I just get so annoyed with the stores in the UK. I can't get vegan mayonnaise from Tescos, nor can I get other things like brown rice syrup or even boca burgers or morningstar farms stuff. They don't have tinned black beans which is a pain because even though I don't mind fixing my own beans from dry, I have a long commute and don't get home until 7.00 p.m. at night so I can only do beans on the weekend from dry. They don't have tempeh in the stores either. I have to mail order that. I couldn't even find it in the health food store. I just want to get everything from one store. Sorry for the rant. Guess I had better get over it because I am stuck here for the next 20 years. Maybe by then they will catch up with the US?

I feel the opposite! After having lived in Louisiana for 32 years and being in the situations you are in (everything seemed to contain chicken fat) and having nothing veg*n in our shops I moved to the UK and it is like Paradise. I can get everything I want here. Could it be just your tescos not carrying stuff? We have a tescos a few towns away that I visit if I am already there and they have had lots that you named. My Waitrose carries those things (just started carrying the brown rice syrup and agave syrup) Do you have a Waitrose? Do you have a Health food Shop nearby? I get lots of those things at either Holland and Barrett or a individually owned one. I order my black tinned beans by the case from the HFS because I can get Suma brand which are organic and fair trade. I agree it is harder to find tinned black beans in regular shops.

I'm sorry for your distress. I felt like that for years in La--I couldn't even get soya milk. My mom says one store was carrying it, but since so few people bought it they won't restock it. sigh......

edit: oh I see you mentioned a HFS. can they not order things for you? My locally owned one will let me look through the catalogues and see what their suppliers can send. Just because it is not on the shelf doesn't mean they won't get it for me.

Thank you Spidergrrl. I live in Stevenage so maybe that is the problem. We do have a Waitrose here but it is really small but I will check them out for agave syrup. We have a Holland and Barrett and I asked about ordering things but the manager said that they couldn't cater to everybody's tastes and was really snotty to me. Perhaps that is just that store though. At least the Tesco did have unsweetened soya milk. I was just hoping to not have to make a special trip to town at the weekends to go to the HFS. It would be nice if I could just order everything from Tescos. I lived in Alaska before I moved here. How long have you been in the UK? I finally got British citizenship.

Wow! We live nearby in Hitchin and we have an excellent locally owned HFS called Crofts. They used to suck because the owners couldn't be arsed to give customer service or order anything but they are under new management and now they rock! They will order anything and let you order by the case and you get a 10% discount for bulk ordering. I also order engevita by the case. It's right in the center of town--easy to find.

I was at that tescos about a month ago--and I thought I remember seeing brown rice syrup. I have no idea abut Boca/Morningstar as we don't eat those fake meats. But our Waitrose has vegan Linda McCartney sausage and Cauldron brand marinated tofu.

If you can get to Hitchin go to Crofts. they are excellent.

We've been in the UK 2.5 years and plan to pursue citizenship in another 2.5. I wish it weren't so expensive. We love it here. We've both been blessed with good jobs and a town where you can get by without a car.

I just get so annoyed with the stores in the UK. I can't get vegan mayonnaise from Tescos, nor can I get other things like brown rice syrup or even boca burgers or morningstar farms stuff. They don't have tinned black beans which is a pain because even though I don't mind fixing my own beans from dry, I have a long commute and don't get home until 7.00 p.m. at night so I can only do beans on the weekend from dry. They don't have tempeh in the stores either. I have to mail order that. I couldn't even find it in the health food store. I just want to get everything from one store. Sorry for the rant. Guess I had better get over it because I am stuck here for the next 20 years. Maybe by then they will catch up with the US?

musicmaker, in what part of the UK are you located? We've found it to be quite vegan friendly here. Two of the mainstream grocers (Waitrose and Sainsbury's) regularly stock vegan speciality items like "parmesan cheese" and non-dairy mayonnaise. I never ever saw these things in a chain store in the US. I've not seen tempeh in the regular market, but definitely at the hfs. The long commute is tough...is there a way you can move closer to your workplace? Why are you stuck here for 20 years?
Okay, so I just realized I asked a lot of questions there. I'm just sorry you're feeling bummed. There are things about the UK which make me neurotic, sure, but veganicity hasn't been too much trouble at all. :(

