Veggie to Vegan: the Non-Dairy Diary.

From vegetarian to vegan. How hard can it be to make the jump? That is just what my 14-year-old daughter and I have decided to find out.

November is the charity Animal Aid’s “Vegan Month” and we pair of hardened vegetarians have opted to take up the challenge of going vegan for the month.

As vegetarians we are used to eating beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu and their ilk. So far, so good. But what about my addiction to egg mayonnaise sandwiches? And how will Sally the Cheese Lover cope without her dairy fix? (Or with swapping milk chocolate for dark?) As for tea and coffee, will they even be worth drinking without a splash of milk? Will we learn to love tea with soya milk? Or will we broaden our horizons and discover the delights of, say, rooibos tea?

Moreover, what of our health? Will we feel weak and lethargic, or brimming with energy and vitality? Just as importantly, will I finally lose my jelly belly?

Well, we’re about to find out, and you can share in our experiences as you read our journal: From Veggie to Vegan: The Non-Dairy Diary.

Fri. 31st Oct

Well, here we go. It’s been a busy week (half term) and it’s only just occurred to me that I need to go shopping to make sure we have some appropriate food ready for the start of our vegan month. So, off to Tesco for the weekly shop. To my amazement, cars are queuing up to get in. Why? It’s not Christmas. Or any other bank holiday. Yes, it’s Hallowe’en, but when did that become such a major event as to necessitate laying siege to Tesco?

Once inside, I just want to be out as quickly as possible. This is not a frame of mind conducive to having a good browse around Tesco’s vegan offerings. I manage to grab soya milk, which I buy every week anyway; soya “yoghurts”, which I’ve had before; tofu, something else we’re very familiar with; tins of various types of beans; non-dairy spread (have to read labels carefully for this); a rather expensive packet of crushed sunflower and pumpkin seeds (instant protein); and non-dairy alternative to cream cheese, which I didn’t know existed. However, I can’t find “Cheezly”, a vegan hard “cheese” that I know they had in there just the other week. Nor do I have any luck with sausages. Plenty suitable for vegetarians, but they all contain egg, whey powder or some other unsuitable ingredient.

I try to make sure there are treats enough for Sally, such as lemon sorbet, peanuts, crisps and biscuits in case she feels too deprived of all her favourite foods. Again, label scrutiny is de rigueur. Pom-Bears? They’re a no- no as they contain whey powder and milk protein. Yes, I know what you’re asking: why does a 14-year-old want Pom-Bears? Well, I really buy them for my 11-year-old son, but if they’re in the house, Sally will eat them too. So I buy plain crisps instead. Nick, my son, will just have to put up with treats that Sally can eat too. The same goes for biscuits. After five minutes of perusing labels and rejecting most of the kids’ favourites, I decide that Rich Tea will have to do.

And so, on with the rest of the shopping, and home, only to realise that I’ve forgotten the houmous, a staple of my usual diet, and definitely required for the coming month.

Right, egg mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch, which I linger over, savouring every mouthful. Curry containing milk for tea. And that’s it. We’re ready. Bring it on!

Sat. 1st Nov.

I wake up feeling positive. Sally has momentarily forgotten that we’re now temporary vegans and, when reminded, panics over what to have for breakfast. Bizarrely, she keeps thinking that we can’t have bread. She is relieved to discover that toast is still on the menu.

Breakfast is easy – toast, porridge, that sort of thing. Lunch too – beans on toast, peanut butter on toast. (Hmm, a bit of a toast theme emerging here; better keep an eye on that.) And various raw vegetables. It’s all pretty normal stuff.

After Sally’s hair appointment, we call in at Herbaceous, the local Medical Herbalist/environmentally aware whole food and gift shop. This renders up egg-free mayonnaise and “Sosmix”(Yes, we WILL have sausages!) It also offers up an issue we hadn’t thought of. Will we be wanting vegan washing-up liquid and soap, wonders the proprieter. Ooh, we hadn’t thought about that. Yes, I always endeavour to buy cruelty-free toiletries, cosmetics and household products but have never needed to know if they’re vegan. I know that if they contain lanolin (from sheep’s wool) or honey, then they’re not vegan, and no doubt there are other things to be avoided too, but I haven’t looked into the ingredients of our current veggie-friendly products. I more or less on the spot make the decision to keep using the stuff we have already at home, but to try to buy vegan-friendly if I need anything during the month. Is this my first failure? Probably, but I’ll live with the compromise. At this point Sally mutters something about her leather school shoes. More on this issue later.

