Author Archives: Jennifer

What I Ate Wednesday #3

October 12, 2016

Let me first point out- today is such a nicer healthier collection of foods than the past few days. Yeah, I’ve been scarfing down lots and lots of sugar. Hello pumpkin spice oreos and birthday cake flavored target-os. Oh a cookies and cream filled doughnut, the broken smarties from halloween candy, you know, anything I can get my hands on really. It is so easy to eat carbs and sugars since they are shelf stable and quick to make. Bagel and cream cheese? Easy and satisfying. Vegan boxed mac and cheese? Pretty filling. My acid reflux has been AWFUL the past few days, which I think has made me reach for the super junky foods. It also might be making leftovers filled with veggies less appealing. Part of me wonders if the things I am craving with the reflux (read: sugary snacks) are what is causing it.

breakfastshake

But let’s start with my shake. I just wasn’t feeling spirulina this morning. I wanted to taste more of the chocolate so I took out the spirulina and blended up a small beet from my CSA. I love how it makes the shake turn a deep shade of pink. I pretty much made the same shake I always do- soy milk, banana, cocoa powder, stevia, brown rice protein, kale greens, and chia seeds. Super tasty and yummy.

latte

I was feeling a little peckish before heading out to work so I quickly made a macaccino using some ripple chocolate milk. I really love the consistency of ripple, it is so thick and creamy and possibly a little gritty. Target keeps having sales for them so I keep snatching the small ones.

lunch

Around 12 I got too hungry and ate my lunch. I ate two very small golden delicious apples and a cluster fuck of leftovers. I made a red curry that was very thin. It made quite a lot so I kept trying to make the leftovers a little different each time. It kind-of morphed into a bland linguine dish that had some angel hair pasta as well. I pretty much just plugged 1 1/2 cups linguine, 1/4 cup white beans, 1/8 cauliflower, and 1/8 green beans into Cronometer. Seriously, no clue what the nutritional/calorie count would be for that. My bosses also opened a bag of corn chips, and I might of eaten a few handfuls of those.

hinderfork

So I clearly didn’t eat this- but I didn’t take photos of many things I ate (2 apples, corn chips, or raw cookies) so I figured I would share this interesting piece we just got in at my work. It is a fork from the Hinderburg! One of our clients said he was scoping out the field for work and his co-worker accidentally kicked it around. The backside of the fork has a lot more melting going on. It is hard to see in the photo, but on the burnt part there is a little logo (you can see a close up here.) For the record- I did NOT use this fork for my lunch.

Then I got hungry again around 3, and ate the rest of the Rawdical Raisin Cacao Cookies with Oats I made. I really didn’t like them much, which is weird since I really like a similar dish from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. I think it is the coconut oil that Emily adds to hers, it just is icky to me. Plus Ani puts hers in a dehydrator, which I think makes them a little more intense in flavor. I ate about 2.5-3 little cookies worth.

dinnerbaby

Then for dinner I made a recipe for the Vegan Mofo Blackest Dish challenge. Funny because I love this dish, it is very dark, but compared to the black rice, the stir-fry looks so brown. XD I thought the super metal dish matchy my spoopy shirt. So you guys get some tummy action. And you’ll just have to wait for the recipe for this. But it does use chunjang, a Korean black bean paste. I also used eggplant and broccoli from my CSA and a can of vegan abalone that I’ve had sitting around forever.

I might have a snack- thinking maybe half of a pumpkin mocha scone that I made from Protein Ninja. It’s the first time I made scones before, and I think I added too much flour to them. I wish she gave weights instead of cups for measurements. I plugged half a scone into Cronometer, just incase I decided to eat it before going to bed. As always, the numbers are off. The black rice and ripple didn’t have a full nutritional profile, nor did the canned abalone, I used miso instead of black bean paste, and so on. So I fell short, though I am sure I would of been off anyways.

As always, got all the calories I need- and hey I have 45 calories left! JK I had half of a broken package of smarties. I mean I can’t give it to trick or treaters right? Just got my fats requirements, all my carb, and pleanty of protein (160%, who says vegans don’t get protein?!) I am getting a lot of sugar though. I know I ate a banana and two apples, but there was a good amount of sugar in the ripple milk and in the raw cookies I ate which used agave. I am still short on a lot of various vitamins, but again, some food didn’t get fully registered, and it might of added to the totals.

Anyone else get their Halloween candy yet? And do you have a strong will to not eat the whole thing?

I know I’ve got the will to not eat the ones I can give out. XD

Posted by Jennifer in Pregnancy Tags: macaccino, pregnancy, rawesome vegan baking, ripple, ripple milk, third trimester, this rawesome vegan life, week 31, what I ate wednesday

5 comments

Vegan Snack Attack #8: British, Czech, and Polish Vegan Box

October 10, 2016

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I’ve been sitting on this post forever. I did a package swap with Jenny from Herbivore’s Heaven, back in early spring when I just got pregnant. You can read her review of the package I sent. I was carefully trying to pace myself with all the food, she sent so much! But then after awhile it became a wait game. I kept putting off making the nut roast because it involved turning an oven on during the hottest summer we’ve ever had. Then it became a wait game for the chocolate pudding. Truthfully I’ve never made any instant pudding in myself and the instructions aren’t in English. I’m a little scared to mess it up, but my plan is to just make pudding pops. But… my freezer is full of leftovers that are just for when the baby is born.

So I finally decided to leave the pudding mix out of the review and just finally post this thing. So thanks Jenny for all the awesome foods! Hopefully we can do another package swap next year (the shipping to the Czech Republic is expensive unfortunately T__T) because this was tons of fun. I got to try some yummy new foods, and some I found is available in the USA. I love reading your blog (and getting this package) because it really shows how veganism is different in various parts of the world, showing that people aren’t loosing cultural identity by going vegan.

Now- to the reviews. It’s a LOOOOONG post.

yoyos

Bear Nibbles Yoyos

Oh boy, this gives me all the feels that American can’t compete. My husband loves bears. It is really easy, find some shirt with a bear on it- boom birthday gift done. We have bear prints, a bear growler, a stuffed toy bear, we even got a beer called bare bear. So when I saw these pure fruit yoyos with a cute bear on it, I already knew I would love it- and would have to share with my husband. I found that the graphic design was a lot more sophisticated than most American brands but the snack was even better than what I was use to. They are very similar to fruit rolls up, only the snack is thicker but thinner in the width, making it more like a gummy snack. It is a little hard to unroll, and you kind-of need to poke the middle and then unravel from the inside in (maybe giving it more of that yoyo sort of name). The snack also came with collectable cards, which are a little silly as an adult, but fun for kids. I got the apple and raspberry flavors, and I think overall liked the raspberry best.

crawnchies

Crawnchies

I may have been a little hungry when I started to sort through my box, since I opened this up first. I love the packaging, it made me feel like I was eating some raw Pringles. What I really liked about these are that they were very light compared to other raw foods. The main ingredients were nuts, no they were actually vegetables, pumpkin and sweet potato. I liked the intense paprika flavor, not too salty or sweet. I liked the specs on the snack- the container was a total of 125 calories, almost 6 grams of fiber, 5 grams of fat (from flax seeds), and 4.5 grams of protein. The company is from the Czech Republic but the distribute in the UK, France, Netherland, and Belgium.

