A Realistic What I Eat in a Week as a Vegan University Student

In June I finished my first year at university, and moving into my second year next month I thought it would be nice to create this post to possibly help and give inspiration to other students starting university and looking to eat vegan food. I began my university journey vegetarian, but by January I had transitioned to eating a 100% plant-based diet.

I believe one very common misconception of being vegan is that it means you are healthy all the time. Speaking from experience, this definitely isn’t true. There are plenty of unhealthy vegan foods available, and even more so now that the concept of ‘vegan junk food’ is rising in popularity.

Although I admit being vegan does take away a lot of the temptation of buying commonly considered unhealthy food (especially for me with chocolate and cakes), however being a university student inevitably means you aren’t always going to be eating healthy home cooked meals from scratch that you may have at home. I am, therefore, writing this particular blog post to show people the reality of what it’s like being vegan both on a budget and in university halls - it isn’t always going to be perfect acai bowls and quinoa salads!

My university halls had were very limited cooking equipment and kitchen space. We had a very small oven with two hobs, a microwave and a toaster, all to share between twenty students. This may sound ridiculous, but this was because I lived in catered accommodation. This meant between Monday and Friday I went down to a food hall for breakfast and dinner.

I was privileged that my halls catered for vegan food - otherwise I doubt I would have found it as maintainable as I did to live a vegan lifestyle in halls. My halls always provided a great range of alternative milks, vegan cereals, and sometimes vegan croissants at breakfast, and at dinner there was always one vegan option.

The week that I took this food/drink diary was during my last week at university (because of the coronavirus lockdown I left university in March). This also meant that I was not eating out of my halls at all, whereas usually at university I sometimes either made pack-up lunches or bought food out. Additionally to this, because of the coronavirus outbreak my friends and I chose to self-isolate as much as possible, meaning we didn’t go out to any bars or clubs like we would on a typical week.

I would also like to add that I regularly exercise along with having this diet. On this particular week I went on runs between 3km-4km on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and did a core body workout on Wednesday. I also did yoga as a way of relaxing and also stretching after exercise.

I hope you enjoy seeing what food I eat at university, whether you see something new that you’d like to try or you’re a vegan person interested to see what being vegan at university is really like. In this food diary I am also going to try and be as accurate as possible with labelling the exact food I eat this week.

Sunday:

Breakfast - I slept in until 10am and realised I had no food in at all. By the time I had been to my local supermarket and back it was lunchtime. Lunch - Sainsbury’s Vegetable Thai Curry with two slices of rye bread (brand: Schneider Brot German vollkornbrot). Dinner - Carrots, broccoli and cauliflower with three Deliciously Ella Spiced Spinach and Potato Cakes. Snacks - One satsuma, grapes, Off the Eaten Path Chilli and Lime Rice and Seaweed crisps, a few squares of M&S 72% dark chocolate.

Monday:

Breakfast - Kellogg’s Special K cereal with oat milk.

Lunch - Bol Sweet Potato, Lentil & Cauli-Daal with two slices of rye bread. Dinner - Tofu and vegetables with rice and potato wedges. Snacks - Vegan croissant with Whole Earth peanut butter, grapes, one satsuma.

Tuesday:

Breakfast - Kellogg’s Special K cereal with oat milk and a vegan croissant with marmite.

Lunch - Sweet potato ‘rice’ with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.

Dinner - Curley fries and carrots. Snacks - Grapes, three squares of M&S 72% dark chocolate, a handful of pistachios, two slices of toast with marmite.

Wednesday:

Breakfast - Kellogg’s Special K cereal with oat milk and a slice of brown toast with marmite. Lunch - Sainsbury’s Vegetable Thai Curry with two slices of rye bread and two satsumas. Dinner - Tofu pastry with potatoes and broccoli. Desert - Homemade vegan banana cake, watermelon. Snacks - Spring rolls, grapes.

Thursday:

Breakfast - Kellogg’s Special K cereal with coconut milk.

Lunch - Kellogg’s Cornflakes with coconut milk, 1/4 of a bag of Off the Eaten Path Rice & Seaweed sweet chilli & lime crisps and a satsuma (all the electricity in the kitchen was out so I couldn’t cook anything).

Dinner - Vegetables with chips.

Snacks - Banana, Oreos and half a bag of salted popcorn.

Friday:

Breakfast - Kellogg’s Special K cereal with coconut milk and a slice of brown toast with marmite. Lunch - Sainsbury’s Vegetable Thai Curry with two slices of rye bread and half an avocado with tabasco. Dinner - Temper with chips and curry sauce with a side of tomatoes. Desert - One Dark Chocolate Alpro pudding, homemade vegan banana bread.

Saturday:

Breakfast - Banana.

Lunch - Vegan Thai curry with one slice of rye bread and one slice of rye bread with marmite. Dinner - ‘Lazy Vegan Tikka Masala’ ready meal with carrots and peas. Desert - One square of Lint 70% dark chocolate, homemade vegan banana bread Snacks - Curly fries.