Healthily eating more protein without eating tons of meat

[AquaticSewingMachine]

Any tips? I'm not veggie, but I don't want to end up eating a lot of meat for all the combined cost/health/environmental reasons. Wondering about buying some protein powder, but what do I put it in?

Typical food at present:
Breakfast: berries with a little low sugar granola and full fat Greek yogurt, or no added sugar muesli with soya milk
Lunch: might be a grain salad if I'm at work, or scrambled egg with fruit and wholemeal toast
Dinner: fishcakes, spag bol, spicy salmon stir fry, pasta, aubergine curry, etc.

Yeah just water, or milk

I use protein powder, just mix with water, shake and drink. I agree the pre mixed can have all sorts in, and sometimes not that much protein. And protein yoghurts. Then I make sure meals have protein in too. If you're wanting to watch calories then a rule of thumb I saw is the protein/calorie ratio should be 1:10 (or better). So 10 grams protein, 100 calories. My protein powder is 24g for 120 calories. Some things that are seen as high protein (nuts for example) aren't really unless you eat loads. Not a problem of course if you're not watching calories too. I didn't think I'd have protein powder when I first started strength training then realised my body really needed a quick way of getting some protein in!

I need 120g of protein/day and try to keep calories low. For breakfast I have an omelette with 2 eggs and 2 slices of ham or 20g of eatlean cheese. For lunch I have either a prawn, chicken, or fat free cottage cheese salad. When I fancy something warm I have chicken with weight watchers baked beans or quinoa. Greek yogurt 0% fat with fruit for snack. Lunch is protein: 160g salmon with steamed veg, 2 haddock fillets with sundried tomatoes and asparagus, grilled chicken with low fat white sauce and veg, chicken curry in the slow cooker, prawn green thai curry with cauliflower rice, tacos (beef mince, fajita seasoning, greek yogurt, lettuce, tomato protein wrap). Depending on the day I may add in a protein shake

I can get it in farm shops, Morrisons and Tesco also stock it. I am in the north of England so I don’t know if it’s a regional product

The easiest way to increase your daily protein intake is to just increase your portion sizes of the protein you do consume.

Turkey bacon/rashers are a good way to add extra protein to an egg dish. I usually have some with banana pancakes.

I dislike most protein bars but like the Fulfil ones; the salted caramel one is nice and is more like a chocolate bar.

I have found adding Chia seeds to breakfast is good - great in yoghurt or musli.

tofu? I really like the smoked one Caldron do otherwise we marinate plain tofu before stir frying.

Okay. I'm staring at the protein powder shelves in Holland and Barrett and I'm just totally fucking overwhelmed. Can anyone give me a specific recommendation for 1) a powder that's good for shakes that is not sugary and good for a beginner, and 2) one (maybe plant based) that's good for cooking with?

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.

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.

Chocolate lean whey protein shake. Here goes 🙂

Lentils! Lentil cottage pie is so filling

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.

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’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'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.

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

I think my plan now is 1) to keep doing protein shakes with a lean whey flavoured powder, probably chocolate because I can't abide sickly sweet fruit flavours; 2) to buy some unflavoured vegan protein powder to mix with yoghurt, cereal, baking, other foods. And to eat plenty of yogurt, egg, and quark! Upping protein intake really seems to be making an impact on muscle mass and definition for me.

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

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).

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

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...

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

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

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.

@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.