going vegan!!!

[buzzingtalk]

haha classic. i thin microwaves are wrong wrong wrong, apart form warming up a cup of tea

yeah sadly in the uk it is very difficult to afford veganism unless you have a lot of time to prepare your food. im happy to cook now, and nearly every meal i eat inclues pulses and beans and such, but when i wqas working i had no time whatsoever to cook! i was working 35 hours a week night time (around 7-3am) then also doing university and my work. too stressfull.

but i think a lot of people miss out on good food through not cooking. its a shame when some people (like my boyfreind for example!) just eat microwave and oven meals cos they cannot be bothered. i try to feed him PROPER food but he says its "hippy food"

im lucky that my mum is well supportive - her mum was a veggie and my mums not too keen on most meats so she tends to eat and cook veggie food. she was like i was when i turned - only ate meat that didnt look like meat

my dads another story!! he was born in liverpool (they love their meat and sunday roasts) then lived in africa for 20 years (you had to eat meat!!) and he just loves dead animal. he just does not understand why people would cut it out of their diet, i suppose he is just ignorant or stupid, but even after 14 years of my being veggie, he still gets impatient when we go otu for meals

[Delaney]

Originally Posted by louse

Umm... well it's just kind of an analogy that I heard once and thought was funny... kind of gross to explain it. But anway, a girl's period is the basically an egg coming down and not being fertilized, and a chicken also has eggs and when they aren't fertilised, we eat them...kind of... yeah... makes sense in my head

So I am TOTALLY slow, and didn't get the joke When I went back and read this thread, I felt a little stupid.

But thanks for the explanation Maybe I need to get more sleep...

[louse]

Yeah, it's good for tea.... CANCER TEA BWAHAHAHA
But yeah, everything causes cancer. I heard a great joke about that once. Something like "To avoid public panic, the government is slowly releasing the list of known cancer causing foods. This week, coffee, tomato and bread. Next week, oxygen and water."

And yeah, what about the houses being built these days that don't even have kitchens! It's really sick!

[ladaz]

You're so right about how difficult it is to travel not only as a veggie - but just eating healthy in general. I've been a vegetarian for over 16 years and it's no picnic trying to find a nice balance of protein, good carbs, and fresh fruits and veggies while traveling. (I'm mostly vegan, only because that's the way I like to eat - but I don't turn down ice cream very often!) You have to be creative and do a little homework before you leave - or while you're on the road through the blessed internet. (Google traveling vegetarian and you'll get loads, which I'm sure you have found plenty of. Some good info and a lot of crap. If I read one more - crackers and peanut butter as a source of protein, I'll scream!)

I have found that if I plan my travels in a way that allows me to stay in one place/hostel for a couple of days, I eat so much healthier and therefore don't get grumpy when faced with a poor diet day after day. If you can hostel jump every few days then you have access to a kitchen and can buy and make several meals at a time thereby reducing how much you're spending.

Ideas I've used:
Shop the night you get there - prep a few things like marinating tofu (you can find it so much more than you used to) overnight and then cooking it the next day.
I make a lot of my meals on the road revolve around rice, tofu, kidney and garbanzo beans, lentils - and then lots of fruit and veggies. I use limes, onions, garlic to season (or variation of). Easy to make in one spot, hard to transport and make moving from spot to spot. Also try to hit the fresh markets later in the day when sellers want to move their product - much easier to find some good priced produce.

When I am moving around a lot when I'm traveling, I turn to my old standby Stonewalls Jerquee (vegan jerky) - just the protein punch that I need and a fairly tasty snack - here's a link - http://www.veganstore.com/food-items...age_1/230.html You can find this product in bulk from Lumen foods online.

Another thing I do is scout out the local Indian places - not only do I LOVE Indian, but they're a sure-thing for veggie friendly meals.

Another tip - instead of fish oils, use flaxseed oil. It has a lot of the same benefits and is totally vegan.

Good luck and pass on any of your tips!

[buzzingtalk]

similar to me, i use lots and lots of rice. you cant go wrong with rice!! and indian is my favourite food and as i always travel in south east asia, its cheap and easy to find. near my dads in kl theres a few good veggie restaraunts, sometimes i read the chinese menu's and write down the ingredients, head to a supermarket and try it myself. but in asia it is too damned hot to cook for yourself a lot, ants and bugs love it. its much cheaper to buy food as you go along. i think asians are good for veggies - indian and chinese. its western food i have a thing against!

my little tips though...