Flax Rolls with Berries

These are like fruit rolls ups but with flax seeds dehydrated right into it. I am not a big fan of these, like I am happily eating the whole box, but they remind me too much about why I don’t like animal crackers. See animal crackers are sweet, but too sweet to be crackers. But on the flip side they aren’t sweet enough to be a cookie. This in between state drive me nuts. That is how I feel about these flax rolls. The flax seeds really mellow out the sweetness, making wish this was more of a dessert. It is too bad they didn’t cut down on the flax seed and added more berries. But still overall tasty, and I would rather have these over the animal crackers.

stroopwafel

Hazelnoot Stroopwafels

I had high expectations for these, probably because I saw Eat Your Kimchi’s video on stroopwafels. Unfortunately this stroopwafel wasn’t like you saw in the video. The caramel-like center wasn’t gooey, but more like a commercial caramel, soft but mostly hard. Even though that is the case, I found these pretty tasty regardless. I like the hazelnut filling, and the overall treat wasn’t too sweet which I really appreciated. Looking for these? Apparently the company translates them to syrup waffles or hazelnut waffles, so I found a few sellers on Amazon.

Karobová

I ate this snack and thought “no big deal, just a date coconut roll.” Then when I looked online for the product apparently it is made from no date. Nope, just coconut, carob, a sugar syrup, and rice flour. I would never of guessed! It was pretty tasty and something I would probably eat again. Apparently the company does a whole range of different types of rolls made from nuts, grains, and dried fruit. Carob is often forgotten about or thought to just be a cheap chocolate substitute, but it can really shine when given the chance and this is a product where it shines.

Sušenky s rozinkami

Oh boy were these cookies an enigma. I took my first bite and thought “uck tastes like burnt sugar.” I blame some where pregnancy thing because I ate it again, and burnt sugar was still on my mind, but in a much more positive way. It tasted really complex and delicious. When looking up the cookies online I read the translated list of ingredients, and just couldn’t comprehend. It is made mostly just of flour, tamarind syrup, and raisins! WHAT?! I was thinking it was some burnt sugar gingerbread cookie. Never would of guessed. Definitely the tamarind syrup is the bulk of the flavor, making a really complex cookie.

Unicorn Nut Roast

I was a little nervous about baking this. I don’t use connivence foods often, nor do I make savory “loafs” or “roasts” often. Not much of a European foodie? Not sure. My but weird fear of easy food makes no sense, but one day I was craving a veggie dish and figured I probably needed something a little more to make it a meal, so busted out this baby. I recommend making it in fall or winter (not in 90°F weather. T__T) It was pretty easy to make, just boil water, sit, then pop in the oven for 45 minutes. The end result was a really yummy loaf that made me think of Thanksgiving and the holiday season. The mix comes from a small co-op in Manchester UK, so if you live there or are visiting, I would recommend grabbing this. It is shelf stable, and fairly hands off for a night where you have time, but don’t want to spend too much time in the actual kitchen.

Uszatki

Let me first state something, I live in New Jersey. I know you are all going “no shit Jen, like all the restaurants you review are in New Jersey.” But there are a lot of Italian bakeries in New Jersey (hello Cake Boss!) and I HATED them. I never like those nasty cookies that lacked flavor. I think it was my Czech and German blood screaming for gingerbread. What type of birthday cake do I want? GINGERBREAD! Favorite Christmas cookie? GINGERBREAD PEOPLE! So it comes as no surprise that I friggin LOVE these cookies. They are puffy gingerbread cookies that are covered in a thin glaze. There is a hint of mint, which gives an unusual twist to the normal gingerbread flavor. Best part? I CAN GET IT CHEAP OFF OF AMAZON! How I love you Poland for making these dreamy cookies!

Yes Chips Čočkové s chilli

I kind-of forgot that I still had these chips to eat, which is a bummer since I was going through a sugar overload at some point. I have to say these chips made me notice how much sugar is put into most American savory snacks. Or how little flavor our crackers or chips are when they have savory flavors added to them. These chips were kind-of a consistency between a cracker and a biscuit. I assume the chips are made from lentils (since the label has a picture of a chili pepper and lentils). My only complaint is that they weren’t chili peppery enough. Still, they were a nice savory snack.

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Almond Bar

I really enjoyed this bar. It made me think of Lara bars, only much better. I remember catching a bunch of workers complain that every single Lara bar tasted like cashews and dates, and they are kind-of right. They all taste similar since cashews and dates are the major ingredients. This bar really makes things different by using almond butter, giving a very specific almond butter flavor. The bar is a little sweeter than Lara bars since it has some brown rice syrup in it, and I am fine with that. I would totally eat this again.

Bite-Sized Pizza Crackers

I can’t quite remember what raw food I made awhile ago that tastes very similar to these but pizza flavored raw food isn’t anything new. Something about cashews, sun dried tomatoes, and lemon juice really make me think of pizza. I loved the crackers just by themselves, though a nut cheese on top would be equally great. I was so hungry that ate the whole package (354 calories, 16g carbs, 11g fiber, 11g protein) which was pretty satisfying. The best thing is that there is raw onions in the crackers but they don’t leave bad onion breath- a problem that I have with most raw foods.

Country Life Japonská směs

These were interesting. I’ve had Japanese snack mixes in the past so I was thrown off by these. Usually they are made with both wheat and rice, and this I think was made mostly from wheat, which made the snack a little more dense than normal. Overall I thought they were too sweet and not enough soy and seaweed flavors for my liking. The snack was good, my husband ate them all, but it didn’t have enough of the flavors that make them “Japanese.”

Country Life Granola

I make granola at home for my husband’s breakfast. Yup, he puts granola on his oatmeal, and since oats on oats seems a little intense I try to make his granola very nut, fruit, and buckwheat groat heavy. So it is nice to have “normal” granola for myself. This has been great to sprinkle on my acai bowls, and on my vegan “nice cream” bowls. The granola has a very light flavor, letting the sweetness come from wheat syrup and the dried fruit. This is perfect for dessert, when granola can easily be too sweet.

