Hey internet friends! How are you? You probably didn’t even notice, but I took a couple weeks offline. In addition to taking two weeks off blogging, I spent some time off instagram and Facebook, etc. My mental health hasn’t been the greatest lately, and I’ve been super busy with life things, and the internet wasn’t serving me in any way, shape or form.
I don’t know why I’ve been in such a funk lately. Well, actually, I do. Lots of life changes. But the internet hasn’t been making me feel great. I feel sad or unsatisfied on Facebook and Instagram lately, caught deep in games of comparison, while my follower count continues to drop for whatever reason, which all is just blah and unimportant and un-useful to putting me in a better mood.
All that to say, for whatever reason, I just haven’t been feeling the internet lately, so I took some time off. In addition to a mental funk, I’ve had pretty horrible anxiety, my sister had a baby, I drove for over 24 hours in a single week to a strange new place, and I’ve spent a lot of time feeling homesick, old, broke, sad, and inadequate, while questioning all of my life choices. Shout out to my friends and family who have listened to me whine or sob this past week. You’re all the best. I’m a big homesick baby!
But I’m back to share some recent vegan eats in today’s post, and have a yummy pudding recipe and Whole30 post lined up for later this weekend/early next week.
Before I jump into the eats, here’s a single photo of my new nephew at 12 hours old. Wow. Life is crazy. Also, I’m old. Wow. What a wee little guy:
Now onto the food. Going over these photos I realized how all over the place I’ve eaten lately. Lots of meals out with friends in Milwaukee, and lots of meals eaten the road during multiple days of road trips. Plenty of highs and lows along the way.
Old me who was overly focused on eating balanced meals 99% of the time would have been stressed out by the irregularity of meals, and would have felt unsatisfied eating protein bars and fruit and Taco Bell and random unglamorous food just having to go with the flow for days on end. Today’s me cares less about having each meal be extravagant and/or taste amazing is more focused on eating well most of the time, using food to fuel my life, enjoying meals out with friends and family, and keeping in mind that big picture eating patterns are more important than occasional choices that are ‘less than healthy’ or ‘ideal’ here or there.
Life ebs and flows! Go with it! Now on to the eats:
Beans and Barley Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito
I went to Beans (yes, again) with my friend Eileen from grad school who also happens to be from Milwaukee. This was delicious. A must-have at Beans and Barley! I swapped tortilla chips for salad because my body needed veggies after a carb-heavy day.
There was also house-made guacamole and salsa on the side. All this for $7! Beans, you da best!
Whole Foods Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
This was a post-Beans treat. We finished our burritos around 8, and it was a Sunday, and that point in the night, they were low on gluten-free and vegan dessert options. Thus, we strolled to Whole Foods and got random desserts.
I gotta say, this exceeded my expectations! I really liked it! The crust could have been better (like a graham cracker crust instead of an oat crust), but overall, delish!
Nectarines
Those boxes from Trader Joe’s…delicious!
Trader Joe’s Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…best frozen meal $2.29 can buy. Served with steamed fresh green beans, cauli rice, nutritional yeast, plenty of hot sauce, and Tj’s vegan cashew queso. Yum.
Banana Muffins
Homemade. Delicious. I like to eat them warmed up with pb&j.
Tone It Up Protein Powder
I’ve been sampling lots of vegan protein powder sample packets lately that I have either grabbed on clearance or gotten in the mail to try.
Now, I don’t think I necessarily need protein powder, but I do enjoy sampling it, because I just love trying new food products and enjoy making protein puddings or mixing it with almond milk for a creamy protein drink.
This Tone It Up one has thus far been my favorite! Delicious and not fake tasting.
New Chapter Protein Powder
Couldn’t even finish it. So….not for me. Even the smell….just….not for my taste buds.
Orgain Protein Powder
This one was pretty good! Not my absolute favorite, but I’d eat it again.
A tempeh sandwich from Beans & Barley
Yup, I went to Beans again. I ordered a Tempeh Lettuce Tomato sandwich with guacamole and a Tempeh Reuben and split both with my mom along with a couple side salads.
This was my first ever reuben. And by golly, I loved it! I’m not a huge greasy-food person, but Beans did this right. Not too much; just enough!
