Anyone thinking of doing Veganuary?

[DuggeesWooOOooggle]

Have thought about it the last few years but chickened out for various reasons (tea or coffee without proper milk being one!)

Now feel I ought to give it a go. We eat plenty of plant based meals as it is but hopefully doing it will widen the repertoire and help me reduce dairy intake by making me rely on alternatives for a month. Going without meat won't be too hard but cheese definitely!

However we are moving house mid month and I think I am pregnant (the test was very very faint so waiting til tomorrow to do another) so if I don't last the distance I won't beat myself up too much. Have a DH and 3 year old DS who won't be joining in.

Anyone else?

Sorry for placemarking, I might read the thread and start monday.

I had an email from Veganuary listing food that's accidentally vagan (including Shorties and Bourbons - I'm not keen on the Tesco dark chocolate digestives) so worth signing up to the emails.

Just spent a small fortune on new M&S range. I've done my own batch cooking but these are a few ready meals for an emergency.

I also bought some butternut squash lasagne sheets. I use a nice filling of chickpeas and green lentils, mixed in my new chopper from Lidl, but chickpeas are a nightmare to squish.

Does anyone make their own lasagne sheets? Lidl has a machine in the sale, but is it complicated/a faf to make?

I'd just use regular lasagne sheets. Much simpler.

Thanks - just assumed they might have egg, but never looked before.

This lentil bolognese recipe can be used in a variety of recipies.

Lentil Bolognese is one of my faves!

Some of my staples are -
A bean chilli - fry onions, garlic mushrooms and add to tinned chopped toms. Add a tim of baked beans, kidney beans, black beans and mix in with chilli powder to taste. Add green lentils to boiling water and simmer for 20 mins, drain and add to the mix. I used to add bistro to beef it up, I know it’s veggie but I don’t know if it’s vegan? Add more chilli powder if need be.

Ratatouille- fry onions, leeks, peppers, garlic, courgettes (I don’t like aubergine) and add to a few cans of chopped toms and herbes de Provence. Let simmer for half an hour. Goes well as a pasta sauce or in a baked pot. I often add chick peas and curry powder- again goes well with baked pot or rice/cous cous.

I also do a Thai style veg curry. I boil carrots, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, parsnips, butternut, green beans, sugar snap peas, (remove each as it cooks, they all cook at various rates). Fry red onion, white onions, garlic, chopped ginger , lemongrass and mushrooms until cooked. Add the boiled veg to the pan. Add a tin of coconut milk. Let simmer lightly for 10 mins.

Sounds yummy! I added some dark choc to my chilli last night. Yum.

Just made this - very nice cookieandkate.com/2014/creamy-vegan-butternut-squash-linguine-with-fried-sage/

Lotus biscuits (the posh ones with coffee as I always think of them) are also vegan. I have a regular visitor who is vegan and I know those and party rings are definitely ok for her.

That recipe looks nice.
I love Lotus biscuits.

Just eating the new M&S plant based range pizza.

It was £3 for half size normal.pizza. soyrdough base, spinach, sun dried tom and presumably vegan cheese.

It's really nice as a weekend takeway treat. Pleasantly surprised

We were out and about today and went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch (The egg cafe in Liverpool) - they had a lot of vegan options and all were delicious. I had a big salad plate with lots of different mixed salads on it - bean and grain, pasta with pesto, green salad and veg, plus very good vegan coleslaw and potato salads. The best thing though was dessert - a chocolate beetroot and chilli cupcake with chocolate icing. I really think it was the best cupcake I've ever eaten - it was so moist and chocolatey and the chilli made it interesting. This vegan thing is turning out to be very easy so far, I must say!

We had the Sainsbury's shroomdogs baked in the oven with potato chunks and also some fancy purple, yellow and orange 'heritage' carrots from the greengrocers, roasted. I also sauteed some cavolo nero from the greengrocers with some garlic and a squeeze of lemon. Made a tahini dressing to go with the carrots but we ended up slathering it on everything. Also had some mixed seeds to sprinkle on. Was all very yummy and seasonal. We usually get veggie sausages over meat ones as DH not a fan of anything greasy and we think the shroomdogs might be the best ones yet.

Made a fab mushroom pate today using sainsburys vegan cream cheese and vegan spread. It’s lovely spread on warm toast although my daughter stirred some into hot pasta and it tasted lovely as well.

Adjusting quite well to the Oatly milk

I bought the vegan cream cheese from Sainsbury's then realised I couldn't eat it as it contains soy ☹️

I also paid £1.50 for a tiny little pot of yogurt. Just tried it and was nearly sick. Can't remember the brand.

Breakfast today was a couple of the date and coconut energy balls and a coffee with oatly.

Lunch was salad and crusty bread.

Dinner was jazzed up beans on toast (I added red onion, garlic and chilli to the beans)

Me and dh are working out way through a bag of grapes for our Saturday night munchies.

Can you have the alpro brands? I like their yoghurts

No I can't have soy.
I got a big pot of coconut yogurt which was lovely so I think I'll just get that one again.

Oo the M and S pizza sounds worth a try.

There are quite a few pizza options in stores, but I like the DIY ones in Asda. They have dairy free cheese on the counter now and its only £2.30 for a 10" base + 4 toppings.

Pizza Express have my favourite vegan pizza cheese, but actually i often prefer pizza without cheese now. And just dip it in mayo or add chilli oil. Or sometimes Im super lazy and order papa johns.

Again, if you're motivated by health probably not what you're thinking of but without the cheese and with loads of veg can't be too bad for you surely.

I went out for dinner last night and asked if they had any vegan options .. she said yes we can make everything vegan , so I then said oh you have vegan cheese , she replied no we just make it without cheese .. it was an Italian so I imagine pizza without cheese isn't great 😂😂😂... I had veg risotto 🤷‍♀️....

I couldn't do it. Eggs are my favourite food.

"😂... I had veg risotto"

Do you know how much butter goes into making risotto?

None in my house. I've never used butter or cream in risotto and I'm not vegan. The creaminess comes from the starch in the rice.

Not in a restaurant, it doesn't.

I'm not the person who had it, and have no axe to grind here, but surely it would have be stated as a vegan option in a restaurant if hendricksy chose it.

I have no idea whether the restaurant put cream and butter in it, but it's far easier and cheaper to make a vegetable risotto without cream and butter I can't imagine why they would suddenly decide to waste money and piss off their customers by so doing.

I've been vegan for a whole and sometimes you do just order the thing that doesn't overtly state any meat/dairy/egg ingredients and hope for the best. Sadly it doesn't always work out. It depends how comfortable you feel asking questions about ingredients, how accommodating the restaurant are and whether you're with the sort of people who'll accuse you of making a fuss if you ask questions. None of these would be considerations in an ideal world, but unfortunately here we are.

Since I've been vegan for a while I usually know fairly quickly if a dish had hidden dairy; flatulence ahoy

Sorry, repeated myself there