What I Ate!

Another breakfast salad! I've done salads or smoothies every day this week and I feel great! I do prefer the salads, I feel more satisfied and I definitely stay full longer. Even when I add peanut butter to my smoothies I just don't stay full long. 

Still on the orange carrot juice train! I love this as a pick me up, and I swear it has helped me stave off any sickies this season. (So Far) I know celery juice is all the rage, but for me this is all the juice I need!

Another red lentil, potato and tofu curry! This time I used curry powder, garam masala, and tomato paste. The tomato paste made it really dark and rich. I have a recipe for vegan butter chicken I've been wanting to try, so I kind of borrowed from that recipe. Basically this is butter lentils, potatoes and tofu!

Some Delicious Vegan Foods!

All this week I've been having either salads or acai smoothies for breakfast. I have to be honest I prefer the salads! When you add beans or baked tofu, the salad really keeps me full for a long time.

I added peanut butter to this smoothie to make it a little more filling. I think in general I like to start my day with something savory.

I wanted sushi the other night, but I kind of overstuffed the wraps, so I just had sushi burritos. I filled them with avocado, tofu an cucumber. Super tasty!

Last night I made Tom Yum soup, It's so easy with the Tom Yum paste I got at the Asian market. This used to be one of my favorite things to order out, I never thought I'd be able to make it in my own kitchen!! This was so satisfying and really hit the spot.
I've definitely noticed that I feel really great starting my day with a big salad. It makes me feel clean and light and then I don't worry so much about getting my veggies in. I feel like when I start the day with veggies I naturally crave them more during the rest of my day. Funny how that works!

I've been battling the end of the winter blues and I can always depend on Roxy for some cuddles and love!

Taco Sunday!

In my opinion this is one of the best values at Trader Joe's. It's vegan and gluten free, and it doesn't have a bunch of funky ingredients. It's either $.79 or $.99 for a packet, and it's pretty strong so I get like three or four uses out of one pack. A bit of this with some black beans you have delicious and super cheap taco filling! Which is what I did last night!

I just sauteed red onion, black beans, and corn in a little coconut oil with some of the taco seasoning. Taco filling in five minutes!! I know crunchy shells aren't authentic, but they were dang tasty and I love that crunch!

Some Things I Ate and Some Things I Love!

Yesterday I started my day with this big, beautiful salad made with Romaine, red pepper, cucumber, pickles, broccoli sprouts, white beans and goddess dressing. Really delicious and the beans made it nice and filling. Also, sliced pickles are amazing in salads! I ate this while wrapped in a blanket watching the snow fall. Yuk. I really feel great when I have a salad for breakfast. I plan on doing this a lot more. Spring is almost here and I want to feel great!

For dinner I made homemade pesto and tossed it with cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe's. Pesto and the gnocchi seriously compete with peanut butter and chocolate for best performance by a duo. I had half a can of white beans leftover from my breakfast salad so I tossed those in too. This was a very, very tasty and easy dinner. And it felt fancy!
I also ate some green grapes and had a carrot orange juice but I forget to take pictures. I drink orange carrot juice pretty dang regularly so you've seen it a million times!

I also snacked on some of these pretzels and AMAZING hummus!! I have to say that Trader Joe's makes some nice and creamy hummus. The pretzels are pretty amazing too. I always assumed Snyder's gluten free pretzels weren't vegan but they are! For anyone gluten free, these are hands down the best gluten free snack I've had. They taste exactly like a regular pretzel and I would give them a nine out of ten for texture. Really, really good. And I threw the Schmidt's deodorant in the picture because I've now been using it for about a week now and I have to say it is working for me! It is a little rough like I'm exfoliating and deodorizing, and it is a little thick and pasty so I could see it staining a white shirt, but to me those are small issues because it does keep me smelling like a vanilla touched rose! I think it's hard with any deodorant because we're all different so it's hard to recommend this but I can say it's working for me!

Trader Joe's and Sprouts Haul

Well, the good news is that I made it to Trader Joe's yesterday. The bad news is that mid morning Fridays are almost as bad as Saturdays. I remember the glorious days when I didn't work until midnight and could go when they first opened up. 
I'm going to be having lots of big salads and smoothies for breakfast this week. It's almost spring and I just want to spring clean myself!

