What I Ate in one Day
My “What I Ate for Seven Days” post was so popular that I decided to share just another one day of what I ate and boy, was it a winner! Don’t let the myth that vegetables, fruit, and grains will be boring get to you because eating plant-based is nothing of the sort. It actually rocks!! 
I feel so happy knowing I’m giving my body everything it needs while my tastebuds are happy, too. So here we go… but I’m going to talk about beans for a minute because I like to make them part of my diet almost every day.
Beans are an integral parge of a whole-food, plant-based diet. They are in my book and Dr. Joel Furhrman's, as well. He recommends 1/2 cup of beans a day because they’re full of plant protein, fiber, B vitamins, and a fair amount of minerals. They help reduce cholesterol and blood pressure and keep our gut bacteria happy so that’s why I love making a big pot of beans every week. I made a pot on Sunday this week and like to eat at least 1/2 a cup of beans a day as Dr. Fuhrman recommends.
I prefer using my Instant Pot to cook the beans because they cook so quickly but you can make them on the stovetop, as well.
My recipe for Instant Pot Pinto Beans works well for other types of beans, too. I’ve simplified the recipe over the years. This week I used two tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon Vegetable broth with two cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, and about 6 cups of water. If you’ve soaked the pinto beans for at least 6 hours, then about 25 minutes should be enough to make them soft and delicious.
I know there’s quite a bit of salt in the Better Than Bouillon brand, but because it’s spread out over one pound of beans and a lot of water, it’s less than you’d imagine once they’re cooked. For 1/2 cup it’s 126 calories and 130.7 mg of sodium.
I’ve gotten sidetracked on those amazing beans, but let me tell you, this day of eating plant-based was so delicious and full of goodness that you just have to try it. Every meal contains amazing vegetables just ready to keep you healthy and your body running optimally. I’ve linked to a recipe if there is one or written it out here so you can make them, too.
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What I Ate on Sunday
THE QUICK VERSION:
Breakfast: Smoothie
Lunch: Potato-Kale Soup, Tempeh BLT
Snack: banana, canteloupe, unsalted nuts
Dinner: Mushroom Tacos, Pinto Beans
Dessert: Medjool dates with raw walnuts & dark chocolate
Breakfast:
Smoothie: I made mine with the ingredients below, but you can choose from several I have on the “Beverages” page of the site. Scroll down to see the recipe.
Recipe: 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 small Mandarin orange, banana, 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, 3 large leaves romaine lettuce, 1 cup spinach, 1 medium carrot (cut into chunks), 1/3 cup sprouts, 1/4 cup tart cherry juice plus enough water to thin.
Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If you like them a little sweeter, add a little date syrup, maple syrup, or a few drops of Stevia.
Lunch:
Leftover Creamy Potato-Kale Soup. This is one of my favorite soups. The addition of nutritional yeast adds B vitamins and flavor. Plus, I threw in about 3/4 cups of Butler Soy Curls while the soup was cooking and added a little extra water. They are not in the original recipe. Soy Curls come dry and need to be rehydrated so a few minutes in the soup should do the trick.
Soy curls are made with only non-GMO tofu and are a great substitute for chicken in most recipes. Here’s my Vegetable “Chicken” Noodle Soup recipe that uses them, too.
Tempeh BLT on gluten-free toast with vegan mayonnaise. You can, of course, use any bread that you prefer, but hopefully, one that is high in fiber and doesn’t contain added oil. These can be hard to find, but Food for Life’s Ezekiel bread is a good one. Trader Joe’s had something similar, as well.
Snack:
1/2 banana, 1/2 cup cantaloupe, 1-ounce unsalted nuts.
Find the freshest nuts you can. I’ve found the unsalted nuts from Costco to be very fresh but do check your sources. Nuts will smell rancid if they’re old. Nuts have been a controversial subject for people who promote a whole-food, plant-based diet, but I favor what Dr. Joel Fuhrman says about nuts.
Dinner:
2 Mushroom Tacos
Homemade Pinto Beans on the side.
Dessert:
An easy dessert and one of my favorites. A couple of Medjool dates paired with walnuts and dark chocolate.
What's Your Day Eating Plant-Based Look Like?
There you have it. What I ate for a day on a whole-food, plant-based diet.
Share with us what you like to eat on a plant-based diet. What's your favorite breakfast? Or what do you regularly eat for lunch? And, please share your dinner ideas because we can always use inspiration and variety!
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I am LOVING this website! We are really trying to integrate a few days a week of plant-based eating.
Question- What do you fry your corn tortillas in to make your tacos? I only use olive and avocado and coconut oils at the moment. Is there another plant based oil that you recommend for high temp cooking?
Thanks for the feedback, Jen. 💕 Believe it or not, I don’t use any oil for corn tortillas and don’t recommend eating oil, for the most part. Fat is important but we prefer avocado, nuts and seeds, and other whole sources of fat. Some olive oil is probably ok if we can keep it to a minimum. So for my corn tortillas, I put them either in a toaster oven or in a non-stick pan and heat them until they get just a little crispy. We don’t want them to be soft or too tough and chewy so it’s a bit of a balancing act. I have grown to love them this way. In fact, we also make them into tortilla chips that’re crispy for dips by microwaving them after cutting them into triangles. I use a microwavable chip maker. A plate will probably work, too. Some people don’t like using the microwave so the oven works, as well.