Happy Friday! (And MoFo Eve!!)

Hey everyone! Yay for Friday and the fact that tomorrow starts Vegan MoFo. It is my first time participating and I'm really excited about it. I'm trying to think of posts that will be different from my typical daily food log so if anyone has any posts that they would like to see please definitely feel free to comment. I already have a Halloween post cooking up by request of the lovely Sage. I would love some more suggestions too!

So I just got myself settled after the gym...had my protein shake but no dinner yet...it'll be boring so I'm just going to post now.  Here goes!

Breakfast was a honeycrisp apple and peanut butter.

I FINALLY made my pasta that I've been craving! I cooked up a half cup (dry) of brown rice pasta (GF) and mixed it with leftover roasted veggies and some yummy sauce.  It is actually a pizza sauce (:X) since I prefer savory sauces and I just happen to really like this one. The meal was delicious, I'm glad I finally made it! and it was super filling.

So as I mentioned no dinner yet, but it will inevitably be veggies and protein. Nothing exciting.

Last night was a family dinner and my brother was super awesome and not only brought me vegan treats for dessert, he found GF vegan treats for me! Check out what he found!

Peanut butter rice crispy treat with chocolate!

Some sort of chocolate chip cookie/blondie/bar thing.

I will have half of one of these for dessert. Haven't decided which one and I'll definitely let you know which one and how it was tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great Friday! I'll be back tomorrow for MoFo Day 1! See you then!

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! So I finally feel back to normal health wise so it was back to the gym for me after work. Another great workout so I'm really gonna work to get back in my hardcore routine...which means many more home workouts. I just need to grab some more gear from the sporting goods store then I can really test out my new home routines that I came up with.  I'll definitely be sharing them here as well so hopefully by next week I'll be able to get that going.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned in this blog that I'm Jewish so maybe this is my "coming out" but tonight I am celebrating the Jewish New Year with my family. It is a small group this year, myself and my parents, my bro, sister in law and my beautiful/super precious niece. It's always nice to be with family, and we are going to be sharing a yummy meal. Family meals are always funny because we all have such different tastes...but they always work out in the end.

Anyway, here are the eats!

Breakfast was a little atypical for me today, but I've been dying to try this maple pecan oat bar that I got in my care package from Isobelle so I decided to forego my regular old bowl of oats for this bad boy. It was SOOOO GOOD. The text was really nice, soft with a really nice chewiness from whole oats. It wasn't very sweet at all and had a nice nutty taste from the pecans. It was definitely a nice treat :)

Lunch was a rice bowl with brown rice, roasted cauliflower, roasted chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes and some nooch. Delicious as always.

No dinner yet and I doubt I'll get a pic of it but I'm planning on a big plate of roasted veggies (eggplant, zucchini, onion and mushrooms) with some hummus and probably a little portion of roasted potatoes. Yum!

Have a great night!

WTF Wednesday!

Why hello dears, happy Wednesday! As usual, I work until 9 tonight so I'm going to do a quick post before I jet out the door (in like 10 mins :X) and I'll catch up on your posts tonight!

For breakfast I had another bowl of oats. Today's oats were topped with a half of a banana, and a sprinkling of walnuts and shredded coconut. SO good.

For lunch I packed up some carrots, dolma and an avocado and tomato salad made with the other half of my avocado from yesterday. It stayed nice and green, thanks lemon juice!!

I roasted up my brussels sprouts and cauliflower  from Trader Joe's this morning and packed it up with the rest of my sesame tofu from Whole Foods for a quick dinner.

This photo is for Shen who is always confused by my food touching rules :) I decided to save my leftover veggies in one container...but I found one with a divide that happens to fit the leftovers perfectly and I thought Shen might get a kick out of it. I honestly didn't care if the veggies touched but it was really just amusing to do it this way.

