{"id":1933,"date":"2020-03-09T07:36:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T11:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/?p=1933"},"modified":"2025-03-06T07:46:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T11:46:29","slug":"meat-substitutes-i-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/meat-substitutes-i-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Meat substitutes I like"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends ask me what I mean when I say I don’t eat much processed food. <\/span><\/strong>Processed = anything with a label.
\nBread, pasta = label = processed.<\/span><\/strong>
\nFrozen or packaged meals,\u00a0 chips,\u00a0cookies = label = processed.<\/span><\/strong>
\nPastries, bagels, cakes, candies = label = processed.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fruit, carcass, no label.<\/span><\/strong>
\nBroccoli, produce = no label.<\/span><\/strong>
\nDeepak Chopra says eat nothing with a face or a label. I’m not that extreme.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vegetarian Meat Substitutes I Like<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

See below for calorie and fat gram comparisons<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

GODDESS GRUB TIP:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 While I mostly eat and prefer natural, unprocessed foods, there are times I crave a\u00a0burger or meatballs or a hot dog.\u00a0 Many of them are made from TVP, or texturized vegetable protein.\u00a0 MMM, sounds yummy, huh?\u00a0 The flavoring comes from the spices and other ingredients.\u00a0 The TVP supplies protein, nutrients and the meaty texture we Westerners (Americans) have all grown up on.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t care for all vegetarian products.\u00a0 But some I like enough to use even though they are processed.\u00a0\u00a0I cook them all in a saute pan, I don’t microwave anything since that affects nutrients.\u00a0 If my food is my medicine, I need all I can get from each bite.\u00a0 Here are the low fat, non-meat alternatives I like the best.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

NON-MEAT BURGERS.<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

I like the Boca brand of vegetarian products and especially the burgers.\u00a0 My favorites are the Flame Grilled, the Garden Vegetable and Cheeseburger.\u00a0 At only 80 to 120 calories – and 2 to 5 grams of fat – per burger.\u00a0 I can still have my version of some old favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I also like the Morningstar Farms\u00a0Mushroom Lovers Burger and the Original Grillers, classic burger flavor, veggie-style.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

VEGGIE HOT DOGS<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Morningstar Farms makes several hot dogs but I like the Italian Sausage, just 120 calories and 6 grams of fat.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite is the Boca brand Italian Sausage.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

FAKE CHICKEN PATTIES<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

I really like the Boca brand Chik’n Patties Original.\u00a0 No, they don’t taste like real chicken, but close enough.\u00a0 They have a good flavor and I like the crispy breaded coating.\u00a0 160 calories, 6 grams of fat.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

FAKE RIBLETS<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

In 2009 I discovered the Morningstar Farms Hickory BBQ Riblets\u00a0\u00a0and was surprised how much I liked them.\u00a0 They had a smoky, BBQ flavor and a meaty texture, like a flavorful firm meatloaf.\u00a0 Two servings per box, 220 calories and 3.5 grams of fat each.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I like these served with a baked potato (I’ve learned to love them “neat” without butter or sour cream, with just salt and pepper) and a big salad.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

FAKE MEATBALLS<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

I discovered and like the Dominex frozen eggplant products, including eggplant cutlets, \u00a0burgers, Parm Bites and Meatballs.\u00a0 The meatballs are my favorite.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Boca brand has a lot of products available, as does Morningstar Farms.\u00a0\u00a0More and more I am finding these products at Publix, although of course your local health food store may have them as well.\u00a0 They may also be found at many natural good markets.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me know what your own favorites are.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Comparison Meat vs. Veggie Burgers<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder\u00a0\u00a0 510 calories 26 grams\u00a0fat
\nBurger King Whopper cheese\u00a0 770 calories 48 grams\u00a0fat
\nWendy’s Single, no cheese\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0464 calories 20 grams\u00a0fat<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Boca Burgers\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 80-120 calories per patty\u00a0\u00a0 2-5 fat grams per patty<\/span><\/strong>
\nMorningstar Farms Burgers<\/span> 80-120 per patty 3-6 grams of fat<\/span><\/strong>
\nReal burgers made with\u00a0meat<\/span>\u00a0 400-780 calories 20-48 grams of fat<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Morningstar Farms veggie hot dogs<\/span> 50 calories 1 gram of fat<\/span><\/strong>
\nReal hot dogs made with meat<\/span> 200-600 calories\u00a0 15 grams of fat<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Morningstar Farms <\/strong><\/span>
\nHickory BBQ Riblets<\/span> 220 calories\u00a04 grams of fat<\/span><\/strong>
\nReal BBQ pork ribs\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0420 calories 26 grams of fat<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends ask me what I mean when I say I don’t eat much processed food. Processed = anything with a label. Bread, pasta = label = processed. Frozen or packaged meals,\u00a0 chips,\u00a0cookies = label = processed. Pastries, bagels, cakes, candies = label = processed. Fruit, carcass, no label. Broccoli, produce = no label. Deepak Chopra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5vW9k-vb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1934,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933\/revisions\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}