Veganuary anyone?

[mnpeasantry]

So, never had a lot of luck with launching popular threads but wondered if anyone was game for a bit of vegan January?

My plan is to eat a plant based diet and cut out booze for all except 3 pre planned events in January.

I've put together a list of meals that sound good to me and not too arduous to put together on top of working and caring for two under 3.

Meals include:

Chips
Quinoa and sweet potato cakes
Avocado
Guacamole and tortilla chips
Veg chilli
Lentil soup
Brocolli and cashew stir fry
Spicy coconut noodles
Onion bhaji
Aubergine curry
Hummus
Sweet potato and white bean chilli
Curried coconut veg noodles
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/veggie-noodles-with-curried-coconut-sauce/
Sweet potato chickpea curry
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/sweet-potato-chickpea-amp-spinach-curry/
Pumpkin, chickpeas and coconut curry
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/pumpkin-chickpea-coconut-curry/
Vegan shepherds pie
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/vegan-shepherd-s-pie/
Best vegan burger
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/the-best-vegan-burger/

Why? Feeling a bit fat after Christmas and still need to lose a bit of baby weight. I feel that I have become a bit meat based in my meal planning lately and would like to diversify a bit. I'm aware of environmental and ethical issues surrounding the consumption of meat and I feel like I'm starting to believe that dairy doesn't really agree with me and triggers a number of allergies in my family.

So, is anybody with me? Let's (hopefully) improve our health and fitness, complexions, environment, digestion, etc! Feeling hopeful.

This is the recipemn it's by The Gentle Chef. It's actually quite nice, we sometimes have it as a dipping sauce for nachos

This velvety cheese sauce has a mild cheddar flavor that will please the entire family. It’s ideal for preparing macaroni and cheese and cheesy rice. Try pouring over freshly steamed vegetables or baked potatoes too. This recipe yields about 2 cups of sauce.

Ingredients
1 and ¾ cup organic plain unsweetened soymilk or almond milk
¼ cup tapioca starch
¼ cup mild vegetable oil
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 T mellow white miso paste
1 T tomato paste or 2 tsp tomato powder
2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp fine sea salt or kosher salt
½ tsp dry ground mustard
½ tsp onion powder

Tip: For a tangier sauce, add 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice.

Preparation
Whisk the ingredients together in a small saucepan until smooth. Place over medium-low heat and stir slowly and continually with a flexible spatula until the mixture becomes bubbly, thickened, smooth and glossy. Please note that the golden color will develop as the cheese sauce cooks. Taste and add salt as desired and/or additional soymilk or almond milk to lighten the consistency to your preference. Reduce the heat to low to keep warm until ready to serve, stirring occasionally.

Thanks Simon! I'll need to get some of those ingredients in.

I've packed my lunch and snacks tomorrow. Lunch is a big bean, avocado and carrot salad inspired by a PP.

Will make a big lentil soup tomorrow night and freeze some.

I make a cheesy sauce by roasting (peeled and cubed) sweet potatoes, season them well with salt pepper maybe a bit of oil.

While they are roasting combine in a medium/large bowl:

Juice of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon tamari (or soy if not worried about gluten)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (engevita, from ocado or holland and Barrett)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

When potatoes are soft (about 20 or 30 minutes) add them to the mixture and use a hand blender, add almond or soya or whatever milk to desired consistency.

I also make fake grated Parmesan with cashew nuts garlic powder and nutritional yeast flakes, just blend.

mnpeasantry I can report back that the meatless balls - which were meant to be made with millet, but i substituted barley as didn't have millet - were bland as fuck and a disproportionate amount of effort. Next time I'll just do a soy bolognaise!

B - muesli and juice
L - very nice vegan chestnut pie with veg, followed by poached pears
S - fruit

Bit of an improvement on yesterday!

Thanks @pyscho - will give it a try.

@laura, sorry to hear that! But loving the recipes and ideas. Please keep them coming.

Chestnut pie sounds cool. I have some chestnuts leftover ordered pointlessly from Christmas so would love the recipe if you wouldn't mind sharing?

Thanks fir the suggestions to replace my cheese. I'll have a look in tesco for the vegan cheese and the chick pea spread.

I'd forgotten about avacados, they go nice one a cracker.

Today I was back at work so

B: black coffee and a banana

L: treated myself to a Hummus Bros bowl with hummus, smoky aubergine and falafel - apart from the meat obviously most of their food is vegan!

D: another new recipe - mujadara which is lentils, rice and caramelised onion. It has cinnamon in, it can't go wrong

God it's cold today!

Mujadara sounds like a winner, alright. Nothing not to like there.

B - banana, peanut butter and apple juice
L - bean, avocado, carrot salad
D - lentil soup

The weather is making me want to reach for the Christmas chocolates but going to resist.

