REPLAY: Stocking Your High Protein Vegan Pantry

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to the Deficient Vegans podcast. I'm the muscle-deficient vegan here with the protein-deficient vegan. You want to say hi? Hi. Hi, everybody. We are on a break this week, so this is going to be a repeat episode. We hope you enjoy. We're going to be talking about stocking your high-protein vegan pantry and fridge. Unfortunately, muscles can't be built on just hopes and dreams. You do need protein, and so it's helpful to have a lot of protein options available to you in your kitchen and in your pantry as you go about your muscle-building journey.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:27

Especially since most restaurants refuse to have vegan protein on the menu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:31

Yeah, that's true. Even if you don't want to cook at home a lot, you're probably going to have to more than you would like.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:37

They're like, oh, you want a replacement for wings? Here are some soggy cauliflower wings.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:42

Yeah. And I mean, if you're trying to hit a higher protein goal, especially if you're like over 150 grams a day, 200 grams a day, you're probably going to have to have some pretty intentful planning around that protein. So just having everything you need always in the house, like these are my staples, these are my go-tos, that can be really helpful. So we'll go through some of those options today.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:02

Yeah, especially since a lot of these, you can't really just buy at most grocery stores. Yeah, definitely. You're going to have to shop for some of the stuff online.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:09

Yeah, planning ahead is going to be key there. So by the end of the episode, you should know exactly what you'll need to keep on hand in the kitchen to hit all your protein goals. And that'll be one less excuse you can make.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:19

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:20

So we'll start out, we're going to kind of split this up between like the pantry, which is more dry, shelf-stable stuff, and stuff that goes into the fridge.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:27

And some frozen foods.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:28

Oh, yeah. Frozen foods as well. So some of the pantry staples, the biggest one we use and advocate for is TVP.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:35

Textured vegetable protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:37

Yeah. So what are some of the good options for TVP?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:39

Before I start with that, don't you want to tell people what TVP is?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:42

Textured vegetable protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:43

Anyway, it's defatted soy flour. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:46

So they take soybeans and use some process to extract all the fat out of them. And then you're left with mostly just the protein that was in the soybean. And then that turns into TVP.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:56

It's usually around 70% protein on a calorie basis.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:00

Yeah. Which is pretty high.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:01

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:01

So cool. You want to give us some options?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:04

Yeah. So some obvious ones would be making chilies. You can use it the way you would use ground beef as long as you season it. So like chili, spaghetti, taco meat.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:15

Yeah. Muffins.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:18

Well, yeah, yeah. I was getting to that. I'm going through like things most people are using it for.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:23

You got to ease them in.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:24

Yeah, yeah. Taco meat, bacon bits. Yeah, bacon bits. Is a good one. And then you can go a little wild, as wild as I go. And you can make desserts and baked goods. Yeah. And that's like probably my favorite way to use TVP because it comes out like a similar texture to baked oats. Yeah. It's also really good. And sometimes I'll do like a 50-50 split with TVP and oatmeal and do some like high-protein overnight oats. But yeah, I really like it in muffins and cookies.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:54

Yeah. High-protein cookies is hard to argue with, really.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:58

How can you?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:58

Unless you're talking about Lenny & Larry.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:00

Fuck Lenny & Larry.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:01

I feel like we have had too many digs on Lenny & Larry on the podcast, but I don't think they're going to stop anytime soon.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:06

I'm sorry, Lenny & Larry. You make better stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:07

Just better macros. It doesn't even have to taste better, really. Yeah. Man, I don't know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:12

I don't know. I mean, I'll still get it at a gas station if I'm hurting. So you're still making money off me, Lenny & Larry. You can't be too mad.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:21

Yeah. As much as I talk shit about them, I still eat plenty of them.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:23

I know you do.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:24

Must be something to it, right? Next up, we have Segrace, which is also technically TVP, but it's more like a concentrated form of TVP. So it's even more of the protein content.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:36

It's like 90% protein on a calorie basis. Yeah. And it comes in different shapes and sizes, which is kind of cool. Like they have, uh, I don't know all the names for them, but they basically have ones like that look like peas. Yeah. So those are kind of nice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:50

Yeah. They have like nuggets and pebbles and flakes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:52

I don't know if they have flakes. Flakes. Uh, no, they have like shreds. Shreds. Yeah. And they have fillets. Yeah. So lots of stuff you can do there. I use the shredded to make some kind of like a cheesy bacon ranch dip. Yeah. You can also use it for like soups and stews.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:07

