My niece is a vegan - how to eat healthily

[Aridane]

My lovely 23 year old niece is a passionate vegan.

She was vegetarian since age c.10, and vegan about 3 years ago.

I do worry a bit about her as she doesn't cook and her diet is mainly processed carbs - ie white bread, pasta, rice, pot noodles etc. Funds are limited as well so avocados and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables are probably not on the cards.

However, she does pretty much like all foods - so very easy going that way. She is physically active and enviably slim.

Do you have any suggestions for how to build in good nutrition into vegan eating on a budget? We are quite close and I think she would be interested in suggestions.

Hope it's OK for a non vegan to be posting on the Veganboard

Teaching her to cook would probably be a good start, as it seems unnecessarily difficult to include healthier options if cooking is a no go. Would that be possible?

I'd be looking to include pulses in her diet and swapping to brown carbs if she's willing. Maybe someone can recommend a good beginners cookbook for vegans?

Lentils, chickpeas, any canned beans can be quite cheap.

If you go to Asian supermarkets or the world foods sections of supermarkets, you can find bags of lentils at fairly low prices.

Buy whatever fruit and veg is on offer or frozen veg and make lots of soups and stews.

Get ‘milk’ that has added calcium, b2, b12 and d.

Look up cheap vegan recipes. There are lots out there.

Here's an overview of vegan nutrition from the Vegan Society:

www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health/nutrition-overview

Thank you, all. If anyone has a recommendation for a very basic vegan cook book, that would be good.

It's a shame she doesn't cook as I virtually get a ticker tape parade when I cook for her - even though it's usually frying some onion, garlic and ginger (frozen) and adding whatever pulses and vegetable I have. And don't even start me on the ecstatic reaction I got to the vegan chocolate brownies I made.

Get her to look at 'Clean Food Dirty Girl' on FB. Lots of plant based ideas and support. They do a subscription meal plan which you can sign up to but you certainly don't have to do the meal plans to be part of the community.

Why doesn't she cook? That sounds like the thing to tackle.
Healthy lentil stews, dhals etc are cheap, easy and nutritious.

The Viva cookbook is great! Varied recipes, normal ingredients and easy to follow.

I started off with a book called 'the single vegan', back in the days that vegans were extremely unusual, and there were not very many vegan products, and certainly nothing fancy like coconut yoghurt! It's about 20 years old, but has weekly seasonal shopping lists and is very budget friendly e.g. Use half a pepper one day, half the other. You can get it second hand very cheaply off amazon sellers (like, for 1p!). I've just given my copy to Oxfam otherwise I could have sent it to you!

I'd probably buy a book like this and help her make some of the recipes at first if you think she's lacking in confidence:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1849499632?tag=mumsnetforum-21

I'm not vegan but enjoy vegan food

I like Thug Kitchen for the more 'junky' side of vegan food. It's quite sweary though so not to everyone's taste!

On the other side of the spectrum I also quite like Deliciously Ella.

I don't get it when people say it's cheaper to eat ready made food. (Though if she lives on bread and noodles, that's cheap though hardly healthy) How much does a bag of carrots and apples etc. cost?

I have the deliciously Ella book, and I have the app, which makes shopping really easy, coz I can look at in the shops.
The recipes are so so easy in the main, really easy to follow. My Daughter is also vegan and is 19 and living alone, she manages.

My junk food is "hummus on toast" "vegemite on toast" "avo on toast"
So I try not to have white bread,
I also have overnight oats a lot, which is really cheap.

I have to say, my shopping bill is much much lower now that I am vegan

How can a 23 year old not cook? Even if she didn’t have a restricted diet and small budget that would not be ok. Most people are capable of putting a meal together when they are ten years younger than her. Hell, i’m Her age and I have a family to cook for (including a DH with special dietary requirements). She’s not going to be able to have a healthy diet unless she either learns to cook or can afford to eat at a naice restaurant all the time. It’s not ok for an adult not to know how to cook. You really need to teach her. Maybe buy a vegan cookbook to get her started.

It;s the OP's niece though OutyMc Her dsis or brother should be teaching their child to cook. A book is a good idea.

Huck I've discovered that if you soak the large oats in cold water for 5 mins before you cook (for porridge) it really makes porridge nice. (I used to dislike it) You have to cook gently and whisk it though. With a drop of almond milk and molasses and cinnamon Yum

I would try cookingonabootstrap.com/ which is full of cheap and easy vegan recipes.

Make sure she has b12 in her diet somewhere ( eg nutritional yeast with B12, fortified mylk etc)