This & That

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well! I don't have a ton of pictures to share with you today because I haven't been able to photograph much since Wednesday. As I mentioned I'm at my brother's house watching the pets so yesterday was a transition day for me and therefore hard to get anything photographed. I will share the meal that I do have and I also thought I would take some time to talk a little more about what I hope to achieve in 2019.

As I mentioned the other day, I woke up Wednesday feeling really exhausted. The holiday weekend really drained me of my energy (even though I thoroughly enjoyed it!) and I just wanted to stay in bed as long as I possibly could. I decided I would grab my sushi rolls because on Wednesday it is $5. I just expected the rolls to be a little smaller as that is what they normally do to compensate for the price reduction. Luckily they didn't do that! I got these regular sized fresh veggie rolls for $5! That was a great deal. I paired it with my favorite Blueberry Grape Kombucha from Target and it was a great meal.

So now I thought I'd talk a little bit about what I hope to achieve next year in regards to my health journey as well as my blogging journey. The two paths cross a lot so the goals are fairly similar. I am hoping to bring you guys along for the ride! The content should remain fairly close to what I post now (I'll continue to post meals and grocery hauls and things like that) but there will be minimal processed foods and more homemade meals. My homemade meals will be simple and fuss free as I don't typically have the energy to spend hours in the kitchen anymore.

For anyone joining us here for the first time or just recently I'll just give a little context. This year I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia which is a chronic illness characterized by widespread pain and chronic extreme fatigue. I've decided to minimize my processed foods intake and increase my activity to see if I can naturally manage my symptoms. This will cross over with my blogging as I will share my journey with you here along with the food I'm eating. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to share this because I tend to shy away from talking about projects that I am working on or plan to work on because my follow through isn't great. There are a whole lot of psychological reasons for that (fear of success and failure, fear of people HATING what I put out, etc.) but I decided that I need to change that in 2019. So I wanted to talk about how writing an E-Book has been a goal of mine for years. I never knew what to write and I always talked myself out of any ideas that I have had in the past. I had the idea of putting together everything I learn through this process and if it works and I can get my symptoms under control I would put together an E-Book about managing chronic illness and what I did. I will never mislead anyone by promising a "cure" (it makes me absolutely nuts when people promise cures for incurable diseases) but I can share my journey and what I did. It would be less of a recipe book (even though I would include recipes - but they will likely be so simple I'd hesitate to call it a recipe book) and more of a "What I Ate" guide. As I just mentioned, my recipes will be incredibly simple as people that suffer from chronic illness can lack energy and the idea of spending an hour in the kitchen can be daunting and quite frankly it can be a complete turn off. I know that most people will likely see my recipes as ridiculous and not see the point in having "recipes" for such simple meals but I look at complicated recipes and can't fathom spending my time using 20 ingredients to make a dressing to put on the main course that already took an hour to make. 

So I guess my question is are you interested in this kind of book? Do you think it would be a waste of money to buy an e-book of such simple recipes even though the concept is more about the process of healing rather than the specific recipes? Do you see value in simple recipes that take minimal effort or do you feel like you only get your money's worth from books with elaborate dishes in them? I'm having such a hard time gauging and I have a huge fear of people buying a book that I poured my heart into just to feel like they didn't get their money's worth. Any insight and opinions that you have would be so helpful and I'd love it if you shared them in the comments!

Anyway, if you read through this whole post I appreciate you sticking with me, it was definitely a long one! I'm going to do my best to get another post up on Tuesday and I should definitely be able to as I'll be settled in by then and I'll be on the tail end of a 4 day weekend that I gifted myself as a way to recharge after holiday madness! I'll see you then and I hope you have a great weekend!

Christmas Things!

Hi everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a wonderful holiday! If you don't celebrate the holiday I hope you just enjoyed your days! As you may know, I celebrate Hanukkah but my sister in law and niece celebrate Christmas so my family always celebrates both. We had a really nice couple of days but I learned that I really have to be careful about overextending myself. As I've mentioned, chronic extreme fatigue is a symptom of my fibromyalgia and the last few days have been a lot. I did a lot of baking and we had busy days on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so it was incredibly difficult to get out of bed today. That said, I still had a great time!

