Grocery Haul and Some Randomness

Hey everyone! I hope that you had a great weekend. Thank you all so much for your kindness last week, I always appreciate your support and nice words. I'm feeling better from the bronchitis (the cough is lingering but not nearly as bad) and I just tried to have a balance of resting and being productive and I think I achieved that. I'm looking forward to having a long weekend, my first one since the holidays last year and plan on having that same balance of rest and productivity. I'm really looking to get rid of some of my physical clutter in my life in attempt to ease my mental clutter as well. I've started but I'm looking to really make a dent this weekend.

I have some grocery hauls and a few random pictures to share with you:

This haul is from H-Mart, the Korean market that happens to be about 2 minutes from my house. I got some seasoned seaweed, baby spinach, soft tofu, Korean rice cakes (I've wanted to try these for so long!) and some scallions (those cost me a whopping 20 cents!). I can't wait to make the recipes I have planned with these ingredients.

I also grabbed a few random things from Fairway. Vegan "dairy" products and they had Zevia on sale big time so I decided to try the Dr. Pepper product they have! I can't wait to try it, I hope it's not gross, ha!

I treated myself to a bubble tea on Sunday and it was so delicious and refreshing. I think I'm going to make this a weekly treat because I enjoy it so much. Thankfully it isn't too far from me either. I got my favorite Peach Green Tea with the boba.

I made myself another quesadilla in the same combination of fat free refried beans, daiya cheddar and some spinach. So delicious. I need to get tofutti sour cream to go with this and of course some avocado.

So I very rarely post "selfies" (still hate this word!) but I have a point to make with this one. This was taken yesterday. As you all probably know by now about 4 years ago I had an allergic reaction to hair dye and through subsequent testing found out that I had an allergy to the chemical PPD. This meant that I could no long dye my hair and had to learn to deal with the gray hair that had been plaguing me since I was 16 years old. It has taken years but I've finally grown comfortable with my gray hair and have moments where I even kind of like it. I have been someone that has picked myself apart my entire life and I have never been happy with my appearance. While I may still lack confidence in my appearance my acceptance of one of my insecurities shows me that I am on my way. I posted this natural hair, no makeup picture because this is me. My skin doesn't look great and my salt and pepper hair is getting a lot more salty but this is the skin and hair that I was given and it will make my life a lot better if I can accept that. It's a slow journey but I'll get there.

And that's all I have to share with you today. Thanks again for everyone's kind words. I'm glad to be back on my regular posting schedule and I'm hoping to have some fun new meals to share with you this weekend. I hope that you all have a great week <3

More Stuff I Ate: Lazy AF Edition

Hey everyone. I hope that you are all doing well. I'm back with some more food that I've eaten. It's been the kind of week where I'm just feeling lazy about meals and cooking. I'm still getting better from the bronchitis and received some sad news so the motivation hasn't been there entirely. But, I have managed to eat some delicious meals and snacks, lazy or not.

I gave up my daily coffee habit a while ago but I still treat myself to it about twice a week. It is iced coffee season (my favorite!) and I enjoyed one so far this week with Silk Original creamer (which I keep at work). I really like this creamer, it's very neutral and as you can see it gets quite light which was a surprise to me because normally vegan creamers don't.

I've been loving peaches lately and I enjoyed these two super ripe, juicy peaches as a snack one day. I definitely need to get some more of these because they were great.

This was probably my favorite meal this week. I made a quesadilla with Trader Joe's fat free refried beans, a little Daiya Cheddar and a ton of spinach. I added a side of salsa of course and was wishing I had some avocado. This is my favorite quesadilla combination and I plan on making it again for dinner tonight.

I decided to be lazy again and order lunch at work yesterday. I got a tofu with broccoli in garlic sauce with some white rice for about $5 and I will get lunch out of it again today.

I've been craving ice cream lately and these bars have caught my eye a few times in the grocery store. I hadn't picked them up until now and I'm so glad I did.

I tried one and it is SO GOOD. It gets more caramel-y as you go and it was really great. The ice cream was creamy and the chocolate was snappy which I love. Seriously a great treat for a hot summer day. I will be savoring these slowly as they are a bit pricey and you only get three per box.

So that's what I have for you this week. I'm feeling more motivated to stop being so lazy and to do some meal prep and make more of my own food next week. I hope that you all had a good week and that you enjoy your weekend. I'll be joining you there in a few hours.

