Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all well. It is almost the weekend and I couldn't be more thrilled. This will certainly be a self care kind of weekend where I continue to declutter my life, rest my body and this weekend I also get to catch up with a friend of mine. We will be hanging out on Monday and I'm thrilled. I have missed her and it will be nice to catch up. We'll go out for lunch and I don't know where but I'm looking forward to sharing some of the awesome vegan food Long Island has to offer.

I'm not feeling great physically (I'm mid flare right now) and I'm working on adding in some probiotics into my daily routine. I am also looking for a vegan source of an Omega 3 supplement. Everything I found so far has some sort of orange sourced ingredient which I can not have due to my allergy. I have contacted a company to ask the source of their beta carotene and if it is not orange then I will take that one.

Anyway, let's take a look at some of the awesome meals I've been eating lately.

You guys. The baked oatmeal is freaking glorious. It is very dense but it is delicious and the chocolate is a game changer. When you warm it up the chocolate gets all melty again and it's awesome. I bet it's great with some plant milk on top too. I used this recipe from The Healthy Maven. I just used pecans instead of the walnuts, added the chocolate and didn't put the banana on top.

Like I said, I'm trying to be more consistent with my probiotic intake. I love the mango kombucha from Trader Joe's so I have been drinking this. I also have a supplement I can take if I need and I also have raw apple cider vinegar that I'll mix with water if that's what I feel like doing for the day.

You know I love my bagels and this one is toasted (from the freezer, you know how I feel about toasting fresh bagels) with half Earth Balance and half Tofutti. I enjoyed this with a cup of coffee with the Caramel flavored Silk Almond Creamer. Really delicious meal!

I finally made another bento box in my Monbento! This one is pretty similar to my staple box and it includes dolmas, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, hummus and some honey crisp apple slices. This meal is so fresh and tasty and really east and quick to put together.

As you can see, I didn't photograph any of my dinners. As I mentioned earlier I'm mid flare and I'm just so exhausted by the time I get home from work I barely even want to eat dinner, never mind dealing with photographing it. You saw a lot of it anyway with the meal prep so I figured it wasn't a huge deal.

On a fun note, I'm hoping to get to Aldi this weekend for my groceries! Wherever I end up I'll make sure to photograph it and share it with you.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Do you have any fun plans? Let me know what you're up to!

Trader Joe's Haul and Meal Prep

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all well and that you had a great weekend. I had a really rough week last week but today is a new day and I'm going to try and turn it all around. I think self care is going to be a priority this week and I'm going to figure out ways to care for myself in whatever way I can. I started decluttering over the weekend and it felt good but I have a long way to go to get to a place where I no longer feel like I'm suffocating because of all of the stuff. I also have plans with a friend next Monday and I'm really excited. I haven't really been social at all in a long time and it'll be so nice to meet up with her and catch up.

Before I get into the haul and some meal prep I just want to take a second to let you know how much I appreciate all of you that read this blog. I am so incredibly lucky to have such a kind, supporting compassionate community to be a part of and you proved it in my last post. It means the world to me, you guys are amazing 💜 I try not to be salty about things but there are things that I take very seriously and mental health and eating disorders are things that I take very seriously and I will always speak up about it.

Anyway, now let's check out some awesome vegan food!

I went to Trader Joe's for the first time in a few weeks and got lots of fun stuff. For produce I got some butter lettuce, spinach, honeycrisp apples, teeny tiny taters (thanks for the suggestion Ttrockwood! Such a great idea!), grape tomatoes, baby carrots and asparagus.

For the grocery stuff I got some Super Nutty Toffee Clusters for the cereal cravings and lazy dinners, restaurant style tortilla chips, veggie spring rolls, mango kombucha, raw almonds (I have been craving raw almonds so much!), dolmas, Mediterranean Hummus, maple syrup and guacamole (also a big craving and I didn't feel like making it).

On Monday I took some time and did some meal prep for the week.

I roasted up some veggies including the teeny tiny taters and the asparagus.

You guys, this is the piece de resistance. This is a banana bread baked oatmeal with pecan chips and chocolate chips. I was debating the chocolate chips and I added them because I'm not mad at some chocolate chips for breakfast. I haven't tried it yet but it looks freaking incredible and I'm so excited. 

