Quorn Recipes | Meat Free Meals & Protein Packed Dishes

Hi, I've been planning on going vegan for like a year now but a recent medical problem has made it much more troublesome. I am certain I suffer from GERD and I have acid reflux everyday, which is quickly worsened by classically FODMAP-y foods. I'm still figuring out the specifics, but I know that veggie staples like onions and garlic are a big no-no, and my favourite foods like tomatoes and lemons also give me problems. This is very frustrating because I'm already a pretty crappy cook. I'm a university student whose meals can be summed up as 'standard British meaty meals with the meat swapped out for Quorn' - spag bol, 'chicken' curry, 'sausages' and mash and so forth. I'm not kitchen smart and I don't know my way around flavours, so the restriction of particular vegetables so common in vegan recipes has made cooking and eating much harder. I rely a lot on carbs like pasta and rice, I'm unfamiliar with the majority of ingredients found in vegan recipes, I've never cooked tofu for example. I don't eat meat or fish, I avoid eggs but I do consume cheese and yoghurt (the latter of which helps my acid reflux). I have yet to speak with a dietitian.
I'd like some advice. Is it plausible/easy for me to go 100% vegan? I'm a frugal shopper and I'm already intimidated by the ingredients common to vegan recipes, many of which I don't think I can safely eat. Does anyone else here have experience, and if so perhaps you could share some ideas/recipes? What do you eat?

I am a student so need some cheap easy meals, I have gotten quite bored of quorn chicken and have read through nosh for students and got a few recipes I like but quickly get bored of them.