I just wanted to show this pic because I think it is hilarious.  My boss found a podcast demonstrating this cool effect with a fisheye lens and a ring light so we were testing it out yesterday and I love the way it looks. We all now have a ridiculous picture of us as our desktop on our giant screens at work. It is a bit scary because the shots are not the most flattering (which is why I posted this one and not that one hahaha) but I just thought I'd share. Yes, I wear glasses when I use the computer and I can't stop staring at the one brown spot in my blue eyes. :)

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this quick post. Have a great hump day!

Back to the Grind!

Well today is going to be my first day back at work after 2 full days of rest. As boring as it was to sit on my butt and home it was nice to take a break. I guess I just have to suck it up and get back to the grind. I feel 90% better, just have to get rid of this lingering headache.

Working til 9 tonight so I'm gonna post everything now.

For breakfast I had oatmeal with banana and walnuts and a big ol' mug of coffee.

For my morning snack I had a fruit strip I got from Trader Joe's in the boysenberry flavor. It was really good, definitely had a nice flavor.

Lunch is my leftovers from yesterday's amazing Mexican lunch. I toped it off with some fresh avocado. Yum.

Dinner will be a chopped salad.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Recovering

Hello everyone! Thank you all so much for the get well wishes over the past few days.  I'm finally starting to feel human again, at the cost of being BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!! I haven't taken this much time to rest in years and it is driving me nuts! I'm most bummed about having to cancel my training session tonight but I'm still coughing a bit and can't fully breathe out of my nose...so to go to the session would just be a waste.  I am hoping that I'll be all good by tomorrow though :)  And the day off from work wasn't bad either.

On the up side, I've started to get my appetite back so I actually have some normal meals to show you. Check it!

For breakfast I had a nice big plate of fruit from my Edible Arrangement. Still good!

After breakfast I ran a few errands while I had the energy and this included a trip to Trader Joe's. Here is the haul! In the back I went for brown rice penne pasta (no shells to be found, boo!), a vegan bento box meal (I'll explain in more detail when I eat it), some brown rice, brussels sprouts, 3 flavors of fruit strips, guacamole hummus (!!!!!!! can't wait for this!), some chili lime cashews and a head of cauliflower.

For a snack I had a handful of garlic herb cashews I had gotten from Whole Foods the last time I went there.

For lunch I really wanted rice and beans...must be the comfort food cravings. I was going to go to Chipotle and try the burrito bowl but the whole cilantro in rice AND lack of veggie situation was making me think twice. I then remembered a local Mexican restaurant that I used to order from a lot and decided to go that route. I'm SO glad I did because check out this plate! 1/2 veggies, 1/4 beans and 1/4 rice is the perfect ratio. I mixed it all up and added some guac on top and it was so good.  I especially like this place because their burrito veggie combo does not include bell peppers (I am told I'm weird, I think bell peppers are gross!).  I have some left over for lunch tomorrow too.

I'm totally exhausted now and starting to get a bit of a headache again so I'm going to relax. I doubt dinner will be anything exciting or noteworthy. I hope you all have a great night!

Tasting the Rainbow...

I took the entire day today to take care of myself and try and get better and back on track.  It was kind of boring...I basically stayed in bed all day watching crappy movies, boxing and surfing. It was nice to relax but was also weird because I'm so used to being out and about.  I finally got rid of my sinus headache but am still stuffy and yucky so I'm taking tomorrow off from work and the gym to try and get rid of it for good.

When I'm sick I don't eat a ton of food during the day but I definitely make the meals I eat count...I try to get as much nutrition as I can.  Check out what I ate today...

This is probably one of my favorite plates I've shared so far.  I think it is really beautiful and colorful...in fact it has the 2/3 of the spectrum on one plate :) I had 1/2 an avocado on a GF english muffin and some fruit from my edible arrangement.  I ate this a bit late because I had coffee first which killed the little appetite I had for a bit.