Rooibos tea is our beverage of choice upon arriving home. It’s okay. Okay, as in not really what I’d choose but it’ll do! I don’t think it contains caffeine and later I start to get a caffeine-withdrawal headache. I try to combat this with a cup of black coffee. Same reaction: I can drink it but I’d rather have milk in it.

The next challenge is the evening meal. I’ve never been one for preparing different meals for different family members. (They get what they’re given and are grateful!), So I need to cook something that can be enjoyed, or at least tolerated, by all of us. “All of us”, by the way, means myself, daughter Sally, son Nick and husband Paul. I’ve been vegetarian for about twenty-three years; the kids have been brought up vegetarian; Paul is a meat-eater who happily cooks and eats veggie at home unless he feels like doing himself something carnivorous. Anyway, back to today’s dinner (or “tea”, as we Northerners prefer to call it). There’s some quinoa lurking in the cupboard, and I decide to be adventurous and do something with that. Quinoa, in case you didn’t know, is a grain cultivated in Ecuador and was a staple part of the diet of the ancient Inca people. (I read that on the back of the packet.) It’s also a protein, is gluten free and is pronounced keenwa. You can use it where you might use rice or cous cous. It only takes about twenty minutes to cook and ends up a bit like coarse cous cous. Oh yes, and you can also get quinoa flakes to use as porridge. I got it from Canterbury Wholefoods, a wonderful cornucopia of excitingly different foods. Tonight I combine it with various vegetables and frozen fresh (yes, it does make sense; I mean, as opposed to dried) soya beans. I get these from Tesco’s frozen vegetable department. They’re great for chucking into just about any recipe to give extra protein, as well as counting towards your five-a-day. So we end up with a sort of alternative risotto, and I don’t want to boast, but it’s really rather nice, and we all have seconds!

Sun 2nd Nov.

It’s my birthday! After graciously receiving lots of lovely presents from the family, I consume yet more toast, this time with jam, as it’s a special occasion. Sally has bagels, a weekend favourite.

Today I decide to try soya milk in my coffee, and hey, it’s much better than I expected. Coffee drinking is suddenly worthwhile again.

At lunchtime, I’m delighted to find out that the falafels (little balls made from chickpeas and spices) previously bought from Tesco’s frozen meat-free department are suitable for vegans. Yesss, another family staple I can continue to enjoy.

We have a pleasant day, consisting of a stroll along Herne Bay sea front, and an afternoon of slobbing out on the sofa with a DVD. Naturally this builds up an appetite for my birthday Chinese Takeaway. Right, egg fried rice is obviously out, and we’d better not have noodles, as they’ll most likely contain egg. So, plain boiled rice it is then. With Monk’s Lohan vegetables with Bean Curd – item S1 at the Golden Wok in Seasalter. And a side portion of Fried Mushrooms with Garlic – item 119. It’s gorgeous. Bean curd is another name for soya and I don’t know what they do to it, but it tastes much better than any tofu I’ve ever cooked (though mine is good too, of course!). Sally enjoys it too, enough to compensate for her disappointment over not being able to have the fried rice.

It’s back to school for the kids tomorrow so I have the joy of making lunch boxes. I play safe with good old Marmite sandwiches. You can’t go wrong there, can you?

Mon 3rd Nov.

Mondays are always Coffee Morning Day. The group was born from myself and a few other mums I met when I moved to Whitstable eight years ago and took Nick to Toddler Gym Club. Over the years, various people have come and gone but there has always been a zealous group, who see Coffee Morning as a definite priority amidst work and family commitments, a chance to indulge in both idle and serious chat, and psyche ourselves up for the rest of the week. Today it’s at Jo’s house and I’ve taken along my own bottle of soya milk. Sadly, I have to turn down the homemade apple cake, on egg and dairy grounds, and then listen as everyone else extols its deliciousness.

Lunch is a baked potato with baked beans. Who could ask for more? Evening meal is a bog-standard typical Monday night Spag. Bol. Luckily, Tesco’s own vegetarian mince, which we have often, is also vegan.

