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

O.W.E.I

sarah2000h wrote: »

I've been vegan a few times and vegetarian most of my life. I didn't feel any healthier by being vegan or lose any weight. What I did find is that my diet isolated me socially and if you travel abroad it's almost impossible. So good luck with the new diet and I hope it works for you. Keep us posted.:j

If you do some research before you go abroad you should be fine.
We generally go self-catering, so I cook or we have the option of going out if we want to.
I usually take an emergency cooking pack with me (stock cubes, garlic pepper etc etc).

No problem at all in places like The Canaries or Madeira, even France was ok. Tunisia was more difficult, but not insurmountable.
Egypt was fine.

As for going out, there's usually loads of options (unless you live in the middle of nowhere in a cave. Or something).
Indian, Italian, Chinese, Pizza ???
Most will cater for you if they don't already and if they won't, don't go there!

The places where there are problems are the awful chain pub/restaurants (mentioning no names - they know who they are), but I can't understand why anyone would want to go to one of these dreadful dumps in the first place.

Good luck, and as Doom_and_Gloom quite rightly says 'It's not a diet, it's a way of life'

And it's your life, your choice - Go For It and enjoy!:D

Justamum

mobilecat wrote: »

I will also be watching this thread with interest. I find it funny that so many veggies annd vegans cook meat for their families though - really really weird!

I find it weird too! When I got together with DH many years ago I told him I didn't mind him eating meat, but I wasn't going to cook it for him. As he can't cook he decided to become vegetarian and has now been veggie for 17 years. He says I've saved his life - before he was extremely overweight, and when he had a cholesterol test the serum was cloudy it was so high!

mobilecat wrote: »

Our son, now 6, is not a veggie (at the moment). We have decided that we will let him make the decision for himself and I know he will go my way soon but I have never influenced that. At home, he is almost entirely veggie as I do most of his cooking but he has some meat and fish if hubby is making it. At school he has a balanced diet including fish and meat and when with his grandparents he also occasonially gets meat or fish. He knows I am veggie and I only cook veggie and never questions that.

I also don't understand this though! As a child I wanted to give up meat but wasn't given the choice, and as I had visions of starving to death I ate meat (of course I realised as I got older that my mum would not have let me starve ). My children have never eaten meat and if they eat at friends' houses they don't eat it either. The older two (age 12 and 9) are quite adamant that they never want to eat it as they are as opposed to killing animals as I am. The youngest is just 4 so doesn't really understand yet but is told why we don't eat meat. But yes, I have influenced them, just as meat-eating parents influence their children, and I don't see anything wrong with that.

Actually I remember when DD1 was about 2 and I was in a supermarket with my mum. My DD was sitting in my mum's trolley and I was at the other end of the supermarket, when I heard my little daughter pipe up "Eeeeerrrrrrrr - Yucky meat" - obviously my mum was in the meat section :rotfl:

twinkle_star_2

mobilecat wrote: »

I will also be watching this thread with interest. I find it funny that so many veggies annd vegans cook meat for their families though - really really weird!

I may eventually stop cooking meat for my OH but at the moment I think I'm still happy to as 1 - I only just made the change myself so I can't really get all fussy about it so suddenly, 2 - If I don't cook for him he will just go and buy microwave burgers, pizzas and chocolate (or starve - he is 6ft3 and before I started feeding him he weighed 8 1/2 stone:eek: ), plus I still have some frozen meaty bits and bobs in the freezer from before!

However, saying all that I have so far only really done him a big ham to cut up for lunchtime sandwiches (when I'm not there) and the rest of the time he's had vegan stuff. The other day he even said that he has really enjoyed all the food so far and it is convincing him that he might be able to go vegetarian :j (i'll get him to vegan one day!:rotfl: )

O.W.E.I

Mrs OWEI was veggie when I met her, she's now almost Vegan, but still has a fondness for eggs, which she has for dinner at work occasionally.
Eggs and chicken are the reason I turned veggie all those years ago - I won't have eggs in the house and even the smell of chicken crisps makes my stomach churn.

Fortunately, it's not really a problem as she's unaware as to the location of our kitchen....:rotfl:

Hidden ingredients in food can be a problem.
Beware the foul concocction that is quorn. For reasons beyond me, they use eggs in it.:eek:

twinkle_star_2

They use egg white as binding material.

