I am slowing using up the fish and dairy products I have and will then be going 100% Vegan, I am a Pescatarian at the moment. I have been looking at some recipes online but in particular I am looking for good nut milks, I love my porridge, Vegan cheese (I have printed one recipe off from the internet) and a Vegan recipe book that contains quick and easy recipes. I only work part-time but don't want to be spending the days I have off in the kitchen. I already make one pot Vegetarian meals which are, in fact, Vegan as well as they only contain plant ingredients, make my own Beetroot Burgers which I love, Quinoa Burgers and raw fruit bars - these I adore. I use nut butter (homemade), medjoool dates, shredded coconut and cacao powder in my raw fruit bars, they are delicious.
The main things I am looking for is a quick, easy and nutritious cookbook, advice on how to keep healthy i.e. I want to make sure I'm not missing out on any nutrients and sandwich fillers (I love my sandwiches at lunchtimes and make my own sourdough bread).
Anyone's help and advice would be very much appreciated.
Thank you benwl , really appreciate your reply and I know I won't regret it, I've just had a sneaky teaspoon of homemade almond butter😉. Looking forward to hearing from you further.
😀
Hi Alicia, well good for you and I’ll be interested how you get on.
In general there is not much to worry about from a nutritional point of view with vegan diets compared to non vegan ones - if anything the reverse, as fruit and veggies tend to be full of vitamins and minerals and there are things like fibre and anti-oxidents that are only in plants.
There is one supplement that vegans should take and that is vitamin B12, i try to take a pill weekly for that - but there is no panic, B12 is heavily conserved so you've probably got several years worth stored in your body already. I also take vitamin D supplements in winter when I may not be getting enough from sunlight. I take both of these as specific supplements rather than as multi vitamins.
There is a running joke amongst vegans at always being asked where they get their protein from. I can give you plenty of references (or search this site) but its practically impossible to be protein deficient. The short form explanation is people actuality don't need that much of it and plants are a sufficient source. Another myth with an element of truth is protein combining and 'complete' proteins. Our bodies conserve proteins so eating a range of food over say a week or more is enough, it's not necessary to combine proteins within each meal. Fruit is also a great source of amino acids directly, which is where fructarians get their protein from.
If you want to take vegan nutrition to the next level then Dr Gregor via his website nutritionfacts.org and his book "how not to die" is a great starting place.
As Jerry said Ali is the nut product queen here I did take a class a few years ago where we made lots of them (and tofu from scratch!) and if you are near London and interested I could give you details.
For cookbooks I'd like to direct you towards the major plant based 'franchises': the forks over knives cookbook, the china study cookbook and the how not to die cookbook are all great.
Not a cookbook but videos, is Jeff novick's fast vegan food. I found that very inspirational when I started as he uses tinned and frozen veggies to make healthy meals in 10mins.
Your very welcome. I have searched on the internet but i find it brings up the less appealing food. I like traditional food without the animal products x
Good afternoon Crazyfitness, so sorry for the delay, had lots of hassel over the weekend but I have gone through my cook books, here are list of healthy recipes please let me know which ones appeal and I will give you the recipes, I do have plenty more but don't want to bombard you with them all at once
Soups
Market veg soup
Fennel, Tomato and Garlic
Cauliflower and Turnip
Split Pea and courgette
Fresh Tomato, lentil and onion
Onion
Aspargous
Pumpkin and carrot
Sides
Cheesy mashed cauliflower (vegan)
Mashed root veggies
Mushy peas
Sauted potatos
Light meals
Peanut noodles
Main meals
Sweet n sour mixed bean hot pot
Lentil bolognese shephards pie
Brazilan sty-fry
Leek and potato pie
Lentil Moussaka
Blackbean burgers with salad
Sweet potato, leek and thyme bake
Salads
Advocao, red onion and spinach salad with polenta crutons
So sorry you've had a bad weekend. Oh wow, thank you for the list Debs. Hope you don't mind but I didn't get home from work until late so have just seen your reply on my emails which I've accessed via my phone.