Section One: Assets and Debt
I have converted everything from GBP to USD, so some amounts might be rounded here or there, but they are very close!
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): LOL basically none. I currently contribute 6% of my salary (my company will match up to 8%), although I upped that this month, it was 4% previously. Essentially I just let the pension company do whatever they do with it, although I probably should be a little more proactive. I currently have £2331.82/$2956.76 in there, and I couldn’t find my partner’s most recent statement to see what she has in hers.
Savings account balance: My partner and I previously had a lot of debt, it’s literally only been the past few months we’ve finally gotten our joint accounts sorted and can finally start saving properly. We have £715/$912 in our savings account, it’s not a special high yield one or anything, just regular easy access savings. Once we have enough saved up in there for emergencies, we’ll open up a Lifetime ISA (LISA) to save up for a house deposit.
Checking account balance: We try to keep a £500 (~$630) buffer in the bottom of our joint account, although projected expenses this month will mean by the time we get paid in July (we get paid on the 15th of every month) we will probably be right at the bottom of our account. Basically we have a joint current account for nearly all expenses, then we pay ourselves a small amount into personal accounts each for us to do whatever we want with. Usually for me it’s clothes! The way we use it, personal accounts are for personal, unnecessary spending. So things like work clothes or haircuts come out of the joint account, even though they technically only benefit one person, they are still a necessary expense.
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): No joint credit card debt. I have around £390/$500 on my personal credit card that I am very slowly paying off out of my personal allowance, that was to pay for 3 months with an online personal trainer I have wanted to work with for a long time.
Student loan debt (for what degree): So student loan works slightly differently in the UK, I basically think of it as a graduate tax. It doesn’t affect my credit score, and will be automatically taken from my pay cheque once I start earning roughly $31k per year. It will be written off 30 years after I graduated, which will be 2045 for me. I haven’t paid a penny of it off yet, and doubt I will ever pay the full amount. I have roughly £45k/$57k to pay off, and my partner has roughly £60k/$76k. That amount covered our tuition and living expenses while at uni, plus the interest we have accrued since graduating. My degree is a BSc in Counselling and Psychology, and hers is an MEng in Aeronautical Engineering.
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Section Two: Income
My job monthly take home pay: £1362, which is roughly $1714
Partner’s job monthly take home pay: £1880, which is roughly $2366
We don’t have any other forms of income right now.
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Section Three: Expenses (these all come from our joint account)
Rent: £725/$910 for a small 3 bedroom semi-detached house a few miles out from the city centre. Rent has not been raised in the 2 1/2 years we’ve lived here, so our goal is to stay in this house until we buy property up north, where we’re from and where houses are cheaper.
Electric + Gas: £100/$127.56 (this is dependent on the weather, now that it’s finally started to warm up this should go down as we won’t be using the heating)
Water: £25/$31.89
Savings: Our goal is to put around £600/$755 into savings per month, although we haven’t managed that this month. Usually when we get paid, we see what expenses are coming up in the time between then and our next pay cheque, and figure out how much we can afford to put away, and how much we can afford to put into our personal accounts.
Personal money: Our goal is £150/$189 per month, but the last few months we haven’t had that much spare.
Phone: Mine is £60/$75 per month (I wanted an iPhone X, which happened to come out around when my previous contract ended. This is for the phone, plus 8GB of data per month, and unlimited calls and texts). My partner’s is £37/$47.20 per month, she’s not as bothered about the latest phones so she has an iPhone 8. Her bill covers the phone, plus 30GB of data per month (jealous!) and unlimited calls and texts.
Spotify: £14.99/$19.12 for a family account used by me and my partner
iCloud: £1.58/$1.98
Netflix: £7.99/$11
Amazon Prime: £79/$99 annually
TV and internet: £33.99/$43.36 (this mainly for internet, we’re not big TV watchers so we don’t pay for any additional channels like sport).
TV licence: £154.50/$197.08 annually, this is paid by everyone (with a few exceptions) in the UK who owns a TV, and is very hotly debated!
Car insurance: £41/$53 for our one car that we share.
Car payment: £135/$172.21
Car tax: £20/$25.51 annually
Gym: £19.99/$25.50, this used to be more expensive, I just recently got a new membership that is through my work so it’s a discounted rate. I can go to lots of different gyms in the area and it’s all covered under this.
Personal training course: £110/$140.32, I am retraining as a personal trainer, this amount covers the combined online course with some in person elements. This will be paid off in May 2020.
Council tax: £144/$183.69, I think this is equivalent to property tax in the US? It’s basically the amount we pay to our local councils, the amount varies depending on a few factors like house size and how many people live there. It’s to cover services like bin collection and whatever else the council does!
Cat insurance: £21.86/$27.88 for our two 11-year-old cats. We didn’t previously have this, but then one cat had a seizure completely out of the blue a few months ago so we panic bought it! She’s completely fine, the vet couldn’t find a cause for it, and if you saw her you wouldn’t even know she’d had it.
Donations: We don’t currently have any regular charity payments. If we see someone has a Gofundme or a fundraiser we’d like to donate to we’ll do that, as well as regularly giving cash to the homeless people we see in the city. I also volunteer semi-regularly with a small charity that helped me a lot as a child, as a way to give back.
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Note: all purchases in the diary will be from the joint account unless I specifically state they are from my personal account.
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Day One: Monday
7:10am: Ew. I did not sleep well, so I snooze my alarm for 15 minutes.
7:25am: Ok ok, I force myself out of bed. I was smart and got everything ready last night, so I just need to get dressed, grab everything from the fridge, and go. I dress very simply for work, just a black skirt and tights, and a rust coloured blouse with cute foxes on! I put on a tiny bit of make-up, just foundation, mascara, eyebrow pencil, and blush.
8:05am: We’re out the door! My partner (L) and I actually work at the same company, so it makes commuting very easy, and I get a chauffeur. Within 10 minutes of leaving the house, I’m sat at my desk. I drink a protein shake I brought from home as my breakfast.
12:30pm: Lunch time! I got bored of meal prepping a few weeks ago, so now I just bring in a tin of tomato soup. It’s very dull to eat, but at least I don’t have to cook tons of portions at the weekend, and it saves some money.
2:00pm: I send some messages on a group chat I have for a hen (bachelorette) party I’m planning that’s happening in a couple of weeks. Nobody has paid me yet for the activities, and we haven’t decided where we’re going to eat afterwards. Honestly I’ve hated the entire experience of planning this, and I just can’t wait for it to be over. I’m not even attending the ceremony because it’s in another country and we can’t afford to go.
4:00pm: I eat a ham sandwich I brought from home. It’s on a protein thin, it’s pretty gross but it fits my macros a little better than normal bread so I deal.
4:35pm: We had to stay slightly late due to L being in a meeting, but it’s finally home time! I know I didn’t mention any details about my work, but honestly I don’t do a lot! If there aren’t any emails to answer, I basically don’t have any work to do. I spend a lot of time browsing the internet and doing my personal training course.
5:00pm: I’m hungry, so I eat a banana, then get started cooking right away. L mows the lawn, because it’s gotten super long due to the extreme rain we’ve had recently, and today has been the first day without rain in weeks. Tonight we have beef burgers with homemade chips (fries), I have my burger without the bun because I figure if I avoid the bread, I can have more chips, right?
8:30pm: Time for the gym! While we ate, we finally started season 2 of She-Ra on Netflix, then played Borderlands 2 (we have played this through a bajillion times but we still love it) on the PS4 for a while with one of the cats on my lap, so I have a lot of walking to do to reach my 10k step goal. I walk to the gym, and do my weights workout. I love to lift heavy-ass weights! No circuit routines for this gal.
10:00pm: I stay until the gym closes, then walk home. It’s pretty creepy because I have to walk through a very secluded path and I don’t like it in the dark. After I get home, I eat a homemade brownie that I baked yesterday (my speciality), and a quark yoghurt, then I take my make-up off and have a quick body shower, and am in bed by 11pm. L very kindly makes my sandwich for tomorrow and shuts down the house before she comes to bed around midnight.
Daily total: $0
