The Vegan Easter Bunny Arrived!

I got a special delivery in the mail on Wednesday! Every year, my dad orders me treats from Vegan Essentials for my "Easter basket." Yes, I'm almost 40, and I still get an Easter basket! My parents are awesome.

This year, since I can't physically see my parents (because I don't want to risk unknowingly spreading COVID-19), my dad picked out a few items from Vegan Essentials and had them shipped to my house. He asked for suggestions, and I said "anything with chocolate and peanut butter or caramel", and I hinted that I'd like to try the new Beanfield's Vegan Cracklins. I'm on a vegan pork rind kick these days. Here's what he picked out!

The big Easter surprise was this Sjaak's Dark Chocolate Chunky Peanut Butter with Caramel Egg!

It's a hefty egg, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the whole thing stuffed with peanut butter and a caramel swirl. I always loved the Reese's PB eggs, and this is like a giant one! Sjaak's makes the best chocolates!

My dad picked out these Amy E's Bakery Caramel Cashew Bars, which also really surprised me when I cut into them. I wasn't sure how much caramel or cashew would be stuffed inside, but it's a lot! This bar reminded me of a Snickers but better — because cashews are better than peanuts, and there's no yucky nougat. 

The Beanfield's Korean BBQ Cracklins are awesome! I'm planning a review post soon for another brand of vegan pork rinds (made with puffed rice), and these are very similar to those in taste, but they're made with beans. The Korean BBQ flavor was the only one in stock on Vegan Essentials when he ordered (Vegan Essentials has been hit with pandemic shopping!), but I'm glad this was flavor was left. It's a spicy-sweet barbecue cracklin with lots of crunch! 

Hope y'all have a Happy Easter this Sunday! I don't celebrate in a religious sense, but I'm all about tofu eggs, Easter bunnies, and spring picnics (enjoyed only with your quarantine partners, of course)!

Tofu Wings! Jameson Slushees! And Healthy Meals!

Slider Inn, a Memphis bar famous for their sliders and Jameson slushees, is offering curbside pick-up during the pandemic, so I stopped by this past Saturday to grab my favorite meal from them — Tofu & Cauliflower Wings with Fries.

The wings (you get three tofus and three cauliflowers) are served with vegan ranch. The fries always come with bourbon mayo (but the mayo isn't vegan), so the best part of takeout is making your own bourbon mayo at home. I mixed bourbon with a little Vegenaise for a fun fry-dippin' treat! I also got a Jameson Slushee to go! Memphis has lightened up on our booze laws for the pandemic, so bars are now allowed to sell cocktails to go! Let's hope that's one side affect of this bad situation that stays well beyond the virus!

After all that grease and booze, I needed a detox on Sunday! So I made a big batch of Kitchari (inspired by Hillary's kitchari posts) using this recipe for Ayurvedic Cleansing Green Kitchari Bowl. It has finely chopped broccoli and spinach added along with the red lentils, and it made me feel so good inside. I topped my bowl with the last of my homemade unsweetened soy yogurt.

Here's an bowl of Berry PB Oats that I had for breakfast one day last week. I try to eat fresh berries daily, but that's hard when I'm trying not to leave for groceries as often. So I'm turning to frozen berries to fill in the gaps. Frozen berries are great in oats!

Intermittent Fasting Challenge: Week 1

No Meat Athlete launched a 30-day Intermittent Fasting Challenge back in March, and I really wanted to participate along with the large group of NMA Academy members who signed up. But my 50K was coming up, and I was afraid to change anything with my fueling schedule before the run. Now that the 50K is behind me, I decided to try the challenge on my own in April!

If you're not familiar, intermittent fasting refers to dietary patterns that cycle between fasting and non-fasting, to help you experience the health benefits of fasting without many of the downsides. You fast for a set number of hours each day (often with 16 hours as the goal) rather than doing an all-out no-eating-for-days fast. There are other methods of IF as well (like 5:2 or alternate day fasting, but I've tried those before, and low-calorie life is NOT for me), so I'm aiming for 16:8 (16 hours of fasting/8 hours of eating as my goal for the last two weeks in April).

But we're starting small! On April 1, I started the No Meat Athlete IF gradual build option. In this option, you start with 12:12 in week one (that's 12 hours of fasting/12 hours of eating), and each week, you get closer to 16:8. Next week, I'll be doing 14:10, and then I'll be doing 16:8 for two weeks to close out the month.

