Yummy Eats and Fur Children!

Hello again everyone :) Lots of craziness over the past few days! We still don't have power at work (!!!) so yesterday I got to work from home.  On a whim I called my gym to see if my trainer had a 45 minute slot open for a bonus session and sure enough someone had canceled so I grabbed the slot! I'm so glad I did because the workout felt amazing yesterday and I've been feeling really good in general lately. I have another session tomorrow and I finally got my yoga dvds so I can't wait to give those a try too!

I've been at my brother's house pet sitting this week and it is so nice to be around animals again.  I figured I'd introduce to you them because they are awesome and cute.  My apologies for the funky color in the pics but I'm sure you'll get the point ;)

This is Tyler! He's a bit neurotic and needs a lot of attention but he is so sweet you can't help but love playing and cuddling with him.

This is Jack. She is a rescue kitty. The vet said she was a he hence the name. THey found out later that she is a female but kept the name.

This is Eddie, another rescue kitty. He used to be super anti-social but now he is such a mush and loves to be pet...he purrs like crazy!

They are so cute I had to show them off :) Now onto the eats!

Breakfast: Big ol' bowl of watermelon and blackberries. Super refreshing.

Midmorning: Coffee...love that my name is on the cup, too bad it's spelled wrong ;)

Lunch: Another chopped salad.

Dinner: Broccoli with olive oil and garlic, carrots with unpictured hummus and this amazing cucumber salad I got from the same place as the salad.  

There were also some un-pictured snacks. Pretty yummy day!

Hopefully we'll have power in the studio tomorrow.  Today we were running off a generator...it was so hot in there because we were afraid to try to plug in the AC! Excited for another training session too :)

Giveaway WINNERS!!! (and a few meals!)

Hey guys, just back here with the giveaway winners!! I was only going to do 2 winners but since only 3 of you commented on the post (well three of you that weren't making weird comments about colorful abs??!) I figured what the heck, you are all winners!!! Congrats to Shen, Food Feud, and Michelle!!! I'm planning on a few goodies for you, so please e-mail your address to me at sarah_shmuel@hotmail.com.

Can't wait to bake some treats for you ladies! The power situation threw a little wrench in the plans because  I don't have the kitchen to myself anymore but I'm going to try and get everything made this weekend and have them in the mail for you by next week.

Yay! first giveaway in the books! :)

Now some updates. Today was sort of business as usual.  We had no power at work still (and we still have no power at my house...yikes!) so I had the day off...if it still isn't back tomorrow I'm gonna bring some work home though.  Can't afford too much time off.

Had a sick workout at the gym with my trainer today. Been feeling pretty good lately :)  And I love every minute of it!  I can't wait until I get the 3 yoga DVDs that I ordered in the mail so I can get back on that train and re-gain some of the flexibility and balance that I had worked so hard on before!

Onto some eats. Breakfast was a big ol' bowl of watermelon which wasn't too interesting so I didn't photograph it.

Lunch was some delicious vegan hot and sour soup. I LOVE this stuff, my mouth was on fire!

Ask and you shall receive! Another chopped salad for post workout dinner. 

Un-pictured snacks and coffee :)

See you all tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to introduce you to the furry crew I'm caring for this week. And I think I see some Thai food in my future. YUM!

Irene Aftermath and a Random Meal

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your concerned. I'm kind of shocked I just got my power back already and feel incredibly lucky to have gotten through this with little interruption and damage. I just read about Shen's experience and we had the exact opposite, very little rain and LOTS of crazy wind.  Trees down and some damage to the neighborhood, but I didn't experience anything personally except a few branches from a tree came down.

In the hours after the craziness everyone in the neighborhood was out surveying the damage.  I guess it gave us something to do while waiting for the power to come back.  I took a bunch of pics to show you.

About 100 feet from my house a tree was uprooted and leaning on this house. So scary!

Front view

Huge part of tree in the middle of the street a block down from that first uprooted tree (2 blocks from my house)

Down the block from the first house with the leaning tree, this tree completely fell over and took out the power lines.

Same tree as above, you can see why we have no power. I'm at my bro's house with the animals, my parents still have no power.

That's the craziness that happened within a 2 block radius of my house.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have been spared of any significant damage.

And now for a random Irene meal of random stuff I had around...

Watermelon, dolma and snapea crisps. Random but good.

I hope you are all ok!

Brief Hiatus

Hey everyone, just figured I'd give a heads up that I'll be going on a brief hiatus until things calm down.  I'm not necessarily panicked about the hurricane but I'm located on Long Island so I figured I should at least not be a total idiot and take the warnings somewhat seriously. I have a wedding to work tomorrow so I'm just trying to take my time now to make sure everything will be as safe and comfortable for the animals (I'm pet-sitting for my bro through next week) as possible.

