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!!

Sorry! I should have been more clear. Their cocktail sausages are just vegetarian and I am a slag for them. They are doing more vegan versions of their generally just veggie products.

I have one vegan in the household and it was difficult to begin with but as with most cooking you find your tried and tested meals and rotate. The most time consuming part at the beginning was finding new items in the supermarket.

I would say YABU. We're a vegan family with DCs ages 3 and 6. The 6 year old ia super fussy, it would be much easier but for him! Tonight we had Linda mccartney sausages, mash, fried onions, broccoli and peas (DH had bisto bleurgh) but DC1 had veggie fingers and broccoli.

I would say though I've been vegan 4 years ago and its second nature now, at the start I was not so relaxed.

Quick meals for us are Dahl and naan, spaghetti hoops on toast, fry up, soup, instant noodles, houmous and pittas, pasta with pesto.

It is also so much easier now that supermarkets and online food shopping is meeting demand. I used to cook everything from scratch but whilst I still enjoy cooking when I have time, being able to shove a pizza in the oven is heavenly.

We're a vegan household and it's just normal for us. I can't think of any hassles with being a vegan family that my non-vegan friends don't have a version of too.

In fact, my life is easier because my children will eat anything, whereas my friends are constantly battling with their fussy eaters and veg-refusers!

I was veggie from birth anyway so I've never had to give up meat. I went vegan decades ago and found it fairly easy even back then (when there was only soya milk and one rank cheese available!)

My children have been vegan from birth so eating lentils, beans, tofu, veg etc is normal for them. It's been an unexpected benefit of raising them vegan actually!

I think, like any changes, going can vegan take a while to bed in to the stage you're on auto pilot with it. But this is a fab time to do so - I can't get over how vegan friendly the world is becoming.

Yes I agree Seer there are even 2 magazines exclusively for Vegans now!

Oatly

Most vegans I know won't touch oatly as they sell the left over oats to factory pig farmers so if you buy it you contribute to that.

Me and DH are vegan, DC are pescatarian + dairy free. We manage fine but it took a while to change meal plans and find recipes the whole family like etc.
Tbh I cant see how its any different to a meat eating family where the children have different tastes and I definately wouldn't say its incompatible with family life.

meal planning for next week is the only way. My kids can't have dairy and one can't have eggs. So we tend to eat lots of vegan food. I do batch cook a chilli or bolo and keep in the freezer then super easy to defrost for quick tea.

For quick dinners we have stir fry, jacket potatoes, soup.

We tend to do lots of veggies, new potoaotes with chicken breast or fish - you could easily do this and have some tofu instead

@Blackteadrinker77 that is a very recent controversy and it looks like the company are considering how to resolve it (I don't work for Oatly by the way!)

All the vegans I know drink Oatly. It's been really hard to buy recently because of supply outstripping demand.

Alpro is owned by Danone which IMHO is worse, personally, but I still sometimes buy Alpro because it makes my head hurt to do a deep ethical dive for every purchase.

www.plantbasednews.org/post/plant-based-oatly-addresses-controversy-selling-oat-residue-pig-farm

I agree wejammin. Oatly are an ethical company and are trying to address the animal feed issue. IMO they are a lot better than the other big companies and unless you make your own plant milk you will face some (probably worse) ethical issues. I too know loads of vegans who drink it. Oatly have been very open in their response to the animal feed controversy.

I think it just takes time to get used to it OP. Over the last year we are eating more and more vegetarian food as a family. A lot of the meals I cook are vegan. This isn't really intentional just because they look nice on the Goodfood website.

I like to cook but would say that I've personally found this type of cooking easier than cooking with meat. I cook one meal for everyone though but I've always done that.

There are lots of reasons for our reducing meat but one of them is that I wanted to challenge myself, get used to what flavour combinations work and dont. Really think about boosting iron content and see how clean (as it were) we could eat. It's been quite the adventure. We eat meat once a week on a Sunday but I can see that going soon, I don't think we'd miss it now. I think the key has been to do it gradually with no pressure.

We don't get through masses of milk, its mainly the children who drink it. I keep my own hens though and refuse to believe that pampered lot are not having a nice life! So full Vegan wouldn't work for us.

Maybe I've missed something, but if two meals have to be prepared every night why are you doing both and your DH seemingly doing none? Why aren't you each cooking one meal so it's not a burden for anyone?

I know a few vegans who keep their own chickens and eat their eggs - they are well loved.

I know for a lot of vegans this isn't acceptable - however I think the whole vegan needs to become a bit more flexible and encourage more cutting down than total exclusion - it's way more palatable for most people.

I know for a lot of vegans this isn't acceptable - however I think the whole vegan needs to become a bit more flexible and encourage more cutting down than total exclusion - it's way more palatable for most people.

But only eating a little bit of dairy or meat is changing what being a vegan means. It’s better to cut down than do nothing at all but I don’t think redefining “vegan” is helpful.

My friend really rates scrambled tofu in place of eggs; worth a try? I do agree it’s easier to make gradual substitutions to find out what works for you.

Sorry bad typing. I don't think think veganism needs redefining but people can make steps towards it which suit them. I know one vegan who spends a lot of time trying to convert people to being a strict vegan like she is. Whereas she would do better encouraging people to cut down (to eventually cut out?) than people going to the whole way.

I'm not veggie or vegan - but I eat a lot of vegan/veggie meals. It's the happy medium for me.

AtLeast It's okaaay, but you have to really watch it to to get the right texture for you. Like eggs I suppose.

It needs flavouring, celery salt, onion, garlic etc. or what is to your taste and colouring like turmeric for the 'yellow' . I prefer to fry it gently after marinading in soya sauce with onions!

ppeatfruit yeah I'd imagine it can be pretty bland! Bit of trial and error, I suppose. But then I only like scrambled eggs with plenty of salt and pepper and lashings of lemon juice!

Maintaining a vegan lifestyle works best if you have lots of time to cook, and everyone in the house has the same food or you make something easily adaptable.

Yes It CAN be bland but I like it because it soaks up flavours. I love the silky one as a custard, with maple syrup and or chocolate for dessert it's lovely.

The firmer one would be nice as scrambled eggs with your flavourings! You have to cook it in the oil not marinade it in oil. I use olive oil.