Goody Good Stuff: Sour Fruit Salad

Okay the flavor “sour fruit salad” might not be conjuring up the tastiest image. I mean I am thinking of some 50s canned fruit cocktail salad, but these were really tasty gummy snacks. Again, another dessert I haven’t had in a very long time. The snacks were pretty much perfect, they weren’t too sticky and didn’t get stuck in my teeth, and the flavor wasn’t nearly as sour as what I thought. It was more of a natural amount of sour, maybe the puckered cheeks level of sourness is an American sort of thing? It is actually really easy to find on amazon luckily.

Lewy Sierpowy

I think out of all the fruit and nut bars in this package, this one is my favorite. It is a Polish brand, the same one that made the Urwis jabłkowy below, so I am not 100% sure on the ingredients, but I can make out/guess that there are figs and goji berries. I love figs in raw foods, but most people prefer dates. Dates are all fine and dandy, but there is a certain tart and sweetness that you get from figs, oh and those yummy little seeds are yummy as well! I think what I like about this bar was how tart it was, not too sweet, and enough nuts to keep it very filling. The bar was bigger than most, making it great for when you are fairly hungry. Too bad it doesn’t seem easily available internationally.

Mango Fruit Bar

Man I can’t find ANYTHING about this bar. I think it is made by the British company Mark and Spencer. Though it kind of stinks that the English ingredients are covered by the Czech translation (oh well, it happens) but it appears to be made almost completely made out of fruit! Not 100% mango, but I think that might be a good thing. I tossed it in my purse to eat after getting my blood drawn, and it was great for making my wooziness go away (I don’t like the idea of getting my blood drawn…. the more I think about it, the more likely I will pass out XD) But I was not ready for how soft the bar ended up being since I am use to there being some nuts of something in the bar. Still yummy, but sweeter than I am use to.

Praline Protein Bar

I have been living on bars on the go. The flavor is pretty yummy, but a little too sweet for my personal taste. It is like most raw bars for flavor and texture. It is made mostly of hazelnuts and dates, which give it a flavor very different from say, Lara Bars. There is also some rice protein powder in there to boost the protein to fat ratio that you get from the nuts. My only complaint is that the nutritional guides for Czech Republic always gives the nutritional information for 100grams, making it really hard to figure how much protein and fats are in a bar. I normally don’t harp over these things, but I tend to like to know what is in my pre-portioned foods. Makes you appreciate how America does their nutritional guides. Although the Czech way does give you an idea of nutritional density, helping you pick more nutritious foods overall.

chocopie

Raw Chocolate Pie with Pink Himalayan Salt

Let me first say I am sad by the name of this, why pie? There is no crust, no circle, nothing that makes me think of pie. It’s okay to call yourself a chocolate bar- really. So that is what I will call it in my review. Now that’s out of the way, this bar is amazing! I followed the instructions and placed it in the fridge before eating. It was alright, but pretty tasty. I ate about half, and saved it for later. When I went for the second time I let the bar warm up a little bit and it was amazing. The trick is to let get warm and more a melt in your mouth feel without it melting in your hands. I love the chunks of salt and crunchy almond bits. I also adored the perfect little hint of lacuma powder in there. Next time I am in England (lol yeah like that will be anytime soon) I want to try all the different flavors.

Twinings Buttermint Tea

Jenny sent a few envelopes of these Twinings Buttermint Tea since it’s one of her favorite. It was perfect timing since it had a simple ingredients list- mint leaves. Although Twinings is a pretty famous tea brand that is found all around the world, it is a flavor that has a limited release and I have certainly never seen it in the US before. I drank it all, and now will keep my eyes peeled just incase they ship this flavor into the states.

uruis

Urwis jabłkowy

Oh boy, Polish… a little harder to find information on since it has a few letters that aren’t part of the English alphabet. Haha. I am not sure fully what this is other than an apple flavored snack bar. It was really sweet, yummy, and I would totally eat it again. It was a little hard to open, which is only a problem if you get the bad case of the hangries. The bar is pretty low calorie- I think about 145 calories.

Vivani White Nougat Crisp

I think this is a German brand, but I remember seeing this on blogs based in England. I was pretty excited about this since it has been so long since I have had a good white chocolate bar. I am not a HUGE white chocolate fan, but it is rare to find it vegan, so I enjoy it when I get my hands on it. The bar was so super smooth and had so many flavors going on, which is great because an all white chocolate bar would fall flat. My only complaint is that I wish the bar wasn’t so sweet, this is a complaint I tend to have with almost all European chocolate bars though. Aside from that I would totally get his bar over and over again.

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: almond bar, bear nibbles, country life, country life granola, crawnchies, czech republic, denmark, england, germany, goody good stuff, Japonská směs, Karobová, kopernik, Lewy Sierpowy, life food, manchester, mango fruit bar, mark and spencer, meridian foods, poland, praline protein, praline protein bar, Raw, raw chocolate pie company, snack, Snack Attack, stroopwafels, Sušenky s rozinkami, twinings, unicorn co-op, unicorn nut loaf, united kingdom, Urwis jabłkowy, uszatki, vegan snack attack, vivani, yes chips, yoyos

9 comments

Sunday Reading 10-08-16 #76

October 9, 2016

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Today is the day of reading and painting. Again, hubs and I are feeling that mad rush to get things done for the baby. Our shower is coming up next weekend and I got it in my head that we should finish painting the nursery before we lug a bunch of stuff in there. You know, so we can start actually setting things up. And then my husband really pointed out that I should start thinking and talking to my bosses about a post-delivery plan. So I have been reading all the chapters about post-delivery so I have a little bit more realistic expectation of what to expect when the baby comes. I have to think about these things since a lot of the things my husband was hoping for from is work isn’t working out. It is making us very frustrating for various reason we won’t go into.

But here is a collection of different articles and such for you guys to check out and read. Enjoy!

lattes

Sesame Chai Latte & Pumpkin Spice Turmeric Latte

I am not kidding when I say I love a good latte. In fact, I’ve been going through some old posts updating images and stuff from the server transfer and it seems every time this year I post a bunch of latte recipes in the Sunday Reads. I would LOVE to try these two, but realistically, I probably won’t since I am obsessed with how easy my macaccino is. But these are high up on my list of recipes to try. Maybe I should start a new recipe roundup of coffee-free lattes?

This School Replaced Detention with Meditation

I think most people will find this idea weird, or counter intuitive. Surely if I kids acts poorly they should be punished. But I think sometimes there is core differences on how people view things. You can either punish bad behavior, or your can try and fix it. This school is try to fix the problem by giving kids an outlet to channel their frustrations. I think people underestimate how much kids can do.