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Day Two: Tuesday
7:10am: Feel very sleepy as usual, but force myself out of bed. My usual routine is that I get out of bed first, get my make up on, then come back in and wake L up. She’s a very deep sleeper so she can be quite difficult to turf out of bed! I go downstairs while she gets ready, and pack our bags for work, including making my protein shake for later.
8:05am: Arrived at work, I like to get in around this time because it means we can leave earlier, so I have more free evening time. I spend my morning reading internet forums, and slowly getting on with some work.
11:00am: I drink my protein shake. I genuinely enjoy these, I use Gold Standard vanilla protein mixed with soy milk, it tastes like a milkshake to me! I get a notification that I’ve been outbid on a pinafore dress I was interested in on eBay, but the price has gone higher than I wanted to pay, so I don’t increase my bid.
12:30pm: We go down and eat lunch, it’s the same tomato soup for me. L made some stir fry at the weekend for her lunches this week.
3:00pm: I eat my ham sandwich on a protein thin. Can you tell I eat the same stuff every goddamn day?!
4:20pm: Home time! As soon as I get home I eat a banana, get changed, and am instantly back out of the door to walk to my haircut appointment for 5pm.
5:30pm: Hair cut is done, only needed a quick dry trim. It started to rain on the way there, I’m gutted because I was really hoping this rain would be over by now. I get L to pick me up because the rain has really started to come down, and start cooking my tea. We are having different meals tonight, L has a frozen pizza and I make pasta with quorn chicken pieces and a simple cheese sauce. There ends up being too much pasta in the packet for one portion, but not enough to bother putting it back in the cupboard, so I make extra quorn, and pack it all up for lunch tomorrow. $19
6:30pm: Asda is here! We always arrange to have our weekly shopping delivered on a Tuesday, so I usually order it on Sundays. Today our shopping consisted of; pot noodles, chicken kievs, quark yoghurts, soya milk, celery, asparagus, soft cheese, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, salmon, cheese, chicken breast, sliced chorizo, quorn chicken, bread, protein thins, coke zero (for L), Lindt chocolate (for me), pasta, potatoes, two bottles of cider (for L), apple & blackcurrant squash (for me), naan bread, and cheese sauce mix. $75.05
8:30pm: After lounging around watching more She-Ra and cuddling the cats, I drag myself to the gym. Not really feeling it tonight, and nearly talk myself out of it. During the walk, I text with a friend and arrange to go see Rocketman next week. I wanted to go see Booksmart, but this was our compromise. Plus, I’m happy to watch Taron Egerton and Richard Madden make out, so I’m not too upset.
10:00pm: I head home after doing my weights, eat a brownie (I have so many left, I’ll need to fob some off on friends I think) and have a shower. Afterwards, I try to do the dishwasher, but L knows it’s past my bedtime and shoos me upstairs. After drying my hair, I am in bed for 11:30pm.
Daily total: $94.05
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Day Three: Wednesday
7:10am: Nope.
7:35am: After many snoozes, I get out of bed. Quickly get ready, same routine as always. Simple make up, chuck on a black dress and tights, make a protein shake, brush teeth, then we leave. I get to my desk by 8:20, and drink my protein shake around 11am as usual.
12:30pm: Lunch time, I didn’t realise quite how much pasta I made, so I’m quite stuffed. Or maybe I’m not used to eating bigger meals during the day?
4:35pm: Time to go home! We’re going out later for tea with L’s family, as it’s one sister’s birthday, and the other had her last exam today. We’ll be eating later than I’m used to, so I have a quark yoghurt to tide me over. I also add a bunch of extra make up, including Barry M Liquid Chrome highlighter, my favourite. I change into a cute tie-front blouse and black skinny jeans, and put on a little jewellery as well.
5:50pm: We estimate it will take 45 minutes to get to the restaurant, but we set off with plenty of time just in case we hit traffic. Before we leave, we grab an extra gift we got a while ago for L’s sister. We already posted her main gift, but as a gag gift we also bought her a giant pencil and a tiny notebook. It seemed funny in the shop, but writing it down it sounds lame! On the drive, we listen to some old episodes of The Adventure Zone podcast, our favourite.
7:00pm: We’re here, but the family isn’t unfortunately, we get a text to say they’re running half an hour late. We park up, and since it’s after 6pm it’s only $1.50 to stay until midnight. L and I both really need a wee, so we spot a cute bar in a canal boat and head in for a drink and to use the loos. I get a vodka lemonade, and she gets half a cider since she’ll be driving later ($8.20). We sit outside to enjoy our drinks, since it’s not too cold. $9.70
7:30pm: They’re finally here, so we go to the restaurant to be seated. I order another vodka lemonade, and chorizo spaghetti carbonara as my main course. It’s DELICIOUS! L has pork belly with vegetables and a diet coke, but I can tell she wishes she’d ordered pizza like everyone else. For dessert I have a melt in the middle chocolate pudding with a scoop of vanilla gelato, and again it’s completely delicious. L has a salted caramel sundae, and she gives me the white chocolate curls, since she doesn’t like chocolate.
10:00pm: I can’t believe we stayed so long! L’s dad generously covers the bill, which he tells us came to around $203 for the seven of us. We spend a long time debating how much tip to leave, I don’t think he wants to leave much because he was already paying so much for the meal, so he ends up only leaving a tenner ($12). Controversial! I personally would have left more, but he’s older and quite conservative, I don’t think he’d have left a tip at all if we hadn’t all convinced him. L and I literally never carry cash, so we can’t help out either.
11:05pm: Finally home, and exhausted. L very kindly makes my sandwich for tomorrow without me even asking, while I take off my make-up, brush my teeth, and am out like a light.
Daily total: $9.70
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Day Four: Thursday
7:10am: I don’t want to, but I force myself out of bed. Go through the usual morning routine of make-up, brush my hair, and put on deodorant (I’m just realising I never mentioned that any other days, I promise I wear it every day!). I wake L up and make her take my weekly progress photos to send to my PT, since it’s check-in day. As we leave the house, I notice the sky is glorious blue! I hope all this rain is finally over, and we can actually start summer.
8:15am: I’m at my desk! L has a doctor’s appointment at 9am so we had to make sure to get here nice and early, so she can get some work done before she has to leave again.
10:00am: I check my eBay app and see I’ve been outbid AGAIN on something, and I can’t decide what to do. I don’t have any summer clothes because my weight and body shape is very different from last year, but I also don’t have a lot of money to spend. I increase my bid to $5 on some denim high-waist shorts and am still not the highest bidder, so I tap out. I only have around $60 in my personal account to last me the entire month, including the cinema next week, so I don’t want to spend it all on clothes.
12:30pm: Lunchtime is here, and I go down to eat my boring soup. When I get back, my co-worker offers me a doughnut! I told him yesterday that the jam doughnuts from the Co-op are vegan, which he didn’t know, so today he bought some for us all to share. Definitely improves my mood!
1:30pm: You know that comment I made about the glorious blue sky? Guess what! It’s goddamn raining.
3:00pm: I eat my ham sandwich, cry a little inside about the fact that I wish it was another doughnut instead.
4:25pm: I successfully resisted eating a second doughnut, and it’s home time! We stop by the Co-op as is our Thursday tradition. We used to go to a local sandwich shop on Fridays as a treat, but now to save money we just buy some nice bread from the co-op and make our own. I also grab a light Ribena and some fridge raiders to bring tomorrow as a snack. $4.50
5:00pm: Not long after we get in, the cat that had a seizure recently starts limping! I panic, but after a few seconds she’s fine, it must have just been a dead leg. The cats are 11 now so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were starting to have some joint issues. We discuss it, and I go on amazon to buy some salmon oil to add to their food, because that’s supposed to help ($15.20). That also reminds me we’re nearly out of cat food, so I go on Fetch and order a 4kg bag of James Wellbeloved dry food, and a jumbo pack of Felix wet food pouches ($42), they’ll all be delivered tomorrow evening. $57.20
7:30pm: After eating cheesy pasta bake with celery and a bell pepper for tea (my absolute favourite) and lounging around listening to more Adventure Zone and playing Pokemon X, I decide to go for a walk since I’ve not moved a lot today. L doesn’t come with me because she’s tired and her hayfever is really acting up today. I only end up going out for about half an hour before I really need a wee and have to come home, so I don’t manage to hit my 10k step goal.
10:30pm: I spend some time browsing Depop for the first time ever, and I love it! I buy a black pinafore dress for $8.25 including postage. I again try and sort the kitchen and make sandwiches for tomorrow but L shoos me upstairs and says she’ll do it, so I head up to bed and am asleep pretty quickly. $8.25 from my personal account
