Brand new vegan teenager - what to eat for dinner?

[rebeckalubrano]

I decided to become a vegan about a week ago (I've been a vegetarian for 5 years this thanksgiving) and much to my dismay, my mom doesn't support this choice of mine.
So for the past week, i've pretty much been living off of fruits and vegetables (which is fine) but I need to convince my mom to take me to the store so I can eat some real food.

That said, this will be my first real vegan meal. Any ideas?

[Blueberries]

Heya Rebeckalubrano, welcome to the vegan club!

Are you looking for ideas for food to get in the supermarket or meals to make with it? Meals can be as complicated or as basic as you want to make them. There are threads here with cheap vegan meals, and you can check recipe sites like vegweb.com for ideas.

I'm sorry that your mother isn't supportive, she's probably just worried about you. Parents usually come around when they see that you're healthy and that you're taking it all seriously. Surely you can go to the supermarket with your mother when she's doing the shopping and pick up a few bits for yourself like beans, nuts, pulses, veggie burgers?

[harpy]

Hello, and welcome from me as well.

What did you mostly cook/eat when you were a vegetarian? Easiest thing might be to adapt some of those things, e.g. if you used to eat pasta with cheese you could make a pasta dish with vegetables and beans (out of a can might be easiest to start off with). Or you could make a stirfry with vegetables and nuts and eat it with rice.

You can get what you need from an ordinary supermarket - no need to go to a special store. (Fake meats etc can be nice to have but they aren't necessary.) Maybe your folks already have some tins of beans, nuts etc lying around?

If your mum is worried about the nutritional angle she might be even more worried if she sees you eating just fruit and veg, so preparing something more substantial might reassure her. It would also be a good idea to read up on vegan nutrition so you can tell her where you're going to get your protein, iron, calcium, vitamin B12 etc from - those things aren't really a problem but people often think they're going to be.

[rebeckalubrano]

Thanks guys! Yes I can go food shopping with my mom, but she's not willing to buy 50 dollars worth of stuff that only I will eat. I'll definitely try what you said!
For dinner I ended up eating brown rice with red peppers, it was super bland but filling at the same time so I guess that's good.

[Firestorm]

You could try a books like this (http://www.amazon.com/4-Ingredient-Vegan-Maribeth-Abrams/dp/1570672326/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1310816888&sr=8-3), it contains recipes that use 4 ingredients or less. There are other 4 ingredient cookbooks as well that are not aimed at vegetarians or vegans but I saw one in a shop a while ago and remember thinking that quite a few of the recipes could easily be adapted for vegans.

You could also look through some of the posts on the forum (such as pictures of good food (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?28463-Pictures-of-good-vegan-food-you-ve-eaten!-(2)), or what did you eat today (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?23493-What-did-you-eat-today-(13))) for inspiration.

[harpy]

For dinner I ended up eating brown rice with red peppers, it was super bland but filling at the same time so I guess that's good.

Yes, that's a good start. Next time you could easily jazz it up a bit by adding some nuts, beans or peas to the rice, and/or some other vegetables like chopped tomatoes and/or mushrooms.

It sounds like your mom is worried you need to buy special vegan foods to be a vegan, and she's right that those can work out expensive. If you show her that vegans can live on "normal" foods, and that it can work out cheaper than omnivorous or vegetarian foods, that may cheer her up. You could also try cooking for the rest of the family if you feel like it - vegan stuffed peppers are a good dish for anyone, and you don't necessarily need to labour the point that it's vegan ;)

[Andy_T]

Indeed!

There are lots of great vegan pasta sauces that are also fine for omnivores, that you can make yourself simply using vegetables.
And, of course, any kind of vegetable one-pot or similar, beans. lentils and legumes are also great options.

As was already asked, what did you eat when you were vegetarian?

Best regards,
Andy

[amethyst]

As was already asked, what did you eat when you were vegetarian?

This is my question, too. I was a vegetarian for 6 years before going completely vegan. I changed very little to go vegan, and was smacking my forehead for waiting so long.

Maybe the word 'vegan' is conjuring up more of a change than is necessary. rebeckalubrano, did you rely on a lot of eggs, cheese and milk as a vegetarian? If so, there might be some extra changes, but I am sure you can do this. Spend a lot of time Googling for cheap vegan recipes, simple vegan recipes, and of course, check out all of the Food threads here.

You can also look to see what your mom has on hand, like beans, rice, or veggies, and then plug those items into Google with the word 'recipe' at the end. There are a lot of websites that allow you to plug in ingredients and they will give you pages of recipes that match up. I have done that plenty of times.

You can do this! :)

[Maître]

Pasta, rice and thick soups are good, filling and cheap ways of getting more 'substance' in your diet, atleast until you come across something you like more - I can't imagine a parent having a problem buying you any of those, most would be delighted to hear that their teenage child is eating lentil soup for example :p