The Best of the Veg Swag Bag

Hey There, Chickadees! 

Thanks for your comments on my last post. It seems that the jury's still out on Skinny Bitch, but I think we can all agree that it serves its purpose. Speaking of purpose, do you want to know what my family promised thanks to Rory's talk? 

...drum roll, please... 

My mom's fiancee J decided to go veg! If you know J in real life, you probably think this is a joke. If you don't know him, please understand this comes as one of the biggest shocks of my life (I say that with no exaggeration at all.) J's love for meat has always been evident, but more importantly, his love of all things gourmet and willingness to try anything shows through. He is a photographer who traveled the world for the largest international press agency, trying many different foods on his way. 

Knowing that it is finally time to embrace a healthier lifestyle (though please note, diets with meat and animal products in them can be healthy and I do not have anything against them), the time has come for change. I have always appreciated J's respect for my vegan life, but never thought he would embrace it himself. He has pledged to go vegetarian for two weeks (with minimal fish if he truly craves it), followed with two weeks of being vegan. After that, he will access his diet and decide what is right for him. 

For a man who loves his meat, cheese, and most importantly, coffee creamer, this is huge. I plan to be there to support him all along the way. This is honestly the best gift I received yesterday. Yes, even better than mini Larabars and Alternative Baking Company cookies. 

[As a side note, a few of you mentioned that I look older than you expected. I believe this is probably because these photos don't really represent me well (not even the one above). Either way, I've always found it easier to talk to adults, but I guess that doesn't impact how I look, haha. For a better photo of me, check out the top of my blog for a link to "The Girl Behind the Blog".]

If you have any comments or advice for J, I would extremely appreciate it. I know it probably won't be an easy journey, but in the end I hope his health will improve. I care about having him in my life and know that his lifestyle change will allow us to be together longer. As he said, "there's only one person on the plant I'd do this for." 

Have you had a pivotal moment in your life when you knew it was time for change? Did it have to do with your diet (or ED), or something like figuring out your future, becoming more responsible, or even doing something which you never thought you'd do?

Anyway, J's pledge was not the only gift I recieved yesterday. Let me just say, there is some serious swag up in here. But I won't just tell you about it (that would be far to tempting,) so just take a look for yourself! 

This isn't even all of it! Included is: 

• Alternative Baking Company cookies 
• mini Larabars 
• Vega Complete Whole Food Health Optimizers 
• Mori-Nu Chocolate Pudding Mix
• Kelp Krunch energy bar 
• Real Foods' Corn Thins 
• Original Tings Crunchy Corn Sticks 
• Gladcorn Corn Snacks 
• PB&CO Peanut Butter 
• Go Macro Macronutrient bars 
• Mary's Gone Crackers cookies
• Vegan Chocolate Cupcake from The Cupcake Station (modeled by my Nan)  

• Vegan Chocolate Cake from Inn Season (modeled by my mom)

As you can see, we were having fun goofing around with our goodies. Thanks, Mom and Nan, for being such great sports! 

Have you tried any of these? I love Larabars and PB&Co Already, but I'm definitely excited about them all. The Vega and Go Macro are first on my list to try. For some non-food goodies, I also received many pamphlets, business cars, and research on vegan lifestyles. I kind of feel bad for all the trees that must have been killed for this! 

After yesterday's food fest, today's eat weren't nearly as exciting. I had to wake up early to finish some homework and ended up rushing in the morning since I had a shortened schedule (I have first hour off). Oh well, breakfast made up for what I lost in primping time, even though it didn't look so pretty itself. 

Breakfast

This was my first time putting pears in my oats. Do you ever forget certain foods exist? Honestly, pears were like this for me. For some reason I temporarily forgot about them but I know that won't be happening again any time soon. This was SO yum. The pears became warm and smooth like buttahh. 

• 1/2 oat bran + lotsa water (I like my oat bran fluffy so I use tons of water and cook it for a long time)
• 2 tsp cinnamon (I combine two different types for an amazing flavor) 
• 1 sad-looking red pear in need of some lovin' (see below)

Lunch 

For lunch I grabbed what I could in my rush this morning. Sometimes convenience comes first, you know how it is. What are your favorite grab-and-go foods?

• 1 garden vegan burger 
• 2 slices ezekiel bran for life bread 
• tons of spinach 
• salsa
• my decapitated mug of tea (poor thing)

Pre-Yoga Snack

An old standby made its way into my snack today: a bar with healthy fats (a must for sustained energy) and an apple. I've found that this fuels me best for my practice. Do any of you eat before exercise and how soon before? Any favorite snacks or recommendations?

My bar with healthy fats of choice today was a Raspberry Clif C bar. I was honestly a little wary of this bar because I didn't really like the cherry one I tried here. It taste too sweet for me and not as natural as the ingredients lead me to believe. Anyone else associate cherry with medicine? Yuck! 

Luckily, this one was much better and I enjoyed it. I still probably won't buy these often, but it proves that you cannot judge a brand by just one flavor. Sorry, Clif, Lara's got you beat.

Dinner

Dinner was insanely delicious! Not feeling like making an actual recipe after yoga, I decided to do some fridge cleaning. Topped with hummus, my din din was creamy and dreamy. I think that must be my favorite kind of food because the breakfast I just raved about was similar. Hmm, must be the strangely cold weather. Mother Nature, warm up for my birthday, please?

• 3 tbs dry millet 
• 1/4 cup peas 
• 1 large carrot, chopped and steamed (it gets nice and soft, with its natural sweetness showing through)
• leftover grilled zucchini, chopped 
• leftover grilled purple and white eggplant, chopped
• 2 tbs garlic hummus and parsley scallion hummus (the extra parsley scallion hummus gave it the umph it needed and took this dish over the edge)

Dessert 

A dessert I'm enjoying right now is an apricot mango Whole Soy&Co yogurt with Puffins. Freezing soy yogurt to turn it into vegan fro yo was a fantastic idea thanks to Shelby. I guess this will have to do until I'm lucky enough to go here *sigh*. Anyway, yay for protein&cleaning out the fridge at the same time :)! 

Great job getting through monday! Tomorrow's my school's campus clean-up and my birthday is on Sunday. Also, this Thursday is Earth Day. How are you celebrating? The fun just doesn't stop! 

Have a lovely day! 

xox, 

Mandiee