expensive food for vegetarians

surime

surime wrote: »

What do you mean by "arshole of nowhere" ?

See if I tell you, you'll say it doesnt really exist.
I'll get upset and it will be horribley messy.

Lets just agree with me. :P

Mary-Ellen

I'd rather the arshole of nowhere was left a mystery

Back on topic I've bought firm tofu in Dunnes for about 3 euro can't imagine you'd get the equivalent weight of free range chicken breasts any cheaper.

If anything I find the veggie diet cheaper

fobster

surime wrote: »

About meat : I buy only free range chickens or eggs and sorry but besides this I think killing cow is much more horrible then killing chicken. Chickens are not even half that inteligent as cows or pigs are. Of course it doesnt mean they dont have right to live, its just -they are less aware.

Aha! That must be what makes steak so much tastier than chicken. I can always tell when I'm eating a smart animal. Hmm...intelligence... Rashers of eternal wisdom...

Maybe chickens live a multi-dimensional existence and this life bores the feathers off them so they spend most of their time in some other dimension fighting the evil Starfox so they decide to apportion the minimum amount of their mental capacity necessary to this existence.

fobster

Mary-Ellen wrote: »

Back on topic I've bought firm tofu in Dunnes for about 3 euro can't imagine you'd get the equivalent weight of free range chicken breasts any cheaper.

I'd prefer free-range tofu and firm breasts.

entropi

surime wrote: »

First of all I said "semi-vegetarian"

First of all, there is no such thing...you are either vegetarian or you are not...even if in transition you cannot make that claim.

Is there anybody normal who would agree with me that "healt store" is expensive?

Yes i would totally agree that health food shops are actually extortionists, but those places exist for people who either cannot spend time looking around, or are too lazy, or are unable to find a certain something anywhere else...

miss hell

healthy food isn't expensive. junk food is just cheap for reasons that contains additives and chemicals. this in means more money for the companies producing the chemicals that we consume in our food and more money for the pharmaceutical companies that profit from the human race getting ill from consuming these chemically poisoned foods.

Thoushaltnot

Right - health food stores don't quite have the turnover as regular shops, so they have to get their overheads back on the lesser amount of sales that they have. And yes, small stores are hammered with extortionate rates. This is Ireland after all but I'll leave the political ranting for another occasion. That said, I could out one in Dublin city centre as a total rip off, for anyone who doesn't know better. (Hint: it sells Kombucha for €8.40 a bottle - I wait till it sells for half price in the main stores and so, regularly get it for €1.50)

Secondly - I've started a Veggie/Organic/Health food bargains thread. It's a bit neglected as I don't have as much time as I used to but other people occasionally post their bargain finds there too. I dont like being ripped off as a veggie, so I try to direct peeps to where the bargains are. Might even help to drive those prices down.

It's possible to make your own tofu - cheaply even. Google "make your own tofu". Simples.
You can get specialist machines for making "milks" - under €150 bucks. I'm not vegan so I don't know when you make your money back on that but considering the limited range of milks and the price of the more exotic ones (nearly 6 bucks for the quinoa milk, fiver ish for the Hemp milk) in this country, it's worth a look. (It seems that you make the "milk" first and process that to make the tofu). But, bottom line, you don't need fancy equipment.

Also, the more processed a food is, the more "value" is added to it, ie. the more expensive it is relative to the cost of producing the raw ingredients. So buy fresh and raw, as much as possible, and do your health as well as your pocket a favour.

I'd try to throw the health foods stores a bit of business - we all treat ourselves to summat from time to time and if it wasn't for them, we'd have a very limited range of exotic food to experiment with, cruelty free veggie cosmetics, non-pharma healthy ..erm...alleged... curatives, etc.

My 2 cents.

Vegan Wannabe

I don't eat tofu or know how much it usually costs. But it can't be anymore than meat can it?

I see my health shop purchases (fake meats etc) as a treat- it's all too easy to end up buying everything there.( If you can afford it- great!) Most of my food money goes on fresh fruit and veg.

flikflak

The one example you have given as being expensive is totally not expensive if you hunt out your local Asian store.

