Grocery Haul and Meal Prep

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are easing back into another week. I feel like I've been on the hot mess express for the last week and I'm ready for my stop so I can get off this train ;) I made a really conscious effort to be as prepared for the week as possible as you'll see in the grocery haul and the meal prep that I did this weekend. I have a really bad habit of not being able to decide on anything in terms of meals (or anything really) because I never know what I want so I figured if I made the effort to plan and prep it'll make my life and the decisions much easier. It literally took me three hours to decide to eat cereal for dinner the other night. It's so ridiculous, haha!

Anyway, I made a trip to Trader Joe's on Sunday and figured I'd share the haul with you!

For produce I got some romaine lettuce, baby spinach, potatoes, broccoli, baby carrots, diced onion (lazy as fuck) and grape tomatoes.

I picked up a few grocery items as well. I got some of the Lavash, the high protein tofu, some soy creamy cherry chocolate chip ice cream, mediterranean hummus (still the best store bought hummus in my opinion) and some frozen blueberries.

After Trader Joe's I decided to do a little meal prep for the week. Here's what I made:

I made a HUGE tofu scramble with the high protein tofu, onion, broccoli and spinach. I seasoned it with Trader Joe's onion salt and some black pepper. It's so good you guys. I had the onions in there the longest and they got all brown and caramelized and they made the whole thing taste amazing! I'll be able to get a ton of meals out of this too.

I really wanted some redemption after my last muffin fail so I decided to make some blueberry corn muffins. They are better than the last muffins I made (I mean they aren't green yet so that's a step in the right direction) but they are so dense and pretty dry. They are edible and it's nothing a little Earth Balance and maple syrup can't fix but they aren't amazing. At least they look pretty. The blueberries gave them a pretty purple swirl and I'm not mad at it.

As I mentioned I'm really trying to be better about planning my meals to make my life and decision making a lot easier for myself. I got this new insert for my planner and it is great because you can plan your meals and write your grocery list in the same spot. I'm just hoping that I'll actually use it!

Are you a meal planner? How far in advance do you plan? What happens if you don't want to eat what you've planned. That tends to be my biggest problem.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I'll see you on Friday with another post! <3

Stuff I Ate

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm not going to lie I'm not mad at the warm weather we had for a little while there. Did you guys get to enjoy that too? I was kind of loving it but I'll have to admit I've been super lazy with meals which you will see in the pictures below. I'm definitely going to get back on track with cooking and eating fresh food next week but I still wanted to share all of the processed (delicious) stuff I got pictures of (to be fair I did eat fresh food but just didn't get pictures of it).

I've actually been eating these a bit and I love them. These are the MacDougall's Miso Ramen Cups and I love these. I know the cup meals can be hit or miss but I think that they do a really good job with the Ramen Cups and these are perfect for a quick, warm meal.

I made some mac n cheese using the Wayfare cheddar cheese that I got my last grocery trip. The texture is great but the flavor is a little bland so I added a little salt, pepper and garlic powder and it helped so much. I really want to try making queso dip with it so that will be my next dish with this product.

I made a pizza bagel one night because who doesn't love a pizza bagel?!

I went and got a bubble tea on Sunday because it was pretty warm out and I could justify leaving my house for a cold beverage. Got my usual and it was delicious as always. 

Last night I was craving breakfast for dinner so I went to my frozen waffle stash and pulled out half of a banana chocolate chip and half of a blueberry corn because why make decisions? It was freaking delicious.

Here is my planner layout for this week. The picture doesn't do it justice because it is foiled with silver foil and absolutely stunning.

First half of the week. I will fill in the white spaces as I go.

Second half. So freaking pretty.

So that's my post for today! I will be back at some point with fresh food. I'm really excited to start cooking again and stop being lazy. I am excited to share my meals with you as well so stay tuned! If I don't see you this weekend I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Haul and a Meal

Hey everyone! I hope that you are well! I am so excited about this post because I get to share my haul from the Israeli Market (Tavlin Market) that I go to every once in a while. I love their prepared food, it is so amazing! They also have some really fun products that you wouldn't even think to look for in other markets. I snagged a few things so of course I had to share it with you!

