Picked these up from Aldi for boxing day.
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I am slowly trying to transition my heavy meat eating family to a few meat free days each week. We really liked the green quisine chicken pies and strips, the quorn southern fried chicken burgers. We did not like the plant pioneers meat free burgers 
I have found all the vivera range to be really tasty, definitely stock up when they're on offer.
Those cauliflower pop bites sound so good, hopefully next year I'll get them too!
Aldi coming through with goods again! Had those dim sums last year and i liked them, what did you think??
What do you guys recommend as a good packed lunch vegan option? I’ve been vegetarian for most of my life and me/my boyfriend are going to do veganuary. He’s struggling for lunch ideas so any help is appreciated!
I'd love some ideas too. My girls have quorn vegan chicken or ham sandwiches
I do quinoa salads a lot. You can do so much, roasted butternut squash with various bits.
Edamame bean salads
Have a Google you can put most stuff in and I really like it
Edamame bean salads
Have a Google you can put most stuff in and I really like it
Is anyone else doing Veganuary? I’m going to try, I don’t eat much meat anyway and can easily cut it out. But cutting out cheese is going to be a problem for me. Are there any decent vegan cheese substitutes?
The couple of vegan cheeses I’ve tried are nasty so I’m going to cut it completely - that’s the plan anyway!
I suppose I will manage without for a month lol. I know that dairy isn’t good for me anyway. I’ve ordered a vegan cookbook today, and will go shopping in the week to properly prepare.
I've not tried any of the cheeses, I buy violife for the kids.
Dairy is the one thing I struggle with so just go without
Pasta/couscous salads with cherry tomatoes, chickpeas/beans/lentils, cucumber and olives with some hummus is a go-to for me! Or hummus & falafel sandwiches/pitta/wraps, chickpea 'tuna' sandwiches (just mashed chickpeas with some vegan mayo/Alpro greek yog, apple cider vinegar, olive brine and chopped celery), Linda Mccartney sausage sandwiches. I like to batch prep one-tray roasts on a Sunday for weekday lunches - some sweet potato, chickpeas/beans/vegan sausages, and whatever other veg you like with cumin, paprika, etc. Stores well in the fridge. I usually add some fresh greens and a tahini-lemon juice dressing that I chuck on just before eating. Hope that helps!
Tesco's own brand smoked/mature cheddar and jalapeno cheddar are actually really good and melt well. Applewood's is good too. Violife's epic mature cheddar is decent but I think Tesco's own smoked one is better. I get the Violife grated cheese for convenience sometimes to go on pasta bakes and the like - melts and does the job!
I just tried the M&S Plant Kitchen Butternut and Pecan Nut Roast and the Lidl Deluxe Nut Roast (the cashew and carrot one) over the Christmas weekend and both were winners! Good flavour and texture.
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Had Vivera bacon pieces on Christmas Day for breakfast. OMG I liked it more than real bacon! They were incredibly tasty, really succulent and actually tasted like bacon!
I tried the Papa John's back in January, on a lazy hangover Sunday and it wasn't that great. The vegan cheese was surprisingly good but the pepperoni slices had a strange aftertaste. I might try again but have a pizza with mixed veg and the vegan cheese, but no sausages.
I like the dominos’ one!
I did Veganuary twice now and doing it again this Jan - I just go without cheese somehow! Didn't miss it once last year which surprised me. I did miss eggs though as I prefer a savoury breakfast.
So, some of my plant based faves:
Naturli
- love both the vegan block and the spreadable, but the block a bit more. It's quite good in curries where in traditional recipes you'd use ghee;
- I used to be able to get their meat replacements in Sainsbury's but mine hasn't had them in a while. I loved the chicken free chunks, great in curries, the mince was decent (meat-loving boyf rated the mince really high) and the hot dogs/sausages were one of nicest vegan sausages we've had, we both loved them;
Gosh!- I love everything but the sweetcorn and quinoa bites, mushroom burgers and smokey sweet potato and red pepper sausages are absolute faves
Heck - love the Meat-Free Magic and Vegan Breakfast. The Beet ones are nice but not as nice as the other two.
Plant Pioneers - used to love both Caramelised Onion and Chorizo-style shroomdogs but I think they've changed ingredients and they now have aftertaste
"Milks"
I like a very thin plant "milks", I drink a massive matcha latte every day so the "milk" has to be watery and with slight sweetness. For that purpose I mostly buy Rude Health Almond Drink( it's actually rice and almond), but if can't get hold of it, I like Rice Dream Organic Rice Drink.
Other than that, I have tried most of Rude Health ones and I love that they have nice sweetness to them. I don't have tea or coffee with sugar but don't mind the natural sweetness from the "milk". The hazelnut one is really lush, especially in iced coffee or hot chocolate.
