To think veganism isn’t compatible with family life

[Movingon2018]

I have been vegetarian for 30 years and decided to try vegan january. My 2 kids didn’t do it so it was just me & partner.
I really enjoyed it and kind of wanted to continue especially as I found some of the stuff about the dairy industry upsetting.
But I have found it really hard in terms of family life and the time it takes to prepare food. It was kind of ok for a month but I work full time and found I was cooking 2 meals every night or spending a lot of sunday batch cooking for the week when I wanted to be with the kids.
Before I tried vegan january, we would all eat stuff like a quick omelette or scrambled eggs for tea. My kids were still eating that but then I was cooking another vegan meal on top and have found it exhausting!
I feel awful saying this as it sounds like I am making excuses but I have found it so time consuming. I do eat a mostly plant based diet but with eggs and a bit of cheese once a week.
Aibu? All my vegan friends don’t have kids so have more time!!

Yes travail OP there is a vegan site on here btw . If you have a day like Sunday every other week and cook a lot of whole rice\vegan shepherds pie fillings/sauces with dried soya mince ,it's very like 'normal' mince, etc. to freeze, it makes everything much easier.

@uhuhhoney I think I do want to b vegan- am just feeling a bit overwhelmed!! My conclusion is that I will continue with it as much as I can but will maybe include the odd egg or bit of Greek yoghurt occasionally.

I'm the only vegan in my family and Don't find it a problem. Neither is eating out. If you want to do it like others have said it's about planning. If you want to eat dairy and eggs do. You have to be happy with your choices and for me the dairy industry is worse than the meat for animal welfare so being vegetarian for ethical reasons didn't make sense. We all have to make choices we're happy with though.

Fishless fingers?

Yes! They're actually really, really nice. www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/294628574

@pjharveys I agree with you about the dairy industry- it’s what made me do vegan january in the first place.

You can buy Vegan Egg and similar, some can be scrambled, others are just for cooking with, if that is any help.

My biggest problems with being vegan are the addition of palm oil to almost everything, meaning I need to cook everything or live on salads which I am happy with.

The other is dairy, have stopped butter, but finding a substitute that is palm oil free seems to be impossible. Cheese I have to reduce for health reasons so that is not a problem, I haven't found a palatable vegan substitute yet. But the real problem is milk. I drink tea with milk, it is my one pleasure in life, and I can't find anything that makes it worth drinking other than milk and it concerns me.

I’m vegetarian and you need to plan meals and practice til you get a repertoire of meals
It’s easy once you’re in the swing of it to be vegetarian or vegan
Planning,and stocking up on your necessities

Yes I had vegan 'fish and chips" At a vegan fair in Brixton last autumn, it was lovely!

I'm vegan, my children aren't. I don't find it difficult but it's always been this way so I don't know any different.

My DSis does this: vegan for all members of the house. It takes up so much of her time: planning meals for the nutritional balance, sourcing and buying the variety of foodstuffs, the number of recipes to sort through makes my mind boggle. I just don't know where she finds the headspace to do it all to be frank.

@toad I actually had the same problem with tea & having tried every plant based milk, I find soya milk totally fine and it’s made that part of it easier!

What are your reasons for going vegan op?

Mostly is my favourite milk in tea and Tyne Chease is really nice but quite ££.

Oatly

TBH I found that when making big changes like this, for me, a slow change is much easier to handle that June big change.
Not vegan but I have cut out dairy and wheat form my diet more or less completely now. I did over several months, taking the time to adjust, find recopies that I found good and generally got organised re preparation.

I also agree that regardless of what you are eating, if you are going to cook more than an omelette, it takes time and you need some preparation/organisation.
Preparing a big quantity of xxx and freezing some of it is a life saver for me.

I also found it really difficult because I like to bake. I know you can get the dairy free spread to use but it's hard to replace the eggs I think.

I think if everyone ate less meat. fish , eggs and dairy it would deb a good thing. Also, I think there will be a huge growth in flexatarianism(i think that's the term) as lots of people are like me in that I am happy to eat far less animal product but don't want to give up completely. Since my DD turned vegetarian 2 years ago , as a family we all eat veggie meals 50% of the time now. Saves a lot on our grocery bill!

@uhhuhhoney well, I watched Cowspiracy and Forks over Knives a while ago & tried it then as was uncomfortable with continuing to eat dairy etc. I’ve also seen ‘dairy is scary’ and found it horrific so it’s a lot about animal welfare and environmental impact. I have thought about it extensively. Am just struggling to put it into total practise.

I'm not vegan myself, just vegetarian, so I can only speculate, but I think part of the problem is that you're not used to it, and also that it means being different from your children. If you and your partner had become vegan before having children, and raised them vegan, I expect it would be a lot easier than doing it now. It's a big change to make if you eat a lot of eggs and dairy but, for people who've done it for a long time, I expect it's not too big a deal. Do what makes you happy :)

Toad I soo agree about palm oil; it's in so many expensive spreads. I refuse to use it, so I have olive oil on my toast ,it's lovely. You just need to mix it with marmite or peanut butter to make sandwiches!

I drink green and mint tea, or ginger and rooibosh (2 tbags for good flavour) and don't miss the milk at all now. Black tea used to give aches and pains!

For me it took a while and lots of trial and error to find some staple meals that we all like. I'm not a massive fan of grains and pulses.
Quick things for us are Linda mc sausages with beans and hash browns, jacket potato and beans, chips and nuggets, noodles, pasta, pitta pizza.
There's no reason why you can't be mostly plant based and not label yourself as fully vegan.
There's a lot of useful groups on Facebook where you can get recipes and find accidental vegan products.

10thingsIhateAboutTheDailyMail

I used to be vegan , and did have a private chef for over a year. I didn't have a family though once I started cooking for myself.

formerbabe You can use ground linseeds as an egg replacer (it works well)!

Can I ask about supplements? I worry that my DD17 will get deficient. she eats 2 eggs a week, eats skimmed milk in coffee/tea and almond milk on cereal. I worry about her, probably unnecessarily but she does get very tired.

I also found it really difficult because I like to bake. I know you can get the dairy free spread to use but it's hard to replace the eggs I think.

Lots of vegan cakes and loaves/buns you don't even need spread. Vegetable oil is great to use and is in lots of yum recipes.
Mashed banana is a great substitute for eggs in baking cakes.
Or flaxseeds. Found this post that explains more about how to prepare them as not tried the flaxseeds way myself but have heard it's really good as an egg substitute.
www.thekitchn.com/egg-substitutes-in-baking-try-95072