Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm exhausted but looking forward to the weekend!I'm especially excited because I actually have plans! I am going to go to a psychic fair that is being held on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been to one so I'm not entirely sure what it entails but it sounded like something that would be interesting to check out. I've been a lot more spiritual over the past year or so and I think that this would be really cool. I will definitely let you know how it goes!

Other than that I plan on working on some art for the event I will be selling at in a few weeks and RELAXING. I've been so drained since I started this new job but I'm really trying to get back into the swing of things. For today, I have some stuff I ate to share with you. I apologize in advance for the horrendous lighting. I am not home during daylight all that often anymore.

As you know, I'm not really a pasta person. One pasta dish I did love was fettuccini alfredo. I really wanted to try making it and I wanted it in its proper, unhealthy form. I found a super easy recipe online and gave it a try. The texture of the sauce was great but I used the wrong creamer. It was supposed to be unsweetened but had a hint of sweetness so it was a little odd. I think I need to try and find Ripple or something completely unsweetened and give this a try again. Oh, and because I don't eat pasta I had to use udon noodles for this dish 😂

You guys know that I'm a grilled cheese master and this one was no exception. It was perfect on sourdough bread and so so gooey. This was exactly the comfort meal I needed!

I've been enjoying avocado toast for breakfast. Always delicious.

Delicious honeycrisp apples in horrible lighting. So sorry.

Random snacky type lunch plate. This is the ranch dip from Trader Joe's. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It has a nice flavor but you really get hit with that coconut flavor. I'm wondering how it would be with something more savory. For now, I'm not sure I'd repurchase.

Veggie filled plate with potatoes, broccoli and delicious asparagus. This was a great meal and I had it several times this week.

I hope that you all had a great week and that you enjoy your weekend! 💚

Vegan Market Haul & Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are well. I am hanging in, migraine and all. I did a whole lot of nothing this weekend and I enjoyed every second of it. The only thing I did do was take a quick trip over the the Sweet To Lick Market and Bakery (the only fully vegan market on Long Island and the bakery that opened first) to grab a few fun things. I didn't do a proper grocery shopping this week but I splurged on some items from the market as I will be going into super budget mode now. There have been some changes happening behind the scenes which unfortunately means I really have to be careful with my budget so in the future you'll be seeing more budget friendly eats.

Before that though we do have an AMAZING haul from the market and a few fun meals from the weekend.

So I grabbed some fun stuff! I got the vanilla cocomels (OMG SO GOOD!), Wayfare Chocolate Pudding, Follow Your Heart American slices (grilled cheese you guys!!!), some of my favorite Thai Peanut Primal Strips, a few vegan chocolate eggs (because chocolate), a mint carob cup that was on sale, individual sized bags of Vegan Rob's Cheddar Puffs and Wild Mushroom Kettle Chips and some Field Roast Mini Corn Dogs. It was kind of dumb timing for some of it because Passover is coming up but oh well.

I ran next door (because why wouldn't I, it was right there!) and got this AMAZING Rocky Road bar. This is one of my favorite things that they make and someone suggested to try warming it up and OMG. It was INCREDIBLE.

I got these from a different store but I was craving kale chips and Justin's cups so there you go.

This was a random but delicious dinner that I had of mini corn dogs, hash brown patties and the most delicious, crispy grapes ever. So so good.

I had a small hummus snacky plate with dolmas, grape tomatoes and flatbread.

You guys. This grilled cheese THOOOOOOOOUGH. I made it on multigrain panini bread with the Follow Your Heart Slices and it was amazing. I had some kale chips and a small pink lady apple on the side. Such a delicious meal.

So that's what I have for you guys today! I'm looking forward to finding some budget hacks over the next few weeks and sharing them with you. Passover also starts on Friday night so I'll be doing my best to figure that out, ha! I should probably take some time to round up some recipes this week.

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and that your week is going well! 💜 I'll see you on Friday!

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! 💜 

Birthday Weekend Recap!

Hey everyone! I hope that you are doing well and that you had a great weekend! First, I just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for the amazing support and feedback in my last post. I feel incredibly lucky to have made such wonderful, supportive friends through this blog and I want you to know how truly grateful I am.

Just a quick note before I head into the birthday deliciousness. I went through all of my posts this weekend and added some labels to them. I don't know why I haven't done that the whole time but I decided to do it before I added to the post count too much. It was a daunting task but it is done!

Anyway, I had such an amazing birthday weekend and I'm really excited to share it with you. It was relaxing and exceptionally delicious ;) That said, you'll notice that there is plenty of gluten and nightshades in these meals/treats. I decided that I'm just going to do what I want for my birthday weekend and start fresh this week. So check out all of the deliciousness and all of the hauls!

The very first thing I did for my birthday was start my day with a large peach bubble tea. It was the perfect way to start the day!