Thanks everybody for listening. Spidergrrl -- thanks for the information about Crofts, I will check that out. I live in Stevenage and commute to Hampstead in London every day. Takes about an hour and a half one way and sometimes longer depending on if the trains mess up. We can't afford to move closer unfortunately because the closer you get to London, the more expensive the housing is. I guess I am just tired and I was annoyed because I didn't want to have to go to town this weekend but now I will have to. It does seem like the H&B in Stevenage seems to have loads of junk food and mostly vitamins but no tempeh. At least I can get Cauldron foods tofu from Tesco. I will look at Sainsburys for the parmesan. We can't afford to move to the US until our mortgage is paid off because I want to pay cash for our house.

Spidergrrl, if you need help with your naturalisation application when the time comes do let me know as I do all the immigration work at the law firm that I work at, under my boss's supervision of course. I am a paralegal and she is the solicitor, but I can at least do the work and she signs it off. Luckily, I avoided having to take the Life in Britain test but I still had to get a notarised certificate that said that I speak English! LOL

Thanks for the offer of help--I may just do that in 2.5 years (providing our work permit gets renewed--God willing)

Yes, the H&B in stevenage has more selection than the H&B in Hitchin but the people who work at the one in Hitchin are nicer.

Yes, check out Crofts. They place orders early Monday morning and shipments come in Tuesday so you need to order before Monday.

I know you train to work--but do you have a car? You could order in bulk and then pick it up by car once a month. I don't have a car so when I get something like a case of beans I bus home (you should have seen the looks on people's faces that day!) They will work with you about what you want. I have said things like "what kind of meridian brand sauces can you get?" and they showed me the list and picked out what i wanted. I have also said "can you get this really good tofu by Taifun with almonds and sesame seed crust?" and they checked their distributers and said yes. So they are nice and helpful. If you couldn't be there to pick it up until saturday because of your work schedule I'm sure you could explain and they would hold it from Tues to Sat.

Sorry for the long commute. That can be very tiresome. Hope things get better!

Oh and I agree with I am Jen--both Waitrose and Sainsbury have a good veg*n selection and Hitchin has both. Oh and every saturday Hitchin has a farmer's market with loads of fruit and veg (as well as clothes/used books/fabric etc) for good prices. You can get most wrapped in paper (so no non biodegradable plastic containers) and get loads of stuff really cheap. Like 15 bananas for £1. or 3lbs potatoes for £1.50. So if you had to come to Crofts on a Saturday you could check out the market and get some fresh fruit and veg. (I sounds like the tourist board but I love Hitchin!)

edit: Hubby just reminded me --there is an excellent HFS in Letchworth--can't remember name but can find out that was really good. I went there once and they were better than Crofts but now with the new management Crofts is as good. But Letchworth might be easier for you to get to.

i really appreciate your help. We do have a car and will definitely make a trip to Crofts. I have not been to Waitrose in a very long time but will definitely make a trip down there, probably tomorrow as I really want to get some agave syrup for a recipe.

I assume that you know that after you have been here for five years you can get indefinite leave to remain. You can do that at the Public Enquiry Office in Croydon but you have to make an appointment. Otherwise, we have a Passport Services courier service that we work with that does it for you. I used their services to get my new British passport as there is less of a risk of the Home Office losing important documents.

I never knew about the Taifun. I was going to make my own crusted tofu but I need that Marigold engevita nutritional yeast for the recipe. I thought since Tesco sells Marigold vegetable powder they would sell the nutritional yeast but they don't. It will be super to be able to just get a case of black beans. It sounds like it is worth paying a trip to Hitchin.

I cannot buy any kind of vegan mayonnaise and am all the healthier for it. All the foods you talk about, I cannot get. (Tempeh I have read about on these boards, and maybe I could find it if I searched but I couldn't be bothered.)

But I don't need processed or junk vegan food to enjoy my veganism. There are open air markets three or four times a week in town, there are many kinds of rice, beans, lentils and other delicious things which I cook in bulk on the weekend or evenings and then deep-freeze them. (I hate canned beans - and there's nothing easier than putting a bunch of beans in a pressure cooker in the evening and let them cook for an hour and then freeze them quickly the next morning).

Your post makes me think the Fast Food Nation and desire for Instant Gratification exists even amongst the vegans and that is so sad. I feel sorry for you but not in the way you may have hoped.

