101 TIPS FOR NEW VEGANS

1. Avoid all vegan cheese for at least a year. Most of it is RANK. Violife is OK, if you don’t mind that weird vegan cheese sick taste. Tyne Chease is amazing but pricey.
2. Weetabix is full of iron. Like, half your RDA in two weetabixes.
3. Soya milk is great for protein and calcium
4. Coffee and tea can inhibit iron absoption
5. ‘May contain milk’ is a note for allergy sufferers. As long as it’s not in the ingredients, you’re fine.
6. Quorn fish fingers are impressively realistic.
7. McCains oven chips are vegan.
8. The only supplements you really need are B12 and D, and thats not vegan specific – we should all take them.
9. Protein deficiency is only a thing if you’re undereating.
10. You don’t need to eat 12 bananas a day. Luckily that particular YouTube trend seems to have gone.
11. Jess Beautician, Caitlin Shoemaker and Cheap Lazy vegan are incredible. Pick Up Limes has my heart though.
12. Cookbooks are largely a waste of money.
13. Find recipes on Pinterest instead. 
14. Put beans in smoothies. Check out this recipe – it’s incredible.
15. Put tofu in smoothies.
16. Cadbury’s drinking chocolate is vegan. Amke it with soya milk for a drink rich in calcium and soya.
17. Only take iron supplements if a doctor recommends it. Too much iron is far worse than too little.
18. Avocados are not the root of all evil. 
19. Neither is almond milk (though it’s not as good as soya or oat milk)
20. Soya will not give you cancer, and it’s not detroying the rainforests for vegan consumption (91% of soy is grown to feed livestock).
21. It’s ok to miss meat and dairy, and I PROMISE it’ll pass.
22. Don’t beat yourself if you slip up. You’re human.
23. If you ‘take a day off’ though, you’re plant based, not vegan.
24. You may experience changes in energy levels and your skin, both good and bad.
25. You may experience no changes at all. I didn’t.
26. Broccoli is so damn good for you. Blend it if smoothies if you dont like it/can’t be arsed to cook it.
27. Frozen veg is a lifesaver if you’re a sporadic veg eater like me
28. Buying fake meat or being a junk food vegan is great. Living on nuts and seeds and tofu is great. A mix of the two is ideal, but there is no right way to be vegan.
29. Tesco do a vegan chocolate cake for £6. It’s amazing.
30. Coop’s Incredible burger is also amazing.
31. As are their jam doughnuts.
32. And prosecco. All vegan. Go Coop.
33. You don’t have to give up gluten. I don’t know why so many people think this. I’m at least 30% bread at this point.
34. Pure margarine is the best when you consider availability, taste, and price point.
35. Superdrug’s own brands are a great place to get the toiletries you need – skincare sun screen, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. Most is vegan, but check the label just in case
36. Hourglass is 100% vegan if you like spendy but beautiful make up.
37. Astonish is a great vegan cleaning brand. B&M, Poundstretcher and other similar stores stock it. They do a washing liquid too.
38. Go vegan overnight
39. Go vegan over a year. It took me like three years. Whatever works.
40. Don’t incite arguments, but have your facts READY if someone starts one. 
41. If you can’t think of any of your pro vegan argumens, simply say that you think that being vegan is the moral baseline. It usually shuts people up.
42. Take your own milk, butter, and veggie sausages when you stay with non-vegans. It covers most eventualities.
43. Melter chocolate, silken tofu and some form of sweetener makes a great chocolate mousse.
44. M&S chicken kievs are quietly life changing.
45. As is Helmanns vegan mayo.
46. Though the Aldi one is pretty good.
47. Tinned mango (frozen has a weird flavour sometimes), orange juice, and tofu blended is a delicious smoothie. 
48. Add some spinach for, ya know, health.
49. If you have to take non-vegan medication, take it. You’re doing your best. And yes, I’m OF COURSE including birth control. Kids are gross.
50. Your dog can be vegan, but doesn’t have to be (I’m have no idea if I’d feed my dog a vegan diet).
51. Your cat can’t be vegan. They’re carnivores. It ain’t natural.
52. Get a bunny – they’re herbivores. Not vegan though – mine would probably have a go at eating a full sized cow if we let her, the greedy little beast.
53. Whatever pet you get, adopt it, rather than getting it from a breeder. Tis the vegan way.
54. You don’t have to be a good cook to be vegan. my standard meal is baked potato, salad, and some form of veggie protein (usually sausages).
