Struggling a little, some advice/help please?

afterglow

Hi all
hope alright to post this here, decided to do so after reading a message on the site about something similar and saw people were very helpful indeed, so thought I would post and hopefully get some good advice.
I am still a really new vegan, with really underlined and in capital letters!
I went vegan for ethical reasons, I hate the idea that any other living being should suffer just so I can eat what's come from them, it makes me sick when I think about it. my problem, however, is just that I am struggling a bit. I find myself craving dairy, and egg products, though not eggs in their raw form. I miss milk, butter, and then just things like pastries which i would have had occasionally with a coffee. I have some almond milk in the house and I've had this a few times on serial but it's not the same for me as real milk. When I attempted to go vegan before, I tried rice milk, so am sure glad I didn't do that again as it to me just wasn't nice at all. The almond milk is okay, but I don't really like the taste of nuts from it, would soya milk be any thicker/like the consistancy that I would have been used to? Now onto butter. Can anyone recommend a butter that is not made from nuts and that tastes good? I have tried a nut butter, but just not for me. I also do miss some treats, but the most important thing is to find good milks and butters at the moment, as this is what I'm struggling most with.
Would really appreciate help/advice as I really want to be vegan, and don't want to have this be what makes me going back to being vegetarian, not that this is not good, it's just I do absolutely want to be vegan.
Thanks for reading, and sorry for such a long post.

I think the milk thing just takes time to adjust.
When I used to drink Soya milk regularly, cows tasted awful for me.

If you find yourself proper good olive oil.
You would want to go to a market probably. Or at least specialist importer.
It is just as nice as butter on bread.

matrim

Soya milk has a slightly thicker taste than almond milk but still not as thick as cows milk and as moonbeam said it does take a little getting used to.

Personally for cereal / porridge I prefer hazelnut milk. For tea I use unsweetened soya milk (Non UHT Alpro light or Tesco Unsweetned) and coffee I now prefer black

afterglow

Thanks for the 2 replies I have gotten so far.

I wil definitely look for hazelnut milk next time I am in nourish, last time I was there I got some help to get some basics and the girl was fantastic. I need some help shopping for food and milk etc because I can't see. I found out today that last week, I drank a regular Latte instead of a soya one. I went to supermax in heuston last week, asked for a soya latte but the girl behind the counter must have thought I said small, and because I have drank soya lattes in bewleys and noticed very little difference this is what happened here. I went again today to supermax thinking I could get a soya latte, asked and was told there was no soya milk. asked was this a regular thing or just today, was told there is never soya milk. Had I been able to see the coffee last week I would have known it wasn't soya, but because I couldn't I ended up drinking it and noticing no difference. I only say that because this is an area I'm struggling with also, finding vegan products, and always wondering when I ask for something, because I can't see it, would people ever be dishonest and just bring you normal milk or whatever pretending its soya etc.
Last week when I was in a hotel for a night, I did indeed do what the last poster said, and had coffee black, in the morning for breakfast I had toast with jam a black coffee and a banana so was fine. Then last week when I went to my mum's for dinner, i brought some alpro custard, which my mum actually picked up for me in her shopping, and i must say it was lovely. Like i say just the butter and milk I am struggling with. Like I say though I will definitely give the hazelnut milk a try for on my serial, thanks for the suggestion. all that's left now is to find a good butter.

matrim

I get the hazlenut milk from tesco, it's from alpro so you don't need to go to a specialist shop to get it

perfectisthe

Hey. First off, good for you for going vegan.

You really shouldn't have any problems finding suitable substitutes for the items you mentioned. I take it from your post that you live in the Dublin area? Dublin is pretty vegan-friendly overall, it'll just involve you making some small changes in your shopping habits.

As has been mentioned, Tesco sell a variety of inexpensive plant milks. Try them all and see which one suits you (I like a combination of sweetened soya and hazelnut for different things). Soya is available pretty much everywhere these days anyway, your local Centra or Spar is likely to stock it.

Tesco also sell dairy-free spreads such as Pure, which comes in a number of varieties. Health shops stock these as well, but I find them to be very expensive there.