I don't have a ton to share with you today but I wanted to show you the cookies I ended up making! I also had gotten a few gifts and I wanted to share what my friend gave me because it is AMAZING and relevant to a food blog.

First let's check out some cookies!!

Up first I made the Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Nora Bakes. They were very easy and came out great! Mine didn't really spread at all and I'm not sure why but they still look great and tasted delicious!

Don't mind my ridiculous nails 😂 This is a close up. She's beautiful!

I also made a recipe that I didn't include in my recipe roundup that I decided to make. These are the Easy Vegan Cinnamon Pecan Cookies from Beaming Baker. I found this recipe last minute and decided to give it a try. I added chocolate chips because all things are better with chocolate. These cookies are DELICIOUS and this was definitely a great choice.

I had made a third batch of cookies that were supposed to be cookie butter chocolate chip funfetti cookies but they were a disaster. They were like sand when you bit into them and it was terrible. It was upsetting not just because I wasted ingredients but I wasted so much energy trying to make them. By the time I finished baking on Sunday I was EXHAUSTED. This helped me realize that my goal to eat easy but unprocessed meals is going to be so crucial to getting my health on track. Finding a balance of easy, quick meals with having to prepare them all myself will take some time but I'm confident that I'll figure it out.

So this is the first part of my awesome gift that my friend got me! This oven mitt is AMAZING and hilarious and SO PERFECT for me! I am obsessed!

She also got me these kitchen towels and I'm also obsessed with them. They are so funny. As you can see, she knows me so well 😂

Finally, here is sweet TJ enjoying his new toy!! He is too sweet, I love him so much. Poor thing is allergic to everything (my kindred spirit) so his face gets really red and it makes me so sad. 

So that's all I have for you today! How was your holiday/day? I should also let you know that I'll be house/pet sitting for a week starting on Thursday so I'll do the best I can to get you some more posts! I'm going to be doing some planning for how I want to go about my lifestyle change as well as brainstorming delicious, whole foods, EASY recipes to make so I'm excited to bring you along on this journey.

Do you have any goals for the new year? Let me know!

Fun Friday: Year In Review and Health Goals of 2019

Hey you guys! It's the end of the year and call me a predictable basic bitch but I thought it would be fun to run through some of my favorite meals that I enjoyed this year as well as talk about some of my health goals for the new year. It'll probably be easy to guess what my health goals are for the year but I always find that writing things out helps me to internalize it more and it helps to keep me accountable. I thought I'd start off with some of my favorite meals/products of the year and then I'd finish up by talking about some goals!

I could never do a yearly food favorites post without including my beloved Bubble Tea! It has been a while since I've had one since it has been cold but it is my favorite way to treat myself in warmer weather!

This doctored up ramen bowl was incredible. You'll see this year has been heavy in soups and salads and I was so happy with this soup!

The Tacodillas!!!! I haven't made these in a long time and I feel like that has to change because they were so so good.

I am going to toot my own horn here and say my grilled cheese game is strong. This one was made with Follow Your Heart "cheese" slices, sun dried tomato and fresh basil and it was freaking awesome.

Discovery of the century was a pumpernickel onion bagel with Tofutti Cream Cheese from the bagel store! YEEEESSSSSS!!!!

I ate A LOT of zucchini noodles and A LOT of salad this year. Both are awesome and these are not bad staple meals to have.

I discovered my love of (Vegan) corn dogs this year! I NEVER liked hot dogs or corn dogs but I tried the Field Roast mini hot dogs and I loved them!

One of my favorite restaurant meals! This was a delicious spicy stir fry from a Thai restaurant. It was so good.

My summer staple was definitely my Ranch Chick'n Pasta salad! This meal was incredible and it was so easy to make big batches to have for the week.

Vegan Chick'n Caesar salads were also big for me this year! So delicious and such a quick meal.

This beautiful soup was a quick meal thrown together with 4 Trader Joe's ingredients (Miso Ginger broth, Veggie Gyoza, bok choy and green onion). Delicious and comforting.

