Happy new year, everyone: I'm writing this post to tell you guys that I've decided to leave Howl to Be Vegan behind in 2017 because I think my goal of showing the affordability and diversity of vegan food has been accomplished.
I hope you've learned that vegans eat more than salads. I don't even know the last time I ate a salad. There's so much edible plant foods the majority of the population haven't eaten tried. This is a great quote from Eating Animals, which I mention below: "Americans choose to eat less than .25% of the known edible food on the planet." Hopefully through this series you've been introduced to more foods like bottle gourd and colocasia gigantea, and hopefully I've dispelled the myth that eating vegan is costly. Yes, you can get a burger for $1 at McDonald's, but you can also get rice, potatoes, and beans for dirt cheap when you divide the costs per meal. Gary Yourofsky explains it perfectly in this video: https://youtu.be/7PR64HGJoyk?t=40s (except I actually liked the taste of McDonald's). I'm paraphrasing, but "The same shit [but vegan] can be found at Taco Bell."
I'm also ending the series for selfish reasons because recording and documenting what I eat isn't really my forte. There are people who love doing this, but I'm not one of them. Nevertheless, you can continue keeping track of my restaurant reviews on my Yelp: https://chanhong.yelp.com.
Additionally, once you know a few recipes, you can start repeating the same ones over and over again, which is totally fine. You should eat what you like, so ultimately it comes down to your preferences. One of Jenn Im's weight loss tips is to find the "healthy foods" you like and stick with it: you don't have to eat brussel sprouts if you don't like them. There are so many other vegetables for you to try. For example, I learned last year that I'm not really a fan of butternut squash unless they're pureed into a ravioli or something lol
If you want to continue hearing about my vegan experience, I have a playlist on Youtube called "My Vegan Journey," which I update with my own videos and videos from others that have helped me on my "vegan journey." There are so many great Youtubers you can learn from. One of my favorites right now is That Vegan Couple. They do a lot of response videos, and they're honestly so sassy: I love it.
Additionally, there are so many amazing vegan cookbooks, documentaries, and books you can use as resources. I recently received Chloe's Kitchen as a Christmas gift and watched What the Health and Forks Over Knives. If you find What the Health to be sensationalist, then I suggest Forks Over Knives. They're both available on Netflix. Some books I've read but haven't advertised on my social include Proteinaholic, Eating Animals, and How Not to Die. I didn't publicize them because I weren't big fans of them, but you might enjoy them. The one book I do recommend is The China Study, which I did post about on my Instagram, so make sure you follow me @justcallmechl_oe to see the latest.
This is not the end of my "vegan activism" if you want to call it that-it's just not very practical for me to record everything I eat - good and bad (because vegan food like all foods has the good and the bad). I like to enjoy my food in the moment and not think about how I want to present it to my followers - just because I didn't record it, doesn't mean it wasn't delicious. I have hope that you will find vegan food accessible, affordable, and enjoyable without my continued guidance, but if you need that extra push, follow my sister @luus_thebeef if you haven't already done so. Trust me, she's so much better at this than I am.
