Tag Archives: vegan

Vegan Grocery Tips

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My grocery trip this morning as a success.  Even with a lot of household items (toilet paper, shampoo, etc) on the list I managed to keep the bill reasonable.  Here are some my tips for successful vegan shopping

  • You don’t have to buy pricey fake meats.  I know those products can be a lot of fun, but it can be cheaper and healthier to stick to traditional non-meat protein sources such as tofu and beans.
  • Go in with a list, and stick to it!  Knowing what produce you need for the meals you’ll be preparing in the upcoming week can keep you from overbuying and throwing out items later.
  • It’s ok to rely on the freezer section.  In winter months it’s hard to find a lot of fresh produce variety.  As long as you stick to items that have no added salt or sugar frozen can be the way to go for fruits and veggies.
  • Pick one or two new items that look fun.  Especially if you are a new or part-time vegan who misses some animal products a new try to get excited about can be a good distraction.

When I got home I used some of that frozen fruit to make an amazing smoothie.

1cup frozen peach slices + 6 ice cubes + 1cup oj + 2T fat free sugar free Jello pudding mix.  I ended up with a little extra which I served to the husband.

This mix was so creamy and delicious.  I got the pudding mix idea from Mama Pea.  Her post was actually about how she has stopped using the artificial sugar stuff but I can’t find gums around here and damn it I want thick smoothies too!

As soon as our smoothies were finished (too soon, I was freezing!) we headed to The Spot to do some studying.  I am officially 80% done with my reading for this week!  I got a China Breakfast Tea to sip while I studied.

It was kind of gross, like dirty murky water, but I drank most of it just to keep warm.

I’m glad we did a date night yesterday, clearly our Valentine’s was sort of a bust.  I did throw on some purple mascara this morning to be festive!

Now I’ve got a fun dinner to make and a little bit of lab homework that I want the husband’s help with.  I’ve talked about earlier bedtimes all year but Adam’s been saying how tired he is lately and the thought of my Valentine feeling run-down will hopefully be enough to motivate my butt into bed!

What are some of your no-fail grocery tips?

Great Expectations

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Nothing went as planned today, in a perfectly great sort of way.  I ended up not lying down – exhausted from my foodgasms – as Adam came home with the mail which included an unexpected check from my old job.  Yays!  I’m not going to lie about how excited I was about that $, I got a little bit teary.

I was in such a good mood I even “wasted” a cute outfit on class.

Don’t worry, there are flip flops below that blazer.

Class unexpectedly was let out early, and I ended up at a friend’s house with Adam for an unplanned study session.  I love sitting and listening to the studying med students so much, it is so interesting!  And I got a lot of my own reading done.

We didn’t get home until 11, and my planned dinner of frittata leftovers got gobbled up by the husband.  I was pissed that I had to eat another Sunshine Burger for dinner!  🙂

Dipped in some stolen Arby’s sauce.

I used less sauce than anticipated, and couldn’t bear to throw the extra away, so I smothered a small turkey sandwich with it.

I was still a little hungry anyway so this actually worked out well.

That seemed to be the theme of the day, things going better than planned.  One of my favorite quotes (and in general I’m usually not too keen on ‘God’ quotes) is “If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.”

What got REplanned in your day today?

Foodgasms

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Good afternoon!  Today has been nice and productive; I mixed together a schedule of work and fun and this online stopwatch has been crucial. 

Amid the work has been the cleaning of the kitchen, the completion of the laundry, and a major chunk of Chemistry reading.

During some of the fun (NCIS watching) I shared a cup of tea and honey with the bears.

Did you know that Ulrick moved all the way from Brooklyn with us?  Unfortunately the tea didn’t really rock my socks.

I guess I only like Yogi if we are still talking about bears!

A bit later I had a strange snack that was exactly what I was craving (yes, in my dirty tea mug) –

Sliced bell pepper and 1/2C stuffing bread crumbs with 1T prepared pesto (from the Foodbuzz Festival!).  It sounds strange but it was a craving-fulfilling, 100ish calorie snack that held me over until lunch.

