Cuteness

Hey everyone. I'm happy to say that TJ is doing better. We aren't 100% yet but the last two days haven't been as stressful as the first five. Last night was Tyler's turn for the meltdown as we had a thunderstorm with crazy lightning so he was very afraid and needed to be coddled at 12:30 am. Such high maintenance little pups but looking at their sweet faces melts my heart every time :)

Speaking of which... I figured you might want to look at their cute little faces.

You all know sweet little Tyler. He's so freaking cute. Here he is all burrowed up in the pillows. He is such a cuddle bug.

Can you deal with this face?!?!?! I can't! Sweet TJ, he's so stinking cute. Such a sad face for a pup with so much personality. Now that he is feeling better he is much more active and has so much more energy and is much more playful. He's definitely on track and it makes me very happy.

I just included this because I thought it was also so cute! Amongst all of the craziness I did get to use my bath bomb from Lush. I had the "Fizzbanger" bath bomb and after my bath I found this lone piece of confetti in the tub. It was hidden in the bath bomb and I thought it was so cute! I definitely recommend this bath bomb, it smells incredible and the bath was so luxurious and relaxing. 

That's all for today. Unfortunately with the craziness of the week my plans of eating all raw didn't go exactly as I had hoped and I haven't been able to take pictures at all because I'm basically on the run at all times it seems. I'm going to try and get some now that the work week is coming to an end.

I hope you have all had a good week! One more day until my weekend!

Making My Own Almond Milk

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well. This is going to be a quick post because I am exhausted. This weekend has been exactly the opposite of what I expected and has been very stressful. There is something wrong with TJ and we don't know what. He was fixed about 2 weeks ago and has not been the same since. Along with being lethargic it's like he was never house trained so I've been cleaning pretty much all weekend... and trying to figure out how to get him to go outside again... if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them because I have no clue what to do and I feel so bad for him because he is miserable.

At 9:00 tonight after almost 3 days here I finally got to a project I was meaning to do on Saturday... make my own home made almond milk for the first time. I remembered to get my almonds soaking this morning so I would be ready to blend tonight to make a yummy smoothie for breakfast tomorrow. Here's a few pics from the process...

I soaked 2 cups of almonds in filtered water. After about 5 hours I actually peeled the almonds. The skin was practically hanging off of them and I heard that it is better with peeled almonds so I made the effort and peeled them. I put the peeled almonds in a new container of fresh filtered water and soaked a few more hours.

After the almonds had soaked I drained them and rinsed them with more filtered water. Then I added the drained almonds to the high speed blender with 6 cups of fresh filtered water and blended away. After it was blended I strained out the pulp in a cheese cloth and was left with this beautiful creamy white almond milk. I'm really happy with how my first batch came out! I didn't add any sweetener (I'd probably add dates to it) or any flavorings because I'm going to use it for smoothies and didn't think I'd need it.

I'm also left with this beautiful snowy white almond pulp. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do with it? I don't have my dehydrator with me but would love to hear what kinds of things you make with almond pulp.

That's all for now. It's back to work tomorrow and I'm sure all I'll be thinking about is TJ and his sad face. I'll try to check in later on in the week with more of my raw eats.

Planning My Pamper Day

Hey everyone! Long time no see. I've been around, dealing with the overlapping grass and weed pollen season not so successfully. Things have also been crazy at work but I'm managing. How have all of you been?!

I decided to write this post because I've been planning a special day for myself for a little while now. I'm feeling a bit burned out between work and not feeling great and I decided that I wanted to treat myself to a really nice day of pampering. Since I'm very budget conscious at the moment I am doing a DIY pamper party where I'm going to spoil myself but not break the bank while doing so. I thought it would be fun to show you what I have planned and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

My brother, sister in law, niece and their friends are taking their annual vacation to Florida starting this weekend so I'll be heading over to their house to watch their adorable fur children. In doing so I also have access to their amazing kitchen, jacuzzi bathtub, and endless cuddles with the cuties. I took a personal day this Saturday and will be enjoying a three day weekend.

Here's what I have planned for my day of pampering!

Nowadays when I think about pampering I think of an amazing bath. As I mentioned, they have an amazing jacuzzi tub and what better way to treat yourself than take a luxurious bath! I picked up my very first Lush Bath Bomb and I'm so excited to try it. As soon as I smelled this one I knew it would be the perfect one to try. It is called Fizzbanger and it is described as an "alluring apple and spice bath bomb." As stated on the Lush website, "Transform your ordinary bath into something new and exciting. Whizz! Bang! Pop! Fizz! Our Fizzbanger Bath Bomb goes off in the bath water as if it were loaded with miniature fireworks. Experience an alluring symphony of crackling candy, and a potion of spectacular slow fizzing spectrum of swirling color. The scent changes right before your nose, pulling you in with a delectable blend of crisp apples and cinnamon that settles into a spicy cinnamon toffee." And let me tell you... it smells AMAZING! I have it in my room so I can bring it with me and every time I walk in I'm greeted with the beautiful apple and spice scent. I can imagine that this would be an amazing bath bomb to use in the Fall.

