Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm exhausted but looking forward to the weekend!I'm especially excited because I actually have plans! I am going to go to a psychic fair that is being held on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been to one so I'm not entirely sure what it entails but it sounded like something that would be interesting to check out. I've been a lot more spiritual over the past year or so and I think that this would be really cool. I will definitely let you know how it goes!

Other than that I plan on working on some art for the event I will be selling at in a few weeks and RELAXING. I've been so drained since I started this new job but I'm really trying to get back into the swing of things. For today, I have some stuff I ate to share with you. I apologize in advance for the horrendous lighting. I am not home during daylight all that often anymore.

As you know, I'm not really a pasta person. One pasta dish I did love was fettuccini alfredo. I really wanted to try making it and I wanted it in its proper, unhealthy form. I found a super easy recipe online and gave it a try. The texture of the sauce was great but I used the wrong creamer. It was supposed to be unsweetened but had a hint of sweetness so it was a little odd. I think I need to try and find Ripple or something completely unsweetened and give this a try again. Oh, and because I don't eat pasta I had to use udon noodles for this dish 😂

You guys know that I'm a grilled cheese master and this one was no exception. It was perfect on sourdough bread and so so gooey. This was exactly the comfort meal I needed!

I've been enjoying avocado toast for breakfast. Always delicious.

Delicious honeycrisp apples in horrible lighting. So sorry.

Random snacky type lunch plate. This is the ranch dip from Trader Joe's. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It has a nice flavor but you really get hit with that coconut flavor. I'm wondering how it would be with something more savory. For now, I'm not sure I'd repurchase.

Veggie filled plate with potatoes, broccoli and delicious asparagus. This was a great meal and I had it several times this week.

I hope that you all had a great week and that you enjoy your weekend! 💚

Family Birthday Dinner, Stuff I Ate and Some Art

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. We made it through another week. I'm so exhausted, I'm looking forward to just relaxing a bit this weekend. I'll finally be able to catch up on your posts. I'm so sorry that I've been absent, it's just been so much happening at the same time. On the plus side, I have a lot to share with you, including some new art that I've made.

I chose a Turkish restaurant for our family dinner for my birthday and got these amazing veggie kebabs with some green salad. It was so delicious, I love this meal so much.

For my birthday treats I got a Rocky Road bar and an Cookies n Cream whoopee cookie. I have been enjoying those for the past few days!

I don't know why I forgot about avocado toast but I did. I had some this week on sourdough bread with some strawberries and it was a quick and delicious breakfast!

There was a lot of quick snacky stuff going on because I've just been feeling off. I enjoyed these veggie chips so much!

We are getting into apple season and I loved my first honeycrisps of the season! I had a root canal done on a tooth a few weeks ago so I'm going to hold off on biting into an apple until I get the post and permanent filling so I cut this beauty up and brought it to work with me.

This is how I love my baked oatmeal! I will either heat it up and eat almost like a dessert or I'll add some almond milk and heat it and turn it back into regular oatmeal. Either way it's so damn good.

And now onto some art! I have been playing with inks and stamps lately and I am LOVING the aesthetic. This is very much me and my style and I'm going to be working on a lot of pieces like this to start selling!

I made a few pieces as little gifts as well. They were personalized for each recipient.

This piece is my favorite piece I've ever created. I love the message, the imagery, the colors and composition. I'm so proud of this piece and I think it really captures who I am as a human being.

This is just a close up of the sentiment and the fucking amazing moth. I love it so much,

So that's what I have for you today. I'll make sure to catch up on your blogs this weekend and I'll be back with a new post on Tuesday. Have a great weekend my friends 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: Stuff My Friend Ate!

Hi friends! I can't believe we are almost there! The first two weeks were quite easy for me. I had a ton of ideas and a lot of energy to get it all done and to get these posts out! This week has been a little more difficult because I'm running through my ideas and also because I've had something going on behind the scenes that I'm ready to share with you. I have been looking for a new job for a while now. Financially, I really needed to move on and I had just outgrown this position. I've been here for 11 years and have been stagnant for most of them. It was time.

So, last week I was offered a position for a new job and I happily accepted! I was waiting to announce it until it was 100% locked in and here we are! I start on September 3 and I'm so thrilled. It will be a significant improvement for me financially and it will be more challenging and busy. I'm really looking forward to it and I'm so excited to share this news with you. It was time for something great to happen and it did. 

So that is a little of the background of this past week. I've been really busy between the interview and clearances and things like that so my ability to get posts out has been more difficult. Luckily, I have an amazing friend that eats amazing vegan food and I thought it would be fun to share her meals with you! She enthusiastically agreed to let me share her pics and meals. I love this idea too because a lot of it is stuff you wouldn't otherwise see here because of my own taste preferences. Her name is Karen and if you agree with me that her food looks freaking incredible you can follow her on IG @vegan_atheist71.

This is penne a la vodka with Victoria Vegan vodka sauce, Violife Mozzarella, Go Veggie Parmesan, MorningStar Popcorn chick'n (which I recently found and purchased and can't wait to try!), and a leftover garlic knot from a dinner she had previously (which you'll see soon). As you know I am not a pasta person but this has me DROOLING. Holy crap!