Nature has generously provided us with ALL the foods we need. Why the hell do you need BOCA BURGERS to be be happy???

I pray to the gods every day that the world will never "catch up with the USA" as you desire. Especially when it comes to food.

Make sure to order the Taifun tofu--it is yummy. Hope you get there OK and they have what you want or get to order what you want. And definitely try the market. Lots of good fresh food for cheap. Let me know how it goes for you.

Diana, if you read my grocery list for this weekend, you would retract most of what you said. I was looking for Envita nutritional yeast flakes and cannot get them at the grocery store. I also wanted agave syrup which I have to go to another store to get. I leave the house at 6.30 in the morning to commute to work and do not return home until after 7.00 p.m. at night during the week. All I wanted was to be able to buy ready cooked tinned black beans which they do not sell in the main grocery stores in the United Kingdom which is where I live. I do not buy ready made junk food and I do not consider tempeh junk food nor do I consider the Taifun tofu that Spidergrrl spoke about to be junk food either. The rest of my grocery list from Tesco is whole vegetables and fruits, plus some wheat germ, soya milk and thankfully things like tinned lentils and kidney beans.

It would be nice if Stevenage where I live had a fresh vegetable market but they don't. In Hampstead where I work, they do have that but it is extremely expensive as Hampstead London is a posh expensive part of town, also it would be difficult for me to lug it home on the bus and train in my 1 1/2 hour journey one way.

By the way, I also work on the weekends as well. Being a gourmet cook I do know how to fix dried beans from scratch and I will definitely be fixing the dried black beans that I bought tomorrow. I do not have a pressure cooker because I have not been able to find one in town where I live.

I also have fibromyalgia syndrome and hypoglycemia which thankfully are being relieved by going vegan. Maybe you should try my life before you make snap judgements. Bully for you that you have all the time in the world to eat perfectly and visit fresh air markets 3 or 4 times a week. I am a beginning vegan and am doing the VERY BEST that I can to stick with it and am losing weight and finally feeling better.

I am so happy that Spidergrrl is actually helpful instead of slapping me in the face like you have done. I mostly cook from scratch fresh whole vegetables, fruits and whole grains. But every once in a great while, I would like to be able to get home and not spend an hour in the kitchen with my blood sugar going out of control trying to fix something for my husband and I to eat. Yes, I know that stir fries are quick and we mostly do those, but I happen to like boca burgers, although I did find a recipe last night where I can make my own veggie burgers ahead of time and freeze them so I will do that this weekend.

I would rather have had your encouragement like Spidergrrl gave me than your patronising statements about instant gratification.

As far as instant gratification is concerned, after teaching my blind piano student another piano lesson this morning, I have now made some bread from scratch which is rising in the airing cupboard as we "speak". It will take a few hours to make it. I would not say that was instant, would you?

Musicmaker--how did it go? Were you able to get to Hitchin? I hope you find what you want. They should have engevita on the shelf (the old couldn't-be-arsed manager wouldn't stock it but would get me a case.) New manager stocks it, but I still like to get it by the case.

I don't know what kind of "butter" you buy but we get Suma organic 60% reduced fat sunflower oil spread and it is really good. Best we have had--tastes buttery with no hydrogentated oils or GM plus Suma has a really high ethical rating as a company. I get it from Crofts. My husband won't eat anything that tastes too much like margerine and this is really good.

As for indefinite leave to remain--that's what we hope for. We are in the process of renewing his work permit now. Because he works in a school we have to renew every 2 years. But his school really likes him so it should not be a problem. Then when we get to 5 years we will apply for indefinite leave to remain. We hope to never return to Louisiana.

As for tinned beans I am with you there. I am tired at the end of the day and also hypoglocemic so I need food "fast". I would say try dried lentils. They taste much better than tinned and cook pretty fast--esp the little red ones. I use them in soup where I can put them in the pot with the veg and broth and leave them to cook as I do other things. But I don't have a pressure cooker (where would I put yet another appliance?) either. I don't mind tinned beans, but have found the little dry red lentils to cook ina about 20 minutes.

Good luck. Hope you find what you need and can nourish yourself so you don't get too stressed in what sounds like a very busy life.