After I got bubble tea I went to the Sweet To Lick Market and picked up some goodies! They had stocked up on Wayfare products and you know I love that French Onion dip so I grabbed that. I've also been craving queso lately and they had the nacho cheddar dip so I grabbed that as well. I'm really excited to try the soy curls as well! I don't know how I'll try it first but I'm very excited. I have rationalized this haul by telling myself that other than the jerky (which is already gone, let's be honest) everything is gluten free. 😂 The onion dip is so good with carrots so that's how I'll finish it off.

We then went two doors down to the Sweet To Lick Bakery and grabbed some birthday treats! The tart was the most amazing chocolate peanut butter tart and the cookie was my favorite oreo chocolate chip whoopee cookie. I love their treats because they are not cloyingly sweet. That tart was perfect.

I chose to go to Oak House Mexican Kitchen for my birthday dinner because they have a regular menu for my omni family and a full vegan menu for me. It is so nice to be able to choose whatever you want and not have to make substitutions. Wait until you see what I chose.

OH. EM. GEE. You guys. This is the Seitan Tinga Burrito Loco and it was freaking incredible. And massive. Look at how huge that thing is. I got through half of it and saved the rest for leftovers. If you are in the Long Island area I highly recommend Oak House.

The next day I went to Trader Joe's and this is more indicative of what my grocery hauls will look like from now on. No gluten. No nightshades. Lots of yummy produce. I'm not going to lie, the lack of tomatoes is a sad thing for me.

I decided that this first week I am working solely on eliminating gluten and nightshades from my diet and from there I'll knock out the processed foods as well. I'm not really concerned about these three things pictured above as they are all gluten free and not horrific for you. 

On Sunday (which I still considered birthday weekend 😂) I made a grilled cheese with the Follow Your Heart American cheese that I got from the market. This is my favorite way to use it and I wanted to have it one more time as I have not found a gluten free bread yet. I'm not sure how I'll use the rest but I'll figure it out. Anyway, I'm not going to lie, I make a damn good grilled cheese, ha! Pairing it with a honey crisp is perfect because it adds a little freshness to the heaviness of the sandwich.

Finally, Sunday night was birthday dinner part two. It doesn't look pretty but it was just as delicious the second time around. I also had the other half of my peanut butter tart later.

So there was my birthday weekend! It was a really nice weekend and having the three day weekend was really great. I'll be back on Friday to show you some of the meals I've come up with for this first week of Gluten Free, Nightshade Free Vegan eating.

Thanks again for all of your support from my last post and for all of the birthday wishes. It truly means so much to me 💜 Have a great week!

Another Haul. More Food.

Hey you guys! I hope you all had a great weekend! I'm so excited for my Staycation this weekend, I seriously can't wait! I still haven't really decided what I want to do but that's fine. I need to work on being spontaneous anyway. What would you do on staycation? I would love to hear some suggestions!

Today's post is yet ANOTHER haul and some more delicious meals I've been eating. The Sweet To Lick Market was closing for a summer vacation so I wanted to get back in there to pick up a few things (the haul from my last post was a few weeks old. Oops!) so I made a quick trip and I also made sure to take some pics of my meals. I've been really enjoying salads this week and also a few other decadent meals.

I had to stock back up on my beloved Primal Strips. I also tried the Miyoko's Scallion Cream Cheese and I am just not a fan of their cheese. I was really tangy, savory cheese and this has a weird lemony taste which is extra weird because there is no lemon. There is a sweetness to it that I just can't get into so I'm probably just going to stop wasting my money on that brand. I know a lot of people love them but I'm just not into it. I did get some more Violife Feta for a recipe I want to make and some Follow Your Heart American slices, these fun Parmesan Rosemary mustache crackers and some Better Than Bouillon Not Chicken flavor since that's great to have.

This was a really easy and yummy meal of some mini corn dogs and chips.

I made a Boca burger with my Follow Your Heart cheese and some corn and vegan caesar salad on the side.

This meal though. Seriously one of the best I've had in a long time. A perfectly made grilled cheese (yeah I'm going to just pat myself on the back for that one) and some chick'n caesar salad. Seriously delicious.

I made a chick'n caesar salad for lunch at work today and I'm really excited to dig into it.

Finally, I needed some chocolate pretty desperately (I'm sure you'll guess why) so I had some of the Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cups with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and it was the perfect treat.

So here's some of the stuff I've been eating over the weekend. I have been really enjoying my meals lately and while they may not be the healthiest they have been delicious. I'm still working on finding my balance but I do know that meal planning ahead of time and sticking to it has really been helping me.

I hope you all have a great week! The next I post will be the beginning of my staycation so I'm very excited about that! Hopefully these next few days go quickly ;)

All The Vegan Food

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I hope that you are all well. This is going to be a Stuff I Ate post but figured I should try and change up the title a little bit. These are just a few of the things that I've been eating and enjoying and as I always mention I am trying to be better about photographing everything. Anyway, here is what I've been eating.

