Have a great day!

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and say hi. No pics today but I should be back tomorrow to show you some pretty meals. I also wanted to pop in because I was excited to share that while I was laid up the past couple of days I brainstormed some beautiful light, fresh summer meals that I’m going to create and share over the course of the next few weeks. I’m so excited because summer produce is MY FAVORITE and I can’t wait to create beautiful meals, desserts and drinks with them.

Have any of you ever seen the movie “The Endless Summer?” It’s about two surfers that travel the world chasing the summer and the world’s best waves (random fact: I was a HUGE fan of surfing in college and have wanted to learn ever since. As a result I have a decent collection of surf books and movies ). Could you imagine doing that but chasing the summer around the world to find beautiful local produce that’s entirely new to you and creating fun new recipes with them? Ahhhh, if I were rich and had time I’d SOOOOO be on that! Is that a normal thought or should I blame the copious amounts of meds I’m on for that thought?

Anyway, just thought I’d pop in and say hello and thank you all for your concern. When I’m back to 100% I’ll be getting my butt back in that kitchen and making these ideas come to reality for you!

<3

Oh and PS. any of my fellow allergy sufferers… do any of you take over the counter allergy relief or even better have any natural remedies? I’ve heard that pineapple is supposed to be great but everything else seems to be expensive or hard to find. Any thoughts? So far I’ve heard that Claritin and Zyrtec are the best over the counter options. Thanks!

With all that said, I’m still here to do my Fun Friday post! This week’s theme (suggested by Molly) is a travel theme! I’m going to share some destinations that I’ve been wanting to visit for a long time! I’ll share both global and US destinations Now, these aren’t the ONLY places I want to visit but I had to narrow them down! There are too many to post!

United States Destinations:

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First up, New Orleans!! I was there once for only one day and I was in love. It is so rich in culture, tradition and mystery. I would love to check out the amazing food, ghost tours, music, architecture and of course I’d like to drink another hurricane. Ah, the infamous hurricane story

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It may seem cliche but Hawaii is another place that I’m dying to visit. The crystal blue water, hiking the volcanoes, watching the big wave surfers, trying new amazing produce, soaking up paradise… it sounds too good to be true! I would love to really be able to spend some time there to really explore and enjoy the beauty. I think that Hawaii is a once in a lifetime trip and I would really love to get there in my lifetime.

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I have always been curious about Arizona (and New Mexico) and I would really love to explore that part of the country more… especially after reading Molly’s amazing recap posts! And honestly, look at that picture. I would be in photography heaven there.

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California! Of course California! I can’t believe I’ve never been. I would like to road trip the state because there are so many parts I want to see. And so many amazing people I’d like to meet!

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Portland!! Vegan Mecca! I was there once on a day trip when I lived in Seattle. It was pre-vegan… read: before I was really able to appreciate the glory of Portland. I know how gorgeous the Pacific Northwest is because I lived there for a year and a half and would love to be able to go there and appreciate it… you can’t appreciate that stuff when you’re in grad school. Anyway, I would love to really be able to dig in to Portland now that I know better and would appreciate it more

Other places I want to visit: Texas (I’ve heard great things!!), Savannah, GA (I’m a big paranormal fan and it’s supposed to be the most haunted city in the country), Chicago, Colorado and many more!

International Destinations:

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Ever since I was in middle school I’ve had a weird fascination with Scandinavia. The photo above depicts an absolutely stunning view of the Norwegian landscape but I’d love to do an epic tour of Scandinavia including Norway, Sweden and Finland. I don’t think it’s the most vegan friendly region but OMG look at that photo. It would be an amazing opportunity to see the Northern Lights too as they appear in the Northern parts of these countries. So freaking beautiful.

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Costa Rica!! Again, I’ve heard so many amazing things about this place and it looks so beautiful I can’t help but want to be there. I actually have a friend living there and she loves it. Look at that water! I’ve noticed that with the exception of New Orleans, there’s water in every single pic I’ve posted here.

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Bangkok, Thailand. So much culture, amazing looking food, beautiful scenery. Thailand has always been near the top of my travel list because it has always looked so beautiful to me and I feel like there is so much to see and experience in Bangkok.

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I am obsessed with visiting Greece. Specifically Santorini (pictured above) and Crete. I HAVE to get there one day. It may even be my number one international destination (even though I didn’t list it first… because I’m an idiot lol).

Other international destinations: Spain, Italy, and Easter Island as well as a return trip to England, Ireland, Scotland and France! And so many more!

