Vegans? Vegetarians?

[arkham]

Originally Posted by Katalina

Hi - any other vegans or vegetarians out there? I was vegan wwaaaaayyy back in the '80s, but it was just too hard back then (people, even cool openminded people, looked at me like I had 3 heads!). I've come full circle, and now eat vegan food whenever possible, vegetarian if I can't get vegan.

Anybody else out there?

Ive been vegetarian all my life and now I'm trying to eat vegan whenever possible I'm trying to eat less processed foods Being vegetarian is easy but vegan is a little more challenging for me

[cutiefemme]

Originally Posted by arkham

Ive been vegetarian all my life and now I'm trying to eat vegan whenever possible I'm trying to eat less processed foods Being vegetarian is easy but vegan is a little more challenging for me

Same I'm vegetarian 100% of the time and vegan maybe half

[job]

Same here. I've been a vegetarian since I was 15. (26 years now.) I've tried going vegan twice, and it was a major fail, both times. I convince myself, I can't hang without cheese, yet I rarely eat any dairy when I'm not trying to go vegan. Third times a charm, maybe.

[job]

Also, just wanted to add if any vegan/vegetarians are going to the reunion I can let u know of some good places to eat as I am in Vegas.: )

[nycfem]

Can you post them? That would be awesome to know.

Originally Posted by job

Also, just wanted to add if any vegan/vegetarians are going to the reunion I can let u know of some good places to eat as I am in Vegas.: )

[Contradictor]

I've been vegan since I was 18. Vegetarian since I was 11. I just realised I was a bit of a hypocrite saying I was an animal lover while supporting the industries that hurt them. I love cooking and finding new things to try

[girlin2une]

Light Life vegan sausages are amazing!!

[paintedleofemme]

Hi everyone, vegetarian here, married to a carnivore, which makes life very hard because she sometimes pushes meat on me! If I could find a vegetarian FTM or butch in my area to hang out with that would be great!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by paintedleofemme

Hi everyone, vegetarian here, married to a carnivore, which makes life very hard because she sometimes pushes meat on me! If I could find a vegetarian FTM or butch in my area to hang out with that would be great!

Forgive me if I'm not understanding correctly, but why only an FTM or butch? Why not a femme vegetarian? Why restrict your focus?

[Esme nha Maire]

I've been slowly trending towards vegetarianism for years, mostly on ecological grounds, and have tried various vegetarian alternatives to meat and cheeses out of a combination of curiosity and, well, I've been a lifelong picky eater that wouldnt eat my greens! Going for the ersatz version of what I was eating previously seemed the easy way into eating a more ecologically efficient diet.

I was delighted to find that a chain store called Iceland here in the UK has started stocking vegetarian and vegan meat alternatives and ready meals both in serious quantity and reliably, too - as in, it's not just a short term thing that will dissapear from their range in a few months time. They do these veggie-burgers (as in a burger-sized patty in breadcrumbs that contains all kinds of mixed beggies, NOT a fake meat burger) that I get on with fine, so for the first time in my life I'm eating SOME greens and general veggies practically every day!

I also get some greens from having the occasional pizza which apparently uses humous (spelling?) instead of cheese and is covered with tomato chunks and green stuff that I thiunk may be spinach. Tastes good! They also carry an excellent range of fake-beef burgers ("No Bull" burgers - theyre made in France), although the fake pulled-pork burgers from teh same range arent anything to write home about, bit lacking in flavour if y'ask me.

What with the fake cheeses available now, the only thing stopping me from going full vegetarian is milk. As in, milk I can put in a cup of tea and end up with a nice tasting cup of tea. Some of the fake milks taste OK to drink as they are to me, but in tea? YEUCH! If anyone here knows of a good substitute for cows milk to be added to tea, please let me know!

I don't lose any sleep over eating the occasional bit of meat, especially as I've never been a great meat-eater anyway*, but aside from a cheese and ham sandwich the other day, I havent eaten any meat in weeks now. Nor bacon in many months. I started finding real bacon as gross a it is tasty a couple of years ago (it's the fat and texture; I prefer the texture of the fake stuff) And that last can of corned beef on my shelf - oh my, but that stuff is yummy, but heck, I'm on tablets for blood pressure, so I really shouldnt eat anything that salty anymore. I'm erring ever closer to donating it to a food bank. It'll be a bit of a landmark when that goes, one way or another, I think. Its been there untouched for about half a year now. I'm determined that I wont be buying any more, because it's bad for me.

*if you're wondering what the heck a non-vegetarian that doesnt like greens and didn't eat much meat either (nor fruit, come to that!) ate - mostly staples and a little something extra for flavour. Somwhow I managed to avoid any serious dietary deficiencies, but how I have no idea!

[Esme nha Maire]

I recently spotted that BirdsEye are now making fake meat burgers from pea protein. I hadn't realised that that was a thing. So naturally I bought some to try. They were pretty good!

Flavour-wise, if anything they seemed to suggest a hint of pork rather than beef* which is great as it means that by switching between brands of burgers I can experience a range of tastes rather than same old, same old all the time. Texture and everything else was fine.

What I don't know yet, but hope to look into, is the ecological aspect of making fake meat products, be they from soya, mycoprotein or pea protein. At the moment, I am just hoping that it's better to eat fake meat burgers, ecologically speaking, than the real thing. If anyone reading this has some hard info on the matter, I'd love to see it!

[candy_coated_bitch]

For those of you who transitioned out of eating dairy, how did you go about it? I'm not sure I can be 100% vegan or not but I really want to cut back on my dairy intake. Mostly cheese trips me up. It's one of my all time favorite foods and it seems like all my favorite foods have cheese in it. Also, there really is no substitute for dairy in a cup of tea. Really, I've tried.

Also, I need to do veganism on the cheap, which is very difficult. People always tell you it's cheaper to cook for yourself and I scoff at that when I can buy a box of mac and cheese for 88¢ or a thing of ramen for a dollar or two. That's several meals right there for like $5 when you count milk and butter for the mac and cheese.

Buying a bunch of fresh veggies and cooking is not cheaper than how I have to eat now, so any suggestions on how to make veganism more budget friendly, let me know. I don't cook a lot know besides things out of a box so I also do not have a well stocked pantry. So a recipe is like an investment what with having to buy spices and all.

Help please! I don't feel like I can overhaul my entire diet at once but am looking more for suggestions of where to start small.