I really like the texture of those too. Like everything that goes in is really nice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:10

Yeah, it's like nice and dense. Basically, you have to like soak them first and then you squeeze all of the extra water out. And then I'll usually like throw them in the air fryer for a couple minutes to get the outside kind of crispy. And then throw them in a pan with sauce.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:24

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:25

And it's really good. like we've made like an orange chicken type of thing out of it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:29

Yeah, that one's probably the closest to like an actual meat replacement.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:34

Yeah, I would say it's like The closest thing I've seen to seitan that's only made out of soy. It's like the soy version of seitan. Same with like the macros and stuff. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:43

It's got like a more fibrous texture.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:45

Mm-hmm. Yeah, like a more meaty texture for sure.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:48

Yeah. Next up is soy curls. So all these so far are versions of soy, but that's because soy is like the best protein we have available to us and has a lot of different forms and is very versatile. Yeah. So soy curls.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:58

And it's like a complete protein for people that care about that kind of thing. Yeah. Soy curls are kind of cool. They're basically like TVP, but big. And you can use them. I don't know. I like using them in sandwiches. Similar cooking method where it's like rehydrate them and press all the extra water out. Right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:16

And all these are shelf stable proteins. So yeah. The next one up is vital wheat gluten, which is typically what seitan is made out of.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:23

Yeah. I have been obsessed with vital wheat gluten lately. I don't know. I have been using it in pretty much everything. it is definitely mostly used in seitan like a meat replacement and actually that's pretty easy way to use it yeah

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:38

Not really an option if you're gluten-free obviously since it's just pure gluten but.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:42

Yeah but it is like i think it's uh what like almost 90 protein on a calorie basis so yeah very high in protein which means you can use it in things like baked goods and desserts So like I use it in a no-knead bread that I cook in my Dutch oven. And I use like a...

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:01

I don't know if that's what you should call it because I need that bread.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:09

I use like a three to one ratio of flour to vital wheat gluten. So you don't even need to use that much vital wheat gluten to like end up with 30% protein on a calorie basis. Yeah. And then, like, if you're only using, like, a 3 to 1 do a 2 to 1 ratio, it keeps it from getting super chewy. So I like it in bread, in pretzels. I recently made high-protein bagels with it. And then for desserts, it's really good in... Well, we like these things called chocolate seitan, and they're like shriveled balls, and they look gross, but they taste awesome.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:42

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:42

And they're like chewy, super chewy brownie bites.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:45

Yeah, basically.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:46

Yeah. And then I also have like pumpkin spice seitan, banana bread seitan, and then chocolate seitan sandwich cookies. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:56

Yeah, that pumpkin spice seitan, you just had a video on it last week on YouTube, so check that out. Um, also red lentil pasta. So this is one of the high protein form, higher protein forms of pasta out there. Wouldn't necessarily maybe call it high protein, but it's much higher in protein than normal pasta.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:13

Yeah. I think it's like 25 to 30% protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:16

Yeah. Um, it doesn't taste much different to me. Like it's a little different.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:19

It's a little chewier. Yeah. Um, but I, I definitely like it better than like chickpea pasta. Oh yeah. Um, black bean pasta is a good one too. And there's also edamame pasta. Yeah. So there's a lot of good gluten-free pasta options that are pretty high in protein. And so, yeah, you can have your protein pasta.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:36

Another one that you use a lot of, edamame puffs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:40

Yes. So basically those are around, I think, 80-ish percent protein on a calorie basis. And they're basically just super concentrated high protein soy flour and I think a little bit of rice starch. Yeah. But they're like little tiny puffy balls. and I basically use them the same way you would puffed rice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:01

And I think you're helping with the popularity of these for better or for worse because every time you post a recipe that uses edamame puffs, they go out of stock on Amazon the next couple of days.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:09

I know. I will buy a bag before I post about them. I don't know if it's like playing the stock market when I know it's going to turn. I don't know if it's nefarious, but I do it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:19

I think only if you try to resell the edamame puffs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:21

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:22

Like the Just Egg Protein, the guy who apparently bought them all up and is selling them for double the price on Amazon or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:27

Yeah, I'm not that bad. I just buy, like, a little bag for me in case it's out of stock for two weeks. Yeah. I really like making Rice Krispie Treats out of them. They work so well. Yeah. And they're also good in, like, chocolate crunch bars.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:42

