Home Vegan Eating Simple Vegan Dinner Ideas #2

Simple Vegan Dinner Ideas #2

by Jessica Amey

Back in June I shared a week of vegan meal ideas and wrote at the end that week 2 would be following shortly, I’m not sure this would class as shortly but five months later, here we are!

The biggest change since my last post is that we are now a vegan family. I started out doing it on my own and wasn’t expecting anyone else to join me but Mr C switched after watching some of the same documentaries that I’d seen, he is actually 100% into it now which I’m obviously really happy about as we can feel passionately about it together. The children have also gone from not really understanding what it was to proudly calling themselves vegan. I didn’t want to push it on them and leave it down to them to decide as one day they will be living their own lives and can choose to eat anything they like. After watching a few videos about how animals are treated they told me they didn’t want to eat animals products anymore so we are now a completely vegan household.

The only time they get tempted is if we are in a café that doesn’t have a vegan option, when faced with cake it’s hard for them to turn it down but I let them make that choice themselves. We are giving them B12 supplements as that’s the only thing you don’t get in a vegan diet. Cherry actually loves all kinds of nuts and seeds as well as a good range of vegetables, Tiger not so much but he is 3 and to be honest he wasn’t eating any dairy or meat before anyway so it hasn’t really been that much of a change for him. They both love fruit and I make sure I sneak things like hemp powder into baked goods. I also make lots of raw cakes which are full of nuts.

I know the first people think of when they imagine going vegan is everything they will have to give up but I don’t feel like I’ve given up anything, more that I’ve opened up a whole new world of amazing food that I wasn’t eating before. Not to mention it’s like the best kept diet secret, I can eat all the things I love and not even think about calories because my weight stays the same, and it’s less that it was in my pre-vegan days. I just feel better too, I have way more energy and my fitness levels are so much better.

So here is another week of vegan meal ideas, I will explain what each one is below…

vegan-dinner-ideas-week-2

Meal 1 – Vegan enchiladas with coriander and lime cashew cream. This recipe is by Oh She Glows and it is amazing! I have her app on my phone which I love as if I’m out and don’t know what I’m making for dinner I can just check it, I haven’t made anything of it that I haven’t liked. The recipe can also be found online though here.

Meal 2 – Pizza! A week cannot go by without having some delicious pizza. I have a blog post about just the pizza with a link to the spelt dough recipe and a list of what I top it with, you can find it here.

Meal 3 – Roast dinner, this photo is a bit rubbish as it was dark but I had to take one as it was the best roast dinner I’ve ever eaten, seriously! I used this nut roast recipe which was so simple but SO tasty. You can add in anything you like too, I’m going to be making this for Xmas dinner this year. We are all intolerant to potato starch and thought we would miss having crispy roasties but I did some parsnips instead and a sweet potato mash plus broccoli and I didn’t miss them at all. I also made the Oh She Glows vegan gravy which is SO yummy, the recipe is here.

Meal 4 – Homemade falafels and houmous in a pitta bread. This is more of a lunch or light dinner but it was super yummy. I’ve been making my own houmous for months now, it’s so much nicer and you can add anything you like. I just blend up a tin of chickpeas with a large tablespoon of tahini and a load of garlic oil, I save a bit of the chickpea water to thin it down a bit too. Then I add spices like curry powder or turmeric / cumin. And drizzle with chilli oil too. I skip the lemon as I don’t like it. I also just made up the falafel recipe by chucking chickpeas into the blender with fresh coriander, some flour, spices and garlic oil then fried them. Then added to a pitta bread with some grated carrot.

Meal 5 – Vegan Macaroni Cheese. I use Jamie Oliver’s recipe and it is SO GOOD! The thing I love about vegan food is that it doesn’t leave you with that horrible full up feeling that dairy does. Yet it’s just as satisfying and tasty. Mmmmm.

Meal 6 – Sausage rolls with cauliflower cheese and peas. Mr C was away when I made this so it was a kid’s meal that I happily tucked into. When I make vegan cheese sauce I always make a big batch to keep in the fridge for adding to anything and everything. I used some to make cauliflower cheese on this occasion and had it with sausage rolls and peas.

Meal 7 – Vegetable lasagne. I just fried loads of vegetables with garlic oil then added tinned tomatoes and tomato puree for the filling then layered it between lasagne sheets and topped with cheese sauce. Can you tell I’m obsessed with cheese sauce?! I don’t have an exact recipe as I tend to just make everything up, I will try and write one out one day! I just melt vegan butter, add some spelt flour and whisk then slowly whisk in heated (to stop it splitting) soya milk and stir it to thicken. Then I add nutritional yeast, vegan cheese, nutmeg, a bit of stock powder and salt and pepper.

I have another one of these posts coming up with cakes and sweet treats, will try not to leave it five months again this time!

I hope this has provided you with some meal inspiration, it’s made me so hungry I’m off to make something to eat!

 

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