Plant-based Diets

[Anonymous]

For those of you who follow a plant-based diet - whether you call yourself Vegan or not - can you help me with a typical day? I am especially curious what you eat for lunch. Right now I am making a green smoothie in the morning. I can see making quinoa a couple of times a week and taking leftovers for lunch. But what else?

The more research I do the more I am convinced that removing animal protein from our diets and eating mainly plant-based foods (whole grains, veggies, fruits, etc.) is the key to healthy living and reduced susceptibility for cancers and heart disease. In my mind I am convinced, but I am not a cook and I have two young kids and am really struggling with meal planning and prep. So much easier to grab a turkey sandwhich at lunch instead of bringing my own!

[Anonymous]

You could make some salads with the quinoa (or bulger, barley, brown rice, or whole wheat pasta), chopped veggies, herbs, and beans. Green salad with nuts, soybeans, beans or flavored tofu/tempeh for a protein. Humus, black bean or other bean dip (trader joe's makes a white bean and edemame dips) with whole wheat pita bread and veggies to dip into it. Vegan black bean, lentil, white bean, split pea soups. Peanut, almond or sunbutter on whole wheat bread with some honey.

[Anonymous]

There are a bunch of recommend meals in the book Engine 2 diet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who follow a plant-based diet - whether you call yourself Vegan or not - can you help me with a typical day? I am especially curious what you eat for lunch. Right now I am making a green smoothie in the morning. I can see making quinoa a couple of times a week and taking leftovers for lunch. But what else?

The more research I do the more I am convinced that removing animal protein from our diets and eating mainly plant-based foods (whole grains, veggies, fruits, etc.) is the key to healthy living and reduced susceptibility for cancers and heart disease. In my mind I am convinced, but I am not a cook and I have two young kids and am really struggling with meal planning and prep. So much easier to grab a turkey sandwhich at lunch instead of bringing my own!

Funny. The more research I do I come to the opposite conclusion. The red meat study was BS btw. Crap methodology. Crap analysis.

The more research I do, the more starches and carbs and sugar come out looking like the villains in the American diet true crime story.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a big difference between simple carbs and starches and whole grain and beans diet?

[Anonymous]

I guess I don't really understand. Why are we ending up and green smoothies and quinoa? I mean, I eat quinoa, but I eat pretty much everything.

I am a vegan.

I eat a completely normal diet.

I use energy egg replacer in baking and soymilk for milk. Only a few things don't work. Here's a week - we have a meal plan for shopping so this was last week. There is a bit of repetition only because we try to make bigger portions to make life easier and save money. But week to week our menus vary greatly.

Monday
Breakfast:
1/2 grapefruit
1 mini bagel with peanut butter

lunch:
Hummus and veggie sandwich
tortilla chips
carrot sticks

snack:
rice crackers
apple

Dinner:
Spaghetti with tomato sauce, veggies, and vegan "crumbles"
salad

Tuesday:
breakfast:
granola and soymilk w/ sliced banana

Lunch:
leftover pasta and salad

snack:
pear, tea

Dinner:
burrito w/ beans, salsa, daiya cheese, and avocado
Mexican rice

Wednesday:
breakfast:
2 vegan sausage links
1 granola bar

Lunch:
hummus sammy w/ veggies
coconut milk yogurt
carrot sticks

snack:
apple w/ peanut butter

Dinner:
veggie chili w/ cornbread

Thursday:
Breakfast:
granola w/ soymilk and sliced banana

Lunch:
PB&J
apple
carrot sticks

snack:
coconut milk yogurt

Dinner:
soft tacos
leftover mexican rice
sauteed broccoli raab

Friday
Breakfast:
oatmeal w/ walnuts and raisins

Lunch:
hummus dipped with chips and veggies
apple

snack:
granola and coconut milk yogurt

Dinner:
leftover chili w/ cornbread

Saturday:
breakfast:
oatmeal flaxseed pancakes
sliced orange

Lunch:
leftover chili
cornbread

Dinner:
grilled veggie dogs on whole wheat buns
coleslaw (veganaise)
grilled sweet potato "fries"

Sunday:
Breakfast:
veggie sausage
tofu scramble (boxed)
toast with earth balance

Lunch:
vegan turkey coleslaw sandwiches
fruit salad with leftover fruits

snack:
rice crackers and more fruit salad

Dinner:
oven baked tofu
mashed potatoes
gravy
sauteed broccoli raab

[Anonymous]

I agree with your analysis, OP. I want mostly plant-based for the same reasons, though I'm vegetarian not vegan (ovo-lacto). One difference I have with a PP is that I avoid a lot of "fake meat" or meat analogues because they're very highly processed. Also, most contain autolyzed yeast extract (sometimes just called "natural flavoring" in ingredient lists) and as someone with migraines, it's to be avoided (common migraine trigger, chemically similar to MSG). Here's what I've had to eat in the last few days:

Breakfast: steel cut oatmeal with sliced almonds and some melon
Snack: yogurt
Lunch: huge salad (spring mix, sliced radish, tomatoes, green onion, red onion, pumpkin seeds, Feta cheese, half cup of cooked quinoa mixed in, vinaigrette)
Snack: apple & 1 tb nut butter
Dinner: Turkish lentil soup (homemade, I do big batches of soup and freeze), toast

