Philosophical Vegan Forum

I am limited however, on kitchen hardware. I have a nice blender (albeit small), but no juicer. I take care of my brother (who is for all intents and purposes unable to join me on this diet due to his condition), so my budget is small, but not shoestring. This means I won't be able to fully stock straight away. Really for now I'd like to plan to try this diet starting in September, for 30 days. I would like to stress that I don't agree with all vegan stances though, this is strictly a dietary choice I am making. I say this to allow those who are not interested in helping someone who will continue to use animal product outside of food (IE leather etc...),. I would not be offended if people do not ethically feel comfortable working with me while knowing that.

My brother's budget and mine are completely separated for food, so we are able to maintain our diets as is. My main concerns will be as follows:
A) What foods are considered staples, and must-haves for an average week?
B) Will gaining food require multiple grocery stores, or will Walmart, Winn Dixie, or similar such grocery store be sufficient?
C) I do not want to take any forms of supplements. Food should be my only source of nutrition, if this diet can't support that I need to know.
D) Any tips of course, suggestions, or people who are willing to aid me will be appreciated. I don't know what I don't know, so if I am missing a question that seems obvious, then please feel free to answer that too.

I'm always open to new suggestions and consider myself very open minded. I have no food allergies, and I have a very accepting pallet. I've enjoyed many vegetarian proteins in the past, such as tofu, quinoa, and of course many types of beans. I've eaten cultural foods from many countries, including South America, Scottland, Japan, China, Korea, Germany, England, Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, and various other Middle Eastern foods. Most of these consumed in America by people who have either grown up in those countries or have studied their cooking. I say this to make the point that appearance and exotic nature, can be squashed as things I would complain about. I will judge foods on their taste. I enjoy cold foods over hot foods, but soups and steamed veggies aren't outside of my interest, though I think I'm happier when I eat chilled foods (I live in Florida, so cold foods are soothing when it's 100F outside).

Who knows? If I find this to be a budgetary benefit, a diet I feel healthier on, and one that sees me feeling happier, I may endorse and embrace it. I maintain a stance that animals should be used by humans to some degree, but from a personal stance if I can reduce the use of animals to improve my personal life, then I am satisfied with that. As it stands now, I don't eat a lot of meat per say, but I do use a lot of animal product. Milk, egg, cheese, butter. This means that I don't have to overcome desire to eat meat as some long time meat eaters do, but I would like to continue eating foods I grew up with, like cornbread, and hushpuppies. So suggestions on supplements for recipes that use animal products other than meat are always welcome too. If I can still enjoy delicious cornbread without using butter (which to me seems impossible but that's 31 years of southern cooking talking).

Socially speaking I have no considerations as well. People I consider friends and family will not consider any diet I choose to be weird. So please, suggest foods that are so obviously vegan that it begs the question. I love to surprise people, and eating something that's so vegan it might as well be growing a farm might be a fun way to break the news, and get a few laughs at the same time. I'm going to start doing some reading in the coming days, I kind of want to start this experiment well educated, so I don't feel lost.

Indigo wrote:I would not be offended if people do not ethically feel comfortable working with me while knowing that.

I probably speak for everybody here when I say we're glad to see anybody making steps in a positive direction. Leather is lesser among the problems, food has the biggest impact. Most vegans actually continue to wear leather items until they are worn out. Wasting doesn't help the animals, of course.

No need for a juicer. A blender is great, but even that is non-essential.

Indigo wrote:A) What foods are considered staples, and must-haves for an average week?

I suggest whole wheat pasta (you can buy boxes of store brand at Walmart or Kroger for about a dollar a pound if in the states), and dry beans. I'm not sure of your experience with beans, or which kind you like. Lentils and black beans are the healthiest (lots of minerals and antioxidants) but many people don't like them. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are more newbie friendly.
Aside from that, carrots are a good staple for Vitamin A and fiber. You'll also want a healthy plant oil, like canola oil.

