DD newly vegan, how to satisfy appetite?

[AdoraBell]

Hi everyone, I need a little help please.

As the title says, 17 yr old DD has just decided to be a vegan. She isn’t keen on nuts or beans/pulses. I can’t afford to increase the grocery budget.

How can I / she ensure she isn’t constantly hungry?

TIA

If she's seventeen, shouldn't she be working out for herself what she can or will eat, and budgeting for it, within the overall household budget? And if she has a job, she can contribute, if her choices are increasing the expenses of the household beyond what you can afford.

She needs to learn to like beans, lentils and nuts as they’re the main source of vegan protein. Potatoes, grains, also very important. A vegan diet can be very cheap and easy but your DD needs to take responsibility for her own nutrition and that means eating a good variation of plant foods. There’s no reason for her to be hungry, she just needs to eat enough food.

If she isn't keen on pulses and nuts she's going to struggle.
Soya mince is pretty useful.
TBH I'd tell her she can go vegan when she has a place of her own or to buy her own meat and dairy alternatives.

It's unhelpful to suggest that a 17 year old pay rent because she chooses to be vegan. She will be in full time education, not the same as a working adult.
OP what was her diet before? Was she vegetarian? Does she drink soya milk?

I'm not even veggie but DS2 went veggie at 17. I learned to cook differently, helped him to learn and as a family we all are less meat.
Vegan is harder. I confess my heart would sink if DS took the next step.
However meat substitutes are not all beans. I loathe Quorn but for a fussy eater it's easy, as is soya. I agree it would help if she tried to learn to like nuts and lentils.
As to filling her up, carbs are vegan.

Well done for raising a daughter who is really trying to make a difference to the lives of animals and to help the planet. Please don't try to dissuade her from doing something which isn't always easy but can be very healthy and is extremely socially responsible.

Veggie green curries are a good starting point (make sure you buy a brand which doesnt have shrimp in it). Or get a vegan cook book. Easy vegan is a good one. Also, many pasta sauces can be easily adapted to become vegan. I'd encourage her to give lentils and pulses another try. They are cheap, and without too much effort, can be really delicious. Maybe if she makes them herself she might want to eat them more. Good luck to you both.

Thanks. She is trying to sort this herself, prepared her own meals the last couple of days.

I know it can be cheaper Kirsten, but things like non dairy yoghurt etc are more expensive. Because we as a family eat quite a lot of yoghurt she wants the dairy substitute. It’s little things like that will add up.

And yes, she needs to get a job. I have no objection to her being vegan while living here. I’d rather she gets her head around doing it properly and healthily before she moves out.

All good and well being ethical, but having to buy, budget, plan and cook special food for a 17 year old is no joke.
Veggie greeen curries are not easy to find.
I would suggest to the daughter that she wait until she has her own place instead of pandering to a whim.
I would struggle to think of easy and cheap vegan meals and I am a strict vegetarian. Even beans on toast is out because of the they are pulses and you would need to be sure that the bread was vegan.

Carrot mixed with peanut butter is a nice filling for a sandwich or pitta.
Chips.
Pasta, bread (carbs important)
Houmous.
I’m cautious about too many quorn and soy based foods, just because so many people seem to be allergic to them, or develop allergies.
Don’t forget the B12 supplements.

It's unhelpful to suggest that a 17 year old pay rent

I didn't suggest she should 'pay rent'. I said that if she has a job, she could make a contribution to the household expenses, if her choices are causing them to increase. She's more than old enough to learn how household budgets work.

She needs to look at a plant based diet, if doesn’t necessarily have to be all lentils and nuts.

We are moving to a vegan/plant based diet after much research into the meat/dairy industry. I’m allergic to nuts, I’m managing fine on lots of vegetables, vegan friendly pasta, no diary yogurt and milk etc.

My easiest lunch is usually vegan friendly pasta, with a sauce I make myself using tomatoes and blend up onions, mushrooms and red peppers to add to the tomatoes. The sauce can be batch cooked and frozen.

Also do vegetable curry, which we can have with rice Or a jacket potato. This works well for lunch or main meal.

There isn’t much that can’t be adapted, except cheese. I’m yet to find a decent vegan cheese.

Lots of bread is vegan - it's easy to find.

I do think she's going to have to find a way to enjoy beans and pulses though!

Vegan yogurt is more expensive, but overall if you're not buying meat then you're saving there, and you shouldn't end up spending more on food.

I find jars of green curry often have anchovies in. Veg curry is easy enough to make for all the family. I use sweet potato or butternut squash to bulk it out.

Vegan green curry is actually incredibly easy to make and much cheaper than a meat based one. It's really delicious. It's not hard to find either, most supermarkets stock them.

Why should being vegan be a 'whim'?

Its hardly pandering to a whim! Coming onto the vegan part of the forum and saying that about an ethical lifestyle choice is quite offensive.

Anyway, OP things like baked potatoes and hummus and salad, beans on toast, pasta (perhaps spaghetti bolognese with soya mince), veggie curries with rice, veggie chilli with couscous, stir fries with peanut butter and soy sauce, veggie sausages mash and veg, lentil soup with bread, falafel and hummus pitta, veggie fajitas, refried bean tacos, homemade vegetable tarts etc are all cheap and fairly simple.