-instead of cheese, i sometimes use grated carrot. just as nice!
-i always always carry lots of mini bags of nuts and seeds, and dried fruit. you can get them form holland and barrets or tesco if your in the uk. throw some seed mix into your rice to spice it up, put it in curry or a salad...or eat on the go. its a great portable source of protein.
-where ever i am travelling, i make sure that i have what i do and dont eat written down in their langage on a bti of paper. its saved me sooo many times!! ask a english speaking local or look it up - have a list of foods you dont eat - mine are all fish, all meat, all poultry ANY ANIMALS AT ALL! no fish oils, no gelatine etc etc. many people are very understanding and relieved that you provide this in their own language - it helps them find you things on the menu and teaches you a language
- i find ethnic supermarkets are brilliant for vegan and veggie food - hunt out a chinese store for wet and dry soya and tofu, and an indian for cheap spices and veg.

it can be done - although it is a challange! but a rewarding one

anyone else have any tips?

[Joker]

Actually, Buzzingtalk, I am a professional chef. And my current employment is in a "cultural" district with a large art school a few blocks away, so I get the veg's and vegans often.

We do one strictly vegetarian entree each menu, with an attempt at a veg app as well, and though you guys drive us omnivores nuts with some of your requests, we attempt to accomodate where possible. However, the militant faction out there just pisses me off. Of course, I loathe militants of all types regardless of their eating habits.

The current menu, vegetarian offerings:

Braised curried leek and cabbage eggroll, with white bean spread and grilled endive (completely vegan.)

Cream of tomato-basil soup with gruyere spoonbread

Sauteed Morels with buttermilk biscuit in cream sauce

Chilled asparagus salad with balsamic reduction, goat cheese truffles, and salmon caviar. (obviously the caviar can be left off)

"Grilled cheese" sandwich- swiss, brioche, tomato and fennel slaw.

Anyway, these are mostly my creations/collaborations with the executive chef and they work. In the past menu we did an eggplant and mint spread with crostini and pomegranite syrup, and an apple-walnut stuffed risotto with caraway bechamel (cream sauce) and peppadew pepper coulis that was vegan when we left the sauce out.

As for the health benefits of one diet versus another, I won't debate nor belittle you here, since its not appropriate for a moderator to do so, and is pretty much against what we stand for here at TP. For that matter, its not my style and nothing I write would convince you otherwise! But FWIW, I will re-express my caution given your health problems with taking a stab at the vegan end of the spectrum.

For that matter, though, its fine by me if you go vegan-- more pork and beef and fowl for me!! :D

[buzzingtalk]

haha nice when i frist turned veggie i used to think i could shout at meat eaters and thought i could change the world i was only seven, mind. now im fine with meat eaters, its personal choice. i have nothing against people who choose that, if anything if i have something more agains vegans and veggies who belittle meat eaters!!

i dont eat out much, a. cos i cant afford it and b. english food is a bit sucky for veggies. but i think the food industry is getting a lot more aware! i take it your in the USA? will have to pop in if im around got some niiice sounding things on your menu - although does vegetarian in the US mean you eat fish? this confuses me sometimes, its happened while im travelling, ive asked for a veggie dish and they bring out fish

[ladaz]

I totally agree Joker - pushing personal beliefs off on people about any subject drives me crazy. I love hearing what other people have to say as long as they say - 'this is what I believe, but I'm open to listening and trying to understand where you're beliefs come from.'

And, btw - you're food options sound AMAZING! I wish I could find more places that at least made an attempt to make a delicious option for people of the non-meat eating persuasion. Always a pleasant surprise, which a lot of us vegetarians are VERY grateful for.

buzzingtalk - I like you're tip about putting nuts/seeds in rice to crunch things up. I think I'm going to make that for dinner tonight!

And I think that because a lot of people classify vegetarian in different ways, there's a lot of misunderstanding. A lot of people eat fish but still call themselves vegetarian because it's not technically meat. I get that questioning all the time - "You don't eat fish either?!"

So for anyone who is confused:
No vegetarian eats meat or poultry
Pesca veg eat dairy, eggs and fish
Lacto veg eat dairy and eggs - no fish
Lacto veg eat dairy - no eggs or fish
Vegan eat/wear/use no animal products of any kind - can be very hard to do in almost all societies.

Good luck with your move to the vegan side buzzingtalk. And I'm goint to try the shredded carrot idea soon - never thought to do that.

[buzzingtalk]

shredded carrot is lush! for lunch today i had

10 bean chilli
rice with seed mix
grated carrot to top it off

georgous

it reallyy confuses me too when people think vegetarians eat fish. i try to explain the different types of vegetarian but this is little understood outside of those of us who eat this way. this is wicked, im glad i posted this thread - this is the only board i go on where theres a lot of vegetarians and a lot of people who are dsupportive and nice apart from an animal rights board where everyone is a bit militant.

it seems theres loads of vegetarians on this board - whats your reasons for turning veggie and what keeps you going? do you have any tips out there for the curious?

anoyher tip for saving cash - buy packets of dry soya mince, soak overnight and have a cook-in day - if your busy this is a wicked time saver. i make all osrts - pasta sauce, burgers, curry...make lots of portions of food, wrap them seperate and put them in the freezer. this ocmes in handy when im too busy at uni and work late, come home and have no desire to cook from fresh.

