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?

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 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: Vegan MoFo Wrap Up

Hi my friends! I hope that you are all doing well! I can't believe I made it through Vegan MoFo without missing a single intended post. And honestly, I'm really proud of the posts I did put out there. I did my best to remain creative and keep the content as fresh as possible. My biggest goals were to use this month to revitalize my blog, gain new inspiration and more creativity in the kitchen and to keep up with the schedule. I feel like I've achieved all of these goals and I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm exhausted but really proud of what I accomplished. I just want to thank all of you that stuck with me for the entire month and I truly hope that you enjoyed the content I put out and that you were inspired as well 💚

I figured I would go with the prompt from the MoFo site and just do a general conclusion/wrap up post. I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that I enjoyed most from my MoFo journey. 

First and foremost, I LOVED following all of your amazing blogs!! I loved following Susan's super creative ABC theme, Julie's "Elementary, My Dear Vegan" theme, Food For Dissertating's AMAZING vegan Bento ideas, Jennifer's CSA adventures and all of the other amazing, creative vegans out there! I have gotten so many amazing ideas from them and I can't wait to start trying them out in my own kitchen so thanks for the inspiration everyone!!

As for highlights from my own blog (is that obnoxious? Probably but oh well?) I would have to say that sharing some of the amazing vegan options Long Island has to offer has been really fun for me! I've only barely scratched the surface but it has been great getting out and exploring some of the places that I've been wanting to try!

The sesame chick'n has definitely been a highlight for me and I'm glad I got to share Little Fu's with you!

Finally getting to That Pizza Place was definitely a highlight! I'm so glad I went and tried all of this amazing food and that I was able to share the glory of garlic knot crust with you! 😂

The most special post to me was where I talked about Zen Garden, the amazing restaurant where I shared a meal with Doug before he tragically passed. This restaurant is not only DELICIOUS but it holds a very special place in my heart and being able to share my experience there with you was truly THE highlight for me. I'm glad I was able to introduce you to Doug a little more through that post because he was truly a special person.

Of course the Rocky Road bar from Sweet to Lick was another amazing highlight!

In addition to trying these amazing restaurants (which I will absolutely continue in the future) I also finally tapped into my Pinterest pins and tried out a few of the recipes.

The Ambitious Kitchen's chickpea blondies and this incredible sundae were definitely a must try from me! So so delicious with less guilt for the actual blondie (I mean there is ice cream sooooooo yeah).

FINALLY trying the Viet Vegan's Tteokbokki recipe was another highlight. I have made it again and will continue to enjoy it because it's freaking awesome! Another recipe I would highly recommend trying!

Finally, I really enjoyed taste testing lots of fun products that have been new to me. 

The "thin mint" type of cookie from Aldi was a really great treat! I love thin mints and wouldn't mind having a package of these in the freezer at all times 😂

The Mahalo bar was SO AMAZING! It was also a nice gesture from a new friend that I shared the amazing concert experience with in the beginning of August. I've had a lot of really beautiful moments with new friends this month and it is another reason why this has all been so special.

WHITE CHEDDAR POPCORN IS BACK IN MY LIFE! I was so excited to learn that this was vegan and even more excited when I tried it and it was delicious! Now I just need to get all of the bags the next time I see them 😂

So there you have it, some of the highlights of MoFo for me. If I had to put it into a nutshell, I'd say the thing I enjoyed most about my own journey has been getting out and experiencing more of the vegan scene around me. This blog has been called Long Island Vegan for a long time but I haven't really been showing you what Long Island has to offer. Until now. I'm really excited to spend more of my time on this blog sharing all of the amazing things Long Island and the surrounding areas have to offer. I am also excited to tackle my Pinterest list and share everything with you. And you know I'll continue sharing my meals and hauls with you. It feels so good to be re-invigorated.

So, for now, I will be taking the weekend off and then going back to my twice per week schedule as I adjust to my new job, new schedule and new routine. Once I have it all well managed I will probably try to add on at least one more post per week. I will definitely let you know when the time comes 😃 What have been some of your MoFo highlights? What did you see here that you'd love to see more of in the future? Is there anything you'd like to see less of or not at all. Let me know, I am so curious to know what you think and what you are enjoying!

I hope you all have an amazing weekend and I'll be back here next week 💚 Thank you all so much for taking the time out to come here and read my ramblings. It truly means so much to me!

Vegan MoFo 2019: Even More Stuff I Ate!

Hello again my friends! I hope you are all well today! As you can tell by the title of this post, today we are doing the wrap up of stuff I ate this week.

I had another chick'n parmesan sandwich (in my pre vegan days I used to eat the chicken parmesan sandwich from Burger King that would be offered every once in a while and I loved it - gross I know… this has been my ridiculously lazy effort to recreate it so many years later) and tried to balance that (I mean honestly, so ridiculous ha!) with some amazing, crispy grapes and some baby carrots.

