Wondering what a healthy and accessible plant-based diet might look like? Here’s what I eat in a day after 10 years of being vegan.
As a vegan nutritionist, some people think that all I eat is beans and greens. Far from it! Even though I’ve worked my way through different plant-based diets, what I eat in a day now covers all kinds of delicious foods.
Although there’s no typical “what I eat in a day”, you’ll often find me coming back to classics like oatmeal, pasta, salad, sandwiches, or stews.
I like to freestyle with my favorite vegan staple foods instead of using cookbooks all the time, even though I’m a food blogger.
vegan freebie galore 🤩
Grab all of our 9 vegan & healthy eating PDFs at once! Including food lists, meal plan, easy recipes, and shopping & nutrition tips!
If you’re transitioning to a vegan diet or are looking to go vegan soon, it can be super helpful to see a sample day of eating!
Let me share my basic formula with you and then I’ll go over the meals, snacks, and supplements that I consume on a regular basis!
What I eat in a day as a vegan
I like to think of different food groups and ratios on my plate or in my bowl when creating well-balanced meals.
It usually looks something like this:
- Grains or starchy vegetables: 30%
- Leafy greens & colorful veggies: 40%
- Beans, lentils or tofu: 20%
- Nuts, seeds or creamy sauces: 10%
Using this ratio allows me to eat until I’m satisfied while getting enough energy. Depending on your appetite, activity and weight goals, this might look very different!
Breakfast: muesli with fruit
I either buy pre-made muesli mixes or make my own at home using delicious and healthy components like dried fruit, pumpkin seeds (for iron and zinc), walnuts (omega-3) and whole-grain flakes.
Usually, I add my favorite soy milk or soy yogurt for my protein portion and fresh fruit like berries, banana, apple, peach, orange, or whatever is in season right now.
After breakfast with my husband in the morning, I wait for around one hour before drinking my coffee! This ensures that I can absorb all the iron in my food because coffee and other beverages like tea can interfere with this process.
My favorite breakfast recipes:
Lunch: Mediterranean pasta salad
During my creative time in the morning, I research and write articles while drinking around 1 liter of plain water. Once hunger hits after around 4 hours of work, I take a peek in my fridge to see whether there are any leftovers!
The night before, we made a large batch of pasta which I use to make a salad with veggies and yogurt tahini sauce!
It takes me around 15 minutes to make 3-4 servings which I can use for tomorrow’s lunch as well as today’s.
I eat a large bowl of it for lunch and store the rest in the fridge.
More easy lunch ideas:
Snack: snickers dates
Around 3-4 pm, I start feeling snack-ish! This is when I reach for something sweet and satisfying like peanut butter stuffed dates.
I quickly make a few for my husband and myself and we sit on the balcony to have a chat about work and our plans in the coming days.
We don’t eat all of the stuffed dates and simply put the leftovers in a container in the fridge so we can have them for another snack the following day!
More tasty vegan snacks:
Dinner: rainbow Buddha bowl
If you’re no stranger to our website, you know that we absolutely love vegan bowls! We actually have them every other day, using all kinds of different ingredients we find in our kitchen.
Tonight’s rainbow Buddha bowl is made with sweet potatoes, chickpeas, leftover cooked quinoa, spinach, red cabbage and a creamy tahini yogurt dressing.
We both go for seconds and take our supplements while eating: vitamin B12, vitamin D and iodine. If you have questions about supplementation, check out the guides listed below and, more importantly, see a doctor to get a blood test!
Everyone’s needs are different and you personally might not need iodine but would benefit from omega-3 or iron supplementation. There are also vegan multivitamins!
My favorite easy dinners:
Conclusion
Following a vegan diet doesn’t have to be difficult and can be tasty, budget-friendly and like second nature after a while.
I ate over 60 grams of fiber in a day, spent little time preparing my food, exceeded my protein requirements, ate well over my “5 a day” and felt really satisfied with my food!
Although I’m not super active, I take 1-hour walks each day and do some light exercise every other day. Also, I rarely eat fast food and don’t drink alcohol — but that’s just my personal situation.
To make veganism and plant-based eating easier for you, I’d love to recommend the following guides and recipes.
- 1-Week Vegan Meal Plan
- Best Vegan Swaps & Alternatives
- 7-Day Vegan Challenge
- Full Vegan Grocery List
Browse these recipe collections
Find all of our vegan recipe collections here and join our free vegan transition course including a 3-day meal plan!
What do you eat in a day as a vegan and have you tried any of these recipes? Let us know in the comments below, share this article with your friends or Pin it here!
Hi Alena!
You do such a great job at making plant based vegan eating look so accessible, doable, and fun! I love your website here; its so fresh and inviting making me just want to dive into everything you have to offer. I really appreciate as well how kind and understanding you are to your audience; whenever I read your posts I never feel a sense of judgment (even though I’m vegan and would agree with your viewpoint), your just so encouraging and professional. Just wanted to share that as I know you can never get too much encouraging feedback from your viewers, and its always nice to know what your doing is making a difference and is very much appreciated. Keep up the great work! :)
thank you so much, Jenell! That truly means a lot, just as you suspected, and I haven’t always been able to be so understanding as a vegan, let me tell you that ;) Anyway, I’m so happy you took the time to write these lines — I’ll let my husband know that you appreciate his design, too!
Warm wishes x
Hi, I can’t believe I haven’t found your site earlier. It’s so full of valuable info, thank you!
I’ve been vegan for a few years now, and if I didn’t search for these kinds of sites every now and then, I think I’d only eat oatmeal with toppings every day (just because I love it). I’m glad I found your site – there’s so much to read and learn and so many recipes to try, I won’t have to go looking elsewhere for a long while. :)
aww thanks so much for your kind comment, Katja! Really happy that you enjoy our content so much :)