Music is a big deal to me so I thought it would be really fun to create a new playlist that can just play out while I'm in my bath. Perhaps it is not the most soothing mix, but it is still the music that I love and that makes me happy. I've been listening to Rainbow a lot lately and especially the song Kill the King so you better believe it is on my list ;)

Sticking with the bath and beauty theme for now I have a fresh face mask that I can apply to make my skin soft and glowing. This particular one smells like an oatmeal cookie and you definitely can't go wrong with that!

Next on the spoil myself itinerary is to attempt to do my nails with the nail wraps that I received in my Vegan Cuts box months ago when I had a subscription. I say attempt because I'm kind of a moron with nail wraps but hopefully I can make them work.

I figure a comforting meal is in order whilst pampering yourself, don't you think? These are old pictures since I won't be eating this meal until the weekend but as of right now I'm planning on enjoying...

Obviously iced coffee has to be on the menu. I don't drink it a lot at all anymore since doing the Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse but I still enjoy it and treat myself every once in a while and what better occasion than a pamper day?

As of right now I'm anticipating enjoying my favorite meal which would be a (New York) bagel with tofu cream cheese. So simple but so good and it will be a good meal to have before another venture into eating raw foods for a week or so. Since my allergies have been really terrible lately (I'm talking an incredibly unattractive hacking cough - TMI? My bad.) I'm hoping that really cleaning it up for a bit will help sort it out for me. I can't really take allergy meds because they all seem to knock me on my butt so I'm going to give the dietary change a whirl again.

So that's my plan for my fun day off! Obviously there will be cuddling with the fur children involved as well. What do you do when you want to pamper yourself?! I would love to hear what you do and any suggestions you may have of things I can do when I'm enjoying a fun and relaxing day devoted to spoiling myself :)

I hope you are all well! I'll be back next week hopefully to show you some of the raw treats I'll be enjoying starting on Sunday or Monday.

Throwback Thursday: A Childhood Treat

When I was younger, summertime meant my mom would make one of my favorite desserts. It was so simple it seems silly to base an entire post on it, but after suggesting it to Shen recently I had a craving and decided to go ahead and make it. Truthfully, I don't know if it is supposed to be enjoyed on it's own or as an accompaniment but I definitely enjoy it either way. So today, I'll be showing you some macerated strawberries.

I feel like this is so simple it's borderline embarrassing to devote and entire post to it. But it's so damn good I think you'll love it and if you guys try it after this post then I've done my job. All you need is a lb of fresh, ripe strawberries, one small lemon and about 3/4 tbsp of sugar. You slice your strawberries, squeeze your lemon on top, sprinkle with your sugar and mix. Then you let the magic happen. Let the strawberries sit (I usually keep mine in the fridge) for a few hours and they get tender, sweeter and a syrup pools around them in the bottom of the bowl.

That is all there is to it. After you have your tender berries and sweet syrup you can eat them in countless ways. Spoon your berries on top of waffles or pancakes, enjoy on its own, top with whipped coconut cream or if you really want to indulge... spoon it on top of some ice cream (or banana soft serve). Oh, they also taste great on top of cake with some vegan whipped cream ;)

I attempted to get a before and after photo of the berries but they didn't come out great. I don't think you can see the difference or the amazing syrup but I'll show you anyway.

This is the before picture. Normal berries with a little glisten of lemon juice.

Here is the after. Softer berries, different color and you can kind of see the syrup. It's so simple but it's so good and in my house it means summer is here.

Clearly I've enjoyed some of my berries since I made them and I figured I would show you how I decided to eat them...

That's right, I decided to top my Trader Joe's Chocolate Sorbet with a healthy dose of these strawberries. You can definitely see the syrup in this (horrible, sorry!) photo. Chocolate and fresh strawberries is one of my favorite flavor combinations so this was definitely a great treat!

I hope you guys will give this super easy treat a try. I hope you are all doing well! 

Grocery Haul: Trader Joe's

Hey everyone! I'm back with another quick post. Today I have a grocery haul to share with you. I've been doing my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's for the past few weeks because it is much more cost effective. I won't lie, I've missed the large variety of organic produce that Whole Foods offers but my wallet has been appreciating the switch.

