Vegan packed lunch ideas?

shandyclover

On a different note I successfully made soya yogurt!!!

We buy rice/almond/hazelnut milk for vegan daughters for drinks and on cereal, but they are not thrilled about the taste of the economy brand soya milk. They all like soya yogurt though and use it to make their own smoothies. I found our local supermarket often ran out of soya yogurt and considering the rate we were going through it was looking for a cheaper option. I have made regular yogurt in the past so gave soya yogurt a try following advice from here...


http://www.soya.be/how-to-make-soy-yogurt.php

...and surprisingly it turned out really well! I did follow the tip about using a bit of starch (I used a tablespoon full of cornflour) to thicken it up a bit. Now means we can get soya yogurt for 60p a litre. Once I've shown the girls how to make it I will tell them it's up to them to make it every few days.

I used plain alpro 'bio' soya yogurt as the starter. I do not have a yogurt maker but put the soya yogurt in a insulated cool box to set.

purplesarah

One cheap way of making a vegan sandwich that's a bit more substantial is by using Linda McCartney sausages. The original ones are vegan (avoid the italian ones) and are £2 for 2 boxes (6 per box) in Farmfoods.

Jazz up anything with vegan mayo (all the big supermarkets now sell this - Solesse from Asda is my favourite as it tastes like a cross between mayo and salad cream) or chutney. Asda also do a vegan pate in the free from section - either veg or shitake mushroom flavour, they make great sandwich spreads but I tend to put it on toast

Look for things that are "accidentally" vegan - if it's made specifically to be vegan it's usually more expensive. Vegan biscuits can cost double that of normal ones, yet there's some "normal" biscuits in our local corner shop that just happen to be vegan and are only 35p! Home bargain do cheap jammie dodgers (I was over the moon when I saw these were vegan!) and the like.

Tesco do "soya chunks" - you just soak them for 10 mins then add to your dish. We use them in curries (just coconut milk, thai curry paste, some veggies and the chunks) and it's always better the next day!

Also you can make seitan (a very good meat substitute) from wheat gluten. Just buy the powder, mix it with water and knead it - then flavour how you like. I'm not allowed to post a link because I'm a new user, but if you go to
honest-to-goodness.org.uk/recipe
there's the instructions with some recipe ideas.

And again, check labels all the time for anything you suspect could be accidentally vegan - milk and eggs are usually listed under the allergens section so it's easy to spot once you get the hang of it. I'm finding new stuff all the time - flapjacks, sweets, spreads, jams, sauces etc.

Good luck!

Cat72

I became vegan about 5 years ago, previousily I was a vegetarian since I was 8 but became allergic to diary so then had to adapt to a vegan diet- which I still am learning.
One thing that I struggled with its getting a healthy balance especailly protein .However I have found quinoa is great as low fat, stores well once cooked and high protein. I cook a big bowl of it at begining of week then divide it up and add sauces , vegetables etc when I want to make dinners or lunches.

I sometimes just grill some cheap vegeatables with baslamic vinegar & olive oil night before mix through part of the quinoa and this does me two days. Other alternatives are mix with a sauce- eg tomata pasta one or thai with some roasted butternut sqauash or any leftovers that are left- thats the great thing I can just use leftovers from dinner and add for lunch the next day -maybe by adding to pasta/rice/quinoa.

I also make a batch of thai sauce with chicpeas & maybe a cheap butternut squash at beginning of week. I can also freeze this and take it out for lunch. Or a chickpea with pasta sauce with whatever veg I get with best before date or on Aldi's specails from supermarket, again can freeze.
I can also spoon part of these into pitta or wraps for lunched during the week.
Also I buy a chunk of smoked tofu- costs about £2.70 and slice it up- for sandwiches during week and add sections on top of any pasts/rice dishes I cook to make sure I am getting protein .It lasts a few days .

Have a look as tesco have introduced a great free from range in some stores which is much cheaper -they have vegan cheese, cheese spread, soya yogurts, soya milk and vegan creme caramels- yum. Aslo I buy some ginger oat cake and apple rice cakes to munch during the day and cheap nut mixes from aldis.


Lunch ideas -
Quinoa & roasted veg leftovers
thai roasted butternut squash & chickpeas
chickpea leftovers in wrap.
Smoked tofu sandwich, lettuce and vegan mayo.
peanut butter & banana sandwiches
Pasties or pasta with leftovers

I understand what eveyone is saying about being 19 and making her own choices- but it is hard to understand dietry requirements at any age .When I was a vegetarian when I was younger I had no one to point me in the right direction, and having a head full of youth and fun didnt think long term. So lived on a diet of chips and sweets. I now have a lot of health problems and thinning bones, and through this learned a hard lesson about how important a balanced diet is . So its good maybe to have some education about protein, vitamins and balancing a lunch and then let her fly on her own.

Fulham_Mark

Can't download it either..


