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

twinkle_star_2

Wow! Thanks Doom_and_Gloom i'm most impressed by your vegan-ite knowledge. I only had quinoa once before and I thought it looked a bit like tenny-tiny frogspawn but I shall be valiant and have another go! Am a little peturbed on the calcium front but doing lots of research!

Doom_and_Gloom

twinkle_star wrote: »

Wow! Thanks Doom_and_Gloom i'm most impressed by your vegan-ite knowledge. I only had quinoa once before and I thought it looked a bit like tenny-tiny frogspawn but I shall be valiant and have another go! Am a little peturbed on the calcium front but doing lots of research!

On average cacium needs are 1000mg/day for those aged 19-50 and 1200mg for aged 51+.
Usual store bought soya milk will on average have 200mg-300mg for about 250ml.
200g of beans will give you around 90mg.
95g of broccoli around 72mg
4 dry figs should be around 160(odd)mg
60g of tofu around 300mg (depending on how it's made)
2 slices of brown bread around 70mg
Most of what you already eat has calcium in it I'm sure. Most people don't need to worry about it as long as they have a balanced and varied diet.

Quinoa is rather nice. It has a nuttyish taste to it I find which personally I like lol. You do need to rinse it before using it and cook it well but if you do it should be good. Remember this transition will probably change your taste buds. Mine are very aware of over processed foods now and I find they don't taste as good as they once did either . Might just be me though.

P.S - the only reason I am so knowlegeable on nutrtion is because I would like to be a dietitian one day. If it happens or not is another matter mind :rotfl: .

chika

I used to be vegan, My skin was amazing but it was a bit of a dietrary phase for me (I had just read Skinny B*tch). I cracked after a few months of not being able to eat out properly and going home to the Mothership and seeing a Sunday roast! My body also funcions better on a low carb diet and the amount of rice and potatoes I was going through was ridiculous.

I still eat a lot of vegan food though and I have rice milk (the Rice Dream vanill flavoured stuff is divine). Its so much cheaper to eat vegan, lentils are your friend. I find going to a large asian supermarket or wholefoods coop gets me enough staples to last a couple of months.

I don't know if this link has been posted yet but this website www.vegwebs.com is great, there are 1000's of reciepes including really inventive ones for vegan cakes.

twinkle_star_2

Justamum wrote: »

There's also the 'scare' about soya too - some people say it's not good for you, and carry on drinking their hormone and antibiotic laden cow's milk I know which I'd prefer (not to mention things like pus and other unmentionables which might be in the milk). And how bizarre it is to drink the breast milk from another species - they wouldn't put human milk in their tea or on their cereal would they? :eek:

I'd heard about the soya scare from my mother (who now will not touch anything with soya in) but I'd never really thought about cow's milk having hormones and stuff in but it's obvious once you think about it. Duh.

Well, I've just had my lovely lunch of pasta with lentil bolognaise sauce and two slices of homemade bread. Tres yummy. I've been thinking about meal planning now I'm going to be eating a different diet from my OH. So I'm trying to plan either meals that can easily have some cheese/meat/cream added or that are yummy without any of them (in the eyes of a milk and meat lover who needs about a zillion calories a day - he's 6 foot 3). I generally buy a piece of ham every week which is cooked in coca-cola and then shredded for his lunchtime sandwiches so I'll usually have some spare ham and also I keep a packet of beef mince in the freezer for making meatballs/burgers but I don't have any chicken as a general rule. Thus far my ideas are:

Roast peppers stuffed with couscous/rice/quinoa, nuts and vegetables (add some bits of cheese or some quickly fried mince)
Pasta with tomato & vegetable sauce (stir in some cream and ham and grate some cheese over)
Vegetarian chilli with wraps, guacamole and salsa (vege mince in the chilli and some grated cheese and sour cream for him)
Pork and bean casserole (make just bean casserole and separate into two and then add vege sausages to one and meat to the other)
Roast dinner with nut roast and vege gravy (he likes this anyway and I think his favourite bread sauce can be made to be vegan)

Any other ideas would be gratefully received!:j

greenhippy

fff - The co-op labels what is in its wine so is worth a look if you are trying to find a vegan wine. (i've never quite understood why alcoholic drinks dont have to label their ingredients like any other drink?)

nesssie1702

Twinkle_star - Good luck with going Vegan! I'm not so sure that I could do it myself though.

Yes, watch yourself with Vitamin B12, as it is not synthesised by the body and is only available in foods that are "animal based" as it were. You might want to consider a supplement.