Alpro soya yoghurt isn’t that expensive, it’s a similar cost to skyr, Yeo valley or activia yoghurt. Alpro ice cream is on sale at Asda just now and Swedish glacé isn’t that expensive. Soya milk is as cheap as 59p a litre. It’s possible to live more cheaply as a vegan than a non vegan as long as you’re willing to cook.

For convenience but a bit more expensive tesco do a full wicked range of vegan ready meals and pre pack sandwiches, and you can get vegan Quorn in a few of the supermarkets along with Linda McCartney, oomph and vivera which do things like vegan burgers, kebab meat and steaks.

To satisfy her appetite make sure she’s eatong enough calories. Things like porridge in the morning, wholemeal peanut butter sandwiches with fruit and carrot sticks with hummus for lunch and then a big dinner followed by yoghurt or ice cream after and maybe some naked or trek bars as snacks during the day might be good.

I am not knocking veganism at all, but it's a bit 'trendy' at the moment. I am a strict vegetarian and would find tailoring a family's meals around one vegan difficult if on a limited budget.
Avoiding cross contamination would be difficult too.
There are some great suggestions here. I would recommend trying different pulses. Lentils, for example, vary quite a lot and are surprisingly tasty.

Grazia she has always been a full on carnivor, but has been thinking about this for a while.

Thanks for all the suggestions. She’s been looking at some Instagram accounts for ideas but found that they don’t have recipes, just links to buy the ready meals. I’ve shown her some YouTube videos this evening and she’s made herself a spicy sauce to go on salads.

Eye I’m not trying to dissuade her at all.

Also I forgot to mention that I have no clue about the ingredients of pasta sauces as I’ve always made them myself. If she’d chosen vegetarian rather vegan it would be a lot easier. Never mind, we’ll get there.

Why suddenly vegan from full on carnivore?
There aren't any rules she needs to follow so maybe if you are cooking and buying for her, vegetarian is a reasonable first step. She can do herself vegan lunches, buy her own milk substitutes etc
She needs to take some responsibility for such a decision, it's not all up to you and interesting the veggies on here have doubts

The internet has a wealth of vegan recipes- 10s of thousands probably- so it’s just knowing where to look I think. Here are some to start with www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegan

Another thing is to tell your daughter you’re proud of her. Assuming she’s doing this for ethical reasons then she’s trying to make a difference in the world so you know you’ve raised a thoughtful and compassionate daughter.

Finally you must be a great mum to be coming and asking for advice on how to help her. Hope it all goes well.

AdoraBell As a novice vegetarian cook I got loads of non judgemental useful ideas on MN when DS decided to go veggie. That was 18 months ago. He was a big meat eater before. The only thing he misses is a rack of ribs. I've learned I don't love meat as much as I thought and can happily eat meat free 3/4 days a week.
It's definitely cheaper, but might not be so if I was providing entirely separate food for him. I do some mixed meals. For example for a roast dinner I'll put a couple of veggie sausages on with roast potatoes and do a jug of veggie gravy. Skip Yorkshire puddings and that's vegan.

Made some progress today 😁 she has been put off things like hummus for many years after being given some by veggie SIL. It was off. Today we were out and ended up in a coffee shop so she had veg stick with red pepper hummus and liked it 👍

@AdoraBell since my DS went vegan I seem to do a lot of reading ingredients. Many vegetarian sausages aren't vegan, so look out for that...Linda McCartney ones do clearly say if they're vegan or not. Also look for vegan Quorn, then you should be able to do most chicken/mince meals side by side the real thing. Instant gravy is often vegan. Who knew?!
I find Aldi good for things like biscuits....Sainsbury's seem to have milk in most of their biscuits.
Falafel and different types of humus are a good snack to keep in the fridge for peckish moments.Will she eat peanut butter? We seem to go through lots of nut butters and wholemeal bread! But then my DS needs lots of calories.

Thanks Lynette she does eat peanut butter, and used to love Nutella but obviously that’s been kicked the kirb now. I need to get some bread later so will buy wholemeal. Will have a look at the Aldi biscuits too.

I’ve done a huge batch of pasta, both DDs would eat pasta until the cows come home, so each can add their own choice of ingredients to that.

Try the free from aisle they often have vegan versions of Nutella at roughly the same price. In general the free from aisle of the supermarket is great for vegan stuff.

If your daughter will eat it, whole grain bread with seeds would be best for her to get her omegas, something like burgen soya and linseed (supermarkets have their own brands that are similar and not too expensive).

Also she should ideally take a vit D2 or vegan D3 supplement as it’s added to dairy milk so she won’t be getting it from there- she might already get her RDA from soya milk you can check. On sunny days which there are an abundance of just now she’ll be all right if she’s getting a half hour of exposure- better to expose more skin than stay in the sun longer. Similarly b12 which meat is supplemented with, she either needs to get enough alternative fortified foods (soya/ almond/ hemp/ oat milk, marmite, nutritional yeast, some plant butters and cheeses) or take a vitamin.