A Normal Day, Finally!

Hey everyone. I know my food posts have been lacking lately, mostly because my appetite has been weird and I just have been too lazy to take pics. The same happened yesterday, I photographed my first two meals then just didn't take any more pics. Today is a different day though and I took pics of everything so I'm going to include the two from yesterday and then today's meals.

I'm starting to feel a bit like myself again. The anxiety comes and goes, sometimes intense sometimes mild. I feel better on average though which is a good thing. I had also contacted a chiropractor to try and figure out the whole shoulder situation but I found out that my insurance plan doesn't cover chiropractors so I had to take a different route. A few years ago before the problem had gotten really bad I saw a doctor that specializes in spine stuff (I don't remember the dr. term lol) and he was very nice so I'm going to see him next week and hopefully he'll order and MRI and we can start investigating.  Let's hope!

Been laying a bit low on the upper body exercises because of the recent flare up. Hit the bag a bit yesterday at the end of my session but didn't go full power on that side. The workout was still pretty hard core, we kept up a good pace and did a lot of cardio drills and full body workouts. This morning's workout was 30 minutes of intervals on the arc trainer.

Yesterday's breakfast was a smoothie. This one had 1/2 cup cherries, 1/2 cup blueberries, almond milk, chocolate vega shake & go powder and lots of spinach. It was kind of meh, I prefer all cherries but I ran out!

For mid morning snack I had a pink lady apple with some Artisana raw walnut butter. OMG this stuff was so good! I need to find where they sell the small packets of these and stock up because the WFs I go to doesn't have the packets. The walnut butter was perfect on the apple. It tasted like a sweet treat instead of a healthy snack. Definitely recommend the walnut butter!

After my workout this morning I had a cup of Multigrain GF Puffins with Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze. 

Late morning snack was a banana with a tbsp of pecan butter, some raisins and cinnamon. Very delicious.

Sorry for the crappy pic but for lunch I had a tasty quesadilla on a gf brown rice tortilla. It was filled with fat free spicy refried black beans and lots of spinach.

My afternoon snack will be Roasted Seaweed Snacks from Trader Joe's. Only 60 calories for the entire package, and it tastes soooooo good.

Dinner will be leftover salad that I got last night. They make a huge salad which is beneficial for me because I get two meals out of it... and each serving only costs $2.25 for a fresh tasty salad. Not too shabby.

Overall I'd say it is a pretty great food day. Hopefully work will go quickly. It's another beautiful, warm day and it always bums me out to be inside the whole day. Oh well, it is what it is.

Hope you are all having a great day!

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!