So there you have it, some destinations from my very extensive “Must Go” travel list. Too bad my budget doesn’t match my desire

Hope you enjoyed this week’s Fun Friday! I’m off to try and take a nap since I barely slept last night. Hope you all have a great Friday!

Anyway, here’s some of what I’ve been eating. This isn’t everything I ate today, just what I photographed

Started off the day with some super hydrating and delicious watermelon. Mmmm.

Snacked on some cherries and a banana. I pitted the cherries so I wouldn’t be the gross girl in the corner spitting pits all over the place, lol!

Some delicious un-fried rice. I’m SOOOOO glad I made this.

I also powered down a salad and one of my strawberry mango ice pops! I forgot I had them so it was a sweet unexpected treat

Honestly, I’m probably going to be eating a lot of the same over the next few days: fruit, un-fried rice and salads. And I’m totally good with that! I will definitely try to pop in at some point over the next few days.

I got my blood test results and it was exactly what I expected. My inflammation marker is still high and my Vitamin D level plummeted back down to a whopping 16 (30 is considered the low end of normal). She’s putting me on a SUPER high dose of Vitamin D once a week for a month so hopefully that will help.

Oooh and I have two questions for you guys! First, I would LOVE some suggestions of what themes you’d like to see my tackle for my Fun Friday posts! I could always use some ideas for those posts Second, I’m having a buyer’s dilemma ha! Recently I’ve been debating getting a new pair of frames for my distance glasses. I’ve had the same frames since I first got them about three or four years ago. I’m just so ready for a change but I’m also really trying to save money. I found a pair that I love that aren’t insanely expensive but they are definitely a splurge. What do you guys think, should I go for the splurge or rock these for a little bit longer?

So that’s all I’ve got for you! I hope you all have a great week and I’ll be back when I have a few seconds to breathe

]]> http://thisiswhatieatvegan.com/?feed=rss2&p=1660 26 http://thisiswhatieatvegan.com/?p=1644 http://thisiswhatieatvegan.com/?p=1644#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 17:32:17 +0000 xvavaveganx http://thisiswhatieatvegan.com/?p=1644 Continue reading →]]> Hey everyone! Hope you all had a nice weekend and a Happy Mother’s Day! A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mommies out there (to human and fur babies!). I had a nice day with my mom, sister in law and niece. Exhausting but nice

After the festivities I decided to make a run to Whole Foods (in the evening… I never go in the evening lol). I remembered I have an appointment with my Rheumatologist in the morning at the most inconvenient time so I figured I’d get it out of the way so I don’t have to drive far in the opposite direction of my other errands after.

I grabbed some great stuff! Hopefully my goals of fresh, clean eating will be reflected in this haul

Some yummy veggies! A HUGE container of spring mix for lots of salads, frozen organic broccoli and peas and carrots, tomatoes and a giant organic english cucumber. You’ll see what the frozen veggies are for in a minute

Pretty fruit! A cute little organic seedless watermelon, cherries (!!!!), bananas, bosc pears, mangos and peaches. I went with the intention of getting lots of strawberries but they had not one container of strawberries!! Apparently it’s a big Mother’s Day ingredient because they were cleaned out! I rationalized the ridiculous price of the cherries by saying it’s probably the same I’d spend on 2 containers of strawberries.

Just a quick funny story from Whole Foods too! I walked in and was picking out my cherries (picking out produce is a process for me… I’ve very picky lol) and a guy walked up to me and was like I’m so sorry can I ask you a question? So I said yes of course and he points over to the greens area of the produce which was a few feet away and asked me which of them was parsley. He said the sign says parsley but I don’t know which it is. Lol! It was kind of precious so I grabbed some parsley for him and he said “thank you so much, my mom asked me to get parsley and I have no idea what it is.” It was really funny and it definitely made me chuckle. If I had to guess his age I’d guess maybe low to mid twenties?

So anyway, today I started off my day with an appointment with my Rheumatologist. Same old, taking blood (11 vials!!) and checking everything out. After that I ran some errands then came home to prep some food for the week!

I started off by making a huge batch of un-fried rice!

Isn’t it pretty?! This is going to last me a while. Which is great because I’m planning on trying to get back into my gym routine which leaves even less time for me to prep. It’s part of the reason why I plan on eating low maintenance meals of fruits and salads, etc.

Close up of my rice. There’s brown rice, my frozen peas and carrots, shiitake mushrooms and four chopped up green onions. I seasoned it very simply with a sprinkle of gluten free tamari and some garlic.

