This lunch, of basic things like lentils and sweet potatoes, does great things. It makes our lives easier by being simple to make in advance, satisfies sweet cravings on a daily basis, makes our one-year-old happy, and wins bodybuilding competitions. We’ve been eating this lunch almost daily (and now daily as we prepare for a competition 13 weeks from now) and have yet to get tired of it. What is this amazing meal you ask? Three things:
- Curried red lentil soup
- Baked sweet potato
- Blackened tofu salad
You can find the soup recipe here with two changes – we now use 1/2 or less of the ume vinegar because it turns out it has a LOT of salt and we add a large floret of minced broccoli. Sweet potatoes are easy to bake: poke them with holes and bake them at 415 degrees for 45 – 75 minutes; you will have to pierce them with a knife here and there to check for sufficient softness as cooking times vary a lot by size and ovens. While orange sweet potatoes are, of course, delicious, I urge you to try Japanese sweet potatoes. They’re purple-skinned, white-fleshed, and far sweeter than the orange variety. I love them. LOVE. Eat them daily and you will find junk food cravings disappear. As you can see above, we like to mix it up and split one of each!
The salad is easy: it’s just a standard green salad with some grape tomatoes, cucumbers, a few olives and balsamic or red wine vinegar dressing. The fun part is the tofu. Use 1/2 a block of extra firm tofu for two people and dice it or cut it into strips. Preheat a pan on medium high and sprinkle with a bit of salt to keep the tofu from sticking. Toss the tofu on, let it “blacken” a bit on one side, then throw in about 1 1/2 – 2 tsp of either Jamaican jerk or Blackened Cajun or Creole seasoning then flip over and toss around, preferably with a metal spatula. Cook a little more than serve over the salad.
What makes this lunch easy is that each component is not only easy to prepare but can be prepared in bulk in advance for the week. Make a big batch of soup: One batch makes 3 bowls – that’s 3 lunches worth! Bake a few sweet potatoes in advance and then they only need to be heated a bit each day. Prepare a block or two of tofu for the salad in advance and you have all of your work lunches done, knowing that they’ll be low fat, filling, healthy, and you’ll actually WANT to eat them instead of going out for Chipotle because it tastes better.
Bonus: Babies love spicy curried lentils and jerk tofu! Seriously, this vegan beast usually finishes off three dishes of soup and gets into our tofu before he’s done! It’s just that good.
Awesome site. I am not a big fan of Lentils, I tried making the recipe anyways and didn’t like it. Any substitute that you would recommend for those that are not a big fan of Lentils
Split peas or mung beans also work, but either of those options have a stronger flavor than red lentils.
Hi!
What lovely son you have! A friend of mine green kolibri has recommended me your blog, regarding you son´s diet. My daughter is 6months and breastfed. Now I am starting to puree cooked veggies or with some porridge or fresh juice. As time goes by fast I would love to know what Miles ate when he was around this age and older? Do you supplement with multivitamin or is it sufficient to give separately B12 and D?
Would be so happy to get a reply from you guys.
BR and good luck,
Alexandra
Thank you, Alexandra!! Feeding Miles has been so unbelievably easy given that we ourselves eat mainly bananas, sweet potatoes, beans, vegetables and other fruit – what many adults perceive as “baby food” anyway, ironically. I started out pureeing foods at 6 months, using spices like cinnamon and curry when I discovered that he wanted nothing to do with bland foods, but within a month he was ready to eat mushy foods like bananas and sweet potatoes as-is, and from then on I just let him eat more of what we were eating as he seemed ready. Gradually, mushy beans, lentil soup, oatmeal with berries and almond butter, and other staples of our diet were added in until now he pretty much eats what we eat (plus a lot more fruit). Right now his favorite foods are tofu, beans, blueberries, and grapes.
He’s still breastfeeding at 15 months, so I take a B-12 supplement myself and he gets tons of sunshine as we spend almost all day outdoors so I am not supplementing him at all right now. Probably around the 18 month mark I’ll start giving him a B-12 supplement, but so far so good!
I’m planning a detailed post about feeding Miles in the near future, too. Good luck to you!!
Dear Marcella, you have answered all my questions and made me happier ;)) waiting for your post on that. thanx Alexandra
Hi Derek,
In your nutricional plan, you include a lot of products of soy? I am a begginer in the vegetarian diet (only 3 months).
During these months, many people have told me that soy is not very healthy for men in specific, and there are many articles on this, speaking of the increase of female hormones and health problems resulting from it… How can I learn more about the truthfulness of it, and whether it is better to reduce the consumption of soy meals?
Best regards,
André Silva
Hi Andre,
A lot of people have this concern about soy and let me say outright that it is completely unfounded. Every scholarly article I have read on the topic has found no negative hormonal effects in males from eating soy products. That said, we don’t eat all the much soy simply to keep our diet whole foods based and diverse. Any kind of refined processed fake meat should be eaten infrequently or not at all, and why just have soy when there are so many great beans to choose from? Vary your diet and a little soy will cause you no harm.
Good luck!
Derek
Sounds workable. What do y’all eat for breakfast?