Complete Proteins

If you are vegan or vegetarian, you are familiar w/ the pairings of legumes and grains to equal complete protein. If you aren't, listen up!! Healthy, organic protein is VERY expensive. I'm not saying its overpriced, I'm just stating the obvious. As a family of four we can EASILY spend $100/week just on organic meat, if we eat meat every night. NOT in our budget.

Our solution is to eat a high quality, organic or all-natural protein 2-3 nights/week and to eat vegetarian the other nights. We ate a lot of eggs before BellyButton was diagnosed, and were able to get high-quality organic protein from that not-so-ungodly-expensive source. Of course, that has changed. So, if you, like us, need to find less-expensive high-quality protein, you should look into using legume/grain/nut/seed complete proteins. Here is how it works:

A complete protein is made up of 8 amino acids (with long names you don't need to know). Most grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and veggies are deficient in a couple of these amino acids. Because our bodies can't 'store-up' these amino acids (yes, there is debate on how long your body can store amino acids), you need to combine foods that will provide you with all 8 amino acids during a meal or a day. For example:

1 cup garbanzo beans + 2 TBS tahini (yes, hummus is a complete protein)
2 tbs almond butter + 1 slice bread made w/ seed, legume, or grain flours
1 cup rice pasta + 2 tbs garbanzo beans
1 cup lentils and garbanzos + 1 cup rice (yes, the curry I posted is a complete protein)
Quinoa is a complete protein by itself, when combined w/ some fresh veggies, it's even better!

Basically, if you are eating a good combination of grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, and veggies you do NOT need to worry about having enough protein in your diet. And eating organic vegetarian complete proteins is A LOT less expensive than eating organic meat-sourced proteins.