I've been dying to dig into my Care Package goodies but have been waiting until I'm better so I can fully appreciate it all...but I gave in and decided to try some of the Mrs. May's Black Sesame Crunch.  I'm glad I did because this little treat is so good! It is super crunchy (one would hope from the name) and not very sweet at all. You get a ton of sesame flavor and it is super nutty.  This is a great snack...which is why I popped 2 more pieces after I ate this one pictured ;) I'm definitely going to have to try some of the other flavors!  The coconut almond crunch and pumpkin crunch sound very tempting.

I drank a ton of water throughout the day. I know it is silly to post a pic of my water bottle but I actually really like this one. It is my Bikram yoga water bottle...it is BPA free and holds 36 oz of water. I drink at least 2 full bottles a day but try for 3.  I have another one in purple...I bought them when I did Bikram yoga last winter for a few months because the bigger the bottle the better (and even these bottles weren't big enough...1 and a half hours at 108 degrees, yikes!) and have been using them ever since.

Dinner wasn't as colorful as breakfast but was still delicious. I tapped into my prepared food stash that I got from Whole Foods and put together this lazy but tasty meal.  This is a roasted root vegetable medley and some golden sesame tofu.

Although I've had a smaller appetite over the past few days, I'm now craving comfort food like crazy.  Not just any comfort food, pasta. This is funny because I don't really eat pasta ever...maybe two or three times a year. For some reason I am totally craving it now and I remembered Vic's recent post about Baked Shells and now that is on my list for next week.  I'm now on the hunt for gluten free shells...wish me luck! 

CVL Vegan Care Package Swap!

Hey everyone! I literally just got home from work...and I couldn't be happier. My worst fears came true and I woke up this morning (after only 2 hours of sleep) at 4:30 and all of the congestion in my chest moved up to my head.  My nose was completely stuffed, my head was aching, sinuses completely congested. I literally felt like my head was going to explode. And I knew I had a long day ahead of me.  I was completely exhausted.

The day was long but the couple was very sweet. Truth be told I came on right away so I could post then rest for the remainder of the evening.

As I mentioned yesterday, I participated in Lindsay's CVL Vegan Care Package Swap for the first time, and I'm so glad I decided to do it! I was partnered up with the lovely Isobelle over at vganjar and I must say it was a perfect match! We seem to have very similar tastes and preferences AND as icing on the gluten free cake, she lives just outside of Seattle...where I lived for a year and a half in grad school!  Small world :)

I received my package yesterday and I think it was perfect timing...almost like a combo birthday/get well package. It definitely cheered me up! So without further ado, here are the goodies that Isobelle spoiled me with!

I was first greeted with this super pretty handmade note. I am so lucky to have been paired up with such a talented artist!

This is more of a side note but my goodies were cushioned in pages of the Tacoma Weekly, and this caught my eye! An article about a vegan coffee house!

This is a view of all of the loot. I broke it down into smaller chunks so you can see everything.

A few non-edibles. Some amazing smelling soaps (I could smell it through the paper!) and some super cute magnets from Seattle/Washington.

The far left is a jar of Chocolatl, a raw chocolate maca sauce (yum!), then a box of sweet and spicy herbal tea, a jar of Peanut butter & Co. Smooth Operator PB, and a bag of gluten free flour to experiment with!

Here is a packet of green superfood protein powder, a bag of Mrs. May's Black Sesame snacks (can't wait to try these!!!), an Endangered Species chocolate bar in a chocolate mint flavor (on of my favorite combos!) and 2 larabars (apple pie and chocolate chip cookie dough).

Finally, a maple pecan oat bar which I'm probably most excited to try, and a Bumble Bar in a Chai with Almond flavor (another combo of some of my favorite flavors!).

As you can see, I've been completely spoiled by Isobelle. I hope that she likes her package as much as I like mine! Thank you so much Isobelle!!

And now I'm off to rest and drink tea. Good night everyone!

