Be As Vegan As You Can

Happy Weekend, my friends!  It's going to be a little bit toasty out there today, stay cool and hydrated!

If you have been following me, you may have read one of my recent blogs about my meatless general tso's chicken.  I still can't stop thinking about how good it was.  I made enough for 4 lunches this past week, and I loved every single bite of it.  I'll be making it again soon.

Although I highly encourage to be vegan, I know that for some of us there may be huge obstacles to being 100% vegan.  I am not 100% vegan.  I will never turn down a Reese's or a chocolate chip cookie.  If something has eggs in the recipe, I may still have it.  I do draw the line with meat products for myself.

There could be many reasons for not being able to be completely vegan.  Economic class, access to grocery stores (many people live in "food deserts"), unsupportive friends/family, or simply not being able to give up that one food choice.  And, of course, there are many other reasons/barriers.

Be as vegan as you can.  If you simply cannot give up cheese, that's ok.  If it is harder for you to buy more vegetables, get what you can.  If you can be vegan for breakfast and lunch but not dinner, that's ok.  Little changes can make a big impact.  

I try my best not to judge other people's choices, I don't know their story.  Yes, I wish we all could be completely vegan.  The world would be so much better.  However, any step in the direction in progress.  Do what you are able.

Thank you so much for reading, I truly appreciate that you have taken the time out of your day to ready my blog.

If you would like, please feel free to leave any positive/constructive feedback in the comments section.  Also, you can email me at blhutton4@gmail.com.  

Make it a good day!

Easy, Inexpensive General Tso's Meatless Chicken

Happy Sunday, my beautiful friends!

I hope you are enjoying the day, this is the perfect summer day.  At least in my area, it is sunny and the high temperature will be in the mid to upper 70's.  It's a perfect tank top day!

So far today, it'a about noon local time, I feel like I have gotten a lot accomplished.  I did some laundry, cut some grass, took my niece and one of my dogs out for a short walk.  I also got my breakfasts and lunches ready for the week.  I made 5 of my oatmeal breakfasts and 4 lunches, and now I am going to be starting cleaning the kitchen a little bit.

Speaking of lunches, I wanted to share with you an easy and relatively inexpensive vegan version of General Tso's Chicken.  General Tso's is one of my go-to's when I am getting some Chinese food.  I don't always get it every single time, but it is one of my favorites.

Since I don't eat meat, I have to hope that a place will offer General So's Tofu, which isn't half bad.  Some of the local places have it, others don't.  I will say that for the most part, it isn't difficult to at least get something that is vegetarian when getting Chinese food.

I had a light bulb moment this morning when I was thinking about what to meal prep for work.  I normally try to have several boxes of Aldi's Meatless Chicken Tenders in my freezer (you may know that I love Aldi).  They are actually really good.  If you haven't tried them yet, I highly recommend them.  And as an imperfect vegan, I always have whole grain rice in stock.  Lately, I have been also keeping several of the larger bags of frozen broccoli from Walmart in my freezer.  (I have it mostly to add to my dogs' food.)  Luckily, I bought a bottle of Aldi's General Tso's sauce a couple of weeks ago.

Oh my goodness, it is almost like the real thing from a restaurant!  I made 4 large servings worth of the rice.  I also added some plant based butter to it once it was done.  I added a bunch of the frozen broccoli to it.  Since I was getting this ready for the week, I wasn't worried about letting it thaw out first.  At the same time, I got a box of the meatless chicken tenders out to thaw for a few minutes.  Once it was thawed enough, I cut it up in to smaller pieces.  And then, you guessed it, I added the General Tso's sauce to it.  Add what your heart tells you to.  I like enough to know it's there, but I don't like it drowning in sauce.  

I tried a few bites of it.  I can't wait to have more this upcoming week.  I will definitely be adding this to my rotation.  I'll just have to make sure to buy some more of the sauce next time I'm at Aldi.

Let me know if you try it and what you think of it.

I am trying to figure out how to have an automated email subscription service for those of you that want to subscribe, but I haven't had any luck with finding a free service yet.  In the meantime, if you have a blogger account, you can go to your settings and add this to your reading list.  Also, I am thinking about having my own emails go out for when I write a new blog.  Either the day of or the following day.  If you would like this, please let me know.  My email is blhutton4@gmail.com

If you have any positive/constructive feedback, please feel free to comment on this post of email me at the above email address.

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy your upcoming week!