Haul, Meal Prep and A Few Meals

Hey everyone! I hope you are all well. I just wanted to start off this post by saying thank you so much for your supportive and kind comments that you left on my last post where I spoke a little more candidly about my mental illness. As I mentioned, I always felt the need to separate the mental illness discussion from the vegan food but I know that I don't have to do that any more. I really appreciate this community that we have here and your interest in me and my story beyond the food that I share here. I can't describe how much that means to me 💜

I'm still feeling blah, particularly because last week was very difficult for me physically. Every day I have a headache and every day I'm in pain. The pain over the last week has been particularly intense and I've never really experienced anything like it before.

Due to this I don't have a ton to share with you but I did take pictures where I could. I have a small Trader Joe's haul, some basic food prep and a few meals I ate.

So here is the small Trader Joe's haul. For some reason I was craving those delicious Cornbread Crisps, asparagus, basil, Opal Apples, potatoes, pears, soft pretzels, veggie spring rolls and some carrots.

I made another half batch of Isa's Hummus for Bagels (if you are looking for the recipe it is on the second page of the Hummus recipe in Veganomicon in a little box).

I roasted up some potatoes to heat up during the week. These potatoes nearly caused a meltdown. I was trying to cut them and I just couldn't do it. My arm muscles were in so much pain and I couldn't grip the knife correctly and it was incredibly upsetting that a task as simple as sitting and cutting a few potatoes was so difficult and painful. I struggled through it and now I have these beautiful roasted potatoes to eat but it was pretty upsetting.

I had my second giant honeycrisp apple with my favorite blueberry grape kombucha. I need to try and stockpile of the kombucha because I need more probiotics in my life.

Finally, I made another one of my favorite bagel sandwiches with the hummus and tons of fresh basil and some sun dried tomatoes. It was a perfect meal and very low maintenance and minimal effort. Also as a side note, I rarely like my bagels toasted if they are fresh (which this was) but toasting is essential for this sandwich 😉

So that is what I have for you today. I'll be back on Friday. I'm playing around with a few ideas of what to post so I guess we'll see what I come up with. 

I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you back here on Friday!

Update and A Meal

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I figured I'd make today and update post because I only took one picture of a meal since Tuesday. I've been feeling like garbage (yesterday was particularly bad) so when I am eating I don't think about taking the picture until it is too lately… normally because I just want to eat and get it over with. So I figured that this would be a good time to do a mental health and chronic illness update.

So I guess I'll start with the mental health update since you guys already know I've been struggling a bit. I know I've vaguely mentioned anxiety and depression here and I've discussed my OCD in this post but I don't think I ever specified that I have Bipolar II which is where you cycle between hypomania and depression. It may make things a little clearer as to why my posts bounce around in tone and mood and my meals as well. I do discuss this more in depth in my other blog where I talk about my mental illness more in depth. Anyway, my cycles and particularly my crashes have been pretty bad lately so the depression has definitely been more prevalent lately and I'm just trying to ride the wave knowing that I'll climb out of it eventually. As far as the OCD is concerned, I've completely managed the checking behaviors I detailed in my first post but lucky for me OCD likes to reinvent itself with fun new intrusive thoughts 😩 I've always had some issues with germs but it was never that bad. Now, my hands are a mess from washing so frequently and germs are panic inducing rather than just a little stressful.

Fun, right? I don't normally like to get really in depth on this blog because I like to try and keep things focused on vegan food but I think it's important to get that information out there. It's easy to make things seem ok from behind a computer screen but the struggle is real and there is no need to separate my mental illness from my vegan lifestyle. Like I mentioned above, I do get way more in depth about my journey in treating my mental illness in therapy in my other blog so if it is something that interests you definitely check that out.

So, as far as a chronic illness update I'm currently mid flare and it's pretty awful. That is why I just haven't been able to bring myself to take pictures of my meals. I just want them done so I can climb back into bed and not move. Last night I was in pain from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. My muscles were spasming everywhere and let me assure you that chest muscle spasms are TERRIFYING. Add a migraine to the body wide muscle spasms and that was my night last night. I know I'm being whiny about it and it could be so much worse but I think when you are sitting in it mid flare it is easy to be whiny about it. At this point I'm just trying to get through to the weekend so I can rest and recharge and figure out how to regroup and still be productive.

