Friday Fun!

Hey you guys! I hope that all is well and that you've had a great week. I'm definitely ready for the weekend (sadly not a long weekend but a weekend is good enough for me) and haven't really made plans yet. I feel like I should do something but not sure what. Any ideas? Tell me all the fun things you are doing!

I don't have a ton of meals to share but I've pulled together a fun collection of meals, new treats and some memes to share. I sadly don't have source links for the memes because I just take screen shots when I see one that makes me laugh so I can send it to my friends. I decided to share a few here and if I come across the source I'll make sure to link it to them.

Anyway, here's all the stuff!

I was feeling peanut butter and banana so I had peanut butter and banana… on a toasted bagel because that's delicious.

Avocado toast on sourdough bread and some grapes.

So many salads. 

So I've been in budget mode the past few weeks and have not been buying any high priced items at all. I was passing by the vegan ice cream section in the grocery store and wanted to take a look (I was mostly curious to see if the Daiya bars made it to the store yet - they haven't) and noticed the Haagen-Dazs vegan pints on sale for $3.49!! I saw the Mocha Chocolate Cookie and decided to have a treat yo self moment and I bought it. It's so good you guys. The texture is perfect, the flavor is great and it just a really great quality vegan ice cream. I highly recommend!

And here are the memes!

Hahahaha me except always the before. The before is my before and after 😂

I can't wait to show this to my therapist 😂

My friend sent this to me and I could not stop laughing. This is hilarious and I love it so much.

So there you have it my friends! I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you have a great and safe holiday weekend! See you next week!

Grocery Haul and Stuff I Ate!

Hey you guys! I hope that all is well and that you enjoyed your weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed mine as I was able to relax a bit and I went out with a friend for bubble tea! It was definitely nice to catch up so I'm glad that we were able to do that. Otherwise, things are moving along here. I have a classic Tuesday post for you consisting of a grocery haul and some stuff I ate (and drank!) and I have some pretty great stuff to share!

So for my produce haul from Trader Joe's: Butter Lettuce, Baby Spinach, plums, avocado, baby carrots and asparagus.

Random grocery section stuff: Restaurant style tortilla chips (thanks for reminding me of these Vegan Peace!), Tempura Cauliflower, Sourdough Bread, Waffles and chocolate chips.

Here are a few drinks I enjoyed!!

I rarely ever drink Starbucks anymore but after the trip to Trader Joe's I decided to have a Treat Yo Self moment. I got an iced tall, decaf, soy hazelnut latte. I feel like such a pain in the ass ordering it.

Yaaaaaaaaasssssssss bubble tea! My standard peach pulp tea with 50% sweetness and boba.

And some meals:

I felt like having some veggies in garlic sauce so I got some veggies in garlic sauce. This was broccoli and eggplant with some rice. It was good, cheap ($5.00ish) and lasted two meals. Can't go wrong.

Some of the Trader Joe's waffles with syrup. Yes, I have to fill every hole with syrup and yes it bothers me that there is one that isn't full in the one on the right.

Spinach and "feta" pinwheels with fruit for a quick, easy dinner.

And here I am at the height of indecision. I decided to just have a little of column A and a little of column B because I couldn't decide. So, I have some vegan chick'n caesar salad and some of the tortilla chips and salsa. And it was freaking awesome and I'm glad I couldn't decide! 😂

So that's all for today! I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you back here on Friday 💜

Weekend Vibes

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a great week! I am so ready for the weekend. This week has been kind of blah so I'm ready for it to be over so I can have a totally lazy day on Sunday. I'm also planning on having an at home movie night on Saturday so I'm just ready for weekend laziness to ensue. I have two more work days to get through and then I'm there! How about you, how was your week?

My appetite has been kind of low this week so I don't have a ton of meals to share with you but I did capture what I could.

My summer staple: a Boca Burger, some watermelon and some chips.

Omg a bagel store pumpernickel bagel with scallion tofutti. It was freaking amazing and they packed on so much cream cheese I was able to take some off and save it for another bagel.

