I want to become vegan. Can you recommend any books, replacement products, or recipes?!

Question: I plan on meeting with a dietitian/nutritionist soon, but I was wondering if anyone here could recommend any good books on the subject. I don't want books on why I should become vegan, but rather books on HOW to become vegan.

Cookbooks and recipes would be especially helpful because I have to pack my lunch, dinner, and snacks five times a week and will need some variety. How about sample shopping lists?

Also, do you have any tips for the transition? So far I've just been trying different vegan products and have been slowly replacing products as I find them with vegan-friendly alternatives. Eventually I won't want to even deal with most meat/cheese/etc. substitutes because of the processing, but one step at a time...

It's hard because I'm living with my mother while I finish school, and she gets angry and thinks I'm trying to starve myself or something. "What are you going to eat?! Nothing?!" I'm sure many vegetarians can relate.

Answers: I plan on meeting with a dietitian/nutritionist soon, but I was wondering if anyone here could recommend any good books on the subject. I don't want books on why I should become vegan, but rather books on HOW to become vegan.

Cookbooks and recipes would be especially helpful because I have to pack my lunch, dinner, and snacks five times a week and will need some variety. How about sample shopping lists?

Also, do you have any tips for the transition? So far I've just been trying different vegan products and have been slowly replacing products as I find them with vegan-friendly alternatives. Eventually I won't want to even deal with most meat/cheese/etc. substitutes because of the processing, but one step at a time...

It's hard because I'm living with my mother while I finish school, and she gets angry and thinks I'm trying to starve myself or something. "What are you going to eat?! Nothing?!" I'm sure many vegetarians can relate.

I always recommend "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina. Both are registered dietitians and the book is very thorough coverage of vegan nutrition. Once you know what your nutritional requirements are, it's really pretty easy to satisfy them with a varied vegan diet.

I also cannot recommend highly enough "Vegan with a Vengeance" and "Veganomicon" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. "VwaV" is my all-time favorite cookbook, hands down. If you feed your mom a couple of fabulous dishes out of either of these books, I don't see how she could keep on about you eating nothing! Visit their website as well: http://www.theppk.com/ There's recipes, a forum where you can discuss your transition with other members (heck, you can discuss anything you want with other members!) and plenty of recipes. You can also watch episodes of their public access vegan cooking show. Many of the members have cookbooks or cooking blogs which are also a great resource for recipes.

I think you're going about it just fine. I use some meat sustitutes, but not all that often (I like Gardenburger sausage patties for my big weekend breakfasts and I pack sandwiches with Yves deli slices on occasion.) I've tried a few vegan cheeses but I wasn't impressed and prefer to just cook without cheese. Try Follow Your Heart's Vegan Gourmet cheeses if you haven't. They're fairly decent and actually melt so you can make a pizza under the broiler with pretty good results.

Most on the lunches I bring to work are leftovers from dinner, which works really well for me.

"How it all vegan" is a great vegan cookbook, with tons of dues and donts for vegans. Easy delicious recipes.

"Veganomics" I think is a new one and is supposed to be AWESOME!!!

Tips for transition: I started off slow. I was veggie for 6 years before i went vegan... I slipped the first few weeks and has some dairy =X But dont give up, it might take some time!!!

Try dairy replacements. Like vegan sour cream, and cream cheese. You can find these @ yr local health food stores.... And try pre-made vegan cookies. These got me through some tough times!! =) hope this helps. goodluck!!

Yep, been there done that. I am sure that your mother is just concerned that you get the nourishment that you need. Just be glad that she does care. When I was growing up my parents didn't agree with me being a vegetarian so they decided to starve me. They had it in their heads that if they didn't supply me with any veggies that they could change my mind. Well, they didn't succeed and I have been a veggie for more than 40 years.

Here is a couple of links for you:
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/vega...

Free E-Book
http://www.veggie123.com/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search...

http://www.vitalita.com/cookbooks.html

Veganism is good and bad. In my opinion, veganism is correct and great for animal rights and the environment, but it can be VERY harmful to your health. You need iron, calcium, and lots of vitamins, but most of all PROTEIN. It's not that hard to get, but if you don't get enough, the results can be fatal. Also iron is quite hard to get, but stick with tofu!

Just as another answerer said, "How It All Vegan" is a great book. Lots of delicious recipes!

Another thing, eating out is quite difficult. You can never know what is actually going into your food, so you might want to get a chart that says what foods are vegan and what are not (you can carry it around with you all the time).

Lastly, don't eat too much soy. I have a friend who was vegan for 10 years and ate TONS of soy, but then her body turned against it and she became allergic. This doesn't happen to everyone, but just eat in moderation. Good for you for helping animals and the environment!

I hope I can help, I became vegan 6 or so months ago after reading about factory farming. It took awhile for my body to get used to the switch so I would say go slowly. But I will tell you, I feel healthier now then I have ever before.

Anyway, the first cookbook I got was How it all Vegan, and I definitely recommend that one. Since then I've gotten quite a few more but my favorite by far has to be Veganomicon, it has the most awesome dishes and no processed stuff. Though like you said, don't worry about the processed stuff as you first start. Also www.vegweb.com has tons of really awesome recipes that make you wonder why you ever ate meat.

For substitutes, I have a hard time making good things with tofu, though there are a few good recipes on vegweb.com. My favorite (meaty type) things are tempeh and seitan. As for cheese, it's something that's a bit of a sacrifice to go vegan (I was big on cheese) there aren't many vegan cheeses that actually compare. If you want to try it though the best brands are Vegan Gourmet the have four flavors in block form I believe and a brand just called vegan comes in slices, that one works best melted on sandwiches and such. Most veggie burgers are pretty good, the only one I tried and didn't like was a boca breaded patty thing...that was gross :D Everything else I've tasted has been fine.

Also, I think your mom will begin to understand. Try cooking her some really simple vegan meals and show her that you do eat, she's probably just worried about you.

Good luck on the switch!

Well, I already had cupboards full of foods etc. and just slowly changed everything one by one to different or better products. From white flour to organic whole wheat, from frozen OJ, to real oranges, from milk to soy milk, etc. It really didn't take very long at all.

Books... well, there are a lot of great ones.

American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond is a great all in one resource (all vegan), sample shopping lists, substitutes ingredients, nutritional almanac, and more. Easily found used too.

Becoming Vegan I heard is good, by Vesanto someone.

I really like the books by Michio and Aveline Kushi.

One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka... more of a lifestyle farming/gardening book, but great.

Any books by Michael Klaper, or Neal Bernard are very good.

There are a tonne of cookbooks out there. Once you read enough you get a lot of pretty good ideas and soon you don't need to follow them anymore... you can just throw things together and use your cookbooks more as something to give you some ideas, such as, man I've got a sack of potatoes... what can I do that's different, so I have a look in some books for ideas, but rarely follow a recipe exactly.

Your mother is right - don't subscribe to a fad diet... just eat healthy. Plenty of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and grains. And don't forget to drink lots of water.

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I want to become vegan. Can you recommend any books, replacement products, or recipes?!

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