Tag Archives: vegan

Weekend Whoops

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My weekend was full of eating oopsies.  I accidentally ate something that wasn’t vegan.  I didn’t get near enough fruits and veggies.  I took pictures on the go that don’t look very pretty.  And on both Saturday and Sunday I didn’t eat all day and ended up buying food at night (and eating far too much of it).

Saturday I worked from 10 – 6 and since I woke up at 9:25 breakfast wasn’t an option.  We have officially moved into the Christmas shopping season and there was not a minute during my shift when I had time to eat.  As soon as I was off all I could think of was food.  He is what I ate, on the walk home!  An apple from home.

And vegan stuffing,

and half a peanut butter rice krispie treat from the co-op.

All on the walk home.  Sidenote – I gave the dog a bite of the rice krispie treat and he spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how to get more.  He’s peanut butter fiend!

Dinner was purchased with a Groupon to Lone Star Fajita Grill.

A guaco taco (sans cheese) with veggies, guacamole, and sprouts,

and a pile of chips with more guacamole.

I made it through dinner without breaking the challenge (Tex-Mex without cheese or sour cream?!) but ran into trouble with dessert.  I ate the Justin’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from my Simple Survival Kit package.

If you read “MILK CHOCOLATE peanut butter cups” and knew where I ran into trouble then you are quicker than I; it wasn’t until I finished eating that it occured to me that the cups weren’t vegan.  After choosing to cheat on the Vegan Challenge several times already this month it is frustrating to mess up due to a stupid oversight.

I also ate the last two servings of Angie’s Kettle Corn straight from the bag.

Then I got into bed and slept for 11 straight hours.  It was glorious!

But even with a good night’s sleep I still didn’t have it together to eat before work.  I ended up eating co-op food on the walk home for the 2nd night in a row.

Chicken fried seitan, bbq tempeh, corn and kidney bean salad, and a stuffed grape leave.  The picture is terrible but I was more concerned with shoving the food into my face than photographing it!

The food highlight of the weekend was this delicious bowl of cereal.

1.5 servings of Honey Nut Chex with a serving of honey roasted peanuts, fresh raspberries, and Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

I had to go to campus at 7:00 for a final meeting for a group project.  This is the assignment that has been ruining the past month’s evenings; I’m so glad to be done with it.

A late take-out dinner from Vasilis Express.

A dolmas wrap (more grape leaves!) and fries.  I ate 95% of that plate and I kind of still want to throw up.  Too heavy!

What was your last edible oops?

Happy Happy Joy Joy

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Thursday was more crappy than happy.  The list of low-lights includes being so freaking tired all day because I still haven’t caught up on sleep, eating pizza for dinner (so stress eating, so not vegan), having my stitches be difficult to remove because the office was asstastic about making a follow-up appointment, and having to work on a group project until bedtime.

If you weren’t paying close attention to that list of complaints, you may have missed yesterday’s highlight: I got my stitches removed!

My hand is officially free.  And gross.  But Adam bought me a bubble tea for being brave.

I got a strawberry bubble tea at Gin Gin and they gave me normal boba with multiple flavors of popping boba as well.  Best bubble tea I’ve had in years!

Friday was the happy, happy, joy, joy day.  I just woke up happy.  Several good things did happen today, but I swear that I was excited to begin with.

The fact that I was dressed in a very “Emily” outfit did put me in a good frame of mind.

And all of my meals were incredibly tasty.  Breakfast was a tasting plates of sorts in class.  A serving of Angie’s Sweet and Salty kettle corn.

An apple.

And a roasted seaweed snack.

I washed down my snacks with a can of Cherry Coke Zero that was randomly the best soda I’ve ever had.  I’m not sure exactly how it was different than usual but I swear the formula must have been “off” for this can’s batch because it was amazing.

A tall soy creme brulee coffee was consumed for warmth and caffeine on my walk home.

I only had time to switch out my bags between school and work which could have put a damper on my mood (especially because I didn’t have time to eat!) but then I came home to this –

A #simplesurvivalkit packed with goodies from some of my favorite brands: Food Should Taste Good, Justin’s, Larabar, Little Ducks Organics, SmartWool, Sprout Wellness Basics, and Teatulia.  Not only are my taste buds excited about the goodies, the package itself made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  I am so incredibly grateful and touched!