I needed some chocolate this week so I enjoyed some Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cups. So freaking good and perfect for my chocolate craving.

This is a new podcast I've been listening to and wanted to recommend to any other true crime podcast fans that may be reading! It is called Framed and is hosted by Aaron, one of the hosts of The Generation Why which is another one of my favorite true crime podcasts. It is a deep dive into the case of Brian Carrick and the first two episodes have been so interesting. If you are into true crime and mysteries I highly recommend giving this podcast a try.

That's all I have for you today! I hope you all have an amazing weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!

This and That

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I don't know about you but we have had a ton of rain lately (some crazy storms!!) and it has helped cool off the area a bit and I couldn't be happier. It has been high 70s over the past few days and it has been wonderful. This is my favorite type of weather. I had a great weekend and while I don't have tons of meals to show you, I do have some random bits and bobs to share. These kinds of posts can be fun so I'm excited to share some randomness with you!

First up, I do have some food to share:

This was one of the most random meals I've ever thrown together. I had some tempura cauliflower from Trader Joe's left in the freezer so I had that (sans sauce) and some refreshing watermelon on the side. It was actually really great despite being an odd combination.

One Sunday I went to late lunch with my mom and my brother at a Turkish restaurant and had the most wonderful meal!

I started with some Shepherd's salad and it was so yummy. I added some hummus to the plate when it came to the table but I had already started eating so I didn't take a pic. 

OMG you guys. I normally get falafel but I didn't want to eat fried food and have that heaviness in my tummy so I went for the veggie kebabs and you guys. Check out this feast for $12!!! It came with pickled cabbage, salad, bulgur, rice and two huge skewers of grilled veggies. It comes with eggplant, red and white onions, tomato and mushrooms (and peppers but I asked for no peppers). It was delicious and perfectly cooked. The eggplant was so tender and amazing. I am so glad I chose this!

I was out running some errands with my mom Sunday morning and we stopped at 7-Eleven for some coffee for my mom. I noticed that they had the Silk Vanilla Almond Creamer so I partook as well!! It is always so exciting to find vegan options popping up everywhere!

After trying and enjoying the almond creamer I found out there is a Hazelnut flavor and you better believe I went and got some! I like it a lot. It's not my favorite hazelnut flavor but it is really good and I'm glad I found it!

source

When I saw the double whammy of a hilarious meme and the cutest puppies of life I knew I had to share this here. I absolutely can not deal with this and their faces. They are too much!!! 

I mentioned that it has been raining like crazy lately but I saw the most beautiful rainbow! I was stopped at a red light (and kind of pulled over) so I snapped a super quick pic of it. I don't know about you guys but I love storms (although not driving in them) and seeing a rainbow after is the icing on the cake.

So that's all the random stuff I have to share with you today! I hope that you are all doing well, had a great weekend and have had a great start to your week. I'll see you on Friday!!

Even More Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! I'm sure we are all ready for the weekend! This week has been really long and I've had a lot of long days so I'm excited for a little bit of weekend relaxation starting on Sunday. Due to the craziness of the week I don't have a ton of meals to share but I made sure to photograph a few when I could!

I think I've mentioned that I've been helping out with taking my aunt to some of her physical therapy appointments and one of those appointments was before work this week. I had to pack a lunch that would be ok out of the fridge for a while because I wouldn't have time to run home and pick it up so I just made a simple peanut butter sandwich and had a banana on the side. It worked out perfectly.

This was probably my favorite meal. It has been insanely hot lately and it is sadly usually really warm in my office so I'm always overheated and more often than not headache-y by the time I get home. I wanted a no fuss refreshing dinner. I grabbed two of the spinach pinwheels from the freezer and heated them and had them with a side of super cold, juicy, refreshing watermelon. It was perfect.

This dinner was the result of super indecisiveness. I couldn't figure out what I wanted so I had a little bit of everything. I had a boca burger, a small caesar salad and some chips. It was super yummy.