55. You don’t have to watch grahic films depicting animals being harmed. That stuff’s for non-vegans.
56. You don’t have to go zero waste. Just become more aware. Start simple – reuse your margarine tubs rather than buying tupperware, for example.
57. Vegan chocolate often isn’t great. Cadbury’s orange Bournville is the exception that proves the rule. Oh, and the Galaxy ones.
58. Vegan Ben and Jerry’s is wonderful.
59. As are vegan Magnums.
60. All the hype around Greggs is there for a reason. The sausage rolls have changed long car journeys for me.
61. Plant kitchen > Wicked. 
62. Pizza Express, Nando’s, and Frankie & Benny’s all have great vegan options.
63. McDonald’s needs to up it’s game. Vegetable nuggets? Fuck all the way off. WE WANT FAKE MEAT.
64. If you NEED a melty vegan cheese, and like smoky things, the Applewood one is fine, but don’t get overexcited about it. The smoky flavour does just about cover up the weird sick taste though, and it melts well. 6/10.
65. There is no vegan Quorn mince yet (annoyingly), but Tesco and Sainsbury’s both do a soya mincethat’s good for chilli and bolognese etc.
66. Cheap frozen garlic bread is often vegan – check out the ones from Coop, Tesco and Sainsburys.
67. Bistro onion gravy is vegan. As is the beef one. 
68. Paxo stuffing is also vegan.
69. Take vegan twitter with a pinch of salt. The majority of people on there are lovely, but there are always weirdos. And so. much. drama.
70. You can have opinions that differ from other vegans. For example, you may think that horse riding is fine (obvs not racing), or that zoos are necessary.
71. Unless she’s a vegan herself, your mum will worry. That’s just a cross you have to bear.
72. Oatly and Alpro do the best cream
73. Tesco unsweetened soya milk is the milk I use. It’s 85p and tastes…fine.
74. It may take a while to get used to certain tastes. Stick with it.
75. Don’t automatically trust nutition advice from a doctor. Ask to be referred to a dietician.
76. You may not lose weight if you go vegan. I assumed I would, and didn’t. It’s all the oven chips and doughnuts.
77. Non-vegans will try to catch you out. Fuck ’em (not literally. Unless you both want to).
78. Honey is not vegan. 
79. Leather is not – it’s not a by product either
80. Silk is also not vegan, and check that padded jackes don’t contain down.
81. If you’re happy to buy these items second hand, that’s your call.
82. But don’t chuck out all your non-vegan stuff – sell it, give it away, or just make sure not to buy more. See also makeup and skincare.
83. I’m yet to find a decent natural deodorant. Pitrok is the best of bad bunch, though I’ve heard good things about Schmidts. It’s such a personal things though.
84. You don’t have to be an activist.
85. But you can be if you want. 
86. Whether or not you mind if your partner is vegan is up to you. My boyfriend isn’t but he is supportive of me, and eats vegan a lot of the time.
87. Don’t stock up on ‘vegan foods’. Stock your pantry with beans, lentils,  pasta, and tinned tomatoes.
88. The vegan pate from Suma is LIFE CHANGING. So good. I got it for Chrostmas, but when I find out where it’s stocked I’ll drop a link.
89. Christmas dinner is the easiest meal to veganise. It’s mostly veg, Sainsbury’s do pigs in blankets. All you need is fake turkey, though I usually go for sausages.
90. You can’t convert your friends by bugging them. 
91. You can convert your friends by luring them to your house to drink prosecco and feed them all the delicious vegan foods.
92. However weird someone says your vegan alternative is, it’s never as weird as eating eggs. And that comes from someone that used to LOVE poached eggs on toast.
93. Fried Quorn smoky ham free slices is the closest you’ll get to bacon. All the other alternatives can be a bit…kippery.
94. Holland and Barratt can be something of a rip off. I bulk buy nuts and seeds from Amazon. 
95. But don’t get too much. A couple of different kinds of nuts and some chia or flax seeds is plenty whilst you’re finding your vegan feet.
96. Those big blue boxes of dates that Tesco have in the fruit and veg section are a great low cost alternative to medjool dates. They’re not exactly the same, but they’re damn fine stuffed with peanut butter.
97. Almond butter is not somehow better than peanut butter, it’s just different. Buy whichever you prefer/have access to.
98. Frozen blueberries are better than fresh in all areas, including taste, convenience, and price.
99. Frozen raspberries are also good, but man, are they sour.
100. Sriracha mayo is vegan.
101. AS are hobnobs.

I feel like I ended strong there.