And what a lunch it was.  OhMyGosh.  It’s funny because Jenna and Brandi both talked about how much they enjoy food – like really really enjoy it, more than just ‘oh this is good,’ like foodgasms – in posts today and now I’m going to do the same.  Sometimes I get so excited about what I’m eating that I flap my arms like a deranged bird.  Today’s lunch was super simple and yet it elicited tons of flapping.

Today felt life-changing.  Today was the day I tried Sunshine Garden Herb Burgers.

Holy frick.  I didn’t think it was possible to get so excited about a veggie patty but I’ve managed.  This might be my new favorite food.  It’s not, because I love roasted brussels sprouts and broad rice noodles too much to demote them, but it’s close.

I microwaved one patty and ate it on white toast with Jack Daniels mustard.

One of the best sandwiches ever.  Chewy and hefty and the mix of flavors was to die for.  I love love loved the vinegary kick from the mustard and burger.  I almost got up and made myself a second sandwich.

And then I remembered dessert.

This is the best idea I’ve ever had.

Ricemellow, the filling scooped out of a slice of ‘Smores Pie, and a few chocolate chips.  Melted in the microwave for 20seconds.  It was like ‘smores x1million.

I love my readers.  I really do.  So I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you to make some good decisions.  #1 – Make ‘Smores Pie.  The recipe is here.  It’s from my grandma, it’s easy, and I’ve literally never met someone who didn’t like it.  #2 – buy this:

It’s vegan, it tastes like marshmallow fluff, and it is socks rocking.  I’ll be honest, even if it wasn’t wonderful I’d like it just because I’m in love with the packaging.  Seriously though, go buy it and report back to me.

That is all.  I got myself so excited I just may need to go lie down.  I will get up in time for class at 6:30 though, and I’ll see you for a dinner post this evening.

Is there a food YOU would like to strongly recommend today?

Sunshine

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Now that I unpacked yesterday, we got up at 9:30 today and went straight to the laundromat to deal with our 4+ loads of dirty laundry!  I packed a Cinnamon Apple Prana Bar to eat in the car.

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Mmmn.

On the way home we stopped at the store to buy some cereal ($2.99; Challenge Balance – $61.15) and I picked up lunch, free.

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Several readers recommended Sunshine Burgers to me but I wasn’t sure about them and didn’t want to make the $5 commitment.  So I e-mailed the company about some coupons and they happily complied. 

I decided to try the South West variety today.  Verdict?  Super-duper impressive, I totally see what the fuss was about.

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I ate two patties, topped with low fat mozzarella, and a heaping side of guacamole and hot salsa.

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So good!  I was full, but I almost went back for a third patty just because I didn’t want to lose the taste in my mouth!  I did however, gobble the last T of cheese while I was making lunch.

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Thankfully, I got some distracting excitement –

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My Foodbuzz box is here!  I can pretty much promise I’ll be eating some sampler cookies for dessert.

Now I’ve got to tackle my loads of schoolwork.  Adam and I are actually going to a semi-formal with his school tonight so it’ll be a late recap.  Happy Saturdaying everyone!

Random

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I have not gotten near enough done today (unless you count the huge stack of magazines I powered through as an accomplishment) so this post needs to be quick.  All of my food choices have been unbelievably random today.

“Breakfast” was the last serving of Food Should Taste Good Lime Chips.

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For lunch I followed last night’s theme and did some more using up.  The last Flat Out wrapped around the last Boca Spicy Chik’n Patty, with lettuce, carrots, cheese, and buffalo sauce.

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For fruit I made a smoothie – 1C passionfruit pulp, 1 fat free plain Oikos, big splash oj, drizzle honey.

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And I snacked on a Healthy Hazel Boomi Bar sample.

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I’ll be back after class this evening.

Tell me one random thing about yourself.  I’ll go first – My middle name is Helen.

Pizza Party Part Deux

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I haven’t gotten much work done but the rain was the perfect atmosphere for watching some “tv.”  In the hours after breakfast I was starving so I ate a Cookie Dough Balance Bar.

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These are seriously the best things on Earth!

Lunch was inspired by leftover pizza ingredients and these guys.

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I was excited about these Boca Spicy Chik’n Meatless Patties, but a little concerned by this warning –

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I read through all the ingredients and have no idea what this is about.  Does anyone else know?  I combined spice + pizza for one super sandwich.

