Catching Up

Hey everyone. I hope that you are all doing ok. I can assure you that it was not my intention to take a break. The reality is that things have not been great here and blogging was just the last thing on my mind. I have a lot going on and I just didn't have it in me to keep up with this right now. Things keep piling up and I am just incredibly depressed right now. The odd thing is that I've been keeping up with my social obligations that I've made. I'm trying to get out and not withdraw. It's difficult because all I want to do is be home in my bed but I go out. It's nice to spend time with friends but I just feel empty inside right now. Long story short, I'm struggling.

During my hiatus I've taken some photos of some meals that I've enjoyed with friends and a random Whole Foods haul. I figured I'd pop in and update you on where I've been and share the pics.

A few weeks ago a group of us went to Golden Star in Medford, NY. They have an extensive vegan menu and I started with an unpictured wonton soup (omg so good) and this is the vegan pork with broccoli. This is not something I would normally get but for whatever reason I went for it. It looked so realistic it was kind of crazy but it was actually really good and I'm glad I went outside of what I would normally get and tried something new.

This beauty has been a staple meal for me. It is a Greek style salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, Violife Feta and stuffed grape leaves. I dressed it with some red wine vinegar and pepper and it was delicious. I eat this quite a bit.

This is part one of my Whole Foods haul. I got some Earth Balance Cheddar Squares, Skinny Pop everything bagel mini popcorn cakes, key lime larabars (my fav flavor and so hard to find), a vegan chocolate chip scone and some bagels.

I went to Whole Foods because their Violife cheese was on sale big time. I got the feta and cheddar slices for $3.99 each and decided to try the WFs brand shredded mozzarella. I got two mango kombuchas and hummus as well. I tried to show some restraint and I think I did ok.

Up next was another meal at Little Fu's. My friend and I decided to grab a late lunch (which turned into dinner - we were there for like 3 hours 😳😬) and got a few dishes to share. We got the vegan pepper steak (I just had the onions and "steak"), chick'n with broccoli and veggie lo mein.

I also went back to That Pizza Place with my friends and brought some slices home to keep in the freezer. Here we have a broccoli mac n cheese slice, eggplant parm slice and 2 plain slices.

This is the only slice I've had so far but omg isn't it a beauty? This goes against everything I believe in, ha. I don't typically eat pasta and I really don't like pasta on my pizza but it looked so good I had to try it and OMG is it good. I make an exception for this. They added tons of garlic which was delicious and they make a cashew based cheese sauce which is delicious. It's so so good.

 

This was an Asian Chopped salad that I topped with a chick'n patty from Aldi's. Super delicious and a very quick, easy meal.

A friend of mine was helping out with a fundraiser for rescue pups and I offered to donate a piece of art for the raffle. I made this piece and I'm so thrilled with how it came out. I decided to customize it and add special details to make it more appropriate for the event and it turned out perfectly.

So that is the update I have for you right now. I am sorry I haven't been keeping up with your blogs but I will catch up soon. I'm not sure when my next post will be but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. I hope that you are all doing ok .💚

Hauls and Meal Prep

Hey everyone. I hope that you are all doing well. I know this post is going up a little later than usual but things have just been so crazy here. Today's post will be quick. I'll just be sharing a few hauls and some meal prep that I did for the week.

First is a small haul from the Sweet To Lick Market. I went in to get the feta because I've been craving Greek salad and Violife is the best feta! I got some other goodies because why not. I saw this individual sized bag of Beanfields cheddar and sour cream chips and had to try them. I have never seen that flavor and thought they sounded delicious and omg they are! I would love to find a big bag of them for sure! I had to get my jerky of course and then some chocolate too.

You can't go to the market without going to the bakery! I grabbed a Halloween funfetti whoopee cookie and a rocky road bar, yum!

I went to Trader Joe's this weekend and grabbed some stuff from there as well. I got baby zucchini, grape tomatoes, inner peas, mixed greens, butter lettuce, baby spinach, tots, white beans, mini marshmallows, falafel, a potato, cornbread crisps, nutty bites with chocolate, pears, bananas and cauliflower rice.

