This Vegan Thing......?

[ChrisK]

If anyone has any info on vegan restaurants in Ottawa/Nepean, I'd love to go to one.

Yes! That's where I live. We have a number of excellent vegan restaurants here in the National Capital Region.

Zen Kitchen -- if you have money to spend, 'cause it can be pricy, but it's fully vegan, organic, and they purchase from local farmers. The atmosphere is intimate and relaxing. I love this place.

Cafe My House -- also a bit pricy, but the food is also amazing. It is vegan except that for brunch they also offer eggs and one meat/fish option. They do raw very well, and they also have amazing deserts.

Green Earth -- this place has an all you can eat buffet Mon-Fri at lunch time for just over $11 with tax. Food is good, and I think it's fully vegan.

If you like the cafeteria style places, we also have:
The Table -- vegetarian with lots of vegan options
The Green Door -- I haven't been, but hear it's good, lots of vegetarian options
Satisfaction, Perfection,Promise -- vegetarian with vegan options. affordable prices

And there are lots of other places which have veg*n menu items.

If you're okay with Bells Corners, there's Mongolian Village.. where you pick what you want from the raw food bar and bring it to the chef. If you tell him you're vegetarian, he will clean the grill before he cooks your meal and you'll get a 10% discount ! You pay for your food by weight. This is a nice place to go if you're with people who want to eat meat, or others with gluten free or other dietary requirements. This place seems to handle all of them.

There are more place in the west part of town if you need more, let me know!

 

[ChrisK]

Oh.. one more to mention.. if you're planning to be in the Market area at 5pm or later, Mello's diner has a regular menu for meat eaters AND a vegan menu 5pm and later only. I haven't been there yet myself, but I hear it's really good. You have to ask for the vegan menu, and I'm told it's best to call ahead because the chef doesn't get enough vegan orders there to keep everything on hand all the time. But he is very keen on satisfying his vegan customers, and from what I'm hearing, he's doing a great job of it so far!

 

[Cinderwolf]

I have been thinking a lot abotu goign vegetarian lately ( i am sure vegan woudl follow after wards sicne I am lac tose intollerance I avoid most dairy anyway unless its in extreme moderation) But I am hesitating, its such a huge change! I hate that animals suffer for me eatign thoguh : ( Plus I dont want my mom to have to make double meals jsut for me.. I dunno D: maybe once I move out It woudl be easier.. to jsut not buy meat at all. Hmmm But sushi haha

 

[ChrisK]

I have been thinking a lot abotu goign vegetarian lately ( i am sure vegan woudl follow after wards sicne I am lac tose intollerance I avoid most dairy anyway unless its in extreme moderation) But I am hesitating, its such a huge change! I hate that animals suffer for me eatign thoguh : ( Plus I dont want my mom to have to make double meals jsut for me.. I dunno D: maybe once I move out It woudl be easier.. to jsut not buy meat at all. Hmmm But sushi haha

Have you thought about trying Meatless Mondays? There's a movement afoot to encourage people to remove meat from their diets one day a week. This is good for our health, the environment, and of course.. decreases the demand for farmed animals. It's only one day a week and most people have some kind of food they love already that's vegan... like spaghetti with tomato or pesto sauce, or a hearty vegetable chili. It could also be a good excuse to try new vegan recipes once a week. Check out this website if you're interested... lots of good ideas here...

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

 

[Cinderwolf]

I have been thinking a lot abotu goign vegetarian lately ( i am sure vegan woudl follow after wards sicne I am lac tose intollerance I avoid most dairy anyway unless its in extreme moderation) But I am hesitating, its such a huge change! I hate that animals suffer for me eatign thoguh : ( Plus I dont want my mom to have to make double meals jsut for me.. I dunno D: maybe once I move out It woudl be easier.. to jsut not buy meat at all. Hmmm But sushi haha

Have you thought about trying Meatless Mondays? There's a movement afoot to encourage people to remove meat from their diets one day a week. This is good for our health, the environment, and of course.. decreases the demand for farmed animals. It's only one day a week and most people have some kind of food they love already that's vegan... like spaghetti with tomato or pesto sauce, or a hearty vegetable chili. It could also be a good excuse to try new vegan recipes once a week. Check out this website if you're interested... lots of good ideas here...

