#vegan Mac and cheese 😌

[daffodil-screaming]

Making Mac and cheese with dinosaur pasta is possibly the smartest thing I have ever done

[notjanine]

throughout the next two semesters i will not have enough time to cook dinner every night and i have been dreading switching from my daily kitchen flow state to meal prepping one day a week but it’s actually. i am In My Element. i am making a whole feast every sunday. the strategy, the planning, the timing, the doing! and listening to food podcasts the whole time! Love 😌

[trans-xianxian]

at the risk of sounding like a weirdo....i just saw your grocery store post and it looks like a lot of veggie items? are you vegetarian? i'm trying to be but i'm a bit lost when it comes to food (where i live it's very difficult to be anything other than a meat eater lol) so i'm wondering if you could maybe share some of your favorite staples that you consistently get. thank you so much!!

hi anon sorry it took so long for me to answer this! but yes I've been vegetarian for about 13 years now! you said not eating meat is difficult where you live, and I know that what brands are sold where is always different so I'm not sure if these particular things would necessarily be available to you, but in the scope of like. meat substitutes, morningstar and simple truth both make really good stuff, and tofurky is the only good vegetarian sandwich meat I've had lmao

I usually always have veggie burgers and fake chicken strips/nuggets in my house because you can literally just microwave them with little to no additional effort. there's also rlly good fake meat crumbles for things like tacos and such and rlly good veggie sausages

as for vegetarian foods that aren't a substitute for a meat thing tho - baked veggies are rlly good and easy to make! I like cauliflower and brussel sprouts most. you can just stick them in the oven on high heat in a baking pan w oil, salt, and pepper and you're pretty much set. smoothies are also a go to esp in the summer time. I eat a lot of sandwiches too lmao. if you like yogurt that's a rlly good source of protein! cheese is also a good source of protein and easy to add to things. eggs as well if you like those. veggies like spinach, collards, and kale are all rlly good for iron but I don't like most of them 😔

without meat your consistent meal staples are probably going to become potatoes, bread, rice, and pasta/noodles but I'd say potatoes and rice are definitely the most versatile! as for like. full meals my top five (in no particular order) are probably stir fry with tofu, tacos, baked potatoes w side vegetable and/or meat substitute, home made mac n cheese (I can post my recipe if you'd like 😌), and pasta with salad or some kind of roasted vegetable on the side. vegetarian soup is also p easy to make but I don't like most soups (sorry souptuals)

I know that if you're going out to eat a lot of places don't have very good veggie options esp if you live somewhere that doesn't have a lot of vegetarian/vegan people but there's a lot of really good vegetarian lebanese food and I've found that most thai and chinese restaurants will have at least a few good vegetarian things there. diners are also usually a good place to go out to eat if you need vegetarian stuff

it's going to take awhile to get used to and find the food that you like and works for your body esp if you usually eat meat All The Time but after awhile it won't even be something you think about anymore. I know a lot of people will sort of slowly ease into being fully vegetarian by cutting certain kinds of meat out every few weeks or months so that's also something to consider if you think that it would help!

I will also say that it's probably also a good idea to keep an eye on your iron and how your energy levels are. it's really easy to get an iron deficiency if you're vegetarian/vegan especially if you're also someone who gets their period. if it ends up happening it's usually fixable by just taking iron supplements but its an important thing to look out for so it can be handled appropriately if it becomes an issue!

anyway I hope that this was helpful to you and good luck! if anyone else has some suggestions feel free to reply w them I'm a pretty picky eater so the scope of foods I eat is already smaller lmao