After Trader Joe's I did some pretty awesome meal prep.

I made another delicious soup with all of the delicious veggies and white beans that I got. This is my new favorite soup and will definitely be a winter staple!

I made a baked oatmeal and used raisins instead of chocolate chips. This has bananas, almonds and raisins which are my favorite toppings for oatmeal. This is so freaking delicious and so easy to throw together.

That's what I have for you today! I'm so sorry I haven't been around much, things have been crazy but I'm really trying to find my balance. I hope you are all doing well and I promise I'll catch up on your posts soon! 💚

More Food and More Art

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was pretty good. The event was on Saturday and it was a really nice day! The weather was beautiful, it was a really nice size so there was a crowd but it wasn't super overwhelming, I had friends there and it was just a great, supportive atmosphere. I got some great feedback and made a few sales so I'm really happy. A really nice surprise was that one of the vegan vendors, a vegan baking company, named a cookie after Doug. He had tried it last year and loved it so much they wanted to honor him by naming it after him. It was a bit emotional but such a beautiful gesture. Of course I had to get one and I'll share it when I try it. I wasn't going to eat it but a friend pointed out that Doug would hate that cookie going uneaten which is a fair point.

First up I have some food to share with you.

Up first is this amazing soup I made to bring to work for lunch the week before last actually. It was SO DELICIOUS. I used the Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base (this stuff is seriously the best) to make my broth and added onions, carrots, potato, zucchini, cauliflower, white beans and spinach with garlic and pepper. It was so delicious, this will definitely be a winter staple!!

I love making chicken parm and chicken parm sandwiches with my Aldi chick'n patties and this meal was super yummy with some seasoned fries.

I went back to That Pizza Place on one of my days off to get some stuff for the freezer. I grabbed a few plain slices and an eggplant roll. This place is seriously amazing!

I went to Little Fu's with a friend for lunch on one of my days off and got the veggie chick'n with mixed veggies and it was DELICIOUS.

I know it seems like I ate like trash the entire time but I promise I wasn't! These were just the most fun meals and I wanted to share them with you.

In addition to the yummy eats I have some more of the pieces that I made to share with you.

Susan requested to see the mermaid bookmark with shimmery bubbles so the only way to do it justice was to boomerang it! The whole thing has a blue tone to it so sorry about that but I think you'll get the point!

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

That Pizza Place(!!) And Some Art

Hey you guys! I hope that you are all doing well. I am super excited to share today's post because I went back to That Pizza Place in Levittown, NY. As you know from my MoFo post about my first trip to TPP, they have amazing food there. I met up with a friend there for dinner last weekend and was excited to share my meal with you. It may seem boring but OMG it was so good. I love that I can go to a pizza place and that they have vegan options of legit NY style pizza ready to go. It is a big deal when you grew up on NY style pizza and it has been one of the things I've missed most as a vegan.

I don't know about you guys but I freaking love garlic knots. As you know, I love all things bread so these make me very happy. I actually ended up bringing almost all of these home which I can assure you was not a problem at all 😉

They had vegan greek salad on the menu and I had to get it. They use Violife Feta (as far as I can tell) and it was really delicious. I'm glad I decided to get this! I didn't think I'd get a salad but my friend inspired me and I'm glad that I got one too.

I went with a plain old margarita slice and it was so good you guys. Like I've mentioned, I like the plain jane kind of slices. I was hoping they would have their white pizza but they didn't. This was an excellent choice and was a perfect way to round out the meal.

That Pizza Place does have a pretty expansive vegan menu but I'm mostly interested in the pizza. As you know, I'm not much of a pasta person and I've never been into heros. I'm a happy camper with my classic pizza. But if you are into other pizza place fare you will certainly be happy with their menu! I'm really glad that I got to go back and I had such a nice time catching up with my friend. I was going to get some slices to go but we stayed until closing and what they had left looked a little past their prime so I decided to hold off.

