I've decided to go vegan but I need your help?

Question

I've been eating nothing but fruits/vegetables/rice for the past two weeks. Now I need to know what other food can I try.

What brands of vegan food should I buy?

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm vegan and these are some of my favorite things to eat:

Breakfast: bananas, cream of wheat with brown sugar and soy butter, cereal, pancakes or french toast with real maple syrup, vegan "sausage" patties, smoothies.

Lunch: VEGAN "SAUSAGE" SANDWICHES, sandwiches with vegan deli slices(Tofurkey is the only one that's kinda funky), fruit, dinner leftovers, couscous salad, vegan sushi, potato or pasta salad.

Dinner: sloppy joes, "sausage" and gravy with homemade biscuits, Spaghetti and Trader Joe's "meatballs" or TVP, lasagna, Thai pad see ew, pad khi mao(drunkard's noodles), pad prig king, tofu+eggplant with basil sauce, yellow thai curry with tofu or vegan chikn and veggies and jasmine rice, Indian dal with homemade roti or dosai, channa masala, aloo gobi, vegetable or minestrone soup, pizza, STEAMED "PORK" BUNS with potstickers or spring rolls, sweet&sour/orange/lemon chikn, vegan pho or wonton soup

I use these sites to find recipes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com
http://vegweb.com
http://www.recipezaar.com

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That is great! My biggest word of advice is to study a balanced vegan diet and learn how to cook/prepare everything that you will need to keep yourself satisfied BEFORE you start to label yourself as vegan. This is important in keeping yourself healthy and working towards a fit body that can redefine vegan stereotypes.

Your journey as vegetarian was just the beginning of a longer one to a plant-based diet with no animal products. This should be due to the reality of factory farming in which animals that are kept alive to produce milk, eggs, etc suffer much more and longer than animals that are raised to a certain weight and then slaughtered.http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/
http://meat.org
Some people use the word "vegan" in reference to this idea, but be aware that applying that label to yourself should always come with the inclusion of wise activism and advocacy.http://www.veganoutreach.org/advocacy/index.html
Two extremely important examples of this are that you should never speak to someone about vegetarianism/veganism without their consent and genuine interest or as a comment on what they are eating AND your dietary beliefs should never be used as an introduction or explanation of who you are as a person. Veg*ism should be something that comes up AFTER people get to know you and they offer you a situation that makes it confusing to withhold the information/discussion. Also, if you are presented something that you choose not to eat or you are
ordering food/eating together somewhere/picking the best place to eat.

A responsible vegan ALWAYS studies the subject of their own health and how to keep their body completely provided for in every sense. http://www.veganhealth.org/sh
To neglect their body is to define a plant-based diet as unhealthy and is the opposite of helping the animals.

When you you hold off on the subject until it's necessary and then act like it isn't a big deal at all, people are usually surprised and WAY more interested and curious than if you were to bring it up when someone's eating or just using it as a conversation starter.

A balanced plant-based diet includes grains(breads, pasta, rice,cereal), legumes(soy, beans, peas, lentils), fruit and vegetables.
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/food_groups.html
http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/eating.html
Being vegan can be an art, one whose challenge is to take things that involve the suffering of the innocent and change them into something free of cruelty.

A vegan woman can create an ENTIRELY NEW,HEALTHY HUMAN BEING INSIDE OF HER. Many of these children stay vegan and grow up to be perfectly healthy adults. So just keep yourself educated about what you eat and don't let anyone tell you that a veg diet is lacking anything essential.

Technically the term "vegetarian" does imply that you don't consume anything that comes from the body of an animal that requires killing it. Many ingredients such as gelatin and glycerin are found in many candies, Fig-Newtons, and many of other foods as well as rennet found in many cheeses.
http://www.happycow.net/health-animal-ingredients.html
The best thing to remember is to take your time so that for example: when you are comfortable not eating whey and casein you can then give up sodium stearoyl lactylate and L-cysteine when you are sure you can make the commitment permanently.
Depending on your age or reliance on parents or regional options, it may not be best to give yourself a label. The important thing is to do your best to make progress and be committed to your compassion towards animals. Never put your focus onto what you or other people use to describe yourself.