Not only that, until 2004 they used battery eggs:eek:

I wish my OH didn't know where the kitchen was. he can find the fridge but unfortunately has as yet been unable to locate the sink!

O.W.E.I

I find it bizarre, there are plenty of non-animal binding agents available - so why do they use eggs???

I rarely buy ready-made stuff or mixes (with the exception of Sosmix R.I.P - but that's another story), as I prefer to make all ours from scratch where possible.
It's easy, it's cheap and I know what's in it (lots of garlic usually...lol!)

I dream of the day my OH finds the fridge, let alone the sink...

VeganClaire

My vegan bean burger recepie:
(Makes about 8 burgers)
1 well drained tin of soft beans (e.g. kidney, cannalini)
1 small tin of tomatoe puree or some pureed veg (I find left over butternut squash really nice).
2/3 medium grated vegetables (I use carrot or caugette)
Oats
A bit of Soy sauce / hendersons rellish / lemon juice
Herbs / chilli flakes

Drain tin of beans and rinse.
Mash beans.
Add other ingerdients and mix well.
Shape into burgers (If very wet mix add a few more oats)
Bake or fry.

Fuchsia_a

Wow, so many great recipes and ideas! :T

I went vegan about four or five years ago. My partner at the time ate sausage sandwiches for literally every meal, and had a can of sweetcorn as a treat every week if there was enough money left over, and I think hanging around with him so much was what tipped me from thinking about it to doing it.

Pizza - I sometimes put hummous or nutritional yeast flakes on mine, mixed up with the tomatoey saucy layer, or make an eggless aioli by blending a leftover boiled waxy potato with oil and raw garlic (floury potatoes do not work, and it's a bit tricky, like making mayonnaise), which goes kinda like melty toasted cheese when you cook it. I second brushing the pizza base with oil to keep it from drying out, in any case.

My favourite vegan food is lentil and sweetcorn soup. I take one or two finely chopped onions and some chopped garlic, fry them until soft, add a load of washed lentils, vegetable stock and some dried herbs, and just simmer it until the lentils are nearly cooked, then chuck in some frozen or canned sweetcorn and let it finish. It's really easy and tastes amazing.

clouds21

Hi everyone,
Thanks to twinkle for starting this fascinating thread and thank-you for this amazing information!

I don't belong to a particular group of eaters apart from those who eat for the love of the taste of food and drink, and fruit and veg play an enormous part in that! I do eat meat but I am very interested in the above contributions. Have printed off the lentil and mushroom pât! recipes already and look forward to tasting them!!!

I'm afraid to say that the "pescatarians" I have met to date have all been too in yer face and holier than thou about their life style which has annoyed me in the past, I let them live, so let me live the way I want! So there!

Twinkle, there is a book which I mentioned to thriftlady on another thread. It's called The Optimum Nutrition Book by Patrick Holford. You should be able to get it second hand. Cover is lime green with a magenta spine. Brilliant recipes, full of flavour and caters for vegans. And some valuable nutritional information as well. Another one is Eat Well, Stay Well by Good Housekeeping - that one is also only available second hand, I think.

Here's a tasty recipe for you:

Sesame biscuits

Ingredients
50g (20z) unsalted butter
100g (3 1/2 oz) whoemlemeal flour
25g (1oz) fine oatmeal
25g 1oz) sesame seeds
25g 1oz) sunflower seeds
2-3 tablespoons soya or rice milk (I've used skimmed and semi-skimmed milk and they turned out ok)

Method
1. Set the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Rub the butter into the flour and oatmeal and stir in the seeds. Then use the milk to bind the mixture. Use 2 tablespoons to start with, adding more milk as necessary until the mixture forms a moist ball.

3. Place on a floured board and roll out to about 0.3cm (1/8 in) thick. (if you roll the mixture out too thinly it will be impossible to cut into shapes).

4. Use a fluted cutter to make 5-6cm (2-2 1/4 in) rounds and place on the prepared tray. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy on their own, or with lentil or mushroom pât!! :T

clouds21

ms_piggy

have only just found this thread so forgive me if I am repeating ideas. Try substituting a tbsp of soya flour + a couple of tsp of water instead of an egg when making cakes/ biscuits/muffins my kids have never noticed the difference. Also pancakes can be made without eggs and when things are a bit tight i have even made thick ones with just flour and water and covered them with jam or sugar + lemon juice again nobody noticed!