What I Ate Wednesday

Hey loves! So I’ve gotten a few messages asking if I could do more ‘What I Ate’ type posts and I’m happy to do them! My last post of this type was about a month ago – I’m thinking they will become a weekly trend again 🙂

As you probably know, I eat a plant based whole foods vegan diet and have been for over a year now. I avoid processed foods as much as possible and minimize oils (at least when I’m cooking at home) while being mindful about my fat intake; I don’t keep track of specifics and I definitely don’t count calories… I would rather not stress about the numbers and prefer to listen to my body instead. This way works best for me but you may prefer to monitor your food intake a different way – there’s no wrong way to do it, we’re all trying to find our own path, right? 🙂 the less restrictive and less stressful, the better. Not saying that it’s acceptable to eat vegan cupcakes all day long (!!) but it’s supposed to be a sustainable lifestyle for the long-term, so getting caught up in specifics isn’t worth the time or worry, in my opinion.

On that note, let’s get started with what I ate for breakfast. After sipping on 32 ounces of filtered water with the juice from 1/2 of a lemon, I made this super yummy Purple Power Smoothie which filled two of these glasses. This smoothie contains 2 heaping cups of spinach, 2 bananas, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 of a frozen pitaya pack, which I buy online from here, 1 teaspoon maca powder (buy here), saigon cinnamon (buy here) and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Yum!

For lunch I was craving a crunchy salad. I call this the ‘Whatever You Have on Hand’ salad where I just throw a bunch of veggies and goodness together using whatever happens to be in the fridge 🙂 so it’s made with romaine, spinach, broccoli, tomato, avocado, cucumber, red onion, green olives, and a tablespoon of raw sunflower seeds, plus fresh lemon juice and balsamic vinegar as a dressing. I love these types of colorful salads!

I’m staying at my parents house which means my favorite thing – cooking with my mom again! We have to create meals that my brother and dad will like so we made this oil-free veggie pasta using fresh veggies from my mom’s garden. First we saut?ed zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and garlic in vegetable broth, then added pasta sauce and simmered that for about 20 minutes. It turned out super yummy over some whole grain spaghetti. I also had a glass of red wine too 😉