New to the group and new to veganism
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scotex89
Posts: 14 Member
Hi, I am Carole. I was born in Scotland but have lived in Texas for 30 years. I have been a lacto-vegetarian since 1991and I have been hovering on the edge of veganism for a long time, but have not taken the plunge until now. I am on an anti-inflammatory diet – which is dairy, gluten and corn free – for thirty days. I would love some help from all you vegan experts on how to make my diet so appealing that I will never want to go back to dairy. I have barely been cooking of late - actually for a long time - mostly living on Amy's frozen food. Obviously that has to change. But I don't really know where to start.
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I hear you. I have never been successful at any diet. One day I saw a video about what dairy cows go through, and I haven't had a single bit of dairy since. That has been the key to my personal revolution -- recognizing and witnessing animal cruelty. I also learned, since the change, that plant-based is the diet of vegans. Vegans don't consume diary for moral reasons, and that has made me stick with my dietary choices. I can never go back! Try watching those videos, see those images. They will make you committed. I wish you much success -- for your health, for the animals!
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I started with just veganizing things like Mexican food. That was the easiest since beans are so healthy and nutritious.
I was working 50-60 hours a week when I went plant-based after becoming a vegan, and I had to explore and practice recipes on the weekends. Yes, Amy's meals got me through, too!
Now I am relying on tofu, seitan, and beans for protein, and make recipes that just combine foods I like rather than look like the foods I used to eat.
It does take time. Replacing eggs I used to eat every meal and cheese which was my go-to snack, along with yogurt, has been the hardest. Now I snack on fruit (apples, bananas, etc.), hummus, cucumber, celery, and smaller portions of meals I like.
An instant pot for cooking beans and making stews and curries is AWESOME!
Raw cashews soaked overnight and then blended with a Nutribullet makes a wonderful cheese sauce and cream base for anything you like. You can even use acids like vinegar or lemon to make the cream cheesy or yogurty.https://lovingitvegan.com/classic-vegan-cashew-cheese-sauce/ She doesn't soak, but I still recommend it.
Again, I wish you the best on your journey, Carole!5 -
Hi Carole, I hear you about not knowing where to start... I'm trying to eat more toward whole foods and less toward processed vegan. Sometimes, though, when I'm running around and short on time, I end up w/more processed than I'd like. So, I decided to try out an oil-free vegan meal plan that uses easy-to-get ingredients, easy cooking skills, and lists out substitutions (gluten/nuts/seeds). I get a shopping list, recipes, substitution sheet, meal plan, and prep-ahead sheet each week... plan is for making 3 meals a day for 5 days for 2 people. I am cooking mostly for myself, so I have extra to put in the freezer, which helps, too! Though this just my first week, I'm already digging how I don't have to have anxiety about what to make that meets my requirements. Plus, I really like the prep-ahead feature, because I tend to bulk cook on the weekend so I don't have to dink around during the week so much. I hope that you find your way with it, Carole!
Also, if anyone finds a decent-tasting replacement for sour cream, please let me know! I have tried Toffuti and hated it!1 -
Vegan of 8 years here. The thing that makes me most successful would be batch cooking items individually...NOT making duplicate meals. On a Saturday or Sunday (whichever day has the most free time) I will cook a pound of dry beans (I keep several varieties around, so whatever I'm in the mood for) and about 4 to 6 servings of a grain (or seed like quinoa). I chop my veggies up, too. The only thing I mix together are my salad greens. So for instance, this week I cooked a pound of pintos, 6 servings of red and white quinoa, and baked a package of tofu. My salad mix was 1 head romaine, 1/2 head iceberg, handful of spinach, handful of flat leaf parsley and radishes. Some days I'll grab a handful of salad and top it with cut up veggies and beans...other days I'll do a little more. Like today's lunch: bed of greens with 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/4 yellow bell pepper, serving of tofu cut into slices, 1/2 an avocado and topped with a simple dressing made with garlic, lemon juice, cumin and tahini. Isn't it beautiful?
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I've been vegan for 12 years and was vegetarian for more than 2 decades before that. I find meal prepping a godsend. It keeps me away from eating too many prepackaged meals and too much 'vegan junk'.
My core staples are roasted vegetables, curries or chilli with rice, tofu (scrambled, air fried, baked), black bean burgers, soups with homemade bread or poured over a grain, chickpeas in salads or baked until crispy, mashed in a sandwich or made in to hummus, beans and lentils.
I make a M-F breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks on a Sunday for the working week and freestyle it on the weekend. I'm okay eating the same thing for each meal for the five days but you could certainly do more variety easily.
This week I ate:
B - Oats with berries, banana and flaked hazelnuts
MT - Nectarine and a small bunch of grapes
L - Tofu scramble with red onion, yellow, green and red capsicum peppers, baby spinach and shredded vegan 'bacon' topped with sliced grape tomatoes, vegan 'feta' and spring (green) onions and served with a side of coleslaw.
AT - A handful of mini pretzels with almonds
D - Black bean chilli with rice and salad
Post Workout - Protein shake
Extra - if I am still hungry - a pot of cashew yoghurt
HTH x1 -
Thank you everybody for your suggestions. Lets of good ideas.
On Tuesday I bought a lot of produce, but kind of randomly because I hadn't planned to make anything in particular. Today I cooked lunch with some of it and it felt awesome. But I still wanted something more, so I had some vegan buffalo salad from Whole Foods and very fast after eating it, I felt slightly sick. It has an awful lot of ingredients, including wheat and corn. So maybe those were the culprits. This evening I had salad and hummus. Was not very hungry when I started, but got hungrier as I ate. Ended up adding half a Larabar. Before logging my ingredients, I would have eaten the whole thing. So I am on my way.
I am working with a naturopath who is is into the 50%-30%-30% macros nutrition, but he wants me to do 50 carbs, 35 protein and 25 fat. I might be his only vegan. The only thing he suggested to get more protein was tofu. I personally think this is too much protein. It would mean over 100g protein for me. Apart from the fact that every vegan nutritionist I have read says we actually need very little; 40 g is about the highest I have seen suggested, I don't see how to get up that high on vegetables and beans every day.
Any thoughts on this would be gratefully received.1
