Vegan MoFo 2019: Vegan MoFo Wrap Up

Hi my friends! I hope that you are all doing well! I can't believe I made it through Vegan MoFo without missing a single intended post. And honestly, I'm really proud of the posts I did put out there. I did my best to remain creative and keep the content as fresh as possible. My biggest goals were to use this month to revitalize my blog, gain new inspiration and more creativity in the kitchen and to keep up with the schedule. I feel like I've achieved all of these goals and I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm exhausted but really proud of what I accomplished. I just want to thank all of you that stuck with me for the entire month and I truly hope that you enjoyed the content I put out and that you were inspired as well 💚

I figured I would go with the prompt from the MoFo site and just do a general conclusion/wrap up post. I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that I enjoyed most from my MoFo journey. 

First and foremost, I LOVED following all of your amazing blogs!! I loved following Susan's super creative ABC theme, Julie's "Elementary, My Dear Vegan" theme, Food For Dissertating's AMAZING vegan Bento ideas, Jennifer's CSA adventures and all of the other amazing, creative vegans out there! I have gotten so many amazing ideas from them and I can't wait to start trying them out in my own kitchen so thanks for the inspiration everyone!!

As for highlights from my own blog (is that obnoxious? Probably but oh well?) I would have to say that sharing some of the amazing vegan options Long Island has to offer has been really fun for me! I've only barely scratched the surface but it has been great getting out and exploring some of the places that I've been wanting to try!

The sesame chick'n has definitely been a highlight for me and I'm glad I got to share Little Fu's with you!

Finally getting to That Pizza Place was definitely a highlight! I'm so glad I went and tried all of this amazing food and that I was able to share the glory of garlic knot crust with you! 😂

The most special post to me was where I talked about Zen Garden, the amazing restaurant where I shared a meal with Doug before he tragically passed. This restaurant is not only DELICIOUS but it holds a very special place in my heart and being able to share my experience there with you was truly THE highlight for me. I'm glad I was able to introduce you to Doug a little more through that post because he was truly a special person.

Of course the Rocky Road bar from Sweet to Lick was another amazing highlight!

In addition to trying these amazing restaurants (which I will absolutely continue in the future) I also finally tapped into my Pinterest pins and tried out a few of the recipes.

The Ambitious Kitchen's chickpea blondies and this incredible sundae were definitely a must try from me! So so delicious with less guilt for the actual blondie (I mean there is ice cream sooooooo yeah).

FINALLY trying the Viet Vegan's Tteokbokki recipe was another highlight. I have made it again and will continue to enjoy it because it's freaking awesome! Another recipe I would highly recommend trying!

Finally, I really enjoyed taste testing lots of fun products that have been new to me. 

The "thin mint" type of cookie from Aldi was a really great treat! I love thin mints and wouldn't mind having a package of these in the freezer at all times 😂

The Mahalo bar was SO AMAZING! It was also a nice gesture from a new friend that I shared the amazing concert experience with in the beginning of August. I've had a lot of really beautiful moments with new friends this month and it is another reason why this has all been so special.

WHITE CHEDDAR POPCORN IS BACK IN MY LIFE! I was so excited to learn that this was vegan and even more excited when I tried it and it was delicious! Now I just need to get all of the bags the next time I see them 😂

So there you have it, some of the highlights of MoFo for me. If I had to put it into a nutshell, I'd say the thing I enjoyed most about my own journey has been getting out and experiencing more of the vegan scene around me. This blog has been called Long Island Vegan for a long time but I haven't really been showing you what Long Island has to offer. Until now. I'm really excited to spend more of my time on this blog sharing all of the amazing things Long Island and the surrounding areas have to offer. I am also excited to tackle my Pinterest list and share everything with you. And you know I'll continue sharing my meals and hauls with you. It feels so good to be re-invigorated.