That's what I have for you today! I'll be back on Friday to share some stuff I'm eating this week. Thanks again for everything, I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the warmer weather!

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are well. Happy almost weekend 😊 I hope that you all had a great week. Mine was VERY stressful but I think the worst of it is behind me so yay! I'm definitely planning on making sure I have some lazy time this weekend because I'm exhausted. You'll notice that my meals were very lazy ones that I threw together. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the meal prepped stuff that I ate but I guess you already saw it on Tuesday.

That bagel thooooooo. Half Earth Balance and half Tofutti cream cheese. Toasted (out of the freezer) and delicious.

Some more Morningstar nuggets and tots.

I FINALLY finished my Maple Ladders from Trader Joe's. They were good but I am still partial to the Toffee Nut Cluster cereal and will probably pick some of that up this weekend.

So much soup you guys. It's definitely warmer now but still not exactly warm. I've been enjoying this comfort meal pretty much daily. As you can see this made a huge full bowl and I couldn't finish it soooooo….

Leftovers for lunch! I enjoyed it with a delicious pear from H-Mart. It was a great meal.

I made some more last night. This time I used the rice cakes and it was definitely another great meal.

So I kind of wanted to talk about something that has been bothering me this week. As some of you may know, there have been A LOT of "Why I'm No Longer Vegan" videos on YouTube. I'm not here to judge anyone. Everyone can make their own decisions. There are several of these people that I will continue to watch because I like them as people. There is something I want to say though. I think that there are certainly a lot of vegans out there that are angry about the fact that these YouTubers are no longer vegan. I think there are a lot more vegans that are angry about something else. These two women in particular have sold a vegan lifestyle and profited off of it greatly. Not only did they sell veganism, they sold the extremely restrictive version of veganism that made them sick. They didn't get sick because they are vegan. They got sick because they did excessive fasts and restrictive eating. And both of them made a lot of money selling these lifestyles. They have E-Books (which are still up for sale) for $49 each. That's freaking crazy. I 100% believe that she was not planning on saying anything about no longer being fully vegan because that would completely ruin her business and effect her livelihood. I understand wanting to protect the bottom line but when you no longer believe in your own product it creates a huge issue. My biggest issue is that you are basically selling disordered eating, making a ton of money off of it and that you didn't come clean about it when you realized that your eating disorder made you sick.

I think another huge part of the problem comes with the cover up. Both of these women said they were waiting until the right time to come out and talk about it.  I could tell that one was struggling with her diet and I don't think it's as much as a surprise coming from her. The thing that bothered me about her video is that she said that her channel was never about a vegan diet which is untrue. I do believe that she started to shift a little more recently, especially since she has gotten sick and her personal life started changing. I do think it is bullshit to claim that her channel was never about veganism though. 

So, why the long rant? I'm annoyed. I'm annoyed by militant vegans going crazy and threatening people about decisions that they made (I promise you I don't care either way about what either of these ladies eat). I'm annoyed by ex vegans portraying veganism as a terrible thing. I'm annoyed that veganism is being blamed when the issue is actually disordered eating that will never be addressed (this is my biggest issue). I'm not annoyed by someone making a decision to care for their own health. We can't help others if we don't help ourselves first. What I am annoyed about is the profiting off of a lifestyle that you no longer believe in and only coming clean after you get caught. 

I hope that all of this makes sense. I don't normally talk about stuff like this because I really do try not to judge and I believe that everyone has the right to make their own decisions. My goal since day one of this blog has been to show people that they can eat delicious vegan food without crazy ingredients. That continues to be my goal (although we have so much more awesome vegan stuff available in the grocery store now than when I started!). I just think that it is irresponsible to promote disordered eating and I think that they damaged their reputations more by trying to hide the lifestyle change than by coming clean about it.

OK I'm going to step off of the soap box now. I have been sitting here debating whether or not to leave it in but I think I have to leave it. I'm sorry if you disagree but that's just the way I feel. I don't hate either of these ladies. I hope that they both get better. I just wish that they would stop promoting and selling disordered eating to their young, impressionable followers.

