VeganMOFO-3

A common reaction to telling someone you're vegan is.. 'oh, I could never give up cheese!' (or whatever else they think tastes too good) I'm sure there are many of us who have thought the same at some point in time so today's post is a run down of a weeks menu to prove that yes, actually, you can live without animal products and enjoy every bite of it!
I've kept it to simple meals, quick, easy, yummy ideas that anyone can cook but if you have the time and energy it can get a lot more elaborate...


Monday


Breakfast- Fruit Salad, Toast & Vegemite (although we get aussie mite since kraft cause pain but I didn't think all you non-aussies would know what it was)
Morning Tea- Nuts
Lunch- Carrot & Chickpea Soup
Arvo Tea- Hummus & Veggie Sticks
Dinner- Rosemary roast Veggies (pumpkin, eggplant, sweet potato, carrot, potato, mushrooms etc) with Baked Marinated Tofu (e.g. bbq, sweet chilli, sesame, tomato)
Dessert- Cacao-Coconut Nut Balls


Tuesday

Breakfast- Porridge with fruit

Morning Tea- Trail mix (assorted dried fruit & nuts)

Lunch- Toasted sandwich with hummus & roast vegetables

Arvo Tea- Roast Edamame

Dinner- Chickpea & Potato Curry, Brown rice, Vegetable Curry

Dessert- Fruit 'Ice-cream'

Wednesday

Breakfast- Fruit Smoothie

Morning Tea- Pumpkin Seeds

Lunch- Huge Mixed Salad with Tahini, ginger, soy dressing

Arvo Tea- Chick Nuts (roast Chickpeas)

Dinner- Veggie Stirfry with tofu & Millet

Dessert- Date/Nut fudge ball

Thursday

Breakfast- Cereal & Soy/rice milk

Morning Tea- Spicy Almonds

Lunch- Veg & Tofu Kebabs with spicy marinade

Arvo Tea- Stewed Apple

Dinner- Vegetable & Lentil Stew

Dessert- Frozen/Warm Berries (depending on the weather)

Friday

Breakfast- Buckwheat & Fruit

Morning Tea- Cinnamon Almonds

Lunch- Asian vegetable broth with rice noodles

Arvo Tea- Beetroot Hummus & carrot sticks

Dinner- Baked Potato with beans and pea dip & salad

Dessert- Chocolate Spiders

Saturday

Breakfast- Tofu & Veg scramble

Morning Tea- Apple & Almond butter

Lunch- Chickpea, Corn, Sage Soup with toast

Arvo Tea- Carrot & Walnut Muffin

Dinner- Spicy tomato dal, popadoms, rice, vegetable curry

Dessert- Choc 'Fudge' Coated Strawberries

Sunday

Breakfast- Vegan sausage, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, toast

Morning Tea- Banana with chopped cashews

Lunch- Vegan 'lasagna'

Arvo Tea- Apple sprinkled with cinnamon 

Dinner- Soba noodle Salad

Dessert- Fruit Trifle

The best advice I can give to someone starting out is get a few good recipes under your belt. You can learn slowly that way- branching out to one new recipe each week or so. The other thing that makes life easier is making large batches of things so you can stash some in the freezer/fridge for another meal. Also making things that are versatile (that you can use them in lots of dishes in different ways) will save you lots of work. There is no reason to ever feel deprived on a vegan diet, there's an array of wonderful food for you to choose from and if you ever need a hand there's a stack of vegan junk food to help you out (not that it should be a staple but if you need at hit we all understand!)
Hope this give you a good idea of the vegan options out there, why not try some? xxx