WIAW: Finals Week Food

Today I have my last final EVER (well, besides when/if I get my meteorology certificate…but we’ll pretend like that doesn’t count) and I’m beyond excited to be done with this semester. It’s been long (but it’s gone by so fast), it’s been hard, it’s been busy (taking 6 classes on top of working at the TV station every week is no joke) so I’m ready to enjoy some time off at home. It’s still crazy to think I’ll be a college graduate in a few days…

Before my emotions get the better of me, let’s get on with WIAW! As I’m typing this, I’m kinda procrastinating on studying for my Wednesday final so this is gonna be a mostly wordless post of some of the things I’ve been eating to fuel my studying (and to be honest, my procrastinating too).

Monday lunch. Miracle noodles dry-sauteed with some peanut butter/cayenne pepper/almond milk for a spicy peanut sauce, with spinach and sauerkraut added in. Organic honeycrisp on the side.

Monday’s dinner. Supposed to be a curried cauliflower soup, but really thick so it was more like a sauce. Still good, especially topped with sauerkraut and these addicting raw spicy sunflower seeds from the bulk bins at Whole Foods.

A quick selfie in the car before my history final on Monday morning. So glad to have my car back!

Monday’s snackplate. Satsuma, stevia-sweetened chocolate chips, some Food Should Taste Good sweet potato kettle chips, energy bites from the bulk bin (I don’t really like these), some homemade PB&J bites.

Big salad for lunch on Tuesday. One head of romaine lettuce, with some cauliflower soup/sauce as the dressing, 1 leftover falafel, chickpeas, more sauerkraut and spicy sunflower seeds.

A very orange snackplate from Tuesday. Satsuma, sweet potato chips, carrots, and leftover pan-roasted chickpeas.

Strawberry Zevia makes the perfect study drink. Can’t wait til I go out for some adult beverages with my friends on Thursday 😉

Tuesday dinner. Mung bean pasta (so high in protein, and grain free), mixed with cauliflower soup/sauce, more sauerkraut and raw spicy sunflower seeds, side of homemade sweet potato fries and pomegranate seeds.

Not quite the same as the typical college student’s mac and cheese and fast food dinners during finals 😛 Really, though, it’s been all about convenience for me as I’ve been keeping busy with studying for finals, taking a few finals and finding ways to avoid thinking about finals. Most of my meals have been quick, no fuss, and made while doing something else. Multitasking at its finest! I have no desire to cook right now, and that’s okay. My food processor has been getting a lot of use though–I’ve been whipping up homemade Larabar-like bites lately for quick study snacks. I’m more than ready to go out for sushi tonight, drinks/appetizers tomorrow and then my favorite vegan restaurant on Saturday as a grad celebration dinner!

What have you been eating lately?

WIAW: Fall Foodie Finds

I’m glad you’re all embracing fall as much as I am! Though to be honest, I kinda wish it were already Thanksgiving/Christmas time. Oh well, it’ll come around soon enough.

So it’s the first week of October which is crazy but what isn’t crazy is finding lots of fall-ish stuff in stores. The berries and peaches of the summer are on their way out and squash of all kinds are in. It’s still pretty warm here, but the weather will be cooling down pretty soon so I know I’ll be wanting warmer meals in a couple weeks. This weekend when I went home, I ended up buying a lot of new things and some old favorites that I forgot about and I’m loving having a stocked fridge and cabinets again. I hate when they’re empty because I’m so bad at putting meals together from nothing so it’s great to have tons of options.

Double the chocolate? Ummmm, yes!

This wasn’t one of the bars I got to review but I bought it myself because it was a kind I’d never seen before. And it’s really good too, I love the addition of the cacao nibs. I don’t think you can ever have too much chocolate 😉

This would make a perfect side for Thanksgiving.

I don’t know if you’ve seen these at your nearest Whole Foods but if you do, please buy one! They also have a spicy stuffed squash variety that I haven’t tried yet, but the sweet is so good when you roast it. I sliced mine after roasting and put the pieces in a container in the fridge for those times when I want something sweet but also need some veggie action.

Crunchy > creamy. No question.

Before this year, I’d never had sunflower seed butter. Crazy, yes, but now I know it’s delicious. I used to get the Maranatha brand but I love Sunbutter more because it’s a little more flavorful and they have a crunchy variety. I always prefer crunchy over creamy, I need that extra texture!

What’s more fall-like than maple pecan?