So far, 12:12 is pretty easy and not much different than I how I normally eat. I might start eating at 7:30 am and stop at 7:30 pm. No sweat! I'm using the Zero app to track each day's fast, and it gives you the option of using their filter on your fast-breaker meal. Over the weekend, I broke one fast with Ramen Noodles with Tofu. My favorite weekend breakfast.

On another day this weekend, I woke up after a long sleep and got ready for an 8-miler. I like to have white bread bagels with hummus or nut butter before longer runs. An 8-miler isn't terribly long for me, so I only had half a bagel. This was a Dave's Sesame Bagel with Trader Joe's Hummus. You'll notice I actually fasted for 13 hours that time because much of my fast happened while I was sleeping, and I slept in that day. Fasting is easy when you're sleeping!

On Monday, I broke my fast after a 40-minute yoga video with Berry Protein Muffins and Fruit!

The one thing that's kept me from trying IF before is the fact that, on week days, I run super early in the morning, and I've always felt like I needed a pre-run snack (usually, that's a Larabar). But I've been reading more about fasted cardio, and you don't actually NEED to eat before a workout that's less than an hour. It's more of a comfort thing for me, but I was still nervous to try a fasted run this morning. Today, I had my first fasted run (a 4-miler), and you know what? It was fine!! I had some coffee before heading out, and that was all I needed until after. I like to have quick-digesting carbs immediately after a workout, so I broke my fast after my run with this bowl of White Rice with Guacamole Salsa.

About an hour later, I had my usual post-run protein smoothie. This 12:12 life is pretty simple. But starting tomorrow, I'll be trying a week of 14:10 (14 hours fasting/10 hours eating) so I expect it will get a little more challenging.

You might be wondering WHY I'm doing this? Honestly, it's just a fun food challenge, and I've long wanted to try 16:8. Fasting after a certain time each day would be hard with social obligations (dinners with friends/happy hours/etc.), but right now, there are no obligations! Thanks, quarantine! I figure I should use this opportunity while I have it because it won't last forever.

As for the health benefits, they say IF can reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, which protects against certain chronic diseases. It can also help with digestion and gut health. People looking to lose weight can also see benefits, though I do NOT want to lose weight. In fact, that's been a concern for me with trying this. When I get to the 16:8 weeks, I'm going to have to focus on getting plenty of calories in my eating window. It's possible to do IF and not lose weight, but I believe it will take conscious effort to eat more when I can (and honestly, I'm really good at eating a lot!).

I'll check in with one post a week dedicated to my IF challenge!

Potatoes! Beans! Pasta!

It's a pantry party! I'm used to frequent (almost daily) trips to the grocery store for this or that, but on my last big shopping trip, I tried to stock up so I could avoid those trips as much as possible. Sure, I'll have to venture out for fresh produce soon. But I'm well-stocked on beans, grains, potatoes, and frozen foods.

A recent No Meat Athlete podcast with guest host Julia Murray covered some pantry staples for the pandemic, and I took that list with me to Trader Joe's a couple weekends ago. One meal idea Julia (of Hooked on Plants) mentioned was a Potato Party! Cook some potatoes any way you want (I air-fried mine) and top with beans, salsa, avocado, and whatever you have on hand. I added soy yogurt as a sour cream stand-in, plus black olives and nooch. So good!!

Dry pasta is cheap and keeps forever, so I stocked up on whole wheat spaghetti and canned tomatoes (for homemade pasta sauce). Paul and I made Spaghetti & Mushrooms again last weekend. I added spinach to my bowl (Paul doesn't do green leafys) and a side of garlic toast (made with sliced bread cause it's what we had).

And I had some leftover pasta and sauce on Friday night to carb-load for Saturday's long run (currently marathon training for a "social distancing" virtual run). I added a chopped Morningstar vegan chicken patty and some Violife mozz (it keeps well in the freezer!) for a Chick'n Parm dish.

I am leaving the house to pick up takeout sometimes! I'm ordering from Imagine Vegan Cafe at least once a week to show my support. I know restaurants are having a hard time, and I feel like it's my duty as a vegan foodie to show them some love! Not everyone can afford to eat out right now, so as someone who is lucky enough to still be working, I feel very strongly that I should spend some of my money on takeout. Last week, I got Imagine's Southern Staple to go. Black beans, brown rice, collards, garlic aioli, and cornbread. They give you SO MUCH FOOD.

I ate half of that (and all the cornbread) for dinner that night and saved the other half for lunch the next day, enjoyed with some steamed broccoli with nooch during a work WebX meeting. Y'all, WebX meetings for work/Zoom workouts with my gym/Google Hangouts with friends are pretty much my entire life these days. I've already earned the office reputation as being the girl who is always eating during WebX meetings! But I was the girl who was always eating in the office as well, so it's fitting.

