The Veganism Thread

[The Ghost]

Okay, so here’s a post I never thought I’d make, but we seem to be going to give a bit more plant based and less meat based a try. At first we’ll try like one meal a week or something until we can figure out a few things that we like, what works for us and how to make stuff and if that works out we’ll shift up a gear or two and who knows where we’ll end up. Not sure yet if vegetarian (cheese and milk feature heavily in our house) or full vegan efforts will be the way but time will tell.

 

My concerns at the moment are that it may end up being more expensive (and that would be a deal breaker) and that I may not find enough meals that I’ll be prepared to eat as a very difficult eater.

 

So, a few questions, is there a recipe type book you can recommend, is the plant based cyclist book any good, what should we look to avoid (coconut milk) and what are good meals to start with?

Any other advice for noobs will be appreciated as I make my way through the thread.

[DR ◣◢]

How much of your meat intake is red meat?

[The Ghost]

How much of your meat intake is red meat?

2 maybe 3 meals a week.

Mince once in either wraps, spaghetti or similar.

Beef once a week in stew or fajitas.

Burgers, chorizo or pepperoni on pizza once a week.

 

In summer one of those is replaced with a braai if we’re lucky.

[DR ◣◢]

Your could sub out red meat with chicken and fish.

Then switch to fish only.

 

Eventually dropping the fish. Worked fairly well for me.

[The Ghost]

Your could sub out red meat with chicken and fish.

Then switch to fish only.

 

Eventually dropping the fish. Worked fairly well for me.

Thanks, we’re keen to go straight for at least one day of no meat right off the bat though, we’re not overly fussed about having to have meat.

I don’t think fish will fit in here though. [emoji1]

[Wayne Potgieter]

Okay, so here’s a post I never thought I’d make, but we seem to be going to give a bit more plant based and less meat based a try. At first we’ll try like one meal a week or something until we can figure out a few things that we like, what works for us and how to make stuff and if that works out we’ll shift up a gear or two and who knows where we’ll end up. Not sure yet if vegetarian (cheese and milk feature heavily in our house) or full vegan efforts will be the way but time will tell.

 

My concerns at the moment are that it may end up being more expensive (and that would be a deal breaker) and that I may not find enough meals that I’ll be prepared to eat as a very difficult eater.

 

So, a few questions, is there a recipe type book you can recommend, is the plant based cyclist book any good, what should we look to avoid (coconut milk) and what are good meals to start with?

Any other advice for noobs will be appreciated as I make my way through the thread.

I quite like the Thug Kitchen Recipe book series. It's foul mouthed but the food is pretty good and down to earth. Not pretentious but yummy. They also provide lots of alternatives.

 

If a recipe book isn't your thing, then also try anything on pinterest or instagram. Heaps of recipe ideas.

 

Its really not that hard once you get into it. Congrats on being open minded enough to give it a try.

 

Feel free to ask any questions...

[The Ghost]

Thanks Wayne,

I’ll definitely look into those, the Mrs quite likes to cook “pretentious” meals [emoji1] and we’re not afraid of recipe books as I think we could probably fudge out meals on our own but we’d prefer ones that are better rounded in terms of nutrition and flavours.

 

FYI it looks like they’ve changed their name and can be found here now:

 

https://www.badmanners.com/

Edited January 24, 2021 by The Ghost

[Chris_]

2 maybe 3 meals a week.

Mince once in either wraps, spaghetti or similar.

Beef once a week in stew or fajitas.

Burgers, chorizo or pepperoni on pizza once a week.

 

In summer one of those is replaced with a braai if we’re lucky.

 

(Just looking at these examples above) What about trying to sub out the mince for black beans in the wraps, maybe the fajitas, or even add a taco meal in (similar theme?). Black beans can get super 'jammy' if you whack them in a pan, some seasoning, or try get that refried bean texture almost. 

 

Our go-to meals when we're min on effort and time but max on enjoyment is tacos or wraps. Guac, salsa/pico/jalapenos, some greens, black beans, maybe brown rice.. magic. 

 

The other thing you can try experiment with is oven roasted lentils, chickpeas, or cannellini beans. Add one of those to your existing meals and see if you can work that in for your protein choice. (If you still actively think of meals as needing you know the ubiquitous x amount of protein and x carbs etc) Sometime we just fill a tray of olive oil and balsamic drizzled veg and either or both of the above, leave it in the oven for an age... delicious.

 

Curry? Very easy to keep veg, plenty authentic recipes are veg regardless. 

 

Burgers - the only reasonable way is to find the fake meat substitute I think. Theres one or two of the plant-based patties that I've enjoyed but mostly they're tasteless and stodgy. 

 

Pizza - will be a challenge if chorizo or pepperoni is your highlight. We for the first time scattered the innards of a beyond sausage on our last pizza and it was really good, but I could leave it to be honest. Artichokes, olives, mushrooms, roast garlic, sweet or hot peppers, will always be my first choices now. But yes it can take some adventurous testing.

 

That was a hellova long way to say I don't have a recipe book recommendation, we just search the internet for a recipe that sounds good if its something new we want to try.

 

 

If I may also ask, why did you decide to try this change, or contemplate it in the first place?

[The Ghost]

If I may also ask, why did you decide to try this change, or contemplate it in the first place?

Thanks, we’re eyeing beans as a mince substitute so will definitely try that and those curries maybe to replace the stew.