Here is everything in the haul. In the very back on the left is some organic Tahini, then there is some date spread (!), some split pea soup, vegetable barley soup, some Mejadra (rice with lentils and caramelized onions - OMG SO GOOD!!!), the most amazing cashews ever, some fresh made pita chips and the last three bags of the pizza flavored Bissli snacks. This flavor is so hard to find and it's my favorite (and there is no cheese, of course).

Here is a closer look at the three containers in the middle. The left is split pea soup, the middle is vegetable barley and the right is the Mejadra.

Here is a close up of the tahini and the date spread. I haven't decided how I'm going to use the date spread but I've actually heard of putting it on toast with tahini so maybe I'll try that?

This was from a different store but I thought it fit in with this haul. This is Babaghanouj and it is SO GOOD.

I couldn't wait to dig in so I fixed a plate of the Mejadra, some babaghanouj and some pita chips. Amazing.

We had a bit of a break from the bitter cold this weekend so I decided to take advantage of it and grab some bubble tea! This is my usual peach pulp tea with boba and 50% sweetness. They switched to white boba from the black so it's hard to see them in there.

Finally, I think I mentioned that I was going to try out the Traveler's Notebook for a new planner and I couldn't be happier with this new insert and style of planning. I think it will be perfect for my needs and I'm really excited about it. I also love the way this layout turned out and I'll be filling it in more as the week goes on.

So that's it for today! I'm really really going to try to take some pics of my meals this week. I can't make promised of course but really, I'm going to try! I hope that you are all well and enjoying the break from the cold <3

Grocery Haul

Hey everyone. I failed at end of the week blogging again. Sorry :( I always have the best intentions but fall short. Anyway, I did take some pictures of my grocery haul to share with you. I also have pictures of my planner because I seriously love the stickers I used for this week. It is quintessential winter. Winter can be pretty crappy but these stickers highlight all of the things that make it beautiful :)

Anyway, this week I went to my regular grocery store to pick up some items.

For the produce section I got some baby spinach, spring mix salad (I'm avoiding romaine at all costs right now because of the e coli situation), stuffed grape leaves, tofu, grape tomatoes, green apples and avocados.

For groceries I got some of the McDougall's Ramen Cups (I know a lot of people don't particularly like this brand but I think the ramen cups are really good - the other stuff not as much but these are great for a quick meal), some Dave's Killer Bread (so good!), and some snack bars that were all on sale for $1.

As you know I like to try new products when I can. I finally found this WayFare vegan cheese dip sauce thing and really wanted to try it. I'm not sure how to use it though… do you just heat it by itself and it melts? There are no instructions. I guess I'll just visit the website. I also wanted to try vegan parmesan cheese. It is one thing that I actually miss on pasta (which I eat so rarely I guess it doesn't matter) so I thought it would be fun to try this vegan parm as well! I'll let you know how it goes!

The first half of my week. Can you deal with these colors and the wintery-ness of it. I love it.

This is the second half of the week. Still so pretty.

I actually may have purchased a different planner yesterday. I was finally convinced about the virtues of the traveler's notebook and found a really beautiful vegan one for a fraction of the price of the big name TNs. I think the full layouts like the one above are beautiful but I just don't have enough going on in my life to justify them every week. I will probably still do full layouts for special weeks like holidays and my birthday, but I think the traveler's notebook is exactly what I need. When I get settled into it I'll make sure to share my setup with you!

That's all I have for today. I hope that you are all well and staying warm and dry. I've noticed that the sun is still out at 4:30 which has been nice. I can't wait until 8:30 sunsets! 

Have a great week!

Long Time No See

Hey everyone! I hope that you are well and that you enjoyed your holiday. I always love reading about the traditions that families have for the holidays and I've really been enjoying reading the posts that have popped up so far. We didn't really celebrate Hanukkah this year which was kind of disappointing but I've made it a mission to celebrate next year. My brother, sister in law and niece actually had a flight to catch Christmas night so we ended up just doing brunch with them at their house and I love watching Delilah open her gifts.

