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?

Yes she said it was vegan .. obviously I can only be guided by her but I'm doing my best and am new to this 🤷‍♀️

I don't put butter in risotto either. I make a lovely vegetable one but I usually add Parmesan for extra creaminess. I plan to make it without cheese then to will be vegan.

Well if she said it was vegan then what other guarantees can you seek out?!

Don't worry - even if she got it wrong it's not a problem in this case. It would be a different matter with allergies, obv....

Just tried the M&S vegan coleslaw - it’s really tasty

How do you guys usually make your butter free risottos? It's something I've never really made, but would like to. I'd love some people's tried and tested versions.

I make risotto in my instant pot as I'm lazy and dislike the stirring doing it the conventional way requires. If you happen to have an instant pot I like this recipe - just don't add parmesan at the end - either leave it out or use nutritional yeast www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-risotto-in-7-minutes/

Tonight I made pasta with vegan pesto using avocado, nutritional yeast, fresh basil, pine nuts and a bit of olive oil, garlic, and lemon. It was good but not great - DH gave it a 6.5 out of 10 and I'd have to agree. It was quick, easy and healthy though so I would make it again.

**haha glad I hit preview for this post - somehow autocorrect had changed pine nuts to pube nuts

Ooh, think I will leave out the pubes! 😄😄

We are hav

Sorry. Fat fingers!

We are having Dhal with poppadoms and mango chutney tonight. I hope it tastes as good as it smells!

Honeyroar

The Bish red wine risotto and their spring greens one are both so tasty. Real umami flavour, super satisfying.

Today I have had

a smoothie for breakfast

Salad and avacado wrap for lunch with a few fries I pinched from the ones I cooked for the dc.

Dinner was Sainsburys smokey jackfruit burgers with coconut rice and crispy kale.

I have been veggie for 32 years, God typing that made me feel old!

I do eat a lot of vegan food but feel I want to focus on it a bit more for health and ethical reasons.

So today I had pasta with tomato & chickpea sauce for lunch.

For dinner, I had mushroom bourguignon served with cauliflower rice.

Day 1 - breakfast was easy peanut butter and toast, and planning beans on toast for lunch but I am going to have making an effort to eat some actual vegetables or the health aspect isn't going to happen! koko coconut milk in milk and coffee was quite nice but has grape juice in it.

So confusing to know what is best in terms of ethical and health choice but doing what I had been doing and eating loads of chocolate clearly isnt good!

Lovely curry night with butternut squash and chickpea curry, lentil and courgette daal and mushroom rice, served with baby spinach, toasted cashews and manga chutney. A staple in our house anyway and a favourite meal.

Made some lovely chocolate chip cookies yesterday from a vegan cookbook I've had for years - they are expensive to make though as they used a whole cup of almonds whizzed to flour in the blender . Lovely though, will just have to ration myself.

I'm not yet missing cheese or milk but definitely hankering after eggs!

Your curry night sounds very good, @DuggeesWooOOooggle. I'd be grateful for any recipes you care to post!

I'm planning lentil and tomato soup for lunch and a vegetable and cashew stir fry for dinner with rice.

Just watched Jamie and Jimmy's Friday night feast from last week. They made vegan food and it all looked delicious 😋

I watched that as well - shame they didn’t tell us what the ‘best cheese’ they had found was

I know! I tried looking on Janie Oliver's website because he has all the recipes on there but it just says vegan cheese

I had a good day , wholemeal and pitta for brunch with crudities and humous and lentil soup for dinner . Oranges and apple as snacks .
I made a lovely small milkshake to try with the oaty milk and nesquik which I think is vegan as it doesn't have any milk in it .. anyways it was lovely so I'll double check and have that as a breakfast : brunch I think .

I haven't had the healthiest day but the food has all been tasty.

Breakfast was porridge made with chocolate almond milk.

Lunch was a falafel and hummus wrap. Used gosh falafels they were really nice.

Dinner was vegan schnitzel with chips and garlic mushrooms.

Also got a bar of the moo free chocolate in Aldi today but it's awful so I gave it to dh.

Going back a bit, the basis of risotto is frying onions, garlic, and other ingredients in oil (things like peas should be added near the end), add your wine if using and cook it off, then put your rice in, give it a good stir and then add the stock gradually and keep stirring until the rice is cooked, a process which takes around half an hour, then you check seasoning and serve.

I'm not sure where the butter comes in, or cream, as risotto is creamy because of the starch in the arborio/carnaroli rice. I guess people like James Martin would add it at the end!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2364/mushroom-risotto

Here is one recipe- the butter and cheese are indeed added at the end rather than being integral to the cooking process, so if you are vegan just don't, or use vegan cheese.

Haha @3boysandabump my DH is happy to act as a human dustbin for my unwanted treats also . And unfortunately I bought some moo chocolate at Aldi yesterday too, haven't tried it yet. Oats with chocolate almond milk sounds good, I'll have to try that.

@hendricksy there seems to be a bit if a debate amongst vegans as to whether or not nesquick is? Oh well, I'm not aiming to be absolutely perfect right from the start. I bought some vitamin d tablets in Tesco yesterday and now I have a doubt and wonder if they're of animal origin.

Getting ready this morning I realised I'm going to need to rethink my beauty products if I go vegan permanently (which is the plan as of now...). My original source shower gel which I love is marked vegan . My Simple soap just says not tested on animals and my the Ordinary face serum just says tested on humans. I will have to research.

Today's food is porridge with Oatly barista. For lunch a vegetable pate sandwich with fruit and some mixed nuts. Dinner will be pizza made with jus roll pizza dough, tomato sauce, mushrooms and a bit of violife cheese. I've also ordered more ritter sport almonds that should arrive today as they were sold out in my local shop. Potentially the Veganuary effect!

@Whatsnewwithyou I googled it and read about the debate 😬... it's so tricky isn t it !...
I didn't know vegetable pate existed , is it found near normal pate ?

I got mine from the health food shop, it's granovita brand. I've seen nice looking ones in Waitrose before though, in the chilled section near regular pate.

Whatsnew my chickpea and butternut squash curry is quite straightforward. Just fry an onion in oil/coconut oil, add garlic and fresh ginger. Add a couple of tbsp curry powder or paste - I tend to use korma as I hats toddler and a DH who hiccups if he has too spicy things! Chuck in half a diced BNS or a couple of sweet potatoes and add water until nearly covered. You can add a stock cube if you like. Cook 10-15 mins then add either half a can coconut milk or a lump of coconut cream (the most delicious and most calorific stuff ever!) and a can of chickpeas. A dollop of tamarind paste helps add depth of flavour but lime juice is good too. I go in with a masher and break a bit of it up to thicken the sauce. Serve with brown rice, spinach, cashews toasted in a pan and mango chutney, and extra chilli for me! Usually makes enough for a couple of meals.