Following Foodie – Columbus, OH

Today, my brother and I drove down to Columbus, OH to watch his girlfriend play at hockey game at THE Ohio State University (I find it so funny how some universities make such a big deal about the the at the beginning of the name – The Pennsylvania State University is the same way).

I’ve been to Cincinnati a million times before, but I’ve actually never been to Columbus. Using a couple (non-food) blogs for reference, I noted a few places to visit before leaving – mainly the neighborhoods Short North and German Village.

Firstly, the drive to Columbus was certainly different from the times I’ve driven down to Cinci. We traveled on quite a few two-lane highways, through a bunch of cute little towns.

A not so big secret about me – I love “rural” places and small towns (someday soon I plan to write a post about my summer vacation to Kansas), and like to fantasize about living in one.

The drive was fun, but Columbus itself was impressive. There’s something about southern Ohio that I just really like, and Columbus did not disappoint.

We started our day with a walk around the German Village. We definitely didn’t get to fully appreciate it (we had a hockey game to get to), but what we did see was so nice! We stopped for breakfast at Cup O Joe first, a nice little coffee shop with two locations in Columbus, I believe. I got a Five Grain Bagel with cream cheese, and their pumpkin latte.

The bagel wasn’t anything to write home about (it was a good bagel, but it wasn’t fantastic), but the latte sure was. They claimed it was made with fresh pumpkin, and I would believe them completely! It was so thick and even a little textured – which sounds gross, but was actually quite delicious.

We next went to the Book Loft, where I had to literally hide my money from myself.

Why, do you ask? Well, take a look at the map for the bookstore:

Yup, a map. Because the Book Loft has 32 rooms of books. And not only books – discounted books! Most have a discount of around 5%, but there were some with a 30-40 or more percent discount. I have no money for books (all my money goes to food :) right now, so I didn’t buy anything, but wow, what a place. It was a “proper” bookstore, with high shelves and windy rooms – I could have spent all day in there!

But alas, we didn’t have all day. We drove over the the campus, and were greeted first with the sight of the Horseshoe.

The game was fun – I really like hockey, and Michigan won! (? I still can’t call myself a Michigan fan, but I’m glad for my brother’s girlfriend…). Before beginning the drive back to Ann Arbor, my brother was so kind to indulge me and drive through the Short North.

If I lived in Columbus, this is where I would live! So many interesting (and local!) shops and restaurants, with really cool architecture as well.

It’s also home to the North Market, a public market in Columbus.

Inside there were quite a few interesting places to eat, but I ultimately decided to get a Vegetarian Crepe at Taste from Belgium.

My brother opted for Skyline…

Verdict? Columbus = pretty awesome. I’d love to go back…And at only ~3 hours from Ann Arbor, I think I will do :)

Edited to add: Thank you so much to Mt. Victory, OH’s website for mentioning my post! I’ve now tagged the photo accordingly…and am already attempting to plan a trip back :)

Grange Kitchen and Bar

Friday night was my running buddy’s birthday, and as she is something of a foodie as well (most of our time hanging out is spent discussing or eating or watching food…), she had the awesome idea to go to Grange in Ann Arbor. Grange is a local restaurant that’s dedicated to serving local, seasonal and sustainable food whenever possible, and the resulting menu is absolutely fabulous.

But before getting ahead of myself, let’s start with drinks, shall we? I love restaurants with a creative cocktail list, and this definitely didn’t disappoint. I don’t like bourbon, and therefore didn’t want to order the GBK Manhattan (bacon infused Bulleit Bourbon, maple syrup, orange bitters, brandied cherries), but a member of our party did, and he let me try it. Bourbon aside, it was good! You could really taste the smokiness from the bacon – the aftertaste just kept coming at you, but in a good way. I did, however, order the GGGinger (fresh mint, ginger syrup & fresh lime juice, Tanqueray, ginger beer, crystallized ginger), because ginger beer is possibly my favorite drink in existence. Not beer at all, it’s just a really gingery ginger ale type beverage that I used to drink all the time in London:

The presentation of my drink was stunning – everyone at the table wanted a drink/to take a picture of it!