Breakfast: banana with PB
Snack: yogurt
Lunch: soup (base is sauteed celery, carrot, onion + box/can of chopped tomatoes + 2 cans of chickpeas and a cilantro bunch) + tofu strips (I cut tofu into big straws, coat with herbs, garlic salt & whole wheat bread crumbs, bake for 30 min)
Snack: pear
Dinner: Spinach omelette + roasted potatoes coated with quinoa, green onion & a little parm cheese

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with your analysis, OP. I want mostly plant-based for the same reasons, though I'm vegetarian not vegan (ovo-lacto). One difference I have with a PP is that I avoid a lot of "fake meat" or meat analogues because they're very highly processed. Also, most contain autolyzed yeast extract (sometimes just called "natural flavoring" in ingredient lists) and as someone with migraines, it's to be avoided (common migraine trigger, chemically similar to MSG). Here's what I've had to eat in the last few days:

Breakfast: steel cut oatmeal with sliced almonds and some melon
Snack: yogurt
Lunch: huge salad (spring mix, sliced radish, tomatoes, green onion, red onion, pumpkin seeds, Feta cheese, half cup of cooked quinoa mixed in, vinaigrette)
Snack: apple & 1 tb nut butter
Dinner: Turkish lentil soup (homemade, I do big batches of soup and freeze), toast

Breakfast: banana with PB
Snack: yogurt
Lunch: soup (base is sauteed celery, carrot, onion + box/can of chopped tomatoes + 2 cans of chickpeas and a cilantro bunch) + tofu strips (I cut tofu into big straws, coat with herbs, garlic salt & whole wheat bread crumbs, bake for 30 min)
Snack: pear
Dinner: Spinach omelette + roasted potatoes coated with quinoa, green onion & a little parm cheese

PP, would please share the Turkish lentil soup recipe? I've visited Turkey and love the soup!

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend pre-prepping colorful veggies (red pepper, carrot, purple cabbage, blanched green beans or asapargus) and greens, especially thinly chopped kale or chard or spinach. Keep in large mixing bowl in fridge. I mix in handfuls of mixed greens from the grocery store. Then, keep preparing, every few days, some kind of legume based soup or just cooked beans, such as: black beans, white beans, veggie soup, leftover chicken soup (if you are not veggie) even leftover lasagna, cooked salmon, whatever warm, satisfying thing you have. Then, heat a bowl of the protein/bean/leftover thing, and mix it with the chopped salad. Dress with either nothing or lemon juice. It is delicious, satisfying, very nutritious.

I have coffee in the am, a giant mixing bowl full of this "soup and salad" mixture around 2pm, then nothing or a very light bit of whatever my husband and kids are having in the evening. (usually they are having what I will be mixing with greens the next day). You can add cooked cubed squash or sweet potato, any grain you like (cooked quinoa, barley, I LOVE purple rice). I just love this meal. It is like a variation on taco salad I guess, very satisfying. This plus exercise have taken me, at 45 years old, to my 125 lb hot body of yore. And I feel so so good!

For the protein, I recommend preparing the beans in the crock pot every few days. I just dump them in with lots of water and let them cook and get soft throughout the the day, then prepare a thick, heavily seasoned saute later to mix in and season the beans. We eat a lot of beans and my kids love them. If you think your kids "won't eat beans", just starve them until they get used to it. Sorry, but it works. They don't "have to have" nuggets, fries, or anything else. My kids can eat my delicious lentils, bean tostadas, lasagna, or have nothing. They choose to eat. They think sweet potatoes are a treat. They get plenty of treats just at b-day parties, and every holiday every time I turn around. There is no need for any junk food on a day to day basis.

[Anonymous]

I don't think meat is bad, I think industrially grown meat is bad. If animal protein were so horrible, then Natural Selection should have eliminated the Alaska's Inuit people long time ago, what is doing them in now is processed foods and Alcohol. There is actually no indigenous culture that eats only a plant based diet by choice.

My point is, what is important is that people eat what their body has evolved to flourish on. The modern American diet will take a few million years to adapt to junk food and there will be a lot of disease that will have to kill off a bunch of people before it can be tolerated at the current levels; and considering modern medical intervention propping sick, fat people up longer than they would naturally be alive on the planet, we might never adapt.

Common sense will tell you that if you simply follow Michael Pollan's advice of Eat food.Not too much.mostly plants. This is probably what your body is happiest on...if you are from a more northern climate, I would bet that your body is most happy on a higher protein diet that someone who is equatorial.

I think a diet of any extreme that allows for processed foods is not healthy and will lead to problems. What has worked for the Chinese for thousands of years might not work from someone who is of European descent. There is no magic formula, just stay away from junk and food that is grown/raised in an unnatural manner.

[Anonymous]

Here's my Turkish lentil soup recipe (so easy) such that it is.

3 peeled carrots
1 onion, cut in half
1-2 peeled potatoes
1.5 cups washed and rinsed red lentils --
water, 4-6 cups

Bring everything to a boil together (including the whole carrots, potato and halved onion). Reduce to simmer and cook until lentils are done, 30-40 min. Using an immersion blender (or regular blender), puree everything. Season with salt and a generous amount of oregano. Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.