IndieGoGo: Liberation Barbell

I’ve been a fan of Lacy Davis from her blog Super Strength Health. Then her podcast Rise and Resist, and even her podcast Adult Crash. She is now working towards starting a body positive gym. I think there needs to be more gyms focusing on this. Yes, I’ve been places where the coaches are not talking about flattening those tummies, or sculpting arms for the summer. But rarely are these attributes being advertised, leaving people who are afraid of judgement from stepping into a gym. Lacy’s gym will be based in Portland, soo…. I’ll probably never make… at least for awhile. But if you are in the Portland area, I recommend supporting this rad lady.

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Why Lime Crime is the Most Hated Make Company on the Internet

I am not a huge make up person. But oddly I really like seeing when people put on some crazy make up. Green lips? Yeah. Pink Hair? Rainbow Eyeshadow? Yes and yes. But I try and keep things vegan, even when supporting instagram accounts. Which is why I kind-of lurk on Doe Deere and Sugarpill/Shrinkle (not vegan people, but vegan/cruelty free brands.) Doe Deere owns the company Lime Crime and I’ve always wondered why so many people hated the company with a passion. It was hard to sift through all the general hate with legitimate complaints. This article does a good job summarizing the major controversies of the brand. I think it is important since it is now an all vegan brand, and I love their now discontinued nail polishes. Sadly though, their make up is getting a little too crazy for my personal use but it is worth a read if you are thinking about buying their gold lipstick. The whole thing makes me think about the Stuff Mom Never Told You episode about Lisa Frank. Both so colorful, both full of so much drama.

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Chill Out: Stress Can Override Benefits Of Healthful Eating

This was a pretty interesting study, which found that stress really can override many benefits of eating healthfully. It is worth noting that the way the study was set up all participants were given high fat diets, just one got one full of more healthful fats. So it isn’t something that you should look at stress as something to would completely override all your healthful eating.

Posted by Jennifer in Sunday Reads Tags: indie go go, indiegogo, lacy davis, latte, liberation barbell, lime crime, npr, racked, sunday reading, sunday reads, upworthy, vegan richa, will frolic for food

4 comments

Horror Flicks 2016 – Part One

October 8, 2016

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An American Warewolf in London

Year: 1981
Directed by: John Landis
Rank: 6/10
Spooky Type: Werewolf/Comedy
Watch: YouTube Trailer

Plot: Two American college students are on a walking tour of Britain and are attacked by a werewolf. One is killed, the other is mauled. The werewolf is killed but reverts to its human form, and the local townspeople are unwilling to acknowledge its existence. The surviving student begins to have nightmares of hunting on four feet at first but then finds that his friend and other recent victims appear to him, demanding that he commit suicide to release them from their curse, being trapped between worlds because of their unnatural deaths. –IMDB

Review: Ugh. I hate when sexism ruins a film. This film is a classic since it mixes humor with horror, and it has some great special effects. Since humor is involved the gore and spooks are never taken too seriously. Nor does the film rely on them to push the story forwards. I could keep praising the film for the star qualities, but that is well documented. It is the reason why this movie is a classic.

BUUUUUTT….. the humor is totally dated. Yes, you can tell a white cis-gender man wrote this script. The main character David has a frat boy attitude. He talks to his travel companion only about having sex with women, is rude to the police and hospital staff, and tries to insult the Queen and Prince by calling them queer. Sure it was insult at the time, but hard to swallow when there is so many other problematic bits of the film.

The love interest, Nurse Alex is a total bimbo and has no personality. I feel bad for Jenny Agutter to have to play such a dull role. The whole time she is just there to build sexual tension with David. Actually it is more like David sexually harasses her during her job, and she reacts in the way that men fantasize about (aka the lady actually likes it.) Then as we moves the story forwards, David starts to believe he is a werewolf, and still Alex still finds David attractive. It is so unbelievable.

Which then makes me hate what could of been a very funny premise- the werewolf showdown in a porno. There were jokes poking fun at the superficial plots of a pornographic films. But by the time this comes into play I was over all the sexist crap. The whole film became a boys only club, assuming that only men love horror films. Yes, horror films were targeted for boys, and yes, I’ve seen probably much more sexist films that are much closer to softcore porn (usually made in the 70s.) But over the years some of these films have gotten a female following, probably because the horror featured in the film are based on the awful treatment to women, and perhaps most women find that relatable and genuinely horrific. As the horror genre evolves, there is a growing number of women who openly say they love the genre. This movie has little to offer a female audience.

Overall: Boo sexism. Yey humor and special effects.

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The Amityville Horror

Year: 1976
Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
Rank: 7/10
Spooky Type: Haunted House
Watch: Hulu + YouTube Trailer

Plot: Newlyweds move into a large house where a mass murder was committed, and experience strange manifestations which drive them away. –IMDB

Review: I remember when this movie was being remade in 2005. I didn’t care about the movie, but I remember basic cable channels were flooded with specials all about the movie. The story is suppose to be based off of the book The Amityville Horror, which is suppose to be based off of true events. I’ve always find real life haunting stories interesting and much more chilling than movies. Do I believe they actually happened? No, but they still freak me out. This story always caught my interest more than normal because this house is in the town that my Grandmother lives in. I’ve actually talked about this before on the blog.

Since the story takes place in a town that’s I’ve been to I had a harder time to let my imagination go wild. As I was watching I kept feeling like it didn’t LOOK like Long Island, and I knew very well that the house wasn’t the original. Turns out the movie was filmed in Tom’s River New Jersey. Which doesn’t seem like a big deal, except for the water is drastically different set up, and the property in the movie is HUGE! I joked with my husband that the price of the house in the movie was a steal, and joked they could just divide up the property and pay for the house that way (the real Amityville House sold recently for almost one million dollars FYI)

Oh, and mild spoiler alert- there is something terribly humorous that the portal to hell is on Long Island. Anyone who had to drive into Long Island probably felt like they were driving further and further into hell.

So I haven’t actually talked about the movie much. I have to say it wasn’t bad, but it was a little underwhelming. Since the movie is suppose to be based off of a real event, the flow of the story isn’t the greatest. The movie ends kind-of anti-climatically. And being a little bit of a ghost/occult movie fan, something didn’t make sense. Why is everything oozing? Why the flies? There is no reason why George Lutz (the new homeowner) would look like serial killer Ronald DeFeo (the murderer of the previous owners) either. I think the odd pacing is probably because the movie wanted to keep with the series of events from the book. The movie even keeps a countdown of what day it is since the family moved in.

Historically this movie is pretty important to the horror genre. It is another case of a low budget horror film that became wildly popular. There is no doubt that Poltergeist‘s popularity was set up by this film. Since there are so many similarities between Poltergeist and The Amityville Horror, it adds to the underwhelming nature of the film. Compared to The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist is in hyperdrive. Overall, it wasn’t a bad movie, but it is fairly slow moving and a long movie (117 minutes- almost 2 hours.)

