Good eats today :)

Posted on November 29, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone. Woke up early and dragged my butt to the gym. It felt good because I’ve felt really lazy lately. I’m trying to get back in the habit of working hard and the motivation is certainly there Came home and did some laundry so I feel pretty productive today… all before I even go to work!

I’m getting ready to go to work at two and I’ve already got my dinner set to bring with me so here is what I’m eating/have eaten today!

Before the gym I had two clementines to put something in my tummy and for a bit of a sugar boost

When I got home I made a protein shake. It was as disgusting as it looks. I broke my small smoothie blender and didn’t feel like bringing out the big blender so I attempted to hand mix it. So gross, it had clumps of protein powder. I just chugged it down and chased it with a yummy banana

Lunch totally made up for it though! I had some golden sesame tofu from Whole foods along with some brown rice/edamame/red onion dish from the prepared section too. I added some leftover brussels sprouts with caramelized onions and it was such a delicious meal.

When I get to work I’ll have a small coffee. Haven’t had any yet, I can definitely use the jolt!

For dinner I’m bringing a gorgeous salad to eat with a little balsamic vinaigrette. This is going to be so good, it has organic greens, carrots, cucumber, sun-dried tomatoes and portabello mushrooms.

Hope you all have a great day! Definitely going to relax when I get home tonight

Happy Cyber Monday?

Posted on November 28, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hey all! So, I tried to find the cyber Monday deals but I lost patience early on and decided to ditch the effort. It’s all good, I am still going to be able to avoid stores for the season I think so that will be a victory in itself! I just need to stop shopping for myself and start shopping for others! :X I may (definitely) have ordered The Happy Herbivore Cookbook from Amazon today while ordering another gift. I think I have a vegan cookbook addiction.

Had a great training session today. I can definitely feel the improvement in my technique and form which makes me happy!

Check out the grub so far.

For breakfast I indulged my clementine addiction and peeled up 4 :X Then I had a banana as a midmorning snack with a small coffee.

I get out of work early on Mondays so I made this amazing lunch when I got home. It is a brown rice (GF) tortilla from Trader Joes’ with 1/2 cup fat free spicy refried beans spread over half and folded over. I toasted it all up on a pan and then topped with 1/2 of a mashed avocado and some diced tomato. So delicious and comforting and a fairly healthy version of this dish. It was inspired by Shen’s tostadas!

I had a protein shake after the gym so I’m working up to dinner. I think I’ll just have some Sesame Tofu I picked up from Whole Foods yesterday with some leftover roasted brussels sprouts.

Hope you all had a good Monday! Have a good night!

Keeping Promises & A HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY!

Posted on November 27, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Good afternoon everyone I hope you are all enjoying this gorgeous Sunday. It has been unseasonably warm the past few days, I feel like it is spring! So beautiful.

I woke up super early this morning. I was at Whole Foods when they opened and I accomplished a lot before most people even crack their eyes open. I decided that I would finally fulfill a promise I made a while ago.

I love baking. My biggest problem with this business is that I have a hard time accepting payment for the things I bake. A tradition I have is that I’ll bake my friends and family treats to suit their taste on their birthdays. In March I made Alicia Silverstone’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from The Kind Diet. The birthday boy was kind enough to share with some other friends and they were a big hit. So much so that I get asked to make them on a regular basis by one of my other friends that tried it. I kept promising I would make them, the latest time was that I’d make them for him for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving came and went and still no peanut butter cups. I felt guilty so I made it my project for today.

I made them minis by using a mini muffin tin. They made A LOT. Like 3 dozen a lot. I gave him most of them but kept some to give out to a few others.

I packed them up in this holiday tin because it was the only one I had :X They are 3 deep, I think I got 22 in here.

I ran them over to him and he was so surprised and happy! It felt good to follow through on a promise. I can’t wait for the holidays! I love spoiling people with yummy vegan treats!

Speaking of which, I’ve decided to host another GIVEAWAY of yummy vegan baked goods! I’ll put together an assortment of treats that I’m baking this year for one lucky winner! All you have to do is comment on this post and tell me your favorite holiday treat! I’ll choose the winner on December 4 using the random number generator thing. When I bake my treats mid December I’ll send over an array of goodies, so the winner will have to sit tight, but trust me, it will be worth the wait! Good luck!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED*

Breakfast and a Great Deal!

