Monday Already?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn’t post this weekend. I decided to take the weekend off… from everything. It was very relaxing, I got to spend time with Delilah and it went WAY too fast! I am back now though and I have some fun meals to share with you.

Like I said, I took the weekend off from blogging, mostly because I didn’t want to worry about photographing everything and so I could just relax. There was one meal that I did photograph though because I thought it was kind of awesome and I couldn’t NOT show you!

I took some of my Vegg Frittata breakfast burrito! I took a wedge of the frittata and mashed it up and put it in a gf tortilla along with some avocado. You can’t see the avocado really in the above photo, which is why I took the next one…

The other end of the burrito is way prettier and you can see the avocado

It was really good! The avocado was the perfect addition!

Now onto today’s eats.

Breakfast was a blueberry mango smoothie: 1/2 cup each of frozen blueberries and mango, almond milk, Vega Shake & Go Vanilla Almondilla and a ton of spinach.

Snack was a big ass orange.

Lunch was the last piece of Vegg Frittata and a big side of salad.

Pre workout snack was a Lemon Coconut Hemp Seed Bite.

I’m off to the gym in a few minutes for a nice long workout including a training session. Hopefully my shoulder will be ok. I woke up and did some yoga this morning because I thought that part of the problem may be the way I sleep… it helped a little I suppose? I got approval for the MRI so I’m about to make the appointment and hopefully we can get this show on the road sooner rather than later!

Not sure what dinner will be, probably nothing special. Just working on going through the pantry stuff which is mostly grains so it’ll probably be quinoa and veggies!

Have a great night everyone!

Pantry Challenge Kick Off!

Posted on April 22, 2012 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! I’m writing this post feeling very accomplished. I woke up this morning and headed over to Whole Foods (the close one, yay saving on gas!) and picked up produce. My grocery bill for the week? $30!!! That is less than half of what I normally spend. That’s awesome I got lots of stuff including broccoli, oranges, apples, carrots, zucchini, avocados, spinach and a mango!! Yum!

After I got home I tore it up in the kitchen and now I’m sitting here with a good base for my meals for the week in the fridge and a full belly. So lets check out what I made.

A big ass batch of quinoa! And may I state for the record this is the first successful batch of quinoa I’ve ever made. I don’t know why but I seem to mess it up every time and it is always undercooked. This batch is perfectly fluffy and lovely. I am planning on using it in a few different ways so stay tuned this week to check that out.

The second thing I did was make a big batch of brown rice, most of which I used in…

The Vegg frittata that I saw Bianca make over at Vegan Crunk! I’m glad I checked out the recipe on The Vegg website when I did because it’s gone now! I had to make the frittata from memory and I think I did a pretty good job!

Obviously I couldn’t wait to tear into it for breakfast so I cut a hearty wedge and enjoyed it with grapes and the other half of my orange that I used making…

Homemade Larabars! I decided to make Orange Coconut flavor. So good! I’m pretty set on snacks now so that is a huge help and will save a ton of $$ at the store.

Orange Coconut Larabars

2 cups dates

1 cup raw almonds

1 cup dried shredded coconut

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used alcohol free)

zest from 1 orange

juice from 1/2 orange

Directions:

1. Add almonds to food processor and chop into small pieces.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until well combined and forms a sticky dough. Texture is up to your discretion, I like mine a little smooth but you can leave yours chunky!

3. Take dough from food processor and transfer into a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap.

4. Press dough down until packed very tight. Cover top with plastic wrap overhang.

5. Refrigerate for an hour until it firms up a bit.

6. Remove from loaf pan, uncover and cut into bars. Wrap each bar and store in fridge or freezer.

7. Enjoy!

I’m going to take some time to plan my meals for the next few days. I’m trying to get more organized because I think that’ll also help eliminate food waste. Then I’m going to relax! I’m exhausted, I haven’t stopped at all this weekend so it’ll be nice to just be mellow for a bit.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Don’t forget to enter my GIVEAWAY by midnight on Monday, April 23!

Two Meals and a “Cleanse”

Posted on April 18, 2012 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! This is going to be a quickish post because I have to finish getting ready for my long day. To be honest I wasn’t going to post today but I made two awesome meals and I kind of wanted to share them. I also wanted to talk about a decision I just made. I find that when I talk about it here I become more accountable. And I also get tons of awesome support because you guys are awesome!

Here are the meals first:

This first meal is the most recent and most successful use of The Vegg vegan egg yolk. This time I used 1/2 cup of water with 2 tsp of the powder. This worked better because it was enough for my personal blender to combine it completely (1/4 cup of water doesn’t even come up to the blades and barely mixes at all!) so it was thicker and cooked up way better! I used it in a breakfast burrito and made it with a GF brown rice tortilla, fat free spicy refried beans, and tofu scramble with spinach with the vegg mixture. It was a little messy but so good! And super filling which is great for my long day because we have to eat between clients and sometimes it doesn’t happen until late.

I made a huge plate of veggies with hummus and stuffed grape leaves to bring with me. Carrots, celery (going to give it a try!), my fave Mediterranean hummus from Trader Joe’s and some stuffed grape leaves. I also still have my seaweed snacks there because I didn’t get a chance to eat them yesterday.

So, I was thinking about another cleanse recently and this morning I realized that there isn’t too much to clean up. I eat a lot of fresh foods and while I partake in just a few processed foods (mostly the refried beans I think) it really doesn’t come close to the amount of fresh I eat.

