Going vegan......old style?!

BilberryCharlotte · 30 April 2009 at 2:26PM

I have just received a parcel from a friend with two packs each of the above mixes ( mind you they also sent me a modern egg timer) does anyone know if they are vegan?

I have looked on the website but can`t see the info I want. I did think of e mailing them, but they only have a fax number and phone number displayed.

kim_ley · 3 May 2009 at 10:32PM

WOW that is quick... I went to the doctors and was sent to gyne in 2days (was impressed with the speed - but also scared they thought it was so urgent) and he did a biopsy.

Well just to let you know... booja booja are £5.15 & £8.99 reduced to clear at http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/special-offers

AND email from a lovely company... Scrumptious Sweets I contacted the a while ago about vegan marshmallows.... lovely woman about to order

Hi Kim,

As promised I would inform you when we have Vegan marshmallows.

We are launching the vegan marshmallows.

I also thought you will be interested to know Vegan marshmallows are on offer for Vegetarian Week!!!

http://www.scrumptioussweets.co.uk/product_details.asp?id=338

For more range of Vegan treats please click on the link below:

http://www.scrumptioussweets.co.uk/products.asp?cat=vegan

Please feel free to forward this email to your friends and family.

Best wishes,

Saida Ebrahim

Scrumptious Sweets

saida@scrumptioussweets.co.uk

www.scrumptioussweets.co.uk

Zahava · 6 May 2009 at 4:24PM

Hi all, I’m following this thread with interest as I have been vegetarian for 18 years and hoping I can just make the final adjustments to completely convert to veganism.
The reason for the change in diet was medical and I was advised to cut out all milk and dairy and to re-introduce it slowly in to my diet, which I did successfully but whilst looking up information about the vegan diet I found out all sorts of things about the dairy/egg industry some of which I’m ashamed to say I did not know before, I only ever had organic milk and free range organic eggs and thought naively that these were ethical, so now I don’t want to go back to eating dairy and eggs at all.
Not having fresh milk, fresh eggs and butter is something I gave up quite easily and have kept to since, rice milk is great much better than cows milk and hazelnut milk is lovely on my coco pops too, eggs I was never really that fussed with anyway occasionally I would have them with a cooked breakfast but I do like my cakes L and I have Tomar margarine spread on my toast and sandwiches, my real problem was (and still is) cheese (I miss my cream cheese beigels) and the hidden egg/milk in vegetarian products (I used to like tivall products and my favourite in a sandwich is the vegetarian spicy salami…lush! but all their products seem to have some sort of milk or derivatives). So I keep trying and hoping that by reading this thread and reading all the wonderful recipes and idea’s on here I will eventually succeed. Twinklestar, thankyou for starting this thread and hats off to you, you have done fantastically well to have come so far from an omnivorous diet to a complete vegan one, you must have lots of willpower and determination (can you send some my way please J)
Sorry for such a long first post. x

Justamum · 6 May 2009 at 4:58PM

Zahava wrote: »

I do like my cakes L

That's no problem - there are plenty of vegan cake recipes. I'll post my favourite one either later today or tomorrow.

Zahava wrote: »

my real problem was (and still is) cheese (I miss my cream cheese beigels) and the hidden egg/milk in vegetarian products (I used to like tivall products and my favourite in a sandwich is the vegetarian spicy salami…lush! but all their products seem to have some sort of milk or derivatives).

Admittedly most cheese substitutes are pretty vile, although I've actually got to like the Redwood Mozarella alternative as cheese on toast and on pizzas. Tofutti do a cream cheese alternative which is not too bad.

twinkle_star_2 · 6 May 2009 at 5:33PM

Hi Zahava,

As Justamum said - you certainly don't need to worry about cakes! There's a recipe right near the beginning for simple vegan cupcakes and if you want more recipes then "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" is an excellent book.

I've also tried out using linseed/flaxseed (it could be labelled as either) in place of egg in baking (and also for binding nut/seed burgers) and it works really well. I wouldn't use it for something really fluffy and light like a sponge but it was fine in denser things like banana and walnut loaf cake and fruit cake. To make one 'egg' simply grind 1 tablespoon of linseeds in a coffee grinder then place in a bowl with 3 tablespoons of water. Stir to mix and then watch as it transforms into a gelatinous goo that resembles egg-white. Fabbydabbydoodah. :T

As for cheese....um....no answer to be honest. Haven't found a substitute and very much doubt it will be found although several people I know say that they love tofutti cream-cheese style thing. I know my local health shop stocks it so hopefully you should be able to try it out on a bagel!:j

I'm sending you lots of willpower vibes :smileyhea(couldn't find anything resembling willpower so you get hearts which is similar!). I've been having a think about how I've stuck to my new diet (other than a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes:o) and I think its because rather than looking at it like a lose-weight diet where my brain says "I shouldn't eat that" I'm thinking "I don't eat that". It's a small difference but it seems to work because I'm not denying myself things I just don't eat them like some people don't eat tomatoes or fish or something. Plus, I've been so busy thinking about where to get vitamins and minerals that I'm almost always thinking about the things I should be eating.