Oh yes, and I try soya milk in tea today. It’s not bad, but I think I’ll be drinking more coffee than tea in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, I’ve never really come to terms with herbal teas and infusions, so it’s either tea and soya, rooibos or coffee. And I’m not actually that keen on rooibos!

Tues 4th Nov.

Weekday breakfasts are settling into a pattern of Jordan’s Country Crisp with strawberries, and soya milk for both Sally and I. I thought Sally might struggle with the soya milk, but she’s fine with it.

Sally’s lunch box contains sandwiches with the soya “cream cheese”. I had a taste last night whilst preparing the lunches, and considered that it did have some of the flavour of the real thing, yet with a soya tang. Mm, maybe not entirely successful. Still, as I’m not that fussy and always very hungry by lunchtime, I have some on crisp breads and oatcakes. It fills a gap. When Sally gets home she informs me that she disliked it quite heartily. Well, what am I supposed to do with the rest of the packet, then? No doubt it will find its way into some kind of pasta sauce. I won’t tell anybody it’s in there and I should get away with it.

Tea manages to keep everyone happy: tofu and vegetable stir-fry (plus crushed sunflower and pumpkin seeds thrown in for good measure) with rice. Yes, I think we covered all our basic food groups there.

Sally helps out at her school’s Open Evening for prospective Year 7s and is unable to accept the teacher’s reward- offering of a bag of Maltesers. She copes.

Preparing tomorrow’s lunchboxes (peanut butter sandwiches for Sally), I just manage to stop myself from unthinkingly licking the knife used for Nick’s chocolate spread sandwiches. Phew!

Weds 5th Nov.

This is the day I’ve been waiting for – a trip into Canterbury, which will include a visit to Canterbury Wholefoods to stock up on all the things I haven’t been able to get so far. Ooh, what a treasure trove. I emerge with houmous, Cheezly Mature Red Cheddar Style and super melting Mozzarella Style, Sheese Smoked Cheddar Style, Redwood’s chicken style slices, Vegi Deli’s Lincolnshire style sausages and Beanfeast pate, some vegan pesto sauce, spelt-sunflower tofu cutlets, and, I’m proud to say, Clear Spring washing up liquid and laundry liquid, both of which are vegan as well as environmentally friendly. That lot should keep us going for a while. I also nip into Holland and Barrett for a couple of Jumbo Sos Rolls for the kids’ lunch boxes – a bit of an antidote to the usual sandwiches. The allergy information says that the rolls were prepared in a factory handling dairy products, but I decide that this is okay; it’s just information pointing out the possible risk to people with dairy allergies, not a declaration of unsuitability for vegans. I make a mental note to tell Sally this, as I know she’ll fret over it if she reads the label.

Mid morning I head for Debenham’s café, who do consistently good coffee, in my opinion. I am armed with my bottle of soya milk, but no, I don’t need it. The menu board announces that soya milk is available, and, sure enough, when I ask, it is produced with no fuss and in a sensible quantity. Great, another pleasure I won’t have to forego. Thanks, Debenhams.

On the way home I stop off at the Blean Farm Shop and buy plenty of fruit and vegetables, including some of their frozen fruit salads, which make a great dessert.

I have to confess I’ve spent quite a lot on this morning’s purchases. However, the alternative cheese products are probably about the same price as the organic cheese I normally buy at Tesco. The pesto cost a lot, and the chicken style slices cost more than the Quorn ones I normally buy. I wouldn’t usually buy the pate, but I want to be able to give Sally a fair amount of variety in her packed lunches (and I’m not too confident about her liking the vegan “cheese”!).

Back home I heat up yesterday’s leftover stir-fry for lunch and polish it off. We have very little waste in this house!

I mentioned Quorn earlier. This is something we eat regularly, as it comes in the form of chunks (good for curries, casseroles, stir-fries, etc.), sausages, burgers, and even “bacon” slices. I generally get the frozen versions from Tesco’s frozen meat-free section, but you can get chilled versions too. The sandwich slices are, somewhat off-puttingly for me, in the cooked meats department. Unfortunately though, Quorn isn’t suitable for vegans as it contains egg white and milk proteins.