Yeah. Yeah, the chocolate crunch bars are really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:44

And you can make protein bars out of them. I would say it is probably my favorite ingredient for, like, really fucking easy protein snacks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:52

Yeah, for sure. Like, the Rice Krispie Treats, you could eat so many of those. They're so good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:57

Yeah, and they take five minutes to make.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:59

Yeah, super, super, super.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:01

Addictive.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:02

Next up, nutritional yeast. This is not quite in the same vein. It's not like a main source of protein, but it's something that has protein and we use a lot of.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:10

Yeah, it's incredibly protein dense. So I use it in a lot of stuff. If you haven't used it before, it's basically dead yeast.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:18

And as far as like the form goes, think like a shaker cheese kind of deal. Like it's just in a little can. You shake some typically on top of something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:26

It looks like fish food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:27

Yeah, it looks like fish food.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:29

Uh, but it adds like a savory cheesy flavor to things. So I like to use it in like high protein cheese sauces or pasta sauces.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:39

I see people use it in all kinds of stuff I wouldn't expect.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:41

Yeah. I use it in like chili. Honestly, like you can shake that shit in anything and it doesn't change the flavor in any. I don't think it changes the flavor in a negative way if it's like a savory food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:52

Yeah. You don't want to put it on ice cream or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:55

I don't know. Maybe I do. I feel like I'm going to try that now. You can make little vegan Cheez-Its with it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:04

Oh, that'd be kind of cool. Oh, yeah, you did make those. Those are really good. Yeah. Surprisingly close to a Cheez-It. Next, we have silken tofu, which is a form of tofu that is shelf-stable. So this goes in the pantry, not the fridge.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:16

Yeah. And they also make a refrigerated variety, but I really like the Mori-Nu brand. Yeah. They have several varieties of silken tofu that are different firmnesses. Yeah. So I typically will buy the extra firm silken tofu, somewhere in the 60 to 70 percent protein per calorie range. So really good macros. Um, one of the obvious ways to use it would be in smoothies, which we do all the time.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:39

Yeah, this one's more like kind of squishy and liquidy than a normal protein or tofu that you think of eating on.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:44

It's really creamy and it doesn't have like the curds. Yeah. So I know some people will use it in stir fry and stuff. I don't really usually cook it in like chunks. Yeah. I blend it. I blend it into everything. Yeah. I will make like high-protein dressings, high-protein cheese sauces, high-protein condiments. Like you can make your own mayo or sour cream with it, which is really nice. High-protein pasta sauces, obviously, is a good one. It's great for desserts as well. You can make high-protein mousses and puddings. And, oh, it makes a great cheesecake.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:18

Oh, man, those cheesecakes are so good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:20

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:21

We haven't had one of those in a while.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:22

We're going to have to bust it out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:24

Next up, a protein powder. Pretty standard one for somebody who's trying to hit a protein target to have in the pantry. A lot of different brands, varieties, types. There are soy protein powders. There are also single source protein powders like pea protein or rice protein. I don't tend to use those just because if I'm going to have like a big chunk of my protein come from something like that, I'd prefer it to be a complete protein blend. So one that has like a couple of different types of protein in it. Yeah. Now, that's not to say you can't use pea protein. That's just not my preference.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:54

Yeah. And I think you can bake with those single source ones pretty well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:58

Oh, for sure. One of the flavors I like is the Ghost Vegan Cinnabon. I like to mention it every chance I get because I don't know if people actually know that Ghost has a vegan line of protein. I'd like to, you know, bring a little more awareness to that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:08

I'm an Orgain girl. I like Orgain vanilla. I also like EarthChimp is a good one. But I only like EarthChimp in smoothies because it does have a bit of a texture. Yeah. And I have a weird thing with textures. So. Yeah. Oh, I do like Just, the brand Just that makes Just Egg recently came up with protein powder. Uh, right now it is crazy high price. So I don't know what's going on with that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:30

Yeah. Make sure you're getting it for the price it sells for at Whole Foods if you're buying it on Amazon. Cause currently there's somebody like marking it up cause the official store is sold out. Yeah. Uh, so just, you know, try not to get gouged on it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:42

But I did, um, basically you can buy this protein powder, the unflavored one, because it's like 92% protein on a calorie basis and you can make your own just egg at home. Yeah. In a shaker bottle. So we've been doing that a lot because it's kind of fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:58

