What I Eat in a Day PLANT-BASED: Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen

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I absolutely love Dr. Michael Greger, and if you’re a regular around here, you know that I constantly share information from his reliable website, www.nutritionfacts.org. So I am super stoked to team up with 7 other bloggers/YouTubers to share what we eat in a day on a whole food plant-based diet, based on Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen.

Check out the full Daily Dozen Challenge Playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrXw_54EODMBLxs7SktQkFhe8tgJ57I7H

I am going to provide a high-raw vegan one-day menu – as I ate it! It covers and checks all of Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen items in a delicious, easy and of course, nutrient-dense way.

And here is a little super embarrassing story for you. I actually got to meet Dr. Greger a few months ago, when he was on tour and giving a talk here in San Diego.

I get really nervous when I meet superstar vegan docs. They are truly my celebrities. So what did I do? I told him all about how my grandmother loves to collect her own pee and believes in its healing powers. I also told him he should totally find some studies on the health benefits of pee, and probably disprove my grandma so that I can let her know to stop this interesting practice of hers…

Dr. Greger, you will probably forever remember me as the pee girl. I hope this blog post can change our relationship…

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen

I recently finally finished reading Dr. Greger’s book, How Not to Die, which you can buy here. It is truly a wealth of information about nutrition and health, and I highly recommend everyone to read it. Dr. Greger breaks down all of today’s major leading killers, as well as the foods that we can eat to prevent and even reverse them. Fascinating!

In the book, Dr. Greger also introduces his Daily Dozen checklist: the foods he recommends eating every day for the best health possible. I love this checklist (being the health nerd that I am), and it has really helped me make more focused and effective food choices. Check out the full video Dr. G made that covers all items on the checklist.

Something I have learned on my healthy eating journey is that it’s not enough to just remove harmful foods from your diet. It is crucial to also add in the good stuff, and this makes a big impact on our health.

That’s why I am so grateful for Dr. Greger’s work. I know that most of you are already aware that you should not consume animal products – and yes, he presents lots of research on this – because the unbiased research takes a very strong stance against eating animal products for good health.

But more than that – Dr. Greger helps us stay educated about what to add to our diet for the best health possible. For example, I learned from him that I should consume turmeric and flax seeds daily, and these have greatly improved my digestion and my horrible PMS.

These little changes to your diet make a huge impact on your health, and that is why I am so stoked to share with you what I eat in a day according to Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen – checking off all the checkmarks and eating insanely delicious food!

You can download the Daily Dozen app here. 

What I Eat in a Day Vegan: Breakfast

If you know me well, you know how in love I am with smoothie bowls for breakfast. And as you’ll see, they are perfect since they cover so many categories in our Daily Dozen checklist!

I have to say that this smoothie bowl was very intensely “green”, so if you’re just starting out with green smoothie bowls then you will want to add fewer greens in there.

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Daily Dozen Smoothie Bowl

Ingredients

For the smoothie bowl:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup frozen berries
• 2 cups greens of choice (I used spinach)
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Medjoul date

Toppings:

• 5 strawberries, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried mulberries
• 2-3 tablespoons dehydrated buckwheat
• 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter

Instructions

• Blend all smoothie bowl ingredients and top with toppings. 

Notes

For the dehydrated buckwheat: I like to soak a ton of buckwheat overnight, and then dehydrate it until completely crispy and dry - about 24 hours. Then I put it in an air-tight container, and use it on top of smoothie bowls. It's so delicious and nutrient-packed! 

What I Eat in a Day Vegan: Lunch

I am a huge fruit lover, and as part of my high-raw vegan diet, I love eating lots and lots of fruit. So for this meal, I had 2 delicious oroblancos. If you’ve never had oroblanco – it is definitely a fruit you must try during winter months! It is a sweeter version of a grapefruit, and it’s literally my favorite winter fruit!

What I Eat in a Day Vegan: Dinner

Dinner is seriously my favorite part of the day, because that’s when I really get to be creative and combine all of the best plant-based foods into one giant, delicious meal!

Tonight I had a pesto tempeh asparagus bowl, and it was seriously delicious. This is one recipe you must make! It’s simple, nutrient-packed, and of course, checks off all of our daily dozen!

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Pesto Tempeh Asparagus Bowl

Ingredients

• 2 cups arugula
• 5 sprears asparagus
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1/2 block tempeh
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• 2 tablespoons pesto

Instructions

• Soak quinoa overnight in filtered water.
  Drain the water, and rinse the quinoa really well. 
  To prep quinoa, place in a pot with about 1/4 cup water, and cook until all water is absorbed and quinoa is soft and fluffy. With pre-soaked quinoa, this can take only 5-10 minutes. 
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat, and place washed and trimmed asparagus (trim the bottom white, hard part), and cherry tomatoes on it.
• Cook at 400F for about 30 minutes, or until the cherry tomatoes start to wrinkle and the asparagus is soft (pierce with a fork to check). 
• Meanwhile, cut a block of tempeh into cubes, and marinate half of it in 1 tablespoon tamari. Let it sit until you finish prepping everything else. 
• Prepare the pesto. The delicious and easy, oil-free pesto recipe I used it here: https://www.soulintheraw.com/vegan-diet-meal-plan/
• Put it all together: place arugula in a bowl, top with quinoa, tempeh, asparagus, roasted cherry tomatoes, and a few dollops of pesto. Yum!!!

What I Eat in a Day Vegan: Supplements and Exercise