WIAT – 1,227 cal day feat. cheezy pasta and chocolate

What I ate today! This is a fairly typical day – dinner varies a lot, but we have this dish twice a week (because the way we make it makes four serves). This post brought to you by ALDI, apparently!

**Breakfast:** Protein shake. I’m not big on breakfast anyway, and get up late (10 AM today), so a shake for breakfast suits me fine. This one is BodyScience (Australian brand) salted caramel, with 250mL light soy milk (and some extra water). The shake has 159 cal and 30.7g protein, the milk has an extra 113 cal and 8.5g protein, so this is my main protein source for the day.

(The cat remains skeptical.)

**Lunch:** Rice cakes with stuff on them, and fruit. The rice cakes are 69 cals, toppings include pesto hummus (ALDI), Tofutti cream cheese, and baba ganoush, topped with a slice of vegan cheddar (51 cal) and sundried tomatoes. We’re having major shortages and skyrocketing prices of fresh produce due to things ranging from fuel prices going up to severe flooding impacting growing areas and I would currently do terrible terrible things for fresh tomatoes that were under *twelve dollars a kilo*. So, sundried it is! Imperial mandarin (50 cals). Lunch in total is 274 cals, not a lot of protein (6g).

**Dinner:** Okay this pasta is a game-changer. It’s Plantasy Foods, Australian brand. Their Mac ‘n Cheez packets have four serves, each one 144 cal and 6.8g protein. To that, we add zucchini and mushrooms largely to bulk it up a bunch, capers, caramelised onion, and garlic (jarred), diced carrots, corn, and peas (frozen mix), and assorted herbs and seasonings, and the main protein is another Australian brand, vegan sausages from Eaty. Each one is 140 cal and 11g protein. Dinner as a whole works out to 353 cal and 23g protein.

**Snacks:** Rice crackers (BBQ flavour from ALDI, I also love their seaweed flavour). I actually graze on these over the afternoon (they’re great when you just want a pop of flavour and crunch), so this is just a representative image. 10 crackers = 90 cal. Dessert – half a piece of chocolate (Moser Roth, the ALDI brand; this was the orange and almond flavour). 67 cal, although a full piece is only 134 cal, so still pretty reasonable! But seriously this chocolate is *incredible*, it’s AU$3 for 125g and *Fair Trade* and goddamn delicious. I also adore their mint, and hazelnut. And about… let’s call it 3/4 a cup of red grapes, about 75 cal. Late-night snack – chicken-style Vege Chips (also an Australian brand), 97 cal. We get packs of twelve, flavours are chicken, BBQ, salt and vinegar, and original. For late-night snacks, I also enjoy single packets of popcorn or rice crackers, which range between 65-110 cal depending on brand. Not photographed – a single dried apricot.

(Chips were about 9:30 PM, so it does actually fit that 12:12 variation of IF, if you’re into that!)

**Drinks:** Water throughout the day (breakfast shake aside). Thankfully, I do genuinely like drinking water!

**Totals:** 1,227 calories, and 71g protein. For other macros, 148g carbs and 36g fat.