I put "vegan foods high in protein" into my search engine. Some of the answers were tofu, seitan, beans/legumes. There were others. Whenever I'm looking for ideas, I use my search engine.

Vegan friends, I've been doing my best to stick as close to a vegan diet as I can without buying and preparing an entirely separate diet for myself. I've had some dairy but not much else off the vegan path. Anyway, I haven't had much energy or been sleeping very well.

Late yesterday afternoon I had a piece of fried (!) chicken with my dinner because that's what husband picked up while he was out running errands. I was too tired to think about making anything else. Anyway, I slept all night plus have the energy to clean my house today. I'm going like the Energizer bunny! All I can think is that it must have been the extra protein because nothing else has changed. I still have the same amount of stress as before, my other habits are the same.

Right now my plan is to get back to vegan but with a protein supplement this time. There are a couple of vegan options (with pea protein) at a shop in town. It doesn't feel quite right that I should need a supplement; shouldn't a healthy diet be enough?

.

If I think I'm running out of energy I go for extra green leafy veggies to up the iron.
(I personally think stodgy fried chicken would slow me down.)
Are you eating enough iron rich foods?
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/iron.aspx
Here is some information about vegan sources of iron I hope it helps and you feel awesome again soon!

Hi everyone,

Here is the thing about protein. See, our body makes up some protein from other nutrients. However, there are 9 ESSENTIAL proteins that our body needs. (This means that we need to find them in food or some form of intake). ANY animal product has ALL the ESSENTIAL protein in them. KENAZWA, that is why you felt energized when you had your chicken. The thing that people are unaware of is that, just because, lets just say, you had almond milk, or peanut butter, and it says it has 7g of protein, THEY are not all 9. They may have like 2 of 9.

That is why, as a vegan, you NEED a diverse diet of protein foods. Lentils, Beans, quinoa, nuts, pasta, tofu, and on and on. If you prepare a meal with lentils, beans, diverse veggies, flax seed, quinoa, tofu and whatever else, you will come across a majority of the essential proteins that EGGS, cow's milk, fish, animal meat has.

I hope this helps.

:drinker:

ok, I am not a psychiatrist, but is it possible you're hitting a mental block with the fried chicken thing? I am constantly having to push myself past mental blocks when working out or talking myself out of "comfort" foods

But as far as vegan proteins- anyone is welcome to friend me and look at my open diary. I'm a petite female who does insanity and I average about 75-90 grams of protein a day. Here are some ideas:

*There are a lot of vegan friendly protein powders at your local health food store.
* Use nutritional yeast as a topping on anything you may use cheese on. Cheap and two tbsp yield about 6 grams of protein.
*Use lentils or quinoa in place of anything you'd usually use rice for and there's an extra 10 or so grams of protein.
*oven roast edemame or chickpeas and use those in place of croutons on a salad (I know it's not really the same, but sometimes you really are just craving the crunchy factor)
*throw a spoon full of almond or peanut butter in those shakes. nom nom nom (i have to be careful. I could literally eat a whole jar of peanut butter in one sitting)
* I'm not crazy about fake meats, but my local health food store sells these dehydrated textured soy things that when you soak in water kind of resemble chicken chunks (?). Anyway, those are really great to throw on top if i'm making stir fry or something
*make a bunch of green protein shakes and store them in mason jars and store in the fridge (look up some recipes on pinterest). They are so easy to grab on the way out the door. mine are usually a fruit, two greens, flax seed and scoop of protein powder. GREAT for a snack
* Tofu. Obviously. lol. I make this tofu pasta dish that my boyfriend goes NUTS for. And he is not veggie. I take tofu and mix a load of nutritional yeast and garlic and spices and mush it up. You can then layer that between lasagna or stuff in shells and then throw some red sauce on that shiz. It's a crowd pleaser- I promise

Hope this helps