Vegans - the protein and salad stereotypes

So often when someone learns you eat Vegan, they immediately ask where you get your protein, or offer you a salad.  Both ideas come from popular culture, and both are fundamentally biased.

Unfortunately much of the american ideals of protein consumption come from a study done in the early 1900's where a scientist used the measure of protein in rat milk as the determination of how much protein a human should have.  This lead to two amazing ideas, first that rat milk was the perfect nutrition for sewer dwelling nuclear holocaust survivors, and that extra protein in your diet made you stronger.

Recently I had a doctor tell me I was probably having health trouble because I wasn't eating enough protein and recommended 1 gram for every pound I weighed, as this was "the right amount of protein for someone who exercises."  The correct quote the doctor should have stated was 1 gram for every kilogram, so he was recommending 2.2 times too much protein!  

An excellent link to protein and a healthy diet.

When it comes to salad, I love a good salad.  Many vegans though would rather have something much more filling than some iceberg lettuce.  (I'll get around to my favorite salad recipes eventually, ever hear of butter lettuce?)  When it comes to eating something filling, I usually go with TOFU!

So being a Vegan Trader Joe's Blog, I thought it would be best to get tofu out of the way early.  I love Trader Joe's organic high protein super firm tofu.  A single block is about 500 calories, and contains 70 grams of protein.  It fries wonderfully, takes up sauces if you marinate it, and its firm enough to grill and make sandwiches out of, all of which will eventually have step by step recipes here, with pictures!

One thing that makes this tofu particularly excellent for me is that it has a use by date of always more than a month when I buy it, which means it will be good the entire month, until my next Trader Joe's trip.  Being that 1 package can meet three quarters of my daily protein requirements, I don't eat it every day, just once or twice a week.  It's yummy enough that I could easily eat it every day, especially fried, or marinated, or baked, or grilled or...  well you get the idea.

Go try it, and tell me how you like it.  Feel free to always suggest recipes as well.  I plan on videoing a demo of the best recipes as this blog continues.

TJC

p.s. yes, you can do the reverse math and figure out how much I weigh based on my personal protein requirements, but I'm hoping the lb/kg conversion stops most of you.