For tea, I decide it’s time to crack open the Sosmix. Well, that turns out to be relatively easy. Just add water, wait ten minutes, shape into sausages and fry in a lightly greased pan. The frying is a bit of a kerfuffle as the sausages stick a bit, but that’s frying for you. I hardly ever fry things like sausages or burgers and I’m not happy that the smell wafts round the house and clings to my clothes and hair just before I have to go out to take small boys to football practice and hulking great teenagers to drama rehearsals, with the consequence that the car reeks of frying too. Still, it’s all worth it as the whole family is suitably impressed, even Paul, who’s not really a veggie sausage fan. We have them with mashed potato, carrot and swede, and broccoli. Tradition with a twist.

In the car on the way to the aforementioned drama rehearsal, Sally regales us with the sorry tale of the chocolate cake she couldn’t eat earlier at school, when one of her friends had brought birthday cake in. The other teenagers are entirely unsympathetic: one of them declares that being a vegan is “sad”! All the same, she remains undeterred.

Thurs 6th Nov.

Tesco day again. I can’t believe it’s nearly a week since my last visit. I’m pleased not to be scouring the shelves for specialist vegan stuff, though a little put out by the empty space where the tofu should be. Has Tesco had a sudden run on tofu from the hordes of people in Whitstable doing Vegan Month? Or did someone just forget to order it? Either way, it’s off the menu for a while. I buy more of their very tasty falafel and a packet of frozen nut cutlets for good measure.

Later at home I prepare myself the ultimate comfort food lunch (not that I need comforting; I just like the food). The remains of last night’s mash, half a tin of baked beans and some bits of the Cheezly Smoked Cheddar Style – all mixed together and heated in the microwave. Oh yum! And some healthy fruit for dessert!

Paul comes home from work earlier than usual and decides to cook himself sausage and fried egg. While he’s at it, he does a fried egg butty for Nick. The boy’s in Heaven. He does love his fried egg butties. So that just leaves Sally and I. I’ve left it quite late by now, so decide on “cheese”, tomatoes and mushrooms on toast, even though it’ll be my second lot of Cheezly that day. I use the “super melting” Mozzarella. Of course, it doesn’t, and the toast starts to burn while the “cheese” is still solid. I admit that it could have been my own fault, for piling the vegetables over the top of the Cheezly. Anyway, I stick it in the microwave for a minute, and it comes out meltingly perfect. Tastes pretty good too – very mild, but then, it is supposed to be like Mozzarella.

Sally, in desperation, has turned to dark chocolate. Luckily, we have some Cote d’Or, brought back from one of his European business jaunts by Paul, and that keeps her happy. She wonders whether the Bournville offering in her dad’s birthday box of Cadbury’s Heroes will be suitable too, but alas, no – Bournville isn’t as dark as you might think as it contains milk.

Preparing lunch boxes (Beanfeast pate sandwiches for Sally), I have another almost-knife-licking incident with Nick’s garlic and herb soft cheese. I’m really going to have to watch that.

Fri 7th Nov.

Today my copy of Outrage, Animal Aid’s magazine, arrives. It has a feature on Vegan Month, of course and urges me to check out their website. Yep, I’ll get round to that. I see a large advert for the previously mentioned Sheese and study with interest the wide range of products they make, including a garlic and herb creamy “cheese”. Ooh, I’ll have to try that.

Lunch is a spelt-sunflower seed burger with houmous and raw carrot. I often have this, but must confess these burgers are rather expensive. I’m always saying I’ll make my own burgers, but rarely get round to doing it. In this dodgy economic climate though, I really must make the effort.

Tonight’s meal needs to have strong whole-family appeal as I’m depriving us of a much-loved recently established family tradition, that of Stuffed Pasta Friday! As the stuffing tends to be cheese, that’s out. I suppose I could make my own, but, as the quote almost goes, life’s too short to stuff pasta! So it’s plain pasta with a sauce consisting of vegetables, a jar of vegan pesto, vegetable stock, and yes, I sneak in the remains of the disliked cream “cheese” (and yes, I do get away with it). It’s a success, with the kids having seconds. The protein has come from the pine nuts in the pesto as well as the soya “cheese”. I do wonder whether we’re relying too much on soya in all its various forms, and not having enough variety. So I decide I’d better start looking at meals with pulses and nuts too.