Living in the moment

I’ve got less than 48 hours left until summer officially begins, but in true end-of semester style, time is practically moving backwards. I feel like so much of my life is spent counting down towards things that seem to pass in a heartbeat; savoring the present moment has never been a strong suit of mine. I drive myself nuts worrying about what’s going to happen instead of enjoying what’s happening right now. There will always be events that bring more anticipation and excitement than others, but I think that if we can’t learn to see the fun and beauty in ordinary days, we’ll never truly appreciate the most special moments. I’m so thankful for the people in my life who gently tell me to relax, to stop worrying, to focus on the present. Those reminders always have the power to turn my day around- if I’m not loving my life in the current moment, how am I ever going to learn to love it in the future? This summer, I’d like to make enjoying the present a priority. Every day, I’d like to remember something that made me smile! Who’s with me?

That being said, I know a huge weight will be lifted from my shoulders on Thursday afternoon! I still have a paper to finish by Monday afternoon, but I’m confident I’ll be able to knock it out in no time in the comfort of my own bed J

Onto today’s eats!

This morning’s breakfast was a bowl of Nature’s Path Optimum Slim cereal with fresh raspberries and almond milk:

Post-breakfast I ignored the massive piles of studying that needed to be done and decided to clear my head with an 8 mile run. It was one of those days where my legs felt like molasses and I didn’t come anywhere near my usual pace, but I still felt awesome after finishing. Spending a little time in the sunshine always sets a good mood for the day!

I had my favorite post-run meal for lunch:

 

In the jar: ½ c oats, 1 c almond milk, 2 T chia seeds, 2 T flax seeds, sliced banana and ~2 Once Again sunflower seed butter

I also had an apple and some baby carrots before passing out in bed for a bit. I don’t usually nap, but my body was craving some sleep today!

Afternoon snacks were half an Endangered Species cranberry and almond dark chocolate bar, plus the last of my Ezekiel tortillas that needed to be consumed:

 

I spent the day “studying” – aka writing emails, cleaning out my desk drawers, and planning my brother’s fiancée’s bachelorette party- before heading to Cosi for a change of scenery. I downed a soy cappuccino and about half the basket of free bread samples before Mike met me there for dinner. I got my usual:

Hummus and fresh veggie sandwich with a side of baby carrots; I also stole two slices of Mike’s huge pizza margherita

Dessert when I came home was more dark chocolate- I totally forgot I’d eaten some earlier actually! Oh well, there are worse things to OD on J

All of today’s procrastinating means it’s time to buckle down and get to work. Happy almost hump day!

Something that made me smile today: watching a dad teach his little girl to ride her bike along the Hudson River. It reminded me of my own daddy!

How are you at living in the present? Are you a worrier? This is something I’m constantly working on!

What’s your go-to form of procrastination? Organizing things and Google reading are definitely mine!

Turnaround

Hi loves! Ever had a day that starts off terribly and ends up doing a complete 180? That was today for me. I certainly can’t complain- it’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised!

Last night I ended up going to a friend’s house where we had a pretty intense confrontation. I won’t go into the details, but it’s a disagreement that’s been brewing for awhile, and I was very hurt by the exchange. Hopefully it will resolve itself eventually, but I’ve realized in the past few years that there will always be new people weaving in and out of our lives, and the ones who are truly important will always stay. Regardless, I woke up this morning kind of bummed. Obviously some cereal for breakfast made it a little better:

Kashi GoLean, bloobs and almond milk

Since it was raining, I decided to hit the gym. I did an easy 50 minutes on the elliptical, covering 4.5 miles. Hopefully the weather cooperates tomorrow and I’ll be able to get a run in- I’d like to improve my speed for my second half at the end of the month!

