The Collegiate Vegan

Edamame: Young soy beans, usually still in the pod but sometimes sold shelled. Available fresh or frozen in most grocery stores. Edamame is soft, unlike the hard, mature soybeans used to make soy milk and tofu.

1) It’s packed with complete protein: Soy has all of the essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. 1/2C is 120 calories with 13g protein, and of course, cholesterol free.

2) It’s easy to cook: For fresh or frozen edamame, with shells or shelled, boil in water until thawed or microwave in a dish with a few tablespoons for a few minutes. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

3) It’s versatile: You can eat edamame by itself for an appetizer or side dish, use it to top your salad or stir fry, make a high protein hummus, or make a yummy quinoa or barley salad with it.

4) It’s high in fiber, vitamins and minerals: That 1/2C serving has 4g of fiber, which helps lower cholesterol and reduce heart disease. It’s also rich in vitamins C, B, and E, as well as calcium and iron.

5) It’s good for you: Recent studies show that women who are more soy survive certain types of cancer better.

This salad takes very minimal effort, but is delicious and so healthy!

• 3 medium/large cucumbers (or lots of smaller ones, I suppose)
• 1/4C rice vinegar
• 1T sesame oil (optional)
• 2T low sodium soy sauce
• salt & pepper

1) Cut the cucumbers in half, length wise, and scoop the seeds out with a spoon. Then slice the cucumbers, they’ll make a ‘U’ shape.
2) Mix together the rice vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Pour over the cucumbers. This works best if you place the cucumbers in Tupperware, so that you can secure the lid and shake them to coat. But using a mixing bowl works fine too.
3) Let marinate in the fridge for at least one hour (I suggest overnight) then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Garbanzo Tacos

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans (1 can, drained)
    1 (1 1/4 ounce) packet vegan taco seasoning
    lettuce, shredded, to taste
    6 large tortillas or 12 hard taco shells
    tomatoes, chopped, to taste
    onions, diced, to taste
    salsa, to taste

Directions:

1. Dump both cans of beans into a skillet (but use the liquid from only one can). Dump in the taco seasoning. 

2. Stir and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes. 

3. Add beans and other ingredients to your tacos, burritos, and/or taco salads.

Especially good recipe for those who aren’t crazy about the flavor of garbanzo beans. The seasoning takes over.

Serves: 6, Preparation time: 15 min.

So I’ve been traveling up the east coast for the last few days, and will be for the rest of the week. Eating healthy (and vegan) can be especially difficult when you’re on the road, on a plane, or on a train all day- like I’ve been the last few days. But I’ve come up with a few travel/eating tips for y’all!

1) Pick portable, filling snacks. When I was in the airport it was super tempting to grab a pack of potato chips to snack on, but instead I opted for a large bag of tropical trail mix. It had dried bananas, coconut, mangos, raisins, almonds and peanuts. It’s good to have a large bag that you can snack on a little all day, since you’ll never know when you’ll come across a good place to eat a solid meal.

2) Choose drinks that cover all your bases. Although a nice, cold bottle of diet coke would provide a great caffeine kick, it won’t hydrate you, or last very long. Instead, choose a drink like an Odwalla smoothie that will give you protein, vitamins, minerals and fruit servings, as well as quench your thirst.

3) Variety. If you’re traveling, it’s not like you’ll always have a vegan lunch or dinner packed and ready to go, you’ll want to eat out. My suggestion is to find a place where you can get a soup/salad combo with some fruit. Vegan meals are a little tougher to find, and if you just get a salad or just get soup, you might not feel full enough. But if you combine a soup with salad and a side of fruit, you’ll have all your food groups covered and feel great.

I’m currently in Maine visiting my best friend, and we’re hitting the road again today. I’ll try to keep track of all our food and come up with some more tips on traveling healthy :)

Fruit Smoothie!

Ingredients
1 Banana
5 Strawberries
5 Cherries
1.5 Cup of Soymilk
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon

And I added a bit of ice since my fruit was fresh and not frozen, but it’s absolutely delicious and incredibly filling. The cinnamon adds a really nice aftertaste to it.