daily eats

Recent Vegan Eats, NCSE Conference Recap, and What I ate on my Birthday!

January 18, 2020 by Katherine Baker 12 Comments

Hi there, good friends of the internet! It’s time for another ‘recent vegan eats’ post, where I show some highlights of recent vegan eats, and add little blurbs of what’s going on in life along the way. As always, these posts are not intended to depict an ideal diet, but rather show you some easy, affordable vegan things I eat, and/or highlight some fun stuff along the way. Without further pause, let’s get into some recent vegan eats!

I am sitting here typing this up on my birthday night, reflecting on the past year. Holy moley. I have had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It has been a journey.

The past couple of weeks especially have been a lot! A lot of fun, struggle, joy, saddness, hope and growth! I feel like I’ve had wild realizations in the past couple weeks and so much of the past year of struggle feels like it’s clearing up. I’m feeling genuinely excited and optimistic for the first time in a couple months. Hooray! I will share more details for the upcoming year soon, but big shifts are coming and I am thrilled.

Now, on to the eats!

Vegan Conference Food

I spent the week of January 6-10 in DC at the NCSE conference. I was delighted to find out that all of the food at the conference was vegan or vegetarian! It made my heart and my tastebuds very very happy indeed. Kudos, NCSE!

My favorite was probably breakfast. Because I adore fancy fruit and bagels. And the bagels were excellent. And they had almond milk out for coffee. Right next to the half and half and skim. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a catered event that had a non-dairy milk out for coffee by default. Amaze.

Here are couple photos from the conference, in case you wanted to see a few more:

A couple highlights:

Seeing a couple young activists speak.
Learning about effective climate communications.
Learning about how to tell if purchasing a carbon offset is a scam or not.
Learning about science communication through comedy.
Meeting new friends and seeing some old ones!
Feeling motivated to actively work to combat climate change!

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December Recent Vegan Eats

December 28, 2019 by Katherine Baker 4 Comments

Hi friends! Welcome to this edition of recent vegan eats, December/holiday style! I have been oddly busy since getting home for the holidays. Like, from the day I got home I’ve had days packed with appointments, family stuff, errands, etc etc. I’ve still barely had time to just sit down and rest! I am hoping to catch up on chill time, blogging, and some work this weekend. I feel so out of my routine it’s making me crazy!

Anyways, on to the recent vegan eats! If you’re new around here, in these “recent vegan eats posts,” I simply share some phone pics of random foods that I’ve eaten recently. These posts are not meant to depict what an ideal diet looks like, but rather, they are meant to just give you a glimpse of cheap easy vegan eats, restaurant highlights, and new vegan product reviews. Enjoy!

Chocolate Tofu Pudding

Two nights in a row before I left town to go home for winter break, I made full-brick servings of my chocolate tofu pudding. Basically, I whirled silken tofu with a hefty amount of coco powder and a tiny drizzle of syrup and a tablespoon or so of peanut butter. I topped it with coconut whipped cream from Trader Joe’s. So good.

Amba Mango Sauce Tofu + Bowls

Last Sunday I whipped up a quick, wholesome dinner for my mom and I. I had been wanting to try the Amba Mango Sauce from Trader Joe’s for a while, so I bought some a weekish ago and put it to work! I quickly marinated some firm tofu with the sauce, and baked it for 25ish minutes at 425 degrees.

I also steamed some cauliflower and broccoli, and cooked up some veggie rice. I then assembled everything in a bowl and topped it off with more Amba Mango sauce, Sriracha and some cilantro.

It was a tasty quick meal! The Amba mango sauce was pretty good. I think it’d be even better with a hit of lime juice for some aded brightness. Next time!

Bran Muffins and Cereal

I am so into bran stuff lately it hurts. In a good way. Pictured here is a random vegan bran muffin. But I’ve also been VERY into bran flake cereal. I get the Millville Bran Flakes from Aldi and they are scrumptious with chilly almond milk for a night time snack.

