I think to start off I'll answer the question I often get when people find out that I am vegan; "WTF do you eat if you don't eat meat and dairy?"
It always baffles me that we forget the vast array of plant-foods, whole foods, foods that are grown and produced without violence, bloodshed, inhumane conditions and processes, and that are sustainable and not harmful to our planet. This kind of mindlessness really speaks to the decades of social conditioning, commercialism and advertising schema that we have allowed ourselves to be fooled with.
Since the post war era especially, the American culture is particularly guilty of enabling and perpetuating food falsehoods. We are a protein obsessed, carbohydrate counting, calorie counting, allergy riddled, processed food addicted, chemically dependent (i.e. prescription meds/pharmaceuticals too), environmentally careless, obesity stricken, life threatening diseased disabled (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, alzeheimer's, etc....) and we don't seem to care. Until we're told we're about to die.
Now to be fair, I don't want to discount the many people out their the truly don't fit into this mold, but the truth is that by and large, we are this way. I was too at one point.
So here it is, my basic daily food intake:
Breakfast:
Whole Oat Meal or Malt-O-Meal with brown sugar and 1/2 /cup
of berries, Orange Juice, and coffee, sometimes I’ll eat toast with Old
Fashioned Peanut Butter and Jelly too. Sometimes if I don’t have the Malt –O-
Meal, I’ll have Soy Milk in the Oatmeal.
Water
Snack:
Carrots and Banana, or Belvita Whole Grain cracker and
Banana, or
Apple and Walnut/Almond Mixture. Some combination of this
stuff listed. Water.
Or Broccoli and hummus
or Milton's Whole Grain Crackers and hummus or real peanut butter.
Grapes and fruit
Lunch:
Peanut Butter and Jelly on Pumpernickle or whole-grain
bread,
or Garbanzo
bean burger with red pepper, avocado, lettuce
or Amy’s
vegan burger with the same stuff,
or leftover dinners
all of these are a long with carrots, or broccoli and
hummus, or whatever would be missing from the Power Plate
Snack:
Same as above, sometimes depending on if I run during lunch,
I will have some sort of vegan whole grain power bar (w/o soy or whey protein
isolates, no high fructose corn syrup, no msg, no honey, no milk or lactose
derivative)
or Milton's Whole Grain Crackers and hummus or real peanut butter.
Grapes and fruit
Water
Dinner:
The list goes on forever.
·
Garbanzo Bean Burgers, with Salad
·
Black Bean Chili with brown rice
·
Lasagna
·
Reubens made with marinated and sautéed tempeh,
sauerkraut, special sauce, lettuce and tomato
·
Senate soup- made with white beans, carrots,
celery potatoes, onion, garlic, etc
·
Lentil Soup- a lot of the same soup stuff in
different combinations,
·
Stir fry dishes made with Seitan or Tempeh
various vegetables
·
Pizza either with traditional dough (no eggs or dairy)
or crust made from shredded zucchini, carrots, and beats, with grilled veggie
topping and pizza sauce
·
I could go on- we eat from the Power Plate, no
big mystery-whole food, plant-based. No dairy, No Meat.
· Treats like Ice Cream and Cake can be made deliciously
w/o dairy and eggs.
A full spectrum (color range) of brightly colored vegetables is advised. Quinoa and Kale (collard green) is very important in maintaining the phytonutrients, protein, vitamin K, etc.