I made another batch of The Viet Vegan's Tteokbokki and it was amazing, of course! I added some soft tofu to it this time and a half of a bag of rice cakes made three meals for me. I never realized how filling these rice cakes are!!

Of course I have my obligatory weekly pumpernickel bagel with tofu spread 😍

I didn't eat all of this watermelon in one sitting but oh man did I enjoy it every time! It was a perfectly sweet and juicy watermelon!

Sometimes ladies have chocolate cravings and I just happened to have one over the past few days 😂This Haagen-Dazs ice cream was on sale for less than $3 so how could I resist?! I may or may not have an extra pint in the freezer 😉

So that's some stuff I've been eating pver the past few days! I know, kind of junky but whatever. 

Fun news! I'm going to be house/pet sitting for my brother and his family next week so it'll be nice to have a lot of space and an air fryer to use! I'm planning on doing some major healthy meal prep while I'm there (the new addition of a husky pup will make my time in the morning very limited) and I'm looking forward to sharing that with you next week!

Have a great day!💚

All The Boring Food (And Ice Cream!)

Hey you guys! Happy Friday! I hope that you have all had a great week. It has been so gloomy here all week, the kind of days where you just want to hang out in bed. I think we are supposed to have the sun come out soon-ish so hopefully that is true! I still have been dealing with a low appetite this week so my meals have been pretty sad but I still took pictures of them to share with you. Hopefully I'll start to get back to normal and have some more interesting things to share with you next week.

Some sad sourdough toast with Earth Balance that I took to work.

I snacked on this fruit bowl all day one day. Some yummy watermelon and crispy grapes. I've been loving grapes lately!

Some Trader Joe's gluten free waffles with every square filled with syrup 😂

This was supposed to be my dessert for our family Rosh Hashanah dinner but I just was too full to eat it. It was sitting in the freezer taunting me so I finally tried a spoonful of it and it was so freaking delicious! The fudge is so rich and the ice cream is so creamy. They really nailed the texture on their ice creams. I've mentioned a million times that there are products that I've tried that are just not worth the hype or the price tag in my opinion but this one is DEFINITELY worth both the hype and the price.

That's all that I have for you today. As I said I hope to have more exciting meals to share next week! I hope that you all enjoy your weekend 💜

Friday Fun!

Hey you guys! I hope that all is well and that you've had a great week. I'm definitely ready for the weekend (sadly not a long weekend but a weekend is good enough for me) and haven't really made plans yet. I feel like I should do something but not sure what. Any ideas? Tell me all the fun things you are doing!

I don't have a ton of meals to share but I've pulled together a fun collection of meals, new treats and some memes to share. I sadly don't have source links for the memes because I just take screen shots when I see one that makes me laugh so I can send it to my friends. I decided to share a few here and if I come across the source I'll make sure to link it to them.

Anyway, here's all the stuff!

I was feeling peanut butter and banana so I had peanut butter and banana… on a toasted bagel because that's delicious.

Avocado toast on sourdough bread and some grapes.

So many salads. 

So I've been in budget mode the past few weeks and have not been buying any high priced items at all. I was passing by the vegan ice cream section in the grocery store and wanted to take a look (I was mostly curious to see if the Daiya bars made it to the store yet - they haven't) and noticed the Haagen-Dazs vegan pints on sale for $3.49!! I saw the Mocha Chocolate Cookie and decided to have a treat yo self moment and I bought it. It's so good you guys. The texture is perfect, the flavor is great and it just a really great quality vegan ice cream. I highly recommend!

And here are the memes!

Hahahaha me except always the before. The before is my before and after 😂

I can't wait to show this to my therapist 😂

My friend sent this to me and I could not stop laughing. This is hilarious and I love it so much.

So there you have it my friends! I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you have a great and safe holiday weekend! See you next week!

Bonus Haul & More Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well and that you had a great week! I'm excited about today's post because I have a long overdue haul from one of my favorite places! I went to the Sweet To Lick Vegan Market a few weeks ago and I wanted to wait until I tried a few of the products to share the haul. I also have a few things that I ate this week to share as well :)

So as is the case with every other time I visited the market, I went in for one thing (the jerky) and came out with all the things. This time I wanted to try the Earth Balance Buttery popcorn (SO GOOD!!!), the goodpop Cookies N' Cream bars (sadly just ok for me - I love that they have this flavor but I found it a bit bland and underwhelming), the primal strips (you know I love these), some chocolate brownie cookie dough made out of black beans (still need to try this), my beloved Field Roast mini Corn Dogs and the WayFare Vanilla Pudding (AMAZING!! I liked it even better than the chocolate!).

I have been loving my avocado toast lately. I had it with a delicious peach and some coffee in my amazing mermaid mug gifted to me by the lovely Beverlee!!

