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 💜