a nice controlled environment.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:45

I looked at this. Apparently, if you're going to be handing out candy, you need to get there early so that you can be parked. And then you also, this makes sense, right? Because there are children walking around, but you also can't leave until all the children are gone. Oh, yeah. So, like, you have to be in it for the whole time commitment.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:00

Hmm. Interesting.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:01

Because running over kids is very bad. Yeah. Or people in general.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:05

Yeah. Mostly kids, though. Yeah. So you can find these typically run by like if you have a local vegan group, which a lot of people probably won't have, but you might have a cafe or something or like a coffee shop that's vegan, or vegan slanted, you know, or animal sanctuaries also will sometimes host a trunk-or-treat if you have one of those near you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:23

Yeah. And if you can't find one, you could always organize one yourself. Yeah. Especially if you know some vegan people. I mean, I just think this idea is so cool because it's like it's not just for vegan kids. It also really helps like the dairy free kids. Yeah. You know, then everyone can be there.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:38

Yeah. It's also good for kids that maybe like have some kind of issue where they can't walk for a long time. That's true. Or maybe somebody's in a cast or something. Mm-hmm. A lot of reasons that you might not want to go through a sprawling neighborhood. Also, it guarantees that there is candy. Because there are some neighborhoods you'll like go out in the neighborhood. Yeah. Nobody's even got their lights on. Nobody's handing out candy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:55

That's so true. Yeah. Did you, so when you went trick-or-treating, did you go where you're, around your house?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:01

Uh, yeah. We always did. Okay. I mean, it was a pretty like wide berth. We would go blocks away, but it would always be in the general neighborhood.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:08

Yeah. But you lived in a pretty compact neighborhood where there were lots of neighbors. Yeah. So when I lived in Ohio, all the houses were like, it was kind of like in the middle of nowhere. So the houses were kind of apart. So we always went to my babysitter's house because she lived on an excellent block of like, and it was like some older people and they always had the best candy and they were always so excited to see you dressed in your costume.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:31

We did have sometimes our cousins and stuff came to our house to start the journey. Oh, okay. So maybe we were the ones with the good neighborhood.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:36

I think you were.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:37

Like every house in our neighborhood participated. It was like probably 200 houses that all did candy. It was always a good time.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:43

Man, I'm jealous. Yeah. Cause when we moved to Kentucky, it was even more middle of nowhere. You know where my parents live. It's like completely middle of nowhere. So they actually don't do trick-or-treat back there at all. You have to go to downtown and then like, yeah, that's where everybody in that entire town goes for your treating because all the houses are too far out apart that you would be walking for like, fuck, I don't know. Like, I'm just thinking like my parents' house, you'd probably have to walk for a mile and a half to even get 10 houses. Like, there's just, you know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:12

Yeah, I guess if you're just rural, trunk-or-treats can be good, too. Yeah. Like, where are you going to go?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:16

Where are you going to go?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:17

Especially if you don't, maybe you don't know anybody else in the area at some point.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:20

Right. And, like, the problem with the rural is they're not really expecting kids. So, yeah, you might, like, freaking my parents' driveway is really long. Everyone's driveways are so long. So, then you have to walk, like, an extra half mile to get up to the house. No. No. No, it'd be brutal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:36

Cool. So, anyway, yeah, you can check those out or organize one yourself, maybe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:39

So costumes might be another thing that you maybe hadn't thought about. And I think most are going to be vegan friendly. But things you should watch out for like feathers, fur trim, leather, wool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:52

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think I'm trying to think a lot of the stuff I had growing up was mostly plastic.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:58

Yeah, I know. Me too. I'm like, well, I was a vampire pretty much like at least seven times.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:04

I feel like wool and leather are probably the most likely here just because they're more common for clothing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:10

I think so, too. Because, like, I mean, unless you're, like, really going all out for Halloween, I think most of, like, the cheaper costumes you would buy at the store. Yeah. are going to mostly be synthetic fibers.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:21

Yeah, definitely. Also, sometimes makeup, like the red makeup and face paint, can have carmine in it. So be careful with that. If you're in the U.S., that does have to be on the label for both cosmetics and food. So you should be able to tell pretty easily.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:34

Yeah, and honestly, just in general, you might want to just check and see if it's like a vegan and cruelty-free palette. Yeah. Because just a lot of cosmetics in general.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:44

