Long Time No See

Hey everyone! I hope that you are well and that you enjoyed your holiday. I always love reading about the traditions that families have for the holidays and I've really been enjoying reading the posts that have popped up so far. We didn't really celebrate Hanukkah this year which was kind of disappointing but I've made it a mission to celebrate next year. My brother, sister in law and niece actually had a flight to catch Christmas night so we ended up just doing brunch with them at their house and I love watching Delilah open her gifts.

I know it has been a while since I've posted and I've just been pretty focused on my health right now. The medication I was given for my acid reflux has been amazing and I feel like a new person now. I can eat acidic foods and it doesn't really affect me (unless I forget the medication - more on this later). I'm really glad that I wasn't stubborn and decided to start the medication.

I don't have a lot of food to share at all but I'll show you what I do have!

I stopped by the Sweet To Lick (all vegan) Market a few weeks ago and forgot to share my haul with you. I haven't tried the gyros yet but I'm so excited to! The Follow Your Heart Shreds are definitely good but I'm not as in love with them as other people seem to be. I definitely plan on splurging on some Miyoko's Creamery products at some point but I'm very happy with everything I've tried so far from this haul.

The Saturday before Christmas I met up with my friend and her husband and we went out for Thai food for dinner and then went to see Pitch Perfect 3 (cute but not as good as the first two in my opinion). 

You guys. This was so freaking good. It was a thai eggplant dish and I subbed in some broccoli instead of bell peppers. It had tofu and string beans as well and the sauce was spicier than I anticipated. I had major reflux after this because I forgot to take my medication that night but honestly it was kind of worth it haha. It was delicious.

Because I don't have more food to share I thought it would be fun to share my Hanukkah and Christmas Eve planner layouts with you! I liked my smaller personal planner but missed the big vertical planner so I decided to switch back to the vertical style planner for the new year. I went with the Recollections planner which I got on major discount from Michael's and honestly it looks exactly like the Erin Condren when it's all laid out. Except I paid like $15 instead of the $70-$80 the Erin Condren would cost.

This is my super cute Hanukkah layout! The colors are so pretty but as you can see it is pretty squished.

The pictures do not do this layout justice. It is a foiled Christmas sticker kit and it is stunning in real life. This is the way I plan on laying out my stickers for the foreseeable future until I get annoyed by it, ha!

I just love how it is a planner and scrapbook at the same time.

If you like the stickers you see let me know and I'll be happy to tell you where I got them! The two kits are from Creating & Co. and the others are from a variety of Etsy shops.

I'm house/pet sitting this week so I'll do the best I can to get some fur baby pictures for you. I definitely plan on taking a nice bath on Sunday to relax after the week. I'm going to try to post again this week but the post I want to do requires some things from home… Maybe I'll just use internet pictures but we'll see.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! If I don't post before, please have a very happy New Year and stay safe that night! Thank you all so much for your continued love and support 💜

Grocery Haul and Some Meals

Hey everyone. I hope you are all well. Thank you so much for the kind words in last post. Acid reflux definitely sucks but I've come to find out that gastritis and inflammation in your esophagus is so much worse. So therefore my meals will be small and carefully chosen because I'm in pain and it is stressful every single time I eat because I don't know if what I eat is going to make me feel sick. I've done research to see what will be ok and I've found some conflicting information so I'm sure if what I've read is wrong I'll find out about it soon enough.

I tried to stick to a lot of fruits and veggies and fiber in general. Asparagus, spinach, crappy cantaloupe, three giant sweet potatoes, pears, avocado and broccoli.

Frozen strawberries and peaches, unsweetened almond milk (supposedly very good), black beans and corn.

Here is some oatmeal mixed with a half of a banana that I mashed and topped with the other half.

For dinner I had some steamed spinach, a few sweet potato wedges and some saltines. All bland but sat well so I can't complain.

So this is my life right now 😂 Oh and from my bloodwork it looks like I'm pretty anemic so I'll be discussing that at a different doctor's appointment on Thursday. 

Anyway, sorry to be a Debie Downer! I'll be ok, just need to take the time to heal. I hope that you are all doing well!

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope you are well! I made it a mission this week to at least take a few food pictures and I came through with it. There is not a ton of pictures but it'll give you an idea of what I've been eating lately. I've been having a lot of acid reflux issues lately so I'm researching the best foods to eat to try and minimize it and I have a pretty good plan. Hopefully what has been listed actually works but I'll be sticking mainly to fruits and veggies (no citrus, tomatoes or other acidic fruits), whole grains, etc. Hopefully these will be soothing to my system and I can get this all sorted out soon. Stay tuned, I'll be running to Trader Joe's tomorrow to pick up a few things so there will be a haul for you soon.

For dinner one night I made a tofu scramble with some spinach and it was delicious. I had wheat toast with Earth Balance and some clementines. The clementines were so delicious but a terrible decision and I paid for it. Sadly those will be my only citrus of the season :( It's a shame because oranges are my favorite.

I made some extra tofu scramble for my bento lunch the next day. Tofu scramble on the left and an apple and some almonds on the right. Really delicious.

I picked up some of my favorite hummus and enjoyed that with some whole wheat pita and veggies.

Finally, I also picked up some of my favorite red lentil soup. It was delicious.

So that's what I have for you today! I will be back on Tuesday to share a haul and probably some meals that I've had between now and then. I hope you have a great weekend! I will join you there in 7 hours :)

This And That

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm trying to pull out of this weird headspace I've been in recently but it seems to be taking some time. I know I haven't been putting out a whole lot of content but I am doing the best that I can. Today's post will be short again but I had a few pictures saved up from the week to share with you.

