Good morning! I’m pleased to participate in What I Ate Wednesday again this week. I’ve had quite a few visitors from this referral and I love showing off a day’s worth of what a healthy, vegan eats. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, then you know that I follow Dr. Fuhrman’s “Nutritarian Diet Style.” What this means is that the base of my food pyramid is green vegetables, both cooked and raw, followed by other veggies, fresh fruit, beans, nuts, seeds, avocados, some soy products and some cooked grains and starches. What I don’t eat are any animal products, oils, added sugars or salt. It’s been working fantastically for me for almost two years now, just check out some of my “before” and “after” pictures on my About page.
So yesterday morning started off with a green smoothie. This is a great way for me to get a full serving of greens with my breakfast. Yesterday’s veggie was purslane (a great source of omega-3 fatty acids) and watercress. Would you believe it, I forgot to take a photo? It looked very similar to this one:
The ingredients included: hemp seeds, sesame seeds, water, frozen banana, watercress, purslane, frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple, cinnamon, golden berries, carob powder, liquid stevia and frozen blueberries. I’m starting to realize that I need to wean myself off stevia, my sweet tooth is starting to get the best of me (I’ll be writing more about this in upcoming posts).
I had a decent workout at the gym in the morning and then came home and had a big salad for lunch with a dressing made from garbanzo beans, lemon juice and tahini:
For dessert, I made a Concord Grape Smoothie that was pretty darned delicious. I’m going to post the recipe this Friday for Healthy Vegan Fridays! It looked like this and had a huge amount of baby spinach blended it that I couldn’t even taste:
Stay tuned for that recipe, it’s a good one. My appetite hasn’t been super great lately and I think it’s because I’m drinking too many smoothies. I’m going to try subbing fresh fruit for my after-lunch smoothies and see if that helps. I think the really hot weather is also dampening my appetite, it has been over 110 degrees and humid here in the Southern California desert since I’ve been here the past 2 weeks. It’s okay, I’m jetting off to the beach next week so that should help!
Despite the heat, I made a cooked dinner with baby bok choy as the star. I started by water-sauteeing some celery, zucchini, tempeh and fresh corn that I cut off the cob:
I then added the bok choy and let it wilt down:
I stirred in a simple sauce of almond butter and low-sodium tamari and this is what my bowl looked like:
I had some fresh grapes for dessert, although I wasn’t really that hungry, it was mainly for the coldness and sweetness. That’s it! What did YOU eat yesterday?
P.S. To see pictures of my trip preparations and to keep current on what I’m up to, be sure to “like” my page on Facebook here or follow me on Twitter here. If you use Instagram, you can find me @carrieonvegan.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Your dinner looks yummy! I love creamy steamed veggies! I find the heat also takes away my appetite! I was in Colorado for a few weeks and it was 110 F some days! I have a small appetite anyways though…
Thanks, Vicky! I heard Dr. F say something interesting lately and that is that most people eat to support their current body weight, not necessarily the body weight they want to be (I am probably misquoting him, but you get the idea). He also said that most people would be surprised by how little food we need vs. what we sometimes eat to maintain our weight. I find that my appetite definitely increases with exercise, but, outside of that, it is manageable. I am really working on eating for hunger rather than emotional reasons. So far, so good.
Yes, I find that to be true (we eat to maintain our weight), which is why weight loss is usually difficult. I am sometimes surprised at how little food I seem to need! I am constantly having to remind myself that I don’t NEED to eat dinner if I am not hungry just because everyone else is.
Hi Vicky! This is an entirely new concept to me as I realize that probably 25% of what I eat is based on eating for comfort as opposed to hunger. It’s definitely a challenge to slow down and think about how I am feeding myself and what I really need. That being said, I realize that one can and shouldn’t strive to be perfect in that way, but I’m noticing that I feel so much better when I listen to my body and respond accordingly instead of just automatically going after more food.
Yum! You eat so healthily. I love seeing what you eat each day. It gives me inspiration. I also drink loads of green smoothies. I often have them for breakfast and lunch a lot of the time as they are so quick and I can get on with something else while I do it. I’m liking these WIAW posts.
Awwww, thanks Katherine! Have you participated in WIAW? I’d love to see you daily eats!
No, It never crossed my mind but maybe I should! It might be a bit boring thought as I often eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch, just change my dinner really.
Can’t wait for the smoothie. I tried winging it today on my lunch smoothie, but it didn’t come out as satisfying as I’d like for it to have. I’ll look through your resources and see if I can find one to inspire my taste buds again!
Cheers…
Smoothie looks delicious!
Also- I nominated you for a Liebster award! You can check out the details here:
http://jumpeatrun.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/liebster-award-and-more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-me/
Thanks, Lish! I enjoyed reading your answers and I LOVE the Kermit!
oooh bok choy! i’ve never had it, but I’d really like to try!! and wow those smoothies are making me want to whip one up right now!!
You’ve never had bok choy?!? I guess the first time I had it was at an Asian restaurant and now I love it. It’s really high in calcium, too, so I try to have it at least once a week. The baby bok choy is more tender than the “adult” bok chou, fyi.
Great menu & photos, as usual; love your blog!
You mention using purslane in your smoothie, and I was wondering if it has high oxalic acid like spinach–or any other issue which would make it advisable to limit consumption. Purslane is in season right now, and actually grows rampant around here. Do you have any nutritional information you’d like to share with me on this green? Thanks!
Hi Linda! Great question. I just looked up oxalic acid and purslane and found that purslane does contain high amounts. So, you’re right that moderate consumption would be best. That’s good because I just finished off the batch I bought last weekend and I’ll wait a few more weeks before buying more. Thanks for asking this question because I learned something! I guess the best advice when it comes to greens is to rotate them. Have a fantastic weekend!
One other thing I’d like to suggest: why not stop using store-bought stevia, and simply grow your own? You can buy the plant at various nurseries; I bought one from Gurney’s (online) last year, and it wintered in my laundry room. Pretty house or patio plant, and adds sweetness to smoothies. Just snip off a couple inches and add that to my VM with my kale or bok choy, build a smoothie as usual.
I love this suggestion, Linda! I think I’ve seen stevia plants at my local farmers’ market, I’m going to give this a try. I think I would feel better about using stevia if I used the leaf itself. Thanks!!!
By the way, stevia plant does a fabulous job of cutting the bitterness of super-greens in making juice, too. Just snip off a couple inches of stevia and juice it right along with everything else. Even my kids don’t think it needs as much fruit, done that way.
Fantastic, I can’t wait to try this!!!
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