So, after passing a dairy farm on the way to work a few days ago and being grossed out by the conditions, I decided that I want to become vegan. This is going to be a slow process for me, as I have tried (and failed) before and happen to LOVE milk (and all things dairy). But now I'm ready for the challenge.
Here's the thing: I've perused through cookbooks and the like, but none of them make much sense to me, have a LOT of stuff I've never heard of (nutrional yeast flakes? What?? ew!) and the MAJORITY of the recipes I've found seem REALLY complicated nor do they look appetizing!!
I work full-time and go to school full-time, so I don't have a ton of time to spend in the kitchen and therefore I eat out alot. I'm lucky enough to live in a city where vegan/vegetarian restaurants aren't too hard to find, but I can never replicate those meals at home. Also; I have a huge problem eating "fake" meat. I'd rather just not touch the stuff.
Does anyone have any suggestions to make the crossover more easily; and how to integrate veganism into a jam-packed schedule; and! Maybe have some ideas for recipes that aren't complicated and don't involve "soy protien" (and can also be made to be eaten on the go?)
Thanks;
B
For food on the go try sandwiches and wraps. All you need to do is check the ingredients in whatever you use to make said sandwiches and wraps. I really like banana and peanut butter or spinach and hummus. If you're looking for snacks on the go, fruit or nuts are really easy.
For meals at home, pasta and tomato sauce. And you can just experiment. I put chickpeas, olive oil, basil and pasta together and it's really yummy. You can get canned chick peas so you don't have to spend ages soaking and cooking them.
I have Dreena Burton's Eat Drink and be Vegan cookbook, and I really like it. The recipes aren't too complicated when you think that most of the spices are optional. And I don't think I've ever mixed the wet ingredients to a cake in one bowl and then added them to the dry ingredients. I just throw everything into one. So, the level of complicatedness depends on what you are willing to do :-)
Have fun!
Trid
Rid your house of all dairy, meat, and other animal products. Buy almond/soy/rice milk, and go from there for your "dairy".
Pasta is your new BFF; so is rice.
Shop in the "Organic" section; they are very compatible to different "isms". [Veganism, vegetariansim, ect.]
Also, if you are busy alot, try Amy's frozen meals. They are organic and none of them have meat; some are vegan. They even make soy mac'n'cheese and pizza.
Also, don't give up just because of lack of time! Try slow-cookers; they are very easy to work with and only require a short amount of time to prepare. Also, beans are cheap, healthy and a good source of protein.
Try different beans recipes- make combonations of beans/rice/pasta. Buy a good notebook and write down your new recipes. Buy a vegan cookbook; make a shopping list of ingrediants from recipes, and try something new every week!
Good luck!
PS-Nutritional yeast flakes are flakes that have alot of proteinand vitamins, and tastes kind of like cheese.
I was pretty much raised vegan, so I'll admit nutritional yeast flakes sound no more rare or "ew" to me than say cornstarch.... but hey.... here are some of my tips I give to friends:
#1 Find A Good Restaurant
This is much easier if you live in a large city. If you do there are likely some vegetarian and vegan only restaurants in your city. Go to them, try the food, see what you like. Many of these restaurants will have published their own cookbooks. Try them. I'm currently working my way through the Green Cuisine Cookbook from Victoria BC, I have to say that I've like all the recipes I've tried and they've been relatively simple to make, most take 20 minutes, and even the most complicated (haven't tried the baking section yet) have taken me under 1 hour. If you go to the recipes thread on this forum I've posted a bunch of them, they are links so you can just click on them, get the list of ingredients, and it's already calorie calculated for you.
Note: Not all of my recipes are vegan, my partner just can't be bothered to enter recipes himself so I enter vegan and meat recipes in my name, all of the veggie recipes that I have that list dairy I have made with soy products and they taste great with soy. (Usually I sneak the soy in and my partner doesn't notice)
#2 Simple Substitutes
There's a lot of simple things you can do, soy yogurt, soy milk, soy cheese where it calls for dairy. Quick and easy food are wraps, pita & dip (like hummus), trail mix (tasty and full of protein), bean dishes are bizzarly simple to make and last a good 5 days in the fridge and are usually tasty even cold (and can be used as a spread).
#3 Cook the basics once
Make a big pot of pasta, rice, soak the beans once per week, or so. If you want to do a stir fry, a pasta salad, some refried beans you don't have to wait for these items to cook it's quick an easy as chopping veggies.
#4 Fake Meat Question
Everyone asks about the fake meat, I have tried veggie dogs and veggie burgers, for me they are a convenient way to participate in a BBQ with meat-eating friends. For stuff like veggie ham, or veggie deli slices, I'm of the mind of "why bother" there's plenty of tasty veggie sandwiches, wraps etc.. that I don't need them. A few things I have found useful and tasty are stuff like the veggie ground-round (supposed to replace ground beef)... it saves me a lot of prep time on stuff like veggie chili, or veggie shepheards pie where I usually add barley as a texture base. Generally it's really useful in stuff where you wouldn't "taste" meat but you would have meat for texture and protein. There are also a lot of great dishes with tofu, tempeh and seitan that I find are quite tasty for those things, not because they are trying to "be" meat.
so I'm TOTALLY with you on the no fake meats thing, in my opinion theyre generally high in sodium, not al that nutritious for the calories, and never taste much like meat. i just dont think of them as a particularly 'healthy' food (though I know others will really disagree!)
you may not be much like me so this advice may not be too helpful, but I rarely make complicated 'meals', i just eat a lot of whole grains and vegetables!
