La Texican Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 I've been a vegitarian before, but not when I was responsible for cooking every meal for a family. I just picked the meat out of my food. I would even go to McDonalds and order a big mac without any patty in it. My husband has high cholesterol, and my son is complaining that meat comes from animals and doesn't want to eat it. My husband doesn't like a lot of bread or pasta or tofu and I don't like eating beans every meal. We already buy a lot of fresh produce and eat a variety of fruits and vegatables. I already use vanilla almond or rice milk in my coffee, and the kids keep drinking my milk and say it tastes better than theirs. I think I need a good vegan bread recipe for sandwiches, and vegan tortillas. Are the corn ones vegan? What do I do about breakfast besides oatmeal every day? The rest of my family doesn't like a lot of soup. That's why I've been putting this off, without a lot of pastas, soups, bread, and beans I'm kind of at a loss for what to cook three times a day. Also, my husband is tex-mex and he doesn't like a lot of other ethnic foods. A lot of vegitarians I know eat a lot of Indian recipes, but my husband doesn't like curry (or coconut, or olives). eta: It would be easier to quit buying meat and be vegitarian, but since one's got cholesterol and the other's got ethical issues I think I'm trying to figure out a vegan diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scwendy Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Easy peasy and yummy vegan bread recipe. Slice as you wish. http://www.food.com/recipe/the-easiest-simplest-vegan-bread-ever-155430 Many commercial corn tortillas are vegan, but they are so simple to make yourself, too! Just google vegan corn tortillas. If you want even more varierty in your breads, you may want to make arepas. They only take like 4 ingredients and are delicious. My husband has even experimented with adding different seasonings to change up the flavor. We eat a lot of fresh fruit for breakfast. We sometimes have yogurt with our fruit (non-dairy!). We also have fruit smoothies (variety of fruits/berries, almond milk) with a handful of leafy greens thrown in for breakfast some mornings. As a weekend (and not healthy) treat, we will occasionally have pancakes. So many Indian recipes DON'T have curry (or coconut)!!! I have a cookbook of Indian recipes and many do not have curry in them. And don't forget stir-fries! You can create an endless variety of vegetable combinations and they can be very hearty to boot! I honestly go to more "trouble" for dinner than breakfast and lunch and for that, on a good week, I try to plan out my meals for dinner. Not being a natural or intuitive cook, I generally get the recipes from a book. Tex-mex style food is one of the easiest to veganize. My favorite veggie burger recipe to date http://engine2diet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/NY-Times-Veggie-Burgers.pdf has a little kick and is SO satisfying. Some of my favorite recipes come from http://www.amazon.com/Appetite-Reduction-Filling-Low-Fat-Recipes/dp/1600940498 and http://www.amazon.com/The-Engine-Diet-Firefighters-Save-Your-Life/dp/0446506699. Finally, for a host of recipes that are delicious and primarily whole foods based (and vegand of course!), go to http://ohsheglows.com/ Good luck and don't get discouraged. As with any type of recipes, it can be trial and error to find the family favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 You don't have to cook three time a day. You only need to cook dinner. Breakfasts: oatmeal, cereal, bagels, vegan yogurt with fruit or granola, tofu scramble, pancakes/waffles (cooked in bulk ahead of time and frozen), vegan sausage with biscuits, vegan omelets (Isa Moskowitz has a great recipe). Lunch: sandwiches, vegan mac-n-cheese (I found a good recipe online), baked potatoes, nachos, vegan grilled cheese (my kids like it with tomatoes, avocados, and artichoke hearts; we like Daiya "cheese"), veggie dogs, rice pudding, and, of course, leftovers Dinner: Lentils and rice (can be prepared a zillion ways), black bean burgers, burritos/tacos/tostadas/quesadillas, stir fry, beans and cornbread, spaghetti with marinara sauce, chickpeas with veggies, lasagna, homemade pierogies, "beef"-a-roni, fried cabbage with vegan kielbasa, english muffin pizzas ... I highly suggest the book Isa Does It. It's a very accessible vegan cookbook with easy-to-make meals that don't rquire lots of speciality ingredients. Also, just about any recipe you currently make can be veganized. Start by googling "vegan [whatever] recipe." After a few months you will be able to look at any recipe and veganize it yourself. Additionally, eating vegan doesn't mean a huge change in what you eat. We eat as normally/boringly as most people; we just find substitutes for the non-vegan ingredients. We