I like food

I didn't eat much this week due to not feeling well. The rest of my family I'm assuming did eat but I was too grossed out to even be around it. Once I started feeling better this is what i ate...

 stir fry from honeygrow. So good! Elinor helped me pick out what we were getting and wanted noodle instead of rice like I usually get. Of curse she ate nothing and only wanted to act like the puppy that was at the table next to us. At least the puppy ate. I even got her a fruit bowl with coconut shreds on top. She loves fruit, she loves shredded coconuts but the two together? no way! 

 When I finally got my appetite back, I ran to the store for vegetable broth to make hearty white bean veggie soup. It was perfect and just what I needed. I ate leftovers from this for a few days. Each day it was even better than the last.

It's always exciting when there is a demo in Whole Foods for a vegan product. Elinor and Dave tried out every flavor and loved each one. We ended up buying the triple chocolate nirvana that I tried later. It was like a huge homemade delicious soft oreo. I'm drooling for one now. Good work Happy Girl Cookie Company, we will be back for more. PS they are also gluten free.

I like food

 We are really stuck on tofu scramble lately. I found breakfast nachos on PPK. We just used the potatoes for a base and tofu scramble on top with tomatoes, onions, black beans. It took a lot of separate prep (roasting the potatoes, making the scramble, making the salsa) but it didn't take too long. Oh! and that's cashew cheezy sauce on top. We had a ton left over but it comes in handy a few days later.

 We were in NYC for the day and of course we went to Red Bamboo. It is always easiest for us to go to and we always know we are getting something good. I got the BLT...

 and got the chicken parm sandwich which was so so so big. I remembered to take pictures after we had already started stuffing our faces. 

 Finished our Red Bamboo trip up with strawberry and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Later we went to Birdbath Bakery in SoHo for a huge chocolate chip cookie. It didn't look like they would have vegan options but there were a stack of these cookies there.

 So many sweets this week. Plymouth Meeting Whole Foods had these chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies. They were small and very good but chocolate made them so much better.

I taught a night class, leaving Dave and Elinor to make dinner on their own. Dave took the leftover cashew cheezy sauce, mixed it with pasta, tofurky sausage and asparagus. It turned out to be the perfect alfredo sauce. So if you do make the breakfast nachos, save your sauce to make alfredo!

I like food

 It has been hot! We have window units all around our house but not in our kitchen. We do have a ceiling fan in the kitchen. With the oven on, the ceiling fan just whips around hot air. I've been trying to get away with not cooking too much. Making a bowl is a great option. I've said it so many times but I would rather a bowl from Life Alive in Salem. Since that isn't possible (at least until next week!) I've been making a few bowls a week.

 This one is rice, arugula, broccoli, avocados, tofu, corn, nutritional yeast, and topped with Goddess Dressing from Trader Joe's. So easy and fast to make. 

 Elinor actually likes them too. Hers of course has to be deconstructed. If I put cheesy sprinkles (nutritional yeast) on just about anything she will try it.

Big news!! Our Whole Foods finally got Earth Balance Mac & Cheese in! It was an excited night for us. We all really liked it. Elinor even had 2 servings and asked for more but it was gone. We made buffalo tofu with it and corn on the cob. I think the mac & cheese tastes like Annie's from what I remember. It has been a few years though. Now if only Whole Foods could keep the Earth Balance cheddar squares in stock!

and always a pizza night with Daiya cheese and sun dried tomatoes. We took a tip from Pizza Brain and added arugula on top after baking the pizza. Makes it so tasty!

I like food

Philly vegfest edition!

Last Sunday was the first Philly Vegfest! We loved Boston's vegfest and went every year. I was so excited for this. We got to try some new food, found out about awesome restaurants, and saw some friends. Of course it was super packed and we didn't get to try everything we wanted. I hope it happens next year! This city is full of little vegan and vegetarian spots that weren't even there.

Soom makes chocolate sesame butter! So good! Matt & Nat vegan handbags. I love that peach one

There was a huge line for the vegan scrapple so we didn't get to try any. Sweet Freedom was handing out samples of cookies. I love that shop! NOt only vegan but also gluten free, soy free, peanut free, kosher, and more. They just opened a new shop in Bryn Mawr. I haven't been in yet but I drove by and it looks a lot bigger than the philly store.

This was about the time it was getting so packed, we couldn't move. Elinor and I found a place to wait while Dave picked up some more snacks.

 yummy fresh juice but I forget the name! Whole Foods was there and handing out pretty big servings of Beyond Meat Jamaican jerk chicken with mango salsa and coleslaw.

 Italian seitan 'cheesesteak' handpie with heirloom marinara and a Nutella-fluffernutter handpie with homemade vegan hazelnut spread from Miss Rachel's Pantry. Elinor was a huge fan.

 We had a great time! I'm so excited for all the coupons we picked up. It's not often you find a ton of coupons for the vegan products we buy.

I like food

I haven't done one of these in awhile. I love to find out about new places and new recipes. We aren't the best at writing down our own recipes but we are really good at eating.

