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!
Have you ever writing a post about why you went vegan and then stopped? Just super curious about your story! Everything (then and now) looks delicious:) I absolutely loved greek yogurt before I went vegan, but it’s weird to think about eating it again since that was so long ago!
oh yes..cooking for two for me means 10# weight gain too. I used to eat super quick, whatever meals but now i actually cook meals and i love it. i used to be all fat-free/sugar-free person but now, i have evolved into all things unprocessed as much as possible.
This was such a cool idea! I wouldn’t pack my lunch if my work had a cafeteria like yours either. The food always looks amazing!
Haha, I love this! I wish I had kept better track of my healthy eating progress over the last two years. SUCH A CHANGE!! This was a fun post! <3 – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
I am much more attracted to the eats you eat these days, they look so bright and filling (although the bright part can simply be me being fooled by great photography!). Your supper looked absolutely delicious, I love the little theme you had going on for your WIAW today!!
Honestly, your vegan meals look pretty great too! I’m so jealous of your work cafeteria. It’s kind of an ordeal to pack dinner leftovers for the next day’s lunch for me. I don’t always feel like the same type of food for both meals.
Haha yeah if we have leftovers sometimes I just save them for dinner so I don’t have to go through the packing process!
It’s so interesting to see how our eating habits change over time! Both then and now, your food looks yummy (I’m on a waffle kick right now, ha!), but in general I think your “now” food is more up my alley. Yum! 🙂
I certainly do still love waffles! Haha I might have to pick some up at the store again. They really were good!
What a cool post I enjoyed reading the comparisons it’s great to see how we change our styles and preferences over time.
I make variations of your vegan lunch all. the. time. and I’m not vegan or vegetarian. it’s so cheap and easy! Plus, my toddler likes it, so total win.
Haha that’s perfect! Cheap and easy is the best!
It’s so interesting to see how things change! I think my meals have changed a lot over the years, and I definitely tend to go through phases. I used to eat a lot more pancakes/eggs/toast for breakfast, and these days it’s usually yogurt.