for instance, for breakfast i might have a big bowl of oatmeal made with water, with raspberries and jam, or cinnamon grated apple and honey/brown sugar. or I would have 2 slices of flax seed toast with earth balance vegan butter (its non-hydrogenated!) or jam. And ill often make a smoothie with just a banana and squeeze in an orange, and have an apple!
for lunch i always have a huuuge salad with grated beets and carrots, sliced celery, sweetcorn (which i cut right off the stalk into my salad, raw) and sometimes add tofu! there are some really great dressings out there, i recommend trying different 'annies naturals', some of which are reeeally low cal! i usually sprinkle my salad with sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.
for dinner i always try and mix it up! whole wheat pasta with steamed veggies and pasta sauce, brown rice with tofu and vegetables, sometimes with lentils and chickpeas (which yoiu can buy ready-cooked and canned at whole foods, theyre DELICIOUS) etc etc.
if i want a snack throughout the day ill have a lot of fresh fruit, almonds, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit etc.
basically my point is that, for me, i can be vegan without really having to cook 'recipes', i just make little meals that taste good! ooh also try corn thins for snacking, theyre really good topped with peanut butter and sliced banana, or just spread with jam if you want something sweet!
To brittypooo's point, a simple vegan cookbook should have 'recipes' that are no more complicated that what she has listed above for 80% of the recipes. The point of a good cookbook should be to make you life easier and give you lots of ideas for food combinations that are tasty and simple. The additional complicated recipes are for fun when you have time and once you want to experiment with more complex combinations. If it's not functional then it's just a coffee table book.
I'm in the UK and we've had a lot of campaigns recently highlighting animal welfare issues. Demand for organic and 'free-range' foods has rocketed, farmers with high standards are being rewarded with good sales, and the rest of the industry is having to clean up its act or lose trade.
It's very easy to throw together some staple dishes, and then get creative with spices and adding things, depending on what you like:
- rice and beans
- chili
- homemade veggie pizzas and calzones
- mexican- burritos, tacos, veggie fajitas, taco salad
- wraps and sandwiches (i use a lot of extra sliced avocados, cucumbers and mushrooms for texture)
- stir fries & curries -salads (veggies or pasta)
- cereal with non-dairy milk of choice and berries & bananas
- veggies and dips (guacamole, hummus, artichoke)
- pasta with sauce and vegetables
- soups and stews with crusty bread
- veggie sushi rolls and edamame
If you like tofu, it opens a whole new world of recipes ranging from breakfast scramblers to stir fries to desserts. It can be prepared many ways and added to most things successfully.
There are lots of little substitions I use every day with regular recipes. There's the obvious soy/rice/almond milk for milk, for eggs I either use the egg replacer powder (which is easy to find in the grocery store) with water or some tofu or 1/2 a banana or some other binder. In baking you can either use vegetable oil, applesauce or vegan margarine (like Smart Balance) to replace butter. I don't use the fake cheeses, but they are out there. Beans like chickpeas, kidney beans and canellini beans can be spiced many ways and added as a filler to replace meat in many recipes as well. Hummus or mashed guacamole add a creaminess to sandwiches instead of mayo.
If you like ethnic type foods, a lot of them already have vegan items on the menu and just might not have it labeled as such. Many restaurants will be happy to whip you up some steamed or stirfried veggies over rice, or fajitas or modify something off the menu if you just ask. I always make it a point to make sure I mention I cannot have butter or milk used in the cooking.
If you have any questions, would like to some recipes, or anything, please feel free to send me a message. : )
Good luck!
hey thanks to all of y'all!! i REALLY appreciate it. i'm definitely going to send some of you guys some messages for more clarification.
+ thanskbrittypoo!! youre diet seems similar to the way i eat, so that seems like it could work. plus i looooooove oatmeal!!!
i don't mind tofu, so i suppose i can experiment with that. i was vegetarian a few years back, for a really long time, so i'm not stranger to the world of soy. i just try to regulate my intake because it has a heavy dose of estrogen!
ALSO; i notice that there's a LOT of talk regarding pasta + rice. is that healthy? i mean i'm definitely carb friendly, but those two can sure pack a punch when it comes to eating them often, so i tend to stay away from them as much as possible (i'm in the market to lose 70 lbs, so i want to be healthy vegan, not those kind at my school who stuff their faces with french fries and swedish fish!)
pasta and rice can be tricky. just make sure you pick brown rice or whole grain pasta: they can still seem high in calories, but they will keep you full longer. kind of like oatmeal does, but for dinner.
one of my favorite quick lunches is homemade pizza. i just take a whole wheat pita pocket, lay it flat, cover one side in salsa, add chopped veggies & a spoonful or two of chickpeas, and then pop it into the oven for 5 minutes or so (until the pita is crispy). it's about 200-300 calories, and delicious. red kindey beans also have a nice texture to them.
if you're looking for a sweet treat, try making oatmeal cookies! with a few alteration they're really tasty, and pretty healthy. just mix together 1 cup of oats, 1/4 cup apple sauce, 1 smashed up banana, 1 spoonful of peanut butter, a dash of salt, a spoonful of raisins, a spoonful of almonds, a dash of cinnamon and either a spoonful of brown sugar or stevia. you can add a touch of almond milk or soy milk if it seems too thick. spoon the gunk onto a cookie tray, bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or so, and voila! they may never make it onto martha stewart, but they're darn tasty. healthy, too: they can even pass as breakfast!
