Making the Transition

[rush23]

Hi, I'm Rush and I wanna be a vegan.

My story goes like this: In May, this year, I went veggie cold turkey (no pun intended). Actually, I got sick of eating meat and even got to the point where I couldn't even stand the sight of a piece of meat in front of me. I admit, I enjoyed chicken and fish, but I gave it up just like that and I don't miss it.

My family, a clan of committed meat eaters were highly amused by my decision (I am a bit of a drama queen) and were convinced that I was doing this simply to attract attention to myself. They even tried to seduce me with all kinds of meat and chicken dishes, but I stuck to my guns.

The thing is, it's surprisingly easy to be vegetarian - I was never a big flesh eater and I love veggies! I usually eat the veggie version of what my family eats. Even at family and friends, I just eat the veggies, rice and salads and I'm satisfied. Yesterday, we ate out at a seafood restaurant and I was still able to eat heartily - I had a delicious baby marrow, mushroom and brussel sprout salad with roasted sweet potatoes - yum!

As for going vegan, I know I can do it. Dairy is such an unnecessary thing. There is an abundance of yummy things in the plant kingdom and no one has to suffer for one to enjoy it. I'm already part-vegan - I eat my wheat cereal (we call it Weetbix) with boiled water. It's amazing how much the taste has improved. My only weakness is cheese, but it's not as important to me as standing my convictions.

Thanks for reading this and any suggestions are welcome!

[RedWellies]

Hi again Rush. It's great that you want to be vegan! I was a veggie for a long time before going vegan and ate lots of cheese. But I don't miss it at all!

What kind of suggestions are you looking for? Have a read around the threads, there's lots of advice on the forum.

[rush23]

Oh, I'd just like to know how to wean myself off dairy and what to substitute in recipes.

Thanks,

[Telmob]

ive only been vegan for a day lol, but i think soy milks might work out.

i put chocolate soymilk in my cereal this morning.

[hedgefire]

Well done for making the choice, Rush!
Like you - and probably many others - I was vegetarian for years before taking the plunge. Like you, I was never a huge meat-eater anyway, but I did eat a lot of cheese and yoghurt. The first couple of weeks as a vegan were hard, as I still live with my family of - yes - committed meat-eaters (we have so much in common :p ) and the fridge was full of it. So what did I do? Well, there's no tried and tested method for "weaning" off dairy, but what I did was go out and buy lovely soya yoghurts and a vegan cheese. The cheese was terrible, and to this day I haven't found a good one. But by eating soya yoghurt and drinking rice and soya milk, I was able to trick my head into thinking I was getting loadsa dairy. So I didn't feel the urge as much.

The thing to remember is, with any major change in diet, your body's going to get a bit of a shock. Some people call this "detox symptoms", i.e. your body going a bit weird for a while 'cause it's getting rid of all the junk that was in your body and rejoicing in the new, better diet. It goes away after a couple of weeks.

If all else fails, stick some pictures of cute chickens and cows on the fridge door. Do you really want to rob them of what's theirs just to satisfy your appetite?

Good luck!

[sandra]

Good advice hedgefire, I can't really tell the difference between soya yogurts, chocolate milk and icecream and dairy equivalents. So if you crave 'dairy' eat lots of these instead, after a while because you know you are not missing out on anything the craving will go.
I have to agree though that I've never found a good vegan 'cheese', so I've give up now and don't miss cheese at all, infact the smell of it is very off putting! So, keep on doing what you're doing and all the very best rush23.
:)

[rush23]

Thanks for the advice, guys! Actually, I went out to buy soya milk and surprisingly, I like it. I'm just looking out for specialist shops in my area for vegan products. To those that stay in places where the word 'vegan' is foreign, how you do adapt?

As for cheese, I can live without it. As I said in my first post, I enjoyed chicken and fish, but gave that up just like that. It's just trying to find a substitute. Is veganism hard in some places?

[fiamma]

I think the key is not to look for substitutes, but to approach cooking with a vegan mindset, and a good cookery book will help you a lot. I love Rose Elliot because she uses such simple ingredients and her dishes are very wholesome and tasty, which is the essence of veganism I think. Veganism is easy here because I have access to lots of fresh veggies and high quality produce - the harder part is dealing with other people ;). I go to the healthfood store for things like nut butters, seeds and sea vegetables that I can't get in the supermarket, but otherwise I tend to avoid ready-made vegan food, it tastes too "processed". I prefer making my own food from scratch, and I've found that it's made me much more instinctive as a cook and I now experiment much more than I used to. Good luck on your vegan voyage :)

[rush23]

I agree Fiamma...I'd rather eat a vegetable meal than faux meat or something like that. I have no desire to replace meat with something that looks like it. In fact, I think it defeats the purpose. Hey, everyone has their own opinion. What I really meant was in my favourite things - like in pasta, what do I put in place of milk? Or in cake, eggs? Other than that, I'm ready to go totally vegan.

[RedWellies]

like in pasta, what do I put in place of milk? Or in cake, eggs? .

You can substitute vegan "milks" for milk...experiment with different ones. Quinoa milk and cornflower can make a good bechamel sauce.

You can use an egg replacer for cakes or use other things, such as bananas to bind it all together. Search for cakes on here, there are threads on this subject.

[rush23]

Thanks, Wellies!:)

[fiamma]

As Red says you can use various vegan milks. An alternative is to go for a cooked tomato based sauce, which you can add veggies to. Or just chop up some fresh tomato, add a little olive oil and fresh basil or other herbs :) For cakes, you can omit eggs - you'll find lots of recipes on here. The combination of soya flour and orange juice, for example, acts as a raising agent and gives a very light sponge, or you can use bananas as egg replacers. You'll wonder why you ever needed eggs in the first place ;) All the best :)

[Justin]

hey Rush, how you doing? I'm from Cape Town too!

[rush23]

Thanks, Fiamma! Your suggestions are great. Hi, Justin! Fancy meeting a fellow Capetonian on a vegan forum?

Anyway, I'd just like to know if anyone knows how to make a vegan mayonnaise - I love to smother veggies in some kind of sauce. Tomato sauce is okay, but so boring - the bottled variety I really love the tangy taste of mayo! Better yet, any new concotions that I can try. I love garlicky spicy tastes.

Thanks:)

[Justin]

you can buy vegan mayonnaise in the shops here, it's imaginatively called- vegonnaise, methinks. might be available in SA too. in other products, Fry's stuff, it's made in SA- the polony is the best

[rush23]

Thanks, Justin!:)

[Justin]

Dis 'n plesier, email my as jy enige ander vrae het. Baie einardig om weer in die taal te tik, ek is selfs Engels en hier praat 'n mens maar min ander tale :D

[rush23]

Ja, dankie, Justin en moenie skaam wees om my 'n paar 'tips' te gee oor hoe om vegan te gaan. Ek moet erken, dis nogal 'weird' om in Afrikaans te gesels op die Internet maar dis lekker om met 'n noge Suid-Afrikaner te praat.

For the rest of you, guys - feel free to add any new suggestions and ideas. I need all the help I can get and everything anyone suggests is greatly appreciated.:)

[Haniska]

Look for nutritional yeast at health food shops. You can make a great chreese sauce out of it or sprinkle it on foods on it's own. It tastes a bit a like cheese and is healthful.

[catmogg]

I expected this thread to be about sex changes....