Help me, vegans!

[thefourthvine]

Because of my baby's suspected dairy allergy, I have joined the ranks of the more-or-less vegan. (I can actually still eat eggs, but they aren't a huge part of my diet anyway.) And, see, I've been a vegetarian since I was ten. I know how to be a vegetarian! It doesn't require thought or effort! Whereas this veganism thing is very new and very, very hard.

Normally I'd just hit Google and research the shit out of this. But, well, I have a four-month-old baby. I don't have time to make out with Google the way I used to. So I am hoping to use the friends list shortcut - that there are vegans on my friends list who might have advice for me. Or, I guess, people on my friends list who aren't vegan but just love to Google.

Basically, here's what I need to know:

1. What are the basics of a vegan pantry? What are the special things that vegans keep around all the time, that make cooking or meals easier?
   
   
2. What are really good vegan products?
   
   
3. What are some good vegan recipes? Right now I'm relying much too heavily on fake meat, and that is not how I like to cook or eat. At least, not this much. I might as well be a carnivore! So - recipes? I especially need ones for balanced meals that are super-fast or that I can make in a crockpot. Suggestions of cookbooks featuring these things would also be very welcome.

Help? Please? Anyone? I will take links or comments or just supportive pats. I am experiencing involuntary dietary change and it's very scary!

Comments

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

I am clueless but have asked a vegan friend to pop over to this post and give you ideas. Is this allergy thing what came out of the gastroenterologist's visit? How does one tell if they have a dairy allergy? (I ask because it could be very useful info in my ongoing battle to make colicky baby happier...).

*hug*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

The typical path a milk-allergic baby takes is this: they start out seriously cranky, all the time. (One of my friends with a milk-allergic baby said her baby had to be walked around their house every minute she was awake, or else she cried and cried and cried.) Eventually, the baby has mucus in its poop, which the parent may miss because it's, um, not that easy to see. And then, after a while with mucus, there's blood in the poop, which is when it usually gets caught.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I should mention - the way to find out if your baby has allergies is to eliminate from your diet the things you think she might be allergic to. (Milk and soy are by far the most common.) You have to cut out everything containing one of those things - so, for milk, you can't just avoid things with lactose. You have to avoid everything with whey or casein or lactic acid from dairy sources, and this removes a LOT from your diet. (You also can't have goat milk, at least at first. There are some crossover proteins.) Soy is even worse, at least in the US, because some part of soy is in almost every packaged food.

And then, once you've got it all out of your diet, you wait six weeks, which is how long it takes for the proteins to completely clear your system. And then, if the baby gets better (less crying, no mucus, whatever), you've found what the baby is allergic to.

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

Eek, is that what happened with the poor Earthling? I hope he's feeling much better now.