Fourth of July Weekend

Hello my darlings, I’ve missed you! It’s been a whirlwind of a holiday weekend, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Let’s backtrack to Friday, shall we?

Late morning, I took the train to New York to pick up the keys to my new apartment. Eeek, so excited! I’ll show you pictures when I head back up to move in this weekend, but I got majorly lucky on this place- three more people applied in the 24 hours it took them to process my app. I definitely lucked out with one of the (very) few underpriced NYC apartments…

For dinner that evening, I met up with Mike at a tapas restaurant near the NYU campus. It was a tiny hole in the wall place with AMAZING food:

Fresh bread and olive oil with marinated olives

Sopa de gazpacho...I’ve never had gazpacho with croutons, but I never say no to more carbs

Langostinos a la Planca- grilled prawns. They’re looking at you!

Pulpo a la Gallega- octopus with olive oil, paprika and sea salt. This was absolutely delicious. As weird as it sounds, the suckers are the most tender and flavorful part!

Chocolate mousse cake for dessert

I know I’m a bit of a weirdo; the thought of eating meat grosses me out, but I have no problem eating octopus suckers or digging shrimp meat out of its head. No matter how vegan I get, I’ll never be able to give up seafood! I’m happy with my high-vegan pescatarian ways J

After dinner, we strolled over to Chelsea for the evening, stopping at Cocoa V along the way. It’s a small vegan chocolate shop and wine bar owned by the same people as Blossom. The selection was incredible!

While Mike bought some truffles for his mom, I snagged a dog-shaped chocolate tangerine lollipop as a second dessert (my excuse is that Mike hogged the chocolate mousse cake). Cute and tasty.

We spent the rest of the night bar-hopping before I headed back to my apartment to sleep in a comforter on the hardwood floor. Not exactly the most comfortable situation, but I was just excited to be there!

The next morning we were headed to Long Island for an all-day party! We were some of the first people there, so the boys set up some tents while we waited for the others to arrive.

The rest of the day was a ton of fun- we hung out by the pool, played ridiculous games, and feasted on the amazing surf and turf spread our host’s mom laid out for us. I slacked in the picture department, but did manage to get a few shots:

Swimmin’

Watching fireworks

Birthday ice cream cake. It's been YEARS since I had this stuff, and it was freaking delicious.

I’m generally used to playing paparazzi with my friends, but this weekend it felt good to put the camera away and focus on living in the moment, rather than capturing it. Pictures are great to remind you of good times, but I also believe that the best memories are the ones you don’t need a camera to remember.

Sunday, the blinding sun and heat blaring through the tents woke us up early. We feasted on baked goods and lazed around for a while before I headed back into the city to get my train home. July 4^th is my brother’s birthday, and I wanted to make it back in time for his celebration! In honor of his 24^th, he had a barbeque with all his friends that included plenty of hot dogs, cookie cake and beer pong in the pool on our inflatable table. Again, I didn’t snap any pictures, but it was a nice, low-key way to end the weekend!

A few other random eats:

Fiber One and raspberries

Tomato and Sabra on Ezekiel, plus strawberries, blackberries and almonds for the train

Tofu sammie from an NY deli

Huge soft pretzel from a hot dog stand on Long Island

Vanilla protein shake with Sun Warrior, almond milk, ice, vanilla extract and a nanner

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend too! I’ve been catching up on the reader and I know at least a few of you had some fun plans! And of course, the best part of a long weekend is the short week that follows. Enjoy J

Are you a fan of seafood? If so, what’s your favorite? I love everything except clams, mussels and oysters, but if I had to choose an absolute favorite, it would probably be shrimp, scallops and tuna steak.

Besides food pictures, are you camera-happy? Is anyone else the unofficial photographer among their friends?

Eat, Drink and Be Vegan Giveaway Winner

And the winner is...

#24, Jessica from The Process of Healing!

Congrats Jessica! Please send me your shipping info at uneviesaine at gmail.com so I can get you your prize!

Dippable Dinner

Salut mes amis, happy July! I think it’s safe to say that this summer is passing at warp speed. It’s been a wonderful one so far though J

I babysat today, so it was a very early morning. I woke up at 5:30 and downed a bowl of Nature’s Path SmartBran, frozen blueberries and almond milk before heading out.

Once there, I got the girls ready for camp, snacked on an unpictured pack of peanut butter crackers in the car, dropped them off, and headed home for the afternoon. I decided to take advantage of the outrageously gorgeous weather and go for a run sans Garmin. Though I love my Garmy, it was relaxing to just run, and not worry about the pace.

After cleaning up, I dug into some purple oats for lunch! This bowl contained ½ c oats, 1 c almond milk, a sliced banana, a scoop of Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder, a spoonful of flaxseeds, a huge handful of frozen blueberries and the last of my millet puffs. It’s been awhile since I had hot oats, and these were perfection.

On the side, I had some baby carrots for veg:

Afternoon snacks included strawberries topped with cocoa powder, a small handful of almonds and some unpictured cucumbers and salsa.

A bit later, I brought the girls home from camp. While they snacked on their Goldfish, I swiped some unpictured mixed nuts from the pantry. I love that most households keep nuts on hand- easy, vegan, healthy and delicious!

By the time I got home, I had a hummus and pita craving going on full-force. I went for it and had a huge tandoori flatbread dipped right into a container of Sabra. Hit. The. Spot.

I continued the dippable theme with an apple and Naturally Nutty vanilla sunflower seed butter, also enjoyed straight from the jar.

I must admit, it’s rare that I eat a substantial amount from a container. It took me forever to stop measuring my food, but I still pay attention to portion sizes, which I think gets in the way of intuitive eating. Kailey, Ilana and I talked about this during our meet up- by being so conscious of the amount we’re eating, we fail to think about how we feel while eating it. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that portion control is a huge part of a healthy diet; however, why should I listen to a package when it tells me that I can only have two spoonfuls of hummus, instead of what fills me up? Tonight, I inhaled that stuff straight from the tub, and while it was a little daunting, it was also good. I’ve decided that my newest goal is to stop paying such close attention to portion sizes, and instead start paying closer attention to my fullness level to determine what’s enough.

After this revelation, I definitely deserved some dark chocolate (more Lindt chili dark):

Well folks, that’s it for tonight! I’m going to New York tomorrow to finalize my apartment and then am going to Long Island for the weekend, so it may be a few days before my next post. Have a fantastic Friday and fourth, loves!

Do you pay attention to portion sizes? How? Measuring/counting/weighing/eyeballing? I used to measure everything, but I’ve gotten to the point where I can confidently eyeball a good-sized portion. So much less stress!

What’s your favorite widely available health food? I love nuts because they’re a healthy and delicious option that you can find basically anywhere.

PS- Don’t forget to enter my cookbook giveaway!