Here is some more iced coffee that I made at home in this gorgeous "The Ocean Has My Heart" tumbler that I got a while ago when my friend was doing an Ocean Charity release in her shop (it's sadly no longer available). I've been enjoying making it at home so this is a budget change I'm really excited about.

That's what I have for you today! I hope that you all have an amazing weekend (share your fun weekend plans below!) and I'll see you on Tuesday! <3

More Stuff I Ate

Hey you guys! I hope you had a great weekend! Mine was super super busy so I don't have a ton of meals to share with you but I figured that I would just share what I have! Did you guys end up doing anything fun? I ended up having FOUR appointments yesterday (if I can offer any advice it would be DON'T DO THIS!!!) and it was exhausting. I was out from 8:30am-7pm and I basically collapsed into bed when I got home.

So, as I mentioned, I have a few things to share with you today. I'm also going into major budgeting mode so I can save some money so I'm going to be scouring Vegan Peace's blog My Cat Loves Daiya for her best budgeting advice. I'd love any advice you have as well! It is going to be pretty strict ($30-$40 per week which means no fun convenience products) and I'm sure I will end up including a pantry challenge in this to use up some of what I have to.

Anyway, enough of my babbling, let's check out the goods:

I was craving some pizza so I made myself a small flatbread pizza and paired it with a caesar salad. It was super good and perfect for a pizza craving.

This is a sad picture of a simple and delicious meal of a Boca Burger and some chips.

Grapes were on sale so I put some in a container and snacked on them for breakfast with some (unpictured) toast with earth balance at work.

A delicious chick'n caesar salad all ready to be devoured at work. As I've mention before I dress my salad ahead of time because I don't really mind if it is a little soggy by lunch time. I guess I'm weird.

Finally, I've been making iced coffee at home so I can have decaf and so I can save money. I've been enjoying it in this ADORABLE 10 oz steel tumbler I got from my friend's shop, Creating & Co. She also has larger tumblers (I have one of those too, I use it for water). I highly recommend them, they are great quality and super cute! They are in the lifestyle section of her site. As I've mentioned before, I am friends with the owner of this business but it does not change my opinion of her products. I would NEVER recommend something I personally do not love (as you can tell from my opinion about popular brands such as Kite Hill and Miyoko's).

That is it for today, friends! I hope that you all have a great week and I'll see you on Friday! <3

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well! Another week is ending and I know I'm ready for the weekend. Just two more days and then it is here. I don't think I have any plans for Sunday and Monday will be crazy busy. Do you guys have any fun weekend plans? Let me know, I'd love to be inspired by the fun things that you are doing!

Today's post is going to be another roundup of stuff I've been eating this week. I have been thoroughly enjoying my meals and I'm excited to share them with you.

It has been a long time since I've picked up some veggie rolls from the store for lunch. They are typically $6.49 for the rolls which I understand is a pretty good price. I picked these up on Wednesday and it was "Sushi Wednesday" and the rolls were on sale for $5. You can tell that the rolls are significantly smaller which would be how they make up for the price difference. It kind of annoys me because it just feels misleading. I would rather pay the $6.49 for the regular sized rolls but that's just me.

You know I need to have some watermelon in my life. This is a pretty large bowl (it's deep) and it was really sweet and delicious.

I put my Spinach and Feta Pinwheels in the freezer to keep for quick weeknight meals. It's so easy to pop in the toaster oven to warm up while you make a quick salad or fruit salad on the side. This meal was perfect, I loved the pinwheels and salad combination.

Another vegan chick'n caesar salad with some flatbread on the side. Super delicious and a very easy weeknight dinner.

You know I love my Mediterranean plates! Also a perfect meal that comes together quickly and is great for a hot summer night.

Finally, I've been enjoying some iced coffee on these exceptionally hot days. I loved iced coffee season!

