The Adventurous Type?

After shopping at a new grocery store yesterday, I was very excited to try out some of my new snacking products. As a result, the day was full of eating adventures.

Outside of food choices, I am not sure if I would categorize myself as someone who loves adventures. I try to constantly push myself to try new things but I’ll admit there are times when I let hesitation and nerves get the best of me.

However, when it came to breakfast this morning, I had no hesitations about diving into my pumpkin pie dessert hummus. I tried a variation of a pumpkin pie smoothie from one of my favorite healthy living food blogs.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie:

2 ice cubes
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie dessert hummus
1 cup almond milk
½ banana
1 tablespoon organic vanilla brown rice protein powder

Another new thing I tried this morning was the Breville we received as a wedding present. Amazing! It barely broke a sweat as it blended the whole ice cubes into smoothie perfection.

For lunch, I had another new product to try. I made a wrap with a whole wheat tortilla, some veganaise, greens and some sliced falafel I picked up at Stew Leonard’s. It was delicious. See falafel below:

As a snack this afternoon, I had some sliced berries topped with Ola Vanilla Almond granola (also a Stewie’s purchase). A nice afternoon treat : )

After work, Pat and I met up with his good friend Kevin from high school and his girlfriend Meredith. We tried a place called Apiary in the city and enjoyed a delicious dinner and some BYO wine. I was a little self-conscious about snapping pictures of my food at the restaurant. I need to work on that...

The Apiary Dining Room

Anyway, I was really impressed with the food and how accommodating the restaurant was of my needs. There were no vegetarian choices on the menu but as soon as I mentioned to the waiter that I didn’t eat meat or diary, he said “I’ll take care of you.” Take care of me he did! I loved my noodles and veggies in white wine sauce. For dessert I had the sorbet trio. I could only have a few bites because I was full after the meal but it was the perfect sweet ending to an adventure filled day.

So yes, it was a successful day of new foods and new friends. We even made plans to go sky-diving in the future… I suppose time will tell if I am truly the adventurous type : \

One of those memories

This could be one of those memories
We want to hold on to, we want to cling to,
One that we can’t forget…

-Darius Rucker

This weekend Pat and I drove up to New Hampshire for Country Fest (featuring Brad Paisley, Sarah Evans, Darius Rucker and Jason Aldean). My best friend Tia got me tickets to the concert for my birthday and I was sooooo excited that the weekend was finally here. I had such an amazing time hanging out with Patrick, Tia and her boyfriend Ed on Saturday (see pics below). Then on Sunday, we stopped at my sister’s new apartment in MA and got to have breakfast with my mom and her boyfriend Ken. After spending so much time with family and friends this weekend, and having waaaaay too much time to think and reflect on the traffic-laden ride home, I started to feel really lucky.

Time seems like it is going by so fast lately. Sometimes I can’t believe I am married or that my baby sister is out on her own or that my oldest niece is almost old enough to drive (scary huh?) Anyway, when time is flying by it is comforting to think that along the way I am making great memories with loved ones : )


Ok, enough of the mushy-gushy stuff. On to the grub…


Dinner on Friday was snacks on the road to New Hampshire:

Berries with crumbled graham cracker crumbs

The cooler and the amazing cowgirl hat Pat bought me in South Dakota

Country Fest here we come!

Saturday morning Tia and I went for a long walk and returned to enjoy the colorful fruit salad that Tia had made. Although I always knew she was a one-in-a-million kind of friend, the fact that she stocked her house with vegan eats for my visit was another indicator of how lucky I am. We also enjoyed some stove-top banana oats.

Tia and I are both cowgirls at heart : )

Packing the cooler with VEGGIES!

Finally, we were on the road to the festival. After lots of traffic (have you noticed the weekend theme?) we arrived in the parking lot and the tailgating began.

Patrick grillin some veggie skewers with shrimp




Eggplant "burgers"



The spread





Tia eating homemade pickles from our tailgating neighbors



Pre-bite photo shoot

I approved!

Ed working the grill

Only Tia and I would drink Pinot out of Solo cups at a country concert

Rockin Out

I don't know...

We found Diana in the section right next to us! Only true friends can find each other in a stadium of thousands.

The night ended…

well, let's just say some stadium french fries may have been involved. Oops!

Sunday morning I awoke feeling the effects of late night Brad Paisley. Nevertheless, I was ready to visit with the fam. We stopped by my sister’s new gorgeous apartment and then headed over to a local breakfast place. There weren’t many options for a hungover vegan so I passed on the pancakes and picked up some Panera later on the road. It was so good to catch up with my family. I haven’t really gotten to see my mom since the wedding festivities and I missed her!

On the way home, traffic was so bad that Pat and I needed a break from the road. About 4 hours into the drive I spotted a childhood favorite: Stew Leonard’s. It is this grocery store we used to go to when I was a kid; Meg and I LOVED it. There were buttons to press and dancing bananas and free samples to be had. So, when I spotted the familiar sign I shouted "PULL OVER" and a grocery shopping pit-stop ensued.

I was very excited to discover a new product called dessert hummus. It came in many flavors but I was most excited about the pumpkin pie flavor.

