What I Eat In A Day (Vegan Pregnancy Edition)

I'm sure everyone is wondering one of those age old questions we vegans get frequently, "But where do you get your protein??" And in answer, pre-pregnancy, that wasn't a concern at all. My midwife told me that pregnant women need 75-100 grams of protein everyday, though, and no lie, that was scary to me. The high end of that is almost double my normal protein intake. Luckily, she said getting 75 grams a day is fine, so that has been my goal. I have since taken a week to track my protein intake, and it actually hasn't been as daunting as I thought it would be!

I tracked from January 18-25, and my numbers were 85g, 75g, 91.5g, 83g, 77g, 77g, 75g, and 98g. So I'm averaging about 82.5 grams a day. On to a million food pics to explain how I did it!

Breakfast
For breakfast, I usually have this smoothie: one cup of soy milk (8g), one banana (1g), two tablespoons of peanut butter (7g), sevenish frozen strawberries (0g), and one scoop of protein powder (20g). Sometimes I'll also add in flax or chia seeds which can add another 3-5g, but normally, this smoothie has me at 36g of protein! If I want a hot breakfast instead, I'll do oatmeal: 3/4 a cup of oats (7g), a cup of soy milk (8g), two tablespoons of peanut butter (7g), two tablespoons of whole flax seed (4g), and two tablespoons of chocolate chips (2g). Plus a banana which has 1g. That gives me 29g. One thing to look out for if you are going to be using a protein powder is if you are also taking a prenatal vitamin, you need to pick a protein with very little vitamin A. You don't want to get too much as it causes birth defects.

36g

29g

Yay, no vitamin A!

I've tried chocolate and vanilla. They're both fantastic.

 Lunch/Dinner
I pretty much do the same types of meals for lunch and dinner. Almost always I have a home cooked meal/leftovers for one and then a fake meat meal for the other. I didn't really crave fake meats much pre-pregnancy, but I have definitely been craving them a lot now which is what really helps me meet my protein goals. If you follow me on Instagram, these may look familiar. For the nachos: chips (8g), Minimalist Baker's queso (7g), black beans (10g), sauteed green bell peppers and red onions (2g), guacamole (.5g), and salsa (1.5g). For eggplant marinara: pasta (16g), marinara sauce (4g), beefy crumbles (13g), eggplant (1g), and green beans (1g). For cheesy pasta: pasta (16g), soy milk (2g), and nooch (8g). I have also made this pasta with Gardein chick'n strips which would add another 14g. I love the Boca burgers. I eat two at a time. My favorite way to eat them is with Just Mayo, ketchup, mustard (I know, I love condiments), spinach, bread and butter pickles, tomatoes, red onion, and avocado. For the burgers: patties (26g), buns (8g), and all the toppings (2g). Lastly, something I love to get as a treat is those Gardein pizza pockets. I eat two at a time so it's not the cheapest, but they are so delicious! Only 18g of protein for two, though.

30g

35g

26g

14g

18g

36g

Snacks
When it comes to snacking, I didn't really start being hungry enough to snack until this week. I really love sweets. It's kind of a problem. But I try to limit all my fruit intake to breakfast since I'm only supposed to be having 1-2 servings of fruit through this pregnancy. Instead, I try to make different snacks like cinnamon toast (6g), or I'll eat a bagel (8g) or bowl of cereal: two cups of cereal (12g), one cup of soy milk (8g). For the cinnamon toast and the bagel, if I know I've had a low protein day, I'll beef them up a little by adding peanut butter which adds 7g making them 13g and 15g respectively. Occasionally, I'll snack on chips and salsa (5g) or hummus and crackers/veggies (5-8g). (Neither of those are pictured)

6g as pictured

8g as pictured

20g

And that's that! Some days I do better than others, but so long as I'm averaging where I need to be, I'm not worried. What are your favorite go-to snacks? Any one else tackled a tricky diet through pregnancy? Any other vegans out there got some yummy recommendations?

Our First and Last Huzzah!

At our apartment complex we have access to a pool, a sand volleyball court, several BBQ pits, and lots of picnic tables. So of course we have to host a huge cookout with all our friends at least once before we move and lose access to all that free stuff.

I happen to be the only vegan I know. No one is even a vegetarian or pescatarian or gluten intolerant or anything. Just me. Which means that of course there will be some vegan burger options for me, but there will be an overwhelming amount of meat. I have almost completely forgotten how to prepare anything other than chicken tenders for Husband. Absolutely take this as a cry for help (read: please post links to meat-eating bloggers so I'll be able to make something decent).

I like to think of myself as somewhat social so I know I'll be getting a few of my friends and their husbands and children to come. However, Husband is not as social. Other than the guys who came to Thanksgiving last year, I don't know any of the guys he talks about. Some of them have gotten married, but a lot of them are single, barracks guys. It's going to be an interesting mix that's for sure.

What are some of your favorite ways to enjoy the summer? Who all is a queen hostess and has tips for me? Any food or beverage suggestions?