Hope everyone remains safe over the next few days and I'll be back next week with more vegan yums and the giveaway winners!!!

No natural disasters today!

Yay no natural disasters today! Although a hurricane is on the way, which caused my friend to postpone his visit up here :( Major bummer! I'm pretty upset about it because I haven't seen him since April and don't know when we'll be able to reschedule. I'm sure it will also have an impact on my margarita consumption :(

Only took pics of lunch and dinner today.

Lunch: WF's prepared yumminess - golden sesame tofu and quinoa/zucchini/chickpea salad.

Dinner: Dolma, carrots and garlic and herb cashews.

There was plenty of food consumed between all these meals, just none that were noteworthy.

Bento Box!

I am loving this bento box that I got. It makes packing lunch and snacks so much easier.  Well, in today's case, packing dinner :)

This is the only noteworthy meal of today so it's the only one I'm going to post and I am doing it now before I head into work til late.  Had a great trampoline workout this morning too so I'm pretty pumped :)

Tonight's dinner was a yum stuffed bento box! From the top left is dolma, falafel, hummus, carrot, strawberries and pineapple. This is gonna be good!

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Back to basics!

I'm back! Had a long work weekend and just finished off my raw week with more of the same fruits and salads and whatnot.  Back to cooked food today and I'm not gonna lie, I am kinda glad to be back to normal.  I enjoy eating more raw meals during the summer, but a completely raw diet isn't for me.  I do have lots of yummy new recipes though!

Today I had a killer training session. It felt really good to be back to normal :)  Check out the eats!

Breakfast: WHile shopping in Whole Foods last week I found some gluten free english muffins! I really miss my english muffin sandwiches so I decided to get them and have them as a yummy comforting treat every once in a while. I figured that it would only be appropriate to eat a really good comforting first cooked meal in a week so I went for one of my favorite classics: english muffin with peanut butter, banana and cinnamon. And it was damn good.

Midmorning: Iced coffee (the caffeine habit is here to stay for a bit) and some watermelon.

Lunch (and dinner): Lunch was a delicious huge ass plate of rice and beans with green beans and some zucchini (both cooked in tomato, garlic and oil). It was so good!  I ate the leftovers for dinner!

Post workout: Protein shake.

It feels great to be back to normal! :)

Got My Hair Did!!

It is hard to see in the pic but I've got some ginger going on now! :)

More of the Same Raw

Same boring food, different pics :)  I did a 90 minute training session today and it was gnarly.  I'm really tired right now.  And I'll probably be extra sore because of the lack of protein.  Awesome.  Lots of water to be consumed!

Anyway, more of the same!

More watermelon. So frickin delicious. Every. Time.

Another salad.

Homemade citrus larabar. Yum! Check out that awesome chipped nail polish too ;)

More Raw Meals and a GIVEAWAY!!

Today was another day of raw eatin...I'm not gonna lie, I doubt I'll do 100% raw after the end of this week.   I'm finding it a little more difficult than I expected...I think part of it is because of my crazy schedule and workout routines.  I've found it takes longer for my muscles to recover after an intense workout and while I feel like I have a lot more energy from eating unprocessed foods, I'm missing the grains and more substantial recovery meals.  I'm going to stick out the rest of the week but after that I'll go back to eating some cooked foods, mainly after exercise.

That said, check out the eats!

Breakfast: A pile of watermelon and a banana

Midmorning: I couldn't deal with another migraine so I had an 8 oz cup of coffee that was half decaf half regular :(

Lunch: Yummy salad with greens, raw corn, sun-dried tomato, cucumber, carrots and broccoli. Noms.

The rest of the day I just snacked on some raw treats including dehydrated kale chips (totally overpriced from Whole Foods...got the Bombay Ranch flavor and it is so savory I can't eat more than a few at a time), baby carrots, raw nuts and this yummyness:

Homemade citrus (lemon juice and orange zest) larabar :) So GOOD!

OK so Shenandoah Vegan made a great suggestion and I think it is time for a giveaway! I love to bake and since I am going to have access to my brother's big beautiful kitchen in 2 weeks, I'm going to bake some treats and share them with 2 of you!! All you have to do is comment on this post by Sunday, August 28 and tell me your favorite holiday to bake for and why :)  I'll use that random generator thing to choose 2 winners to receive treats I'll bake the week of August 29 :)  Good luck!!

And by the way, I LOVE baking fun, creative treats for halloween which happens to be my favorite holiday! I also love the winter holiday season because everyone is so festive and I love making a huge variety of yummy cookies to share with everyone!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED*

Raw Food Post!

Today is my first day posting all raw eats :) I work late tonight so all of my meals are ready and photographed before I go in so I'll just post now!

Breakfast: Big ol' bowl of fruit - sliced peach, sliced strawberries and cherries.

