My (Beach) Week in Pictures

I recently had the pleasure of spending some extra quality family time in Long Beach Island while Dan was out gallavanting in Chicago. (He was probably mostly working, but he did have one crazy fun night of beer, ribs & more beer with our brother-in-law Dave). Here are a few pictures of my week:


Beach House


Bay View


Ben & Grandpa


Lava Flows & wine


Sandy Ben


Me & my favorite little man

3-Day Cleanse (aka the worst idea ever)

I decided to tackle the Kaeng Raeng cleanse...basically 3 days where you replace all meals with 3 fruit shakes. It's all natural, vegan, non-GMO, etc etc etc. I have been battling at least 5 pounds of baby weight that won't budge, and thought on top of cleansing my body of all the toxins I take in, maybe this will help me lose those last few pounds.

Day 1 - I had the blueberry, blackberry & banana shake first (b/c it looked the least appealing). It was gross. I feel nauseous. Not a great start! For lunch I do the peach, mango & pineapple which is a little more tasty. Still feeling pretty nauseous. I go out and buy some grapes and carrots to snack on....I need something else! For dinner I have the strawberry, banana & pineapple...still gross. Suck it down, thinking I might cheat & have something like a kalamata olive to get this nasty taste out of my mouth. But I don't...I go to bed and have completed the first day without cheating!! Yay!

Day 2 - Already down about 3 pounds this morning! I'm going to do the same order for breakfast, lunch & dinner again today. That seemed to work. I am wondering how I will get through 2 more days of this, though. That kalamata olive in the fridge is calling my name. (I loooove kalamata olives. I want to marry them.)

Later in Day 2 - I almost broke down. I wanted to cry. I was this close to vomiting all over myself. I was in a bad place. So I made the executive decision to not have a death shake for lunch, and instead to munch on something super tiny. Success! After a few bites of a tortilla, I didn't want to kill myself anymore. I then went on to enjoy my dinner shake, and that was that! Not bad.

Day 3 - Had my 3 shakes, and a lot of watermelon. (And maybe a few of Ben's cheerios that he was throwing at me during breakfast.) I love watermelon. But it's no meal. For dinner I decided to have corn on the cob with my shake. Why not? Jersey corn is in season and it's healthy. It's not exactly part of the cleanse but the corn was calling my name. It was either that or pasta. Corn seemed more cleanse-ish. I still am pretty damn proud of myself.

Conclusion: I love food. And cleanses are stupid.

The only upside to this experience was I lost about 5 pounds or so (no scale here in LBI but I was down 4 pounds this morning). I'll most likely re-gain it all back as I inhale my Tofu Burrito (minus the tofu-yech, extra hot sauce) from Living on the Veg tomorrow night. Yum!

One Smart Cookie

No, this isn't a post about cookies. This little girl (who seems to be smarter than most adults) did an awesome project which really showcases WHY you should buy organic! Take a look:



Love it. So simple.

Beach Eats

Ben and I had such an amazing week on LBI with my family, and before we knew it, it was the weekend and Dan was there too! My Aunt Eileen even came Saturday, and we all had such a nice evening. As part of dinner, we tried a new twist on pasta salad....chickpea salad! It was delicious. And super easy.



Ingredients:
Chickpeas (we used 2 cans)
kalamata olives
fresh basil (from Dad's garden, yum!)
grape tomatoes
Olive oil & Red wine vinegar (equal parts...we used 1/4 cup of each)
Optional: artichoke hearts, kidney beans, pasta, feta...really anything you like!

Mix everything together, and well that's it. Let the salad sit in the dressing for a bit. It was even more delicious as leftovers the next day.

Source: Got this recipe from Harper's Happenings...great blog HERE

Adventures in homemade babyfood!

I have been staying at the beach all week with my parents...a fun and easy way to keep on track with my new vegan-ness. They even have this amazing restaurant on the island, Living on the Veg, where everything is vegan! Delish! I am proud to say it has been one week and I have stayed dairy & meat free.

Last night Mom and I decided to attempt making our own babyfood. I'm on a health-kick...why not make Ben some super healthy food so he can get in on the action? We had fun and it was super easy peasy. We boiled a ginormous organic sweet potato & pureed it, then froze it in ice cube trays.



Our next concoction was organic Apples, Mangoes & Carrots. You just boil, puree and voila! Ben had some for breakfast this morning and seemed to enjoy it.



Looking forward to more adventures in homemade babyfood!

Dan joins the revolution!

So last night we ventured out to Trader Joe's to see what sort of fun vegetarian items we could find (and obviously stock up on cheap wine). No, not 2 buck chuck...we do have some class. Dan found some meatless meatballs he wanted to try. When we were living with my parents, we tricked Dan into having a meatless meatball and turns out he loved it! So he also picked up some whole wheat pizza dough and made a delicious meatball stromboli! To make the dinner extra fancy, we had some wine, too. I of course could not eat it b/c Dan needed cheese on it...but it looked delicious. See?



To top off our vegetarian evening, Dan had a delicious kahlua and almond milk as a night-cap. Cheers!



So, it's official! Dan has joined the dark side. Well, at least at home he has. Today we are going to Maplewoodstock and I see many hot dogs in his future. As for me, I'm sticking to it!

Time for a change!

We just got back from an amazing weekend in Long Beach Island with my family. Fourth of July was filled with lots of family, fun, wine, beach, ocean, and BAD FOOD. I probably consumed about 4 lbs. of cheese, along with another 2 lb. of meat, including burgers! (I rarely eat red meat). I felt so sick on Tuesday, I decided we needed to change. Soooo, I have made the decision to cut out dairy (mostly), meat (all red meat, MOST chicken), and see how I feel. I have already bought almond milk and Earth Balance vegan butter. Oh, and Gardein Chicken strips! I already feel better!

Day 1 - Not such a success. I had a lunch date with my good friend and we ended up at a favorite restaurant I hadn't been to in years...Old Man Rafferty's. I ordered tomato basil soup and a caesar salad. No meat, yay! But, yeah...there's dairy. The soup even came with these ridiculously tiny and adorable grilled cheeses. Oh well. Dinner was completely meatless and dairy free! (Dan did have some chicken)

Day 2 - I started the day by making corn muffins with almond milk! (I did use an egg, until I have finished those...then I will buy egg replacer). No need to waste! I also had my coffee with the almond milk, and a spoonful of REAL sugar. Another thing I am cutting out of my life is artificial sweeteners. I use sweet'n'low like it's my job. Gross.

Lunch was at Cheesecake Factory with my sister-in-law...another fail (although delicious and fun)...BUT I ordered my salad with no cheese! Dinner was also meatless and dairy-free - roasted potatoes & carrots! Yum!

So now, it's Day 3. I am going to go all the way today! It will be easier when not eating lunch or dinner out at a restaurant. Once I get the hang of it, I think I'll be fine. I'm excited to make a positive change...and I'm pretty excited to possibly shed a few more pounds of baby weight while I'm at it!