Anyway, that's it for today. If you made it through all of that thanks for sticking with me. I am planning on going to Trader Joe's this weekend because it has been a while! I'll post a haul on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

Haul, Prep and Pizza Nachos!

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all well and that you had a great weekend. Mine was good but of course went way too quickly. I'm still feeling a little blah but I decided that prepping some food for the week may help me with my decision making. Of course my soup will continue to be a staple because it is quick and easy. I did my weekly grocery shopping at H-Mart and made sure to take a picture of the haul. I'm still completely blown away by the prices.

This is my H-Mart haul! I got some carrots (you guys, those were the SMALLEST carrots they had!), two bunches of swiss chard, enoki mushrooms, three Japanese sweet potatoes, three pears, an avocado and some soft tofu. All of this stuff cost me $14! What?!

I decided to prep my produce for the week to make it as easy as possible for myself. I baked up all of my potatoes so I can grab one for dinner after work or for a quick breakfast (thanks Ttrockwood for the nut butter suggestion, that sounds amazing!!).

This is only 1 bunch of the swiss chard. I don't want to get into details about what was going on with the second but I can assure you it was disgusting and makes me weary to eat this to be honest. I prepared it in my favorite way: using Kris Carr's recipe from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. It has onion, garlic, tamari and nooch. It's really delicious.

I cut up my carrots and put them in a container with water so I can grab and go. You can tell by the horrendous cuts that I had a hard time… the same issue I had with the potatoes. I tried to find the smallest carrots they had but they were still too big. It makes me even more happy that I got it done in advance.

Finally, here is a fun meal! I wasn't starving but wanted something fun so I decided to make pizza nachos! These are very basic with just sauce and cheese (I didn't have toppings or fresh basil) but it was still really good! It was definitely a fun meal!

So that is what I have for you today! I'll be back on Friday to share some delicious meals I've been eating. I hope you all have a great week! <3

More Pantry Meals

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I hope all is well. I'm getting through the week and looking forward to the weekend. I see some decluttering happening in my future for sure. I get into these phases where I look at my stuff and it annoys me and I need to get rid of it. I have a lot of sentimental attachment to things but they just end up taking space so I need to be a little more cutthroat while I declutter. For example, I have makeup that is long expired and it just needs to go. I think the new season of Queer Eye comes out this weekend (maybe today?!) as well so I think that I'm going to be a little lazy and a little productive this weekend.

For today's post I have a few more pantry meals. I've been pretty uninspired lately. There is literally nothing that I want to eat. You know when you just don't crave anything? That's me. I make meals to get food in my stomach but there is nothing that is super satisfying because I just never want anything. Does that happen to you? What do you eat when you feel like that?

Anyway, let's get to the meals!

I had more pizza and this time it was in the form of a pizza bagel. This made me feel like a kid again and was delicious. 

This soup has become a staple meal for me. This one has udon noodles and I decided to store it in a quart sized Chinese Food container. I personally think it looks like it came from a restaurant 😉 It's quick and easy and satisfying and is a good go to meal when you just aren't craving anything.

Lunch one day was a peanut butter sandwich with a banana. Honestly this wasn't really satisfying because I really have to be in the mood for peanut butter (I know, blasphemy) and I definitely was not. 

A ginormous honeycrisp apple. This was very refreshing and I seriously can't wait for summer fruit to be back in season.

I know it's not a ton of meals but that's a good representation of what I've been eating. I had an udon noodle stir fry with frozen veggies in my mind all week but I just haven't wanted to eat it and I didn't want to make it and waste it. I'm sure I'll make it soon enough when I have a craving but it wasn't meant to be this week.

I'm definitely going to have to go shopping this week because I really want some fresh foods in my life. I'll probably do it at H-Mart since the prices are amazing. I'll hopefully have a haul for you on Tuesday!

