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

missymoo81

Thank you theme one, I love curry and that is already on my list. I'm trying not to have to much quorn for the price more than anything.
Nomoonatall, oat milk is what i drink and had managed to make my own!
Doom and gloom and so worried, thank you for list of ideas, I forgot about fajitas!
Mineyistooshorttomwntion, thank you for the link

ThemeOne

The whole Quorn story illustrates a lot of what's quite annoying about vegan food at the moment.

Since veganism is now quite trendy, you'll find lots of websites about it, most of which exctiedly announce new vegan products. The products are nearly all pretty expensive but more importantly most are very hard to find - and this is hardly ever said.

For example when Quorn brought out their vegan range last year - and it's only two or three products out of their whole range - they were advertised as being sold in Asda and Waitrose. I think "the odd branch of Asda and Waitrose" would have been more accurate, and I've noticed that since launch some branches which stocked it no longer do.

The same for the vegan ice cream recently announced as available in Iceland. On closer inspection that's London branches only - and when I checked in the Croydon branch they didn't have it, though whether that's because Croydon's not considered London, or in fact it's only "some" London branches I don't know.

Moral of the story - stick to the basics to save money and time!

OneLeggedPig

The dietician Jeff Novick is the best authority on cheap, healthy food ( and is a vegan)

Some recipes from him:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.204432390124.260255.177550385124

Basing meals on starch (potatoes, rice, pasta, lentils) is the cheapest way to eat and also filling and healthy.

ALso check the recipe section of Dr McDougall's forum:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=2146d578a9457cd1868b6456a05b69f8

missymoo81

Thanks for the links oneleggedpig.

And I totally agree theme one.

So far, I have:
Veg curry, rice and hm chapati
Veggie bean Burritos with salad
Stir fry with noodles
Vegan egg fried rice
Lentil Spag Bol and salad
Bean chilli and rice and salad
Veggie lentil shep pie and veg
Butternut squash pasta bake
Veggie pizza, wedges and salad
Roast dinner
Butternut and pea Risotto
Thai curry and rice
Veggie fajitas
Veggie burgers, wedges and salad
Falafels in pittas with salad and wedges
Mushroom chow mein and fried rice

Nomoonatall

Umm...http://www.quorn.co.uk/vegan/

I'm not going to argue, as I'm not vegan and I definitely don't care about whoever quoted me! I have recently read that some quorn stuff is vegan! I might be wrong, but I don't actually eat quorn stuff. Please read the terms and conditions!

Upsidedown_Bear

Have a look here - some great recipes including a budget section
Vegan recipe club

Nomoonatall

A great idea is to stock up on dried beans of every sort, soak and prep them and then freeze them.They last for ages to use for homemade baked beans, chilli, dips...whatever you want! Also stock up on chick peas, dried or tinned!

missymoo81

Oh nomoonatall, I'm sorry I don't think anyone Was having a go, I think it's just a bit frustrating and tricky when they're very few and far between. Thanks for researching it. X and definitely on the beans etc front, I've just found a huge bag of lentils in Tesco!!!!

Oooh thanks upside down bear! Will have a look.

june89

Fry's stuff is vegan (at least everything I've seen) but pretty pricey - as most of the vegan/veggie processed foods are. Great for a treat junk food night though. Had the "chicken" nuggets today and they're amazing.

There's a youtube channel called Cheap Lazy Vegan which has some great recipes on it. And as the name implies, is different to the a lot of the other vegan channels who think $20 a day per person is cheap!

upoiupou

OneLeggedPig wrote: »

Basing meals on starch (potatoes, rice, pasta, lentils) is the cheapest way to eat and also filling and healthy.[/url]

Cheap and filling, yes. As for healthy, there are a lot of different opinions. Often, it's felt that the more protein and the more fresh veg the better. I'm not just nit-picking, I'm vegetarian with a lot of vegan meals and filling up on starch to save money makes me feel dreadful. Which can be an issue when on a tight budget.

My advice would be to concentrate on vegetables and not fruit. Fruit is much more expensive and quite sugary even if it's natural sugar so its good to limit it anyway. Out of your five a day, a maximum of two can be fruit, including juice. But all five can happily be veg.

On a strict budget, focus on veg and think rainbow - try to include some red (tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers etc) and yellow (peppers, squash, corn etc) as well as green. Learn to love cabbage and sneak some into beanburgers, soups, savoury rice and stir fries. It will be your new best frugal friend.

Protein sources like beans and lentils are often quite starchy anyway, so you don't need to add loads of carbs. If you do add some, go for unrefined - wholemeal bread and pasta and brown rice. They cost more but you can eat less of them and feel full and they have many more nutrients and much more fibre.

If you can, haunt the supermarket at the time they reduce items that are close to their sell by date. Almost any vegetable is filling and can be a side vegetable, part of a side salad, or go into soup. And this is where you can also pick up occasional treats like fruit and berries without having to make a big hole in your budget for them.

Learn to cook generically. Once you know a basic curry or chili recipe, you can make it with whatever vegetables are currently cheapest. You don't need a whole new recipe to substitute some cauliflower for a more expensive ingredient like okra or baby sweetcorn.

When it comes to breakfast, remember porridge. You can make it in a few minutes in the microwave, with water or a mixture of water and Koka coconut milk. Adding a few chopped nuts can help make it more filling and is a way to include nuts in your diet without using a lot since they're expensive. You can sometimes get some good bargains in the baking section on things like ground almonds, which are ideal for this.