Like I said in my last post, I've been working a lot on getting my art together to sell at a fundraiser. I've been working really hard on it and wanted to share some of it with you! This is just a sampling of one kind of art that I've been working on. It is the aesthetic that I've been gravitating toward lately and the one that I think best represents me and what I like.

These are some of the 2.5x3.5 inch cards I made. I have a lot more but these are just a sampling of them.

These are some of the 5x7 sized pieces that I've made. I really love this quote, I'm obsessed with the moth and you can't tell in the pictures but the lightbulbs have a hint of shimmer that I really enjoy.

These are some more of the larger sized pieces that I made. I love these butterfly stamps.

I made a ton of bookmarks too! Again, these are just some of the first ones that I made but there are a ton of different colors and styles. There may also be a mermaid one with shimmery bubbles 😉

So that's what I have for you today. Having these few days off have really helped me and I'm glad I was able to prepare for this event over the week. I don't have as much done as I would like but it's ok. I'm just proud of what I've accomplished and I'm excited to share it with people.

I hope you've all had a great week and that you enjoy your weekend! 💚

Aldi Haul

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. Sorry for the unexpected week long hiatus. I'm preparing to sell art at an event this weekend and I've had tunnel vision on getting prepared for that. I've been working non-stop and forget to eat most days actually. I am only working today for this week as I had a few vacation days to take before the end of the year and this was perfect timing as it allows me to prepare for the event. I've been a bit of a mess so blogging totally slipped my mind but when I headed out to Aldi on Sunday to stock up on a few of my cost effective favs I knew I had to share my haul with you..

I wasn't really going there for produce (I would have gotten apples if they had honeycrisp but I didn't see any) so I just grabbed an Asian Chopped salad kit for my one day of work this week, some asparagus, baby carrots and some tofu cream cheese.

These were random cravings I had. I've been seriously craving cashews and trail mix lately and this trail mix looked so yummy and the chocolate had no milk in it so I grabbed that. The cookies on the bottom are like thin mints so they came home and promptly went into the freezer after I took the picture. I also got veggie chips and snap pea crisps.

You know I always stock up on my chick'n patties when I got. I got three boxes because that's how I roll. These are my primary fake meat of choice, I rarely ever have others in my freezer so I stock up because the price is so good. These seasoned fries were only $1.69 for a bag so I grabbed two of those because why not.

This is a normal amount of dessert hummus to have, right? 😂 We all know I love the brownie batter one and I couldn't resist trying the pumpkin pie and sea salt caramel one! How amazing will the caramel one be with apples and the pumpkin with graham crackers?! I can't wait to try and let you know what I think!

So that is what I have for you today. I will definitely make time to catch up on your posts during my time off this week and I will be back on Friday to share something fun as well. I hope you all have a great week and that you are all well 💚

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm exhausted but looking forward to the weekend!I'm especially excited because I actually have plans! I am going to go to a psychic fair that is being held on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been to one so I'm not entirely sure what it entails but it sounded like something that would be interesting to check out. I've been a lot more spiritual over the past year or so and I think that this would be really cool. I will definitely let you know how it goes!

Other than that I plan on working on some art for the event I will be selling at in a few weeks and RELAXING. I've been so drained since I started this new job but I'm really trying to get back into the swing of things. For today, I have some stuff I ate to share with you. I apologize in advance for the horrendous lighting. I am not home during daylight all that often anymore.

As you know, I'm not really a pasta person. One pasta dish I did love was fettuccini alfredo. I really wanted to try making it and I wanted it in its proper, unhealthy form. I found a super easy recipe online and gave it a try. The texture of the sauce was great but I used the wrong creamer. It was supposed to be unsweetened but had a hint of sweetness so it was a little odd. I think I need to try and find Ripple or something completely unsweetened and give this a try again. Oh, and because I don't eat pasta I had to use udon noodles for this dish 😂

You guys know that I'm a grilled cheese master and this one was no exception. It was perfect on sourdough bread and so so gooey. This was exactly the comfort meal I needed!

I've been enjoying avocado toast for breakfast. Always delicious.

Delicious honeycrisp apples in horrible lighting. So sorry.