Beans and Barley Blueberry Pancakes

The best vegan pancakes ever! Yum.

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Mid November Recents Vegan Eats

November 17, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello again my friends! I hope you have been well. I write to you from the comfort of my futon, as I wrap up a more-social-than-usual weekend and prep for a busy week ahead. Today’s post is another recent vegan eats! If you’re newish around here, in these posts, I share some photos and descriptions of what I’ve been noshing on lately, in hopes that it might provide some entertainment and/or food inspiration for you if you like eating plant based on a budget. I also hope to show that most things I eat are totally unglamorous. So it goes!

I feel a bit all over the place lately. I am so looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving and the holidays. I feel like going on always refreshes me. I cannot wait to spend time with people I love in my cozy hometown! #MidWestBestCoast

I’ll stop chattering and get to the recent vegan eats, mid-November edition!

Maple Salt Bananas:

Me, eating bananas? Shocking, I know! This is a snack I made up recently that I am SO into. Bananas sliced with a sprinkle of sea salt, some raw almond butter, and a drizzle of syrup. Delish!

Cinnamon apples

On repeat! The recipe for cinnamon apples can be found here. Individual apple crisp for one recipe coming soon.

Tempeh stir fry:

I made stir fry for dinner on Friday night. I typically grocery shop on Saturday or Sunday so I’m usually low on produce and other staples by Friday night, and this Friday night was no exception.

But, I was able to make a stir fry using some Banza rice, and some leftover fresh cauliflower, which I bulked up with a bag of frozen vegetables, and I marinated half a brick of tempeh in a milk of liquid + coconut aminos, ginger, Sriracha, and maple syrup.

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Mid-October Vegan Eats, Some Fall Family fun, and WIEIAD 2

October 13, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hey there internet pals! It’s time for another recent vegan eats and another bonus WIEIAD. I decided I may do a couple more even though I find them odd. More than anything, I find video a fun medium to play with, and it gives me content to edit.

Before we dive in, I want to address my post frequency (or infrequency) recently. I’ve slowed down a bit since the summer time, simply because moving/adjusting to a PhD program/getting in the swing of things and juggling research, classes, TA-ing, graduate student orgs, and being a human/dog mom in a new town while being homesick has been…a lot! I’m trying to post at least once a week, and striving to value quality over quantity.

I decided I’d rather post once a week than have 3 crappy posts a week. So for now, that’s what’s going on. If you have post requests, leave a comment below or say hello to me on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

Okay, now read on for recent vegan eats featuring some visiting fam!

Apples

Once again, starting off a recent eats post with apples. Holy yum. The apples around here this time of year are incredible! I’ve been snacking on them daily. SnapDragon apples are a delicious new-to-me variety that have been fun to add to my apple rotation.

Other than that, fresh Fuji, Jonagold, golden ginger, pink lady, Cortland and gala have been my favs. What are your favorite apples? Tell me so I can try them!

Creamy Cheesy Vegan Pumpkin Pasta

I keep making this because it’s so cozy! Recipe for this creamy cheesy vegan pasta is here.

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Early Fall Vegan Eats (And a ‘Vegan What I Eat in a Day’)

September 20, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Welcome back to vegan eats! Where every couple of weeks I share some meals and snacks I’ve been noshing on lately. I hope you enjoy these early fall vegan eats! Who else can’t believe it’s practically October ?!

These meals are typically not glamorous and/or super interesting. In fact, reading over this post I’ve realized most of them probably sound weird and look terrible. But hey! This is my real life. I’m a bit fatigued from the food glamor aesthetic of insta and have had zero desire to make my food look cute. Mostly I’m just concerned with refueling and moving on lately. So here we are! I also did a “Vegan What I eat in a day” which I felt really weird about, but feel free to check it out if you’re interested.