On top of that you'll want salt and spices, and some vegetables. For example, Italian spices, curry spices. "Ranch" style herbs. Whatever you like.
Can you give us a sense of what you like? We may be able to recommend a recipe.

Indigo wrote:B) Will gaining food require multiple grocery stores, or will Walmart, Winn Dixie, or similar such grocery store be sufficient?

Walmart is great.

Indigo wrote:C) I do not want to take any forms of supplements. Food should be my only source of nutrition, if this diet can't support that I need to know.

Why are you against supplements? Is it a religious prohibition, or...? I don't understand.
It's possible to avoid supplements entirely, of course, and even possible to avoid supplements on a reasonable budget, but supplements are not unhealthy, and they are cheaper and more convenient than trying to avoid them.

Indigo wrote:I enjoy cold foods over hot foods, but soups and steamed veggies aren't outside of my interest, though I think I'm happier when I eat chilled foods (I live in Florida, so cold foods are soothing when it's 100F outside).

Based on that, it sounds like a cold pasta and bean salad may be a good pick for one staple. You may also like sandwiches. There are some great whole grain breads available at a reasonable cost per calorie (at Walmart).

Indigo wrote:I maintain a stance that animals should be used by humans to some degree,

I mostly agree.
Animal testing, but only when necessary for human well being.
Guide dogs. Companion animals (preferably adopted from shelters).
Police dogs, drug/bomb sniffing.
Bees to fertilize our crops.

There are a lot of ways we use animals, or work with them that benefit humanity, and many that are mutually beneficial. I just don't think eating them is one anymore.

Indigo wrote:Milk, egg, cheese, butter. This means that I don't have to overcome desire to eat meat as some long time meat eaters do, but I would like to continue eating foods I grew up with, like cornbread, and hushpuppies. So suggestions on supplements for recipes that use animal products other than meat are always welcome too. If I can still enjoy delicious cornbread without using butter (which to me seems impossible but that's 31 years of southern cooking talking).

Milk is easy to replace with almond milk or soy milk. Walmart has pretty good prices on these in their store brands, and occasionally on name brands too. These are good for drinking and cereal. You might have to try a couple to find one you like, that isn't too sweet, or too beany (I like soy milk, but it's an acquired taste for many). Most people like almond milk more.

Egg is easy to replace with specialty products, but I don't know if they're available at Walmart. Tofu scrambles are popular, but I don't think they beat the price of egg or even come close.

Cheese currently has no affordable replacement; although there are good replacements, they're a little more expensive due to smaller economy of scale. I think it's good to buy these products to support these companies and get them to be more wide spread as options.
There's something called chao slices by fieldroast, the original is an excellent facsimile of something like munster. Unfortunately, it's currently expensive.

The only cheap option with cheese is pretty much DIY. If you have any experience with lactofermentation or are interested in it, you can make your own quite delicious and potent (as potent as you want) vegan cheeses from nuts and soy at home. A blender is all you need. Possibly cheese cloth for some processes.

Butter can be replaced with coconut oil in most applications (like to melt on warm corn bread). Oil in savory recipes (which has a somewhat buttery taste). There are coconut oil based recipes online for a softer butter too, which spreads nicely (coconut oil alone is hard unless you warm it).

Probably easiest for now for you to just replace milk, and go vegetarian and reduce and replace the others later or over time as you learn more.

One of the amazing things about vegan food is that there's a lot you can do at home to add value and taste to them through processes like fermentation. Tempeh, for example, is one of the best vegan proteins, and you can culture it on your own at home if you have a warm climate. It just needs beans and the starter culture sprinkled on. Turning $1 of beans into $10 of tempeh in 24 hours is pretty amazing.

It depends on how much you want to do yourself, if you want to get into some of the expert level savings and food prep stuff. Veganism often opens a world of culinary experimentation and creation to people.

But at the base level, you can pretty much live on beans noodles and vegetables as a staple without doing anything fancy.

Well I definitely appreciate this, that is a great start, a lot of my main concerns immediately addressed. Cheese isn't a huge deal for me, not a deal breaker by any stretch, so if I have to do without a substitute that's OK.

