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!

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

there is a soy free cheese?

There is a brilliant range of soya/dairy free yoghurts in the USA called 'So Delicious' but not available here

[AbFabT]

America is soooo good for vegan options, though the last time I tried their cheese, ours was far better.

We had pizza for supper tonight.
Quite fancy the sound of stew with dumplings! Mmm!

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

dh chose shepherds pie from the options i gave him. so it was a vegemince shepherds pie (usually use lentils but had run out) with roast carrots and parsnips and red wine gravy. Enough left for lunch for ds and i today

My stew with dumplings is the best tho, i have to say!

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

abfab what base do you use/make and do you bother with 'cheese' for pizza?

[ppeatfruit]

Crimbo do you put the dumplings in at the end of cooking? (I love the idea of them but don't seem to get round to making them) IYSWIM This is deff. dumpling weather !!

[brillopads]

Hello all

DH is Vegan, I'm not, but it makes a lot more sense to make things that are Vegan which I can then add bits & Bobs to

Last night we excitingly spotted the big pots of Alpro soya yoghurt- vanilla variety in our local Tesco's... I did a buy one-get-two-free on Muller Corner 6 packs

[ClimberChick]

I never bother with cheese on pizza, just load it up with other goodies

[AbFabT]

Cakes, have to admit I don't usually make my own bases - have done, but Morrisons do these great bases that already have garlic 'butter' on them, and they are utterly delicious! Might start making my own though, as I've seen some gorgeous heart-shaped pizza trays, so would need to shape my own dough to fit!

I do now use cheese, but for about five years from when I was first vegan until I discovered vegan cheese, I did without, and still enjoyed my pizzas thoroughly.

What's your dumpling and stew recipe please?

We had macaroni mince tonight - Realeat mince, with macaroni, fresh spinach, tomatoes, peppers and red onion, with various herbs and spices. DH loves this meal, was a family favourite when he was growing up, so we just veganised it.

Anyone watching Come Dine With Me this week - they have a vegan on! She's in the lead so far.

Hello, brillopads!

[ClimberChick]

Ready made bases to chuck in your freezer

think we'll have penne pasta, pine nuts and spinach. Maybe some oven roasted toms

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

hello brillo

abfab Grrrr! re come dine with me. We lost our BT vision setting when something played up a week or two ago and so it wasn't recording when I thought it was. Doubly annoying this week as there's a vegan AND a mumsnetter this week!

Hoping there'll be a few episodes recorded so i can catch the last few meals.

My stew recipe is very much an invention and varies so quite hard to write the recipe but it's basically:

Saute veggies such as potato, swede, parsnips and carrots in some oil

Chuck in some veggie stock (i use marigold vegan boillon) then add the following to taste: marmite and vecon

Add some beans or lentils.

About 20 mins before the end of cooking I throw in fragile/green veg such as green beans or cauli

Add some cornflour (mixed with water) to thicken to desired consistency (I like mine on the runnyish side)

Taste "sauce", add salt and pepper plus more marmite etc if needed

(note ppeat!) Chuck in the dumplings (made to v easy but reliable recipe on suet box plus fresh herbs sometimes) - I usually make them earlier and keep in fridge).

Put lid on.

20 mins later - yum diddly!

Oh and last night's dinner was the hotdogs, fried onions and potato wedges as I needed some quick blotting paper before i went out for drinks. Tis also DH's second fave dinner after roast)

[brillopads]

Ah, a Vegan on "Come Dine with me" sounds good. We normally watch these in the evenings on Virgin Catch up TV, if it seems a decent week. Or I do them all in a row at the weekend when I'm ironing Whereabouts in the country are they?

I'm going to make the effort to go to '8th day' (veggie/ vegan foodshop) this eve to get some hotdogs from there, been wanting some ever since we got some yummy caramelised red onion chutney. Also a friend was recommending the mince pies from there. Why oh why do almost all supermarkets feel the need to make their mince pies 'luxury' by having butter in them?

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

i can't remember - somewhere up north i think - see tail end of this thread (there's 2 mumsnetter going on it - thebrownstuff's is on in march and whatever is on this week)

[ppeatfruit]

I spose i'm lucky 'cos DH who is a definite carnivore cooks his own meat, he won't eat the 'pretend meat'. He often just gives me a plate of the veg.

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

why lucky, ppeat? (not being sarky, just didn't understand)

My DH is an omni but eats almost entirely vegan/veggie at home as I never cook meat for him (and I do 99% of the cooking). He won't eat most fake meats but weirdly, he prefers the fast food type ones like hotdogs, sausages and mince to the flesh version.

[brillopads]

CrimboCakeandRoses
somewhere up north i think LOL
*waves from Manchester

OMG Soy hotdogs are so much better than -shudder- meat ones. We watched a show on
'Awful foods' and I think the phrase was "mechanically recovered meat"

[ppeatfruit]

'cos we live in france a lot and the chickens etc. come with heads, legs on . IMO The fake sausages etc. are a bit too high in salt and sugars for DH.

[ppeatfruit]

yes brillo cheap real sausages are totally disgusting and you know what goes into MRM ? SXXT People give them to their DC's !!!

[brillopads]

ppeatfruit
Mm, Linda Mccartney's soy-sages just taste of salt IMO. We only bother getting them if they're on an offer in the supermarket. Redwood VegiDeli ones are alright.

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

I'm not keen on Linda mc stuff either (sadly as its so much easier to find). I love lots of redwood stuff (weirdly now in competition with linda as run by heather!) but for sausages and hotdogs I'm a Frys girl.

Overall, we don't each much other fake stuff (sometimes a redwood cheatin roast on a sunday) but it's good to keep dh onside with his fastfood fix occassionally!

[ppeatfruit]

I remember Linda Mc stuff when it came on the market, was called healthy and was full of hydrogenated fat (plugs up the arteries) is it still?

[AbFabT]

Thanks for the recipe, C&R. Will try it one day!

CDWM is in Sheffield this week.

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

Dinner last night was a take-away: beancurd and brocolli with cashews in yellow bean sauce, rice and veg spring rolls

ppeat nope, no hydronated fat now

abfab ah I should have remembered that as dh is from yorks!

Managed to record and then watched the vegan's meal last night - I thought it looked great. Nice to see she was in the lead!

[brillopads]

Last night we had Taifun hot dogs followed by mince pies. The hot dogs are a bit of a 'treat' as they're kindof expensive, and so were the mince pies - DH had the nerve to ask if I'd also got some creme for the mince pies !

CrimboCakeandRoses we were gazing at the ready meals in M&S the other night, endless chicken in whatever sauce, and wondering why-oh-why can't they stick tofu in some instead ?

[CrimboCakeandRoses]

ooh i love those taifun ones. it's good cos i can use up the unused ones in pasta or on pizza.

did you make or buy the MP? i've found some in sainsbo freefrom and the small waitrose ones so far.

ready meals never taste great any way tho and are far too small for me ! For speedy meals i'd always rather do some noodles, veg and miso.

[ClimberChick]

anyone have ideas on weaning babies?

I would like DD to have more calories in the day so I can phase out expressing at work. Normally people say load them with yogurts or cheese. I'm going to go over to the allergy board as well.