1. Gardein Beefless Ground

Two popular brands, as you will see throughout this article, are Gardein and Morningstar. Morningstar offers its Morningstar Griller Crumbles as a ground beef alternative and it was the first alternative to it that I had tried as a vegetarian; however, after I tried Gardein's Beefless Ground, I stopped buying Morningstar's alternative. Gardein's option is a lot more accurate in texture, provides much more protein (which is super important for vegetarians), and is gluten-free! Don't get me wrong, Morningstar's alternative does the job and tastes good, but when I see Gardein at the store, I buy it instead.

The best thing about ground beef alternatives? They cook way faster than actual ground beef and taste just as good!

2. Gimme Lean Veggie Sausage

This stuff has an amazing Italian flavor! The first time I cooked with it, I was slightly spooked and wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not. I will warn you, it is mushy and a little creepy in texture when you first get it into the pan.

Full disclosure, I am a complete freak when it comes to creepy textures, so I promise this is 100% delicious and edible once cooked.

After you get it into the pan with some vegetable oil and break it up more, it's texture completely changes and it begins to brown and start looking like sausage.

I love using this when I make spaghetti or pizza because it can be formed into meatballs or treated as crumbles. Its flavor is perfect for any Italian dish that features marinara sauce.

3. Morningstar Buffalo Chik Patties

These guys are great for a quick snack or bite to eat!

I stick mine in the toaster oven until they're nice and crisp and then use them to make a buffalo wrap or sandwich. I will say, these are not the best chicken alternative that I have had, but I do buy them and keep them in my house for quick snacks or lunches. I find them a lot tastier than Morningstar's Original Chick Patties because they have the buffalo flavor to make them more enjoyable and harder to distinguish their taste as different than regular fried chicken sandwiches.

4. LightLife Smart Dogs

Someone try and prove me wrong, but who doesn't love hot dogs? Because no one knows what's even in real hot dogs, it's not hard to eat a veggie hot dog and not notice a difference! I love making these veggie dogs on my panini press to give them grill lines as if they were fresh off a grill.

If you have access to a grill, 10/10 recommend using it on these bad boys.

Major Key Alert!!!! Use Gardein's Beefless Ground or Morningstar's Griller Crumbles to make a chili to put on to your hot dogs and BAM, chili dogs that are to die for.

5. Field Roast Smoke Apple Sage Sausages

YES. These things are crazy good and as a bonus, they are actually vegan as well! When I went to unpackage them I was completely ~shook~ that you even had to uncase them like you would a regular sausage. In fact, I read the entire package multiple times to be sure they were vegetarian before opening them.

It's really nice to have a sausage alternative such as this one that is SO flavorful and offers 25 grams of protein per sausage.

I will be buying these delicious, flavorful sausages for as long as I live.

6. Quorn Chik'n Cutlets

These things are a killer trio: meatless, gluten-free, and soy-free!

As a vegetarian, there is often soy in most of the meat alternatives. Soy isn't particularly good or bad for you, but you don't need to be eating a ton of it every day. I actually ended up using a copy-cat Chick-fil-a recipe on these and fried them. They blew me out of the water!

They are weird looking and kind of creepy feeling out of the package, but once I fried them and bit into my sandwich, I was so delighted. The texture is amazing!

They were a bit drier and not so chewy, like a lot of chicken alternatives are, and I am so grateful I discovered them.

Newly vegetarian and craving Chick-fil-A? Look at Pinterest for the copycat recipe!

7. Morningstar Maple Flavored Sausage Patties

These are so far the only breakfast meat alternative that I truly enjoy. Morningstar has a plain sausage patty and a bacon alternative but, let's be real, they aren't that good. The maple flavor makes these taste more sausagey and breakfasty than either of their other two breakfast non-meats. Plus, I use to always dip my sausage in syrup anyways so it's a win-win.

Pro Tip: Always, always, always cook these in a pan! I microwaved them once and they were so hard I couldn't even bite into it. They cook pretty fast anyway, so skip the microwave.

8. Morning Star Veggie Chik'n Strips

These meatless grilled chicken strips are not bad at all! They are great for making quick dishes like chicken alfredo, grilled chicken wraps, chicken noodle soup, a protein-packed salad, and the list goes on. To give these an even more chicken-like flavor, I use a chicken seasoning on them! For someone who is super picky about texture, their texture is a little bit chewier than chicken but not a creepy chewy. I cook them longer to make them more firm!

9. The Beyond Burger

This burger is a dream!!!

I cooked it in a pan and it was so flavorful that it tasted like it was fresh off of a grill. Twenty grams of plant-based, delicious, filling protein is what you get in just one of these burgers. When you are tired of black bean burgers and want something that tastes like the real deal, I definitely recommend these. If you want a little burger, maybe the size of a kids burger at Mcdonald's, you can always head over to Morningstar's section and try their Grillers Burger. They're good, but they have nothing on the Beyond Burger!