What do you even eat?

❓ What do you even eat?

❓ Where do you get your protein?

❓ Don't you miss fill-in-the-blank?

Since we decided to go whole food plant based, I get asked these same three questions a lot. The short answers are:

❗ We eat all kinds of things! We eat so much more variety than we ever used to and we never get bored or feel like we’re missing out on anything. 

🥜 Plants have protein! Beans, legumes, whole grains, tofu, tempeh and some nuts and seeds are great plant-based sources, but there's at least a little bit of protein in most plant foods.

🧀 Honestly, not really. I missed cheese at first, but now I don’t really think about it much. Sometimes I miss the convenience of things we used to eat, but rarely do I miss the food itself.

But, being the overachiever that I am, I wanted to have a more specific detailed answer.

Just for fun, I decided to track everything we ate for 5 days. Because apparently when you're a self-proclaimed plant-based nutrition nerd, this becomes your idea of a good time 😂.

For breakfasts, we have a general rotation of things we eat. This is just what I was feeling this particular week.

For lunches and dinners, we typically meal prep (aka batch cook) on Sundays so we have minimal work to do to get food on the table during the week. We usually make extra servings of dinners so we can have leftovers for lunch the next day.

I didn't include snacks because honestly, I don't snack much anymore. On the days I did have something, it was either fresh fruit, dried fruit (if you haven’t tried this dried mango, you are missing out) or popcorn popped in pickle juice with no extra added salt (these silicone popcorn poppers are the bomb).

We chose these specific lunch/dinner recipes based on what we’d received in our CSA/Farmshare box that week and without giving any thought to how many grams of protein, fat or carbs we were eating. All macronutrient information was either taken from the recipe (if available) or determined by entering the meal ingredients into cronometer.com. 

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of counting anything other than how many different delicious plants go into my mouth each day. The macronutrients included here are just to show that you can meet your body's daily needs and requirements without painstakingly tracking everything you eat.

Day 1:

Breakfast: Overnight Oats with Banana & Mixed Berries

Lunch: Tuscan Veggie Lentil Soup with Local Sourdough

Dinner: Dirty Dragon Bowl over Quinoa

Carbs: 234g    Fat:  29g     Protein: 60g

Day 2:

Breakfast: Simple Avocado Toast

Lunch: Leftover Dirty Dragon Bowl over Quinoa

Dinner: Mongolian Tofu Stir Fry

Carbs: 245g    Fat:  62g     Protein: 70g

Day 3:

Breakfast: Overnight Oats with Banana & Mixed Berries

Lunch: Spinach Salad with Peaches & Tempeh "Bacon" Bits

Dinner: Southwest Cheesy Macaroni

Carbs: 287g    Fat:  56g     Protein: 88g

Day 4:

Breakfast: Simple Avocado Toast

Lunch: Leftover Mongolian Tofu Stir Fry

Dinner: Butternut Squash & Black Bean Tacos with Roasted Shishito Peppers

Carbs: 287g    Fat:  37g     Protein: 68g

Day 5:

Breakfast: Overnight Oats with Banana & Mixed Berries

Lunch: Leftover Southwest Cheesy Macaroni

Dinner: Tofu Steaks with Roasted Potatoes & Asparagus

Carbs: 284g    Fat:  38g     Protein: 91g

Clearly I forgot to take a pictures of dinner that night. Thank you Clean Food Dirty Girl & Canva!

So, how'd I do?

Pretty damn good! This is how all of my macros averaged out for the week compared to the official recommendations for a typical, healthy person (which I am... at least on paper 😂).

✅ Protein: 75g (40-60g recommended for my weight & activity level)

✅ Fat: 44g (44-78g recommended)

✅ Saturated fat: 4% of total calories (<10% recommended)

✅ Carbs: 267g (225-325g recommended)

✅ Fiber: 45g (25g recommended - Most Americans average 10-15g/day)

My averages for these 5 days fell well within the recommended ranges for my sex, age, weight and activity level. 

• Without thinking about it or strategically planning our meals.

• Without counting calories or restricting portion size.

• Without feeling hungry, deprived or dealing with cravings.

When you eat a variety of whole plant foods, you get all the nutrients you need by default. Yes, you do have to spend some time in the kitchen cooking, but you don’t have to spend hours searching for recipes that meet certain macro requirements or calculating percentages. 

Nature does all that work for you 😁.