What's a palette?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:45

What does it mean? Oh, like a makeup palette, like with different colors to put on your face paints and stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:50

The circles?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:51

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:51

Okay, cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:53

Yeah, I would just check for that because I like to slip weird ingredients into like makeup, cosmetic type stuff. And you might not think about it for Halloween, but yeah, they very well could have things that make them not vegan too. So now we don't have children.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:07

But again, we once were children.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:08

We were children. So now we're going to talk about, like, if you have a vegan kid, how could you make Halloween still feel as fun and so they're not feeling left out? I think that would be one of the things I would be most worried about if I was a parent to a vegan child. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like Halloween is one of the most magical nights of the year as a child. And you want to make sure you keep the magic and they feel like they're getting the full experience.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:35

Yeah, definitely. I would say let them do the trick-or-treat thing like everybody else does. Like dress up, walk around, take the candy. Maybe not even worry about if the candy they're taking at the time is necessarily vegan or not. Because you don't want to sit there and have a whole discussion about do you have vegan candy in every house you go to?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:51

Yeah, I think that does kind of take up some of the magic and it makes them feel like a little like other. Yeah, yeah. Singled out. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:59

So what you can do is kind of do a candy swap when they get back home.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:02

I heard somebody on Reddit called it the Switch Witch comes and I thought that was fun. I like that. Like, so basically they pull out the parent will pull out the non vegan candy and then they'll switch it with a vegan candy option that they bought. And I think this is where if if I were a parent, which I'm not. I would buy, like, the good shit for my kid. I would probably hand out the cheaper shit for the neighborhood, because, like, most of the kids are already getting good shit from somewhere. So, like, you hand out, like, the accidentally vegan stuff to the neighborhood, but you buy the good shit for your kid, like the good vegan chocolates and stuff, right? And then you can swap out, like, when they get Reese's and Snickers or whatever, like, they're getting an equivalently good and delicious option that they like. Yeah. In exchange.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:48

You can even, like, uh, have it be a two-to-one exchange rate, so they give you one piece of non-vegan candy, you give them two pieces of vegan

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:56

candy. Yeah, to make it more fun. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:57

Or if they're not like super big into candy you could have them trade in all their non-vegan stuff to you for, like, a toy or a

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:02

book or something. Yeah, exactly.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:03

So they still get to do the Halloween thing out there, but then you come back home and you, you know, fix it up a

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:08

little. Yeah, and maybe you even, like, talk about, hey, this is why we don't eat this. And, like, um, but then the, the other thing is, assuming you know your kid, like you probably know which things they like best. So like maybe you can go specifically get them the candies that they're going to be most excited about when you do the Switch. And I think that would make it fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:25

Yeah, for sure. So once you do your Switch Witch swap, what do you do with all the non-vegan candy?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:33

I think there are a few options. I think probably the easiest option is just put it out in a big bowl on your porch and let the freaking teenagers have at it, right? Like, or leave it out on your porch and let, like, the delivery drivers have it or take it to work and, like, let your non-vegan coworkers have it. Yeah. Or you could donate it. That's another good option.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:54

Right. There are actually donation programs. There was one called Operation Gratitude for, like, troops overseas that used to take candy, but they stopped taking candy a couple years ago. So you can't really do it like that anymore. But something you might do, some of the local dentists do candy buybacks. I looked that up. There were a couple of them that actually, like, they buy the candy back and then they send it to the troops.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:16

Oh, that's cool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:16

Some stuff like that. But, yeah, there was one in Wisconsin last year that paid a dollar a pound for candy trade-ins.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:23

You might also look to see if shelters would take the donation because a lot of women's shelters are women that are there with their children and are like leaving an unsafe house. And I mean, they might not even be able to take their kid trick-or-treating, you know, so like that might be a good place to send your candy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:38

Oh, that's interesting.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:39

But there's definitely going to be somewhere in your area. Like if you want to go the extra mile to get it donated somewhere, you're probably going to be able to find something like that. But also, like, me personally, I'm not gonna judge if you just set that out and let the teenagers have at it

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:53

Right. You could also potentially, this is really going to depend on, like, your neighborhood and how well you know your neighbors and stuff. Yeah. But you could potentially work with your neighbors to, like, you go and give them a, like, a bag of vegan candy to give to your kid when they come. Yeah. Or

