Adapt

When my family started growing, 8 years ago, before there were many blogs or online resources to find vegan recipes, I struggled to think up vegan meals. Everything I knew about cooking came from my mom who grew up on a farm and every meal included meat. So I watched the food network and started thinking up ways I could make it vegan. I could replace milk with soy, meat with tofu, beef broth with vegetable broth. At first I was hesitant to replace anything in a recipe, if it called for fresh basil and I only had dried, well I wouldn't make it. After years of learning it was ok to substitute ingredients, I've learned to sort of create my own recipes. If I want to make something, I'll look up about three different recipes for it, some vegan, some not. I find the common thread in them all and compare that to what I know my family likes and most importantly, what's already in my fridge.
By adapting recipes and not confining what I cook to the constraints of what is already vegan, I can take budget carnivore meals and make them budget vegan meals.