 

Honestly it’s just that over time we’ve seen the odd thing about the plant based diet (GCN, Netflix etc) and the health and performance benefits that people have experienced and we’d like to experience those benefits too.

Edited January 25, 2021 by The Ghost

[Cois]

We started looking at eating less animal products and then going vegetarian this year.  I can't just stop eating animal products but have to phase it out due to a few health problems.

 

We did a meatless Friday last week and made the epic mistake to try Denny Patties (https://www.denny.co.za/single-post/2020/09/28/beef-style-mushroom-burger) for our Friday Burgers.  What a big mistake.  Remember where I said I have to take it slow...  Well my body decided to reject the burger and the patty.  Most of Friday night and Saturday was spent being sick.

 

Going vegetarian again will not be such a huge problem for me.  But not sure how my shortened gut will like the change.

[Eldron]

It has been interesting watching the attitude towards this thread change.

 

Initially there was quite a bit of resistance with meat eaters posting pics of their meat and how they love to eat it along with plenty "vegans are weird" and "but you wear leather" banter.

 

It seems to have settled into a nice rhythm now with decent info flowing back and forth.

 

We have 5 vegan meals delivered a week - the other two we make ourselves and are normally vegetarian rather than vegan. Sometimes we augment the vegan meals with cheese and sauces. My meat eating is down to once or twice month. Kinda like cheat day on a regular diet.

 

I don't think I'll ever be a total veggie and I'm ok with that. I am really enjoying the taste of veggie food - quite different to the "augment the meat flavour" style of traditional meals. I am much more of a "foodie" now and spend more time thinking about ingredients and flavour profiles than I ever did as a traditional eater. Personally focusing on veggie food has enhanced my relationship/interest in food in general.

[madmarc]

It has been interesting watching the attitude towards this thread change.

 

Initially there was quite a bit of resistance with meat eaters posting pics of their meat and how they love to eat it along with plenty "vegans are weird" and "but you wear leather" banter.

 

It seems to have settled into a nice rhythm now with decent info flowing back and forth.

 

We have 5 vegan meals delivered a week - the other two we make ourselves and are normally vegetarian rather than vegan. Sometimes we augment the vegan meals with cheese and sauces. My meat eating is down to once or twice month. Kinda like cheat day on a regular diet.

 

I don't think I'll ever be a total veggie and I'm ok with that. I am really enjoying the taste of veggie food - quite different to the "augment the meat flavour" style of traditional meals. I am much more of a "foodie" now and spend more time thinking about ingredients and flavour profiles than I ever did as a traditional eater. Personally focusing on veggie food has enhanced my relationship/interest in food in general.

 

I agree, it seems tolerance has prevailed. I been known to bash a few vegans, not because they don't eat meat, but because they blame the worlds problems on meat eaters.

 

Over the last 2 years we been trying out a lot of plant based diets - in fact going up to 4 months on only plant based foods - it was a great experience, some of the recipes were great and others were just putrid. One thing i can say, its actually very expensive to eat healthy and you need to know or learn how to cook and prepare plant based meals.

 

I also noted that many restaurants are including more and more vegan or plant based food on menu's which makes it easier to eat out.

 

Today we kind of moved back to meat, but eat a lot less especially red meat, we on more fish and chicken with a lot more pasta. 

 

The biggest thing i learnt was the digestive system was a lot happier on plant based foods. My first steak after 4 months it felt like my gut was going to explode

[Eldron]

I agree, it seems tolerance has prevailed. I been known to bash a few vegans, not because they don't eat meat, but because they blame the worlds problems on meat eaters.

 

Over the last 2 years we been trying out a lot of plant based diets - in fact going up to 4 months on only plant based foods - it was a great experience, some of the recipes were great and others were just putrid. One thing i can say, its actually very expensive to eat healthy and you need to know or learn how to cook and prepare plant based meals.

 

I also noted that many restaurants are including more and more vegan or plant based food on menu's which makes it easier to eat out.

 

Today we kind of moved back to meat, but eat a lot less especially red meat, we on more fish and chicken with a lot more pasta. 

 

The biggest thing i learnt was the digestive system was a lot happier on plant based foods. My first steak after 4 months it felt like my gut was going to explode

 

I reckon prices will come down as demand goes up - standard free market principle. Over here there is a slight premium for eating healthy/veggie but not much or enough to put people off.

 

Ahhh meat stomach. Just like cheating with sweets you need to pay the the price for eating meat :-) 

Some food is good for the body and some food is good for the soul - too much of either is not good...

[The Ghost]

It’s that expensive part that could scupper the whole thing for us, but I’m hoping not.

Picked up some vegan mince, sausages and burgers today, let’s see how they go.

There are one or two companies passed in Ireland that are producing vegan products so hopefully that will help with the expense part [emoji1695]

[Patchelicious]

It’s that expensive part that could scupper the whole thing for us, but I’m hoping not.

Picked up some vegan mince, sausages and burgers today, let’s see how they go.

There are one or two companies passed in Ireland that are producing vegan products so hopefully that will help with the expense part [emoji1695]

If you stick to veg is super cheap. But fi you are like me and like a meat substitute, it gets expensive.

 

Meat has come back into my diet a bit more than I had hoped

[The Ghost]

If you stick to veg is super cheap. But fi you are like me and like a meat substitute, it gets expensive.

 

Meat has come back into my diet a bit more than I had hoped

Noted thanks, will be trying to get some recipes together in the next week and then go from there.

 

Why not just drop more meat then or are you struggling to balance your nutrition?