Vegan for a week?

njh2008

When i first started out as veggie, it consisted of everything minus the meat, For example, I would have sunday roast dinner minus the beef.

Then I began using quorn products to replace the meat in a meal.

After looking on MFP, i have noticed that other veggies use more varied meat substitutes than just quorn. I havent noticed many of the follwing in local supermarkets though, so do you buy them online?;

Yuba (ive got tofu)
Tempeh
Seitan

Which got me thinking, that as i dont like milk, can only eat eggs if theyre in something (yorkshire pudding, cake etc--if i can actually taste them then i gip) why not go the full hog and attempt to eat a vegan diet for just a week.

My main problem would be chease as i like different kinds of cheese. I have seen vegan cheese but this looks to be more of a cheddar kind of chease rather than , say, brie, wensleydale etc.

What do the vegans out there for stuff like that, and bread (has milk) and booze (refined with egg white) quorn (binded with egg)....

I thought it sounded ok in theory ....

dayzeerock

I use barnivore.com to make sure that all my booze is vegan.

As far as meat replacements, I can get most in any grocery store (tempeh, seitan, tofu). I also make my own seitan, which is really easy (recipe on my blog in my signature).

Cheese replacements, I also tend to make my own. I have heard that there is a very nice brand that makes substitutes for finer cheeses such as brie, but I can't recall the name at the moment. Maybe someone else can help you out with that. When I do use a storebought cheese sub, it's either Daiya or Galaxy Vegan.

UrbanRunner81

I am not vegan but I went vegan for entire month. I am vegetarian but I don't use any meat substitutes. Maybe do a little tempeh every once in awhile.
Daiya is great vegan cheese....soy free which I love since I limit my soy intake.

A great book to get is Vegan on the cheap. I love that book. I eat vegan probably 3-4 times a week. Some of her recipes have soy in it but I either just don't use the soy or substitute something else.

Scoobies87

I have a friend who is vegan. She eats lot's of veggie pittas, lentil stews etc. You can get vegan mayonnaise which she swears is tasty. She eats bread, I think you have to look on label though to see which ones are suitable. She also eats soya or olive margarine and you can even get vegan ice cream which is lush.

I say go for it, I'd love to be able to do it but I am too fussy as it is! Oh and she does drink alcohol, she just has to check the labels.

live2dream

I love quorn products too, and cheese Which is why it's been so hard to go from vegetarian to vegan. I like Daiya 'cheddar ' occasionally- awesome on a grilled cheese!! But don't care for the daiya 'mozzarella'- so I have pizza with regular mozz once in a while. Also I love parm and feta - not sure if there are decent replacements for that, but I'd like to know!

I have been trying tempeh and seitan too- both pretty good replacements in chinese and mexican dishes. Tofu- well lets say not my fave thing, but i'm been really trying to incorporate it in ways. Made broccoli and tofu w/brown rice last night and hubby and i were both gagging - don't like the texture. AT. ALL. lol

Never heard of Yuba?

I didn't know about alcohol having egg white, hmmmm.... i learn something new everyday!

On another note, I'm going to try the Reboot juicing plan for 15 which I believe is vegan. So it'll be vegan for 2 weeks for me starting Sept 21 I'm thinking!!
http://jointhereboot.com

njh2008

You can grate/mince tofu and use it like that, ive never tried that way, or you can slit it and stuff it whihc i thought was quite nice. otherwise its just a bit like a wet sponge if u just kinda stir fry it.

Yuba is the skin of the tofu from the top of boiled soy milk.

I will try the reboot programme with you if u'd like? do u think a blender would work nearly as good as a juicer if i blended it with water added in??

Whats wrong with Soy?Why do u limit it? I will look into Amazon for that book if its a good one to look at.


ive just looked at the barnivore.com website, it appears u can get a lot of booze animal free, i think the main prob with veganism is my location. including the surrounding 45 miles either side of where i live, i think there are exactly THREE veggie restaurants or cafes and they dont really recognise vegan . it may be more of an internet jobby i am thinking, rather than just nipping to the local supermarket.