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Thank you all again so much for the birthday wishes! You are all so sweet :) I had a great day...however, I am glad that I had a mellow day because I could feel myself starting to get sick. And go figure, I wake up today and I'm feeling MAJORLY yucky. I don't know about you guys, but when I get sick it builds up over a day or 2 before I get full blown sick. Today I woke up with a little bit of a stuffy nose, some aching all over as well as a bit of a headache, some coughing and sneezing (just a little) and worst of all, this horrible pressure feeling in my chest. The pressure you feel when you are about to start having those horrible coughs that go way down into your chest. That worries me most.

I went to work but my boss sent me home after a few hours to rest because I am going to have a long day tomorrow. I have to be up at 4:30 am again for the wedding and will probably get home around 7:30 pm. I'm loading up on vitamin C and hopefully it won't be too bad when I wake up.

As a side effect of waking up sick, I'm had a major decrease in appetite.  I'll show you what I did eat.

For breakfast I ate a bunch of my Edible Arrangements fruit.  It was so good. I love the pineapple flowers :) I had intended to try my Kombucha today but it had taken me an hour to get all of the fruit down and I had no appetite left I decided not to chance it.

I didn't really want to eat anything all day. I drank a lot of water and green tea.  Then I knew that I had to eat something for dinner so...

I ate my leftovers from yesterday. Veggies and tofu in spicy sauce. Now I'm drinking a big glass of orange juice.

I haven't enjoyed a cookie today because I want to be able to taste it and enjoy it but some of you asked for the recipe that my mom used to make them. Ask and you shall receive :) Apparently she chose one off of vegweb!  Check it out here!

A definite silver lining in my day was coming home to find a package from Isobelle from vganjar! I participated in Lindsay's CVL Vegan Care Package Swap and was lucky enough to be paired up with Isobelle! Her package is amazing, so thoughtful and absolutely perfect for me and I can't wait to show you the goods! But you'll have to wait until tomorrow my dears :) I figured I'd save it for then since I won't have meals to show you because of my work day. Sit tight, it'll be so worth the wait!

Hope you all have a great night, I'm gonna snuggle up, drink orange juice and try and get some sleep!

28!!

Thank you all so much for the early birthday wishes yesterday! You are all so sweet :) Today was the big day and it was a fairly normalish day but was made special by my friends and family which was nice.  Weekday birthdays kind of stink...and add working the weekend on top of it and it stinks even more.  I am going for dinner on Sunday with my family though which will be nice. The only requirement I had for where was just that I needed to be able to get a giant margarita :)

So, here is how I spent my 28th birthday!! Get ready, this is gonna be a picture heavy post :)

Started off with breakfast, gf english muffin, peanut butter and my fancy cut bananas ;) Cinnamon sprinkled on top, naturally.

Iced soy latte, purchased with the gift card that Shen sent me! Thanks so much Shen!

So I'm sitting at work talking to a client on the phone and a delivery guy walks in with this...

A huge ass, gorgeous Edible Arrangements bouquet! YUM!! My bro, sister in law, little beautiful babycakes niece, and the animals (;]) sent it to me. Yay for vegan birthday awesomeness! What a great surprise!

 

Fast forward for a minute: When I came home I took it apart. Look at this amazing container! Breakfast for a while. There is a separate container with honeydew. That is for anyone else that wants fruit. I don't like honeydew. This is my container because I'm greedy ;)

For lunch I ate half of this yummy chopped salad.  I ate lunch super late and don't like eating right before I work out so I didn't want to stuff myself full of salad. Works out well because I have lunch for tomorrow!

After work I went to the gym and used this equipment...and much more! Great workout, and my trainer gave me the session as my gift. Very nice of him!

I wanted Thai food as my special birthday meal so I got some to bring home. This is tofu with mixed veggies in a SPICY sauce. After this dinner my mouth was on fire and my belly was full. Perfect meal I'd say. And I have a bunch left for dinner tomorrow!

