My Vegan MoFo theme this year is “Go Vegan with JL…In the kitchen!” in which I reply to your questions about cooking in your vegan kitchen. (I explain a bit more about my theme and plan for my October posts here.)

Today’s question:

“How do I know what foods are vegan?”

This is a really great question! We know that vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, nuts and seeds are vegan; they are derived from plants. It gets a bit trickier, however, when you start to shop from the inside aisles of grocery stores or in the refrigerated section.

My tip: Use these great resources:

Vegan Shopping Guide. This PETA resource outlines vegan foods by grocery store sections. Accidentally Vegan. PETA provides a fun list of foods that are, oops!, vegan. Is this a list of only healthy vegan foods? Nope. But sometimes I don’t to eat healthy (Get over here, Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Flavored Tortilla Chips!). Vegan Foods Glossary. This Vegan Outreach resource provides handy vegan substitution ideas.

I found each invaluable as a new vegan.

Other great resources:

Also, check out the Vegan 101 post here on this blog regarding reading labels.

Here’s an another tip: shop from vegan grocery stores! That’s right, you can order vegan groceries from online stores such as Vegan Essentials. If you’re lucky, there may be a vegan market in your town, like Food Fight! Grocery in Portland, Vegan Bodega in NYC or Nooch Vegan Market, in Denver. In fact, I’m in Colorado right now and I popped into Nooch for supplies for my hotel room in Colorado Springs. Joshua, one of the co-owners helped me find what I needed.

and I am completely ready for breakfast in my hotel each morning

and for snacks (including kale chips!) in the evening.

I know many vegan bloggers include a vegan grocery list on their site – if you have one, link it up!