So, for now, I will be taking the weekend off and then going back to my twice per week schedule as I adjust to my new job, new schedule and new routine. Once I have it all well managed I will probably try to add on at least one more post per week. I will definitely let you know when the time comes 😃 What have been some of your MoFo highlights? What did you see here that you'd love to see more of in the future? Is there anything you'd like to see less of or not at all. Let me know, I am so curious to know what you think and what you are enjoying!

I hope you all have an amazing weekend and I'll be back here next week 💚 Thank you all so much for taking the time out to come here and read my ramblings. It truly means so much to me!

Vegan MoFo 2019: Taste Testing New To Me Products!

Hi my friends! I hope you are all doing well! For today's post I thought it would be fun to taste test and review some of the new to me products that I've found recently. Some may be new to the market and I believe some have been out for a while but I've never tried any of it. I thought a roundup would be a fun MoFo post! I can't believe it's almost over! I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of relieved. The last week has been stressful with house/pet sitting and posting 5 days per week is exhausting!

Anyway, let's check out some cool products!

I heard that Skinny Pop popcorn had a Vegan White Cheddar option out there and I knew I had to try it! I found an individual bag of it and picked it up to see how it was. Before I get into the review, I will say that I did see a Cheddar option that was not vegan so make sure you check before purchasing! I think the non-vegan bag was orange.

I love popcorn and I particularly love Skinny Pop. I don't know why but it is my popcorn of choice (I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just love their popcorn) and I always get the regular one. Once I heard that this White Cheddar flavor was vegan I knew I had to get on it quickly. You guys. This shit is SO GOOD. At first the cheddar flavor is quite subtle but it actually builds a bit and it's really delicious. I will DEFINITELY be repurchasing this!

Up next I have the American Flatbread Vegan Harvest Pizza. This was on sale down from $9.99 to $5.99. The pizza is small and very thin. I ate half and wasn't super satisfied to be honest. It may have been because I hadn't eaten much that day or because I was just hungry but it wasn't satisfying. Anyway, the flavor was fine, it wasn't a bad pizza but it wasn't even worth the sale price of $5.99, never mind the original price of $10. I enjoyed the flavor of it but I wouldn't re-purchase. I like my flatbread pizzas that I make and my money goes a lot further that way.

Up next we have the new Morningstar Popcorn Chick'n!! OMG you guys, this stuff is so good! I tried them on their own for this dinner and loved them. They get nice and crispy, taste great and are super fun! These would be amazing in a salad or in a wrap or even on a pizza! I love them and will definitely repurchase!

Up next I tried the Gardein Sausage and Homestyle Gravy Breakfast bowl. It was a little weird because everything kind of tasted like the real versions. The egg like product freaked me out the most because it looked so real. The Gardein sausage is great and I love that they use chunks of potato with the skin on. I actually liked this bowl but I do wish it came with more gravy and that it was on the side in one of the sauce packets you get with stir fries (I totally agree with you The Student-turned-Doctor!). I just think it would work that way and I really wanted more of that gravy. Otherwise I really did enjoy it. I would totally have it again for a quick meal.

Finally, I tried the Kite Hill tortellini and the Follow Your Heart shredded parmesan cheese. The tortellini was pretty good! I am not a pasta person so it's hard for me to really get behind pasta but this was definitely good. The flavor was great and it had a nice texture. The only thing that was weird to me was that the filling kind of stuck to my mouth, almost like peanut butter does. It was definitely good but I doubt I'd purchase it again for the hefty $10 price tag. If you love pasta and are missing tortellini I bet you'll love this!

I tried some of the parmesan on the pasta and then I also made parmesan garlic bread on the side. I freaking loved the garlic bread. I had been craving it for so long and I finally satisfied that craving and it was delicious. The parmesan is by far the best vegan parm I've ever tried. I really loved it.

So there are some new (to me) products that I've recently tried! Have you tried any of these products? What do you think of them? 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: Stuff I Ate

Hi friends! We are getting close to the end here! It's so crazy how this month has gone so quickly. I'm so damn proud of myself for keeping to my schedule and that I haven't missed an intended post. Yay!