Also another powder is a peanut powder.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:01

Yeah, like PB2 or PB Fit.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:03

Yeah, we use those a lot. It's kind of like a dry, high-protein form of peanut butter, but it's in powder.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:08

I like throwing it in oatmeal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:10

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:11

It's good for protein baking. I have a couple peanut butter cookie recipes that use it pretty heavily. It's also good to just mix up with water and dip your apple in.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:20

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:20

I think those are like, what, 40% protein-ish?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:23

Yeah, something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:24

Don't quote me on that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:27

Yeah, they're not like protein powders or anything, but they're pretty high.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:29

Yeah, they're pretty high. It takes out, it's basically, I think most of them, it's like defatted peanut powder, but I think some of them actually have a little bit of pea protein in them as well. Yeah. Is that right? Or is that just the spread?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:43

No, I think that is right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:44

Okay. Yeah, I don't know. It's good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:47

All right. Next up, kind of a normal food staple to have in the pantry, beans and lentils as a vegan. This is one of like the higher protein kind of natural dry vegetable type ingredients.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:00

Yeah. And it's really high in fiber, which is also good. I wouldn't say like if you're trying to hit a high protein goal, you should not only be relying on beans and lentil because you're going to have a lot of trouble hitting that protein target with also hitting your calorie target, probably. Yeah. Unless you have like a huge amount of calories you can have.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:19

Yeah, I mean, you definitely want to incorporate much higher protein per calorie sources in your diet. But, you know, you have to eat your vegetables anyway. Beans and lentils are both great for all the nutrients and antioxidants and fiber and all that stuff. So, I would definitely include it in your diet. Yeah. But you're not going to hit a high protein target, which is beans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:38

Yeah, and I mean, you can get the canned ones, or you can get dry, which is even cheaper. It's like probably one of the cheapest.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:45

Yeah, definitely cost-effective, so it's a good option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:49

Yeah, get a whole bunch for whatever apocalypse is going to strike. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:54

Next, low-carb tortillas.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:56

Yeah, I really like the Mission ones. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:58

We don't really, obviously, eat low-carb. You know, we were talking about beans and lentils and stuff. But the benefit of the low-carb tortillas is that they're high in protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:08

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:09

So that's pretty nice. And they don't really taste much different to me. Like we put them in a burrito or taco or something, and they taste effectively the same. It's just a little bit of a protein boost in the food.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:18

Yeah, I really like the Mission. I think they're carb control and also the plant protein ones. Those are good. And they're, I think, somewhere in the range of like 35 to 40 percent protein on a calorie basis. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:29

Pretty good for a tortilla.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:30

You can make a high protein quesadilla.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:33

Can we make chips out of those?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:35

Yeah, we've done that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:36

Hey, look at you go.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:41

Yeah, you can cut them up and spray them with a little bit of oil and just like throw them in your oven. Oh, we did make those. And you get tortilla chips.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:47

I remember that. I legitimately did not remember that until now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:50

They do get soggier easily, more easily, so. Yeah. But, I mean, I'm not complaining. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:58

Next, we have some kind of like snack foods that you would keep in the pantry, more like a grab-and-go, throw it in your lunchbox or whatever type thing, keep in your car or something like that, maybe. So, the first one we really like is dry-roasted edamame. You can get this on Amazon. I haven't seen it in any stores, I don't think, but we typically get those.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:15

I think I've seen it in gas stations, though, a couple times. like the Seapoint brand is getting out pretty hard and then there's that uh The One Bean or something.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:28

Oh, yeah. Something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:29

Yeah. So there are a couple of good brands. Right. But those are around 40% protein on a calorie basis. So a really solid snack. It's like a good replacement if you like roasted nuts, but you don't want the fat. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:42

Definitely good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:43

What kind of nuts?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:46

These nuts?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:47

Yeah. Moving on.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:52

And yeah, edamame, also a form of soy. It's basically just dry roasted soybeans. Protein bars, another kind of obvious one to keep in the pantry.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:01

I'm so picky about protein bars. I almost hate every protein bar I try. I do like the Barebells ones. Barebells makes a couple of vegan flavors.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:10

Yeah, I think they have recently released a newer vegan flavor. I haven't tried it yet. I also like No Cow bars have the best macros. Let me just say that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:19

The worst texture, best macros.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:20