The reason I don't want supplements is kind of strange and probably doesn't apply to a lot of people, but I just don't find them healthy in a different sense. Not that they're bad for the body, but mentally, if I want to feel like I'm healthy, I need to know that I'm healthy because of my food, not the pills that supplement the food. I would feel like I've made a less healthy choice, and have to supplement the health with pills or powders. That would hurt my morale heavily. This is supposed to be the healthier option right? So if it's healthier, why should I need supplements? Calories, Proteins, Vitamins, these can all be attained through non-meat foods, and living in the US means I have access to a wide arrangement of producers. One HUGE advantage I have is living in a city with a big farmer's market. Everything from home grown vegetables, fruits, and nuts. They used to even have a boiled peanut vendor who was a friend of my late mother. We ALWAYS stopped by to "say hello", and walk away with big bags of boiled salted peanuts. You know, as I write that last sentence, I had to think about it. A lot of food traditions with my mother were vegetarian (though not vegan). We'd eat fresh honey baked onto walnuts, we were big into popcorn with sea salt and vinegar, we tasted dozens of chais together.

To answer your question about my taste, I'm big into savory and salty foods, sweet is kind of a hit or miss with me. I forgot about almond milk until I read this, and I have tried it. I find it way too sweet for my taste, but I'll have to try soy milk. Don't worry about acquired tastes though, I've eaten MANY foods that have acquired tastes and immediately liked them. One exotic flavor I've always wanted to try was natto from Japan. I hear a LOT of Americans who apprehensively try it and don't like it, but to me the idea of it sounds amazing. Fermenting foods brings out a lot of flavor, so it's exciting to see what the flavor does for me. I'm legitimately making myself drool so I'll move on.

Bitter foods are my least favorite, but sour foods rank up just above sweet foods. I like spicy, but not hot for the sake of being hot. I want my heat to be part of the flavor, not a mask for it. Coconut shavings and onions on sandwiches are about the only two things that make me cringe, which is funny becaus I otherwise love coconut and onion. I'm one of the lucky few who has had a pairing knife, a cleaver, and a whole coconut to go whole hog on, delicious from the first overhand chop to the last little slice.

I like exotic salads, I remember trying a seaweed salad from a Japanese restaurant once. It was a rare food for me as the first few bites were weird and kind of put me off, but after letting it sit for a second I tried another bite and found that it's salty taste and ... my god I'm like seriously hungry.

I've tried lentils when my Jewish friend's grandmother passed away, apparently lentils with an egg is a common food for them in when someone passes. I found them quite good. The texture was a bit strange but not off-putting. I feel like if mashed and pressed into a patty I could probably grill them into a burger substitute if I were craving something like that. I like cooking and food prep so it won't be hard for me to get into a habit of doing it frequently, it'll just require me to remove other things from my schedule that aren't important. Plus certain foods I could share with my brother, he wouldn't turn down a good salad if I told him what was in it and it wasn't exotic.

A weird question I've had shaky answers came up. I'm a soda drinker. I know SOME sodas use animal parts to make their sodas, but some don't use any. Is there an obvious mechanism to determine this if I am craving sodas?

I say this to allow those who are not interested in helping someone who will continue to use animal product outside of food (IE leather etc...),. I would not be offended if people do not ethically feel comfortable working with me while knowing that.

I don't know of any vegans that would think like that. They definitely aren't on this forum at least.

A) What foods are considered staples, and must-haves for an average week?

