A question for Veggies?

Mr_Proctalgia

A question to Ruthyjo/Trow?

This is a spin off question from the £35 a week thread.

A lot of my inlaws (now outlaws) are Vegan, the local ones sold their house a bit quicker than planned and asked to move in for a "few weeks" this turned into 18 months:mad:.

Anyway, they spent a fortune on food, much more than we did (both families of 4), this is,'t having a go BTW - I sort of respect their choice of lifestyle, but most of their expense was caused by buying veggie stuff that replicated the look, smell and feel of meat. This is something I (we) could never understand, why buy porkless pies, veggies sausages, TVP chunks etc. They used to spend hours poring over books about e numbers, so out went most of the household cleaners and in came the ecover stuff, which we thought was crap BTW. It seemed impossible to get them to understand that its OK to eat veggies if you want to, just cook veg and eat it, stop trying to make it into something that it isn't. Certain things they ate were certainly not healthy either, for instance "cheese" made from Tomor and Marmite, or paying a fortune for scheese or cheezy and it was rubbish too - just like the plastic bacon stuff!_pale_

So as a general question to all the veggies/vegans out there, do you find yourselves paying over the odds for your lifestyle choice, do you try to replicate meat in some way or do you just eat veg as it comes?

catkins

I don't eat meat because I don't like it so I wouldn't think of buying meat substitutes. I buy loads of veg every week and things like pasta, rice etc but because I cook everything myself my weekly bills are far less than most of my friends and family. They don't just spend more because they buy meat, they all tend to buy readymade convenience food and I don't.

I have decided in the New Year to start getting an organic veg box delivered. We eat so much veg may as well pay more for the better taste.

DaisyNelson

As someone who has been a veggie all my adult life, I don't see the need to eat meat substitutes. There's plenty of choice out there, even if you aren't prepared to make it from scratch. I'll agree with the pretend cheese being rubbish - rather go without than eat that.

Mr_Proctalgia

I agree with both of you, however there is a huge market out there for mock meat the evidence is empirical. Someone is buying it (and paying through the nose too).

Ted_Hutchinson

I find when I have to entertain veggie relatives that the type of recipes in the Cranks cookery books are ideal. Unfortunately there aren't many of their recipes online however these from Veg-world are typical of the type Cranks approach.

I can't see the point in trying to make veg look or taste like meat. My last Tennertastic break we explored Leicester and found a fantastic Indian buffet place where not a bit of meat was in sight, and none of the huge range of curries or buffer items were pretend/imitation meat dishes. Really was an excellent meal, it was however primarily used by the local residents and I think we were the only white faces there. I was interested to see that the family parties included Grandparents and children and both seemed to pile their plates higher than I'm used to and I'm a greedy pig.

Interested also to see there were no "Childrens" options. They had the same selection of food as everyone else, good thing too in my opinion.

Another observation was that the dads seemed to play a more important role in ensuring the children's plates were full than would generally be the case in the equivalent Pizza hut type buffet where generally it's the Mum's who sort out the little kids meals.

scuzz

I say eat and let eat. I'm a meat eater, but whatever anyone else wants to feel free to munch away.

So if your Christmas dinner is turkey, immidation turkey, nut loaf or a bag of chips - enjoy

Bossyboots

I try to avoid using meat substitutes for my daughter but have yet to find an alternative way of making toad-in-the-hole without sausages.

catkins

Ted, am interested in restaurant in Leicester and we intend going there soon and we both absolutely love indian food. Can you let me know name and/or address. Thanks

Cariad_3

I have been a veggie for 25 years and could never see the point in meat replacements but everyone to their own.
I think I eat quite cheaply as I just love vegetables. My favourite meal is a roast dinner minus the meat with onion gravy.

Trow

I am not a veggie but I eat a lot of veggie food - including TVP mince. Yes, some meat substitues (quorn especially) are overpriced, but I get TVP from SUMA and pay about £3 for a HUGE bag which does us 6 months of mince-meals - I have converted my friend to it as well cos it is so cheap. I have never liked meat mince ever - it makes me physically gag - so this is a great alternative.

Whether you eat meat or not your cooking can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be - and vegetarian home cooked meals using wonderful colourful ingredients such as veg, fruit and pulses, and basic tvp are cheap and good for you.

Having said that - the OH is a big fan of quorn - and he is a much more committed meat eater than I could ever pretend to be....

krishna

I've been a veggie since birth. Foodwise, I don't believe it is more expensive to be vegetarian; more likely the other way round. But then we eat a lot of Indian food. Pulses are cheap, nutritious and versatile. My wife became vegetarian after we got married. Don't really use "meat substitutes". Occasionally use TVP, but I don't really see that as a meat substitute. As with any kind of food, if you buy raw ingredients it is cheaper. Meat substitutes are not raw ingredients; they are largely preprepared foods and as such are more expensive.

The thing that adds does add to our shopping bills is buying organic produce and buying "environmentally friendly", ethical household products.