Work went well; we got an insane shipment of packages and the time flew by.  Before I knew it I was home for dinner.

I wasn’t expecting much from this meal but I ended up loving it.  I sautéed sliced mushrooms, green peppers, and sweet onions in Earth Balance and salt and served them on top of basmati rice with Sriracha and Nayo stirred in.

I shoveled in my bowl in about a minute and adored every bite!

More group project work went down from 9 -11 (pm!!) and I shared a Pumpkin Shock Top with a friend while we worked.

I planned on getting into the pumpkin Blue Moon too but I’m basically the walking dead asleep at this point so I’m glad I stuck with half a beer.

I hope everyone else had a happy, happy, joy, joy day too!  Or if not, please enjoy your weekend!

This Post Is {Pea}Nuts

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We got home from Philadelphia after midnight on Monday and Tuesday morning definitely felt a little rough.  I had clinical practice all day so I had to solider through, but I became pretty much worthless the minute I got home.  Same story this evening.  However, I promise that if you make it through this post there will be two tasty peanut-y recipes waiting for you at the end!

Caffeine was a necessity Tuesday morning.  My friend and I shared this Silk Dark Chocolate Pure Almond milk in our coffees.

My other hospital eats included… An Apple Cinnamon GoGo Squeez.

An Enjoy Life Rice Milk Chocolate bar.

And a KIND Almond & Apricot Bar.

The KIND bar was the best.  The name only references almonds and apricots but the base was pure coconut!  It reminded me of a macaroon.  I bought another one at the store today and I’m pretty jazzed about it.

When I got home I had a serving of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola with Blue Diamond Almond/Coconut Milk and fresh blackberries.

Plus a serving of Rice Divine Mud Pie Ice Cream with peanuts on top.

My 2nd tasting of this ice cream left me with the same impression as my first; it’s awesome.

Dinner was awesomely quick and easy.

A microwaveable Punjab Eggplant dish from Trader Joe’s (I ate the whole package),

with a serving of pita chips for crunch.

I ate another serving’s worth of chip crumbles straight from the bag.

Wednesday’s meals were even better than Tuesday’s, but they did get off to a late start.  I’ll skip a long story about my unsuccessful breakfast and just say that I didn’t get to eat today until I got home from school.  And I got home after class, lab, and several hours working on a group project.

I was hungry as hell and thrilled that my dinner plans could come together in under 15 minutes.

I updated my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles recipe (shared at the end of this post) and was pleased with the results.

If we call that my “3pm breakfast,” then the food I ate from the hot bar while we were grocery shopping was lunch.

Farro with mushroom and spinach,

and sautéed green beans.

Both were quite tasty.  This may have been the first time I’ve ever eaten farro and I enjoyed how creamy it was.

Dinner was snacks and beer.  I got out my food processor for some peanut grinding took several taste tests at every stage of peanut butter production.

This honey roasted peanut butter comes together in a snap but it is one of Adam’s favorite things that I make (recipe is shared below).  I also made Webster some pupsicles; if I have to clean the food processor I’m going to make sure I really use it first!  <– let’s be real; I’ve never cleaned the food processor, Adam always does it

We split a Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale that was the perfect blend of sweet and spice.

Then we started a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale that I didn’t enjoy and passed off to Adam.

You would not even believe how many pumpkin beers I still have left!

As promised, recipes…

Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles, serves 2

  • 4 oz dry linguine
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 2 cups frozen broccoli
  • 2 tsp canola oil
  • 4 Tbsp peanut butter
  • 2 Tbsp tamari
  • 2 Tbsp  rice vinegar
  • 2.5 tsp sugar
  • (optional) dash red pepper flakes
  • (optional) 1-2 Tbsp peanuts
  1. In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, tamari, vinegar, sugar, and red pepper flakes if using.  You may want to microwave the bowl for 30 seconds or so to help loosen the peanut butter.
  2. Cook pasta according to package directions.  When 5 minutes of cooking time remain, add frozen veggies to the boiling water and stir.  Drain and set aside when pasta is finished.
  3. Once pasta is cooked, heat canola oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add cooked pasta and veggies to the pan.  Cook 3 – 5 minutes, until the noodles start to get a bit crispy.
  4. Pour sauce over pasta and toss to combine.  Continue cooking for 5 – 7 minutes, until desired consistency is reached.  My family likes to cook it until the sauce starts to form a crust on the pasta, but this dish is ready to serve as soon as everything is tossed together.
  5. Serve and top with peanuts if desired.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

