The boy took care of the YouTube video today (despite technical issues that caused it to have weird, very faint audio, sorry about that) so here are some tips and tricks from me. My decade veganniversary will be January 9th 2018, so I'm soooooo close to 10 years as a vegan. When I first transitioned, I ate a lot of boca chick'n patties because that was readily available, and I wasn't much of a cook. At the time, my son was still a baby, so he wasn't eating strictly solids yet, he was still transitioning, and eating small bites, etc, so I was slowly learning to cook, because I didn't want him eating crap. The first cookbook I got as a vegan was "Veganomicon" and it was life changing, because while I can, and occasionally do eat the chick'n patties, they get old really fast. So I started buying more fresh produce, and tofu, and the occasional Amy's rice crust spinach pizza with vegan cheese. Buying beans, pasta, and grains from the bulk bins. Replacing all those analogues with more whole foods, although there were definitely a lot of great, and horrible vegan cheeses thrown in over the years. It's crazy how far the vegan cheese game has come! New vegans.... you are so spoiled, be grateful for this abundance, you don't know how it was before! 😂 In all seriousness though, the majority of our shopping cart is filled with fresh produce, we usually grab a few blocks of tofu, sometimes we get some tempeh, grab beans/legumes whether canned or dried from the bulk bin, oats/rye/barley from the bulk bins, we used to get oil, but I've been doing oil free for the last few weeks, since I gained weight after going back to school, and becoming more sedentary. It's helping me to lose the weight, and I'm not having indigestion/heart burn like I was. I'll let the boy pick out a couple of fun convenience foods, and we grab frozen fruits to add to breakfast (like oatmeal or smoothies), and frozen veggies. Then we usually grab some type of yogurt for the boy, tortillas, pita bread, and a loaf or two of Rudi's bread for the boy's lunches.
Basically, if you're transitioning, by all means, let the analogues help ease you along, hell, even if you're not, a little every now and then is not going to kill you. Stick to the outer perimeter of the store most of the time. Make sure you are getting enough food, make sure you are filling up on whole grains, fruits, and veggies instead of fats. Don't deprive yourself, if you want chocolate, have some chocolate! Start with easy swap chocolates like the enjoy life rice milk chocolates. It can be confusing, but you'll get there!
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