Tasty Meals and Some Whole Foods Treats

 Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm thinking that I may try to stick to posting once a week. It feels manageable and I definitely think I'll have some better content after the craziness of the holidays passes. I had taken off this past Friday and tomorrow (Monday) to give myself a little break and a long weekend to set me up to some short weeks and long weekends to close out the year. This year has been very stressful, I've taken minimal time off (two days the entire year I've been working there so far) and the new year is the busiest time of year for me. It has been really nice to have some time to breathe before it gets really busy. 

On Friday I decided to head over to That Pizza Place in Levittown, NY to grab some vegan pizza slices. I have been there a few times since the plague started and would typically get there at night when options were limited. This time I got there for lunch and had lots of options to choose from! Above you'll see a fresh tomato and garlic slice and a broccoli rabe and sausage (!!!) slice. OMG they were both DELICIOUS. I was so stuffed after I ate them I couldn't eat for the rest of the day but it was so worth it. I also got a mac n cheese slice and a grandma slice tucked away in the freezer for a lazy night when I need a quick meal. In the few instances I have ordered food I always do takeout, always change packaging from the original and always reheat. I know that places are being careful but it gives me some peace of mind.

This is just some random sushi I had at some point last week. The rolls were super fresh and delicious. 

Today I decided to have a treat yo self moment on my self care weekend and headed over to Whole Foods. I decided not to photograph my whole haul but wanted to share some of the more exciting stuff that you haven't seen a million times on this blog. I did get some veggies for stir fry, some Just Egg (on sale for $3.99 so I decided it's finally time to try it!) and some Chao slices and Violife Mozzarella shreds.

OMG you guys. I have not had a chocolate chip muffin in YEARS and I loved chocolate chip muffins in my pre-vegan days. Obviously I had to try these when I saw them. Clearly I couldn't wait and ate one before I remembered I wanted to take a photo 😂 They are DELICIOUS. They are not super sweet but they are very yummy and were definitely worth every penny.

YOU. GUYS. This right here is the biggest win of my shopping trip. Inari rolls are my favorite sushi ever and for whatever reason I can not find them anywhere! I have looked at every sushi menu in my area and they just aren't offered. The one place I found there I ordered it and I got one piece and it was literally a tablespoon of rice in a tofu skin for $3. It was so disappointing. As you can see these are properly stuffed Inari rolls and I can't wait to eat them!

I haven't had vegan chick'n nuggets in a little while and decided to try the 365 brand since it is less expensive than the Gardein ones. Hopefully they are good! I will definitely let you know.

You guys. Ice cream! I LOVE mochi and I have not really found vegan mochi outside of Trader Joe's (and I haven't been to TJ's since the plague started because it's just too crowded and I'm not waiting 2 hours to get in). I had tried these mochi the last time I went to WFs and loved them. The chocolate flavor is delicious and the mochi texture is so nice. I highly recommend them. They are very pricey but for a treat they are worth it. I also found these vegan cookie ice cream sandwiches! I definitely had to try one too. I'll let you know how that is as well!

I love popcorn and this looked so good on the shelf. It is just popcorn, some oil, salt and nooch if I remember correctly. I'm sure it'll be delicious for a snack!

Finally, some chocolate! This was on sale 2/$5 so I grabbed 2. I love dark chocolate with espresso beans and I thought the crispy rice bar would  be nostalgic and fun to try. Definitely looking forward to these as well.

All in all, this was definitely a splurge and will be a rare treat. It's nice to treat yourself to some fun stuff and try new things sometimes though. 

I hope that you are all well! I can't believe Christmas is this week again. I hope that you are all staying warm and safe. We had our first snow storm and I'm already over it, ha! What are some fun new things you've tried lately?

Saying Hi and What I've Been Up To!