Posted on November 26, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hi everyone! Today’s post is gonna be short because I’m exhausted but here is the rundown

I woke up early and was at the gym by 8am. I did an hour of cardio to start off my day. After the gym I had this breakfast…

A breakfast banana split with almond butter, cinnamon, raisins and a little granola. So delicious and the crunch the granola adds is so great!

Later on I went shopping in Astoria with my mom, sister in law and niece. We went into all these bargain jewelry stores that typically has cheap looking crap but then I found this…

I LOVE it so much! I think it is really different and it was ONLY $2!!! Seriously, 2 bucks. It was a little big when I tried it on but not too bad. Then as it got colder it got to be really big so I’ll have to wear it on my middle finger instead of my ring finger. It is still big but totally manageable.

Hope you all had a lovely Saturday! I had a big lunch with my family before we ventured out so I didn’t get to enjoy some yummy greek food there but I’m sure we’ll head back! I at the veggies out of a veggie wrap for lunch by the way. No pics, sorry!

See ya tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Recap!

Posted on November 25, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was totally unprepared for it this year so my Thanksgiving meal was basically a continuation of my every day diet which is kind of fine for me. I had a nice day and my meals were tasty, though not exactly traditional Thanksgiving fare. We went to my brother’s house so it was my family and the animals

For breakfast I had a bowl of oats with banana, walnuts and cinnamon.

I snacked throughout the day on carrots with hummus and clementines.

I cooked up my favorite side dish for the family. Roasted brussels sprouts with caramelized onions. This batch came out amazing!

For my main dish I just whipped up some brown rice with roasted cauliflower and roasted chickpeas. Boring but still delicious.

My brother found out that there is a vegan restaurant around the corner from his office and sent me the link (this was totally unrelated to Thanksgiving). I checked out the link and made a comment about how I would go there for blueberry coconut cake alone. Wouldn’t you know it he went there and got me some blueberry coconut cake! We surprised each other with treats! I had a small piece of it and it was delicious! No pic though, sorry

Delilah says hi!

She was a happy girl!

Stretching out in her PJs!

Jack decided to climb their tree. You can’t tell because this is a close up but she got up almost to the top! I’ll post a full length tomorrow for you to see.

I hope you all had an amazing holiday! I’m thankful for so much

OK I’m gonna go catch up on blogs and ice my thumb because I totally busted it during my training session today. Direct elbow impact

Ouch!

Have a great night everyone and yay for the weekend (I worked a bit today but have Saturday and Sunday off)!

Getting Ready For Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 22, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a lovely (short) week so far! I had such a fun morning today I started to get ready for Thanksgiving today and I love being able to get into the kitchen and blast a fun poppy playlist and have a little dance party while I work. And that is exactly what I did. It was so fun!

I decided to make a fun little surprise for my brother. He tried chocolate covered potato chips at the Chocolate Trade Show a few weeks ago and loved them. I decided to surprise him by dipping some chips to bring on Thanksgiving. He does a lot for me so I thought it would be a fun treat for him. Can’t wait to surprise him!

Check out how awesome they look!

I hope he likes them! I’m sure Delilah will have to taste them too

I had a little extra chocolate melted so rather than waste it I dipped a few of my Candy Cane Joe Joe’s in it. They are now in my freezer for safe keeping

All I wanted for breakfast was clementines so I peeled up 4 and had a pile of citrus awesomeness. So good, exactly what I wanted!

For lunch I am currently working on a plate of roasted brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, some stuffed grape leaves and a pickle. SO good!

For dinner I’m bringing this spinach salad I bought from Trader Joe’s. It is a spinach salad with quinoa, carrots, dried cranberries (which I’ll pick out because it is all sweetened and sugary), chickpeas, edamame, pumpkin seeds and grape tomatoes. It comes with a carrot, ginger dressing. There is a little sugar in it but I really think the amount in negligible so I’m debating if I’ll bring my own dressing or not.

I decided that Thanksgiving will be the end of my cleanse. I’m going to continue to eat clean, but a little added sweeteners (like maple syrup or agave) are fine in small amounts. I’m really happy with how I did and I feel great and I plan on continuing to eat this way, but I don’t want to start (or re-start really) a pattern of being obsessive about things like maple syrup in every bite of food I eat. This is meant to make me healthier as a person, and also to help me have a healthy relationship with food. Time will tell I guess.

Hope you all have a great day! Can’t wait til Thursday.