Round Up: Weddings, Romance, and Love

The Pro Bloggers Tribe is pulling out another round-up with some of our friends! This week is one of my all time favorite topics so I couldn't help but host it myself! From wedding food to romantic love to celebrating Mother's Day with those special women, we have a little bit of everything to get that sentiment flowing. And don't forget to enter into the giveaway! Enjoy!

Weddings

4 Nontraditional Wedding Dresses

Doing Allergy Friendly Wedding Food The Right Way

Marrying Young

Pre-Marriage Rituals: Part One

Wedding Planning 101: Let's Get Organized! (With Free Printable!)

Romance

13 Ways To Know If He's A Keeper

3 Valentine's Day Date Ideas

Couple's Christmas To-Do List

Love

A Rose, is a rose, is a rose.

How I Survived My First Year Of Marriage

Love Yourself! :)

One Simple Tip to Make Mother's Day Meaningful

Red Velvet Cookie Recipe

Bonus!

Why You Will Love Frankincense the Gift of the Magi

Vegan Ice Cream Blueberry Muffins

I just want to start by saying that Pinterest is amazing, and I would run out of things to cook without it. Pinterest and Thug Kitchen are my staple cookbooks. However, I actually found this recipe on Twitter from BuzzFeed Food. The original recipe is by Christine Byrne I believe, and thankfully it was pretty simple to make it vegan. I just had to swap out dairy ice cream for non-dairy and voila!

The muffins themselves are delicious without being overly sweet so I'm sure you could use the muffin batter as a base for several different flavors of muffins, but Husband is suddenly on a blueberry kick so I thought I'd humor him. That was a bad idea. I didn't even think to taste a blueberry before I threw them all in there, and mine were quite sour unfortunately. But one thing I absolutely loved about this is the ice cream made the batter a little more on the sticky side which prevented the blueberries from all sinking to the bottom.

I used Luna and Larry's Organic Coconut Bliss Vanilla Island ice cream. Why? Because it was new at the store so I figured it must be good. I honestly still haven't even tasted the ice cream. I just melted it into these muffins and called it a day. At least this lack of a taste test didn't end terribly like with the blueberries, and I have a second pint in my freezer waiting for me.

I have no idea how Christine fit an entire pint of blueberries into the batter. Mine got pretty well full with just 6 ounces. And with these muffins only requiring four ingredients, getting the balance right seemed pretty important (in hindsight I should have added some sugar to help cancel out the sour blueberries, but generally you wouldn't need that fifth ingredient).

I took the liberty of putting the muffins in my cupcake liners because I had them and wanted to use them finally so we add a very spring-themed breakfast with the pastel pink, green, and yellow. Since the blueberry juice stained my fingers, I was pretty grateful for that little barrier.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 6-oz container of blueberries
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 375° F and melt your ice cream in the microwave (or you could leave it on your counter for a few hours or the fridge for a day).
2. Add the flour and baking powder to a medium-sized mixing bowl and stir/whisk until evenly distributed.
3. Add the melted ice cream and stir. You will end up with a shiny, smooth batter.
4. Stir in the blueberries.
5. Prepare your muffin tin with either cooking spray or cupcake liners.
6. Evenly distribute the batter to all 12 slots, and make sure there's a blueberry in each one.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the muffins are slightly golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean. The blueberries will be leaking juice so poke with care.
8. Allow them to cool before eating. The blueberry juice is incredibly hot and will burn your mouth.

Just warning you all, I am not very creative. I have never once managed to create a new recipe that actually tasted good, but I can tweak existing ones! So if anyone has any old favorites and wants to give me a challenge, go ahead and comment those recipes! We'll have more regular food posts if this is something the majority enjoys.

Vegan in a House Full of Omnivores? No Problem!

I am what is called a dietary vegan which means I maintain a vegan diet solely for the health benefits. I still have quite a few cheat foods (chocolate mostly). Does that mean I don't care about animals at all? No, fair and healthful treatment of what we are to be eating is extremely important. I just don't see that happening anytime soon, but that's an entire post of its own.

My husband doesn't cook, rather he CAN'T cook. Without me he'd live off ramen and fast food his whole life and never reach his workout goals. The tricky thing is he isn't vegan. Neither is our roommate. So what do I do? Easy. I make whatever vegan foods I want and make an easy chicken dish for the boys.

On Monday I had been craving this super delicious Cuban black bean soup so I decided to have a Cuban night. I Googled a couple other Cuban recipes so we'd be eating more than just soup, tweaked them according to what ingredients I actually had, and voila!

The soup is a recipe from my very first vegan cookbook Eat Vegan on $4 a Day so no tweaking there. The chicken recipe I got off Food.com and fourthed it since it was calling for 2 whole chickens. The green beans were also from Food.com, and I left the bacon out to keep them vegan as well so I'd have two food options, and the boys would have three. It was all delicious!!

So that's how I get around my picky eaters. Does anyone else have dietary restrictions to juggle while cooking for others? Anyone else have trouble getting someone to eat their vegetables?