I've been a vegan for a month and a half now. I saw earthlings and dominion, and decided that I could never support such barbaricism again. Since then, I've learned to cook a whole slew of meals and how to navigate restaurants.
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2023
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Daaaamn, welcome to the tribe ^^
No joke, it's hard in the beginning, you're doing awesome.
Honestly, the food is the easy part, the hard part is navigating social situations and lovong woth being the odd one out in most food-related gatherings.
Yeah those situations can vary being from mildly annoying to very uncomfortable. I hate it when people need to feel like they constantly need to talk about their meat consumption and veganism and stuff on holidays, where I just want to have a nice time and not constantly think about my and their diet. But no, they feel threatened or whatever.
Edit: clarification
But no, they feel threatened or whatever.
in a similar vein, the insecurity some people have about just owning meat being worse for the environment and vegans just being more ethical than them is fascinating to me. it's fine to just own that! nobody cares and, by definition, most people won't judge you because they do that too!
A lot of people can't live with knowing that they aren't simply "good" people
It's weird to me how caught up some people are in believing they are 100% ethical. Like, I'm a vegetarian. I'm not a vegan. But I agree with vegans. I live with that because in our current society, it's impossible to behave in an ethical manner all the time. I do other things I think are unethical, like buying from large corporations like Amazon. I just focus on doing good in other aspects of my life and hope that's enough. No one person can fix the world no matter how ethically they behave, after all. And besides, I believe every person deserves to live a pleasurable life, and I'm a person, aren't I? I couldn't have much pleasure if I behaved in a perfectly ethical manner, as that would involve going off the grid and doing hard labor constantly to survive. And even then, you'd STILL have to get some of your initial supplies from a corporation, probably. So... Yeah. Do what you can and live with that.
I didn't know about dominion. I'm definitely gonna check it out though
I finally went vegan at the start of this year and haven't experienced any issues with it so far. Feeling good and healthy, etc. Biggest issue is just trying to accommodate myself in family gatherings being surrounded by omnis. And of course everyone trying to convince me I'm wrong which is always hilarious.
Yep, being vegan is easy, dealing with non-vegans is frustrating.
Vegan since COVID here and vegetarian for quite a while before that. I don’t have much to report except that I would love to be a part of a vegan/vegetarian (whatever subreddits are called here, kbin calls them magazines).
Also, I’ve really been enjoying making Ethiopian food lately. Niter Kibbeh is pretty easy to make vegan (sub canola oil for butter), and I just throw all the spices and oil in the slow cooker for a few hours. Once you have that, it’s a lot easier to make everything else and it’s so tasty. Just need to get myself some teff so I can try making proper injera!
I guess I would be a flexitarian.
My partner started eating vegetarian last year, and I followed suit because cooking two versions of a meal was just too big of a headache. When I visit my parents I do eat meat and seafood dishes though, partly because of homesickness for my country's cooking and partly because my mom likes cooking all her favorite dishes for me and it's one of the few easy ways I can connect with her.
As time passes by, I find myself wanting to eat meat less and less though, and even in my home country I can now get some of my favorite comfort street foods with meat alternatives.
The experience has made me realize very keenly just how divorced we are from the realities of where our food, and especially meat, comes from. It's quite a trip thinking about how every non-plant creature on the planet relies on consuming other living beings to keep going. Suddenly I have found myself wanting to pray every time before I eat, because I am grateful that I get to continue to exist because of my food's sacrifice. It's just all really so weird.
I'm vegan! 👨🏻🌾
struggles: In the past I've struggled with getting all my nutrients, but thanks to Cronometer it's all under control 😎
experiences: I was dating an omnivore and she convinced me that we should both go vegan. The relationship didn't last but somehow the veganism did! That was an experience.
good times: I went to the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado and got four free vegan beers! 😃
recipes: My recipes usually consist of a jumble of whatever canned and frozen vegetables I can get my hands on 😁 Lately though, I've been particularly fond of mushrooms, okra, riced cauliflower, Impossible Foods Frozen Meatballs, some nutritional yeast and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Don't know what to call it, but I do recommend it 👍
Looking forward to hanging with all you cool veggie peeps 💚
I really do love my chicken but I try to cut down on it. I may go vegetarian at some point but I don't think I'll every be able to go fully vegan. I just love my cheese and eggs and ~~milk~~ yogurt too much.
It's not too hard to find good tasting alternatives to those things.
But really the question is, does your enjoyment of those things justify killing or harming animals?
I'm vegetarian since forever and have considered going fully vegan, but I can't leave cheese and eggs behind.
Vegan cheese is allright, but I don't know of any egg replacements
Vegan cheese is allright
I don't like it, honestly. But when I went vegan it was rare anyways so I got used to not have cheese. Just eat ridiculous amounts of hummus instead ;)
For eggs, JUST Egg is pretty good and cooks and bakes just like it. Tofu scrambles are good as well (and usually cheaper). For baking, there's an even wider number of options ranging from stuff like flax seeds to premade mixes to even just changing ingredient ratios and many many more
I still haven't found any good egg replacements either.
I'm either buying my eggs from neighbors who take care of the chickens themselves, or else I'm buying them from Vital Farms. At least they acknowledge that there's a problem with how the industry handles male chicks and are actively investing in ways to change this.
- Scrambled eggs - replace with tofu scramble or JUST egg. I'd recommend the former since it's much cheaper. Buy some black salt to sprinkle on your tofu. It'll give it the signature sulphury egg taste.
