Quarantine Eats

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a good week and that you are all safe and healthy. Things are moving right along here. I am losing track of days and time but I guess that's all par for the course. I haven't been great about photographing my meals but I guess that's mostly because it's the same over and over. I did photograph a few though and figured I'd pop in and share them with you.

I've been enjoying my simple salads. It feels good to get some fresh veggies in. Hopefully I'll feel more confident in more raw stuff as things start to get better but for now I'm sticking with packaged stuff.

OMG that chocolate cake you guys. It's a chocolate cake with the most rich ganache on top. The cake is not big but it's rich. So delicious and I'm glad I splurged on it!

A wonky mini flatbread pizza, ha! It was very delicious though.

I really wanted a comfort meal so I made myself some of my favorite vegan Chick'n Noodle Soup! I made enough for two meals so I enjoyed the rest the next day for lunch and it was perfect!

So that's all I have for you today. I do have some more fun stuff to share in my next post so definitely stay tuned!!

💚 Stay safe my friends!

Partial Aldi Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! I'm doing the best I can and I'm trying to remain as positive and optimistic as possible given the circumstances. This week I got to the point where I just really needed to go to the store and get some groceries. I chose to go to Aldi because I knew that they have a lot of vegan options and I knew that they were limiting the amount of people that go into the store at one time (which did NOT happen the last time I went to my local grocery store and it sent me into a massive panic attack). It takes me about 35 minutes to get there and it was worth it. While I still had anxiety about it I felt a lot better there than I did in the local store. I tried to get in and out as quickly as possible and I really tried to load up while I could.

What I'm sharing below is just a small part of my haul. I was really freaked out about contamination and putting things away so I just didn't photograph everything but I'll fill you in as best as I can.

This is clearly the most important part of the haul 😂 If there was ever a time for a rich chocolate cake now would be the time! I'm so excited to get into this!

Last time I went to Aldi I got the chocolate coconut cashew chips and I LOVED them. I saw that they had vanilla and sea salt caramel flavors so I decided to get one of each for when that sweet craving hits.

I love cashews and don't get them often so I got some cashews and I really wanted some dried apricots too. I also got dried cranberries because why not. I think these three would make a nice trail mix too!

I decided that I just really needed fresh veggies (I've only been eating cooked) so I decided to go for bagged salads. I could rationalize it in my head so I grabbed this one knowing I'd have to skip the dressing because it contains orange and orange peel. I grabbed 4 bags of salads because I knew I'd want a lot of them.

And here is my first beautiful salad! It is the salad mix with some cherry tomatoes (which I also grabbed from Aldi) and some vegan ranch dressing. It was exactly what I needed.

Another breakfast sandwich with beyond sausage and Violife Cheddar on a huge piece of amazing bread from Aldi.

Burrito bowl with rice, fat free refried beans, a tiny but of Violife shredded Mozzarella, corn and guac. It was DELICIOUS!!

I loaded up on snacks (veggie chips, snapea crisps, etc.), faux veggie chicken (FOUR BOXES of the cutlets and two of the tenders), and stuff like that. I'm set for breakfast sandwiches and oatmeal, have lots of bananas and apples and I'm just hoping that I'll be good with groceries for a few weeks.

This weekend I really wanted to work on some art so I made a few small pieces with LOTS and LOTS of detail. These two baseball card sized pieces took me an entire day. I'm super proud of them though.

I was feeling major Steampunk vibes creating this one.

And this one has a clearly nautical feel. I'm super proud of them and I love that blue color!

So that is all I have for you today! I hope that you are all safe and healthy and staying home!! 💚

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well and staying safe and healthy. I'm trying to get used to the new normal and have some struggles of course but I think I'm holding up ok. I've been trying to psych myself up to go to Aldi but haven't gotten there quite yet. I'm going to try really hard to get there on Thursday but I guess we'll see. This week I tried to photograph as much as I could and have a few pictures to show you of stuff I ate. This week is Passover but I haven't really been following it because let's be real, we are in the middle of a plague so I think all will be forgiven if I can't get my kosher for Passover food.

So here is some stuff I've been eating!

First up I have a little flatbread pizza and some steamed broccoli which I desperately needed.

I made this udon noodle stir fry and it was so delicious! It was udon noodles with zucchini and broccoli and onions and I added some tamari, agave and some garlic.

I found this really cool product and was lucky enough to get my hands on it! I still haven't tried the Just Egg in the bottle because the price was just crazy to me but I decided I couldn't pass these folded "eggs" up. You know I love my breakfast sandwiches so I thought it would be a fun time to try something new!

Another amazing breakfast sandwich, this time with the Just Egg and Beyond sausage patties. The sausage patties were super delicious and I can't decide if I like the Beyond Sausage or the Field Roast better. I would definitely buy them both again. The Just Egg folded things were good and definitely mimicked having eggs in the sandwich but they were kind of bland. I don't know how often I would buy them but it is definitely good and I'm glad I tried it. I definitely still want to try the liquid version. I think Aldi carries it at a much better price so I'm hoping to get my hands on it at some point.

