A plant-based kitchen?

I mentioned in a previous post that I am a failed vegan. I tried 10 years ago - for about 5 years - to be a vegan but I didn't know how to manage my health problems in a kitchen and I had almost no cooking skills. Being vegan is more complicated than cutting out meat and dairy products if you want to stay healthy because sadly it can be difficult to introduce pulses and (to a certain extent) greens and seeds into British foods. There are amazing meat substitutes for sausages, pies and roasts and I grew up at home with my mum making a delicious vegetarian lasagne but relying on these can be unappetising and presumably not the healthiest. Lots of international cuisines have vegan dishes - with tofu, edamame, chickpeas, lentils and beans - but introduce a whole different range of ingredients into cupboards, fridges and freezers.

When I was trying to be vegan I was living in other people's houses so naturally I couldn't go around reorganising their cupboards. They were very helpful but I wasn't eating enough protein anyway without a more fundamental shake-up. 5 years ago my mum and I left our home after family breakdown, lived on a boat for a few weeks and moved into a one-bedroom flat together where we lived for 4 years. With the stress of my mum's divorce and no fridge or freezer for 2 years we ate almost exclusively chicken curries (made from jar sauces) for dinner. We now have a great kitchen and my mum has been wanting to eat less meat and dairy for a while so 6 weeks ago I did a bit of an overhaul of the kitchen. It might not look like much but helps with cooking and has actually made space for ordering some vegan pre-prepared meals because I'm tired after this.

I made a meal plan - which I don't stick rigidly too, it's more of an ideas plan - which I hope to share after we've tested it for a bit longer. I'm amazed by all the different vegan products in supermarkets but also - critically, I think - vegan protein bars, drinks and powders.