What I Ate

Since I have changed my diet even more, I know there are some questions about what I actually eat (since I don't eat meat, dairy, eggs, cheese, gluten, etc.)

I took photos of everything I ate in a day and thought I would talk to you about it!

I was sleepy this morning and don't like coffee, so I started out with a Zevia, a natural version of soda.  This one has a little caffeine.  It's sweetened with stevia and erythritol, both natural sweeteners.
It's not recommended that anyone consume more than two servings of stevia-sweetened anything per day because we haven't studied it beyond a certain dosage for long enough yet to be sure it's safe.

I am working to wean myself off soda altogether, but when I'm going to have them, I'm happy to have an option that is free of colors, terrible dangerous sweeteners, genetic modifications, and other nasty ingredients.

My breakfast was a bowl of cream of buckwheat (not related to wheat at all and completely gluten-free) with cinnamon, raisins, ground flax seed, and sugar and a bunch of hibiscus tea (also with a little sugar).  If you can have gluten, oatmeal has many healthful properties.

Alternate breakfast (usually only in the summer): smoothie with fruit, spinach, soy milk, flax seeds.

For lunch, I had chopped up and baked sweet potatoes and regular potatoes with ketchup

and a bowl of brown rice with some homemade veggie stew and broccoli on top.

And obviously more tea!

I also sprinkled on some all seasons salt, which is yummy and adds flavor to everything.

Sometimes my blood pressure gets a little too low and I get dizzy and weird, so when that happens, I salt everything for a few days and feel fine again.

I baked the potatoes and sweet potatoes on my baking stones in the oven for about 40 minutes at 450 degrees F.  I won't be able to do that in the summer, so I'll have to figure out another way to get my tubers cooked.  Perhaps I'll cook a bunch of them on the weekend, when our power for electricity (i.e. air conditioning!) is less expensive . . . or perhaps a toaster oven?  Greg suggested using the grill!

Most of my meals involve a starch and some vegetables.

Sometimes I add a fruit (apple, banana, berries, frozen cherry/banana mix).

Alternate lunches I like:

butternut squash soup with an apple

carrots, hummus, veggie soup

Many times for dessert, I will have a spoonful of nut butter dipped into some dairy-free mini chocolate chips.  Yum!

My other favorite dessert is putting slightly frozen bananas in the food processor with a 10 oz bag of some other fruit (I've tried blueberries, cherries, mangoes, strawberries . . . ) and blending it all up with some soy milk if necessary.  It is much better than ice cream and much healthier, too!

I usually put some chocolate chips on top.

It turns out that was only able to eat half the rice/soup mixture at lunchtime, so I put it in the fridge and ate it for dinner.

I added this apple with powdered peanut butter (lower-fat and lower-calorie, also it's mixed with cocoa powder - yay!) and some more sweet potato fries that were left over.

Usually for dinner, I am focused on making Greg's dinner, 

so I like to just throw stuff together for me.

For example:

brown rice + red, yellow, orange peppers + black beans + salsa

or

baked beans as a main dish with a side of salad or soup or bananas with peanut butter

or

Spanish rice (rice with spices and tomatoes) with beans

or

veggie stew or soup

or

risotto (brown short-grain rice cooked in veggie broth with added vegetables and spinach).

There are lots of options and cooking is actually easier since I don't need a plan or a recipe - I can look in the fridge and layer things in a bowl, then decide on a sauce or spice to flavor things if I want more flavor.

Of course, when I have time and desire, it's also fun to experiment.

I have a few new things I'm going to try soon

like sweet and sour carrot & cucumber noodle salad!

I have a few spices and dressings I'm planning to whip up soon, too.

For a snack in the evening, I had carrots with hummus.  This hummus is packaged because I needed something quick, but I plan to experiment with making my own hummus and I'll let you know the results!

So, as you can see, it's all simple food, but tasty and very filling.
It's all what I would call comfort food - lots of starches, lots of flavors.
Not complicated, nothing expensive, no difficult methods or special equipment or strange spices.
No tofu (yet!)

Now you know some of what I've been eating!