So that's my life 😂 I know that I'm going to be ok and the symptoms will pass and the depression will pass. That's what makes it all a little easier. For now I just need to buckle up for this ride and try to keep things as "normal" as possible. Which means I should hopefully have a Trader Joe's haul for you on Tuesday.

With that said, I do have one meal to share with you:

I made a flatbread sandwich with Isa's Hummus for Bagels recipe and it was delicious. I had it with my usual sun dried tomatoes and basil and it was really great. Warming/toasting the flatbread in the oven is crucial for this sandwich and it was by far my favorite thing I ate over the past few days.

Sorry this post was a bit of a bummer but I like to share where I am physically and emotionally sometimes. Would you guys prefer me to keep the mental health stuff separate from my vegan blog or do you want me to keep posting some mental health stuff here and there? I don't really know which way to go with this so any feedback would definitely help!

All that said I want to thank you guys so much for always being so supportive in your amazing comments and for continuing to read here. I love this community and feel grateful to have you all here! 💜 Have a great weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!

What I Ate In A Day

Hey everyone! I hope all is well, Happy Friday! This week was definitely better than last and I'm eating more normally. I decided to photograph the meals I ate in one day to share with you. I don't know how many calories it is and I don't care because it's three meals which I haven't done in at least a week.

Anyway, you'll see for the most part this is a lazy day for meals. Breakfast and lunch were especially lazy because I didn't particularly care or feel like making anything so I just kind of figured out easy meals. This was what I ate on Wednesday so you'll see that helped me make my decision for lunch 😂

Anyway, here is what I ate in a day!

For breakfast I had more of the Trader Joe's Maple Ladders cereal with some sliced banana and unsweetened almond milk.

For lunch I stopped by the store to take part in Sushi Wednesday. These yummy rolls cost me a total of $5 so it was worth the splurge for minimal effort. Once I get back from Florida one of the meals that I have in mind is a sushi bowl so I'm looking forward to making that in the future! In the meantime, this was delicious and was a perfect lazy meal for me.

For dinner I had a mushroom risotto burger from Aldi's and some roasted potatoes. Super lazy but also good so I'm fine with it. 

I'm super tired and have a lot to accomplish this weekend but I'm just going to try to push through it because I get to relax next week! I'm hoping it'll be warm in Florida because I just need some sun and some time off. I'm really excited to be able to share my trip with you as I always do! 

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'll see you back here on Tuesday 💜

H-Mart Haul & What I Ate In A Day

Hey everyone! I hope that you are doing well! It's Friday again, yay! I'm really excited because I went back to the gym today! It has been a goal for such a long time but I was worried about it because the last time I tried to go back it triggered a lot of Fibro pain and it kind of scared me away. This time I'm just being more aware of the workouts that I do and I'm going to try to avoid anything that tends to trigger pain (the bike definitely was a trigger, for example). Anyway, I'm really glad that I went and I'm hoping to turn this into a consistent habit so I can start getting back into shape and improving my fitness. Supposedly exercise is one of the best ways to manage Fibro symptoms so I guess we'll see!

Anyway, for today I have a small haul from H-Mart and a What I Ate In A Day type of post in one. I meal prepped this week so I've been eating the same stuff for the most part so it didn't make sense to take pics of the same meals every day. So this is an example of how I've been eating!

So here is my small H-Mart haul! I got the rice cakes (!!!), some scallions (for $.89 a bunch), gochujang (you guys, I read SO MANY LABELS!! Every other brand had chemicals and high fructose corn syrup. This was the cleanest brand I could find), some chili garlic sauce, firm tofu (stir fry) and soft tofu (I'm going to crumble that in with the rice cakes). I'm going to make the rice cakes this weekend, I can't wait to try!

I decided to use my favorite Monbento bento box to pack up my breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I have more of my apple crisp and yogurt (go with vanilla yogurt if you are going to use it for something like this - it's SO MUCH BETTER that the plain). For lunch I had some delicious stir fry (sauce made from low sodium tamari, a tiny bit of agave, chili garlic sauce, rice wine vinegar and a little cornstarch to thicken it up) with tofu, mushrooms, broccoli and asparagus with some jasmine rice. When I know I won't get to my fresh veggies in time I put them all in a container in the freezer and use them for stir fries. This is the combination I happened to have now. It was so good.