This beautiful creation is Eat Nice Creamy Ricotta Ravioli, Gardein Meatless Meatballs, and Go Veggie Parmesan. Also a delicious looking pasta dish!

This beautiful plate is the No Evil Chick'n Fajitas with guac, corn salsa, Tofutti Sour Cream and rice and beans. 

You know I'm not into bell peppers so I'd probably never try this product but she loved it and it looks awesome!

This was a gorgeous Buffalo Tofu Pesto Pizza from a restaurant called Pazzo Ristorante in Wading River, NY. I certainly hope to join her and our other friends there someday because their vegan menu looks incredible!! Her garlic knot from the penne a la vodka meal was leftover from this restaurant.

I also told her I'd be at her house for brunch after seeing this plate! How amazing does this look?! That is a beautiful tofu scramble with toast, vegan sausage and a perfect avocado!

This came from a small cafe in NYC (I don't know the name, sorry!) and it is a quinoa with veggies dish that looks awesome.

Look at her sweet pup!! I can't with this picture. This is Maywah ginger chick'n with rice. I love that face so much.

Finally, her lovely daughter made her this sweet breakfast in bed for Mother's Day! It's so cute and it made her so happy 😀💚

So, I hope that you enjoyed seeing stuff my friend Karen ate! I thought it was a fun change of pace to share her meals because they are different from things I normally share here. She makes amazing food and I wanted to show it off! I'll be back tomorrow with ANOTHER LONG ISLAND RESTAURANT WITH VEGAN OPTIONS! Who am I?! 😂💚

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone, I hope all is well and that you had a Happy 4th of July. Mine was quiet and I was quite emotional because I know I would have been spending the day with him. These milestone days like holidays and anniversaries and birthdays are going to be difficult but I'm doing the best I can to get through them. I decided to work on some art which was a pretty decent distraction for a bit but I definitely was emotional before and after that time.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, that night was the first memorial for Doug. It was really nice and a lot of people showed up to honor him and celebrate his life. There was time for mingling and meeting new people and there were speakers there to honor him. Midway through the speakers I was approached and asked if I would like to say anything and I instantly started panicking. All of these speakers had time to prepare and I was on the spot and I am NOT a public speaker. I instantly had anxiety but I knew that if I didn't speak I would never forgive myself to I agreed. I got up on that stage in front of at least 100 people and I spoke off the cuff and from the heart. I was terrified and it was not polished (I lost my words at one point) but it was honest and raw and vulnerable and I'm really glad I pushed through my own fears and discomfort to honor what we had. I know he was proud of me and I'm really proud of myself.

It was pretty late after the event but a group of us decided to go out for some vegan food in honor of Doug. We went to a restaurant that he really loved called PS Kitchen. One of the really nice things about this restaurant is that they donate part of what they make to charity and I know that he really loved that. It was a little sad because we arrived there essentially at the exact time of the accident exactly one month prior. We toasted Doug and enjoyed some great vegan food and company for him. It was really late (they were serving their late night menu) and although I didn't have dinner I went with a caesar salad because anything else would have been quite heavy. The caesar salad was DELICIOUS, the dressing was so yummy and it was a really great choice.

Overall the event was really nice and I met a lot of really amazing, supportive people. I have had people reach out since to make sure that I'm ok and that night I had a lot of people approach me with their condolences. Doug loved connecting people together and I truly believe his last act of service to his loved ones was to bring us all together.

I did have some pretty great meals through the rest of the week as well.

I made a pizza on the Trader Joe's crust and I added a cut up chick'n patty from Aldi to make it like a "chicken parm pizza" and it was SO DELICIOUS. I will definitely do this again.

I tried to be festive for the 4th of July and I had one of the Aldi soy protein burgers (it was very good, not the best I've had but definitely something I'd eat again) with some chips and corn. Also a great meal.

I tried the brownie dessert hummus from Aldi as well and OMG it's SO GOOD. I love it, it's a great way to satisfy a chocolate craving without getting too heavy or decadent. I had it with graham crackers and they were a perfect pairing.

I have been having avocado toast on the sourdough bread from Aldi for breakfast. I have missed eating avocado toast and this avocado was perfect so it was definitely really delicious.

As I mentioned previously, I tried to distract myself from the emotions and the loneliness yesterday by creating some art. I really like the way this one turned out and it was definitely a good distraction for a little while at least.

I really love the sponge painting effect that I've been achieving on my pieces. It's definitely becoming a signature style and I really like it.

I love these colors and quotes as well. I'm very happy with how this piece came out.

So that is all I have for you today. I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend so I can relax and maybe do something fun. I'm not sure what I'll do yet but I know that I have to get out and do something because sitting at home will drive me nuts. I do want to work on some more art as well if I'm feeling the least bit creative. Every day is still a struggle but I'm going to continue to take it one day at a time.