I saw this in the parking lot when I went to get bubble tea and had to take a picture of it. That is the cutest supervisor I've seen in a while.

It had been a few weeks since I had gotten some bubble tea so I decided to treat myself to some this weekend. I got my usual Peach Green Tea with Boba and 50% sweetness.

I used up the rest of a Starbucks gift card on a tall soy salted caramel mocha (no whip, no caramel drizzle!) and it was amazing. I've found that sadly coffee does not agree with me anymore so it is very rare for me to drink it. I've been drinking a lot of tea lately though and have definitely been enjoying it.

This was a meal I enjoyed Sunday night. I made some of my favorite roasted potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts and some baby carrots. It was delicious.

That's what I have for you today. I hope that you have all been well. I'm hoping to have another post for you Friday. We shall see I guess. Hope you have a great week!

A Haul and Some Pups

Hey everyone. I hope that you are well! I am hanging in. I have been on the struggle bus for a little while now but I'm getting there. I have been pretty terrible about blogging and keeping up with all kinds of things but I did try to cobble together a few pics to share with you today. I have a Trader Joe's Haul and a few random pics for you.

The haul is pretty small. I went because there were a few new products I wanted to try and just picked up a few staples as well. I got some baby carrots, frozen pineapple, mini marshmallows (yay vegan!), Coconut Whipped cream in a can (!), Everything Crackers (I forgot to check if they are vegan but I will before I open the box - if not my mom will enjoy them), apple juice, frozen mango, bok choy and some Garlic Dip. I've heard from a million people that this garlic dip is the most glorious thing ever so naturally I had to pick some up. I'll let you know.

I thought this deserved it's own picture. The chick'n tenders are back! I've heard they are different from Gardein now and hopefully they are still good.

I babysat Delilah on Saturday night which meant snuggle time with these two. Tyler decided to lay on top of me with is fine. Closest snuggles ever.

Here is sweet TJ with his sad puppy face.

I rarely ever drink coffee nowadays but I was gifted a Starbucks gift card a few months ago and thought why not try a holiday drink. I went for a tall soy chestnut praline latte (just ask for no whipped cream) and it was really good! I never would have tried it on my own but a friend recommended it and I'm glad she did. 

So that's the update I have for you today. I am going to try really hard to get back into the swing of things with my cooking and whatnot. It's been really busy and I've been blah but I need to pull myself out of this. Any thoughts on what you'd like to see for a Fun Friday post? Let me know.

Catching Up

Hey guys. I am sorry I have been pretty absent lately. I've been dealing with a few things that have been pretty stressful and it seems like it'll take a little longer to resolve so it's been frustrating and taking up a lot of my time. I'm probably going to take it back down to two days a week here just because I am spreading myself thin and I can't make more work for myself right now.

With that said, I do have a few things to share with you today. I have a few hauls and just a few meals to share. I guess it's better than nothing though.

Trader Joe's produce haul. White potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, avocado, cauliflower, tomatoes, bok choy and romaine.

Trader Joe's regular grocery haul. This cereal is so delicious! Also got tofu, bananas, pretzel chips, Bamba(!!!!!), hummus and cherry chocolate chip ice cream.

The all Vegan Market finally opened up!!! It's called Sweet To Lick - The Market and they are fully stocked with all kinds of amazing vegan yumminess. Of course everything that looked good to me was pricey so I kept my haul small. I was mostly interested in the refrigerator items and I'm really excited to try this stuff! I got some Hail Merry Tarts (I can never find these!), the Chao Mac n Cheese, a Coconut Bliss Ice Cream Sandwich, Violife Cheese (I can't wait to try this!!!!) and some Forager Yogurt which I will be having for lunch today.

I couldn't wait to try the Chao Mac n Cheese so I had it that night for dinner! It was really good, great texture as well. It was a little salty for me but definitely the best pre made vegan mac n cheese option I've tried so far.

This is from a long time ago and haven't had a chance to post but it is a yummy bento box. On the left we have my favorite vegan caesar chick'n pasta salad and on the right we have a granny smith apple and some almonds.

I also tried my Soom Chocolate Tahini spread on some toast with banana and it was so good! I'm so glad I splurged on it.

So that's what I have for you today! I am sorry I haven't been commenting on your posts as much, I just haven't been able to get online that much. I hope that you are all doing well! <3

Fun Friday: The RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I'm doing ok and feeling better, I just haven't been super motivated to take pictures of my food. Mostly because my food has been uninspired. I will post either on Sunday or Tuesday to get myself back on track but I definitely wanted to post this for Fun Friday because it was such a cool experience!

On Monday I went with my family to the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns at Old Westbury Gardens here on Long Island. The venue is another one of the Gold Coast Mansions and it is absolutely stunning. I'll go back there one day during the day to get some photos for you because the grounds are crazy. I've been there many times when I was working the weddings and it was always one of my favorite places to go. For Halloween they do this amazing event where they have thousands of lit up jack o'lanterns set up along the grounds and you go for a night walk and check out the beautiful, intricate carvings. I took a ton of pictures and had a hard time narrowing down for you so brace yourselves, there may be a lot of pictures.

Can you believe how amazing these are?! And keep in mind, there are thousands of pumpkins there, I just chose some of my favorites to share with you. I will definitely be going back next year, it was awesome and I was so glad to go out and celebrate the season a little bit. 

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing a little bit of the event! I will be back to regularly scheduled programming soon. I hope you have all been well <3