Take a load off

Whew, my dogs are barking! In case you have never heard that expression, it means my feet really hurt, ha ha. My great-grandma used to say it all the time. Sitting down to right this blog post is the first chance I’ve had to take a load off!

I got up early this morning and made myself a delicious breakfast of waffles with peanut butter and a faux sausage patty.

This is the last of the Eggo waffles and Morningstar Farms stuff. I won’t be getting them again since I know they contain dairy ingredients (among other weird ones I can’t pronounce).

I also made myself a big cup of coffee with soymilk but only ended up drinking half of it…who am I?

Then I met up with my aunts at the Zoo for a nice 4 mile walk. I was glad to start my day off this way since most of the evening is going to be spent sitting down at a birthday dinner and the UFC pay per view later on 😉

When I got home, I sorted through some coupons and make a grocery list before hitting the stores. I picked a good time to go too – our big in-state rivalry football game was this afternoon and I try not to get all caught up in the hype. I try to avoid conflict and be peaceful, haha.

I got hungry while at home, so I went ahead and ate lunch since we all know grocery shopping in that condition is not the way to go 🙂

I had Muir Glen organic savory lentil soup and it was delicious! It did not photograph very well though.

This soup had a lot of sodium! But I’m not sensitive and I try to keep products like this to a minimum. As you can see I also had a whole wheat pita pocket on the side.

I spent almost 2 hours grocery shopping! I had lots of coupons and I went to two different places to get the best deals. I only went over my $50 budget by 12 cents, but I think next week I’ll be way under because I got so much today!

When I got everything put away, I was hungry so I had some mixed nuts.

I swear, when I’m really needing a snack, nothing satisfies me like nuts. I don’t know if it is the protein, fat or the combo but they are perfect and I love them.

Can you tell I need a nap now? I’m about to get right on that.

We are having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory tonight for my friend Beth’s birthday! It’s only the second time I have been there and the first time since going vegetarian 🙂

Hope you all have a great Saturday.

Prioritizing

Happy Thursday y’all! Thank God it’s almost Friday, right? Thank you for all the great comments on my last post about the Bittman article! I appreciate it.

For breakfast this morning, I had two Eggo waffles, a Morningstar Farms patty and some canned pears that I drained and rinsed (can you tell I’m trying to use stuff up)?

I debated over whether to put something on the waffles but in the end I just ate them plain and enjoyed it that way 😉

Mid-morning, I snacked on some mixed nuts and took a 15 minute walk, yay!

For lunch, I reluctantly had the leftover Lentil Rice and Veggie Bake that I made for girls night this week. It was actually kind of better today or perhaps I was just really hungry 😉

Yes, I threw some Brussels on there! I love them and they are high in Vitamin C! That is especially cool with cold and flu season upon us.

After lunch, I had some fruity tea and a piece of dark chocolate. Sorry recycled pic here, the other one disappeared!

For my afternoon snack, I decided to give soy yogurt another try. I’ve been doing some research and it is hard to find non-dairy yogurts that are also low in sugar! I’ve found one brand that I want to look for next time I’m at Whole Foods but for now, this one had to do.

This little container has 18 grams of sugar. This made me realize I need a priority? What is going to take precedence? Sugar or the fact that this is non-dairy?

I’ve long said I would not choose “junk” in favor of avoiding meat or dairy products. There are a lot of restaurants where the only vegetarian or vegan options would be French fries. I’m sort of in a pickle here. Ooh pickles…I digress.

But for now, the soy yogurt was good and I won’t eat it everyday so perhaps it can remain a part of my diet? I also don’t want to overdo soy products. This does have some good points though.

To “bulk” it up a bit, I added two tablespoons of Ezekiel golden flax cereal. I did just a little bit first to try it.

But it was totally yummy so I threw the rest on there and went to town. The yogurt was so creamy and just a bit sweet, not terribly overwhelming like some of the fruit flavors. I’d get it again.

After work, I got to take an hour long yoga class. It was pretty simple, for beginners, but I enjoyed it immensely. I left there feeling relaxed and peaceful which is my favorite thing about yoga.

Our teacher was also really funny! She was an older woman and she made the funniest little jokes during our practice. She said her instructor once told her that if you don’t breathe during your asanas, your brain will freeze, ha ha!

The class was great and when I got home I was STARVING! So I hurried up and made dinner. On the menu tonight…TOFU!