There are about 50 free recipies at the site below. Can't promise they are all super-healthy but are free and written by certified Koreans

http://www.theeast.org/?cat=10

Maat

Oliver14 wrote: »

Just to add someone mentioned Vegan cheese earlier. Personally I avoid the stuff as it's pretty vile in most cases and i've tasted socks that have tasted better

I think a lot depends on which vegan cheese you get. For soft/cream cheese toffuti is best (they do three flavours), where for hard cheese Bute Island foods do 'scheese' in several flavours. It's worth trying a few to find out which you like best. The cheddar with chives is lovely for sandwiches. This is their website:

http://www.buteisland.com/

O.W.E.I

Have a look here:

http://www.guidetoveganliving.org.uk/

Also beware of alcohol, as a lot of them are not vegan or even vegetarian.

http://www.barnivore.com/

Almond milk is easy to make:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/rawfoodsrecipes/r/almondmilk.htm

As for cheese substitutes, most of them ARE vile, but the Tesco Free From (I think are made by Bute Island?) are ok, far nicer are Vegusto and Vegourmet (but they are very expensive). Personally, I wouldn't bother, but my wife likes them, so I get them for her.

I became vegan when I went to Uni, it was far more difficult in those days (we had to write lecture notes on a bit of slate with some chalk and we lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road) than it is now.
I had no idea how to cook and there was no such thing as the interweb, so I just had to learn to cook from a basic vegan cook-book.
I love cooking now and spend loads of time in the kitchen creating new recipes :-)

We eat fantastically well, are both healthy and it doesn't cost us a fortune to buy food.

Best wishes!

shandyclover

Thanks for all the feedback - will definitely help come Sept when I'll have 3 full-time at college where the only vegan option in the canteen is a baked potato (which DD20 says you have to say NO BUTTER about 10 times!)

The kids always hated mayonnaise even before they became vegan so haven't had to worry about that. One of them will only eat brown rice/pasta/bread - so to make things simpler whats generally what we get for everyone, hubby discovered we are also getting more protein that way too (he was happy cause it definitely costs more!). Theres a chinese shop not far from us so we are able to buy tofu cheaper than a supermarket - and I made our own version of 'tofutti' with blended tofu/salt/pepper/tahini. I wasn't sure how it would go down but I dashed out to do some errands and left a houseful of teenagers recovering from gcse exam stress and when I got home an hour later is was all gone - they got out the ryvita apparently! Thankfully we have an Aldi close by so super 6 is very handy. My mum had a big family BBQ over the weekend and very kindly made lot's of vegan dishes for the girls using the River Cottage veg book, taboleh, falafels and Cambodian Wedding dip was amazing and even the carnivores went for it!

O.W.E.I

shandyclover wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback - will definitely help come Sept when I'll have 3 full-time at college where the only vegan option in the canteen is a baked potato (which DD20 says you have to say NO BUTTER about 10 times!)

The kids always hated mayonnaise even before they became vegan so haven't had to worry about that. One of them will only eat brown rice/pasta/bread - so to make things simpler whats generally what we get for everyone, hubby discovered we are also getting more protein that way too (he was happy cause it definitely costs more!). Theres a chinese shop not far from us so we are able to buy tofu cheaper than a supermarket - and I made our own version of 'tofutti' with blended tofu/salt/pepper/tahini. I wasn't sure how it would go down but I dashed out to do some errands and left a houseful of teenagers recovering from gcse exam stress and when I got home an hour later is was all gone - they got out the ryvita apparently! Thankfully we have an Aldi close by so super 6 is very handy. My mum had a big family BBQ over the weekend and very kindly made lot's of vegan dishes for the girls using the River Cottage veg book, taboleh, falafels and Cambodian Wedding dip was amazing and even the carnivores went for it!

Shandyclover, if you contact the Vegan Society they should be able to get in touch with the college and send them some info about tasty catering for vegans (which will also be suitable for the vegetarians attending the institution as well).

Have a look here:

http://www.vegansociety.com/caterers/

I'd love to know how you did the 'tofuti', please?:T

shandyclover

I'd love to know how you did the 'tofuti', please?

I've been borrowing vegan cookbooks, and scouring vegan websites so the idea came from one of those - not sure which one exactly! To be honest I didn't follow a recipe, just used the principals and the ingredients I had at home.

2 blocks of tofu broken up into pieces
half a bunch of chopped parsley
1 T of lemon juice
1 T of miso paste
1 T of Tahinni -cause my Mum had lived in Mideast for 5 years and told me its a good source of calcium.
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste - my kids love black pepper!

Whizzed up in food processor - came out a bit like a herb philly type spread, though not quite so solid, the texture is not as smooth as philly but like I said I'd left it out on kitchen table and by the time I got home it was gone with the help of ryvita, my kids and 2 visiting non vegans.

Being as they are growing teenagers one worry has been how they will get their protein - I'd picked up a tip from a vegan site to add soy flour to anything I bake (muffins etc.) - subtracting 2 T of wheat flour and replacing with 2 T of soy flour per cup of flour.

I bought some miso paste from local chinese shop - I've added it a few times to soupy stew type things but would be interested to know if/how others use it?

Oliver14

Maat wrote: »

I think a lot depends on which vegan cheese you get. For soft/cream cheese toffuti is best (they do three flavours), where for hard cheese Bute Island foods do 'scheese' in several flavours. It's worth trying a few to find out which you like best. The cheddar with chives is lovely for sandwiches. This is their website:

http://www.buteisland.com/

Sorry to say I've tried the Bute island ones as well. I'm afraid IMO they're up there with dirty socks as well. I don't miss cheese so it's no problem in reality. Scheese I thought was vile.

Each to their own I suppose.

I always find products pretending to be other products pretty dodgy.