I didn't actually buy any Meatless Meatballs but I immediately thought of Shen when I saw them and decided to snap a pic. I'm glad that you'll be able to get them again Shen!

I was a little disappointed in the organic fruit selection. I think this was mostly because I was able to get the most amazing organic peaches there just a few weeks ago and now every stone fruit they had was conventionally grown. It bummed me out but I didn't get it because I just can't bring myself to get conventionally grown dirty dozen fruits or veggies. I did get a few great things like strawberries, bananas, basil, grape tomatoes, lemon, cucumber, carrots and avocados. Mmm.

For grocery items I decided to splurge on some faux meat and decided to go for the TJ's version of Gardein Chick'n Tenders. Same taste and half the price, you have to love that! I'm also not really a pasta eater so I don't know what possessed me to get this gluten free pasta but I added that in to my cart as well. The Mediterranean hummus is one of my favorite commercial hummus' so I picked up a container of that. I've never tried the Chocolate Sorbet but how can I turn down chocolate sorbet made with coconut milk?! I hadn't seen this before either so my curiosity got the best of me. I finally finished my last tub of EB so I picked up another one. I've never had the whipped version, I hope it's good!

That's pretty much it for my haul. I'm trying to get back on track with my posting and I already have and idea for my next one so hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later! Shen, you inspired the next one so I hope you like it! See you soon!

Short and Sweet

Hello friends! I don't really have a whole lot of updates for you, just a couple of pictures I took throughout the week. No food, just fun. As the title suggest, this post will be short but hopefully you enjoy the few pictures I have to show you.

I babysat for Delilah early in the week and I got a big thumbs up so I figured I'd share it with you :) I can't believe how big she has gotten and she is so funny. 

This was on my way home from work one day this week. We had a few gross stormy days and it is starting to look ominous here. 

This morning we had a large family brunch (11 people) on a hotel rooftop in Long Island City, Queens. This is the view from where we were sitting. As you can see we had an absolutely gorgeous day.

The rest of the view from our table. Such a beautiful day.

I didn't really want to take a picture of my food with so many people sitting around me and I figured you've all seen a fruit bowl before so I decided against it. I'm going to Trader Joe's tomorrow so if I remember and I'm not feeling too lazy I'll take a picture for you. 

I hope you have all been having a great summer so far. Sorry I haven't been posting much, I'm starting to feel better so hopefully more frequent posting will be in my future. 

Have a great night! I hope you have a great Monday tomorrow.

Long Time No See

It's been a while, eh? I was not intending to be on hiatus but unfortunately my body made the decision for me. I wasn't feeling too great the past few weeks but it seems to be turning around. I suspect my Vitamin D levels plummeted again because I was EXHAUSTED all the time. My appetite was non-existent. My hair was falling out by the handful so I had about 8 inches cut off. This usually helps but I was still pulling handfuls of hair out on a daily basis which really creeped me out so I realized that Vitamin D may be the problem. I've been taking it daily for the past week or week and a half and I feel a million times better. Hopefully I'll continue to feel better but I figured that since I was already feeling a lot better I'd pop in to say hello and show you a totally random mix of pictures I've collected over the past few weeks.

I've shown you a few cars that are being worked on across the street and when I saw these three lined up I had to take a picture because they are all really cool cars. The one on the far left is still my favorite by far but I think the rusted truck is really charming and the purple car is very cool and retro looking.

This was from when I baby sat for sweet Tyler a few weeks ago. I love his face.

Sleepy puppy. This poor guy had to tough it out here while TJ got to enjoy a weekend in the Hamptons. I think Tyler enjoyed the peace and quiet though :)

This picture is actually really exciting for me for a random reason. It's part of my random red light series. The sunset was really gorgeous that night but I was most excited because I had the energy to actually go out after work and get something done rather than just go straight home to bed. This was probably at about 8:00 pm I want to say? I love that sunset is so much later now. This, by the way, is on the home from Whole Foods.

Since I'm a mug/cup slut and a big fan of flip flops this cup was perfect for me. It's a really large BPA free mug that I got for about $3.50 (it was 30% off and I had a few $$ left on a gift card so the out of pocket price was $3.50). I can't wait to use it.

As I mentioned, I haven't had much of an appetite so I've been picky about meals lately. Avocado toast has been a staple and this sandwich just came out too pretty not to photograph. It is sliced avocado, tomato, salt and pepper on a slightly toasted ciabatta roll. So good. 

That's all for this random update. Hopefully it won't be as long before my next post. I hope you are all doing well and staying cool in this yucky heat/humidity!