Anyone else doing Veganuary? And year round vegans….family recipe ideas? Help and tips?

[TheRealMaryMillington]

I am going to do Veganuary this year.

Have been meat-eating since 2007, but never quite at one with it, and eat vegetarian food 90% of the time. Spells of veganism in my 20s, but never since having kids. I'm keen to challenge myself to do this again, for health, animal welfare and environmental reasons, even just a month at a time, no life-long pledges as yet.

So, looking for preferably quick/easy/affordable family recipe suggestions. I've got the curry and chilli end of things covered….these are mainstays!

And love to know if anyone else is Veganuarying?

We have friends coming over for dinner and in an attempt to be frugal and vegan I'll be doing cauliflower Alfredo pasta - done it before and it's delicious, will chuck in some roasted broccoli. DC eat this too so its a winner

Well, as predicted trip away let to slip up - bit of goats cheese on a pizza (no mozzarella though).

Not as bad as it could have been but will be starting in earnest tomorrow and carrying on until 5th Feb (at least).

Cook books - I love Yottam Ottolenghi - also Hugh FW River cottage Light or whatever it is called - there are non-vegan ingredients in all but lots of adaptable things and it is all about the vegetables, and making them as good as they can be.

Not at work till Tues so tomorrow will be stocking up and meal planning (including violife vegan cheese, which is great, especially the mozzarella version for future pizza threats).

Snacks - I'm loving avocado on toast/crackers, spiced roast chickpeas, celery and nut butter, or a cup of marigold stock.

Hi folks (and old friends, eh, ATB?)

I hope you don't mind me joining you. I've been a vegan for over 10 years now, and inevitably I've built up a bank of recipes and tips which might be of use to those starting out.

I have a blog where I post all my (mainly vegan) recipes. I also practice Intermittent Fasting (IF), or the 5:2 way of living, so many of my recipes reflect this in that they are low calorie/calorie counted.

There are several things that I'd struggle to do without as a vegan:
Nutritional yeast (nooch), fortified with B12. This is a cheesy flavoured de-activated yeast (flakes) which I use almost daily. I use it in place of Parmesan on a spaghetti dish, for instance.
Pateole mushroom spread. This, in combination with a vegan pesto (Meridian is my favourite) gives me the same flavour hit as I used to get with cheese and tomato on a pizza. That combo is also great spread over a field mushroom - I have a couple with a spicy tomato sauce with a roast dinner.
Flaxseeds. I have these, freshly ground, along with sesame seeds or sunflower seeds (on alternate days) with some apple juice on at least 5 days a week. I sprinkle almond flakes on top to include some nuts in my diet. (I struggle with nuts as I'm not a great fan - don't like nut butters, either!)
Seitan. Chunks of this are great in a chilli non carne - and (following a recipe in Veganomicon, which I thoroughly recommend, along with Binary) it makes a great cutlet.

(PPK is also a great website, as Binary says.)

That's enough for tonight, but I've lots more to share.

Good luck to all you Veganuaryists!

Hello B&W!!! I need to revisit maintainers, maintaining but haven't fasted in a million years and feeling like a fraud but aiming to tomorrow so will come find you all

And agree with nutritional yeast. And I have finally perfected the best vegan pesto and vegan American style pancakes (if I do say so myself)

I haven't heard of it before!?

I've been vegetarian for 25 years now (weirdly there are loads of us on MN who hit the 25 years last year?!).

I can't do vegan this month because I'm low carbing. I struggle enough being a low carbing vegetarian who doesn't eat eggs. Take the dairy away as well away and I'll lose the will to live.

I need to low carb not only for weight loss, but for my high blood sugars as well.

I was vegan for three years and I did feel much better for it, both physically & psychologically, but I was travelling a lot and found it really difficult so I started eating cheese again and it was a slippery slope from there on in :(

If anyone finds any good low carbing v blogs or books I'd love to hear about them :)

ATB would you mind sharing your pesto and pancake recipes please?

I'm probably a bit like you. I don't eat meat or dairy but occasionally eat fish and eat eggs for breakfast most days but get them from a house round the corner where they keep a flock in their garden.

I'm considering dropping the fish too. Not least because if you tell people you don't eat meat or dairy but do eat fish & eggs then whenever you go anywhere you get served a slab of salmon. And tinned tuna/smoked mackerel at lunchtimes. Christmas was a fish fest. I didn't mind it once but not twice a day for 2-3 days when you'd normally only have it about once a month!.... gah. I went equipped with hummus and falafels and a parsnip & chestnut roast for Xmas lunch and tried to get away with only having a little of the fishies...