And believe me, it tasted as good as it looked. As did the cute bite of crystallized ginger on top…

Along with the drinks came some crusty bread and butter – I helped myself to a piece.

And so onto dinner. My philosophy when I eat in “fancy” restaurants is to always eat something that 1) I wouldn’t cook at home, 2) I probably couldn’t cook at home, even if I tried, and 3) I wouldn’t want to cook at home. So, following all of these rules, I ordered the Fried Pig’s Head with Mustard and Sauce Gribiche for my starter.

I didn’t know it when I ordered it, but sauce gribiche is (according to wikipedia), a “mayonnaise-style cold egg sauce”. I’m actually glad I didn’t know that – I don’t really like mayonnaise (though I’ve never tried to make it at home), and I’m sure it would have negatively influenced my opinion of it before I tried it. As it was, it basically just tasted like a soft stone-ground mustard. And as for the pig’s head – it was so tender and flavorful. And the crust was some sort of breading, I think, which in and of itself was delicious. On the side was something of a spring mix (arugula and something else?) lightly dressed. Yum…

For my main course, I ordered the Sautéed Perch with Swiss Chard and Squash Gnocchi.

The fish and the chard were pretty good, but I have to admit, the gnocchi were definitely my favorite part of the dish. I could have eaten an entire plate of them!

I also got to try a bite of the pork belly, which I’ve wanted to try as a meat for awhile – it’s also a well-known dish at the restaurant. It was so tender as well – it just fell apart! I was really happy with my dish, though :)

If I were to voice any complaints about Grange at all, it would be that the service could have been a little quicker – we waited awhile for both of our courses. We were a big party, true, but at an upscale restaurant like that, I would expect something a little quicker. However, our service was quite nice, and even agreed to split the bill between the 9 of us, which was awesome. 

If you are ever in Ann Arbor, and are looking for a really nice place to eat at, eat at Grange! It seems they also have a slightly less pricey lunch menu now as well – I’d like to go and try their burger!

There’s always tomorrow (for a better run!)

I’m watching the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree on TV, and it’s really making me miss New York. Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually pretty glad I’m not there anymore (life is so crowded and stressful!), but aside from the crowds of people, Christmas is definitely the best time to be in New York.

There’re markets

giant Nutcrackers

and of course, the Tree.

*Sigh*. Thanks for that little trip down memory lane…

In other Christmas news, look at the beautiful wreath I got at the Farmers’ Market today!

I’m still trying to figure out how to/where to hang it; right now it’s an (actually really pretty) decoration on my TV.

Also, it rained today. WTF Ann Arbor/Michigan?? I was all prepared for feet of snow before Thanksgiving – as of yet, there’s been nary a snowflake. Now supposedly, that’s changing tomorrow, but I’m not going to get my hopes up…

In the part of my life that doesn’t have to do with Christmas (which, honestly, is not too much right now – ‘tis the season!), my run this morning was not so fun. For one thing, it was cold, and for the first time, I really felt it, especially in my cheeks. I also managed to get lost, not once, but twice, adding around 1.5 miles to my run…Sigh. I mean, I’ve done this run before, but only once, and that was right after I had mapped it. My directions were completely wrong, and I managed to pick the wrong way at two different turns. Not fun at all. Also, my iPod died halfway through…It was just one of those runs, you know? Unfortunately, they can’t all be perfect…

My run ended up being 8.1 miles, which I did in a (little over a) 10 min/mile pace. I’ve felt so slow lately! I don’t know if it’s the cold weather, or what, but I haven’t felt very powerful while running recently…I hope it’s just all in my head.

Food today was pretty uninventive. I had the same exact breakfast and lunch from yesterday, yogurt mess

and amazing salad.

A bit boring, yes, but as I’m running a little low on cash, I’m trying to use everything in my fridge/pantry, etc. And since the salad was so amazing, I felt there was nothing wrong with eating it again :) Don’t worry – I’m all out of asparagus, now, so I’ll have to think of something else tomorrow.