PS If you are veggie (not vegan) waitrose sells these frozen Ambledown pies by Get Real that are out of this world. I am vegan and they have cheese so i haven't had one in a year but they were excellent. And won some award like best veggie meal. We used to ge tthem as a treat every once in a while.

A rustic combination of cheese, apples, vegetables and hazelnuts, encased in delicious hand crafted pastry, toppedwith cider-soaked groats

Serving Suggestion
Cook from Frozen, serve hot or cold.
Ingredients
*Organic ingredients approved by the Soil Association fororganic farming and production. *Vegetables 34% (carrots,onions, mushrooms),*flour, *palm shortening, *apples 6%,*cider vinegar, *sugar, *herbs, *eggs, *cider.

mmmm cider soaked groats. I have tried to make a copycat pie as they are a wee bit expensive but mine are never as good.

Hi Spidergrrl, since you live so close we really should have you and your husband over for a meal sometime and you can see our newly designed garden and sit in it. Everything is organically grown, alot is raised from seed. Next year, I am turning our front garden into a raised bed vegetable garden and trying to grow some soft fruits which we will gladly share. I believe in organic gardening and companion planting which seems to work very well. Thank you for the info about the pies. I am trying to do vegan now but my husband likes cheese and doesn't care for the vegan cheese. At least we are totally veggie and I am doing pretty well with vegan and continuing to lose weight and feel better.

When you are ready for indefinite leave to remain, do let me know and I will be happy to help you with your applications and give you our courier information so you can send your passports in for same day stamping. We have an allocated day of Mondays each week and are allowed up to three applications on our allocated day at the Public Enquiry Office (PEO) in Croydon. Anyway, just to let you know that I am here for you if you need assistance.

I have just been using olive oil and balsamic vinegar recently as a spread but thank you for the info about Suma. I will order it next week. We will also make a trip to Hitchin next week to Crofts. In trying to lose weight I have been eating our homemade bread with nothing on it mostly or a little homemade humous.

I had an extra long piano lesson with Sean today because I am teaching him music braille notation (actually we are learning it together) so I couldn't get to Hitchin today, but will definitely do next week. Stevenage is not that far away and my husband's ticket covers him as he works in Cambridge so we only have to buy a ticket for me. I can live without the engevita for another week.

I hope I didn't sound too nasty to Diana, I try to be loving to every single person that I have dealings with and would never pass instant judgement on anybody else. We are all unique, aren't we? I am sooo grateful to you for your advice and help, you really have made me feel a whole lot better.

I think you and I are on the same wavelength. British houses are not known for their storage space. Wait till you see what we have done with our remodel. We even have a coat closet now! :-) I had to explain to my neighbour what it was for! lol and when he saw it, he built one himself. I just do not have room for another appliance. However, I read the package directions on the black turtle beans that I have and will soak them overnight and cook them tomorrow. I understand from instructions on several vegan websites that I can freeze cooked beans so I will do up the whole batch and freeze them in smaller batches.

My first big rant that started this thread was because I just wanted to be able to get everything in one store. Silly of me really trying to do that. I am still not fully recovered as I got pneumonia a few months ago and got a collapsed lung from it so I have been exhausted when I get home from work. But the good news about my rant is that I met you and made a lovely new friend (I hope). I know I sound like I have a lot of health problems, but not really. Although I have had more colds and flu since I moved here. I never got sick in Alaska. London is really dirty and the transport that I use as I am sure you aware is pretty germy.

My husband is a geologist and works for CASP. Just in case your husband is interested. Also, Lester (my husband), does professional photography on the side. He specialises in floral and nature photography but will also take pictures of people if needed.

Well, I need to go cut up the asparagus and broccolli now. We are having an alfresco lunch on the patio of roasted potatoes, roasted asparagus, broccolli and green beans with a special dip that I made. I wonder if you could make those pies without egg? Maybe add some mashed turnips or potato to thicken it?

Is your husband a teacher? What does he teach?

I am obviously very sorry to hear about your illness.

But I still don't see why you are in such dire need of Boca Burgers and pre-processed food.

And why do you live such a stressful life while you are ill? Can't you find a less well-paid job where you don't have to get up so early in the morning and get home so late in the evening? When one is ill, it is important to reduce all stress and rest. The body cannot heal otherwise.

