Whole Foods Haul & Bonus Meals

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed your weekend and that your Monday went well. My weekend flew by as usual. I'm back with another haul, this time from Whole Foods. I rarely go to Whole Foods now but since the prices will apparently be dropping a bit maybe I'll see myself over there a little more often! I had one thing on my list (which of course they didn't have - the new Kite Hill Greek Yogurt) but of course I still left with stuff. Here is my haul.

So I thought I had grabbed a large Silk Soy Creamer but apparently I grabbed protein soy milk. That's kind of a bummer. I didn't even realize that until right now. I grabbed Chocolate Almond Breeze for smoothies (because why not), Kite Hill strawberry banana yogurt tubes (strawberry banana is my favorite yogurt flavor), Dolma of course and some Popcorn Soy Nuggets.

I also grabbed some Maca Powder to try in smoothies, cotton candy grapes (SO WEIRD!!), tofutti, Justin's PB Cups (bc reasons) and of course my beloved primal strips.

My Whole Foods is right next to a Starbucks and I grabbed a lightly sweetened passion tea lemonade to try and it was really good! I love that color.

I decided to be all frugal and re-use the Starbucks cup for my smoothie this morning. This is a peanut butter banana smoothie and here's what's in it: 3 bananas, 1.25 cups Chocolate Almond Milk, 1 heaping TBSP of Peanut Butter, cinnamon and 1 tsp of Maca Powder. It's so good but also really filling. I'm about a third of the way down and so full so I'll be sipping it all morning.

If I am hungry for lunch I made this bento box with Dolma, tomatoes, lots of carrots and some of the grapes. I can't find the white container  that goes in my bento for now so I had to use this dressing cup for my hummus.

That's all for today! I'll be back Friday with a Fun Friday post! Have a great week!

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?

Fun Friday: Catching Up!

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry I took a longer break than expected. When I house sit my whole schedule and routine are thrown off - which is fine - but it just makes it hard for me to keep up with the blog. My transition from there back to my house happened on Tuesday so it just made it difficult to get a post up but I made sure to have some content for a post today. How has your week been? I've missed you guys!

So to catch up I have a few meals to share and some fur baby pictures as well. There aren't a ton of the fur babies because we weren't very cooperative this time around but I did the best I could!

I've been sticking to just having one or two small coffees a week and decided to go for a small hot coffee this time. The Silk Creamer is definitely my favorite. I prefer original but I've only been able to find Vanilla lately (which is fine, it's still delicious!).

Some really beautiful, fresh veggie rolls. So delicious.

Vegan Chick'n Caesar salad. Sadly no vegan croutons to be found lately.

I brought this salad with me for lunch and I'm quite excited about it! It's my fav with some cranberries, cashews, granny smith apple, romaine and the Asian Vinaigrette from Panera.

Jack still enjoys stalking the poor fish. Sometimes I'll walk in and she is sitting there with her leg wrapped around the tank. 

Sweet Tyler! Still neurotic as always.

Poor TJ and his sad little face. I think he's allergic to his food because he would get so red every time he ate. Poor guy has a vet appointment coming up so hopefully they'll figure it out. I have also decided that he looks exactly like Eeyore in dog form.

Tyler was the most cooperative out of everyone so he is featured twice. Eddie was not cooperative at all and would barely come out because he hates me (I'm super allergic to him so he's not allowed in the bedroom at all when I'm there) so I wasn't able to get a picture of him this time.

So that's what I have to share today. I hope that you have all been well! I've been trying to keep up with your blogs during the break. I should be back on Sunday with a grocery haul. Happy Friday to everyone, I hope you enjoy the weekend! Any fun plans? Let me know.

Stuff We Ate This Weekend

Hey everyone! Long time no speak! I've been really busy with caring for the herd and also spending some quality time with my friend last weekend. We had a really fun weekend but as always, it went way too quickly. We made sure to savor every moment and most importantly we appreciated the time together as we do not get it often.

I do not have fur baby pictures yet (maybe a fun friday post?) but I did take a few pictures of meals I made for us last weekend that I thought I'd share today!

