What I eat in a week as a vegan

When you first decide to go vegan or plant-based, it can be difficult knowing where to start when looking for meal inspiration, especially if you work long hours and don't have the time to cook. Whilst there's a plethora of meat alternatives on the market, consuming them every day isn't the healthiest option when you're trying to ensure that your recommended vitamin and mineral intake.  As someone who has gone plant-based not only for animal reasons but for health too, I always try to make sure that I get as much food from all the vegan food groups as possible and plan out all my meals to get a head start. The majority of my meals are foods that I've chucked together last minute, although I do try to make sure I cook at least two recipes out of my cookbooks each week to help me learn new cooking skills and give me enthusiasm for my plant-based lifestyle.

This week marks six months of me being vegan and a whopping fifteen years of being vegetarian and nearly every week, I'm asked by family and friends 'what do I eat?' I'm lucky that growing up my parents and friends supported my vegetarian lifestyle and although many still don't understand, they have adapted well to me being vegan too. Today I thought I would put together a small overview of 

some of the meals I eat each week to give those looking to go plant-based some inspiration.

Pulled jackfruit burgers

Pulled jackfruit is possibly one of my favourite quick meals to make and it is really low cost - if you have a Chinese supermarket in your local town, you can pick up a tin of jackfruit for only £1. I usually coat the jackfruit with paprika, garlic and onion powder then roast in my favourite BBQ sauce along with some black beans for extra protein. To accompany the dish, I usually make sweet potato fries and have either a side salad or some grilled veggies.

Avocado and hummus flatbread

If I'm working from home, I like to make myself either homemade soup or a fresh flatbread for my lunch, like the one above. The flatbread is made from 200g flour (or wholemeal flour) and a splash of water, salt and pepper and I usually mix some chia seeds for extra protein. The mixture is kneaded and then rolled out into the desired shape and lightly toasted in a pan. I've topped this with hummus, avocado and some veggies.

Scrambled ackee bowl

Ackee is one of the most underrated 'egg' substitutes when it comes to veganism - it looks like a scrambled egg and is really creamy and filling. Ackee is, in fact, a Caribbean fruit, but it goes so well with spinach, peppers and slices of toast. I usually season my Ackee with garlic powder, onion powder and some chilli flakes for an extra kick.

Jackfruit and mushroom stroganoff with horseradish mash potato

This recipe is from one of my Simply Cook subscription boxes where they send you a spice kit to make a specific meal. Instead of using just mushrooms I've added jackfruit for extra texture and substituted a few of the ingredients to make it vegan. In fact, a lot of the Simply Cook boxes can be very easily adapted to a vegan diet.

Fajita bowl with tortilla chips

One of my favourite recipes at the moment is this fajita bowl with homemade tortilla chips. The recipe was in one of my issues of Vegan Living magazine and it is incredibly easy to make.  All you need to do is cook some peppers and red onion with chilli powder, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper with some tomato paste and then cut some large tortilla bread into triangles and bake them. There are many different recipes for this online and it's so easy to do - I've topped my bowl with some avocado and fresh coriander.

'Cream cheese' and sundried tomato sandwich

Sometimes all you need is a nice carby sandwich and my favourite one to make is a vegan cream cheese sandwich with sundried tomatoes, spinach and some balsamic. The cream cheese is made from soaked cashew nuts blended with nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and garlic and onion powder.

Chia flatbread pizza with sweet potato fries

One of my weekend staple dishes is a homemade vegan pizza - which is really easy to make and affordable too. I made the chia bread by using part flour, part water, part chia seeds and mixing them all together to make a dough and then I grill it on the hob. I then add tomato paste and all my favourite veggies. Sometimes I will also add 'tempeh bacon' made by marinating tempeh in soya sauce, paprika and maple syrup. I usually serve this with sweet potato fries or wedges and a glass of wine to celebrate the weekend.

What are your favourite vegan dishes?