Bananas, avocado,carrots,Persian cucumbers,oranges, potatoes, Romaine, lemons, sweet mini peppers

Acai packets, coconut milk, cauliflower gnocchi, tulsi tea, canned black and garbanzo beans, balsamic vinaigrette, agave/maple blend,taco seasoning, vegan mayo, lime fruit bars,chocolate chips,frozen strawberries, spicy mustard,red lentils, fruit button leather,tofu and Mediterranean hummus

I decided to try the Mediterranean hummus this week because Sara always says it's her favorite! I've been loving rice cakes with hummus for a snack. If I'm feeling fancy I slice a Persian cucumber on top!

I saw someone post about this on Instagram, and yesterday I saw it with my own two eyes. I feel very conflicted about this. On one hand, I'm curious, and I do love their cauliflower crust so I'm open to this idea, but on the other hand I feel a very strong NO. I feel like pizza crust should never be green, and I'd rather have kale and broccoli on my pizza, not the base for my pizza. I just don't know. Will you try this?

Alexia garlic fries, avocados, seaweed wraps, red pepper, yogurt, basil, green grapes, rice cakes, Dr.Praeger's burgers,vegan brown gravy mix,live probiotic soda

I also went to Sprouts just for a few things. All frozen items are twenty percent off this week, so I decided to try the Alexia garlic fries and the Dr. Praeger's burgers. It's a gochujang burger which is a new to me flavor.

I decided to have a beige meal last night. It's been awhile since I've had a good old beige dinner, and I figured since I'm going super veg heavy this week why not. I had a random Sprouts grillers burger in my freezer, so I had that with one of the new to me Dr.Praeger's burgers and some garlic fries. The fries are good, nice and garlicky and the gochujang burger is okay. It tastes great, I can taste the gochujang and the sesame oil. But it's the texture. It's pretty mushy. I mean there's mushy and then there's mushy. I bet it would be a lot better on a bun with some crispy veggies to offset the mush.

A Tale of Two Soups

I've been wanting to make a broccoli potato chowder type soup for quite some time. I used to love cream of potato soup back in my pregan days, so I kind of wanted to make a greener, healthier version of that! I boiled one potato and blended that with a can of white beans for the creamy element. Thanks Ttrockwood for the tip about the white beans! The soup turned out delicious, but kind of ugly. I buzzed thawed frozen broccoli in the food processor so the pieces would be nice and small and I think it made the soup look weird/ugly.

I made some noochy tofu croutons and had some of the cauliflower crackers on top. The more I eat these crackers the less I like them. Taste wise they're fine, it's the weird slightly gritty texture that gets on my nerves. I don't know what I'm going to do with the sea salt flavor, I assume they're worse. I think we need to realize that cauliflower can't and shouldn't be the base for everything.

This is another not so pretty bowl of soup! I had a little bit of Thai green curry paste floating around, and a package of yam noodles so I made a green curry noodle soup.
I got the yam noodles at the Asian market and they're made with konjac yam. I know there is a vegan shrimp made with konjac, I think it's Sophie's Kitchen? The noodles are also called shirataki noodles.  The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was the very strong fishy odor. Like it was overwhelming and scared me. I wasn't trying to make a vegan seafood curry! I rinsed them really, really well and soaked them in cold water for a few minutes before I added them to the soup. It seemed to work, the smell went away and they didn't taste fishy. The texture reminded me of rice vermicelli. I think people love these noodles because of the low calorie count. Like eighteen or twenty calories per serving. I thought they were okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy them again.

Mini WooHoo and non WooHoo haul. The chocolate chips are accidentally vegan and organic and under two dollars a bag?? Why did I buy only one?? The pops are AMAZING!! They were a splurge, but oh so worth it. I used to love dum dum and blow pops, and these are so much better!

Tea and Potatoes

I found this at Target the last time I was there. I love lemongrass anything an this definitely doesn't disappoint. I let myself have one cup of green tea and then the rest is all herbal. It's hard for me to believe that I used to drink at least two pots of coffee a day! I even drank energy drinks for awhile! Who was I??

I got a Cajun spice mix in the bulk bins at Sprouts so I decided to use it on some roasted potatoes. I have to look at the jar the next time I'm there to see what's in the mix. It made these potatoes so, so savory and delicious! If I know I want potatoes for dinner, I like to peel and prep them, and then keep them in a bowl of water until I'm ready to cook them. You can leave them in the water for two days, maybe even longer. They don't turn brown as long as they're submerged! I think the water even helps them crisp up,  it does something to the starch? I remember reading some restaurant chef's tips or something an soaking fries was mentioned. Either way it's nice to have prepped potatoes waiting for you!

