Vegan mother in meat eating family

[soundevenfruity]

I went vegan last year for a month and a half and liked it. I felt healthier and lighter. But it did mean I had to cook practically 2 meals in the evening. If you are the main cook in the house and are vegan how do you manage? Are there any cookbooks or blogs that I can pick up inspiration from?

We aren't vegan or veg but have friends who are. I find the Vegan Society website is helpful and inspiring with some good recipes. The Vegan Society

I like this Turkish recipe website too. A few vegan or veggie recipes where you can substitute olive oil for dairy.Turkish link here

I'm vegan, 16yr DS & DH not, 21yr old D vegetarian. Three nights a week we all eat vegan, always have a soup night which is the easiest. The other nights I either eat what I call a box dinner (recipes I make and devide into chinese boxes & freeze) or salad & bean burger.

I don't mind cooking meat for them as only been vegan two years. It works ok for us and I don't find it difficult but I know many friends couldn't get their families to eat the range of food mine endure enjoy :)

I google everything and can veganise most meals from experience. Post punk kitchen is a good resource.

Thank you so much. I will check out the websites. I like Turkish food and the idea about a soup night is a good one. I am not keen on existing on starches so really need new ideas for other vegetables. So unless I do stir fries I will have to have a lot of precooked stuff in my fridge then?

Perhaps your vegan meal could double as a side dish for the meat eaters, so you only need to cook some meat or fish to serve alongside it, or separate out your portion then add stir fry meat?

I'm not strictly vegan but do eat vegan a lot of the time. DH complained about lack of meat so this week I've upped it for everyone else and either defrosted a soup for myself (they had carbonara) or I'll make a vegan dish to which they can have meat or cheese or eggs added - anything salady, roasted veg, veggie pasta, lots of lentil dishes! Made down'n'dirty Cajun rice last night and seperately fried their liver and bacon, dished mine out and added tons of chilli and mixed the meat into theirs

Just make one meal, a vegan meal, you know they don't need their meaty meal and they will enjoy what you cook. Also you'll be doing them a favour healthwise :)

DH didn't eat vegetables (apart from potatoes and peas) before he met me and even though we've been married for ages totally vegan meals would be too extreme. And I do think children need protein. Down dirty Cajun rice sounds intriguing, I will google it. I just thought I would need to keep some stuff in the freezer to speed up cooking meal in the evening and it looks like I would need it. I am just not very organised.

Vegetables in a creamy sauce made with an oil-based roux plus soya milk (I'd imagine the cheapo supermarket unsweetened version would be fine here), topped with vegan pastry? Not sure about supermarket brands for vegan pastry but olive oil pastry is not difficult to make. You could also top the vegetable and sauce mix with mash and call it gardener's pie. Good way of using odds and ends of veg too, and frozen veg like sweetcorn is nice in it.

I do think that depriving meat-eaters of their meaty meals would be unfair - I'd be really annoyed if I had to give up meat because my DP had gone vegan, it's their choice to go vegan not mine after all. I don't eat meat at every meal but I enjoy my meat and would be unhappy about giving it up. Things you can have by themselves but use as sides for the omnivores sounds like a good idea. Cooking meat in the slow cooker is good because you won't have to touch it, if touching meat would bother you.

The idea that humans need protein from animal products is a myth, a potato contains very little protein but it is plenty enough for human bodies to thrive.

I was/am vegan (drink milk now as I'm pregnant) and DH is a meat eater, although he happily eats whatever I cook and loves vegan and veggie food. I cook meat and fish for him a lot though as I don't think it's fair to push your beliefs on someone else

I find personally that it's easier to look at meat recipes and translate them into vegan meals, and it makes it a lot easier if you have dishes which have a base that you can make vegan, and then just divide into two saucepans or oven dishes and add tofu/beans/lentils into one and meat into the other.

I make curry this way, use a simple lentil dhal recipe, then marinade some chicken in curry paste and fry/grill it, and then just add it into a separate saucepan of the basic lentil mix.

Anything with a cheese sauce base (like macaroni cheese) is another that's easy to do, make the cheese sauce with soya milk and soya butter, then separate into two saucepans and add soya cheese to one and dairy cheese to the other.

Hope that helps!