The first night she was here I made this Vegan Chick'n Caesar Pasta Salad! I don't know why I thought it would be fun to add pasta to a chick'n caesar salad but I did and it was indeed fun. Basically all I did was cook 1/3 box of pasta (this is Gemelli shaped, how fun are they?!), cut one romaine heart, cook a package of Gardein Teriyaki Chick'n Strips (save the teriyaki for a stir fry later, just cook the strips with no sauce) and mixed it all with Just Caesar dressing. It was so easy and delicious. I'm sure it would also be delicious with tomatoes too!

For breakfast I attempted to make french toast but that was an epic fail so we ended up with macerated strawberries and granola and some toast. My toast had Earth Balance.

We also went out for bubble tea. I had my favorite Peach Pulp tea and it was delicious of course. She was not a huge fan of it (she tried the almond one) and I totally get that. A lot of people find it to be a strange experience.

This dinner was SO GOOD. We each had a salad (romaine, cashews, cranberries, granny smith apple and Asian Vinaigrette) and I made up some cheesy rosemary toasts that we dipped in pizza sauce for a fun deconstructed pizza type of thing. We shared this plate. I had some left over but it just didn't reheat well so just make what you need if you are making this :)

Here is a closeup of the salad.

And this gorgeousness is the cheesy toast and pizza sauce.

So all in all it was a really fun weekend and we ate really well :) I miss her already but luckily I have all of the puppy cuddles I could ever ask for.

I hope that you are all well and I will see you on Friday!

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you enjoyed your weekend! I don't have to much to report, I just have a few pictures of yummy food for you!

Toasted pumpernickel bagel, half with Earth Balance and half with Tofutti and a cup of coffee with Silk Soy Creamer.

This is a delicious sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread with hummus, tofurkey, pickles, tomato and lettuce. So yum.

I've been into the salads this week! This is a faux chick'n Caesar Salad. It's a little weird how real it looks! I used the Morningstar Vegan Chick'n Strips and the Just Caesar dressing.

Another salad with romaine, almonds, cranberries and more faux chick'n. This one has the Asian Vinaigrette from Panera that I love.

These are just some pretty hibiscus flowers I saw and wanted to capture. These are my favorite flowers, so beautiful!

That's all I have for today. Starting on Friday I will be house/pet sitting for a little under two weeks. This weekend my friend is also visiting so it's going to be very hectic. I will *try* to get a Friday post up but I'm not 100% sure I will. I know Sunday won't happen because I just won't have time. At the very latest I'll be back Tuesday, but hopefully I can squeeze in a Fun Friday post!

I hope you all enjoy your week <3

Fun Friday: Self Care!

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! Happy Friday :) I'm sure all of you that work a regular schedule are excited for your upcoming weekend. I'm ready for mine but I have a little longer to wait.

So I'm going to be honest I was a bit stumped as to what I should post for today's Fun Friday. It finally came to me last night (talk about timing!) and I have decided to talk a little bit about self care. Self care is so important for your mental health and we all deserve to take care of ourselves and pamper ourselves a little bit. It's become increasingly more important for me lately as some of my mental health issues have been causing me some problems but I've been trying hard to make sure that I take care of myself. I figured I'd share some of my favorite forms of self care with you.

Sorry for the crappy picture, it is storming here so it is super dark. Anyway, my first and my personal most important form of self care that I practice is journaling. I started to journal at the request of my therapist but it has turned into a completely different beast from the original write down your current mood and what you are thinking. It has become a place for me to confide my deepest secrets, a place for me to get my thoughts out when my mind is racing, a place to write down ideas and words of encouragement to myself and a place for me exercise my creativity. To me, this is huge and a way for me to have a few minutes with my thoughts a few times a day. If I could recommend one thing to you it would be journaling.

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The second thing I do for self care is get out of my house. I am the kind of person that withdraws and retreats as soon as I start to feel any sort of negative feelings. I want to be alone, locked in my room. This is when it is most important for me to get out and to connect with (at the very least) nature and ideally with people. Withdrawing does not help me overcome those feelings and feeling some sort of connection to something helps me by increasing positive feelings and emotions. There is a specific place (by Sands Point, which I've written about before) that I will drive to just to have some quiet and enjoy a beautiful view.

