Pinterest Summer Roundup

Hey guys! I hope all is well! This is not the post I was hoping for today but the week just got away from me, I got stuck in my head about some stuff and photographing food just wasn't on the agenda for me. I figured that rather than skip the post I'd share some awesome recipes I found on Pinterest and am looking forward to trying this summer. Let me know if there are any fun recipes that you are looking to try or any of your summer staples that I should try!

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The first recipe are these 3 Ingredient Kind Coconut Almond Bars from the Beaming Baker. I think these will be a perfect summer snack on the go, especially because I am planning on getting back into a gym routine and these will help me feel energized. The original Kind bars contain honey are are more expensive than necessary so I'm looking forward to trying them out on my own!

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The second recipe that I'm excited to try is the Long Weekend Grilled Salad from Oh She Glows. I love grilled veggies in the summer so this salad is right up my alley! I can't wait to try it, it'll be a perfect healthy staple meal.

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The next recipe screams summer to me. These are the Zucchini and Chickpea Pancakes from Just Hungry. I think these sound amazing and I am planning on adding corn to them because I think it'll add that much more summer freshness!

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This is the Farro and Corn Salad from the Food Network. It is bright and beautiful and screams summer freshness. I think this will be a perfect work lunch during the summer, it'll be quick, hearty and delicious.

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OMG YOU GUYS. I am not a fan of putting on the oven in the summer but I sure as hell will to make these Vegan S'mores Brownies from Make Thyme for Health! Are you kidding me with these?! I think these would be a great dessert for 4th of July or a night out by the fire pit. They look sooooooo good!

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I've always wanted to try dessert hummus and this Brownie Batter Dessert Hummus from A Virtual Vegan looks perfect!!! I think it'll be a great dessert with some fruit for a summer chocolate fix. I'm really excited to try this one!

So these are the summer recipes I'm really excited to try and review for you! Let me know what you are looking forward to trying this summer! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 💜

Getting Back to Normal(ish)

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well and that you enjoyed the long weekend (if you had a long weekend - I sadly did not). Things are on the upswing here with my tooth finally feeling better. I've been feeling pretty happy and that's awesome because the struggle can be real as you know 😂 I don't have a ton of food pics because it was a lot of bananas, watermelon, soft bread with peanut butter and other soft foods as I waited for the antibiotics to do their thing. I did take a few to share and I have a few more pieces of art that I worked on over the weekend.

As you know, I don't eat a ton of pasta but some well cooked pasta was perfect because it was soft enough to chew when my pain was at its worst. This just has a little Earth Balance and some salt.

I ran over to the vegan market to see if I could find anything festive for Memorial Day. I walked out with some Vegan Rob's Cheddar Puffs and the Field Roast Mini Corn Dogs (which I didn't even eat for Memorial Day 😂).

I also went to the bakery and grabbed this cookie dough brownie and it was DELICIOUS.

Finally, now that I am doing a lot better and can handle some more firm meals, I grabbed a pumpernickel onion bagel with Tofutti. I asked for plain but got scallion and I'm not made at it, ha! It was really good.

Over the weekend I worked on some more mixed media art projects. I really like how these came out.

This is a closer picture so you could read the quotes and see the cool textures going on.

I made tis one as a gift and I can't wait to send it to her! I love that color green so much! 😍

So that's what I have for you today! Did you do anything fun for your Memorial Day/long weekend? Let me know!

Day Off

Hey guys! I didn't want to just skip the post so I thought I'd give you a head's up that I don't have anything to share today. I started having tooth pain on Monday and it ended up being an abscess so I have been in excruciating pain all week. I only eat to take my med and it hurt to chew a banana so unfortunately I wasn't able to grab any food pics. I haven't been making any art because it hurt me to move so I just was laying around and trying not to move. I plan on working on some projects this weekend so I should have some to share next week! I also hope to start eating more normal food so I should be back to normal next week as I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better.

Hope you all have a great weekend! 💜

Food and Art

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine went well but was too quick, as usual. I really dove into creating some art and was quite productive with that. It was relaxing and therapeutic and exactly what I needed for the weekend. I've been pretty drained physically so it was exactly what I needed. I had my follow up with my neurologist yesterday and I do have 3 herniated discs in my neck as well as some straightening of the curve in my neck. So that's fun, ha! Like I said last week, the plus side is I have no nerve damage and no vascular issues so that is all good news.