  • 1 lb honey roasted peanuts (I highly recommend Trader Joe’s if you can get them)
  • 2 Tbsp canola oil
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  1. Put peanuts into food processor and process 1 – 3 minutes until mostly smooth.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and process until fully combined.

Final Day In Philly

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My final day in Philly was delicious.  I was on my own while Adam took an 8 hour practical exam so I walked, ate, and read.  It was perfection.  I had to park the car in an all-day spot to save money but since I love to walk I was able to explore a large area on foot.

The Reading Terminal Market didn’t have as many vegan options as I’d hoped.  In fact, we learned on Sunday that the vegan cheese steak place was temporarily closed which was a good thing because it gave me a day to deal with my massive disappointment.  There were plenty of fun things to look at though.

Since I had trouble finding breakfast I went straight to dessert (and stayed there pretty much all day!).

Bubble tea for breakfast?  Why not.

This was a red mango tea with strawberry popping bubbles.  It was the best tea of the trip, popping boba is just so flipping good.

I spent some time at Au Bon Pain with the latest Kathy Reichs book and sipped a coffee with soy milk.

By the by, Reichs’ latest book was great.

Then froyo happened.

I have no regrets.  Vegan Challenge or not, Emily Wax does not walk past self-serve eggnog frozen yogurt.  I wanted to feel guilty, but this ended up being the best bowl I’ve ever had.  Eggnog yogurt and cream cheese yogurt (even better than the eggnog!!) topped with salty peanuts, shredded coconut, caramel, and butterscotch chips.

Ridiculous.  And now I have to spend the rest of my days searching for more cream cheese froyo.

The rest of lunch needed to be a little healthier – enter a green smoothie.  Almond milk, banana, kale, and cacao.

I did a “design your own elixir” and was very pleased with my combination.

We needed to get on the road quickly after Adam’s exam so we headed to Whole Foods again for dinner.

Bbq seitan, collard greens, curry “chicken” salad, sesame seaweed, garlic pasta, and wheat berry salad.

Plus a vegan cookies and cream cupcake was split for dessert.

We did 50/50 but I got 100% of the frosting and Adam got 100% of the cake.

I also grabbed a coco libre coconut water + chia raspberry lemonade for the car.

It was awesome.  I love chia drinks and this was the best I’ve ever had.

The rest of my car snacks (for the 8+ hour trip!) were decidedly less healthy.

I wasn’t even hungry by the end but I had to keep eating to stay awake and I woke up the next morning with a stomach ache.  No matter, nothing was going to take away from how wonderful our Philly visit was.

All in all, we had a fantastic trip!

Farmicia in Philadelphia

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Our trip has been fantabulous thus far!  We had a wonderful time catching up with family and then we got to do some Philadelphia exploring.  My favorite things to do in a city are walk-walk-walk, people-watch, and eat and that is what we spent yesterday doing.

We hung out with my in-laws until around noon and then headed into the city.  Sidenote – to family members who have traveled with me before, you would not believe how relaxed I’ve been about our itinerary; I’ve gotten much better at playing things by ear.

I ate an apple and an Air Head in the morning.

I was super carsick on the drive in, but managed to rally for our first stop – Whole Foods hot bar for lunch.

I so miss living in a city with a WF!  We each bought a few small things but overall managed to contain ourselves.  From the hot bar I got kale, spinach, and two varieties of vegan “chicken.”

Everything was delicious but my stomach was still feeling off so I only managed about half of my food.  The husband, on the other hand, got crab and artichoke rice and loaded baked potato soup and practically licked his plates clean!

