Playing catch up

I’ve got a really busy couple of weeks coming up so I decided to take a day off from work today to catch up on some things. I hadn’t set an alarm but this sweet face woke me up at 7.

For breakfast this morning, I had leftover baked oatmeal and banana oats from Wednesday with some PB on top and a small glass of OJ.

I hardly remember eating this because once I was done and watched a few minutes of TV, I passed out on the couch for another hour! Guess I needed it.

At 11, I got hungry so I snacked on a faux rice krispie treat, then headed out to meet my aunts to pick up our race packets (they are still walking a lot and doing races, I’m so proud of them).

We had lunch at Qdoba, where I got a grilled vegetable burrito with rice, guacamole, pico de gallo, and salsa. It was yummy and took me a while to eat it! [Sorry no pic]

I did a lot of shopping today so I was hungry and came home to get a snack.

I found this at Whole Foods and haven’t been able to find it anywhere else! Sadly, my WF did NOT have the seasonal Clif bars, what gives?!

The Zbar was good but it contains organic honey for those of you who don’t eat it. Just FYI.

I was still hungry a couple of hours later, so I had another snack when I got done grocery shopping. I so cannot buy these again:

They were delicious, especially when dipped in hummus – I had two servings. I think I liked these better than the Naked pita chips.

Since I ate more than one serving, I kept dinner on the light side.

We went to McAlister’s Deli and I got the half salad and cup of soup.

Their vegetarian chili is delicious and vegan. I got the Greek salad with no feta but it isn’t listed on the Vegan Eating Out website, so I guess maybe the dressing wasn’t?

Either way, it was a good meal.

We went to Target for a while (love that place if you didn’t already know) and then I came home and made some decaf coffee because it’s freaking cold! I can’t believe I’m running a race tomorrow!

With my coffee, I had some of this:

Love it!

No night is complete without some peanut butter and chocolate chips, for me at least.

Hope you all had a good Friday. Even though I had the day off, it went by way too fast and I don’t feel like I got much done today, other than grocery shopping and getting some ideas for Christmas.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Good night!

Day 26: Making adjustments

I just realized that today is exactly ONE MONTH UNTIL THANKSGIVING!

This has made me realize that I have been indulging in some things lately that I don’t usually and it’s time to make some adjustments before we get into the holiday season.

To start the day off, I had some healthy, filling oatmeal with apples, cinnamon and peanut butter for breakfast.

I decided to give the Pumpkin Spice Silk another try so I heated up about 1/2 cup and then poured coffee on top of it.

BINGO! This tasted great and what a more affordable (and vegan) way to enjoy pumpkin in my coffee 🙂 Next I’m going to have to try Mama Pea’s version!

Snacked on some peanuts for the first time in a while (for me).

Then for lunch,  I had leftover Vegan Refried Bean cakes which I turned into a sandwich with some spicy mustard!

I also had some carrots and a new type of hummus on the side.

I picked this up at Whole Foods over the weekend. Once again, it was just okay. I’m going back to the good stuff after this 😉

After lunch,  I went to class and tried not to fall asleep. I managed but I still yawned quite a bit. Exercise Science is an interesting field to me but we’re still making our way through all the body systems and I’m finding it rather dull.

Later in the afternoon, I snacked on some soy yogurt.

This stuff was way too sweet and made me realize that I have been consuming more sugar lately than I am used to. There’s one adjustment I’d like to make. I need to find a good brand that has lower sugar. Some are better than others. And I definitely need to stick to plain and put my own stuff in it.

After work, I went for a 4 mile walk. I had it on my “agenda” to run tonight but it was one of those days where I walk just sounded like a better idea. I really enjoyed it and my legs are definitely still tired!

For dinner, I was having a major bread craving, so I made this ciabatta loaf I picked up at Kroger (take and heat):

I also made a nice salad of Italian style greens and a drizzle of Italian dressing.

Then I heated up some leftover Hot Tamale Vegetable Pie with a side of bread 🙂

All together now…

I’m so glad I took the time to figure out what I wanted and made a healthy and enjoyable dinner. The only thing missing was some good wine, but that is another thing I am trying to keep to a minimum. I am secretly hoping somebody brings some on Wednesday at Girl’s Night 🙂

With just one month until Thanksgiving, what goals are you hoping to work on?

