Ahh newbie to vegan

[BubblesPip]

Any help would be hugely appreciated! I’ve made the decision to go vegan. I am a huge huge animal lover and can’t believe I’ve been eating meat for this long. A few things that I’ve seen recently have triggered this decision. I also have coeliacs disease so I worry that this will really limit what I can eat. Is it expensive to eat this way? I feel completely clueless 😳

Also, How do you manage with your children? I have a two year old daughter and don’t wish to impose veganism on her, so she will continue to have cows milk etc. I also presume it would also make nursery/school difficult for her as she gets older, so I’ll let her make up her own mind as the time comes.

Does anyone know of any good resources for vegans?

Veganuary-Facebook page and website :)

No words of wisdom I’m afraid but following with interest as I have been considering veganism but also have coeliac disease and have been afraid to make the transition from being a vegetarian

Congratulations on making such an amazing step! It can actually be really cheap and simple to have a vegan diet, although it took me a while to realise this. Here are the main things I've learned so far:

• Oat milk is the most milk-like replacement imo. If you buy it from the shop then it'll be fortified with calcium, with many brands containing more calcium than cows milk

• Butter is a really easy replacement, most vegan butters don't taste any different to dairy butter so this is something you can change in the house and I doubt anyone would notice!

• Violife is one of the best (and most easily accessible) cheeses. None of them melt that well and they still have a while to go before they taste like the real thing. But violife isn't bad at all!

• Fry's, Linda McCartney (only some foods) and Natruli all do great meat replacement products

• The best fake meat are imitations of junk food meat (so vegan frankfurters are much more convincing than vegan bacon!)

• Lentils, beans, any kind of pulses can easily replace meat in most meals (bolognaises, stews etc.)

• basically most meals can be made vegan

• cakes and junk food are really easy to do vegan (you don't actually need egg in cakes)

The following foods are accidentally vegan:

• Oreos
• Co-op jam donuts
• Beef and tomato pot noodle
• Most instant noodles
• Pink panther wafers
• SOME Bourbon biscuits
• Bournville chocolate
• SOME frozen garlic baguettes
• Bisto gravy
• original and choc chip hobnobs

Hope that helps and good luck on your journey!

I realise that isn't what you asked for... I just got a bit excited.

I'd suggest joining local vegan groups on Facebook.

We get most of our recipes from google, there's so much there already. The PETA website is also good.

Have a look at the Viva! website. They have lots of great information and resources including recipes, fact sheets, nutrition charts and health advice. There are also details of their undercover investigations on factory farms and their ongoing campaigns to bring the truth about the horrific treatment of animals to the attention of the general public.

I'd like to ask you though, why cow's milk for your DD? It's not a healthy choice by any means and there are so many other healthier substitutes widely available now.

Beef and tomato pot noodle is vegan?? Mad. We do a vegan dinner a week in this house. My DH just doesn't know it.

Wow! Thank you all for your advice! I’ve been looking at the websites advised and looking at recipes. It looks simple enough...I think!
One thing I’m struggling with is snacking. I tend to eat little and often, as opposed to big meals and all m eating atm is dried fruit and nuts Not the healthiest and obviously pretty fattening. I prefer to eat savoury foods, so do you have any suggestions for savoury snacks?

Savoury snacks in our household:

• vegetable samosas
• spring rolls
• popcorn
• crumpets
• hummus & pitta/oatcakes
• falafel
• olives
• Linda McCartney sausage rolls
• crisps
• sandwiches (olives, tomatoes, quorn vegan meat, hummus, olives, falafel etc)
• nuts
• toast (avocado and pumpkin seeds is a nice topping!)
• onion bhaji
• roasted chickpeas
• rice crackers/crisps (nice with satay sauce)
• bruschetta
• mushroom pate and bread
• stuffed mushrooms
• granola
• Apple and peanut butter
• potato waffles
• hash browns

www.challenge22.com/challenge22/ This is a pretty good resource (you sign up and you’ll get mentors, dieticians advice etc)

I’m a snacker too, I’ll have naked bars and livs kitchen biccy bombs but they’re sweet- savoury I like carrot sticks and hummus, mini vegan sushi packs (Tesco and boots but it is waste plastic), pistachios, savoury seed mix, toast with vegan butter, vegetable crisps or pea crisps, oatcakes with vegan cheese, rice cakes with peanut butter etc.

Being a vegan is seriously hard work. I'm a vegetarian of over 20 years and love that veganism is "hip" at the moment as it makes my choices much easier. Why don't you take it step by step?

my sister is celiac WFPB (whole food plant based) and does really well its been a new transition from around May this year and she is glowing. There are good gluten free options in shops now. I make my own sweet potato wraps I do them with buckwheat which is naturally gluten free. I am now transitioning to WFPB too and I have started to feel a lot better. I suffer from several health conditions and have never felt this good for years. I try not to buy too many gluten free substitutions from shops as they are expensive but eat alternatives like rice or potatoes more instead. I do still struggle now and again and some days do vegetarian. It can be a big thing when you are used to eating the standard american diet. Our LO is 17 months and is now mostly WFPB aswell. I think when we start nursery she will be vegetarian on those days as I don't think the nurserys understand what vegan children eat but it's progress and we are a lot healthier for it. Good luck on your journey there is a lot of info out there on it you can definitely do it.

Fresh fruit and nuts as long as you don't overeat, and eat them on an empty stomach are not fattening. (i lost 3 stone eating them as snacks!). bubbles

Fantastic that you are doing this! I found this site very useful when transitioning from veggie to vegan: 7dayvegan.com/guide/
Also this is a nice summary of a healthy diet: www.vegsoc.org/file/general-document-upload-2/Eatwell_guide_veggie_MAR2018.pdf
I also eat nuts and dry fruit as snacks most of the time :)