Yeah, so they're the best protein source. Not necessarily the best flavor, but I like them okay. The ones I've actually been eating a lot recently are the Builder brand. I don't know if all their flavors are vegan or not. I'm not really sure. But I know they have a lot of vegan ones, so I'm going to try those. And they're really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:39

Misfits. I like the Misfits protein bars. Those are pretty good. Yeah. As good as a protein bar can be. Right. I know a lot of people eat the Green Bites. Green Bites makes, like, protein bars, protein cookies. They're really expensive, though.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:51

Yeah, and they also, like, I don't imagine they keep very long.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:55

I don't. Yeah, I think they say you have to, like, refrigerate them and eat them in a couple of days. I don't know. We bought a couple because people have been asking for replications. Yeah. So we're working on that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:06

Yeah, those are good for a protein source. Also, protein chips. So the only one I know of this off the top of my head that's vegan is the Endurance brand protein chips.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:16

Dude, the nacho ones are so freaking good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:18

They're really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:19

Yeah, you can get those on Amazon as well. And do you like the sweet chili ones? Yeah, sweet chili. Is that the ones you like?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:23

It's almost sort of like a sweet chili Dorito, but not really. But it does have protein in it. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:27

But they also make high-protein pretzels. I can't remember what brand that is. Is it Lenny & Larry that makes the high-protein pretzels? Those are pretty good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:33

I think that is Lenny & Larry. I don't remember for sure, but I think it is Lenny & Larry.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:37

Yeah, we just looked it up. It is Lenny & Larry. They're called Fitzels. Those are pretty good. Yeah. I'd say it's the best thing Lenny & Larry makes. The bars in hell. No, I'm just kidding.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:48

Also, something else to keep in the pantry are the ready-to-drink protein shakes. The one I really like is OWYN, O-W-Y-N. They're plant-based protein shakes. There's two different versions, one lower calorie, a little lower protein. I like the one that's higher protein. You can keep them basically on the shelf. They're better if you keep them in the fridge, but you don't have to do that. And a small bonus, they were also listed on that lead contamination report as having a really low source of lead if you're worried about that kind of thing. But they actually taste really good. There's just a standard chocolate version and I think there's a vanilla version. So really good protein on the go kind of thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:24

Yeah, I think I've seen people use those as a base for creamy recipes too, like ninja creamy recipes for high protein ice cream.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:31

Yeah, I've seen that. Another option are like the vegan jerkies. There's a couple different kinds out there. Beyond makes one that's like mung bean protein and pea protein. And it's pretty high protein, almost like a protein bar. I think it's like just over 40% protein by calorie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:44

Yeah. Then there's Louisville vegan jerky, which is also a good option. I think there's mostly soy-based, but also gluten-free if that's something you're looking for.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:52

So a couple of good options there. And, you know, those obviously can last quite a while, not forever, but they're a good long-term shelf-stable type option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:59

Speaking of Louisville Vegan Jerky, they recently came out with a new snack called the Jim Snack, which is hard to remember, but they taste great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:06

Yeah, those things are really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:08

You think it'd be easy to remember because it's the Jim Snack, but for the life of me, I just can never remember the name and I feel so dumb. Yeah. They make a cheese one and then like a jalapeno cheddar one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:17

Yeah, the jalapeno cheddar one was good. And if you go looking for it, it's not Louisville Vegan Jerky Gem Snack. It's its own brand called The Gem Snack. It's just made by the same people who made Louisville Vegan Jerky.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:27

Yep.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:28

So, yeah, that's a really good option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:29

The macros on those are insane. I think they were like 40% or something. Yeah. So.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:34

It's pretty good for a little bag of like cracker type things, basically.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:37

Yeah, they taste good, too. There's like a similar crunchiness to like maybe a Cheez-It.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:43

And then the last snack option we have for the pantry is something called Bada Beans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:48

Those are so addictive.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:50

They have a lot of flavors, too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:51

They do. They've got, like, endless flavors. They even have sweet flavors.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:54

Yeah. My favorite is the buffalo.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:56

I like the onion one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:58

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:59

I can't remember. Sweet onion or something? Yeah. Man. I love that one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:02

Yeah, a lot of good ones.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:03

There's also like a barbecue one that's really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:05

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:06

Either way, those are all around 20% protein on a calorie basis, which is honestly outstanding for how good those are. And I think, what are they? Broad bean. I think they're broad beans. They're basically dried broad beans with a bunch of seasoning. Yeah. They're really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:18