You're right to have gone vegan if you're ill. Dairy products and meat products all contribute to illnesses. The hospitals and doctors would lose a lot of clients if people just ate fruits, vegetables and such-like.

(And no, I don't go to the market 4 times a week. I do my vegetable and fruit shopping once a week on a Saturday morning).

Diana,
I would be interested in seeing some of your daily meal menus. i am trying to get a lot of the processed foods out of our diet, i think i rely on them too much, i need fresh ideas since i am not the most creative cook in the kitchen, so can you tell me your typical lunch and/or dinner?

I have no typical lunch nor dinner. Every day is different. I love to hunt up recipes on the internet and in recipe books.

I have a special diet at the moment because I'm trying to cure myself of an illness, and it's just mainly fruit with a few veggies, but I will tell you for instance what's on the menu today (Saturday) for my husband and son.

Lunchtime: Stuffed vine leaves; avocado/sprouts/cucumber salad; slice of whole-wheat bread (not home-made but from the baker); and for dessert a choice of fruit.

Suppertime: Artichokes for an entrée with a dip I haven't yet decided on; fruity brown rice salad (brown rice with red pepper, sweetcorn niblets, fresh pineapple and sultana raisins and spring onions).

Brown rice takes a long time to cook, but can be cooked in advance for the next day. It doesn't take up more than five minutes of one's time, including putting it in a container and into the fridge. The sweetcorn niblets are fresh and raw (I don't see the point in cooking sweetcorn, it is SO delicious just cut off directly from the cob.)

Now what is on the menu for tomorrow? I'm not quite decided, but I think it will be a taboule made with bulgour for lunch. I will probably use a recipe that OreganAmy posted once on VB, but sometimes I end up by just inventing my recipes as I go along depending on what I find in the cupboard. OregonAmy's recipe calls for chickpeas which makes for a great whole-protein meal. I have frozen chickpeas in the freezer which I cook big batches of in advance in my pressure cooker.

For tomorrow's supper, I may make potato salad in which I will put apples, and some cashew nuts. And for some variety, a green salad of which I do not know the name in English. In French it is called "rampon", or "mache" or "doucette" depending on which region of France or Switzerland you live in. Here is a picture of this salad: http://www.gugger-guillod.ch/gourmet/catalog/images/Machelouviers.jpg

Have you tried Nut Cutlets?

Ingredients
Vegetables (41%) (Carrots, Onions, Spinach), Mixed Roasted Nuts (20%) (Peanuts, Almonds, Hazelnuts), Brown Rice, Rusk, Rapeseed Oil, Breadcrumbs, Palm Oil, Rice Starch, Vegetable Stock Concentrate, Tomato Powder, Seasoning, Herbs, Garlic Puree, Yeast Extract.

Used to be my "no time to cook emergency food". I don't live in the UK anymore as of three months ago, but my local Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Holland & Barrett all stocked them. I much preferred them to the similar veggie & nut patties Cauldron do, but seeing as I can't get either where I am now, I'll have to figure out how to make them myself.

I think I might have seen the Taifun tofu Spidergrrl mentioned in the HFS here. I'll have to pick some up to try tomorrow. Though I'll presumably be stuck trying to eat all the tomatoes and bell peppers my Mum and Grandma grew in their respective gardens....

I don't think the country you live in matters as much as the area of the country you live in. I used to live in a small southern town in the US and there were no processed veg options around, not even soy milk. Now I live in a larger city and have more options. If food is your only reason for wanting to move to the US, maybe you could just look at some larger UK cities and have a cheaper move that way.

I just get so annoyed with the stores in the UK. I can't get vegan mayonnaise from Tescos, nor can I get other things like brown rice syrup or even boca burgers or morningstar farms stuff. They don't have tinned black beans which is a pain because even though I don't mind fixing my own beans from dry, I have a long commute and don't get home until 7.00 p.m. at night so I can only do beans on the weekend from dry. They don't have tempeh in the stores either. I have to mail order that. I couldn't even find it in the health food store. I just want to get everything from one store. Sorry for the rant. Guess I had better get over it because I am stuck here for the next 20 years. Maybe by then they will catch up with the US?

Have you tried contacting the Vegan Society?

