Need food ideas that are high protein

I am a fairly new vegetarian, and I'm having trouble getting enough protein everyday. I've read that I should be getting a minimum of 74g a day. I am normally in the range of 40-60 a day. Does anyone have some suggestions of food I could try? I'm not big on the fake "meat" Its kind of gross to me.

 

Beans and lentils are really high in protein.

i'm not sure if your're eating dairy or not but-

beans, nuts, certain instant oatmeals, soy milk, soy cottage cheese, yogurt, egg whites, spinach

I don't know if you are ovo-lacto vegetarian or not, so here's some suggestions (please excuse the dairy/eggs items if you don't eat them!)

Eggs and Dairy

• Egg, large - 6 grams protein
• Milk, 1 cup - 8 grams
• Cottage cheese, ½ cup - 15 grams
• Yogurt, 1 cup – usually 8-12 grams, check label
• Soft cheeses (Mozzarella, Brie, Camembert) – 6 grams per oz
• Medium cheeses (Cheddar, Swiss) – 7 or 8 grams per oz
• Hard cheeses (Parmesan) – 10 grams per oz

Beans (including soy)

• Tofu, ½ cup 20 grams protein
• Tofu, 1 oz, 2.3 grams
• Soy milk, 1 cup - 6 -10 grams
• Most beans (black, pinto, lentils, etc) about 7-10 grams protein per half cup of cooked beans
• Soy beans, ½ cup cooked – 14 grams protein
• Split peas, ½ cup cooked – 8 grams

Nuts and Seeds

• Peanut butter, 2 Tablespoons - 8 grams protein
• Almonds, ¼ cup – 8 grams
• Peanuts, ¼ cup – 9 grams
• Cashews, ¼ cup – 5 grams
• Pecans, ¼ cup – 2.5 grams
• Sunflower seeds, ¼ cup – 6 grams
• Pumpkin seeds, ¼ cup – 19 grams
• Flax seeds – ¼ cup – 8 grams

And don't forget grains and grain products have protein, too .... bulgur, quinoa, seitan, millet, kamut... all very yummy! (And don't forget potatoes!)

VEGETABLE PROTEIN TABLE

GUIDE TO VEGETARIAN PROTEINS

=^..^= MOLLY

 

 

It depends on how many calories are you consuming in a day.  You only need to get 10-15% of your calories from protein in a day.  So if you're eating 2000 calories in a day you'd only need 50 to 75g of protein per day.  If you're only eating 1500 calories you'd need 38 to 56g of protein in a day.

Either way you can easily get the protein you need by eating a wide variety of plant-based foods.  Mushrooms, for example, are nearly 60% protein, broccoli is 33% protein, kidney beans are 25% protein, etc.

Don't worry about your protein intake so much is the main point.  Just eat a wide variety of plants (and even fish a couple of times per week and chicken a time or two) and you'll be just fine.  I would definitely not take the advice to put protein powder on everything and eat tons of cheese and drink lots of milk.  That's a recipe for ill-health down the road.

Thank you for all of the great suggestions! If only 10-15% of my calories need to be protein, I'm not too far off. Maybe I'll change one of my snacks to pumpkin seeds, Yum!

I just found out about quinoa, a grain which has a ton a protein. I just compared quinoa to long grain brown rice, using the info found here on calorie count:

brown, long grain rice: 1 cup, 5 g protein quinoa: 1 cup, 23 g protein

There are lots of ways to eat quinoa, too, such as on salads or with anything you might eat with rice. Search google for ideas.