My (vegan) ice cream consumption doesn’t end when fall begins…oh no! I eat it well into winter, it’s just that good. I skipped getting my favorite mint chocolate flavor for the millionth time in favor of this more fall-appropriate flavor. If you’ve ever wanted to try coconut milk ice cream, I definitely recommend this brand. It’s so creamy and soft without being too rich. I just wish they had a few more flavor options.

Trying to figure out what to do with these…

I bought these randomly because I’ve always like dried cranberries. I know these aren’t quite the same but they have the bonus of no added sugar, plus they’re in a way bigger bag. Maybe I can make some kind of cranberry orange fruit butter with them?

A new bar to add to my rotation!

Like a lot of bloggers, I love bars. Not bars with alcohol, but protein type bars! My tastes have changed a lot since I had my first bars though–I used to love Clif bars and Kashi bars but now I prefer KIND, Lara and Pure bars since they have simpler ingredients and aren’t too overpowering. I also heard a lot of good things about the Vega bars and since I love their protein powders, I decided to try one out. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks good and it’s got great stats and clean ingredients. I’m not as big of a fan of the price (over $2, which is more than Larabars!) but if it tastes good, it’ll be worth it.

I can’t believe these are raw and sprouted…they’re so delish!

Kaia Foods has the best raw seeds out there! I loved their cocoa mole sunflower seed clusters and this garlic and sea salt kind is even better. I really want to try their pumpkin seed “party mix” because it sounds like a real party in my mouth 😉

Kale wraps make leftovers better.

My mom and I had dinner at Tokyo Joes (a Colorado-based Asian fusion fast casual restaurant) and now I’ve realized how much I love that place. We’d only eaten there once before and I liked it but after what I ordered on Sunday, I need to go back. Like now. I got their lettuce wraps, subbing organic grilled tofu for the chicken, and it came with little rice noodles, an awesome cucumber salad, avocado, raw veggies and these amazing dipping sauces. I could seriously drink them, they were that good! What I love at Tokyo Joes is that they all their food is either all-natural or organic and the only sweetener they have for drinks (other than sugar) is stevia. They even have a stevia-sweetened teriyaki sauce. My kinda place for sure!

Starbucks in the grass…nothin’ better!

My new official Bux drink (well, before it gets cold) is a tall iced Americano with three pumps sugar-free hazelnut. Simple, yep, but amazing. I bet this will taste great hot too so I guess I have a new go-to for all seasons! I do prefer iced coffees though since hot coffee tends to overheat me, which is no bueno.

Do you prefer iced or hot coffee drinks? What’s your favorite bar brand(s)?

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for Alter Eco goodies!

WIAW: Strange Combos

I’ve been doing a lot of pre-scheduled posts lately because I am actually in the process of moving! Well obviously not just me but my mom, dad and sister too. I don’t want to go into too many details about the move, but it’s not really major since we’re just moving about 20 miles from where we are now. It’s kinda bittersweet, though, since I’ve lived in this house since I was 12 and I’m in love with everything about the house, especially the location (it’s in a forested area that’s pretty quiet and secluded but gorgeous and nature-y). But since I’m now spending most of the year living in my college town, my sister’s off to college in two years and all the crappy bad economy stuff going on, my family’s downsizing and moving into town to save money on gas and house costs. It definitely makes sense but it’s gonna be hard getting used to sharing a bathroom with my sister and having a smaller kitchen!

Enough with the boring stuff, let’s move on to WIAW! I’ve been kinda slacking on the photo taking with all the packing and moving shenanigans I’ve been involved in but I have some random food pics that all have something in common–weird combinations. Sometimes I experiment and combine really strange foods together and it actually works out!

Breakfast: peanut flour brownie batter pancakes, blue corn blueberry pancakes with Amande blueberry almond milk yogurt and granola.

Pancakes–normal. But pancakes made with blue cornmeal? I decided to try out the blue cornmeal I bought to make quinoa cornbread in some mini pancakes. I mixed the cornmeal with oat flour and added some blueberries into the mix. They actually turned out tasty and had a different texture than typical pancakes. The almond milk yogurt on top was my first experience with nondairy yogurt and it was pretty good, but the texture is definitely different. It’s got a lot of calcium though–30% DV–which is always something I’m trying to get more of.

Lunch: multigrain pizza pita bread, baby carrots, green chile hummus, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts with nooch, tamari pumpkin seeds.

