So I've been vegan for four months and I've decided to be a pescatarian and introduce fish to my diet a couple of times of a week. The reason I went vegan in the first place was for health reasons- I not a peta or animal-rights person. I support people hunting and eating meat. The only ethical qualms I have with eating animal products is environmental. But I have a lot of bad environmental things I engage in and can't avoid.
And for the most part, being vegan has been pretty easy. I haven't craved meat, or eggs or any of that. I've lost 20 pounds while not really trying to diet. I'm not hungry all the time. It's been great. But half my family went vegetarian when I went vegan, and as of next week they are giving that up and going back to eating all sorts of animal products.
Which has created a dilemma for me. So when we're not preparing vegan-friendly meals for the family most nights, that means I have to eat separate from them. Which is fine. If I have time to meal prep, I can prepare lunches and dinners in advance-- and in fact this is what I plan to do when they go back to eating meat.
The problem arises when you need the "quick meal." The "oh crap. We're missing something and can't have that for dinner, so I need to just go to the store and get something to make for myself real quick." If I was just vegan, I think that would be manageable. But when you're vegan and celiac and can't eat wheat- it's incredibly limiting. I can't go just get a rice bowl or a noodle bowl. I can't eat a veggie sandwich or even anything with bread. It's become a real problem for me.
So as I was looking over some of my options for what I was going to eat over the next couple of weeks, I realized, "Huh. This would be a lot easier if I could eat fish." And it's like a lightbulb went on. If I'm in a pinch, I can pick up some salmon or whitefish and broil it real quick for an easy hearty meal. And I realized that it's still relatively healthy, especially if I eat it with some quick-sauted veggies or rice. But then I realized that being able to eat tuna makes our camping meals a lot easier (I was essentially eating PB&J for every lunch when we camped). It's just that it offers me much more options without really sacrificing the health benefits that I wanted to get out of being vegan in the first place.
I'm becoming a pescatarian
Re: I'm becoming a pescatarian
Can you eat rice noodles and Barilla red lentil pasta / Banza pasta, and stuff like Miso or Ramen broth? Or is there still gluten contamination in that stuff? How about coconut milk? Eggs or egg whites?
Though we are FAR from vegan over here, given the central role of ice cream, milk, and cheese in the diet, we are now cooking two meals at all times (one for vegetarians and one for the veggie-hostile), except on rare occasions when the two can easily coincide, like taco night and baked mac & cheese night. As a result, I have been on a big cooking journey these past several months, and some of our favorite now-staple foods are vegan. At least once a week I make each of these: a big batch of spicy tofu with veggies (usually on a baking sheet, which makes it super easy), a miso-based veggie soup, roasted or sauteed sweet potatoes and other root veggies, and Indian-spiced chickpeas. We also make a lot of rice pilaf to go with it, with a lesser proportion of quinoa and barley, which is really good for extra protein. These are all super-quick, super easy meals - I have been trying to land on the quickest, easiest things I can find because, you know, I have those 20 min to cook.
These things are mostly quite portable and long-lasting as well - will still be good if you have to take it somewhere or retrieve leftovers.
One of my kids and I both love fish and seafood, and if you can add those things, you're golden. Throw a couple of frozen shrimp in when boiling up that soup, and suddenly it's a protein serving and out of this world delish. Use any of the above as a side dish with a small piece of salmon or a few sauteed scallops, a lettuce salad, and some fruit, and now you're talking three course deliciousness.
If you can do a lentil-based pasta or rice noodles, the sky is the limit really. It is hard to tire of an easily-varied noodle bowl in spicy broth with assorted veggies and maybe a little soft-boiled egg or a few shrimp? It's so completely YUM and takes 15-20 minutes from start to dining. Add a little fruit smoothie later? On the other hand, this is why I'm fat, because I eat like a sultan and don't exercise nearly as hard as I used to in the gym.
Though we are FAR from vegan over here, given the central role of ice cream, milk, and cheese in the diet, we are now cooking two meals at all times (one for vegetarians and one for the veggie-hostile), except on rare occasions when the two can easily coincide, like taco night and baked mac & cheese night. As a result, I have been on a big cooking journey these past several months, and some of our favorite now-staple foods are vegan. At least once a week I make each of these: a big batch of spicy tofu with veggies (usually on a baking sheet, which makes it super easy), a miso-based veggie soup, roasted or sauteed sweet potatoes and other root veggies, and Indian-spiced chickpeas. We also make a lot of rice pilaf to go with it, with a lesser proportion of quinoa and barley, which is really good for extra protein. These are all super-quick, super easy meals - I have been trying to land on the quickest, easiest things I can find because, you know, I have those 20 min to cook.
These things are mostly quite portable and long-lasting as well - will still be good if you have to take it somewhere or retrieve leftovers.
One of my kids and I both love fish and seafood, and if you can add those things, you're golden. Throw a couple of frozen shrimp in when boiling up that soup, and suddenly it's a protein serving and out of this world delish. Use any of the above as a side dish with a small piece of salmon or a few sauteed scallops, a lettuce salad, and some fruit, and now you're talking three course deliciousness.
If you can do a lentil-based pasta or rice noodles, the sky is the limit really. It is hard to tire of an easily-varied noodle bowl in spicy broth with assorted veggies and maybe a little soft-boiled egg or a few shrimp? It's so completely YUM and takes 15-20 minutes from start to dining. Add a little fruit smoothie later? On the other hand, this is why I'm fat, because I eat like a sultan and don't exercise nearly as hard as I used to in the gym.
Re: I'm becoming a pescatarian
I’m not eating animal products except fish occasionally. A lot of what you’re suggesting is animal products, so it doesn’t really work for me. I’m allergic to shellfish and a lot of gluten free pasta has eggs.
Re: I'm becoming a pescatarian
Aha, allergic to shellfish! That explains it. But really, fish and fish sauces can work well as the flavor base in a lot of these things, particularly if you don't have to cut out all sugars. One thing I NEVER would have thought to do in the past is use fish skin in cooking, but it is really nice gently cooked in a soup broth. Pop it out before the end - all the flavor is imparted and none of the texture. Or the other way we will do that sometimes is to take the fish out of a saute pan, leave the skin in and put a little cooking oil on, let it flavor the oil, and then you just drizzle that oil into the pan bottom where you're starting your soup with a little onion, garlic or whatever.
It's bizarre how often gluten products are hidden in processed foods. Barilla red lentil pasta is 100% gluten free though, they make it on its own special processing equipment so you don't even get that usual message about "processed on equipment..." I am about to try a new brand of noodle just ordered, pick up tomorrow, made from brown rice. In past these have been sticky so I'm hoping it works nicely in a broth.
It's bizarre how often gluten products are hidden in processed foods. Barilla red lentil pasta is 100% gluten free though, they make it on its own special processing equipment so you don't even get that usual message about "processed on equipment..." I am about to try a new brand of noodle just ordered, pick up tomorrow, made from brown rice. In past these have been sticky so I'm hoping it works nicely in a broth.
Re: I'm becoming a pescatarian
I eat a lot of lentil and chick pea pasta. It’s much better in taste and consistency than the rice or corn based ones. But I do think you’re right that there’s a lot of fish stuff to play around with to enhance my recipes.