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!

mmmmm, Swedish Glace....

poppyboo have you tried nutritional yeast as a parmesan substitute?

Enjoy your tofu journey - there are some gorgeous ones out there, the Taifun ones that Waitrose do are absolutely gorgeous....

as I never liked cheese I'm not bothered about the replica's, have them a handful of times a year. As for cheese sauce

i will try the vegusto packs though as before we discovered the soy issue mock meat was one of the protein meal things that DD ate. tbh I tend not to do prepared stuff like that anymore, find it all too processed but at least that keeps the shopping bill down

Penguin, this stuff is BETTER than cheese sauce! :)

to be fair cheese sauce combines my general hatred of cheese with my physical aversion to liquid foods (I was lactose intolerant so I think my body remembers)

pureed soup also makes me want to vom

:) Fair enough! :)

Didn't like the block of Tofu cubed up :(

Itsall i haven't tried that, is it good ?

poppyboo yes, they do a smoked one with wee chunks of almond in, and a basil one. They are so good I could eat them on their own straight out of the fridge.

Unadulterated tofu is a bit meh (I like it because I am weird) think of it more as a carrier for other flavours.

Have recently become a fan of pressing tofu too, gives it a much nicer texture (don't do this withsilken!)

wrap tofu in a layer of kitchen roll and then tea towel, put on a plate with something heavy on top and leave for a bit.

But do experiment, there is loads of different types of tofu, some mre interesting than others.

took me a long time to cook tofu so that I liked it

try the chinese shops for some already prepped, I like the chilli one, just chuck in the stir fry to warm up.

failing that marinade it in some spices and soy sauce, then fry till crispy.

scrambled tofu is also good

Can I sneak in?

I gave up dairy about 10 weeks ago after being veggie for 22 years (I was traumatised by Jamie & the giant supermarket!). Still eating (free range) eggs & honey so not really vegan...

Has anyone tried Bussett & Drury ice cream? Was very excited to find it in Tesco so should be getting some tomorrow, woo! I have Swedish glace occasionally but I don't really get on with soy because it makes me fart like a trooper

Lentil how have you found giving up the dairy? Are you surviving? I've only been dairy free for about two weeks now and I felt a bit stresses late afternoon and felt like diving for the cheese! I held back though!

Stessed even

It's been ok actually. I was going to cut down gradually but I got detox headaches after a couple of days so I just went cold turkey (so to speak). I thought I'd really miss cheese but I'm not that fused anymore. Cheese on toast looks like a grease-fest now! Found some fake parmesan to chuck on my pasta so that's ok. I do miss yoghurt a bit - alpro stuff is horrible just isn't the same (although their custard is gorgeous!). Have you found that you get really REALLY hungry? I've lost a fair bit of weight too (not complaining).

*fussed, even.

Oh, lentil, where an I get fake parmisan from, I need it really badly!!!!! I got bad headaches to begin with to but they've gone now. Yes, I'm getting very hungry! Haven't noticed weight loss yet!

One new thing I do is use a slow cooker to cook oatmeal so it's ready for when I come down in the morning, it's filling so great for breakfast!

Glad you've come on here! :D

Don't get too excited, it's the dried 'shakey' stuff! I got it in waitrose, in the Free From section. It's the only fake cheese (so far) that wasn't utterly vile!

Is oatmeal the same as porridge? Sounds like a good idea, I'm absolutely ravenous as soon as my eyes are open!

What do you put in sandwiches? I'm getting a bit sick of peanut butter. On the plus side, I've never eaten so much fruit & veg! Still hate mushrooms & tomatoes though, bleurgh.

Thanks for the welcome!

It's similar to porridge but ground finer, it cooks better in slow cooker then porridge oats do I've found. I buy course oatmeal, put 100 g in with one pint of water and cook for five hours overnight. When I come down in the morning I dish a big bowlful each up for me and my daughter. I add milk and honey to hers and have brown sugar and banana on mine. I bought small slow cooker on amazon very cheaply and I plug it into a timer switch so it turns on a correct time and starts cooking.

Sandwiches: vegetarian sausage and ketchup.
'Sosmix' patty, fried, with lots of fried onion in a wholemeal sandwich. Sosmix is so very delicious! You can buy it online.
Wholemeal pitta with homous.
Wholemeal pitta stuffed with homous, cous cous, and courgette,onion, garlic and I like tomato too.
Cous cous with garlic,onion, and brown lentils and seasoned.

I'm going to waitrose tomorrow and buy that fake parmisan , thank you :D

Oh, and Lentil, I've got a fab breadmaker (Panasonic) and I make half white/ half wholemeal bread. It's much more filling then 'shop' bread. I never buy bread, I haven't for about two years now.

Loving the sarnies ideas, will have to search out some sosmix.

I really want a breadmaker but we have such a titchy tiny kitchen there's just no room for one. I'm sure it would save us money in the long run too.

Lentil, please try the sosmix!!!! It is lovely! So tasty, great in a pastry pie to with fried onion mixed into the sosmix. Serve with mash and veg and gravy. Yum!

No luck in waitrose today, I'm gutted it wasn't on the shelf! I really need something to sprinkle on my pasta and that sounded perfect!

Ooh, that sounds lovely!

Rubbish about your parmesan, maybe try a health food shop? It's called Parmazano & made by Life Free From, If that helps.

Thank you, I'll try to look for it.
Baked a vegan treat tonight, some chocolate crunchy. I used Pure spread in placed of marge, I hope it's OK!

Not really a fan of that shaky Parmesan, it tasted powdery to me. I am sure someone will come out with a better one soon. Not that I really miss it. It's amazing what you adapt to. I don't miss cheese. I use the vegan cheese because I can, but if there was no such thing, we'd be fine! Though I do like vegan cheesecake. Mmm!
Lovely to have you here, lwh! :) I am thinking of getting a bread maker. Are they really much much better than old school bread making in a normal oven?

NoHun the Panasonic breadmakers make beautiful bread, the taste and texture is beautiful, it tastes like bread from a decent bakery, and tastes much better than, say, bread from a supermarket bakery like Sainsburys. It saves lots of money too and you know exactly what goes into it. I can make an organic loaf for about 50p for the cost of the ingredients.