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New Vegan

808 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  silva 
#1 ·
Trying hard to find the right meals and foods. Hubby is trying it too. He craves meat and sugar lol. Any help greatly appreciated.

Julia
 
#2 · (Edited)
Hey! Congrats to you both! It is such a great life style change. :)

I personally love all Boca mock meats ("chicken" patties, veggie burgers, etc) ,Gardein mock meats, Tofurky cold cuts and hot dogs and I REALLY love trader joe's orange "chicken". All of which can be bought at most grocery stores in the frozen section or in the produce section. These have been a great replacement for meat for myself. Also, here is a seitan recipe (seitan is a great vegan protein, and replacement of meat)
What you need:
3 cups of wheat flour
1 cup of water
What to do:
Mix the flour with water, work the dough with your hands, forming it into a ball. Wrap the ball into the cooking sheet and leave it to rest for 30 minutes. Unwrap the dough ball and put it in a big bowl. Pour on some cold water, so the dough ball will be completely covered. Start washing the dough ball in cold water. Wash it like you wash your socks in a sink :D Rub it together and work it hard :) You can see the water getting more white, that is the starch you want to get rid of. Wash the ball for a couple of minutes and then drain the water and pour in new water. Wash it again for a couple of minutes and then repeat the procedure for the third time. So almost all of the starch will be gone and you are left with a rubbery wheat gluten as known as seitan. In the end, you can also wash it in a running water for a minute or two. Now you have seitan. I usually cut it into strips or cubes (depends on the meal I want to make), boil them (until they float on top), drain and fry or marinate before cooking. You can make so many dishes with seitan! Here are some of my examples: http://www.vegansandra.com/search?updated-max=2013-06-10T10:09:00-07:00&max-results=5&start=20&by-date=false

Also, you can always Google vegan alternatives to all your favorite dishes. :)AND brown sugar is a great alternative, they sell vegan sugar as well. As well as So Delicious vegan ice cream, yogurts, etc.
 
#3 ·
Hi Juliah!

It is a big transition! Are you going right from eating meat, or vegetarian?

There is a huge world of food beyond animal products for you to discover! I'd say I've found more new foods and ways to prepare food than anything I've given up. But that doesn't happen right away.
In the early days I remember staring at foods so tired of the same things. I kept reading, ordering books from the library, online, and on amazon.com look inside feature for vegan books.

You need to realize being vegan is as diverse as being omni. You can do the faux meats as Just Love mentions, all whole foods, raw, ethnic cuisines, fat free, deep fried and any mix of them! It doesn't need to be all healthy (I know omnis who win that one with their organic, sugar free everything), and it doesn't mean fake. It's what you make it.

Dairy is best laid to rest in my opinion. Turn to foods like mushrooms, olives, avocados, artichokes, fried onions, sundried tomatoes--that "umani" thing. Vegan mayos are great, and if you buy nutritional yeast it has a cheese sauce kinda taste sprinkled on it.

I just got this book from my favorite veg chef:
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Me...eywords=vegetarian+meat+and+potatoes+cookbook

And about seitan--you may put that off till later. There are sooo many ways to make it, and bake it. I've only made it from wheat gluten and it's easy-but easy to mess up too
 
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