Snacks throughout the day included a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar, this random trail mix my brother tossed me before I left home

and a few bites of chocolate, which apparently I have no picture of…

Dinner was something a bit different, and new to me. After all the Indian food love seen across the blogworld, for channa masala specifically, I was more than excited when I saw this frozen version at TJs.

Even better is the fact that I have naan bread on hand to go with it :D I also had a small slice of this cheese I found:

Altogether now:

Verdict? The channa masala was pretty awesome, but I feel like I could recreate it pretty easily, and pretty cheaply. The cheese was a really big disappointment, actually – I didn’t realize when I bought it that it was reduced fat, and unfortunately, cheese is one thing that I just have no tolerance for if it’s not the real thing. It was just so rubbery. Le sigh.

Time for Top Chef! G’night!

‘Tis a Gift to be Simple

Today was filled with really really simple, but really really delicious food. I love it when that happens!

Before getting to the food, though, I started my day with an awesome 7.75 mile run with my running buddy. It was pretty hilly, and we managed a ~10 min/mile pace during the run. I love going on long-ish runs during the week; it’s almost like there’s more sense of accomplishment :)

My breakfast was a pretty standard yogurt mess (for some reason, even though it’s getting colder here, I’ve been craving yogurt and fruit lately) with apple, banana, orange, flax, and TJ’s Blueberry Muesli. I jazzed it up a bit this morning, though, with the addition of some pomegranate arils.

Inspired by all the POM love seen around the blogworld, I used Caitlin’s guide to opening a pomegranate, and have been enjoying the arils ever since. Yum – they add such a juicy crunch to yogurt, etc!

One other thing they’re (POM) wonderful on is salads! I’ve been eating pretty crappy lately, so I’m really trying to eat better (easing up on the carbs and fat, and eating more veggies and fruit). I’m not a huge fan of salads that I make at home, but a glance into my fridge showed that I had some pretty fun ingredients to make an awesome (and not boring!) salad.

I started by roasting half a bunch of asparagus (that my mom gave me) at 400 degrees (with some olive oil, S&P) until they were nice and roasted. I chopped up a few clementines (one of my favorite “Christmas” foods), used about a quarter of a can of garbanzo beans, and put it all over a mix of spinach, arugula and baby greens (or so says the TJs bag…). Topped off with some pomegranate arils, and a sprinkle each of grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, and agave, this salad was amazing.

I had a piece of Trader Joe’s Garlic Naan alongside it, and then a piece of Dark Chocolate with Almonds for dessert – what an awesome lunch!

I tried really hard to be “good” at Great Harvest today – I “had” to try one of their new chocolate cherry muffins, and some Naturally Nutty Butter Toffee Peanut Butter (we sell it, and I’ve been wanting to try it for so long!), but it was nothing like the carb-fest that I usually have there. I’m trying my best to only have one “treat” a day at work. None of this eating every single end off the bread board…It’s almost Christmas, and I want to be able to enjoy the holidays, not worry about my weight!

Dinner was possibly not the healthiest of choices, but it sure was delicious. I’ve seen a bunch of these “leftover sandwiches” popping up, and I’d like to share my own:

• Great Harvest Michigan Herb bread
• Cranberry sauce
• Stuffing
• Green bean casserole
• Turkey

Yum! I’m going to be sad when my leftovers are gone…

I also had some carrots on the side. I love raw carrots, but hate cooked. True facts – I prefer the raw form of most veggies; there’s just something about mushy vegetables that’s a complete turnoff for me!

For dessert (while watching The Biggest Loser!) I brought back my wonderful "yogurt love" dessert.

Basically, it’s just vanilla Greek yogurt, PB&Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams and Annie’s Chocolate Bunnies. All mixed together to create the most satisfying dessert ever. YUMMY!

Also, here’s a few pictures of the Christmas decorations I’ve put up :) I hope to get a few more over the next couple of days, but I’m actually pretty pleased. I love Christmas, and have been listening to Christmas music pretty much nonstop to get in the mood!

It’s not much, but it’s amazing what a difference a few decorations make…I love looking up at my shelf!