Stuff I Ate

Hey guys! It's been a while, I know. I'm sorry, last week was kind of a shit show but I'm back. I ended up getting bronchitis and not feeling like eating or posting. The meds also made me kind of an emotional wreck so I just decided to stay away for a bit. I'm back though and while I don't have a ton of meals to post I managed to cobble together a few pictures to share with you guys.

My favorite salad.

My favorite meal of all time.

The three flavor Trader Joe's ice pop. Raspberry, lemon and strawberry. I am not a huge fan of the raspberry but the lemon and strawberry are amazing.

Brown rice veggie rolls. A dollar more than the white rice but this was all they had.

That's unfortunately all I have to share with you this week! I am feeling better though so I plan to get back in the swing of things this week. I hope that you are all doing well and that you enjoyed your weekend! <3

Summer 2017 Bucket List

Hey everyone! I hope all is well :) It is getting toasty here in the Northeast just in time for the weekend. I thought it would be appropriate to post my summer bucket list to go with the blazing summer heat! Unfortunately summer is the busiest time of year for us here at work but I'm hoping to still make the best of the time that I do have. I would love to hear what you have planned for the summer as well!

source

Like every year, getting to the farmers market is always something I like to do during the summer. Unfortunately, my local market is VERY small. I'm talking 12ish vendors small and only two produce vendors. I still like to go and support them and get what I can. There is a slightly bigger one about 20-30 minutes away from me and I usually go there once or twice a year so I'm looking forward to getting there too. I actually went for the first time today and I didn't really get much because I just wanted to see what they had. But I do have to show you something I did find!!

You guys!!! It's a vegan macaron!! What?! I saw the Macaron vendor on the farmers market Facebook page and took a total shot in the dark and visited their page. I knew it was possible now with aquafaba but didn't think it would actually be an option! As of right now the only flavor they have is Raspberry (pictured above) but we were chatting on Facebook and they are developing a chocolate mint flavor!! That is much more my speed. Raspberry is not my favorite flavor but I did still want to try it! I'll let you know how it is! She said that she is hoping to have the Chocolate Mint in two weeks :D

source

With all that being said about the macarons, another one of my goals for the summer is to really start baking again and I really want to play with aquafaba. As you all know, I'm a huge fan of the Great British Bake Off and there are so many recipes that I want to try that require egg whites and meringue and now we have the opportunity to try those out!! One of my biggest goals is to figure out a vegan tri-color cookie recipe. I also want to try to make macarons (although the humid NY summer may make that difficult) and now I can make almond paste (I'm pretty sure that has egg whites in it too). Anyway, I'm really excited to experiment with aquafaba.

source

When I was a kid I couldn't read enough. Once I hit high school and reading for class became a chore I slowed down quite a bit. I recently started reading again before bed and I have really been enjoying it as a way to relax before I go to sleep. I am a non-fiction kind of gal and prefer memoirs and things like that. I think I just like to learn about other people and read their stories. I am always looking for recommendations so if you have any good ones please let me know in the comments below!

source

I am fortunate enough to live on Long Island which is rich with history and just has a lot of cool stuff going on and a lot of interesting places to explore. I really want to explore a little more this year. A few years ago I did a post on Sands Point and talked a little about the Gold Coast Mansions. I'd love to check out more of the mansions and beautiful preserves that we have here. There is one place in particular (going to keep it a secret for now) that is REALLY cool and I really want to go photograph so I'm definitely going to have to make time to do that.

source

I've mentioned in the past that I'm really inspired by minimalism. I don't necessarily think it is a goal for me for this summer to become a minimalist because realistically speaking I don't think that's going to happen. I do really want to start cutting down my "stuff" though. I have a lot of "stuff" and I don't use a lot of it. I am looking forward to really cutting down on what I have limiting the clutter in my life. I feel like there is a lot of clutter inside of my head so to live with it around me just makes everything more chaotic for me.

So I think that is it for my main goals for the summer! What aquafaba recipes would you like to see me make? What are some of the items on your summer bucket list? Let me know!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend <3 I'm looking forward to starting mine soon :)

Whole Foods Haul

Hey guys! Hope you are all doing well. I don't have much to say for today's post so I'll just get right into the pictures :) Here is my haul from my splurge-y Whole Foods trip yesterday!