I will give this more thought as it might not be as easy as i first thought . My otehr half is completely meat obsessed, the weirder, the more eyes, whatever , he likes to eat so its a bit of a pain doing 1 veggie & 1 meaty meal at teh mo never mind if i cut out even moan :-)

UrbanRunner81

Soy has estrogen and too much estrogen in your body isn't a good thing and can be linked to health problems.
Soy can be in everything. I try and buy products without it. I mean even breads, crackers and snacks can contain soy. What I really avoided is processed soy foods. I make whole foods instead of substituting for meat. Organic tofu or tempeh I will do but I no longer buy fake meats. Quorn is soy free though I do believe.
Soy is unless it is organic is GMO (genetically modified). Or you know the source and ect.
If you do do soy I would stay with organic and avoid the others.
Sorry not to go on and on. They are so many other wonderful foods and recipes that don't involve meat replacements. I use a lot of beans in my meals.

raevynn

Be aware that seitan is made from wheat gluten. If you are trying to cut back on gluten, don't use seitan!

Tofu is good, tempeh is better (in my own opinion!)... tempeh is a form of fermented/cultured whole soy, which is more of a whole food than tofu. Not everyone can handle a lot of tofu, due to the phyto estrogens. Tempeh seems less of an issue with that.

Quorn, as you've noticed, has egg in it. Before I went vegan, I used Quorn products... they do taste good.

I personally use tempeh,
Earth Balance spread for those things that scream "butter me!", and Veganaise (grapeseed oil variety) by Follow Your Heart for sandwich needs. FYH also makes a truly kick-@$$ sour cream substitute.
Daiya cheese-like shreds are absolutely wonderful, as they really melt and stretch like that icky dairy-based stuff

I use less and less packaged, processed things/substitutes, as they are expensive, tend to have too much sodium, and don't taste as good as fresh food.

jetscreaminagain

I'm not vegan or vegetarian. But before I started body for life for my fitness plan (and upped my protein to about even with my whole food carbs which makes me feel great but is prit near impossible without meat) the vast majority of my food was vegetarian. Or vegan. I HEARTILY recommended Appetite for Reduction and Veganomicon which are both vegan. I also recommend 101cookbooks.com though she's pretty heavy with the fast burn carbs.

Freeze tofu and then thaw it and rip it up and it makes passable ground beef substitute for chili or spaghetti sauce. But to me it is more interesting and satisfying to cook food full of yummy stuff even exclusively plant based yummy stuff than to remind myself what's NOT there by substituting for it.

live2dream

I will try the reboot programme with you if u'd like? do u think a blender would work nearly as good as a juicer if i blended it with water added in??

Whats wrong with Soy?Why do u limit it? I will look into Amazon for that book if its a good one to look at.


ive just looked at the barnivore.com website, it appears u can get a lot of booze animal free, i think the main prob with veganism is my location. including the surrounding 45 miles either side of where i live, i think there are exactly THREE veggie restaurants or cafes and they dont really recognise vegan . it may be more of an internet jobby i am thinking, rather than just nipping to the local supermarket.

I will give this more thought as it might not be as easy as i first thought . My otehr half is completely meat obsessed, the weirder, the more eyes, whatever , he likes to eat so its a bit of a pain doing 1 veggie & 1 meaty meal at teh mo never mind if i cut out even moan :-)

Well you'd have to be committed to doing the reboot program for yourself- but i'd love to have someone to go through it with! And you may need a juicer or blend the veggies, then drain through a cheesecloth. It would probably be difficult to consume the high amount of fruits/veggies you can by juicing, with blending. Although with blending you get the fiber, so that is good occasionally too. I don't know a whole lot about the reboot program yet- after you do the assessment, they will start to send you emails on how to prepare for it. There's a movie about it- Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead- i heard it's a good one so I need to watch it!

Soy is a very controversial subject, but most studies I've seen point toward too much soy being harmful with all the estrogen in it. Especially if it's non-fermented and non-organic- it's pretty much guaranteed to be GMO if it's not certified organic. Quorn is soy-free, but not egg-free or vegan unfortunately.

That is a bummer having to cook 2 meals. When I switched to vegetarian- I told the hubby I won't cook with meat anymore, but if he wants to eat it when he's away from home or prepare it himself, that's fine with me. Now he doesn't even care to eat meat outside of home anymore...except seafood, so he's a pescatarian now.