As always, these posts are meant to share ideas about simple food and tidbits of my life, and are not meant to be an example of a ‘perfect’ diet. Everyone has different needs, resources, and taste buds. You do you! Now on to the vegan eats.

Apples!

Yum. I can’t get enough lately. Tis the season. For some reason I couldn’t stomach apples for a couple weeks during/after my tummy issues. Now I’m back on the apple train! This was a ginger gold. What’s your favorite kind of apple? I love trying new-to-me varieties.

PB&J

Who is surprised? That’s right, exactly no one. What can I say? It’s a packed lunch that never lets me down!

Spicy Potatoes with Beans and Veggies

This meal is also filed under “meals I make when I have minimal groceries but don’t want to go to the store.” It’s also filed under meals I genuinely enjoy so it’s a win-win. basically, I microwave-steam or roast potatoes (any variety works, I used white potatoes because they were on sale and sometimes I like mixing up the sweet potato game with some plain potatoes) with taco seasoning or a mix of turmeric, cayenne pepper and cumin.

Then I heat some beans and corn and sometimes a frozen veggie mix (like a peas/carrots/corn) mix with the same spices. I enjoy with whatever leftover veggies (on this particular day it was roasted cauliflower) I have plus some salad. I serve this with nutritional yeast, salt, hot sauce, and guacamole if I have it. Yum! Filling, cheap, nutritious, delicious. Meal win.

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Back to School Vegan Eats and Life Updates

September 4, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello internet friends! Welcome to another recent vegan eats post (a back to school vegan eats, to be exact) where I show you some things I’ve been noshing on lately, give random life updates, and give you my hot take on new products I’ve tried.

I’m writing to you from my futon in my wee little studio; Millie is curled up on top of multiple pillows at my side. I’m watching YouTube, wrapping up some work, and trying to relax after a crazy week.

The past couple of weeks in general have been full of surprises, highs and lows. I feel like I can’t even process everything that’s happened. Less than a month ago I was home in Wisconsin, living a cozy familiar life, enjoying tons of laughs, hugs, meals, and sunshine with all of my closest friends and my family.

Now, literally everything is different, and I am just starting to meet new people, and just starting getting to know this new place while navigating a whole new work and study space. Everything still feels so unfamiliar. Eep! Life’s adventures are crazy. Thank goodness for my adorable, loving dog.

Adulting is hard! Self-doubt can be paralyzing! Anxiety is annoying! Decisions are tough! And the older I get, the more homesick I am! Oh, the struggles of change!

Also unsettling: there was a local shooting this week. It was way, way too close to home to not shake me up a bit. Yikes.

I just feel like my anxiety has been rearing lately. Which is why this weekend, I’m planning some down time, which will include lots of mommy/Millie time, a little blogging, junky TV, and some other content creation.

I have so much to be thankful for. I truly do. I just need some time to process my thoughts and settle into a comfortable routine. I’ve found that when I don’t have a routine, I really feel….off. So once I have settled into a weekly rhythm, I am sure things will feel more normal.

Now that I’ve blabbed my life at you, let’s chat about vegan eats. To be honest, I haven’t been taking many food photos lately, and food has been feeling pretty whatever these days.

After my stomach issues, my appetite has been just…different. I want a lot of simple foods and have been very much eating to get by for energy and less for enjoyment, and haven’t really been thinking about documenting eats for the blog.

But here’s what I have documented, and I hope you enjoy.

Let’s get into it!

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

‘Tis the season! Haha. Back to school means back to packing lunches. Until I’m more in my groove, I’m very into quick-to-pack easy and reliable lunch options. Which means a lot of peanut butter on Whole wheat bread with super exciting sides like bananas, apples, baby carrots, nuts and granola bars. I’m five years old when it comes to my school lunches, and proud of it.

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Recent vegan eats & why I haven’t been online much lately

August 24, 2019 by Katherine Baker 1 Comment

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!