After I made my rice I cut up my watermelon, got my cherries all washed and then made:

this GIANT salad for tomorrow’s dinner! I have work then I’m going to the gym after so to deal with making a salad and dressing after taking a shower is the last thing I want to do. Instead I put the salad together today and will blend up my dressing fresh tomorrow before I eat it This one contains tons of my spring mix, some romaine, carrot and cucumber. I’m really trying to focus on eating a ton of greens!

So that’s all I’ve got for you today! I’m going to head off to the gym in a little bit. My goal is to do an hour of cardio. Totally doable. I find that getting my butt out the door is the hardest part. Going to make a new playlist to listen to, maybe that will help

Hope you all had a great Monday!

I grabbed most of these photos from Pinterest. If I am not including a source it means the link from Pinterest was broken for some reason. Boo! Anyway, here’s what I’m looking forward to!

First and foremost, I’m looking forward to RELAXING!! Sadly I have no hammock but I do have a bench swing thing in the backyard that is begging to be used.

MORE FARMER’S MARKETS!! I always say I’m going to go to the Farmer’s Market but I only get there two or three times per season. I need to change that. I wish my local farmer’s markets had more produce options though.

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I am really looking forward to getting back into training so I can start sparring! This is a really exciting prospect for me since I’ve wanted to spar for about 5 years now. I need to work really hard to get back to where I was but I know I can do it!

No explanation needed. Hopefully our beaches will have recovered from the storm in time for beach season. Not sure if they will yet. I know the boardwalks aren’t finished yet.

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I’ve been planning on starting a new writing project for a while now. I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet because it’s going to be a lot of work and I’m not sure how long it’ll take but I will definitely keep you posted!

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This goal is the biggest logistical nightmare but I REALLY want to start my podcast. It’s difficult to get everyone together but hopefully it will all come together at some point!

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Definitely looking forward to refreshing summer beverages like this lovely Strawberry Watermelon Cocktail! Lemonades will be delightful as well Although I guess if I want to be honest here I’m really just looking forward to cramming as much watermelon as possible in my face. That’s the truth.

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I really want to focus on getting back to beautiful, fresh, colorful, vibrant food. Summer is the perfect time to get back into the high raw habit so that is definitely a huge goal of mine! I feel like it’ll be a huge help in training for my sparring sessions as well!

Finally, I really want to make sure I spend as much time outside as possible. Believe it or not I felt a HUGE difference after I soaked up some natural Vitamin D from sunlight so I really want to be able to get my fill of it while I can. I’m constantly struggling with my Vitamin D levels so summer is a perfect time to replenish and bring my levels back up. Fresh air and beautiful scenery don’t hurt either

 I’m sure you are sensing a theme here. I’m really looking forward to and making it my big goal to put time and effort into my wellness and happiness. Since I won’t really be working weddings I will be able to enjoy the summer weather more and spend more time relaxing, enjoying fresh, healthy foods and pursuing hobbies that I am passionate about. I’m really looking forward to it!

That’s all for my Fun Friday post! Hope you’ve enjoyed it! If you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see in future Fun Friday posts please let me know in a comment! Thanks, hope you have a great weekend!!

Before I get started though I just thought I’d let you know that it actually rained a lot of the time I was there. I was very bummed out about it but it finally cleared up and the sun was shining by Sunday! We tried to spend time outside on Sunday and Monday to soak up some vitamin D and put some damn color on my pasty skin It worked because naturally I had a sunburn within an hour, lol!

Anyway, here we go!

I saw these ADORABLE owl mugs at JFK while I was waiting to board my flight. I was a good girl and exercised some good self control by not getting it… but you better believe I thought about it!

This photo is for Shen who requested a lizard pic! There were TONS of lizards crawling around on the screen but this cute little guy happened to be inside! He was backlit so it turned into a cool silhouette pic.

I think you can see it a little bit but one day when we went out the clouds had a rainbow thing going on! It was so pretty and I was actually shocked that it came out in the pic! It was so bright out (there’s an Instagram effect on it but it was very bright!) I didn’t think I’d be able to catch it but there it is!

Sunday was probably my favorite day It was absolutely gorgeous outside and we ended up going to the Downtown Orlando Farmer’s Market at Lake Eola. It was one of the best farmer’s markets I’ve ever been to! They had a ton of food vendors as one would expect but they also had an abundance of artists, jewelry makers, etc. I LOVED that! Here’s a few things I saw:

Check out these gorgeous orchids!! I wanted to get one but I knew it would never survive lol. They were absolutely gorgeous though… probably the most beautiful orchids I’ve ever seen. I love the different colors!

