Vegan-Vegan friendly MNetters- the new thread-sign in here!

[anyabanya]

Hi Vegan and vegan-friendly MNetters!

Just wanted to know if anyone was out there and wanted to form a support thread- to talk about food/ veganism, 'stuff' in general.

I am late 30s, have been an on and off vegan for about 6 years, and after a hiatus of about 9 months or so am back 'on'. I adore cooking with a passion, and love reading food blogs and vegan food blogs.

I would very much like to exchange thoughts/tips/frustrations with anyone else out there!

Mmmm I'll have the recipe cake as until I get MY chickens i'm not eating egg as I cant be 100% sure about the welfare of the birds. I love eggs, the more eggy the better imo .

Also I would like to add how much healthier I feel, even after two weeks! I have lost a few pounds in weight and have much more energy, its great

ll, that is awesome about your DC, and great that your DH is on board too. Excellent! :) I like the vegan cheese on offer, but we don't use it much. It may take some getting used to, is all!

Happy Birthday to your DD, Cake. Where is my slice please?!

Bring on the brownies recipe!

I am going shopping later today and will try some of the melting cheese I think, that way we can still have yummy pizza.
I have got some dairy free parmazano which I have been using in pesto instead of regular pamazan. It is really nice and really cheesy too. Was only 91p in sainbo's so bargin price too.

emails cake to nohun>

thank you nohun where did that year go??? seems like yesterday ds was a baby and he's 3 in Oct!

am now panicking about school for him actually as i've totally gone off the idea of sending him to school (have been a bit about schools since reading daniel quinn's ishmael yonks ago tbh) and i'm not sure the alternatives are 'workable' for me/us. i sometimes wish i could close my mind back up and do things the normal way and be satisfied with that

the brownie recipe i use.

i serve them warm with hot chocolate sauce (melted choc mixed with soya milk or cream) and vegan ice cream.

have you tried some of the ready made vegan pesto too livvy. we like zest and meridian's ones

my friend has just made banana custard cupcakes for the party and is about to make some double choc ones. can't wait!

You can't fool me with emailed cake - real deal please!

Our DS is one in October, and yes, I can't believe where the time goes.

We are planning to Home Educate. I am really excited about it, it feels so very right to/for us. Obviously it will be regularly reviewed, and if DS says he'd like to try school, we aren't against that, but we'd like to start off home schooling, and see how we go. Is that what you might be considering?

Thanks re brownie recipe! Nom!

ok, if we ever get around to meeting up, i'll bring the cake! Deal?

I'm in a complete torment about it tbh! Scuse me linking off but I've just written this post in the home ed section. Explains my current thinking.

Are you thinking of traditional home ed (ie following the NC at home) or autonomous home education/unschooling?

:) I actually make cake whenever we want it here, am not really cake-deprived! :)

Am sure you will get some good answers from the HE forummers. I have just joined an external HE forum, which I have found to be excellent: www.home-education.biz/forum/.

Not sure - early days here, currently my thinking is a bit of both if possible, so if he (they?!) do want to go to school, they will transition more easily, especially in the key/crucial subjects, but my understanding is that by giving them the autonomous approach, you are broadening their minds so well, and giving them an excitement and passion for learning, that they adapt easily anyway. We want to take him overseas for experiences, I love the flexibility of that.

I know from reading on here that some of the parents do do flexi-learning - sounds good. If we found somewhere to do that, then we'd consider it. Just have to see what DS is like when he is a bit older! I am not at all concerned about the socialising aspect - we'll get him involved in whatever clubs and activities we can, and be social anyway, it's all good!

Oh, and you should be able to work out my username on that other forum, I have only really posted in the newby section so far.

Right just informed my brother and his soon to be wife that I need a vegan meal at their wedding next month, they visited the hotel today and were told that they do not have anything vegan on the menu but if I tell them what I want they will cook it. This sounded great at first but now i'm a bit worried as all I can think of is veggie curry and I dont want to go round stinking of curry all day. Help what else could I ask for? Maybe some kind of pasta dish?

livvy can you find out what the rest of the meal/s are like? it would then be easier to match something vegan to what the others are having so you won't feel like you're having a totally different meal.

say for instance they're doing roast chicken with potatoes and vegetables etc then they could do you the same meal but replace the chicken with something like a vegetable & olive galette or roast squash and lentil filo parcels. i've always received looks at my vegan option

also ask them to do the veg without butter etc.

unless the chef is feeling inventive you'll probably end up with the inevitable fruit salad - in which case take along some soya cream and that'll make it much nicer

if they ask you for suggestions then maybe they could manage a summer fruit pud.

starters: bruschetta, avocado vinaigrette or asparagus with lemon?

I survived 4 weeks of road tripping around the US. Now to survive moving back to the UK

pasta, pinenuts and spinach is easy but yummy AND filling (always my bug bear)

DD is 16months and I've not thought about schooling yet, I'm due in Oct and probably be moving again in just over a years time (in addition to this week) so that's def. a back burner. Am hoping DH will go back to being a SAHD then so hopefully we'll be able to afford to. He's going back to work while I take a years maternity leave.

Hey penguin Was wondering how you were getting on.

How was your trip. what did you see (and more importantly) eat?

when do you move? and where in the uk?

sounds like you and dh have a great way of working out childcare together.

we saw rather a lot

we spent over a week in CA which was absolutely fine. Cafe's with hummous and pitta, even teh kiosk on the boat to Alcatraz had a vegan sandwich. If you ever go to San Fran, then go to the Wholefoods in Oakland. I have never seen such a breadth of vegan products (we spent a lot of money there).