I was going for a Mediterranean-inspired lunch snackplate here. The tamari pumpkin seeds kinda threw that off since they’re more Asian though. The pizza pita bread was from some leftover Whole Foods multigrain pizza dough that I cut into thin-ish pieces. The hummus also isn’t really Mediterranean, and it’s not my favorite hummus either. I’m still on the hunt for the perfect hummus that I can pair with anything…any suggestions?

Alvarado Street sprouted sourdough toast topped with Crofter’s mango jam, sunny “raw”nola and maple macadamias.

This was kind of a tropical take on toast. The mango jam is the best jam I’ve ever had and it went perfectly with the macadamias and granola pieces. Kinda weird to have crunchy things on toast but I don’t care, it was delicious.

Dinner: spicy mac ‘n cheez (quinoa pasta, spicy nacho cashew cheez sauce, Mexican chipotle Field Roast vegan sausage), random kale salad with Bragg’s aminos/lemon juice, nooch, raisins and sunflower seeds.

The mac ‘n cheez isn’t the weird part, the kale salad is. I really don’t know how I came up with this combo but it worked. I took raw kale, massaged lemon juice into it, spritzed it with Bragg’s liquid aminos, dumped nooch on top and sprinkled on raisins and sunflower seeds. Completely random, but totally winning.

What are the weirdest food combos you love to eat? Have you ever tried almond milk yogurt?

5 Ingredient “Raw”nola

So I decided to make it my goal this summer to try to post at least one recipe per week. I’d really like to do a weekly recipe round-up of all the recipes I’ve made in that week but that probably won’t be happening, since I have a lot of recipe mishaps. Most of the things I make are at least edible, if not yummy, but sometimes they don’t turn out as well as I hoped they would and I don’t post them because they aren’t amazing. Like the sour ‘cream’ and onion kale chips I made last weekend. They weren’t half bad and I loved how the dehydrator made them perfectly crispy, but the flavor wasn’t exactly reminiscent of sour cream and onion.

This “raw”nola on the other hand is delicious. It’s got just enough sweetness with a touch of nuttiness and I like that it came out in huge clumps. The clusters are always my favorite part of granola! Plus it’s (mostly) raw and has only 5 simple ingredients. And it’s so easy a 4 year old could make it.

Mmmm, look at those clusters!

Sunny “Raw”nola (vegan, raw)

1 cup oats (could use oat groats)

1 tbsp raw sunflower seeds

1 tbsp raw almond butter (or other raw nut butter)

1/4 cup agave (I used honey vanilla flavored agave)

pinch sea salt

In a large bowl, stir together the oats and seeds. Add the almond butter, agave and salt until they coat the oats and seeds and form a sticky mixture. Spoon large clumps onto a lined dehydrator tray (I used a round wax paper cut-out) and spread out until granola is about 1/2 inch high. Dehydrate for 4-6 hours, then set granola out to air dry for 1 hour. Store in a plastic bag/container or enjoy with almond milk. Makes about 2 cups.

What’s your favorite granola flavor? 

Friday Faves (June 8th)

Is it just me or did this week go by super fast? I guess staying busy will do that to you–I’ve been going to my internship, grocery shopping and packing for an upcoming move. I’ve barely had time to whip up any recipes lately so sorry for the lack of them this week!

Favorite Find: Fruit Infusion Pitcher

Who wouldn’t want fruit infused water?

I saw this baby at Target–aka, the store I could spend hours in looking at all of their stuff, especially their kitchen and patio stuff. This pitcher is really cool because you just put fruit in the inner cylinder and it infuses the plain water with it. So basically like juice but without the added sugar. How cool is that?!

Favorite Video: S*** Vegans Say

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the S*** ________ Say video series. This one and it’s sequel are flipping hilarious because I have definitely said some of those things before. Even if you aren’t vegan, you’ll probably find it funny because a lot of the stuff mentioned is pretty popular around the blog world. And maybe you’ve even said some of those things before yourself 😛

Favorite Breakfast

Chilled quinoa mixed with u/s vanilla almond milk and vanilla stevia, topped with peanut flour, raisins, sunflower seeds almond peanut cashew butter, chocolate chips and drizzle honey vanilla agave.

Move over, overnight oats! Overnight quinoa is where it’s at. When I first made this, I was worried it would turn out weird. But it’s actually really really good and a nice change from oats. The toppings are what make it, though!