I think staples will vary quite a bit from person to person, so i can only give you what works best for me:
- Bread
- Flour\corn tortillas
- Pasta
- Unsweetened almond or flax milk ( I thought these milks were gross until I tried unsweetened. Now i'm addicted to them)
- Tomatoes, onions, garlic, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans
- Frozen Corn, Frozen Peas, Frozen Broccoli ( Good way to cool down a hot dish. Also can be used to give fresh texture and flavor to a overcooked meal.)
- Peanut butter
- I get Jelly, Agave, and sugar free Hershey's syrup to sweeten my oatmeal, granola and peanut butter sandwiches. Banana\raisins work too.
- Tofu
- Teriyaki\soy sauce and taco sauce.
- Veggie base
- Olive oil

The core of my diet comes from beans, whole grains, and seeds. It's good to add them to as much as you can since they are both the healthiest and cheapest foods you can eat. I buy these in bulk since it makes them even cheaper, and they can be stored for a very long time. My favorites:
- Old-fashioned or Steel cut oats
- Brown rice and pearled Barley
- Whole wheat flour and Wheat gluten
- Lentils ( it's the quickest bean to cook!)
- Chickpeas ( I love these beans by themselves, so I can snack on them throughout the day.
- Black beans( good for soups and all those Mexican recipes)
- Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and peanuts

I always have at least one pot of grains and one pot of beans cooked up so I always can just throw them into any dish I'm making easily

Some of the common meals I make with these foods:

- Oatmeal or homemade flax\oats granola in the morning. Avocado on toast is good too.
- PB&J
- Burritos and tacos ( soy chorizo is good here if you want something ground beefy )
- Quick Soup ( Half beans, half grains, and some frozen veggies to cool it down. Veggie base to flavor. You could use ramen instead of a grain)
- Teriyaki stir-fry (Steamed broccoli and green-beans over one of the grains. If I want to spend more time, i'll chop tofu into cubes, toss it in a little corn starch for some crunch, and then bake it in the oven before adding it in to the mix.
- Chili ( Mixed beans, onion, and garlic, cooked in tomato sauce with chili powder and TVP\Chorizo. Frozen corn to cool)
- Pasta ( Either in an onion, garlic, and lentil tomato sauce, or a sunflower-seed habanero cauliflower sauce )
- Curry ( Chickpeas, Potatoes, Cauliflower, and frozen peas are all great for curry)
- Homemade Veggie burgers. ( For the patty, use wheat gluten to bind together any combination of beans and grains)

You can always just eat the ingredients by themselves as well. A regular bowl of lentils or peas salted is delicious.

Life will be easier for you if you have a very large nonstick pan. Being able to fit 3-4 veggie burger patties or 3-4 tacos on the pan instead of 1 is a big time saver.

B) Will gaining food require multiple grocery stores, or will Walmart, Winn Dixie, or similar such grocery store be sufficient?

It shouldn't require multiple stores depending on where you shop. I have an extra store(Winco) that I go to when I want to restock my bulk products, but it literally takes forever to run out of those again, so this is not an issue.

C) I do not want to take any forms of supplements. Food should be my only source of nutrition, if this diet can't support that I need to know.

No form of supplements huh? You almost certainly are taking all sorts of supplements in the food you already eat. Salt has added iodine, grains have all sorts of added B vitamins, Tap water has added fluoride, Milk has added vitamin D, and so on. Even the cows you get your meat from are given loads of vitamin supplements. Are you not willing to consume any of those things? Let us know why supplements worry you. It very well could be based on another misunderstanding.
It's important for vegans take a multivitamin or drink and eat fortified foods to get B12 as it is hard for vegans to get it otherwise, But everyone should be doing this already since the average american diet is lacking in many nutrients as well. (Hence the government supplementation)

Oh another color huh? Well Mr. Purple, you now have competition on the pallet from me.

All kidding aside, thanks for the tips. These are great tidbits I can work with for some early adopted recipes. I could probably figure out what from here works best for me pretty easily in fact, so it's greatly appreciated.

As for the comment about supplements, I guess I refer more to people taking protein shakes or pills to supplement their intake. While I understand B12 to be mostly found in meat products, I do not have a problem with fortified foods, as if I'm not mistaken it often comes from algae known as chlorella. I may be mistaken on this, but that is not an issue for me.

