Cheap, high protein, no soy vegan?

My typical daily food intake looks like this:

Breakfast: steel-cut oats with berries, grated Brazil nut, and ground flax seeds

Morning snack: fruit

Lunch: huge salad of baby spinach, grated carrots, red bell peppers, broccoli, peas or beans, artichoke hearts, a few black olives, sunflower seeds, and a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar

Afternoon snack: more fruit

Dinner: brown rice, lentils, and cooked vegetables

I added all this up in the portions I actually eat, and it came out to 1,431 calories and over 62 grams of protein (14% of the calories). You could easily bump down the calories and bump up the protein by replacing some of the nuts and seeds with lentils or beans.

Good luck!

Go for hemp proteins. "Cheap" and "good quality" do not usually go together, unfortunately. I am vegetarian as well, but I use soy (A LOT OF IT), so I wish I could tell you brands :( But yeah, go with hemp...it's becoming more popular.

BTW If for some reason you are not using soy because of estrogen concerns, let me tell you that I know for an ABSOLUTE FACT (it's non-disputable) that soy does not increase the estrogen in your body anywhere slightly significantly in any way. If you are allergic, of course, that is another story. So yeah the whole estrogen soy thing is a total myth....it's not even the same type of estrogen we humans have in our bodies and the amount in soy is so little that it does not effect you in any way. It is the only food that is a complete protein and it has high health benefits including greatly reduced risk of breast cancer for those who consume it on a regular basis (Japan, a leading consumer in soy, has one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the world).

beans...lentils, nuts all are great sources of protein.

you can cook beans and make a great tasting "hamburger" with them.

Add grains too. Whole grains like bulgher wheat also have protein as to many sprouts.

Most vegetables, while very healthy are so low in calories that they don't even have to be counted in Weight Watchers diets and are also low enough in calories that it is impossible to eat enough of them to effect blood sugar in diabetics so don't have to be counted there either.

If thats all you were eating, no wonder you weren't getting enough calories.

You don't have to eat a lot you just have to change WHAT you are eating.

Add cooked garbanzo beans and almonds or pecans to your salads.

make a meal of beans and rice seasoned with peppers, tomatoes, onions and celery.

Make some of your veggies a baked potato with a salsa topping or a sweet potato with butter and salt.

Drink more of the other alternative milks like almond or rice milk...In fact, coupled with a nice whole grain cereal, its a great breakfast.

Being vegetarian doesn't mean you ONLY eat fruit and veggies.

Quinoa is a little more pricey but it's cheaper than soy veggie burgers anyways and is a complete source of protein! Your plain old kidney beans are also cheap and you can buy them presoaked in cans with different sauces (vegetarian/vegan of course) and theyre very tasty! Remember to eat rice with your beans to get all your essential amino acids. Lentils are very good too and cheap they take a long time to cook (as well as chickpeas) but both can be bought in cans ready to go. Dairy alternatives like almond and rice milk contain protein and are easier on the body too! Try eating nuts like almonds, psittachios, walnuts etc for essential fatty acids and of course protein. So many options out there! You can make bean and rice burgers, you can throw lentils in soup, vegetarian chillis made with kidney beans. Quinoa is my personal fav and easy to make! Throw it in a rice cooker with double the amount of water as Quinoa wait 10-15 minutes and youre done!

please read this

http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/protein.html