For snack I had a pear.

For dinner I had this delicious Mediterranean type plate with dolmas, carrot, cucumber tomato salad with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and some hummus. Another awesome meal.

My final snack was some cashews from the Israeli market that I posted about in my last post. All in all I'd say a really delicious day of meals and I'm doing well with not consuming a ton of processed food and chemicals. I'm aware that a few things like sauces have some preservatives in them but I'm cut out most of the packaged food and I'm really glad that I have.

So that is all I have for you today! I am hoping to do my shopping at Aldi's this weekend so maybe hopefully I'll have a haul for you on Tuesday! It kind of depends on the weather though. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you next week!

This & That

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well! I don't have a ton of pictures to share with you today because I haven't been able to photograph much since Wednesday. As I mentioned I'm at my brother's house watching the pets so yesterday was a transition day for me and therefore hard to get anything photographed. I will share the meal that I do have and I also thought I would take some time to talk a little more about what I hope to achieve in 2019.

As I mentioned the other day, I woke up Wednesday feeling really exhausted. The holiday weekend really drained me of my energy (even though I thoroughly enjoyed it!) and I just wanted to stay in bed as long as I possibly could. I decided I would grab my sushi rolls because on Wednesday it is $5. I just expected the rolls to be a little smaller as that is what they normally do to compensate for the price reduction. Luckily they didn't do that! I got these regular sized fresh veggie rolls for $5! That was a great deal. I paired it with my favorite Blueberry Grape Kombucha from Target and it was a great meal.

So now I thought I'd talk a little bit about what I hope to achieve next year in regards to my health journey as well as my blogging journey. The two paths cross a lot so the goals are fairly similar. I am hoping to bring you guys along for the ride! The content should remain fairly close to what I post now (I'll continue to post meals and grocery hauls and things like that) but there will be minimal processed foods and more homemade meals. My homemade meals will be simple and fuss free as I don't typically have the energy to spend hours in the kitchen anymore.

For anyone joining us here for the first time or just recently I'll just give a little context. This year I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia which is a chronic illness characterized by widespread pain and chronic extreme fatigue. I've decided to minimize my processed foods intake and increase my activity to see if I can naturally manage my symptoms. This will cross over with my blogging as I will share my journey with you here along with the food I'm eating. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to share this because I tend to shy away from talking about projects that I am working on or plan to work on because my follow through isn't great. There are a whole lot of psychological reasons for that (fear of success and failure, fear of people HATING what I put out, etc.) but I decided that I need to change that in 2019. So I wanted to talk about how writing an E-Book has been a goal of mine for years. I never knew what to write and I always talked myself out of any ideas that I have had in the past. I had the idea of putting together everything I learn through this process and if it works and I can get my symptoms under control I would put together an E-Book about managing chronic illness and what I did. I will never mislead anyone by promising a "cure" (it makes me absolutely nuts when people promise cures for incurable diseases) but I can share my journey and what I did. It would be less of a recipe book (even though I would include recipes - but they will likely be so simple I'd hesitate to call it a recipe book) and more of a "What I Ate" guide. As I just mentioned, my recipes will be incredibly simple as people that suffer from chronic illness can lack energy and the idea of spending an hour in the kitchen can be daunting and quite frankly it can be a complete turn off. I know that most people will likely see my recipes as ridiculous and not see the point in having "recipes" for such simple meals but I look at complicated recipes and can't fathom spending my time using 20 ingredients to make a dressing to put on the main course that already took an hour to make. 

So I guess my question is are you interested in this kind of book? Do you think it would be a waste of money to buy an e-book of such simple recipes even though the concept is more about the process of healing rather than the specific recipes? Do you see value in simple recipes that take minimal effort or do you feel like you only get your money's worth from books with elaborate dishes in them? I'm having such a hard time gauging and I have a huge fear of people buying a book that I poured my heart into just to feel like they didn't get their money's worth. Any insight and opinions that you have would be so helpful and I'd love it if you shared them in the comments!