The next thing would be to TREAT YO SELF!!! Whether it is that new lipstick you've been wanting, a new cookbook to help you eat more interesting, healthy foods or just a weekly bubble tea it is important to treat yourself to something no matter how small it may seem. We all work hard and deserve a little treat every now and then. 

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This next one is something that I'm looking to get into a little bit more. That would be aromatherapy. Right now I currently only have candles which I'm looking to move away from because lighting candles just tweaks my OCD (for those of you that didn't read this post, yes I have been diagnosed with OCD) way too much. I am looking to get into diffusing oils for so many different reasons. I've heard that it is so great and actually really helps and I know it is much cleaner than burning candles and also safer I'd guess. I get a lot of migraines too so I'm hoping that peppermint oils will actually help with those so I can stop popping pills for that.

If anyone has any diffuser and oil recommendations I would LOVE to hear them!!

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I've used this picture before because I love it haha. The next form of self care that I'm going to be getting back into is working out! Working out may suck at the time but after you finish there is definitely a little bit of an endorphins high that you feel that will instantly make you feel better. In addition, you are doing something for your health and your body will thank you. I used to be a workout fiend but fell off the wagon for a while but I'm planning to get into an at home routine of Youtube workouts mixed with yoga practice. 

These are just a few forms of self care that I currently practice or that I'm looking to start. Do you have any self care ideas to share? What do you do to keep your head in the game and to take care of yourself? This is of course the very tip of the iceberg and there are so many other things you can do but I figured I'd start here :)

I hope that you all enjoy your weekend! Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to post this Sunday and I know I won't be posting next Sunday (I have a friend coming to stay with me for the weekend) but I will still be posting twice until the following week. Just wanted to give you the heads up :)

Have a great weekend! I'll see you most likely on Tuesday <3

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I enjoyed mine and of course it went by too quickly. It was a healthy combination of relaxation and productivity and I would say that's a pretty successful weekend, at least for me. I am lucky enough to have neighbors across the street that are pretty awesome and sadly they are getting ready to move. Sunday evening I got a text from one of them asking if I wanted to have a glass of wine on the patio (aka an adirondack chair in the side yard under the tree - so awesome) and I accepted and ended up sitting outside for about 3.5 hours. It was really nice and I'm glad that I decided to go rather than sit by myself which tends to be my inclination.

Anyway, I'm here today with some meals I ate last week! Keep in mind I tend to eat the same meals repeatedly through the week so it's not a ton but here's what I have!

My beautiful veggie soup looking all awesome and hearty. This one came out great you guys!

Still enjoying my new favorite rice bowl with seasoned seaweed and tofu. I am out of seaweed so I'll have to head back to H-Mart at some point to re-stock.

Breakfast on the go was a plain flagel (flat bagel) with scallion tofutti (!!!). So freaking delicious.

This is rice with broccoli and some yucca. The yucca wasn't eaten because it wasn't cooked as much as I like it and was a bit tough but the broccoli and rice were delicious.

My weekly bubble tea!!! It is so good. I stuck to my favorite peach pulp green tea with boba. I feel like I should try a new flavor but this is just too good.

Finally this is my "fancy" aka not really fancy dinner of faux chick'n parm and some noodles with Earth Balance. The "Chick'n" is the Gardein Turkey Cutlets with some sauce and daiya shredded mozzarella. Super good and way too filling, only had one cutlet. The other will probably show up on a chick'n parm sandwich :)

So that's what I have for you today! What have you been eating lately? I need some inspiration for next week! Also, just a week and a half until I get to fur baby sit my furry nieces and nephews and I'm so excited. It's like a mini staycation for me and my friend is coming to visit for a few days which is really exciting! I haven't seen her in a few years so I'm really looking forward to it. She is looking forward to eating vegan food too which is really nice! She asked for cooking lessons so I'm trying to figure out what we should make!

I hope you all have a great week and I'm looking forward to another Fun Friday post! I'm thinking of doing a Q&A post if I can get together enough questions so leave me some questions in the comments below and if I get enough I'll do that on Friday!

Have a great week! <3