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

Since I took off I like food last week, I have extra pictures this week. Dave has been having to make dinner way more on nights I work. He is a better cook than me anyway but he isn't as creative with food. When we are getting low on food he says we have nothing in to make dinner. I can always pull a few more meals out of what we have. 

 This was one of the nights we were low on food but he made it work all on his own while I was working. Pasta with "meatballs" and tomatoes from our garden. 

 We had leftover "sausage" from when we made biscuits and gravy. I made it with tofu, asparagus, tomatoes and kale for a big scramble. Elinor is weird about her food being together but it was so good she ate everything. 

 In Cincinnati we went to Melt. We always have to go here when we are in town. It is super good and also there aren't many spots with vegan options around. I wanted a vegan grilled cheese for Elinor but their vegan cheese was a spread and wouldn't work. They offered to make her a tofu sandwich with the cheese spread and veggies. She ate half the sandwich and almost all the tofu out of it. I didn't get a chance to try it because I was eating this...

 a veggie 3-way with spaghetti. so good. I ate the entire thing and felt so sick after. I just couldn't stop eating it because it tasted that amazing.

 My brother had a grill out for everyone. They had a bunch of avocados left over so My sister in law and I made chocolate pudding. I couldn't find a recipe with everything they had so we just threw some stuff together and it was so good, especially with strawberries. I can't exactly remember what I added, I will have to make it again and write it down. I think it was just avocados, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and maple syrup. 

 Some of my favorite pizzas in Cincinnati is Dewey's. My mom and I would go to yoga and then straight to get a pizza. Makes sense right? Working out just to make room for the pizza. We picked up a couple of pizzas and went to my other brothers house. My sister and I split this veggie one. Their sauce and dough is so good you don't even need cheese!

 On our last night, my friend made us this amazing veggie dish. Even her roasted cauliflower was the best I've ever had. I keep telling her she needs to open a restaurant or food truck.

 She even made us homemade almond milk for our coffee

 oh and homemade coconut milk yogurt! We want to make our own but somehow they have the dairy free probiotics at the ohio whole foods but the one here. Once we get it, I will post about the process.

 Back at home, we really needed to detox from our bad habits while traveling. So much junkfood that I didn't post about in hopes to look healthy. I made this big veggie and rice bowl with tahini dressing. Just what we needed. Elinor even ate everything! deconstructed of course.

with the leftover tofu from the veggie bowl, I made a burrito. Mushrooms, avocados, carrots, tomatoes and scrambled tofu with black salt and nutritional yeast. The sauce onto is sriracha and follow your heart vegenaise.

 Getting to the end of their lives, I threw bunch of veggies in a pot with pho soup base (I didn't have vegetable broth). I wasn't sure how it would come out with the pho soup. It actually just tasted like a loaded veggie pho so I added some rice noodles and sriracha. I will make this again.

 I used one sweet potato for the soup and had one left. I searched vegan sweet potato recipes and found this one from Lunch Box Bunch, sweet potato veggie burgers. We didn't have cannellini beans so I subbed chickpeas. I think they came out great. I thought they would super squishy when you bit into the burger but they actually held form.

Another meal Dave made. Veggie stir fry with gardein chicken. We liked it a lot but he had added ginger to the sauce and Elinor said it was too spicy. 

We need to keep a bunch of veggies in stock so I can just live off of veggie bowls. They goddess dressing from Trader Joes is so delicious and easy if you don't feel like making your own.

I like food

 homemade biscuits and gravy with cold brew coffee. We used Gimme Lean ground sausage. This stuff is messy to use but tastes the best for crumbled sausage or patties.

 Adobe Cafe in Roxborough. Vegan options for everything! We only knew about the seitan wings but realized they have vegan cheese and sourcream too. I think I fell asleep the other night talking about how I need to try the quesadillas.

 half eaten french toast with bananas. I was all ready to make oatmeal and Dave said something about french toast. Elinor had a melt down because she wanted just toast not french toast. After she ate her just toast and we sat down to eat our french toast, she realized what it was and wanted some too.

Honeygrow. We have ate here a couple of times and I really like it. I was just saying while we were waiting for our food that I haven't found the best combination of food for me there. We can get a rice of noodle stir fry bowl or a salad, both with so many options of toppings and dressing. This time I got rice with kale, broccoli, carrots and tofu topped with sesame garlic sauce. It was amazing. Elinor ate half of mine too. I think I found my favorite combination.