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I rolled a patty in a Flat Out with ~2T each pizza sauce, shredded carrots, 2% colby jack cheese, and Anchor Bar Buffalo Sauce.

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I ate some leftover peppers from last night alongside.

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Quite a good lunch.

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Dessert was pretty good too.

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Purely Decadent Non-Dairy Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream with Crofter’s Superfruit North America Spread.

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The skies are looking a little less foreboding so I might make it to the gym today after all.  My other focus of the day is chemistry.  See you for dinner.

For Funsies – What is your favorite animal?  In no particular order, I love duckbilled platypuses, spiny echidnas, otters, and pigs.

Crossing My Fingers and Toes

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I actually got in bed before 10pm last night, but when we wake up 8bazillion times a night you kind of are tired no matter when you go to bed!  I wouldn’t have mattered when I woke up today though, I let my sadness over my foot kind of take over my whole day.  Not good, Emily, not good.

For breakfast I made 0% Fage with a heaping teaspoon TJ’s Sun Butter.

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And lunch made tasty tasty use of leftovers (and made leftovers for tomorrow!).

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I chopped up cooked lasagna noodles and stir fried them with broccoli, carrots, seitan, evoo, soy sauce, and chipotle oil.  It was super tasty, but I don’t think I like seitan as much as I once did.  I used this package from West Soy, and it just tasted a little off.

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All in all the plate was still pretty good though.

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Adam came home early from school (a class was canceled because of a big test this week) and we watched “Boogeyman” together.  It was a strange movie, but the eating of 4squares of this greatly upped my enjoyment.

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I got to school in time to print off class notes and purchase a stuffed buffalo for my niece.  We are visiting Adam’s brother in Ohio this weekend.  I also gave Jamba Juice a second chance.

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Much better.  When I got home from class I supplemented “dinner” with these pretzels.

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Tomorrow is a big day, I have my first lab, my first quiz, and hopefully my first day back at the gym.  Wish me luck!

What are you crossing your fingers for this week?

Bye, Brooklyn Bloggers

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Our mini-meet-up was a success; good food and great company!  Diana, Vani, Sarah, and I met up at Organic Heights, a vegan spot near the Bergen stop.

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It was a cute little restaurant although the menu was also pretty little.  I am a Reuben (turkey Reubens only) fanatic so when I saw tempeh Reuben my order was obvious.

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I ate none of the salad and 95% of the sandwich.  It was de-lish-ous!  The bread was sourdough, which is always fantastic, and they got the tempeh chewy and wonderful in a way I never could.

To drink (my third bought drink of the day, I think I went a little over calorie/$ budget in liquids today) I got a Vita Coco.

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It was great getting to spend a final bit of time with that group of girls.  I have met some really wonderful people through this experience.  We sat after dinner and had a big chatfest which is exactly what I needed this stressful week.

Diana was a sweetheart and brought us all homemade, vegan, chocolate chip cookie/brownie bars.

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They were delicious.  They did not deter me, however, from getting suckered into Haagen Dazs which is across the street from where Adam and I had to go after dinner to deposit a birthday check from my grandma.  I got a mint chip dazzler.  I couldn’t take a picture due to drippage but think of the biggest sundae acceptable for a grown woman to eat and multiply it by 3!  I threw away half of it and it was still a ridiculous serving.

On a similar note, I think the thing I am most excited about in the move is shaking up my routines.  This year (and the last month especially due to move circumstances) we have done so little cooking.  I really do love my time in a kitchen.  When people play the ‘if you won the lottery….’ game with me the very first thing that pops into my head is culinary school.

Our exercise schedule, or lack thereof, could also use a good shaking.  I am 24, the amount of stiffness and lack of energy I currently have is unacceptable to me.  Even if I hadn’t recently discovered that I’m 10+lbs over where I want to be, I don’t like the way I feel.  Aside from long-term health benefits and looking good I like to be active because I enjoy the way I feel in my body when it is in shape.  The CPR instructor yesterday did a quick heart health speech and he made a very good point – this is the only body you have.

So now I’m going to try to take my only body and actually get it in bed a reasonable time!  Peace y’all.

What do you need to shake up?

P.S.  Who doesn’t want Chiobani????