Some of you often wonder what a plant based person eats in a day, some of you already eat plant based and wonder like I do, what other plant based people eat. This will be a lighter post than the last couple I have written lately! I hope you enjoy this information and it helps you to create new ideas about what kind of foods will get your taste buds excited and energized while you build a new repertoire of recipes for you and your family.
This recipe is VERY flexible. Use what you’ve got to change it up anytime you create this. Today for breakfast I made a large sauteed tofu scramble that consisted of:
(in order of adding to skillet)
Note: While the onions are cooking, chop 2-3 cloves of garlic (or use your micrograter like I have and let sit for 10 min)
One chopped red onion (allow to cook until soft, then add the mushrooms)
2-3 cups of chopped mushrooms (I used baby bell, and a gourmet mixed bunch, once softer, go ahead and add the rest)
Spices (I used dried today, but fresh is great too. Add to taste, perhaps 1 tsp each): Basil, rosemary, oregano, smoked paprika, chili powder
1 extra firm or firm tofu block (crumble in your hands or chop very small)
1 bell pepper of your choice, chopped
1 tsp of salt (optional)
½ 8 oz bag of Follow Your Heart shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp approx. of ground black salt (makes that “egg” flavor some people like or miss from eating chicken eggs, this is optional as well)
Handful of greens like kale/spinach mix (today I had arugula in the mix too)
Saute until your desired warmth or cheese melty-ness. Serve right away.
Today we ate our scramble with previously roasted russet potatoes sliced and air-fried with a marinade of balsamic vinegar, fresh dill and dried rosemary and dash of salt. Purple potatoes or sweet potatoes are an excellent choice too if you’ve never had them. You can also add sliced avocado like the photo below. This last time I created this dish I put chopped cilantro on top too. Yum!
Of course we had ketchup on hand (I use Annie’s as theirs is gluten free and organic).
For my lunch later, I went less dramatic and had 6-7 celery stalks, unsweetened plain cashew yogurt with frozen mixed berries and my homemade pineapple and chocolate chip bread. My friend’s recipe is here (but I modified the ingredients from the original recipe with blueberries and cranberries. I made his original recipe and it was awesome too): https://www.instagram.com/p/CkD_5k-AOhm/
That bread doesn’t even need butter! It’s really moist and all I do is toast it and chomp it down. I also had a large glass of low sodium V8 juice. I felt totally satisfied until it was time for dinner.
Next for dinner, I took out my package of Beyond Meat “ground” style that makes 4 burgers. Since it’s not exactly the most healthy plant based food, I like to add this extra nutrition to it:
In a big bowl, I place the whole package of Beyond Meat
Add about 2 shredded carrots, about ⅓ shredded zucchini, 2 chopped green onions and about 1 tsp of onion & garlic powders and dried rosemary.
Mix it really well. If you added about a cup or two of uncooked oatmeal plus a flax seed egg you could actually make a meatloaf out of this.
Anyway, just form four patties and put them in your air fryer for about nine minutes at 375/390 degrees. I add vegan sliced cheese on top of my daughter’s burger and let it sit in the air fryer for about 5-10 min to let the cheese melt.
They are super delicious. We don’t eat them all the time, but they do make a tasty dinner when I don’t feel like being a total purist as far as eating only super healthy plant based foods.
Then I decided to make chocolate chip cookies tonight for the finale. I used King Arthur’s 1:1 gluten free flour blend and the conveniently provided recipe on the back for the chocolate chip cookies that have brown sugar and other yumminess in it. I do not usually buy brown sugar but I do have raw cane sugar and molasses. The way to make brown sugar is simply to add about a tablespoon of molasses to a cup of raw or white sugar. Voilà! Brown sugar. I usually add a tad more molasses since it has so much iron in it.
Since I already ate a few cookies raw (no egg to worry about salmonella!), I will let my little one have her cookies and we shall have our usual evening herbal tea.
In case I have a challenging time going to sleep because of the sugar and chocolate that I just ate, I am going to provide us all here with a lovely guided meditation text for you to either read to yourself or read aloud to whomever needs to be guided to sleep or calmness.
I dreamed that I needed to do this a couple months ago.
Read it slowly and you can even record it for yourself when you need an extra dose of calm words for your day.
A Dreamy Desert Walk
Good day to you, my friend.
The day welcomes you and it is happy that you have chosen to walk through the desert so that you may have a chance to honor your body, your mind and your heart.
You slowly breathe in and you breathe slowly out
First with your mouth
Capture the scent of the air as you breathe in through your nose ever so slowly.
You smell the plants in the cool air and know that you will be walking near them soon
Yesterday it rained here
The smell of the soil from the desert floor, the creosote, the purple sage that lingers
There is so much to discover on your walk
You feel secure, safe, connected to the Earth
The possibilities of seeing luscious plants that
You’ve never seen before
You can’t wait to brush your fingers along the leaves of
Verbena, sage, desert willow
You feel in alignment with your higher self
As you step one foot forward towards the head of the trail
It is a good day
It is a good day to walk with your higher self
They are always with you, speaking to you quietly from beyond your present experience
It is wonderful to allow the possibility of them to be heard today
Perhaps today as you embrace the newly watered desert
You may integrate some thoughts
That have lingered on your mind for a while
And allow these thoughts to gently percolate in the background
As you are pleasantly surprised by the wonder you find
In the natural setting of the desert path before you
Slowly continue to take steps forward
Into the wilderness of the place you thought was dry and without life
As you move through the cool slightly damp air
You observe a grey and black bird with a curious bouncy tail looking your way
And you look over to the bird to acknowledge his presence
You smile softly at him
And nod
Continue slowly down the path which begins to turn to the left
As you step forwards
You feel the coolness kiss your cheeks
You feel appreciated and visible
As you step small pebbles crunch a little
Small beetles scamper off the trail into the wild grass that
Lies low and grows quietly amidst the larger woody bushes
The bushes have grayish green leaves, small and soft to the touch
The scent of sage fills your nose and you remember their name
A lizard moves his head quickly in your direction
You see him out of the corner of your eye to the left
Holding his attention for just a moment
You appreciate his glance and wish that
You could study his skin a bit longer
Continue down the path as it turns and see a large boulder set off to the side
Where you can rest for a few moments to soak in the large trees that line the trail
There appears to be dark and cavernous areas under the twisted robust ironwood trees
You wonder in your mind what kind of creatures could be making their home here
The boulder you sit upon is large enough to lay back
So that you can look at the clear cloudless sky
Taking a moment to breathe deeply, you feel the sunshine on your face and arms
Breathe in slowly
Breath out slowly
Sitting up again, you decide to move forward on to the trail
Surprised, you see the top of the trail where you can see the whole horizon
The mountain trail where you meandered back and forth
And the other side of the mountain where you can discover
Another day
Nourishing yourself with water and food
You feel complete and more whole than you thought
You could be today
As you look around your heart feels expansive love and joy
For everything around you
Passing many milestones you saw on the way up
You see them differently now
You are pleasantly surprised at how the journey felt
It wasn’t as hard as you thought it to be
Accepting whatever came your way
The beauty of the world that you passed through today
You feel big
And small at the same time
Seeing the entrance to the trail ahead
You feel the importance of what you felt and saw
On your journey
You may now put together many new images in your heart
Knowing that you are and have always been
Complete
Namaste, my friends