Probably the dish I'm most proud of is my Vegan No Chicken Noodle Soup! It is not a difficult recipe and it felt ridiculous to share it as a recipe but it tastes so authentic (to me at least) that I felt like I had to share it.

I had to include this AMAZING vegan burrito that I enjoyed on my birthday! I definitely want to get back to this restaurant because it was so so delicious.

So now that we've gone through some of my delicious highlights of the year I thought I could talk about my health goals for the New Year. As you know, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and I have been trying to figure out the best lifestyle changes to implement that will help me to be as healthy as possible while living with a chronic illness as well as help manage the symptoms all while being mindful about not triggering eating disorder thoughts or behaviors. It's a delicate balance of moving toward healthier habits but not getting obsessive about the food that I put in my mouth.

I've learned that while Fibromyalgia is mostly characterized as widespread pain and fatigue but I would add that it should also be characterized by sensitivity to… well mostly everything. I am sensitive to light and sound, I am sensitive to temperature, and as I've discussed before I have significant environmental allergies and I also am sensitive to chemicals and medications. So as I live with these sensitivities I have to question if the chemical laden processed food that I put in my body is contributing to my daily pain and fatigue. So, I've decided that the ONLY thing that I'm going to consciously make and effort to reduce/eliminate from my diet is chemical laden processed foods. It feels ridiculous to me to continue to put it in my body when I know that it doesn't do me any favors. At the same time, I am realistic and I know that there will be times where I will eat some processed food because it's freaking delicious, but I figure that limiting it to 5-10% of the time will help me make huge improvements. I will eat mostly fresh, whole foods (including grains and limited oil) and see how it works for me.

In addition I have set a goal to find workout routines that I can complete within my pain limits. I know that yoga will likely become a significant part of my routine as well as no impact cardio and I would like to see if I can tolerate some strength training as well. It's so difficult to feel like I'm starting over with the whole workout thing and with these limitations but everyone that I've ever spoken to about Fibromyalgia says that working out with help your symptoms improve so I definitely want to work on making new workout habits as well. 

I will be bringing you along for this journey, of course. I hope that it is something that you will be interested in. I know that the food will look a little different but I hope that you'll all still like it! And who knows, I may have a little something up my sleeve if this all works out for me and my changes actually do help me feel better 😉 Through the end of the year you'll still see some processed stuff as I finish out the stuff that I already have stocked and then you'll see the transition over the New Year.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and for those of you that celebrate I hope that you have a magical Christmas Eve! I'll be back here on Christmas day with another post for you! 💜 

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

Hey guys! I hope that you are all doing well! Happy Friday! I hope you have all had a great week and I'm sure you are all ready for your weekend. I am as well and I feel like I'm counting the minutes. I still feel like my body is dragging and I'm just completely drained from being sick but I'm working on getting better.

I have a few meals to share with you today but it has definitely been a weird week as there isn't much that I've actually wanted to eat. With that said, I'll show you the few meals I did photograph.

I decided to treat myself to some sushi and it was so delicious. It was by far my favorite meal of the week and oddly enough the price went back down to $6.49. I'm not going to argue with it, it's just weird 😂 In any case, it was absolutely delicious and I'm glad I decided to treat myself.

I was really craving pizza but didn't have a pizza crust (I keep meaning to get one from Trader Joe's but I keep forgetting!) so I decided to make a pizza bagel! I used the Violife Mozzarella Shreds (really good!!) and it was exactly what I wanted.

When I went to pick up the sushi I noticed that they had Panera Garden Veggie soup in a container! This used to be my favorite soup at Panera but I haven't seen it there in the longest time (it is vegan without the Pesto). I decided to grab it for lunch the next day and you guys… it was so DISAPPOINTING!!! This is not the garden veggie soup I remember. This was like a few sad veggies and barley in tomato sauce. I hated it and it made me nauseous. Definitely disappointing and a waste of money.

I brought some fruit and peanut to work with me to have as snacks. This is always a good idea!

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I saw this meme on Instagram and I was like OMG ME!!! 😂 

So those are all of the sad meals I have to share today. Sorry things have been lackluster here lately but as I start to feel better it'll get more exciting! I hope that you enjoy your weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!