For normal tea or coffee, baking and making sauces, I like Oatly organic and Tesco's own organic soy. It's only a pound and has no emulsifiers added. I buy "milks" with very simple ingredients, I don't like a lot of thickeners and some of Alpro ones gave me stomach pain or a feeling of a heavy stomach. I am very particular, sorry! I recently tried Aldi's Oat drink and despite having some thickener, it was nice, creamy with a bit of sweetness. Will definitely buy again.
Randoms:
Vego white choc and almond bar - JUST LUSH! Very sweet though
This "parm cheese". It's more of a seasoning than cheese replacement but so delicious. Very pricey though
Love all Taifun tofus. The smoked one with almond is so nice, you can just have it sliced in a sandwich. I like these two, you can blend them with a bit of mayo, olive oil and lemon juice and make delicious spreads:
Tofoo ones are nice too, especially the smoked one.
Some vegan disapointments included Beyond Meat burger (had it in one of the Brewdog pubs and it was just to greasy) and Linda McCartney red onion and rosemary sausages - also too greasy. But maybe I just don't like greasy stuff. I also think the sausages are veggie, not vegan.
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How is it going ? We are a family of 4 I am going to start with meat free days and build from there . We want to eat more plant based I’ve started to add some of the products suggested , I’m guessing with my kids it’ll end trial and errorI am slowly trying to transition my heavy meat eating family to a few meat free days each week. We really liked the green quisine chicken pies and strips, the quorn southern fried chicken burgers. We did not like the plant pioneers meat free burgers
We have to sneak the foods to my teenager but he generally doesn't notice. I'm not willing to give up normal cheese yet but we have made a good effort of cutting back on other meat products
I hated the beyond meat burger I'm glad I'm not the only one, it gets so hyped. Much prefer the naked glory burgersI did Veganuary twice now and doing it again this Jan - I just go without cheese somehow! Didn't miss it once last year which surprised me. I did miss eggs though as I prefer a savoury breakfast.
So, some of my plant based faves:
Naturli
- love both the vegan block and the spreadable, but the block a bit more. It's quite good in curries where in traditional recipes you'd use ghee;
- I used to be able to get their meat replacements in Sainsbury's but mine hasn't had them in a while. I loved the chicken free chunks, great in curries, the mince was decent (meat-loving boyf rated the mince really high) and the hot dogs/sausages were one of nicest vegan sausages we've had, we both loved them;
View attachment 362698
Gosh!- I love everything but the sweetcorn and quinoa bites, mushroom burgers and smokey sweet potato and red pepper sausages are absolute faves
Heck - love the Meat-Free Magic and Vegan Breakfast. The Beet ones are nice but not as nice as the other two.
Plant Pioneers - used to love both Caramelised Onion and Chorizo-style shroomdogs but I think they've changed ingredients and they now have aftertaste
"Milks"
I like a very thin plant "milks", I drink a massive matcha latte every day so the "milk" has to be watery and with slight sweetness. For that purpose I mostly buy Rude Health Almond Drink( it's actually rice and almond), but if can't get hold of it, I like Rice Dream Organic Rice Drink.
Other than that, I have tried most of Rude Health ones and I love that they have nice sweetness to them. I don't have tea or coffee with sugar but don't mind the natural sweetness from the "milk". The hazelnut one is really lush, especially in iced coffee or hot chocolate.
For normal tea or coffee, baking and making sauces, I like Oatly organic and Tesco's own organic soy. It's only a pound and has no emulsifiers added. I buy "milks" with very simple ingredients, I don't like a lot of thickeners and some of Alpro ones gave me stomach pain or a feeling of a heavy stomach. I am very particular, sorry! I recently tried Aldi's Oat drink and despite having some thickener, it was nice, creamy with a bit of sweetness. Will definitely buy again.
View attachment 362708
Randoms:
Vego white choc and almond bar - JUST LUSH! Very sweet though
This "parm cheese". It's more of a seasoning than cheese replacement but so delicious. Very pricey though
View attachment 362699
Love all Taifun tofus. The smoked one with almond is so nice, you can just have it sliced in a sandwich. I like these two, you can blend them with a bit of mayo, olive oil and lemon juice and make delicious spreads:
View attachment 362715
View attachment 362718
Tofoo ones are nice too, especially the smoked one.
Some vegan disapointments included Beyond Meat burger (had it in one of the Brewdog pubs and it was just to greasy) and Linda McCartney red onion and rosemary sausages - also too greasy. But maybe I just don't like greasy stuff. I also think the sausages are veggie, not vegan.
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