Lunch was full of produce I need to use before heading home on Thursday:

 

Smucker’s Natural Creamy PB and a banana on a Tumaro’s honey wheat tortilla, plus a Fuji, clementines and baby carrots

Despite my funky mood, things definitely started getting better in the afternoon! Remember my horrible substitute from French class last Wednesday? Today my professor apologized to all of us, saying that she didn’t follow the lesson plan he’d given her and that he was sorry if she’d offended any of us. Definitely made me feel a little better! Between classes I munched a chocolate decadence Vega bar:

In my Paris class, the professor brought in croissants in celebration of our last day, and performed a hysterical French rap for us. Not a bad class either! I didn’t snap a picture of my croissant for obvious reasons, but it was delicious J

After class, I headed to Chelsea to meet Marina from A Veggie Girl (And Her Cat) at Blossom restaurant. On the way there I got a massive chocolate craving, so I stopped at a deli for a bar of Lindt 70%:

Minus a bite…almost forgot a picture!

I’ve been wanting to try Blossom for ages, and since Marina had only ever eaten brunch there, we decided it would be a great place to meet up!

We split the porcini cigars as an appetizer:

Hand-rolled phyllo filled with porcini mushrooms, almonds, and ground tempeh, served over a cashew pesto, finished with pomegranate seeds

These were delicious; many of you know I hate mushrooms, but they didn’t bother me one bit in this dish! The sauce was also excellent. Our only problem was the portion size- for such a yummy dish, we definitely would have liked a few more!

For my entrée I chose the vegetable mezze plate:

Our Chef’s preparation of fresh vegetables: roasted fennel, brussels sprouts, sweet potato puree, sautéed kale, and tri-color cauliflower, accompanied by spiced quinoa

The sweet potato puree immediately caught my eye, and since I’d never eaten kale or fennel before, I decided to give them a try! Fennel just may be a new favorite vegetable! Everything was very well prepared- my favorites were probably the fennel and spiced quinoa.

Of course, no vegan dinner would be complete without a dessert!

Lavender coconut crème brulee

This was absolutely a perfect dessert for today’s hot weather; the custard part had a great lavender flavor and the carmelized top tasted like pure toasted coconuts. Yum!

Overall, it was a wonderful experience! Marina and I had a great time chatting, and all of the food was incredibly well done. I just love how many great vegan restaurants there are in New York! This meal was the perfect end to an ultimately pretty good day!

Hope you all have terrific Tuesdays- I’ve got to study, study, study!

Have you ever had to let go of a friendship because you just couldn’t agree on something important? I don’t expect to agree with my friends on anything, but if I don’t feel like my views are being respected, then I start to question just how good of a friend they are.

What’s your favorite warm-weather dessert? I absolutely love strawberry-rhubarb pie!

100

Bonsoir mes belles! It’s been a few days! My apologies for the bloggy hiatus- this weekend was kind of all over the place, and since this is my ONE HUNDREDTH POST, I figured I’d do a good post instead of a rushed one! I can’t believe I’m at 100 already! I’ve loved every part of this community from the start…thank you so much to everyone for reading, and to all you new readers or lurkers, thanks for stopping by! I hope you stay awhile J

Rather than do a massive post with a million pictures, I’ll just stick with the highlights of what I ate!

Friday’s eats were delicious, starting with a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a PB&B wrap for lunch:

Fiber One + raspberries + almond milk

Smucker’s Natural Creamy PB and a banana on a Tumaro’s honey wheat wrap

Sliced apple with cinnamon, a la Lizzie

That evening, I met one of my best friends Jillian for dinner at the Candle Café, the sibling restaurant to Candle 79, which I went to with my parents last weekend. Since that meal definitely didn’t disappoint, I was really looking forward to eating at the café! I decided to go with one of the specials of the day, a taco salad:

Chili beans, grilled seitan, chopped lettuce, tofu sour cream, tapioca cheese and corn chips over a toasted cumin vinaigrette.  Served with pico de gallo and guacamole.

