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

Nomoonatall

Hi, veggie here, but have the odd vegan meal. Try veggie/vegan stews, using any root veg and Kallo stock if you don't make your own. Not a great fan of Quorn, but a lot of it is vegan now. Baked spuds and baked sweet potatoes are lovely. Add a suitable vegan topping. Sorry but vegan cheese is vile! Or roast some veg and make a veggie crumble. This website is American, but I'm sure you'll be able to adapt. Have a look at the Peta.org website, it might help with ideas. Good luck!

missymoo81

Ah thank you nomoonatall, I touched on that website the other day. Hmmm am going to look into how much protein fat carbs, calcium etc we should all be having and see if I can do it vegan, would really like to but obviously cost is a major thing. Will google it and find a website to see if I can work it all out! I like a challenge!

MandM90

missymoo81 wrote: »

Ah thank you nomoonatall, I touched on that website the other day. Hmmm am going to look into how much protein fat carbs, calcium etc we should all be having and see if I can do it vegan, would really like to but obviously cost is a major thing. Will google it and find a website to see if I can work it all out! I like a challenge!

Me again! What I tend to do is log everything on MyFitnessPal every few days, just to see what a "typical day" looks like. Then you can see roughly what you're under/over on. But don't get too obsessed with it. Try and get lots of beans/pulses, and as much veg as possible, but also be kind to yourself. This won't be forever and you're not all going to die of malnutrition.

ThemeOne

Re Quorn - in fact very few of their products are vegan, and they are all expensive, so would forget about them if you want to eat a cheap vegan diet.

I've been vegan for years, and do a lot of curries, the beauty of which is they're all just variations on a theme, and the ingredients can be varied without really changing the nature of the dish much.

I use my own spices for curry - not the tiny Schwartz bottles, which are super expensive, but the larger packs of spices from the World Foods section in most supermarkets. I use a mixture of curry powder, turmeric, garlic powder, garam masala and paprika.

I usually start frying chopped onions and mushrooms, then add the spices, water and tomato paste from a tube. Other ingredients can then be added depending how much cooking they need, sometimes I'll add them at the initial frying stage.

A bit of coconut flavour can be nice - but use coconut cream block (you won't need that much) - much cheaper than buying cans of coconut milk.

If you don't have any beans, you can drain the tomato sauce from ordinary baked beans and use them instead.

I either have the curry with rice, or make my own "naan" bread - very simple and cheap - just mix some flour, water, salt and maybe garlic powder and mixed herbs into a dough ball, roll out and fry in a pan.

I've also recently started using barley - it's fairly cheap, filling and nutritionally balanced, and can be used to bulk up, say, a tin of vegetable soup, most of which are vegan.

Making your own soup is something else you could try. It's really just a variation of the curry, though probably with more water, less spice and maybe using a blender at the end.

missymoo81

Thanks mandm90 for your kind words, I do eat really well now, and the reason I feel so good is because I'm eating so much better! I would just love to do the same for the whole family, but my revelation has come at a difficult time, what with job losses appearing and a very tiny food budget!!! But it will be fine!!! I keep telling myself!

Nomoonatall

Lots of vegan pasta recipes on here http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/1080502/vegan-pasta-recipes

It's difficult when you start out being vegan, everything seems so spicy and strange!

I suggest adapting recipes that you know and are comfortable with. Like Pasta, potato and soups. Koko milk is lovely for a change. Oat milk is gorgeous on cereal. Have what you like and don't listen to preachers! I've been a veggie for 40 years and I've realised that I care more for the person than what they eat! Even if they eat meat! x

Doom_and_Gloom

Nomoonatall wrote: »

Not a great fan of Quorn, but a lot of it is vegan now.

A lot of it is vegan? No it isn't. There are two products, TWO, that are vegan in the UK. Quorn vegan pieces and quorn hot and spicy burgers. Both clearly state they are vegan.
Personally I wouldn't eat quorn. It's expensive and not nutritionally sound at all.

Cheap vegan meals:
Vegetable fajitas - use beans, maybe tofu too.
Vegan shepherds pie with salad and/or vegetables
Veggie curry, serve with rice or baked potato
Veggie chilli, serve with rice or baked potato
Vegan pasta bake with salad and/or vegetables
Vegan pizza with chips and salad
Vegetable soup with bread

There are loads of cheap vegan meals. Just stay away from expensive pre-made vegan products most of the time and instead focus on pulses and vegetables.

moneyistooshorttomention

Google the "Thrifty Lesley" blog. You might pick up a few ideas there.

Many of "her" recipes are actually ones that were devised by the "Cheap Family Recipes" website. But she does have some recipes that are hers.

Soworried

We eat meat and dairy but we do enjoy a few vegan main meals. Our favourites are:
Falafal sp? with sweet potato chips and carrot and orange salad
Chick pea and potato curry
Cashew and mushroom stir fries
Lentil spicy meat loaf

HOWMUCH

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