Midmorning snack: Banana and a small handful of raw cashews.

Lunch: Package of Kelp noodles (18 calories for this huge pile!!) with Ani Phyo's raw sun-dried tomato "hummus" (made with zucchini).  I made the hummus and I liked it a lot and decided to make it a sauce for these noodles!  I liked this meal a lot and I am so stuffed!

Afternoon snack: Macro greens bar - raw superfood bar in Chocolate & Cinnamon flavor. Hopefully it is yummy!

Dinner: Chopped salad with greens, carrots, cucumber, sun-dried tomato and raw corn. This is gonna be good and it looks so pretty!

That is my first documented day of raw eating! Hopefully the next week and a half will be equally delicious ;)

*Edited to add:

I came home from work early today with a horrible migraine inevitably caused by caffeine withdrawal. I'm off to rest but I couldn't wait to come on and post this!

The super sweet and lovely Maud over at Food Feud was kind enough to mail me this raw food un-cookbook! I've skimmed through it quickly (I'll go through it further once the migraine passes) and it looks wonderful! Easy recipes that sound delicious and they also include meal suggestions which I LOVE.  Thanks so much Maud, you are such a sweetheart!!

Relaxing Day

Today I had a great day off. It was definitely needed too and I'm glad I spent it exactly how I wanted to!

I started off my day with an hour of vinyasa yoga.  It was my first yoga class in 2 weeks (My gym only has one class/week and I missed a class while I was away for the wedding and it was canceled last week) and it felt so good to stretch myself out like that.  I also realized that I have a good general knowledge of some flows and poses so I decided that I'm going to try and do at least 20 minutes of yoga on my own every day.  That was I can center myself and stay flexible between classes :) Hopefully I'll be able to lead myself through some challenging routines without an instructor here to guide me.

After yoga I ran some errands and came home and relaxed for the rest of the day. It felt so good, especially since I have to shoot a wedding tomorrow...it is supposed to rain so i'm a bit stressed about it.

Anyway, onto the eats.

Breakfast/Lunch: I didn't eat breakfast until after I took my post-yoga shower so it was a bit late and doubled as lunch so I made a hearty bowl of oats.  Oats, ground flaxseed, cinnamon and banana. 

Since I had such a late breakfast I ended up snacking until my early dinner.

Snack 1: Pile of garlic and herb cashews.  These things are addictive. I have to figure out the herb combo so i can try and make these raw.

Snack 2: Key Lime Larabar.

Dinner: Big ol' salad.

Dessert?!: Yes my chickadees, I had dessert today ;) I was inspired by Food Feud's banana soft serve so I threw a banana and a spoon of peanut butter into a blender and voila! Topped with some dried coconut and cinnamon and it was sweet, cold and creamy..the perfect summer dessert!

Make sure you check out my recipe for Half Baked Truffles in the post below!

Enjoy your Sunday, hopefully the rain holds off!

Half Baked Truffle Recipe!

Hey guys! I promised the recipe and I try to deliver on my promises so here it goes! I'm not used to writing recipes, I usually wing it when I cook but I'll do the best I can!

Cookie Dough Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance buttery sticks)
2 tbsp favorite plant milk (I use almond breeze unsweetened vanilla)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Brownie Batter ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegan margarine 

2 tbsp favorite plant milk 

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Chocolate shell:

1 bag vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

For cookie dough:

1. Add brown sugar, white sugar and margarine to a bowl and beat until fluffy.

2. Add plant milk and vanilla extract and beat to combine.

3. Add flour and beat thoroughly. Dough will be soft and sticky.

4. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Put in fridge for dough to stiffen up to allow for rolling.

For brownie batter:

Follow steps 1-3 above, also adding the cocoa powder.  Also refrigerate brownie dough to stiffen for rolling.

To make truffles:

Take 1 tsp of cookie dough and 1 tsp of brownie batter and roll together into one ball.  Place truffles on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Once all truffles are rolled, place in freezer to harden before dipping.

Pre dipped rolled truffles!

For dipping:

To dip the truffles I just melted a bag of vegan chocolate chips in a double boiler. this is the part of the recipe I may tweak a little because I felt the chocolate was a bit thick for coating, but it still worked!

Directions:

1. Melt 1 bag of vegan chocolate chips in a double boiler.

2. Take a few truffles from the freezer (they soften quickly so I only work with a few at a time). Place one truffle on a fork and dip in chocolate, making sure the truffle is completely coated.

3. Allow excess chocolate to drip off, gently shaking if you need to.  Place truffles on a second cookie sheet. *Tip: I froze a second cookie sheet and lined it with wax paper. This allows the bottom of the truffle to harden quicker and not spread a ton.

4. Place truffles in the freezer for a few minutes in between dipping to allow them to harden up a bit.

5. After all truffles are dipped, place tray back in freezer to allow everything to harden and firm up.  I stored them in the fridge before I gave them out since the heat makes everything melt so quickly! You can keep them in the freezer too!

