Moving On Up!

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! Well, I have some big news for you my friends :)

I have decided to move my blog from Blogger to my very own domain. I would love for you all to come join me at thisiswhatieatvegan.com!

I have discussed my reasons over there in my Welcome post. I am really happy with the decision even though it is a bit scary.

Although I have moved my Blogger archives over to the site I will be leaving this space active as well. Hopefully all of my new friends that stumble upon this site will also come join me over at This Is What I Eat.

Thank you all so much for all of your support over the past few years! I know that things will just get better from here and I am so excited to share more fun recipes, workouts and DIY projects with you.

I'll see you over there! ;)

Planning for Success

Hey friends! Thank you all so much for helping me count down to my glorious day of freedom last week :) Your kind words always help me get through the busy times! I enjoyed my day off by spending some time with Delilah and then relaxing and watching a bunch of TV. Probably not the most productive way to spend my time but I was able to rest my body and I was happy to be able to do that.

Today's post has a little bit of everything I think! I have a meal from yesterday, some planning for the week and some inspiration :)

Last night's dinner was really yummy. A home made Chipotle bowl with rice and beans, salsa, daiya and avocado. I served with with a tortilla since I'm too much of a spazz to roll a decent burrito that actually stays together. After this meal I put the rest of my Daiya in the freezer because a) I've been eating it too much lately and b) It seems to be lasting forever! Seriously the bag just won't end!

The perfect bite!

Today I took a ton of time to get a lot of fruit ready for smoothies for the week. I really want to get back into the habit of drinking smoothies every day and being prepared is key. I added 4 more bags of cherries to my other two in the freezer (I'm going to make these last!) as well as some strawberries. I had the bananas already and just added them to the pile so you could see how much fruit I have ha! I also have half a bag of frozen blueberries as well as some frozen pineapple. I think I'm set on smoothies for a while!

While I was cleaning I found this old fortune and thought it was so perfect for the headspace I'm in right now. "You'll never know what you can do until you try." This is so true!

So I have a question. I just tried to upload another photo and it said that I'm out of space in my Picasa account or something. I didn't even know I had a Picasa account and when I clicked to get details it said I had 5 GB of drive space that I wasn't using. I'm confused I guess and if I don't upgrade does that mean I can't upload any more photos at all? Has this happened to any of you, and if so did you just pay to upgrade? Please let me know, I'm so confused! 

I hope that you all had a great day and that Monday wasn't too tough for you!

Cookies!!!

Hey everyone!! Happy Saturday :) I hope you are all enjoying the day. I'm getting ready to head out on my last day of work before one day of freedom! I know it's hit or miss on whether or not I post on a day that I work a wedding but I had something fun to share with you so here I am!

I mentioned last week that it was my friend's birthday and that I had put together a relaxation kit for her. Included in that was two little packets of face mask powder, tea bags (special bags that brew in cold water and make iced tea! She said they were great and very refreshing!), a plastic to go cold cup (to hold said iced tea), face and body creams, home made trail mix (in a mason jar obviously) and a bottle of wine. I was going to make her a batch of cookies but as you know I worked every day and barely had 10 minutes to breathe so I just couldn't. Since I'm working with her today (I'm assisting someone else but she is the second photographer on the job) I decided to push myself to make them even though I was exhausted.

Check out what I made!

Check out these gorgeous Chocolate Coconut Thumbprint cookies! I asked the birthday girl what her favorite flavors are and she said chocolate, coconut, raspberry and pumpkin. I know that chocolate thumbprints would be a great way to incorporate most of those flavors!

I used Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Chocolate Thumbprint cookie recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.

The only change I made was I rolled the cookies in coconut before I baked them the first time to add another one of her favorite flavors in. They worked out perfectly! 

If you want to make a Chocolate Thumbprint cookie definitely try this recipe. It came together really fast and cooked perfectly :)

I also had to show you this yummy meal. I wanted to eat the last of my tofu so I can move on from this soy frenzy I've been on and I figured why not go big? ;) I made a tofu scramble with tons of spinach and then topped it with Daiya. I covered the pan and let the Daiya melt for a few minutes then put the scramble on a tortilla.

My finished breakfast burrito (eaten for dinner). I bet it would have been even better with avocado!

That's all for today. I hope that you all have a really great day! I'm off to work a long ass day and then tomorrow I enjoy some freedom! :) Have a great day friends!

Fun Friday! Treating Myself

Hey everyone! I hate to start off my fun Friday post on a bit of a down note but I can't really gloss over the news I woke up to. Pretty much as soon as I woke up I heard about the horrific shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater in the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. I was completely horrified to think that someone could do something so heinous and disgusting. My thoughts are with those impacted by this tragedy.