Oh, one last thing you can keep in the pantry. So I like to eat oatmeal a lot, but there's also a form of oats that are like protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:25

They're somehow higher protein, yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:27

Protein enriched. So they're like protein oats right off the bat. So you don't have to add protein powder, or at least maybe not add as much protein powder if you want a protein oat.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:35

I think the only one I've seen is Bob's Red Mill, but it tastes pretty much like a normal oats. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:40

Bob's Red Mill is kind of the OG with a lot of really good vegan protein options.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:43

Yeah, which is annoying because they mostly push gluten-free stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:47

Yeah, they don't really market themselves as a vegan protein, but they have some good ones.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:50

It annoys me.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:51

Yeah. So those are some of our favorite things to keep in the pantry and, you know, keep on the snack shelf for grab-and-go's. so now we can kind of talk about some of the stuff you might keep in the fridge or freezer for your vegan protein options. The first one we'll talk about obviously is tofu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:04

Ah, tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:05

Yeah, we talked about silken tofu a little bit in the pantry but this is more for the forms of tofu that you might keep in the fridge.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:11

Yeah, so there is a version of silken tofu that's refrigerated so you might store that in your fridge if you don't have access to Mori-Nu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:16

I always forget that exists.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:17

I know. It hangs out by the other tofus but I just really like mine in the little boxes. Then there's firm tofu which is good for like I like making like cream cheeses, dips. You can also make ricotta. Yeah. Homemade ricotta. Then you have your extra firm and your super firm that can be used kind of interchangeably. Although extra firm, you are going to have to get a tofu press or use a bunch of books.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:42

Yeah. What's that for?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:43

Oh, yeah. Extra firm and super firm are fun because you can do all kinds of stuff to them. You can like shred them. You can crumble them. You can thinly slice them with a vegetable peeler. What else can you do? I guess you can cube it. A lot of people cube it. I like to cube it sometimes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:59

Tofu cubes are kind of like the quintessential vision people get when they think of tofu, which is... One of my least favorite ways to eat it and one of the least common ways I eat it. But it's okay sometimes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:10

Yeah. I'm a big fan of grating it. Yeah. And crumbling it because you can get a lot of flavor. It has like a bunch more surface area, so you can really get a bunch of flavors to stick to it. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:20

I like it that way too. Next, we have tempeh, which we really don't eat a lot of, but a lot of people do like it. And it is a really good option and it's high protein. So I would recommend another form of soy. It's like fermented soy. So if you find a version of tempeh that you like and it works for you, I definitely recommend keeping that around in the fridge.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:35

And tell us about it because we are not converts to tempeh yet.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:39

Yeah, we've tried it a couple of different ways. A couple of different versions haven't quite clicked with us yet. So if you have any tempeh versions that you've tried or maybe prepared ways that you've tried it and you really like it, let us know. We'll try it out for sure. Always open to finding new ways to get protein in. The next one you might keep in the fridge are plant-based milks. We really like soy milk. It's the highest protein, complete protein, but there's a lot of options out there. We used oat milk for a while and that's kind of more of a creamy type milk. Yeah. Also other options like oat or almond milk you can use.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:08

Yeah. I personally prefer soy because it's 40% protein on a calorie basis, so you can use it in pasta sauces and all kinds of stuff as a base. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:18

One of the other benefits of plant-based milk like this is that it's usually fortified with calcium and a couple of vitamins and stuff like that. It's good to help with a vegan diet specifically. Another option are some of the vegan deli meats. The most popular and common one is probably like Tofurky, and they have a brand, so they have a bunch of different types of sliced tofu-based meat replacements. There's also a brand called Upton's Naturals that has some options for you in the fridge. So if you're into deli meats and like sandwiches and stuff like that, you do have some options there with those. Also, there's just seitan after you make it from the wheat gluten. You're just going to have to hang out in the fridge.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:52

Yeah. Well, there's also some ones you can buy. Like Upton's has one, Blackbird. Blackbird has amazing seitan. Yeah. It's actually what got us into seitan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:01

Yeah, no, that's a really good point. We hadn't really tried seitan much a couple of times, and I honestly didn't really like it much. Maybe it was just the places I tried or whatever, but, Then we tried the Blackbird Foods, like wings, and they have barbecue wings and buffalo wings and things like that in seitan form. And really like those. And we ended up with like a refrigerator dedicated to them. We've, you know, come down from that a little bit, but we still do really seitan in a bunch of different forms now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:27

