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Thanks for the tips girls, will take them on board. I think I'll wait until the morning sickness subsides before I try anything new. At the moment it's hard to get anything down so I'm eating whatever I can stomach. Now that I think of it, the only dairy I consume is in junk food and the occasional creamy pasta sauce. I'll lose weight and be much healthier if I go vegan.
Hey Girls,
I gave up cheese for so long and then when we were in Canada for 3 months our local shop had the cheapest nice vegan cheese(which melts!) so we ate that... now Im back to eating it... make sure we get rennet free but still :redface:
Christy- Is tofutti silken tofu? I would love to make a veg cheesecake.
Definately frustrating with the label thing. WHY would biccies need shortening?? Why put milk in bread? Even though we arent vegan Im such a label nazi, good habit to be in though and its amazing the things Ive been eating forever and only recently found out have gelatin in them, cherry ripes for example. I miss marsmallows :( But would never go back to eating them.
Hi everyone,
Yum, reading all these recipes has made me hungry.
Peach - you can buy vegan marshmallows and kits to make your own marshmallows. I usually order them from the crueltyfreeshop (online) when I get a craving for vegan rocky road....They are pretty expensive though, but definately worth it for a treat.
Like SB, we got used to not eating cheese and other dairy products in our food. When I went vegan there was only one brand of soy milk widely available - Sanitarium of course. I started drinking my tea without milk when out as no one ever had soy milk, and even now I still drink black tea (I prefer herbal or green now though). We occasionally buy cheezly for pizza or nachos but it is expensive and we are used to those foods without cheese anyway. I did try the new soy whipped cream in a can recently. Quite sweet and nice, but it melts fast. I had it in hot chocolate and on apple pie.
I am a dark choc addict. My peeve for the week is companies who produce choc that they market as dark choc but add dairy too...Why does dark choc need butterfat or bloody non-fat milk solids?! :wall: It is almost impossible to buy vegan cooking choc in a supermarket now too. If I was a cynical person I'd say that there must be a conspiracy with the dairy industry;)
Vintrar - when preg with my first child I was a little anxious about how hard it may be to raise my future children as vegan. I can honestly say that so far (my DD is 5), it has been so much easier that I imagined. My DD pre-school teachers are fab. If they do cooking on a day that my DD is there, they always make a vegan food. When I thank them for being so considerate of my DD, they look at me as if I am mad, and usually say ' we wouldn't do it any other way'. Recently when a teacher wanted to do a session on nutrition with the kids she asked me to write down some vegan food sources of iron, calcium etc so that she could mention them.
I am off to munch on some choccie now! I have to go back over this thread and start writing down the recipes.
Hi Mum2missm,
So glad to hear that your vego journey is making you feel happy and content. In regards to your questions about raising your child vego, here are my thoughts:
Young children are dependent on us to make decisions for them until they are old enough to do so. Parents pass on their values and ideals to their children, so it is acceptable for you to raise your child with your vego ideals. Of course, it will be her choice one day. She wil reach an age where she will decide, but for now it is your decision. Don't feel guilty about that. My DD is 5, and I feel that I can be honest with her about why her dad and I are vegans. She knows that meat is a dead animal. She loves animals, and would never want to hurt them. I haven't told her about factory farms yet, but I have told her that the animals just want to live and be happy and that they don't want to be eaten. She also knows that her dad and I ate meat when we were her age. I told her that adults lied to me (and they did) about where meat came from. My godmother used to tell me that the cow just died of old age! I feel that I can't lie to my kids about that. So, yes, it should be their choice eventually, but it should be an informed choice.
On to food - my kids love pasta. I tend to make it with tinned tomatos these days, and I add eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum, lots of garlic. I cook the egplant, caps, zucchini in my cafe style sandwich maker (or you could use a griller), then add it to the tomatoes. We use wholemeal penne usually.
