Name: Walnut buckwheat chocolate smoothie
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 1/4 cups walnuts; 1/4 cups buckwheat groats; 1/2 frozen banana; 1/2 cups frozen zucchini or frozen cauliflower; 1 pitted date ((or more depending on how sweet you want)); 1,5 tbsp raw cacao powder; 1 tbsp coconut butter; 1 tbsp flax seeds; 1 tbsp hemp seeds; 1 tbsp vegan protein powder; 0,5 tbsp chia seeds; pinch of salt; optional: 1/4 tsp Ceylon cinnamon and 1/4 tsp ground cardamom; 1/2 cups plant-based milk; Toppings: berries or whatever you like

…AND WHAT I EAT IN A DAY

Walnut buckwheat chocolate smoothie has been my go to breakfast for many days in a row. It’s creamy, smooth, chocolatey without chocolate and deliciously nourishing. In addition to the smoothie recipe, I thought it would be a good time to share what I eat in a day as a clean eating vegan, starting with this breakfast.

Balanced breakfast as a routine

It has been quite tough some days to eat just clean wholesome food. I’ve had cravings, bad ones. And I’ve slipped a couple of times. One meal I’ve managed to keep healthy and wholesome is my breakfast.

Before this diet, my breakfast was loaded with carbs. I ate oatmeal or toast, a piece of fruit and some veggies. There’s nothing wrong with carbs, but for me, in the wrong proportion they’re not healthy.

In addition to hormonal issues with my thyroid, I’ve had blood sugar issues. I had gestational diabetes twice, even though I was not overweight and I was eating a pretty optimal diet before and when I was pregnant. I managed my gestational diabetes with a healthy diet, but I still have to get yearly blood sugar controls, so that I’m not in risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Learning to make balanced breakfast a routine has been one of the highlights of this diet. I’ve learned to make a breakfast with adequate protein and healthy fats, so that all the macro nutrients are balanced in a way that is healthy for me.

Making breakfast starts in the evening, when I put a small handful of nuts, seeds, buckwheat into a bowl, pour water on top so that everything is covered and let the bowl sit in the counter overnight. In the morning I drain and rinse nuts and buckwheat and blend it with other nourishing ingredients into a thick smoothie pudding.

Get the recipe here

Healthy snacking

What I’ve noticed now is that I feel full after my breakfast in a way that I’ve never felt before. I also feel full of energy and I’m more focused. And something else has happened too. I don’t feel like snacking anymore!

I used to snack between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. Mostly fruit or a sweet treat I was recipe testing, or even overnight oats leftover from breakfast. I’ve named many of my snacks “dessert snacks”, because they’re sweet and creamy like dessert. Some of my favorite sweet snack (and breakfast) recipes are here.

Snacking is totally okay if you snack on the right foods, but because I was snacking mostly on carbs, these snacks weren’t doing any good for me. In fact, it was like riding a roller coaster with my blood sugar, making me crave more and more carbs.

Lunch time struggles

Now that I don’t feel the need to snack, I have about 4 hours in between breakfast and lunch.

I’ve struggled with lunch the most. Not because I don’t know how to make healthy and wholesome food, but because it feels so time consuming to prepare everything from scratch. It FEELS time consuming, but it really isn’t.

Meal prepping is the key

I wish I had the meal prepping skills of Corey, who runs one of my favorite vegan family food Instagram’s @thevegansix I think a good meal prep is the key to eating clean every day without struggles. And that’s what I’m learning now little by little.

I’ve started with the very basics:

Cooking a big batch of quinoa
Making a big soup, which lasts for days
Chopping raw veggies and storing them in a glass container in the fridge
Making a batch of my favorite roasted nuts, sunflower seed “parmesan” or quick almond feta
Having fresh herbs always available, because herbs and the above mentioned nuts and seeds make any meal super delicious

My lunch is actually all these foods mixed together, so good! Creamy broccoli soup (recipe coming later) topped with quinoa, nuts and seeds and fresh herbs and greens. I also have some raw vegetables on the side. Not pictured here is my second helping of quinoa and herbs 🙂

Wholesome desserts

I have a sweet tooth but it’s not as bad as it used to be. Fruits such as bananas, watermelon, and berries taste very sweet now that I’m not used to eating refined sugar every day. My taste buds are working better in every way.

I still create all kinds of sweet recipes (containing all kinds of sugars), and I’ve slipped a few times. And I’m all okay with that. This is a journey, and cravings come and go.

But I try to maintain a refined sugar-free diet every day because this is a cleansing diet, a gut reset, and too much sugar always interferes with the healing process.

It’s good that I’ve developed a passion for creating wholesome banana and date sweetened treats. These treats might not be super sweet (my kids always request syrup on top of my wholesome treats…) but they are sweet enough if you don’t eat a lot of sugar.

My latest obsession is this berrylicious banana sweetened strawberry cake and if you have no time for baking, a quick treat is to mix coconut butter and frozen berries! Coconut butter has a natural sweetness and it tastes super delicious with berries.

Dinner time bread cravings

I rarely eat the same food for lunch and dinner. I usually prep a buddha bowl type of meal like sweet potato fries and other roasted veggies and some grains (or pasta) for the whole family, but sometimes my husband cooks for the kids (like today) and I can get creative in the kitchen prepping something just for me.

I really miss bread most days so that’s what I’m mostly experimenting with. Only nut and seed flours, buckwheat flour and millet is allowed on this gut-healing diet so that’s what I’m experimenting with (recipe idea from Kat loves kale).

I love to eat my flatbread with avocado, herbs, sauerkraut and fresh veggies. Nourishing, simple and keeps me full.

No more evening snacking

I eat my dinner quite late, around 7 or 8 pm. It’s important to give my digestive system a rest so I don’t eat anything after 9. This is something very new for me as I used to be a big evening snacker.

Evenings used to be my weakest moment when I indulged on everything. I usually ate bread, vegetables, vegan cheese, nuts and seeds, fruit, yogurt, AND that wasn’t enough so I had a sweet treat for dessert. Usually I finished my evening snacking at 11 pm!! And then I would go to bed at 11.30 pm, wake up at 6.30 am and have breakfast at 7. Not a lot of healthy resting time for my gut.

Clean eating diet goals

This rhythm of eating suits me much better than my previous unhealthy eating habits. And I can really say this because after 3 weeks I am feeling much less bloated and tired.

My goal with this clean eating diet is not only to heal my gut and find hormonal balance. I also aim to:

develop a healthy relationship with food
notice how different foods and eating rhythms affect my health
get rid of my harmful old eating habits
introduce new healthier routines
become a master of meal prepping!

If you’re not familiar with my wellness journey, here’s my background story on how I first started eating vegan, developed orthorexia, slipped into eating vegan junk food and developed lots of health issues along the way. Now I’m on a healing vegan wellness journey and I want to share my journey with you.. to inspire you to take care of yourself too ♥

And finally…here’s one of the most important meals of the day: my walnut buckwheat chocolate smoothie 🙂

Thank you for reading my journey!

Lots of love from the forest,

Tiina

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