Cookie Idea Roundup

Hey everyone! I hope all is well! Thanks for your well wishes after my sick day post, it is greatly appreciated! I'm definitely starting to feel better but not near 100% yet so meals are still quite boring. I figured it would be fun to share some fun cookie recipes I found on Pinterest for anyone planning on getting into the holiday baking spirit! I definitely plan on making some cookies once I feel better so I'm sharing the list of cookies that I will definitely be making as well as some maybes :)

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First up are these gorgeous Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Nora Cooks! I love the powdery, snowy finish on them, it reminds me of hot cocoa and snow. These are on my definite list and I'm so excited to give them a try!

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Next up are these beautiful Molasses Cookies from I Love Vegan. I always want to make Molasses Cookies but I never do and I think I want to change that this year. I love the ones with the sugar crystals on them because it reminds me of glitter and you know how much I love glitter 😉

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These Chocolate Chip Sprinkle Cookies from Namely Marly are another one on the definite list for me. I know they may not be Christmas festive but they are fun and festive and the only thing that is better than funfetti is when there is chocolate involved as well. I'm so excited to give these a try!

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These beautiful Vegan Thin Mint Cookies from The Pretty Bee are a PERFECT cookie for the holidays! I'm pretty sure everyone loves Thin Mints and mint and chocolate is such a classic holiday pairing. They would be beautiful with some crushed up peppermint candies on top as well. These are high on my list and one I would love to make if I have the time!

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Another recipe that I found and would love to make are these Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies from Loving It Vegan. This may be blasphemous but I'm actually not the biggest fan of peanut butter cookies but I had the idea to swap out the Peanut Butter for some Trader Joe's Cookie Butter (you're welcome!). To me that feels so festive for the holiday because the cookie butter has such a warm holiday flavor and what is better than a little Cookieception around the holidays? 😉😂 If I get the chance to make these I'll be using the cookie butter and I will definitely let you know how it swaps out!

The last thing I hope to be able to make are little chocolate clusters with lots of different ingredient combinations in them. I love making bark and chocolate clusters around the holidays because they are so easy and come together so quickly and the flavor combination possibilities are endless. Some of my favorites are peanuts and raisins (any fans of the Chunky bar?), cashews, pecans, cranberries and pistachios with white chocolate (how festive!), the Candy Cane Joe Joe's from Trader Joe's, pretzels, etc. The possibilities are endless and it as easy as melting chocolate, adding your mix ins and scooping onto a pan and refrigerating.

So that's what I have for you in my cookie lineup this year! Are you baking for the holidays? What's on your cookie list? Definitely share your ideas in the comments!

I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I'll see you back here on Friday, hopefully with some regularly scheduled programming 😃

Sick Day

Hey guys. I'm sorry I don't have a proper post for you today, I ended up getting bronchitis so I've been a bit more sick than I originally thought. Cue the antibiotics and for those of you that have been here for a while you will know that I don't do well on antibiotics. I'm incredibly sensitive to medications in general and it seems like antibiotics are at the top of the list. I feel horrible and I pretty much only eat something when I have to take the pill so I don't have much to show you. I drink a kombucha a few hours later because the probiotics seem to offset some of the side effects but if I eat after that it's like the kombucha never happened. I'm on the course until Monday so I'm thinking up a fun post for Tuesday. It won't have stuff I've been eating (because how much toast can I post?) but it will have really fun ideas for you!

Anyway, I hope that you are all doing well. I'm back at work trying to finish out the week before I rest all weekend. I will see you next week, have a great weekend!

Hauls and Meal Prep

Hey you guys! I hope that you are all well and that you had a great weekend. Happy Hanukkah! My weekend was eventful but now I'm getting sick just in time for the work week. I'm going to try to stop it in its tracks now but it may be a little too late. I guess we'll see though. It's really strange, I haven't had a cold or cold type illness in a really long time but I think being exposed at my brother's house sealed my fate.

