Vegan-ish for Veganuary

So many people think I’m vegan and some days I am, but I’m torn with this.

Because I really want to be vegan for so many reasons, I’ll share those below shortly. I’ve given a lot of thought though and basically, I can’t do it, it’s impossible – for another list of completely different reasons… see below. So this is my post for Veganuary – about why I’m only going Vegan-ish.

Reasons I’d like to go vegan

1. Animals – I love animals and would love to see a world where we don’t eat them, take their young and treat them like animals. You only have to listen to the cows in the fields behind where I live when their calves are taken away to know that they suffer. They bellowed appallingly for days, weeks even. You could hear the terrible anguish in their cries for their children.
2. Save the planet – We know it would better for the planet, reduce greenhouse gases and be more sustainable if we all ate less meat. Farming livestock is an expensive and highly intensive industry.
3. Better skin health – My skin is better when I eat less meat. Would it be even better if I ate no meat at all? I don’t know why this is for sure bit I think it’s due to the fact that meat is harder to digest and eating a fruit, vegetable and plant based diet causes less inflammation and is easier to digest.
4. Cost – Meat is expensive! When I do buy meat I get organic, fair farmed and the best quality I can and it’s not cheap! A trip to my local greengrocers and I can come home with two bagfulls of fruit and veg for a tenner!
5. Reducing waste – Waste from cooking meat is harder to manage. It smells awful and needs to go in the food bin, which is great in cold weather but in the summer can lead to a maggot situation! When I eat any meat or fish I try to leave as little waste as possible, so if I buy a chicken to roast I’ll also make stock from the bones and pick over the carcass for as much meat as I can. I have a compost heap at the end of my garden and all my plant based food wasted goes on there so I often have no food waste to put of for collection.

Reasons I can’t go vegan

1. Too many life threatening allergies – I am allergic to milk, soya, wheat and most nuts so am already cutting out a lot of food from my diet. Obviously I’m already avoiding milk which is half way to being vegan but the vegan options often contain wheat, soya and nuts so this can make finding safe food difficult. It’s probably a step too far for me to manage.
2. Vegan label checking – Ditto checking labels it would be very difficult when shopping to make sure I was avoiding all meat and animal based ingredients.
3. Eating out – This would be very difficult. I often end up with Steak and chips or Ham, egg and chips and the Sunday Roast is such an easy safe option or me, with the only questions being about butter on the joint and veggies and the gravy. If I lost these often safe go to items I’d really struggle to eat out.
4. Protein in my diet – This could be a problem too. I would worry I was getting enough protein without being able to include nuts, tofu and other vegan safe protein options. Eggs, fish and meat are an easy protein solution for me, although I have greatly reduced my consumption and only buy eggs from a friend or free range.
5. I love meat! There, I’ve said it. Roast dinners, bacon butties, poached eggs, meringues, honey, I wear leather shoes and love my leather satchel… I’m being honest here, I really love these foods and my leather belongings. However, where I can I’m experimenting. I have a recipe for meringues using Aquafaba (chick pea water) which I cannot wait to try.

So whilst a lot of people think I’m vegan already, I’m only a little bit vegan.

This January I will continue to experiment with my baking, making cakes and cookies without eggs, so that one day, when we can see friends again, I can make my vegan friends tasty treats. It’s easy to replace eggs in most cake recipes by using ground flax, mashed banana, puréed apple, chia seeds etc. There are so many egg free recipes out there.

Those meringues using Aquafaba! They look amazing and I’m going to try this in January. Follow my social media channels to follow!

Since the covid virus arrived I’ve not eaten out much at all for a year, like most others, and I realised that I have gone months without eating any meat. I need to do some research into protein rich foods that I CAN eat as there could be loads!

I love cooking curries, stir fries and roasted vegetable dishes and have been enjoying experimenting with flavours over lockdown.

So in the hopes that I do not offend all my vegan friends and vegans everywhere, I’ll be joining you this month of #Veganuary by going Vegan-ish! and doing my best to go a little bit more vegan whenever and wherever I can!

Are you vegan?

Further reading:

Vegan Society guidance of veganism with a soya, peanut or nut allergy.