Veganuary Prep!

[StarJazmin]

Anyone pledging to do Veganuary this year? Fancy a thread to chat about plans and stuff?

I did 2 years ago and then stayed Vegan the entire year, failing last Christmas with proper cheese . Have been 95% veggie since, I eat far too much cheese and processed crap though. This will be a healthy 100% vegan reboot for me.

Next weekend I’m planning on doing some batch cooking to have some meals in the freezer for after long work days. Also at some point do a bit of a pantry stock take and perhaps place orders for staples. And think about some meal plans and look up recipes.

Thanks for the top tips. Going to do a massive shopping list.

Secretly gave DH some soya milk in his coffee and he didn't notice.

I sometimes wonder what's the point. I've been veggie for 30 years. I raised my DC as veggies initially but they decided to eat meat when they were 7/8.

So I buy and cook meat. I buy them leather shoes. I contribute to the industry. If it were just me, I could look myself in the mirror and know I was doing my bit.

Sorry to deviate!

This is what is in the vegan cheese making kit, all stuff you can buy easily. You then also have to add plant milk and cashew or macadamia nuts i think. There are recipes in the box to make mozzarella, ricotta, mascarpone, halloumi, feta and parmesan. Its called the big cheese making kit.

I have realised my food processor and blender are not up to blending nuts unfortunately, any recommendations for a new one?

I've been vegan for 3 years but will be doing veganuary as a healthy reboot as I'm definitely a junk food vegan.

Ah no! I broke my first cheapo food processor as a student trying to make peanut cookies

I have a Magimix now which has made many nut cheeses/spreads/sauces/butters with no problems. I also have a nutribullet with a ‘milling blade’ that makes short work of things like grinding seeds (keeping ground flax seed in the fridge was one of my vegan staples) or dry mixes for things like ‘rawmesan’, homemade cheesy sauce mix or doing quick buckwheat/oat/quinoa flours etc. Both make vegan home cooking much easier for me. Nutribullet also obviously great for smoothies, or doing a quick small batch of pancake batter.

Vitamixes seem popular with vegan recipe youtubers.

Thanks Star. I've been looking at Nutribullets, they sound good but they are small. I'm thinking I might have to buy a big food processor and a little nutribullet?

I'll be cooking for the whole family, I don't tend to do separate meals for different tastes so DH and kids (11 and 7) will have lots of vegan food. They have quite a bit of veggie food anyway. Any vegan recipes your (omnivorous) family enjoy? Mine like:
Vegan bolognese (minced mushroom and lentil based).
Falafel with salad and rice or couscous.
Mixed bean chilli with wraps/tacos or as a pie with mashed sweet potato top.
Chickpea curry and saag also or potatoes roasted with turmeric, ginger and fennel seeds.
Thai green curry, homemade paste without fish sauce is vegan. I make a paste with green peppers instead of chillis or too hot for kids.

Any other ideas for family meals? They won't go near all the easy veggie sausages and burgers, which is a pain as I like them. I don't mind fermented tofu, and surprisingly my DS likes it, but DH and DD hate it.

Another thing we all like is Vpud vegan black pudding, good as part of a cooked breakfast and as an ingredient to add into stews or bolognese.

Ninja food processor seems to work well for processing nuts (has a nutribullet type thing but larger bits too). John Lewis stocks them. We love Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's kale and mushroom pizza - it sounds healthy, it is pretty healthy, but it tastes like a real treat. Also check out Unicorn (a fantastic Manchester vegan food co-op) website for healthy hints and a load of great recipes online - www.unicorn-grocery.coop/our-recipes/ An old friend lives nearby Unicorn and I am green with envy when I visit - a large supermarket, worker-owned so they're all really knowledgeable and cheerful and helpful, which is entirely vegan, but manages to price match Morrisons. She's a single mum and gets all her stuff there - they're very good at coming up with recipes that the pickiest children will eat, but they don't sell junk! It makes you realise how easy it would be to go vegan if you could get everything in one place (they even have lush vegan béchamel sauce) for a fair price and without endlessly checking ingredients. People come from as far as Cumbria and the Midlands to shop there and I can see why.

Hi All. I am trying this year not being anything near a vegan before. I am concentrating on whole food plant based so will hopefully lose some weight as well.
Had peanut butter on wholewheat toast with fruit for breakfast.
Just about to have baked sweet potato with hummus and salad for lunch before going to work.
Good luck everyone

Rae Likes Froot on YouTube is good to find all the new vegan products on the market in the UK, especially snack foods. There are lots of good vegan Youtubers.

Bute Island creamy sheese spread turns out to be surprisingly ok! Had that with oatcakes, vegan pate, fruit and nuts for lunch as we were up late and not so hungry.
I've also bought some vegan convenience food for emergencies but planning to batch cook some sauces/stews etc.
Eat Real lentil chips are addictive. I think they're probably healthy if you don't eat the whole bag in one go...

It’s been a carb heavy day so far but very nice. Breakfast - home made Chapati (tasted more like pitta) with houmous. Lunch -Caffè Nero vegan sundried tomato and pesto toastie (very nice indeed). Snack - olive bread with ASDA free from garlic and herb cheese spread (really good-tastes like Boursin) and dinner will be chick pea and spinach curry with rice.

Apart from a mild panic in cafe Nero when I thought here was nothing I could eat, then found the vegan toasties behind a rogue ham one, it’s been a good day so far.

Can I join? Both my (adult) kids are vegan and are around a lot in January, so I plan to join them.

Had a lovely vegan roast dinner today followed by homemade apple pie and Oatly custard.

Looking forward to planning more vegan meals!

I was pondering lunches for work and then you've reminded me about houmous. Hurrah!

I bought some organic peanut butter but noticed it has palm oil in can anybody recommend a peanut butter that ticks all the ethical boxes please?

Following with interest. I’m veggie but trying veganuary. We will see how I get on! Discovered M&S’s amazing plant-based range today.

@HandsOffMyRights Whole Earth peanut butter states that it uses sustainable palm oil.

To the PP asking about fresh pasta- I have had the one they sell in Sainsbury's. It uses gluten free pasta and is very fragile- the packet says to cook for one minute and I think I over cooked it. It tasted OK though - I topped with vegan pesto and Sainsbury's grated mozzarella substitute. I haven't tried many of the cheeses so there may be better ones.

To anybody who is looking for vegan treats - try Booja Booja truffles. They are not cheap! But I treated myself at Christmas. So much nicer than DH and DS's selection boxes

Following. I've been vegetarian for about 30 years and am eating around 90% vegan, at a guess. Cheese is the thing I tend to fail on although I have found some good vegan alternatives which are acceptable.

Linwoods' flax, chia seed, apple and cinnamon is delicious!
Used knorr vegan stock pot for onion gravy last night and that was pretty good, too.

Thanks Apple that's the brand I actually had so must have missed that.

Rita looking forward to trying the M&S range - is it good?