The most common question people ask us about our vegan diet is “What about X, how do you get enough of it?” The “X” is usually protein or iron or some other critical nutrient. Here is a power drink that Aleta and I slam down every morning before we start our day. The shake has all the ingredients I talked about in the “Superfoods for Vegetable Haters” posts. The recipe is below:

• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tbsp chia seed
• 1 tbsp hemp seed
• 2 tbsp flax seed
• 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses

Pour the soy milk and water into a shakable container. Grind all the seeds in a coffee grinder and pour into the cup. Add the molasses last. Seal your container and shake until your arms fall off. Open the container and slam down. It will taste like a sugar/gingerbread cookie.

Below is a comparison of what you just drank to an 8 oz trimmed (1/8 inch) sirloin steak.  All I did in creating this chart was use the facts printed on the nutritional labels of all the food ingredients.  Obviously, this drink does not substitute the satisfaction of gnawing on a juicy steak over a bottle of red wine on a Friday night. Still, the nutrition speaks for itself. The one thing the steak has over the shake is the concentration of protein. Still, the shake gives you 25% before you start your day with 3 meals left and plenty of nutrients to get your brain engaged (think twice about coffee, this is a natural stimulant).