WIAW: Photo Dump

Wow, it’s been sooooo long since I’ve done a WIAW! I’ve really missed it, but I had to do what was right for me and for a while, I was trying to get away from focusing on food so much. Now that I’ve found a way of eating that’s working for me, I want to start participating in the best party of the week more often.

Basically, I have a LOT of food/random photos to share so let’s get to it!

One of the newest Larabar flavors.

I can’t remember where I first saw the latest additions to the Larabar family, but I knew I had to find them. Luckily, Natural Grocers seems to always have bar flavors other stores don’t have, so when I spotted a few of their new Uber varieties, I had to snag one. I got baklava since it sounded the tastiest, and it was pretty good, with the signature spices of baklava. I still like the bananas foster Uber the best out of that line!

Pumpkin chocolate chip buckwheat+almond flour protein pancakes. Topped with coconut butter, homemade apple chia jam, side of local honey.

Breakfast for dinner! These pancakes incorporated a few new products, namely stevia-sweetened chocolate chips (um, yes PLEASE!) and sacha inchi powder. The powder has great stats (40 calories and 6 grams protein per tablespoon) but I don’t love the flavor on its own. It worked great in these pancakes with the flavors of pumpkin and buckwheat!

Beautiful pink flowers at the trial gardens on campus.

Pretty yellow-ish orange flowers.

My family visited me a couple of weekends ago and we took a little walk around the trial gardens on a nice, sunny day. Flowers always make me happy and it was great to see them one last time–probably the last time I’ll see them before I graduate!

Lots o’ produce!

I made my weekly grocery trip on Sunday. Unfortunately for my wallet, it was one of those stock-up trips…meaning I spent a lot more than I wanted to. But I got a lot of things I needed, like produce to refill my fridge, coconut oil and protein powder that will both last awhile and some other pantry staples.

Random buys and pantry staples.

That chocolate bar in the front is perfect for true chocolate lovers–it’s literally just made of cacao beans! It’s a bit too bitter for me so I drizzle a little local honey on it and it’s perfection.

In the Forever 21 dressing room.

Trying on dress number 2.

Aaaand dress 3, the one I bought. It has little colorful triangles all over!

My mom and I did a little shopping while I was home this past weekend. I’ve been looking for a professional-looking dress I can wear to school, for doing the weather for the campus TV station and hopefully to wear at my first big girl job. It’s a lot harder than it seems! I can’t buy anything blue or green (because of the green/blue screen I have to stand in front of), I can’t get dresses that are sleeveless unless I want to wear a blazer over them and of course, they have to fit and look right. I can’t even tell you how many stores we went to and left empty-handed. Finally, we went to Forever 21 and hit the jackpot. I only got one of these dresses (the last one pictured) but I actually loved them all. The top one was a bit too big in the chest area (#ACupProblems) and my mom didn’t like the cutouts on the second one but the third one we both agreed was cute and professional. I can’t wait to wear it on TV this week! Oh, and I’m for sure putting the other two dresses on my Christmas wishlist 😉

I love seasonal food items!

If I had a vice, it would be seasonal food products. Seriously. I have a big problem. I immediately want to buy them, even if I don’t really need them. Luckily, this week I did need to stock up on protein powder (and this one was on a 3 day sale at Whole Foods, score!) and I wanted to buy some sprouted tortilla chips to make nachos. I want to do some kind of review post soon on the products I’ve tried recently but for now, I have to say I love and recommend both of these. The Amazing Meal has the perfect mix of chocolate and peppermint, and I love the vitamins and minerals in all their products. And the chips are a little sweet and a little salty and great for dipping.

Return of the Whole Foods salad bar box.

The last thing my wallet needs right now is the Whole Foods salad bar, but I haven’t had it in at least 2 months, so I was desperate for my favorite takeout. I got some usuals and tried a few of their Indian dishes. It was SO much food, but it was worth the price for sure. At least it’s a rare indulgence, amiright?

Local matcha ‘frappuccino’ from Nourish Organic Juice.

Noochy kale salad, cashew ranch dressing and grain free PB chocolate chip blondie from Nourish.

While I was at home, my dad and I saw some short films at a film festival downtown. The movies were fun, but the best part was trying out a newish vegan place nearby for lunch. My dad is definitely NOT a vegan but he’s so accepting of my lifestyle (as is my mom) and he’s always willing to try vegan restaurants and food, plus he’s really into eating foods without artificial ingredients, so that’s a plus. The restaurant we went to is mostly a smoothie and cold-pressed juice place but they had some tasty food options as well. My salad was small but really delicious, especially with their homemade dressing. The frappuccino was perfect–a lot less sweet than frapps from Starbucks, and made with matcha tea, almond milk and a bit of agave. And the PB blondie was incredible–I had it for dessert that night and it was even better warmed in the microwave. I love that they are completely gluten free and vegan (with a lot of grain free options) and that they make all their stuff in-store or buy it locally. Definitely my kind of place!

What have you been eating and doing lately? 

Alter Eco Giveaway WINNER!

Hey guys! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I have a quick recap of mine later in the post but first I want to announce who won my Alter Eco giveaway.

