Giveaway Winners!

Hey everyone! Today I woke up and the sun was shining again which is such a nice feeling :) This is going to be a quick post but I wanted to announce my giveaway winners!

Using the random number generator (and excluding Ingrid's post because she opted out very graciously), congrats to numbers 8 and 1! Sophie and Sage please e-mail me (xvavaveganx@yahoo.com) to claim your prize, a bag of the Beanfields Nacho Bean and Rice chips! Congrats ladies!

As promised, I finally tried the Nacho flavor of these chips:

Let me tell you, these chips are amazing! They are savory and cheesy which is surprising with the notable absence of nooch in the ingredients! Another reason that these are far superior to Doritos (minus the whole lack of nasty ass dairy and chemical products)? Notice the lack of radioactive orange glow to the chips and eventually your fingers after you eat them. That stuff is a reminder for the rest of the day that you filled your belly with something that just doesn't occur in nature. I'm so glad that Beanfields chose me to try these products and that I could pay it forward! I hope you ladies like them as much as I do!

Have a great day everyone!

Product Review and a Giveaway!

Hey everyone! Hope you are all well. I'm very excited that tomorrow is Friday. Last night was a bit rough for me, I couldn't fall asleep at all! I finally fell asleep at 4 am and woke up before 7. Surprisingly I had more energy today than I anticipated I would.

Last night I got home from my long day at work and was greeted by another very happy surprise!! Let me show you ;)

A box full of Beanfields Bean & Rice Chips!  I was contacted by the company and asked to sample their chips. I was pretty stoked and said that I would be happy to and they sent me this huge box with bags and bags of chips! Right before my pantry challenge, ha!

Beanfields products boast some pretty cool nutrition facts! First, they are made entirely of rice and beans, therefore the are gluten free (and also corn free). Also, if you recall I've mentioned a few times that rice and beans combine to form a complete protein (one of the reasons it is one of my favorite foods!) and one serving of these chips provide 4 grams of complete protein as well as 4 grams of fiber.  If all of that wasn't a good enough reason to try these chips, VegNews named them Best in Show for Best New Vegan Snack Product. Sold!

I believe the Nacho flavor is the most popular and the one that was mentioned to me when I was asked to sample and review this product but they were kind enough to send me a variety of flavors. I received large bags of the Nacho, Sea Salt and Pico de Gallo flavors, and snack sized bags of the Nacho and Pico de Gallo flavor. I was pretty amped about the nacho flavor (think vegan doritos!) but I really wanted to tear into the Pico de Gallo chips so that's what I did. 

Isn't it purdy? I needed a small snack anyway so I ate the snack sized bag of Pico de Gallo chips. Let me tell you, these chips pack a ton of flavor! If you like Bar B Que chips you will LOVE these! You get a smoky flavor right off the bat and sure enough there is natural smoke flavor in the ingredients. These chips were really tasty and indeed filling. I'm really looking forward to trying the other flavors!

This is where YOU come in! I requested some extra bags so I could do a giveaway and they were nice enough to oblige! Not pictured are two large bags of nacho flavored chips! Two of you will get a bag of these chips to try, which I thought was pretty cool of them. If you want to try them please just comment below with what your favorite snack food is! I'll take entries through Monday, April 23 and will select the two winners Tuesday morning. I will also post my review of the Nacho flavor on Tuesday so the lucky winners know what is coming to them :)

Thanks again Beanfields for your generous snack delivery! Can't wait to taste the rest of the flavors and share what I think with all of you!

Oh, before I go I've been meaning to ask if anyone watches the show Impractical Jokers on TruTV? I've been watching it for a while it is one of my favorite shows! It is so hilarious!! If you can check it out I definitely recommend it, and that is what I'll be watching tonight.

Hope you all have a great night! Yay for Friday!

*GIVEAWAY CLOSED*

Artisana!!

Hey everyone! I'm not going to lie to you, yesterday was a shitty ass day. It was my long day that was made even longer because I got out late... I didn't get home until close to 10pm. It was also just a bad day and I was in a foul mood for most of it. It made me wish I would have prepared a bad day emergency kit a la Sage but alas I was unprepared.

When I got home last night my crap ass mood was turned around when I was greeted by a package. This isn't just any package, this is the Holy Grail of vegan blogger product review packages! Take a look at what was in it.

Check out this variety! Let's break it down.

Two smallish (not really all that small though ;]) jars of raw nut butters - coconut and pecan flavors. Yum!

Individual to go packets of cacao bliss (chocolate coconut butter?! YES PLEASE!!), raw walnut butter, raw coconut oil, raw cashew butter.

Raw pecan butter, raw coconut butter, raw macadamia/cashew butter, raw almond butter.

I feel so spoiled! Artisana was kind enough to send me this huge variety of products to review for them and I will happily be posting reviews as I try each product. Let's talk about why I can get behind this brand from the start. Reasons this brand rocks, in no particular order:

1. Each product boasts my new favorite three letter word: "Raw!" All of their nut butters are raw which is great for people like me trying to maintain a high raw diet.

2. 100% Organic and all natural. Again, you can't ask for more in a tasty snack!