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:07

if you're close with them, you might just be able to say, like, hey, do you think you could pick a vegan candy option this year? Honestly, if we had a kid come by, we're already doing vegan candy, but if we had a parent come by and say, oh, my kid has a really bad dairy allergy and a nut allergy, is there any way you could have something so that they can feel like they're included? We'd totally do that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:28

Yeah, for sure. And I think if you see people with a teal pumpkin thing, they're probably a little more likely to work with you on something like this because they're already kind of doing something different.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:37

Which is why you shouldn't steal people's teal pumpkins.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 34:39

I know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 34:41

Yeah, I am still butthurt about it, even though it was a year ago. Yeah, and I think like, kind of, we already mentioned vegan trunk-or-treat, but I kind of feel like that's, like, the best option if you have a vegan kid. If you could find one, even if it was, like, far away, I think it would be worth going to. I actually looked, and there was one in Indy. Yeah, which is pretty, like, I don't know, two, three hours from us. But, like, if we had a kid, yeah, I might actually take them to Indy to have, like, a full experience, you know what I mean?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:06

The only issue there is, like, if your kid is friends with the neighborhood kids, then maybe, yeah, just do that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:10

That's true, but maybe you do both or something, because a lot of the trunk-or-treats are outside of the normal Halloween schedule.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:17

That's true. That's a good point. Also, if you have kids, they might have Halloween parties at school that you have to deal with. Um, so I would say talk to the teacher, obviously, first, as soon as you learn about the party. Um, they're already doing, like, things for allergies and things like that. Um, I would probably talk to the teacher in terms of, like, dairy-free, gelatin-free, like, really specific things they can look for, because a lot of people are not going to know what vegan is. I mean, you can say vegan, but I'm just saying when you're like giving direction, I would use really specific terms.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:46

I think a lot of schools don't even have Halloween parties anymore, but I'm not sure. I'd be interested to know if Halloween parties are still happening at schools.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:53

Do you know why they wouldn't be?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 35:54

Well, I know at my school, when I was in elementary school, we weren't allowed having Halloween parties because we had a Jehovah's Witness in our class.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 35:59

Oh, interesting.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:01

So, I don't know if that's, like, normal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:03

Hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:04

But I know we weren't allowed having them, and it always made us really sad.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:08

We definitely always had them in Kentucky. Yeah, so you could volunteer for the party. Usually they take parent volunteers, things like that. So you can kind of control, you know, at least what your kid gets. Yeah. You can send in some like vegan candy with your kid's name on it for the teacher. Like, hey, this is for my kid.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:23

Yeah. Or even like vegan baked goods if they're allowed accepting homemade treats. I don't really know the rules around that anymore either.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:30

I think they're going to be really specific per school.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:32

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:32

They'll tell you exactly.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:33

You'll probably know better than we would be able to tell you. Yeah. But yeah, I do think like the volunteering could definitely help make sure that your kid's not left out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 36:42

No, definitely. And then you can even suggest some like non-food things to do. Like when I was going to my elementary school, I always had a costume contest.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 36:48

Yeah, I think that's fun. Or like a pumpkin carving contest is still in the spirit of Halloween, but like there's not like food, which is funny because a pumpkin is a food. Yeah. But you know what I mean? It's not like non-vegan food related. Right. But it's still fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 37:02

Yeah. And then for the grown-up Halloween parties that you might go to, there are probably some considerations here, too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 37:08

Yeah. So if you're going to someone's house, I mean, if there's going to be food there, I would just kind of let them know that you're vegan. Yeah. Then, you know, A, they can decide if they want to make sure that you're included in any food. And also, you can decide if you actually want to go if they're basically saying, yeah, I don't give a shit. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 37:25

Right? Kind of like any other potluck friend meetup type thing or whatever.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 37:30

And I, you know, and if there's not going to be anything, you could always bring a dish that is vegan and then other people will eat it and you'll at least have one thing you can eat.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 37:40

Yeah. And then there's a lot of normal, quote unquote, potluck stuff that's vegan already that won't really make people think like chips and salsa, chips and guacamole, veggies with like hummus, chili with just beans. A lot of that stuff is like already very normal at these kind of gatherings. Yeah. And you don't have to have a whole conversation about things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 37:58

Yeah, I think if you wanted to host it, you could do some pretty cool shit. My friend makes a very not-vegan charcuterie board that is like... It looks like a man, but like a, but anyways, it's like made out of meat and cheeses, but you could totally do that with vegan meats and cheeses.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:14