I don't have a ton of meals to share because I just haven't taken a lot of pictures. My food is boring pantry/freezer food and I just haven't felt particularly motivated but I'm trying hard to fix it. I do have some pictures of what I accomplished over the weekend so I'll share those as well. If you don't care to see any more in the future just let me know in the comments!

This was a totally random soup that ended up being really good! I didn't have anything I would normally add in the house (tofu, green onions, etc.) so I just used the better than bouillon chick'n base and added some rice cakes and a few gyoza. TI really just wanted that filling from the gyoza to add some veggies to the soup and it actually worked pretty well. It isn't pretty but it was very tasty.

Those of you that have been reading here for a while you'll know I'm not a big pasta person. I didn't know what to have for dinner the other night and had some pasta so I decided to make some. I know this may seem weird but if you haven't added corn to your pasta, DO IT! It's so good, it added a nice sweetness to it. It's so delicious. I just had it with a little Earth Balance and it was delicious.

I made this piece with some leftover jewelry making supplies I had purchased a while ago. The jewelry making didn't work out but I am so happy with how this piece came out! It is unique and the colors are gorgeous. And you can't beat glass glitter.

I had run out of mini canvases by the time I got to this piece so I used an old CD and I really love how it came out! By this point I had kind of let go of trying to fit into the mixed media style that I had seen before and just allowed myself to create and wouldn't you know it, I'm so much happier with the result.

This is a close up of the texture that was created. I'm definitely really proud of this one.

This is the last piece that I finished. I had started it before the cd but held off on finishing it until I had a better idea of what I wanted the finished product to be. I also really love this one. You may know how much I love all things celestial and galaxy so this one is close to my heart.

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

Popping In

Hey you guys! I hope all is well. This week has been chock full of more craziness with more testing and stuff. I am going in for my follow up and full results on Monday but from what it seems so far I have no nerve damage (yay!) but two herniated discs in my neck. I also saw the word myelopathy on the screen with the MRI report but I guess we'll see on Monday. I've been completely drained all week and I'm hoping to be able to catch up a bit on rest this weekend. 

I don't have much to share today but I guess some is better than nothing, right?

On Wednesday I had the testing from 7:00am - 8:30 am so there definitely wasn't much time to do anything in the morning. I decided to take part in Sushi Wednesday and grabbed this beautiful, fresh sushi for $5. Can't go wrong with that.

My dad surprised me with some AMAZING watermelon. I'm shocked by how good it is, especially for this time of year.

I've been trying to be consistent with my art because it has been very therapeutic for me. It is a great distraction from my anxiety and other stuff that I deal with so I've been trying to spend some time every day working on it. This is a teeny tiny mixed media canvas that I made and I really love how it came out. I like working with these little canvases and I think I'm going to grab a bunch more because it is a great, manageable size for me to work with as I'm getting started and learning more about this particular type of art. 

That's all I have for you today! I hope you all have a great weekend! Let me know all of the fun things you have planned in the comments 😃

Some Stuff I Ate and A Painting!

Hey you guys. I hope that you are all well and that you had a great weekend! I don't know why but it randomly got really cold again so I'm sitting here freezing and wishing I had some soup for lunch. I may stop at H-Mart on the way home to grab some tofu and green onions to make some because I'm definitely craving it in this cold, gray wether. Anyway, this weekend was more productive than relaxing which is fine, I just wish I had taken some more time to rest. I am exhausted and emotionally drained but I'm hoping after my neurological testing tomorrow things will calm down and I'll be able to rest a little more.

For today I have a few meals and snacks to share with you and also a painting that I started!

Last Friday I had my MRI at 7:00 in the morning. I was told to be there at 6:30 which was stupid because I got there at 6:30 only to sit there until 7:00. What a waste of time. Anyway, I needed a lot of coffee after so I went to our new Starbucks DRIVE THRU! I know it is lazy but I don't care, I was tired, ha! Anyway, I got an iced hazelnut soy latte. I always get a tall but this time I splurged on a venti and quickly realized why I don't get a venti. I drank about 3/4 of it and felt sick for the rest of the day but it did taste delicious. I'll just have to stick to the smaller sizes.

I made this trail mix as a tasty snack. It is raisins, chocolate chips and almonds. It reminds me of the flavors of a chunky bar which I actually used to like so I really love this mix.

I had another quick dinner of tots and nuggets and it was delicious.

Another favorite snack lately is an apple with almond butter. I like the maple seen here but the vanilla is my favorite and that's the one I'll be purchasing in the future.

