Protein-tastc!

Tonight's dinner - I am almost having protein rush!  I know the meat-free mince hasn't been available for a few weeks in the supermarkets, but I have had two bags from Morrisons in my freezer all this time, and had no inspiration as to what to do with it.

Having been on holiday the last week, I am now even more on a mission to Buy Less with regards to food for the coming month, and am determined to use up most stuff in the cupboards/freezer/fridge before I do another big shop.

So, tonight...

Firstly, I made a sauce:

• Around 70g of tomato purée (half of one of those small 142g tins from Morrisons)
• A little grated ginger from Tesco (I have no loyalty... though they are at least giving me fantastic dairy free cheeze)
• 2 tablespoons of tamari
• Half a cup of spinach (I would have used more, but it was all that was left after an emergency shove in the freezer post-holiday)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of yeast extract (Meridian, with added B12, not that Marmite stuff)
• 1 chopped onion

I didn't use any oil, salt, or garlic as there is already both rapeseed and vegetable oil in the mince, as well as salt, and garlic powder. (There is also already onion powder, but I love onion, there can rarely ever be too much.)

For the mince, the packet says to heat up 15ml of oil - instead I heated up around a cup of water, stirred the mince for 5mins or so, then worried it wasn't cooking the way it was supposed to and drizzled over around 5ml (a teaspoon).  I emptied around half of the mince into a plastic container, to keep for tomorrow night's dinner, before stirring in the sauce.  Finally, I boiled up around half a pack of green noodles.  Once boiled I split them between two plates for my partner and I, and then the mince and sauce was poured over them.  There was so much mince!  I could have done with a little less, and added some garlic bread instead.

Protein count (approx.):

Mince: per 1/4 pack = 22.7g (yeah, I'd say I had about that)
Tomato puree: per 100g = 4.3g

Ginger: per 100g = 1.4g

Noodles: per 100g = 11.4g

Yeast extract: per 100g = 43.5g

Onion: per 100g = 1.1g

Spinach: per 100g = 2.9g

Tamari: per 100ml = 10.3g

At my lazy guess, I'd confidently say there was about 30g of protein in that.  Not too bad!

Tesco have their Kettle Chips on offer at £1, and with my clubcard membership voucher, I got a 150g bag for 50p.

I don't even want to think how much sunflower oil I have just consumed (however, nobody ever says to a vegan, "Eww, vegans consume so much OIL!").  Let's see what is the protein count...?  

Protein count:

100g = 5.8g

So, 150g = 8.7g!    That's almost 16% of my protein today just from gorging on a bag of Kettle Chips! 

*I do not NOT advocate eating 6 bags of Kettle Chips a day to make sure you get your RDA of protein* 

I did have around a cup of red grapes today, and a quick Google search tells me those gave me about 1g of protein.  Is that all?!  I also had a nectarine... which Google tells me is around 1.5g of protein.  How disappointing.

Oh... maybe I can calculate my protein

On browsing the Japanese Vegan in Scotland blog, I noticed that they include a nutritional breakdown of all of their recipes, which then led me to the site of Spark Recipes and oh..... Recipe Calculator!  I must have a go at using that at some point.

Martha's, Glasgow

Yesterday, I was in Martha's, in St Vincent Street, Glasgow and had their delicious falafel wrap, which is clearly marked as vegan friendly on the menu.  I was delighted to see that they have a breakdown of their nutritional content on their menu: http://www.mymarthas.co.uk/NUTRITIONAL%20BREAKDOWN%20SUMMER%20MENU%202013.pdf

This is a photo of my lunch:

Protein count:

Falafel wrap: 16.7g (there may be a slight deviation from this as there is the option to have the coleslaw with a vegetarian or a vegan dressing)

Summer berry smoothie: 1.6g

Ice Delight sorbet:  Unknown, but you could contact Belhaven Fruit Farm who produce it and enquire.  *Note: this sorbet does not appear to be on their menu, or visually advertised in store, so and you have to specifically ask for it!*

Vegans get no protein? Oh really?

This is my new idea for a blog, because it's really annoying when people assume you don't get any protein because you don't eat any flesh or secretions from animals.  So, my aim is that the next time someone says to you, "Where do you get your protein?", this may be a useful resource.

I tend to make a lot of my own sauces and creations, and am quite lazy with measurements, so for the most part it'll probably be photos of products from the supermarket, and if it's something with 3 ingredients or less, I may post photos and estimations of protein content on things I prepare at home.

The UK's Food Standards Agency says that for adults between the ages of 19 and 50, the recommend portion level is 55g.  For full stats see here: http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutguideuk.pdf 

I love bread, and for a starter, let me tell you that this loaf: http://www.burgenbread.com/breads/soya-linseed/ has 7g grams (SEVEN!) per slice.  So, if I have a sandwich for lunch, not including any protein in the filling, that's 14g I've taken in.  That a quarter of my protein for the day.  Also, it's only around £1.69 (occasionally on offer in Co-op for £1), not much more than than mega-processed white bread, and much better for you.  

I also love Hovis' seven seeds bread - now I'm older and can tolerate stuff with 'bits in' - and it's great for taking in seeds if, like me, you're not that keen on wolfing down a pack of seeds in the way you'd usually wolf down a bag of prawn cocktail Walkers crisps (currently also accidentally vegan - until they decide it's vital to add real prawns to the flavouring).  However, slices of this only contain 5.2g of protein.... but, less calories than a slice of the Burgen bread (caramelised sugar?!), so if you take in a lot of protein elsewhere you might prefer the Hovis.

In the meantime, enjoy this, by Vegan Smythe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n20uGGNoVdo