I know it has been a while since I've posted and I've just been pretty focused on my health right now. The medication I was given for my acid reflux has been amazing and I feel like a new person now. I can eat acidic foods and it doesn't really affect me (unless I forget the medication - more on this later). I'm really glad that I wasn't stubborn and decided to start the medication.

I don't have a lot of food to share at all but I'll show you what I do have!

I stopped by the Sweet To Lick (all vegan) Market a few weeks ago and forgot to share my haul with you. I haven't tried the gyros yet but I'm so excited to! The Follow Your Heart Shreds are definitely good but I'm not as in love with them as other people seem to be. I definitely plan on splurging on some Miyoko's Creamery products at some point but I'm very happy with everything I've tried so far from this haul.

The Saturday before Christmas I met up with my friend and her husband and we went out for Thai food for dinner and then went to see Pitch Perfect 3 (cute but not as good as the first two in my opinion). 

You guys. This was so freaking good. It was a thai eggplant dish and I subbed in some broccoli instead of bell peppers. It had tofu and string beans as well and the sauce was spicier than I anticipated. I had major reflux after this because I forgot to take my medication that night but honestly it was kind of worth it haha. It was delicious.

Because I don't have more food to share I thought it would be fun to share my Hanukkah and Christmas Eve planner layouts with you! I liked my smaller personal planner but missed the big vertical planner so I decided to switch back to the vertical style planner for the new year. I went with the Recollections planner which I got on major discount from Michael's and honestly it looks exactly like the Erin Condren when it's all laid out. Except I paid like $15 instead of the $70-$80 the Erin Condren would cost.

This is my super cute Hanukkah layout! The colors are so pretty but as you can see it is pretty squished.

The pictures do not do this layout justice. It is a foiled Christmas sticker kit and it is stunning in real life. This is the way I plan on laying out my stickers for the foreseeable future until I get annoyed by it, ha!

I just love how it is a planner and scrapbook at the same time.

If you like the stickers you see let me know and I'll be happy to tell you where I got them! The two kits are from Creating & Co. and the others are from a variety of Etsy shops.

I'm house/pet sitting this week so I'll do the best I can to get some fur baby pictures for you. I definitely plan on taking a nice bath on Sunday to relax after the week. I'm going to try to post again this week but the post I want to do requires some things from home… Maybe I'll just use internet pictures but we'll see.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! If I don't post before, please have a very happy New Year and stay safe that night! Thank you all so much for your continued love and support 💜

A Care Package and Some Groceries!!

Hey everyone! I hope that you all enjoyed the long weekend. As I mentioned previously, sadly it was not a long weekend for me but I still enjoyed it. I took the weekend to re-charge and really try to rest. I started reading the book #Girlboss and I really like it! It's pretty different from the show and I actually like it a lot more. I also did some meal planning and I've got some pretty great meals coming up this week. Of course it meant a second trip to the grocery store because clearly thinking ahead wasn't on the agenda this week, ha!

On Saturday I was greeted at home (after work) by a really wonderful vegan care package from the lovely Bianca from Vegan Crunk!! We all know and love her amazing vegan Southern cooking, her reviews, of course her amazing blog and cookbook and I personally LOVE following her journey as a runner. She completed a full marathon and I think that is so inspiring and incredible. I also really enjoy following her detoxes each January and I found out about Kris Carr because of her blog! Finally, her fur baby crew is so adorable and she has a dog named Maynard! Yaaaaasssss!!!!!

Bianca was so kind to pick out some local Memphis vegan snacks and treats and sent them over to me. Check out what she sent!

Yum!!! In the top left is a bag of Green Goddess flavored popcorn!! I've never heard of that before and it sounds amazing! She said that her friend makes it and sells it at Whole Foods. Very cool!  The top right is Lydia's Sun Butter Cookies and they are made by a local company called Lydia's Kitchen. Below the cookies is a bag of Nikki's Hot Ass Chips (that name is everything!!) in the cool version because apparently the hot ones are HOT. I'm so glad she sent the cool version because I doubt I'd be able to handle the super spicy! She also sent an adorable Made In Memphis magnet and some cute Herbivore stickers!

Thank you so much for the amazing package Bianca!! I'll make sure to let you all know how awesome it all is once I start trying everything!!