Frankly you gave me a great idea that seems obvious to me now, a snack my mother turned me on to, hummus. Hummus with some crackers or sliced vegetables is a flavor I love. Plus there's a store near my home that sells a premade package of it that is flavored with various things like black olives. That'll probably replace any plastic packaged chips for me anyway, since I'm aiming for healthier eating.

Indigo wrote:[...]I just don't find them healthy in a different sense. Not that they're bad for the body, but mentally, if I want to feel like I'm healthy, I need to know that I'm healthy because of my food, not the pills that supplement the food.

What is healthy is not opinion, it's a matter of science. The efficacy and health of certain kinds of supplementation is well established in nutritional science. There's quackery and exaggeration out there (vitamin C won't cure cancer), but there's good supplementation too.

Your food is already supplemented. It has vitamins A and D and B vitamins and Iron and other things added, and iodine added into salt. This is a good thing, and it has done wonders for public health (the decline into fast food and increase in animal products hasn't).

There are a number of supplements everybody should be taking that are harmless and improve your levels of certain necessary nutrients. It's about being healthier in a cheap and convenient way.

You can manage to avoid them entirely, but it would be expensive and inconvenient. For example, to avoid the iodine supplemented in iodized salt, you'd have to buy seaweed and consume it daily. Probably not easy to find or affordable at Walmart, whereas iodized salt you can find anywhere.

Even newborn babies should be supplemented; there are vitamins that don't even come in sufficient amounts from human breast milk. Will they die without it? Not usually, but it can greatly improve their chances and health in early life.
http://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-for-the-vitamin-k-shot-in-newborns/

We were not created perfect, but evolved, and evolution is not god; it's not perfect, it makes mistakes resulting in inadequacies and inefficiencies, and through nutritional science we've learned there are ways to improve on human health from the "natural" state which is far from ideal.

I can help you design a diet without any supplementation, but it's going to be more expensive, less convenient, AND less healthy.

Indigo wrote:I would feel like I've made a less healthy choice, and have to supplement the health with pills or powders. That would hurt my morale heavily.

Maybe you just need to understand more about the limitations of evolution, and even the limitations of the state humans are in today in our sterile world.

B-12 is a good example. Many people are low in B-12 (vegans and meat eaters). B-12 is a product of bacteria, and it's been found to be abundant in dirty water (like some lake water, though amounts vary greatly) and feces and fecally contaminated food and water. In the natural world, there's B-12 all around us. But now there isn't.
It's a good thing that we drink clean water; it means less cholera and fewer intestinal parasites. But it also means we're missing out on some important vitamins.

So, we can either go back to nature and eat poop and drink dirty water, or we can go with the science and take a vitamin -- which is clean and was made from a concentrated source from bacteria (much like beer is brewed).

Mic the vegan has a pretty good video on B-12 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3j80WpjM0M

I don't understand how that could be demoralizing. It's just realistic, and understanding the nature of our evolution, our environment, and the science of health. It's inspiring to see how far we've come, and how we've done better than nature- we can get all of the benefits of B-12 with none of the drawbacks of consuming contaminated food and water.

Indigo wrote:This is supposed to be the healthier option right? So if it's healthier, why should I need supplements?

Supplements are not unhealthy. You already consume them in many sources. Even farmed animals are fed supplements (including B-12).

Indigo wrote:Calories, Proteins, Vitamins, these can all be attained through non-meat foods, and living in the US means I have access to a wide arrangement of producers.

That's true, but that doesn't mean that food is the easiest or cheapest source of everything. It also doesn't mean it's the healthiest source of everything.
You can do it totally without supplements. But why?

Indigo wrote:I forgot about almond milk until I read this, and I have tried it. I find it way too sweet for my taste,

The sweetened almond milk is too sweet. I can't drink sweetened. There is unsweetened, which is much better. Have you tried that?

Indigo wrote:One exotic flavor I've always wanted to try was natto from Japan.

A great source of Vitamin K.
You can probably find it at Asian markets, or you could make it yourself. You'd probably need to order a starter culture online.

Fermentation is often said to help to "unlock" more nutrition in plant foods, and the microbes actually add more nutrients too.