Anyway, if you read through this whole post I appreciate you sticking with me, it was definitely a long one! I'm going to do my best to get another post up on Tuesday and I should definitely be able to as I'll be settled in by then and I'll be on the tail end of a 4 day weekend that I gifted myself as a way to recharge after holiday madness! I'll see you then and I hope you have a great weekend!

Fun Friday: Year In Review and Health Goals of 2019

Hey you guys! It's the end of the year and call me a predictable basic bitch but I thought it would be fun to run through some of my favorite meals that I enjoyed this year as well as talk about some of my health goals for the new year. It'll probably be easy to guess what my health goals are for the year but I always find that writing things out helps me to internalize it more and it helps to keep me accountable. I thought I'd start off with some of my favorite meals/products of the year and then I'd finish up by talking about some goals!

I could never do a yearly food favorites post without including my beloved Bubble Tea! It has been a while since I've had one since it has been cold but it is my favorite way to treat myself in warmer weather!

This doctored up ramen bowl was incredible. You'll see this year has been heavy in soups and salads and I was so happy with this soup!

The Tacodillas!!!! I haven't made these in a long time and I feel like that has to change because they were so so good.

I am going to toot my own horn here and say my grilled cheese game is strong. This one was made with Follow Your Heart "cheese" slices, sun dried tomato and fresh basil and it was freaking awesome.

Discovery of the century was a pumpernickel onion bagel with Tofutti Cream Cheese from the bagel store! YEEEESSSSSS!!!!

I ate A LOT of zucchini noodles and A LOT of salad this year. Both are awesome and these are not bad staple meals to have.

I discovered my love of (Vegan) corn dogs this year! I NEVER liked hot dogs or corn dogs but I tried the Field Roast mini hot dogs and I loved them!

One of my favorite restaurant meals! This was a delicious spicy stir fry from a Thai restaurant. It was so good.

My summer staple was definitely my Ranch Chick'n Pasta salad! This meal was incredible and it was so easy to make big batches to have for the week.

Vegan Chick'n Caesar salads were also big for me this year! So delicious and such a quick meal.

This beautiful soup was a quick meal thrown together with 4 Trader Joe's ingredients (Miso Ginger broth, Veggie Gyoza, bok choy and green onion). Delicious and comforting.

Probably the dish I'm most proud of is my Vegan No Chicken Noodle Soup! It is not a difficult recipe and it felt ridiculous to share it as a recipe but it tastes so authentic (to me at least) that I felt like I had to share it.

I had to include this AMAZING vegan burrito that I enjoyed on my birthday! I definitely want to get back to this restaurant because it was so so delicious.

So now that we've gone through some of my delicious highlights of the year I thought I could talk about my health goals for the New Year. As you know, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and I have been trying to figure out the best lifestyle changes to implement that will help me to be as healthy as possible while living with a chronic illness as well as help manage the symptoms all while being mindful about not triggering eating disorder thoughts or behaviors. It's a delicate balance of moving toward healthier habits but not getting obsessive about the food that I put in my mouth.

I've learned that while Fibromyalgia is mostly characterized as widespread pain and fatigue but I would add that it should also be characterized by sensitivity to… well mostly everything. I am sensitive to light and sound, I am sensitive to temperature, and as I've discussed before I have significant environmental allergies and I also am sensitive to chemicals and medications. So as I live with these sensitivities I have to question if the chemical laden processed food that I put in my body is contributing to my daily pain and fatigue. So, I've decided that the ONLY thing that I'm going to consciously make and effort to reduce/eliminate from my diet is chemical laden processed foods. It feels ridiculous to me to continue to put it in my body when I know that it doesn't do me any favors. At the same time, I am realistic and I know that there will be times where I will eat some processed food because it's freaking delicious, but I figure that limiting it to 5-10% of the time will help me make huge improvements. I will eat mostly fresh, whole foods (including grains and limited oil) and see how it works for me.

