Trader Joe's Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well and that you had a great weekend! I enjoyed my weekend but it went by so quickly! I could definitely go for a three day weekend but that isn't in the cards for a bit I don't think.  Anyway, I'm here today with a small Trader Joe's haul and a few things that I ate this weekend. I'm trying to go through some stuff in my pantry so my hauls will likely be smaller over the next few weeks. Anyway, here's what I got!

So this is my little Trader Joe's haul. I got another bag of Crispy Curls, some Carrot Ginger Miso dressing, cucumbers, more tots, green onions, pears, broccoli florets and 2 bags of butter lettuce.

And some meals!

Some gluten free Trader Joe's frozen waffles.

More AMAZING vegan chick'n noodle soup. Omg so good you guys,

Another chick'n caesar salad and tots. Note to self: don't use this salad plate for the meal because it's ridiculously small. The other plate I used was much better. I need to get a white dinner plate for meals with salads.

Some chips and salsa for snack. OMG so good. Thank goodness for nightshades 😂

That's all I have for you today! I'll be back on Friday with some fun stuff (hopefully it's fun, ha!). Since I won't be back before I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!!

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone!! I hope that you are all doing well. Today's post will be short but I managed to take a few pictures of things I've been eating through the week.

Up first is this incredibly weird ass meal. I wanted some tots and was going to have some baby carrots with them. They were still within the use by date but they were so slimy. Like disgustingly slimy and just touching one grossed me out. I was tired and annoyed so I just cut up an apple to have with them. It was good but just a weird combination.

I had one of these quick McDougall's soup cups for lunch at work one day. I like these for a quick grab and go meal. It's made with rice noodles and is gluten free.

This was such a good breakfast! One day I decided I just wanted some fruit with peanut butter for breakfast and it was delicious. As you can see I opted for crunchy peanut butter and it was definitely a good decision.

Finally I have some brown rice sushi rolls. They are still really good but now that the price is $7.49 it will definitely be a once in a while treat rather than a weekly or biweekly meal.

That's all I have for you today! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday!!

Mini Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope all is well! I hope you liked Friday's post about the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns event. I had such a great time at the event and was very excited to share it with you. I'm hoping to be able to venture out more and experience more on Long Island to share with you in the future. For today, I have all of the food to share!!

First up I have a mini haul from Trader Joe's. I decided to take a picture of my cart before I headed over to checkout.

So here's the haul: A bag of the Crunchy Curls (so addictive you guys), some Tater Tots (when you add nightshades back in obviously you go for the tater tots!), hummus, avocados, baby carrots, an onion, mirepoix, grape tomatoes, zucchini and butter lettuce.

So I know the mirepoix is kind of lazy but my plan for that is to dump it into a bowl, mix it up and dump it back into the container to hold in the freezer. I thought it would be perfect for when I just want to make a single serving bowl of chick'n noodle soup - I can just grab a few tablespoons and not have to worry about waste and chopping veggies forever when I just want a quick bowl of soup.

This is the apple pecan baked oatmeal all served up. I added a little almond milk to it and it was so delicious.

I made a bento lunch of a wrap (gluten free wrap with lettuce, hummus and the fajita veggies I made last week (I had this meal earlier in the week) and an apple on the side. The wrap combination was great but the actual wrap was a little brittle for my liking. I was hoping that it would soften up as it sat in the fridge all morning but it didn't really.

Some sushi rolls which I ate with my gorgeous new chopsticks! I really wanted to get a set of reusable chopsticks (I also got a set of steel straws because I am a straw girl) and these rainbow steel ones are beautiful. I have to get used to using them but I am so happy with them. They were $.99 (I got them here) and I plan on getting a few more pairs to have on hand. I'm not affiliated with them… I just think they are pretty.

This was a burrito bowl that I made. It had brown rice, fat free refried beans (from Trader Joe's), fajita veggies and mashed avocado. I was kind of wishing I made this into a quesadilla because I just ended up leaving most of the rice but it was still good.

