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10 Random Thoughts + A Return to my Normal Posting Schedule

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Hi, internet friends! I’ve missed you. I apologize for my lack of posting in the past two weeks; although I feel as if I probably noticed my absence from the interwebs more than anyone else did. I have honestly just been in a bit of a funk the past couple weeks. My mental health isn’t at its best point, and sometimes when I feel off like that I just want to hide.

I also went home for Thanksgiving, and while I wanted to shot some recipes while I was in Wisco, I couldn’t fit my camera in my backpack to bring it home despite my best packing efforts (when I travel with Millie I can’t bring a carryon, just a personal item, and since I was only supposed to be home for 4 days, I didn’t want to check a bag), and so that didn’t happen.

Then, I got stuck in Wisco an extra few days due to a massive snow storm, and getting back to the east coast proved to be a time-consuming endeavor, and upon arrival, I was playing catchup from missing a few days of normal classes.

Even though finals season is upon us, I’m planning to go back to my usual posting schedule, which is 2-3 blog posts per week, and one video per week. I sometimes have to remind myself when I’m in a funk that creating makes me feel better and more like myself. Often times, jumping back in is the hardest part. Once I’m back in it, it feels right. So yay for posting! Yay for content! Let me know if there is anything you’d like to see in the comments below, and/or on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

Before I jump back into my normal posting schedule, I thought I’d do this sort of buffer post to explain my absence and just say hello. I seriously feel like my readers are my friends and I love connecting with y’all. Seriously, every comment here or on other channels or in my DMs makes my whole day! Never be shy! And silent readers/viewers, know I love you too and respect your right to not comment! Warm hugs to every single one of you.

Okay. So back to this 5 thoughts post. While this blog is usually environmental science/nutrition science content and recipe / eats based, I sometimes like to just do diary style posts where I just talk to you as if we’re hanging out. I love reading posts like this, so I thought I would make one myself.

So here we go – 10 random thoughts! Back to normal content this week!

1. The older I get, the Harder it is to be Away from Home

Anyone else? I feel like when I was in high school I could not WAIT to move away from home. In undergrad I felt okay being far away. It got harder and harder during my maters programs. And now I just want to go home as often a possible and spend as much time as possible in Milwaukee with my friends and family.

I know this is not the norm, but I’m actually still super close with many of my high school/middle school/elementary school friends. And the bonds I have with them feel different from the bonds I have with other people. There’s just something about the connection formed with the people you ate lunch with in elementary school and hung out in basements with in high school that can’t be replicated later in life. It’s just a different connection. Love you MKE friends!!!

I also miss Milwaukee food and the quirky shops and vibes throughout the city. It’s such a hidden gem of a place!

Oh, and then there’s my nephew. Now that my sister and her husband and their baby are back in Milwaukee, I want to be home even more. Babies are such interesting creatures!

2. I miss NYC. More than I thought I would.

Oh, New York City. I miss you in a weird way! Although at the time I left I felt like I was in dire need of a break from the big city, I think I underestimated how much it would hurt me to leave it for so long. I’d come and gone before, but never with such a sense of permanency, where I wasn’t anticipating coming back within a few months.

Looking at it now, it makes sense that I miss it. I spent 8-9ish years in and out of that city, which is 1/3 of my life, and it has become a second home. I have many best friends from NYU, my MS, and my MPH program there. I know my away around and it feels so comfortable (though exhausting). I also just feel like I thrive in an environment that celebrates diversity and compassion and creativity, as NYC does.

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Mid November Recents Vegan Eats

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

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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

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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

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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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Late July Vegan Eats

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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

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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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Early July Vegan Eats

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Welcome to another recent vegan eats, where I recap some things I ate recently that I happen to have (usually mediocre or poor) photographs of on my iPhone. I also do some food reviewskis of new products I’ve tried.

Do you like these? Some of my old subscribers I think really did. When I re-did my blog and transferred a bunch of stuff I somehow lost roughly half of my blog subscribers. I feel kind of terrible about it but don’t know what to do!

Anyways, let’s chat. I had a crazy couple of weeks, despite #funemployment. My mom had another surgery, so I was dealing with managing all that, and trying to push out some content here on the blog, including this celery juice post, which some people really appreciated, and others really detested and got upste about! As the French say, “Ça va aller!”

Without any further delays, let’s get on to the recent vegan eats!

Fresh Fin Poke

Ate here with the fam. I build-my-own with the vegan protein option (which is a mix of avocado, roasted sweet potatoes, and roasted mushrooms) with basically all the toppings minus raw onions cause #acidreflux. So good! Wisco readers, I highly recommend FreshFin!

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Recent vegan eats (Trying New Vegan Yogurts And Trader Joe’s products)

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Hey hey! I decided to bring back random bi-weekly recent vegan eats post after this recent post about food as an afterthought. So here we go! A couple of bites that went into by belly the past couple weeks. This is just a all snapshot of what I eat. I hope it inspires some yummy snacking or meal making in your life! Enjoy!

Salted SunButter Caramel Date Truffles:

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An old favorite! I love making these because they are easy, require minimal ingredients, and are so very sweet and satisfying. They make an ideal mid-day snack or after dinner treat when you want something sweet but energizing. You can use any nut butter you’d like, but I can’t get enough of the sun butter + date combo. They are so good together!

The recipe is here, and the video tutorial is here!

A Big Old #TBT Simple Goodness Bowl:

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The other night I realized it had been a while since I made a kbakes-style bowl. So I got down to business and roasted some sweet potato wedges, and paired them with organic mixed greens, Trader Joe’s frozen grilled cauliflower (the BEST frozen veggie product), hummus, random frozen broccoli, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and some crunchy seeded ShopRite crackers. I drizzled Trader Joe’s Green Goddess dressing all over this bowl for an extra punch. All the flavors + textures = veggie-powered satisfaction. Yum.

Gregory’s Coffee Lemon Poppyseed Loaf:

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I love love love Gregory’s Coffee. It always holds a special place in my heart. I used to work at NYU Child Study’s Center on Fridays while in undergrad, and would always treat myself to Gregory’s after. The fact that there is a Gregory’s in Jersey City warms my heart and soul!

You know what else warms my soul? The fact that they now have 1/2 price baked goods after 5pm! Yes!!! I keep picking up half price lemon loaf as a treat. It is so delicious, moist, and lemony, and barely sweet. I love it. Can’t wait to try their new Vegan Egg Scramble breakfast sandwich (made with JustEggs!)…will report back!

Pancake mix cookie chocolate chip cookies:

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I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies the other night, and was low on ingredients, so I whipped up some cookies using Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain whole wheat pancake mix, oats, flax, a bit of baking soda, almond milk, and avocado oil. And a solid handful of dark chocolate chips, of course.

Honestly, they turned out pretty good. They tasted hearty and substantial. Not the sweetest or most indulgent cookie, but really good in its own right. I’m gonna work on this concept and share on the blog when it’s ready….

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