We drink soya milk and have gone through a number of brands in terms of taste. I've found that Soya So Good is nice in tea and it doesn't curdle in DH's coffee, unless it's a really strong cup!

Doom_and_Gloom

Morning smoothie - banana (13p), orange juice (15p), blueberries (33p), crandrerries (28p), forest fruits (28p), omega oil (12p) = £1.29 (enough for two glasses of smoothies though so around 64-65p a glass)

Lunch - beans (15p) on wholemeal toast (10p) = £0.25

For dinner I had a Turkey style roast with crandbury and wild rice stuffing with steamed veg (parsnip, carrot, cauliflower and runner beans). To say how expencive the turkey style roast usually is it is around £10.90/kg (£4.25 for 390g) but I only paid around £6.41/kg (£2.50 for 390).
The turkey style roast will however do me 4 dinners and I will be freezing the three I don't have today (decided to cook it today as it was the best before date) so at a cost of around 63p for the meat alternative a dinner which isn't all that bad. The veg cost around 96p (probably less). So main meal of the day cost = around £1.59 :T . Obviously as I said though I don't usually eat the meat alternatives like this very often. They aren't too good for you and as proven can make your meal more expencive than using pulses.

1 litre homemade soya milk over the day = 15p

£3.28 for the day. Not very cheap I will say however cheaper than a meal out that's for sure. Could have been cheaper if more local and seasonal fruit and veg was used and if it wasn't store bought :rolleyes: . The knowledge that I've had 10 fruit and veg over the day also makes me feel better about the price though :rotfl: . NHS may say 5 a day but the more you have the better.

A cheaper day would be:

Breakfast - beans on wholemeal toast = 25p
Lunch - curry quinoa - quinoa (17p) saltanas (14p) peas (8p) curry powder (4p) =43p
Dinner - veg soup (carrot, parsnip, onion, tomato, sweetcorn) - £1.15 for at least 2 portions so = around 58p
1 litre homemade soya milk over the day = 15p
Snack - banana = 13p

Day = £1.41 with 5 portions of fruit and veg.

nesssie1702 wrote: »

Yes, watch yourself with Vitamin B12, as it is not synthesised by the body and is only available in foods that are "animal based" as it were. You might want to consider a supplement.

This is not exactly true. Seaweed is a good place to get B12 from a vegan diet (good for iodine as well) and so is spirulina alqae both unfortunatly are under dispute for if they can be obsorbed by humans and used. However usual store bought soya milk (such as alpro or so good) usually has around 100-125% (sometimes more) of the RDA in a 250ml glass. You can also find yeast extract that has B12 in that is vegan. A supplement is not always needed. You can find forified (sp?) foods easily with B12 in that are vegan and you will find that even omni food is forified (sp?) with many different vitamins and minerals so this isn't an issue of a vegan diet.

twinkle_star_2

Hello again,

well I've had a lovely relaxing weekend so I thought I'd best get some more geeking on the go. Thus, here comes my calcium fun (don't worry there's a yummy recipe as a reward at the end:D).

Calcium is the mineral which we carry most of in our bodies. The majority of it is in bones and teeth but it is also used for the contraction of the heart muscle and blood clotting so it is very important to ensure a good supply. I was thus pretty concerned about this one as going vegan means giving up the foods which contain the most significant amounts of calcium (milk, yoghurt & cheese).
According to the Food Standards Agency the recommended daily intake (minimum) is 700mg and most Britons average around 800-1000mg but interestingly only about 35% of this is actually absorbed into the body and a lack of vitamin D means virtually no calcium is absorbed (causing rickets in children or osteomalacia in adults). Absorbed calcium is also excreted at a higher rate when protein intake increased – meaning the more high protein foods you eat the more calcium you’ll excrete. So just because meat-lovers like my OH drink milk is doesn’t necessarily mean their calcium will be any higher than someone who doesn’t eat meat or milk!:eek:

Non-dairy milks are generally fortified with calcium so simply using soya milk in my tea and for cooking will provide some calcium. Also, according to UK law all flours except wholemeal must be fortified with calcium (brought in during WWII) so my homemade bread which is half white flour and half wholemeal should provide an ideal balance of wholemeal nutrients and white-flour calcium. So tea and toast is a calcium rich breakfast feast!
Here’s some foods with calcium per 100g

