Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [90]
Nondairy milks include soy, almond, rice, and hemp; you can get them in different flavors, sweetened or not. For lightening my tea and coffee, my absolute favorite is Silk Soy Creamer, because it’s rich and thick and won’t separate in hot beverages. Westsoy Crème de la Soy is also terrific. And there are wonderful nondairy ice creams that are as tasty as anything you grew up with. Great vegan cheeses can be used to make pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches, or sprinkle them over soups and mix into salads; just look for them next to the regular cheese in health food stores and some supermarkets. I like Daiya, which is made from tapioca. Some people think soy cheeses taste “odd,” but I think they’re terrific, and I’ve made many converts over the years. Nutritional yeast flakes, found at health food stores, are also great sprinkled over pasta instead of Parmesan, and they’re loaded with B12 and protein.
9. When traveling, bring some dried fruits and nuts for the plane or between meetings. It’s also not a bad idea to pack up leftovers from the night before in a “to go” box (save the ones you get from restaurant takeout) and bring them with you, or make a couple of sandwiches and a thermos of soup to have on hand. Wherever you are, you can always run into a supermarket to grab some fresh fruit, nut butter, or cut up veggies. Nearly every hotel serves oatmeal for breakfast—just ask room service to have the kitchen make it with either water or soy milk rather than regular milk, which is their fallback preparation; you can sprinkle on your nuts and fruits if they don’t have any to accompany the dish. Or you can ask for toast or a bagel with peanut butter and a fruit plate. The nicer hotels offer soy milk, but if you suspect there won’t be any at the one you are going to, and your coffee won’t be the same without cream, you can buy powdered nondairy creamer (not the old-fashioned hydrogenated kind; go to the health food store for it instead, and steer clear of anything with sodium caseinate in it, because that is a milk product). It’s not really that tasty, but it’ll do in a pinch. That said, be sure that the hotelier or airline hears your request for nondairy options, because when they hear enough noise, they will eventually respond.
I travel with small packets of protein powder in case I don’t get enough whole foods to cover my nutritional needs while on the road; I shake it up in a bottle of water and pour in some ground flax seeds for fiber. Sometimes I even go back to the kitchen of the hotel and ask them to put my protein powder in with some water and bananas and blueberries and blend it all up. I tell them they can charge me for it, as it’s worth it to me to eat something healthy rather than gorge on bread if that’s all they have that’s vegan. Another fun snack for the road is vegetarian jerky, which is high in protein.
10. When choosing which restaurants to go to, check out the local ethnic eateries, because they will usually have more interesting and delicious vegetarian and vegan options. Indian, Mexican, Thai, Ethiopian, Lebanese, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines all have a strong plant-based orientation. At fancier restaurants, I often mention that I’m a vegan when making my reservation. Restaurant kitchens get very busy, so if you order something vegan upon arrival the cooks may be too frenzied to whip up anything interesting; but if you give them advance notice, the chef is usually more than happy to have something in store for you when you arrive. If you go to more all-American sorts of restaurants, you can always ask them to put everything vegetable/bean/legume/ potato on a plate for a vegetarian smorgasbord. Most places also have pasta primavera (pasta with veggies), but you don’t want to eat pasta