Cherries were on sale for $3.99/lb down from $6.99/lb so I felt like I had to get some. They are good too so it was totally worth it (they were still expensive even at the sale price). I also got some strawberries and some peaches.

I know that the primal strips are excessive but they are my favorite quick snack and it is so hard for me to find them so when I do I stock up! I grabbed 10. Oops! I also got some fruit strips because they are great for satisfying your sweet tooth.

I also got some Mother In Law's Vegan White Kimchi, Kite Hill Key Lime Yogurt, Almond Dream Plain Yogurt (for baking), Tofutti and some Soy "Popcorn Nuggets." I have really been wanting to try kimchi and this stuff is expensive but I decided to go for it! I also have tried Kite Hill yogurt in the past and thought it was way too sweet but I love key lime and wanted to give this flavor a try. I'm hoping the tartness of the lime flavor will tone down the sweetness a bit.

Two containers of mushroom broth (why is this stuff so hard to find?!) and some EB cheddar squares.

I forgot to put this in the picture above with the refrigerated stuff but I treated myself to some chao! What is your favorite way to eat Chao?

I am pretty set for snacks for a very long time. I'm glad that I went and I'm glad that I treated myself. I only go once every few months and I grab things that are hard for me to find elsewhere. I am glad I stocked up on the broth (ooooh that pun thoooooo) because I have some soups planned!

This is my lunch for today! I thought I'd throw it in for fun ;) You can see it is quite produce heavy and I couldn't wait to try my fruit from my haul. It's going to be delicious.

So that's all I have for you! I hope you are well and I'll see you on Saturday <3

Yummy Eats

Hey everyone! Happy weekend to you and almost happy weekend to me :) Just a few more hours! Do you guys have anything fun planned? I think this weekend is going to be a big spring cleaning weekend for me. We are expecting a lot of rain over the next week so I think it is a perfect time to just buckle down and do a nice deep cleaning. I'm also going to take a trip to Whole Foods. I only go once every few months now just because of the price tag but I'm in a treat yo self kind of mood lately so I figure why not! I also want to pick up a few things I can only find there so it makes sense :)

Today I'm going to show you a few meals that I enjoyed over the week. I've been eating some pretty delicious food lately. I've been somewhat more inspired in the kitchen lately and I'm also listening to what my body is craving so that helps as well.

First up I have a bento box lunch. On the left is my typical favorite salad with romaine, almonds, cranberries and the Panera Asian Vinaigrette. On the right is some veggies, two stuffed grape leaves and some hummus.

This was seriously amazing you guys! This is actually a restaurant recreation I made! I originally had it at an Italian restaurant and it is pasta with eggplant, asparagus and peas in a red sauce. When I ordered it I made sure to say no cheese because they can be sneaky about that stuff and I used some nooch when I made it myself. I also used my favorite gluten free pasta. I also made sure to use mostly veggies with some pasta added in because I like mine veggie heavy :)

This is the same salad as above with a granny smith apple added in to it.

This is one of the Sun Butter Cookies that Bianca sent me in my care package! You guys! This is GOOD. Like really good. It is super tender and "buttery" and not too sweet. I've been savoring these slowly, I still have a few left for treats next week. 

Finally, I decided to do a Pizza Friday last night! I made a tortilla pizza with a tortilla as the crust, used Daiya mozzarella and tried a little bit of the Tofurky Pepp'roni that I found! I don't even know why I bought it because I never liked pepperoni to begin with but I was so curious. I knew better than to do the whole pizza with it because I didn't know if I would like it so I just tried it on a quarter. It was better than I thought it would be but not my favorite. I will finish what I have but I won't buy it again kind of thing.

source

Finally, I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was on the prowl for a crossbody bag. I just find them easier to carry, especially because my bag tends to be heavy. I had gone to every store with no luck so I finally decided to try searching Vegan Crossbody bags on eBay and immediately found this beauty!! I love the look of it, the title said vegan which takes all of the guesswork out of it and it looked big enough without being massive. Best part was it was only $23.99 (and discounted slightly at checkout with free shipping so I paid $22.97). I received it yesterday and it is GORGEOUS and super super soft. I chose the gray because I thought it would be a good color to use year round if necessary. And I also really love gray. I think it's my favorite color at the moment ;) Anyway, I thought I would share because I told you I would let you know if I found something! Oh and the shipping was super fast. I ordered it on Sunday and had it by Friday of a holiday week. 

So that's what I have for you today! I hope you have a great weekend <3