Later on today I was running errands and ran into a TON of traffic. I finally passed the source of the problem which was a 4 car accident. They were all in one lane. I obviously didn't see what happened but my guess is that the first car either stalled or just stopped at a green light and the others just crashed right into each other, one right behind the other. It didn't look too serious, I think everyone was ok but one of the cars was completely smashed in the back and had quite a bit of damage in the front. I'd be surprised if that car hits the road again. Luckily the passenger areas of that car didn't look damaged.

What's my point in all of this? At the risk of sounding morbid (and that isn't my intention, I promise), you don't know how long you have on this earth. For this reason, we need to make sure that we live every day to the fullest with no regrets.  I know how easy it is to let life pass you by, letting your dreams get away from you and wishing you had spent your time differently. I'm totally guilty of it myself. However, there is no excuse for it anymore. It is so scary to take risks but we are all here for a reason and we should not be afraid to embrace that. So for me, I'm going to stop making excuses and start making changes in my life. I have spent too many years being unhappy and it is time to start making moves toward happiness and fulfillment. I owe it to myself and I'm worth it, and you are too! Life is way too short my friends.

OK. I'm sorry if that was morbid or depressing but I was just incredibly moved by today's events and wanted to touch on it. I'm going to turn the tone of this post around right now though! Today's Fun Friday post will feature some presents I bought myself this week (I've been working hard, I totally deserve it! ;]) as well as a few random things I'd like to share :)

The first gift I got for myself was inspired by Gabby! I saw them on her blog and immediately was obsessed with them. How adorable! I just got them in the mail yesterday. They came in a set of 4, can't wait to use them! Photo courtesy of Amazon :)

I got each movie for $9.50. Can you believe I didn't have Fight Club in my collection yet?! My movie collection is severely lacking anyway so I'm hoping to buy one movie per month to bulk it up a bit. You know, for rainy days ;) I caught Zombieland randomly one night on tv at like 1am and loved it so decided to add it as well :) 

This purchase was inspired by Sara and her travels! A few years ago I was in Destin, Florida for my brother's wedding. We decided to fly in and out of New Orleans and drive to Destin so I was able to spend one glorious day and night in New Orleans. It went by waaaaay too quick and I fell in love with it immediately. We ended up at Cafe Du Monde because it's kind of a must when you are in New Orleans. I wasn't vegan yet and enjoyed a cup of their coffee (iced naturally) and it was AMAZING. I still think of that coffee. I had no idea that they sold decaf and then I saw that Sara had picked some up! I had actually been thinking about ordering some for months and knowing I could get decaf sealed the deal. I ordered it immediately!

Now, as you all know I kicked my pretty intense coffee habit a few months ago. I am so proud of myself for not picking it back up. Right now I treat myself to one DECAF coffee (typically a decaf soy latte) once a week, typically on a Sunday morning. I recently read this post which discussed a topic that Gabby had discussed prior on her blog as well. I basically learned that cold brewing coffee will result in a smoother, less bitter taste AND the coffee will be almost 70% less acidic!! That is great news! I plan on cold brewing this coffee as soon as I receive it in the mail :)

That's it for the gifts I bought myself :) I found a few other things I'd like to share though!

I remember that you guys were amused when I said I was going into "beast mode" and had to share this with you! Apparently I'm not the only one that says that ;)

How adorable are these "Train Like a Beast Look Like a Beauty" tanks! I think Cassey from Blogilates is doing a giveaway with these tanks but I just wanted to show you because I thought they were awesome!

Finally, another Pinterest find! How cute are these little mason jars with pre-mixed cocktails! No need to spend all that time behind the bar when you can mix your drinks, pour them separately and let your guests grab when they want to! Love this idea and you know I'm a sucker for a mason jar ;) Original post here!

Thanks for bearing with this long post and sorry it was a little depressing in the beginning. I hope that you had a good Friday and that you enjoy your weekend! One more day until I get to relax!

Whole Lotta Whole Foods!

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday :) It's so close to Friday which is awesome! Unfortunately my weekend off has been cut in half as I was contacted by a photographer last minute to work on Saturday. So that will be my 13th straight day of work, 6 of those days being 10-12 hr days.  As you can imagine, I can't wait for Sunday ;)

I wanted to go see Delilah after I got out of work today so I decided to make my Whole Foods run early and be there by 8am when they open. I got an awesome haul and some great meals out of it!

Check out the haul first!