Overall: Recommended to old school horror fans

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The Babadook

Year: 2014
Directed by: Jennifer Kent
Rank: 10/10
Spooky Type: Monster
Watch: Netflix + Trailer

Plot: Amelia, who lost her husband in a car crash on the way to give birth to Samuel, their only child, struggles to cope with her fate as a single mom. Samuel’s constant fear of monsters and violent reaction to overcome the fear doesn’t help her cause either, which makes her friends become distant. When things can not get any worse, they read a strange book in their house about the ‘Babadook’ monster that hides in the dark areas of their house. Even Amelia seems to feel the effect of Babadook and desperately tries in vain to destroy the book. The nightmarish experiences the two encounter form the rest of the story. –IMDB

Review: Funny thing is that people chuckle when Jon and I watched Rosemary’s Baby during the pregnancy. I’ve seen many reviews and such talking about how it is the horror that makes them want to never have a baby. But I would argue that The Babadook is much more horrifying for parents. Let’s start off with Samuel. He is a little boy who’s activity levels are through the roof. “Horrible little shit” is an accurate title for him, and this instantly let’s the audience sympathizes with Amelia, the overworked single mother. Samuel’s behavioral problems stem from the families grief for their father who died in a car accident while driving Amelia to the hospital to deliver Samuel.

The movie is rich with metaphors and is filmed excellently. This is probably why the movie is loved by all critics. A quick search of “babadook reviews” will end up with many glowing reviews talking about the story and it’s great portrayal of grief with adults and children by using the metaphor of a monster destroying their lives.

What really strikes me about this film is that it falls into many tropes of the horror genre, the color scheme, skittery sounds, jump cuts, etc used in other horror films. But there is so many unique aspects of the film. For starters it is directed by a female director, which isn’t common for the film industry. It isn’t a normal monster story- in fact the monster is sort of blended with a ghost in it’s supernatural abilities. The end result is a truly haunting film that I would recommend to anyone who thinks that horror genre is dead.

Overall: Greatest modern horror film I’ve seen

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Rosemary’s Baby

Year: 1968
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Rank: 10/10
Spooky Type: Occult
Watch: YouTube + Three Reason: Criterion Collection Preview

Plot: Horrifying and darkly comic, Rosemary’s Baby was Roman Polanski’s Hollywood debut. This wildly entertaining nightmare, faithfully adapted from Ira Levin’s best seller, stars a revelatory Mia Farrow as a young mother-to-be who grows increasingly suspicious that her overfriendly elderly neighbors (played by Sidney Blackmer and an Oscar-winning Ruth Gordon) and self-involved husband (John Cassavetes) are hatching a satanic plot against her and her baby. In the decades of occult cinema that Polanski’s ungodly masterpiece has spawned, it has never been outdone for sheer psychological terror. –Criterion Collection

Review: Okay, I am cheating just a little. I watched this over the summer, but I really love this film. I think it is one of the best prochoice films out there. Rosemary want to start a family and become a mother. But ever since she finds out that she is pregnant it seems everyone is controlling her decisions. She doesn’t take vitamins like everyone else, she takes special juices that her neighbor makes. Her doctor advises her to not read up on pregnancy- it would only worry her. She is quickly recommended to go a specific doctor. She is only a vessel to create this baby, and everyone makes sure everything is going according to plan.

I started to read the novel and it is scary how close Polanski keeps the script to the novel. Much of the dialogue is pulled from the novel. I dare say you could watch the movie and just skip reading the book, or vise-versa. That doesn’t mean Polanski doesn’t take a lot thought in how the film is shot. I love how he doesn’t pull many cheap editing techniques that make the viewer jump in their seats (IE abrupt cuts, going from low to loud sounds, etc) He lets the conspiracy unfold.

What makes this movie so scary is how relevant it still is with all the anti-abortion laws in the United States. White males are still telling women what they can and can not do with their bodies. Rape culture is still very prevalent, which probably contributes to many of the insane and ignorant reproductive laws. Nothing irks me more than John Cassavetes’ portrayal of Guy Woodhouse, Rosemary’s husband. World biggest scumbag. Funny thing is that I think John Cassavetes only plays skeezy guys.

Overall: One of the best horror films out there

Posted by Jennifer in Movie & TV Reviews, Reviews Tags: 1968, 1979, 1981, 2014, An American Warewolf in London, halloween, horror, John Landis, movies, Roman Polanski, rosemary's baby, spooky, spoopy, Stuart Rosenberg, the amityville horror, the babadook

3 comments

Pumpkin Spice Macaccino

October 7, 2016

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Since becoming pregnant I’ve been scoping the scene for caffeine free coffee alternatives. Yes, you can have some caffeine while pregnant, and yes, it is probably the safest stimulant to consume during pregnancy. But I drink coffee for flavor, never to wake myself up. This results in some days of me drinking 3 cups of a coffee, and none the next three days. And certain times of the year I really just crave a warm and bitter drink.

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One coffee substitute I found was Macaccino. They are pretty new on the market, and is a blend of roasted maca root with some cinnamon, cocoa, mesquite powder, and nutmeg. I can safely say the taste is unique and isn’t something I could easily whip up on my own. The cool thing is that there is some nice nutritional perks of the blend. One serving has one gram of protein, 2% of the standard calcium recommendations, and 4% of the standard iron recommendations. They even have a super serious breakdown on their website (the number cruncher in me loves all the details!) BTW no hate on coffee- it does have a lot of B2 and B5 vitamins, so isn’t totally helpless.

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When I first got macaccino I follow their directions- suggesting to put a tablespoon in 10 ounces of water, and add creamer and sugar. I didn’t like it so much served like a black coffee. It was a little too gritty for my taste. But I liked the flavors and how it was so easy to make. So it hit me that I should drink it more like a latte! It isn’t the first time I used maca in a latte, but roasting the maca really alters the flavor.

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Since it is fall aka pumpkin spice season, I thought I would break out the pumpkin spice syrup recipe I made a few years ago. Just keep in mind, the syrup proportions are suggested with the homemade pumpkin spice syrup listed below. I have found that the best pumpkin spice lattes are from homemade syrups or coffee shops where they make their own. If you are buying a premade syrup (note clear ones are usually the vegan ones) you may want less. I also used an unsweetened milk because otherwise I find it will get way too sweet.

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I am not huge on featuring a recipe that uses a specific product. I bought Macaccino on my own and really like to drink it this way. This is not a sponsored post, and these are just my honest opinions. I would love to give some alternative options, but as far as I know, there isn’t any equivalent to this yet. I used the original mocha, but they also have a mint and black reserve.

Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: fall, latte, maca, macaccino, pumpkin spice, vegan

Pregnancy Fashion and Body Image

October 6, 2016

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Pin: Kate Gabrielle (discontinued) | Shirt: A Pea in a Pod via Swap.com | Dress: Hello Miz via Zulily (available in black or teal) | Tights: Target (similar) | Nail Polish: Lime Crime

I randomly took a photo of this outfit I wore to work and posted it on Instagram. I don’t always dress up, but I was feeling it that day. I thought it looked so cute, that I should probably take a proper photo for the blog. Why? I said I would post some fashion posts with the new baby bump, but uh… really haven’t. I don’t think there isn’t enough “alternative” pregnancy fashion posts out there, so here you guys go.

If the shirt looks familiar it is because I took a photo of it during my Swap.com vs Thred Up review. And I was so tiny back them in comparison. But then again I guess that was over a month ago. The baby was more axolotl/weasel sized and now is bunny/platypus sized! And I have to admit probably my main reason for not posting these outfit posts has a lot to do with body image. You wouldn’t think it would be so taxing on self image, but it really is.

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I joked with Jon that getting pregnant is like hitting puberty again, and in many ways it is. Everything shifts. Boobs get bigger, and not just bigger, but shape and density differs. I get adult acne more often than I use to. Your stomach is starting swell, and although I knew that I wouldn’t have a big basketball of fat on my stomach, it is weird. Normally if your tummy gets bigger it is from a nice thick layer of fat, but a baby bump is hard lump. I am always trying to put my socks and shoes on while standing, forgetting that my baby doesn’t fold over like fat. I am constantly walking around in narrow passages, forgetting that my tummy can’t quite clear the table or that chair. Heck I even moved some boxes around at work because I kept bumping into them.

Sure there are pages in pregnancy books about coping with the physical changes, but almost all offer the solution of “Just think of the baby!” I can’t help but imagine everyone saying it in the same tone as “Elaine you gotta have a baby!” And I think it just dismisses a lot of the complicated feelings women have with body image. Truthfully, I think if we lived in a perfect world where all shapes and sizes were embraced, people would still find the changes of pregnancy difficult. You only have a few months to deal with these changes and after giving birth your tummy won’t shrink down magically.

Somedays I feel like I am in the wrong body. The normal curves you see every single day suddenly go away and become new ones. And it isn’t everyday that I feel weird and out of place. Some days I can look in the mirror and smile at my big tummy. I mean I clearly thought I was cute enough to share an outfit I was wearing, right? And even on days when I feel completely uncomfortable with my body, I still enjoy feeling the baby kicks.

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Maybe I focus so much on my body since I’ve been having a pretty easy pregnancy. I don’t have stretch marks (yet…), no weird darkened skin, varicose veins, digestion issues, or other aches and pains most people associate with pregnancy. So I could be possibly have more attention being focused on what is most obviously changing.

But I can now see why so many books and pregnant women tend to dislike hearing any input about their appearance. I was told that I looked so “small” and healthy early on in the pregnancy. It bothered me since it just made me think too much about how society associates thinness with health. It also felt like I was trying hide my bump, but I was mostly just trying to wear what fit and was comfortable for the hot weather. But I would hear people joke, and not in a mean spirited way, about how I wasn’t as trim as I use to be.

And there is learning how to dress all over again. We all know women’s clothing is all over the place, but now I have to learn even more new sizes. I can safely say- don’t size up. I was afraid of things being too small, and ended up with a few articles of clothing that I am swimming in. I am also getting a reminder that more money doesn’t equal better quality. The A Pea in a Pod shirt I am wearing has nice fabric, but the sleeves I think were cut properly on the bias as they twist oddly. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if they didn’t have some cute buttons at the cuff that never stay in place.

Some items you can get away with wearing into pregnancy, but I totally recommend investing in some maternity tights. When I wore some black tights with my tent dress, it became clear that normal tights will cut into your tummy and be very uncomfortable. I was able to get these awesome tights on sale for $5 from Target, which it is hard to find maternity tights for less than $15. They can be much more if you are looking for the compression styled tights.

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I also wanted to quickly talk about the pin I am wearing. I got it in a surprise pack from Kate Gabrielle. I’ve always loved her fashion blog since she has a cute style, but also she loves vintage movies. She has her own shop and had a this “Be Kind to Animals” pin, but has since discontinued it. So sad right? But she has other cute things, like a BFF heart necklace for you and your cat. And one of my favorites- a pin commemorating Oprah’s (or your) love of bread.

Posted by Jennifer in Clothing, Pregnancy Tags: a pea in a pod, be kind to animals, clothing, fashion, Hello Miz, kate gabrielle, pregnancy, scathingly brilliant, second hand, swap.com, target, zulily

7 comments

Sunday Reading 10-02-15 #75

October 2, 2016

It’s officially October! I already busted out my Halloween gear and thinking about where to hang all my vintage paper decorations. I cleaned my witch glasses, so I might think of an alcohol free cocktail that is a little spooky to serve with them. I’ve been thinking, but falling a little short. Hard decisions. This year we got invited to a Halloween party, so I might even get dressed up. We’ve even already watched one horror film, so I will probably do my film reviews for the month again. I hope people like them because I at least enjoy making them. XD

Aside from Halloween I’ve been brainstorming some ideas for posts for Vegan Mofo 2016. I am hoping to post each day of the month, though I will obviously not keep to each prompt. Especially with the pregnancy. And I will be crossing my fingers there will be no early delivery that would cut my blogging short. If any readers have already signed up leave a comment! I will make sure I add you to my feedly log so we can all interact.

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Seitan is My Motor: Santana Apple Cake

I saw this recipe and thought it might be a good thing to make. Our local orchard is starting to get some good produce in (AMAZING Asian peas BTW) after a horrible season. I asked my husband if he wanted to make this… and he gave a very weird “uh… I don’t know.” Usually he get pretty excited about recipes with apples. Maybe it is because it isn’t a pie. *rolls eyes* But I thought she had a cool technique with cutting the apples to make them look pretty.

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The Tonka Bean: An Ingredient So Good It Has to Be Illegal

And the cake recipe made me interested in trying to find information on one of the ingredients- the tonka bean. This article was really interesting since it explains why it is illegal in the United States, and REALLY makes me want to try it. Apparently according to the article, there are some blackmarkets that sell the bean, so maybe I can get lucky trying to find a source but probably better not the break the law. XD

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Food By Mars: Pumpkin Spice Turmeric Latte

I love lattes, or rather warm milk based drinks. I have a bunch on the blog and I am always interested in making new ones. Heck I will hopefully have a new one posted this week even! So I might give this guy a try when I roast another pumpkin. I think the turmeric can help balance out the sweetness that most people get from Pumpkin Spice Syrups.

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Tooth Be Told: Do Natural Toothpastes Keep Your Breath Fresh?