Happy December…

Philly Fridays

I woke up on Friday and went on a nice, long 7 mile run. It went pretty slowly (I forgot how many good-sized hills were on that particular route); I finished in around 1:10 (or right around a 10 min/mile time). It felt really good to go out and sweat it up after a night of such indulgence…

At around noon-ish, we left to drive down to Philly for the day. On the drive, I ate a new bar that I got after the race.

Apparently I took no picture of the actual bar…It was pretty good, though. A little overly sweet, but it kept me full until our (unplanned) extremely late lunch.

I tore my attention away from the bar, though, when view such as this appeared :)

Truth: I live approximately half an hour away from Philly, but I don’t get into the city nearly enough. Hence the extreme excitement.

Our first stop was Macy’s, which used to be Wanamaker’s (one of, if not the, first department stores in Philadelphia). When I was younger, we used to go almost every year to see the massive light show that Wanamaker’s put on – luckily Macy’s still carries on the tradition.

We didn’t actually stop and watch the show, but I did hear some of it, and my mom snapped a few pics of me:

We then walked over to City Hall, which was hosting a Christmas Market! Unfortunately, as its only in its second year, the market was lacking a bit, but that didn’t stop us from getting an almost-family photo:

Next we walked through some of my favorite areas of the city en route to South Street.

We were headed to a new restaurant, Brauhaus Schmitz (my dad feels the need to visit every German restaurant possible…). After living in Germany for six months, I’m a little wary of German restaurants in America, but I was instantly impressed with the giant Reinheitsgebot on the wall:

I also really liked the table decorations:

As it’s after Thanksgiving, I ordered the seasonal Weissenoher Weihnachts Festbier (Christmas Party Beer!).

I enjoyed it (I love dark beers), but didn’t get much Christmas spice out of it. I ordered what I am always craving when I eat German food, a Wurstsalat

I used to eat them all the time in Germany, and have yet to find a really good replica in the states – apparently the delicate balance of light dressing, pickles, cheese, and sliced up bologna-resembling meat is really difficult. I also ordered a side of Spaetzle. With our drinks, we also were given some bread and herbed butter:

Of which I gladly partook in:

The bread was so good! Proper “dark bread” with a nice crust, and who doesn’t love butter with herbs (I think it was parsley).

Unfortunately, this was the last food we saw in a long time. Granted, the restaurant has only been open since the summer, but there was really no excuse for the service – we waited over an hour for our food, and it wasn’t even very busy.

The presentation of the food was very nice

But now, looking back on the menu description, the salad was missing the cheese and the pickles :( Though the meat and the dressing were very close to the real thing, the salad was tasty, and the spaetzle was delicious (if not a bit too buttery), the ridiculous service and salad with missing ingredients really ruined the restaurant for me (and the afternoon for all of us). I can’t in good faith recommend it, though if you’re just going for beer, I suppose it would be a good choice…

We left after lunch (/dinner), and I spent the rest of the day basically vegging and pigging out. Which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the holiday, with a bit of shopping thrown in here and there.

Tomorrow is December! I will be back with a challenge for myself, some holiday eats, and some holiday pictures :)

A Proper Post

Happy Thanksgiving (Part 2)! Now that Thanksgiving is officially coming to a close, I want to give proper thanks for all the riches in my life.

I am thankful for:

My family.

They’re crazy and more than a little obnoxious (but hey, what do you expect with four boys aged 14-20?), but spending time together is always fun and hilarious.

My ability to do crazy things like run 5 miles.

I haven’t always treated my body the best (honestly, it’s something that I try to work on and am working on every day), but I really appreciate everything that it enables me to do.

My friends.

Especially those who love food as much as I do, and will go to local foods cook-offs (with giant squash prizes!) with me.

The fact that I can finally listen to Christmas music!

I hate what the holidays are turning into, and firmly believe in not listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas, but only at Christmastime.

