It’s been more than a year since I shared what I eat in a week as a vegan, in March 2023. I also shared food diaries in 2022, 2019 and 2018. I think it’s important to share what I eat as a vegan, since many people have no clue what vegans eat. And I personally love to see how my diet evolves. Right now, I think I am doing a good job at eating vegan: I had my bloodwork checked last year and it looked great (more about that another time). So this post might give some inspiration to others. Also, I think my situation and food pattern has changed a lot when I compare it to the 2023 edition. And so, I think it’s fun to share it again and evaluate. Here’s what I eat in a week as a vegan – the 2024 edition.
The goal from last year and my eating pattern
When I evaluated my last vegan food diary, I said I was content but had one goal: to eat more fruit. I think I ate about 2 to 3 servings of fruit a day that period. Right now, I aim for at least 4 and I manage to do so at least 5 times a week. I also eat less meat replacements and more tofu and tempeh (which are whole-foods). I try to maintain the daily dozen by Micheal Greger (if you read the post I wrote about his book, you can see exactly what the daily dozen is). It’s a plan based on eating more, instead of eating less, which I love. At least 4 servings of fruit, at least 3 servings of beans, etc. It works really for me because I first focus on eating everything on the list, to make sure I eat all the vitamins and minerals I need.
My current situation
I do want to share a bit more about my current situation, as I feel it will make you understand my food diary a lot better. First is: I currently live with my in-laws (read more about that in one of my latest life updates). Consequently, I don’t have much say over what I eat for dinner every day. I do groceries myself every week, but that’s more for lunch and snacks. My in-laws and boyfriend usually decide what we eat for dinner, as I am home very little. For dinner I do make sure there’s always, tofu, tempeh or beans in the house, so that I can eat any of those to get my daily servings of beans.
While I live with my in-laws, I eat a lot of pre-made salads. I hate the waste, but I don’t want to mess with their kitchen too much. I’ll make my own salads when I’ll have my own place. Furthermore, I work 36 hours a week and commute about 13,5 hours a week. I am 25 years old, I am 158 cm long, weigh about 62 kilos (I never weigh myself because I feel like it’s not necessary, but I did so for this blogpost) and exercise 3 times a week. Right now, I do intermitting fasting because I feel it makes me have a stable eating pattern. I take 3 sorts of vitamins, B12, D and Omega 3. Most drinks are not included in this diary because I only drink water on most days. When I don’t, I listed it in the diary.
Everything in this diary is vegan
Note: everything in this diary is vegan. So when I say something like cheese or burgers, they’re also vegan. Don’t be confused by any names. Also: the pictures get less by the day, I only took pictures of the new things I ate that day. If I would put in a photo of a brazil nut every day, that would be a bit boring.
Monday
11:30: one banana, one brazil nut and 30 grams of unsalted cashew nuts.
12:00: one apple, one pear, 100 grams of blackberries, a mango almond salad (from the brand Terra from Albert Heijn), a corn waffle, a rice waffle, a hand-full of snack-sized tomatoes and two whole-wheat slices of bread with filet americain, rucola, cucumber and green radish germs on them.
17:15: one yellow paprika, a hand-full of some snack-sized tomatoes and about 100 grams of carrots.
20:15: one vitamin D pill, one Omega 3 pill and one vitamin B12 pill, one plate of spaghetti with red sauce, vegetables and vegan minced meat, two pickles and one can of white beans in tomato sauce.
Tuesday
11:45: one banana, one brazil nut and 30 grams of unsalted cashew nuts.
12:00: one apple, one pear, 100 grams of blackberries, a chickpea mint salad (from the brand Terra from Albert Heijn), a corn waffle and a rice waffle.
15:30: a slice of vegan butter cake (I had an event and work and the catering was vegan, this cake was heaven, but I forgot to take a photo).
16:30: a diet coke.
18:45: a hand-full of snack-sized tomatoes and two whole-wheat slices of bread with filet americain, cucumber, rucola and green radish germs on them.
21:15: one vitamin D pill, one vitamin Omega 3 pill, a plate of yellow rice, marinated tempeh and some sort of sauce with mushrooms, carrots, red cabbage and onion.
(I had also brought about 400 grams of green beans with me to work, which I forgot to eat and so unfortunately will be thrown away since I won’t be at the office for the rest of the week).
Wednesday
12:30: one banana, one apple, one peach and about 100 grams of white grapes. One white sandwich with tapenade hummus, cucumber, leek germs and rucola, a vitamin D pill and a vitamin Omega 3 pill.
15:30: one guacamole black beans salad (from the brand Terra from Albert Heijn), a bag of chips from the Organic Crave and one glass of lemonade.