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Thats actually a really good idea!

 

[jorats]

If anyone has any info on vegan restaurants in Ottawa/Nepean, I'd love to go to one.

Yes! That's where I live. We have a number of excellent vegan restaurants here in the National Capital Region.

Zen Kitchen -- if you have money to spend, 'cause it can be pricy, but it's fully vegan, organic, and they purchase from local farmers. The atmosphere is intimate and relaxing. I love this place.

Cafe My House -- also a bit pricy, but the food is also amazing. It is vegan except that for brunch they also offer eggs and one meat/fish option. They do raw very well, and they also have amazing deserts.

Green Earth -- this place has an all you can eat buffet Mon-Fri at lunch time for just over $11 with tax. Food is good, and I think it's fully vegan.

If you like the cafeteria style places, we also have:
The Table -- vegetarian with lots of vegan options
The Green Door -- I haven't been, but hear it's good, lots of vegetarian options
Satisfaction, Perfection,Promise -- vegetarian with vegan options. affordable prices

And there are lots of other places which have veg*n menu items.

If you're okay with Bells Corners, there's Mongolian Village.. where you pick what you want from the raw food bar and bring it to the chef. If you tell him you're vegetarian, he will clean the grill before he cooks your meal and you'll get a 10% discount ! You pay for your food by weight. This is a nice place to go if you're with people who want to eat meat, or others with gluten free or other dietary requirements. This place seems to handle all of them.

There are more place in the west part of town if you need more, let me know!

Wow! You have that many there? I don't think we even have one. That's awesome! I'll research those places (google maps)
Thank you so much!!!

 

[Moon]

I can't believe how my way of thinking has changed so much from when I was little.

When I was little, I hated hunters for removing the wonderful wild lives from the animals they killed. Farmed animals didn't know any better, they were meant for us to eat. Wham bam, thank you ma'am, that's all folks and tell the lady what she's won.

Now, I figure, you think you're top of the food chain? Go out and hunt your own meat and go fishing. But don't tell me you're meant to be a carnivore after you've picked up that ground beef at the grocery store. You want meat, go bloody well earn it. What we do in animal agriculture is a million times worse than what people who actually hunt for food do.

I'm also reaching the point where I'd prefer people eat meat but be dairy free than vegetarian and eat dairy. The dairy industry (in the US, especially) has lobbying power similar to that of big tobacco and the auto industry - it is huge, big money. We are still being taught that dairy is great for us despite the fact that research OVER and OVER tells the exact opposite story. It is not "nature's perfect food". It is not vital for bone health. Believe it or not, you should be able to poo without yogurt with all those probiotics. And there's a lot of other ways to improve your digestion.

To everyone who says "you can't really be vegan because plastic/drywall/tires/etc etc" thanks for your input, and your completely uncreative argument against veganism. Yes, it will be impossible for me to live a 100% vegan lifestyle. But every way I do incorporate veganism into my life helps animals. And if in the process I find ways to be more vegan, then all the better. Products are constantly being reformulated, technologies are constantly changing. Every single step towards a plant based lifestyle is a step in the right direction.

To those of you who say "you'd be vegan except CHEESE", you have to understand that dairy is literally addictive. Once you cut it out, all the way out, you do not want it any more. I few weeks ago we were having tacos and I grated some cheese for my husband, and afterwards I bit my nail, and the cheese taste was so strong and not delicious. Looking at it, smelling it, does not affect you like it once did when you cut it out. Sometimes smelling someone's pizza makes me salivate, but I find I'm more craving the tomato sauce and the fatty flavours, not the cheese itself. When I do have that sort of craving, I will eat some avocado or something fatty and full of that umami flavour and it's all I need.

