1 year Vegan - AMA!

[Cherrypicker01]

As above

I agree wholeheartedly with reducing meat eating and with perhaps cutting out milk or whatever. But I’m really anti veganism in relation to soil health and habitat impacts; plus many I’ve met are very hypocritical and very much I am holier than thou...

How have you changed your lifestyle? (ignoring food) I’m not interested in what people eat... it’s the lifestyle changes I’m interested in. What impact has the lifestyle had?

Thanks, OP. I'm a veggie of 20+ years and have often thought about going vegan but it's the time and money spent shopping and cooking that puts me off tbh. I'm not really into cooking and like to go to Aldi once a week for a big cheap shop. I got a (supposedly easy!) vegan cookbook out of the library once and not one recipe could be made with ingredients bought only at Aldi! But maybe it'd be easier once my youngest is at school and I have more time.

Do you have children and if so are they vegan and how do you manage the cooking/shopping around them?

Did you want a medal?

this is really interesting OP thanks - I've been vegan for 4 days (due to demands from my Greta-thunberg inspired children) and am loving it! I wondered about the minimalist baker, but there isn't a cook book is there?

My teens want to stay vegan now. I've lost a few pounds even though I've been eating loads.

My question: vegan cheese and vegan butter - which is the best. I love a bit of lurpack!

I'm with the poster who only wants to shop at Aldi for vegan ingredients - unfortunately they don't stock staples like vegan spread, cream, yoghurt, cheese etc which are my staples so I have to compromise with a dash round Asda. Fortunately it's virtually next door and I know exactly where to find what I need.

The Bosh cookbook is an inspiration. A lot of the ingredients are a bit niche but I find that substitutions work pretty well because I can rarely be arsed trying to source some weird spice that my local cut-price supermarket doesn't stock!

Veggie for 30 years here, thanks for this thread OP. I'm moving towards veganism. Stopped the cheese and eggs but it's the milk I'm struggling with.

THe only one I can stomach is coconut and even then I struggle. May have to start taking to black.

30 years ago it was a struggle to not eat meat but now with all the substitutes it's easy. I try not to eat too much of the junk but I do like the texture of a spag bol with some meat substitute.

Did you want a medal

See what I mean

@Shadowboy I’m very much just climbing on the changes of the lifestyle ladder to be honest, it’s been a massive process. Naturally I started going further with products and cutting out animal testing and things. I believe the small things have made a big impact. I remember a few months back looking into animal testing and finding out how they grimly tested toxic shock syndrome in rabbits using tampons. That was grim enough for me to want to change and then I found out later that tampons have tiny bits of plastic in them and it’s a major environmental issue.. I would never have known this!

I changed over to a dairy free spread last year, and then when researching I found out about the whole palm oil debate. After that I’m very conscious of choosing products that are palm oil free. Every little helps.

It’s all been a learning curve for me, I believe it will be for the rest of my life. I will come to new information and then act the best I can from there

@soberfabulous

I tried with all sorts of milks and dairy free pretty much splits in your brew if you don’t get the temperature right... one day I just had straight up coffee and eventually learnt that I didn’t need a milk alternative, I just thought I did because I was used to it! Have you had a look in to the realities of mass dairy farming? That was enough to make me spit my milk out!

Lentils in spaghetti Bol I find does the trick with the texture, we gave it the girls a few month back with lentils and they never even questioned it

@AnnaNimmity

Butter - vitalite is great and ‘buttery’ but it uses palm oil. I’ve changed to flora now and I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to it now but that’s just as buttery to my tastebuds and I’m happy with it! There’s a butter called pure as well which is supposed to be ace but I can’t remember what made it is?

Cheese - sheese is great for pizzas it’s lovely and gooey! Same with the violife grated cheese. Applewood have just released a dairy free version of their smoked cheddar which people are going bonkers for too! Oh and vitalite has just brought out their own cheese and it takes like babybell!

@AnotherColdTea

I have a DD who is 8 and my partner has a DD who is 6. They eat vegan if we cook for the family and they love it. Usually things like stews, casseroles, pastas, making their own pizzas with vegan cheese etc. They have a lot of veg and fruit so we are happy. We were buying milk in for them (they are only with us 50% of the time they both have shared care with their other parent) but it was going to waste for cereals. We tried soya and coconut milk so far and they can’t really tell the difference so we don’t buy it in anymore.

They eat omni at their other parents houses which we are happy with, Ive told my girl she can have her own choices when she’s old enough to make them without judgement.

They are always in the kitchen curious and trying out new things because it all smells good and looks colourful to them. We had vegan sushi in a few week back and my daughters always pulled her nose up at sushi.... one bite and now they ask for it every weekend

@RatherBeRiding I shop primarily at Aldi too but I agree it is annoying we have to get cheese and other bits elsewhere. Luckily me and my DP love food and the shopping part too so we’re always running around looking for new products to try anyway!