Yeah, we actually discovered Blackbird Barbecue Seitan because we were traveling in Texas and living out of a hotel. And we couldn't find like really very many good restaurant options. So we went to H-E-B, which is like a Texas grocery store, which is massive and awesome. Yeah. And we just stumbled upon it. And I guess they had it because it's like Texas barbecue seitan and shit. That stuff was great. Yeah. We cooked it in our little hotel room on a hot plate. And that's what we ate. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:53

I need every grocery store chain to get on the level of H-E-B for vegan options in general because that was nuts.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:59

It was good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:00

I've never seen anything like that since then. Next up is Just Egg. So you can have like the egg patties would be maybe a frozen thing, but also there's like the normal just egg. The liquid just egg. Liquid egg, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:14

Yeah, and the macros for just egg are pretty similar to the macros for a normal egg. And it's made out of mung bean.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:20

Next up, your protein-dense vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, cauliflower. Now, obviously, we're not saying get all your protein from broccoli, right? Right. But if you're going to be picking vegetables and you have a protein goal, you might just keep in mind like, Like, hey, if I choose broccoli, it's got a little more protein in it than maybe like a lettuce or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:37

Yeah. Or like you're making your morning smoothie. Spinach is a good one to add.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:40

So those are some of the things you might keep in the fridge. Now we can talk about some of the things that might go into the freezer. So we can start with like things you might have meal prepped for the week. Those are usually going to be in the freezer for the things at least towards the end of the week.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:51

Yeah. I like casseroles are a good one. Like big batches of pasta.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:57

Yeah. I mean, if you use the freezer, you can meal prep like a week or two in advance.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:00

Yeah. I really like freezing TVP muffins works really well because you can just defrost them in the morning when you take them to work. What would be your favorite thing to meal prep and freeze? Do you have any?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:10

I think it'd probably be like a lasagna.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:13

You cook lasagna a lot?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:15

Well, no. But if I had to meal prep something and freeze it, it would probably be lasagna.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:23

I agree. Lasagna meal preps and freezes quite well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:26

I think ideally I would freeze, I don't know, a year's worth of lasagna at a time and then just eat that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:32

This is going to have to be a huge fucking freezer. Yeah. Oh, my God. Do you remember that one time I made that big batch of like pasta primavera? And then I just froze the whole thing in a massive glass dish and just chucked it in the freezer. And then I was late for work. And I'm trying to cut this block of ice, basically, to get a serving for work because I'm a moron.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:59

I remember that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:00

So don't do that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:01

Yeah. The downside of freezing is that it has to thaw before you can take it out for your serving.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:06

Yeah. So if you're going to do servings, batch those out beforehand. Otherwise, you're going to be so sad. Yeah. I was so sad and stressed.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:15

Something else you can keep in the freezer are some of the meat alternatives, like the Beyond Meat, Impossible Meat, and the Meati even.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:22

Yeah, I think I saw their maybe back, question mark?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:26

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with Meati, but if you see it, buy it all and freeze it because it's really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:30

Yeah, it's expensive, but the macros are pretty good. Also, you mentioned Blackbird seitan wings.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:36

Yeah, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:37

Those are amazing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:38

Yeah, those are good for the freezer as well.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:40

And you can also freeze their seitan as well. Gardein also has some decent options. They might not be as high protein as some of the other ones we mentioned.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:47

Yeah. So those are some of the options you can keep in the freezer. So in summary here, we want to try to keep protein options handy in the house in general. So that'll keep you from going out to get delivery or go out to a restaurant just because you don't have any options at home and you're hungry. You can always have something around that you can grab as like a protein-based snack.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:04

Yeah, maybe we should actually touch on like if you can't meal prep, if you don't have time, if you're working like crazy work hours, like what would be some good options if you had to go out in the wild to a restaurant? Like what would you suggest?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:18

Yeah, so, hmm, for protein. So, one thing we've had a lot of luck with for protein are, like, poke bowl places, because they'll have tofu in them a lot. Noodles & Co. has tofu. So, if you have one of those nearby, you can get pretty much anything that has tofu as an option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:35

Yeah, Thai places have a good amount of tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:37

Oh, one I really like is chipotle. You can get the sofritas, which are marinated tofu, and just get a bowl and, like, load that up with tofu. That's probably the highest protein chain available everywhere option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:48

