What I Ate Wednesday

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I did a What I Ate Wednesday post so over the past week I made the conscious effort to photograph as much as possible. I didn't get a ton of pics but definitely enough to give you an idea of what I've been eating :)

I know it seems silly to take a picture of water but I've been focusing on hydration over the past couple of weeks. I drink a couple of these large mason jars filled with water every day. I love my glass straw :)

As the weather has been warming up I've been enjoying some smoothies lately as well. I got this one from Fairway (the store with the awesome pickle barrels and huge olive collection that I discussed here) while I was out and I'm typically a little weary of this since a lot of places tend to use syrupy fruit. This place had everything laid out for me to see and it was all fresh fruit and greens. This one is mango, pineapple, strawberry and spinach (passed on the agave she was going to add). Fresh produce blended with ice, you definitely can't beat it. 

I've busted out the juicer as well. This super green concoction contains one large cucumber, some romaine leaves, a few handfuls of spinach, some green apple and the juice of one whole lemon. It was really good! And I love the immediate boost of energy I get when I drink it. Oh and the cup is an adorable plastic-y (BPA free) mason jar type container that my mom got me. So cute!

I made myself a large fruit salad with several oranges, apples and some strawberries. Munched on this over the course of 3 days. It was so good and having it prepared and ready to go really helped my laziness ;)

This is a very thick bowl of Mayim Bialik's Tomato Soup with Israeli Couscous! Her pictures look way better than mine but oh well ;) This is a very delicious soup out of her cookbook Mayim's Vegan Table. The book is a really great collection of simple vegan recipes for family friendly meals. I love that she includes veganized versions of popular Jewish recipes too! I was pretty excited about that since there are some recipes from my childhood that I do miss and now I can make them again!

If you are interested in the recipe for this soup PETA actually has it posted here! Try it, it's delicious!

I had to make this last picture even larger so you can see the gloriousness of it. Last Saturday I went out for dinner at Wild Fig with my oldest (we've been friends for 15 years!) and dearest friends and her awesome husband. They live in Massachusetts so I don't get to see them often and when I do get to see them I am so happy. We went for Mediterranean food and had the most delicious meal with lovely company. For appetizers we ordered hummus and stuffed grape leaves. These were served with the most delicious, warm, fresh flatbread. Their hummus is by far my favorite of any hummus I've ever had. I wish I could bring home a gallon of it. On the bottom of the picture was my red lentil soup and it was amazing as well. Such a perfect meal and I was STUFFED when we left. It was such a good night :) I'm planning on going to visit them sometime in the spring as well and I can't wait! Oh and sorry about the horrible pictures, I took them with my phone in horrible lighting.

So this is some of what I've been eating! I'm going to try my best to continue to photograph what I can of my meals :) See you tomorrow with a Throwback Thursday Recipe!

Throwback Thursday: Bake Shop Smoothies

Get ready to have your mind blown my friends. This week's Throwback Thursday recipes will feature smoothies inspired by some of my favorite bake shop treats! If you are like me you've woken up in the morning craving sugary baked treats but don't want to give in to temptation. These smoothies are the perfect compromise... all of the flavors of your favorite treat with none of the guilt. Enjoy this walk down memory lane!

Carrot Cake Smoothie!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup oats (I used gf)

3/4 cup plant milk (I used Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk), plus a few tbsps

1 tbsp raisins

1 tbsp chopped walnuts

pumpkin pie spice to taste

1 giant carrot or 2 small carrots, grated

1 serving vanilla protein powder (I used Vanilla Almondilla Vega Energizing Smoothie Powder)*

As much ice as you like (you could probably also use a frozen banana!)

Directions:

1. The night before, combine oats, milk, raisins, walnuts and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Mix and cover and place in fridge overnight. 