Mujadara sounds 😍

B - banana
L - really really long carrot with some sweet chili humous
S - cut sweet potatoes lengthwise and put face down on baking sheet, mixed (drained rinsed) can chickpeas with olive oil lemon juice cumin cinnamon paprika coriander salt pepper then poured them over same baking sheet to roast for about 25-30 minutes. Had with diced cherry tomatoes that had been marinating in lemon juice and parsley all day and spinach and avocado and humous. Yum.

there are some lovely recipes to try, thanks for the inspiration! my meals have been a bit boring today. We had ds's birthday party at soft play so I has a big bowl of porridge (with banana, nut butter and cacao powder) before I went so I didn't have to order food whilst there. I just had a peppermint tea, which I actually really like, I don't know why I stopped drinking it.

Linda McCartney sausages as hot dogs for dinner tonight as I couldn't be bothered to cook anything else

The mujadara was a success! I used the Forks Over Knives recipe which is online here www.tigerxtreme.com/recipes/Mujadara__Lentils_and_Rice_with_-17.html

I doubled the cinnamon and allspice. Half a teasooon? Pah!

I'm liking the idea of porridge with nut butter and cacao, sounds like a real treat for breakfast!
I needed to go shopping today so thought I had nothing in for lunch, but remembered I had chickpeas so made some hummus! I used Jamie Oliver's recipe for spiced smashed chickpeas (as every other recipe had tahini in which I didn't have) and it was really delicious with some crackers.
Then went shopping so I have lots of vegan goodies in now. Had butternut squash risotto for dinner, which was fine without my usual Parmesan, but I might look for some nutritional yeast flakes to sprinkle on for next time. Tesco don't stock it, do any of the other supermarkets have it or do I need a trip to Holland and Barrett?

@hazel I order some yeast flakes from Amazon but I had to buy 3 pots. I'm finding it hard to track down certain ingredients near where I live but I work near a whole foods market so will go in and have a mooch at lunchtime. Thanks for the tahini free hummus tip. I need to either get tahini or try that recipe.

Glad the mujudara was a success, Laura!

Has anyone noticed a change in how you feel yet? I've quit booze too so generally feeling more perky and well. I'm definitely quite windy though!

Waitrose usually have it Hazel - like H & B they stock it under the Engevita brand name.

Hi all!

I hope everyone is doing ok.

I have to confess to a massive willpower fail last night . I was just really hungry and tired due to stupidly early start with toddler and I ended up falling face first into a bag of cheese doritos and then a massively baked potato with butter, beans and cheese. Not good! Only three days in as well.

So far today has been:

B: whole meal toast with coconut oil and a bit of conserve, porridge with rice milk, peanut butter and banana and two satsumas (I'm stuffing my face as I will be out over lunch and will crack if I'm too hungry)!

L: probably will be hummus, carrot sticks and crackers

T: I might try a Greek dish called briam. Someone recommended it to me and it sounds delicious! There is a Jamie Oliver recipe I am going to try out.

No judgement here Klingy! Sounds like it was much needed!

Not managed to read the whole thread but I am Vegan and just wanted to say Zizzi's now have a fab vegan menu including vegan cheese on pizzas and a vegan desert calzone.
I'm so happy my friends birthday is at Zizzi's in an couple of weeks!

We've just had a new ice cream lounge open that does a massive vegan range and specialist nights two evenings a week where the entire menu is vegan! Times are a changin'!

Wow! That's great to know. Thanks for the tip!

Hello, can I join, please? Been veggie for 30ish years and been doing the Veganuary 2017. So far, so good - I haven't eaten eggs or cow's milk for ages but love cheese, but have overdone it somewhat over Christmas so it's been quite easy so far but obviously very early days. Eating a lot of hummus - I may never want to eat it again come Feb 1st

Thanks Laura, there is a Waitrose on my way home from work so will try there.
Klingy for future snacking reference the chilli heatwave Doritos are vegan!

Soreen banana malt loaf bars are vegan 👍🏼

This was delicious! Seriously recommend it and it was so easy. Could see myself eating this a LOT after veganuary

vegetarian.about.com/od/soupsstewsandchili/r/lentilsoup.htm

Thanks everyone.

That's good to know re the chilli doritos! I actually prefer those ones anyway . I only ate the cheese ones as there were some lying open when I was feeling a tired and hungry. Oh well. Onward and upward.

Zizzi's are great, Pizza Express has a vegan pizza (and I think a vegan wine list!), Wagamama has a vegan menu, even Nando's has a vegan option. Wetherspoons does too. I've not eaten out anywhere since May where I couldn't get anything - even the gastropub we went to for a friend's birthday was able to do a salad and chips.