If you meet someone that talks down to people for eating meat, dairy, etc or to you because they think they are "more veg" than you, laugh in their face and tell them they are a disgrace to the entire philosophy. People like this only hurt the idea of veg*ism AND the animals. The point of all of this is to live compassionately and and as free from cruelty as you can, all the while maintaining your health and a positive attitude. People who don't maintain either, need not open their mouths and represent our beliefs.

If you actually choose to read all of this, I hope it helps. If not, feel free to e-mail me if you have questions.

Answer 2

I decided to be vegan after watching a documentary called forks over knives and realized the Heath benefits. Iv never had any trouble finding food. You can find a vegan substitute to almost everything. Vegan mayonnaise vegan butter vegan ice cream (almond dream is the best ice cream ever!) ect there are so many types of fake burgers (fyi bocca burgers are gross morning star is better) and fake chicken and fake turkey like tofurkey so that really won't be too big an issue. I eat alot of beans like lentils and black beans chick peas Lima beans because its a great source of protein so is tofu. I eat alot of fresh fruit and veggies. I use hummus as a veggie dip its amazing. As long as you take a multivitamin you should be fine heathwise I know alot of people freak out about how being vegan is so bad and unhealthy but its not really. Nobody freaks out if your vegatarian but suddenly u dont eat diary and people go crazy. Btw a milk substitute could be almond milk, soy milk or rice milk. Even if you do eat meat like once a week as long as your eating healthier is great

Answer 3

If you have a whole foods around you, they have a large vegan selection. Also in some regular grocery stores the have some vegetarian/ vegan sections. You should get some more complete protein in your diet too. You should try eating peanut butter and bread because the bread makes it a complete protein which is what your body needs.

Answer 4

Hi Denise...

I just wanted to pop on here to say that you've been doing GREAT with your choices so far. Whole foods is the way to go. Lots of vegans get into trouble when they start relying on pre-packaged foods. I understand this might help to get you "over the hump" and help you transition to vegan. But be sure to make it your priority to stop relying on packaged goods and create meals around whole foods, like veggies, grains, beans and soy foods that are as close to whole foods as possible (like tempeh and edamames) versus processed tofu, soy meats and cheeses, etc.

My hubby and I have been vegan for a LOOOONG time, and I've made a lot of vegan recipes. Many people simply don't like recipes -- like my hubby, who finds them complicated. So I've created a website (below) that shows my fellow vegans how to cook WITHOUT recipes. It makes going vegan super duper easy.

Hope it helps.

Sassy ;O)
The Vegan Coach

Answer 5

There are a lot of misconceptions about vegetarian diets but much like meat-eating diets you have to balance it properly. The protein scare is the biggest misconception about vegetarian diets. There are quite a bit of misconceptions so here are some web sites I think will help. The first is a list of vegetables with protein and how much the second are calcium sources in raw veggies. The third is an article about B12. It is actually a microbe found in soil and is abundant in seaweed, tempeh, miso, and root veggies. The last one is a list of foods with iron and how much.

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

http://health.rutgers.edu/factsheets/iron.htm

http://www.carrotcafe.com/f/calevel.html

http://www.pamrotella.com/health/b12.html

Answer 6

Check out this site: http://vegcooking.com/guide-favs.asp
It has a guide to the best dairy and meat alternatives.

Some of my favorites are: Tofurkey Deli Slices, Nate's Meatless Meatballs, Morningstar Farms Meal Starters chik'n strips, Boca chik'n patties, Follow Your Heart soy cheese, Silk Enhanced soymilk, and WholeSoy yogurt.

But that's just me... if you have a Whole Foods or similar store in your area, buy a bunch of different brands and do some taste testing! Good luck.

Answer 7

Beans
Cheese
Tofu
Nuts
Soy Products
Pasta

See the attached link for some really great Vegan Recipes:

http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/

Answer 8

tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans, millet, barley, bulgur, other grains...

It's easier to tell you what you CAN'T eat.

Check out www.veganessentials.com, www.veganstore.com, and Food Fight Grocery (sorry, can't remember the URL right now) for all sorts of cool vegan stuff.

Whole Foods (or Wild Oats) and your local natural foods store will also have lots of good vegan stuff.

Answer 9

Go to www.goveg.com they have a whole section devoted to vegan recipe's and vegan products you can by.

Answer 10

go to vegweb.com there are literally hundreds if not thousands of recipes of every kind especially for vegans.