There are lots of vegan toothpastes on the market, but many are very er… hippie dippie. I have been SLOWLY trying to move our toiletries to all vegan, but my husband is a loyalist to certain brands. He loves his soap that sucks out all the moisture in his body, mouth numbing toothpastes, and gelled shaving creams. But some of the brands that he liked made it on this list. No, this isn’t a list of vegan toothpastes- just natural ones.
Vegan Brands in Review: Desert Essence Natural Toothpaste, Earthpaste, Jason NutriSmile Toothpaste, Nature’s Gate Natural Toothpaste, The Honest Co. Toothpaste, Kiss My Face Gel Toothpaste
Unknown for Animal Testing: Himalaya Neem and Pomegranate Toothpaste, Spry Toothpaste, Weleda Natural Salt Toothpaste

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Keepin It Kind: Not About Food- A Real Character

Kristi from Keeping It Kind wrote a post recently about her issues with trying to come up with her three fictional character that characterize her. I had a similar experience where I had hard time picking out the third character then regretting it almost immediately. I ended up thinking about it, and the third character still represents me, but I only to a certain degree. So who did I pick? Susan from Bringing Up Baby. She has a great sense of fashion, a love of animals, and doesn’t take much very seriously. I also love how direct she was with men, which I think I was fairly direct with boys in high school.

I then picked Daria because I think she was my idol in high school. I wore boots with a pleated skirt and a quirky t-shirt almost every single day. I kept my hair largely un-styled. I also had the same attitude of making jokes, even if the people I knew didn’t get them. I think I still would have that attitude, but it seems that I am surrounded by more educated people. Maybe? I do think I am a little less cynical now than I was in high school though.

My third person was originally Elaine Bennett from Seinfeld because I think deep down inside I have a lot of similar qualities as her. Mostly the I’m secretly a terrible person part. XD I have a few issues with how Seinfeld presents Elaine (the cool girl who is a guy’s type of girl- essentially not REALLY a woman) but ignoring that, she is such a fabulous character. And at the time it was very different representation of females.

But I then I then remembered I am totally Linda Belcher from Bob’s Burgers. My husband always jokes how I am really Linda. I sing made up songs, I love a good drink, I’m loud, tacky, and secretly I think I am the cool mom (or will be.) Is it a little odd that I picked all character that are brunettes? And three of them wear glasses (or occasionally in Elaine’s case)? I think all are pretty educated (except Linda) but are constantly making an ass of themselves. Yup, sounds like me.

Posted by Jennifer in Sunday Reads Tags: apartment therapy, apples, bob's burgers, bringing up baby, daria, elaine, food by mars, Keepin It Kind, latte, linda, pumpkin spice, seinfeld, seitan is my motor, sunday reading, sunday reads, susan, the atlantic, Tonka Bean

5 comments

Pregnancy – Weeks 28-29

September 30, 2016

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Doctors:

Went to the doctors for one of the long appointments. I had my prenatal diabetes test done (and I got the results which say “reference range: <135 (mg/dL) ” so I passed?) which wasn’t nearly as bad as what I was expecting. The way they scheduled appointment made it seem like I would be doing the glucose test- THEN see the doctor after waiting an hour. It more like seeing the doctor after drinking the sugar drink, then waiting the remaining time before getting my blood drawn again.

The funny thing is that I don’t THINK I am a picky person when it comes to doctors. But when I meet a doctor I don’t like, I do complain a lot. I think I tend to dislike doctors that treat me as fragile, or overly delicately. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining if these type of doctors are delivering my baby, I can safely say they wouldn’t so anything questionable to rush the delivery (which I spare the details of what I mean.)

But the doctor I got recently proceeded to ask which arm I wanted a shot in because it would make it weak. He even offered to have someone give the shot in my bottom if I was worried that the shot would make my arm TOO weak. I instantly was expecting a huge needle that was insanely thick and an intense burning from the injection. But I figured get it in my arm, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. Seriously, barely felt it, didn’t even bleed. My boss and I have a theory that maybe he got his shingle shot recently, which can cause a small inflammation on the arm. He is older, and was going on about how his recent shot was awful.

Oh he also offered to put my purse down and pick it up, which is nice I guess. But if I can’t bend over easily then how can I get various things done throughout the day?! Give me cold jaded doctors any day please.

Sleep:

Well, I haven’t slept through an entire night in awhile. It hasn’t been too bad. I often wake up in the middle of the night and turn over, then fall back asleep. So nothing too awful. I am also starting to understand why people drop $50-100 on those pregnancy pillows. Earlier this week I had horrible hip pain at night. After a few google searches it turns out that in an over simplified explanation, my legs were kind-of being pulled out of my hips sockets. All I had to do is cram another pillow in between my ankles. It solved the problem. But now it is a real pain to climb into bed, putting one pillow at my feet- one between my knees, and wedge a stuffed animal under my tummy. Actually wedging the stuffed animal is kind-of cute. It is sort of like my stuffed polar bear is hugging my stomach.

Another weird thing I notice is that my legs are super tense at night. I think it has to do with leg cramps that most people get at night. It is just very odd, I wake up feeling like my legs are soar as if I did an intense workout the day before. But once I get moving, the feeling goes away.

Clothing:

As you can tell from the picture- I gotta stop wearing that tank top for those photo shoots. It is just stretched out too much. XD I am actually finding that I should have enough clothes for the rest of pregnancy. Which is a little sad that I can stop shopping around. I have been looking around at nursing clothing. I plan on breast feeding, and I am starting to take note that some of my clothes aren’t the greatest for boob access. A quick look at my fashion posts quickly reveal that I like high necklines. Oops!

Symptoms:

I’ve been pretty good. I am starting to get Braxton Hicks contractions, but I usually don’t even notice when they happen. Which leads me to wonder if I get symptoms that I just ignore. It is funny that farts are a symptom that seems to plague pregnant women. I think I have been farting less while pregnant- except when I do fart it is embarrassingly uncontrollable. And usually when I am doing something like bending over or while walking. Luckily these are rare and usually when I am alone, so only I can laugh at how absurd it is.

I was also pretty excited to read this article that suggests that Pregnancy Brain might not be real! I think it makes sense, there is a lot on a pregnant ladies mind. I have a huge to do list with getting my house ready for baby (because I won’t have time afterwards), getting a pediatrician, dealing with the health insurance company, figuring out delivery details, managing money, etc, etc. It is just stressful, so yeah, I might not be able to remember smaller details that I normally would have time to.

Food:

Can I say cookie butter and I are totally clicking right now? I’ve been having a late night snack of Wegman’s new bajillion grain bread (might not be the official name ^__~) with Trader Joe’s cookie & chocolate swirl butter on it. Even more amazing is when I take the raspberries from my CSA and put them on top. I’ve even put the cookie butter on some Asian Pear that is from a local orchard.