Daily total: $69.95
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Day Five: Friday
7:20am: I snooze once, debate going back to sleep and just getting into work later, but manage to get up. Technically we can arrive any time we want as long as it’s before 9am, but I do prefer getting in early when we can, so we can leave earlier.
7:50am: I get downstairs after getting dressed and putting on make-up and some Lush No Drought dry shampoo, to discover the kitchen is still a mess and sandwiches aren’t made. I’m annoyed because L specifically told me not to do it, and now we’ll be running late. She comes down and makes the sandwiches while I pack our bags and make my protein shake. We brush our teeth and manage to leave by 8:15 somehow.
11:00am: I drink my protein shake for breakfast as per usual.
12:30pm: Time to head for lunch, ham sandwiches on the nice bread today as a Friday treat, plus my Ribena. L has the same bread, but she has chorizo, cheese, gherkins, and mayo on hers, and a sugar free energy drink.
3:30pm: I eat my fridge raiders. Not a particularly exciting snack, but it keeps me going. Plus, it’s nearly home time!
3:55pm: Time to go! We can leave half an hour early on Fridays, and we count that down to the minute. Once we get home, I eat a banana, drink a pre-workout shake, get changed into gym clothes, put some laundry on, and head back out in the car. I’m going to a different gym that my friend works at today so I can give her the rest of the brownies I baked, so I need to drive. I only passed my test just over a year ago, and I’m still a very nervous driver. I typically only drive short distances, and I’ve never driven on the motorway. Luckily L doesn’t mind driving me around!
7:45pm: Can’t believe how long I stayed at the gym! I spent ages chatting to my friend, and had to do 30 minutes of cardio after my weightlifting, so my workout ran really long. I don’t mind though, because I hit some PBs and I feel amazing! Get home to find L ran the dishwasher, so the kitchen is lovely and sparkling clean. My tummy is rumbling LOUD, so I quickly run for a shower, then come downstairs to make my salmon, rice, broccoli and cauliflower. L always spends Friday evenings gaming on the PC and chatting to friends on Skype, so I get to do whatever I want.
9:30pm: I finish eating, and decide to lounge around and watch Hearts Beat Loud on Netflix. It’s a cute film, although it does make me cry. I try to coax the cats into eating the food with salmon oil added, but they don’t like it. The cat with the bad leg outright refuses to eat even a bite, which is extra frustrating since we bought it for her specifically.
11:00pm: I go to bed in a weird mood after the film, not sure why. I have a bit of a cry, and can’t fall asleep for hours, not helped by the fact that L is still chatting to her friends in the next room and is being quite loud. Usually I’d shut the bedroom door, but the cats are in here with me and I feel bad kicking them out.
Daily total: $0
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Day Six: Saturday
3:30am: I wake up briefly as L comes to bed and moves the cats out of the room, but fall back asleep instantly.
9:00am: I wake up for real! I’m visiting family in Manchester today for my nana’s 80th birthday party, so I have to get on the train, I’ve already paid for my tickets. It’s a long journey, I just hope I can find seats. I clean the kitchen, put more laundry on, then make myself poached eggs on toast for breakfast.
10:20am: L drops me at the train station, I could definitely have driven myself but I pretend like she might need the car, so I don’t have to drive. The weather keeps alternating between hot and cloudy, and I brought my big winter coat for some reason. I just carry it around, wishing I had a cool jacket to wear instead. On the train I start reading a book I’ve been meaning to get into for ages, The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine.
1:20pm: Finally arrive in Manchester! It’s a long journey but not a difficult one, only one change. My family let me know they are running a little late to pick me up from the station, but I assumed they would be anyway, so I had planned to get some food while I waited. I go to a healthy fast food place just outside the station, and get chicken nuggets and baked waffle fries. $8.70
2:00pm: We get to the party fashionably late. I eat my food in the car, although I don’t enjoy the fries so I give them to my little brother. 16 year old boys will eat literally anything! I wasn’t expecting everyone to be dressed so nicely, I stick out like a sore thumb in my jeans and t-shirt, while everyone else is in nice dresses and shirts. Nana seems pleased to see me though, and that’s what counts!
4:30pm: We couldn’t stay for very long, because I had to get back to the station. I think I’ll have spent more time on a train today than actually visiting family! The party was pretty uneventful, I basically spent the entire time corralling my little brother and sister while my mum cuddled a cousin’s six week old baby. There was a buffet, but I don’t eat any of it, and my mum pays for our drinks, so I have a couple of J20s. I go to WH Smiths in the station because I’m getting hungry and won’t be home for hours. I get a ham sandwich, bottle of Ribena and packet of Skips as part of a meal deal, and grab a dairy milk chocolate bar as well. $6.90
6:15pm: I finish my book during the first train journey (loved it, very Gone Girl vibes), and get a notification that I’m very low on data. I top up 1GB for £5/$6.38, which will be added to my next bill. All I can really do now is just eat my food, and listen to an episode of the Dear Prudence podcast I had already downloaded. $6.38
7:40pm: Finally back at the home station! I had to stand for the last 45 minute journey, so my back is aching. L picks me up and we head home. I decide I’m in the mood to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch, so I start myself a new playthrough on that. L sits on the sofa with me and gives me pointers.
10:30pm: After a nice relaxing evening, I head to bed early. I quickly take off my make up, brush my teeth, and fall asleep in no time.
Daily total: $21.98
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Day Seven: Sunday
10:00am: Finally, I get a lie in! I swear, we’ve been busy every single Saturday for weeks, I needed this extra sleep. I lounge around in bed for a while on social media before getting up at around 11. I clean the kitchen while L gets ready, and I have an internal discussion about whether I should go to the shop before I eat, so I can buy a ready meal for lunch.
11:30am: I don’t buy the ready meal! We make poached eggs on toast for us both, and manage to get them lovely and runny inside for the second day in a row. While that’s cooking, we look through some recipes for what to make for L’s lunches, she decides on a healthy looking Mexican casserole.
12:30pm: After watching some TV, we head out to Asda to buy the meal prep ingredients. We get brown rice, chicken, corn, and black beans. I also pick up some new tights for work, some pasta, and L spies a new Nando’s sauce she enjoys but hasn’t seen in shops before ($19.07). We had just started to get in the red on our petrol gauge, so we also stop and completely fill up the car on the way home ($51.03). $70.10
1:30pm: Pretty much as soon as we get in, I start making lunch. I want to get to the gym quite soon, and since I’m doing deadlifts today, I need more food in me, even though I’m not hungry yet from eating breakfast so late. We have pasta with quorn chicken, celery, red bell peppers, and cheese sauce. I’m STUFFED because I made too much, and end up extremely sleepy. I do put on some more laundry, there’s a growing pile of clean laundry in the bedroom that hasn’t been put away yet.
3:00pm: After wandering around the house in a fog for a while, I finally feel awake enough to walk to the gym. Get in an ok workout, although I don’t stay behind to do cardio because I want to get home to watch the Women’s World Cup football (soccer) game, England v Cameroon. L does her meal prep while I’m gone, and tidies the kitchen after she’s finished.
6:30pm: What a crazy game! So glad I tuned in, it was truly wild to watch. After that finishes, I head for a shower, then we cook chicken kievs and homemade chips for tea. For dessert, I have a few squares of my Lindt chocolate, and a protein shake.
11:00pm: I had a very chilled evening again, just played more Zelda, and chatted to friends on Whatsapp. We discuss the upcoming hen do, and I end up feeling more positive about it. Fingers crossed it goes well! I brush my teeth and get into bed, but again I don’t fall asleep for hours. I’m frustrated, because it’s work tomorrow and I know I’ll be exhausted. L once again makes my sandwich and cleans the kitchen, then after her shower comes to bed around 1am.
Daily total: $70.01
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Total spend: $265.78 ($8.25 of that from my personal account)
Food + Drink: $122.42
Fun/Entertainment:$0
Home + Health: $0
Clothes + Beauty: $27.25
Transport: $52.53
Other: $63.58
Lastly, reflect on your diary! This was a higher spend week for us than usual (doesn’t everyone say that), which is actually why I chose it for this diary, so it would be more interesting to read! I like to think we’re pretty frugal in general, so I was quite surprised by the total at the end. Just shows how small expenses really add up! It’s something we’re working on. Usually we don’t get up to this much in one week, we have a lot more no spend days.