Vegan Pesto:
1/3 cup cashews
2/3 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 "bunch" fresh basil (I get mine in big boxes and use half of that!)

Vegan US Pancakes:
(Dry ingredients)
1 cup wholewheat flour
1tspn baking powder
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn chia seeds (optional)
Pinch of salt

(Wet ingredients)
1 cup almond milk
1 tbspn vanilla extract
2 tbspn maple syrup/agave

These make the thick American style pancakes, I sometimes get vegan choc chips and stick them in once the pancake is on the frying pan. Also over time I've managed to take out the sugar component as DS like maple syrup on them when they're done anyway so no need for added sugar.

Apologies for US measurements!

Here's our other Favourite vegan recipe, Chai cookies:
(Dry)
1.5 c almond flour
1 c wholewheat flour
1/2 tspn salt
1 tbspn cinnamon
2 chai teabags emptied out
(Wet)
1 tspn vanilla extract
1/3 c melted coconut oil
1/2 c maple syrup (again I've gradually reduced this so now we use about 1/4 c)

Bake in small squished balls for 10-15mins at 185 degrees

I am going to try that pesto recipe thanks ATB. Are your kids vegan btw?

Back on track today
Raw cacao chia pudding for breakfast
Red pepper and tomato soup for lunch
Celery with hazelnut butter for snacks
Spinach and chickpea curry - slightly improvise/made up recipe and spiced roast cauliflower for supper from the Made In India book. With a bit of basmati and some fresh coriander. Meant to add some pomegranate seeds but forgot. It was so delicious DH and I wondered why anyone ever thought they needed to eat meat.

Need to meal plan for the rest of the week. I am thinking:
A big batch of ratatouille made in the slow cooker
A pot of veg minestrone - in the soup maker so easy peasy
Something involving making "chorizo" out of tempeh, maybe burrito-fied somehow with some sweet potato fries and black beans
The everyday dal from Made In India for the freezer

I also have cavalo nero and a butternut squash that need something doing with them.

This would be great if I didn't have lots of work on this week. But I do, so I do need some simple things that are just ready-to go.

TheRealMary could you post the recipe for this amazing curry of yours please?

It would be good to write it down so I don't forget

I put 2 onions, a lump of ginger, and 4 garlic bulbs in the mini-chopper thing and chopped finely, then cooked in coconut oil until onions translucent.
Added garam masala, cumin seeds, cayenne pepper and tumeric and heated until spices were cooked through. Then used the mini chopper again to whizz up half a bag of leftover fresh spinach, added that, some fresh chopped tomatoes and some water to the spices, then 2 tins drained chickpeas (always used to use dry chickpeas but prefer tinned for speed, also extensive research apparently shows much less environmentally impactful - who knew?) and then let it reduce until I like the look of it. Let it sit whilst I went to yoga class and ate it when I came back.

There are several hour-long conversations on Twitter, every week, exclusively for vegans.

Tuesdays, 7.00pm is #veganhour, which is mainly vegan chat, tips, etc;

Thursdays, 8.00pm is #veganrecipehour - this consists of recipes and tips around a theme. This was Tweeted yesterday:

@veganrecipehour: Taking part #Veganuary? Join our lovely #vegancommunity for #veganrecipehour 8th Jan 8-9pm GMT. Theme is #Newvegan.

This will be full of advice about starting out as a vegan, I'm sure.

There is also #veganfoodchat at 1.00am on Thursday morning - 8pm in the US - great for you, ATB.

I don't think you have to sign up to Twitter to view these - I think you can just watch the conversation by searching for the relevant tags.

Thanks for the recipe TheRealMary.

I've just made this courgette/avocado pasta for lunch and its scrummy. Not esp family friendly (at least not my family) but delish.

Any suggestions for vegan suppers that even fussy 4 and 7 year olds will try? DS (10) will try anything and loves curries etc. The others are a nightmare and I will have to do everything with a side order of cheese on toast if not careful

My fussiest one likes roasted chickpeas and roasted kale, he also likes raw vegetables with dip. I'm usually happy as long as he tries something I'm cooking and make breakfast and lunch his meals where he can choose what he likes. Mostly he has snackettes and picks at the main meal.

My dd is vegetarian is 7 a good eater, wants to be vegan like me but I think she's still a bit young especially with school and the no nut policy makes it hard to do nutritious easy packed lunches. Ds 6 is omni he eats vegetarian/vegan at home but meat at school occasionally and at parties or friends houses, ds 4 is my picky eater and eats very little at family meals but broken down has a really good diet he's also omni will eat meat at friends but he's not to keen on meat so I think he will cut it out when he's older and youngest ds 2 is vegetarian has never eaten meat and doesn't like it. Ds 2 is very funny he loves spicy food he was weaned on dal so I think that's it, we eat very little European food, we eat more Asian, Mexican and Indian food.

