Show Notes

Welcome to our inaugural episode!

Ready to step up your vegan fitness game? We’re taking a deep dive into the world of plant-based fitness and nutrition, sharing some mouth-watering recipes, and, best of all, showing you how to pack in the protein without relying on supplements. Whether you’re a seasoned vegan athlete or a newbie to plant-based eating, there’s something for you in our conversation. Join us as we reveal our top 10 vegan protein sources — no protein powder required.

Ever heard of a protein-packed snack that tastes like an oatmeal cookie? Allow us to introduce you to our unique TVP pumpkin cookies. We’re chatting about why these protein-rich treats are a healthier alternative to higher-calorie options. Stay tuned and don’t forget to connect with us on our socials and website for more vegan recipes, nutrition tips, and fitness advice. Get ready to power your workout and your life with plant-based goodness!

Full podcast transcript

VeGAINS: I am, I guess, VeGAINS and I try to focus on the fitness and nutrition side of the house. And I have with me here the awesome and talented protein deficient vegan who makes our food and recipes. You want to say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: Hi.

VeGAINS: Perfect.

VeGAINS: Welcome to Episode one of the VeGAINS Fitness and Nutrition podcast. Here at VeGAINS we’re providing fitness and nutrition information focusing on vegan and plant based people. Normally, vegan fitness stuff doesn’t typically focus on high protein or strength training. You’ll see a lot of meals, maybe with vegan junk food or just generic vegan recipes, kind of focusing on more like salad type things. But we’re not rabbits, so we try to incorporate some nutrition and recipe components that have more of a focus on protein for food. If you do see high protein recipes out there, they’re usually using a protein powder. That’s fine most of the time as supplementation, but you want to try to make sure your whole day doesn’t revolve around powder forms of protein. So we’ve got a lot of different vegan forms of protein that we typically use. Stuff like seitan, TVP, tofu, and a bunch of other things that you can see in our recipes. Also, when you typically see vegan nutrition information out there, you’ll see a lot of even vegan athletes, they don’t typically focus on their macros too much, which can be fine if you’re in a caloric surplus, you can eat as much as you want on a plant based diet, you’re usually going to hit a lot of those goals you really need. But sometimes if you’re in a deficit or maybe making a transition, just starting to get into fitness, you’re going to have a couple of struggles, maybe with trying to hit everything you can as a vegan as far as vitamins, minerals, nutrition, and your macronutrients. Then as far as fitness and training goals go, those are pretty similar for most people. It’s just that we as vegans have different things that we might be able to do to kind of optimize our progress or really help make up for some of the gaps we have with the things we’re maybe missing from a diet that does include animal products.

Protein Deficient Vegan: B12!

VeGAINS: That’s right.

VeGAINS: B12 is definitely one thing you Have to focus on.

VeGAINS: So some of the stuff we’ll be covering on our website and our videos and podcasts going forward are like general fitness tips. Any struggles vegans might have with vitamins, minerals, nutrition, things along that line. Also, we got a home gym here, so we’re going to try to cover some home gym equipment, what you might be able to use without having to go out to a gym. Maybe you live near a gym that’s really crowded, or maybe even you want to get some workouts in on the go. We can cover some stuff you might be able to use for traveling. We also try vegan restaurants from time to time. Just recently tried the X market here in Chicago. It has a bunch of kind of satellite locations for a bunch of local restaurants. So we’ve actually got a video on protein deficient vegan’s social media covering our experience at the X market. So check that out.

VeGAINS: So going forward, what we’re going to try to do here on the podcast is some weekly roundup of some of the recipes we publish on our website. Do a deep dive into topics from our blog. Try to do a Q and A. If anybody has any questions, got a contact form on the website. You can also just ask questions in any of our social media comment sections.

Protein Deficient Vegan: If anyone’s out there.

VeGAINS: If anyone is out there. And then restaurants and vegan products that we come across that are particularly interesting. Lately we’ve been on a big high protein silken tofu kick. That’s one of those things where you can be vegan for a while and never really understand how silken tofu works or what you can do with it. So we got a lot of recipes now that focus around that and show you maybe some inspiration. Or if you don’t want to be inspired and you just want to make food, just do exactly what the recipe says and you’ll have a lot of protein. So one of our most recent blog articles out there now is actually top ten vegan protein sources. So typically when you see these lists, you’ve got the actual whole food like seitan, TVP, beans, lentils. I mean, you’ve all seen the vegan protein list probably, but the protein deficient vegan here went a step further and listed out actual products that we typically use in our recipes. But something you can actually just go in the store and buy in some cases premade products as well as the kind of main protein components. So I’m just going to read out the top ten for you here in reverse order. Number ten on our list is the tofurky deli slices.

VeGAINS: Specifically the hickory smoked variant. Those come in at 50.9% protein. Number nine on our list is nutritional yeast, or more affectionately known as nuch nooch at 53.3%. This kind of gives food like a bit of a cheesy taste. So we try to throw it on top of everything because

Protein Deficient Vegan: it looks like fish food.

VeGAINS: It looks like fish food. That’s true.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Yeah.