Ive been a vegetarian for 6.5 years, and i still consider myself a "difficult" vegetarian. That is, I eat like I'm having a hard time switching from meat to non meat. I find myself eating meatless fast food every day, and the rest is pasta. Im just very busy and very picky! Anyone else ever get stuck in this rut?

Continued from the following thread:
http://www.reddit.com/keto/comments/o4j91/lets_put_together_an_official_tell_me_what_to_eat/
I omitted some of the suggestions involving things like flax seed muffins to avoid scaring off beginning keto dieters with what they might see as outlandish recipes since it's not easy to find those ingredients depending on where you live.
If anyone has any more simple ideas not listed here please reply, otherwise I'll see if there's a good place to tuck this into the FAQ!
Breakfast:

• Bacon
• Fried eggs with butter, salt, and pepper
• Coffee with heavy whipping cream and no-carb sweeteners
• Breakfast sausage links (be sure it isn't too sweet by checking carb count on package)
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese
• Bacon and cheese omelette
• Scrambled eggs (melt butter in pan, add 2-3 eggs mixed with a dash of cream)
• Lengthwise halved cucumber filled with cream cheese and topped with ham, salami, smoked salmon or similar
• Scrambled eggs with spinach (and meat) - throw some fat in a pan, (heat or fry meat), sauté fresh spinach, add eggs
• Breakfast burger; cook eggs and bacon, roll into a beef patty with cheese, then cook until yummy
• Cheesecake pancakes!