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/about_us/local_contacts/england.php

Or posting your queries on their forums?

musicmaker, I don't know if you'd be interested in shopping online. If yes, you could try www.veganstore.co.uk which stocks the nutritional yeast you're after, as well as vegan mayonnaise and some fake meats. I'm sure there are more online shops you could try, but I've only tried this one, and I was very happy with it.

Hope this helps.

thanks diana,
your brown rice salad sounds good, my kids would love that, they LOVE brown rice, i am going to try that!

I cannot buy any kind of vegan mayonnaise and am all the healthier for it. All the foods you talk about, I cannot get. (Tempeh I have read about on these boards, and maybe I could find it if I searched but I couldn't be bothered.)

But I don't need processed or junk vegan food to enjoy my veganism. There are open air markets three or four times a week in town, there are many kinds of rice, beans, lentils and other delicious things which I cook in bulk on the weekend or evenings and then deep-freeze them. (I hate canned beans - and there's nothing easier than putting a bunch of beans in a pressure cooker in the evening and let them cook for an hour and then freeze them quickly the next morning).

Your post makes me think the Fast Food Nation and desire for Instant Gratification exists even amongst the vegans and that is so sad. I feel sorry for you but not in the way you may have hoped.

Nature has generously provided us with ALL the foods we need. Why the hell do you need BOCA BURGERS to be be happy???

I pray to the gods every day that the world will never "catch up with the USA" as you desire. Especially when it comes to food.

This post seems pretty harsh to me. If a vegan wants to eat Boca burgers and canned beans every night, who cares?

I just get so annoyed with the stores in the UK. I can't get vegan mayonnaise from Tescos, nor can I get other things like brown rice syrup or even boca burgers or morningstar farms stuff. They don't have tinned black beans which is a pain because even though I don't mind fixing my own beans from dry, I have a long commute and don't get home until 7.00 p.m. at night so I can only do beans on the weekend from dry. They don't have tempeh in the stores either. I have to mail order that. I couldn't even find it in the health food store. I just want to get everything from one store. Sorry for the rant. Guess I had better get over it because I am stuck here for the next 20 years. Maybe by then they will catch up with the US?

The UK is the best place in the world for food because people from virtually every country in the world live here! I shop at the Chinese supermaket and at Asian food shops, and I can find virtually everything I need. It helps if you can read arabic a little to undersand all the labels. And tescos will order food in for you in you ask them; I got mine to order in tofu and soya yoghurt for me.

Hi, I'm not a vegan, but I do live in the UK! We have a lovely store here in Bristol, Fresh & Wild...it is now owned by Whole Foods. I love shopping there, it reminds me of my WF back in SF. (makes me miss home!)

Sainsbury's is pretty good for many veggie products. And I order things online from goodnessdirect.co.uk, great products & service. :)

Thanks for the helpful recent posts with the website links. I will definitely check them out. Contrary to what Diana made it sound like, I do not eat loads of processed food. I was just annoyed because I wanted to just be able to shop in one store for once and get what I need which is what I used to be able to do where I was living in the US. My extreme illness when I had pneumonia a few months back and the collapsed lung, which is finally getting better has made me a bit less energetic than I used to be and I just don't feel like spending hours in the kitchen in the evening after work and on the weekends right now with everything else that is going on. Which is pretty much what I have had to do. I do not like the taste of the processed burgers here and there was a recipe that I found that called for them that I wanted to try but I will just not be able to try that recipe.

Our Sainsburys (both of them) where I live are not good at all. The produce is old and limp and so my only limitation is to shop at Tesco, unless I take the train to Hitchin on a Saturday for the market as Spidergrrl has told me about. There is no proper market anymore in our town. The fresh fruit and veg stand across the street from where I work is prohibitively expensive. I still cannot get over how expensive things are here in the UK.

There is no asian market where I live, although I wish that there was. I have now found some good recipes for burgers that freeze. I will give that recipe a miss that I wanted to try that had boca burgers listed as it is not the end of the world if I can't try that recipe. Please keep in mind that I am converting a former die-hard omni husband so I still have to have meat like consistency for him right now which means eating things like tofu and hopefully getting him to try tempeh. I did make some seitan for him and he liked that. Quite frankly, I am proud of him because he converted to veggie when I did without complaint and now I have managed to get him to switch to soya milk for his cereal, although he still wants to eat cheese but I am working on that. We don't eat eggs anyway as neither of us like them.