Only wholefoods

[veganvoo]

Does anyone here live entirely on wholefoods? I ask as the cost of food is at an all time high and I'm considering a shop without the usual expensive convenience items. I guess this is how vegans used to eat back in the day and could be the future for many of us who arnt loaded. Ive also become aware of how bland processed food really is and feel theres no place for it in my diet anymore. Are there any websites that specialise in vegan wholefood cooking?

[harpy]

Good idea, veganvoo. We don't live only on wholefoods by a long chalk but we do prepare most of our meals from scratch using basics like fruit, veg and pulses. We have a veg box delivered every week so that's most of our shopping taken care of...As you say, it tastes better than processed food even though we only really make simple stuff like stir-fries, soups, pilaffs, vegetables with pasta (not home-made!) and so on.

This is a friend of mine's blog - she grows a lot of her own veg and posts about what she makes with it - http://thecatofstripes.blogspot.com/ - probably worth going back a bit as most of us go off the rails a bit over Christmas! Some of the members here have blogs as well: http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?5-Recipe-sites-blogs.

If you would consider a book, Rose Elliot has written some vegan ones and they are quite wholefood-y (and also unfussy and oriented to stuff you can get in the UK). Here's her website http://www.roseelliot.com/ - not all the recipes are vegan there though.

[veganvoo]

Many thanks for the advice Harpy, I'll check out the blogs this evening. I'm also not aiming to be 100% wholefoods as we have two young boys who enjoy the occasional sausage and burger but if I could cook five meals a week from veggies, pulses etc then I'll be a happy man. Of course I should also have more money in my pocket but that will probably go on more organic produce if I'm honest.

[harpy]

If you have a box scheme near you it might be worth investigating as the veg in those can work out fairly cheap compared with supermarket organic (and they are more likely to be locally grown - in fact I think a lot of the ones in our box come from East Anglia as London isn't a great vegetable-growing region apart from the allotments :D). You do need to like cabbages and stuff, especially at this time of the year.

We sometimes have the sausages etc as well and of course you can make them go further by chopping them up and adding them to other stuff, such as a bean casserole.

Please let us know how you get on!

[veganvoo]

Ok, will do. I did have a veg box up until June last year but cancelled as I found it hard to use up the goods before they went off. I also struggled to put together a meal plan as the selection wasnt that great. However, I do understand that a box is the best option for quality so maybe I'll go back to one but a different supplier. I was paying £14 for a large box but fruit was extra. For that I'd recieve 3-4 onions, 3-4 toms, a couple of leeks, some greens or kale or chard, half a kilo of carrots, 1 kg of pots, mabe a garlic bulb and either a cauliflower or broccoli. In the winter there would be a squash or two, sprouts and loads of root veg. Im sure I was paying over the odds!

[veganvoo]

Oops, forgot to mention that all the veg was organic!

[harpy]

That doesn't sound very much for your money, no.

If you can get to a local market or something maybe you could do better - I would probably buy unorganic veg if I thought the farmer was scrupulous about not overdoing the pesticides etc. Being certified as organic costs money so there are probably some OK farmers that aren't.