Whole milk - 115mg
Semi-skimmed milk – 120mg (more than whole!)
Yoghurt, low fat, fruit, - 150mg
Cheddar cheese – 720mg
Stewed beef – 15mg
Baked beans – 53mg
Cabbage, boiled – 33mg
Watercress – 170mg
Sultanas – 74 mg
Fried onions – 47mg
White bread – 110mg
Wholemeal bread – 54 mg

Looks like watercress sandwiches are in order! Or a yummy alternative – these vegan cupcakes use plain flour and soy milk (both fortified with calcium) so I like to think of them as a necessary health food! :rotfl:

1 tbsp cider vinegar (or white wine)
almost 1 ½ cups unsweetened soya milk (see method)
½ cup oil
2 1/8 cups self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup vanilla sugar

Pour the vinegar into the bottom of a measuring cup and fill the cup with the soya milk to equal the full 1 ½ cups. Pour into jug, stir well and allow to curdle then mix in the oil.


In a bowl, stir together the dry ingredients then add dry to wet (the mix will be quite liquidy so I like to have in the jug to pour into cases) and beat until smooth.

Pour into cupcake cases (makes approx 24) and bake at Gas 4 for 20 minutes.

These are quite pale coloured but can be baked a little longer for golden tops if preferred. Ice with vegan buttercream (icing sugar, vanilla and vegan margarine). My OH has already eaten about 5 so they seem to be satisfying enough for non-vegans!:rotfl:

twinkle_star_2

Wow! Doom_and_Gloom can I come and live at your house?:D Your food sounds scrumptious. I quite interested in omega oil - may have to go and have a chat with my local health food shop to see whats around. I'm also quite keen to up my fruit and vegetable intake. Not entirely sure how I was managing to function as an omni as I'm already eating about two or three times more veg than before so I'm must have been seriously lacking in the vitamin department:eek:. I do enjoy vegetables but my big downfall is fruit - I have a banana with my porridge every morning but thats it. I need to start getting more in. I'm thinking maybe some dried fruit, nut & seed flapjacks to take to work as a snack but otherwise I'm a bit stuck. Smoothies are fine but its a bit blinking chilly at the moment so other suggestions welcome!

Doom_and_Gloom

twinkle_star wrote: »

Wow! Doom_and_Gloom can I come and live at your house?:D Your food sounds scrumptious. I quite interested in omega oil - may have to go and have a chat with my local health food shop to see whats around. I'm also quite keen to up my fruit and vegetable intake. Not entirely sure how I was managing to function as an omni as I'm already eating about two or three times more veg than before so I'm must have been seriously lacking in the vitamin department:eek:. I do enjoy vegetables but my big downfall is fruit - I have a banana with my porridge every morning but thats it. I need to start getting more in. I'm thinking maybe some dried fruit, nut & seed flapjacks to take to work as a snack but otherwise I'm a bit stuck. Smoothies are fine but its a bit blinking chilly at the moment so other suggestions welcome!

You'd be very welcome here in this house. I'm the only one that really eats the fruit, salad items and veg :rotfl: . I get to put the veg and salad items in my fridge as most of it is mine anyway and the fruit bowl is basically all mine to (bar a few bananas a week that my dad has :rolleyes: ). I hate to think of the mineral and vitamin deficiencies the rest of the house hold have and yet I constantly get my mum going down my throat about being careful about them :mad: .

If you feel the need for more fruit dried fruits such as apricots, raisins etc are great but remember it will only ever count as 1 portion no matter how many you have just like with fruit or veg juice. Adding raisins (or some other dried fruit) to your porridge as well might be useful with a pure fruit juice drink? That would be 3 portions of fruit out of the way and will give you a good start to the day. That would cost around 64p for breakfast if using basic soya milk for the porridge or 49p if water not bad either way really.
Another idea would be for a hot fruit afters. Like home made apple pie/crumble with rubarb and blueberries on the side? Vegan jelly with blueberries, strawberries etc in it with hot vegan custard or cream? It's amazing how creative you can become (vegan brownies are lovely as afters but not good for one of your 5 a day :rotfl: . Well you use apple sauce in it but I don't think it's enough to count )

For the omega 3, 6 and 9 I use Granovita omega oil blend it comes in a 260ml bottle. I managed to buy 3 bottles for £6 (well £5.40 after discount ) as they were in the reduced section but have dates of 17.06.09 :eek: . It said the usual price is £3.15 a bottle but for some reason I'm sure it's more than that . There are others but this was I found the cheapest but it does depend where you live.