I like food

 I feel like we had a lot going on this week. Dave was left to do dinner a few nights. This was one of them. Spaghetti Squash casserole. Basically spaghetti squash baked with tomato sauce, cream cheese, broccoli and topped with cheese. It's pretty easy and really tasty.

 More tofu scramble this time with a side of homemade hash browns. Tofu scramble with tomatoes, asparagus, kale, nutritional yeast and black salt.

 They didn't have Daiya cheese in at the store the other day so tried out Teese. We have had it before but it's been awhile. Teese comes in a tube. Instead of shredding, we threw slices on top. We also added basil from our garden and tofurky sausage. The cheese melted really nice and the taste was pretty good.

 Another night Dave was in charge. He sometimes tells me we have nothing in when really we have a few more meals left. he ordered indian food from Tiffin. Vegetable somosa and chana masala. I love this place. It might be in my top restaurant list.

 It's been awhile since we made cheesy coconut kale and chickpeas. This meal takes minutes and all of us love it. We are running low on nutritional yeast so it wasn't as "cheesy" as usual. Still just as good.

We all wanted a treat after dinner so I took some of our frozen banana stash, blended it with cherries, walnuts and chocolate. Perfect ice cream! Elinor couldn't wait to eat it. That's her spoon and tie dye shirt peeking in the picture.

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

I wanted to share this cute protein reminder. Vegans are not protein deprived! Stop asking how we get our protein! I don't know where this image is originally from but I got it from here 

 This week we were in Massachusetts. We had to visit some of our favorite places while there. Flying Saucer Pizza in Salem, MA is awesome but even better, they have a new menu. We tried out the Silurian, evoo and chopped garlic, Teese cheddar, mac n' Teese casserole, kale, sundried tomato. Insanely good! 

 tofu fro-yo from Kushco Bistro with starberries and oreos mixed in. Elinor probably ate more than half. She was so excited it was pink!

 The best cold brew coffee from Gusto Cafe in Beverly, MA.

 Life Alive!! So excited we got to eat it twice. The emperor with tofu and no cheese. Always my favorite. Elinor loves the vegan kiddie quesadilla and a pink smoothie (eros alive)

The cambridge location has a great kids space on the lower level. I sat with her at the little table while Dave and his friend sat at a nearby table so we could all still talk. It was one of the most pleasant dining experience. She would sit and eat then play again. I even read her a few books while she finished up her food.

We went to Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge, MA too. We only ate treats but for some reason my boston cream pie disappeared before I got a picture. Elinor tried the strawberry ice cream. I managed to get a taste of it before she firmly told me that it is her ice cream. For having a baby in a diner super late at night, everyone was friendly and helpful! Thank you guys for making us feel comfortable with being bad parents and having our child up late at a show!

Do you have a favorite restaurant while traveling?

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 (365 Vegan Smoothies)

*I was sent 365 Vegan Smoothies to review. All opinions and words are my own.

Kathy Patalsky from Healthy Happy Life wrote a new book! 365 Vegan Smoothies is full of healthy and delicious recipes! Elinor used to eat everything but since this toddler has become too busy, she has no time to sit for a meal. We try to give her smoothies on the go to get those extra nutrients in. I get in a rut making the same smoothies everyday. 

flavor swirl shake

I was so excited to try this book out. It sits on our kitchen table because I've used it at least once a day. We usually have a lot of smoothie ingredients around so I was able to make one right when we received the book. My favorite part of the book is that by each recipe Kathy broke down the nutritional information. I can see exactly what Elinor is getting. 

kale sunshine refresh

As our ingredients dwindle down, I have just been checking the back of the book for what we do have. I can easily find one with what we have. Elinor loves helping make each smoothie. Well, until the blender comes on. Then she runs and hides. 

apple walnut pie

Every recipes that I've tried has been awesome. My favorites so far are the apple walnut pie and vibrant kiwi pineapple. I really think that we will end up making every smoothie before the year is over. I'm so excited to try out some of the coffee ones! Coffee banana freeze?? There are also a few matcha ones that sounds tasty. I just need some matcha. 

for July 4th. I tried to make red white and blue smoothies with 3 different recipes. I forget which ones I used! Elinor was excited with it though. 

vibrant kiwi pineapple