Hello, my loves! Today, I am inviting you to go on a fully-vegan, fully-awesome shopping trip with me! I've had a lot of questions regarding my current vegan diet and dairy/meat alternatives, so I wanted to show you just how many amazing options there are. I find that a lot of supermarkets have really stepped up their game recently with regards to vegan foods, which makes me so, so happy! When I first tried going vegan over a year ago, I felt very restricted as there just weren't many options around. Now, with supermarket sections dedicated to meat and dairy-free alternatives (including things like cheese, yogurt, milk, pizza and even ice cream!), I am finding it completely effortless to do my weekly shopping. And, I think that even if you would never consider going vegan, it might be fun for you to try out some of these alternatives - a lot of them are seriously delicious! Hope you enjoy this shopping trip with me!
I always try to make fruits and veggies the main staple of my diet - they are awesome, yummy, and super healthy for you. A lot of fruit can be pretty expensive (especially if you try and buy them outside of season), so I tend to stick to cheaper options like bananas, oranges, potatoes and tomatoes. Bananas especially are only 78 pence (just over one US dollar) for about five, which is super cheap so I always like to stock up on those. I know that the supermarket quality will never be as good as buying organic fruits and veggies, but unfortunately we don't have anything else available in my area, so we have to make do!
Here's my lovely fruitful basket so far! We have bananas, organic (yes!) tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower and kiwi (also pretty cheap). And, since we're still in the summer fruit season, I've decided to treat myself to some yummy strawberries and blueberries.
This is probably my favourite section in the entire supermarket! We have vegan cheese, pizza, desserts, and ready meals like lasagne and mac'n'cheese (I tried it before and it was absolutely delicious!). It's a lovely, growing vegan corner with all sorts of dairy-free alternatives, and I am just so happy to see these emerging more and more. Of course, these options can be a little more expensive, but personally I am more than happy to support vegan brand and alternatives, to help them grow and expand. When I first tried going vegan over a year ago, this little aisle didn't exist and there were nowhere near as many alternatives around, which made me feel really restricted. Anyway, I stocked up on some vegan cheese and a couple of ready meals. A few of you asked me about the vegan cheese - I always go for the Violife! cheese slices for my toasties and sandwiches. They are easily the best cheese alternative I've tried to date - creamy, milky without the milk, and melt really nicely when grilled.
Here is an entire section of dairy-free milk - how beautiful is that! Even before I went vegan, I would always buy dairy-free milk. It's just a personal preference, but something about cow's milk and the way it tastes has always put me off. As you can see, there are plenty of delicious vegan alternatives with all sorts of flavours available - almond, coconut, rice, oats, soy. My absolute favourite however is Alpro's hazelnut milk. If there is only one thing that you're willing to check out after reading today's post, please try the hazelnut milk - you won't regret it! It tastes just like Nutella, and I am not kidding! Another bonus of dairy-free milk is that it stays fresher for longer - it can keep for up to five days after opening, whereas with cow's milk you typically have to consume it within two or three days.
Time for some vegan yogurts and desserts! Alpro's yogurts have always been my favourite, and they taste so much like real dairy that I had to double-check the ingredients the first time I tried them! I love their fruity desserts, and they're also reasonably priced compared to a lot of other, slightly fancier dairy-free options. The Coconut Collaborative is another awesome brand for desserts - their mango pana cotta is my favourite indulgent treat ever. I highly recommend that you check it out if you can - I promise you, you won't even be able to tell that it's vegan!
Here's my delicious basket so far - on top of our healthy fruits and veggies, we have some more indulgent options like the Violife! cheese, milk, tofu and a couple of hazelnut chocolate desserts by Alpro (beyond delicious!). I've also picked up a few Innocent smoothies - I usually prefer to just eat my fruit whole, but an occasional smoothie can be a nice energy boost.
I admit that I'm quite lazy when it comes to cooking, so I like to stock up on some easy to prepare, frozen dinner options. These days, most supermarkets have a pretty sizeable vegetarian dinners options (which is amazing!), but you need to be careful as a lot of them aren't actually vegan. Luckily, my local shop has a little vegan corner with some delicious alternatives from Quorn, Aunt Bessie's and Linda McCartney's. My go-to favourites include Quorn's fishless fingers (as a former fish finger fanatic, I can vouch for how yummy these really are!), burgers, sausages, and even 'chicken' nuggets. It's pretty awesome to see how much these brands are expanding their meat and dairy-free options, and I honestly believe that even if you would never consider going vegan, you'd definitely enjoy a lot of these.
I hope that you enjoyed this little shopping trip with me! I know that my shopping choices are not exactly the healthiest (I'm lazy!), but I just wanted to show you how many delicious, vegan alternatives are available out there. It's becoming more and more easy to swap out your favourites for equally yummy meat and dairy-free options, so definitely check out your local supermarket, if you're interested! And please, let me know if you enjoyed this post and would like to see more like these - your feedback helps me out a lot! :)
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