Abundance Diet, Day 3!

It's the third day of my 28-day commitment to eat a whole foods-based diet free of processed foods, gluten, and white sugar. I'm using Somer McCowan's meal plan from The Abundance Diet, and if you've been following along, you know that "abundant" is the right word for it. SO. MUCH. FOOD.

I started Day 3 with another 4-mile run, so I had a little almond butter-stuffed date upon waking to fuel me through. I don't need much before my short morning runs because I literally wake up, feed the fur babies, throw on running clothes, and head out the door. After my run, it was green smoothie time. Today's smoothie was the ChocoNana Green Smoothie, and it was HUGE. It literally made enough for two pint glass-sized smoothies.

This recipe called for not one, but TWO bananas. I considered just using one anyway because I've never made a smoothie with two bananas. But I knew it was going to be an active day (with my morning run and a scheduled Cardio Hoop Fit class after work), and I figured I'd need the calories. This also has almond-coconut milk, cocoa powder, and spinach. I also added a scoop of Vega One Chocolate protein powder since I ran this morning.

That smoothie was pretty filling, so I wasn't super-hungry for my first lunch at 11 a.m. But I wanted to stay on schedule, so I had this Vegan Egg Salad with Cheesy Gluten-Free Crackers anyway.

Vegan egg salads are one of my favorite foods! And this was one did not disappoint. It was sort of an egg salad/potato salad hybrid. The base was a mashed, boiled potato, and cubed tofu is folded in. The creaminess comes from homemade cashew sour cream, and there's black salt for eggy flavor. 

The cheesy gluten-free crackers are like homemade cheeze-its! I didn't get nearly as many from one recipe as Somer suggests I should in the book. She says the recipe makes about 100, and I got 64. But nonetheless, these were tasty and crispy. It's only day three, but I do kinda miss crackers already. And I've got an unopened box of Earth Balance vegan cheddar crackers just waiting for February so I can bust them open. But for now, these much healthier ones will do.

The egg salad wasn't too filling, so I was ready for second lunch at 1 p.m. This Lightened-Up Laksa was sooooo good.

It's a Malaysian soup made with coconut milk, peanuts, red curry paste, baked tofu, noodles (I used brown rice maifun even though the recipe called for bean thread noodles), carrots, bok choy, and cabbage. I'm such a fan of anything with coconut milk, and this hit the spot. Because it called for lite coconut milk and only two tablespoons of peanuts, the meal was really light even though it looks (and tasted) decadent.

My afternoon snack was Cucumber Tzatziki with Steamed Vegetables. I had this at home around 5 p.m. before my cardio hula-hooping class.

The base is Somer's homemade cashew sour cream, which is used in a ton of her recipes. The cream tastes like sour cream, but it has more of a yogurty consistency, so it was perfect for this recipe. It's so well-seasoned with garlic, dill, and mint that it tastes fantastic. 

After Hoop Fit, I came home and heated up some of the Cheesy Potato & Cauliflower Casserole in the microwave. I baked it last night so it'd be ready when I got home from class because I knew it'd be a late night.

For this, potatoes and cauliflower are coated in a homemade cashew cheddar sauce and then baked in the oven for about 45 minutes. The sauce gets very thick and coats the veggies in this awesome orange-ness. It made for a hearty, warming dinner on yet another cold January night.

I typically blog every Sunday through Thursday, but I may skip tomorrow night because, beginning tomorrow, my meals repeat every day through Sunday. Tomorrow's food line-up is exactly the same as Monday's line-up. I love this because it means using up leftovers. But there will be a few exciting new things over the weekend — solid breakfasts, healthy desserts. So I'll check back in on Sunday!