I have the best mommy ever and she took her first shot at vegan baking. She refused to let me bake my own birthday treat so she researched recipes and found the recipe for these DELICIOUS pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Clearly my mom knows me well choosing a treat with pumpkin AND chocolate. They were delicious, she did an awesome job!

So, that was my day :) Family dinner is on Sunday so I'll try and get pics then if I remember after my margarita (HA!).  Hope you all had an amazing day!

WTF Wednesday!

Good morning everyone! In typical Wednesday fashion I'm going to post my meals in the morning because I'm totally lazy when I get home from work at 9.

I started off my day with 36 oz. of water. This is a new part of my little routine. I never thought of the whole burning off water while you sleep situation and it makes sense so by drinking lots of water in the morning you replace what you lost and you kickstart your body for the day :)

Breakfast: A yummy bowl of oats...one of my fav combos! Oats, cinnamon, banana, raisins and walnuts. SO good.

For lunch I made my favorite rice bowl to bring to work - brown rice, roasted cauliflower, roasted chickpeas and sun-dried tomatoes. This is gonna be good.

For dinner I packed up some baby carrots and tomato with hummus...see Shen, no more abnormally large carrots (until I get back to Whole Foods at least!). I also cut up an apple to eat with it.

There will inevitably be coffee consumed, green tea, lots of water and some raw almonds that I also packed. 

Tomorrow is the day! I turn 28 whole years old. Ah!

AMAZING Workout Today!

There were a lot of fights on this weekend. From UFC Unleashed (old fights) on Friday to the Bellator fights and UFC Fight Night on Saturday as well as the much anticipated Mayweather - Ortiz bout, anyone that is interested in fighting/boxing was in heaven this weekend...me included.  As a side note, I was watching UFC Fight Night and one of the fighters on the main card, Jake Shields has apparently made the jump from vegetarian to full vegan! It made me so happy to hear that! Anyway, needless to say, my trainer and I both walked into today's workout totally inspired to work hard and kick ass. And that is exactly how it went down.

We started off super fast paced. I felt really good and kept up with no problems.  We looked at the clock after a bunch of rounds and saw that only 20 minutes had passed - yet we had done more in those 20 minutes than in some sessions.  We practiced offense, defense, punches, knees, kicks...did some drills, balance exercises, shadow boxing...by the end of my session we were both sweating. It felt absolutely amazing.

So, let's check out the meals that fueled this sick workout!

Breakfast: Gala apple, raisins and peanut butter. NOMS.

Midmorning: Coffee and a banana

Lunch: Mediterranean bento! Carrots, hummus, tomato, falafel, dolma. Fav meal.

Post workout: Protein Shake

Haven't gotten to dinner yet. It'll probably be a salad of some sort. 

Hope you all have a great night! :) I have so much energy right now hopefully I'll be able to get to sleep!

Baked Apple Oatmeal!

I woke up this morning and was greeted by the most perfect fall weather I could possibly think of! Bright blue skies with nice cool air, I figured it was the perfect Sunday to try out a new fall breakfast recipe, Baked Apple Oatmeal.

Check out this gorgeous bowl!

It was really easy to make. I chopped up a gala apple (I left the peel on but you can peel yours if you prefer), tossed it in a little cinnamon and popped it into the toasted oven to bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes.  There was a little bit of bite left but it had mostly softened up and the whole house smelled like cinnamon.  I cooked my oats to my liking (I used 1/3 cup oats in 1 cup water with some cinnamon added at the end) then I added my baked apple on top.  My mom always put raisins and walnuts in our baked apples so I sprinkled some of each on top.  THIS. WAS. AMAZING. Fall in a bowl and so comforting. I enjoyed it with a mug of hot coffee.  Perfect lazy Sunday morning!

Hope you all had a wonderful Sunday! Stay tuned for more yummy eats and this week I'll post some home workouts I'm planning to start up soon!