Say chreese!

It has been raining ALL DAY here. But even though the weather is nasty, I’m feeling rather inspired tonight. I’m telling you, I’m generally a happy person but I think this vegan diet has made even more cheerful.

For breakfast this morning, I made a nice pot of stovetop pumpkin oat bran!

Mid-morning, I snacked on a new product that Bianca sent me in a very awesome and thoughtful care package. I was so excited to try it!

I left my camera at home so I couldn’t take my own picture, but the strip pretty much resembled beef jerky, only a slightly different texture and tasted a lot better (to me).

I usually don’t bother with a lot of “fake” meat stuff but the taste and 10 grams of protein was totally worth it! I loved the barbecue flavor too.

Here’s the rest of my stash:

Don’t worry, I’m sending her some good stuff too 🙂 I’m so excited to try everything!

My stomach started growling for lunch at 10:45, which surprised me – that’s two days in a row now! But I listened to myself (and Carrie) and ate anyway. My body is more important than waiting for an “appropriate” lunch time.

For lunch, I had leftover black bean burger on a slice of Ezekiel toast with broccoli and lots of hummus on both. Sorry for the lack of picture, it was delicious.

After lunch, I got a massive chocolate craving and somehow managed to find Green & Black’s at the bookstore, who knew?

 

This was my first time ever trying this and I was impressed. I ate half and saved the rest for another rainy day 😉

My pre-post workout snack was another Clif bar…chocolate chip peanut crunch. It was just okay, I won’t get it again though. The regular chocolate chip is so much better!

Since it was raining, I ran/walked 1 mile on the treadmill and not any more because I just wasn’t feeling it. But it was a good warm up before I went and did some weight training.

• Lateral pulldown machine (50-60 lbs) – 3 sets x 12
• Chest press machine (30 lbs) – 3 sets x 12
• Bicep curls (15 lb bar) – 3 sets x 20
• Tricep presses (12 lb bar laying on balance ball) – 3 sets x 15
• Calf raises (holding 15 lb bar) – 2 sets x 25
• Lunges (with bar) – 2 sets x 15 each leg
• Crunches on balance ball – 2 sets x 25

It felt like I really didn’t do much at the time but when I wrote it all out just now, I can see how much I did do 🙂

I was so excited to make dinner when I got home! It featured another new product (thanks again Bianca).

I showed this to Josh last night and he said he wanted to try it! I was floored so I knew I just had to make it ASAP.

I followed the recipe, using water and then I added a spoon of Smart Balance Light when it was done cooking.

The rest of my dinner included Mama Pea’s Pumpkin Spice Roasted Chickpeas (I’m stalking her this week!) and some cauliflower.

The Mac & Chreese (I laugh every time) was pretty good! Josh even said “it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever had but it’s not the worst either.” I expected him to make a face and spit it out but he didn’t, he ate his entire serving!

It gives me hope that he might try some more vegan stuff in the future 🙂

I think I would like to try another flavor next time to see what it tastes like. The texture was a little different and it had a slight aftertaste but other than that, it was good. Much better for my tummy than real mac & cheese!

Dessert was the other half of my banana soft serve with the usual toppings.

With the colder weather, lots of yummy treats in my pantry and the urge to hibernate, I have decided I need to re-implement a “cut off” time for eating at night.

Unless it does appear that I am truly hungry, I won’t eat anything after 9:00 p.m.

It’s 9:35 right now and I’m totally fine. Going to have some tea before bed. Good night 🙂