Today was physical therapy day for my aunt so I grabbed a plain bagel with tofutti on the way to work after. Also delicious but I had to get rid of like half of the tofutti because it's a lot.

So I've been working on creating art when I can and I made this canvas that I'm really in love with. It is my first successful galaxy and I made a boomerang of it so you can see the star texture under the paint and the shimmer paint I used on top. I never share my art but I really love this and wanted to show you guys!

That's all I have for today! I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you on Friday 💜

What I Ate In A Day

Hey everyone! I hope all is well! I was up today at the crack of dawn for an MRI. I had to be at my appointment at 6:30 am so as you can imagine that was really fun. I'm glad that it's done and next week I have some more neurological testing to do. It's exhausting. But other than that things are the same. I'm hoping to get some cleaning done and to spend some time doing some art journaling since it is something I really enjoy. My friend is cleaning out her scrapbooking supplies and she is passing it along to me so I'm really excited about seeing what kind of goodies I'll be getting.

For today's post I took photos of a full day of eating to share. This day was actually a better day of eating with three actual meals. If I eat a salad for lunch I'm ok because they don't stick for too long so I'm usually ok for dinner later. Anyway, here is what I ate in a day!

For breakfast I had a bowl of oats with cinnamon, banana, slivered almonds and some raisins. This is my favorite topping combination for oats and this breakfast was seriously delicious.

For lunch I had a simple salad of granny smith apple, butter lettuce, slivered almonds and some Asian Vinaigrette from Panera.

A little later on I had the rest of the apple as a snack.

For dinner I had this delicious brown meal of Morningstar nuggets and tots. So yummy.

I was so full at the end of the day but all of the meals were so satisfying. Definitely a yummy day of meals. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, let me know about all of the fun things you are doing! See you on Tuesday 💜

Grocery Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well and that you had a good weekend! Mine was pretty good, I actually decided to work on some art that I have been wanting to get to for a long time. It was really cathartic and felt really good to just devote some time to doing something that I love. I am always hyper critical of myself and my art but I learned this weekend that it is more about the process of creating and not the final outcome. It was pretty awesome.

In addition to that, I did end up heading over to Trader Joe's to grab some groceries. I braced myself for a nightmare and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that crowded at all. I got there when they opened and it was an ugly, rainy day so I'm wondering if that deterred people from getting out of bed and heading over early.

Anyway, I have the haul to share as well as a few meals I enjoyed over the weekend.

For produce I got some zucchini, granny smith apples, cauliflower, butter lettuce, potatoes and carrots.

For grocery stuff I got some tots, inner peas, flax, raisins, dolma, corn and a dark chocolate bar.

I didn't have the time to make lunch one day so I ran next door to the deli and got some rice and beans and broccoli. She makes the best beans and she told me how she makes it so I definitely plan on making some at home!

For dinner one night I made a salad with the butter lettuce, a granny smith apple, slivered almonds and some Asian Vinaigrette from Panera. That is the best dressing to have with this salad!

I finally decided that this weekend I needed to try that Aldi chocolate cake.

So the cake is small (comparable to a Daiya cheesecake) but you don't need a lot to be satisfied. This cake is RICH and seriously delicious! I am really enjoying it, it's a great indulgence to have when you are having a chocolate craving.

I had to take my aunt to physical therapy this morning which means I got myself a pumpernickel bagel with tofu cream cheese from the bagel store on the way to work. Delicious as always.

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

What I Ate In A Day

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm still trying to get back into my groove with cooking and being productive so meals have been blah lately but I am planning on going to Trader Joe's this weekend to get some fresh stuff back in my life. For now I'm just using what I have in the fridge, pantry and freezer. I figured I'd photograph my meals in one day and share them with you. Next week I should have a haul to share and some delicious meals using fresh foods.

For breakfast I had one of my favorite budget, pantry meals. I made some oatmeal with cinnamon, a banana and some slivered almonds. It was really delicious and quick to make and super filling.

For "lunch" I brought a granny smith apple and a packet of Justin's Vanilla Almond Butter. I LOVE this almond butter, the flavor is so good and it is perfect with an apple.

For dinner I made an individual flatbread pizza with some Daiya Cutting Board Shreds that I had. It was actually really delicious and satisfied the pizza craving that I had.

So that was my day of eating. Maybe not super exciting and definitely lacking in color and I can't wait to fix that. Do you guys have any fun weekend plans? Inspire me to do something 😂

Have a great weekend! 💜