I got a small package of Silken Extra Firm tofu (Mori-Nu), drizzled some canola oil on it, sprinkled on some seasonings and baked it in the oven at 425 for 25 minutes (a bit longer since it’s Silken).

On the side I had some mixed veggies, a pita pocket (plain) and some ketchup for dipping the tofu. It was so delicious!

I’m enjoying a nice cup of peppermint tea and a piece of dark chocolate. This kind that I have, it is vegan and it only contains 5 grams of sugar per 3 pieces! Thank goodness I don’t have to make a choice there 😉

The cool thing is that this is MY diet so I can decide. I hope you do the same for yourself. Good night!

Sleepy Saturday

Well, I think we can almost officially call this Fall now! The leaves are turning, the weather is cooler (at least in the morning and evening hours), Starbucks have Pumpkin Spice lattes back…IT IS FALL!!

I’m so excited because I think this is becoming my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of winter but perhaps I can be creative this year and find a way to enjoy that season more too 😉

So, where to begin! Oh yeah, let’s start with how Friday went down…

Breakfast was plain oat bran with banana and almond butter. The jar is almost empty so you know what that means…oats in a jar soon!

Then mid morning I snacked on more banana and PB after a 15 minute walk (this was half, the banana from this morning was huge):

For lunch, I had one of my favorite vegan convenience meals!

I don’t want to become dependent on these but it got me through this time 😉

YUM! Just as good the second time around…

After lunch digested, I went to the gym for a 40 minute treadmill workout with Farrah. We did walking and running intervals until we reached 3 miles…went something like this – 5 min walking warm up (2.5 mph), Run 5 minutes (5.5 mph), Walk 2.5 minutes (3.8 mph) – repeat run/walk sequence 4 times – cool down walking for 5 minutes. In the run sequences I did 6.0 for the last minute a few times.

It was awesome! I felt like I could’ve pushed it more but I didn’t because I want to honor my body and not reach those limits as I’m not a competitive athlete or anything. My body thanked me by not being sore and I wasn’t too tired either.

Snacks were some REAL dark chocolate (no milkfat in this piece):

Some almonds…

For dinner, I convinced Josh to go to Shalimar, a really great Indian restaurant here in town. I ordered what I’ve seen Gina eat several times…Baingan Bartha!

I had mine over some rice with garlic naan on the side. I think this dish was vegan, no? It was just peas, eggplant and sauce I think. Geez, it was so good. I ate most of it, but not all.

Even though I felt pregnant (with a food baby) for the next couple of hours, I still managed to eat a serving of ice cream (not vegan trying to use it up):

Then we watched a couple of bad movies (The Mummy Dragon Emperor something or other, dumb and Valkyrie which wasn’t too bad actually) and I snacked on two sheets of graham crackers (these need to leave my house like now) and a couple of marshmallows.

Then I had some tea and went to bed 🙂 Zzzzz…

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Hello Saturday!

For breakfast, I had two very non-vegan Eggo waffles with PB and banana. I decided to have fun and make a waffle-wich!

On a Pokemon plate no less. Haha. Close up of the yummy goodness…

On the way to meet my mom for a nice walk at the park with Suzie, I grabbed a tall soy latte from the ‘Bucks. It was tasty…I think there soy latte feels like a treat even though it’s fairly low in calories! I resisted the pumpkin spice latte for now 😉

At the park, we walked around the track twice which is about 2.4 miles, plus walking to and from the car, we got a good workout in! So did my silly dog.

For lunch, we went to Mimi’s Cafe, which is easily my favorite restaurant. While perusing the menu though, I couldn’t help but think how hard it would be for a vegan to eat there.

I ended up getting the veggie burger with fresh fruit. I only used half the bun as it was huge and not even close to whole grain.

This was pretty good and definitely filled me up. But I can’t eat veggie burgers all the time…

I think I might write to the company…not to complain, but just to find out their suggestions for vegan menu options. Other that a garden salad with no dressing…that’s what I’m finding on the websites out there – that’s not a meal!

I also had some delicious unsweetened raspberry tea 🙂

Before I went grocery shopping, I popped a piece of real dark chocolate. Now that I am back home, I’m thinking it is time for a nap. I’m going out with some girls to Ramsi’s tonight…I see falafel in my future…and it is beautious!

Have a great day friends!