The Vegan Quiche

[LentilAsAnything]

Hi

Thought I'd start a thread for the vegans and wannabe vegans.
Anyone here!?

Old thread here.

[PigOnStilts]

Hi, we're attempting veganism as of today....i was trying to teach my son cow = beef etc and announced that he didn't want to eat animals, so I delightedly told him he never had to again....inlaws were slightly shocked. I only give him meat once a week, he hates cheese as well, so hopefully this will be easy! He's three so hope I've caught him in time.

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

Oh no, so sorry this thread got lost. No updates for a while and it falls off my Threads I'm On. Would love to get it going, come back, come back!

Pig, my DS is also three, would absolutely love to know more little vegans.

Cecy, loads! What kinds of things? Am just about to serve supper, will be back with all sorts of links and things!

Priya, how was the 'B'LT.

[AnyCrunchyCarrotFucker]

Have you read ms cupcakes book? Loads of vegan cupcake recipes.really yum, though i don't do the icing and i cut the sugar down a bit as well.

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

No. I have a lot of books as it is, but not got that one.

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Yay! A Vegan thread.

Ornamental thank you for linking this thread in the Seaworld/Orca thread.

I'm vegetarian working my way toward vegan. I only eat cheese now, so I really need to kick that habit.

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

You are very welcome, Princess.
Anything I can help you with re giving up cheese? I always recommend m.vegusto.co.uk for dairy-free cheese. The cheese sauce and the no moo melty cheese are especially amazing.
For ethics, www.facebook.com/abolitionistapproach?ref=ts&fref=ts is quite persuasive.

[BumPop]

Hello, can I join please?

I was feeling veg curious purely for health reasons after reading VB6. I then watched a few films (forks over knives, vegucated and 30ms of earthlings) and that's it. I can't even contemplate cheese right now, let alone anything meaty.

I am suddenly vegan, which is a shock to me as someone who had a 3 bird xmas dinner, but a real shocker for DH. He's happy to eat all the leftovers though.

Everything I read suggests that changing to a vegan diet overnight is a baaaaad idea, can anyone give me some advice? I am eating pulses with lunch and dinner. Marmite for B12, although I will pick up some vits to be sure. What else should I do/be aware of?

Local sainsburys had almond milk and vegan mayo. For now I am not worrying about honey or bread too much and suspect I will end up veggie rather than vegan for meals out or dinner parties.

I don't drink, so no guiness worries. I am also pretty overweight so no fear of fading away. I also have no plans to convert the world or even my family.

Am I being niave to think I can do this? If it gets too much, I guess I will default to veggie.....

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Thank you for those suggestions ornamental

To be honest, I fall back on to cheese when I can't think of what else to eat, I.e cheese sandwich when I'm out. I think I just need to be a bit more organised.

Bum it's admirable that you want to change, it will be difficult to go from omnivore to vegan overnight.

The way I approached becoming a vegetarian was to focus on not eating meat that day. I found it was much easier doing it that way, I gave up meat last January and agent eaten a single piece of meat since. I had tried to be vegetarian and vegan 'overnight' and it just didn't work. I found the small goal of focussing on that day much easier.

With dairy, I first passed out milk, then butter (pure spread is lovely) I phased out eggs and now my next (and hardest battle will be cheese!)

[PleaseLetsGoToSleep]

Hello! Signing-in, I was briefly on the old thread but I'm not a very regular poster. So glad this thread is going again.
Hope everyone has had a great xmas.

Bum and Princess, good luck with going veggie/vegan, behind you all the way. I went vegan from veggie about 14 months ago, and I will admit the first 6 months or so were difficult. I had a lot of colds and often felt tired, which is normal to a point, because your body is detoxing. I wasn't knowledgable enough to ensure I was getting adequate calories and all the essential vitamins etc from my meals.
It's all come good though, and I now feel a thousand times healthier and happier than before I was a vegan. It's definitely worth perservering with.
I'm by no means an expert, but from my own experience I'd recommend reading about and learning as much as you can about vegan nutrition. I found the amount of new info completely overwhelming at first; so many foods I'd never eaten before! A good book is 'Becoming Vegan' and this nutrition chart is really helpful too.

Good luck!

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Thank you so much, Please

Has anyone got a recommendation of a good vegan recipe book?

[PleaseLetsGoToSleep]

My favourite is Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson, and any of the books by Isa Chandra Moskowitz; her recipes never fail to turn out brilliantly and taste amazing! Her website has loads of recipes on as well (www.theppk.com/).

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

Ooh, it's getting busy in here. Fabulous.

BumPop, a warm vegan welcome to you. Brilliant that you are convinced about going vegan, that's so great. My husband went vegan from omni overnight 14 years ago, found it super easy, no issues at all. I went vegan after five years of being vegetarian, and no issues at all.
I don't think you are being naïve at all, I believe anyone can do it if they are motivated to do so. Personally, I find veganism easy, and did from the start, I didn't miss dairy at all, and this was 14 years ago, when there weren't really cheese alternatives, and very little in the way of the vegan options we have now. I will do anything I can to help support you.
If you read any of the posts on the Gary Francione link I posted earlier, you may get convinced that vegetarianism is actually worse in many ways than eating meat, due to the volume of deaths and the amount of suffering in the dairy and egg industries. But do what you need to do if the end goal is veganism! :) Good luck.