In addition I have set a goal to find workout routines that I can complete within my pain limits. I know that yoga will likely become a significant part of my routine as well as no impact cardio and I would like to see if I can tolerate some strength training as well. It's so difficult to feel like I'm starting over with the whole workout thing and with these limitations but everyone that I've ever spoken to about Fibromyalgia says that working out with help your symptoms improve so I definitely want to work on making new workout habits as well. 

I will be bringing you along for this journey, of course. I hope that it is something that you will be interested in. I know that the food will look a little different but I hope that you'll all still like it! And who knows, I may have a little something up my sleeve if this all works out for me and my changes actually do help me feel better 😉 Through the end of the year you'll still see some processed stuff as I finish out the stuff that I already have stocked and then you'll see the transition over the New Year.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and for those of you that celebrate I hope that you have a magical Christmas Eve! I'll be back here on Christmas day with another post for you! 💜 

Trader Joe's Haul and Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! Sorry for all of the lackluster content lately… it's been a rough end of the year healthwise so it always kind of messes with your meals and eating. I am back on different antibiotics for a tooth issue to while I have to make sure to eat I never actually want to. Anyway, I do have a Trader Joe's Haul to share with you today as well as a few meals.

Also, why doesn't anyone sell Earth Balance butter sticks? I can always get the tubs but I need the sticks for baking and I can only get those at Whole Foods (which is not super close to me). Has anyone else had that problem? Have you found an easier to find substitute? One of my cookie recipes calls for coconut oil which is great but I need butter for the other two. Any tips would be awesome!

Ok so let's get into it!

First up is the produce! Carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, pears, potatoes and an attempt at a bag of butter lettuce. Looking at the picture I'm annoyed at all of the packaging. It's so unnecessary. This has always been an issue for Trader Joe's, maybe one day they will actually fix it.

I decided it was time for my annual treat to the Candy Cane Joe Joe's which are my FAVORITE, some Jasmine rice (when you feel like shit all the time sometimes you just need some frozen rice to get a meal on the table), the Veggie Spring Rolls which I've heard are awesome, the Cranberry Spiced Apple Kombucha, dolmas and chocolate chips.

I had an everything bagel lightly toasted with avocado, salt and pepper. It was really good and exactly what I wanted.

I decided to get some more veggie rolls as well. This time I used my favorite chopsticks that my friend got me from Japan. I love these and they are perfect. I love the rainbow steel ones I got online but they are heavy and big and harder to use so these continue to be my go to!

Sorry this is such a short post but that's what I have for you today! What is on your holiday shopping list? Are you into the holidays or is it just another day for you?

Hope you have a great week and I'll see you Friday!

Broccoli Corn Casserole RECIPE & Stuff I Ate!

Hey you guys! Happy weekend! I hope you all had a great week. I'm so ready for the weekend but sadly I still have today and tomorrow before I get there. Do you guys have any fun plans? I think I'm going to be taking my brother's annual family holiday portraits this weekend which should be fun. Otherwise I'm hoping to be mellow, work on a few things for myself and relax. I've been pretty exhausted lately and I haven't had a whole lot of time to decompress so I'm going to actually mark that into my planner to make sure that I set aside some time to do that. It's so important to make time for yourself.

Before I get into some stuff I ate I wanted to share the Broccoli Corn Casserole recipe from Thanksgiving. This is my favorite Thanksgiving dish and we have made it for as long as I can remember. I remember eating it in my pre-vegan days because we had to tweak the recipe to make it fully vegan when I went vegan. I *think* my mom's friend gave her the recipe but I'm not 100% sure.

Broccoli Corn Casserole (Veganized)

Ingredients:

1 lb bag frozen broccoli florets

16 oz can creamed corn (most creamed corn is vegan!!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 stick vegan butter

1 cup Herb Stuffing Mix (for drier consistency, add additional 1/2 cup of stuffing mix)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine broccoli, creamed corn, onion, salt and pepper into a large mixing bowl. Mix and set aside.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in dry stuffing mix and stir until completely coated.

4. Add stuffing to veggie mix and stir until incorporated.

5. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes.

As you can see, it is such an easy recipe and it comes together quickly. It does have a long cook time but the prep time is minimal. It is great as leftovers (my family knows I claim the leftovers, ha!) and all year round! If you decide to give it a try please let me know how you like it!

