I noted in one post that I don’t know how Kyle & I would be doing this week and also be gluten free. Kyle has been getting extra protein from Special K Protein which gets the bump from extra gluten, we used bread to thicken our tomato soup, we use soy sauce to add flavor where we can’t use fish sauce, and we’ve got pasta on the meal plan.

I’ve had people suggesting alternatives to gluten and dairy options that they us in their regular cooking, but we opted to avoid those alternatives. It was really important to us that we do this week without relying on substitutes like xanthan gum, vegan eggs, vegan cheeses, nutritional yeast, etc. Since we are only challenging ourselves for a week, and not looking to make a lifestyle change, it was important to preserve the challenge.

Breakfast. Toast + Peanut Butter • Pineapple Lemon Juice.

For the full Pineapple Lemon Juice recipe & review check out my post reviewing all of my juice reviews from the week.

Lunch. Tomato Soup + Bread.

Vegan does not mean healthy all around. For example, I don’t know how we’d do this week & be gluten free. This summer I’ve been pretty good at avoiding bread while at home (not so much while traveling). But when it came time to make this roasted tomato soup, we had no idea how we were going to thicken it without heavy cream or Italian bread, so, since “no dairy or meat”, we obviously opted for bread. My lunch was delicious & filling, but because of the bread, it did make me a little sleepy.
Something to keep in mind when discussing various diets and their merits: even Oreos are vegan.

Recipe:

1 can San Marzano Tomatoes
2 tbsp DOP olive oil
6 cloves garlic
➝ sauté the garlic in a angled saucepan, hand squeeze the tomatoes into the garlic oil, and roast in the oven at 300*F, pull it out occasionally and scrape the sides using either a rubber spatula or wooden corner spoon/scraper, stir in the roasted portions and continue roasting. Repeat to taste
➝ once roasted, add Italian bread and blend using immersion blender until desired thickness is reached
➝ salt to taste (you might need a lot, usually a lot of the sodium comes from the cheese in the soup, so no cheese, no sodium, add salt!)
➝ add basil to taste, we finely chopped some from our garden and mixed it in.

Snacks. Peanut Butter + Carrots.

Peanut butter has been a great snack. Yes, it’s calorie dense, and doesn’t have nearly as much protein as one would think given how much people say “peanuts are a good source of protein!” But, it’s filling, and versatile as a snack, so we love it! We definitely measure it out by weight though, because it’d be crazy easy to eat too much of it.

Dinner. Black Bean Chili.

Recipe:
2 tbsp peanut (or neutral) oil
1 medium onion
6 cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper
2 jalapeños (cored & seeded)
1 can peeled tomatoes
1 can chili hot beans
1 can sweet golden corn (rinsed)
1 can black beans (rinsed)
Toss all ingredients into your pressure cooker (we use the Instant Pot) hit the chili button, & enjoy!

Out of this, we got 4 servings: 390 kcal • 9.2 g fat • 57.8 g carbs • 14.8 g protein

I ate 2/3 of my “serving” for dinner on Day 3 and had the other 1/3 for lunch on Day 4.

Dear Diary,

I thought I would feel more different. I was less tired today, but more hungry- probably because of all of the bread. I also noticed this morning that my usual daily vitamin isn’t vegan! It didn’t occur to me that, because it’s a gummy, it contains gelatin, which is definitely not vegan. So for the remainder of the week, I will be forgoing my regular vitamins.

Kyle says: I think my swear smelt different at the gym.

To read more about our Vegan Week Challenge, click here.

To read about one of the big reasons why we did a Vegan Week Challenge, click here.

Read about Vegan Week Day 2 • Read about Vegan Week Day 4