Vegan Daily Meal Plan #1

Since I became a vegan a few months ago, one of the most common questions that my friends and family ask me is "what do you eat every day".  So I thought that I'd create a daily meal plan on a page.

Of course, this meal plan is not set in stone.  It's just what I've been eating a lot of lately.  Sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts are in season and the weather has been getting a little cooler lately so a nice warm bowl of vegetables is the perfect lunch or dinner time meal.


The recipes in this meal plan are below:

• choc banana smoothie
• lemon-tahini sauce
• lunch bowl
• mushroom stir-fry

Meal Plan: 1,200 calories (summer)

So instead of posting a screenshot of my daily calories from www.calorieking.com, I've decided to do up some basic meal plans of the types of meals that I am trying to eat on a regular basis.  I don't do this every single day - especially the lunch meal.  For me, it is easier to bring salad ingredients into work (rocket, baby spinach leaves, carrot, capsicum, cucumber and mushrooms) and make a salad at lunchtime (adding some protein - usually tinned tuna because it is quick and easy).

The dessert by the way is delicious!  My four year old daughter doesn't like bananas - avoids them like the plague - loved her special ice cream.  I added a tablespoon of low-fat greek yoghurt on top (after blending) so that it was a little creamier.  But it is tasty even without it.  

Here are the links to the recipes:

• home-made low-fat hommus (coming)
• banana and raspberry ice cream (coming)
• date, oatmeal and walnut balls

Friday, 21 February 2014 - 947 calories

 

Roast chicken recipe here.  

Thursday 20 February 2014 - 1264 calories

Hmm, egg and vegetable 'omelet' recipe here.

Wednesday 19 February 2014 - 1073 calories

Slow cooker beef and vegetables - recipe here. 

Tuesday 18 Feburary 2014 - 982 calories

Monday 17 February 2014 - 1141 calories

Sunday 16 February 2014 - 1202 calories

Saturday - 15 February 2014 - 1534 calories

I ate a lot yesterday - going over my calories by a few hundred. By calorie counting, I can really see the impact that drinking wine has had on my waistline.  I use alcohol to relax - sometimes drinking a glass or two during the week while I'm making and eating dinner.  I never thought much about it because it was such a small amount.  What I didn't realise is how many calories are in wine.  Yes, I'm not completely daft.  I know that alcohol adds lots of calories and that dieticians recommend that you reduce or cut it out completely.  But it's only after seeing that it added another 272 calories to my day - contributing almost all of the amount that I was over my calorie budget - that I realise that alcohol can't be a weekly vice.  It has to be budgeted into my daily meal plan.

Just 35 minutes on the treadmill, walking uphill, will burn enough calories to make up for the additional wine calories.  I'm adding this one to the list of ideas / hints.  

So here's what I'm going to do.  I'm not going to stop drinking alcohol altogether.  But I'm going to limit it to once a week - either a Friday or Saturday night.  And I'm going to limit it to two glasses of wine.  To make up for the additional calories, I'm also going to do more exercise on that day. 

Friday 14 February 2014 - 862 calories

Friday, Valentine's Day, was a very low calorie day - with a total of only 862 for the day - completely unintentional.  I have every Friday off and have been using the time to sort out the mess that is our house and to get working on the garden (we live on 5 acres).  Friday's job was to get into our bedroom (almost literally!) and to clear our the walk-in cupboard and finally unpack the boxes that have been sitting in there since we moved in almost six months ago.

But the childcare centre called at around 10am and said that she was running a temperature (around 38.5) and only had half of the panadol that they tried to give her (she hates the taste of the children's panadol, preferring the more bitter baby panadol).  So while my husband went to get her I pulled her mattress of her bed and laid it in the lounge room so that she could rest (in front of the tv, I know, bad parenting).  I had also wanted to get to the supermarket that day as well as we did not do a full shop the week before.  My mother-in-law came over and watched our daughter while we went and did the shopping.  How this all relates to what I ate, I will explain shortly!  By the time we returned home, it was around 2pm.  I took our daughter's temperature and it was 40 degrees.  She was sick.  By the time I gave her medicine and sat and comforted her, it was 2.30pm.  So I had a quick lunch of toast with cottage cheese and fresh tomato.

By the time dinner time came around, I wasn't starving (like I normally am) after such a late lunch.  So I didn't haven't any snacks or drinks that day which contributed to such a low calorie count.  But never mind, I made up for it on Saturday.

Here is Friday's dinner:

This is how I did it.  

I roasted an already prepared split chicken from Woolies (they are great!) in the oven for about an hour and a half.  While it was resting, I prepared a really basic salad of spinach and rocket leaves, grated carrot, fresh tomato (from our garden), raw broccoli and four olives.  I had to count the olives because they are high in calories and I love them so much that I would just eat an olive salad!  Then I pulled apart the chicken and added some of the breast meat to my salad.  I didn't weigh it so I just estimated it be 170g of chicken.  That's another note to go into my hints and tips - always weigh your food!

