Vegans- What's your usual meal plan for a day?!
Vegans- What's your usual meal plan for a day?
How do you include all the nutrients you need in one day in your meals and snacks? I'd like to know what you eat in a day...breakfast, lunch, dinner, and whatever else in between. I'm really considering this seriously, and I would love to know how those who are pros at it do it every single day. Thank you very much!
Answers:
This is just an example of countless versions of my meals for 1 day.
Breakfast: Oatmeal porridge topped with berries or jam. + glass of soy milk. 1 fruit + nuts
Brunch: banana, tangerine or some other fruit + nuts or seeds
Lunch: Vegetable stir fry+ beans or tofu+ sauce + homemade whole grain bread + salad
If I get hungry before dinner: (Fruit salad with soy cream + crushed hazelnuts+ flaxseed)
Dinner: Pasta with veggies+ tomato sauce+ glass of soy milk
Right after dinner I like to have dark chocolate or sometimes pancakes with melted chocolate. (not the part Im proud of)
So there.
Oh yeah... I exercise, so I can eat a lot and still be slim.
I take B12 suppl.
I want give you a full day's menu plan, just some tips to remember:
Don't ever eat white bread, and try to eat brown rice and even wholemeal pasta if you can handle it.
Combine, combine, combine! In order to get the most nutrients out of your protein ingredients, you have to eat those together with wholegrain carbs, eg. rye bread with baked beans, wholemeal pasta with red lentil and potato bolognaise, black beans with brown rice etc.
A good source for the above combinations, as well as so-called 'hero foods' for vegetarians is the big, popular 'Vegetarian' cookbook published by Murdoch Books. It's not a vegan cookbook, but many recipies can be made vegan.
The other thing to watch if you're interested in minimising loss of nutrients, is caffeine and alcohol - both of which strip vitamins from your system. Similarly, you need vitamin C to be able to absorb essential minerals such as iron from your food.
Other than all of this, i would say that the best bet for snacks is nuts and fresh or dried fruit. Combining any nuts, except peanuts (not real nuts) with dried fruit makes for a simple, quick and cheap snack, that not only satisfies your hunger (high in good fats and slow-release sugars), but is also high in protein.
And once you go vegan, you'll discover a whole new world of food you never even knew existed. I thought cooking was the most boring passtime in the world until i went vegetarian. That was more than 8 years ago, and today, cooking is one of my favourite hobbies.
Oh, and Vitamin B12: vegemite, marmite or a similar spread has it, as do mushrooms - not washed, wiped.
Good luck!
Eat a variety of "whole foods," with plenty of beans, nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Avoid unhealthy foods like trans fats, which are usually listed as partially hydrogenated oils. Deep-fried foods often contain trans fats. Choose margarines that use nonhydrogenated oil, like Earth Balance or Smart Balance. Although a diet consisting of Coke and French fries is technically vegan, you can't be healthy if you eat nothing but junk food. Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria, and some experts believe that vegetarians used to get plenty of this vitamin from bacteria in drinking water. Since drinking water is now treated with chemicals that kill the bacteria, it's important to make sure that you get enough vitamin B12 from fortified foods (like most brands of soy or rice milks, some breakfast cereals, and many brands of nutritional yeast) on a daily basis or by taking a sublingual B12 tablet of 10 mcg per day.
Iron-beans, dark green leafy vegetables (like spinach),whole grain breads, Also eat something with vitamin c when you eat something with iron, it increases absorption
Calcium-dark green leafy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, soymilk)
Protein-Isn't really hard to get, just eat a variety of foods, good sources are beans, brown rice, nuts, whole grain breads, soy foods
Omega-3 fatty acids-flax seeds/oil,walnuts,canola oil
Zinc-pumpkin seeds (best source), beans and lentils, yeast, nuts, seeds and whole grain cereals
Selenium-Brazil nuts are a particularly good source of selenium, so try to eat a couple every day. Eating a small bag of mixed unsalted nuts can be a convenient way to get your daily selenium intake, but make sure it contains Brazils. Bread and eggs also provide some selenium.
Vitamin D- Vitamin D, often called the sunshine vitamin, is another common deficiency in those not drinking vitamin D fortified milk. Synthetic vitamin D is added to both cow’s milk and most brands of soy milk today.
Vitamins A (beta carotene),C, K, E and Folate-variety of fruits and veggies
Iodine-Iodine is a trace mineral that's important for healthy thyroid function. Table salt is the most common and reliable source of iodine in Americans' diets. (However, sodium in processed foods usually does not contain iodine.) If you don't consume table salt, you can get iodine from a multivitamin or from kelp tablets.
Breakfast- Oatmeal porridge made with soy milk, a piece of fruit. Except on weekends, it's either tofu scramble or benedict, or pancakes with maple syrup. ;-)
Lunch- Either leftovers from dinner the night before, or a sandwich or wrap with hummus, smoked tofu, salad, and veggies.
Dinner- Something homemade like vegan fajitas made with beans or tofu and veggies, or pasta, rice, or quinoa with tofu/beans and veggies.
I snack on things like almonds, cashews, soy yogurt, salad, chickpeas with chili powder and lime sprinkled on them, fruit, cereal, and hummus with pita or bread.
When I was still doing a lot of dance and acrobatics I had to eat a lot more, so I ate a giant breakfast of tofu scramble (with veggies in it), a small bowl of cereal with soya milk and bananas, toast, and either grapefruit juice or a smoothie. And I usually had to have either two lunches or two dinners. Ah, those were the days! And when I lived in the States, I often snacked on Luna bars.
When you first go vegan, you may notice a need to eat a greater quantity of food then you're used to. I definitely experienced this until I started adding more calorie rich foods like hummus, avocados, and olive oil to my diet.
Generally speaking, you should make sure you have a good ration between grains, fruits and veggies, and good sources of protein. A good fortified vegan cereal and soy milk are a good idea if you're concerned about your vitamin intake. Oh yes, and become friends with nutritional yeast. You may not like it at first, but start out slowly, and you'll learn to love it!
After reading these vegan daily meals I am shocked that anyone can say that vegans couldn't possibly be healthy!
I will tell you what I ate today since it is pretty average:
Breakfast: Organic toasted O's cereal (similar to Cheerios) with fresh strawberries and soy milk. Grapefruit juice *Mulitvitamin w/ B12
Post workout snack: coffee with vanilla soy creamer and one small slice ww toast with natural peanut butter
Lunch: 6 large pieces of vegan sushi, lemon soy yogurt with blueberries
Dinner: Baked potato with earth balance butter (delicious vegan butter), spinach and carrots sauteed in garlic and olive oil and a Morningstar Farms vegan griller burger with pickles, tomato and avocado.
Snack: several small squares of vegan dark chocolate
(I am addicted to the stuff too Gal_D)
*It is really is so easy! So many natural, whole foods are naturally vegan.
breakfast:Cereal w. soy milk
Lunch: Sandwich- Wheat bread, lettuce, mustard, banana peppers, vegan cheese, tomato, and pickles.
Dinner: Bean enchiladas.
Snack: White rice w. soy sauce and mango pulp. Also Sunflower seeds. AND (I snacked alot today) Tortilla chips with Avacado dip.
May not be the healthiest day, but whatever haha.