The Everyday Vegan #2
One of the questions I get asked when I am at family functions, or catching up with distant friends is: “So you’re Vegan, what do you eat?” Unlike every Vegan’s least favorite “But where do you get your protein?!?” question, the “what do you eat?” is not asked out of ignorance, as much as it is out of legitimate curiosity. I feel like it is asked to give the asker a more clear picture of what a Vegan diet is like in practice and how many or few restrictions it has. I created “The Everyday Vegan” column for the above mentioned sort of people who are simply curious about what I, personally, eat from day to day.
Please bear in mind, that since Vegans are just normal people who choose to consume a herbivorous diet, the dietary preferences from individual to individual vary quite widely. While most Vegans are healthier than their animal consuming counterparts, there are certainly junk food Vegans, just like junk food meat eaters. I try to remind myself that binge eating deep fried tofu and fudgie coconut icecream is only marginally better than binge eating deep fried chicken and dairy icecream. (However it is certainly vastly more satisfying!)
So, without further ado, here is what I ate today:
Breakfast — Cereal (Panda Puffs to be precise) with almond milk. Peanut Butter Panda Puffs have far less sugar than I had feared at 7g per 30g, AND are totally gluten free, so really they’re a health food…or so I’m telling myself….
Mid Morning Snack — A bunch of roasted, unsalted Cashews.
Lunch — 2 packages of the Garlic and Veggie flavoured noodles from Thai Kitchen. Usually I go out of my way to turn them from glorified Mr Noodles into a legitimate meal by adding a bunch of fresh veggies, and some cubed tofu, but I was lazy and hungary so I ate them plain, which kind of sucked…
Snack — Primal Strips! Mmmmmmm, if you’ve been Vegan for more than 10 minutes, you know what I’m talking about 
Dinner — A Big Ass Salad. Seriously, this salad is full of everything. I used about 8 shredded leaves of Romaine, a whole can of black beans, 2 roma tomatoes, about a 1/4 cup of fresh, chopped dill, a chopped orange pepper, about 2 tablespoons of hemphearts, and I just threw a bunch of olive oil and balsamic on top with a dash of fresh ground pepper and BAM, a perfect supper (and sooo filling!) on a swelteringly hot night.
Midnight snack — Smoothie, similar to the Purple Power smoothie I posted a couple of days ago.
So there you have it, my nutritional day in a nut’s shell. Stay tuned for more suggestions, ideas, and general info about what a Vegan lives off of to stay alive, healthy and happy.