This was by far my favorite meal of the week, ha! I made a vegan chick'n caesar salad with the butter lettuce and some morningstar grilled chick'n strips that I had and paired it with some tots! I don't think the chick'n is gluten free but I had it in my freezer and I didn't really want to waste it because it's kind of expensive. This meal was so freaking delicious.

Finally, I made the quesadilla I was talking about above. This just has refried beans and fajita veggies because my avocados were not ripe yet. The gluten free wraps are much better when toasted up like this. It was really delicious.

So that's what I have for you today! I'll be back on Friday and I hope you have a great week!

Fun Friday: RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns 2018

Hey you guys! Happy Friday! I hope you are all doing well! I am SO EXCITED to share this post with you. I went to the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns at Old Westbury Gardens last weekend and I loved it just as much as I did last year! For those of you that don't know what the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns is, basically it is a walk set up (in the most amazing location I must say - Old Westbury Gardens is incredible) with tons of the most intricately carved lit pumpkins. They have themed sections and as you'll see in the pictures below some of the themes this year were right up my alley! I was so impressed by everything and I absolutely could not wait to share it with you! It was so hard for me to narrow down the photos to my favorites but I chose the ones that really spoke to me most to share with you. With that said, this is still going to be a long post!

Before we went to the event we went out for dinner (I went with my family by the way). I figured I may as well show you what I had, ha! I had a really delicious salad with some field greens, avocado, pear, tomatoes, carrots and balsamic vinaigrette. I had to leave off the cheese and I added the avocado and it was absolutely incredible. Yes, I know there are tomatoes but I've decided that I feel no difference in my pain removing nightshades (plus more research has led me to believe the the nightshades being inflammatory is kind of not really proven at all - plus I have a hard time believe tomatoes are bad for you) I've decided that I'm ok with nightshades. I'm still sticking with gluten free but I'm going to include some nightshades back in my meals. Anyway, the salad was delicious and I'll definitely be recreating it at home.

These are the welcome pumpkins. I thought it looked really cool.

One of the first little collections was an adorable animal collection! For the sake of the length of this post I grouped them together into a little collage for you but look how cute they are! I couldn't wait to share these with you guys.

So up next was my absolute favorite section. I am really fascinated by astrology, the zodiac, and mystical stuff and they had an entire section devoted to all of that. I am not sharing everything with you here for the sake of space but in addition to what I have below there was about 5 or 6 tarot card jack o'lantern sculptures that were incredible.

Up first was this amazing ouija board! How cool is it?!

Up next we got into the zodiac sign pumpkins. I love the depictions of each sign and that they included the constellation as well. The attention to detail is seriously amazing.

Capricorn and Taurus.

Aquarius and Pisces.

Libra and Gemini.

Aries and Virgo (it was cute too because the other family member that was super interested in this section was an Aries - I love that we shared a pumpkin!).

You know I had to get a closer look at my Virgo girl.

Cancer and Scorpio.

Leo and Sagittarius.

Another amazing zodiac inspired sculpture.

How amazing is this Winnie the Pooh pumpkin! I'm a little bummed out that they left Eeyore off (I mean typical - no wonder the poor guy is always sad) but otherwise the pumpkin is incredible.

I think this Where The Wild Things Are pumpkin is also incredible. That detail!!

Every year that have a group of jack o'lanterns memorializing some celebrities that we had lost that year. I was hoping that they would have one for Anthony Bourdain and I was not disappointed.

How beautifully done is this pumpkin? It looks exactly like a photo of him. I'm so glad it was done well (let's be honest, sometimes the depiction is a little wonky) and that they honored him in this section.

They also did a really great job with the Stephen Hawking memorial pumpkin. 

Puffins!!!!!

I am obsessed with this pumpkin. It is so freaking well done and the little dudes are kind of adorable.

Lastly I just wanted to share this awesome walkway that you go through to get to the last section of the walk. It is so beautiful with the tree lined path that is perfectly lit.