And so much more. I am truly blessed in life, and I am so thankful for everything I have :D

Most of my extended family lives in Ohio and Kentucky, and making the 8-hour drive (yup, many of the same hours my brother and I drove yesterday) with seven people in the car (or, more recently, finding space for seven people to stay outside of hotels) is something that we try to do only every other year. So this year, it was just the immediately family celebrating together.

Most of the day consisted of massive amounts of snackage in the form of the following spread:

I’m terrible when I come home for the holidays. I love eating crappy food in vast amounts. Le sigh.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was pretty standard fare, but absolutely delicious nonetheless. I was responsible for the mashed potatoes

green bean casserole (definitely a guilty pleasure and one of my favorites)

sweet potato casserole (one of the few things I don’t really like, actually)

and one of the stuffings that we had (I also stuffed the bird and brought home the rolls).

We also had cranberry sauce, which is probably my favorite thing about Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s also my grandmother’s recipe, and its part jell-o, part orange, and mostly sugar and ground up cranberries. So tasty!

Some more pics from our dinner:

I managed a little bit of everything:

And of course, no meal is complete without some pie!

True fact: I don’t actually really like pumpkin pie. I do, however, love pecan, and helped myself to a piece :)

And now? Thanksgiving is all but over. I think I’m going to go to bed, get a good night’s sleep, and wake up to run out all the crap I ate today :) I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and have a good night!

Turkey Trots

Happy Thanksgiving from the great city of Philadelphia! My brother and I made the 8-hour drive yesterday, getting home just after 9:00pm. And then this morning, all (but one, sigh) of my brothers and I got up to run in the Fairmount Park 5 Mile Turkey Trot in Philly.

It was really important for me to run a race today, because last year I ran in the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race – the first race I had ever run (and the first time I really had ever seriously run before in my life).

Though I didn’t start running regularly until March, I definitely credit the 10k in Cinci as giving me the “running bug” – it was such an awesome experience to run with so many people, and the sense of accomplishment I got after finishing was amazing.

The race today was alright – it was pretty small and much less high tech than any race I’ve run in before. Instead of having chips, our times were recorded as we crossed, and we tore off part of our bibs for the finishing order.

I felt pretty crappy for most of the race, truth be told. I got a cramp, and my right heel felt unbelievably tight. 

Around mile 4, though I felt a lot better (I think this bodes well for my marathon – I’m so much more comfortable running long distances than short). I finished in 41:28, which is a lot better than I was expecting, given how bad I felt – that’s a 8:17 min/mile pace! Comparatively, last year I ran my 10k at a 9:54 min/mile pace – a pretty good improvement, I’d say :)

I think running on Thanksgiving might be my favorite new tradition. It’s so nice to accomplish something in the morning, and then be able to go home and really enjoy the Thanksgiving feast.

Speaking of which, a full recap of Thanksgiving Day eats will be recapped after they’ve been eaten :) Enjoy your day!

Not-So-Lazy-Sunday

Today I finally saw Julie & Julia. It was at the dollar theater (what an awesome idea! I’ve never been to a “dollar movie” before, and definitely appreciated paying only $1, as opposed to $10 or more…), which was a great incentive to go :)

I actually remember really wanting to read the book when it first came out, but for one reason or another never got around to it (I still haven’t read the book, though I believe my friend is going to lend it to me). I knew the basis of the story going into the movie, of course, and so nothing was particularly “surprising”, but I didn’t know the details about Julia’s life at all.

On the whole, I enjoyed the movie. I’m not a huge Meryl Streep fan, actually, but she impressed me a lot. Her portrayal of Julia was just so fun and happy. I want to live and enjoy life like she did (and wouldn’t mind having her cooking talent one bit). I’ve never read her book, or her cookbook (I know, what kind of a foodie am I?!), but I think I’d like to now, if only because man do those recipes look delicious!

I had planned on having the rest of my Snobby Joes for dinner, but after seeing all that butter and cream, I opted for something a bit more decadent. Using leftover gruyere, TJs Applewood Smoked Bacon, a Jonagold apple and my Great Harvest Michigan Herb bread (I don’t know why I haven’t realized the amazingness of this bread before now!), I made a ridiculously good grilled cheese sandwich.