Produce haul: HUGE container of spinach, carrots, baby bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower and two avocados.

I also got strawberries which I forgot to put in the other photo. Stuffed grape leaves, Vega Choc-a-lot, garlic and herb cashews, cashews & peanuts (for trail mix), dried fruit (for trail mix), brown rice crackers, 3 larabars (key lime pie, coconut cream pie, lemon) and an apple Pure bar.

Since I was going to be at Whole Foods, I figured I'd just grab breakfast and lunch there too. Every single meal and snack I've eaten today (all ingredients in dinner too) was purchased at Whole Foods :)

For breakfast I grabbed some steel cut oats and topped it with my own cinnamon, stevia, raisins and walnuts.

2 plums for snack that were purchased the last time I went to Whole Foods.

Wouldn't you know it, I commented on Shen's post just yesterday that I wished my Whole Foods had Tofu Scramble in the morning. Of course when I look today they had it for the very first time... well at least that I had seen! I decided that it wouldn't be right to just squander this opportunity even though I had vowed not to eat tofu today ;) I grabbed some scramble, a teeny bit of potatoes (on the left side of the container at the bottom... those teeny tiny pieces are tiny cut potatoes and onions) and I decided to add some fresh veggies and grabbed some tomato and cucumber salad. Such a great lunch!

Dinner was a gluten free tortilla pizza with lots of yummy spinach and some Daiya. So delicious and pretty too! And all ingredients were purchased at Whole Foods ;)

Thank you Whole Foods for fueling my day and my week! Today was a pretty good food day. Hopefully the next two days will go quickly! Hope you all have a lovely evening :)

Hump Day Grub

Hey everyone! Happy hump day! Once I get through my long day today it is smooth sailing to my weekend off :) I can't wait! I'm still feeling exhausted so the rest will definitely be good.

I'm trying to be good about planning my meals and I think I've put together a pretty good day of food! I'm bringing 4 of these 5 "meals" with me to work since I'll be there all day so it takes a lot of prep and planning but it'll be worth it when I have enough energy to sustain me through the day!

For breakfast I had a banana with some raw buckwheat cereal and almond milk. So delicious and super filling!

Late morning snack will be a red plum.

For lunch I made a homemade Chipotle bowl. I put the homemade guac separately and I'll add it to the brown rice, beans and salsa after it is heated.

For my afternoon snack I'll have a Pure bar.

Dinner is another tofu scramble, this one with a more green hue. It has onion, spinach, broccoli and zucchini and is seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and nooch. I have been eating more tofu recently than I normally would but I desperately need to get to the grocery store. Hopefully tomorrow!

I hope you all have a great day! Any suggestions of fun, healthy things I can make this weekend to last for the week? Also, I would love some suggestions for healthy snacks that I can bring with me, especially high protein snacks. Thanks!!

Working for the Weekend

Hey everyone! I'm sorry it has been a few days since I've posted. As you know I had a very busy weekend and I was feeling the effects of that yesterday. My entire body was sore and I was incredibly exhausted. Other than working a few hours in the morning I barely got out of bed. I'm going to grit my teeth and get through this week and then I can finally enjoy some time off this weekend.

On the plus side, I've been eating some great meals. Today's meals are exceptionally yummy.

Breakfast was a delicious and refreshing Cherry Chocolate Smoothie. The fresh cherries that I froze are absolutely amazing and this breakfast tastes more like a decadent treat than a healthy breakfast smoothie.

For lunch I made myself another tomato and spinach tofu scramble. The seasoning is so simple but so delicious. All I use is salt, pepper, garlic powder and nutritional yeast. It was so flavorful! Served with a brown rice tortilla and a peach.

For snack I'm going to bring some seaweed snacks and a larabar. I really need to make sure I eat every few hours to keep my energy up and my metabolism firing.

Dinner will be this dish of stuffed grape leaves, pickles and carrots. I ran out of hummus, I need to make sure I get to Trader Joe's this weekend!

My appointment with my Dr. went well other than the fire alarm and subsequent evacuation of the building. She said my blood work results were excellent and I've been doing all the right things to take care of my shoulder. She told me that I need to be on top of my nutrition and that skipping meals (unintentionally... it happens because of my schedule) is not an option and that planning is key. So, I plan on planning :)

OK friends, hopefully I will be able to pop in throughout the week with yummy meals to share. I'm so excited about having the weekend off! I'm planning on relaxing and hopefully prepping lots of meals for the week. Just have to get through the next few days and then I can enjoy my freedom. :)

I hope you all had a great weekend and that Monday treated you well :) Have a great day!