By far my favorite find at the market was an artist named Bianca Roman-Stumpff. Her art is amazing and adorable and she clearly has a sense of humor. She was kind enough to let me take a pic of her display.

You can probably see the art a little better if you click on the pic. As you can see she has TONS of different prints (all of those baskets have tons of different varieties) and it was so hard narrowing it down! I narrowed down to four prints and to be honest I’m probably going to order more from her. If you look at the second panel on the right you’ll see prints of her paintings of TEDDY BEARS DRESSED AS SUPERHEROES!!!!!! Can you deal with how friggin cute those are?! I feel like I’m probably going to order some of those…

This is the print that drew me in to her table to begin with. I can’t deal with the baby ninja turtles. This is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my life. She told me about how people would take pics of the prints and print those and I think that’s really messed up so I tried to take it at a bit of an angle so people won’t be able to do it with this pic but I really really really wanted to show it to you!

I loved her skull prints as well so I decided to get three of them to put together as a series. Aren’t they cool?! She is so talented! I’m a little jealous actually. It has always been a dream of mine to be able to paint and draw well but I can’t so I’ll just continue to buy her work If you are interested in checking out her work you can check her out on Facebook HERE.

After the farmer’s market we took a walk around the lake since the weather was so beautiful. It’s not a terribly huge lake by any means so it didn’t take long. Like an idiot I forgot to take pics of the lake which is sad because it has a nice view of downtown.

The following day, Monday, was my last day in Orlando. Luckily, my flight wasn’t until later on in the day so we had plenty of time to get outside to enjoy the beautiful day. We decided to walk around a different lake, Lake Baldwin, which is much larger. I think the walk is just short of three miles. Check out some of the gorgeous scenery!

This was a gorgeous alley of trees that we walked through. It was so pretty I had to take a pic

As you can see it was an absolutely perfect day.

There is a dog park along the lake with a dock right next to it. We had walked out on the dock and I took this pic toward the dog park. You can’t really see it but it was really cute! Lots of picnic tables and people hanging out. We decided that we are going to do a picnic there the next time I’m in town.

Lots of blue!!

I thought these trees were cool and the sky was so beautiful behind them. It was seriously a perfect day.

This last picture is probably one of my favorite “found moments” I’ve ever photographed. Coincidently, this was the first time I ever bothered to do the whole airplane mode thing with my phone (usually I just keep it off but I used it to listen to a podcast this time) and it was the perfect trip to do so! I looked out the window and saw a perfect heart in the clouds! Do you see it? I love this picture so much. It was the perfect way to end a great trip.

So there you have it! My trip summed up into two ginormous posts I hope you all enjoyed the recap, I had fun writing it! Hope you are all having a great week!

So here are the yummy things that I ate! Be forewarned that this stuff isn’t particularly healthy… I made a deal with myself before that I’d enjoy vacation and get back on the CSD train when I got back So here’s (some of) what I ate on my vacation!

I’ve come to realize that as I get older I’m becoming more and more of a germophobe. Walking through the airport I realized that planes are gross, and people are gross so I picked up some Airborne, mixed it with a bottle of water and sucked it down.

We stayed in for the most part on Thursday and ate there so our first meal out was for lunch on Friday. We decided to go to Loving Hut because it’s so damn good I really wanted to try something different but I decided to stick with my usual which is “Combo 1.” It has a fresh summer roll, golden rice, tofu and veggies. It is so good and definitely not too heavy (which is what I was afraid of with some of the other dishes). I could eat buckets of that rice, it’s SO GOOD.

After Loving Hut we decided to go to Raphsodic Bakery, which we first tried the last time I was there. I LOVE that they put the word “Love” on all of their bags and boxes. Anyway, we chose four different treats to share because we couldn’t decide. There is a slice of pumpkin loaf, a chocolate chip sandwich cookie, a chocolate almond biscotti, and chocolate marzipan brownie. Everything was amazing but believe it or not the biscotti was my favorite! And Shen, now I know how you can eat just half of your yummy desserts

My friend happens to live near a Mellow Mushroom which I had read offers vegan pizza. This is not something I come across every day so we decided to bring pizza in. I don’t remember what day but it was early on so I want to say maybe Friday night? Anyway, I got a small (10 inch) Kosmic Karma pizza which (when veganized) had roma tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, and daiya. It was great and it literally lasted me all weekend.