A cut up cucumber and (can you guess??) TJs Chipotle Pepper Hummus rounded out my dinner.

Topped off with a GH Chocolate Chip Walnut cookie and some milk, my belly was more than happy :)

Flashing forward to earlier, I started my day with a ~6.5 mile run. I didn’t get back until around 11, so I made myself a “brunch"-type meal. While I showered (so bad, I know), I threw a cut-up half of a sweet potato in the oven (at 375), which I let go until I had browned some onions on the stove. To the onions, I added a chopped up chicken sausage (apple and chardonnay – yum!) and spinach. Once the spinach had wilted, I tossed in the sweet potatoes.

When that had all combined, I poured in some egg whites to create a sloppy egg mess.

Topped off with some gruyere (and later, ketchup), it was quite tasty.

Oh yeah, and I had some Michigan Herb bread, too… :D

I actually saved half of the “hash” (sans egg) for a later time – I hope I don’t forget to use it!

To round out my eats for the day, I had a few (million) SCM cookies. Oh sigh. I really shouldn’t make these, because I really can’t help but eat them :)

I also had half an apple and a piece of my pumpkin cornbread. I was a little too snacky today, I think – this usually happens when I skip breakfast like I did.

Now? I’m watching The Santa Clause on TV. I promised myself I wouldn’t get into the Christmas spirit until after Thanksgiving (I love Christmas, but feel bad for the lack of love Thanksgiving receives, especially as Christmas becomes more commercial…), but I love this movie :) I did make it until the week of Thanksgiving, so I guess it’s okay.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and happy Monday :)

TNT Take One

Edit: My post didn’t post last night! I had issues with Windows Live Writer, so consider this dated 11/21 :)

Today was my first group run with Team in Training, and it was overall pretty uneventful. We met in Gallup Park, which is where I often run with my running buddy when we do longer runs, to do a 3-mile loop. I ran with two other women (my group seems to be all female!), and we managed a pretty nice ~8:45 min/mile pace. They’re experienced runners, which is good; it’s encouraging to know that I’ll have people to run with when the mileage starts getting up there.

On the whole, though, I admit to being a bit disappointed. Most of the people in the group (the people I ran with included) seem to be in very different places in their lives than I am, and are quite different from me. I am looking forward to getting to know them more, however.

From a fundraising perspective, I am not very far at all. Tomorrow, I plan to sit down and start on my emails and letter-writing. I’m still so scared, but my team mentor seems to be very pro-active, and ready with lots of ideas, which is good.

On a non-TNT note, I ran to and from my group run today, as today was the Michigan-Ohio State football game, and I did not at all want to be out driving in that craziness, even that early in the morning (I’m pretty sure many people started tailgating last night). My run to the site was nice; it was mostly downhill and there weren’t a ton of people out yet. Back was mostly uphill, I was tired, and I was weeding through a sea of people and passing massive parties, where people were singing along to techno versions of Hail to the Victors and Party in the USA (not simultaneously, though that would have been awesome).

Overall, I ran just shy of 9 miles today, in around 1:22. So, not too shabby (yes, I realize I’m probably running way too much for this early in the training, but I think I’m just a little overexcited to get back into it. I’m sure with the holiday season, and winter coming up soon, it’ll taper off a bit).

Food has been boring the past couple of days. The most exciting thing I made/ate was Pumpkin Cornbread, of which I ate just a little bit :)

I love cornbread of any type, but this was seasonally delicious.

I’ve also eaten TJ’s Artichoke Ravioli with pesto and Great Harvest Michigan Herb bread (it has a strong dill flavor, which I love), with a side of carrots and TJ’s Chipotle Pepper Hummus for two separate meals.

I’ve been suffering from both a lack of time, and a will to get rid of stuff in my fridge, hence the repetition.