Yeah, definitely. Also, you have several recipes specifically for Halloween. You've got your protein jello brains, your high protein dirt pudding, the spooktacular pastas, like a black pasta.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:27

Yeah, with like orange pumpkin sauce.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:30

And then a black bean pumpkin quesadilla is pretty cool. Yeah. You could probably make a big, like, big platter of the black bean quesadilla. Mm-hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:36

Right, because you could really do this with any quesadilla because you can make a pumpkin face on the top part. Yeah. And then it looks like a little jack-o'-lantern, which is pretty cute.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 38:47

So what do you think if you were going to a Halloween party, what would you bring to make people enjoy it?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 38:52

I would bring a massive thing of dirt pudding because I know everyone likes that. And Oreos are vegan, and you can make a really good pudding with silken tofu. The only problem is finding gummy worms, which are a problem, but they do sell them, but they are, like, very high in fiber.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:08

Yeah. Warning.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:11

What would you bring?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:12

Probably bean chili. Just keep it easy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:13

Bean chili. I think that's a good one. It feels very fall. Yeah. Oh, another thing, if you're going to a Halloween party, a lot of that involves alcohol. And most alcohols aren't naturally vegan. Yeah. So that is something you should keep an eye on. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:28

If you're an alcohol drinker, you're probably pretty good at navigating that situation.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:32

We don't drink alcohol, so I can't give you any tips. Except that I know that the two guys from Vampire Diaries have a vegan bourbon brand.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:42

Yeah, that's right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:42

I've never tried it, but that's pretty cool. Yeah. Because Stefan, the actor that plays Stefan, he's vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 39:50

That's really cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 39:51

Yeah. I am team Damon when it comes to the show, but I'm team Stefan in real life, so. Yeah. What is his name? Paul Wesley? I think so. Yeah, he's great. Oh, another thing to keep in mind if you're baking something for Halloween. Most marshmallows aren't naturally vegan. They have gelatin. So just be sure to get vegan marshmallows, which Dandies are vegan. And they also have vegan marshmallows at Trader Joe's, I hear.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:15

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, Dandies are in like every store. It's not a very special thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:18

Dandies are very easy to find nowadays.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:21

Same with the Enjoy Life. The chocolate chips, they're easy to find too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:24

I love those. My friend is not vegan, but she said she only uses those chocolate chips now because she said that she just prefers the way they bake better. Oh, interesting.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:32

They melt pretty easily.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:33

I think so, too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:34

Yeah. Sometimes I'll sprinkle in my oatmeal in the morning and it just, like, immediately melts up.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:38

It's super good. And then I guess the last thing is pulling vegan pranks. Yeah? Yeah. If you're going to TP your neighbor's house, make sure you're using vegan toilet paper.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 40:51

Yeah, you can't egg anything.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 40:52

Well, you could. And here's how you're going to do it. They have egg molds, right? And you can make a pretty convincing egg white With silken tofu and agar agar. So you can make those. You can throw them at houses if you want. Silken tofu eggs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:09

You really shouldn't do that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:11

I think it's an option. Maybe if you feel like you pissed off the neighborhood kids because you gave them shitty candy, you could leave out vegan toilet paper for them to toilet paper your house so that you don't get non-vegan toilet paper in your trees and stuff. You have any suggestions?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:28

No, I think, you know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:30

What are other pranks people pull? Smashing Pumpkins is always and has always been vegan. Yeah. Not the band, though. Though they are a good band. You don't have any tips? No, I don't. You look more like you did vigilante shit than I do. I never partook in any vigilante justice as a child.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:49

Yeah, no, no.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 41:51

He wants to keep his secrets, I guess.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 41:56

All right. Yeah, so I think that is pretty much it for Halloween. Pretty easy to navigate as a vegan. You just have to look up for a couple of specific things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 42:03

I think it's one of the easier holidays to navigate. Yeah. Because, like, we're going to have episodes on Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. But, like, those are much less easy, in my opinion. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 42:13

And I would say the point of it is to let the kids have fun. So figure out the food thing on the back end, but try not to interfere too much with like the experience.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 42:22

