Healthily eating more protein without eating tons of meat

Swap your grain salad for a mixed bean salad and add a blob of hummus. Swap aubergine curry for aubergine daal.

Chia seeds in porridge
Tofu
Quinoa

Sorry meant to add creatine is a good choice too if your looking to build
muscle. Read up on it first to make your own choice as I know their are mixed reviews.

ps I use my protein cos it always has sales on and work out cheaper!

Thank you for the suggestions!

Non meat protein sources;

• cottage cheese
• protein yogurt
• greek yogurt (check as this vary greatly)
• protein powder - I stir mine into cooled porridge or make in pancakes. You can mix with water of milk for a drink - protein shaker is easiest
• protein bars (not personally a fan)
• eggs - personally I eat the whole egg not just whiteS
• i know you said less meat but heck chicken sausages and supermarket own brands are super high in protein and can be cooked in advance for a quick snack or sandwich

meal prepping helps as you can make meals with x amount of protein in. I like to make big chillis with turkey mince, loads of veggies and a couple of tins of mixed beans. So whilst not meat free it is less meat…

A lot of protein cereal, bread, pasta are gimmicky so double check labels etc. I don’t think they are worth the money

@Catonamountain I use optimum nutrition gold standard. When I was looking round it seemed to get good reviews. I pay about £55 for the 73 servings tub.

@bingbummy It depends what your goal is. I need more protein as I'm building muscle which might be the case with others on the thread as is the exercise board. There's a massive gap between protein deficiency and fuelling your body specifically for muscle gain.

It's very difficult to not get enough protein. I've not eaten meat in 20 years and my child never has, she's 6. She does not have kwashiorkor. We do eat a lot of beans and pulses. Do you eat those? I doubt you are anywhere close to a protein deficiency.

That Elle MacPherson protein powder looks very fancy but omg the price! Can anyone recommend a slightly more reasonable one? Is the My Protein one very bland? I drink Complan as an after exercise drink as it's not too sweet

The trouble with these are that they aren't a complete protein source

I am veggie and have been making a conscious effort to increase protein too but trying to limit processed foods. I do like tofu and eggs but can't tolerate them at each meal.

I have protein powder with my breakfast (I use Bulk Powders Whey in Vanilla). I mix it with a plant milk, some berries and a handful of oats and find this keeps me full for a bit longer. I have lots of greek yoghurt, high protein pasta (such as Explore Cuisine) - rest of the family will have regular pasta and I will substitute mine for one made from edamame/lentils etc. I try use silken tofu to make other meals where the tofu is not so obvious (if that makes sense) - recently made pancakes using it with some plant milk and almond flour then topped with greek yoghurt and a little choc hazelnut spread plus berries.

Other things as people have mentioned are lentils and beans as much as possible. I make seitan at home using wheat gluten and chickpea flour

I'll be honest, tracking is my downfall and I don't have a clue how much I actually do consume in grams. All meals are made at home with approximate quantities so it is really time consuming to enter onto an app to work out exact calories or macros. I do need to invest that time at some point as it is the only way I am going to sort my figure out but have not yet committed...

I also use protein powder. I was told that soy milk has the most protein in it outside of cows' milk.

In the mornings I tend to have a DIY smoothie - frozen berries, 100ml milk, natural skyr yoghurt and a scoop of vanilla whey protein (I use Bulk).

If you want to take more protein without eating tons of meat, just added below mentioned veg in your food diet.

Edamame.
Lentils.
Pinto beans.
Chickpeas.
Mung beans.
Fava beans.
Lima beans.
Green peas

Try mixing a bag of unflavoured protein powder with the flavoured one to get a more tolerable sweetness level.

I'm vegan and I use Diet Plant PhD protein shakes to get more protein and calories. I got the strawberry flavour and its not bad, but VERY sweet. Excessively sweet. However, if you mix it with sour natural non-dairy yoghurt its much more palatable. Probably the amount of artificial sweeteners in it isn't ideal though.

I’ve got USN diet protein but it’s quite sweet so I’m guessing it’s full of sweeteners!
what about tinned fish like tuna?
or adding flax/chia seed to your yoghurt for breakfast?

I haven't eaten meat for 50 years and I'm perfectly healthy. All you have to do is google protein sources. I'm not a big eater these days being older so I often take protein and vitamin supplements.

I struggle with this. I do blend silken tofu into sauces such as pasta or curries. If you have a paneer or egg curry, it's an extra hit. You can make it into a dip too.

Babybel. Think 6g protein for the light blue ones.

Lentils! Lentil cottage pie is so filling

I get optimum nutrition gold standard whey. They do it in Holland and Barrett but I get mine from argos, massive tub for £55. When I researched it it seemed to get good reviews.

I get mine from My protein.
I buy chocolate flavour Whey isolate sweetened with Stevia, and unflavoured Collagen, because all the flavoured collagen powder I can find is sweetened with sucralose (which I'm not a massive fan of). I then use half a scoop of each, which makes for a more pleasant and not excessively sweet shake.