Fruit!
The! Best! Snack! Ever!
Taco bell
Lol. I love Taco Bell. For fast food, it’s super vegan-friendly, flavorful, and unlike lots of fast food never makes me feel like crap. My mom and I picked up burritos after visiting baby W because Jenn and Tyler were eating some Tbell, as well. Honestly, Taco Bell bean burritos al fresco + some hot sauce = super delicious. We took ours home, and I had mine with salad and some leftover boiled potatoes. Not a bad meal.
Veggies
Random leftover veggie plate. Steamed chopped broccoli + cauliflower, nutritional yeast, boiled potatoes, hummus, TJ’s cashew queso, and Whole Foods 365 Guava dressing. Yum.
Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
Yup. With cream cheese icing. Using this recipe as a guide and made some modifications.
Amy’s No-Cheese Roasted Veggie Pizza
The best frozen pizza there ever was! Served with nutritional yeast, hot sauce, and a side salad for a quick dinner.
Healthy Vegan pudding
Recipe tomorrow or Sunday!
Nugo bars
Road trip fuel! I love bars like these for when hanger hits and I need a quick, one-handed, fuss and mess-free food item to hold me over for a few minutes. I ate a lot of these with all my time in the car last week!
A subway sandwich that ruined me
I ate this Subway at a random shop in the middle of Ohio at 10 pm while juggling two dogs. It tasted like feet. Specifically, the guacamole definitely tasted off. Normally, I would have gone in and asked for a new sandwich and/or scraped it off, but it was late, the shop had just closed, and I was tired and hungry.
What a mistake. I have had stomach cramping and diarrhea every day since the morning after I ate this. While I can’t prove this sub was the cause…holy cow it tasted like old feet and my intestines havehated me since. I’m sure you wanted to know lol. Yikes. And I love Subway! Sad.
Panera…and lots of it!
One positive of the recent week: I have restored my relationship with Panera Bread. The Brookfield, WI location can literally never get my order correct and handles complaints about incorrect orders with a bit of an attitude, but the last 3 times I’ve gone to non-Brookfield Paneras, I’ve been delighted.
Strawberry poppyseed salad with avocado + bread all day long!
Also, the new 10 vegetable soup is delicious! Love the lemon slice. I at first thought it was just for decoration, but it certainly adds a pleasant acidity.
A mediocre vegan lemon blueberry scone
From a local coffee shop. Meh….thank you next.
A sadly awful waffle
That looked good but was honestly inedible. I never return food, but this had giant chunks of burnt stuff mixed all up in it. Also, the texture was so tough, it was hard to cut out the burnt pieces. I brought it back for a refund and ate at home. I hate to see food go to waste, but gosh, this was sadly horrible.
Hummus Sandwich
Moroccan Hummus + whole wheat bread + tomatoes + leftover onions and mustard and greens tossed in vinaigrette. Delicious!
Bread
Which has just tasted so wonderful lately with my awful tummy issues. Bananas have also been a frequent recent snack for similar reasons.
16 Handles New Vegan Flavors
I stopped in Jersey to wait out some rain while driving and tried some vegan cashew milk chocolate hazelnut and cookies and cream frozen yogurt. SO yum.
Veggie Dumplings + Tofu Spring Rolls
From a local Thai place while unpacking. I tried to order tummy-friendlier options (versus curry or spicy noodles, etc). These were all pretty good!
The dumplings had some mashed beans in them, along with lots of veggies and fresh herbs. And peanut sauce. Yum.
Random Bowls
Recent unfancy dinners have looked a lot like this: tofu, cauliflower/salad/other random veggies, nutritional yeast, purple sweet potatoes, hummus, and whatever other stuff I have around. Yum.
Hi Nico! Haha.
Well, that’s all for now. I’m planning to film a couple videos this weekend, edit one of Nico, and post some more recipes and nutrition-focused content this upcoming week. Thanks for sticking around through my ebs and flows of eats and feeling inspired to make content.
I hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you are. Cuddle your pet for me!
Leave comments, questions, thoughts, feelings or emotions below and/or Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube !
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Enjoyed the read! Thanks for sharing your highs/lows.