No Food, Just A Cute Baby :)

Posted on November 21, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! I don’t have anything interesting meal-wise to show you today but I want to show you a few shots I got of Delilah yesterday. It was a combination of her 1st birthday party and Christening. Yes, I’m Jewish, but my sister-in-law is not. We are not super religious and it was something that my sister-in-law wanted so my brother went with it. And yes, I know it is VERY late to do a Christening, but that’s how they roll

Not much else to say, I kind of have a case of the Mondays. Finally had a training session and it felt great.

Check out the cuteness!

I love this picture so much. She is so young but she is so expressive and has so much personality!

Lol I can’t deal with how cute she is! She was gnawing on a chocolate covered pretzel. The birthday girl can eat a treat if she wants!!

Love my girl

Can’t say it enough!

Have a great night!

Just Breakfast

Posted on November 20, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone! I was out all day today so all I have to show you is breakfast. Sorry!

I had some Raisin and Walnut baked oatmeal (it stayed together this time!) with the other half of the banana that I used in the oatmeal. So delicious, I love this meal.

I ate some grilled veggies at my niece’s big first birthday party but didn’t take a pic. I’ll probably snack on something later since I barely ate anything today.

Sorry so short but I’m exhausted. So bummed the weekend is over already!

Eating Clean on the Weekend

Posted on November 19, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Good evening everyone and Happy Saturday! I went in to the studio for a few hours this morning to get some editing done and then ran a few errands and spend a good part of the afternoon relaxing. It feels so good I finally got my car back which is great and I’ve been watching UFC Unleashed for the past few hours. This is shaping up to be a pretty great day!

Today’s grub has been pretty great too. Check it out!

Breakfast is my “breakfast banana split.”I just split open a banana and added 1 tbsp of almond butter, some raisins and some cinnamon. It was so delicious.

I ate lunch between work and running errands so I didn’t grab a picture of it but I just ate a bowl of veggie soup. Warmed me right up!

For dinner I had some brown rice with steamed tofu, broccoli and eggplant. I just drizzled about 1 tbsp of a garlic sauce over the top for a little flavor but avoided the heaviness that comes from drowning it in sauce. Such a simple but satisfying meal.

For some reason I was having a hungry day so I ended up snacking quite a bit. All of my snacks were nutritious, clean foods so I don’t feel guilty about it. I ate a lot of frozen grapes, a few stuffed grape leaves, and a key lime pie larabar. Mmm. My belly is satisfied. I’ll probably have some spearmint tea a little later on.

Enjoy your Saturday night everyone!

Still Eating Clean – Grains In, Added Sweetener Still Out!

Posted on November 18, 2011 by xvavaveganx

Hey everyone. Quick car update, I’m lucky to have an amazing mother that let me borrow her car (I drove her to work this morning and my dad is picking her up) so I’d have a car to get to work and the gym since mine is still dead. I also finally had a chance to get to Whole Foods after the gym which was SO necessary because I really needed to stock up!

I’ve been loving my iPhone since I got it, especially all the great apps that make life easier. I tend to have random thoughts come to me so I downloaded a great Grocery List app so I can add things anytime I think of them. I’ve also been using a great app called Lose It! and I love it. It allows you to figure out how many calories you are eating a day and also how many you burn through exercise. It’s nice to be aware of this and it also helps you figure out how many calories you should be eating to reach a specific goal. It’s got a huge database of foods and even has restaurants in there so you can easily calculate how many calories are in your meal from popular chains.

My detox is still going well with the grains added back and the sweeteners and processed foods still out. I had some really great meals today!

Breakfast was another bowl of amazing oats. I added raisins and walnuts (and cinnamon) to this bowl. So delicious and warming. It was SO COLD today!

Midmorning snack was an apple.

I still didn’t have groceries for lunch so I grabbed a burrito bowl from Chipotle on the way home from work. I had my usual combo of brown rice, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, and lettuce. So good.

And I discovered thanks to my Lose It! app that this meal only has 425 calories. Not bad for takeout, and is pretty darn nutritious. The only thing is that I bet it has a lot of salt but I’m not really sensitive to salt and I don’t add salt to my own cooked meals so I’m not concerned

I had a small handful of about 15 almonds for a little energy before the gym. My trainer had to cancel again so I still went in for cardio. Kind of a bummer but nothing I can do.

For dinner I had some sesame tofu with roasted butternut squash and roasted brussels sprouts Very delicious!

Hope you all had a great day! My car should hopefully be fixed by tomorrow. Yay! Happy weekending everyone!