Everywhere else I survived on largely mexican, subway (just salad in a footlong) and the occasional McDonalds (fries and a apple pie). Yellowstone area had vegan veggie burgers (they were just vile but otherwise edible with ketchup).

For breakfast and lunch we made our own (peanut butter and jelly for morning, pretend ham things for lunch), then with clif bars, fruit, odd biscuits and crisps for snacks. Made sure me and DD had a lot of fruit. She had either oats or weetabix for breakfast (with oat milk) and soy yogurt for dessert (she never really eats dinner anyway, went to a lovely italian and all she ate was ice-cubes, good job I'm not a anxious mum over what she eats - she does really fill up in the morning though). She had peanut butter sarnies for lunch

sorry that was a bit long

We land in the UK on tuesday, DH starts a job in oxford and will look for somewhere to live while I stay with my parents. Missed my OB appointment (as he was called away) so now have to organise a check-up and anti-D jab (well decide if I want it) as soon as I get back.

end post

Justa quickie - tis Yorkshire Day today so making Yorkshire puds filled with sausages, mash, peas, carrots and gravy for my Yorkshireman.

Here's the recipe if you fancy it too!

Vegan Yorkshire Puddings:

4oz plain (all-purpose) flour
salt to taste
1 heaped teaspoon gram flour (chickpea flour, besan)
half a pint of soya milk
vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 230C (450F). Pour a thin layer of vegetable oil in the holes of a Yorkshire pudding or muffin tin and place in oven. The oven needs to be hot and the oil needs to be hot.
2. Mix plain flour, salt and gram flour together with a whisk. Gradually pour in the soya milk taking in the flour slowly until all the milk is added and the flour is incorporated. Whisk with all your might until you can see bubbles. (I used the whisk attachment of my stick blender.) Note: the batter will be very thin, much thinner than pancake batter. It?s supposed to be that way.
3. Carefully remove tin from oven and fill the holes. If using a muffin tin, fill half way up; if using a Yorkshire pudding tin, fill all the way up. Put back in oven and cook for about 20 minutes. Don?t open the oven door to check them, as the oven needs to stay really hot. If your oven cooks hotter at the back than the front (like mine), you can rotate the tin halfway through, but do it quickly.

Hello!

PenguinArmy, sounds a great trip.

Cake, those yorkies sound good.

I seem to be naturally transitioning back to vegan.
I want to be 100% before September though.

Snack food is the one thing I'm not doing so well on, was craving Pickled Onion Monster Munch last night and they're not ok.
I think I'll buy an Animal-Free Shopper to make it easier.

Anyone had vegan meals in hospital? I'm due in Oct and will likely be having a CS so 2-4 days in hosp and will need dairy-free at least.

I'm off to a vegan wedding in a couple of weeks, very excited.

Oh, one more question for you all, my fave veggie things to eat are things like the Innocent veg pots, and the gorgeous M+S superfood salad things.
I wonder does anyone have any recipes for this sort of things, and do you think it would be easy enough to do for 1, they always seem to have os many ingredients.

Welcome back, Penguin. Sounds like a wonderful trip. Hope you took lots of photos!

Mmm, haven't had Yorkshire Puddings since I became vegan! Will definitely try that recipe, Cakey!

TW, really glad to hear it! Oh, Pickled Onion Monster Munch - how I used to love those! I keep meaning to write to them to ask them to make it vegan! So many crisps are, it must be easy. Darn them!

Lucky enough not to have ever had to stay in hospital. This link might be useful for you: www.vegansociety.com/healthcare/guidelines-and-information/guidelines-for-patients.aspx. Can you get people to bring you food?

We had a vegan wedding!

I don't buy the pre-made stuff that you have mentioned, but I think everything is makable. Just see what their ingredients are, and chuck them together. If there's a lot, it'll do for the following night, and save you cooking.

We had a vegan wedding too. I've always taken my own food into hospital. DH used to heat up those been made rice and sauteed cauldron tofu bits with a tin of sweetcorn chucked in.

Sorry I don't tend to use pre-made things either (apart from hospital visits :))

I've had a wholly vegan day today. (so far, must resist the Monster Munch)

I was in M+S anyway, so treated myself to the Superfood salad and have written down all the ingredients. Just need to learn how to cook quinoa.
Making nice dressings is a big thing in having nice salads I think.

More worried about the food at hospital now.

which hospital are you going to time? I had dd in the rosie in cambridge and they had a whole vegan menu, complete with soya milk, soya desserts, snacks etc! i ended up taking stuff home as they gave me so much!

contact them and ask - you might be surprised!

congrats on your vegan day :)

penguin your trip sounds amazing. great to hear about the food. sounds like you did well to manage.

time I'm due Oct as well :)

someone on another thread reckons vegans have smaller pg bumps. Sounds rather odd and dubious to me, anyone ever heard this?

No penguin! Maybe just cos vegans are often slimmer it seems their bumps are smaller?

Mine were both big bumps.

My instinct was that it was bollocks but you know when you can't be bothered to argue coz (a) it's not the palace and (b) you like facts to back you up

My bumps measure small, this one even smaller than my normal. 26cm at 30 weeks.

right, I think today's dinner will be bean burgers (if I make them in time), mash and veg.