When I finally took the last step and had been off dairy and eggs for a few weeks I suddenly started craving potato chips. I've never been much of a chip eater but all I wanted then was plain, salty, greasy potato chips.

Seriously, the best thing you can do for yourself is cut out dairy. I no longer have the stomach problems, the phlegm, the constantly irritated throat that I always had. Just do it up!

Also, I love almond milk. Nom nom nom. If you like a bit of sweet, try rice milk. And try different brands. If you don't like one almond milk, try a different brand. They can taste pretty different. Chocolate rice milk is delicious. And wont leave you coughing up wads up spit in the sink like dairy milk used to do to me.

 

[Fidget]

I eat meat. I totally hate any animal being abused in any way. I see the videos of the pigs & chickens getting so horribly abused. I don't want to support that.
I just want be the meat-eater I believe my species was born to be. If only we could be content to be at the top of the food chain without having to torture our prey worse than any cat ever did.

 

[Cinderwolf]

Random question but do they make vegan chocolate? like not 90 percent dark or soemthing, but i mena realy ' milk' chocolate flavoured vegan chocolate? I dont think I could live without chocolate. lol

 

[jorats]

Random question but do they make vegan chocolate? like not 90 percent dark or soemthing, but i mena realy ' milk' chocolate flavoured vegan chocolate? I dont think I could live without chocolate. lol

Yes they do! I bought some from veganessentials and I believe there's a store in BC called karmavore.

 

[jorats]

Humans needed meat back in the Palaeolithic period. But we've evolved. In fact, our body has more herbivore characteristics than carnivores and even omnivores.
Also back in the day, humans didn't even eat meat, three meals a day, 7 days a week. They didn't eat pounds of it in one sitting. Our meat is so contaminated with hormones, antibiotics and hundreds of other toxins due to our polluting our beautiful earth, meat and other animal products is now killing you.

 

[Moon]

I get that a lot of people don't want to be vegan, and you gotta do what works for you. But pick up on Meatless Mondays. Or do a Vegan Until Dinner thing. Western society eats way, way, way more animal protein than will ever be healthy and pretty much no one anywhere should be eating eggs for breakfast, lunch meat sandwich at lunch and roast chicken for dinner.

A lot of dieticians recommend a pescetarian, diary free diet. A lot of them recommend reducing meat to three times a week. Some are recommending raw dairy, organic egg vegetarian diets. No one, anywhere, is advocating the SAD (Standard American Diet). But that's what people are eating.

Every time you opt out of a omni meal and choose to make a vegan one instead, you are helping an animal and helping yourself. If it means doing bean chili instead of meat chili, do that. If it means opting out of meat in your weekly spaghetti, do that. Make a big batch of lentil soup and freeze portions to take for lunch all week. So many things can be done that are easy and inexpensive and don't really change your way of eating that much.

Vegetarian chili and vegetable stir fry (with frozen edamame beans thrown in) were two of my first adventures into vegan cooking. They were things I already knew how to do that needed one very simple substitution. And my repetoire has grown a lot. It's still not huge and I know I am going to have trouble as the weather gets warmer since my style of cooking goes towards casseroles and soups. But I will keep trying things and keep learning.

Plus, I spend way, way less on the weeks that I'm not buying meat for my husband. There's a few staples in the freezer right now so the next couple of weeks should be all vegan grocery shopping. And that means I can spend a little more on things that I can't afford on meat buying weeks, like almond yogurt. And I never thought I would look in my fridge and be so happy to see so many different colours of fruit and vegetables. It's a little harder this time of year when fresh stuff gets more expensive, but I always beeline it to the clearance fruit and veggie rack first to see if there's stuff that I use in my favourite recipes that can be used that night or the next - tomatoes, avocados, zucchini and sweet potato, for example - and try to keep cheap staples on hand at all times, carrot, celery, potatoes. Pretty much any vegetable with a 50% off sticker on it is game in my books.

