I am JUST beginning to 'flirt' with this kind life idea and I love Alicia's recipes and can't wait to try them, but alot of the ingredients I have never heard of. I plan to familiarize myself with some of them as I go, but I live in a small town, so most of them may not even be available to me here.

In the meantime, does anyone have any main course recipes using more common ingredients found in my grocery store? With a family of six, common-ingredient recipes are going to be much easier to start with and stick to.

Thanks :)

My fiance and I are living off of my meager income while he finished grad school, so we rarely have extra cash for those extra expenses.  Most recipes that I made are made with extremely basic ingredients that you can find in ANY store.  You can check out my recipes at http://veganrockergirl.blogspot.com

Hi Angela!

Welcome to the kind life!  I started over six months ago, and feel so at peace and grateful that I made the decision to try this.  I hope you have great results as well.  My family has even followed along with me, and we have basically no dairy or meat in the house any longer.  (Love my boys dearly, but didn't really think 15 and 17 year-old teenagers would let me change their diet so drastically).

Amazon sells some of the more exotic ingredients from the kind life, as do most asian markets if you want to try some of those recipes.  For sticking with more common ingredients, I recommend the Engine 2 Diet (on-line vegan recipes and cookbook), MacDougall's Quick and Easy Cookbook (low-fat vegan recipes with very normal ingredients that can be made in 15 minutes or less) and Dr Neil Barnard's website.  All three of these are much less focused on Asain ingredients like Nori, kombu and burdock root.  Once you stock up on Shoyu (or soy sauce) and fresh vegetable you'll be in good shape for many of these recipes!

I went to visit family in a small town in Iowa, and was amazed to find everything I needed at their Hy-Vee grocery store.  They also had a great health food coop, hopefully you can find something like this near you.  Good luck!

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The basics of the Kind Diet book, vegan diet and macrobiotic diets are all the same: 

*Whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, etc.)

*Beans (black beans, kidney beans, etc.) 

*Fruits 

*Veggies (especially leafy ones) 

Especially if you're just starting out and cooking with others in mind, these are all things you can find at your local supermarket. You might want to shop around to find better prices in some cases but it's all about finding YOUR balance. 

Good luck! 

My response is similar to Tania's: stock up on whole grains, veggies, and beans. For more fun dishes, try veganizing old recipes like chili or spaghetti or lasagna. Check out cookbooks and blogs for inspiration. :) I usually have a smoothie with protein powder for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and a salad, rice, and beans for dinner. Hummus is my favorite go-to snack.

Hello!  I am kind of in between flirt and superhero.  For me, I feel its easier to just not eat meat rather than eating all the fake soy meats.  I was a semi-veg for many many years tho. To me, that means I ate some chicken - mostly for convenience and fish.  

I still eat fish occasionally when I feel the need for me.  My favorite thing is to go to Rubios and get grilled fish tacos.

But, for my regular diet I eat whole grains, veggies and beans.  My favorite beans are black beans.  I get just canned beans, they are very inexpensive but its even cheaper if you by dried beans and cook them up yourself.  But i'm too lazy for that!  So i get low sodium canned beans.

I don't know what you normally cook, but just omit the meat.  For me, I eat alot of salads and fresh veggies.  And rather than white foods (like rice and pasta and bread) use whole grains (like brown rice, quinoa, whole bread).  

Let me talk about quinoa (keen-wa).  This is my FAVORITE thing.  It sounds weird but I actually love it even more than rice.  Its so much easier for me to cook and I think it tastes better.  Here (in southern california) its available in all our grocery stores, even the big ones, so you should be able to find it.  No matter what the directions say, its so much better to toast first. 1) 1 cup quinoa in a dry pot.  Toast on med heat a few mins, it will pop and smell like popcorn.  2) Once toasted add 2 cups liquid.  I prefer using vegetable broth because it adds more flavor. 3) add garlic, seasoning, whatever. 4) put lid on, turn down and cook about 20 mins, until liquid is gone.  SOOO GOOOD.

You can also make burgers - I prefer not having so much soy.  They can be expensive and I don't like them but you may want it as an alternative.  Look on here under recipes, there are a few different ones.

I use portebello mushrooms on the grill instead of burgers, but they can be expensive.

Check out the recipes on here, or you can check out the book.  Pasta is good if you need something quick.  My meat eating fiance has a favorite food of all times - HUMMUS.  If you don't know what it is, its a dip that's made from garbanzo beans.  IT's mediterranean and super healthy.  Our favorite is available in our local Fresh & Easy, but you can find so many different kinds in all stores.  you can even make your own, its so easy.  There are recipes on here.  My favorite we buy is Lemon Cilantro Hummus.

Anyway, I just cut up a bunch of veggies and apples and a pita or a tortilla and we dip it in the hummus.

You can also make alot of mexican foods and just use beans.  I'm not a fan of mexican though myself.  But I do eat alot of grains and beans.  In fact, the whole grains have alot of protein in them so you don't need extra.

One thing I LOVE to make is:

Israeli cous cous (or a tiny tiny pasta)

avacado sliced, tomatoes sliced, diced mushrooms, raw red or orange peppers, diced cucumbers topped with lemon and garlic oil and cilantro.  Oh my, this is SO addicting!  Sometimes I add beans.  It's so good. And very fresh and satisfying. 

I am a huge proponent of using "real" food and there is a whole universe of recipes that can be made without anyone ever even noticing that they're "vegan".

I'm a flirt as well and my website is dedicated to recipes that feature normal ingredients.

http://sneakyvegan.blogspot.com/

I haven't ventured into experimenting with seitan, tofu, or any of the other vegan substitutes that are out there, but I'm finding that it's not even necessary.

Go through the cookbooks and recipes you already have and look for things that are either made without meat or where the meat isn't the main focus of the dish so it can easily be taken out. You will be amazed at how much more food is vegan than not.

http://sneakyvegan.blogspot.com/p/faqs.html

Good luck!