Friday, January 9, 2015

So What Exactly Do I Eat?

When people here that I am a vegan (no patience to explain what WFPB is), people immediately ask two questions, in no particular order. The first being, where do you get your protein?? And the second being, so what the heck do you eat?
I try to explain to people that this way of eating has plenty of delicious food to offer: all fruits, vegetables, legumes (including all soy products), grains, nuts and seeds. While that sounds limiting, I can assure you that it is anything but. 

Granted, I am a very simple eater. My sister says that I can eat the same thing every single day and never get bored. She happens to be right and that is pretty much what my days look like. 

Breakfast is always a bowl of oats with berries, cinnamon and chia seeds. I keep a bowl at work along with my bag of oatmeal, a canister of chia seeds and a bottle of cinnamon. I gotta say, I love starting the day this way and my coworkers who see my colorful morning bowl are a bit envious, I'd say. Here in Israel, berries (except strawberries which are right now in season, although still pretty pricey) are very hard to come by and cost about an arm and a leg. My sister introduced me to a small business that sells two kilo bags of frozen fruit. And that, my friends, is my monthly splurge-- one bag of blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries if they are available. They last me about the month and I always look forward to restocking lest I go one day without my daily berry antioxidant boost. Frankly, they are just yummy. 

Lunch is usually a salad of vegetables (that come in my organic CSA box- more on that soon) and baked potatoes. My office has a tiny kitchenette with a microwave which allows me to chop my salad and microwave the potatoes. My salad will always have pepper, tomato and cucumber. I try where I can to put cherry tomatoes instead of regular because the flavor is just not comparable. These days I've been adding corn and carrots and when I remember there will also be sprouted chickpeas or lentils. If I was lucky to get sweet potatoes in the box I'll have sweet potatoes with or instead of regular potatoes. I always make sure to eat the salad first so that I don't get stuffed by the potatoes. That said, potatoes are definitely the best part and my dessert-- this coming from a person who likes vegetables. But I like potatoes more :) 

About the CSA box. Since August, I've been getting a weekly delivery of organic vegetables. Each week, I get an email about which vegetables will be in the basket and then I can adjust it as I see fit. I have loved getting this delivery every single week and looked forward to filling out the form every Friday. However, recently I've felt that it no longer fits into my budget and that there is a lot that goes to waste, as I am only one person. I've decided to cancel it for now and be wiser about meal planning and only buying what I need. That includes preparing beans from scratch instead of buying the expensive prepared cans. Hopefully, I will be able to be less wasteful and save a lot of money in the process. This blog will hopefully be a diary for me to keep on track of my meal plans and shopping; a journal of sorts. Which brings me to dinner.

Dinner is the only variable. Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just make some rice and a can of beans but lately I've decided to make use of all the WFPB cookbooks I've bought and to cook from them. Most of the time, one recipe (maximum two) will get me through the whole week because I'm one person and don't mind leftovers. I figure I'll cook with one cookbook a month so that I can try some recipes, get some variety in my meals and review the books in the process. For the month of January, I'm cooking with my brand new copy of Thug Kitchen and so far really enjoying it. More on that in later posts.

Stay warm, wherever you are!

No comments:

Post a Comment