I don't know if you can tell but I seriously love this event, ha! I am definitely hoping to make it an annual tradition because it's just my favorite way to celebrate the Halloween season. I am really glad that I got to share it with you and I hope that you all enjoyed the pictures! There is so much more that I didn't share because the post would be SO FREAKING LONG. If you live in the Long Island area I highly recommend this event.

Thanks again and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Meal Prep and a Mini Lush Haul

Hey you guys! I hope that all is well and that you all had a great weekend. I had a really wonderful weekend and I am so excited to share what I did with you… on Friday! 😂 We went to the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns last Saturday and I took tons of pictures to share but I thought it would be a great Fun Friday post for you guys. I am really excited to show you the amazing pumpkins that they had this year. I had THE BEST time, it is truly my favorite way to celebrate the Halloween season.

For today I still have some fun stuff to share. I did a lot of meal prep yesterday so I figured I'd show that to you along with a mini Lush haul! It has been so long since I've shopped at Lush but they just came out with a new product that I'm hoping will be really beneficial for me.

Anyway, here's all the stuff!

The first thing I made was the beautiful Apple Pecan Baked Oatmeal from Apples for CJ. It was so quick to put together, made the house smell amazing and is so so delicious! Definitely recommend!

Up next I just sautéed up some fajita veggies to have for burrito bowls and quesadillas. I made a mix of zucchini, onion and mushroom.

Last I made a stir fry and used the sauce from the Buddha's Delight Stir Fry from Dinner at the Zoo. I made my stir fry with tofu, onion, broccoli, zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms.

I had it for dinner last night and it was so delicious you guys. I just added a little brown rice to the bottom of the bowl and it was a quick, easy dinner.

As I mentioned above I found a new product from Lush that I really wanted to try. It is called Magic Crystals and it is a shower scrub. It has epsom salts, peppermint and menthol and is supposed to be great for achy muscles so I thought it would be really great if it really worked because it would be perfect to use during my Fibro flare ups. I also got a free tub of the Oatifix fresh face masks for finally returning the 5 empty pots that I've had forever (Lush is big into recycling guys!) and I asked for some samples of the solid mouthwash tabs. I'm really excited to try everything!

This was the description of the Magic Crystals Shower scrub. I'm really hoping that it works because it would be such a great thing to have. I was also concerned that it was part of their Halloween collection but it's permanent!

Finally, I just wanted to share my home screen on my phone because it is awesome. I'm sorry I can't share a source link, my friend sent me the image and I have no clue where she got it. If I can find it I will make sure to update it. I just love this picture so much, I feel like it is perfect for me!

So that's what I have for you today! I hope that you all have a wonderful week and definitely come back on Friday because I'm SO EXCITED to share my experience and RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns!

Taste Tests and Stuff I Ate

Hey you guys! I hope you are well. Happy Friday! I'm back with a proper post that actually has vegan food and all kinds of fun things in it. I'm feeling a bit better and my appetite has been coming back so I made sure to photograph the yummy things I've been enjoying throughout the week. I also have a mini haul of stuff to fill in for the rest of the week and you guys… wait until you see the most amazing comfort meal I made. It's so simple but it was one of the best things I've eaten in a really long time! I'm also going to share my thoughts on some of the things I've tasted from my Aldi's haul.

Up first is a mini haul from Stop & Shop, my local grocery store. I grabbed a bag of baby spinach, a bag of spring mix, some baby carrots and two of the Dark Chocolate Coconut Silk yogurts that I saw on My Cat Loves Daiya's recent post! It sounded so good and they had it so I had to give it a try. I refuse to give up on finding a vegan yogurt that I like.

First up I tried the Cucumber Dill Hummus and the Gluten Free Black Sesame Crackers, both from Aldi. I love them both you guys. The hummus has a subtle flavor but it's really good and it pairs PERFECTLY with the crackers! The crackers are delicious and taste just like a regular multigrain cracker. It almost tastes like a tortilla chip to me. I bet these would be delicious with salsa, queso or guac. I love them both and will definitely be stocking up on them the next time I go.