For breakfast, I did bring back an old favorite – Greek yogurt with fruit and muesli! For some reason I was just craving it yesterday, and so I had it both yesterday and today :)

It’s been so warm here, I haven’t even felt like eating oats for breakfast, unfortunately. I like to be nice and cold to really enjoy warm oatmeal in the morning, and the weather just hasn’t delivered…

So that’s that, then. I can’t wait until Thanksgiving – my first real blogging holiday :D I’m going home, and hopefully running in a Turkey Trot of some sort, so it’ll be a day of good runs and good eats! Only 5 more days…

Vegan for a Day

Today I unofficially participated in the Blogger Vegan 4 a Day challenge. I forgot about the challenge until mid-breakfast (when I usually read blogs :), and since the only thing that I had consumed that could potentially be non-vegan was the honey in my Justin’s Honey Almond Butter (if I’m not mistaken, there’s a debate on whether or not honey is vegan or not…), so I decided to partake.

After a 5-mile run, I had the normal pumpkin oats with the aforementioned nut butter. Pumpkin, oats, maple syrup, cinnamon, Unsweentened Vanilla Almond Breeze, all of which I believe is vegan.

Snack today was Perk Up Your Trek Mix after I did some ab work (see yesterday’s workout minus the lifting). I’m pretty sure the mix is vegan (dried cranberries, almonds, pecans, chocolate-covered espresso beans, dried golden raisins), though I’m not quite sure about the ingredients in the chocolate, such as “confectioners glaze”…

Lunch was something I haven’t had in so long – a veggie burger sandwich! I had a Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burger (probably my favorite prepared veggie burger out there) on a TJ’s Whole Wheat Bagel, topped with spinach and TJ’s Chipotle Hummus (still loving it – I actually bought a new container today :). I also had a honeycrisp apple.

In the vegan spirit of the day, I decided to try a recipe I’ve been eyeing for awhile, Averie’s Raw Vegan Chocolate Donut Holes.

I just don’t know – they turned out correctly, but there’s just something off-putting about flax like that for me. Kinda really disappointing, actually, as I was looking forward to them :( Nothing to do with Averie’s recipe, just my own taste buds.

For dinner, I decided to crack open the most awesome of cookbooks, Veganomicon, which I don’t use nearly enough as I should (though I do use the introduction – its worth buying the book for alone!), and make something I’ve seen all over the place, Snobby Joes.

Wow did they deliver :)

I didn’t eat them as a sandwich, but rather with some Trader Joe’s Mini Whole Wheat Pita. I made little mini pita pockets :)

I started with leftover green beans, but quickly realized they weren’t vegan (see my note below) so I went without a side dish.

However, after my not-so-good day (all personal reasons), and failed Donut Holes, I made a batch of Super-Charge Me Cookies to make myself feel better (these are still my most favorite of all cookies ever), which I make with cranberries, dark chocolate and chunky peanut butter.

My oven sucks, so these are a bit burnt :( They are still delicious, though, I had 1, 2, 3 , 5 (I put the rest in the freezer – I just can’t resist them!!) :D

It wasn’t difficult to eat vegan, per se, but I did forget to actually check a lot of things before I ate them, like my Green and Black’s Chocolate (I had an unpictured square after lunch), which, surprisingly (to me) was vegan; also the hummus, the trail mix, and the mini-pitas I got at Trader Joe’s. I was not in as full of a vegan mindset as I should have been, so I wasn’t thinking so hard about what was vegan or not.

I didn’t enjoy my food any less (on the contrary, the Snobby Joe recipe is just as amazing as promised, and I will be making it many many times in the future, and I do like vegan baked goods, such as SCM cookies; it was just something about the donut holes that I didn’t really like), and I didn’t miss anything, but again, it was only a day. I think I would really miss milk and cheese (and yogurt!) after, oh, a week or so.  I also am unsure as to whether a lot of the “little ingredients” in things are vegan or not.

Surprisingly, a lot of what I eat on a regular basis *is* vegan, or could easily be made vegan, but that being said, at this point in my life, I think a vegan diet would be too restrictive for me. I do enjoy eating vegan every once and awhile, though :)

Side Note: There’s butter in my green beans, I just remembered :( I put them back away when I remembered, but not after a bite. That further proves I could never really be vegan – I just don’t think I would be very conscientious about it.