My life can begin NOW

INTRODUCING......the caffe froth!

This little baby is worth an entire blog entry!

All you do is add milk to the line (approx 1/3 cup) and give it a few pumps up and down (insert nasty joke here) and VIOLA!...you end up with this perfect frothy foamy creamy delicious milk. It is truly amazing. Then you can heat it up afterwards and it still retains the froth! I felt like a barista! I can't use enough exclamation points to express how cool this appliance is. I would recommend it to EVERYone.

Look how much foam in my coffee!

I just couldn't get enough...

Mmmmm...

if i had a million dollars...

I would devote a whole wing of my mansion to be a starbucks...OR I would hire a starbucks barista to follow me around with a fully stocked coffee cart...I'm not sure why, but their coffee just tastes better in the store. I can't make anything that's even close in comparison!

So it goes without saying that my morning started off with a fatty venti soy latte. I worked with my fav girlies today, so work was awesome. The unit was FULL so since there were 3 of us, we each had 3 patients. It was a LOADED day, but such a great environment.

My main priority during lunch was finishing my book since I was sooo close to the end when I got to my subway stop this morning (hate when that happens). I really liked this book (The Girls by Lori Lansens). So after that I had another venti soy latte, followed by a cup of plain soy milk with the sando I packed the night before (MASSIVE) and a Stonyfield soy yogurt (chocolate flavored).

The sando was on the A Street soy bread and had smart deli "turkey" with veggies piled on (broccoli and mushrooms) and it was GOOOOD. Never mind that I couldn't even get my mouth around it, I was so happy to just have time to sit with my steamy latte and food. The O'Soy yogurt was really really good, especially since I haven't been liking the other soy yogurt brands. Silk was so bad I just threw the rest away (weird since I love their soy milk). Anyways, after work I AGAIN skipped the gym. Bad news bears...

Dinner was a big salad. I wasn't sure what I was in the mood for, so Kyle made the decision for me. He knows me better than I know myself anyways.

In the big salad: organic lettuce, tomato, carrot, mushroom, and a WHOLE avocado, plus dried cherries and raisins on top with a honey mustard dressing

SABRAcadabra!!! This hummus is tasty stuff. I never thought I would notice such a difference in different brands of hummus, but this was out of this world good. I was only planning on having a few slices of bread with it after my BIG ASS salad, but next thing I new I was done with one loaf of bread and on to the next....I practically licked the tub clean. I had 10 pieces of bread!!! 10!! So now I think I am officially stuffed.

And yet, this vegan torte (that I forgot I had bought the day before at the whole foods store) started calling my name. I don't know what else was in it besides chocolate, but since it was vegan my expectations weren't too high.

This photo is SO bad, but the vegan choc torte was OMGood...I wish I had the whole pie to finish - bc believe me could. I am in a health slump right now. Last trip to the gym was WELL over a week ago. Shoooooot...

AM in the PM (and AM too)

What could be better than a day full of ALL breakfast food! I heart breakfast food the most...I had a yummy cup of joe with a vanilla organic probiotic soy yogurt. This brand was so/so. I bought a few different brands of soy yogurt the other day to try them out, but I don't know if I am going to like them...so far I have liked 1 of the 3 (not the best average).


Here's a recap of the soy yogurt trial up to now:


O'Soy = good

Wildwood = so-so

Silk = yuck



Lunch was pure laziness - peanut butter jelly time!! I actually had 2 of these sandos with the REST of the Smucker's natural peanut butter..yes, I finished the jar of PB!! (also, I finished the jam, which was Kyle's grandma's blueberry rhubarb)

Dinner was more breakfast. Wake-y wake-y, eggs and bac-y!! (and by that I mean egg beaters and soy bacon but that doesn't really work with the rhyme)



What a boring blog day - I should really not be so lazy on days off...



More coffee? Sure, why not. Hey, throw some soy milk in there.


Dessert was a bag of dates...too many maybe?

soynut butter goes with everything

Weekend, finally. I bought a jar of soynut butter yesterday evening (after work grocery shopping is dangerous). I finished the jar today. That's unacceptable!

I started the morning (ok, afternoon) with coffee (ff vanilla creamer, skim plus, and stevia).

Then I dug right into the soynut butter...I put it on EVERYthing I could get my hands on (including spoons by themselves). I finished off the Ezekiel bread with it (hmmm...approx 7 slices?) which was GREAT with a nice glass of silk soy milk and left me waaaaay full.

Then I decided I should probably get some fruit in my diet.

So I cut up an apple to dip in more soynut butter. This stuff is goooood.

Later on I snacked on a massive bag of yogurt covered pretzels. They are so rich, I can't believe I finished the entire bag (oh, who am I kidding, of course I knew I would polish the whole thing off)! But it was way too much food, and at this point I was really uncomfortably full.

Dinner, or whatever meal I was on at this point, was more carbs, and more soynut butter.

I got a new cereal! Nature's Path is SO good. I love all their products, so I was really excited to try this one out. It has a ton of different types of cereal grains in it and is low fat and high fiber. The official review: this is my new fav cereal!!! Omg it was good (see zoomed in photo of yum).