2. Put contents of bowl in blender and add protein powder, carrots and ice (or banana).

3. Blend until smooth and add plant milk until you reach desired consistency. I added 2 tbsp.

4. Enjoy!

*I use the Vega Energizing smoothie powder because it has 2 servings of greens in it  No spinach required in this one!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Smoothie

Ingredients:

                                                                      1/3 cup oats

 2 tbsp raisins

 pinch cinnamon 

1 cup Almond Coconut milk

2 small frozen bananas

 Vanilla Almondilla Vega Shake & Go Powder (optional)

Directions:

1. The night before, make your overnight oats. Combine oats, raisins, cinnamon and almond milk in a container and refrigerate overnight.

2. In the morning, combine overnight oats with frozen bananas and protein powder (if using) in a blend. Blend until smooth and creamy. Enjoy!

*If you don't want to add protein powder, add a few drops of vanilla extract for a rich vanilla flavor.

Morning Oats Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/3 cup oats (I used gluten free)

1 cup plant milk (I used Unsweetened Almond Coconut Almond Breeze)

1 tbsp shredded coconut

1 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 tbsp raisins

cinnamon

2 small frozen bananas

Directions:

The night before, mix all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate overnight to soften everything. In the morning add your overnight oats with toppings along with your frozen bananas to a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffin Smoothie

(adapted from this Blueberry Muffin Smoothie recipe)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup gluten free oats

1 1/4 cup Almond milk

generous dash of cinnamon

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 serving Vega Vanilla Almondilla Shake n Go Smoothie powder

Directions:

1. Soak oats with 1 cup almond milk and cinnamon overnight.

2. Blend the overnight oats with blueberries, Vega powder and additional almond milk. 

***

So there you have it, four amazingly rich, decadent and GUILT FREE smoothie recipes for the upcoming balmy weather we are going to be enjoying in the midst of this brutal winter. Hope you are all having a great week so far!

CSD Cleanse Update & Another Throwback Recipe

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well! This will probably be a quick post on my end because I'm exhausted but I just wanted to pop in and show you a few meals I've been eating on this cleanse as well as share an old recipe that I've been enjoying this week too. But I figured I'd start with a quick grocery haul :)

Shredded coconut, raw almonds (VaVaBars anyone?!), fresh dolmas (!!!!!!) and some mushroom broth.

2 HUGE, beautiful bunches of swiss chard on sale 2/$5, a huge container of spring mix, bananas, cauliflower, broccoli, ginormous carrots and gourmet blend of mushrooms.

And some meals:

When I have time to juice I start off my day with some green juice. My favorite one is Kris Carr's Morning Glorious juice which has romaine, kale, celery, cucumber, apple, lemon and broccoli stems. I'm not a huge fan of veggie heavy juices as I have more of a sweet tooth but I really like this one.

Lots of big salads with beautiful, fresh veggies. The one above has greens, carrots, tomatoes and cucumber.

I found my adorable bento box and made some great lunches with veggie sticks (I'm telling you those carrots were HUGE), cucumber, dolmas and some hummus.

I made some zucchini pasta with steamed broccoli and Nana's Marinara but forgot to get a pic. I'll try and get one the next time I eat it because it was delicious!

Finally, on days that I don't have time to deal with juicing I go the quicker route and make a smoothie. For some reason I have an easier time drinking veg heavy green juices than smoothies so I make some concessions and make fruit smoothies and use Vega powder to bump up the nutrition and get 2 servings of greens as well as omegas and probiotics.

My favorite smoothie is my Good Morning, Sunshine Smoothie! This one came out extra thick and it was soooooo good! It was like soft serve for breakfast. I am loving my Ninja high speed blender, it is making my life so much easier.

I took this pic to show you the swirls of green from the Vega powder. I just thought it was fun :) 

So like I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to bring all of my old recipes over here and this is a great opportunity to bring this smoothie recipe over! Here it is!

Ingredients:

1 small frozen banana

5 fresh strawberries

1/2 cup frozen pineapple

3/4 cup favorite plant milk or water

1 serving vanilla protein powder*

Directions:

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

*I always use Vega One protein powder because it has my greens, probiotics and omegas included. No need to add spinach unless I want an extra green boost!

So there's my update! I hope you all have a great night and a great start to your weekend tomorrow. I have one more day of work until freedom and I can't wait. It'll be nice to be able to relax and not worry about getting up and running around.