Becoming Vegan...

Hi all,

Welcome to this wonderful life I like to call VEGAN. This is a personal blog from a foodie who loves to try new things. I will be posting HONEST OPINIONS about all the places I go to eat. I will be giving each place a star rating based on food, cleanliness, staff and overall experience. Please remember that this is opinion based and I will always give my reasons as to why and how I have rated these places.

Soooo……

I must admit when I first decided to go vegan I thought ‘oh my, what am I going to eat?!!!’. Yes, I know what everyone is thinking, but admit it, when you first decided to make the fabulous choice, unless you eat anything and you’re not a fussy eater I’m sure most new vegans can relate. I decided to change the way in which I live after watching Dominion. A friend of mine has been vegan for four years and I was told to watch Dominion and Earthlings. I was never a big meat eater anyways although I ate chicken religiously, sausage occasionally and bacon occasionally. I didn’t like eggs or milk but CHEESE, oh Gosh!! I ate all the cheese in the world. I would eat, sleep and breathe cheese if I had the choice. So, you can imagine my dismay when I thought I was never going to be able to eat cheese again. However, after watching Dominion I started following pages on Instagram and it was the dairy farming that first properly caught my eye. Honestly, it was easy enough for me to absolutely forget cheese existed. The images scarred me for life. So, I think it important to get basic essentials down to a T as you start your journey on becoming a vegan. I will be looking at cheese, milk, butter and so on. I will be basing this on where I shop, I am sure you will eventually find different places to get cheaper.

This brings me to my first find… CHEESE

Violife cheese is honestly the closest and nicest tasting cheese I have found when becoming a new vegan and I still stand by that to this day. Violife has got a sort of buttery taste that edam cheese has and is not strong in my opinion. I also tasted Sainsburys own cheese, if its cheap and cheerful and you don’t mind a strong-tasting cheese then that is your best. Whatever you do though DO NOT make nachos and melt the cheese because I can tell you now you will be put off for life.

BUTTER

There is only one butter that I will use and that is vitalite. To be honest I used this before I even turned vegan because the health benefits are important. My family changed our butter out when my dad had a stroke. My mum chose to use Vitalite because it has 75% less saturated fats. It is also dairy free, lactose free, gluten free and soya free. So it’s not just good for us vegans! Another important aspect of Vitalite that I have found is that it uses sustainable palm oil, this is so important with everything that’s going on.

MILK

My favorite milk has to be aplro soya milk in all it’s forms. In your porridge of a morning (also a vegan basic essential) have the alpro soya milk sweetened to give you an extra sweet taste in your breakfast. If you really have a sweet tooth like me, I like to add fruit and vego spread (I will explain all later) to my porridge. Alpro do a chocolate milk too, these come in a big carton or 3 small cartons for £1.30 (this price may change). My partner likes to drink alpro unsweetened milk when he has a coffee.

SAUCES

I just want to start by saying I don’t really do sauces but here is a few I would use…

Hellmans vegan mayonnaise has got to be one of my favorite vegan finds. It genuinely tastes like normal mayonnaise. This can be found in most supermarkets. Another mayonnaise I like is vegannaise, I tend to go to purple carrot in Liverpool for this. Heinz ketchup is also another key essential in my kitchen cupboard. You can buy a lot of dressings from purple carrot in Liverpool or even online at the vegan supermarket. However, it is cheaper to google a recipe sometimes and make it yourself and refrigerate.

SPICES

Its important to fill your cupboards with herbs and spices to make sure you can add loads of flavours to your foods. These are cheap enough in home bargains and B&M.

BREADS/WRAPS

Nearly almost every bread company is vegan you just have to keep an eye out on the ingredients. One thing I would say is to be careful when buying freshly made bread as it is harder to find ingredients on this. I tend to change my bread up with wraps or pitta bread instead. I use the Mission deli wraps (these contain wheat) but they are really nice with mayonnaise and quorn chicken.

Other things to always have…. Frozen rice bags (Iceland 6 for £1.89), frozen peppers and mushrooms. Pasta, tinned tomatoes, salt and pepper, mayflower curry (home bargains), any form of vegan yoghurt (you can get flavoured ones from the free from section in tesco), fruit (frozen or fresh) and salad, potaotes, coleslaw (m&s plant range), vegetable mix, vegetable oil, nutritional yeast (helps give a cheese flavour), linda mccartney (anything vegan) and bisto vegetable gravy.

These are a few things I tend to always have because along with other items listed you can make, chicken wraps, jacket potatoes, chicken salads, chicken wraps, bolognaise, curry, chips, lasagne, soups, roast dinner and so on.

Picky bits

SAUSAGE ROLLS

Sainsburys Fry’s vegan sausage rolls are the perfect packed lunch essentials for those with little ones, or for those who just like to pick at something like me. They are currently priced at £1 and I swear every time I go in the evening they have about two left, so get there early!

BISCUITS/SWEETS

Party rings and oreos are my go to biscuits for if I need somethings quick and sweet. There are a lot of chocolates and biscuits that you can get in the ‘free from’ aisles in Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda. My favourite free from are Millionaire crispy stackers. They are amazingggg!!! I am also a bit obsessed with the moo free chocolate bars at the minute (these are £1 in Tesco, you can even get the Easter egg!). Vego bars/spread are my chocolate if I REALLY need a chocolate kick. They have a similar taste to Nutella. These can be found in Holland & Barrett. My fave sweets have got to be Candy Kittens. They have them in all different flavours but my favourite has to be the sour watermelon ones. You can get these in Superdrug and Asda. Ritz cheese crackers the small ones are an important biscuit/cracker I tend to have. These with violife spreadable cheese on are amazingggggg!

CRISPS

Some of my go to crisps are…. Salt and vinegar walkers, Bacon rashers tescos own, Quinoa crisps (Holland & Barrett), Pom bear originals and original pringles. There are so many different crisps you can have even some you wouldn’t think!

This is just a little insight as to what you can have starting off as a vegan. Throughout my blogs I will be adding any new items I find and try that are vegan. I will be posting everywhere that I eat and giving an honest feedback on all foods I try.

Thankyou so much for reading! If you have any comments about anything or want to know what my favourite kind of food is please email itsaveganthing@outlook.com