VeGAINS: So next on the list at number eight is the sweet earth mindful chick’n strips. They look kind of like grilled chicken strips. We use them in an Alfredo recipe. Those are at 54.3% protein. Number seven on the list, kind of surprising. And you probably can’t use these to get most of your protein because it’d be a high volume. Is mushrooms at 57.1% protein. Next on the list is actually a specific prepared product. It’s the seitan from Blackbird Foods. The blackbird barbecue flavor, specifically. We really like blackbird seitan because it’s high protein and it’s really easy to cook. You basically just put it in a pan and make it hot. So we really like things like that a lot of days.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Even he can make it.

VeGAINS: Yeah, even I can make it. 57.7% protein. That is tied, actually, with number five on our list, which is TVP, or textured vegetable protein. It’s another one you might not really have run into. Even if you’ve seen it on some list, you might not have any idea how to use it. It is a little intimidating. You have to kind of rehydrate it and then figure out what the hell to do with it.

VeGAINS: So we’ve got some recipes that show you how to do things with that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Generally, people use it for tacos or maybe, like, sloppy Joe’s, but lately we’ve been trying to make cookies out of it.

VeGAINS: Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: And you could also use it as a substitute for, like, rice or quinoa in dishes.

VeGAINS: Delicious cookies. And we’ll tell you a little bit more about those here in a few minutes. Number four on the list, extra firm silken tofu, which I mentioned before, is at 62.2% protein. We’ve got a lot of recipes that are incorporating that now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: I’m obsessed with it. Obsessed.

VeGAINS: Number three on the list is something called a better bagel. I think it’s in the frozen section at Whole Foods. So frozen bagels, basically, it’s just a very high protein, very high fiber bagel. Maybe if you’re new to the vegan thing or the high protein thing, you want to be a little careful with this one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: You might shit your brains out.

VeGAINS: Anyway, the better bagel is 62.5% protein. Next on the list. Number two is another blackbird flavor of seitan. It’s just their original flavor. It is 75.5% protein. So you can see why we like that as kind of a standby in the house. We basically have a dedicated refrigerator at this point for blackbird, seitan, and tofu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: This one is really good for, like, low something that’s just. It’s a neutral flavor and you can add to it.

VeGAINS: And then number one on the list.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Oh, we have sounds. We have sounds.

VeGAINS: As soon as I figure out how to work this, we have a drum roll. Okay, number one on the list, hopefully that worked. Number one on the list is wheat gluten flour, 77% protein. Again, another one that’s a little intimidating to use. We have a really awesome recipe for some high protein donut holes that we made with this. Don’t use an air fryer.

Protein Deficient Vegan: We destroyed two air fryers because they expand.

VeGAINS: Yeah, they expand quite a bit, so be careful with that. But the recipe does mention how to do it and not destroy expensive kitchen equipment, so you should check that out. Also, we’ve got a couple of really cool fall recipes on the website here that just came out. We’ve got one that is a high protein dirt pudding. Really cool, spooky theme for Halloween.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Somehow we managed to get it at 26% protein, but it still has Oreos and nutter butter cookies and also gummies.

VeGAINS: Yeah.

VeGAINS: Covered in Oreos. Oreos are cookies covered in nutter butters and Oreos. At 26% protein, it’s hard to beat that. Not sure if you want to call it a dessert or a protein snack. That’s up to you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: The magic here is in the chocolate pudding, which is extra firm silken tofu, which we love and we keep using

VeGAINS: Really great, even if you don’t want to put it in cookies all over it. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but the pudding is still delicious by itself.

Protein Deficient Vegan: We also have a chocolate mousse recipe if you’re not looking to have a sugar coma. But also it has this vanilla goo that we made out of, like, vegan whipped cream, coco whip. And then we just mixed in protein powder, and it turned into, like, a marshmallow fluff texture. And we don’t know what to call it, but it’s vanilla protein goo.

VeGAINS: Yeah.

VeGAINS: We accidentally made a high protein marshmallow fluff, so we might have to put that out as its own thing at some point. And then another one we just put out recently is TVP pumpkin cookies. It’s kind of TVP in this form. Kind of has the texture of like an oatmeal.

VeGAINS: Now, when you eat it, you really want to think protein cookie and not delicious chocolate chip cookie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Yeah. Don’t bring it to a potluck. People will probably be a little annoyed.

VeGAINS: Yeah.

VeGAINS: But if you compare it to other protein cookies out there, it’s definitely top of the list. Lenny and Larry cookies…

Protein Deficient Vegan: Better, way better.

VeGAINS: Taste kind of like chalk, and they’re actually pretty high calories. So these are like, less than 100 calories each, 44% protein. So a pretty good little protein cookie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Yeah.

VeGAINS: So if you want to follow us on social media or follow the website, if you go to vegainsfitness.com, we’ve got links on the top for both the fitness and nutrition social medias, as well as the protein deficient vegan social medias, which are focused on the food and recipes and very delicious things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: I’m not actually protein deficient. It’s a joke.

VeGAINS: Yes. It’s a joke. Okay.

VeGAINS: Thanks for listening. And I think the next ones will be better, so stick around.

Vegan that likes to pick up heavy things and put them down again.
USAW Level 1 Coach
NASM CPT

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *