A Week in the Life of a (Un)Typical Vegan

My delectable friend Peppermint sent me an email last week that went a little something like this:

oh, i had this idea for your vegan blog. i'm curious to what you eat everyday. like, have you ever tracked your meals and snacks for a week? Even if you think that's boring, I find it interesting, esp wanting to see how a *real person* who eats healthfully eats for a week. I periodically track my foods each day at dailyplate.com and it's enlightening to me--not often in good ways.

And since I'd thought about posting on this topic once before, but never actually got around to it, I figured her interest would be incentive enough. So here you go, Ms. P...

This past week was a fairly atypical week, mostly because I had to make concessions in my daily eating-routine due to my lack of car. The breaks in the norm are this: I usually eat a granola bar for B-fast on work-days (Tuesday through Friday)--unfortunately I didn't notice until Tuesday morning that I was out. I usually also have a beer at least two or three times during the work-week, more than that on the weekend (typically no more than one on a weeknight though, unless I'm going out).

You can probably tell, however, that part of my typical routine is that on Sundays, I whip up both a lunch (which in the winter typically consists of soup, in the summer: salads) and a dinner for the week. I get home late enough from work during the week, and am typically hungry enough, that I don't have the patience to cook right then. So reheating food cooked on Sunday satisfies my need to eat IMMEDIATELY.

Also: in case you couldn't tell: I love bagels. I also love bread, but this past week's food-list looks rather underwhelming on the bread-front because I never picked up any on the weekend when I had access to a car.

I also have a Frito-disease that causes me to inexplicably crave and eat Frito's at work when I am PMSing. Thankfully last week I managed to avoid their Evilly Oily Grasp.

Bad things: I am not a big fruit-eater, especially in the winter. I drink plenty of water during the week (at least one to two 34-oz water-bottle's worth) when I'm at work and my nalgene-wannabe-bottle is taunting me. But on the weekends, I don't drink nearly enough.

Neutral things: I also don't keep track of whether or not I'm getting my "rounded food-groups." I assume that, minus my penchant for the occasional sweets, my lunches and dinners are varied enough and incidentally well-rounded enough (and unprocessed, fresh, and veggie-packed enough) that I satisfy most of my daily nutritional requirements. I also take Vegan One Multiple vitamins by VegLife, typically three to four times a week (when I'm not feeling intimidated by them--I choked on one recently and traumatized myself, because I am an asshat like that).

Good things: I am awesome.
Also, as you can see, I tend not to eat too much on the processed-food-front (not counting granola bars and the occasional evil evil Fritos). And yes, I drink coffee every day. And yes, I'm listing it under a good thing. I don't typically overdrink (as far as I can tell), and after reading an article in either Veg Times or VegNews (I can't remember which and can't seem to be able to track it down to link to here) extolling the numerous health benefits that come from drinking a daily mug o' joe, I consider it a good thing. In moderation. Yo mama.



SUNDAY

B-fast:


• A bagel (with margarine and 1/2 half with pb)


• Coffee


• Sex


Lunch (at Webb of Life):


• Buffalo Tofu


• BBQ Chicken Pizza


Dinner (still full from lunch):


• Leftover Pizza


• Three tacos (consisting of a TVP/black-bean filling with lettuce and Ortega Taco Sauce)


Snacks:


• A chewy choc-raspberry cookie sammich


• Quickie


• A square from a vegan choc-truffle bar

MONDAY (all-day classes)

B-fast:


• A bagel (with margarine and 1/2 half with pb)


• Coffee


Lunch:


• Bowl of Tomato-Rice Soup from Veganomicon w/ slice of bread


• A Peppermint-Lisa-licious cupcake


Dinner:


• Three tacos (see Sunday)


• Sex


Snack:


• Cupcake (damn you, Peppermint)


• A chewy choc-raspberry cookie sammich


• A square from my vegan choc-truffle bar

TUESDAY

B-fast:


• Maple-Brown Sugar Granola Bar


• Coffee


Snack:


• Apple-cinnamon rice cakes


• Quickie


Lunch:


• Bowl of tomato-rice soup


Snack:


• Apple-cinnamon rice cakes


• Quickie


• 1/2 a chewy choc-raspberry cookie sammich (must get rid of these!)


Dinner:


• Eggplant-chickpea stew-conversion, adapted from Veganomicon (recipe forthcoming this week)


• Garlic toast


Snack:


• Other half of 1/2 chewy choc-raspberry cookie sammich


• A couple squares from my vegan choc-truffle bar

WEDNESDAY

B-fast:


• Quickie


• Oatmeal with brown sugar


• Coffee


• Sex


Lunch:


• Tomato-rice soup


Dinner:


• Eggplant-chickpea stew-pasta


• Bagel (1/2 butter, 1/2 pb)


Snack:


• A chewy choc-raspberry cookie sammich


• 1 square of choc truffle-bar

THURSDAY

B-fast:


• Coffee


• Bagel (1/2 butter, 1/2 pb)


Lunch:


• Tomato-rice soup


Dinner:


• Eggplant-chickpea stew-pasta


• 69


Snacks:


• 2 pieces of chocolate


• Leftover Red Hot Mama


• 2 tacos (see Sunday desc.)

FRIDAY

B-fast:


• Coffee


• Bagel (1/2 marg, 1/2 pb)


• Quickie


Lunch:


• Eggplant-chickpea stew-pasta


• Quickie


Snacks:


• Leftover Red Hot Mama


• Piece of chocolate


• 2 tacos (see Sunday desc.)


• Quickie


Dinner (at Pacific East):


• Field greens salad w/ ginger dressing


• Avocado sushi roll


• Sweet potato sushi roll


• Inari sushi


• Sake


• 1 beer


• Quickie (Thanks, Peppermint!)

SATURDAY

B-fast:


• Coffee


• Bagel (1/2 marg, 1/2 pb)


• Sex


Lunch:


• Last bit of ggplant-chickpea stew-pasta


• Sex


Snack:


• 1/2 chocolate-raspberry bar


• PBJ sandwich


• Sex


Dinner:


• Stirfry (tofu, broccoli, peanuts, onions in a General Tso's sauce over angel hair pasta)


• Sex


Snack:


• Sex


• Two beers