I added a bit of banana + soynut butter (obvi) + silk soy milk = mmm...heaven

I also finished the soynut butter at this point. Maybe I shouldn't buy this again for a while?

Then I had a nice fruit salad, with pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, blueberries, and strawberries!

At this point I was ready for a steamy Starbucks run! So I got a venti soy latte, which was everything I wanted and more.

Then as we were doing the laundry I had one last bowl of my new obsession. This time I added dried cherries and raisins with the slik soy milk (I didn't have any soynut butter left)!

Here's the final product! Perhaps I should try to get back on track tomorrow? (I have been saying that for 4 days now I think).

Good night!

i need green

Sooo, I had to work this Saturday. Working weekends is usually kinda a bummer...but today was slow, so I didn't really mind. I guess the crashing economy affects heart surgery too?

I made my lunch the night before, and I tried something new. We were out of lettuce, and since I hate sandwiches that don't have greens, I had to make do with what we did have. I used the remaining green peppers left over from the quiche and broccoli. Then I put the smart deli turkey on top of that.

The sando was MASSIVE. I definitely got carried away - I couldn't even fit it in my mouth!

The rest of my lunch is shown below (apple, nanner, raisins, yogurt covered raisins). Plus, a venti soy latte (kinda a given).

After work I skipped the gym and got a BIG 'ol iced coffee, to which I poured in a cup of vanilla silk soy milk and some stevia. It was so so. In all honesty, I think the barista at Starbucks kinda messed this one up...he told me (after I had already paid) that the iced coffee wasn't ready yet, and (even more annoying) it would be 15 minutes if I wanted to wait. If I wanted to wait?? What? Ummm...I just paid, do I have a choice? So there I am twiddling my thumbs waiting for my coffee like some kind of caffeine junky - long story short I got a not-yet-ready cup of iced coffee (not so tasty).

Of course this will not affect my starbucks relationship...nothing can, I'm hooked!

Then after that I ran to the store for more vegan goodies. Since I was at my newly discovered (and now fave) health food store, I was scanning the aisles for new products. I FINALLY found something I have been looking for FOREVER! Honest Foods' granola planks! I have seriously been on the hunt for these for a few months now, so I immediately knew just what I wanted for dinner. The down side=every flavor had nuts :( So I chose the one with the fewest kinds (almonds are the most tolerable of the nasty food group when the other choices are walnuts and cashews). I get nautious just THINKING about it.

I went with the maple almond crunch. :) They are like big long granola slabs - that are the perfect combo of crunchiness and chewiness. Not too hard to bite into, but able to hold on to quite the pile up of toppings!

I got a jar of soy nut butter to spread on the planks, too! (so excited to try all these new fun products)

Here's the plank pre and post soynut butter layer

The planks were so good, I couldn't help but eat the entire box (with about half the jar of soynut butter).

Jar of creamy soynut love...

Slathering it on...

Going...

Going...

Gone.

I'm sorry but I didn't get pics of the rest of my dinner...I was scooping soynut butter straight out of the jar!

brrr...i heart comfort food

So, the weather here has definitely changed. It is cold. No two ways about it. And yet, I still found it in me to start off the day with iced coffee?

Plus vanilla silk soy milk. I am thinking I should just start investing in bigger silk cartons, since it has been established this will be a staple in my diet. Who am I kidding, this isn't just a phase...

Here's the iced coffee + silk soy milk

For breakfast I had some dried fruit (the rest of the papayas, I finished the pineapples a while ago). I tried so hard to get my butt to the gym, but it was just too hard. I decided to make up for my laziness by being productive in the apartment though...lots of long overdue cleaning went down.
Later for lunch I decided I needed some serious veggies. It has been way too long since I have had a "big salad." I had an organic lettuce blend with fresh broccoli and carrots that I chopped up. Then I threw in some cherry tomatoes and mushrooms (obviously also organic, plus all the veggies were locally grown). I topped it off with some dried cranberries and raisins, and voila!

Dinner was a pasta experiment. I steamed some fresh broccoli (I bought a crap load bc it was cheap so you'll notice it in a ton of upcoming meals/recipes), then I made Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted whole grain penne pasta. For a sauce I tried to make a fake cheese/parmesan topping (I have heard quite a bit about the brand "Vega!" but still haven't found it in stores). I used a big spoonful of Earth Balance's soy garden spread PLUS the entire bag of "Veggie" blended "cheese" shreds of Parm, Mozz, & Romano flavors. I also added a bit of ff plain Chobani to get the right consistency.

How real does that cheesy pasta look! (I should note, there are a few things I would tweak with this recipe next time). First of all, it was good, but not that flavorful. I needed a lot of salt, which I don't really like doing to home made recipes. Second, it was really expensive in the end, all those products were $$$ and the yield wasn't multiple meals worth (at least not with my kind of appetite). And finally, I don't really feel like it was that healthy. Granted I was in the mood for some warm comfort food, which by definition is not healthy, but still...I will try to modify this again later. Maybe a different soy cheese product?

Dessert (not pictured) was yogurt covered raisins (a LOT) and regular raisins. Mmmm...

phelps has nothing on me

Give me food...I'm a hungry hungry hippie!


I literally ate everything in the apartment and more, so today is not exactly one I recall with fondness. Back on track tomorrow!!