Not that easy

BobbyDaniel

Although I'm not going hardcore into the vegan realm right now, I thought I would slowly give it a shot and have days where I would see how hard it would be before actually beginning; like this weekend. On Saturday I think I did pretty good up to the point of us making mini-pizzas at home; mine had veggies, sauce and nutritional yeast, and I wasn't surprised to see milk and eggs as part of the ingredients of the premade pizza crust when I finally decided to read the package. A little disappointing, but not big deal.

Yesterday though, I really thought I was doing good until supper, I popped in a package of frozen mixed veggies from Walmart and while scanning the barcode for MFP I saw "allergen warning" and then read that there was whey in the mix. Seriously?
I've been pretty good about reading ingredients since I started eating healthy, apparently I need to be a lot more intentional if I'm going to take this plant based diet to the next level.
Just a little rant for the Monday!

stylistchik

It's waaaay easier (and cheaper) to ditch the pre-made stuff and use raw ingredients. It takes some getting used to but it's worth it. Theres nothing wrong with the frozen veggies as long as the bag only contains veggies. Make your own sauce, pizza crust is pretty easy to make too. Have you read the ingredients on commercial bread lately? Yuck. It's an eye-opener for sure.

BobbyDaniel

I usually avoid the quick meals, and when getting frozen veggies it is usually stuff like edamame; but after having family over last week and a typical busy weekend, I just wanted something easy after my late run last night. It is a learning process, just like eating healthy was, but that too was for the better!
And yeah, I do read commercial bread labels, and that drives my kids nuts! I begin by looking to make sure there is no "enriched flour" and quickly place that back on the shelf.

Music4Hym777

I am not the hardest core of vegans out there (I have a cheat meal every once in awhile at a restaurant, but never bring it in the house). Yet, I agree that using your own fresh, raw ingredients is best. I hear ya though too on the being busy. I will admit that I keep Annie Chun's noodle bowls in my desk at work for those days when I forget to bring something or I am just to busy to prepare something from scratch (I do love my Annie Chun's though). It is hard to read every label. If you have a Trader Joe's near you, they are great because on most of their brand of foods they will put a "V" on the front of the package if it is vegan. I just look for that. Why does it have to be so hard sometimes? Even at restaurants I wind up with all kinds of crazy things. Like Thursday I went to an Indian restaurant and ordered a cream sauce that stated that it was made with coconut cream....yeah, no. I know just based on how my body feels that not only did it have dairy in it but potentially a chicken stock base too.

curvyvegan

Oh yuck, that is just so weird that there was whey in there!

Just know that the longer you are vegan, the more you'll start to know your brands and you won't have to scrutinize the labels so much anymore. I mean, obviously like others have said, whole foods are the best way to go, that way you know for sure what's in there...but I buy frozen veggies, I think most people keep some of those in the freezer and you would assume there's nothing in there except for vegetables!