Orlando Trip Recap!

Hey everyone! As promised, I'm back with a recap of my trip to Orlando! This one will probably be a bit longer because I have A LOT of pictures but I figured that there is nothing wrong with that :) I have a combination of meals I cooked, meals we had in restaurants and some pictures from our activities. Hope you like them!

My friend had to work from home on Thursday so we just hung out for the day in the house. This was before we had gotten groceries so for lunch I made a bagel with peanut butter and banana and it was delicious.

After we went shopping I made my Vegan Chick'n Ranch Pasta Salad for dinner. This one was a twist on my Chick'n Caesar Pasta Salad since we could only find Just Ranch. I added some cherry tomatoes and it was so good. We also found this amazing fresh roasted garlic bread that had super soft and delicious chunks of roasted garlic dotting it. Seriously delicious.

The following day was my birthday and we went to Magic Kingdom! The very first thing I did was get my birthday button and my Minnie Ears :)

Here is Walt and Mickey hanging out in front of the castle.

And of course the castle.

I had an amazing time! It was crowded and VERY hot (90 degrees and blazing sun) but we still had a really fun time, rode a few rides and checked out the shops. If I could make any changes I would have made sure to be more hydrated and I didn't eat anything all day which was stupid and terrible. Still a wonderful time!

That night we were STARVING so we had my birthday dinner at Loving Hut! We started with this amazing wonton soup. The broth is really light and delicious and the wontons are yummy too.

For my main I had the combo number 1, my tried and true favorite. The soup was filling so I didn't get through the whole thing but it was amazing.

The vegan bakery that we had gone to in previous years closed down so the options were limited for vegan birthday dessert. I found this Rice Dream Mocha Ice Cream Pie and it was really yummy!

The following morning we went to Ethos Vegan Kitchen for brunch and I got my absolute favorite breakfast burrito. This beauty is stuffed with faux sausage, potatoes and tofu scramble and smothered in delicious gravy. Seriously one of my favorite meals ever.

Here it is from the inside. Seriously, how good does this look?!

The next morning we went to the farmers market at Lake Eola. Their market is amazing and huge and I love going there when I can. I picked up a beautiful necklace which I'll show you in another post. After the market we walked around the lake and I grabbed some scenic shots for you.

They painted the amphitheater as a rainbow after the Pulse Nightclub Shooting and I think it looks amazing and is a beautiful tribute.

After the market I made us some brunch. I made a very sad loaf of banana bread (the texture was off and the bottom was soggy because he did not have a cooling rack) but redeemed myself with one of the best tofu scrambles I've ever made. It had tofu, spinach and grape tomatoes and was seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. So simple but so delicious.

That night I made a "Sunday Dinner" with one of my favorite foods ever. My mom makes these roasted potatoes in French Dressing and I know it probably sounds weird but it is so damn good you guys (just make sure the french dressing doesn't have honey in it). I made some baked tofu with the same dressing (I also added salt, pepper and garlic to the potatoes and tofu) and we had some delicious roasted asparagus. It was a really amazing meal.

So that's pretty much everything! I hope you enjoyed it and maybe got some meal ideas out of it. I cooked a lot more this trip and I think we had some really great vegan meals. I had an amazing time and a wonderful birthday weekend and I'm so grateful to my friend for making it special!

I hope you all had a great weekend as well <3

Grocery Haul

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well and that you are all enjoying your weekend. I woke up this morning and headed over to Trader Joe's and probably grabbed the most random groceries ever but I'm pretty excited about my haul. I figured I'd share it with you along with an amazing Farmers Market purchase that I made yesterday.

I grabbed some sprouted tofu, sparkling limeade, grape tomatoes, bok choy, one GIANT potato, baby carrots and some romaine hearts.

There was also Inner Peas, Everything Pretzel Slims, Soy Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream, Fat Free Refried Beans, Slivered Almonds (for salad) and some Lavash.

I follow Macaron 5 Chic on social media (a local Macaron baker who sells at farmers markets) because she always makes one vegan flavor to sell at the market. I wasn't really planning on getting any this week (I just finished the chocolate mint ones that I froze from a few weeks/month ago) but when I saw the new flavor was Peanut Butter Chocolate I got in my car and ran over before work.

I got there just in time to grab the last 5 she had left! I was there around 8:30 and she had already sold out of the vegan flavor! That's amazing!

They are beautiful and she let me try one of the minis that she brings as samples and you guys. It is her best flavor yet!! So freaking good.

I was waiting for an appointment on Monday and used my phone's backward camera to make sure my makeup hadn't melted off of my face and decided to randomly take a picture of myself. As you know I don't take a whole lot of pictures of myself so I figured that's progress. My gray hair seems to be multiplying dramatically nowadays but it's looking kind of cool and highlighty. So here I am waiting for an appointment on a hot day (and my makeup had miraculously not melted, ha!).

I hope that you are all enjoying your weekend! Tonight we are going out for a birthday dinner for my brother (his actually birthday was yesterday) and hopefully tomorrow will be mellow. What did you guys do this weekend as the summer is winding down?

Lazy But Yummy Food

Hey everyone! Happy Saturday! So excited for the weekend to start :) I definitely appreciated the shorter week. I'm still feeling a bit lazy with meals so what I've photographed is lazy not healthy food but I promise I did eat veggies this week, ha! I should have some more vibrant, healthy food to show you next week. I'm also excited about my plans for tomorrow. It looks like the weather should hold up and I'll be able to share it with you on Tuesday!

I couldn't decide what I wanted on my bagel so I did half with tofutti and half with the hummus for sandwiches, sun dried tomato and basil. This is a poppy bagel.

Vegan nachos!!! I've been craving nachos forever and finally decided to make them! I used a salad plate to make it look nice and full and topped the chips with Trader Joe's fat free refried beans, daiya cheddar shreds and green onion. Dipped in tofutti sour cream (which is seriously amazing!).

Lazy chinese food lunch special of tofu, broccoli and garlic sauce with rice.

I stopped by the farmers market this morning because I had to try the new Vegan Mint Chocolate Macarons from Macaron 5 Chic! I've been so excited to try this flavor so I popped in and picked up a 5 pack for $9. I don't know the normal price of macarons but I thought it was pretty fair? They had samples of mini macarons (which are adorable by the way) and I tried it and it's DELICIOUS!

Here is the glamor shot, haha. They are beautiful. I'll probably freeze a few to savor over the next few weeks :)

I am currently snacking on these gorgeous blackberries which I also picked up from the farmers market (quite pricey at $4.50) and they are also delicious.

As soon as I publish this blog I will grab an iced coffee and use my favorite Silk Original Soy Creamer in it.

So that's what I have today! I hope you all enjoy your weekend! Let me know if you have any fun plans :) I'll see you on Tuesday with some more colorful food hopefully!