Favorite Buy: Harbor Beach pinstriped skirt from Hollister

Mine is actually orange-striped, but you get the idea.

For such a girly girl, you’d think I’d own more skirts. I actually only have 6, not including my latest purchase. I love this one though because it has a summery, nautical feel and it feels fun to twirl around in. Yes, I am 5 years old, apparently.

What breakfast are you loving lately? What’s the best thing you’ve ever found at Target?

Foodie Newbie

I love love love trying out new products! I’m the girl who sees the label New! on a product and instantly drops said product into the cart. I’m such a sucker for anything I’ve never tried before. I usually have high expectations for the item, and sometimes they are met, other times not so much. But I rarely regret trying something new. It’s just…exciting!

I’ve gotten a lot of new-to-me products lately, and I wanted to share my (unbiased) reviews of them here. I was not given these products to try by the companies themselves (I wish they would have, though!)–I bought them all myself my parents bought them for me.

Kaia Foods Sprouted Sunflower Seeds (Cocoa Molé)

I’m not a huge fan of sunflower seeds, but when I saw these on a random solo trip to Whole Foods, I decided to try them. The flavor combo really grabbed me, and the nutritional stats weren’t too shabby (7 grams of healthy fat, 80 calories per serving, some Vitamin E). I was a little thrown off by the soft texture, but these were pretty decent. Not quite cocoa-y or spicy enough (one of the ingredients is organic cayenne pepper) but not bad at all. I would probably try a different flavor (like sweet curry or teriyaki) in the future.

I'm really getting into raw foods like these!

Oikos 0% Peach Mango and Honey Fig Greek Yogurts

Oikos is my Greek yogurt brand of choice, and these new flavors did not disappoint! The peach mango was reaaaaaaally sweet, but definitely tasted like peach and mango. There were even real chunks of fruit in the bottom 😀  The honey fig is super-creamy and not watered down at all by the real organic honey and fig juice (the fig juice is actually the 3rd ingredient!) I love that this brand is always organic, and in general, I love Greek yogurt for its creaminess and amazing protein stats.

I'm always drawn to colorful packaging

 

PB Puffins+new Oikos flavor? Yes please!

Whole Foods Hot/Cold Bars

My fam went on an impromptu picnic this weekend, and we stopped at (where else?) Whole Foods to grab lunch. I’ve always wanted to try the hot and cold food bars they have there and I’ve gotta say, I can see why so many bloggers love to eat there. They have such a good selection of stuff, and it’s so. good. I got curried tofu salad, curried quinoa salad (lots of curry-lovin’ for this girl), Asian kale salad and roasted sweet tater chunks. Even though it all ended up mixing together in the box, it was all still amazing! Definitely gonna go back ASAP!

I definitely got my "rainbow of produce" in with this lunch!

Barbara’s Bakery Peanut Butter Puffins

After seeing this pop up on so many blogs, I decided to hop on the bandwagon. Best decision ever! I’m not the biggest PB fan, but I love the slightly soft, slightly crunchy texture of these babies, and their strong peanut taste. I love them as an overnighters topper (coffee maple oats topped with these are my new go-to combo) and in Greek yogurt. Mmmmmm…

There's so many ways to eat Puffins, but this is my favorite--as an overnight oats topper! Crunchy and creamy...

Whole Foods 365 Individual Vegan Pizza with Whole Wheat Crust

I miss their larger onion-sauce based vegan pizza, but this is also good. It’s topped with tons of roasted veggies, and the sauce is very flavorful. It’s tiny, but I don’t have a big appetite anyway 😛

Tons of veggies and NO cheese make for one happy Ashley 🙂

Late July Mild Green Mojo Multigrain Chips

On my recent vacay, I brought along a new-to-me product, Late July Sea Salt by the Seashore Multigrain chips, and I loved their simple salty flava. I liked them better than regular tortilla chips. Then I saw this flavor, and I just knew I had to get them. However–I didn’t realize until I brought them home that they had cheese as an ingredient. Yikes! I was a tad upset, but I decided to try them anyway and…well, they were so so good! They honestly don’t taste cheesy to me at all (more like these ranch-flavored soy crisps I’ve had before) and have a little bit of kick to them. I tried them as a crunchy topper on a black bean salad and lets just say that I’m gonna be having this salad for lunch for awhile 😉

 

It's easy being green if you're also super-delish!

 

What is the best new thing you’ve tried lately?