Yeah, I do think now we don't have kids, but we were kids. I think that making it you have to frame veganism as like still fun and there's still stuff kids can do. You know what I mean? Like you don't want to make the idea of veganism feel restrictive for your kid if you can avoid it. You know what I mean? You don't want to make them feel like, oh, I just don't ever get to have any fun and look at all my friends doing all this cool shit and I don't get to do any of that stuff because then maybe when they grow up, they won't choose it. Yeah. Right. Maybe they move away from veganism, which is not what any of us want. So. Right. I still think you need to make it fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 42:58

Yeah, I agree.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 42:59

But, you know, my opinion is completely baseless because I don't have children. So take it or leave it. Tell me I'm wrong.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 43:07

All right. So let's get into our next segment here, which is bite-sized coaching. So if you guys don't know, I'm a personal trainer. I like to take a little bit of time in every episode to give some information that might help with like fitness or nutrition, something like that. So you get to ask me the question.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 43:21

That's right, I do. Okay, this week's question is very related to the episode, and it's, is Halloween candy a good pre-workout snack?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 43:31

Yeah, so that's interesting. Let's say, so when you're thinking in terms of pre-workout snack, you're usually thinking of, like, getting in some carbs before your workout. And that would give you potentially a little bit more energy through your workout. So if you haven't eaten much in the day, or you haven't eaten anything yet in the day, then, yeah, candy can actually be a pretty good way to get in some quick carbohydrates before a workout. I really like Oreos. Like, a couple of Oreos is a pre-workout thing. If I feel like it's been a little too long since I've eaten before I go to workout, it works pretty well.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 43:59

Plus, they're yummy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:00

They are yummy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:01

To energy. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:03

So, yeah, it can be a pretty good pre-workout snack. Now, if you've eaten in the last two or three hours before your workout, you probably don't need to do anything special. But if you're going to be eating something, candy is as good as anything, really. Because all you care about is the carbs. You can lick a sugar cube or drink a Gatorade or something like that. It's all the same, really. Cool. All right. So, some updates we have. Next week, we will actually be out, so we will air a repeat episode, one of our favorites, and then we'll be back the week after that. Do you have anything you wanted to mention?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:32

It's not recipe related, but I learned how to crochet.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:34

Oh, man, you're like a little crocheting bandit right now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 44:38

I'm so excited about it. I'm being super annoying in the Discord. I just keep sharing like, oh, I made this, I made this. People are probably like, okay, we get it. You learned how to use a crochet hook. But I'm genuinely so excited because I've been knitting since I was in high school, but only in straight lines. And now I can crochet in circles.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 44:57

Yeah. And like 3D objects. It's pretty crazy. You've crocheted a dinosaur.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:01

It's insane. I'm having the time of my life. It's pretty cool. Um, other updates were on, by the time you hear this, we're going to be in week two of our book club, Tender Is the Flesh.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:14

Tender Is the Flesh.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:16

Tender Is the Flesh.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:18

People really seem to like this one. Yeah. I've seen people say like, ooh, I'm getting really hooked. I'm getting drawn in.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:22

Yeah. People are reading ahead. Yeah. I also read ahead while I was crocheting. Yeah. No, it's, it's really good. I feel like there's a lot of discussion happening. Yeah. I think it was a good choice for spooky time.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:35

Yeah, for sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 45:36

There's still time to join if you're not in there yet and you're like, oh, I kind of want to join this book club. We have the book split up into four sections and then those four sections have their own discussion thread. So like you could join this week, you could join next week and you can catch up without spoilers. So and you should join.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 45:54

We'll have the link to the Discord down in the show notes. That's where you can join us up at. Also, it looks like we might hit 666 Discord members by the time we get to Halloween. That'd be pretty cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 46:03

That'd be so cool. Then we're locking it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 46:06

I think we need 17 more.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 46:08

Yeah. You need to get in before 666 because people are saying once we hit 666, we have to lock the Discord and not allow anyone else entry. And I kind of like that idea.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 46:18

We'll see. At least through Halloween.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 46:21

Sorry. Sorry. You cannot enter until someone leaves.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 46:25

We appreciate you guys listening. If you're listening on Apple Podcast or Spotify, if you could follow and rate and leave us a review, that helps us out a lot. If you're listening on Spotify or YouTube, you can leave a comment. We love hearing those. We've been getting a lot of comments lately. We appreciate it. And then, yeah, so if you want to join our Discord and chat with us and our friends, you can go to the Discord link down in the show notes. Well, I think that's it. Do you want to say bye? Bye, guys. Bye, everybody.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 46:49

Come stay with us, Danny. Forever and ever and ever.