Anyway, I have a few fun things to share with you today! I have some random hauls from over the week and a few things that I prepped for the week (assuming I'll have an appetite). Check out all the things!

These beauties came from the Sweet to Lick Bakery. I wanted to grab a dessert for when we got together for Hanukkah and couldn't choose so naturally I got both. The top is a black and white bar and the bottom is a funfetti whoopee cookie (cookie sandwich). You know I love all things sprinkles so the funfetti whoopee cookie is amazing. The black and white bar was good but a little bland. I don't know if I would repurchase that but they have so many delicious treats it's all good.

I ran to the market as well and picked up a few cheesy type things because they have THE BEST SELECTION. I have been craving pizza and needed some shreds so I decided to try the Violife shreds. I also grabbed some FYH American slices for grilled cheese and you know it love that.

I also ran to Trader Joe's and picked up some stuff. I grabbed some grape tomatoes, baby spinach, Crunchy Curls (yum!), the Vegan Jackfruit Cakes, some of the Hi-Protein Veggie Burgers to try, shredded hash browns, green onions, cucumber and I started hoarding my Scandinavian Tidings gummies (omg guys honestly they are so freaking good).

I also did a little meal prep yesterday.

I was reminded about the deliciousness of Cucumber Salad by The-student-turned-Doctor so I made a batch to munch on through the week. It looks really good, I LOVE cucumber salad.

This is a crappy picture of some delicious potato latkes! I NEVER fry anything at home but I decided that for Hanukkah I needed to do it so I pan fried these gorgeous, crispy latkes. It is more difficult with no binding but they stayed together and they are delicious. I used the Trader Joe's shredded potatoes with salt, pepper and green onions and they are delicious. I like mine with a little Tofutti Sour Cream.

That's what I have for you today! I don't know what I'll have on Friday, I think it depends on how I feel over the week. Hopefully I can knock it out soon but who knows. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and I'll see you back here soon!

Broccoli Corn Casserole RECIPE & Stuff I Ate!

Hey you guys! Happy weekend! I hope you all had a great week. I'm so ready for the weekend but sadly I still have today and tomorrow before I get there. Do you guys have any fun plans? I think I'm going to be taking my brother's annual family holiday portraits this weekend which should be fun. Otherwise I'm hoping to be mellow, work on a few things for myself and relax. I've been pretty exhausted lately and I haven't had a whole lot of time to decompress so I'm going to actually mark that into my planner to make sure that I set aside some time to do that. It's so important to make time for yourself.

Before I get into some stuff I ate I wanted to share the Broccoli Corn Casserole recipe from Thanksgiving. This is my favorite Thanksgiving dish and we have made it for as long as I can remember. I remember eating it in my pre-vegan days because we had to tweak the recipe to make it fully vegan when I went vegan. I *think* my mom's friend gave her the recipe but I'm not 100% sure.

Broccoli Corn Casserole (Veganized)

Ingredients:

1 lb bag frozen broccoli florets

16 oz can creamed corn (most creamed corn is vegan!!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 stick vegan butter

1 cup Herb Stuffing Mix (for drier consistency, add additional 1/2 cup of stuffing mix)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine broccoli, creamed corn, onion, salt and pepper into a large mixing bowl. Mix and set aside.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in dry stuffing mix and stir until completely coated.

4. Add stuffing to veggie mix and stir until incorporated.

5. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes.

As you can see, it is such an easy recipe and it comes together quickly. It does have a long cook time but the prep time is minimal. It is great as leftovers (my family knows I claim the leftovers, ha!) and all year round! If you decide to give it a try please let me know how you like it!

And now for a few meals I ate over the past few days:

I haven't been feeling great the past few days due to a Fibro flare up so I've been eating kind of mild foods that are quick to make. This breakfast was easy but delicious. I had some toast with some Earth Balance and a delicious pear.

I made some of my favorite No Chicken Noodle Soup. I find soup to be a great meal when I'm in my flares because they come together quickly, are easy to eat and it is so comforting. I ate this a few times but only photographed it once. I finally ran out of soy curls so I'll have to get some more!

I decided to treat myself to a proper bagel store bagel so I got a pumpernickel bagel with scallion tofutti cream cheese and it was DELICIOUS.