For brunch on Saturday we went to our usual brunch spot, Ethos Vegan Kitchen. I really love this restaurant. The food is always good and their new location is larger and has a great atmosphere. However, this is the one meal of my trip that I kind of regretted a little. Not because it wasn’t good because damn it was actually REALLY good. I decided to go for something on the menu that I knew I’d never be able to recreate because sometimes that’s the fun of going out. I decided on the biscuits and gravy. Like I said, the food was delicious but holy shit was it heavy. I got about 2/3 of the way in before I had to throw in the towel. And I didn’t eat again until that night because I couldn’t shake that heavy feeling for a long time. I want to re-iterate though that the food wasn’t bad by any means and in fact was really delicious! I just should have known better than to order a really heavy dish, especially for my first meal of the day. Ethos is definitely still one of my fav spots in Orlando!

Every time I visit I like to bake something for my friend and his friends. This time I decided to take something I found on Pinterest and veganize it. I saw the recipe for Funfetti Cheesecake Cookie Cups and thought they were so cute! I decided to veganize it and make my life a little easier so I made them into bars! Look how cute they came out. Basically I used the cheesecake recipe from Vegan Heartland’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars (doubled with sprinkles added at the end) and the chocolate chip cookie recipe was Super Vegan’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever recipe. I followed the directions on the pinned recipe (I had to cook it a little longer though) and it came out really well! Above is the only piece that I ate but it was damn good.

My laziness got the best of me for Cinco de Mayo so I went the easy route and made some vegan nachos. They were REALLY good. All I did was heat/melt some spicy fat free refried beans and Daiya Cheddar on some tortilla chips. Simple but tasty.

I talked a big game about how I was going to partake in some alcoholic beverages but the reality was that I only drank this single glass of wine. Partially because I am a cheap date and it doesn’t take much for me to start feeling warm and partially because I just wasn’t feeling it. This glass of wine was really delicious though. This is by far my favorite wine and I can’t find it here in NY! Wah!

So these are the meals and beverages that I thought were photo worthy. As you can see we ate a lot of meals in and made some meals and snacks last pretty much the whole weekend. Everything was delicious but I’m definitely craving some fresh produce and am looking forward to getting back on track with a Crazy Sexy Diet inspired lifestyle.

I hope you enjoyed part 1 of my Orlando trip wrap up! I know it was a long post so thanks for bearing with me! The next one is probably going to be even longer since I have so many pics so sorry in advance!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend! Back to the grind, boo!

Before I go I just wanted to share some exciting news! I had a training session last night and my trainer informed me that he FINALLY found someone that would make a good sparring partner for me!! As long as I get some head gear he’s going to try and set up a sparring session within the next month or two! I’m really excited! I’ve been doing boxing and kickboxing training for about six years and I am finally going to cross off spar with a partner on my Fitness Bucket List. We’ll see how this all unfolds in the next month or two. I need to really increase my cardio and conditioning if it’s going to happen.

Anyway, that’s all for now! I will see you all next week and will definitely do my best to catch up with all of your blogs when I get back! Have a great week everyone!

I woke up before 8 to get to work by 10 am yesterday. As you can imagine I was really really tired. I was essentially useless when I got home from work and ended up passing out at 9:15!!! That’s ridiculously early for me but I needed the rest and I definitely feel better today!

Today I pampered myself a little with a pre-vacation pedicure. I also decided that I needed a really delicious, comforting meal that is still healthy but satisfying for the soul. And here’s what I came up with!

Check out this super delicious, comforting and incredibly satisfying dinner!! A quesadilla made with a gluten free tortilla, fat free refried beans, lots and lots of spinach and some Trader Joe’s Vegan Cheese. OMG so freaking good.

And this, my friends, is the perfect meal. My beautiful, yummy, stuffed to the brim with greens quesadilla with a glass of refreshing and delicious sparkling limeade. Check out my new Glass Dharma straw!! I meant to show it off in my last Fun Friday post but totally forgot to add the pic! Oh well, here it is!

So that’s what I have going on for today! Tomorrow is Monday which is technically my Sunday (which I love) and also the start of Tornado Week on the Weather Channel!! Yup it’s nerdy, but this is my Shark Week guys. Some people geek out of sharks, I geek out over weather. And I can’t freaking wait So tomorrow I’ll be watching Tornado themed television while I pack up for Florida! Can’t wait to leave Wednesday night!

Have a great night my friends!