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Early August Vegan Eats + Random Life Updates

August 4, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello there internet friends! Time for a fun recent vegan eats post. In case you’re new here, in these “recent eats” posts, I share photos of yummy food and my dog and interweave some tidbits of daily life into the post. It’s like good old fashion wholesome bloggin’!

Now, let’s hope to it! Vegan eats time!

Honeydew

Why does honeydew get so much hate? When it’s good, it’s so good (IMHO)!

Buckwheat Oatmeal Waffles

Last weekend I realized I hadn’t made waffles in a hot second. So, I decided to change that! Vegan buckwheat oatmeal waffles were enjoyed with banana slices, peanut butter, and real maple syrup. Yum. I will share the recipe soon!

Vegan Salad Nicoise with Mustardy Beans

So yummy. Would highly suggest making. Recipe here.

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Late July Vegan Eats

July 22, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Holy cow! How is it almost the end of July?! I can’t believe I’ve been home for two months now. And I’m so sad I have to leave again soon; I was just getting cozy!

I’ve been having so much fun with my Milwaukee friends and fam, and getting back to making content her on this site and elsewhere. If you haven’t checked out my post on what it means when your phone tells you there is “Unhealthy Air Quality for Sensitive Groups,” you can check it out, here!

Let’s move on to some recent vegan eats! If you’re new here this is a mini series I do every 10 days or so to highlight some random things I’ve eaten to inspire your own food ideas and/or give you an idea of what a vegan on a budget eats. Here we go!

Tempeh Bowl

This is one of my favorite ways to eat: a big bowl of veggies and roasted potatoes and a marinated or seasoned protein (tofu, tempeh, or beans). On this particular night I mixed Whole Foods brand organic arugula (which is $1.99 regular price and most often quite good), organic romaine, chopped carrots, and steamed and cooled broccoli as the salad base.

I marinated some flax tempeh using this recipe as a base (truly, I just kinda wing it every time with soy sauce, maple syrup, coconut aminos, liquid aminos, ginger and sriracha) for about an hour then baked for 20 ish minutes at 425. Delicious! My mom really liked it too, which made me happy. I like when I make vegan food she enjoys.

I also roasted a regular and Japanese sweet potato (cubed) and cooked them to add to the salads. Yum! Sometimes I also add grains to these bowls but the large potatoes were enough and I wanted room for cake…

German Chocolate Cake

So on my half birthday I decided I should make half (yup just half) a cake. I scanned the pantry and decided I’d do German chocolate since I had everything I needed.

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Mid-July Vegan Eats

July 15, 2019 by Katherine Baker 2 Comments

Bleh. Life has been weird lately. So it goes, right? Anyways, we’re not here for me to complain. We’re here to discuss some recent vegan eats.

If you’re new here, this is a weekly/bi-weekly series where I just mention some things I’ve eaten recently that I also happened to have taken photos of. It’s a realistic view into things I eat on the daily, with some highlights along the way.

Brownies

I had a serious hankering for brownies on Friday night. Like, old school brownies. I whipped up a (very mini) batch with simple ingredients using a simple method and was super pleased with the result. I may try to make a bigger batch and actually pay attention to what I’m doing so maybe I can post a recipe!

Banana dog!

Haha! My aunt gifted me some Angelic Bakehouse hot dog buns leftover from a cookout. So naturally I warmed them a little in the microwave, then slathered their insides with nut butter and a banana and cinnamon.

For a couple days in a row I ate two of these banana dog things for lunch with apple slices or melon and some snap peas and carrots. Yummy. Low key incredible.

Re-friend Bean burritos

Yummy. I’ve been on a retried beans kick lately. I just buy organic retried beans from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods (refried pinto is my current fav) and heat them up with some spices (cumin, a dash of cayenne, and a hint of turmeric) and enjoy on whatever tortillas happened to be cheap or on sale (using whole wheat or corn) and enjoy with lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, guac if I have it, condiments galore!

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