I hope you have a great weekend. What are your weekend plans? 💜

A Few Pantry Challenge Meals

Hey everyone! I hope that you are doing well and had a great weekend. I'm hanging in I guess. I haven't been feeling great physically or emotionally. The end of the week was completely emotionally draining and I haven't fully recovered from that. I'm just trying to push forward and get through it so we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

I did start my pantry challenge and have been eating some yummy meals! Most breakfasts are oatmeal and for some reason I can never remember to take a picture. I'm most out of it in the morning so that is probably why. Here are some other yummy meals that I ate.

You know I had to make more of my soup. This stuff is incredible and will definitely continue to be a staple meal for me. The rice cakes are sooooooo good in it.

I had some of the Trader Joe's frozen Jasmine Rice and Spring Rolls hanging out in my freezer and thought it would be a quick and delicious meal. I was correct, ha!

We went to my brother's house for dinner on Sunday and he made a ton of food and kindly included some amazing vegan offerings for me. I had my first Japanese Sweet Potato (I LOVED it! I don't eat sweet potatoes a lot because they can be too sweet for me to have with a savory meal but this was perfect!) along with some perfectly cooked mushrooms and broccoli. It was very delicious and very filling.

I was craving some comfort food last night so I had a small flatbread pizza. It was yummy and just the comfort meal I was craving.

I have some more delicious meals planned for the week! I'll be back on Friday to update you on what other things I came up with :)

I hope you have a great week! 💜

So. Much. Soup.

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a good week. I'm definitely ready for the weekend, some self care and some relaxation. I am tired and I am stressed but I am feeling better than I had been I suppose. I bet it has something to do with the amount of amazing soup I have been consuming over the past few days 😉 I am working on really tightening up my budget for a bit so I'm going to hold off on grocery shopping this week and I'm going to make all of my meals using up stuff in my pantry and freezer. I guess we'll see what I come up with! If I have to run to H-Mart to grab some super budget friendly produce I am good with that, I'll just try to keep it under $10-$15.

Anyway, let's check out some yummy stuff I've been eating.

As you can guess by now I've been eating soup every day. This was for lunch on Tuesday and it was the leftovers of the amazing soup I made on Monday night for dinner. Like I've mentioned, the broth is light but flavorful and the add ins are so perfect. It is by far my favorite meal right now.

Wednesday night I decided to make the same soup but I used the sliced rice cakes instead of udon noodles. OMG you guys. IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD!!! The soft tofu really gives it the egg drop soup vibe and adding in lots of green onion makes it that much better. I love the texture of the rice cakes in this soup as well. 

I made enough for two servings so I had the leftovers for lunch yesterday. I paired it with an apple and it was so perfect.

So I have clearly been eating tons and tons of soup. It's just what I've been craving this week. I didn't have any made for lunch at work today but I did have one of these Pot Pies that I had tried a few months ago in the freezer. I just brought it for a quick, easy lunch. I have to microwave it which is not ideal but I'm sure it'll be fine.

As I mentioned above I'll be doing a sort of pantry type challenge where I skip grocery shopping this weekend and try to make as many meals as I can out of the pantry, freezer and fridge. I know I'll be eating a lot more soup and I have a few other things planned. I love this type of challenge because it forces you to be creative and I can't wait to share what I've come up with!

I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!

H-Mart Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey you guys! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a good weekend. I'm cold but doing a bit better. It was a really rough week last week but my therapist helped me put it in perspective yesterday (because I had a shitty day yesterday too) and reminded me that there is still plenty of time to turn this week around. So, I plan on doing just this and hoping that the rest of the week will be better. I plan on being more focused on self care (I will be getting my first hair cut in a year this week) and just being kind to myself.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom. I finally made my way over to H-Mart and grabbed a few items to create amazing meals. I keep forgetting how affordable H-Mart is so I think I need to go more often and do more of my shopping there. I made sure to photograph my haul, of course, and a few of the meals I enjoyed over the weekend.

So this is my H-Mart haul! I got all of this for just under $15! That's amazing considering there is 5 servings of udon noodles and a large bag of sliced rice cakes. So I got udon noodles, honey crisp apples, an avocado, a bunch of green onions, two packages of enoki mushrooms, soft tofu and sliced rice cakes.