Food and Feels

I've been enjoying big salads for breakfast a few times a week. Even though I decided the Eat to Live life is not for me, I did learn a few things and it made me want to make a real effort to get more veggies in. I may not eat a pound of steamed broccoli for breakfast, but I can have a big salad!

Tofu, red lentil and potato curry. I crave this meal if I go longer than a week without making it. I'm happy that my cravings match my budget because this is definitely a cheap and cheerful meal!

You can't see the noodles, but under all the lettuce and tofu are some cold sesame noodles with edamame. The tofu was warm, the noodles were cold and soft and the lettuce was crisp and cold. I love different temperatures and textures in one bowl!

I've been enjoying yogurt for dessert when I get a sweet tooth. This has a nice natural vanilla flavor and it's sweet but not too sweet.

The cuddling never stops with these two! If you notice Kiki always looks very please with herself! She's proud of her cuddling skills!
I'm really sad to hear of Luke Perry's passing. I was team Dylan all the way, 90210 was everything! From everything I've been reading he was a very wonderful person in real life too. Dylan forever!

Sprouts Haul plus Dinner!

I picked up a few groceries yesterday. Since it was a Saturday and I went mid-morning I skipped Trader Joe's. I feel like I could chug a whole bottle of CBD oil and still not be able to handle Trader Joe's on a Saturday!
Luckily for me Sprouts is having a pretty decent sale, and I had a coupon for five dollars off a purchase of thirty dollars or more.

In shell peanuts(for the squirrels), green grapes, Bulk rice, cilantro,Romaine hearts, green onion, navel and Valencia oranges, cauliflower crackers, bulk spices, raw cashews, live probiotic soda, lemongrass,avocados(three for a dollar!), raspberry coconut yogurt,lemons, garlic, jalapeno and onion, vegan gummies, tofu

I've been eyeballing these crackers for quite some time. They're normally four or five dollars a box which is why I only eyeball them. But this week they were on sale two for four so I decided to give them a try! They're made with cassava flour and of course cauliflower. I tried the cheddar crackers when I got home. The texture is a bit dense and crunchy like what I've come to expect with gluten free crackers. They taste good though, nice and salty like you would expect a cheesy cracker to be. Honestly I probably wouldn't buy them again, especially at the regular price but I'm grateful they were on sale so I could try them! I want to make a potato broccoli chowder later this week and I think the sea salt crackers will be a nice stand in for saltines or oyster crackers.

I whipped up a delicious gochujang stew for dinner. It was snowing and raining most of the day so I wanted something spicy and soothing for dinner and this definitely hit the spot! I kept it simple with garlic, tofu and rice cakes. Plus some green onion for color. Delicious!

Vegan Adventures at Carl's Jr.!

Yesterday I was invited to go on a mini road trip at the last moment. I decided to go because I LOVE road trips! Because of the spontaneous decision I didn't have time to make any food. So, when the hunger started our options were Subway and Carl's Jr. Also I randomly saw a Sizzler. Who even knew those still existed??
We chose Carl's Jr. because since I can't have the bread at Subway the veggie delight salad just doesn't really stick with you. I've never been to a Carl's Jr., I've never even lived in a state that has one until I moved to Utah. I've also never tried the Beyond burger. I cooked one for a friend, and it smelled so meaty, and also left red juice in my pan that resemble blood and it just didn't really appeal to me. But I decided to throw my fear aside and give it a try.
I ordered the Beyond burger with no bun, no cheese and no special sauce. It was very simple to order, and it didn't take ten minutes to ask, explain and alter the food to make it vegan.

I asked them to add BBQ sauce because I have to have a sauce! I was very pleasantly surprised. This was super tasty, and maybe I've just been gluten free for too long, but I didn't miss the bun at all! The lettuce was crisp and refreshing, and kept the meal from being too much.
I've been vegan for ten years, and in those ten years I've taken a lot of road trips, and greyhound bus trips, and had some rough, hungry times. I can remember one greyhound trip from Seattle to Erie Pa. living on nothing but chips and peanuts from gas stations. For three days.  We've come so far, and more non vegans will probably give a veggie burger a chance coming from a place like Carl's Jr. Maybe some people will choose this instead of a regular burger out of curiosity and fall in love!! I see this as amazing progress and I am so excited to witness it!