That's all I have for you today! I hope that you all have a great weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday with another post! <3

Meal Prep and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for your continued support while I'm working through my mental health stuff. I'm pretty proud of myself that I've been fighting through it rather than withdrawing and retreating which is my typical way to cope. I would probably disappear from here for a while and just let it consume me. I'm not willing to let that happen anymore, at least not without a fight. So here I am with some really yummy (if I do say so myself!) meal prep and some really tasty meals I've been enjoying this week.

I'll start with the meal prep. I've been wanting to make this for a few weeks but didn't have the chance to until this weekend.

Vegan Spinach and Feta Pinwheels!!!!!!!

OMG they are SO FREAKING GOOD.

I decided to veganize this recipe from That Skinny Chick Can Bake. It was super easy. I just got vegan versions of the cheese and Pillsbury Puff Pastry happens to be accidentally vegan. I subbed regular garlic powder for garlic salt (you DO NOT need to add salt to this recipe, even with vegan feta - it's already plenty salty!) and just used a water wash instead of an egg wash on the puff pastry. It came together quickly and they look beautiful and taste great! I used Violife Feta and Daiya Mozzarella for my cheese and increased the mozzarella to a half cup. I think this will be a go to recipe for holiday appetizers in the future! It's so easy and looks so impressive! It would be really good with some chopped broccoli in it too!

So now onto the stuff I've been eating!

I decided to make a Mexican style flatbread pizza. It is an individual sized flatbread with Fat Free Refried Beans, a little bit of vegan mozzarella, some corn, green onion and salsa. It was SO GOOD!

You know I love my bagels so I had a plain one toasted and had half with Earth Balance butter and half with Tofutti cream cheese.

I love chips and salsa and rarely ever eat it so I decided that I needed to get my snack on and enjoy some! It was so good!

Here are the amazing Spinach and Feta Pinwheels in action. I was intending to have a salad with it but I ran out of greens so I decided to have some fruit instead. It was a perfect side, a really great balance to the savory pinwheels!

As I mentioned in my last post it was my intention to go to the movies to see Christopher Robin. I faced my fears and I went and while it was difficult at times I was able to get through it. As far as the movie itself, it was ok. I love all things Winnie the Pooh and I was super excited to see it but it wasn't my favorite story and I wasn't in love with the visual aesthetic they chose for the characters. It also felt like it had a really dark and sad tone throughout almost the entire movie which just felt strange to me. That said, I do love Ewan McGregor so I was happy to see him in it. All in all I'm glad I went out and had the experience and faced my fears but the movie itself was a little bit disappointing.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week and I'll see you on Friday!! <3

Stuff I Ate

Hey guys! I hope that you are all doing well. First of all, thank you so much for your kind and encouraging comments on my last post. I have been having a really hard time but reading your kind words really helps. This post will not be long as I only have a few meals to share (my appetite is still not great but at least I got a few full meals in). I'm still struggling with my mental health stuff but I'm fighting back a little more and trying to get a little more of a handle on it. It's a struggle every day and it's completely exhausting but it's all I can do.

Anyway, onto some more fun things like delicious vegan food. I only have three meals to share but they were pretty damn good.

This was a delicious dinner of rice with the Tempura Cauliflower from Trader Joe's. I don't like the sauce that comes with it so I actually just picked up some garlic sauce from a local Chinese restaurant and used that instead and it was really good. Next time I'll add some veggies to the rice… I just didn't feel like fussing or bothering on this particular day.

Some Trader Joe's gluten free waffles and syrup. Super simple and yummy.

Probably the fussiest meal I've eaten this week and it was worth every second. This salad was delicious. I've really been enjoying my salads this summer and this one was no exception.

So that's what I have for you. Hopefully this weekend will go better and I will be able to get some of the relaxing and recharging time that I was hoping for last weekend. I am also going to hopefully tackle another one of my mental health issues and try to get to the movies to see the Christopher Robin movie (Ewan Mcgregor and the Winnie the Pooh characters?! Yes, please!) so hopefully that will all work out. What are your weekend plans?

I hope you all have a great weekend! <3