 

[Joanne]

I made supper yesterday, and it was my first official vegan dish. I took one of the recipes I liked, a Thai pineapple chicken dish, and just ommited the chicken. It has pineapple, coconut milk, onions, green and red peppers, ginger, garlic, peanut butter, tahini, etc served over rice. So tasty!
My biggest hurdle to moving to a better diet is that raw fruits and vegetables give me heartburn. I just don't know which is worse: not eating as much fresh veg as I should, or being on a medication indefinitely that may have negative side effects.

 

[Cinderwolf]

Random question but do they make vegan chocolate? like not 90 percent dark or soemthing, but i mena realy ' milk' chocolate flavoured vegan chocolate? I dont think I could live without chocolate. lol

Yes they do! I bought some from veganessentials and I believe there's a store in BC called karmavore.

Oh yum I will check it out

 

[Cinderwolf]

I like that vegan til dinner idea Moon. I really do want to cut out stuff but I don't want to be a huge hassle for my mom making 2 different meals and such. And I mean any cut out is a good cut out. I think what has always stopped me before is the idea of cutting everything out always I think if I go into it with the idea of cutting back and not eliminating it wouldn't be so scarey . I think for this next week I will try to eat only vegetarian things when I am eating lunch and breakfast and snakes and stuff. Then diner can be whatever it being made.

 

[Moon]

I made supper yesterday, and it was my first official vegan dish. I took one of the recipes I liked, a Thai pineapple chicken dish, and just ommited the chicken. It has pineapple, coconut milk, onions, green and red peppers, ginger, garlic, peanut butter, tahini, etc served over rice. So tasty!
My biggest hurdle to moving to a better diet is that raw fruits and vegetables give me heartburn. I just don't know which is worse: not eating as much fresh veg as I should, or being on a medication indefinitely that may have negative side effects.

Your dinner sounds awesome!

Do you meant fresh fruit and veg even if they're cooked, or just raw? Because, being vegan does not have to be loads of salads and raw fruit and vegetables. I go long periods without touching salads, so much so that lately the only raw produce I've had is apples. Everything else has been cooked.

If you mean fresh fruit and veg period, even if they're cooked, there's still things you can do. Lots of people have improvement taking Apple Cider Vinegar, even though it is in acid, it has something to do with equaling out the amount of acids already in your stomach so it doesn't work to produce more. Speaking to a holistic doctor or dietician may be able to give you ideas on how to handle it without meds, or with less medication.

My husband goes through periods where he needs to take meds for his heartburn, but does remarkably better when he takes ACV. He loves the stuff and drinks it straight from the bottle. I find it helps my digestion but I dilute it with water. But I haven't bought it in a while and need to again.

 

[Moon]

I like that vegan til dinner idea Moon. I really do want to cut out stuff but I don't want to be a huge hassle for my mom making 2 different meals and such. And I mean any cut out is a good cut out. I think what has always stopped me before is the idea of cutting everything out always I think if I go into it with the idea of cutting back and not eliminating it wouldn't be so scarey . I think for this next week I will try to eat only vegetarian things when I am eating lunch and breakfast and snakes and stuff. Then diner can be whatever it being made.

I took this approach well before I decided to go veg. I wanted to eat less animals but also wanted to eat healthier and I knew that less meat was going to be part of that for me. Granted, I was still eating a lot of dairy then, but it was a very firm decision that I followed closely.

Then I started doing Meatless Mondays as well.

Depending on what's for dinner on any given day, sometimes you can just eat around what's been made. Skip the chicken breast one night. Try to scoop only the vegetables out of the stir fry. Same with the beef stew. It's not always going to be doable but if you really get yourself in the mindset that you don't WANT to eat meat, you really will force yourself to eat less when it's put in front of you.

That was another step for me. My husband would make his famous pork tenderloin and I'd only eat one little piece, and way more of the side dishes. And told myself very firmly "I don't want more".