The goods

So I am off to bed (but not before a little taste of my pumpkin pie dessert hummus). Did anyone else get excited by seeing the words pumpkin pie and hummus in the same sentence?? I have not seen two such amazing foods combined since the invention of Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter...

Portion Shmortion

So forgive me if the following sounds a little teachery...

When it comes to healthy living, I usually feel like I do pretty well. I try to eat the right foods, cook my meals at home and exercise at least a few times a week. You could say I feel like I have mastered most of the healthy living objectives. However, there is one area in which I need consistent remediation: portion control.

If life was a classroom, I would be in the slow group for Portion Control 101.

The reason I mention this is because I was a little disappointed today when I got on the scale and discovered I had gained 3 pounds.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not someone who lives and breathes in accordance with a number on a scale. In fact, I rarely weigh myself unless I get bored while the shower is heating up. However, after all the desserts and yumminess I have been featuring on my blog, I knew deep down, I had been overdoing the sweet stuff just a little bit…

The amazing thing about being vegan is that it provides so much freedom. You don’t feel guilty when you indulge in an occasional brownie or cookie because you know that you cooked it yourself and the ingredients are wholesome. However, vegan or not, 2 brownies or cookies or chocolate peanut butter cups a night for weeks on end does not make thee a “skinny bitch.” Oops!

At one time in my life, I may have freaked out about a few extra pounds. In fact it could have spawned some mild starvation stints (I have only recently started to realize that I may have struggled with some disordered eating issues in my younger days). Now, I just look at it as a signal to start doing my portion control homework again. What a drag.

Basically, my goal for the next two weeks is to cut down on my dessert portions and try to check in with myself before going back for seconds at meals. I need to remember that healthy food is not so healthy for your body when you eat too much of it. As much as I wish it was the case, my little body does not need to eat 2, 500 calories a day. Bummer.

I think mindful eating is just as important as healthy eating and perhaps I have been neglecting that…


To start off my challenge, I began the day with a smoothie infused with protein powder. Now, don’t go adding Myoplex to your smoothies just cause I said the words protein powder! That stuff is terrible for your body. For real, read the ingredients sometime. In fact, I tried out some organic protein powder made from spirutien and brown rice that was not half bad. I did miss my double bagels with cream cheese and honey that I had been enjoying along with the smoothie but I figured a supersize breakfast would not be the right way to start off…


About half way through the morning I enjoyed a peach and some seltzer water. At first, I wanted to go for some PB too but I checked in with my tummy and realized I didn’t really need it. For real! I promise! I passed up peanut butter and didn’t even miss it. Strange huh?

At lunch the peanut butter reappeared (I couldn’t stay away for long). I had a wrap with peanut butter and apples. Yum! That held me over until after the kiddos left the building when I enjoyed some cut up veggies. Sorry no pics. The middle schoolers kept me quite busy today.


By the time I got home from work and got in a quick workout, I admit I was starving. Mindful eating made me very MINDFUL of the fact that my stomach was beginning to eat itself from the inside out. Vegan veggie fried rice to the rescue:

Veggie Fried Rice:

2 cups cooked brown rice
Chopped baby bok choy
½ cup broccoli florets
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons organic shoyu
¼ cup water

1. Saute rice and veggies in sesame oil. As rice heats up, it may get dry so add water slowly to keep moist (ughh I hate that word!)

2. Add shoyu and ginger. Let cook on medium until bok choy is wilted (about 8 minutes)

Patrick's portion with eggs added

I enjoyed a medium sized portion with some leftover veggies from last night and only went back for a tiny portion of seconds (couldn’t resist).

Fresh berries for dessert tonight.

I don’t even miss the chocolate peanut butter cups…

much.

Date Night

When I say Date Night, I am actually not referring to the movie above (which by the way I found sorely disappointing- except for the scene with the mouthpiece- that was hysterical). Otherwise, definitely a movie that did not meet my expectations. I am in fact referring to the email Pat sent me today around noon saying that he’d like to take me out for sushi. Hurray!

I didn’t really feel like cooking tonight anyway. There. I said it.

Sushi was one of my favorites before going vegan and I was a little bit wary of having to give it up. However, I’ve since learned that there are ways to enjoy sushi and other Asian choices “vegan-style.”


We often go to this place nearby called Wild Fusion. The food is pretty good but the real appeal is in the take-out. Literally, you hang up the phone and the food arrives within 5 minutes. Makes me question the freshness of what they bring me but when you get home from work at 9:30 and haven’t eaten lunch since 12, you sometimes just don’t care...

Anyway, I digress. So after all the cooking I’ve been doing lately I was pretty psyched to get out of the kitchen and get a menu in my hands. My go-to choice is usually the veggie hand rolls with brown rice OR sometimes I select from the vegetarian Chinese food side of the menu (the beauty of fusion people).

Tonight was...

Veggie Spring Roll for Two



Buddha's Delight with Brown Rice
Snow peas, Green Beans & Broccoli





Pat was hungry for more than just Budha's Delight. He was aiming for a Budha Belly!

The best part about going out to eat is that it means two meals with NO cook time (aka doggie bag lunch).

So the date night was a successful one (even one day later than expected). Now if you'll excuse me I have no kitchen to clean, no dishes to wash, and no lunches to pack...

I feel like I already got lucky and date night isn't even over yet ; )