Vegan Story Time, Layla from Clean Cheaters

A few days ago, I opened an invitation to fellow vegans to share their story on how they became vegan or to share their favourite vegan recipes. I really like hearing these stories when I meet vegans in real life, and so I thought it would be nice to hear more of them. It’s always encouraging to see that others are making the switch, and I love learning from others’ experiences: everyone has a different favourite recipe, one ingredient they can’t live without or a special trick that will make all our lives easier. It’s so great to feed on these stories because it really creates a sense of community and sharing.

In the next few weeks, I will be sharing some amazing stories that I have received. I extend the invitation to every vegan out there! If you want to see your story featured here, contact me!

Today, I’ll be sharing Layla’s story. She has a great blog where she shares recipes and musings from her life. Go take a look!

So, this is my ‘vegan’-story. I never really cared for meat. I’ve been vegetarian off and on for about 6 years, only eating meat when I was still lifting weights, and I didn’t know I could get all the protein I needed from plants. I still had to learn a lot you see 😉

In January 2015, I started eating vegetarian again, already looking towards the vegan diet. I did feel weird in my stomach every now and then, especially after my oatmeal with milk. Just for fun and giggles, I tried soy and oh my, did that work! My stomach felt better and my skin looked so much better. Cutting out milk and eggs in my own cooking was easy, cutting out these ‘hidden’ ingredients was harder since they seem to be hidden in everything.

For me, the hardest part about going vegan is going out for food. It’s getting easier, since it’s getting more mainstream, but I always look for places to eat before going somewhere, and I always bring a snack.

My tip for new vegans: try to find websites with easy recipes (like mine :P) that don’t require a lot of ingredients. That made the switch easier for me.

My go-to recipe is definitely my ‘paprika’-pasta. I used to make it a lot when I was in school because it’s super cheap to make. I replaced the real bacon with tempeh-bacon to make it vegan. And it’s delicious! Apart from that recipe, I think everyone should try my recipe for vegan chili. Yes, even now that it’s summer. It’s easy to make, and it doesn’t need a lot of stuff or a lot of skills to prepare.

 This takes me to the ingredient I can’t live without. Actually, I can’t pick ONE ingredient, I need 3:

• Low sodium soy sauce
• Liquid smoke
• Chili sauce

 Thank you for reading my story and I hope to see you soon on Clean Cheaters!

I hope this was as interesting to you as it was to me! Watch out for the next Vegan Story Time, as this one came to me in the form of an amazing recipe. Don’t forget that if you want to participate, you can!