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My Favorite Meat Alternative Brands

tlkitchen

When I became a vegetarian years ago, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of food that I didn’t even know existed. One of those worlds being meat alternatives. Back when I was a baby veggie, there were not as many brands out as there is today but that vegetarian world is growing and so are our options.

Full disclosure, you do not have to eat these to be vegetarian! At the end of the day, it is processed food and I would not recommend making them a primary part of your diet. However, they are delicious, creative and very fun to cook with! Also, I do not eat these things because I secretly crave burgers or chicken…the simple answer to why I chose to try meat alternatives is: because I want to.

I thought it would be cool to put together a small list of my favorite brands and at the end of the post I’ll show you guys a few pictures of some dishes I have made in the past using these products. So without further due first up on the list, my favorite brand:

Morning Star

I love love love Morning star and this is the brand I eat the most! My favorite product would have to be the buffalo wings! I am not a fan or the original chik’n nuggets or patties though. The best thing about Morning Star is that they are evolving so much! They have changed some of their recipes to offer vegan options (eliminating the egg whites), and now use all natural colors and flavoring. Aside from chicken or chik’n as they like to spell it. Morning Star also has burgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, maple sausage (that is amazing!!), bacon and crumble (which is like a ground beef). If you are new to the meal alternative world, I would 100% recommend Morning Star as a first option!

Gardein

Gardein is an easy second for me and normally can be found right next to the morning star products in the grocery store. The thing I love the most about Gardein is the brands creativity. They go beyond veggie chicken and veggie burgers (which the original veggie burger is my favorite meat alternative burger of all time! ), they have things like pork-less pork bites, meatless meat loaf and crab-less crab cakes. This brand does not shy away from variety at all! There are still a ton of things I have not tried yet and they keep adding on new things every time I check. I will say, I am not a fan of their chicken, it’s not horrible but it’s not great. Of course that does not mean for you not to try it, our taste buds are all different, so you guys may love it!

Beyond Meat

Of course I can not do a favorite meat alternative post without including Beyond Meat! Beyond Meat to me is still considered the new kid on the block but has made a huge statement! Funny story about my first time trying their burgers: I bought a pack from the store, which I am now assuming was a bad pack but at the time I thought the brand was horrible. I smelled like chemicals and it tasted like chemicals. I couldn’t even eat it it was so bad. For almost 2 years I wanted nothing to do with this brand until I went to a restaurant one day, ordered a veggie burger, it was amazing, turns out it was a Beyond meat burger. I gave it another try at home and it was amazing! Now I love them and they have good chicken too. I love Beyond Meat’s creativity with how they package their foods and if you ever watch a documentary on how they create their food, there is an attention to detail that is truly appreciated.

I am only going to list these three brands because these are my go-to’s but I have tried many others. Some I have loved and some..not so much. I find it amazing that people have found ways to take grains and vegetables and turn them into products like this. Again, I wouldn’t eat these everyday or make them the main part of your diet but live your life and enjoy yourself because this products are amazing! As promised, below are just a few pictures of some of the food I have made using meat alternatives. Happy eating foodies!

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Story Time: How I Fell in Love with Food

tlkitchen

I have said it before and I will say it a million times more: I love food! Food to me is more than just something to eat, it’s something to create and to experience. Like most foodies, my love for food started at a really young age. Growing up there were a lot of times we did not have much. My mother was a single parent with three kids and she did her best to take care of us. I appreciate those times because they made me into the well rounded adult that I am today. Some nights, we did not have much of anything to eat and my mother wouldn’t really know what to do. I was not to oldest of my siblings but I always felt like I had to protect everyone and I took it upon myself to see what was going on in the fridge.

This is where is all began, at the age of 9 I was living the life of a real episode of Chopped and creating dinners out of a basket of random things I found around the kitchen. My mother was always so surprised when I would call everyone down the stairs and she would say things like “where did this come from?” or that wasn’t even in the fridge!?” I was always so proud of myself and very happy that I was able to help my family any way that I could.

I learned the basics of cooking from my grandmother. She taught me how do to things like make eggs, Fry foods and bake box cakes. Most of the things I learned in the kitchen were from watching Food Network. When I got older, I started to do a lot more research about different kinds of food and spices. I started experimenting more with flavors and developing my own style of cooking. Of course, I am no pro, there is so much more I want to know and learn about food and cooking and I am excited to do so. I am actually considering going to culinary school, so that I can become on actual professional and have the chef title. Chef Cannon…..that has a nice ring to it!

What started off as a way for me to help my family through the struggle, ended up turning into my passion. I hope one day I will look back at this post and see how far I have come and I hope to really make a name for myself in the culinary world.

TLCannon

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Procrastination & Inconsistency

tlkitchen

Hey there foodies, I have not posted in awhile but I am very happy to be putting this blog together for everyone this evening. This post is not food related but more so life related and I felt like it was important for me to “get it all out” put everything out in the open and hopefully, find some empowerment in doing so. I am sure you have read the title by now and you’re thinking to yourself “doesn’t everyone procrastinate.” Short answer….probably but that’s not the point. One of my biggest struggles in life, aside from Bi-polar depression, is dealing with procrastination and inconsistency. Take my blog for example: I have not posted in two months and I walk pass my computer almost every day thinking how I should post a blog but never get around to it. It’s not even like I was having a busy day and I truthfully didn’t have time, I would much rather sleep or watch TV. I never really wanted to think of myself as a lazy person but the struggle is too real not to be real about it. I find myself frustrated, even with myself because I know I can do better and be better but I don’t understand why I can’t motivate myself to do so. When I was young, I was such a motivated girl, I would do things just because someone told me I couldn’t and I made things happen. Before anyone thinks “well maybe it’s your depression” I had chronic depression disorder as a kid and somehow still pushed through it to accomplish goals without much family support. So what can it be? What is it about adult Telisha that just can’t seem to get it together? Short answer…..I have no freaking clue.

What I do know is that I would be a lot more successful in my life, if I wasn’t so inconsistent. If I didn’t tell myself “I’ll do it later” or “It’s not a good time now.” Instead I am sitting on my couch being stared down by my cat blogging about how I can’t get up and get things done. I know I sound like I am venting, like this post is more of a diary entry then anything but I am so over myself it’s not even funny. Truth be told, I have no answers, I have no excuses, I have no reasoning as to why it seems so hard for me to pick myself up and motivate myself to do better . All I can tell myself is, as long as I don’t give up, I’ll never fail. But have I not given up already and just not willing to admit it to myself?

Sad part is deep down I believe in my ability to write and I believe that I could accomplish my dreams of becoming a freelance writer, owning my own business and brand. Truth…. I believe in the idea of my dreams but not myself…not enough at least. Anyway, as an effort to change I told myself I absolutely was going to write a blog post today and I just wanted to write what was on my mind. Maybe just maybe sharing this public will give me the push I need, maybe coming to terms with who I have been to people I don’t even know will make a difference. It’s not always easy turning the mirror on yourself but sometimes it is necessary.