Vegan for Life (16 page)

Many people eat the same breakfast every single day, perhaps with a slight variation on the weekends. Hot or cold cereal with nondairy milk, toast with nut butter, juice, and fruit make a very hearty and healthy vegan breakfast that will suit the needs of most family members. Pancakes, vegan French toast, or scrambled tofu are good choices for more leisurely weekend breakfasts. Don’t be afraid to think beyond traditional breakfast foods. A veggie burger or soup is just as good for breakfast as for dinner.

You might want to experiment with egg-free baking (see page 114) or look for baked goods and frozen desserts in the natural foods store. Old-fashioned, all-purpose cookbooks have recipes for fruit crumbles and crisps that are vegan—or that can be “veganized” by replacing butter with margarine. If you love all-American cuisine, take a look at the Betty Crocker Project (
www.meettheshannons.net/p/betty-crocker-project.html
), which aims to veganize every recipe in the
Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook
published in the 1950s.

Many snack chips are vegan and so are several brands of commercial cookies, including Oreos. Take a peek in the freezer section of your natural foods store, too, for frozen desserts such as Coconut Bliss, hempseed-based Tempt, and So Delicious products.

The egg’s main claim to fame is its role as a functional participant in cooking. In baking, it helps with leavening, and in savory foods, like veggie burgers, it’s a binding agent. But other ingredients have those same properties, and there are plenty of effective ways to replace eggs in cooking.

To keep vegan loaves, burgers and croquettes from falling apart, add a little bit of flour, bread crumbs, or rolled oats.

For egg-free baking, you are likely to get better results by using refined flours since they are lighter and more easily leavened. (It’s fine to use whole grains, though, just as long as you know to expect a somewhat heavier product.)

Look for recipes that call for just one or two eggs since it is easy to replicate them with a vegan version. Most cake mixes lend themselves well to vegan baking. For foods that don’t require a great deal of leavening, like pancakes, you can simply eliminate the eggs and add an extra two tablespoons of water or soymilk.

Natural foods groceries carry commercial products like EnerG Egg Replacer and Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer or try one of the following to replace eggs in baked goods.

For each egg:

When it comes to replacing eggs on the menu, there is nothing like tofu. Mash tofu and sauté it in vegan margarine with mushrooms and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast for “scrambled tofu.” Or chop firm tofu and mix with onion, celery, and vegan mayonnaise for vegan egg salad. You may want to track down some black salt (called
kala namak
), which can be found in Indian groceries or ordered online. It smells and tastes exactly like egg yolks. Try it in scrambled tofu or in recipes for vegan omelets.

There are thousands and thousands of vegan recipes for dinner and at-home meals. But you can brown-bag it vegan-style too. If your workplace has a microwave oven, you can enjoy instant soups packaged as individual servings (the kind in cardboard cups) or prepared burritos. If you don’t have access to a microwave, take leftover beans, soups, or stews to work in a good quality thermos. Use the weekend to prepare a big pot of soup or beans and then freeze individual portions for grab-and-go meals to heat at work.

Or make sandwiches from vegan luncheon meats or hummus. Hummus-to-Go made by Wild Garden is a good choice when you don’t have refrigeration since it comes in sealed individual-serving-size packages. Trail mix, instant oatmeal, and apples with almond butter are other tasty on-the-go snacks.

A great option for brown-bag lunches is a wrap sandwich that uses leftovers from dinner. Keep a stack of large whole-wheat flour tortillas in the refrigerator and try some of the combinations below for wrap fillings:

The variety of vegan products is growing like wildfire, and you’d be surprised by how many old-time favorites in the grocery store are vegan. As you explore, experiment, and taste, your menus will evolve, and you’ll find solutions to menu-planning problems. Even longtime vegans find that their menus and diets develop over time based on new products and changing lives. Maybe you need to identify a list of restaurants where you can meet friends or take business clients or host a child’s birthday party. If you entertain, you may need to gather ideas for a vegan cocktail party or for family get-togethers. The Internet is a valuable resource for these more specific issues.

Making the change to a vegan diet won’t automatically save you money, but it’s easy enough to plan healthy and enjoyable meals with a budget in mind. There’s a balance, though: The best way to cut back on food expenses is to eat out less frequently and limit pricey convenience foods. But that usually translates to more time spent cooking, and not everyone has that time. Here are a few ideas that will help you save money without spending hours in the kitchen.

All of the standard advice that works for budget-minded omnivores applies to vegan grocery shopping: Make a list and stick to it; buy in season; look for specials; avoid impulse purchases; and take advantage of bulk-food warehouse stores.

You don’t have to include soyfoods in your vegan diet, but they are so versatile and nutritious that many vegans find them indispensable. This group of foods has a long history of use in Asian countries, and they’ve been the focus of much research over the past couple of decades. We’ll talk about nutrition, health, and safety issues related to soy in Chapter 15. Here is a quick rundown of the most commonly consumed soyfoods.

Soybeans are generally tan in color, but they can also be black or brown. They’re a good source of protein, fiber, calcium, iron, and folate. Cooked soybeans have a flavor often described as “beany.” It’s a flavor that marries well with tomato sauces and spicy foods.

These are soybeans that are harvested at about 75 percent maturity, while they are still green and have the nutrition of the whole soybean but with a milder flavor. In Japan, they are boiled in the pod and then served as a popular bar food (with beer). In the United States, you can find edamame already shelled in either the produce or frozen food section. Boil them for 15 minutes and eat as a vegetable or add them to grain salads. They’re a good source of protein, fiber, and calcium.

Made from dry soybeans that have been soaked and then roasted, these are a good snack and a crunchy addition to salads. They are relatively high in fat and calories and are a good source of both protein and calcium.

This is the liquid expressed from soaked, pureed soybeans. It’s a good source of protein and usually fortified with calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B
₁₂
, and sometimes riboflavin. (Soymilk sold in Asian markets is often not fortified, so be certain to check labels.) Plain soymilk can stand in for cow’s milk in just about any circumstance. Vanilla or chocolate soymilk can be used in smoothies or desserts.