Also, get into the grocery store and grab a vegetable that you've never cooked before. Then bring it home and find a recipe using it. You might love it, you mind find it to be the grossest thing ever. I thought for the longest time that my grocery stores didn't have kale. I kept seeing recipes with it and reading people loving it and going "damn vegans and their kale, too bad it doesn't exist in Canada" - but hey, it totally does. I just wasn't looking! It's right there with the rest of the green stuff that's not lettuce and I was just always scared of. Now I eat kale regularly, at least every other week but often more.

 

[MissGuardian]

I haven't read all the other replies.

I'm not a vegan(not yet at least), but I am a vegetarian, and eat more and more vegan as I find new things(we have very little vegan substitutes here).

I'm a vegetarian for many reasons.. One is I don't like meat/fish.. My body don't like it..
I have CFS, and I don't exactly need food that makes me more tired.. It don't make sense for me to see some animals as food, and some as pets..

I try to vary what I eat as much as possible, but I've been bad at it lately.. what I eat most of, is soups! And lots of lentils/beans..
I find 99% of what I make on blogs on the internet. The rest I usually buy on the Internet, because the selection of even vegetarian cookboks(which usually substitutes all meat with bizarre amounts of cheese/eggs) are poor to non-existent.
My biggest problem with being a vegan here, is cheese and candy(mostly chocolate). But I am working on it. And bakery things that I don't know what contains..

I have a recipe thread in here with mostly vegan(or easily made to be vegan) foods in here, if you're interested. Need to update it soon..

One of the new things I've "discovered" is pizza with all the usual(vegetarian)toppings, but without the cheese.. I like it SO much better!

 

[jorats]

My biggest hurdle to moving to a better diet is that raw fruits and vegetables give me heartburn. I just don't know which is worse: not eating as much fresh veg as I should, or being on a medication indefinitely that may have negative side effects.

My sister has GERD and the doctors pretty much told her she had to stay on Nexium for the rest of her life, never mind how incredibly bad it is for your body. Being vegan, her GERD has pretty much disappeared. Once every couple of weeks she needs to take her Nexium. But that's it.
Her triggers were were simmilar to yours and much more.

 

[Petunia]

I've decided to set a "date" to go off all dairy products. I still eat butter and have a tiny bit of mayo from time to time
I can't just throw food away, so when I've run out of the mayo I have, and when I've used up the butter I have (2 sticks) I am not going to get any more.


for my healthy, I really need to go not just vegan, but low sodium, low fat and lower sugar (I get terrified when I think of a low sugar diet, so I'm making that switch more gradually)


I have high blood pressure, which is partly due to my lifestyle (sedentary) and partly due to my weight and diet.
I have no gall bladder and I have fatty liver disease, due to a high fat (and probably high sugar as well) diet.


getting off the fat and sugar is going to be hard. I am probably going to have to stop buying peanut butter because I can (and do) easily eat a whole jar in a week(not sure of the oz but its not the smallest jar, probably the next size up? it's the size that most peanut butter comes in, not those big jars for families)
I'll eat it straight from the jar, and when I get the all natural stuff, I'll eat it with brown sugar (half a spoon of each)
sugar and fat, that combo is gonna be the death of me.


I could eat healthy all day and be totally stuffed, but if I didn't have some sweet and/or fatty, preferably both sweet and fatty, I feel very unsatisfied. No amount of healthy foods will make me feel satisfied, but if I have nothing sweet/fatty in the house, I'll keep eating til I'm about to burst, trying to get whatever the feeling is that I get from sugar and fat.

I am definitely going to need to address that some how. I think it's too much to ask myself to give up what is probably an emotional need, all at once. Or even at all.
The answer just came to me!! vegan chocolate!!
yes there is such a thing, as was previously mentioned, it's been on my amazon wish list for months now!
:gaah: :gaah: :gaah:

the price went up and amazon no longer ships it free, you can still get it but you have to but it from a different place
http://www.amazon.com/Enjoy-Life-Semi-S ... B000HDJZWO