Dh is vegetarian has been for 4 years, I finally converted him and he loves it, I was pescetarian at uni and in pregnancy, vegetarian since I was about 17 and as I'm coeliac I did think going entirely vegan would be too hard. I'm allergic to dairy so I only ate eggs but I've signed up to veganuary and am loving it.

Just needed a push and a kick up the arse, also starting dry January too but I'm 5 days late on that one as I had to use up the open liquor first.

Hummus on toast and an apple for breakfast.

Roasted salted cinnamon kale, carrot and peanut butter dip, handful of nuts, dried apricots and cranberries for lunch.

Supper will be tofu cashew nut curry with brocolli and brown rice.

Smoked salted dark chocolate raw cheesecake for pudding.

No going back for me I just love 2015 it's time to transform my health, lifestyle and spirituality.

RealMary the curry sounds great

My DC are officially omni, the 6yr old is a great eater and tries everything but generally doesn't like meat so eats a veggie/Pesci diet. The 3yr old is fussy as fuck, I don't think she's actually even tried meat since weaning but will eat fish fingers. She used to eat all pulses and legumes but even that has gone and veggies are difficult to get down her. We're trying a new approach to tackle her fussiness. They're both big cheese eaters though and also love their eggs (only bloody protein DD gets!) so I can't say I'll see them becoming vegan any time soon, obviously up to them what they choose to do. I only have one or two vegetarian friends, one vegan friend and everyone else is omni

Broccoli and potato soup went down well with everyone bar DD last night and I made far too much so I think I'll be having that for my lunch and dinner today! Lunch yesterday was my new Favourite - banana smeared with almond butter. Family can have pasta and pesto tonight then think I'll do lentil and coconut curry tomorrow.

This avocado pasta recipe is generally a hit with my two if there's enough basil to make it taste pesto-y
ohsheglows.com/2011/01/31/15-minute-creamy-avocado-pasta/

Thanks for the recipes. I am definitely trying that creamy avocado pasta, it looks great!

I have just discovered the pleasure of avocado on toast with plenty of lemon juice, s&P.

Does everyone know about the avocado + cocoa + maple/agave syrup chocolate mousse? Just blend until silky.
And the banana ice cream trick? Freeze v ripe bananas in chunks, then stick in food processor and pulse/blend until you get ice cream texture. Can have plain or with some vanilla/cocoa powder/frozen berries etc etc

Avocado is also an excellent fats substitute in baking - DS and I make vegan avocado cookies which are lush, will dig out the recipe later

I've got this for my tea tonight www.veganricha.com/2014/12/vegan-carrot-peanut-soup-gluten-free.html

I've tried it in the pan and it tastes amazing, I am so looking forward to tea time!

That's an idea, I hadn't considered cooking avocado. Will look forward to the recipe.

I've ordered some of this coconut oil cuisine (which means it's the odourless one) which is supposed to be a good fat for cooking, stable at high temp and solid at room temp and can be used like butter in baking.

I wish I liked avocado. I tried making a chocolate cake with avocado in and it tasted like sweet guacamole!
I've made some great tasting vegan cakes using a combination of no-egg and xanthan gum though.

Good luck everyone! Been a vegan for about 15 years now I think and have muddled through despite being a terrible cook. That said, I second the post punk kitchen books and blog though, isa is awesome!! If you're into puddings the "sweet vegan" (I forget the author) is good too.

Tesco have just started doing a different range of vegan cheese substitute called violife or similar which is a bit tastier than usual ones (IMO).

Anyway, hope it goes well!

avocado chocolate cookies

I'm very lucky that my local Costco sells organic coconut oil in 1200g tubs x2 for about $30, I rarely cook with anything else

Hi was in Holland and Barret yesterday and they had some vegan cheese a christmas selection on sale, cranberry, blue and I think the third was chive and herb, they also had some gorgeous looking dranogfly marinated tofu and smoked tofu and the best find was small boxes of booja booja chocolates at £3.99.

I also bought some vegan cheese sauce mix which I thought would be nice try.

And as I'm a huge chocolate lover I looked in hotel chocolate they have lovely looking 100% cocoa chocolate, some hazelnut bars, more ginger chocolate puddles loads of lovely looking chocolate all on a shelf marked vegan and with some Christmas money I bought a little bottle of chocolate gin too interesting to pass up.

Oh and I can recommend Lucy bee extra virgin raw coconut oil, delicious.