They also like tofu. I used to buy packaged marinated tofu squares but they have gotten to be so expensive, so I buy plain firm tofu and marinate it. One marinade I make is - sweet chilli sauce, low salt tamari (or soy sauce or bragg liquid aminos), garlic, olive oil, fresh ginger. I marinade the tofu for a couple of hours in the fridge, then I cook it in a fry pan or the sandwich press. We have it with rice or cous cous. My kids also like potato salad with soy mayonnaise. I add sunflower seeds, red onion, and parsley. I also marinate portobello mushrooms in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and agave nectar (or maple syrup) then dehydrate them for 3 hours YUM . But you could grill them if you don't have a dehydrator (much quicker!).
They also like coleslaw. I use cabbage, purple cabbage, carrot, apple, celery, soy mayonnaise, caraway seeds. The soy mayo makes the cabbage palatable to kids. My kids also like curries and dhal. My DH makes a great dhal with brown lentils, green split peas, yellow spilt peas, red lentils, cumin, tumeric, salt, coriander seeds, tomato paste, fresh ginger, garlic. We have it with brown rice and pappadums. You could make dhal in the slow cooker too.
Pumpkin soup is also popular with my kids. I add sweet potato, carrot, red lentils and a bit of coconut cream, and I often throw in any leftover vegies like zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower.
Anyway, I will stop now before I bore you to tears!
Love it!:
Tomato olive lentil pasta bake sounds YUM! When can I come round and have some?
My DH is not into couscous :wall: but will eat pretty much anything else, so I don't complain.
Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese is a cream cheese substitute. It is the one thing I can't live without. For a quick dip, stir it together with pumpkin chutney or lime pickle - it is so good. Or I dissolve it in stock and thicken with cornflour to make a white sauce that even meat-eater get into - last year I made cauliflower with that sauce at a family roast - people were licking the bowl clean, while the left over meat sat there looking sad (was my family's first experience with me as a vegan - they're getting used to it)
Ali - all your ideas sound incredible! Coleslaw - yum. Not so much in winter, but lov it in summer. I also make a pasta salad, which has silken tofu, about 5 cloves of raw garlic, salt, mint, cucumber. flaxseed oil and a little bit of vinegar all blended together. SO refreshing in summer.
M2mm - it's interesting the bit about not eating death and suffering. We went veg because of the environmental impact that meat-eating has on the planet, but the spiritual aspect of not eating death or suffering is an unexpected bonus that came along much later.
Hi Ladies,
Hope your all well! Im feeling rather festive- have had a couple of sneaky wines since DD went to bed :)
Dinner tonight Thai green curry-
Garlic,onion,red capsicum,snow peas,garlic chives,eggplant,mushrooms,cashews in tasty sauce with jasmine. Tried a different tofu and was more like silken so dissapointed and I couldnt put it in or it would have turned to mush so Im going to make the mousse recipie mentioned earlier.
Hope everyone is having a good night :)
Oh Peach. I wish I'd had dinner at your place! I just made pasta tonight.
Does anyone have any good eggplant recipes? A guy at out farmer's market grows the most delicious little eggplants. I am looking for some inspiration, I have used them in curries and lasagne and pasta thus far.
Cheers Peach, enjoy the wine!
Cheers! :) Ive had to stop otherwise I will no doubt feel very seedy by the time DD is ready to feed.
Scroll back through the previous pages Aliash, Snugglybean posted an easy recipie for eggplant with zucchini.
I tend to do the same as you, just add it in curries, pasta etc. But this thread is inspiring me!
Thanks for the tip! I WAS going to write down all the recipes in this thread days ago, and as you can no doubt tell, I haven't.....Scrolling back now.
I love making eggplant dip -
Chuck your whole eggplant(s) in a really hot oven (sometimes I p.rick the skin with a fork) til it goes all wrinkly. Process it with one or more of the following:
cannellini beans, soy mayo, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, mint, ground cumin, garlic
until you get a good dip consistency.
I always have at least one home made dip in my fridge. So easy. My other fave is beetroot, but I cheat and use canned :redface:
small can beetroot, 1/2 block silken tofu, 1 clove garlic, a few leaves of mint or parsley, and sometimes some toasted macadamias. Even beetroot haters love it.
