Plant based snacks & lunch foods
Hey guys,
A little late to the party, but I recently watched Forks Over Knives and am reading the China Study now. I don't eat much meat but I'm shifting to an even more plant based diet. I will keep eating fish and a little dairy but want to be primarily plant-based.
I'm having a hard time finding easy snacks and lunches (besides salads). What are some easy go-to dishes you guys do?
Do you guys add any protein mix to your diet? If so, which one?
Thanks!
-M
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Snacks usually lots of nuts and nut butters all kinds , all kinds of fruit lots of it. When I want some calorie dense snacks I dig into dates and dip them straight into almond butter. Awesome and filling. Absolutely love almond butter and dates on bagels pre-race too... Larabars, Prana bars and my new favorite pro-bars. Pro-bars are pretty big so usually use them for a meal after a swim mid morning when I need to eat right away and lunch isnt that far away.
I personally dont try to add protein. I think I consume plenty . With the exception of long training days 4 hours or more I will mix up a naked juice with a raw vegan protein powder for right afterwards or will make my own ( in the blender usually coconut water , hemp , banana, date, berries, nut butter or nuts, etc etc and the kitchen sink) if finishing at the house.
I made the move to plant based about a year ago and I've never looked back. Typical snacks for me are a Larabar and a handful of almonds, a piece of fruit and a spoonful of almond butter (or just the fruit). Really though I eat more little meals than I do snacks. A " standard" day looks like:
Wake - Bowl of Ezekial Cereal with Unsweetened Almond Milk, maybe a few slices of Banana
(Exercise) - 5 am
Post Work-Out - Green Smoothie (2 veg, 2 fruit, greens, hemp seeds [protein], pumpkin seeds, flax seeds or flax oil, macca powder, hemp and/or pea protien and/or brown rice protein powder)
Early Lunch - (11:00am ish) A salad so big people ask if I'm sharing it. Ususally mix Green Kale, Dino Kale and Spinach. Load it up with whatever's fresh and make sure to put a fibrous veggies and protien in the form of legumes in it. (Yellow squash is a good plant protein)
Late Lunch - (2 ish) A more carb driven meal/snack. This is usally some quinoa and beans (type varies) with some avocado or coconut oil and something spicy (Paprika, cayenne, etc). A lot of times I'll roast sweet potato cubes in balsamic vinegar and use dino kale leaves as a wrap and eat that like a burrito, very portable and VERY tasty.
(Exercise) - 6 pm
Dinner - Lately dinner looks a lot like the salad I had for lunch, but on nights when I don't work out I make a recipe from Brendan Brazier's "Thrive Foods" (aka - my bible)
Night time snack - I will have about 50-60 calories of a high fat snack about 30 minutes before bed. One of my favorite things is to take coconut oil, coconut shavings, lemon juice, lemon zest and sea salt and make macaroons in the food processor. Other times I'll eat a spoon full of almond butter dusted with cinnamon.
Hope that helps. I'm like energizer bunny when I get talking about ways to fuel yourself training for Ironman on a plant based diet. Ask me anything!
@Jon.... Welcome to EN. The plant based athlete is the minority around here with more Paleo koolaid going on. Lots of good stuff in your post lots of it sounds familiar. Love the Ezekial Cereal. Have you tried the Ezekial English muffins ? They are excellent almond butter delivery systems! I also see you are a Kale fiend as I have you tried the "Hail to the Kale" recipe? If you havent I will did up the recipe for you. Tim,
you might want to check out the following websites:
http://www.nomeatathlete.com/
http://happyherbivore.com/