Hi, long time vegan, but rather new to cycling. I used to be OMAD (please don’t question the health/fitness, I’m just poor, not ideological), but due to cycling I need to eat 2 meals to have the strength to get back home (riding uphill). I tried eating breakfast, but by the time I get to work and get through the shift, I think anything from breakfast is gone and useless, because I struggle with going uphill. I don’t struggle, however, if I eat lunch. But premade lunches are too expensive.
- I live completely alone.
- Buying entire lettuce and even just half a bread is too much for me and a part of it will go bad, making me feel awful (even environmental reasons aside, again, I’m poor, so it hurts more to spend money I don’t have much of on things in the end going to waste). No, I don’t want to seek ways to eat the exact same thing every single time, it’s making me depressed.
- I’m not interested in long preparation time nor cooking for the week. I don’t even own stuff I could pack food into, but I of course can buy one container suitable for whatever meal for work you may help me come up with.
- I enjoy the simplicity of putting cereals together via just putting them in a bowl and submerging them in m!lk, to give context for the simplicity I yearn for.
I will deeply appreciate no poor-shaming and being helpful over trying to impose a semblance of moral superiority over having different life ways than myself.
I’m from a poor family, so I don’t have experience with breakfasts/lunches at all. I spent my life eating dinner only.
I was thinking of oatmeal with fruit, but I have no idea if it’s a good idea…? I’ve never done oatmeal before. From what I’ve read, it’s done in minutes. But I also fear it will spill. Do lunch containers keep in soup-like food like oatmeal well? What cheap fruit goes well with it? Berries are mad expensive, I was thinking of buying pears, maybe apples, and cinnamon.
Carrots keep better than leafy greens, buy carrots. Tortillas keep better than bread, and they take up less space, but I recognize you don’t need that.
- Carrot and hummus wrap
- Carrots dipped in: hummus, other bean dip, or peanut butter.
- Carrots and rice with a sauce on it. (this might be the most involved)
Additionally, if you’re able: carrots can be grown with little effort. But you need the space.
Oatmeal is good and cheap. I agree apples or pears would be good with it. Try to get just whatever fruit or nuts are on sale for that.
Annie’s makes a good vegan Mac and cheese.
Carrots with hummus are delicious, put into a wrap sounds like a good idea. Thank you. :)
You could do overnight oats. They can be prepared the evening before, then the next morning you just take it out of the fridge and eat it or take it to work. Put 50g of oats in your container, pour 150ml plant milk of your choice, add cinnamon if you like, close the container and into the fridge it goes. Then in the morning you can cut an apple and mix it in. Easy and delicious and my go to breakfast for work at the moment. You can also add flax seeds or chia seeds if you like, or some nut butter; all of which are foods which last a long time without going bad.
So you don’t cook them, if I understood it correctly? How do flax seeds taste? I don’t think I’ve ever had them, and they appear to be better nutrient wise than chia. I wonder if I could get my hands on pumpkin seeds, because they’re really nice when roasted.
Ground flax has little to no flavor and has really helped my diet when added to my overnight oats
Thank you! I’ll make a list and add them. :)
Pumpkin seeds as you suggested are delicious and have great nutrients though, they’re a smart add
Exactly, no need to cook anything here! Just submerge the oats in plant milk and wait :) flax seeds don’t really have a taste, they just add some nutrients and maybe a biiit of texture. As for pumpkin seeds, I would add them just before eating so they don’t get soggy. Enjoy!
For pumpkin seeds, which are great on just about anything, check the Hispanic section of your grocery store for pepitas, it’s often the easiest/cheapest way to get them.
Also big fan of overnight oats. I rotate what I put in mine but it usually includes a seed (sunflower, flax, chia, pumpkin), dried berries (cherries, blueberries) and a sweetener (maple syrup, pomegranate molasses). Cooked oatmeal feels like eating glue to me now, I’ve never looked back.
+1 for overnight oats. Such a time saver!!
Flax can be pricey. Bulk barn often isn’t cheaper. But if you buy whole flax seeds, then you can grind them yourself in a blender and they’re cheaper than store-bought. Only eat flax if it’s ground since the whole seeds have a layer of insoluble fiber which protects it from being digested and you don’t get any nutrients.