Lunch:

• Slice of roast beef, tomato, lettuce, melted provolone, and mayo wrapped into the shape of a taquito.
• Keto sandwich: Take a few slices of a leafy green lettuce head and wrap a sandwich into it. Safe options include most meats, mayo, salt, pepper, cheese, and small amounts of tomato or onions.
• Sauteed chicken or fish over mixed green salad with side of creamy dressing
• Taco salad: Crunchy lettuce, green peppers, avocado, salsa, sour cream, and choice of meat (add spice if you like, don't use taco seasoning packets!)
• BLT salad (bacon, grated cheese, spring onion, a couple of cherry tomatoes, lettuce and guacamole)
• Mini crustless quiches
• Half a chicken breast panfried in butter topped with avocado slices and cheese
• Flaxseed wrap with whatever cold meat and salad you like
• Portabello mushroom tuna melt
• Vegetables, avocado, and fish wrapped in Nori sheets
• Tuna or chicken salad; Tuna, Mayo, Celery, Onion (small amount), pickle, tomato (small amount) wrapped in lettuce

Dinner:

• Steak seasoned with salt and pepper
• Chicken broiled after seasoning with salt, pepper, or most chicken rubs (check the label for potential carbs, nothing sweet)
• Asian stir-fry with beef, pork, or chicken and non-starchy vegetables (with shirataki noodles, if you like)
• Rotisserie chicken with side of vegetable
• Sauteed mushrooms and onions with a splash of cream and chicken stock, served over chicken (or other)
• Crustless bacon and cheddar quiche
• Baked tilapia with vegetables
• Baked (or pan fried salmon)
• Tacos using microwaved cheese shells or large leaves of lettuce
• Stuffed mushrooms
• Home made Pho with shirataki noodles (avoid restaurants, they add rock sugar to their recipes)
• Coconut-Ginger Soup
• Quorn burger with veggies and cheese on lettuce
• Baked or Fried Salmon with asparagus, green beans, or brussel sprouts
• Taco Stuffed Zucchini
• Peanut sauce- great with chicken and beef- use thinly sliced cabbage as noodles.
• Lasagna
• Caesar's salad with chicken, pork, beef or shrimps
• Broccoli in hollandaise sauce or bernaise with any kind of meat or salmon
• Leaf spinach sautéed in olive oil with lemon zest and juice with any kind of fish or chicken and mashed cauliflower (puréed with cream cheese, butter and nutmeg)
• Green asparagus tossed in olive oil and garlic baked in the oven till browned with any kind of fish or meat and mashed cauliflower
• Shepard's pie with mashed cauliflower
• Cauliflower pizza

Snacks:

• Blue Diamond roasted and salted almonds
• Buffalo style chicken wings with small amount of ranch or blue cheese dressing
• 1-2 oz of your favorite cheese, with pickles and olives if you like
• Cup of tea with cream
• Cheese sticks
• Salami slices
• Fried mushrooms in butter
• Macadamias, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts
• Laughing cow cheese wedges
• Beef jerky
• Hard boiled eggs
• Devilled eggs
• Pork rinds
• Flavored Seaweed
• Toasted Flax Seeds
• Eggplant Hummus on cheese or cucumber slices
• "Chips"; take a round slice of cheddar or provolone cheese, microwave for two minutes, enjoy

Desserts:

• Frozen berries with whipped heavy cream
• Small piece of 85% dark chocolate
• Whipping cream blended with peanut butter and cocoa powder
• Sugar free jello with whipped cream

Miscellaneous Tips:

• Thin courgette (zucchini) strips (ideally using a julienne peeler) quickly fried in butter are a great pasta-replacement
• Oopsy rolls make a decent replacement for bread for your sandwich needs
• Onions in small amounts are fine for cooking, but avoid piling them on your meals
• Common foods to avoid: Cookies, bread, chips, buns on hamburgers (ask burger joints to wrap them in lettuce for you), dough of any kind, etc.
• If you can't read the nutrition label and it isn't meat, it's probably not keto-friendly

So normally 8 small tortilla wraps are about £1 (if I'm lucky enough to find them), but today they were 50p a pack, so I brought 3 packs!
They are wheat, not corn tortillas! I rarely see corn tortillas here and they're not available in the shops nearest me in small sizes!
Mexican food is starting to get popular here but eating out or ready made Mexican food is probably not very authentic. I prefer burritos, quesadillas and enchiladas to fajitas as they keep warmer. I've never tried a taco, but like fajitas, it seems like the filling would go cold quick and they'd be fiddly to eat. I make burritos and quesadillas every so often but never made my own enchiladas.
Also, avocados are expensive here :( I'm on a bit of a budget. I eat pork, chicken, turkey and seafood plus have quorn mince. I've tried chicken, pork and quorn in mexican dishes but not seafood(or turkey) yet!
Also a tin of refried beans is quite expensive. But I've never tried making my own from scratch using tinned beans. Cheapish veggies here that I buy regularly: frozen peas, frozen spinach, carrots, sweet potato. I sometimes get courgette or mushrooms too, but their price per kg is higher than the other veggies.
Also, I'm not a fan of big chunks of fresh coriander. But a bit of dried coriander cooked in with food is ok.
Any tips or recipes for Mexican food? Especially for my tortillas...?