Indigo wrote:I like exotic salads, I remember trying a seaweed salad from a Japanese restaurant once. It was a rare food for me as the first few bites were weird and kind of put me off, but after letting it sit for a second I tried another bite and found that it's salty taste and ... my god I'm like seriously hungry.

You can find seaweed at a more reasonable price at an Asian market, if you have any near you. That's not really a Walmart thing.

Indigo wrote:I feel like if mashed and pressed into a patty I could probably grill them into a burger substitute if I were craving something like that. I like cooking and food prep so it won't be hard for me to get into a habit of doing it frequently,

That's great to hear. There are a lot of lentil burger recipes online; I'd start with one of those, and then modify it to your needs.

The PPK is usually a good place to start:
http://www.theppk.com/2012/02/quarter-pounder-beet-burger/
http://www.theppk.com/2010/12/olive-lentil-burgers/

Sounds like her burgers are mainly based on lentils and rice. She does use a food processor for that. Those are a lot easier to use than blenders for solids because they have a wider base. It's possible to use a blender, but not as easy.

There's a video of one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lR5pEeCPFs

For a recipe like that, it looks like you could shred beets by hand, then just kind of chop or smash the other things in a bowl instead of using a food processor.
You can probably substitute rolled oats for breadcrumbs (cheaper). It usually takes a little experimentation to substitute the more expensive or harder to find ingredients and come up with something that's ideal to make regularly.

Indigo wrote:A weird question I've had shaky answers came up. I'm a soda drinker. I know SOME sodas use animal parts to make their sodas, but some don't use any. Is there an obvious mechanism to determine this if I am craving sodas?

I can't think of any obvious reason there would be animal products in a soda (at least no known ones).
I wouldn't worry about the soda. That's one of those 99.999% vegan things that probably doesn't have animal products in it, but may contain some trace animal products somewhere in the manufacturing but shouldn't contribute meaningfully to any animal suffering, environmental degradation, etc.

It's the 99.9% that matters, not the 0.001%
The best advice is just to avoid the obvious stuff that doesn't require a bunch of research to figure out.

I took so long to reply that I missed a couple posts.

Mr. Purple: That sounds like a good way to make veggie burgers. Can you post a recipe and steps?

Indigo wrote: As for the comment about supplements, I guess I refer more to people taking protein shakes or pills to supplement their intake.

Definitely, protein shakes are totally unnecessary, even for body builders. Meal replacement shakes are mainly just good for people who don't like to cook or don't have time to eat.

Indigo wrote: While I understand B12 to be mostly found in meat products, I do not have a problem with fortified foods, as if I'm not mistaken it often comes from algae known as chlorella. I may be mistaken on this, but that is not an issue for me.

'Only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes needed for its synthesis'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12

Industrial production of B12 is achieved through fermentation of selected microorganisms.[70] Streptomyces griseus, a bacterium once thought to be a yeast, was the commercial source of vitamin B12 for many years.[71][72] The species Pseudomonas denitrificans and Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii are more commonly used today.[73] These are frequently grown under special conditions to enhance yield, and at least one company, Rhône-Poulenc of France, which has merged into Sanofi-Aventis, used genetically engineered versions of one or both of these species.[citation needed] Since a number of species of Propionibacterium produce no exotoxins or endotoxins and are generally regarded as safe (have been granted GRAS status) by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, they are presently the FDA-preferred bacterial fermentation organisms for vitamin B12 production.[74]

Some plant and fungi foods have small amounts of B-12 due to symbiosis with bacterium on their surfaces or roots. But the amounts are low, and because it's water soluble, pretty much all B-12 is removed by any washing (probably even before it gets into the store). It's also unstable, so it would break down on the store shelves before it gets home.

The most reliable way is to take a supplement for it, which will give a really big dose and ensure high levels.

In nature, it's probably mostly made in the silty beds of lakes, rivers, and oceans through decomposition, or by bacteria in the water which lives with the chlorella, but chlorella has not been found to contain any AFAIK.