Coming home from Long Island a few weeks ago we stopped in Brooklyn at Champs. We have never been there for some reason. It was a wait to get in on memorial day morning but totally worth it! Cold brew coffee, "chicken" and waffles, tofu omelettes and even cheese sticks!! We didn't get any treats because we went to get donuts after at DunWell Donuts. I some how didn't get a picture of them because we inhaled them so fast.

Last Friday was National Donut day! Good thing Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting had us covered! We had glazed, caramel cream w chocolate n pretzels, vanilla filled, and berries n cream. They make donuts every weekend and we have been making a trip every friday. We need to probably chill out on that a little. 

The roof of Plymouth Meeting Whole foods is a taco truck. The vegan tacos taste different than last year but for the better. Last time they were too spicy and not much to them. Now they are full of potatoes, seitan, peppers and onions with vegan cheese on top. So good!!

A lot of our veggies were so close to going bad. We threw it all on the grill and made a grilled salad with homemade ranch dressing. We baked the potato on the grill too and threw some Daiya cheese on top.

Overnight oats. I could eat this all day. My friend sent me an awesome site The Oatmeal Artist. You guys, the banana cream pie oats!! 

Lettuce Wraps from The Vegan Stoner. We have been in a rush to make dinner lately. This recipes are super fast and we usually have all the ingredients laying around.

This weekend is Philly's first vegfest. We loved the one in Boston and went every year. There were always tons of samples, coupons and demos. Come out this Saturday from 11-4 at The Shambles in Headhouse Sq (2nd and Pine). We will be there!

Happy Birthday Dave

Saturday was Dave's birthday. We woke up and I whispered to Elinor to tell him happy birthday. It was the sweetest little sleepy voice. We didn't have any set plans. I made him his favorite tofu egg sandwich and he had used his birthday gift of an ice coffee maker the night before so we could have cold brew coffee with breakfast. Dave is forever obsessed with finding cold brew coffee where ever we go. I found the Hario MCPN-14B Water Brew Coffee Pot on amazon. It was pretty basic and had good reviews. So far he has loved it.

We ran a few errands, went to the mall to check out UNIQLO again. This time we bought some things. It is going to be hard going to the mall now and not buying everything from there! So many cute clothes for all of us. It's like H&M and American Apparel but from Japan. If that makes any sense.

and we met Hello Kitty!

Later that day we met up with Pop pop,Cindy and Grandma (Cindy's mom. Elinor decided all on her own that it was grandma) for a birthday dinner at Harvest. We have never been there but heard they had veg options. It is always a struggle going out to eat with any of our family members and finding a place that has anything for us to eat besides a salad. Harvest was amazing. We all were able to get something different and even try a few appetizers. Dave had the spicy tofu stir fry, Elinor had the kids spaghetti and I had the pan seared beet steak. Everything was so good. Dave wasn't into the beet steak because he doesn't like beets but I thought it was delicious. The kids portions were huge! Elinor ate a ton and still had leftovers to bring home.

We went back to Pop pops for vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods. Then Dave and I went to see Godzilla. We both liked it even though Dave wanted to see more of Godzilla. We came back to collect a very sleepy Elinor and went home. It was such a great laid back day.

vegan vitamins

We have been talking about getting a daily vitamin for Elinor. She still is breastfeeding but has been cutting back. She is eating really good again but yesterday only took maybe a bite from each meal. While we were at Whole Foods, we looked around at the children's vitamins. I was thinking we should just get the powder kind to mix in with her smoothies. Dave thought she would be fine with a chewable. We decided on VegLife. It had everything in it that she needs including iron and B12.

This morning I gave her one and right away she asked for more. I told her tomorrow she can have another. I'm excited we found a great vitamin that she is willing to eat!

We found our at Whole Foods but you can also find it on Amazon here...

 

GoPicnic

I'm such a sucker for anything that says vegan on it. I feel like I need to support any brand that makes a vegan option. Yesterday I was at Target with the two babies running a couple of errands. When I have both of them I try to be as fast as I can because I never know when they are going to be done with sitting there. We made a trip down the baby aisle and I found vegan friendly baby snacks to buy myself some more time. I ran down some grocery aisle for a couple of things. Going down the wrong aisle I saw a box that said vegan. It was small and at the bottom but the packaging caught my eye.  I bought all three. I was shopping on an empty stomach.

GoPicnic makes all healthy meals to go. On their site you can find options for gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian and kosher diets. I hope Target keeps these in stock. I'm still so excited they sell Gardein! Now if only Whole Foods in MA would get better vegan baked goods! How come Ohio has better blueberry muffins than us??

coupons

I've been trying so hard to use coupons on everything lately. I bought our first box of diapers (newborn ones, we plan to cloth diaper when she gets a little bigger) and it was free! Even though I try I'm still pretty bad at it. This morning I saw everyone on facebook posting this livingsocial for $20 worth of groceries at Whole Foods for $10! Of course I bought it. If you get 3 other people to buy it too you get it for free!

So if you ever shop at Whole Foods follow this link and get a great deal!
livingsocial Whole Foods coupon