Holy freaking deliciousness. Not only was this thing massive enough to fill me completely (it’s the worst when restaurant salads are too small!), it was probably one of the best “Mexican” dishes I’ve ever had. The guacamole was awesomely fresh, the pico de gallo was filled with huge chunks of tomato, the seitan was perfectly seasoned and the sour cream and tapioca cheese could have doubled for the real deal. I’m usually not a fan of “mock” meats or dairy products, but these were absolutely spot on. Jillian ordered the quesedilla, which was stuffed with bean puree, grilled veggies, and tapioca cheese, and also loved it!

Even though my salad was beastly, I knew I could handle dessert J I ordered the decadent chocolate cake and Jillian got the chocolate mousse pie, so we could sample each others’ sweets.

Decadent chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and berry coulis

Chocolate mousse pie with chocolate cookie crust

The frosting on my cake was hands down some of the best I’ve ever had, vegan or otherwise. The cake had a slight gingery taste to it that really made it different, and even though it was yummy, I had trouble finishing the massive slice! Jillian’s chocolate mousse pie was also delicious, with tiny chunks of chocolate throughout it. I detected a slight silken tofu taste, but Jillian couldn’t taste it at all…that’s what I get for eating raw tofu! On the way out of the restaurant I bought a copy of The Candle Café Cookbook, which I’ve wanted ever since I discovered it a few months ago. It includes recipes for both desserts, so I can’t wait to try them on my own!

Friday night I went to a concert at Mike’s school, which was really fun! The concert itself wasn’t anything special, but I had a good time hanging out and partying before and after.

Saturday I hit up the gym for a HIIT elliptical workout along with some strength training. I did 35 minutes on the elliptical using Janetha’s 20 minute HIIT routine, then 10 minutes of backpedaling at 10 incline, 10 resistance and finally a 5 minute cool down. I finished with half an hour of arms and abs before coming home to study for the rest of the afternoon. Eats included:

Kashi GoLean with blackberries and almond milk for breakfast

Salad beast with tempeh, romaine, tomatoes and humnut for lunch, accompanied by a few clementines and one of Averie’s peanut butter chocolate chip protein bars

2 pints of sliced strawberries topped with homemade chocolate sauce (1T cocoa powder, 1 packet stevia, splash of almond milk)

That evening I headed to Mike’s school again for their spring weekend dance. I grabbed a falafel salad at Grand Central on my way, which the dude working there actually gave me for free. I later realized that the tank top I was wearing probably gave him a very strategic view when I was looking at the food display trying to decide what I wanted. If it saves me eight bucks though, I’ll take it!

Falafel, hummus, green bean salad, beets, tabbouleh and lettuce. The falafel was kind of spicy and absolutely delicious!

I had a great time at the dance! It was a Willy Wonka theme, meaning there were jelly beans, Starbursts and lollipops all over the place, plus a fondue station with marshmallow cereal treats. How could I resist? I made myself slightly nauseous with a million handfuls of Jelly Bellies and a Lucky Charms treat, but it was worth it J

Today was devoted to STUDYING! I woke up early, went to church, got a quick 5k run in along the Hudson before it got too hot, completed the Fitnessista’s Twitter challenge (crunches, stretching, and the like), and then got to work! The main eats (with some snacks thrown in as well, of course!):

Kashi GoLean with banana and almond milk

Salad beast with an entire block of Nasoya firm tofu, lettuce, two tomatoes and humnut dressing, plus an apple with PB

Huge pile o’ veg including baby romaine, steamed cauli, broc, carrots and zucchini, roasted brussels, EVOO, nooch and an Ezekiel tortilla

Endangered Species dark chocolate with cranberries and almonds

At some point this afternoon I took a quick study break to go find my mom a Mother’s Day gift at Jacques Torres. I won’t divulge what I chose since she reads this, but you can tell it’s delicious just by seeing a display:

I’ll post a picture of her gift on Sunday. It’s quite a work of art! It’s back to studying for me- four days until I’m home! Hope you all have a great Monday!