Ohhh, man, I have a SHOCKING short fuse - especially when it comes to Brisbane motorists, and more so since I've been pg. :redface:Being vegan doesn't seem to help!
Dinner was so inspired tonight - peanut butter on toast! It's Thursday... CBF Day!
Ah good old brissie motorists heheh :)
Mum2missm- Its definately a good feeling isnt it? I love knowing that Im not responsible for the deaths of so many creatures just for something we dont even need.
Dinner tonight- Taco's. So tasty, I had 6 and I could still eat more... actually Im going to! Onions, garlic, eggplant, chives, mushies and 3 beans with cumin, coriander, chilli, oregano and paprika. With the usual salad. Yummo!
Hope your all well :)
SB, thanks for the dip recipes. I am going to try those.
Peach, my DD loves tacos. And I love that she loves them because she eats lots of raw vegies in her tacos. We had pumpkin soup tonight, the kids weren't so keen as I put in too much carrot and no coconut cream...
Mum2missm, I can relate to some of what you posted. I am so glad it has been such a positive step for you.
OK ladies I want some ideas...
I'm having a birthday thing with family tomorrow night and I've got a non dairy ovum ok vegetarian coming :) 2 other close friends are dairy friendly vegetarians but I've got heaps of recipes for them...
So what do I need? Finger food recipes! Some things I'm doing:
Mini burgers with vegetarian patties tomato and lettuce on dinner rolls. Caramalised onion tart. Vegetarian Nori Rolls. Roast Vegetables and Hummus Dip.
I've also got about 6 or so dairy vegetarian/meat finger foods as well. So I probably need only another 2 options.
Cai, I will only give you recipes if I can come too! That sounds absolutely incredible!
Two of my favourites would be:
Chilli and olive polenta shapes - boil 3 cups (veg-friendly) stock. Add 3 finely chopped chillis and about a cup of chopped pitted olives, then remove from boil and stir in 1 cup polenta, keep stirring until it's cooked. Spread onto tray, leave for an hour or so, then cut into shapes - stars or hearts are pretty, but squares have less wastage. Spray or brush with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes.
Variation is to put in lemon myrtle and roasted garlic.
Char siu tofu bites
Mix a jar of char siu sauce and some peanut oil in a roasting pan (you mgiht like to foil line it, because it is sticky and messy) Cut firm tofu into pieces about 3x2x1cm, and arrange in the tray. Bake for 30 minutes, then turn and bake further 30 minutes. Smells great, tastes orgasmic. You could serve it with some coarsely chopped stir fried cabbage.
Also - Borg's brand puff pastry is dairy free, if you wanted to use that.
I'm craving grains right now, so dinner for tonight is in the slow cooker - barley with leek and mushrooms.
Any ideas what I should serve it with? I'm thinking maybe some steamed broccoli.
Or, I could just have a little dinner and leave room for dessert. I've got some apples that would go great with crumble all over them!
Also, what can I do with brown rice to get DH to like it more? I'm going mad for brown rice at the moment.
I eat meat, but not alot. Love things like tofu and the sanitarium products, Was very ****ed off when the abolished vegelinks and the vegetarian sausage roll packet mix...
I'm very excited because I finally found some Frys sausage rolls in a supermarket (my local ones didn't have them) but of course with the morning sickness I can't think of anything worse than eating pastry, so I'll save them for later :)
I'm loving new Uncle Toby's Fruit Fix at the moment, and Floridas Natural Au'some Fruit Nuggets! Both of them are 90%+ fruit and they don't have gelatine in them and they just taste like lollies like Starbursts or something, so they're a good healthy vegetarian alternative to lollies. Come in handy at the moment because theres a giant jar of Party Mix on our coffee table that I can't eat because of the gelatine, but I reckon the Fruit Nuggets would taste better than any of those lollies anyway!! Of course theres always Jelly Beans, but they're just sugar, at least this way I'm getting some vitamins too.