I don't have any salad dressing at home (I forgot to buy) and I don't want to add extra calories by making one with oil, mustard and vinegar, so I just added some hot tomato sauce.

And voila!  Dinner was served!

Thursday 13 February 2014 - 1076 calories

My week one progress post is here. 

Breakfast

Same as Tuesday's breakfast - cold cereal. 

Lunch

Same as Tuesday's lunch - tuna salad and a grainy breadroll.

Dinner

Rump steak with potato, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes (from our garden) and, gravy, of course! 

This meal is delicious!

We buy all of our steak from a butcher located in Coomera (between the Gold Coast and Brisbane) called Springbok Foods.  My husband is South African, so this little South African supermarket is a familiar, comforting taste of home for him.  The bonus is that they sell the most tender, delicious AGED rump steak for around $17-$19/kg.  It is also cheaper if you buy a whole side of rump.

For this dinner, my husband seasoned the meat with Spur Seasoning Salt (also from Springbok Foods) and then sealed it on both sides on the BBQ.  Then he bastes the steak while it is grilling with Spur Marinade Grill Basting sauce (which I've just realised that I forgot to add to my calorie count for the day).

While he was grilling the meat, I boiled potatoes (with the skin on - lose so many nutrients when you peel it off, plus it just takes longer to prepare) and steamed fresh broccoli and carrots.  I also chopped up some tomatoes from our vegetable garden.  Then I made the gravy (straight from a packet with boiling water, I'm not fancy).

Here are the delicious results....

Exercise

Hmm, I didn't exercise.  My excuse was that our (almost) four year old was awake for 1.5 hours in the middle of the night and I was too tired after putting them to bed to go downstairs and walk on the treadmill.

Wednesday, 12 February 2014 - 1173 calories

Breakfast

Same as Tuesday's breakfast - cold cereal. 

Lunch

Same as Tuesday's lunch - tuna salad and a grainy breadroll.

Dinner

Chicken with rice, vegetables and gravy.  We used our stainless steel AMC Classic frypan to 'fry' the chicken breasts - which allows us to cook our food without adding any water or oils/fats.  I also added some cooked brown rice and boiled peas.  Lastly, gravy, I added gravy.  Gravy would have to be my favourite sauce of all time - I don't care if it is chef made or made from powder in a box mixed with hot water.  I love all of it.

Exercise

Another 15 minutes on the treadmill - walking at an incline. 

Tuesday 11 February 2014 Meal Plan - 1360 calories

Breakfast

I'm pretty boring when it comes to breakfast.  I don't have a lot of time in the morning so I like to eat something that doesn't take very long to prepare.  Hence cold cereal.  In the cooler months, I usually switch to quick oats in the microwave.

A few months ago, I discovered 'bobby calves' - which are calves born to dairy cows (who need to be pregnant to produce milk).  The calves are taken away from their mom almost immediately after birth and transported (usually) to an abattoir and made into dog food (amongst other things).  There are millions of bobby calves slaughtered each year so that we can drink milk.

I did some google searching and emailed a few smaller dairy farms in Australia and found a couple that don't slaughter their bobby calves immediately after birth.  Barambah Organics is a company based in Brisbane that sources its fresh organic milk from its own farm at Glenarbon, situated on the Dumaresq River, on the NSW/QLD border and they don't send their bobby calves to the abattoir.  And the milk is unhomogenised.  Cream top people, cream top!  By the way, I wasn't perked or paid by Barambah Organics, I'm just a happy, loyal and vocal customer!

Lunch

Lunch this week was a a very simple and easy affair.  I went to the supermarket on Monday and stocked up on spinach and rocket leaves, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber and small tins of tuna.  I also grabbed some grainy breadrolls.  Then, each day at lunchtime, I used a quarter of the ingredients to prepare a delicious and healthy salad.  I only work four days a week, so that worked out great for me.

Dinner

As I said in my first progress post, I ate eggs on toast for dinner.  So I knew that fats and oils had a lot of calories - I didn't realise quite how many!  I haven't buttered my toast or bread since Tuesday, once I discovered how many extra calories it was adding to my day.

Exercise

As I said in my first progress post, the treadmill finally got some use after sitting mostly dormant for almost a year.  It was just 15 minutes walking on an incline.  I'm not sure that the km/hour that I've entered into calorieking is correct - but the calories are about right (based on what the treadmill calculated for me).  My plan here is to exercise at least four days a week, building to 30 minutes running.  Ultimately I'd like to do something every day but it's important that I start slowly to avoid injury.  Plus it makes it easier to commit to doing it if I know that I don't have to slug it out for 30 minutes straight away.