I went to Trader Joe's on Sunday to get some stuff for the week and I figured I'd share that haul.

Romaine, Persian Cucumbers, baby carrots and some peaches (!!!).

Apple juice, orange juice and Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze. Yes, I know the juice is pasteurized but that's not something that bothers me. I'm going to use the orange juice in smoothies by the way.

Jasmine rice and some Soy Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream because why not?

I saw these Fruit & Nut discs in the new items section and decided to give them a try! There is a fig and walnut flavor and a date, hazelnut and cacao flavor. I couldn't decide between the two so I grabbed both of these. There is a third kind but to be honest I don't even remember what it is. I'll let you know how these are when I try them too!

As I mentioned above I ended up meal planning after the grocery store (I mean honestly, why?) and realized that I needed to grab a few more things so I ran out to the store but didn't think to take a photo. I picked up an eggplant, some asparagus, zucchini, granny smith apples and of course some stuffed grape leaves. I am making some really great meals this week and I can't wait to show you!

Speaking of great meals, I was going to wait until Sunday to post this with the rest of my meals but I couldn't wait, haha! This was a Mediterranean plate I had for dinner on Sunday night and it was every bit as good as it looked!

This is my planner spread for this week. I went patriotic for Memorial Day and you can't tell by this picture but it is foiled and absolutely gorgeous. You can kind of see the stars in the foiling on the Friday firework full box. I really love how this came out and I'll use the rest of this kit for 4th of July. Seriously, I LOVE getting two weeks out of each kit now and that I can buy fewer sheets from each kit and still get two weeks out of it. Really helps the wallet, ha!

That's all for today's post! I hope that you are all rested after your weekend! I'll see you back here on Saturday!

This & That

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and that all of the Mommies out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. My mom and I had a nice, quiet, mellow Mother's Day and we continued the celebration yesterday when we went outlet shopping together. Sadly I didn't find any sneakers or bags that I liked so I'm still looking out for those. Does anyone have any recommendations for good, inexpensive vegan gym sneakers?? It would be greatly appreciated :)

This week I have a few meals (nothing crazy) and decided to show a few of my planner layouts as well. It's funny, the planner stuff has been mentioned a bit lately in my comments and Bianca even mentioned them in a post so I decided that since it has been a while since I've shared some layouts I'd show a few of my recent favorites!

This is the most simple stir fry ever of Chinese Eggplant and rice with some garlic sauce. It was so good.

A slightly more exciting stir fry that has tofu and broccoli in addition to the eggplant and rice.

Of course I had to have some veggie rolls at some point this week.

Sorry I didn't photograph a ton of meals since Saturday but it's been a bit hectic. So to make up for it I decided to share four planner layouts below. For anyone that is new here I do decorate my planner because it makes me happy and it makes me more likely to use it. I only decorate my weekly and monthly calendars but I also track meals/exercise, finances and I also have notes sections for various things. It's just a fun thing that I do and for the hour I spend on it each week it makes me happy and allows me to be creative. In case anyone is curious, all of the sets happen to be from a shop called Creating & Co. She is my favorite :)

This was the week after Beauty and the Beast came out and I was going to see it on Monday but I had to push it to the following Monday. I LOVE this. It is so cute and a perfect way to remember when the movie came out.

I'm obsessed with these colors. This is a neon coffee themed week and it's so cute. The color combination is beautiful.

I saved this set for the week of Mother's Day because I thought it was perfect. It is so beautiful and springy and just makes me think of Mother's Day. I really loved the way this one came out.

Finally, this is this current week's layout and it is a fitness theme! I thought it was perfect to coincide with the start of my fitness journey and these colors are amazing.

You'll notice I only use my personal sized planner now. I don't really have a ton going on in my life so this is the perfect sized planner for me. In addition, I have multiple sections in it and it allows me to keep everything in one place. It also brings down the cost of stickers tremendously because I buy fewer pages and the one set lasts two weeks. I'm really happy with the change and being able to budget less and get more out of it.