3. Variety! Check out all of the varieties of butters that they have. I've always wanted to try cashew butter, coconut butter and walnut butter and I had no idea that the rest existed. This opens up a whole new world in snack, cooking and baking options. I'm sure they would all be welcome additions to your morning oats as well!

4. Convenient "to go" style packaging! These packets will undoubtably be a lifesaver for me when wedding season starts up again. My snacks and meals to go will be a lot higher quality and nutritious when I can just throw a packet of this 100% organic, all natural, RAW nut butter in my camera bag with fruit or celery.  Space saving and energy boosting, a perfect combination!

So naturally I can't try all of these amazing flavors at once and I want to try and save the packets for days that I'm working weddings but I wanted to try one asap so I decided to open up the Pecan Butter jar. Check out how I had my first taste!

For breakfast I enjoyed the raw pecan butter on a banana. A perfect way to taste this product I think ;) Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't eat pecans all that often and that they aren't my favorite nut out there but HOLY CRAP! This stuff is amazing!! Paired with the banana this tastes like dessert. It has a rich, pecan flavor and you would swear it is roasted but as I've stated many times it is raw! I'm a total believer in pecan butter, I'm so stoked that I have a whole jar of this stuff. It tastes really rich and decadent but it is so good for you, you'll never feel guilty eating it. 

Thank you so much Artisana for being so generous with the samples! I can't wait to try the rest of them and share my reviews with you all!

Have a great day!

Weekend Wrap Up

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! It's been all kinds of crazy over here but I finally had a chance to relax today. Yesterday was busy but a great day!

I started the day off at the gym bright and early. I got there by 8am and decided to do 45 minutes of cardio. It felt great! I went home and showered and had some avocado toast for breakfast. I ran a few errands and then decided to take the trip out to the raw restaurant I found a week or two ago. It takes me about 30 minutes to get there from my house but the drive is really nice and scenic and actually not stressful. The weather was beautiful and I had the windows down and I enjoyed that 30 minutes to myself.

Now, I hate what I'm about to say but it would be unfair for me to not tell the truth... I was a little disappointed with the cafe. I love the fact that it exists and the girl that helped me was super sweet but it just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I had checked out the menu before and picked out a few items that I was really interested in trying. When I got there, none of those items were available. I ordered a drink, which she prepared while I decided what to get from the available options.

I decided on the "Morning Glory" drink. It has oranges, strawberries and acai. I loved the flavor combination but the texture was a bit odd to me. It was very very pulpy and I guess bits of maybe orange seeds that didn't pulverize completely in the vitamix? I found myself chewing quite a bit. I'm used to and prefer a thick, creamy, icy smoothie and this was chunky and pulpy and not super cold. I love the flavor combo but I'm going to try and recreate it with a texture that is more to my liking.

A lot of the choices they had were fake meat products like burgers and sausages and meatloaf...all raw obviously. It just wasn't as beautiful and vibrant as I expected I guess? I decided to go with the pad thai. It was ok, it has a curry sauce which I didn't realize until I got it home because I didn't check the description when I chose it. I'm not a huge fan of curry sauces and was expecting a nutty sauce so it was just ok.

I feel so bad giving a lukewarm review but I was a little bummed out when I got there. I have to say that I at least enjoyed the ride out there and the ride home. It is a bit out of the way so I probably won't head back out there soon but maybe one day I'll try calling ahead to see what they have and maybe if they have a dish that I wanted to try I'd give it another shot.

A little while after that I went over to my brother's house for a BBQ he was having. A close family friend was visiting from North Carolina (she's from here and just moved there in November) with her baby so my whole family was there along with other family friends. It was a nice big group with 3 babies so it was a bit chaotic but it was so fun and the babies are adorable. And since Shen requested it...

Here's Delilah! Didn't she get so big?! She's growing up so fast. She's a funny kid, she makes me laugh a lot :) I tried to get more photos but she is always on the run so her being in the wagon was my chance to get a shot! Love this girl!

I woke up early today and hit up Trader Joe's for a few things. Nothing crazy. After I went back to my bro's house to help him watch the babies (Delilah and our friend's son, Vinny). I got home around 2:30 and have been relaxing ever since. I'm exhausted but I've had a great weekend!

Here she is this morning. She's a little bit of a mess :)

The only meal worth photographing today. For dinner I had a delicious quesadilla with fat free spicy refried beans, spinach and avocado. So good!

I hope that you've all had a great weekend! This week is going to be a long one. I have to cover for my coworker on Tuesday so I'll be working 11-9 Tuesday and Wednesday plus my regular hours the rest of the week and a few hours on Saturday.  I'm going to get a lot of quality rest time in tonight :)

Have a great night!

Feeling Human Again & Marmalade Umlaut!

Hey everyone! It took a while but I finally feel human again. I have an appetite, I'm eating real food (just smaller portions of it) and I'm feeling good. I went to the gym and did 50 minutes of cardio this morning before work and it felt great. It's so good to be back in business, it sucks being out of commission for almost a week, but it's nothing that I could help.

