This is probably the first time I'll be properly sharing some recipes for the meals I eat just about every day. As I'm sure you, and just about every who's ever met me knows, I've been vegetarian (and intermittently vegan) for the past several years. I love cooking and eating healthy, but have kept my recipes personal. Recently however, myself and others have watched The Game Changers on Netflix, a brilliant documentary citing the benefits of whole foods plant-based diet with minimally processed ingredients. In fact Marcus has voluntarily decided to try a plant-based diet, and so to help him along I created a little recipe book with the meals I love. Then I thought that I could also share it here! There's an assortment of breakfast and lunch meals (I'll leave dinner recipes as a separate post), all meat-free but some with a dairy. The recipes are rough, but it really is about how much you eat and what you do/don't like.
BREAKFAST
Banana on Peanut Butter Toast
Ingredients
2 slices of wholemeal/wholegrain bread, toasted
1 large banana
1 -2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp chia seeds
Method
Just toast the bread, slather on peanut butter and add chopped banana on top. Sprinkle with chia seeds. The wholemeal /wholegrain bread provides protein, along with the peanut butter whilst the banana provides you with some natural sugars and potassium. The chia seeds and peanut butter offer some healthy fats, such as omega-3, to start your day.
Loaded Oats
I think I eat this just about every single morning, when I have the time.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of oats
- 1 cup of water
- Sprinkle of chia, hemp & pumpkin seeds
- 1 small banana
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Maple syrup (optional)
Method
Place the oats in a pot, add the water. Put on medium heat. Mix in 1 tsp of chia seeds, add
cinnamon to taste. Keep an eye on the consistency of the porridge. Once the oats thicken and become soft, take off the heat put in a bowl. Top with slices of the banana, all the seeds (approx. 1 tsp of each) and more cinnamon. You can drizzle on maple syrup as well if you feel like it. Plant milk, instead of water such as coconut milk or cream can be added if you want the oats to be creamier. This you can alternative with the toppings a lot. Sometimes I add a tbsp of peanut butter, or choc chips or berries.
Breakfast Burrito
Ingredients
- 1/4 can of black beans
- 2 cups spinach
- 1/4 an avocado
- 100g of firm tofu
- Turmeric + paprika
- 1/2 onion, 1 clove of garlic
- 1/4 cup Brown rice
- 1/2 tsp Olive oil
- 1 wholemeal tortilla wrap
Method
1) Sauté 1/4 of a diced onion in olive oil in a pot. Once it is browned, add 1/2 cup of rice with two cups of water to boil. Cook for about 20 minutes or until rice is soft. You can leave it to cook while you do the rest of the recipe.
2) In a saucepan, add olive oil, the other half the onion (diced) and crumble the firm tofu. Add salt, pepper, paprika and some turmeric. Cook until it all starts to brown, then take off the heat.
3) Put your desired amount of black beans in a bowl and heat up in the microwave.
4) Slice the tomato and avocado.
5) Heat up the tortilla wrap in the microwave.
6) Compile your burrito! Add the rice, then the beans. Then put the tofu, spinach and diced tomato. You can put salsa on top if you want, and vegan or normal cheese. Wrap it all up and voila. Vegan breakfast burrito. This is fun to play with as there are a lot of options for fillings.
LUNCH
Soph’s Buddha Bowl
Ingredients (these can be alternated with)
- 1/2 can refried beans
- 3 falafels
- 2 tbsp Hummus
- 1/4 Avocado
- 1/2 cup brown rice
- Lots of cos lettuce
- 1 cup of frozen cauliflower & broccoli
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 can of beetroot
- 1 tsp hemp & pumpkin seeds
- Several cherry tomatoes
- 1/8 of a sweet potato
- 1/4 cup greek yogurt (optional)
- Garlic & lemon juice (optional)
- 1/4 cucumber (optional)
For the tzatziki: Grate the cucumber, mix with greek yogurt. Add minced garlic, lemon
juice + salt & pepper.
For the sweet potato: Can either roast it in the oven diced, boil it when it’s cubed or slice it into thin slices and fry on the frypan. Make sure it’s ready by testing softness with a knife. Should be able to cut easily.
Reheating: reheat refried beans in a pot on a low heat or in the microwave. Heat up falafels in microwave. Boil frozen broccoli and cauliflower for 5 minutes.
Method
1) Add cooked brown rice first in a bowl
2) Add shredded cos lettuce.
3) Add cauliflower, broccoli, diced tomatoes, shredded carrot, sliced avocado, the canned
beetroot and the cooked sweet potato.
4) Then add the reheated refried beans and falafel.
5) Add tzatziki and hummus.
6) Add hemp and pumpkin seeds.
This meal will have a lot of protein (from the beans, hummus, falafel and greek yogurt), heaps of fibre and healthy fats!
Soph’s Best Dahl Ever
Link to the recipe can be found here.
Greens & Protein Smoothie
You might be sceptical at first but this is my go-to smoothie recipe. It's so good.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp chia seeds, hemp seeds
- 3 cups spinach
- 1 tbsp peanut butter (optional)
- 2 or 3 dried dates
- 1/2 chopped Kiwi fruit (optional)
- 1/4 cup frozen mango
- 1/2 chopped Granny Smith apple
- 1 scoop vegan protein powder (vanilla flavoured)
- 150 mL coconut water or almond milk
- 1 sliced frozen banana
(add in your preferred ratio, make sure everything fits)
Method
1) Add everything together, minus the liquids.
2) Then fill the container with as much coconut water/plant milk as necessary to make sure the smoothie doesn’t get too thick/break the blender.
3) Blend!
4) Enjoy.
This recipe is really about modifying how you like the taste. I’m not a huge sweet tooth,
but if it is a little bit bitter/bland for you, you can add maple syrup to sweeten it.
For more ideas, information and recipes, check out these websites:
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