So that's all for today! I'll be better about photographing meals for Saturday :) I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sharing the Love

Hey guys! Happy Valentine's Day? I guess? It's funny, I've never really been into Valentine's Day at all. It's just never something that has been on my radar. I have been trying to figure out what today's post was going to be for a few days now and I finally came up with it this morning. I'm not going to make Valentine's Day themed treats or share any special meals because it's just not me. I did still want to incorporate the idea of love because I have nothing against the idea of love. So I decided that today I would share some things with you that I have been loving lately. Just as a heads up, I have no affiliation with any of these companies or people. These are just things that I've been genuinely enjoying lately and wanted to share with you.

A few posts ago I got a few comments on my nail polish and I wanted to share it with you. This is the color that I was wearing in that post. It is by Zoya which is the only brand I ever buy anymore. The color is called Dillon. It is gorgeous and definitely one of my new favorite shades. I love them because they are Big 5 Free (they removed 5 of the toxic chemicals that can be found in many other popular brands) and they are vegan. They are a bit pricey at $10 a bottle but I've never purchased a bottle at full price because they are always running promotions! 

This is the color I have on now. It is called Alice and it is one of their Pixie Dust shades. I was curious about it and thought the color was beautiful so I got it as part of my Black Friday purchase. You guys. It's GORGEOUS. Glittery (which you know I love) and it has texture to it. You don't use top coat because it dulls the color. I thought it would be impossible to take off but it really isn't (this is the second time I've used this color). I have my eye on a few more Pixie Dust shades for when they go on sale again and I'm looking to splurge on myself.

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I've never really been into the whole Alex and Ani craze but that changed a bit after I saw this beautiful bracelet. This is their Hand of Fatima bracelet and it is beautiful. It is essentially a Hamsa or a Hamesh and is supposed to protect you from negativity by "deflecting the gaze from the evil eye." I've always wanted a Hamsa and thought this one was perfect and I'm really glad that I treated myself to it. I really like that they have a whole collection of Charity designs where part of the proceeds will go toward the charity it represents. 

I have a few blogs that I've been reading and LOVING lately too. The first is Emilie Eats and she has a beautiful vegan blog that I discovered recently when I found her recipe for Black Bean Soup. Her blog is absolutely gorgeous and her recipes all sound delicious. Definitely check her out, she is amazing!

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As many of you may know, I am Jewish. I'm not really religious at all but I really enjoy the traditions of my religion. I was looking up recipes for Jewish cuisine one day and was led to What Jew Wanna Eat. This is NOT a vegan blog by any means. But you guys. She's fucking hilarious. I love reading her posts and I love her modern take on Jewish cooking. I think a lot of her recipes are easily veganizable and that is why I'm linking you over to her. I know a lot of people aren't really into promoting non-vegan content but I really like her ideas and like I said, I think a lot of her recipes can easily be made vegan. If you aren't into non-vegan content then it isn't for you. If you can look past that then definitely check her out. 

I'm still loving my Monbento Bento Box that I got a few weeks ago. The one above is my latest combination. On the left you have a simple salad of baby romaine and cherry tomatoes with Just Caesar dressing. The little container on the left has a homemade trail mix of peanuts, raisins and chocolate covered cacao nibs. In the box on the right is roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potato and a little tiny sauce container of ketchup. I love my little bento box and the color is still giving me all kinds of life.

I'm sorry but that is fucking hilarious. I don't have anything else to say about it. My brother sent it to me and I laughed for a solid 10 minutes.

I know I haven't been sharing my planner layouts lately but I still plan every week. I am glad I switched to my personal sized planner because I don't have much of a life and therefore not a whole lot of plans. I'm saving quite a bit of money on my stickers too. This is this week's layout and you guys… I really love it. This kit is called "Love Yourself" and I thought it was just absolutely perfect for this week. It's just glitter everywhere and a really beautiful, positive message. I love looking at my planner this week and had a really good time planning it all out. 

So there you have it! I hope that you liked it :) I know it is a little different from the strictly vegan food content I've been sharing lately but I thought it would be appropriate to spread some love today <3 I hope that you are all doing well and for those of you that popped over to my second blog, Shine Bright In The Darkness, thank you SO MUCH! I am always so overwhelmed by all of the support you give me. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and I'll see you on Saturday!