I don’t have a blender, but I’ll take this into account and look for grounder seeds. Thank you!
I would suggest avoiding letteuce since it is low calorie and more of a luxury as it doesn’t give you much fuel for biking. If you can’t eat much in a day, then what you do eat should have lots of energy and make you feel full. In a nutshell, calories will give you energy to bike and protein will make you feel fuller for longer.
Breakfast, you can do oatmeal for cheap. Look for bulk bags of quick oats. If you want to add fruit, frozen fruit is cheap and doesn’t spoil (which also saves money). I like blueberries. Just follow the instructions to cook with a pot. Or, if you have a microwave then that will speed things up - may also use less power/$$$ but not certain. For flavour, add some sugar. White will be cheapest. Brown sugar is tastier. And Imo tastiest is maple syrup but it’s expensive. PM me if you’re visiting Canada and I’ll hook you up if you’re in my area.
Brown rice and black beans or lentils are great staples that are CHEAP and much cheaper if you buy them dry, but it takes time to cook them. Find the biggest bag you can afford since it’ll save money on average. If you can bike to an Indian grocery store, they tend to have good prices there. Cook a pot of rice and lentils and this will work for lunch and dinner. Add some rice wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar or even regular will do if one is cheaper), oil (any kind will taste fine), and chop up some veg like bell pepper and onion and it’ll taste great. If you can swing it, adding some dried parsley, and dried dill will add more flavour, bonus for chopped frozen mango.
Another option is whatever pasta is on sale/cheapest - likely a white pasta, paired with canned sauce. It keeps for lunch if you reheat it and you can make one batch to eat for lunch and dinner. You can throw some red lentils in the sauce while you heat it and once they’re no longer hard in 15min or so, it’ll be ready to eat. This adds protein which makes you feel fuller longer. If you can swing it, you can add in some red peppers or mushrooms chopped for some extra veg.
At the end of the day, you’ll find that cooking new recipes really isn’t all that hard. All that is missing is knowing what to do, but google/YouTube can teach you anything these days.
I hope this helps. You surviving takes priority, so if you don’t eat vegan at any point, don’t let anybody fault you for it. Take care!
I’ve never even looked at frozen fruit. ^ ^’ I’ll go have a look once shops are open. I don’t have any sugar, because I never use it. I never had maple syrup, I’ll see if I can find it. I’m in Germany atm, quite far from Canada, but thank you for the offer!
I cannot eat any pasta. Beans are also a danger. My stomach gets irritated by these a lot. :'( I really like good rice, but idk what to eat it with. I used to try making tofu with spicy sauce to combine it with rice, but it felt really one note and exhausting to eat, if that makes sense. But I made my tofu in microwave and I don’t have one here.
I’ve been vegan for 8 years. I don’t get how people may not eat vegan when poor, considering the prices of animal body parts and how fast they spoil, since they’re literal corpses.
this is what i eat as a poor vegan:
rice, beans (canned or dry), potatoes, bread (homemade or store-bought), yams, cereal, oats, bananas, grapes, pasta, peanut butter, jelly, tofu, corn
consider applying for food stamps or visiting food banks
@toxicbubble @Sprite I add home made seitan 👌
I keep my bread in the freezer to prevent it from going mouldy before I can finish it.
You need fat in your diet, if you don’t already have a good amount of it. Add a good bit of coconut oil and/or peanut butter to your meal (such as your oatmeal).
Peanut butter is great, but health wise you should avoid coconut and palm oil.
Conversely, coconut oil does contain some good stuff for you as well: https://www.webmd.com/diet/coconut-oil-good-for-you
So I think, as usual, everything in moderation. Olive oil is also a great choice, of course.
Don’t worry, I’m a peanut butter on apples addict. :) Thank you for the concern though!
As others noted, lettuce is not that good bang for the buck, and bread keeps reasonably well in the fridge. Oatmeal is great and can be left overnight in the fridge and be ready for the morning. I do mine with a tablespoon of flax seeds, freshly ground, whatever nuts I have lying around or peanut butter, frozen berries (a lot cheaper than fresh ones, our Kaufland has the ones I like, Lidl tends to add cherries but YMMV in Germany) and plant milk of course. Any seasonal fruit goes well in oatmeal otherwise.