This was a random udon noodle soup with some corn and broccoli and Better than Bouillon No Chick'n Broth. It was very delicious and came together quickly

This last treat was something I found on Pinterest for 3 ingredient cookies! I used this recipe and it was so simple and came together so quickly and they were delicious! The three ingredients are almond flour, banana and baking powder. I wanted to add even more flavor so I included some chocolate chunks, some vanilla extract and a little maple syrup. They were seriously delicious and I will probably experiment with oat flour and different add ins as well.

They aren't the most beautiful but they were tasty and seriously so easy. I highly recommend them.

I've moved my home office out of my brother's house and into my own home because I just didn't feel comfortable leaving my house and being around other people anymore. I did snap one last photo of my lazy coworker sleeping on the job yet again. He is too adorable and I definitely think that is why he gets away with it 😉

I hope that you are all holding up ok and staying healthy 💚

Champs Diner in Brooklyn, NY

Hey guys! Hope you are all well, safe and healthy. Today's post is definitely something special because I had wanted to try this restaurant for a long time. Anyone that has been to this region will know that diners are a big deal. We LOVE diners and they are EVERYWHERE. Since going vegan it has been difficult to indulge in diner fare but we are lucky enough to be able to do so thanks to Champs Diner in Brooklyn. In December I went to visit Doug's grave with two of my friends and we decided that the best way to honor him after would be to enjoy a meal for him. Doug was a foodie so he definitely would have approved of the plan so we decided to head over to Champs Diner after we spent some time with him.

There were 4 of us in total (my friend's son came as well) and I got most of what we ordered except for one of my friend's entrees and my friend's son's entrée. I'll share the photos that I did get though.

We all really wanted to try the biscuits and gravy and OMG are we glad we did. We all LOVED it!! Biscuits are one of my favorite things and their sausage gravy was absolutely delicious. We didn't really eat the hash browns because we all had some sort of potato with our meals but omg those biscuits were amazing!

This was by far my favorite part of the meal. I had been craving a Caesar salad for months at that point so we ordered a chick'n Caesar salad to share. It was absolutely delicious and exactly what I had been wanting. Everyone else enjoyed it as well.

This was my meal. Breakfast was always my favorite at the diner so I ended up getting a breakfast plate. It looks delicious but was sadly only ok to me. I wasn't really impressed by the tofu scramble (I ate maybe half of it) and I decided to get all sausage because I have always hated bacon. I ate one of those and was kind of over it. The star of the plate was the French toast which was so surprising to me! I normally don't eat sweet breakfasts in the form of French toast or waffles or pancakes (I like them but I just don't really eat them), but this French toast was seriously delicious! It kind of made me wonder why I don't eat it more often but it's probably for the best that I don't, ha! It was definitely the star of the plate though.

One of my friends got the same thing as me but she got hers the way it comes on the menu which is with both bacon and sausage. 

I didn't get a photo of my other friend's meal (she has a really amazing looking burger) but I did get a photo of her dessert!

She ordered the birthday cake sundae and holy shit you guys, how amazing does that look! I was so full I couldn't fit another bite in my facehole but it just looks incredible. It had ice cream, whipped cream, funfetti cake bites, sprinkles and a cherry. It may have had syrup but I don't remember. It looked amazing and I really wish I had space for a bite but I just couldn't do it.

I have been back one more time since this outing and decided to go for the chicken Caesar salad for my meal and it was just as delicious. We also tried the nachos and holy fuck were they good!

Bottom line is that Champs Diner in Brooklyn is seriously amazing and I can't wait to get back there after this damn pandemic. Everything on the menu looks and sounds incredible and there are so many more items to try. I'm glad that I was able to go with my friends and share a meal in Doug's honor. It was really a bittersweet day but I'm so grateful for the amazing people that I met through him.

So that's all for today. Stay well and stay safe my friends 💚

Sweet To Lick Haul

Hey friends 💚I hope that you are all doing well and staying healthy. I've discussed Sweet To Lick here many times (click the tag for my other posts!). It is an amazing local business that I've enjoyed supporting since they've opened. They opened as a bakery location then opened a market two doors down. They decided to combine the two and moved the market items over to a section of the bakery. In these weird times they've stayed open but have turned into a pick up only spot. What they do is post pictures of what they have in the market as well as menus for the bakery items, you call in your order and pay over the phone. They pack up your order and you pop over and pick it up. It's a really efficient and safe way to do some shopping right now. As I've mentioned, I'm terrified to go to the grocery store so this was a really great way to supplement my stash for a while. This stuff is mostly specialty stuff that I wouldn't typically find in my grocery store so it worked out well.

It has been a shitty ass week so chocolate was definitely on the list. I grabbed chocolate chunks for baking, some caramel eggs, a Vego bar (!!!!!) and a 2fer bar which is like a big vegan twix bar. I've only cracked into the 2Fer bar so far and it's really delicious. I've had Vego bars before and they are AMAZING. So rich and creamy. A little goes a long way and this bar is huge so it will last a while. I also grabbed a box of the Earth Balance cheddar squares.

