Vegan muffins

I made some semi-improvised vegan muffins - apricot, stem ginger and (non-dairy) chocolate chips.  Lots of people seemed to like them.  More experiments due when I get a min....

Review of my week of vegan diet

Health - I don't feel any more or less healthy than when eating a mixed diet, and I weigh the same as I did at the beginning.  I ate quite a lot of high fat foods (nuts, peanut butter, hummous, coconut milk, avocados), but it was not animal fat, so I suppose long term it is better healthwise.  I ate a lot more fruit and vegetables than usual, and less chocolate bars which has got to be good.  I did more cooking and used less ready made foods, so less additives.

Desires - The only things I craved specifically were milk chocolate and milk in my tea.  Generally I enjoyed what I ate, but missed being able to eat whatever I fancied at the time.  The relative narrowness of the diet, particularly when trying to buy food to eat away from home, was a barrier to me becoming a vegan.

Convenience - Eating at home was fine, although a few of the products I liked (olive pate) are not available at my local shops, so shopping was slightly less convenient.  Lunches for work / away from the house were more problematic - I need to investigate sandwich fillings other than hummous, peanut butter and jam....    Eating food from cafes etc was not really an option as most don't have vegan dishes.  I would also feel like I was causing inconvenience if I asked people to cook vegan for me when I was invited to eat with them (although Steve did make me a fantastic veg curry on Sunday). 

Future - There were lots of things I enjoyed eating which I don't often eat (stuffed vine leaves, hummous, avocado sushi, Thai soup vegan style, vegetable curry), and I will incorporate these into my diet more often.  I also plan to look for other vegan recipes to try.  Taking food with me for lunch was also a good move as I ate less junk - I will try to keep doing this.  I'm going to try to cook vegan meals when I invite people round, and also thinking about trying to organise a vegan picnic.

Last day of vegan diet week

I'm rubbish at remembering to take pictures of my food, and the problem is there is only one moment where remembering matters - the split second between the food being ready, and me falling on it like a pack of vegan hyenas (?) (which animals are vegan?).

Most of the week my daytime food has been home made soup, hummous, pittas, carrots and fruit.  I've tried to cook different things most evenings:

• Stir fry with peanuts and spicy tofu - just throw it all in a wok

• Vegetable chilli - lots of veg, tin of tomatoes, adzuki beans, garlic, chilli

• Nut roast - I used a recipe off the internet  http://www.veg-world.com/recipes/nutroast.htm.  It was quite tasty, but the flour made it a bit gluey in texture.  Next time I'd look for a different way of binding it together. 

• Satay sauce to go with the nut roast - 4 tablespoons of peanut butter, 2oz creamed coconut, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon chilli powder, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 tablespoon tomato puree - put it all in a dish and microwave for about 2 mins then stir, then 2 more and stir and carry on till it's thickened (about 6 to 8 mins)

• Thai soup - This takes a bit of time, but it's worth it.  Put a bit of oil in pan and gently cook chopped garlic (2 or 3 cloves), fresh ginger, fresh chilli (1 or 2) and chopped lemon grass.  Add a big tablespoon of Thai red curry paste.  Add a tin of coconut milk.  Turn heat down low.  Grate the rind of a lime and add this, plus the juice of the lime.  Add around 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of mushroom ketchup, and about 3 tablespoons full of either orange or pineapple juice.  At this point you need to taste it and add salt.  You can also adjust the sweet / sour / creamy balance by adding more soy, mushroom ketchup and juice.  You can also add a bit of Worcestershire sauce, if you have any, to sour it up a bit.  Add sliced mushrooms, beansprouts, fresh coriander and spicy tofu pieces.  Separately cook some noodles (the ultra cheap Tesco instant noodles are vegan if you don't use the powdered flavouring sachet).  Put the noodles in a large bowl and ladle the soup over them, and add some more fresh coriander on top. 

Third day of vegan diet week

I'm missing something, but I'm not sure what - I think it's the texture of creamy things like milk and butter.  I had an avocado which was a reasonable substitute.  Most of the food I've been eating seems quite rich and/or thick/bulky so I feel full, perhaps a bit too much.

Yesterday I made some sushi and some tofu stir fry - both very tasty.

My first day of vegan diet

The main differences from my normal routine were that I pre-prepared food to take to work, and I made some soup rather than using tinned.  The soup (carrot, broccoli and potato - improvised recipe) was a bit like baby food in consistency, but very tasty. 

I ate lots (as usual), and what I had was quite varied:

melon

Walkers Lites

pitta bread

hummous

carrot sticks

olives

peanuts

turkish delight (not the chocolatey kind)

Fry's chocolate cream

home made soup

Hovis toast with olive pate

Hovis toast with home made jam

mint tea

elderflower cordial

All good, and I didn't miss anything really.  I forgot to photograph my food.....

Shopping

I shopped at my local Tesco for some food for my vegan diet week.  I usually spend around £30, but today spent around £50, but I think I will spend less than usual on food away from home as the choices will be limited in most places.  Also I bought a few things which will last more than the week, and more fruit and veg than I usually do (quite expensive in Tesco).

Before setting out I'd checked a few things on the net.  I knew that some breads contained milk, but I didn't realise that some also include other dairy derived additives (why?).  I asked the woman at the bakery section whether the white rolls were suitable for vegans, and she had no idea.  On the web it says that Hovis bread is suitable, so I got some of that.  I was quite surprised by the lack of info as I would have thought that people who are allergic to dairy would need to know... I guess the best thing would be to bake my own bread, but I don't really have time.

Some products have no animal products in the ingredients, but because they are produced in factories using other ingredients, they are labelled with warnings like "may contain nuts, milk".  I have taken the easy way out and assumed that only the contents are important as more or less anything mass produced could accidentally contain other ingredients.  This means that there was actually a chocolate bar I could buy - Fry's Chocolate Cream - hurray.

Veganism

Is it better to try to do what you think is right for a short time only than not to do it at all?  Veganism is logical, from an animal welfare perspective, but also environmentally, economically and as a healthy option.  The barriers are that I enjoy eating lots of different kinds of food, and that a vegan is also difficult to manage when eating away from home, especially when a guest in non-vegan households.

I am going to try to follow a vegan diet for a week initially 11th to 17th April, and thereafter will try to incorporate more vegan meals into my diet on a regular basis.