On Sunday I was really craving a "junky" comfort meal as it was a super lazy day with an impending "snowstorm" (when really it was just kind of dumb and insignificant). I grabbed some of these now vegan Morningstar Farms Chik'n nuggets to try. I am so glad that they've been making more of their products vegan so I can try them! I believe they were on sale too so bonus!

My incredibly beige but delicious meal. I had some nuggets with some tots and an obscene amount of ketchup and it was exactly what I wanted and so damn good.

You guys. This is 100% the best soup I've ever made in my life. Yesterday I did still have to shovel in the morning (it was just not as much as they were anticipating) and had a crappy day so I was craving a warm, comforting bowl of soup. I decided to get into my H-Mart goodies and try to make a cross of some of my pre-vegan favs: Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup and Egg Drop Soup. I was SO HAPPY with how it came out, it was perfect! Of course I didn't measure anything so I don't have a recipe but I'll let you know what I did.

I made the broth from Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base, mushroom seasoning from H-Mart (I got that a while ago) and some garlic powder. This created a light but really flavorful broth. I added some udon noodles, enoki mushrooms, crumbled soft tofu and green onions. I used one brick of udon noodles (I get the frozen ones which cost $2 for 5 servings) and was able to get 2 servings of soup out of it. This is definitely going to be a staple meal, it is so so delicious.

So that's what I have for you today! Did you do anything fun this weekend? I need to live vicariously through you 😂 I'll see you back here on Friday!

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well and had a good week. I'm glad that I am close to the weekend, it has been a long and busy week. I don't know if I ever mentioned this but my aunt injured herself again about 2 months ago so this week I took her to another early morning appointment as well as my dad to an early morning pre-op appointment. His procedure was yesterday and he comes home today. Everything is ok it's just been a stressful week. I'm still not feeling great so with all of this going on I don't have a ton to share but I do have some yummy stuff to show you.

A weird but delicious combination of roasted potatoes with ketchup and a sliced Opal apple. I really enjoyed the opal apples! I don't know if I prefer them to honeycrisps but they are delicious and definitely a great option.

A sad picture of a delicious pear.

Coffee has been a saving grace this week. It is cold and I'm tired and I have tried to kick caffeine in the past but sometimes you just need some delicious fully caffeinated coffee. I am now fiercely loyal to Silk Almond creamer (this cup is the Vanilla flavor). It is delicious, gets my coffee light and creamy and easy to find. You can't go wrong with that.

I had this bagel in the freezer so I toasted it (bagels out of the freezer do get toasted, fresh bagels stay fresh) and added some tofutti. Also delicious and by far my favorite comfort meal.

I didn't have the energy or creativity to figure out any sort of lunch for today so I stopped at the store and grabbed a super fresh (made on the spot for me since they didn't have any yet) veggie roll. It looks great and I can't wait to eat it.

*Trigger Warning - I'm going to be discussing Eating Disorders below*

I debated whether or not I was going to talk about this today but I felt at the very least I did need to mention it. This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. The theme for 2019 is "Come As You Are" and stresses the importance of inclusivity when it comes to the discussion of eating disorders. I wanted to bring this up because as I've mentioned before I am in recovery for an eating disorder and also because I believe that eating disorders are incredibly prevalent in the vegan community (particularly in the vegan YouTube community) and it isn't widely acknowledged or recognized. I'm not going to get into details but I did want to share some resources for people that may be struggling and want to get help. I'll talk a lot more in detail about my own eating disorder this Sunday on my other blog. I don't mean to be an alarmist or dramatic but I really do want to stress the importance of getting help if you are struggling with an eating disorder. There will be physical consequences. It's not a matter of if you have physical complications, it is a matter of when the longer your battle goes on. I have physical issues that I will likely deal with for the rest of my life.

Resources (source):

Eating Disorder Screening Tool

Helpline

Find Help

Frequently Asked Questions

OK sorry about the brief departure but I did find that important to share. That's all I have for today and I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm looking forward to this weekend as it'll hopefully be another self care weekend. I'm also hoping to check out a Vegetarian/Vegan restaurant that opened recently and head over to H-Mart to get some ingredients for a warm, comforting meal. I'm very excited to share all of this with you next week! Stay warm and I'll see you on Tuesday!