I was just wondering if anyone had some quick and easy (hopefully cheap too) recipes I can try as I am sick of eating the same vegetarian meals over and over again.
My diet mainly consists of bean burgers, chips, cheese pizza and pasta and sauce... a few Quorn products here and there and that's pretty much it.
I'm a university student so meals need to be fairly cheap as I've only got a part time job to support myself.
I'm new to being vegetarian (6 months) due to developing a meat, chicken and fish intolerance which means I end up very sick if I consume any.
My local stores are ASDA, Morrisons, Tesco and Aldi, if that helps. Thank you very much for your help. :)

Forgetting one slip up (I cried) I’ve been vegetarian for 1 1/2 years. Things were good in the beginning. I was being creative, taking time to cook things and try new food and it was awesome. I then started slipping up and stopped trying to cook food and resorted to junk food to keep me going. This happens every couple of months and normally I’m able to realise what I’m doing, pick myself back up and get relatively healthy again. Like, I’m anaemic so I have to actually try or I’ll get sick.
Since August I’ve been feeling all different types of disgusting. I felt nauseous for a couple days whenever I ate food which got me to the point where I stopped eating to feel better. I can’t eat a lot of ready made snacks or quorn after this otherwise I feel horrible. Then after a while it was not eating that made me feel nauseous. I spent a few days eating nothing but fruit because when I tried buying lunch at the bakery I almost vomited because of the smell. So many people assumed I was pregnant because this came seemingly out of nowhere. Eventually I stopped feeling nauseous but kept on feeling sick. I started having plain, carby meals because they were the only things that could settle my stomach. I also had to stop eating the fruit available to me as much because I had super sensitive teeth that didn’t react well with the acid. I’ve got some super new prescribed toothpaste to help with that though, so I’m beginning to be vaguely fruity again.
I’ve never felt as sick I have done these past few months. I had a really long bout of migraines that meant I just ate what I could throw in the oven and have ready in ten minutes because all I could do was sleep. I stopped eating the foods I needed to eat and began a cycle of knowing I need to eat better and cook for myself but being far too tired to do so. I don’t think I’ve ever looked or felt so unhealthy in a long time.
I go from cold to cold, my gums bleed as a result of this, and all my head is constantly woozy because of a mixture of mental illness and tired. I have reached a point of no return and I don’t know what to do any more. Sometimes I feel like I should just cave for my health and eat some chicken to try and get something healthy into my body because then the effort isn’t there. I genuinely don’t like meat though, and there is one part of me that doesn’t want to give my mother the pleasure of “I told you so”. Which brings me to another part of my overdramatic life, I make things difficult for everyone whenever we go out to eat.
I was on holiday in Spain two years back and I tried so hard to be accommodating and put my parents and siblings before me, but literally every menu we would check had no vegetarian options. Most nights I’d end up crying, then my mum would end up crying and everything would be my fault for being so difficult. My brother (who was equally annoyed at me) actually called my mother out bullying me. My mum is actually a really lovely woman as long as we don’t have to deal with food. I love her a lot but it’s just so difficult. I appreciate that I have an awkward diet to live with because there are so many things which I can’t eat.
We picked my brother up from uni before christmas and I didn’t eat lunch at the restaurant because I didn’t want to keep living off of chips everyday. She kept trying to get me to buy some stuff from the bakery but I didn’t want to because it wouldn’t have been healthy and all I want to do is stop feeling like shit all the time. I ended up not eating anything that day until 5 and I ended up getting a take out nandos burger with fries on the side because I hadn’t eaten all day and was starving. Then she started flipping out and shouting at me, I cried in the middle of a restaurant in the tiny town where I’ll probably end up going to uni. I tried to explain but she wouldn’t listen and it was horrible.
I know it’s frustrating for her, but it’s just as frustrating for me knowing that if we go out I probably won’t end up eating anything more than chips or just not eating at all. I feel horrible about being vegetarian because I feel like I’ve ruined my health and also my relationship with my family. They don’t want me to come with them any more to drop my brother off because every time we get into the same argument and I end up starving or crying and it’s just really embarrassing. Especially knowing that I might end up going to uni there. It sucks knowing that I’m such a burden on my family, but it also makes me angry with how willing and expecting they are of me to cook for them all the time but don’t give a shit about me when we’re out of the house. Like, mum’s willing to eat the food I cook at home even though I don’t want to share because leftovers are kind of my thing. Then they’ll both go behind my back and eat my leftovers or the tortilla chips I bought to cook with and leave me with nothing quick to eat the next day.
My dad also seems to be the only one who realises that I have to eat things in order to be healthy. He’s frustrated too, but because he’s in charge of christmas dinner he actually tries to cook things just for me to eat. They’re normally just markies’ veggie stuff but I’m so grateful that he’s trying. If I’m not there my mum’s idea of food shopping for me is an aubergine, an avocado tortilla chips and mushrooms. She normally just does tiny shops without telling us instead of a big shop because then we don’t spend as much money but it means there’s nothing in the house for me to eat bar one aubergine and tinned tomatoes.
I don’t know what to do. I know pretty much all of this is my fault. I’m not sure what I can do about the family issues any more except count down the days until uni (9 months, ugh). I know on the health front I can do better but I just need to try and get back into a good diet again. I feel like I’m so far gone that I should just give up and deal with the fall out of eating meat again, knowing that I don’t like it, just because it would heal some wounds/mean quicker ways of getting nutrients. I don’t want to. I really don’t want to because I don’t like meat and I don’t want to have to deal with the non-stop “I was right, you were wrong” from my mother.
I guess I can only ask you guys if there are any super quick, super easy recipes that will help get me back on my feet again in terms of my health. I’m willing to try anything if it means no meat (or substitutes). I’m not sure I can do anything about my family, but I figure if I have my health back then I can be okay.
Sorry for the rambling, I just really needed to vent about this.

