Stuff I Ate

It's only been a week since my last random meal round-up, but y'all, I have eaten a LOT of stuff this week. So here goes!

We'll start with breakfast! The best-ever breakfast award goes to this FitQuick Breakfast Pizza Waffle! I had planned to have one of these gluten-free FitQuick pizza protein waffles with marinara after a run a couple days ago. That's how I typically eat them, but while on my run, I had a vision of breakfast pizza. So that happened. Pizza-flavored waffle topped with scrambled Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg, Daiya cheddar, and salsa. Perfection.

I'm still on my Dave's Bagels kick! LOVE these Memphis-made bagels. This morning, I had an Everything Bagel with Crumbled Tofu, Flax Oil, and Ketchup. This sounds weird as hell, but it's an idea based off the Brown Rice Breakfast recipe from the How It All Vegan cookbook. In that recipe, you mix plain, crumbled tofu with brown rice and use it as a toast topping. And then you spray it with Bragg's and drizzle with flax oil and ketchup. I did the same thing here minus the rice because I figured the bagel was carby enough. I'll be eating it this new way from now on! Because bagels.

One day last week, I had a Plain Bagel with Fresh Herb Cream Cheese. I picked some basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley from my front porch herb garden and mixed it into Daiya plain cream cheese with a little grated raw garlic. Very springy!

The awesome folks at Vegan Proteins always throw in a small treat with your order! They included a Badass Power Cookie in my last FitQuick order. This healthy spirulina cookie has 11 grams of protein! I enjoyed it on Saturday after my 6-mile run. On the side - glass of almond-cashew milk in an adorable Hello Kitty cup that I've had since I was a kid.

I've been dining out a lot lately. But I did make this quick meal at home — Gardein Chipotle Lime Vegan Chicken, Mashed Garlic Potatoes with Gravy, & Steamed Asparagus. I prepared the Gardein in my air fryer, and it was all crispy just like it'd been deep-fried! Also, the gravy was from a packet of Road's End Organics (got a bunch of this gravy on clearance at Kroger). That asparagus was on sale for 99 cents a bunch. Yay Spring! Fun fact: The Hampton Creek Chipotle Just Mayo on those strips expired a year ago! And it's still good!

I had a BOGO coupon for Zaka Bowl, so I grabbed two bowls last Thursday — one for dinner to enjoy there and the other for lunch the next day. My dinner bowl had zoodles, baked tofu, chickpeas, roasted broccoli and carrots, corn, cherry tomatoes, and guac. Dressed with ginger lime vinaigrette and a teensy bit of sriracha BBQ sauce.

My lunch bowl — eaten at my desk the next day — had brown rice, baked tofu, roasted brussels, cinnamon sweet potatoes, roasted beets, cherry tomatoes, edamame, and Zaka sauce (like a sriracha aioli). I love these build-your-own bowls from Zaka Bowl!

My dad's birthday was Saturday, and he wanted to eat at Pancho's in West Memphis. My parents and I have been eating there since I was a kid, and we'd make the hour drive there from my hometown. It's just down the road from me now, but they still have an hour drive. We met up there. The menu isn't very vegan-friendly, but I've found one thing I can get. It doesn't look great here, but I promise it's delicious. Mexican Pizza with Spinach, hold the cheese, add guac and salsa. The flour tortillas on this pizza are deep-fried and magical.

Paul and I grabbed takeout from Crazy Noodle on Sunday night. I got the Vegetarian Crazy Bibim Noodle. This is basically a bibimbap with noodles instead of rice. It has tofu, mushrooms, kimchi, iceberg lettuce, turnip, zucchini, bean sprouts, and carrots. I love the combination of hot and cold toppings!

And Paul and I got dinner at Mama Gaia on Monday night. That's the new vegetarian, all-organic restaurant in Crosstown Concourse. I got the Cena Pita (with quinoa patties, sauteed mushrooms, and asparagus).

And a bowl of Vegetable Soup! So good! I always feel so healthy and light when I eat at Mama Gaia. So glad this place is a block from my office and my home.

Speaking of Crosstown Concourse, the Church Health YMCA just opened there last week. I'm not a member (YET), but they were having some test classes this week, so I popped by last night with a guest pass for a Les Mills BODYPUMP class. Wow! That was tough. I'm sore today, and I'm sure it will be worse tomorrow. Afterward, I knew I needed lots of protein for muscle recovery, so I stopped by Imagine Vegan Cafe for a takeout order of Red Beans & Rice with Vegan Sausage.