I'll have another look tomorrow night and reply using the PC.
I double up the recipe for these and use a square oven tin which is approximately 7"/8" in size. The recipe calls for peanut butter but I rarely have peanut butter now because then are legumes and not nuts, I therefore use almond or cashew nut butters which I make myself. The other recipe I use is:
Hello Crazyfitness, sorry I only just saw your reply. I have PM'ed over a few of the recipes and will send the rest throughout the weekend. Thank you for the raw fruit recipe : >
I was going to suggest you check out my Vegan nut milk but it looks like Jerry has already, so that’s good. I have a vitamix and find it invaluable for making all things vegan. The best thing with it is you can make nut milk in seconds and use it immediately without straining or a nut bag. My personal view is that it is one of the best things you can do for your health and for the animals. I use nutritional yeast and also take b12 and sometimes iron sachets and haven’t found the need to take anything else. There is also a complete supplement for vegans you can buy and I think you take one a day if you felt it necessary. Any problems you encounter I am sure there is someone on here that can help you overcome it. Good luck with going vegan 🌱
Thank you so much Agoodenough, that's so helpful and particular what you have said about nut milk, it's good to know it doesn't take long to make and I won't need to strain it.
I'll have a look at getting some Vitamix.
I'm going to keep referring to the information on here.
Once again, thank you.
Alicia 😀
Hi Alicia, I think I should say that Iron supplements are known to aggravate IBS.
"In all my years in medicine I have never, ever, seen a patient who was suffering from protein deficiency. I have searched the medical literature and cannot find a single case of protein deficiency in someone eating enough calories. In fact if you are getting adequate calories, I am not sure there is such a thing as protein deficiency"
"And eating enough protein is seriously not an issue on a vegan diet, in fact it’s near impossible to not eat 10% of your calories from protein without even trying! You have nuts, seeds, legumes, grains and soya which naturally boost your protein intake effortlessly. Some of my favourites are beans and pulses, made into big salads."
Not only that, but not all proteins are as healthy for us as others. Leucine is particularly bad for us as it causes aging in the cells. So if you want to slow down aging and all of the things that come with it, avoid leucine. Animal-based foods are extremely high in leucine and plants are much lower. Here's a great video about this: youtu.be/dwJASNFy9XQ
You asked for a way to be sure that you're getting all the nutrients you need, so that's what this post is about. First, except for B12 and possibly omega 3, you will very likely get everything you need as long as you eat a good variety of primarily whole (unprocessed) foods. The more processed, the fewer the nutrients.
B12 supplements are cheap and you don't need much. I take a 10 cent pill every week. For omega 3, you want both the short chain and long chain forms. For short chain Om3, just grind up flax seeds and put a tablespoon on cereal or whatnot. It has no real taste, but it adds a pleasant, almost butter-like texture. Most people can produce their own long-chain Om3 from the short-chain, but if you want to be sure you can get the long chain Om3 from an algae-based supplement.
Just one more heads-up. You probably want to avoid consuming too much oil, such as cottonseed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, etc. because they contain a lot of Omega 6. The Om6-to-Om3 ratio influences the amount of inflammation in your body. Ideally, you want that ratio to be less than 4 Om6 to 1 Om3. Most people these days have ratios around 15 or 20 to 1, which can cause serious problems. If you use olive oil, make sure it's REAL and not diluted and don't oxidize it with high heat. Coconut oil is still being debated. So, more Om3 and less Om6.
Sounds complicated, I know, but most meat-eaters are deficient in these and much more; they just don't seem to care as much as most vegans do. If you really want to get serious about keeping track of all the macro and micronutrients you consume daily, this free website is very useful: cronometer.com/
Thank you so much for this very helpful reply. Apart from the foods I bought for going away on holiday I make my own food from scratch.
I have a gorgeous gut healing soup recipe which has raw avocado in it as well as red peppers carrots, sweet potatoes and some other ingredients (can't remember what they are without looking at the recipe). I love home cooked food.
Thank you very much for the link, I'll have a look at that.
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Gluten free vegan orange marmalade cookies.