OS vegan diet?

miss_emmajane

Having read the 'wheat & gluten, dairy free/organic diets' thread I wondered if anyone on here successfully has a vegan diet on a budget?

I have been vegetarian for a few years and am trying to make the switch to vegan - in a way it saves money as I can't Impulse buy sweets/crisps that are on offer .. in fact I can't buy a lot of what it sold in the supermarket but on the other hand vegan products seem to be more expensive when I can find them.

I have stocked up from Holland & Barratt whilst the 'buy one get one half price' offer is on which has helped but I can't see me maintaining the same budget as before eating fully vegan Does anyone manage it/have some tips?

BitterAndTwisted

My own feeling is that it's not hard to stick to a vegan diet if you're prepared to plan ahead and cook from scratch. The real expense comes in when you're buying those strange "like-meat" products which somehow seems to defeat the purpose to me.

I'm fond of my Rose Elliott vegetarian recipe books as a lot of hers are already vegan or can be adapted quite easily

miss_emmajane

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

My own feeling is that it's not hard to stick to a vegan diet if you're prepared to plan ahead and cook from scratch. The real expense comes in when you're buying those strange "like-meat" products which somehow seems to defeat the purpose to me.

I'm fond of my Rose Elliott vegetarian recipe books as a lot of hers are already vegan or can be adapted quite easily

I totally understand that, at the moment I am using the to bridge the gap over but I was hoping to not need them after finding recipes, and different alternatives to my usual meals. I went to the library this morning for recipe books to do just that but they only had one vegan cookbook which isn't that great so will have to do some more research online

shandyclover

Most of my kids 'went vegan' beginning of this year. I confess I was worried about the financial impact it would have on the food budget. Like BitterAndTwisted says, its not hard if you plan and cook from scratch. Alot of vegan recipes are fussy with exotic ingredients you can only buy in the US, but then there are alot of recipes not listed as vegan that are, or can be easily made so, when I first started I was a bit lost but now I automatically scan each recipe with the vision to make it vegan. Ethnic Indian and Middleastern food is often vegan. We buy soya chunks and mince from our local indian shop which can be used in most meat recipes, and tofu from the local chinese shop which can be made into all kinds of yumminess. Don't bother with expensive imitation meat or cheese, in my oppinion very overpriced for what you get, though if you are single might be fine for you - I just know for me with 4 teens in the house and often several others visiting a block of vegan cheese can disappear without a thought! A cookbook I am really enjoying working from is 'Hearty Vegan Meals' by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman. American book with some ingredients I've never been able to find but I just adapt the recipes some. It even has a section on how to make your own cheese, mayo, sour cream etc. Also check everything in the supermarket, you will often be suprised what is and isn't vegan - ie. muesli bars not vegan but chicken flavoured crisps are!

shandyclover

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

http://www.holycowvegan.net/

http://www.veganvillage.co.uk/recipes.htm

Some of my favourite sites, there are absolutely loads on the web - begin simple using ingredients you already are familiar with and try out new things bit by bit. We started off making chillis with soya mince, dhal and rice and stir fry tofu and noodles, and pasta with tomato sauce and sort of moved on from there.

I've now made soya yogurt, soya cream cheese and last night vegan motzarella!

Boodle

Hi there I saw you on the meal plans thread and there is usually at least one, usually two to three vegan plans on there each week so that could be helpful for you.

The vegan products (I assume you mean the cheese, nuggets, sausages etc) I don't find much more than if you bought a couple packets of meat per week so should balance out. We don't buy stuff like that every week though, just now and again. We like some of the replacement products now and again... because we are not perfect. Not sure why people often think just because someone is vegan they must be all self-righteous x

Really though, cutting animal products from your diet us cheaper on the whole though, when your protein comes from pulses, nuts and soya. UHT soya milk is only about 10p per litre more expensive than the cheapest UHT dairy milk.

miss_emmajane

Thanks for the replies

I have bought a few things such as bars which I can have instead of biscuits/treats but after an unexpected blow to our budget yesterday I think I am sticking veggie for at least the next few months as we will have to stick to the food we have in as much as we can which not a lot of is vegan friendly Might have to wait until I am no longer living on a small NHS bursary and have the freedom with my budget.