Today I have another stuff I ate post. These wrap ups have been fun and hopefully it will motivate me to start being a little more creative and to get some more fresh food on my plate. Anyway, for the last time this MoFo, let's check out some delicious food I've been eating! Sorry that the lighting gets crappy, it's not ideal at my brother's house.

Chick'n patty sandwich with ketchup because I'm a basic bitch. Seasoned fries because I'm a spicy queen. 😂

My obligatory pumpernickel bagel with entirely too much tofu spread.

I decided to partake in Sushi Wednesday for the first time in a while! Really fresh, delicious sushi for $5.00! Can't beat it!

You know that I will eat watermelon until the last possible second. So delicious.

I had time to properly toast my breakfast sandwich and figured I would take a picture of it all prepared and pretty looking. I had it with some watermelon. This was a delicious breakfast!

As you saw in my meal prep post, I've been eating this at work and will continue to through the end of the week (my last day is Friday! Ah!). It's a really tasty meal and I'm glad that I took the time to prep it!

So that's some stuff I've eaten since my last Stuff I Ate post. As you can tell I've been eating lots of yummy stuff! I am really loving the air fried broccoli, cauliflower and tofu! So good!

💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: Meal Prep

Hi my friends! Welcome to another MoFo post as we wind down! As I previously mentioned, this week is incredibly busy and stressful for me because I am house sitting and pet sitting for my brother. There are currently 7 animals here and while it is nice to have so many sweet babies around me it is so much work. Especially because they have an untrained husky puppy. She is very sweet but she just makes a mess everywhere all the time. I feel like all I've done is clean up after dogs since I got here and it really tweaks my OCD.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to do a lot of meal prep this week because my time in the mornings would be very limited after taking care of the animals. I made some grab and go breakfasts and lunches to have ready to go in the morning so all I have to do is make some coffee and run out the door after I do the chores. I thought it would be fun to share the meals I prepped!

I decided to keep everything as simple as possible. It's not ideal to have this every day but I just needed to have something quick. I don't love overnight oats so I figured a week of breakfast sandwiches would be ok. Anyway, I put together 4 breakfast sandwiches with Gardein Sausage Patties, Follow Your Heart American Cheese and English Muffins. Simple, tasty and it does the job. I wrapped them up and popped them in the freezer and I'm going to be grabbing one and heating it up in the morning. It works out well! I think it's a good thing to keep in the freezer to grab when you need a quick meal if you are running late or have something going on.

I also wanted to have my work lunches ready for the week since it will be incredibly hectic in the morning. I decided to use the air fryer and just go to town. I did some broccoli, cauliflower, tofu and Japanese Sweet potatoes. Each container has a half of a potato and some of the rest of the deliciousness. So easy and it will be a really satisfying lunch! I have four containers total. The other ones are so cute, they have little dividers, which I love.

For fun, just two pup pics for you!

This is my favorite thing ever. TJ will just crawl up on my stomach when I'm relaxing in bed and just flop on his back and doze off. I love it so so much. He is too precious.

This beauty is Stella. She is gorgeous but rambunctious and very high energy. I am struggling a little bit because I do not have experience watching bigger dogs, especially not husky puppies. She is very sweet but not trained at all so it has been very challenging for me. I managed to capture a rare moment of calm.

So that's all I have today! Make sure to pop back in tomorrow for more MoFo fun! 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: All The Hauls!

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! Well, MoFo is wrapping up this week and it has been a whirlwind. I am so proud of myself for sticking with the schedule that I created for myself (posting every weekday), despite my life being so hectic and crazy right now. I am trying to figure out what kind of schedule I want to stick to after MoFo. Since my first week at my new job is next week I'm thinking I'll stick to 2 posts a week until I get settled in and then I'll try and add at least one more post per week. We'll get to that when the time comes though! I hope you've been enjoying MoFo this year and I'm so happy that I participated this year.

