Thursday, May 22, 2014

I Ate All This Stuff

Time for another meal round-up. I've been eating tons of awesome snacks lately thanks to my daddy. Regular readers probably remember past posts about the stuff my dad randomly orders for me from Vegan Essentials. He gets bored, and he likes to go internet shopping for snacks for me! He's on the Vegan Essentials email list, and when they run specials on shipping, he likes to take advantage of the savings. This time, he surprised me with all this!


There's Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Kettle Chips (these are so good!), Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Chips (like breakfast in a chip!), Smofu tofu jerky (delightfully chewy and smoky), Wild Garden All-Natural Hummus Dip (five to-go hummus packs!), Dang Toasted Coconut Chips (AMAZING!), and (drumroll, please!) Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Squares. Yes, vegan-freakin'-cheez-its! These fill the long-empty hole in my heart that was left there when I went vegan and could no longer have dairy Cheez-Its. Isn't my dad the best at picking out vegan snacks?

Those Dang Toasted Coconut Chips were the perfect topping for my Whole Soy & Co. Vanilla Soy Yogurt and Whole Foods Supernatural Granola. Before you go thinking these coconut chips just taste like coconut flakes, think again. These are toasted, so they're buttery and crunchy in all the right ways. I could eat the whole bag in one sitting. But I'm savoring them instead.


In my last meal round-up, I accidentally left out an old picture from when my editor Susan and I had lunch one day at Mulan, an Asian place in Cooper-Young. We both got the Tofu Pad Thai (hold the fish sauce) with White Rice and a Veggie Spring Roll.


But enough with the brown food. I eat lots of veggies too! Last Friday was Bike to Work Day in Memphis, so I and five other co-workers biked to the office. And then a few of us went to the lunchtime Bike Expo in Court Square. The Millie's Garden food truck was there. They have a few veganizable options, including the salad/side combo. I got a Veggie Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette and Southwestern Rice.


And I'm still juicing several days a week! This week, I've been making Italian Feast Juice from Crazy Sexy Juices and Succulent Smoothies before my morning workouts (usually yoga, calisthenics, or hula-hooping until I can run again). This is made with tomatoes, kale, celery, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, snap peas, and basil.


I'm also still Superfood Cleansing a couple days every two weeks. If you missed my post about the Superfood Cleanse, it's basically a vegan version of the 5:2 diet — only 600 calories two days a week and then eat whatever you want on the other days. I can't handle it every week, so I'm doing it every two weeks. Today was a Superfood Cleanse day, and I ate much of the same stuff I had last time. But I did add a new dish from Robin Westen's The 2-Day Superfood Cleanse book — Non-Dairy Coleslaw with Black Currants. It also has apples, carrots, onions, and flax oil.


I picked up Bluff City Bakery's Vegan White Loaf at the Memphis Farmer's Market last Saturday. It's a fluffy white loaf that makes excellent Artisan Toast! I spread mine with Earth Balance and the homemade Orange Marmalade that Stephanie gave me for Christmas. Just opened the jar this week!


And when I eat toast for breakfast, I like to pair it with a bowl of fruit. This week, that's been Fresh Strawberries with Strawberry Balsamic Glaze.


4 comments:

Minerva said...

Hi and greetings from Germany!
I'm reading your blog for 2 months now and i really like it.

Only thing which questions me is: What do you think about soy(a)?

I only find negative stuff (some exceptions) about it and so i try to eat and drink it as few as i can!!!

Have you any proven facts that its totally safe?

Maybe this is a question for everyone because im going for raw vegan (mb 60-70% raw already), so there will be no soy anymore because soy has to be treated before you can eat or drink it!

So hope you have a good answer for me or others im very interested. Most vegans i discussed with about this topic fall in to typical argumentation that omnis bring up when they discuss with vegans. e.g. "soy has been eaten for thousand years" replace soy by meat and you know what i mean. aren't there any real facts or is there just good talking about soy?
You have to believe it's good? i think ya know what i mean. Sorry for my bad english but i haven't used it for a while.

So again greetings and thank you very much for your great blog!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

Your dad is pretty ace for ordering you random vegan snacks! haha.

Bianca said...

Hi Minerva, I don't have any problems with soy. Especially in its whole form, like soybeans, tofu, tempeh, etc. The biggest problems are processed soy and soy additives, just like with any processed food. But I'm not like a super health-vegan. I'm vegan strictly for ethical reasons, so I'm not terribly concerned with health claims.

However, you should check out this post from Ginny Messina. She's a vegan RD and she knows her stuff: http://www.theveganrd.com/2011/08/soy-isoflavones-and-estrogen.html

GlutenFreeHappyTummy said...

that homemade marmalade looks scrumptious! yum!