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Protein
I'm a 10 year vegetarian pregnant with twins and am supposed to be getting at least 100 grams of protein a day! It's been really hard I've been trying have a smoothie every morning and lots of peanut butter, cottage cheese, pasta, and cheese. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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Re: Protein
Oh my! I can't imagine! I am finding it really hard to get 65 grams per day! I was vegan but have included some cheese in my diet sometimes just to get extra calcium and protein (if we have to eat out or something, I feel very selfish passing on the cheese so I just eat it). Some of my ideas are:
Edamame, tempeh, bulgur, quinoa, Ezekial bread (This can be found at Whole Foods or in the health food section of most grocery stores. I buy the one in the orange packaging. It has 5 grams of complete protein per slice.), lentils, beans, nuts, pumpkin seeds ( 1/4 cup has 7 g of protein and 25% of your daily iron needs), etc. Ezekial brand also has high protein cereal, pastas, english muffins, tortillas, and hamburger buns.
I try to eat high protein foods even if I don't think they go well together. Kind of sucks, but I don't know what else to do. If you pair the right things though, you can definitely achieve that goal. For example if you have a Morningstar Griller's Prime veggie burger (15 g of protein) with cheese (about 4 g for nondairy) on two slices of Ezekial bread (10 g) with a glass of milk (I'm guessing about 8 g), and a serving of edamame (5 g for the individual Dora packs I buy at Target
), you have almost half of your protein needs right there.
If you are unsure of how to cook some of the foods without getting tired of them, there are lots of great cookbooks out there. For example, I made potato and kale enchiladas from Veganomicon this weekend and got lots of protein and iron. The filling even had pumpkin seeds in it. I used Ezekial tortillas to add extra protein. Some of my go-to cookbooks are The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, Veganomicon, The Vegan Table, Vegan Soups and Stews for All Seasons, and Vegan Brunch. Skinny B!tch Bun in the Oven also has some great meal and snack ideas.
I hope this helps!
Thank you soooo much! That helps a ton! I do own veganomicon and I haven't even cracked it yet!
I do eat the brownberry double protein bread b/c it has 12 grams per 2 slices. I love the morningstar products so those do help alot!
I know it's bad but I've been having so much cheese because it's easy- stouffers frozen mac n chz has 30 g of protein! but then I worry about the sodium. ARGH!
I have been doing the same thing with frozen dinners. I found a Cedarlane cheese and vegetable lasagna that has about 30 grams of protein and during my first trimester I was eating lots of mac n cheese frozen dinners. The sodium content is terrible for frozen dinners and yet I still eat them way more than I should. I feel bad, but they give me the protein I need.
Definitely try out Veganomicon! The hot-sauce glazed tempeh is really good and so are the Beanball Subs and Snobby Joes. They are all pretty easy. The enchiladas were amazing but take a little more work to make.
Get some brown rice protien powder. It has 15 g of protien a scoop. It is the best tasting but not all that bad. I put it in smoothies with yogurt and berries. I am not pregnant anymore but use it for post workout protien shakes. I hate other protein powders. This is my favorite.