If you don’t mind spending 20 minutes on a stove you can also make a salty version with some soy sauce, paprika, onions and a little bit of (rice) vinegar.
Not sure how much it costs in Germany but a small block of tofu, imported from Germany, in the Bulgarian Lidl costs 1€. There are multiple varieties. Basil tofu goes well in salads to add some extra protein.
Again it involves a bit of cooking but lentils are cheap fast cooking protein. Red lentils with bulgur Turkish style are love.
Turkish stores probably have Cig Köfte in the fridge. It’s made of bulgur wheat, spiced, very nutritious, and relatively cheap. Goes well in wraps with hummus and tomatoes/cucumbers. Falafel is great too but it might cost more.
Explore the cuisine of other countries, especially Middle Eastern, Indian, and ones that are serious about Christian fasts (Ethiopia, Georgia, Armenia). They use ingredients that don’t cost much, the meals are delicious, and oftentimes it’s easy to prepare.
As for boxes, I use old brine cheese boxes (don’t judge, leftover from my vegetarian years) in a plastic bag to prevent leakage. Otherwise make sure it makes a tight seal.
Shop smart, in the veganDE lemmy community there is a weekly post about vegan discounts in Germany. I would kill to have that here, might as well do it myself someday.
Not sure if I am of any help but best of luck. Cycling to work builds up muscle. Your endurance can only get better with time. I’m seriously considering cycling rather than walking too.
Hoo boy Germany sounds like a hard place to be a vegan. Even the veggie side dishes have speck, cream and butter in them.
Look around your area and find the biggest non-national communities - these often have the cheapest food options. In the US it’s often Mexican food, the UK it’s south Asian. As you’re in Germany, you’d probably be best off with Turkish / Middle Eastern food. So hummus, tomato based chick pea or lentil stews, bulgar wheat salads.
Also you can freeze bread if you find it’s going off too soon to use. It’s absolutely fine once defrosted - make your sandwiches straight onto the frozen bread in the morning, it will be defrosted by the time you have lunch.
Plenty of vegan options in Germany. It’s not hard to be vegan anywhere - I lived in multiple countries. Germany’s issue is gross tasting food and people being very inconsiderate of anyone else, not vegan availability. Althought I won’t lie, UK was the nicest place to be with vegan quorn being like a drug.
Thanks for the info regarding bread!
I suppose what I meant was that in a lot of countries there are traditional vegan meal options, without using meat-replacements. And that in Germany, those would few and far between 😀
Fair! I’m here, because I was going homeless in Ireland due to the housing crisis, not out of love for Germany. I was never particularly interested in the country, and after moving here, I’m even less interested, because they regard people born here, whose parents and grandparent were born here, as non-Germans and only seem to consider what they call an “ethnical German” to be German if one is born within Germany. No point in attempting assimilation. At least I live alone for the first time.
Heh, I’m in Clare. The only thing to do is to find other non-national communities. A friend lives in the Netherlands, which is similar. Has never managed to make real Dutch friends, but is friends with Greeks, Eastern Europeans, Spanish, etc. As long as you’re in a decent sized city, you should find some. Even if they don’t match your own background, they’ll probably be welcoming.
In the past I’d find friends through work, but here my coworkers are practically all German besides very few, but they’re not the nicest bunch, besides one, who is getting mentally ruined by his superior essentially bullying him and refusing him beyond deserved promotions, while praising a German coworker who is so incompetent and rude, they get reported to HR over it. It’s certainly odd here, but with the current world situation moving is completely impossible. I cannot afford my healthcare anymore, but at least they cover my upcoming surgery. On the worse note, it also means I cannot save up for anything.
Check out the Indian food aisle. Pre prepared vegan curries can be delicious. I make a bit of rice and fry up some naan with mine.
Aside from lunch ideas, sugar is a good cheap energy source on the bike. Just chuck some in your water bottle and give it a shake — costs a fraction of an energy gel and is pretty much the same (table sugar is 1:1 glucose/fructose vs 1:0.8 maltodextrin/fructose for SIS Beta Fuel).
None of these address my concerns with waste and prices due to the smallest available portions for purchase of goods. :/
