Where's the Beef?

Health is a very important piece of my life, and I am trying to spread it like a disease. An organic life-style has been a major focus for me for the last five years. Fruits, veggies, legumes, quinoa, and other natural foods are something my family is quite comfortable having on their plates at dinner. But the more I learn about healthy eating, the more I learn about the environment. They go hand in hand. Did you know?

CNN recently reported on the effects that Big Food is having on the environment in their article "Go Vegan, Save the Planet," but that is something I have been reading about for years. Maybe I can’t change the world, but I can certainly vote with my household dollar, and we are taking this into consideration. 

Slowly but surely, we are moving towards a plant-based diet in our home. My husband, who is of Mid-western (German) descent, loves him some of grandma’s hot dish, chicken pot pie, anything meaty, cheesy, and/or greasy. So how do I play into his dietary preference, while considering health and environmental factors? I am sneaking in plant-based “meat-like” products into our dinners. I wait until he says he loves the meal, then spill the beans. It wasn’t meat at all!

Enter “Beyond Meat!” The texture is near identical to the meat they are mimicking with plant-based products! If you follow The Simple Choice on Instagram, you will remember I used their Beyond Beef Crumbles - Beefy in our spaghetti dish this week. Could he tell? Nope. He thought I had used ground turkey or something of the like, but it was still quite “meaty” to him. Now that I have successfully, and lovingly, duped him a few times, he said he is totally cool with incorporating more of these plant-based meats into our lives without balking and me twisting his arm.

If you are worried about protein intake, fear not! Impressively, The Beyond Burger boasts 20 grams of protein vs 19 grams of protein in an animal based patty. The Beyond Burger has double the iron, nearly half the saturated fat, and ZERO cholesterol. Not a fan of soy? No problem! There isn’t any soy in their products.

We will definitely be using Beyond Meat much more frequently in our house now. I highly recommend trying their products. The less animal products we consume, the kinder we are, in every aspect of the word.