Hey everyone! Long time no see (again). Has this pandemic been hitting everyone especially hard? It's been so hard for me to climb out of this stress filled hole I've been in, hence the disappearance for months at a time. I've been missing everyone so much though and I really wanted to touch base and see how you are all doing. It's hard for me to commit to making regular posts or even reading blogs regularly (when I get home from work I just can't bring myself to be on the computer) but it's just been way too long.

Before I share some of the stuff that I've eaten and done in the last few months I figured I'd post a brief update. I've been back in the office since my last post and it's just as stressful as you would imagine it would be. It's not necessary for me to be in the office when I worked from home successfully for months but it's not my call to make unfortunately. It's exhausting and it just makes it very difficult for me to want to do anything outside of work. I was also potentially exposed so I've had to deal with that stress (which is infuriating when you spend 9 months doing the right thing - I don't even eat lunch because I'm so afraid to take off my mask) and getting tested. On top of that I've been in a pretty deep depression for at least two months so it's just been a lot. I'm finally starting to climb out and working really hard to make some life changes that I'm excited about and I would love to bring you on that journey with me when it happens! 

Now that we have all of that out of the way, I'll show you a bit of what I've been up to the last few months.

This meal was super delicious and created from leftovers. I had some roasted veggies that I needed to use up so I just boiled up the last bits of some pasta (you'll notice different shapes haha) and added it all together and enjoyed a really tasty meal. It's amazing how some of the best meals come from scraps in your fridge.

I really love making breakfast sandwiches and this one is a pretty typical one. It is a toasted bagel with some vegan cheese, beyond breakfast sausage and ketchup. Super delicious and a really filling weekend brunch.

This salad was incredible. It was some lettuce, cranberries, almonds, violife feta, apple, balsamic vinaigrette and one of the chicken substitutes (I think this may have been Alpha brand, I was loving that over the summer), This was so refreshing.

A really easy and amazing summer breakfast - juicy peach, strawberries and cherries.

Another salad, this time caesar. I'm almost positive that was Alpha brand grilled chick'n.

At one point during the summer I decided to get up super early on the weekend and get outside. I had been stuck inside for so long I really needed to be by the water. I drove out to the marina in Northport, NY and took a walk around (masked, of course). It was really nice to be outside.

A few weeks later a friend and I went walking in a preserve in Freeport (also masked) and it was such a beautiful day and a much needed day out for both of us. It was a really great day and I'm glad that we were able to do that.

Clearly I'm into panoramic photos.

I haven't really created much art at all but I had ordered some new stamps and wanted to try them out so I made these two little cards. I'm really happy with how they came out!

My birthday also passed while I was on hiatus and one of my friends from work was so incredibly kind and thoughtful and grabbed some vegan donuts at Dunwell Donuts in Brooklyn (she lives in Brooklyn). I thought it was so thoughtful because its' very rare that I can enjoy anything that is brought in for us or for anyone else's birthday and she made sure I had something I could eat.

My mom and I ventured out to the Copiague Bakery where there are some vegan options and I grabbed my birthday treats. This was half of an enormous slice of chocolate cream cake and I also grabbed some chocolate crumb cake and both were INCREDIBLE. It's always nice to find some more vegan options.

This is a much more recent meal and the photo is terrible and doesn't do it justice. I love a chick'n caesar wrap and haven't had one in forever so I decided to make one. My go to caesar dressing is the Follow Your Heart Caesar. I love it and this wrap was delicious.

Finally, a terrible photo of a delicious meal I had yesterday. This is a Caesar salad with sun dried tomatoes and tofu "croutons." I've been obsessed with making tofu croutons in the air fryer and will never go back to regular croutons. Seriously so delicious.

So that's been a peek into some of what's been going on. I haven't photographed much at all (I've enjoyed food that isn't salad, a lot of it haha) but I'm trying to get back into the groove of life. It's overwhelming but I really did miss you all so much. Please please update me in the comments, I want to know how you are! I'm sorry for always disappearing, just trying to get through all of this.

Love and hugs to you all 💜