Hello beautiful people,
On today’s agenda, we’re introducing some meals into your diet. Yeah that’s right – weekly vegan meals.
Veganuary is quickly approaching, why not get a head start and try some weekly vegan meals! I often hear that it’s too hard or too complicated for people to start going vegan, they don’t know what to cook or they don’t understand what ‘we’ eat.
STAY SIMPLE
The number one failure of a diet is drastically changing your food and craving your ‘habbit’ food. Don’t do it! Eat what you normally eat and DITCH THE MEAT. A meal swap is better than not trying, right?
Simple swaps make for healthy alternatives but for now, we’ll stick to the basics. So I’m here to explain that we eat exactly what you do, but without the meat, it really is as simple as that!
weekly vegan meals
Breakfast Ideas
Vegan Waffles – Of course. My Waffles with Banana and berry nice cream topped with crispy cereal bits.
Vegan Pancakes – Eat them with bananas and syrup (especially blueberry syrup). Try my vegan pancake recipes.
Cereals – Rice Krispies, Frosties, Cornflakes (most brands) Weetabix, Jordan’s Country Crisp, Kelloggs Fruit ‘n’ Fibre, Just Right and Porridge.
Porridge or raw oats – Oats are a powerhouse of carbs and protein so I eat oats most days, I include them in my waffle mixture, overnight oats and porridge. Here are some ways to experiment with oats.
Beans on Toast – Beans are universally vegan (I have these in my weekly vegan meals plan) but people always think they have animal fat in for some bizarre reason.
Muesli – With Berries, fruit and nut I make my own!
Full English – Swap to veggie sausages (I recommend Linda McCartney’s new Vegan sausages) and try some veggie bacon, just add mushrooms tomatoes and beans. Oh and a slice of toast!
Fruit smoothies – Freeze a few bananas add them to a blender with your favourite fruits and a dash of your favourite new milk and that’s it! Try some smoothies from my board.
/All you need to swap out is your milk, or make your own! Try some of these great milk-alternatives, if you’re a fuss pot try roasted sweetened almond or Hazlenut milk for an easy transition (and half the calories). Need more ideas? Try my Vegan Breakfast Board for hundreds of ideas including weekly vegan meals!
Lunches
Sandwiches– Salad and spiced ‘chicken’ sandwich. Tom loves ‘Hot and spicy burgers‘ from Quorn on a salad sandwich. Why not try something new on your sandwich?
Cous-Cous – Instant Cous-Cous packets can be great with a salad.
Pasta– Why not whip up extra and save some for your lunch? Or instant pasta can be a bit tricky but tomato pasta is almost always safe, check for ones that are minus whey.
Salads– A popular go-to for a dieter or just anyone who enjoys a nice salad. I love sprouted raw salads at the moment, It’s a bit ‘la-di-da’ but they’re bloody good.
Wraps– Much like a sandwich you can put anything in them, my new favourite is a falafel salad wrap!
Soups – Make your own leek and potato soup or buy a packet or tinned soup but of course look out for ‘cream’ or milk-based soups unless they’re vegan specifically.
Sushi – Veggie sushi is pretty damn great, you can buy it pre-made from Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
/ Some other choices would be instant noodles (most are vegan) and their pot noodles and instant pot pasta too.
Dinner
Chilli – Celery, Carrots, red beans and soy mince with a few spices. Simple!
Curry – All you need is some fresh coriander and a jar of curry (most curries are vegan!)
Fajitas – Sweet potato fajitas or throw in some soy pieces or tofu.
Spag Bol – Super simple, chuck in some Quorn mince or soy mince (I use Tesco’s own) or grill some diced mushrooms. I like to throw in some additional veg but you can make this really simply why not try my mushroom meat balls?
Pizza – Super simple, buy them online or from specialist stores like The Stable Birmingham or order without cheese.
Burgers – Hot n Spicy, Linda McCartney’s soy burgers
Stir Fry – Throw in any veg you have left over and add some noodles and sauce.
/ We’re pretty happy with the flavours in our meals so we have most of these options on a loop and rarely deviate from this weekly vegan menu. Someday’s we swap stir-fry noodles for rice or we add garlic bread to some of our meals and swap out the side dishes but we love our dinners.
Vegan Snacks
Pot Noodles – I think almost all of their pots are vegan and most other ‘instant’ noodles have followed suit!
Tesco’s Sausage rolls – They say vegetarian on the bag but they are vegan don’t worry!
Crisps – I’m yet to find a crisp (other than ‘real cheese’ posh crisps) that aren’t vegan so you rarely have to worry about your favourite crisp being non-vegan! Bloody Brilliant!
cornetto – Of course, ice cream is everywhere but cornetto are vegan now too? Yeah! The Us started selling Vegan Cornetto’s in 2016 and the UK quickly followed suit!
/ Biscuits, Cakes, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Pizzas and ready meals… Want more snack foods to add to your vegan menu? Read through the best vegan snacks in the UK.
Most foods will be visibly labelled as Vegan or Vegetarian. When trying to work out if it might not be vegan just think three things; does it look ‘milky/cheesy’ if so, check for whey, casein, lactose, milk or eggs. If it looks like it might contain animal fat or even meat, look for gelatine, lard, Vitamin D3 or albumen.
The easiest thing to remember is – eat simply.
Prepare your meal as normal and remove the meat from the menu, what is left? Almost a full meal, right? Try to find replacements to fill the gaps. If it’s minced beef you’re missing try soy mince or minced mushrooms. Are you missing chicken slices? you could replace it with sweet potato chunks or grilled soy replacements.
There are so many alternatives out there it’s hard to argue that you ‘can’t find a replacement’. If you need a step-by-step plan on going vegan look no further I also have a post on my reasons for going vegan. I hope that this
If you want more vegan recipes take a look at my Vegan posts category or catch up with me every week by subscribing in the sidebar!
Don’t wait for Veganuary – Try something new today.
These are some great tips… my diet has been SO POOR lately because I’ve been too busy to take the time to eat healthy. Veganism can be intimidating for us carnivores, but I live in Tampa and found a great vegan delivery restaurant where the lady mails out a menu a week in advance, you choose the food from the menu, and then she delivers it. Many of her food options were similar to meal suggestions you have above. Great blog- I will be returning. xo
Oooh that sounds lovely! – I’m fairly lucky that where I live I can have anything I want and we always grew up on the idea that meat was expensive and unhealthy so it was fairly easy to transition to. It melts my heart to hear that I can help (even if it’s just an idea or suggestion) so thank you. I hope you get to try some yummy things from that lady! 🙂