What I Ate: Then vs. Now
My meals have been pretty routine over the past few weeks as I’ve been trying to focus on lots of veggies & protein during the latest Tone It Up challenge. Rather than just show you what I’ve been eating, I thought it might be kind of fun to do a little look back of what I’m eating now compared to what I ate when I first started blogging.
When I started blogging in 2010, I was eating vegan so my meals were a bit different. I also hadn’t totally figured out vegan protein sources and I was eating a lot of nut butter and a lot of food that came from a box. I’m not saying that all food from a box is bad but I definitely wasn’t scouring ingredients the way I am now.
This was a typical breakfast in my vegan days. I ate a lot of Van’s frozen waffles! They were quick and easy. I’d smear them with some peanut butter and eat them with a side of sliced apples. It was an easy and filling breakfast!
These days. I’m usually eating yogurt + berries. Greek yogurt was one of the main things I missed as a vegan. I could never find a vegan substitute that had the same amount of protein!
In my vegan days, I packed my lunch most of the time. I was spending a lot of time cooking because I had just started a food blog and because eating out as a vegan is a bit of a hassle. Since I was single, I often had leftovers.
Apologies for the less than stellar photo but hey, this was taken many years ago and I didn’t have a great camera. I ate meals like this all the time: rice, beans, onions, peppers, topped with salt and pepper and usually some nutritional yeast. Honestly, I should get back into this because it was pretty delicious.
These days I’ve gotten a bit lazy with packing my lunch.
I tend to eat a lot of soup and salad from our work cafeteria. I’ve mentioned it before but our work cafeteria is seriously amazing. There’s always at least 3 kinds of hummus, 4 kinds of soups, quinoa, kale, etc. It makes it easy to eat healthy!
For dinner, in my vegan days I tended to eat pretty quick and easy meals. Cooking for one is a little less exciting than cooking for a partner.
I used to make this vegan macaroni and cheese at least once a week! I’ll have to share the recipe with you guys because honestly it’s still so good!
These days my dinners often contain real cheese. But I still eat a lot of whole grains, veggies, and proteins.
Sometimes I’ll even eat a regular white flour tortilla. *gasp* Back in the day I would only be caught with a whole wheat tortilla, usually one of those super-low-carb kinds. Those are fine if that’s what you’re into but lately I’ve been trying to play the balance game instead. Tuesday night be a flour tortilla and the next night I might just skip the tortilla shell all together. That’s been working well for me!
It’s kind of fun to look back and see how my meals have changed over the years. I’ve learned so much about ingredients and it’s really played a big part in how my routine has evolved over the years.
Have your meals changed over the years?
I’m linking up with Arman for What I Ate Wednesday!
I like your theme here – it is fascinating to see how our meals change over the years or based on our current needs. I am seriously jealous of your work cafeteria. I’m about to be a dietitian and would thriveee in a corporate environment like yours! Vans are still pretty delicious in my book, but I’m a sucker for greek yogurt. I could never ever give it up.
The work cafeteria is so crazy awesome!!
It’s so true cooking for two or more is twice the fun compared to cooking for one.
I like your “food evolution” and can definitely see how my meals have evolved over the years, too. Along with developing a healthier mindset towards eating in general.
Whether back then or now: I wouldn’t have minded eating at your place 🙂 .
Since living with my significant other and ultimately getting married, I remember following your blog when you made all of those changes. I always enjoy reading your food posts because they are normal and easy to make recipes.
I used to believe in that whole protien thing and go for things like yogurt or eggs in the morning. Now I’ve changed my views after reading about nutrition and finding that my body works best with higher carbs and moderate protien. I’ve learned that as long as overall calories are appropriate for your activity level, whatever you eat generally works. Now I eat a big bowl of cereal, bananas or pancakes topped with PB. I also love scones and have them a lot when the flavor of the month at my job is a good one.
Mmmmm please share the Mac and cheese recipe!
I’m with you! I’m definitely a carbs over protein person although I have to make a bit of an effort to get in protein when I can. I would be perfectly content eating nothing but bread though haha
My meals have changed a lot, not just because of my Celiacs diagnosis 3 years ago, but because of recovery from restrictive eating. I eat a lot more natural peanut butter and sunflower butter, 2% or full fat dairy (once I’m off the elimination), and wild salmon, whereas I used to insist on PB2, 0% yogurt, and cod or halibut even in my semi-recovered days due to the fat calories. Much better this way!
My meals are fairly the same over the last 4 years since going meatless but I gave up greek yogurt for the last 6 months and haven’t missed it! I had gotten sick and couldn’t eat it and then just never went back. It’s sort of weird since I used to eat it all of the time.
Love this idea! I should go back and look at some of my meals from a few years ago and compare to now.
You should! I’d love to see how things have changed for you over the years!
the cooking for one verse cooking for two thing was probably the greatest change for me! when it’s just me, i could eat anything from the microwave or make some eggs. now it’s a whole new thing – i buy fresh produce most days, and then i try to make something healthy and exciting – i put more work into the meal when i know i’ll have someone to share it with 🙂
It’s funny how much more motivation I have to cook when someone else is enjoying it with me!
Well, my meals definitely went the other way around, I went from being a vegetarian to following a vegan diet. I eat a lot of tomatoes for breakfast, often with toast. That veggie bowl looks seriously yummy!
I definitely can speak to meals changing after I got married. They are a bit more involved and far less repetitive now. Being married encouraged me to try new foods and be less concerned about eating healthy all the time. I think I prefer it this way!
P.S. The quesadilla looks awesome!