Up first I dug into those mini corn dogs. I tried to balance those out with some veggies so I enjoyed my last ginormous carrot (honestly Whole Foods is the best place to get carrots… they are huge and so sweet) with some broccoli. It was a very yummy and filling meal.

One day for dinner I just felt like having toast. One slice has peanut butter and banana and one has some Earth Balance.

I randomly found these BBQ Quinoa Curls at a local bagel store. I saw the V in the lower left corner and decided to pick them up.

Obviously I had to put them on the side of a yummy ass grilled cheese. The curls are great. Super light and crispy with a nice BBQ flavor. I really liked them. I added some carrots because balance, right?

So I come home from an appointment earlier this week and find a package from the lovely Beverlee on my doorstep! I had no idea this was coming and to be honest it came at the perfect time. I've been feeling pretty depressed lately and this surprise truly lifted my spirits.

I was so excited by what I found inside! That mug is so gorgeous! Beverlee knows I am fond of tattoos and mermaids so when she saw this mug she thought of me! I LOVE it and I can't wait to drink countless cups of decaf coffee and tea out of it. She also sent me a huge box of Fresh California Dates! I was so excited about these because I've been loving dates lately and I've always wanted to try the dates from California and Arizona! Now I can check California off my list! Finally, she included a jar of the Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. It's so funny because I go to Trader Joe's all the time and always think about grabbing it but never do. Now I was able to try it.

So if you are anything like me, obviously you see the dates and the cookie butter and your first thought is to dip the dates into the cookie butter. So that is exactly what I did and you guys, it is so freaking decadent and delicious! The dates are sweet and so soft and juicy. The cookie butter has a lovely spiced flavor and is amazing on its own. Together it is kind of magical. I really really suggest trying this combination because it is so amazing. I see a banana, date, cookie butter smoothie happening in my future for sure.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful gift Beverlee!! I love it all so so much!

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You guys. How adorable is this Washi tape?! It made me very excited for cherry/berry/watermelon/stone fruit season! I've been really missing my fresh fruit lately and now that Spring seems to finally be here I can practically taste all of the beautiful fresh summer fruit!

So that's all I have for you today! I'll be back on Tuesday with another post. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 💜

Vegan Market Haul & Taste Tests!

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a great weekend. Things are ok here.  I decided to visit the Sweet To Lick Market (the all vegan market near me!) on Friday to see what I could find. I went in there for one or two things but of course you can't just walk out of an all vegan market with one or two things. I figured I'd share my haul with you and also let you know what I think about some of the new products I've tried from the haul!

So here is my haul. I went in because I heard that they had a bunch of WayFare products and they did not disappoint! I had a hard time choosing but I walked out with the chocolate pudding (this was a given, it was the reason I went in) and the Creamy French Onion Dip! I am also a big liar because I said I would not repurchase the corn dogs but they are so good and last me a while so I decided to pick up another bag while I had access to them. I also grabbed some Follow Your Heart American style slices for grilled cheese, two of the McDougall's Spring Onion noodle soup cups and these Cassava Strips which a yuca chips. I love yuca and I love chips so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

I couldn't wait to get into my haul so I made myself an amazing grilled cheese on sourdough bread with some of the cassava chips and onion dip on the side. 

As you can see the onion dip is super creamy and it's really good you guys. I was so pleasantly surprised by how authentic it tasted and even smelled! It was great with the cassava chips which are light and super crunchy. It was a great combination and a really filling, satisfying comfort type meal.

There is an Asian restaurant in between the vegan market and vegan bakery and they recently added a vegan menu! I am so excited to give it a try and saw this menu outside while I was heading over to the market. I snapped a picture to have it for my reference since the menu isn't online yet so I figured I'd share it with you. Vegan sesame chicken? Yes please!

The reason I went to the market was to grab some of the Wayfare Chocolate Pudding because I had seen they started carrying it in an Instagram post. I was so glad I wasn't too late and I was able to grab it! It was the think I was most excited to try and you guys, I was not disappointed! Unlike vegan yogurt which tends to be disappointment after disappointment this stuff was absolutely incredible. It is thick and creamy and has a nice chocolate flavor. The only thing is that, to me, it almost has a little bit of a saltiness to it. I don't know if that is just my weird taste buds but it didn't hurt the flavor for me, just something I noticed. I'm so happy that it lived up to expectations and I definitely see some fun summer desserts happening with this stuff!

I went to Target on Sunday and found this blueberry grape kombucha and thought the flavor sounded so interesting! And it was only $2.79! I am pretty sure that is a great price for kombucha. It is a bit tart and has a great berry flavor and I really like it. I would definitely pick this up again, especially for the price!

So that's what I have for today! I thought it would be fun to review some of the products for you and I hope it was helpful! I'll be back on Friday with some stuff I'm eating this week :)

Hope you all have a great week!