Thank you all so much again for your continued kindness and support. It really means so much to me and I'm so grateful for this community. 💚

Quickie

Hey everyone, I hope that all is well. Today's post is going to be a quickie because I still have no appetite and am not eating a ton. I'm having a pretty bad mental health week so I'm just doing the best I can to get through it. For now, I'll just share what I have managed to eat and photograph and hopefully by Tuesday I'll have some for interesting meals to share with you.

I decided to pick up a pumpernickel bagel with tofutti. I took off a bunch of that cream cheese because it was a lot and ate half for breakfast and half for lunch.

This was a dinner one day. Avocado toast and an apple.

Sorry this post was short and boring. I do have a bunch of delicious food to make and hopefully I'll feel like making it soon. My goal is to have way more interesting and delicious food on Tuesday since the weekend is almost here.

Hope you all have a great weekend. 💜

Trader Joe's Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! Sorry for all of the lackluster content lately… it's been a rough end of the year healthwise so it always kind of messes with your meals and eating. I am back on different antibiotics for a tooth issue to while I have to make sure to eat I never actually want to. Anyway, I do have a Trader Joe's Haul to share with you today as well as a few meals.

Also, why doesn't anyone sell Earth Balance butter sticks? I can always get the tubs but I need the sticks for baking and I can only get those at Whole Foods (which is not super close to me). Has anyone else had that problem? Have you found an easier to find substitute? One of my cookie recipes calls for coconut oil which is great but I need butter for the other two. Any tips would be awesome!

Ok so let's get into it!

First up is the produce! Carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, pears, potatoes and an attempt at a bag of butter lettuce. Looking at the picture I'm annoyed at all of the packaging. It's so unnecessary. This has always been an issue for Trader Joe's, maybe one day they will actually fix it.

I decided it was time for my annual treat to the Candy Cane Joe Joe's which are my FAVORITE, some Jasmine rice (when you feel like shit all the time sometimes you just need some frozen rice to get a meal on the table), the Veggie Spring Rolls which I've heard are awesome, the Cranberry Spiced Apple Kombucha, dolmas and chocolate chips.

I had an everything bagel lightly toasted with avocado, salt and pepper. It was really good and exactly what I wanted.

I decided to get some more veggie rolls as well. This time I used my favorite chopsticks that my friend got me from Japan. I love these and they are perfect. I love the rainbow steel ones I got online but they are heavy and big and harder to use so these continue to be my go to!

Sorry this is such a short post but that's what I have for you today! What is on your holiday shopping list? Are you into the holidays or is it just another day for you?

Hope you have a great week and I'll see you Friday!

Stuff I Ate

You guuuuuuyyyysssss!!!! 2 and a half weeks after this car fiasco started it is OVER. After an incredibly disastrous visit to a shady dealership exactly one week ago I decided I just couldn't deal with the search for a pre-owned vehicle and made the decision to lease and I couldn't be happier with that decision. I picked up my car last night and I FREAKING LOVE IT. I've never driven a brand new car before and it is a little intimidating but I am so happy I went in this direction and that this is over. I could never have anticipated how stressful and anxiety inducing this was going to be and I'm so glad I'm past it.

With that said, this week has been pretty underwhelming meal-wise but I'm going to share the stuff I was able to photograph anyway.

This was probably my favorite meal of the week. It was simple but so delicious and I was happy to have avocado toast back in my life. The grapes were refreshing and so good.

We celebrated my niece's 8th (OMG!!!!!) birthday last week and I ended up with this giant plate of pasta with garlic and olive oil and broccoli. It was delicious but as you all know I'm not a big pasta person generally and this portion was HUGE so it lasted for 3 meals for me. 

For a quick breakfast at work I brought a piece of the Trader Joe's vegan banana bread and a pear. It was really good and a great quick meal on the go.

My super random meal of the week was some of the Trader Joe's gyoza (OMG I'M ADDICTED TO THESE!!!!) and a pear. Random combo but still a great meal.

I picked up one of these instant miso ramen cups from Trader Joe's as a quick work lunch when I don't have time to make it and today is that day. I'm going to give it a try for lunch today and I'll definitely let you know how it is.

So that's what I have for you today! I hope that you all have a great week and a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!!!

So. Much. Watermelon.

Hey guys! I hope that all is well! I have to say that everyone is doing just an awesome job with their MoFo posts! I'm sad that I missed the boat this year. I definitely have MoFo FOMO but there is always next year! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend. Mine was a regular weekend (the joy of having a Sunday-Monday weekend) but it was pretty good.

I wasn't able to get a ton of pictures but you'll see a common theme among the three that I did take. I'm sure you can guess from the title what it is. Also, you can see that my indecisiveness has just reached a point where I'll put whatever I want together for a meal whether it goes together or not 😂 I have to say I did enjoy every one of these meals as random as they were.

This isn't a random meal and it was absolutely delicious. Avocado toast on sourdough with some watermelon.

Random meal number 1: Tempura cauliflower with watermelon and corn. I know, weird. But delicious.

Another dish with the same color palette but slightly different. More corn, more watermelon and some longboard style dry roasted potatoes. OMG you guys, this was delicious! I learned about this style of potato from Vegan Peace and I loved it!

So those are the meals I have to share today! I hope that you all have a wonderful week and I'll see you back here on Friday!