I think I’m ready to give vegan a try, but I’m struggling with breakfast ideas. Mostly I’d meal prep egg and bacon burritos or just have some toast with jam.
I used to be a cereal person but after having my gallbladder removed I developed an intolerance to lactose. And I haven’t found any good alternatives for milk or cheese that I like, so I’ve basically cut them out of my diet. Plus most cereal is loaded with sugar, and…
I found out yesterday that I’m prediabetic and my cholesterol is a little high. So, I’m trying to move away from animal products and sugar.
I will occasionally have toast with peanut butter and banana on it, but that’s so calorie dense, I only eat it on days I know I’ll be doing a lot of physical activities. Most days I sit at a desk for 8-10 hours.
So really the only other thing I can think of is oatmeal. And eating a bowl full of something hot is the last thing I want to do after my morning walk. I’m in Texas so it’s hot even when I go out at 5 AM.
I’m looking for ideas that can, preferably, be meal prepped or take less than 5 minutes to make. But I’m open to any ideas. Thanks!
If you want to return to being a cereal person, try a minimally processed no sugar cereal such as Uncle Sam, with a no sugar plant milk such as West Life soymilk.
If you like oatmeal, try overnight oats. Add some water, touch of maple syrup, your favorite fruit, dash of salt, and put it in the fridge. You can make a week’s worth at a time, and try different recipes to see what you like. I went through a phase where I tried all sorts of recipes, not all vegan.
You can add other grains, too. Barley worked surprisingly well, but chia seeds had that gelatinous texture I don’t care for. Pumpkin seeds, cashew pieces, and poppy seeds were all good. You can also stir in peanut butter, nutella, sunbutter, or cookiebutter if you want to make it more of a treat.
I go for musli on soy milk most of the days for a fast set of protein and fiber, you can go with a very low sugar level with that, and there are so lo-carb veriants usually. You can also make your own soy milk if you want to set it to your taste.
If youre fond of it you can make sceabled tofu (a’la egg), some ‘black salt’ will give it a familiar taste. Otherwise some veggie/seed paste and a slice of tofu work great for me. I stopped bothering with the highly processed vegan meet-like products, they cost a ton and you can make your own pastes easily.
I’ve gotten into polenta recently. I cook it up ahead of time and put it in a sealed dish in the fridge. When it cools and sets up, it’s easy to slice into sections and eat as finger food. I can eat it plain, with hot sauce or sometimes I’ll saute up vegetables (peppers, onions, zucchini, whatever) and add them to the polenta before it cools. The particularly cool thing is that I can eat it hot or cold. Once it’s set up, it toasts up nicely too.
Right on! Maybe look into some of the fake eggs/omelettes that are available these days, so you can re-create something that you know you like. I had a vegan friend who really liked them. I don’t know that toast with peanut butter and banana is more calorie dense than an egg and bacon burrito. A smoothie might be nice in that hot Texas heat
