Cassie has a multifaceted lifestyle that embraces a variety of hobbies. From weight lifting to the intricate art of knitting, she finds joy in activities that challenge both the body and the mind.
She embarked on her vegetarian journey at the young age of 12, driven by a newfound awareness of the lifestyle. Cassie channels her creativity and love for food into a captivating food blog. Specializing in high-protein vegan recipes, she dedicates her free time to crafting delicious and nutritious plant-based dishes.
In essence, Cassie is more than just a vegan enthusiast – she is a storyteller, a fitness enthusiast, a music lover, and a culinary artist, all woven together into a tapestry of passions that define her unique journey.
Please tell us more about yourself
My name is Cassie. I’m a Chemical Engineer, currently living in the Chicagoland area!
I also have a food blog that focuses on high protein vegan recipes that I work on in my free time! I like weight lifting, knitting, tattoos, rock music and Taylor Swift!
I went vegetarian when I was 12 years old when I learned that was a thing you could do; before that, I had never been exposed to vegetarianism. I have been vegan for 3 years now, and made the transition from vegetarian to vegan after reading the book “Eating Animals”; before then, I wasn’t aware of how terrible the dairy and egg industries were.
Fun fact – when I was 12 and decided I was going to be a vegetarian, I actually wrote my parents an embarrassing hand-written letter about how I would no longer be eating animals. I think it basically said that cows have brothers and sisters and moms and dads so I cannot eat them anymore because it is sad. So eloquent!
Eating out is still very challenging unless we are willing to drive to Chicago. In general, we tend to eat at home a lot, which has really made me fall in love with cooking! At work, we have potlucks every so often, and my coworkers are super supportive and bring vegan dishes and are really open to trying the ones I bring!
I feel so great being a vegan – mentally, physically and emotionally. I also love the community and sense of belonging you automatically feel when meeting other vegans as well!
Something I have heard for the last 23 years of not eating meat is “How do you get your protein?”, so for me, I like to emphasize how much protein the meals I cook have and how great they taste
Protein Deficient Vegan 🌱
Most of the misconceptions I hear are that vegans are protein deficient or vitamin deficient
I’m choosing to counter those misconceptions by using my social media to share high protein vegan recipes that still taste great!
I like bringing dishes that I really love to work potlucks and family gatherings to try to show non-vegan/vegetarians that vegan food can be amazing. Oftentimes, people have a really negative impression of vegan food because many restaurants have really meh vegan food.
Kitchen17 and Alice and Friends are our favorite vegan restaurants in Chicago; we go to these all the time! Kitchen17 has a perfect Chicago deep dish pizza; also they mail-order frozen pizzas. And Alice and Friends has a massive menu and everything that we’ve tried has been 10/10!
Lately, I’ve been baking a ton of high protein vegan cheesecakes that use silken tofu for the filling and TVP for the crust. I love them because they are so easy to make, are super filling and are great for hitting your protein macros and fitness/nutrition goals!
My best advice to someone going vegan is to learn how to cook some easy meals that you really love. It’s still hard to find good vegan restaurants and you’ll have a much easier time succeeding if you learn to cook things you enjoy! Also, I would recommend finding a vegan community whether it’s in real life or social media; there are a lot of universal struggles and having people you can talk to that can relate can really help you through those!
My greatest accomplishment has been converting my partner to the ways of veganism. He is loving it by the way and is healthier and happier than ever! 🙂
Protein Deficient Vegan 🌱
(Mostly 😅) High Protein Vegan Recipes and Food
@vegainsfitnessnutrition
Chicagoland based 💚
all images courtesy of Protein Deficient Vegan 🌱