- Eggs for baking purposes - replace with apple sauce, flax seed, aquafaba (the water that you drain out of cans of chickpeas), or JUST egg. I recommend flax because you can buy in bulk and it doesn't expire for a good while.
As someone also mentioned scrambled tofu is a great replacement for scrambled eggs. Any type will work but silken works best in my opinion.
That said though, you don't have to cut eggs out completely to make a positive impact on the environment or animal welfare. Locally sourced free range eggs will be better than supermarket in those regards, and probably taste better too.
I'm chomping at the bit for the new entirely lab-made dairy cheeses that are supposedly available in stores now but which I cannot find.
Wait, where? What brands? I’ve managed to find Modern Kitchen cream cheese, which is absolutely on point and tasted exactly like dairy cream cheese to me, but I haven’t seen anything like a cheddar or mozzarella yet and I’m dying to try one.
I've been vegan for over a year now. One thing i wanted to say to those people who say they cant give up X, is that i had the same struggle. The best way to go about it is to not think of it as a sacrifice, instead think of the harm eating this would cause.
I think I'm at a point where I'd call myself flexitarian, I found the switch to oat milk the easiest place to begin. I'm also fortunate enough to be in the UK that has tonnes of vegan snacks, ready meals and meat alternatives that help.
I struggle to go fully vegetarian or vegan mostly because I'm weak willed if I'm truly honest! Work can be stressful and exhausting and sometimes it's easier to fall back on recipes I know how to make without thinking. I'll probably get there in time.
As I said on !vegan@lemmy.ml, I would very much classify myself as an aspiring vegan. I don't eat meat at all and try and avoid dairy & eggs when I can, but takeaway, family gatherings and restaurants are basically impossible here in eastern Europe. Most places these days have vegetarian options at least, and my parents are fine with making sure I have something without meat, but EVERYTHING has cheese in it. I never realized quite how all-pervasive cheese is until I tried to avoid it, and I've given up hope of any vegan options that I don't cook myself.
If anyone is interested in trying veganism and wants some help, check out: https://veganbootcamp.org/
If you care about animals please consider it, it feels great knowing your actions are aligned with your morals and you aren't supporting animal cruelty.
I've been vegetarian for 10 years and I'm on a pause now as I live on a super tiny town with no vegetarian restaurants and I don't cook.
I love food but my relationship with it was always practical. If I could never eat again I would. So going vegetarian was a no brainer.
What I noticed after going back to meat for 2 years now is that my health degraded. Though that could be just correlation with simply getting older but the only issue I had while being vegetarian is b12 and iron which was super easy to supplement.
When I lived in Vietnam being vegetarian was so incredibly easy since all Buddhist eat vegetarian and all you had to do to find a good restaurant is to find a temple. It really gave me a taste how vegetarian first society would feel and it's amazing and totally doable.
I'm excited to move to civilization to resume being vegetarian that's for sure.
Back when I was in college, the local Hare Krishnas would make and sell outdoor lunches (channa mainly). My favorite part was the salad dressing, it was absolutely amazing. I was able to find a recipe for it on Reddit but I haven't tried making it myself.
Been vegetarian all my life.
I consider veganism to be the most ethical ideology with the current factory farm infrastructure, but I don't agree with it's extreme principles in a world with ethical farming practices. I would continue being a vegetarian if we could do things ethically - free range, and without exploitation.
I haven't had any struggle at all in my country- it's awesome. I've always been surprised with the dismissiveness and outright hostility towards vegan peeps in the western part of the world, it makes me sympathise a lot. Over in my country, Vegetarianism is completely normal and people are very respectful of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles - part of it is due to these lifestyles originate due to religion here.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’m curious to hear more about what you mean by “ethical farming practices” in the context of “without exploitation”. Or maybe more generally how you define “exploitation”?
To me, exploitation is exerting control over others to gain something or benefit in some way. Which would include things like taking milk from an animal who put in work of pregnancy (and motherhood) to produce it for her child. And often involves killing her child to free up the milk as a resource to be taken.
In this way, animal agriculture seems rooted in exploitation and we’re just left to decide in what ways we want to be a part of that.
I agree wholeheartedly with your definition of exploitation. Which is why I wish for best practices:
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Free range, proper food and shelter, and generally ensuring best quality of life in any way possible, and treated with dignity in exchange for the milk.
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Leave the cows and bulls to their own devices in the fields, so that that pregnancy can happen naturally
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Jersey cattle and other farm cows produce huge amounts of milk, and the calf is only killed out of greed to maximise profits
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Don't inject cows with hormones for the sole purpose of driving up milk production
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Don't kill the cows for meat
Basically, I would like it if cows were treated like pets with whom you exchange food in exchange for their stuff, than goods-production-biomachines.
This is of course an expensive endeavour and the feasiblity as a business model on a large scale in every circumstance is debatable - but it is very much possible. For example, we have a farm nearby where they treat the cows with dignity, and manage to be profitable. The milk they sell is more expensive than the normal one, but it is worth the moral relief.
I've been vegetarian for just over a year now, and have no intention of going back to eating meat. The most difficult thing for me is relearning how to cook, I mostly try to find replacements for meat proteins in recipes I already know, so seitan for pork, impossible for ground beef, mushrooms for steak. But my biggest problem is chicken, for the life of me I can't find a good replacement for chicken and my chicken based recipes are (were) some of my favorite comfort foods.
I'm also always learning completely new recipes involving veg and tofu. But I miss my chicken casseroles and chicken enchiladas dang it!
check out gaz oakley. in this vid he makes vegan fried chicken. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbJiZfKqqQ8 and just in general watch his videos for tasty recipes!
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