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!!

I've noticed a lot more vegan products in supermarkets of late, which can only be a good thing.

I'm a vegetarian and would find cheese and eggs really difficult to give up, but I do know that it is possible to get good eggs that are totally cruelty free, but I'm sure you have to pay extra for them.

In terms of other dairy, I've found myself eating less and less of it. I've never been a big milk drinker and I now absolutely love almond milk,a although I know there are environmental difficulties with that. I do love ice-cream, but I've now fallen in love with Alpro "ice-cream". Their vanilla is really good, but oh my days, their chocolate hazelnut is to die for ! Less rich than dairy ice-cream and to be honest all the better for it.

My biggest wish is that we all ate far less meat, as used to be the case, and that the meat we do eat was all absolutely ethical. Not only would it mean better treatment of animals, but I think it would lead to the overall health of the nation.

We are all vegan in the house (youngest child is 5) and it is just normal for us. I can understand it is difficult especially if you are quite social. We don't have friends/family so it's just life. But we are all vegan for the animals so I think that makes it very easy. I can veganize pretty much anything, also we make our own 'meat' from vital wheat gluten. The kids just had pancakes with spray cream

We're not a strictly vegan household now but have been in the past and it's a lot harder cooking separate meals for the kids than it is just cooking one vegan one. We still eat vegan for 95% of meals.

I wouldn't say it's incompatible with family life but it is more work especially at first. You can't just serve some lentils with a side of veg like you could with a piece of chicken and you need to change the way you think about food as most of the meat/cheese alternatives are either rank or unhealthy. On the plus side I've become a much better cook and we all eat a lot more veg.

Our diet can be quite repetitive and pulse-heavy as we don't eat fake meat like quorn etc or soya, so we recently introduced eggs a few times a week - they're a good source of certain nutrients, and we have a very ethical source.

Children's parties can be tricky, the DC are allowed to eat what they want at others' parties but catering vegan for other people's fussy kids is hard.

I’m vegetarian, My kids and dp aren’t. I’ll let my kids chose,at mo they love meat

Thanks for the info @DreamyMcDreamy

My cousin would say YANBU. She & husband eat like vegans, for political reasons. For about a year, now. Cousin says it takes friggin' ages, so much slicing & dicing & planning. Total utter faff. Her youngest is 16yo, so at least no little kids.

I thought that veganism means avoiding all animal products- not just for consumption? So leather honey etc?

I don't see why it would take more slicing and dicing than cooking a meat containing meal from scratch.

I thought that veganism means avoiding all animal products- not just for consumption? So leather honey etc?

That's the British definition, AFAIK. Why I said my cousin "eats like a vegan" rather than "is a vegan."

Yes veganism for animals you don't eat honey, use wool etc. Some vegans won't even keep pets (not me I have 5 cats).

I completely disagree. I was the only vegan in our household for 3 years and it was fine! We all ate vegan meals and DH/DC added meat or cheese as wanted.

Actually... in Britain, vegan doesn't mean avoiding animal products but rather "avoiding them specifically for animal welfare reasons." So you could very strictly avoid them, but for other reasons nothing to do with animal cruelty, and still not be a British vegan.

However, in USA, the definition of vegan is "avoids eating animal products." Reason why is not part of the only accepted definition, and there's no consensus that the behaviour must extend to avoiding things like leather.

If you go back to 1800s "vegan" was just about diet, not other types of consumption.

I used to make a green lentil bolognaise for DD and a meat one for us until we all discovered we preferred the taste of the lentil one!

But if cows were not killed for meat then leather would be akin to fur.

OP well done for doing veganuary and I completely agree with you about the dairy industry - it is horrific. From an animal welfare standpoint I think it’s better to eat meat than dairy to be honest.