We spent some time just walking around and have both decided we would love to live in Philly, it’s too bad it’s not on our list of possibilities for residency.

One neighborhood was covered in gorgeous mosaics.

<– can you spot Adam in the last picture??

Our next stop was Little Baby’s for ice cream.

We tasted the pizza flavor (not vegan) which was astonishingly realistic and I ended up going with a scoop of the vegan sweet potato with burnt marshmallow.

This was the best texture I’ve ever found in a vegan ice cream!  The flavor was a little too spot on though, I don’t really want to lick spoonfuls of sweet potato for dessert, so I passed the 2nd half to Adam.  He got the caramel cardamom (not vegan) and was in heaven.  If I ever get to go back (I hope so!) I’m getting the coffee toffee (with Blue Bottle coffee) and the vegan speculoos.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around China Town.  We bought several fun things at markets.  And you know I got bubble tea.

Passion fruit black tea with boba.  I will most definitely be getting another today.

We didn’t run up the Rocky stairs or go to the Edgar Allen Poe house, but we did manage to walk past the Liberty Bell on our way to dinner.

I like to take in the culinary sights.

Dinner was a meal I’ve waited one and a half years for…

Farmicia!  I’ve wanted to go back ever since my first trip to Philly.

I agonized over the drink menu (St. Germain? The drink with lavender essence? The drink with hibiscus essence?!) and ended up going with the Elation.

Prosecco with rose essence and fresh berries.  It was perfect.  Though I did steal the savory components from Adam’s martini.

Rosemary and olive oil bread.

Adam ate his pumpernickel with herbed butter and I was a little jealous.

For my entrée, I went with the same meal was I did on my first visit.  Why mess with what works?

Corn Risotto Croquettes ratatouille, sautéed spinach, basil-parsley salsa verde.

Yuuuuuuuuuum!  I had to close my eyes and swoon after several bites.  The veggies were just as good as I remembered and the croquettes were out of this world.  So serendipitous that the dish I loved the first time was vegan.  I decided over this meal that my favorite flavor is “butteriness.”  Not butter, because there was none used in these buttery croquettes, but butteriness.

Adam gave the meal a 9/10 and said it was the best food he’d had in quite a while.  I concur!

I ate strawberry lime mentos for dessert.

We didn’t see our hotel for the first time until almost 9pm, so we were glad that it worked out.  The room was fancy in a strange way, like the honeymoon suite at a pay by the hour motel.

But the bed was comfy and Adam got a good night’s sleep.

Today he is taking an 8 hour practical exam that you don’t become a doctor without passing.  I know he’ll do great, but lets still keep our fingers crossed.  I set myself up at a table in the Reading Terminal Market and plan on spending the day reading.  And eating!

What is the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever eaten?  Pizza definitely tops my list!

Vegan Visit

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A road trip is not an easy time for a restricted diet, but with a combination of preparation and an understanding family I made it work.

I made sitting in the car for six hours work by dressing in comfy-cute clothing.

Plus my driving moccasins.

<– name that show!

Food from home was for breakfast.  A sandwich of tempeh, Smart Balance, and strawberry jam (a killer combination) on a Sandwich Thin.

A small apple.

A piece of leftover Halloween candy.

And a sugar-free Red Bull from a gas stop.

I have been seriously tired lately; I need to make sleep a priority next week or I should basically just buy stock in energy drinks.

For lunch I was jazzed to spot a Sheetz.

I had a medium soy milk latte with marshmallow syrup.

I’m doubtful that the syrup was actually vegan but I’m taking a loose approach to the challenge on this trip.  The coffee was delicious with tons of foamed milk and I was glad I got it, vegan or not.

Plus a veggie burrito.

This was not delicious.  I made myself eat half so I wouldn’t be too hungry for dinner but if there had been other options I probably would have tossed the whole thing.

For dinner we got Italian food with my in-laws.  P.S. We are staying with Adam’s sister and her husband and getting to spend time with my two nieces is making my ovaries hurt; they are so flipping cute!

A piece of bruschetta to start.

The waitress was very nice about bringing me new tomatoes when the first batch came out sprinkled with cheese.

And two slices of veggie pizza (sans cheese) for dinner.