If you miss eggs, you can experiment with tofu. You can scramble it, or do it omelette style. If you use an ingredient called black salt, which you can find in Asian supermarkets (indeed, Asian supermarkets are a great resource for vegans), you can achieve some pretty impressive results! There are loads of recipes all over the internet.

As for the coffee thing, while most coffee shops will have soya milk, don't expect it in places like Supermacs. If you're worried that someone will serve you non-vegan food/drink and fib about it, well, unfortunately that does happen. There's nothing you can do about that though, so it's best not to worry about it.

Best advice: don't panic. It's a learning process. You'll figure out soon enough what you like and what you don't. Also, it's a good idea not to think of being vegan purely in restrictive terms. There's a whole world of food out there waiting to be explored. When I went vegan my palette expanded considerably, I tried foods I never would have considered before, but ended up loving.

loueuro2

hi , changing the milk was the hardest for me too i was always comparing to dairy. i tried them all thought rice milk looked terrible(grey) put me off before i even tasted it! soya i get weird taste off, eventually i found kara coconut milk tastes normal,looks normal that was the one for me!! u can get that in some dunnes,supervalue or health shops. butter i use is pure from tesco. i think it takes a while to adjust to the different tastes for me i couldnt stand the taste of soya yoherts,didnt touch them for months and now love them. coffee i take black,thats just getting used to it also. best of luck youll soon find what tastes best for u its all about testing,have fun!!!!

sav1980

Have you tried kara coconut milk? Its pretty creamy, not too coconutty in taste either, might be worth trying on cereal. You can buy it at Dunnes, Holland and Barrett or most health food stores. As for butter replacement, Try Vitalite, also available in Dunnes and Tesco. I think its the nicest of the dairy free spreads. Good luck.

perfectisthe

sav1980 wrote: »

Have you tried kara coconut milk? Its pretty creamy, not too coconutty in taste either, might be worth trying on cereal. You can buy it at Dunnes, Holland and Barrett or most health food stores. As for butter replacement, Try Vitalite, also available in Dunnes and Tesco. I think its the nicest of the dairy free spreads. Good luck.

Actually yeah, a second vote for Vitalite here too. It's an excellent spread.

afterglow

hi everyone.

Hope it was alright to add thanks for the messages untill i was ready to write one back

I really appreciate you all taking the time to write. I will definitely try the spread that was suggested, along with the coconut milk.
just back from a meal with the other half, had Thai green mixed veg curry, along with some boiled rice. also some Thai vegetarian spring roles for starters, I presume this was okay to eat? What does anyone here eat when they go out for takeaway? Thanks again for the replies so far.

perfectisthe

Thai green curry in a restaurant might have shrimp paste and fish sauce in it. In fact, I haven't found a Thai place that does vegan-friendly green curry in Dublin. Again, nothing to panic about, you'll figure all this out as you go along.

The most vegan-friendly takeaway is definitely Indian. Generally, in most places, most of the veggie menu can be veganised. There's also plenty of options in Chinese takeaways too. You'll generally be able to get tofu and various sauces there. I absolutely love the tofu blackbean in my local. You'll just need to ensure that whatever you order has no oyster or fish sauce. Also, recipes really vary from place to place, so just cause the blackbean in my local is vegan, doesn't mean that it will be in yours.

You'll find loads of vegan-friendly stuff out there, you'll just have to get used to asking questions about how your food is prepared. After a while it'll become second nature. I'm going to PM you a link that I think you'll find useful.

flikflak

M+S dairy free spread - about 99c and comes in regular and low fat versions. Cheap and tastes fine on toast!

Its a learning curve when you decide to go vegan and even seasoned vegans will slip up so dont worry about it. Just learn from it and move on.

As mentioned above no need to go to Nourish for your hazelnut milk - its in Tesco.

I always enjoy Italian for a meal out as this is quite easy to veganise. Pizza without cheese, pasta (not made with egg) with a variety of sauces, risotto and salads. Just make sure you are clear about how you want your food and double check they have understood.