So, let's get on the to hauls!! I went to a few places and wanted to share everything with you because hauls are fun 😂

The first place I went to was the Sweet To Lick Market which you can read about here. I was looking for a few specific things (which they didn't have, of course… my life, ha!) but I found a few things that I wanted to splurge on. The first is the Kite Hill tortellini! As you know, I'm not really a pasta person but for some reason I really wanted to try it so here we are! I got a bag of Vegan Rob's Cheddar Puffs, some Follow Your Heart Shredded Parmesan (I've never tried!) and American Slices and my beloved Thai Peanut Primal Strips.

When you go to the market it would be silly not to go to the bakery as well. I saw that they had two Rocky Road Bars left (I got there just in time!) so I made sure to grab one of those along with a Death By Chocolate Whoopee Cookie.

I went to Stop & Shop, our local grocery chain, to pick up a few things and found a few fun new things to try! Gardein has these bowls out that sound amazing!! I grabbed the Sausage and Country Style Gravy Breakfast Bowl to try because it sounded like exactly what I need in my life (and something I can recreate on my own!) so I will be trying that out in a taste testing post later this week! I also got some of the breakfast sausage to meal prep for the week and these Flatbread Pizzas were on sale from $9.99 down to $5.99 so I decided to grab one. I will also review it in the taste test post.

Finally, I picked up a few things from H-Mart so I could meal prep my lunches for the week. I got some cauliflower, broccoli, Japanese Sweet Potatoes and some unpictured tofu. I don't know how I forgot to add it to the picture but it's been a hectic few days, ha!

So there are some hauls for you! It's mostly fun stuff and I brought some other stuff from home to fill in for the rest of the week. I'll be back tomorrow to share the meal prep that I've gotten done for the week. Hope you have a great day! 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: That Pizza Place in Levittown, NY

Hey friends! Today we have another post where I share another amazing location on Long Island that has AMAZING vegan options. This time it is That Pizza Place located in Levittown, NY. I have been wanting to get there for a really long time. It's not that far from me but it's far enough that I hadn't gotten there yet. That all changed when I was in the area for something else and decided to stop in and grab a bunch of stuff to bring home and try through the week. 

This is the front of the shop and it's so cute. There is a mural on the side of the building (thankfully, that is how I found it and didn't miss the parking lot 😂) but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I went inside and it was empty so I guess that it must have been early (although I got there at about 12:30 on a Sunday). I asked about their vegan options and was shocked and thrilled that SO MANY of their ready made options were vegan! They also had a full vegan menu to order from!

This entire first section was vegan and I believe the furthest pizza was a "grandma" style pizza, the thing of beauty in the middle was a rigatoni a la vodka slice with A GARLIC KNOT CRUST(!!), a chick'n or eggplant parmesan slice (I think they said chick'n) and a plain slice.

The top two shelves in the middle section were vegan as well. There were rice balls, mac n cheese balls, chick'n roll, eggplant roll, mac n cheese pizza, chick'n bacon ranch pizza and Jack Daniels chick'n pizza.

How the hell do you choose?! I decided to get the stuff that was already ready because I was doing takeout. I figured I'd go back with friends and get some stuff off of the menu.

I got one of the whatever (😂) parmesan slices, plain (I always just ate plain cheese pizza in my pre vegan days), the garlic knot crust because duh and a rice ball.

For dinner that night I had to go with this beauty. It was SO GOOD. And that is coming from someone that is not a big pasta fan. To be honest, I'd be happier if this didn't have the pasta on it (pasta, garlic knots and crust is a lot) but it had great flavor. My favorite part was the garlic knots because just give me a ball of dough and I'm a happy lady!

A few days later I tried the chick'n parmesan pizza with a piece of the rice ball. I have never really been big into rice balls so I'm not sure why I got it over the mac n cheese balls but I felt like I made a weird decision under pressure 😂 Anyway, it was pretty good but just not something that I'm obsessed with or would get again. The pizza was delicious though. The chick'n was made from seitan which was pretty good but it just feels so good to be able to enjoy a proper NY style slice of pizza. Very delicious and filling meal but I would definitely try the mac n cheese bites over the rice ball next time.

