A Day in the Life: Lunch and Snacks

I tend toward grazing.

Am also a recently lapsed vegan. A few weeks ago, I developed a strong craving for eggs and old cheddar cheese. The craving became all-consuming. Since a small child, whenever I've been sick I've craved those foods. Didn't matter that I might get sick after eating them; I craved those flavours and textures. Since my body might be trying to tell me something, two weeks ago I relented and bought a dozen eggs. The cheese will follow when it's next on sale.

Three meals a day has never worked for me; four or five is more like it. The following is a full day of meals and snacks:

1. Breakfast: Between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. Oatmeal, unless there's a problem as described in link.
2. Snack: Between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. Four ounces or 120 ml of orange juice.
   The orange juice is made from concentrate. Why cart home water? That's what you do when you buy orange juice in bottles or cartons. Add water from your own tap instead. Directions call for 3 cans of water to 1 can of concentrate. I use 4 cans of water, so get almost two quarts or litres of OJ. Lasts me over two weeks.
3. Lunch: 1:30 to 2 p.m. One boiled egg OR one-half slice of whole wheat bread spread with homemade hummus OR one-half slice of whole wheat bread with one ounce of old cheddar cheese. My hummus has more water in it than usually called for in recipes. The bread I've recently started getting at the food bank. I try to have a dark leafy green vegetable on hand. If available, I eat some of that too, wrapped around the cheese, hummus bread or egg, or on its own.
4. Supper: 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. My lentil concoction.
5. Snack: Before 8:00 p.m. Eight to 12 almonds OR one apple. The number of almonds depends on their price. A typical sale price is $0.99/100 grams or $9.90/kg from the bulk bin. Regular price has been as high as $18.90/kg. I won't pay that. I buy 1/2kg at a time and store the almonds in the freezer (as I do the bread). I love a good crunchy apple but can't manage to have them all the time. If the price works out to 20 cents per apple or less, then I may buy a large bag of them.

Recently I won some free coffee, so my days start with that now, suitably diluted. A great treat.

Am very sensitive to caffeine, so the rest of the day I drink rooibos tea (a naturally decaffeinated tisane) which I buy in bulk from Upton Tea Imports in the US. Would love to buy my rooibos locally but prices are more than double here, even with the exchange rate and shipping costs factored in. For a total of $40.00 I get enough rooibos to last up to 14 months.

In the late afternoon and evening, I start adding soy milk to my tea. Totals to about 1/2 cup or 125ml per day.

ETA: I try to follow the above but, like today, it seems like a lot to eat. And I get distracted with my unpaid activist writing and miss one, sometimes two, of those meals or snacks. Usually it's the evening snack I skip; more rarely, it's lunch. I NEVER skip breakfast or snack #2, the orange juice.

ETA March 20, 2010: Well, that was a short experiment. Have resumed my vegan diet. So no more eggs, no more cheddar cheese. Didn't like their results.