Yeah. I would have said Panda Express, but they got rid of their Orange Beyond.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:52

Yeah, the Beyond Orange chicken thing was really good. Unfortunately, they don't really have that anymore.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:57

Yeah. Taco Bell is also not a horrible option because you can just get a bunch of beans.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:01

Yeah. Hopefully, we'll get more options in the future. But those are some of the ones that, like, if I go somewhere else or we're out somewhere, and we're like, oh, we're hungry. Yeah. And those are, like, kind of the go-tos for the fast, casual type place.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:12

Or if, like, we're traveling, if we have to go to a gas station, Some options could be, like, some places will have the dry roasted edamame or vegan jerky. Yeah. Or Lenny & Larry's.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:25

But the pretzels, they have the pretzels now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:26

Protein shakes. Sometimes they'll have the pre-made protein shakes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:29

And they'll usually have a couple of the vegan protein bar options. They might not be, like, your favorite or the best macros or something, but they'll have, like, one or two at most gas stations. So those are good options. And also, so we talked about stuff you, like, want to keep in your house. You might also think about things you don't want to keep in your house. Maybe just try to limit like anything that you tend to really dig into that's not great for you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:51

For me, it's the Hippeas. It's the Flavor Blast White Cheddar Hippeas. They're my Achilles heel. I want to eat nothing but them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:57

Yeah. So just maybe try to limit the junk food that's in your house. And if you have all the high protein stuff taking up all the room in your pantry, you can just make that a little easier.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:06

Or you can add on to your pantry and then just store your junk food separately.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:09

That's bad advice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:11

Giving you options.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:14

I'd also recommend trying to like experiment with new protein options on a regular basis most of the stuff that we listed here that's like a specific product, We just came across it one day and we were like, okay, I guess we'll try it. And we've tried a lot of stuff that really sucks and is not great. But, you know, you have to really try it at least once before you know for sure. So, and maybe you'll think some of the stuff we recommended sucks so you can try other things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:35

So, yeah, honestly, that's how I stumbled upon edamame puffs. Yeah. I was literally just searching like on Amazon for vegan protein. And after like 30,000 scrolls, I stumbled on them and I was like, what are these? I need these. What do I do with them? Right. So, yeah. And if you stumble upon anything cool, let me know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:54

Right. Yeah. So that's pretty much what we had for like the foods to keep around in the house. Now we can talk about our myth of the week this week. The myth we have this week is that clean eating automatically causes fat loss. So the idea here is as long as you eat things that are quote unquote healthy, you're still going to lose weight no matter how much you eat. Which if you understand that like weight is really controlled by calories, I think you're going to know that that doesn't make a lot of sense. But a lot of people don't really understand that calorie relationship. So generally, you're still going to want to make sure that if you're trying to lose weight, you have to be eating fewer calories than you use throughout the day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:30

It's a material and energy balance. That's what I've been saying.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:35

And that counts even if the food is healthy. So if you're eating the best optimal nutrition diet and nothing that's considered unhealthy, if you eat too many calories worth of that, you're still going to gain weight. You might have some better heart health and better blood work and stuff like that than somebody who's eating a bunch of junk food, but you're still going to gain weight. So that's definitely a myth. And around the time that this podcast comes out, your video about the TVP apple muffins will be coming out. Yes. What do we got going on there?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:04

Okay, so if you haven't used TVP for baking yet, TVP is textured vegetable protein. Um, it kind of bakes similar to oats. So when you use it in muffins, it turns into kind of like a baked oats. Like if you were putting oats in muffins. Yeah. Um, but I really like it. You can use TVP dry, which is how I use it in this. And I think they're great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:24

Yeah, me too, for what it's worth. Okay. And this is actually the last one that'll come out before Halloween. So happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Hope you go out and get a bunch of candy. All right. Well, thanks for listening. And if you want to reach out, we've got a link in the show notes to send us a text message. And you can send us anything there that you maybe have a question about or want to hear more about on the podcast. Or if you just have a question about something unrelated, you'd like us to answer on the podcast.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 33:51

Or recipe ideas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 33:52

Yeah, recipe ideas. Really anything. We also have in the show notes links to our websites and social media. You can even reach out there if you want to have maybe a little more direct conversation. You have some very specific. Yeah. Happy to talk to you guys and hear your feedback and ideas. Yeah, I think that's it. You want to say bye? Bye. Bye, everybody.