I love this shot where you can see both parts of the truffle!

I hope that these instructions make sense! Like I said, I'm not the best at crafting recipes but hopefully this will work for you :) They are time consuming but have a high yield and taste incredible! Enjoy!

Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of food lately, been super busy with work.  I got put on a wedding today at the last minute so I'll be out all day working.  I do have tomorrow off (yay!!) so I'll have yummy meals to post and plenty of time to plan for my raw food experiment (starting Monday and lasting until my friend comes to visit on August 25).

Already did 30 minutes on the trampoline which felt great! Can't wait for yoga tomorrow and I'll make up today's training session I miss today right after yoga tomorrow.  I have found that I have better training sessions right after yoga because I'm so stretched out and feeling great so I hope the same is true tomorrow after the long day I'm going to have today.

Any suggestions for raw meals? I have Ani Phyo's books which will help, planning lots of veggie noodles and salads and whatnot, but anything different? Maybe breakfasts?

Sorry again for the lack of food.  I promise to make it up tomorrow! Maybe I'll post the recipe for those amazing truffles as an olive branch for my laziness :)

Since I like photos I'll post 2 random photos I shot at Five Pointz in Long Island City. I can't remember if I've posted them on this blog before, so if I have I'm sorry but check em out again!

Lens Flare!

Love these walls and the angle makes it look almost seemless!

Recipe Testing - Half Baked Truffles!

I don't know where this thought came from, but how great would a truffle filled with half cookie dough and half brownie batter/dough be?! I decided to make it happen and let me tell you, the results were phenomenal! They are very rich and very sweet, but this decadent treat is so worth it.  Super delicious, crisp chocolate shell and an almost creamy center.

Naked Truffle Centers!

Sample Box #1

Sample Box #2

There were about 3 more boxes of samples made (of various sizes). One batch makes a TON, at least two dozen.

Busted open! Looks so good!

I'm so glad this was a success, I've wanted to try making these for a while! I'll post the recipe soon :)

Another Day

Hey everyone, another day, more of the usual.  I started the day with a 30 minute run on the trampoline (which has been amazing since a huge heel spur was found in an xray and is SO PAINFUL) and then went to visit with my niece and ended up at work.

Check out the eats:

Breakfast: Post run I wanted a nice refreshing breakfast so I had a big ol' bowl of watermelon and grapes.  It was delicious and perfect.

Midmorning: Iced coffee and a homemade lemon coconut date bar.

Lunch (unpictured): Hummus with falafel, tomato and cucumber.

Dinner: Big ass salad - green, carrot, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, broccoli and cucumber. Delicious!

So my Q&A didn't work out well...only had one question from The Shenandoah Vegan which was how can I like Couple's Retreat because it was an awful movie LOL. Sorry that made me laugh...I'm not saying it is a high quality movie or story line, but for some reason it makes me laugh and I like to watch it on a crappy rainy day or when I need a laugh :)

Have a great night!

Q & A?

I don't have any food to post today because I was too lazy to take photos of my completely unexciting meals so I thought maybe I'd start a Q&A sesh?

This is meant to be light and fun. I love doing those little survey quiz things and I haven't seen any fun ones so I thought it may be fun to create our own?  If any of you guys have any questions for me feel free to ask them in the comments and I'll post tomorrow with the answers!

have fun, ask as many as you want and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have for me!!

And thank you all again for your kind words yesterday.  It is so hard to lose a pet, they become a part of the family but all of the nice comments meant a lot.

Sad News :(

This is a sad post and I'm sorry to be a downer but we had to put my cat, Sammy, to sleep today. He was really sick for a long time and we are all really upset about it.  He will be missed :*(

We'll miss you Sammy <3

Quick Quick!

Sorry for the quick post but I'm practically out the door to go to dinner with a friend of mine tonight who is in town for the weekend.  Nothing too different, great training session and a busy weekend ahead!! The silver lining is I finally get to go for a haircut! I literally haven't cut my hair since last September so I'm very excited and it is so overdue!

Quick eats!

Breakfast: Some of this raw/gluten free/vegan granola I found. It is pretty good...it has a weird aftertaste though...I'm finding maybe it is just a buckwheat aftertaste because I kind of felt that way after the buckwheat crispies too.  Anyway, I had some of the granola with fresh fruit and almond milk.  Very good.

Midmorning: Iced coffee

Lunch: Mediterranean bento = dolma, hummus, falafel, carrot.

Post workout: Protein Shake

Expected dinner: I checked the menu and there is a salad that has vegan prepared eggplant with bruscetta  topping and mozz cheese...I'll probably get this and sub the cheese for another veggie :)

If I don't make it back on here have a great weekend!!