New here- help with basic menu ideas

[Seadiver]

I'm having trouble eating healthy while vegan. I'm deep in the bread/pasta rut, mostly due to the cost and convience factor. It's easier in the summer with my garden, but this time of year gets tough. What are your go to winter meals using whole foods? I'm new here btw:-). Been vegetarian for 20 years, was vegan for about 7 years, fell off the wagon for about 3-freshly vegan again now. Really need support, I'm finding it difficult this time. I used to eat a lot of processed vegan foods (tofutti) before, but now I avoid GMO's and hydrogenated stuff.

[harpy]

Hello - we mostly make vegetable stews, soups, stir fries stuff like that with vegetables that are in season (i.e. lots of cabbage-y and root-y things in winter, plus beans, lentils or sometimes nuts). I think pasta is fine but better to have mostly vegetables and beans with a bit of pasta rather than the other way round, and same with bread (and rice, if you have that). You can also vary the grains by having things like quinoa and millet as a change from the pasta and bread.

This is a good recipe site by someone who used to be on the forum http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/list.php?category=maincourses - her recipes are not too complicated and they have all been tested I believe. You will find lots of ideas here on the forum as well: http://www.veganforum.com/forums/tags.php?tag=meal+ideas

[Clueless Git]

Everything Harpy said plus vegetable curries!

I always make mine by frying onion untill deep golden then adding spices for a minute. Next add copious amounts of tomato and fry the whole shebang untill the tommies are fully broken down. Result being a rich wet sauce to which you can add just about any bean, pulse or vegetable (sometimes best to 90% cook the additions first) you have to hand.

All the winter greens work well in curry, btw, but spinach is the best. Always have a bag of spinach in the freezer for when no fresh stuff is around.

Welcome to the forum Seadiver :)

[Wraithling]

^Seconded. This is a great way to use up vegetables, especially root veg, that you might have lying around.

A red lentil curry is another staple of mine; there are a billion different variations on this and basically any vegetarian or vegan cookbook will have a recipe (usually referred to as tarka dahl).

A cookbook that I found really useful is 'Another dinner is possible', which has a lot of no-fuss recipe ideas without many fancy ingredients or meat analogues. In particular, they have a load of different vegetable and/or bean stews, including a really easy bean and olive stew that I make pretty regularly.

[syrius]

the way I construct my plkate is 1/4 of a plate with carb, 1/4 of a plate with bean, grain etc.... and 1/2 a plate with veg . you canslo add veg to bake beans I usually add corugette, pepper celery whatever you fancy.
where I live they do sell tin of ratatouille add it to pasta , rice etc.... .
frozen mixed veg is another good option .

[Seadiver]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am feeling more into it. Having veggies prepped ahead of time is helping. I'm doing sprouted grain bread or only homemade organic breads. A cup of miso is helping curb my 3pm carb fix. It's tough getting off refined carbs.

[Festered]

I eat lots of curries like that-or delete the curry spices and put just chilli, add coconut cream, any veg you like-fake meats if you're into that, pulses....
I also mix together veg and pulses or tofu, scrambled or seasoned and cubed, add salsa and salad and make wraps.
Cook or bake potatoes and mash up, add fat if you like (just a little, loads of seasoning though) and mash up, eat as a side. Mash veg with it or instead.
I also make lots of soups and buy salad veggies and add pulses, dressings or legumes to those. I eat popadums or rice cakes as a snack.

[syrius]

you can also make some chilli sin carne, soya mince chilli, tomato sauce, kidney beans and serve it in a wrap with some salad.

or a version with "chickpea" nicoise salad, baby potatoes, tomato, green bean, spring onion, peppers, vinaigrette all in a wrap. delicious !

buywhole grain pasta and rice it is usually a lot less refined than the "normal " one.

[veggiegirl3]

I like to press the water out of tofu, marinate it with homemade marinade, and bake it. It's delicious. You could have it as with a starch and veggies, in a sandwich, or on a salad.

Beans and rice is an easy main course, either by itself or on a wrap (they have sprouted wraps).

Lentil stew is really good. My fiance used to make it, and she said it was easy to make.

Stir-fries are really easy, too.