Vegetarianism : Vegucated....help needed :)

[jogirl]

I'm glad it's going well!

 

[i_am_plankton]

Ahh thanks for checking in

Its going really well actually. I am finding I have doubled my superfree intake as I was determined not to rely on quorn style substitutes although they certainly have a place. I've been rehydrating different beans like chickpeas and kidneys beans and making burgers which have been yummy to varying degrees. Tonight I had a gorgeous meal of couscous cooked in tandoori spice so it soaked it all up with a stirfry type meal made up of mushrooms, onions, spinach, smoked garlic, green peppers and quorn pieces.

The one problem I am having is having my syns!! I gave up sugar for lent and have to keep falling back on savoury snacks like crisps. Because I can have 2 hex b where I would normally syn EVOO thats now a hex!!

Awesome! As mentioned previously, dried soya mince is super cheap and Holland & Barrett also sell dried soya chunks which rehydrate into a chewy beef-style alternative and they're super filling. What's also nice is mock duck and that's completely free too!

 

[lickthelid]

I got some of the dried mince as a start point and will definitely have a look in holland and Barrett too what I'm liking is that it all stretches so far so actually works out much much cheaper than meat even if there is an initial outlay. It's given me a reason to be creative. I found a bookseller on ebay selling a massive range if really cheap books. I ordered 6 veggie cookbooks for the grand total of £8! One of those was a delia smith. Bargain

 

[Barbette]

Hello, gald to see you're doing so well. Like you my OH is a meat eater and he does SW as well, I find making a sauce first then splitting it into 2, then adding meat to his half and veg or quorn/TVP to my half a lot easier than making 2 separate meals. Or I'll make a stir fry and grill his meat and slice it and put it on half when I plate it up.
I use dried beans but I always have a supply of tinned ones in my cupboard for when I'm busy, I find they are a lot cheaper in the asian isles of supermarketsand quite a lot of their food is veggie friendly, I get their jellies (I always check) as they're cheaper too. Near me there is an asian supermarket and it's a veggie's heaven so many varieties of pulses and beans, exotic veg and fruit and spices at a fraction of the price.
I find the internet my biggest tool for recipes, I just google a recipe or ingredient, it's easy to make them SW friendly and it costs nothing and you can do it from the comfort of your home. I copy and paste the recipes and store them on my sky drive so I have them to hand whenever I want.
Good luck x

 

[lickthelid]

That sounds great, I'll definitely be checking out some alternative supermarkets. I found a new bible this week. A girl called jack by Jack Monroe. Its a budget cook book but 75% is veggie or vegan friendly and what's left could be adapted. A bit pricey at £8 but sooooo worth it. All the recipes are or can be tweaked to be slimming world friendly. I made curry from it tonight with tinned potatoes, tinned carrot, spinach, tinned toms, loads of spices and stirred through with fat free natural yoghurt. Omg it was immense and totally free. I had it on a bed of brown rice and it made enough that I filled three freezer bags for future meals. I worked out that it cost about 40p a serving.

I reckon the the book has paid for itself already at that cost per meal ratio!!

 

[i_am_plankton]

Hello, gald to see you're doing so well. Like you my OH is a meat eater and he does SW as well, I find making a sauce first then splitting it into 2, then adding meat to his half and veg or quorn/TVP to my half a lot easier than making 2 separate meals. Or I'll make a stir fry and grill his meat and slice it and put it on half when I plate it up.
I use dried beans but I always have a supply of tinned ones in my cupboard for when I'm busy, I find they are a lot cheaper in the asian isles of supermarketsand quite a lot of their food is veggie friendly, I get their jellies (I always check) as they're cheaper too. Near me there is an asian supermarket and it's a veggie's heaven so many varieties of pulses and beans, exotic veg and fruit and spices at a fraction of the price.
I find the internet my biggest tool for recipes, I just google a recipe or ingredient, it's easy to make them SW friendly and it costs nothing and you can do it from the comfort of your home. I copy and paste the recipes and store them on my sky drive so I have them to hand whenever I want.
Good luck x

Do you find that the dried beans tend to work out much better value than the tins? I've never bought them dry but I seem to be spending a small fortune on the tinned beans and chickpeas!