Healthy, vegan, and tasty; I’ll take it.

Feeling Blue

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My pain pills (which I think I don’t need any more, yay!) have made my appetite all sorts of wonky these past two days.  And some life stuff has made me super cranky.  I hate feeling like I have to post when I’m in a bad mood, but so many of the things I ate (of the very many things I ate!) have been winners that I want the post for my own memory.  This will be detail-light though.

Honeycrisp.

Rockstar Juiced.

Winter outfit.

My downgraded hand bandage.

Organic Rice Divine Mud Pie Ice Cream (1 cup).  This stuff was ah-mazing.  The texture was reminiscent of Italian Ice and peanut butter-chocolate is always a winning combo.  I especially liked the cookie pieces.

A healthy lunch.

Roasted green beans dipped in ketchup,

and Cilantro Lime Bean Burgers with Citrus Guacamole.

An entire bag of bbq Popchips for dinner.

Melted peanut butter with powdered sugar and good cocoa.  This snack is ridiculous good but also just ridiculous.  I need to quit cold turkey.

Chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar.

Happy Tot Blueberry, Apple, and Purple Carrot squeeze pouch (FNCE sample).

Vegan almond joy.

Supplement sampling at clinic.  Not vegan but also not optional.

Veggie sub – lettuce, tomato, red pepper, jalopeño, banana pepper, pickles, and yellow mustard – from the hospital cafeteria.

Amy’s vegan mac and cheese.

Honey roasted peanuts.  By the by, honey is still on the table, so to speak, this Vegan Month.

Tempeh Brown Rice Casserole.

P.S. I am so flipping nervous about what election results we are going to wake up to tomorrow.  Anyone else?

I’m Typing With One Hand…

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…so I’ll keep this short.  Speaking of keeping things, Adam will have to keep me, my surgery went off without a hitch!

It wasn’t a big deal – I just had a benign keratosis removed from the back of my hand – but they sure were dramatic about it.

I had to wear a gown, and get wheeled into the OR.  And look at my giant bandage –

they called it a “sympathy cast!”  I’ll have my stitches in for ten days and then I’ll be right as rain.  But unfortunatly they told me that I’m not allowed to work out while my stitches are in.  I know I haven’t been working out anyway but I really was excited to start again!  Ten days…

They told me to take it easy after surgery but I actually had to head over to a friend’s house to work on a group project.  At least I got some Moe’s out of the deal.

I got a naked burrito (aka a less expensive rice bowl) with black beans, lettuce, green pepper, onion, mushroom, corn salsa, and guacamole.

Delicious.  Moe’s is a great option for Vegan Month.

Resting up didn’t happen the rest of the weekend either, I worked both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday morning was rough (on top of everything else we started an hour earlier than usual), but at least my shirt matched my bandage!

I ate an apple on the walk to work.

And a drank a Rockstar to help keep myself awake in spite of my pain medication.

My medication makes me feel pretty funny – nauseous and tired and all sorts of loopy – so I never ended up getting lunch at work.

Dinner was a buffalo seitan wrap from the co-op.

Plus a roasted potato.

Those fries are cut so nicely because the husband did it for me.  He’s been so nice helping me while I fumble around!

I did manage to catch up on some sleep this morning.  Thank goodness for Daylight Savings.  Even with the extra hour, all I managed to accomplish today was a shift at work and switching out my summer and winter wardrobe.

Breakfast was an amazing bowl of cereal.  Blackberries with cinnamon sugar, 1 serving each All Bran Bran Buds and Cascadian Farm Dark Chocolate Almond Granola, and Blue Diamond Unsweetened Vanilla Almond/Coconut Milk.

I had the granola from the HLS and have wanted more ever since!

A very late lunch was purchased at the co-op after work.  Broccoli salad and vegan mac and cheese with veggies.

The mac was so tasty that I almost made Adam walk back and get me more!

Instead I was basically stoned on pain meds all evening and was a total weirdo.  Dinner just didn’t happen, though I did eat multiple desserts.

A bowl of melted peanut butter with powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

A Cara Cara Orange.

And a few pieces of primrose oil old fashioned candies.

It’s been a weird day.