A block of 4 large cubes of tofu is about €1.80. This is adaquate for 4 meals. Not expensive at all.

Also as referred to above there is no such thing as a semi-vegetarian. You either are or are not.

Dried beans and pulses are very cheap and if you plan for the week ahead you can live very cheaply.

Fake meats and specialist products are a bit more expenisve but I only buy these once in a while.

Tesco have now started to expand their free from selection and I picked up some Mayola in there the other day for a reasonable price. Also they have the dairy free buttons at 49c whereas H+B have them at 99c!!!

sweet-rasmus

flikflak wrote: »

Also they have the dairy free buttons at 49c whereas H+B have them at 99c!!!

I'm a bit shocked at that difference! Good to know

surime

Semi-Vegetarians aka FlexitariansSemi-vegetarians limit their intake of either certain types of meat or the amount of meat. For example, they might eat no red or white meat (beef, pork, venison, etc), but eat fowl and fish. Or they might only eat meat once or twice a week. Someone who only eats fish can also be called a pescatarian. (Purists would say that semi-vegetarians are not vegetarians at all, but I have included them in order to show the complete hierarchy.)Semi-Vegetarians aka Flexitarians Semi-vegetarians limit their intake of either certain types of meat or the amount of meat. For example, they might eat no red or white meat (beef, pork, venison, etc), but eat fowl and fish. Or they might only eat meat once or twice a week. Someone who only eats fish can also be called a pescatarian. (Purists would say that semi-vegetarians are not vegetarians at all, but I have included them in order to show the complete hierarchy.)

-thats from :

http://www.theveggietable.com/articles/whatisavegetarian.html

-and say what you want, but there is something between eating sousages, bacon and and eating only fish and very rarely some poultry -so yes I do feel like semi-vegetarian and I am one!!!

ztoical

surime wrote: »

(Purists would say that semi-vegetarians are not vegetarians at all, but I have included them in order to show the complete hierarchy.)

Not wanting to get at you OP but you've quoted it here yourself. You might feel like a "semi-vegetarian" [sorry its a stupid term and I really dislike] but you should understand alot of vegetarians dislike the use of the term semi-vegetarian as it just causes confusion and it's how you end up having fish/chicken in so called vegetarian dishes. When people hear someone calling themselves a semi-vegetarian alot of the time they tend to not understand there is a difference between that and a real vegetarian and think all vegetarians eat chicken and fish.

There was a good thread on here recently about people using the term pescetarianism more and how some didn't cus no one knew what it meant but if people don't use the terms people aren't going to learn so maybe it would be better to describe yourself as a flexitarianism rather then using the term semi-vegetarian thus avoiding confusion.

Mentalmiss

That is the most ridiculous term I ever heard. How can you be a simi-vegiterian. Who comes up with these things.

CokaColumbo

Surime, nothing about your diet can be considered to be in any way vegetarian.
'Non-vegetarian' is a made up term for people who refuse to stop eating animals but don't want to feel guilty about it. You might be fooling yourself but you're not fooling anybody else; you are just as much of an omnivore as the next person.
And that's not called absolutist; that's called being consistent on the most basic of levels.

surime wrote: »

I think killing cow is much more horrible then killing chicken. Chickens are not even half that inteligent as cows or pigs are. Of course it doesnt mean they dont have right to live, its just -they are less aware.

There is absolutely no distinction between the killing of a chicken and the killing of a cow. Saying that a chicken isn't 'half that intelligent" as a cow doesn't mean anything. You could just as easily say that a cow is not as intelligent as a pig, so therefore its o.k. to eat beef; and a pig isn't as intelligent as a chimpanzee, so therefore its o.k. to eat pork.

Lastly, if intelligence doesn't actually matter and a chicken still has a right to life why do you continue to eat them?

sweet-rasmus

I think we've had enough of the 'semi-vegetarian' debate. Anyone may continue to reply to the thread about vegetarian food being expensive (or not), but the defination of 'semi-vegetarian' need not be debated here anymore.

dermothickey

Try the asian markets for cheaper tofu Health food stores are pricey as their footfall tends to be less than the big chain stores,