Tag Archives: veggies

Cook Book, Cookies, Chicago Fire

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It’s felt like forever since I’ve blogged.  Thankfully (ha!) I was starving all day and ate a ton of food so I have lots to post about.

First things first – I need to announce the cook book giveaway winner.

Congrats Turn Towards the Sun, shoot me an e-mail (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) with your mailing address!

Breakfast was consumed during class but photographed in Adam’s car.  I waited until 6 am to will myself out of bed to finish writing a paper and was running behind.  Actually, I would have been fine but then I had to cuddle the dog before I took my shower and I ended up needed Adam to drop me off.  Thanks, husband!

A Wegman’s low-fat pumpkin pie yogurt that I was very impressed with.  The texture was perfect and the taste was so good I’ll consider continuing to eat this flavor in December!

An Iced Oatmeal Cookie Z-Bar (FNCE sample).

The 2nd half of this Chuao Honeycomb Bar.

Adam continued to be the nicest husband ever, and he walked the dog to pick me up after classes.  I love those boys so much!

I also love leftover pizza for lunch.

1 cheese slice,

with carrots and blue cheese dressing.

Plus batter bites for dessert.

I’m going to share the recipe tomorrow and here is my endorsement: I ate four and a half cookies today!!

Work went well.  We extended our hours for the holiday season which means my shifts are all an hour(+) longer but it wasn’t too painful.  I drank a cup of (Keurig) hot chocolate while at work but didn’t photograph it for obvious reasons.

Dinner was a serving of Seven Layer Casserole.

The recipe’s vegan but you don’t need a challenge to try it; it’s delicious!

Apparently that all wasn’t enough food because I also ate a bag of SmartPop while I caught up on “Chicago Fire.”

Are you watching Chicago Fire?  Thoughts??

A Perfect, Peachy Visit

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If you follow me on Instagram you may have already guessed that… WE WENT TO ATLANTA!!!

We got very lucky and had access to two free tickets that had to be used before the end of 2012.  I had two days off in a row from school and work so we started clicking on cities at random until we found a set of tickets that worked with my schedule.  We ended up in Atlanta!

We flew in late Tuesday night and left Thursday morning so it was basically a one-day trip and it was absolutely perfect.  We spent every last minute walking or eating – So. Much. Food! – and got to try lots of local flavors as well as froyo, twice!  Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.

The gorgeous weather was totally in our favor; perfect walking around temperatures.

We started Wednesday morning with Sublime Donuts.

Adam and I shared three kinds –

Butterfinger,

dulce de leche,

and s’more.

Butterfinger was his favorite and s’more was mine. The donuts were great but they definitely confirmed that I’m not a donut person; I could tell that they were awesome but they just weren’t that exciting for me.  Give me a cupcake or froyo instead anyway.  <– twice that day!

Next up, we visited The World of Coca-Cola.

We learned some interesting Coke facts and saw lots of neat old products,

but the best part of the visit was the tasting room.

They had Diet Cherry Coke!

Actually, they had lots of flavors – 60+! -and Adam and I tasted every single one.

The basics –

Peppermint Sprite –

Africa –

Asia –

Latin America –

North America –

Europe –

Ahhh!  Adam was pretty ill by the time we were done but I told him that I’d be training for that day my entire life!

On our way out they even gave us a bottle to go.

I’m not even going to lie, I totally bought a Cherry Coke Zero a few hours later!

We spent a few hours walking around the downtown area before we were ready for lunch.

You won’t be able to guess what type of food we set our GPS for…

Froyo!  I got a million flavors (including apple pie!) with all of the non-fruity toppings.

To save a little money, we got lunch food from Publix instead of going to a restaurant.

I ate about 1/3 of that smoked turkey and mac and cheese.  Plus a short salted caramel hot chocolate while we recharged our phones at Starbucks.

For dinner we got Thai at Mali.  We shared the Moo Sho to start.

Steamed rolls stuffed with sautéed chicken, shrimp, egg, and vegetables.  Served with a peanut sweet plum sauce.

There was a little hiccup when they were out of the dish that brought me to the restaurant (seafood Pad Thai with crab claws), but we rallied by sharing two drinks.  A pineapple capirinha, pineapple, cacha rum, limes and sugar,

and a Thai tea-ni, tea infused vodka, vanilla vodka, sweetened Thai tea, and milk.

For my meal I got grilled salmon with sautéed vegetables in basil sauce, ordered Thai-spicy.

It was good; nice and spicy!  So spicy, in fact, that I ended up ordering a regular Thai iced tea to help cool down my mouth.

Dessert was round 2 of froyo.

I got taro, almond butter, and pecan pie froyo topped with sprinkles and sweetened condensed milk.

<– best bowl of froyo ever

The yogurt place was in a cool area and we ended up doing a final round of booze and food at the incredible Rosebud.

A can of PBR for me,

and pimento cheese with spiced saltines to share.

Amazing!  I adore pimento cheese and this stuff was ridiculous.  We waddled back to our hotel completely satisfied and happy.

It was an amazing trip and I feel very fortunate to have been able to take it.  Our Turkey Day wasn’t quite as traditionally thankful but I’ll tell you about that later.

{Part Of} Tuesday {In Advance}

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Hi there!  A computer issue is going to keep me from blogging Tuesday night and all day Wednesday so I wanted to get a quickie post up today.  This content is coming to you from the past (ooooooooohh!) so it’s possible that I’ll miss some unplanned bites.  I don’t plan on recapping, I just wanted to get up an outline of sorts.

Breakfast: A mint chocolate strawberry shake; don’t question the combo, it just works.  1 heaping cup of frozen strawberries blended with 1.5 cups So Delicious Chocolate Mint Coconut Milk.

Lunch: We have clinic in the morning and an internship meeting in the afternoon and I’m hoping for time to grab veggie sushi at Wegman’s in between.

Dinner:  A sandwich thin with cilantro mayo and tofu roasted with maple and soy.  Half of the seaweed flavored potato chips from China Town in Philly.  Half of the Little Duck Organics Apple and Banana Tiny Fruits from my #simplesurvivalkit package.

You might want to check back Wednesday morning… it’s possible I’ve prescheduled a giveaway post as well.

It’s December, Apparently

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Don’t worry, it’s not time to change your calendars; it’s only December in Emily Land.  You see, the other the day at the store I just couldn’t wait.

And today I did something really crazy.

I know that looks more mushy than crazy, but those overnight oats are made with So Delicious Coconut Milk Nog!  Nog in November? Who am I?!

My breakfast was so good it was worth breaking holiday timelines.  1/3 cup raw oats, 2/3 cup vegan nog, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds sat overnight.  This morning I topped it off with a sliced banana, nutmeg, and a little more nog.  Dee-lish-us!

Lunch was more on season with a Thanksgiving classic.

I made cranberry sauce from scratch yesterday!  I used this recipe and it came out great.  Today I ate a bowl with sweet and salty peanuts.

Plus the rest of my peanut butter rice krispie treat from the other day.  {where the heck did this picture go?!}  Maybe a little too much sugar for lunch?  I was buzzing at work.

Speaking of work, I came home from my shift with a present for Adam and myself.

I’ve been eyeing Ghost Blitz for weeks and there was only one box left today so I bought it!  We had such a good time playing this evening.

Adam and I shared a box of Thai spring rolls (with homemade spicy peanut sauce) while we played.

Round two was homemade veggie burgers.  I topped mine with honey mustard.

And the tie-breaker (Adam won!) was 2 servings of Sweet Potato Chips from Food Should Taste Good.

I should have been in bed 3 hours ago.  Boo!

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!