eat the same types of meals as everyone else. I am by no means a gourmet vegan chef! And lastly ... your family may have to branch out a bit. They may have to eat soup a few times a month. Your husband may have to develop a tolerance for Indian food. My rule was always "every week I will make something that someone in our family wants; it's not fair for one or two people to dictate what everyone else eats." If one person refuses to eat what is being served, they are on their own for finding a substitute. Oh, and I gave up making our own bread and tortillas. We go through too much of them for it to be time-effective for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Texican Posted May 21, 2014 Author Share Posted May 21, 2014 I'm reading the reviews and it mentioned using eggplant in place of bacon. How do you prepare that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Eggplant Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmandaVT Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Check out www.happyherbivore.com. She's got tons of great info on a plant based diet. Her book Everyday Happy Herbivore was on sale at Amazon for kindle this month for $2.99. Not sure if it still is, but it has lots of recipes. I don't consider myself vegan, but we eat mostly plant based for health reasons. Here are some things we like: Breakfast: oatmeal, cereal w/ almond or soy milk, smoothies, breakfast tacos, hashbrowns and veggie scrambles, pb&j, bagel with hummus and sliced tomato Lunch: wraps with hummus and lots of veggies, mock tuna salad (recipe on hh.com), brown rice pasta w/ chopped up veggies and asian sesame dressing, various quesadillas or burritos, salads Dinner: most asian or mexican foods are easily veganized. spaghetti, chili, stir fry, salads, bean burgers, mushroom barley "risotto", potatoes with toppings, there are lots of good fake "meat" products out there too if you want to try those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Oh, yeah, how could I forget hummus?? We eat TONS of hummus around here. Literally. Tons. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Currently, Make It Vegan by Isa Moskowitz is free for Kindle from Amazon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Lots of coconut, avocado, and grilled or roasted veggies (brush with olive oil, salt, pepper etc). . :) Nut butters. Popcorn with Brewer's Yeast topping (tastes cheesy!) Dinner for breakfast- burritos, tortillas, leftover noodles or rice, veggie stir fries, (frozen) veggie burgers etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Margaret Rose Shulman's Recipes for Health http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/index.html always look tantalizing and many/most are vegetable-based. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Texican Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 What about nutrition? If we're just finding recipes we like and eating a variety of fruits, veggies, nuts, and breads do the kids just need a Flintstone vitamin or do we need extra calcium, zinc, seaweed pills, or anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmandaVT Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 If you're eating well - a variety of fruits and veggies, whole grains, beans, etc, you would only need a b-12 supplement. If you want to see how you're doing with nutrients, this site is awesome: www.cronometer.com I haven't eaten much today (going to remedy that soon) but I just put in what I've eaten. Smoothie, made with soy milk, banana and strawberries and 6 pieces of vegetarian sushi and it popped up all of the nutrients I've eaten so far and considering that I'm only at 526 calories for the day, I'm making a good dent with all the various goals. Protein, calcium, fiber, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristyB in TN Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 There's a vegan social group here! I just posted a Vegan Never Say Cheese Dip on it. I use beans and lentils instead of meat for the filling in tacos and burritos. The lentils are particularly good, just cook them and when they are tender, add some taco seasoning. My blog has some recipes you might like. Welcome to vegan land! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristyB in TN Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Also, I'm vegan and am a runner and practice yoga. I don't supplement at all for nutrition. I do cook with nutritional yeast quite often so I know I'm getting all the pesky B vitamins I need. I run marathons, never had a problem with my nutrition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Brewer's yeast is a good source of B12. Avocado and coconut are 'good' fats/nutrition. Dr. Campbell, author of The China Study, has some vids on YouTube where he discusses the need for B12 supplements for vegans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.