Saturday, July 04, 2020

I'm trying to eat vegan

I have been trying to eat vegan for quite some time actually. It hasn't been easy because the boy and TLM both like their meat, eggs and dairy. Though I will take credit for them mostly eating free range.

It got to the point where I would usually eat vegan for lunch during the week, and whenever we ate out or got food delivered. But as the boy is the cook of the family, he usually only made vegan or vegetarian once a week or so (to please me).

When  a family friend showed us the recipes that came with their plant based My Food Bag, I got all excited at the prospect of getting the family to eat 4 vegan meals in one week. That was something I would go into  the kitchen for.

So far we have tried two businesses that deliver ingredients and recipes to your house. Actually, I think there are only two. The others offer vegetarian meal kits but I disapprove of intensive dairying most of all so that's not an option for  me. (Plus I'm  allergic to eggs)

Ultimately I want to have a clutch of vegan  recipes that we all like to eat and that I like to cook.

Kai Box - this is a vegan-only meal kit company. You can subscribe or just order a one-off; they try to accommodate food allergies and the 4  meals we made took only about 30 mins each. Most ingredients that needed to be packaged eg sauces came in glass or wrapped in paper. It cost $120 for 4 meals for 4 people.

Unfortunately we found the meals a bit bland. I expect that someone whose a confident cook will easily know what to add or tweak for their preferred level of flavour, but TLM and I are not. I would like to try again but the family is not keen.

My Food Bag - you have to subscribe, so if you only want to try for a week you have to remember to cancel on time. I didnt, so we inadvertantly got a second week of meal kits coming. Also they do not try to accommodate any food allergies. Out first week cost $130 because we had a discount voucher, but the next one at the regular price will be $170.

The meals take longer to make - 40 to 50 mins, and there are more premixed sauces and spice mixes and these are packaged in a mix of waxy paper and plastic. But the meals we made were generally super tasty and get the tick from TLM and the boy.

The main thing I found annoying was that I  might not be able to recreate those mixes because they give you a list of what's in them but not the proportions.

Another thing....it seems to be true what people say about eating vegan  and farting more!