Saturday, February 28, 2015

What Vegans Eat

This is a week in the life of a vegan eating regular food- trying to be healthy but not obsessing about getting in 7 vegetables per meal or eating 0% fat or only eating what I was able to hand-gather from my organic woodland garden, or whatever.

Note: all days include lots of water, and various green/black/floral teas- I'm a bit of a tea hoarder.

Monday
-Free bagel day at work! I chose a whole grain bagel topped with SmartBalance Light and blackberry jam.
-Root vegetable curry from the slow cooker for lunch
-Silk yogurt to hold me over til dinner
-Tempeh, avocado, spicy mustard and spinach on sourdough with the last of the tortilla chips



Tuesday
-Smoothie with soy milk, spinach and a frozen banana
-A few sea salt and vinegar chips 
-FEAST! Team lunch out and we ordered. Everything. They. Had.  The vegan selection of which was pickled veggies, Brussels sprouts, chips (it's a British pub, gotta use their lingo) and veggie sliders (without the dairy-containing buns). It was a late lunch, and I was so stuffed afterwards that I didn't eat anything else for the rest of the day.


Wednesday
-Smoothie with soy milk, spinach, a frozen banana and some frozen pineapple, which was a nice fresh pop of flavor.
-Free lunch day at work!  Today was Thai food; I had rice, pumpkin curry, tofu and green beans.
-Silk yogurt (it was on sale, can you tell?)
-Dinner was a solo affair as AP is travelling until Saturday, so I made myself some tater tots in the toaster oven and grilled a sandwich with tempeh, spinach and Daiya cheese.


This pic was before I doused everything in ketchup mixed with Vegenaise.  Yum.

Thursday
-Silk yogurt with homemade peanut butter granola from Minimalist Baker (minus the chocolate chips, I think those are pretty pointless in this recipe.  And plus some spices).
-Leftover veggie curry with brown rice and salad- not too much as I was still full from a late breakfast.
-Handful of pretzels to tide myself over til dinner.
-Epic failure of an avocado pasta dish!  I tossed that dish and just had a Boca chick'n patty on an English muffin.  The Thomas brand are not vegan but most of the off-brand ones are.  Mine are Safeway Extra Crispy.


We had a house guest on Thursday evening!  A sweet pit bull had found her way to my office. She crashed with Pups and me for the evening; luckily we were able to reunite her with her mom the next morning.

Friday
-More Silk yogurt and granola for breakfast
-Too nervous with work/puppy stuff to eat lunch, snacked on some BBQ Lays.
-Late lunch/early dinner was macaroni with nutritional yeast cheezy sauce, Yves pepperonis, and lots of wilted spinach.  No pics because this was not a photogenic dish at all- but it was comforting with a creamy/spicy flavor.

Saturday
AP comes home tonight!
-Not really hungry for breakfast, so I nibbled on a little granola with soy milk.
-Lunch was leftover macaroni from last night, even better the next day!
-Chocolate milk snack! Soy milk blended with a frozen banana and some cocoa powder.  Simple and not overly sweet. 
-Tonight, we will have a sushi feast when AP gets home featuring 4 rolls: avocado, fried tofu with red pepper, spicy tofu with carrot, and macadamias with spinach and vegan cream cheese.

Time to do some dishes, cook some sushi rice, and cuddle that Pup until his dad comes back home to us.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

The Next Step

It's Sunday afternoon. We are back from a morning at the beach. I'm curled up on the couch with a tuckered out Pups by my feet. A stack of magazines is by my side, ready for browsing. My family is making me laugh on our group text. Vegetables are being curried in my crockpot, making the house smell amazing. Pizza dough is rising in my fridge. AP has just finished cleaning the entire house and is about to pop a bottle of sparkling rose.

Today is a pretty good day.

I'm trying to slow down and enjoy the peaceful days while I can. At the end of the summer, we will be giving away everything we own, getting on a plane and heading to Israel for two years. AP accepted a post-doctoral position near Tel Aviv; Pups and I will be tagging along.

There is so much work to be done before we go. Visas, housing, job hunts, Pups accommodations. It's overwhelming but I just have to keep in mind that by October, we'll be having another day just like today, where we do all of our favorite things and eat our favorite foods and take the scenic route home and just live life. Except we'll be in a different house, visiting a different beach, using a different crockpot. Hopefully the new crockpot will have a lid that isn't broken; I can dare to dream.


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Adventure and Avocado

Last weekend I managed to coax AP out of the apartment so we could hit up a travel expo in Santa Clara. We scored a bunch of free swag and had a blast coming up with an insanely long travel wish list.



This is my new life motto.  

Every country had their own booth where they lured people in with candy and free pens and then tried to convince you to book a three week stay in their homeland. Some were more creative than others...




I wanted AP to take a pic with one of the Taiwan mascots, but he refused as he did not want to be embarrassed.  However, once he spotted the Segway test driving booth, he pushed past the other children to get in line for a try.



Not embarrassing at all, right?

I take way classier pictures, clearly.




Rick Steves was there! I wanted an autograph but there were about 200 middle aged women elbowing each other for a chance to get near him, so I took a pass.


After we'd seen all there was to see, we stopped off at Aqui Cali-Mex for swirls and lunch.  These swirls are killer- they recommend you stick to no more than two but I can barely finish one.  Don't want to fall asleep in the train home and end up in the city!


Mmm, guacamole.  They have gluten free, vegan and vegetarian options marked on their menu. The food's not authentic, but it keeps the swirls from knocking you senseless.  My dish had beans, tofu and potatoes, nice and hearty, and quite tasty!


I've recently recommitted to being a vegan after a three year sabatical, and I feel so comfortable and relieved with my herbivorous decision.  Check out my Tumblr for more vegan food porn! And husky pics, natch.