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.

Yikes sounds massively stressful sr4ange. Well done for resisting the Big Mac!

I was feeling all smug after my healthy day and Zumba class this evening. Then I got home and ate an obscene (and I mean really obscene), number of doritos . They were the vegan ones this time, at least! Oh well!

Plan for tomorrow is:

B: porridge and maybe some toast too
L: leftover rice salad or lentil soup
T: vegan sausages, roast root veg, greens and gravy

Night all!

Hope you don't mind a latecomer!
I've been vegetarian for 6 months ish now. I don't remember the last time I ate an egg and only have cows milk in my two ish brews a day. Found milk alternatives that are good in coffee but none taste 'right' in tea for me... any suggestions?

Forks over knives is a brilliant watch on Netflix if you haven't seen it already. Would recommend it to everyone, I've even had my very old fashioned meat and two veg style mum and dad sat down watching it!

I love cooking vegan meals in big batches, fajita mixes, soups, stews, shepherds pies and curries if anyone is looking for some extra recipes I'm happy to share!

Sorry, I'm that person who hadn't read the whole thread definitely going to try the oat milk!

MissJ
How very dare you be late
No hazelnut milk for you

I don't have Netflix but will look for that

I find soy milk best for tea so far.

Welcome MissJ! All recipes gratefully received.

Will try to watch forks over knives if I can work out how to use Netflix.

Just found this thread! I went vegan on 1 Jan and have already lost 2 kg. I am loving the food as well. I will post my meal plan later.

Hi MissDallas, 2kg is very impressive!

Just got on the scales and I have actually lost weight ! Only 3lbs but still, I thought I'd have gained it after all the Doritos etc.

New menu for today as I quite fancy losing some more weight if I can:

B: fruit and veg smoothie
L: leftover brown rice salad or soup
T: pasta or risotto with tomato and aubergine

Snacks: trying not to snack at all if I can.

Hi all, I am 10 days in and so far, so good. This week I am feeling so much better as felt rubbish last week. Does anyone have any good snack recommendations? This is where I am struggling.

I'm a believer in bananas, they are portable, really hard to beat for instant easily digestible energy and I like their biodegradable wrapping 😃

Cashew Nut Butter spread on slices of apple is a good snack.

Thank you, will check them out. Also just discovered this - all vegan M&S products.

health.marksandspencer.com/uploads/pdfs/Vegans.pdf

Morning folks,

I'm still here and still loving the vegan life...I've even started looking at vegan shoes I think I'm finding it easier than when I did it last as I haven't actually mentioned it to anyone in rl, except dh who is doing it too. I even fed vegan cauliflower cheese to my parents on Sunday, they didn't notice!

I've just had my porridge and blueberries for breakfast, I'll make soup for lunch and then we're having tofu and Singapore noodles for dinner...yum!

Snacks I enjoy are salted pistachios, dates with peanut butter or carrot sticks and hummus. I guess the nuts are the most transportable. I've also been taking peppermint teabags out with me just incase I can't get a milk substitute anywhere.

I really hope I lose some weight, I've put 10lb on since I last weighed myself (several months ago) not good! I go on holiday in 10 weeks so 1lb a week is hopefully manageable.

I've lost 11.4kg since going vegan nine months ago, without actually trying. That's the same amount as my toddler weighs!! That's having been exactly the same weight for the previous ten years regardless of what I ate or how much exercise I did.

Along with Forks Over Knives I really recommend Fed Up which looks at the amount of sugar that's added to..... well, everything. It's really interesting (and quite sad) watching the people in the documentary clearly trying really hard to lose weight by eating "low fat" products when the problem is their phenomenal sugar intake.

Well done on all the weight loss successes! I'm about 4 or 5 lbs down. I have about 10lbs to go but just being much more mindful about what goes in my mouth.

I had a vegan burrito from whole foods market today. I felt much less bloated than I do after a meaty one and it was very tasty.

I'm a snacker and carry about with me carrots, nuts, bananas and clementines. If I'm not on the go, I will snack on half an avocado.

Rice milk is nice! I def prefer hazelnut milk but in terms of practicality at least I can put rice milk in tea so a better option to buy regularly.

Newlabel, for snacks I stocked up on Nakd bars which seem to be reduced everywhere, apart from that I have apples and an alpro yogurt substitute with seeds. But....I am not feeling hungry so often which is brilliant.

Laura, v interesting on the weight.

Simon, your dinner is the same as mine!!

Morning all! Hope everyone is well.

I ended up making a sort of roast dinner last night with Cauldron vegan sausages, loads of veg and vegan gravy. It was really nice apart from the Cauldron sausages which we all really disliked. I'm glad we tried them though. Trial and error and all that.

Menu today is:

B: peanut butter on soya and linseed toast
L: yet more leftover brown rice and edamame salad, bread and olive oil
T: spaghetti with roast veg and herbs

Snacks: DD and I are going to make these peanut butter cookies, so will probably have one of those or more.

Sorry meant to link to recipe for cookies:

lovingitvegan.com/crunchy-vegan-peanut-butter-cookies/

I don't like cauldron sausages either and their chilled ones have egg in (I think the frozen are vegan). Linda McCartney onion and rosemary sausages are where it's at. With onion gravy and mashed potato. Mmmm.

Yeah it was the frozen vegan ones (horrid).

Will definitely give the LM Ines a go!

I'm chugging onwards. So far what I really miss is cups of tea with milk - I think I relied on the calories in milk to give me a certain amount of energy boost that I'm not getting without it.

I'm also eating a lot more toast than I would normally - toast and peanut butter instead of eggs.

I've noticed that I'm eating quite a lot of bread and toast too. Also I seem to be eating more sugar and snacky things than normal. I wouldn't be surprised if I gain a tonne of weight this week, but I'm treating it as a learning curve. Eventually, by the end of the month, (or a bit into February in my case; as I cheated a bit last week and want to tack on another week at the end of Jan), I'll know how to eat a decent diet which is still vegan? That's the plan at least.

These are the offending sausages, just FYI:

www.cauldronfoods.co.uk/products/range/vegan-wholefood-sausages

I really didn't like them, but they are on offer in Waitrose if anyone's interested. I'm sure someone must like them !

Super lazy vegan supper - jusrol puff pastry sheets, chargrilled veggies and sundried tomatoes