It’s been a while since I’ve done a What I Ate post, and I like seeing other people’s and miss doing them, so here’s a new one. Obviously everyone has different nutrition needs, and what I eat may not work for you, but if you want an example of what I eat in a day as a gluten free vegan, keep reading!
Breakfast
My go-to breakfast lately is overnight oats–overnight oats are perfect because I can throw the ingredients into a mason jar, shake it up, and then breakfast is ready in the morning, so I have no excuse not to eat. (Often if I don’t prep overnight oats I’ll skip breakfast and just have coffee and then an hour or two later I’m hangry, and it’s not pretty.) Since it’s cold out, I usually dump the oats into a bowl and heat them up in the microwave, but sometimes if I’m busy I’ll just eat them right out of the jar.
I mix up my overnight oats ingredients, but this one had 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, 1 cup Silk Protein Nut Milk (which has just as much protein as dairy milk), 1/2 Tbsp chia and flax seeds for Omega 3s, 2 Tbsp raisins, half an apple, and some pumpkin spice, cinnamon, vanilla, and stevia. I also have coffee every morning but forgot to include it in the photo–my fave creamer lately is Silk Almond Creamer (not sponsored I just like their stuff.)
Lunch
Ok so a couple of months ago I came across a Madelaine Petsch What I Eat in a Day article (and by came across I mean I googled what does Madelaine Petsch eat because I’m human, and she’s vegan and fabulous, and I was curious), and the joke’s on me because I actually fell in love with this salad from the article and eat it as my lunch most days lately–it has baby spinach, chickpeas, walnuts, dried cranberries, and green goddess dressing made with fresh herbs, avocado, and olive oil. Her’s also has brown rice, but I like using sweet potato instead.
I use this recipe for Green Goddess Dressing from Oh She Glows and use half the oil (I’ve tried it oil free and full oil, but I like it best with 1/2.) Honestly the first time I made this dressing I thought it was kind of weird, but I kept eating it to finish off what I made, and it grew on me, and now I love it–it tastes herby and fresh.
Besides making the dressing the first day, which takes about 5-10 minutes, and prepping some sweet potatoes or rice if you want it, this salad is super easy and consists of dumping ingredients onto a plate, and it’s tasty and packed with nutrients–win, win, win! You could make it even easier by using store bought dressing, but I love fresh dressings and can never seem to find any store ones that I like (let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations.)
I love coffee, and I love tea too–this day I had some hibiscus tea and green tea combined (for extra antioxidant powers) with some Bee Free Honee, which has a similar consistency and taste to honey, but it’s made from apples.
Dinner: Part 1
For my first dinner, I had some of this Creamy Broccoli Red Lentil Soup–I like broccoli soup, and I like this one especially since it has lentils blended in because they have protein, minerals, fiber, etc., but I’m not a big fan of plain lentils. I added some nutritional yeast as well for a little bit of cheesiness and extra vitamins.
It probably looks unappetizing, but I’ve also been adding dry roasted edamame to my soups lately, and hear me out–they’re like bean croutons! And they’re high in protein and add some crunch and saltiness. If you try it and agree that the idea is genius, leave a comment.
Dinner: Part 2
For the rest of my dinner, I had some cauliflower “steak” and Buffalo Chili. The concept of cauliflower/broccoli steaks is kind of silly because they don’t taste anything like steak, but they’re actually pretty delicious–you just slice them into “steaks” (here’s a recipe post as an example if you don’t know what I mean) and add some olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake then at 400 degrees F for about 25 minutes.
For the chili, I used Chocolate Covered Katie’s Buffalo Chickpea Chili recipe, but instead of chickpeas I used kidney beans (since I already eat chickpeas at lunch daily) and high protein tofu. If you haven’t tried high protein tofu, it comes with very little water content, so it’s super firm, it doesn’t need to be pressed, and it has a lot of protein–I really like it for all of those reasons. I also added some chopped spinach because my plate was looking a little drab without some green.
Dessert
For dessert I made some chocolate protein pudding–I used a package of silken tofu, a scoop of Vega Protein and Greens, a single container of Silk vanilla yogurt, 1 Tbsp cocoa powder, and a banana, and I ate 1/3 of the recipe. If you don’t like protein powder you can also make it without, and you can also add more banana, maple syrup, or other sweetener if you want it sweeter. I like making pudding with silken tofu because it’s essentially having a bean pudding, and I’m always trying to eat more beans since they’re a good source of vegan protein, fiber, and all of that good stuff. I topped the pudding with banana and cacao nibs.
Throughout the day I also had water with some fresh mint, cucumber, and lemon–I have a hard time drinking enough water since it’s cold out, so I’ve been adding herbs/lemon to a gallon jug and try to drink it all or most of it throughout the day.
I also take b12 (which vegans do not get from diet and must supplement), as well as a vegan Omega 3/vegan multivitamin, and vitamin D because I don’t get enough sun.
I’ve been plugging in what I eat into Chronometer often lately to see if I’m getting enough vitamins, minerals, and protein, and I exceeded all of my requirements this day except for potassium, which I only had 81% of. If you have any tips for vegan potassium rich foods I should try, let me know!
This may seem like a lot of recipes to make in a day, but I had already prepped the salad dressing and both of the soups (and froze 1/2 of them for later), so the only things I made/cooked were the cauliflower and pudding, and I had leftovers of both. I’ve been really into prepping healthy food lately because it helps me eat out less/save money/feel better.
Also again, this is just what I ate, one day, and what/how much I eat varies a lot depending on how active I am…I was not active this day, and usually eat more if I am.
Do you like seeing What I Ate posts? Let me know in the comments!
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