Next up I tried the little gluten free brownie cookie things that I also got from Aldi. First, I know that I had questioned whether or not they were vegan after the whole honey in the bread debacle but after double checking they are definitely vegan. I included the ingredients and side of the box below for you to check out if you are curious. Anyway, I was shocked by how delicious they were. They have a light, soft texture with a really nice chocolate flavor and the chocolate chips are definitely an added bonus. I really enjoy these. I bet they would be great warmed up with a little ice cream on them too 😉 The only thing is that the cookies are tiny and there are 16 per box. The box was only $2.49 so it's not terrible but I didn't feel like it's as great of a value as some of the other things. However, during a chocolate craving these things will be priceless.

I have been craving sushi like crazy lately. I grabbed these rolls from Stop & Shop when I was there and it was really good! They were fresh and they cost $5.49 which isn't terrible. This one had 10 pieces which is a little less than the other store I get them from but they were also $2 cheaper (the other store raised the price to $7.49 😩). They were delicious and exactly what I wanted.

You guys. This picture sucks thanks to crappy lighting but Oh. My. Goodness. I made gluten free, vegan chicken noodle soup and I AM LIVING FOR IT. It was so simple, it was quick (it took maybe 20 minutes start to finish) and most importantly, it was delicious. The core ingredients were Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base, gluten free noodles and soy curls!! It was really delicious. I do just need to work on the proportions a bit (you'll see I lost a lot of my broth, oops) and when I perfect it I'll make sure to share the recipe with you guys!!

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

Aldi Haul & Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. Sorry for the random brief hiatus, I just wasn't feeling well and hadn't been eating much. When I did eat I just didn't feel like photographing anything so I just decided to skip Friday's post. I don't really have all that much food to share with you today either but I do have an Aldi's Haul for you! Jennifer from One Raw Bite had mentioned that they have gluten free bread and there is a location about 30 minutes from me so I took a ride out there with my mom to take a look. I can't believe how much great stuff they have for really awesome prices! I am very happy with what I got (spoiler alert, they didn't have the gluten free bread, wah!) and wanted to make sure to share the haul with you.

So that bread was a fail on my part. I figured that sprouted grain bread would be ok since I had heard that it's the next best option to gluten free and it's easy to digest and all that stuff. Well, I opened it to make some toast and it immediately smelled sweet so I just knew that I must have overlooked an ingredient. Sure enough, I missed the honey in the ingredients. This is why you don't read ingredients when you have a migraine my friends. I am annoyed at myself that I keep forgetting that I have an app where you just scan a barcode and it tells you if the product is vegan and I just didn't use it. Anyway, someone else will be enjoying that bread. The other stuff I got was some beautiful red grapes ($.99 per pound!! A huge bag cost $2.50), Organic chocolate coconut clusters, trail mix, sweet potato chips and cucumber dill hummus. Doesn't that flavor sound amazing?!

They have their own brand of gluten free products so I loaded up. Those bags of gluten free crackers were only about $2.50 each so I stocked up on 2 since I knew I wouldn't be going there super often (and you get two huge bags for the price of one small box of gluten free crackers in the grocery store). Those will be perfect for hummus or vegan cheese or dip or whatever. I also got gluten free wraps for quesadillas or whatever other wrap type things I want to make. I found these gluten free cookies for chocolate cravings and I'm hoping that my eyes didn't fail me on those but when I read the ingredients they definitely seemed vegan. I'm going to check again before I eat them but I'm pretty positive. 

I'm really excited about all of the stuff I got! I am hoping to be able to do some taste tests over the week so I can review as many of these products as I can for you on Friday!

I managed to grab 2 pictures of stuff I ate over the past week so I figured I'd still share them with you.

This meal was earlier last week when I wasn't feeling quite so crappy yet. It was some dolmas, hummus, roasted veggies and an apple. It was such a delicious meal.

For a snack/small meal I had a banana and some kombucha. I'm mostly been eating small bits here and there because I just feel crappy. I had a migraine for about 4 days which kills your appetite and desire to do pretty much anything. I am definitely excited to taste the stuff I got from Aldi's though and I am looking forward to sharing the reviews with you.

I hope you have a great week! I'll see you on Friday 💜