I’ve decided that for the next few weeks until wedding season starts to pick up again and I hopefully start assisting again, I’m going on a spending strike. A major part of this means that I will be doing a pantry challenge! Looking through my pantry I’ve realized that I have so much good stuff that I haven’t used yet. Quinoa, hemp seeds, beans, brown rice, dates, canned stuffed grape leaves (these were always back up because I find them greasy but I will drain them thoroughly!), etc. I spend too much money on bars and convenience foods when I have all of the ingredients to make my own. The only food I will buy from the store for a few weeks (until I dwindle down the pantry) is fresh produce. In addition to saving money on convenience foods AND prepared foods, I’ll be saving money on gas. I travel an extra 15-20 minutes to the “good” Whole Foods because they have a bigger selection of prepared and packaged foods. I just need produce so I will go to the one that is only 10 minutes from my house. This will be great given the gas prices and how often I go to Whole Foods!

Finally, this will help me bring more variety into my diet. I have fallen into a bit of a rut, just buying the same things every week and preparing the same meals. Now I’ll be more creative in preparing different meals using different ingredients. I’m really excited about all of this and I think now is a perfect time to do this. I’m also thinking that it will help me stay busy and help my anxiety by focusing my attention elsewhere. I see only good things coming out of this

Anyway, time to finish getting ready. I hope that you are all well and having a great day!

Fun Friday – New Things I’ve Tried

Posted on April 13, 2012 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone. I figured since I’ve been trying a lot of new things this week I’d use that as my fun Friday post. Check out a few things I’ve finally tried.

The first new thing I’ve tried is Kombucha. I won’t lie, I’ve bought Kombucha at least 3 times before and never had the guts to try it before the use by date had come and gone. I finally decided now is the time and bought 2 bottles of Synergy brand Kombucha. The one I tried first is the “Guava Goddess” which is pictured above and I have a bottle of Gingerberry sitting in my fridge.

I was afraid to try it. I smelled it like I smell everything I am about to ingest and immediately regretted it. I finally tried it and I won’t sit here and blow smoke up anyone’s ass by saying I loved it because I didn’t. The thing is that I didn’t hate it. As I drank it the taste grew on me a little bit. I am not running to the store to stock up on cases of Kombucha but I’ll definitely try the other flavor and will partake in it once in a while. So I’ll give this a so/so. And it isn’t because the brand is bad, it is because I am still getting used to the vinegary effervescent taste and feel of it… and the weird chunks of culture floating in it.

The next thing I tried was The Vegg vegan egg yolk powder stuff. I finally got my act together and made the mix in the proper proportions and added it to a tofu scramble. The stuff is crazy it smells like eggs thanks to the black salt. It still ended up being a bit different than I expected in that it never crisped up like I thought it would but it did add a nice taste (nooch and black salt will do that) to the scramble which had onion, zucchini and spinach. I liked the flavor and I think I’ll have to try it in a different preparation to see how it works. Just out of curiosity I think. Oh and I ate the scramble with a few home made kale chips.

I saw Angela’s Mess Free Banana Split Bites post yesterday and immediately knew that I was going to make them AND that I was going to add my own twist to them. I figured that it would be a great vehicle for the Artisana pecan butter I opened up yesterday so decided to make little banana with pecan butter sandwiches. You can see the “naked” ones above.

After I made my little sandwiches I melted some vegan chocolate chips and drenched the sandwiches in them. They look messy but I really didn’t care. I popped them in the freezer to harden up which is where they are chillin (get it?) now. I’ll show you what they look like all frozen and delicious looking when I eat one.

So these are the things I’ve been trying this week. Lots of good stuff, can’t wait to dive into the banana split bites. I don’t have much of an appetite which is part of the reason I haven’t been showing full days of meals over the past few days. When it comes back I’ll be happy to try these awesome treats and show you some full days of good eating.

Hope you all have a great night! I’m going to love every minute of my night at home in bed. I need it. I have the whole weekend off so we’ll see what that brings.

Happy Easter and Passover!

Posted on April 8, 2012 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! Seems like we a knee deep in holidays today Happy Easter/Passover to all of my blogger buddies, I hope that you have all been enjoying a beautiful weekend. I had a lovely day with the family yesterday and had an Easter brunch at my brother’s house today. My sister in law celebrates Easter and since she has joined our family we’ve been celebrating all of the holidays It was a fun time, got to hang out with Delilah all weekend. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous all weekend too which has made it that much better.

So, while I haven’t been eating any grains or indulging in any yummy candy, I have had some blogworthy meals. Lets check em out.

Breakfast was a banana with all natural peanut butter, raisins and cinnamon. So delicious and filling.

I made this tofu scramble to bring for our lunch/brunch. I tried using Vegg for the first time and had some problems with it. I mixed the powder with water and when I added it to the scramble it was all liquid. I turned the heat all the way up and cooked out the water, but in the process the veggies got way overcooked and everything was soggy. And now just looking at the site to link it I saw it was 1/4 cup of water I was supposed to use, not 1 cup. Oops. OK so I will post a real review when I make it correctly, which will probably be tomorrow because I’m curious! Anyway, I ate this scramble with some fruit and it was good.

Now I couldn’t rightfully hang out with Delilah and not show you some photos. Here she is in her pretty Easter dress all perplexed by some matzah. I know Delilah, it is perplexing to all of us.

Here she is all comfy in her play clothes trying out her new trampoline! She’s so precious

And she has so much energy!

I hope you all had a very happy Easter! Back to the grind tomorrow, wah! Have a good night!