I grabbed both the Beyond breakfast Sausage and the Field Roast breakfast sausage. I wanted a breakfast sandwich and breakfast sausage is really hard to get your hands on right now so I grabbed one of each to taste test and so I had a proper stash. I also got some Violife Mozzarella shreds, Violife Mature Cheddar slices, the Kite Hill Spinach Ravioli (you know I'm not a pasta girl but omg this stuff is GOOD) and the Field Roast Mini corn dogs. I totally forgot that I got those until I saw this picture 😂

And this is the reason for the order 😂 I have been wanting a breakfast sandwich for weeks (most days I eat oatmeal with banana, raisins and almonds for breakfast) so I decided now was the time, ha! I made one of the Field Roast Breakfast Sausages and toasted a bagel with one of the Violife Cheddar slices. This was SO FUCKING GOOD and the perfect Sunday brunch meal. I really enjoyed the Field Roast breakfast sausage as well. It is a big patty so you only need one and it has great flavor. I would definitely purchase it again. 

I'm really glad that Sweet To Lick has stayed open and changed to pick up only because I felt comfortable going and I have some fun specialty items rounding out my pantry and freezer items. 

So there you have it! My next post will be really a recap of a restaurant that I went to with friends back in December that I had been wanting to try for such a long time. I hope that you are all doing well and staying safe and healthy 💚

I'm Back? Maybe? Kind Of?

Whoa. It's been a long time. Like a really long time. I'm sorry about that. I know it kind of sucks that I disappeared without saying a word. It was never my intention to do that. I fully intended on posting and coming back. Then the holiday season popped up and it sucked. Then January rolled around and it felt like it took forever. I started a new job that I originally hated. I also was just going out and living my life and being in the moment. It's been a weird, amazing and painful few months and I think I just needed some time off to process everything. I'm happy to say that while things suck right now (I'll get into that in a second) I'm doing ok and I've been missing you guys a lot and felt like it was time to come back. I'm sorry that I have not been keeping up with your blogs. That sucks and I'm really sorry. I am looking forward to catching up though. I also just want to say thank you to everyone that has reached out to me during this hiatus to check in. I really appreciate it and it means a lot that you care enough to take the time to do that. Thank you 💚

So here is a bit of an update on life. As I mentioned above, I started a new job at the end of December. I am doing insurance verification for a Physical Therapy office. I really hated it at first. I felt very stupid because it was just so confusing and so much to learn. Now that I've settled into it I feel better about it and a lot more confident. Of course now that the shit has hit the fan and we are in a global pandemic things have changed a bit. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to work from home starting two weeks ago. Unfortunately like many other businesses they've had to make a lot of cuts and while I'm one of few to still be lucky enough to have my job, I've been cut to part time for now. It's definitely a financial hit but nowhere near as bad as it could be so I'm counting my blessings that I still have a job and a paycheck and that I get to work from home. I work out of my brother's basement where he has an office set up and it's been working out well. Otherwise, as instructed, I "stay the fuck home."

The pandemic has been an emotional nightmare. As someone that struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder it is my everyday existence magnified by about a million. Add into the fact that I basically live in one of the hardest hit places in the country, the idea of leaving my house, touching anything, eating any food, etc. is absolutely horrifying. I'm living out of the pantry. The only thing I've done is place an order for pick up at the vegan market/bakery because I know they are being careful and they aren't letting people in. It's been a nightmare. As of writing this post there are 13,356 confirmed cases in my COUNTY. It's seriously awful and it feels like the apocalypse. How are you all coping with this? I hope that you are all safe and feeling ok.

As I mentioned, I haven't take a whole lot of pictures during this hiatus. I have a few I'll share a few random ones below and in my next post I'll share some pictures from an amazing meal that I had at a restaurant that I had been wanting to try for so long. I will also do a post with some art that I've created over the past few months as well.

These first two pictures are from an afternoon out with my friends before the pandemic. I want to say it was in January. We went to a restaurant that wasn't super vegan friendly but they had this amazing dish on the menu! I think I just had to leave off some cheese and then I had this really fresh, amazing meal. There was farro under all of the goodies and on top there was black beans, chickpeas, tomato, corn and avocado. 

After we went for brunch we went and painted pottery and had such a great time! We went back 3 weeks later to pick up what we had painted and I'm so thrilled with how mine came out. They even had it displayed in the window!

As I mentioned I've been working out of my brother's basement. My colleague here has not been pulling his weight. I've been thinking about reporting him to HR 😂

I mean seriously!

As I mentioned I'll be doing a post with some art that I've created over the past few months but I wanted to share two pieces today. They are both birthday gifts that I have made over the past month and I'm thrilled with how they came out. I tried to make them really personal and both recipients really loved them.

They are totally different vibes and I really love them both. 

Finally, here are two photos of me from the past few months.

Just so you know I'm truly ok 💚

I've really missed you all and I'm glad to be back. To explain the title of this post, the maybe kind of is really because I'm not comfortable committing to a specific number of posts per week or any specific days I'll be posting. I don't want to put pressure on myself and lets be honest, things are just weird in the world right now. But I'm here and I'm excited to start sharing with you again.

Please let me know how you have all been!