And now for a few meals I ate over the past few days:

I haven't been feeling great the past few days due to a Fibro flare up so I've been eating kind of mild foods that are quick to make. This breakfast was easy but delicious. I had some toast with some Earth Balance and a delicious pear.

I made some of my favorite No Chicken Noodle Soup. I find soup to be a great meal when I'm in my flares because they come together quickly, are easy to eat and it is so comforting. I ate this a few times but only photographed it once. I finally ran out of soy curls so I'll have to get some more!

I decided to treat myself to a proper bagel store bagel so I got a pumpernickel bagel with scallion tofutti cream cheese and it was DELICIOUS.

I have been loving my pears lately. Unlike the avocado I got from Trader Joe's, these pears ripened up quite nicely.

So that's what I have for you today! I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, to any Jewish friends out there Happy Hanukkah! It starts on Sunday and I'm quite excited because Hanukkah is a fun one :) You better believe I have some potato latkes on my radar for next week!

What I Ate in a Day #Whatever

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I hope you are all doing well and had a great Halloween! I met up with my family to go trick or treating with my niece for a little bit and it was fun to see her in her cute Zombie Cheerleader costume. Otherwise it was fairly uneventful. Did you guys do anything fun?

For today I have a what I ate in a day post! I didn't feel like going back and seeing how many I've done so far to properly number it, hence #Whatever 😂 For this day I just ate three regular meals. I keep going back and forth between three normal meals and 5 small meals. I'm still working on my digestion (which I actually found out is likely fibromyalgia related) and no matter what I do I seem to feel sick by the end of the day. Maybe I should try doing a larger breakfast and lunch and have a light dinner? That might help anyway so my body doesn't have to work so hard to digest at night. I'll figure it out… I'm just thinking "out loud" for now 😂

Anyway, this is what I ate in a day!

For breakfast I had 2 bananas with some crunchy peanut butter. Super delicious and also really filling.

For lunch I grabbed some broccoli and rice from the deli next door. Also delicious.

For dinner I ended up making a vegan chick'n caesar salad and tots again. I ran out of the Morningstar Chick'n so I decided to soak some soy curls in some Not Chicken broth to see if that would work out. It was ok but the Morningstar is definitely better for salads. The soy curls are great for soup and I'm sure they are awesome for stir fries when topped with a delicious sauce. Anyway, the meal was still super delicious.

I saw this meme and had to share it with you. I laughed so hard, I love it so much 😂 

So that's what I have for you today! I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday!!

H-Mart Haul & Meal Prep

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all well and had a great weekend! Mine was sort of lazy and sort of productive but I guess that's how most of my weekends go. The pain has been pretty bad this week so I've been taking it easy and trying to do a little extra self care as well. I'm planning on starting to do some yoga in the evenings so I can get all relaxed and stretched out before bed. I found some really great videos geared toward people with chronic pain and illness so they are more gentle practices and that is exactly what I need. I'm looking forward to it. I may try to do yoga by candle light because I feel like it doesn't get much better than that!

Today I decided that I would focus a little on meal prep and also show you my latest H-Mart haul. I decided that I'm going to step up my ramen noodle game (there are plenty of gluten free ramen options, yay!) so I picked up a few things to get on that. I did a little meal prep for the week as well so I wanted to share that too!

So first up is my H-Mart haul. I grabbed some of that mushroom seasoning to make some broth (I will be using miso with it I think), some unsweetened original Almond Breeze for when I am ready to make that garlic sauce), some enoki mushrooms, green onion, baby bok choy and some soft tofu.

On Sunday I was not feeling great but I decided that I was going to make the gorgeous Chickpea Flour Mini Veggie Frittatas from The Mostly Vegan. I used spinach, mushrooms, broccoli and green onions and I used the Onion Salt from Trader Joe's instead of regular salt.

Aren't they beautiful?! They are delicious too you guys. I highly recommend this recipe! I have them in the freezer for a quick on the go breakfast.

The veggies I used were getting to their use by dates and I didn't know if I would use them in time so I packed them up and put them in the freezer to grab for a quick mid week stir fry. Looking at the picture I regret using the plastic bag but I will use a re-usable container next time. Anyway, the moral of the story is that I'm trying to limit my food waste by freezing any unused veggies before they go bad.