This is some Mujadara (rice with lentils and caramelized onions) from the Israeli Market. I seriously love this stuff so much. 

One night I had breakfast for dinner and made some of the Trader Joe's gluten free waffles with syrup (yup, I like a lot of syrup… sorry not sorry) and a delicious plum.

I made this beautiful salad to enjoy for lunch today. I am super excited about it even though it is a simple salad of butter lettuce, shredded carrots, grape tomatoes and chick'n strips. Topped with Just Ranch, of course.

That's all I have for you today. I hope that your week has gone well and that you have an amazing weekend! Any fun plans? I have a staycation planned for next weekend (I will be off from Friday-Monday) and I'm so excited about it. Part of me wants to get out and do stuff and part of me wants to just relax and recharge. I'm guessing it'll be a combination of both. What do you like to do during a staycation?

Stuff I Want To Make

Hey you guys! I hope that you are all doing well. I thought it would be fun to put together a list of things that I want to try to make in my own kitchen. I tend to get into patterns with what I eat and I want to break out of that a little bit and make some yummy food that I have either always wanted to try, dishes that I've had and miss/haven't had in a while or restaurant meals I want to recreate. Of course I'll be including source links for the images since most of these are not mine so feel free to check theirs out!

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The first dish I have been wanting to make for the longest time but never have is called Swimming Rama. When I lived in Seattle I would go to an AMAZING Thai place called Thai Tom in the University District. My friend got this dish called Swimming Rama with Tofu and let me try it. OMG you guys. It's amazing. It's a bed of rice topped with lightly sautéed spinach, bean sprouts and tofu smothered in the most delicious spicy peanut sauce. And without fail I got it every single time I went after that (I was vegetarian at the time so I was mostly concerned with fish sauce but I think the sauce is otherwise vegan?). Anyway, I have been craving this for the longest time and have not ever taken the time to make it. That's totally going to change because I really want it 😂 The picture above is actually the Swimming Rama with Tofu from Thai Tom (I grabbed it from their Yelp page, gave source credit as best as I could).

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I've heard really amazing things about the Eggplant Hummus from Trader Joe's. Sadly I've never been able to try it because mine just doesn't carry it ever. I've never seen it there. From what I've seen and heard, it kind of looks like and oil free combination of hummus and babaganoush and it sounds pretty damn awesome. I've decided it's now my mission to make it myself at home. I won't be able to tell how close I come but I have a feeling it's going to be pretty damn delicious whether or not it tastes like the original. 

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I know you're probably thinking what the hell does this New Yorker know about biscuits and gravy? Well, I know that they are freaking delicious and I want them in my face hole. Sadly I don't really have access to them here but I'm determined to make them some day. I don't know how authentic they are but the Buttermilk Biscuits and Country Gravy by The Simple Veganista sound pretty awesome. I think this will have to be something to try in the fall and/or winter when I'm in need of some warm comfort food on a cold day.

This is a little similar to the biscuits and gravy but omg it's too good not to include here. Every time I visit my best friend in Florida we go for brunch at Ethos Vegan Kitchen and EVERY TIME I get this amazing Breakfast Burrito. It is stuffed with faux sausage, tofu scramble, giant chunks of roasted potato and then wrapped up in a tortilla and smothered in sausage gravy. It is freaking delicious and I need it in my life way more often. It seems easy enough to make. I'm sure the spices will be off a bit but I definitely think I could come close to this in my kitchen and I will definitely be giving it a shot! I also think it would be awesome as a breakfast burrito bowl with just the potatoes, scramble, sausage and gravy in a bowl.

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I figured I'd bring it back to summertime treats and mention that I really want to make a Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich before the summer ends. It couldn't be easier... make a batch of your favorite chocolate chip cookies and stuff it with your favorite vegan ice cream (there is so much to choose from now!). You can bet that mine will have sprinkles around the outside because sprinkles are so festive and delightful.

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The last thing that I really want to make is a proper Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese. I'm sorry but the crap you buy in the package in the store is gross. All of them. I've never tried one that I like. So the only way to resolve that is to make my own the proper way. It will be incredibly unhealthy but damn will it be good. It's not something I will eat every day but sometimes you just want a proper mac and cheese and that means finding a good mac and cheese recipe where you veganize the dairy, make the cheese sauce and then bake it off in the oven. That will definitely be happening because it has been entirely too long since I've had a proper mac and cheese.

So these are some of the things that I want to try to make in the upcoming months. As I mentioned, some of these recipes will be better in the fall or winter when warm comfort food is definitely more appropriate. As I try to make these recipes I will definitely show you how they come out and I'll share how I made them. I'm especially excited about the Swimming Rama and hope to try that soon!

What are some foods that you want to make? Any restaurant meals that you want to recreate? Let me know!

I hope that you enjoy your weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday!! ❤