 

[lickthelid]

Personally I find them cheaper BUT it's quite tedious soaking and boling. Tbh unless I'm using the slow cooker tinned probably works out cheaper when you take into account boiling times. I mean they take 2 hours and that's AFTER being soaked overnight. Unless you batch cook I'd stick to tins! At the moment kidney beans are something silly like 23p at Aldi

 

[Barbette]

I tend to batch cook everything as it seems silly to make stuff just for one. It is tedious soaking and boiling beans that's why I love lentils, so easy I believe if you have a pressure cooker you can cook beans in under 30 mins, been toying with the idea of getting one. You can soak beans/peas in boiling water and this speeds up the process to a couple of hours rather than over night.
I don't know if you have a kindle or a kindle app but this book is free at the minute, I've just downloaded it today, not had chance to look at it but for nothing I'm not that bothered if it isn't that good you can just delete it
The Groovy Green Kitchen: Weeknight Veggie Slow Cooker eBook: Geraldine Helen Hartman: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
You can batch cook your beans and chickpeas and freeze them in small portions. When they're cooked you put them on a tray in the freezer till they just freeze and then you portion them into bags. I used to do this a lot just do a full bag at a time especially chickpeas.
I think in general eating veggie is a lot cheaper, the first month I turned veggie I saved £100 on my months shopping bill and that was with stocking up on the basics from scratch. It's funny I wouldn't think twice about spending £5 on a nice steak for the other half but umm and argh over a couple of quid for something veggie and most of the time I won't buy it as I see it as expensive Dried beans can be ridiculously cheap depending on where you get them when you consider how much they swell up when soaked but it's about organising yourself enough and forward planning to use them. On my days off I tend to use them more when I have more time and when I'm working it's a tin x

 

[lickthelid]

See I'm learning all the time!! I didn't realise you could freeze them. And I'm all over that book as I have a kindle and a kindle fire. I suspect the latter would be better to view a recipe book! You are such a star!!

Ill be batch cooking and freezing my beans today then!!

 

[lickthelid]

Also I agree we don't think anything of spending ££££ on meat for our carnivores but I worry about extra stuff for me. Our shopping is now under £60 a week. It used to be over £100 at asda. Gotta love the veggie life at Aldi

 

[lickthelid]

I downloaded that book and when exploring found these, all free!
- 30 delicious reasons I don't eat animals
- easy vegetarian slow cooker recipes for busy women
- the vegetarian holiday cook book

all American so the weights need converting or, as in my case, guesstimating, weights and volumes but like you say if they are rubbish they have cost nothing!

 

[i_am_plankton]

Thanks for your replies both - it's rare I cook anything outside of the slow cooker so I'm guessing I won't need to soak them first if I just do them in the slow cooker?! I find a meat-free diet much cheaper, my partner is omni too but rarely eats meat because of the cost of buying it and plus I can't stand the smell of it cooking so he is happy to eat veggie. We have a partitioned slow cooker so I make the same meal but if he wants Quorn he has that in his half!

 

[lickthelid]

You would still need to do the overnight soak. It starts the rehydration but also gets rid of many of the oligosacchirides (sp) found in the skin which is what causes bloating and wind :479:

thats why you should always rinse even tinned ones

but when I have slowed cooked with them I haven't bothered with the boiling after. I just bunged them in after soaking and they were fine

 

[Barbette]

Thanks just having a look for them now found
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Top-Quinoa-...m_kinc_63?ie=UTF8&refRID=19KQFQN7FYDT1Y5CBWY6 I love quinoa
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Vegeta...m_kinc_64?ie=UTF8&refRID=19KQFQN7FYDT1Y5CBWY6

When you were saying you were struggling with the american measurements is the cups? I have a set of "cups" but you can use a teacup, a 8 floz teacup is the same size as an american cup. I have one and used that before I bought some.

You're lucky your OH will eat veggie food mine doesn't like veg at all and as he's none weight bearing I do all his cooking which includes meat, I switch off now I think working as a cook for over 11 years has helped. x

 

[lickthelid]

I have a tala measuring cup somewhere but I normally fiddle with all recipes so work by "eye" anyway. The teacup is a good tip though thanks!!

 

[i_am_plankton]

You would still need to do the overnight soak. It starts the rehydration but also gets rid of many of the oligosacchirides (sp) found in the skin which is what causes bloating and wind :479:

thats why you should always rinse even tinned ones

but when I have slowed cooked with them I haven't bothered with the boiling after. I just bunged them in after soaking and they were fine

Thanks for this, I never bothered to rinse tinned ones but I probably should for obvious reasons lol

 

[pixie-gem]

Oh wow good for you I've never watched vegucated but I can't watch things like that, it jumps out every time I scroll through netflix though!
Glad to see it's going well for you x

 

[lickthelid]

You should watch. You could skip the bit that converted me. It's only about 5 mins and they announce it. The rest is a fascinating experiment

 

[pixie-gem]

Edited

 

[lickthelid]

Ok well maybe don't watch unless he can censor it!! Forewarned is forearmed and all that.