Let's put together a giant list of appropriate meal items so first-time ketoers can take a look and decide what they want to eat from the list and plan their meals accordingly.
This is the hardest part of starting the diet and it would be awesome to just have a big list. It might also encourage people on the fence how awesome this lifestyle is by seeing all the yummy things they can eat.
Please use the following format and feel free to add as many items as you want under each meal category.
Breakfast:

• Bacon
• Fried eggs with butter, salt, and pepper
• Coffee with heavy whipping cream and no-carb sweeteners
• Breakfast sausage links (be sure it isn't too sweet by checking carb count on package)
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese
• Bacon and cheese omelette
• Scrambled eggs (melt butter in pan, add 2-3 eggs mixed with a dash of cream)
• Lengthwise halved cucumber filled with cream cheese and topped with ham, salami, smoked salmon or similar
• Scrambled eggs with spinach (and meat) - throw some fat in a pan, (heat or fry meat), sauté fresh spinach, add eggs

Lunch:

• Slice of roast beef, tomato, lettuce, melted provolone, and mayo wrapped into the shape of a taquito.
• Keto sandwich: Take a few slices of a leafy green lettuce head and wrap a sandwich into it. Safe options include most meats, mayo, salt, pepper, cheese, and small amounts of tomato or onions.
• Sauteed chicken or fish over mixed green salad with side of creamy dressing
• Taco salad: Crunchy lettuce, green peppers, avocado, salsa, sour cream, and choice of meat (add spice if you like, don't use taco seasoning packets!)
• BLT salad (bacon, grated cheese, spring onion, a couple of cherry tomatoes, lettuce and guacamole)
• Mini crustless quiches
• Half a chicken breast panfried in butter topped with avocado slices and cheese
• Flaxseed focaccia made into a sandwich
• Flaxseed wrap with whatever cold meat and salad you like
• Portabello mushroom tuna melt
• Vegetables, avocado, and fish wrapped in Nori sheets

Dinner:

• Steak seasoned with salt and pepper
• Chicken broiled after seasoning with salt, pepper, or most chicken rubs (check the label for potential carbs, nothing sweet)
• Asian stir-fry with beef, pork, or chicken and non-starchy vegetables (with shirataki noodles, if you like)
• Rotisserie chicken with side of vegetable
• Sauteed mushrooms and onions with a splash of cream and chicken stock, served over chicken (or other)
• Crustless bacon and cheddar quiche
• Baked tilapia with vegetables
• Baked (or pan fried salmon)
• Tacos using microwaved cheese shells or large leaves of lettuce
• Stuffed mushrooms
• Home made Pho with shirataki noodles (avoid restaurants, they add rock sugar to their recipes)
• Coconut-Ginger Soup
• Quorn burger with veggies and cheese on lettuce
• Baked or Fried Salmon with asparagus, green beans, or brussel sprouts
• Taco Stuffed Zucchini
• Peanut sauce- great with chicken and beef- use thinly sliced cabbage as noodles.
• Lasagna
• Caesar's salad with chicken, pork, beef or shrimps
• Broccoli in hollandaise sauce or bernaise with any kind of meat or salmon
• Leaf spinach sautéed in olive oil with lemon zest and juice with any kind of fish or chicken and mashed cauliflower (puréed with cream cheese, butter and nutmeg)
• Green asparagus tossed in olive oil and garlic baked in the oven till browned with any kind of fish or meat and mashed cauliflower
• Shepard's pie with mashed cauliflower

Snacks:

• Blue Diamond roasted and salted almonds
• Buffalo style chicken wings with small amount of ranch or blue cheese dressing
• 1-2 oz of your favorite cheese, with pickles and olives if you like
• Cup of tea with cream
• Cheese sticks
• Salami slices
• Fried mushrooms in butter
• Macadamias, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts
• Laughing cow cheese wedges
• Beef jerky
• Hard boiled eggs
• Devilled eggs
• Pork rinds
• Flavored Seaweed
• Toasted Flax Seeds
• Eggplant Hummus on cheese or cucumber slices

Desserts:

• Frozen berries with whipped heavy cream
• Small piece of 85% dark chocolate
• Whipping cream blended with peanut butter and cocoa powder
• Sugar free jello with whipped cream

Miscellaneous Tips:

• Thin courgette (zucchini) strips (ideally using a julienne peeler) quickly fried in butter are a great pasta-replacement
• Oopsy rolls make a decent replacement for bread for your sandwich needs
• Onions in small amounts are fine for cooking, but avoid piling them on your meals
• Common foods to avoid: Cookies, bread, chips, buns on hamburgers (ask burger joints to wrap them in lettuce for you), dough of any kind, etc. (please edit this if you have common foods worth adding)

EDIT: I'll try and keep the main post updated with all the entries.