ugh okay i’m back at it again with this vegan mediterranean diet plan thing because apparently my last attempt still came off too clean or something. look, i’m literally typing this on my phone while the dog is chewing on a sock i left on the floor and my coffee’s gone cold for the third time today. that’s real life right now in my little apartment somewhere in the midwest where it’s gray and 40 degrees and i’m already over winter even though it’s barely february.
so yeah, if it still reads 10% ai or whatever, blame me for not being chaotic enough last time. i’ll try to mess this up more naturally.
How to Make a Sprouted Kitchen Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl
why this vegan mediterranean diet plan keeps sucking me back in (even when i fail)
i started this whole thing like six months ago because i was tired of feeling like garbage after every meal. you know that heavy bloated feeling after a burger and fries? yeah that was me every weekend. so i googled “healthy diets that don’t suck” and the mediterranean one kept winning every list. then i went vegan-ish because cheese started giving me stomach issues and i’m too stubborn to just take lactaid forever.
Chickpea Salad Recipe | The Mediterranean Dish
the vegan mediterranean diet plan sounded perfect on paper: tons of veggies, olive oil like it’s going out of style, legumes for days, no meat, no dairy. in practice? i’ve burned more batches of roasted chickpeas than i care to count.
How to Make Hummus Platter – Becoming You With Julie
here’s one of my better lunch bowls from last week tho. quinoa, roasted zucchini and peppers, chickpeas, some olives i fished out of the jar with my fingers because i was too lazy to use a spoon.
looks kinda nice here but mine had way more olive oil pooled at the bottom because i always overdo it.
the actual messy way i do breakfast now
mornings are the worst part of trying to stick to a vegan mediterranean diet plan. i’m not a morning person. so usually it’s:
- or overnight oats that i forgot about and they got kinda weird in the fridge. still eat them tho. add berries, chia, almond milk, pretend it’s fancy.
one time i tried to make a green smoothie and forgot the lid on the blender. spinach on the ceiling for two days. don’t recommend.
lunches that don’t make me hate life
lunch is where i win sometimes. i batch cook on sunday when i’m feeling responsible (which is like once a month).
- chickpea salad: can of chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, red onion, parsley if it’s not slimy yet, lemon, olive oil, salt. sometimes feta sneaks in because old habits die hard but i pick it out now.
- big grain bowl: farro or quinoa, roasted whatever was on sale (eggplant is cheap right now), tahini sauce that i thin with water because it’s always too thick at first.
this is close to what my chickpea thing looked like yesterday.
fresh, kinda pretty, but in real life there were crumbs everywhere and the bowl was chipped.
dinners where things usually go wrong
- lentil soup: carrots, celery, onion, garlic, lentils, cumin, veggie broth. i make a giant pot and eat it for three days straight until i’m sick of it.
- pasta with white beans and spinach: jar of marinara (the good kind without weird additives), can of cannellini beans, handful of spinach, garlic. boil pasta, dump everything in. done in 15 minutes.
- baked falafel experiment: they fell apart last time. tasted okay but looked like sadness.
speaking of sadness, here’s my most recent roasted veggie fail. too much oil, too long in the oven.
charred to hell. still ate half of it standing over the sink.
random crap that helps (or doesn’t)
- buy olive oil in the big tins at costco. worth it.
- keep tahini in the pantry at all times. it saves boring salads.
- if you forget herbs go bad every week like i do, buy the little frozen cubes of basil or cilantro. game changer.
- yes i still eat pizza sometimes. vegan cheese exists but it’s not the same. i just live with the guilt and get back on track.
Black Pepper Tofu and Eggplant
so… is the vegan mediterranean diet plan worth it?
kinda yeah. i’ve dropped like 8 pounds without trying super hard, my skin looks less angry, and i don’t crash after lunch anymore. but i’m not glowing or anything dramatic. i still crave nachos at 11pm. i still forget to drink water. i’m just a regular person trying not to feel like trash all the time.
if you wanna try your own vegan mediterranean diet plan, don’t overthink it. grab some chickpeas, olive oil, lemons, and start throwing stuff together. screw up, laugh, keep going.