is a bit weird but a way i sometimes feed myself in the uk, im not sure of the rules in the US or anywhere else but some places in england, like big supermarket chain stores, throw out loads of food to the back. thats fresh. and me and my mates sometimes take it, hell its free food, its in date and a ocmplete waste. havent done it for a few months as the places we used to go have aligned with most of the uk and put big fencing around the bins such a waste of food! once me and a few people found shit loads of honeydew melons, off date beer and tinned soup. we gave a load away to homeless locals then took the rest home and munched away. its gross how much food supermarkets waste becuase of a date on the tin, i can afford th feed myself but still take food from their bins as its a bad waste. anywqays thats another story...

[juliagulia]

I was vegan for about two months (or was it one and a half? Ahh I'm getting old). Then pesco-vegetarian for a year.

It's really easier than everyone makes it out to be, but I had a lot of support from my family. My dad doesn't eat red meat, so we wouldn't eat a lot of it, anyway. So really I was only giving up chicken once I converted back to pesco-vegetarianism.

It was so hard giving up cheese and seafood, though. Even today I don't drink milk (though I didn't really drink it much before either; now I really don't touch the stuff). It tastes watered down to me, since I've been so used to Soy milk since I was like... seven.

If I go to Panera Bread or Bun Penny, though, I still get the vegetarian sandwiches.

I wonder if it's possible to be a steako-vegetarian.

Oh, with the vegetarian/fish thing, whenever I said I was a vegetarian, people usually assumed I ate fish as well. It was mostly my Brazilian friends/family who didn't understand. They just summarized it as "She's just like her dad, but she gave up chicken, too."

It's been over a year since I've been a vegan, and anytime I bite into a steak my dad still goes "Aren't you a vay-gan?" Ohh gosh.

Ah. And since I've gone back to eating meat, I've gained ten pounds.

It sucks.

[louse]

oh man, forget going vegan, I am a bad vegetarian! I arrived in Prague on wednesday afternoon, mentioned to the desk guy that I wanted to buy some groceries and he said I'd better go right then because the shops were about to close. So I picked out some rice and sauce and then was looking at beans and stuff. I settled for some tinned lentils. I got back to the hostel, started cooking and when I opened the lentils they were some weird saucy stuff, with a strange smell. I decided to risk it anyway, and put a third into the sauce. Then last night I repeated the same process, I was spooning lentils into my pasta and my spoon hit something hard... what the hell... oh my god... a sausage!!!! ewwwwww!!!!!!!!

[DC_Jessica]

I've been on a first date where I said, "Oh, I'm a vegetarian." And he said, "it's ok, we'll order calamari."

I ate the calamari. It was delicious. And our pre-first kiss gaggy banter was "ahh, now I taste like squid!" "It's ok, my little squid!" Smooch smooch! (Gag gag, I know...but it was funny, esp. since he was a foreigner!)

And I also was a pretty intense vegetarian until I went to one of those campus Peta stupid things where they show the video and the hippies cry (not trying to be too offensive, I'm a hippie, and I hate when they show the bunny part). The guy afterwards said, "oh, you're *not* a vegan? Well, if you're not a vegan, then you might as well eat meat and drive an SUV for all the good you're doing."

I had chicken fingers the next day! Delish! Though I recently came across a veg flyer that said for carnivores to eat less meat, which I think is far more reasonable and definitely less obnoxious. Can't expect to totally change anyone (at least not right away). Take what you can.

[farfaraway]

A really amazing resource for vegan traveling is called the vegan passport, Food Fight, a vegan grocery in Oregon USA sells it on their website. http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/veganpassport.html it has an explanation of what vegans do and do not consume in a bunch of different languages as well as a picture section in the back with all vegan foods surrounding a smiley face and all non-veg foods surrounding a frownie face. SO useful!

[wong name]

i have been vegan for the last 6 months, i dont miss anything.

[DC_Jessica]

I am not a vegan (cheese ) but this is a good website for vegan baking:

http://www.theppk.com/

A friend made the vegan pumpkin brownies for a dinner the other day. (Dinner was also 99.9% vegan, but I put feta cheese on a rice salad I made!)

[Columbia]

I'm curious...I understand giving up meat and dairy products due to the treatment of the animals, but why honey? I've never heard of anything like cruelty to honeybees...Maybe this just caught my interest because I work on a honey farm
I'm thinking about becoming vegan too and am a little afraid of giving up CRAB mmmm my most favorite thing in the WORLD. Can anyone give me a shellfish horror story? That and cheese. *whimpers*
I plan to do it slowly, as right now I'm 100% omnivore, and a jump to veganism would definitley result in failure. But it is my end goal.
Cheers!