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

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

rubbishvegans has some good basic stuff, although it's not often updated. I find that a surprising amount of things can be made with olive oil instead of butter, that any combination of beans and rice is filling and nutritious and, when in doubt, make couscous.

Tabbouleh is an easy tasty dinner or side:
chop tomatoes, fresh mint and a small salad onion (or not, if you hate onions) into a good glug of E.V. olive oil and lemon juice. Hit a garlic clove with the flat of a knife and leave the bruised lump of it in with the tomato mixture. Meanwhile, soak cracked wheat/bulghur wheat in hot water with some salt until it's completely puffed up. Takes half an hour to an hour. Drain the wheat, hike the garlic clove out of the tomato mixture and dress the wheat with it. Vary components as you like. Eat with nice bread/houmous/tsatsiki/a spoon out of the fridge.

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, peanut butter is your friend. A laarge spoon of peanut butter and good glug of soy sauce is my favourite quick stir fry sauce and goes well on most chopped vegetables, which are then nutritionally brilliant with rice. Especially good if you chop some fresh ginger in there, too.

eta: and let me just praise mashed avocado on toast to the SKIES. Especially for breakfast with a squeeze of lemon juice and sprinkle of salt and pepper. Dammit, now I'm hungry.