19:30: cucumber maki’s, avocado maki’s, seaweed salad and some sour cucumber. I went to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant with my boyfriend today and there were only 4 vegan options on the menu, the ones I just listed. I ate a lot of all four. Also, I had a diet coke and a cassis. As I desert I ate a few slices of pineapple.
Thursday
12:30: a white sandwich with hummus, some vegetables, lettuce and cucumber and two small wraps with the same ingredients. (I was on a different location than the office today since I had a training, they took care of this lunch. I forgot to take a photo, so I took a picture afterwards from the other wraps with meat in them, to give you an indication of the size of the wraps).
15:00: a diet coke.
16:30: a banana, 30 grams of walnuts and one paranut.
18:15: a mango almond salad (from the brand Terra from Albert Heijn)
19:30: a plate with white rice, eggplant curry sauce, tofu and naan bread, one peach, one vitamin D pill, one vitamin B12 pill and one Omega 3 pill.
21:03: a bag of The Organic Crave chips.
Friday
12:00: one banana, an apple, one peach, about 100 grams of strawberries, a quinoa nut salad (from the brand Terra from Albert Heijn, a corn waffle with muhammara-spread, leek germs and rucola, a rice waffle with muhammara-spread, leek germs and rucola, two slices of whole-wheat bread with a vegetable curry-spread, leek germs and rucola, 30 grams of walnuts, one paranut, one Omega 3 pill and one vitamin D pill.
16:30: an ‘appelflap’ (a Dutch pastry with apple).
17:30: a ‘frikandelbroodje’ (a Dutch baked sandwich with fake meat, sauce and puff pastry).
17:50: one Radler drink.
19:30: a baked sweet potato dish as a starter and a pearl couscous bowl with all kinds of vegetables and chickpeas as a main (I ate at a restaurant).
Saturday
12:15: a banana, an apple, one peach, about 100 grams of strawberries, a slice of whole-wheat bread with peanut butter, sambal and cucumber, a slice of bread with muhammara-spread, cucumber and rucola, a vitamin D pill and an Omega 3 pill.
16:30: a glass of ice-tea.
17:15: three ‘bitterballen’ (A Dutch fried snack, a ball made out of fake meat and breadcrumbs that is fried).
18:00: I ate a four-course meal at a restaurant. I don’t exactly remember all the ingredients of all dishes. We first had a small salad with watermelon, then a red-curry soup, as a main dish we had aspergus with jackfruit meat and for dessert a brownie with ice-cream. I had one cassis drink.
Sunday
12:15: a banana, a peach, about 100 grams of strawberries, a vegan grilled cheese sandwich made with whole-wheat bread, four carrots, one slide of whole-wheat bread with muhammara-spread, cucumber and rucola, a vitamin D pill and an Omega 3 pill.
17:00: a bag of The Organic Crave chips, an apple, a bag of nori snack and a bag of salted popcorn.
19:00: a plate of fried rice with vegetables, tofu, pickles and satay sauce.
Overall conclusion: content
Let me first say: it was extremely hard to take pictures of everything I ate. Some picturs were even taken when I was already eating. I kept forgetting it, so I hope the text in combination with the pictures gives you a clear view. Then when it comes to my diet: I am pretty content (like always haha), but I also think there’s room for some improvement (like always haha). Let me first start with the positive aspects. I am very happy with the amount of fruit, vegetables and nuts I eat. I manage to eat 4 servings of fruit each day, a hand-full of nuts, one paranut and more than enough vegetables.
This was not a normal week
There’s two things I think I can still improve. One is less soda. In hindsight, I think this was not a normal week at all. I only went to the office twice (instead of the normal three times) and I went to dinner three times. I never do that. Subsequently, I also had an event at work and a training day. But well, I started the diary on Monday and Tuesday only then realized it would be a weird week. But everybody has those, so maybe it does show the ‘normal’. Anyway, because of those dinners, I think I had way too much soda. 7 servings in one week!! I am blown away by that number. In most weeks, I drink only water and maybe a glass of lemonade, I am so sure of that. But maybe I am lying to myself. I will keep and eye on it the coming weeks.
Something else which I want to improve: I need to eat more beans. I ate beans almost every day the past week, so that is a good thing. But the daily dozes describes three servings of beans each day. I don’t think I make that, I think I eat about one serving. So, I need to eat more beans! For now, this is quite hard because I think I should incorporate more into my dinners, but like I said, I don’t usually cook those. This is something to improve when I move into my own place.
A lot of surprises in this food diary, but I aim to be real and this is the truth.
Yours sincerely,
Romee
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