Finally, if you've been here a long time you'll know that I used to roast veggies to eat with my hummus/dolma plates. Since my favorite fresh tomatoes are out I decided I cook up my favorite veggie combo for this dish (minus the eggplant) and sautéed up some onion, zucchini and mushrooms. I'll reheat in the oven so it gets that roasted flavor and I promise you guys this is AMAZING with hummus and dolma and some lettuce (which I don't think I have… oops). 

Anyway, that is some of the prep that I did over the weekend and my amazing H-Mart haul. I love how affordable they are. That mushroom seasoning was the most expensive thing at $6.99 but when you think about it that is going to last so long. I think I read that it is good for three years so I imagine that it will go A LONG WAY and that makes the price tag so worth it to me.

What are some of the things you've been meal prepping lately? These veggies will also be amazing in burrito bowls with brown rice, black beans, corn and avocado. I think that it will end up being a staple for me :)

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I'll be back on Friday to share some of the amazing meals I've been eating lately!

Answers

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a great week! Things have been interesting here on my end as you'll soon find out. I am really excited though because I took tomorrow off for my birthday so I get to enjoy a three day birthday weekend! I have a few things planned for my birthday, including some yummy vegan deliciousness and I can't wait to share that with you on Tuesday!

I don't have food to share with you today because this week has been crazy with a Jewish holiday and doctors and things like that but I do have an update to share with you. Those of you that have been reading here for a while will know that I suffer from chronic full body pain, headaches, muscle spasms, etc. I've been dealing with it probably for about 7 years now. I have been to countless doctors and have had every test done in the world and I still had no answers. Until yesterday. I finally saw someone that took every single symptom into account, examined me the way I needed to be examined and came up with my answer.

So, yesterday I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. My initial reaction was pure relief. The relief doesn't come from the actual diagnosis (I'll get into that in a minute) but I was so relieved to finally know what is going on so I can move forward. I have been searching for an answer for 7 years and I finally know what it is.

That said, my initial reaction to the actual diagnosis was a little bit rough. It's another invisible illness to add to my list with no cure and only hope of management. A lot of people think that it is a bullshit illness because there are no blood tests that say here it is, you have Fibromyalgia. The treatment options are not really great. The most recommended one is an antidepressant which I'm pretty sure will not be a good thing for me based on my psychiatric diagnoses. I can take anti inflammatories which are ok and take the edge off but don't really do a whole lot.

So, I've decided the best route for me to take for now would be to make some lifestyle changes to try and manage my pain. I was told that exercise is really beneficial for people with fibromyalgia and it just so happens that I've been looking to join a pool so I can swim as my exercise. I tried going back to the gym but even no impact workouts are really hard and cause muscle spasms. I noticed that after I went in the pool a few weeks ago I was pain free for 2 days. I asked the doctor and he said that water exercises are one of the best things I can do so I will be looking into that.

Finally, there are a few diet changes that I'm thinking about making. I decided to look up what foods trigger fibromyalgia pain and luckily I don't eat most of them. However, there are two groups that are big triggers and those are gluten and nightshade veggies (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers). I'm thinking about trying an elimination diet with these foods and I'm really not excited about it. Nightshade veggies make up a big part of my diet and you know I love my gluten. I'm a little overwhelmed by it but I decided that I will start to look into it more seriously next week (birthday weekend plans are still going on as is dammit, ha!).

In the meantime, I would love to hear from you guys about what tips you have for going gluten free and maybe some substitutes for nightshade veggies that you know of. This is definitely a daunting challenge for me but I feel like I need to at least give it a try if it means less pain on a daily basis. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Links to your favorite gluten free recipes would also be so appreciated!

I know this is a bummer of a post but I thank you guys for always listening to what I have to say. I really appreciate it. I know that a Fibromyalgia diagnosis is not the end of the world and is not fatal but I'm working on accepting that this pain is with my for life and that there will be people that doubt it. I am going to do everything I can to manage my pain and move forward and thrive.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'm so excited to share birthday weekend festivities and FOOD with you next week! 💜