My Veganuary Recipe to Succeed on Your Veggie Month

December 27, 2022
|In Veganism
|By Amélie

I meant to write this Veganuary tips article long ago, but here I am, a few days before the new year and the beginning of Veganuary. Oops. If you’re taking the 30-day vegan challenge and going vegan this month of January for the now-famous Veganuary, congrats on this new beginning. You will never regret going plant-based or eating less meat. Here’s my easy Veganuary recipe to help you have a delicious and fulfilling month.

veganuary recipe

If you’re reading this, I guess you’re already familiar with what Veganuary is. I’m also assuming you’re here for some Veganuary tips or an easy Veganuary recipe on how to make your vegan month a success or at least make it more bearable. Nervous, already feeling like giving up? Don’t be. Research shows that it takes 21 days to pick up a new habit (healthy or otherwise…) so give it a try, it may end up changing your life, such as it did for me when my vegan journey began 12 years ago. There are many apps for vegans you can already download — a great way to make your month easier, and why not read these vegan quotes to get your mojo working.

Below are the top tips for Veganuary I’ve gathered over the years. Please get in touch on Instagram where I am most active of all social media and let me know how you get on and ask as many questions as you want. There’s little in life I feel more strongly about other than veganism. So congrats on reading this in the first place and let’s get cracking with my Veganuary recipe already!

More on the topic of veganism on the blog:
* The Essential Vegan Grocery Stores List
* My Vegan Sneakers Collection
* The best Vegan Documentaries you Should Watch now
* Vegan Travel Europe: the Ultimate 2021 Guide
* Tips to Ease Into a Zero Waste Lifestyle
* The Best Apps for Vegans
* The Guide to Vegan Alcohol
* BCAA for Vegans: Where to Find Them
* My Favourite Vegan Health Supplements
* My Favourite Vegan Winter Boots
* All you Need to Know About Collagen for Vegans

My Veganuary Recipe to Ease Into Veganism in 2023!

Find a Veganuary Buddy

Doing anything alone is always harder, so why not partner up with someone? That’s one of the best Veganuary tips to begin with. This may be difficult if you live with a partner or flatmate who isn’t doing the 30-day vegan challenge, so perhaps there’s an incentive for them to humor you in this? It’s only a month long, what could you do in return for them the next month? Why, sexual favors, of course.

I originally went vegetarian and then vegan with my then-partner and, admittedly, had it not been for him, I don’t think I would have been able to do this on my own, leave alone stick to it.

So find yourself a pal or an accountability buddy, and if you can’t, reach out to me!

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links.

Find your one Meaningful Reason to do the Switch to a vegan diet

There are dozens of reasons why going vegan is the best thing you could ever do for yourself and the planet, but finding the one thing that strikes a chord with you the most is essential. Document yourself and find what you’re most passionate about.

Fitness is what did it for me.

As I said, I went vegetarian before going vegan (and here’s a very old article about it) and the appeal of sports performance was the biggest lure. After several years of smoking, eating crap, and being a couch potato, I had a moment of panic before entering my 30s and decided that I did not want to age into a gross ol’ flapjack. I first started working out at the gym, then I started running, and quickly signed up for my first half-marathon. Inspired by vegan triathlete Brendan Brazier and his book The Thrive Diet, as well as Matt Frazier, known as No Meat Athlete, I found something I was passionate about that would make these new habits stick. And they did!

Subscribe to Veganuary

Veganuary isn’t just a word, it’s a full-blown non-profit organization that’s there to promote veganism and support people in their transition by offering the OG Veganuary recipe, as well as tips and advice. Lazy? Take the pledge and sign up to their newsletter to receive daily vegan and new plant-based recipes, tips and more right to your mailbox. The veganuary website is full of precious information to make your month a success. Also worth checking out is the website of Vegan Society.

Reading this and it’s not January? No problem! You can start Veganuary — and sign up to take the pledge — at any time of year.

Document Yourself

Knowledge is power, and I would have never been able to transition to a vegan lifestyle had it not been for documentaries. I so happened to be in university studying design while I transitioned, so I used veganism as my research topic for a lot of my school projects. Here’s a fun website I did as part of a jquery class, haha.

Below is a list of my favorite documentaries:

Here a list of more vegan documentaries to watch!

Clean up Your Kitchen

Increase your chances of a successful Veganuary challenge by making a few adjustments to your kitchen pantry planning a vegan grocery shopping list. First, it’s a good idea to get rid of all animal products – this includes gravy, stock, butter, and all non-vegan baking supply. But please don’t throw them away! Give them to someone. Someone you don’t like, preferably. Lol.

Second, get a few vegan food pantry staples. This includes nutritional yeast to make everything taste cheesy, black or kidney beans and tempeh for a great vegan meat replacement and to make sure you get enough protein (plus there are so many great meat substitutes these days!), chia or flax for egg replacement, fresh veggies, as well as fresh herbs and indian spice to make everything tasty, an excellent peanut butter (or any nut butters really), a good quality olive oil, maple syrup to replace honey, a good butter replacement (Earth Balance was my favorite in North America and now I swear by Naturli in Europe) and milk replacement (Oatly Barista Edition is my fave of all plant milks of all time but I also like soy milk for the added protein). Also, something salty for those cheese cravings — olives and roasted smoked almonds do it for me. Or vegan cheese, they’re not half bad these days. iHerb is the right place to shop for vegan ingredients!

Processed vegan products and vegan alternatives such as sausages, vegan burger patties of veggie ground meat are a good way to ease into transition periods and for new vegans, but don’t rely on these in the long run unless it’s for an occasional treat. They’re not super healthy. Instead, aims for nutritious, whole foods and whole grains. If you live in Europe, the fake dairy products are heaven (well perhaps they’ve evolved since I lived in Canada and the vegan yogurt tasted like wallpaper glue). Just give new things a try and make sure you read the ingredients list. You may be surprised — pleasantly or otherwise. Just be curious. Some people find it helpful to have full-blown Veganuary recipe meal plans, but I personally find this a little restrictive. You do you, my bro babe.

Find Some Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Vegan Recipes

Finding vegan meal ideas that are both easy to make and delicious is key. I’m a very lazy cook and often my vegan menu consists of steamed veggies, crispy tofu or tempeh in some sort of dressing, or lentil dahl, but this works well for me. Find a few good websites with easy veganuary recipes and be ready to have your mind blown at the amazing array of tastes you can get from plant-based food. With a little imagination, pretty much any of your favorite meals can be made into a vegan version. Vegan pizza for example? Easy!

Below are some of the best vegan recipes that I keep making over and over again. You can also follow my vegan plant-based meals recipes Pinterest board. Vegan cookbooks in general are also great!

A vitamin B12 supplement should also be on your radar if you’re planning to be on a plant-based diet. If it’s Winter months, also consider a vitamin D supplement, but that goes for everyone, not only vegans.

Shit Happens and it’s OK

Last but definitely not least on this list of tips for Veganuary. Don’t panic, shit will happen. It always does, even to me, still after over a decade. When you go out, when you travel as a vegan, when you’re invited over to someone’s house. We’re all human, and we’re trying our best and that’s the most important thing. Having a slip doesn’t mean we failed, that’s something important to remember. Make sure you download the Happy Cow app for when you go out, and always offer to bring something when you get invited over for dinner.

Repeat after me: shit happens. Easy does it. You got this. The best way to transition into a new habit is to stay positive!

eating sticky rice in ao nang beach, krabi thailand