The B-12 in supplements is totally vegan, just made from bacteria. It's probably grown on corn or sugar.

Indigo wrote: Frankly you gave me a great idea that seems obvious to me now, a snack my mother turned me on to, hummus. Hummus with some crackers or sliced vegetables is a flavor I love. Plus there's a store near my home that sells a premade package of it that is flavored with various things like black olives. That'll probably replace any plastic packaged chips for me anyway, since I'm aiming for healthier eating.

Hummus is a great go-to food, and you can make it yourself too with a blender. It's a lot cheaper than store-bought. A couple dollars of ingredients can make $10 of hummus.

To make it yourself, soak chickpeas overnight, then simmer them (about an hour). If you have hard water, add a pinch of baking soda to the water you simmer them in.
Strain them, and put a cup or two in the blender with some lemon juice, olive oil or canola oil (or both), and a clove or two of garlic, and blend. If it won't blend, add in a little bit of water (as little as possible). If you're making red pepper hummus, put the red peppers in first and blend them with the lemon juice and oil and garlic, then add the chick peas in after that is liquefied and blend again (adding as little water as possible).
At this point it should be thick, but still a bit runnier than you'd want (otherwise it wouldn't blend). Pour it into a bowl, and add tahini to it (pure tahini, not prepared tahini that has water added). Mix that up, and it will get thicker. Never put the tahini in the blender, it can't handle the thick hummus.
Now add salt and other dry spices to taste, and chop up and add olives.

With a food processor, you can put all ingredients in at once and make larger batches (even the tahini) and you don't need to add water, so you get a thicker hummus.

Well I hit the grocery store. I know I said I was going to wait, but I was craving hummus. While I was there I figured I'd shop around and see what other vegan foods I'd be interested in... 20$ later I have at least food for a few days. Including one of my all time favorites, peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Oh it seems like such a childish sandwich, but they're soooo good. The salty sweet peanut butter and the much sweeter banana with the bread reducing the overpowering flavors. Oh it's heaven on a plate. I had one of those for lunch with a side salad and some hummus with wheat crackers. I'd say for a newbie that ain't a bad lunch right? Hits most of the good food groups and it is a nice variety of flavors.

That's a good start!
The main thing is finding some staples you like and can go to for satisfaction: and enough for variety. Sounds like you have a couple now (the peanut butter and banana sandwich and hummus).

Banana gives you vitamin C and a little potassium, and the peanut butter, wheat, and hummus give you quite a bit of protein and minerals (iron and zinc). The salad should provide some vitamin K and a bit of potassium too.

You'll want to have some almond or soy milk at some point in the day for calcium (it's good in coffee in the morning, or with a whole grain cereal).

You'll also want to incorporate a source of vitamin A into your diet. Some options to consider:

Carrots (good for dipping in hummus)
Sweet potatoes (fresh baked, or cooked then chilled as a component to a salad)
Pumpkin (usually canned), which can be used to make soup, baked goods, or even mixed with pancake batter.


Do you have (or did you buy) some canola oil? That's important as a source of Omega 3. Peanut butter and hummus are mainly Omega 6 (which is important too).
High Omega 3 sources are Canola oil, flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and walnuts.

I do not have canola oil, but it wouldn't be a difficult thing to get some. As for carrots and sweet potatoes, I can think of dozen ways to incorporate them, so that should be easy enough. There is a B12 infused soy milk at my grocery store I'm going to buy, and a Kashi brand whole grain cereal. Took a while to find one that didn't incorporate honey as a staple flavor.

How do those various seeds work in salads or in soups? Are they pretty simple to work with? I don't like relying on a single ingredient for nutrition, I like variety. Are there other interesting ways to add them to daily diets?

Oh I found a simple smoothie idea I wanted to share for people who like sweet smoothies, probably going to get some coconut cream today so I can enjoy this.
Just blend:
1 banana
1 cup soy milk
3 fluid ounces unsweetened coconut cream
ice cubes