Review: CBD Living Vegan Gummies

I'm always looking at the bright side of every situation, and despite how terrible this whole pandemic is, I've found a few silver linings in my own situation (I should note that I absolutely recognize that I come from a place of incredible privilege since I'm able to continue my regular work from home).

One of those silver linings is better, longer sleep! I'm sleeping at least an extra hour every night since I don't have to get up at 5 am. And now that I'm taking CBD again, I'm sleeping through the night!

CBD Living sent me some samples of their extra-strength vegan CBD gummies, and I've started taking one every evening. I've been out of CBD for awhile, but I've always found that, when I'm taking it, I get more deep sleep (according to my Garmin sleep tracker) and tend not to wake up throughout the night.

These new gummies each contain 25mg of nano-CBD sourced from 100% organic hemp (grown on state-licensed farms in Oregon and Colorado). Each bottle has 30 gummies, totaling 750mg of CBD per bottle. There are four flavors mixed into every bottle — cherry, strawberry, lemon, and orange. So far, the strawberry is my fave!

CBD has lots of benefits, so you can take these any time of day depending on what you're taking it for. But since I take it for deeper sleep, I tend to take one every night at 8ish. It doesn't make you sleepy at all, but I want the benefits to be felt throughout the night.

CBD Living has a lot of vegan products, and they're all nicely arranged together on this page of their website. They have everything from CBD soaps and teas to oils and freeze rubs for sore muscles.

Pizza, Burgers, Muffins, & Bowls!

A few months ago, while visiting Nashville, I picked up some locally made BE-Hive seitan pepperoni. I stashed it in the deep freezer until I was ready to make pizza. And that time came on Saturday night! I had some frozen whole wheat pizza dough as well and some leftover homemade marinara. I added Daiya Classic Blend and some sliced red onion, and voila! Vegan Pepperoni Pizza! Y'all, the BE-Hive pepperoni is the best I've ever had!

Since the pandemic began, I've pretty much been exclusively shopping at Trader Joe's. It's very far from my house (like a 35 minute drive), but they're staying well-stocked and limiting how many people can be in the store. It makes for a pleasant shopping experience, which has not been the case at my chaotic neighborhood Kroger. Plus, TJ's has fun foods that bring me some extra joy during these crazy times. I grabbed some of their Hi-Protein Burgers last time and have been enjoying them with Green Beans & Tahini Sauce (a simple recipe from the No Meat Athlete Cookbook).

Bowls are a simple meal easily pulled together from pantry ingredients. Here's a Stir-Fry Bowl I made this week with tofu, broccoli, bell pepper, and brown rice. I've been trying to keep the fresh veggies stocked!

Here's another bowl — White Bean with Kale & Dill Sauce — that I whipped up using canned beans, fresh kale, brown rice, and an easy yogurt sauce with homemade soy yogurt, fresh dill, fresh parsley, salt, and garlic powder.

And finally, here are some Berry Lemon Protein Muffins! I used this recipe from One Clever Chef (the vegan version) to make these protein powder muffins. I'm doing lots of yoga and strength work at home this week (virtual gym classes!!), and it's nice to have something besides a smoothie after. I stocked up on frozen berries for the pandemic!

Vegan BBQ + Spaghetti Night + Breakfasts!

Here's a round-up of a few things I've been eating while quarantined at home! Last Tuesday was The Great American Takeout (a day when we were all encouraged to support restaurants still open for takeout), so I ordered the Vegan Memphis BBQ plate from Imagine Vegan Cafe. They're doing pick-up and delivery, and I plan to order at least once a week for as long as this goes on. I really hate how much this COVID-19 thing is hurting small businesses like Imagine.

I'm working from home these days. Paul is still working at work, but his company has reduced the number of days they're working, so he's home in Memphis when they're off. That means there are lots of Spaghetti Nights in our future. That's our favorite meal to cook together. Here's a recent spaghetti night pic!

Last week, for breakfasts, I finished off my Be Leaf Vegan Fried Eggs (served with toast and air-fried potatoes). I'm sad these eggs, made with tofu skin (yuba) are gone! They're so good but a little on the pricy side. 

Here's another fun breakfast! I made some soy yogurt in the Instant Pot using unsweetened soy milk and starter from a friend. Here's a Yogurt & Fruit Parfait Bowl!

And finally, here's a yummy Ramen Bowl for Sunday's breakfast. Now that I'm not 50K training anymore, I don't have to run on Sunday mornings. And that means more time for ramen!