Finally, the following Friday, I tried the simplest slice but also the one that I was looking forward to most. As I mentioned previously, my inner basic bitch shines through in my pizza preferences. I will always go for a plain cheese slice. It is my favorite. So this was the true test. And you guys… it was SO DAMN GOOD. It was my favorite slice, as expected. A plain cheese slice with a garlic knot crust would be my ideal pizza. I feel like that is a challenge I need to take myself up on, ha!

So there is my review of what I've tried so far from That Pizza Place in Levittown, NY! I definitely recommend it, they have delicious pizza and a ton of options. They can be a bit pricey but not too bad considering. I've heard from fellow Long Island Vegans that they have an AMAZING white slice which I definitely want to try too. 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: Stuff My Friend Ate!

Hi friends! I can't believe we are almost there! The first two weeks were quite easy for me. I had a ton of ideas and a lot of energy to get it all done and to get these posts out! This week has been a little more difficult because I'm running through my ideas and also because I've had something going on behind the scenes that I'm ready to share with you. I have been looking for a new job for a while now. Financially, I really needed to move on and I had just outgrown this position. I've been here for 11 years and have been stagnant for most of them. It was time.

So, last week I was offered a position for a new job and I happily accepted! I was waiting to announce it until it was 100% locked in and here we are! I start on September 3 and I'm so thrilled. It will be a significant improvement for me financially and it will be more challenging and busy. I'm really looking forward to it and I'm so excited to share this news with you. It was time for something great to happen and it did. 

So that is a little of the background of this past week. I've been really busy between the interview and clearances and things like that so my ability to get posts out has been more difficult. Luckily, I have an amazing friend that eats amazing vegan food and I thought it would be fun to share her meals with you! She enthusiastically agreed to let me share her pics and meals. I love this idea too because a lot of it is stuff you wouldn't otherwise see here because of my own taste preferences. Her name is Karen and if you agree with me that her food looks freaking incredible you can follow her on IG @vegan_atheist71.

This is penne a la vodka with Victoria Vegan vodka sauce, Violife Mozzarella, Go Veggie Parmesan, MorningStar Popcorn chick'n (which I recently found and purchased and can't wait to try!), and a leftover garlic knot from a dinner she had previously (which you'll see soon). As you know I am not a pasta person but this has me DROOLING. Holy crap!

This beautiful creation is Eat Nice Creamy Ricotta Ravioli, Gardein Meatless Meatballs, and Go Veggie Parmesan. Also a delicious looking pasta dish!

This beautiful plate is the No Evil Chick'n Fajitas with guac, corn salsa, Tofutti Sour Cream and rice and beans. 

You know I'm not into bell peppers so I'd probably never try this product but she loved it and it looks awesome!

This was a gorgeous Buffalo Tofu Pesto Pizza from a restaurant called Pazzo Ristorante in Wading River, NY. I certainly hope to join her and our other friends there someday because their vegan menu looks incredible!! Her garlic knot from the penne a la vodka meal was leftover from this restaurant.

I also told her I'd be at her house for brunch after seeing this plate! How amazing does this look?! That is a beautiful tofu scramble with toast, vegan sausage and a perfect avocado!

This came from a small cafe in NYC (I don't know the name, sorry!) and it is a quinoa with veggies dish that looks awesome.

Look at her sweet pup!! I can't with this picture. This is Maywah ginger chick'n with rice. I love that face so much.

Finally, her lovely daughter made her this sweet breakfast in bed for Mother's Day! It's so cute and it made her so happy 😀💚

So, I hope that you enjoyed seeing stuff my friend Karen ate! I thought it was a fun change of pace to share her meals because they are different from things I normally share here. She makes amazing food and I wanted to show it off! I'll be back tomorrow with ANOTHER LONG ISLAND RESTAURANT WITH VEGAN OPTIONS! Who am I?! 😂💚