And the winner is… Sabrina @ Living, Learning, Eating! Congrats girl! Shoot me an email at ashlauren711@gmail.com so I can have Alter Eco ship out your goodies!

This weekend was Homecoming/Family weekend on the CSU campus so my dad made the drive up to spend the weekend with me. Two years ago my mom and sister were also able to come up but since I was still living  the dorm life then, we had to stay in a hotel. But now that I’m in a single lady pad (aka a one bedroom apartment) I can actually have people spend the weekend with me. We had tons of fun, despite the less-than-stellar weather. And by that, I mean it was literally in the 30s for most of the weekend. Not normal for October but it was still a good weekend.

On Friday night, my dad and I had a late dinner at Tasty Harmony, a mostly-vegan restaurant downtown. It was our first time eating there, but luckily it won’t be our last because it was so good! My dad isn’t a vegan or even vegetarian but he’s definitely willing to eat more plant-based foods. He got a garlicky hummus and veggie sandwich but I went with something a little more adventurous–the raw enchiladas. It was my first time eating a raw entree in a restaurant and it definitely didn’t disappoint. It was made with flax tortillas and filled with raw pepita “cheese”. It came with guacamole, salsa, cashew cream, a side of “rawfried” beans and a really good mixed greens salad. The beans were the real star of the plate–they literally tasted like refried beans, but our waiter said they were made with a mix of nuts and seeds.

Not my picture, but they looked pretty similar to this!

Now normally I don’t order dessert in a restaurant, partly because they rarely have a vegan option but also because it’s a big ED fear of mine. Well, I was really wanting one of their desserts because they all sounded so good, plus they were all wheat and refined sugar free. So my dad and I split a piece of carrot cake and it was literally the best cake I’ve ever had! Carrot cake is the only kind of cake I really like but I’d never had a vegan version until Friday. It was so cinnamon-y and just fresh tasting, plus not heavy at all. Well, that makes sense because Tasty Harmony makes everything from scratch, uses purified water to make their food and drinks (they even have a bar!) and most of their menu is vegan and gluten free. So it was definitely my kind of place and I hope to go back soon. My dad even wants to go back again!

Saturday morning we ran a bunch of errands, like filling up my car tires with air (sooooo fun, especially in the cold…NOT!), getting gas and grabbing some snacks at Whole Foods for the tailgate. Of course I couldn’t go a week without going to Whole Foods 😉 I got a few really tasty things, like black bean dip and veggie chips, plus some old favorites I was running low on. Then we had a quick lunch (Whole Foods’ sweet spinach salad is a total winner!) and headed out for the tailgate. Little did we know how cold we’d be! I was wearing a pair of skinny cords, a sweatshirt, a jacket, boots with thick socks and I brought mittens but I was still freezing, even with a thick blanket over me for the entire game! It didn’t go below freezing but it almost did. Of course, today it was back to the 70s…that’s Colorado for ya!

I look pissed…I wasn’t, but I was cold!

You could see “The A” from the parking lot of the stadium. There’s a big A on the mountain because CSU used to be the agricultural school, aka the Aggies.

The game itself…well, let’s just say that CSU sucked. As usual. I’ve only been to two of their games (the other one being the homecoming game 2 years ago) and they only won that first one. They only win a few games each season but it was still fun to cheer them on. The stadium was probably halfway full (since it was so cold out) but by the 4th quarter it felt more like a high school game by how few people were left! CSU was playing against Fresno State and both teams had pretty awful offensive lines so Fresno only got a few touchdowns, but CSU was scoreless until the end of the 4th quarter. They finally made a touchdown, so it was totally worth it to see them get a score right at the very end.

Go Rams (even though you aren’t the best team)!

On Sunday we ran a couple more errands, went for a long walk around campus and checked out some flowers (that were sadly dead) and had gelato for lunch. Yep, sometimes it’s totally acceptable to skip lunch in favor of the best gelato in the world. At least in my opinion! Guess what flavors I got? Pumpkin and soy chocolate. I am so predictable 😉 But seriously, I couldn’t not get pumpkin this time of year, and it was just begging to be paired with chocolate. My dad also got pumpkin and we agreed that it was perfect. We even got to eat them outside since it was way warmer, like in the mid 50s. Yeah, totally not warm but it felt like a heat wave after Friday and Saturday!

One of the best gelato flavor combos!

Before my dad had to head back home, I made dinner for the two of us. I used some Whole Foods multigrain pizza dough (love that stuff) to make us a pizza. It was half red sauce with artichoke hearts, half vegan creamy garlic sauce with navy beans and kale. My dad went for the red sauce side and I went for the garlic side. He loved it, so I got him to eat two meatless meals this weekend and he loved both of them. I’d call that a major win!

Now it’s back to normal…or maybe not. I have a lot to do this week, like a midterm on Wednesday and a group video project to work on. Plus my fridge has been acting up and not keeping things cold enough. A repairman came by earlier and said he fixed it but I haven’t noticed much of difference yet. We’ll see though. Hopefully it’ll be fixed soon since I can’t live without a fridge!

What was the most fun thing you did this weekend? Have you ever gone to a cold football game?