I’m always curious as to what people eat in a typical day. Yep,
I’m one of those people who has a Youtube history full of “what I eat in a day”
videos. I’m also one to be eating at pretty
much any given time of the day. What can I say, I love me some good food!
One of the most common questions I get asked as a vegan is “so
like... what do/can you even eat?” Well, it’s varies from day-to-day and depends
on how much time I have. What I will say is that I do place high priority on
food because if you think about it, this is what you’re consuming to be used as
fuel. It’s literally going into your body and it’s so important that it’s
nutritious. When this shift in priorities came about, it totally changed my
perception of food. Yes, meal prep can be time consuming, groceries can
get pricey, and it does take a little effort, but for all the right
reasons!
As a person who has a wake up call of 6AM Mon-Fri, I need to
think ahead and plan what I’m going to be eating the week before. By Friday, I’ll
usually start thinking of what I want for lunch for the following work week.
This is because it gives me time to look up recipes and make a list of what I
need when I go grocery shopping on Sat/Sun. Sunday is usually the day that I’ll
wash/prep my food, and each weeknight I’ll actually assemble my lunch so it’s
ready to grab and go the next morning. I generally base my shopping around what
I need for lunch since all other meals/snacks, except for dinner, generally
rotate between a few recipes.
Here’s what I’m eating this week...
Throughout the day: Lemon water
To rehydrate my body from a “long” night’s sleep, I like to
drink lemon water when I first wake up. (“Long” is in quotations because I’m
awful at getting enough hours in). There are so many benefits of drinking lemon
water e.g. aiding in digestion, boosting your immune system, increase in
metabolism, etc. so why not? The taste bugged me at first because I wasn’t used
to the sour taste, but now I crave it!
Pre-breakfast (6:45AM): Kombucha
Kombucha is basically fermented tea. I started making my own
back in September when I got a couple scoby’s from a friend. Every morning
before I eat, I’ll take a few sips of this stuff. It also promotes digestion, weight
loss, and a bunch of other health benefits.
Breakfast (7AM): Super oatmeal bowl.
I like to throw in superfoods whenever I can. Breakfast is a
great meal to incorporate them for a kicker in the morning. I love having my oatmeal
with blueberries, hemp hearts, unsweetened shredded coconut, cacao nibs andddd
when I’m feeling super fancy, I add banana-mango “nice-cream” (which is just
frozen banana and mango blended up) and homemade Nutella (which is roasted
hazelnut, cocoa powder and maple syrup blended together). The nice cream and
Nutella are pre-made on the weekend so I can just easily assemble in the
morning. This is DEFINITELY one of my
favourite, go-to breakfasts.
Morning snack (9AM): Coffee with soy/almond milk, and
homemade oil-free whole wheat zucchini muffins
I’m not usually an everyday coffee drinker, but I have been waking
up much earlier in the last couple weeks so this is definitely helpful. It’s
just so comforting to have warm drink on a cold morning. Also, my tummy starts
to grumble at 9:30-10, so I’ll need a snack with my coffee. This week I made
these zucchini muffins from the Oh She Glows cookbook – one of my faves!
Lunch (12PM): Super Salad! (pictured at the top of this post)
I was inspired by a salad that I had from Kupfert
and Kim, which is this vegan, meat-free, wheat-free, gluten-free place at a
food court downtown, Toronto (BTW, I’m super excited that this is an option at
work!). I got the First Canadian Place
salad and immediately knew I wanted to recreate something similar. The great thing
about salads is that restaurants usually list out all the ingredients so it’s
relatively easy to make it yourself!
I used spring mix and arugula as the base and added the
following toppings:
- Spiralized raw beets (you could just as easily shred these with a mandoline, no spiralizer needed)
- Shredded red cabbage
- Pea shoots
- Shredded carrots
- Cucumbers
- Bruschetta (diced tomoatoes, onions, fresh basil w/ balsamic vinegar)
- Baked garlic balsamic tempeh (fermented soy product)
- Roasted rosemary yams
- Quinoa
- Sunflower seeds and black sesame seeds
- Fresh lemon wedge
- Maple tahini dressing (Mix tahini, lemon juice, maple syrup together and add hot water until a desired consistency is reached)
My salads are H U G E. It takes me a full hour to eat the whole
thing if I really focus on just eating haha.
After lunch snack (1PM): 3 clementines. I love ending a
savoury meal with fresh fruit!
Afternoon snack (3:30 -ish): Green smoothie and nuts.
Lately my smoothie consists of:
- Kale
- Spinach
- Water
- Apple
- Banana
- Avocado
- Fresh lemon juice
- Ginger
I made my own trail mix which basically means I threw a bunch
of nuts that I like into a bag and snack on it. This mix usually includes:
- Almonds
- Cashews
- Dried apricot
- Pumpkin seeds
I also threw in some pretzels and peanuts this week because I
had them on hand.
Dinner (7PM): Mom’s cooking!
I’m super lucky that my mom makes home cooked meals for
dinner! This is usually the typical Chinese style dinner which involves rice (we’ve
converted to brown rice, yay!), a veggie dish, some protein, and a nutritious
soup. On this particular day I had:
- Steamed brown rice
- Braised bean curd sheets
- Stir-fried broccoli
- Pumpkin soup with cashews, barley, and lotus seeds
I might have fruit after dinner, and then have a protein
shake after I come back from the gym which is at around 11PM.
That’s what I eat in a day! Hopefully it gave you some ideas
or meal/snack inspiration. Also, I’m not always super healthy. I’ve literally
almost eaten an entire bag of chips in one sitting before but keeping a
generally balanced diet for 80% of the time makes that okay... right? LOL
Happy meal prepping!