DS has decided he wants to go vegan for three weeks

[ancientbuchanan]

ok, lovely recipes please MNrs,

Without too much coconut cream or oil
Suitable for predominantly carnivore DH ( think 1950s cuisine...)
Not many expensive ingredients
No nuts
No tofu

Can do lentil soup. Can do veg curries. And porridge.

At wits end.

You (he) need:
www.peta.org/living/food/vegetarian-shopping/
Pinterest for recipe ideas
Facebook groups
Check things out. It's amazing what's not even vegetarian... my XP was vegan & most brands of white sugar were out, for example - bleached with cow bones. Which in turn, means that a lot of chocolate, sweets etc, that don't have any obvious animal ingredients in, are still not vegan, or even veggie.
I found cheese the hardest to give up. Milk is easier now than it used to be, soy milk has vastly improved. Some of the Linda McCartney range are vegan. There are some vegan ice cream desserts etc, they are expensive compared to regular ones.
If he is to assist with the meal plan, he needs to factor in the cost. No good if his food costs 4 times what anyone else's does.

Sorry that's an American link, I'll try to find the UK one.

Jacket potato with beans/houmous/ratatouille/veggie chilli

Vegetable stir fry, use lots of mushrooms for meaty substitute

Lentil Bolognese or chilli

Pasta with all kinds of veggie based sauces

Tabbouleh

Risotto

I'm vegan, DH and kids aren't. We eat fully vegan around 5 days a week, they add meat the other days.

There are hundreds of vegan blogs out there, why doesn't DS draw up a meal plan with you?

Also, white sugar is vegan in the UK, they use bone char in the US.

appadvice.com/applists/show/apps-for-vegs
Cannot find the UK food list. I was going to suggest the Animal Free Shopper (a book) as well, but the last edition is a few years old so the apps might be more helpful. In conjunction with a bit of research on the Vegan Soc website.

Interesting about that only being in the US - does that mean that US sweets would use the non-veggie sugar then?

Just to note that quorn and pasta contain egg so not vegan .

Only fresh pasta contains egg - dried doesn't or else my dairy and egg allergic DD would practically starve

Oat milk is nice too, good neutral flavour so good for cooking with.

(I'm very much not a vegan, but with dairy and egg allergies in the house I steal a lot of good ideas from them )

Gado gado
Stir Fry with Cashew nuts.
A

I eat 'plant-based' due to a heart condition - I'm vegetarian but do eat honey, the odd bit of sour cream, wine etc.

Unless he's doing the 22-Day Revolution (new book endorsed by Beyoncé) in which case he can just read the book, I'd say he needs to understand the diet enough to work out what he'll require and do a meal plan which he can share with you.

'Vegan' can be chips and diet coke, but to stay healthy he'll need to make sure he's having a wide range of foods or he'll be starving and really lacking in energy.

Hemsley and Hemsley aren't vegan (lots of meat recipes) but they are healthy recipes that everyone can enjoy. Otherwise it'll just be you working to death for three weeks to prepare meals which your DS won't understand the level of effort required.

We eat things sometimes where the meat has a 'placeholder' for me, eg tonight it was steak, sweet potato and greens and I had mushrooms with chimichurri sauce instead of meat.

I didn't know that about quorn, thanks. ( Should have looked at packet. )

Tofu, both DH and he dislike it.
Nuts, DH hates. .
Why doesn't he do it ? Not because he can't, because he is a reasonable cook, and he will do some, but because a) he uses expensive ingredients and b) we have a cook doesn't wash up rule and the kitchen is a tip after he has cooked.

Yes, we already do veggie pasta, risotto etc. DH won't eat much in the way of stir fry.

Perhaps I shall go on holiday instead and leave them to it.

Not sure about US sweets but most sweets tend to use corn syrup type sweeteners rather than refined sugar anyway.

With sweets gelatine is usually a bigger issue. The irony of Percy Pigs containing actual pig.

Maybe have a new rule - the cook washes up. That way they might not make such a mess in the kitchen.

Sounds like you need to
a)give him a budget per week to buy any special food with;
b)get him to plan, and cook, at least some of his own meals;
c)get him to wash & tidy up the kitchen after he's cooked.

It sounds like you currently look after him a lot. He will have a shock when he moves out. A lot of the students I was in halls with at uni, could barely make toast, had no idea at all about budgeting so they had no food by the end of every term, couldn't wash up properly (washed the greasy pans first & the glasses last, etc). I used to alternate between quiet amusement & despair at some of them.

He is going to be checking out the ingredients on everything. Or you are. Are you prepared to memorise all the animal-derived ingredients & additives? He needs to make a lot more effort, it's not like going veggie, it's not that easy being vegan in this country if you're fussy or on a low budget unless you want to spend a lot of time cooking pulses.

Stop trying to include dh in the vegan meals if he is fussy or resistent. Ditch the cook does no washing rule. Teach ds how to budget. Possibly ds has never had tofu done well, or used as a mixed -in ingredient to make things creamier. Nuts ate a key vegan ingredient So he should learn to cook with them.

I like the idea of you going away and leaving them to it. Dh may need to do some cooking, too! Good luck with it all.

I used to be vegan when I was that age. I did most of my own cooking, was good prep for going to uni. I remember making lovely nut roast and some vegan minced pies at Christmas. smug

Things I found easy to make and eat at that age:

pitta breads filled with humous, salad and falafel --I practically lived on this at one stage

roast veg with couscous

baked sweet pots/normal pots

pasta with tomato sauce

vegan brownies (made with banana, best brownies ever)

avocado on toast

mushrooms on toast

mixed bean salads

stir fry veg topped with a chick pea and tomato sauce or with tofu

curry

mixed veg soup

leek and potato soup (made with soya milk for creaminess)

I used to snack on dried fruit a lot. I think my diet could have been better tbh, I don't think I got quite enough protein and often had energy dips and sugar cravings. But I know there are ways to avoid this and for three weeks he will obviously be fine!

thanks for these great ideas.

We already use quorn quite a lot and in fact he's a dab hand at pasta which he could eat day and daily. And baked potatoes. And baked or roasted squash. And, not that it's applicable here, roasts.

He is competent in many areas: when I was ill he did all the catering for three months. He can cook, wash up, wash and iron, lay and light a fire, Hoover, polish shoes and silver., put his clothes away .He just doesn't! It's idleness. I don't put clothes away, iron, if he wants them washed etc he has to put them in the wash etc.

But I also pity his housemates. Am currently thinking of Dutch HEIs. Cheaper fees, can't get washing done at home.

easy vegan meals that you don't normally notice are vegan are risotto (leave out the parmesan or use vegan one), veggie stir fries, tons of pasta dishes, particularly summery ones with things like roasted fennel and cauliflower, tossed with herbs, olive oil and lemon zest etc