I have been loving my pears lately. Unlike the avocado I got from Trader Joe's, these pears ripened up quite nicely.

So that's what I have for you today! I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, to any Jewish friends out there Happy Hanukkah! It starts on Sunday and I'm quite excited because Hanukkah is a fun one :) You better believe I have some potato latkes on my radar for next week!

Trader Joe's Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope all is well and that you all had a great weekend. I'm excited to share a little Trader Joe's haul with you and some delicious meals that I ate this week. I'm so sorry that I forgot to get the recipe for that broccoli corn casserole but I PROMISE I will get it for you on Friday. It's my favorite and I can't wait for you to try it!

So here is the haul. I have a ton of veggies at home so I was filling in. I got some of the Scandinavian Tidings gummies (like Swedish Fish) which are SO MUCH BETTER than the Scandinavian Swimmers. I will definitely be hoarding these as they are seasonal and they are such a delicious option if you are looking for some sweets. I got some potatoes, apples and pears, the new Crunchy Vegetable pouches, the Maple Ladders cereal (I can't wait to try this!), some banana bread, carrots, backups of the gyoza and miso ginger broth, the cocoa peppermint creamer, some tofu and an avocado. 

This delicious meal was some leftovers from Thanksgiving and it was just as delicious as Thanksgiving night :)

I needed some warm comfort food so I made a bowl of my No Chicken Noodle Soup!

I was loving the roasted potatoes from Thanksgiving so I prepped some to have throughout the week with my dinners. So delicious.

This is my new favorite oatmeal! I baked up some apples with cinnamon and maple syrup and added them to oats and topped with pecan "chips" (I guess that is what they call pecans that are chopped really small).

So that's what I have for you today! I'll be back Friday with that recipe and probably some more stuff I ate. I hope you have a great week!

Thanksgiving Feast

Hey everyone! Happy belated Thanksgiving! Whether or not you celebrate the holiday I hope you had a great day yesterday. I spent my day with family and it was really nice but OMG so cold. You guys. It's so fucking cold. It dipped into the 20s and I hate it 😂 Anyway, I enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast yesterday and I remembered to take pictures for you!

Before I get into the Thanksgiving goodies I have an AMAZING udon noodle soup to share. I had a sad packet of mushroom udon noodle soup that I needed to use (it was the refrigerated kind) and decided to doctor it up and make is special. You guys. This soup turned out AMAZING. I started with the noodles and the broth flavoring and added some broccoli, soy curls, green onion and seaweed. OMG. So damn good you guys. I had this Wednesday night and it was perfect and so filling.

Ok onto Thanksgiving! I managed to take some pictures of most of the vegan stuff as well as my plate.

This is my FAVORITE broccoli corn casserole. It has broccoli, creamed corn, stuffing mix and onion. My mom leaves out the egg and uses Earth Balance so I can eat it and it's so damn delicious. It has been my favorite Thanksgiving dish for as long as I can remember.

Some delicious roasted potatoes (we had mashed potatoes too but I don't like mashed potatoes so I told them not to worry about the butter - they did ask though which was so nice!).

This was my plate! I had some Gardein tenders, roasted potatoes, broccoli corn casserole and brussels sprouts (I didn't get a pic of those in their dish).

I made this apple crisp for dessert and I was so proud of it because I turned a dessert disaster into a dessert win. I found a recipe on Pinterest for apple crumb bars and I could tell as soon as I mixed up the "shortbread" base that it wouldn't work and that the picture was a lie and not what the bars would actually look like (which made me so angry because these ingredients were not cheap and I hate when people misrepresent their recipes with fake images). I refused to waste the ingredients to I made the shortbread base into a crumble topping and added some oats and cinnamon to it. I made a different apple filling from the recipe as well and combined the two and it worked out way better than the bars would have. Everyone loved it and it was delicious. I have some leftovers so I'll photograph it the next time I eat it (and you better believe I'm adding ice cream next time 😂).

That's what I have for you today! I have work today and tomorrow so no long weekend for me but I hope that all of you have a great weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!