Breakfast was my second attempt at a green smoothie since I got sick. The first one was an epic fail because it was so sweet it just made me sick again. This one was way less sweet. All I used was a banana, some almond milk, some Vega shake and go smoothie powder and a lot of spinach. I was in desperate need of greens and they cut the sweetness a lot. I drank about 3/4 of it. Success!

Since I didn't have much time between the gym and work I only had time to make the smoothie so I grabbed lunch next door. I couldn't get a photo since I wasn't alone but I had this one and it is the same exact thing I ate for lunch. Rice and beans with stewed green beans and tomato. Smaller portion than this though. Another great meal.

I got home from work at about 3:45 and decided to have some avocado on toast as a snack to hold off until dinner. As you can see this poor avocado needed to be eaten since it had been sitting all week. I'll finish it off tomorrow I'm sure.

For dinner I'm planning on a salad. A small salad. Yum!

So, as I promised here is a review of:

Marmalade Umlaut!!! This is Maud over at Food Feud's awesome zine that she has been producing since 2007. As I have mentioned before, I had intended on purchasing a few issues for a while but for some reason just never did. I FINALLY came to my senses and decided that I would get 4. I chose issues 13 and 18 where raw foods are a focus and then decided to let Maud choose the other two for me. She chose issues 6 and 15 and they were both great choices!

Truth be told I had never really seen a zine before and wasn't sure what to expect. Needless to say I was really excited about what was presented in these zines. Maud provides funny anecdotes, amazing recipes (duh!), kick ass cartoons (like seriously super fun and cute), holiday menus and conversations (the conversations were a great touch, I really felt like I was a fly on the wall), poetry, tips and her insights on a variety of topics. She has a very conversational tone and the presentation is fun, unique and incredibly creative. I can't say that I have a favorite issue because I enjoyed all of them so much. I can't wait to make some of the raw recipes. Raw pad thai?! Yes, please! Thanks again Maud, and if you haven't already had the pleasure of reading Marmalade Umlaut, definitely order some issues. You won't be disappointed!

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far! Mine finally began at 3:30 this afternoon. I was bumming about not having Showtime because the Strikeforce fights are on tonight.

Notice anything interesting about tonight's main event? Yup, the main event features a WOMEN'S TITLE FIGHT! The UFC could learn something from this. Dana White (UFC President) has stated that because of the lack of talent in the women's division and the lack of interest (read: not enough potential for big $$ for him) we will pretty much never see women's bouts in the UFC. I think that is a load of bullshit.

Anyway, I think that this fight has the potential of really paving the way for women's MMA (and to make Dana White regret making that statement). I really wanted to watch it and then I found out my bro has Showtime! So tonight I'll be heading over to his house to watch the fights there. I've seen women's MMA before but this fight is going to be awesome because these two broads pretty much hate each other. That makes it so much more fun :)

I hope that you all have a great Saturday night! I'll be back tomorrow with more yummy eats :)

A Day Late...

...but totally worth the wait! At least I think so :X Sorry I didn't get to post last night, I was so tired when I got home from work I figured I'd just wait until this morning so I can actually think clearly as I post.

I had another good day yesterday so I guess I'll start from the beginning. I woke up early and had 2 clementines right away to to get some sugar in my system to sustain me through my workout. I finally put together a sick workout utilizing the heavy bag in my free time. Here is what I did:

15 minute jog @5.0 mph (12:00 mile)
15 minutes on arc trainer (if you don't know what that is, the best way I can describe it is if the stairmaster and elliptical had a lovechild).

On the heavy bag:
1-3 minute round boxing
1-3 minute round elbows and knees
1-3 minute round kicks
2-3 minute rounds freestyle (punches, knees, kicks, elbows)

(3x) 30 seconds straight punches followed by 1 minute ground and pound.

Awesome workout! I felt great after! I also have a product review for you. I picked up some Vega Sport Electrolyte Hydrator at Whole Foods on a whim the other day.

You can get more info here and it's also where I grabbed the pic. It is a small tube of powder that you add to your water and it is supposed to rehydrate you and replace your electrolytes during a workout (like Gatorade would) minus the calories and yucky stuff. I grabbed one of each flavor and tried the lemon-lime one yesterday. It was actually really good! It works like Gatorade but tastes more like vitamin water. It has a very mellow taste but is still good. Whether or not it really works who knows I'll probably use a couple times a week. I think it was only 99 cents per tube too so it's way cheaper than vitamin water, gatorade or coconut water.

And now onto the food!

When I got home from the gym I made myself a protein shake to drink while making this delicious breakfast. I had some oats with a banana and a tbsp of chopped walnuts. Lots of cinnamon, naturally.

I decided to get some Chipotle for lunch. Such a great decision, my burrito bowl was delicious! Filled with the usual suspects, brown rice, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and lettuce. YUM!

In the afternoon I had an unpictured coffee and some almonds.

For dinner I had some delicious Mediterranean Hummus from Trader Joe's with 3 stuffed grape leaves (there is one hidden under the carrots) and a big ol' pile of carrots.

Such a delicious day started off by a sick workout. Feeling good these days. Been making sure to drink a ton of water too which is so important. I love having a little more spare time in the winter to be able to actually plan my meals and workouts :)

Hope you all have a great day! Happy hump day :)