so i'm thinking about making the switch from my current diet to vegetarian and ultimately into vegan. I've always thought that the lack of meat wasnt the problem for me just the fact that I really come kinda blank in the brain if I try to think of a week's worth of meals that fit that. I know they're out there and I'm just wondering if you threw together a 30-50$ shopping list what you'd get and make with it? i know youve posted links to stuff which ive looked through but i was just curious.
Oh yay Mary this is the best news!!! I’m sure that you’ll love your transition, once I got over the, “Man, guess I can’t eat that again..” phase (which was surprisingly short) I’ve never felt better, both about my impact on the world and in the physical sense!
I totally understand the struggle to come up with cheap meals that don’t include meat or dairy, but once you find out the staples that you enjoy eating, it’s really easy to switch.
The main ingredients that replace meat for me include dried products that I reconstitute over the weekend and use all throughout the week. Of course, you can use canned versions of them but I find that it really is so much cheaper and you get so much more food. Dried beans (white, kidney, mixed, whatever’s your favorite) and chickpeas are our go-tos. (I use the overnight soaking process, but I’ve found that if you boil the beans long enough it doesn’t really matter all that much.) I make a large batch, usually one or two packages of chickpeas or a mix of one box of white and one of kidney beans.
Lentils are also big players in our diet, but they don’t need to be pre-cooked, you just gotta make sure that whatever you’re adding it to (a simple soup, quick pasta sauce, whatever) has enough liquid in it since they suck up quite a bit. I add it to pre-made pasta sauces with a little veggie broth (which is just a veggie bouillon in water, just be mindful of the amount of salt since both can be pretty heavy handed.) I often add a handful of lentils to whatever is bubbling on the stove to add that extra "full-belly" feeling.
Once I have my large batch of either chickpeas or mixed beans, it’s relatively easy to whip up meals. We don’t buy much more produce than we did when we were eating meat, really, so it’s not too big of a hit on our wallet. We keep a steady amount of garlic and onions in the house, and carrots for snacking on, try to keep fresh tomato for sandwiches, and sometimes get cucumber or avocado. Staples of our pantry include pasta, a significant amount of crushed tomato for chilis and pasta sauces, coconut milk (I’m a curry fanatic), plain oatmeal in bulk, bread, and rice. We also keep a few bags of frozen potatoes on hand for whenever I’m feeling super lazy about what to eat with dinner.
When it is bean week I make a large batch of chili that feeds us for 2-3 days and a bean salad that also lasts us a long while. I don’t have an exact recipe that I follow for either since I’m more of a free-form cook that looks at recipes that are intriguing and whip them up on the fly. For the bean salad I rinse off the mixed beans, and then crush a clove of garlic into the bowl along with a few good glugs of olive oil, half of an onion finely minced (white or red, whatever), salt, and whatever spices inspire me that day; sometimes it’s curry and soy sauce, sometimes it’s dried basil, oregano and crushed red pepper. If there are tomatoes around when it’s time to eat it I add some on top (they don’t keep very well in the fridge) but that’s totally up to you. We eat it for lunch and as a side to sandwiches for dinner. It really fills us up and costs next to nothing. The chili is almost as easy! I crush up a lot of garlic, add a chopped onion and let them melt down, then add a couple of cans of crushed tomato, spices like cumin, cayenne, and smoked paprika, and add the beans. Easy peasy. Eat it alone or over rice or pasta for a more filling meal.
When I make a big batch of chickpeas I usually make a sort of chickpea ‘tuna salad’ that I’m working to improve the recipe of. Since we don’t get vegennaise (BOO) easily here I just use a combo of oil and spices to make it all combined. We don’t have a food processor (yet!) so I’ve been making everything with a stick blender. I blend the chickpeas until they look like this and then add olive oil, soy sauce, a ripped up piece of nori (for that seafood flavor, which is completely optional), a small diced onion, and some dried basil. This is really all about finding out what your palate loves best, you can add basically anything from your spice cabinet that tickles your fancy, from sriracha to coriander. I’ve also made hummus (which was not fun with my dinky stick blender ugh) with just garlic, oil, and lemon juice that lends itself to sandwiches and snacks perfectly. I've also been regularly making chana masala for dinner. I got a huge tub of ginger paste from our local produce market which makes it a lot easier and cheaper than buying, peeling, and grating fresh ginger all the time. It's basically Indian chickpea chili! The version I linked includes a little coconut milk and I think that it makes a lovely addition and adds a cohesive creaminess to the dish, but it's optional and there are TONS of different recipes for this dish that you can find.
Looking at this post now I see that I've gotten kind of long-winded, sorry about that.
For a beginner vegan shopping cart with a budget I would include:
Dried lentils (I use red, they cook a little quicker than green, but whatever!)
cheap extra virgin olive oil, in Sweden I've found a blend of EVOO and sunflower oil that I love, cheap but still has that rich olive flavor
a loaf of good, dark, seedy bread
a good amount of crushed tomatoes
a can or two of coconut milk
natural peanut butter (we have PB&Js for breakfast often, so filling!)
bananas for adding to the PB&Js and having as a healthy snack
fresh tomatoes (for sandwiches and the bean salad if you enjoy them)
steel-cut rolled oats (just pop it in the mic with water for a few minutes and top with brown sugar or syrup or jam or whatever, and you're set for a good 8 hours)
frozen potato wedges for a really quick side to anything
frozen peas (I add them to almost everything for some extra greenery) and other frozen veggies that you enjoy
That's pretty much everything that is in our pantry right now and I've got enough food to last us a loooong time. I'm gonna link some vegan blogs that I like to frequent, some of them have more involved recipes with slightly expensive ingredients, but there are many that you can whip up cheaply and easily.
The Vegan Stoner (cheap and fast!)
Vegan Sandra (cheap and easy)
Vegan in the Freezer (cheap and easy and freezable!)
Vegan Richa (I find all of her recipes to be interesting and delicious looking!)
PostPunkKitchen (written by the queen of vegan cooking, Isa Chandra, who wrote some of the most popular vegan cookbooks out there, her writing is delightful as well)
MadeVegan (a lovely vegan food blog with great photography)
LunchBoxBunch (not the cheapest, but one of the most popular vegan blogs out there, I use it frequently for ideas)
Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes (a large selection of recipes!)
My Darling Vegan (beautiful and inspiring)
Oh She Glows (one of the most popular vegan food blogs out there at the moment, has a large selection and beautiful looking food)
If you have any questions about veganism or just want to chit chat about food please feel free to talk to me!