WADR OP, you claim you don't judge/preach at meat eaters, but you ignored the parts of my post where I quoted you doing just that.

Other than that, in time-honoured MN tradition, you don't have a vegan problem, you have a (quite serious) friends and family problem. They sound like a bunch of rude, boring dicks. Sort them out and it sounds like most of the issues you have will vanish.

I have vegans and veggies and whatnot amongst my lot and their dietary habits are of as much note as the person who doesn't like peas or the one who can't stand any type of gravy or sauce. It's just personal choices. Nobody gets funny about it.

@buzzshitbagbobbly

I explained the whole defence mechanism thing to you and my thoughts over that (see my last comment on this response too)

The filtering it though a cows stomach and arse - isn’t that what is it?

And the comment you made about me claiming to be environmentally riteous - I never claimed to be the only one who cares. I clearly asked the other poster to send me some more information regarding the crop thing and then made a point back about the cattle farming being bad for the environment, because it is.

Other poster makes a comment about grains being environmentally damaging - doesn’t get blamed for claiming they are the ‘only one who cares about the environment’

Vegan makes a comment about cattle farming being environmentally damaging - gets blamed for claiming they are the ‘only one who cares about the environment’.

Do you see what I mean? There is a lot of prejudice here, it makes us wonder why that’s the case if people who call out vegans say they aren’t being ‘defensive’ without even being called out on it.

The filtering it though a cows stomach and arse - isn’t that what is it

But why phrase it in such a needlessly antagonistic way? Why even say that sort of thing at all? Its not exactly normal conversation.

I had a veggie friend who used to ask me "what cute animal flesh will you have on your pizza" when we went out. Why? If you (she) don't mind my choices as I don't mind yours, why phrase it that way?

If you can't honestly, hand on heart, accept that you are at least part of the issue you complain about with the way you are word some things (notwithstanding the fact your f&f sound like spiteful cunts from what you've said) then I shall politely bow out of this thread.

Now thats unnecessary and very passive aggressive of your friend to say to you over your dinner and I suppose it’s the same situation what I’ve listed when I’ve said people around me make comments about my food choices. It’s bullying and it’s not nice.

But theres a difference between the filtering comment it in a thread chat in general and saying it to your face in a personal attack towards yourself when you are eating. I don’t target people @buzzshitbagbobbly. I will happily target the industry and the act. But people have been brought up with their diets as being just the ‘way it is’ as I had when I was omni, and I have no right to target individual for it. I won’t judge you, I won’t say you are wrong in your choices, I won’t make ridiculous passive aggressive comments over your choice of pizza to be a dick. I don’t think I’m part of any ‘issue’.

You, on the other hand, have just called my family and friends cunts, and that is personal.

Cherrypicker - like you I am on a vegan "ladder" and have actually found it incredibly easy to find make up, toiletries, hair products that are not tested on animals. In the same way that veganism has become pretty mainstream (very rarely have a problem finding something suitable when eating out - even a number of local pubs are offering vegan choices now), I find it very encouraging that more and more big retailers and manufacturers are realising that for a lot of us consumers, we insist on animal-friendly/vegan products.

Only a few years ago I was having to hunt around for decent not-tested-on-animals shampoo and conditioner - now its everywhere!

@RatherBeRiding it’s a wonderful feeling isn’t it being on board with such a drastic social change. I’m really glad I did it and I feel I learn something new all the time about the world around me, I even find I question my own choices a bit more, something I hardly ever did before and it has made me realise how ignorant I was. I’m genuinely looking forward to how things have moved in a few years time

cherrypicker01 I've just put a lentil spag bol into the slow cooker, will report back. Thank you for the idea!

@soberfabulous how was it?

bakesalesally it was really good! was a bit strange at first as the texture is so different to qourn or a meat substitute, but it tasted great.

tonight's dinner is a 3 bean chilli, also in the slow cooker. this is one of my favourites and a regular meal in our house.

I'm not a vegan. I wish I could be but I just don't have the strength or willpower to do it. I don't know why anyone even cares about someone being vegan. Honestly this obcessive vegan hating is ridiculous. At work we started selling a vegan product and the amount of negative comments people made about it was crazy. No one is making you buy it so why do you care?! Vegans are doing a good thing and most of them don't go on about it so why are people so offended by them? And tbh, I think they are allowed to be smug anyway because its not something I could do, so good on them.

Sorry not a question. I just wanted to tell the op that not everyone wants to force you to eat meat or dairy products. There are some normal people out there.