Princess, I find houmous a great substitute if I want a quick snack. Houmous and a wrap, easy.
Cookbooks, there really are loads, and none I especially rate over another, though I'm not a big user of cookbooks so not really great for this question! I'd just buy a couple, they have so many recipes you can't go wrong. Or just use the Internet to research recipes.

PLGTS has good advice re reading up on vegan nutrition. You should get plenty of B12 if you consume vegan staples like fortified soya milk, and various other things like cereals that are fortified. I believe the average meat-eater has far worse nutrition than a new vegan, I'm very much of the belief that meat and dairy are actually very detrimental to our health, and that the meat and dairy industries have paid governments to perpetuate the lies. But the evidence is out there now that we don't need meat or dairy.

PLGTS, welcome back! Glad to have you here.

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Ooh, yes I love hummus and falafel wraps. Sometimes they have egg or milk in them though

I'm so excited at the prospect of being vegan, it would be such a personal achievement.

Vegan chocolate in Holland and Barrett was a brilliant find. I really liked that. I even converted my DH to eating it.

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

you may get convinced that vegetarianism is actually worse in many ways than eating meat, due to the volume of deaths and the amount of suffering in the dairy and egg industries

Oh no

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

I was vegetarian for five years and didn't make the connexion at all re all the male chicks that are discarded at birth, or the male calves. But once it clicks, you know.

One of my favourite chocolates are Choices Caramels, which you can get in Sainsburys for £2.50, possibly some other supermarkets but I've never found them elsewhere, except in online vegan stores, where they are a bit pricier. They are amaaaaazing! Sainsburys also had an amazing selection of vegan Xmas chocolates his year - gold coins, chocolate Santas, advent calendars, even a selection pack with various chocolate bars in. Fab. They also do vegan fudge, though it is super sweet.

Anyone raising vegan children? I have a three year old boy, vegan since conception. Would love to know more vegan children. I guess those just converting aren't, but maybe soon! :)

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Yes, I gave up eggs for that very reason.

No DC yet, hopefully it won't be too long though. Are there any vegan formula milks? I worry if I couldn't BF what my alternative would be

[PleaseLetsGoToSleep]

Hi Ornamental!
Can't believe that about all the vegan choice in Sainsburys, I went there just before christmas.....if only I'd have known!

I have a two year old ds, he's currently a vegetarian (I wanted to be 100% I knew what I was doing before him becoming a vegan as well), but will be vegan now from the new year. Do you give your ds any supplements Ornamental, I've just been looking at some?

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Yes, i

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

Princess, you are nearly there then with the rest of the animal products.

Do you have a reason to think you won't be able to bf? Fewer than 1% of women physically can't bf, so your chances of being able to are high. Otherwise, no, I don't know of any vegan formula in the UK, though perhaps you can get one on prescription. But I started Bfing three years ago and loads changes in that time, so there may be something now.

PLGTS, I occasionally sprinkle half of one of these into my child's smoothie: www.vegansociety.com/hubpage.aspx?id=678443#!/~/category/id=5011010&offset=0&sort=normal. They do not taste very nice though.
Someone else recommended these which we will try once we have finished the above: www.amazon.co.uk/Higher-Nature-Dinochews-Pack-180/dp/B000NRXMYG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388400279&sr=8-1&keywords=dinochews&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21. It does say something about not being suitable for people avoiding crustaceans: I believe this is just a disclaimer in place in case of trace crustacean bits in the seaweed, and it is not an actual ingredient.

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Yes, it is only a very small amount of cheese now. It was a New Years resolution to become vegetarian so I am impressed, it's the first one I ave ever stuck to!

Do you avoid honey as well? And sweets with beeswax on them?

Has anyone got any recommendations for vegan household products? Like washing powder, washing up liquid etc? I'm conscious that I'm not making enough of an effort with these purchases.

[OrnamentalAsAnything]

This new year your resolution could be no dairy! //www.veganuary.com

Yes, we avoid honey, and beeswax, and everything we can that contains animal products (wool, silk, leather, fur, suede, lanolin, shellac). Except stuff like plastic, if you count the ancient creatures who died billions of years ago to make it. We are very strict. We don't buy anything that was tested on animals either. We did vaccinate our child, some would argue this is not vegan, but I would argue it doesn't make us cannibals either, and until they make vaccines that don't contain animal products, including human foetuses, we don't have much choice if we want to vax. General bottom line is do least harm.

Household products, for laundry I use Eco Balls. I'm generally a slattern with everything else! :)
Washing up liquid, CoOp do a vegan one. I think they have a good range of vegan household stuff.
Toiletries, I like naked, which you can get in Boots. Natural Source label which items of theirs are vegan, but we also choose to avoid parabens/SLS etc so Natural Source is out for us. Lush, same, they use SLS, but many of their products are vegan.
B makeup in Superdrug is vegan.

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Yes, that's a really good idea.

They are all really good tips, thank you so much! I'm going to look into those.

Happy new year!

[OhTheIroning]

Cool. So how is veganuary going?! There are support groups on Fb, if you'd find that helpful.

Happy New Year! And happy new you.

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

I haven't started yet. I've managed to contract a horrible bug so once this has shifted I'll do a food shop!

To be fair I'm not particularly eating anyway so I haven't broken it just yet!

[PrincessFlirtyPants]

Oops that was meant to be a at the end... Doh!