VfM4meplse

It is perfectly possible, but as B&T says you need to make everything from scratch, which takes some planning. If you have a full storecupboard it should be no problem; processed foods are more or less out of bounds, and at first I lost a lot of weight in a short space of time but then became quite concerned about getting the balance of nutrition right.

Although I went back to being a vegetarian after a year, my diet is still 95% vegan - easily done if you batch cook and freeze - soups, Indian and Chinese food are easiest and tastiest. Aside from fruit, desserts were a bit tougher - it tended to be vegan flapjacks, indian halvas using oil or Pure ,as vegan cakes aren't that good. I did buy "Vegan with a Vengeance" but was really disappointed that there were so many recipes with weird ingredients replicating meat - the reason I became vegetarian in the first place was because I hated the taste.

Don't give up on account of the cost, some MSE threads to help you on your way:

Vegan Store Cupboard Challenge
Going vegan......old style?!
Vegan and vegetarian food on the cheap

HTH

daisiegg

VfM4meplse wrote: »

It is perfectly possible, but as B&T says you need to make everything from scratch, which takes some planning. If you have a full storecupboard it should be no problem; processed foods are more or less out of bounds, and at first I lost a lot of weight in a short space of time but then became quite concerned about getting the balance of nutrition right.

Although I went back to being a vegetarian after a year, my diet is still 95% vegan - easily done if you batch cook and freeze - soups, Indian and Chinese food are easiest and tastiest. Aside from fruit, desserts were a bit tougher - it tended to be vegan flapjacks, indian halvas using oil or Pure ,as vegan cakes aren't that good. I did buy "Vegan with a Vengeance" but was really disappointed that there were so many recipes with weird ingredients replicating meat - the reason I became vegetarian in the first place was because I hated the taste.

Don't give up on account of the cost, some MSE threads to help you on your way:

Vegan Store Cupboard Challenge
Going vegan......old style?!
Vegan and vegetarian food on the cheap

HTH

I have to vehemently disagree with your comment about vegan cakes not being very good!

I am almost vegan except I eat meat....so not vegan at all!! But am allergic to dairy and eggs... I bake loads of vegan cakes etc and they are amazing. I take them in to work and people comment on how nice they are and ask what the secret is - they can't believe it when I say they are dairy and egg free. People aren't just being polite - they always ask me to make them again and ask for the recipes.

There are loads of great vegan recipes (you must get Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World!) but I've found that you can use egg substitute powder, soya marg and soya milk to adapt most recipes.

Let me know if you want any recipes! I'm pretty good at making most things vegan.

Oliver14

daisiegg wrote: »

I have to vehemently disagree with your comment about vegan cakes not being very good!

I am almost vegan except I eat meat....so not vegan at all!! But am allergic to dairy and eggs... I bake loads of vegan cakes etc and they are amazing. I take them in to work and people comment on how nice they are and ask what the secret is - they can't believe it when I say they are dairy and egg free. People aren't just being polite - they always ask me to make them again and ask for the recipes.

There are loads of great vegan recipes (you must get Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World!) but I've found that you can use egg substitute powder, soya marg and soya milk to adapt most recipes.

Let me know if you want any recipes! I'm pretty good at making most things vegan.

Totally agree vegan cakes can be as good if not better than Non vegan ones. You just need to find the right recepes and sometimes adapt them. I have frequently given non vegan relatives cakes etc and they are shocked afterwards when the realise there is no eggs in them. Different recipes take different things to replace the eggs with from soya flour, xanthum gum, egg replacer, soya cream, banana, apple sauce and many other things. I would recommend any vegan experiment and you will find that once you get the hang of eggless baking it's no problem.

shandyclover

I have to agree with Daisiegg.

About 1 week after DD's announced their intention to go vegan it was DD2 birthday. I can proficiently cook most things but my cakes have always been a bit iffy, so much so DD1 took over making the family birthday cakes from the time she was about 12. DD1 is not vegan, and is very much a perfectionist and didn't want to try and make a vegan cake. I nevously followed a recipe from a vegan cook book for a chocolate cake with icing and I have to say it was probably the best cake I ever made, light and fluffy and moist, and suprisingly very economical without eggs and butter.