I’ve also decided to join Caitlin, Bobbi, and many others in the Pile on the Miles challenge that begins on November 1st!

While I have no goal of winning this thing, since there are some really dedicated runners in this group, I do want to make it a goal for myself to get in lots of miles, either through walking or running, between now and Thanksgiving.

This is why I love Mondays, ends of months, and beginnings of new ones. Let’s get to it!

Day 25: The Final Stretch

So here we are, 25 days into the Vegan MoFo III challenge!

Just a few short weeks ago, I made the decision to adopt a vegan diet and while there have been a few challenges overall it’s been very easy and fun.

Now that I am in the final stretch, I’ve had a lot going through my head about what I want to continue after the end of this month. But we’ve still got 6 more days, so let’s wait on that!

Breakfast this morning was more banana pancakes 🙂 They kept sticking to the pan which is why some of them are a little messy looking but it certainly didn’t impact the taste.

Plus I got to try something new I picked up yesterday.

I have to say…as excited as I was about this when I bought it yesterday, I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

I couldn’t really taste the pumpkin spice at all. I think I need to use more next time or save it for an in between meals drink because it was competing with a lot of other flavors in this meal.

For lunch, we went with my parents and in-laws to Applebee’s which immediately made me nervous because I could never remember them having anything veggie-friendly.

As I paged through the menu, I couldn’t believe that every single dish contained meat and/or dairy. Literally! The only things without meat were some of the appetizers and soup.

I ended up getting the Crispy Orange Chicken bowl minus the chicken.

It contained almond rice pilaf and a tasty mix of mushrooms, broccoli, red peppers, sugar snap peas and shredded carrots and topped with toasted almonds and crispy noodles, all in an sweet and spicy orange glaze. I stole the red onion from Josh’s plate 🙂

This dish was really good! I know it couldn’t be vegan or it would’ve been listed on the website but I felt I did pretty well considering the lack of options. My big complaint though is that I had to pick out a couple tiny pieces of chicken that I found in there!

The waiter had brought the chicken out on a separate plate because I “was going to pay for it anyway, so someone might as well eat it.” So what they had done is made the salad as is and then took the chicken off the top before it came out.

I found this a little weird and it’s good ethical animal issues isn’t my primary motivation. I could see where this would rub someone else the wrong way. I remember one time when Court was still a vegetarian, she found a piece of chicken in something and flipped out!

But I didn’t say anything because we were with family and my dad was paying. But I’m thinking about sending an email or a letter just to show my concern.

After lunch, I embarked on some house cleaning and then got hungry for a snack. I had been thinking about the pumpkin butter I bought yesterday all day long so it was time 🙂

So good! I can’t wait to throw it in oatmeal. The other slice had a little bit of peanut butter on it 😉

I’m currently working on dinner, so I’d better get back to it. Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

Day 24.2: Fall flavors

I ended up going to Whole Foods, Valu Market and Kroger before my grocery shopping extravaganza was finished! I went a little over my budget (which was $40) but I splurged on a couple of seasonal items 🙂

This is why I love Fall!

There is also a “Nog” flavor that I will be getting closer to Christmas time.

I’ve been on the search for pumpkin butter for a while too and I finally found this little gem, which just happens to be local (from Hazard, KY) which makes it that much better!

These apples were no splurge, I got 3 lbs for $1.50!

When I got home, I was starving for lunch, so I had some leftover Vegan Refried Bean Cakes that I turned into a wrap when I topped them with salsa on a tortilla.

Then I had some carrots and hummus on the side to round out my meal. I really enjoyed this!

After shopping at all those places, I think I want to try and get more stuff from Whole Foods next time. They had a lot of winter squash on sale and also avocados for $1 each! I passed those up this time, but I did find peanut butter for $1.79, a new kind of hummus to try and of course the Silk Pumpkin Spice. I will be using that in my coffee tomorrow morning!

There were a lot of things that were more expensive though, like bread, lunchmeat, etc. that I buy for Josh so I doubt I will ever do all of my shopping there but maybe when we have a bigger budget.

I actually found some really great things at Valu Market, especially produce! So I think next week I may try to do Whole Foods + Valu only, we’ll see.

It’s time to go be crazy with Courtney at the Halloween stores!

Hope you have a wonderful day 🙂