Serious cravings today

I am new to all this vegan-ness so I am still figuring stuff out. The most important thing I'm trying to figure out is what and when to eat to get enough nutrients and keep my energy up. The other day at work I didn't eat breakfast, then ate lunch late, couldn't find a whole lot to eat at work except fruit, and by the time the cafe made me a vegan sandwich, it didn't sound good and I had a headache and a light head.. I am taking vitamins but I am not a big hungry eater in the a.m. when I am rushed for work.

I guess I need to get bananas and some pb & j sandwiches, handfuls of nuts, carrot stick or grapes to snack on.

This has got to work, but like everything in my life, it's a learning process and a bit of a struggle.

Keeping on...

Meanwhile, today, I am craving chocolate chip cookies.

Vegan as I want to be!: Shiitake Meatloaf and Gravy [Vegan]

 This looks lovely

Vegan as I want to be!: Shiitake Meatloaf and Gravy [Vegan]: Vegan Shiitake Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. It used to be that one of the few dishes I missed from my omnivore days was meat...

Eating at Work

Forgetting to pack a lunch or snacks for work presents a challenge. I work in a gourmet grocery store, with lots of salads and prepared to-go foods, but most of them contain meat and are NOT vegan at all. Frustrating. Even a packaged "green" salad had whey in the croutons. Ffft. All the others have cheese or chicken or seafood or whatever. Why do all salads require meat in America? They're SALADS.

 I ended up going  to the store's restaurant and ordered a side salad with vinaigrette, having bought some fruit from the produce department beforehand for dessert.  Kept it simple. Maybe I'll make a PB & J sandwich for tomorrow...

Thrift shopping & lunch

Before we went thrift shopping, the dear daughter and I went out to lunch at a cute little coffee house/cafe called Green Bliss.  They have organic coffees and teas, and lots of vegetarian and vegan food options. I love this place.

I had the Avo-Campania panini. This panini was perfectly grilled flax bread filled with herb-seasoned mushrooms, avocado, artichoke hearts, and hemp seed basil pesto. Perfect balance of flavors. It came with a small green salad of baby greens, and  a nice vinaigrette. Delicious.

Daughter had a rosemary potato flat-bread. It had yummy roasted rosemary potatoes and cashew cheese on flat-bread dough. A couple iced teas (mate and mint green tea) and we were quite refreshed and happy eating in their cute courtyard on a sweltering day.

Summer fruit

Ah, in this heat I am so thankful for watermelon. Luscious, juicy, sweet, cool watermelon. One of the best things about summer...well, one of the ONLY things about summer that I like. Summer fruits are the best, cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, melons. Ah, lovely. I hate summer otherwise, since it's full of heat, sweating and stickiness. Not my favorite season.

But watermelon, ah yes. There's no coincidence that it's ripe during the hottest days of summer since it's so cool and refreshing. I picked a good one at the store the other day, maybe I have the "thumping" thing down yet. Usually I pick a not ripe one or a squishy (YUCK!) overripe one, but NOT THIS TIME. I listened and it told me. I didn't even have to ask the produce guy to pick one for me.
Proud.

And yes, so a big hunk of watermelon was the greater part of my lunch. Yum.

Junk food

Hello again!
I took the holiday off from blogging... it's been a struggle finding stuff to eat other than cereal or burritos since it's hot here and I really have no energy to do any elaborate cooking. I went shopping and ended up grabbing a lot of cookies, gelato, tortilla chips, salsa and avocados (for guacamole) and such for snacking. Oops. What am I doing? Just because I'm scarfing down vegan cookies doesn't make it OK. They're still COOKIES.  I think I am anticipating my kid leaving to go back to school for the year, going overseas, and I'm going to miss her. YES I EAT MY FEELINGS.  The air conditioning in my house is broken too so I don't have much inclination to do much. I need to do some menu planning, or rely on some established vegan menus. That's it, have to get out the books and hit the websites and do some research. I do notice that since I've been off the dairy products I'm not coughing so much, just after a couple days. Yay.

The Veggie Grill: Taco Sunday

Dear daughter and I  didn't feel like cooking in the heat so we went to the (lovely and air-conditioned! Ahhhhh....) Veggie Grill for tacos. She had the "fish" and I the "beef." My tacos had a sweetness on the faux beef or salsa that I couldn't quite recognize. I liked them, but maybe would try the "chicken" or "fish" ones next time. Over all I think Veggie Grill does a great job with their sides and salads. The kale salad looked amazing on a day like today.