I tend to eat beans daily, tofu, seitan and lots of vegetables in general, and I thought I was okay but when I started actually tracking my macros I noticed my carbs are always too high and my protein intake too low.

I’m super petite, and my whole daily caloric intake is much lower than a normal sized adult - namely around 1400kcal maintenance. I am eating 1200kcal now that I’m in a slight deficit because I’m trying to lose few kilos.

Any ideas about how to navigate this? I tried going back to animal protein but it didn’t sit well with me.

Usually it's oranges, ginger, lemons, cinnamon on the list, but according to research these are also as powerful, sometimes more:

• Red peppers - contain more vitamin c per gram than oranges,
• Raw carrot juice and / or sweet potatoes - super high in beta-carotene which the body converts to vitamin A (good for immune function of the gut and respiratory tract),
• Mushrooms - any mushrooms, for beta-glucans (they increase IgA antibodies), and vitamin D (have to be vitamin D labelled) as deficiencies are generally higher in winter,
• Hemp seeds - a highly bioavailable source of zinc, which helps feed immune cells' response to pathogens.

Happy to share study sources! Does anyone have any more foods to try for better immunity?

This mocha smoothie made with Japanese sweet potatoes is one of my favorite concoctions when I need to wake up and feel nourished at the same time. Sweet potatoes of all kinds are surprisingly delicious in smoothies and Japanese sweet potatoes with the purple skin are the sweetest I've used. Blitzing whole dates into a liquid ingredients is always my favorite way to sweeten almost everything because you get healthy fiber, nutrients and flavorful caramel notes.

Blitz together until smooth:

▪1½ cup plant milk, unsweetened
▪1 cup Japanese sweet potato, cooked in oven then peeled
▪¼ cup dates (packed), chopped then measured
▪1 Tbsp nut butter (or sub with tahini or sunflower seed butter)
▪1 Tbsp cocoa powder
▪1½ tsp instant coffee
▪½ tsp vanilla extract
▪¼ to ½ cup ice cubes (optional)

Without the ice, this recipe makes approximately 22 oz (one very large smoothie or two medium smoothies).

Check out more of my creative plant-based smoothie recipes here https://maximalistvegan.com/category/sweet/smoothies/?utm_source=rdt

I spotted this at Costco yesterday. Has anyone tried it? Thinking of recreating it. Ingredients are: chickpeas, quinoa, bulgur wheat, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, celery, onion, kale, cabbage, carrot, and an apple cider vinaigrette.