feed a family of 4, almost vegan, on a rather small budget! Old Style!

purpleybat

missymoo81 wrote: »

Ok so the above will be staples for us during the week, Sunday we will have a roast. Just trying to cost up dinners. Tell me..... Can you eat too many carrots? As we are going to be eating a lot!!!!!
I have a pasta maker, any thoughts on how to make vegan pasta? Mind you when value penne is only 30p I shouldn't worry too much I guess. And the chapati flour that was mentioned earlier in the thread is now £3 again, so have bought a big bag of that, and some marmite well the Tesco version as it has B12!
Babies are playing so nicely today. Am having a major sort out!!

sorry if this has already been mentioned....
can you use egg replacement powder in pasta? it may be a bit crumbly and need extra oil/water.
my sister was vegan years back and I found the powder quite a handy stand by. I admit I don't know where she bought it, health food shop I'm guessing.
it was fab in vegan choc/nut brownies if I remember rightly

[Deleted User]

African peanut stew

I make a rastafari rundown with coconut milk (from a tin) corn on the cob, sweet potato, butter beans, thyme and chili (cook in one pot until the veg is cooked through and tender, serve with rice)

Stir fry with rice noodles and either just veg, a meat substitute or smoked tofu

Baked potato with hummous or ratatouille

I also recommend that you join What Fat Vegans Eat Facebook group I have got lots of yummy inspiration from there.

Aril

I've found that it's cheaper to buy the creamed coconut block and then grate it. You then add boiling water to it and hey presto coconut mil. The instructions say 100g of the creamed coconut to 400ml boiling water. Each block will give you the equivalent of two cans.

Arilx

debtfreeforlife

Oooh, as a new vegan who is looking for some more interesting (and cheap) meals, this thread is a goldmine - thank you all!

melanzana

Am I totally unempathetic or what? (probably)

If you go Vegan surely you will have researched it yourself.

I'm fed up with these entitled threads now.

debtfreeforlife

melanzana wrote: »

Am I totally unempathetic or what? (probably)

If you go Vegan surely you will have researched it yourself.

I'm fed up with these entitled threads now.

Not sure if you are referring to me or the OP... but I'm confused. The OP didn't say that they hadn't researched, just that they were looking for cheap meal ideas with specific dietary preferences (and the same goes for me) and asking for suggestions. There are loads of threads on this board asking for cheap meal ideas...

missymoo81

Wow thank you so much for your responses. Sorry for being MIA, it's all been a bit full on here with Roo starting school for the first time, OH coming home and my birthday.... Thank you for your comments. I will write an updated shopping list and menu plan, and thank you for pointing out about the eggs, they weren't free range so have swapped them, and have changed the gammon to organic, trying my best to swap out the milk and cheese for organic but proving difficult..... These are all for OH and littlies, as I am completely vegan. Things I have learnt.... I can make amazing hummus, really cheaply, I can make blackberry icecream for pennies, if I hit tosco at the right time, I get bananas for 12p a kg! Which I freeze for smoothies. The lifestyle is really suiting me at the moment and I really need to make it suit my budget.
OH is not as into it as me, but he understands needs must. We find out about his job tomorrow or Tuesday, fingers crossed.
Need to work on my veggie burgers they are horrid, and need to work on a thinner pizza dough, but I'm getting there.

jackyann

These threads have lots of useful ideas and information.
I am not vegan or even vegetarian, but it is helpful for those of us cutting down on meat.
I have got loads of useful ideas and information from many of the MSE forums, and it's fairly obvious that the board as a whole appeals to a lot of different kinds of people (and sadly trolls, or pale imitations of trolls, but we must ignore them)

I found a book on the Book People site - not cheap - I bought it as a gift (and now I love it so it's a gift to me) called Vegan, Vegetarian, Omnivore which has meal ideas for feeding a gathering of people. I found it especially helpful as some of our family say *oh, I love to come to yours to get a proper roast / meat pie / bbq that I don't get at home* . So I feel that just to put on vege food would not be disappointing for them.

Roast vegetables are my friends. At a gathering of about 10 recently I roasted peppers, onion rings, quartered tomatoes (cheapest, they roast well) aubergine slices, sliced fennel and leeks sliced down the middle. With bread and dips it was a fabulous starter, and I did plenty to leave on the table to go with the main course.

I also agree about the creamed coconut.

missymoo81

scc173 wrote: »

Animal Aid has a little booklet called Meat Free for Under a fiver, with recipes and a few money saving tips. You can order a hard copy free of charge or just view online. As a new user of this forum I can't copy & paste a link but if you go to animalaid.org.uk and just search for 'under a fiver' it will come up! A friend of mine also did a super cheap eats challenge where he and his girlfriend managed on £1 per day for a week, again I can't post a link but if you Google 'pound a day vegan Ben Martin' it will come up at the top.

Thank you for this! Such s helpful post.

I know there are grumpy people out there that are expecting a reaction to their grumpy posts, but I know I've done my research, I was looking for help and ideas and if I could help people in turn then that's a bonus.

Please please keep your fingers crossed for us today as its yes or no day for OH's job, unless they keep us hanging on until tomorrow but obviously they best not!

Making the small ones porridge pots for breakfast, with blackberries from the garden.
50g of porridge in a wide mouth jar
Cover with hot water, add syrup, stir
Put the lid on and watch it puff up, takes about 10 minutes
Take off the lid, add some soya milk to desired consistency
Decorate with blackberries
Serve.

My children love this, think it's the eating out of a jar?!

I'm having tea with soya milk
OH a having black coffee
And we'll both have banana smoothies for breakfast.

moneyistooshorttomention

Guess you know about using bananas as "icecream"? Can be dressed up with all sorts of other fruit, sweetening, nuts, etc.