So rather than thinking 'i really want a cream cheese bagel' I'll switch it to 'i should probably eat some more protein and calcium so I'll have a houmous and watercress bagel' and then my brain starts getting excited again and adding more things to eat like maybe some roast peppers...and some some artichokes hearts....and some grated carrot....and dribble dribble....you get the idea :rolleyes:

Anyway, hope that helped:D

Justamum · 6 May 2009 at 7:38PM

Sponge Cake Recipe

2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar

Sift these together. In a jug mix

1/2 cup soya/rice/any other milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla essence

Pour the liquid ingredients on to the dry ingredients and mix well. Divide into either two cake tins so you can sandwich them together, or one deeper cake tin, or about 24 small cake cases (or about 12 bigger ones). Bake for about 20 minutes (sorry the timing is a bit vague - it depends on the size of cake you are making!)

This is the basic cake I make all the time. I've found it very adaptable.

You can substitute 1/2 cup of the flour for 1/2 cup of cocoa and add about 100g of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips.
Use orange or lemon essence instead of the vanilla essence.
Make a coffee cake by substituting some of the milk for strong coffee, and add some chopped walnuts if you want.
The other day I made a banana cake by mashing a couple of bananas and adding that in when I added the liquid.
I've even adjusted quantities of the different liquids - using extra milk or even water in place of some of the oil as long as the total is the same. Having said that I sometimes add a bit more liquid if it's too stiff (it should be soft dropping consistency). I've not had any failures yet. You can use water in place of the orange juice, but add a tablespoon of cider vinegar (or distilled vinegar) to help the rising.

Zahava · 6 May 2009 at 8:04PM

Hi Justamum and Twinklestar, thankyou to you both, I have looked at some vegan recipes but to be honest I've never tried as baking isn't really my speciality and they look too hard, now I will try though as justamum, your sponge recipe looks fairly straight forward and also I did see a rather nice almond slices recipe that looked easy and any other easy recipes you have would be greatly appreciated. Would you know what I can substitute milk powder for in making bread (breadmaker J) or should I just leave it out? I'm not really sure what the milk powder does. In my vegan quest I have recently finished all my old tested on animals cleaners etc (again rather ashamed at not thinking about that one either) and bought a whole heap of Sainsbury active naturals range which are not animal tested and I must say I'm rather impressed with them, not only are they kind to animals, they clean really well, smell nice and are a fraction of the cost of method (which is also very good) so just wanted to give the thumbs up on here to them, especially the lavender washing up liquid. So now all I need to do is find some good vegan burger/sausage/salami substitute, start replacing make up products with ethical ones and stop thinking about cream cheese beigels and I will be sorted..a fully fledged vegan :A

Justamum · 6 May 2009 at 9:27PM

Zahava wrote: »

Would you know what I can substitute milk powder for in making bread (breadmaker J) or should I just leave it out?

I used to have a breadmaker and never used milk powder. I make mine by hand now and don't use milk powder. I honestly don't know what the point of it is, but it doesn't need it.

kafkathecat · 7 May 2009 at 7:22AM

I use soya flour instead of milk powder in my bread maker. Most commercial breads contain it anyway. I haven't tried without so I don't really know if it makes any difference.
K

twinkle_star_2 · 7 May 2009 at 8:56AM

I've made bread with and without the milk powder and as far as taste/texture went I really couldn't see a difference. I suppose in theory it makes it a bit richer but I have never found my ordinary bread to be lacking in anything! My breadmakers usual contents is just yeast, flour, sugar, salt, oil and water (and a bunch of seeds/nuts). No probs!

As for meat substitutes the old sos-mix and burger-mix were fab but you have to be careful now as they got taken over by a company that added milk to lots of the mixes. After loads of complaints they have taken it out of the new batch but you'll have to check individual packets for a while yet as lots of shops still have the old batch. They're now known as Granovita. I've tried burger, sausage and nut & seed burger (which specified an egg to bind the mix but I replaced with linseed) and they were all lovely.

If you can't be bothered to make your meat substitutes then Linda McCartney or Real Eat sausages are both pretty darn good (LM are available at supermarkets but have only seen RealEat at health food stores).

x

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Going vegan......old style?!

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