I'm struggling to go vegan?

Try to avoid the imitation products, and stick with eating vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, whole-grains, nuts, and seeds. It's a lot simpler than you may think.

If it helps, here are some things I like to eat (they're all vegan):

- Whole-wheat pasta with marinara sauce or pesto without cheese (easy to make) and a salad.

- Stir-fried vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant, etc.) and tofu (extra firm) served over quinoa.

- Pasta (whole-wheat) with tomatoes, mushrooms, and black beans. I like to add textured vegetable protein (which can be bought in bulk) to this, but it's still good without.

- Chickpea curry with vegetables and rice (or quinoa!)

- Quesadillas, tacos, and burritos. Use beans and lots of veggies. You could even use vegan cheese, but avocado is also a good substitute.

- Chili made with beans, vegetables, and corn.

- Pizza. All you need is crust (which can be homemade or store bought), sauce, and a lot of vegetables. Vegan cheese optional.

- Vegetable and quinoa (or brown rice) pilaf.

- Black bean burgers (very easy to make): http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishe%E2%80%A6

- Blended soups (butternut squash, carrot, or brocolli, etc).

- Vegetable or lentil stew/soup.

- Pasta salad with vegetables and chickpeas (or other beans).

- Stuffed bell peppers or tomatoes (filled with rice, herbs, chopped onion & garlic)

- Sandwiches. (I'll often have a toasted whole-wheat bagel with mashed avocado, tomato slices, alfalfa sprouts, basil, and fresh-ground pepper.)

- Tempeh with roasted potatoes and vegetables.

- Roasted eggplant.

- Pita pockets stuffed with falafel, hummus, and vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber).

Breakfast:

- Bran flakes or oats with raisins/dried cranberries, cinnamon, ground flax seed, chia seeds, and hemp hearts (this is what I almost always eat for breakfast).

- Toast/bagel (whole/sprouted grain) with peanut or almond butter.

- Scrambled tofu with diced vegetables.

- Fresh fruit with granola.

- Fruit smoothie (frozen banana, almond/soy milk, plus some other fruit). Or even better, make it a "green smoothie" by adding a handful or two of fresh spinach!

For snacks, I try to stick to fresh fruits, veggies, and nuts & seeds (a handful will do).

As for restaurants, I never really have a problem with that. Don't be afraid to ask if they can modify something to make it vegan. Most restaurants will be happy to do it in order to get business. You will have no problem at all at Indian or Japanese restaurants, since a lot of their food is already vegan.

Good luck!

home-made meat alternatives: http://vegweb.com/recipes/meat-dairy-alternatives most are very cheap. I won't lie to you - if cooking most of your food is new and you buy mostly processed or ready-made food you will find it a lot more difficult. When you're cooking yourself you often don't need to use eggs. You can use flax eggs, or if you combine flour with oil the starches react and bind. So half the time you can just skip eggs outright. Dairy alternatives are a lot better. For ice-cream you can buy an ice-cream maker for about $30 and make ice-cream any flavor you want really easily. Vegan ice-cream can be expensive but where I live they have a brand that's pretty cheap, but only comes in 2 flavors (chocolate and vanilla, and you can only buy it by the litre).

It's different budgeting. You don't have eggs or dairy as massive expenses anymore, so if you have to pay a little extra for almond milk or a lentil burger or more tofu than you used to get it balances out. Vegetables, potatoes, fruits (many of them, anyway), dried legumes, brown rice, pasta are all dirt cheap. So you do end up saving a lot of $$$.

As for eating out, most places will serve meals minus cheese or mayo or whatever isn't vegan. http://www.veganeatingout.com/ that site has most popular restaurants and info. happycow.net is another site that can help a lot.

http://www.adaptt.org/ this site might help you. Has grocery guides and shopping guides and links to other vegan sites.

Are there any Asian stores in your area? Cooking up curries with lentils and pulses will add texture - much nicer than fake meats! They are also the best cheapest place to buy quality vegetables. Tesco fruit and veg is expensive and never seems to last long!!

Also make bean burgers, they are great with chips and salad. And a lot cheaper than using meat alternatives.

For eating out - I would choose Indian or Thai. Check that the noodles are not egg noodles though!! When eating curries, avoid the creamy sauces. Stick to tomato based sauces. If there is an Italian restaurant, you can order a veggies loaded pizza with no cheese! Delicious!

It's much cheaper (and healthier) to avoid substitute products and heavily processed foods, they often contain milk / egg powder.

I am a vegetarian and my cousin is a vegan! My cousin and I live together, therefore I know how much she struggles with it too! She had always found it difficult, but she really doesn't want to give up - which I respect! And I have a lot of respect for you for trying to find ways to make it easier, rather than just giving up! (: Do you like Mexican food? There are many Mexican restaurants around me, and they all seem to have many vegetarian AND vegan options.. You just have to ask if they do them, which is silly, as they should advertise it on the menu! Also, with a lot of food that you can cook, you can sometimes replace eggs with a mixture of vegetable oil and some kind of baking soda, but you would have to look into that more carefully! Good luck!

Hey honey,

I struggled too at first and I'm also a poor Uni student at Uni of Manchester with a meat-eating boyfriend.

I eat Linda McCartney sausages and chicken style pieces (Morrisons/Lidl) sometimes, but most of the time I cook with beans/legumes/lentils. I also find that if you go to Holland and Barrett (If you really feel you're not getting enough protein as I wasn't when I first went vegan as I was an awful cook) you can locate pea protein which I used to put in soups and smoothies and stuff.

It's really easy to feel alone when you're the only vegan in the family ect, but all I can say is keep reading up on it and sticking at it! Animals need people like us (:

YO Sushi is also my favourite vegan-friendly place to eat. They do great dishes like tofu katsu curry, veggie rices and noodle dishes. You can download their nutrition guide before you go and plan ahead. Tampopo also give 25% student discount and have all of their vegan food labelled. Both of these places do meat dishes too for your boyfriend (:

Good luck and never give up, you will get there in the end!

xxx

Tesco and Lidl do sell fruits, vegetables, nuts, bread and other vegan foods. You don't NEED to eat meat replacements, in fact they're unhealthy. So is soy milk etc, they're not as healthy as the real thing.

If you can make special orders in restaurants, ask for things like the spaghetti without meatballs and such.

i am indian and i eat dairy but avoid every meat and eggs. It is possible to avoid eggs. They are so smelly. Dairy is okay and good. I suggest u try to be lacto-vegetarian first and slowly move to vegan

I think part of your issue is meat replacements. Learn to cook and eat in a different way. Think of nuts, grains and beans. Think vegetables. Do you like Indian food? Much of that is vegan.

Give up the fake-meat. It isn't good for you and is just the veg alternative to the SAD