I eat loads of soups and things - really delicious ones (especially lentils) with bread dipped in olive oil. Veggie stir fries with black bean sauce and cashew nuts. “Buddha bowls” with roasted potatoes, roasted veg, guacamole, pica de gallo and hummus, sprinkled with seeds. Tortilla wraps with falafel, salad and hummus. Green Thai curry. Pasta with tomato and basil sauce with roasted aubergine and olives. Pizza with vegan mozzarella. Bean burger with hummus and avocado and chips. Veggie sausages with mash and veg. Vegetable spring rolls on rice with sweet and sour sauce. All really quick and easy - would your children eat any of that?

If not I agree with previous posters about trying to swap in as much as possible in terms of milk, butter and cheese and then just use the highest welfare eggs you can find.

And again, well done you for caring!

I don't see why it would take more slicing and dicing than cooking a meat containing meal from scratch.

Because meat imparts a lot of texture and flavour without you having to do much - chuck a steak or piece of salmon onto a pan for a bit and you can serve it with potatoes and green veg no probs.

Replace the steak with, say, lentils or a piece of tofu and you need to do a lot more - soak the lentils then make them into a patty, or cook them into a ragu, or marinate the tofu and then make more accompanying flavoursome side dishes for example.

This vegan thing really baffles me. One one hand it seems to be all about the food and the other it’s a lifestyle where people are rutting around for vegan tires for the car.

Is it a spectrum?

I would say take it very slowly moving towards veganism.

try to slowly swap fave dishes with vegan alternatives, or find new vegan ones that you can gradually introduce and phase out the old ones.

Some things are easy to give up:

soya yogurt great sub for yogurt
dairy free milk - so many nice options now, and can also be used in place of milk in white sauces, for example

Stock up on dairy free long life milk from the supermarket, get enough for a month or so at a time.

give up all the dairy you are able, but don't sweat if you can't give up everything.

slowly get used to the alternatives e.g. cashew cream is great for a creamy taste in food.

vegan cakes taste fab!

you get the odd half ok vegan cheese, but on the whole, they're not great. but on a pizza with lots of toppings you can't notice the difference.

it does take planning but take the transition slowly - it's getting your head around a new mindset! Find new ways of making favourite dishes. E.g. vegan cauliflower cheese - use a white sauce made with soy milk and add some stock powder for flavour, some breadcrumbs on top for crunch -and it can still taste kid-friendly - this kind of thing.

You can make a vegan "omelette" quickly with chick pea flour.

Curries are easy to make... rice based dishes for kids.

Tofu sausages from Waitrose, linda mccartney sausages / sausage rolls I think are vegan. Potato based dishes e.g. vegan cottage pie are easy to make subbed with vegan ingredients...

To think veganism isn’t compatible with family life

YABU to think this. I'm sure if you had two vegan kids but you and your partner were omnivorous you would not have posted "To think eating an omni diet is not compatible with family life.."...

We have 2 plant-based and 2 omnis (including a picky eater) and one of the plant-based kids has allergies, so cooking for all of us is very tricky indeed. I tend to do a big pot of plain pasta or rice as a base, then a pot of various veg for all of us, a tomato/onion based sauce for 2 of us, beans for one of us, and the omnis add chicken/fish and the plant-baseds add vegan cheese etc.

Quorn do vegan items now. I'm a slag for their cocktail sausages.

Ravenesque - are you sure they are vegan? I thought they had egg in them?

I cook 4 meals a day anyhow ... veganism is hard, vege is easy!

Convert them slowly if you're liking it!

Quorn do vegan items now. I'm a slag for their cocktail sausages.

They do vegan stuff but I can’t see cocktail sausages on their vegan products list. I can see veggie ones with egg in.

www.quorn.co.uk/products/vegan

Here’s the quorn vegan range. No sausages.

www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/quorn-mini-cocktail-sausages-180g?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=vW1hLhA5t7Q2btnN04CnaRyFS0xc7bBZ2BzWYQVeYqEdD%2Bmvs7BdHlv9A8DMn0dPgsEItb6xau%2FItK8MEN2OqRR9HLcEJ6dF2qPFmMZ79UcqAl78JlBNmMT2DwzKh2Sa&ddkey=https%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fquorn-mini-cocktail-sausages-180g

Egg and milk listed as ingredients here.