Random snacky type lunch plate. This is the ranch dip from Trader Joe's. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It has a nice flavor but you really get hit with that coconut flavor. I'm wondering how it would be with something more savory. For now, I'm not sure I'd repurchase.

Veggie filled plate with potatoes, broccoli and delicious asparagus. This was a great meal and I had it several times this week.

I hope that you all had a great week and that you enjoy your weekend! 💚

Hauls!

Hey everyone! I hope that you are well! I can't believe how quickly the weekends fly by now. It's kind of a bummer but I've been enjoying that time so much more now. I especially enjoy any day that I don't have to jump out of bed (that was Saturday this week) because being lazy in bed after I wake up is my favorite thing. Anyway, I am here today with two hauls for you! I went to Trader Joe's for some groceries and I also had a treat yo self moment at the Sweet To Lick Market and grabbed some fun stuff to enjoy!

First up, the Trader Joe's goods:

First up the random grocery/treat items from Trader Joe's. Tots, chick'n tenders, hummus, vegan ranch dip, sourdough bread, sunbutter cups, and Miso ramen cups for quick lunches.

Sesame Crunch Chopped Salad kit, butter lettuce, baby carrots, honeycrisp apples, avocados and grape tomatoes.

Big ol' bag of rolled oats, veggie chips, rice crackers (yay, they're back!) and inner peas.

From the Sweet to Lick Market I ended up with Vegan Rob's Cheddar Puffs, Wayfare Whipped Butter (Doug loved this product!), The Honest Stand Cheddar Syle Dip, some random mini pb sandwich crackers, thai peanut jerky, chocolates with pumpkin spice caramel centers, a 2*fer (vegan twix!!) and some Follow Your Heart American.

I had sampled the cheddar dip the last time I was in the market and knew I'd buy it when I went back. It is DELICIOUS and made from veggies and cashews basically. It's like 25 calories for 2 tablespoons or something. Apparently it makes great mac n cheese too. I may have to give that a try! For now, I'm enjoying it on crackers. I highly recommend this dip, it's amazing!

So that's what I have today! I hope that you all have a wonderful week and I'll be back on Friday with another post 💚

Family Birthday Dinner, Stuff I Ate and Some Art

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. We made it through another week. I'm so exhausted, I'm looking forward to just relaxing a bit this weekend. I'll finally be able to catch up on your posts. I'm so sorry that I've been absent, it's just been so much happening at the same time. On the plus side, I have a lot to share with you, including some new art that I've made.

I chose a Turkish restaurant for our family dinner for my birthday and got these amazing veggie kebabs with some green salad. It was so delicious, I love this meal so much.

For my birthday treats I got a Rocky Road bar and an Cookies n Cream whoopee cookie. I have been enjoying those for the past few days!

I don't know why I forgot about avocado toast but I did. I had some this week on sourdough bread with some strawberries and it was a quick and delicious breakfast!

There was a lot of quick snacky stuff going on because I've just been feeling off. I enjoyed these veggie chips so much!

We are getting into apple season and I loved my first honeycrisps of the season! I had a root canal done on a tooth a few weeks ago so I'm going to hold off on biting into an apple until I get the post and permanent filling so I cut this beauty up and brought it to work with me.

This is how I love my baked oatmeal! I will either heat it up and eat almost like a dessert or I'll add some almond milk and heat it and turn it back into regular oatmeal. Either way it's so damn good.

And now onto some art! I have been playing with inks and stamps lately and I am LOVING the aesthetic. This is very much me and my style and I'm going to be working on a lot of pieces like this to start selling!

I made a few pieces as little gifts as well. They were personalized for each recipient.

This piece is my favorite piece I've ever created. I love the message, the imagery, the colors and composition. I'm so proud of this piece and I think it really captures who I am as a human being.

This is just a close up of the sentiment and the fucking amazing moth. I love it so much,

So that's what I have for you today. I'll make sure to catch up on your blogs this weekend and I'll be back with a new post on Tuesday. Have a great weekend my friends 💚