Otherwise the acid reflux has been killing my eating game. It is very annoying, sometimes making me wait longer to eat dinner than with my husband. I recently posted a What I Ate Wednesday if anyone wants to take a look.

Baby Shower:

It just occurred to me that our baby shower is in 2 weeks! I am pretty excited since that means delivery day getting closer. Maybe Jon and I will get the nursery painted before the shower and start getting a nursery put together. Baby isn’t due for awhile but I am always thinking best to be as prepared as possible. We already got a gift in the mail and we now have one of those cute baby boogie suction balls.

Animals:

Last post I forgot to include cute animals! My goodness I feel so bad, it is probably the best part of the post. You learn about cool animals AND see something cute. So I included the animals that the baby was the size of from the previous two weeks as well.

Week 26: Slow Loris This small guy is a primate that hunts at night. He quietly sneaks up on his bug prey and quickly snatches them. I personally love these animals, but sadly they have a growing popularity on the internet because of some cute YouTube videos that people take of their pet Slow Loris. The pet trade is something I don’t want to promote, so finding cute photos of the Slow Loris is wild is pretty hard. But I did find some cute photos, and a fun SciShow video.

Week 27: Fennec Fox Another animal that is often found in the “exotic pet trade.” Again don’t get one, but luckily a quick google search has tons of cute photos of this animal in the wild. These cute guys live in Africa and have those big ears to help keep them cool in hot weather. They are so small apparently their main predator is an eagle owl.

Week 28: Echidna I have a soft spot for the echidna. This mammal lives in Australia and is one of the few mammals that lay eggs. Yup, that’s right eggs. The spines are for protection, and they will burrow under some leaves and dirt so all you can see of them are just the spines. The echidna eats in a similar way as anteaters, with a long sticky tongue, which is why they have so a long nose. I hope I’m not the only one who finds them cute.

Week 29: New England Cottontail Yeah I am not sure why my app decided to get real specific. I mean slow loris and echnida aren’t any specific species, but New England Cottontail? That’s a specific species of rabbit that lives in a very small amount of space. Most people see Eastern Cottontails, and I see them all the time. Since the species is so specific I don’t have any photos to share, although I did take a few snaps of an Eastern Cottontail last year.

Posted by Jennifer in Pregnancy, The Girls Tags: pregnancy, third trimester, week 28, week 29

4 comments

What I Ate Wednesday #2

September 28, 2016

I wanted to do a What I Ate Wednesday at least once a month during the pregnancy, and I am almost running out of time to do my September post! It has been a pretty busy month, so I figured it is now or never. Sadly today is a little boring in my selection of food, there are lots of leftovers and repeats.

I started the day with my usual chocolate spirulina smoothie. I went back to the powdered spirulina since I found the spirulina tablets more expensive and annoyingly you need to take 6 tablets to get 1 tsp of powder. The tablets are annoying to swallow, and aren’t very pleasant to chew either. What I do like about my chocolate spirulina smoothie is that hits so many of the nutritional needs for pregnant ladies. I get about 50% of the calcium (from the greens and soymilk) and 61% of the iron (from all that cocoa and spirulina) that I need for the day. I also get about 30 grams of protein with only adding 2 tablespoons of protein powder to the whole thing. I should probably post this bad boy on the blog because I think this is a great shake. And the greens I used today? Some beet greens and a little bit of swiss chard.

I’ve been obsessed with fizzy drink as of lately. I think it has to do with the fact that I can’t really have beer or cocktails. I’ve been getting by with non-alcoholic beers, tonic water with shrubs, and seltzers. And if I am honest I am always have a sugar-free soda at work, which I know, isn’t the best, but for awhile I was bringing my own seltzer into work. I also have been bringing in powder mix packets to mix with my water. I really like the Target brand mixers because they use both sugar AND stevia making it only 15 calories. I like how they don’t use coloring in the mixes, the drink ends up being a pale white-ish or completely clear. But they do use artificial flavors. I also really like Madhava’s powder mixes, though I usually find them a little stronger than I prefer. Just like the target ones, they use a mix of stevia and agave powder but they tend to stay away from artificial flavors. But I think I mainly wanted to show my wonderful new wall color ^__~

It was nice a chilly this morning, so chilly I got to wear a sweatshirt while getting ready. I was in the mood for something warm and comforting, and didn’t want to make a cup of coffee (just in case I needed a caffeine kick in the afternoon.) So I made a little latte using Macaccino. They are a new coffee replacement that is on the market, and I think it works best as a latte rather than with just water. I made my own latte by mixing a tablespoon of macaccino with 1/4 cup of hot water. Then I added 8 oz of hot soy milk and a tablespoon of a pumpkin caramel syrup. It was pretty amazing, and perfect for the weather.

Lunch consisted of watermelon, the last watermelon of the season! It was nice, this year we had yellow, orange, and red watermelon. But I think my favorite has been the red watermelon. It was just perfect this year. I ate a curry burrito with it. I used white rice my Mother made from a previous night. It was weird rice, I have a feeling my Father bought instant rice and didn’t tell my Mother. The other half is a South Indian styled chickpea and eggplant curry from Vegan Richa‘s cookbook. Sorry the photo is so crummy, I was trying to take a photo discreetly since my bosses were there. They nicely offered me some corn chips, and ate a small handful as well.

After lunch I eventually had a snack bar that I made. I forgot to take a photo- plus they were ugly looking and nasty tasting. I was trying to make a bar using tahini, cranberries, and lime coconut chips. It was a MASSIVE fail. Oh well. I drove by Wegman’s on the way home from work to pick up some veggie dogs for Jon on Friday. He is going to a Mets vs Phillies game and his office is doing a tailgating thing. I opted out since there are so many reasons why a pregnant woman shouldn’t be at a baseball game. No beer, uncomfortable seats, peeing every inning. Besides I am not a huge baseball fan. I was pretty hungry at the end, and grabbed a small bar to nibble on before dinner. I am a huge fan of these Raw Rev bars, though I only get them on special occasions.

I originally was planning on going for a run afterwork but it was raining a little and my hamstrings were pretty tight from a workout from the day before. But I kept with the plan of eating leftovers and had some brown rice noodles with leftover massaman curry from Vegan Eats World. The curry is filled with green beans, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and baked tofu. If you’ve never had a massaman curry before it is pretty much like a peanut butter curry. It’s awesome. Sadly, after dinner I got a lot of acid reflux, so I am not sure I will be eating anything else for dessert. It is seriously up in the air.

So how are my nutritional stats? Well, for one I noticed some foods didn’t really track any nutritional information other than what is on the label. So I might have been a little closer to some of the nutritional goals. But that is also why I take prenatal vitamins ^__~ And FYI cronometer is a little weird. I always get a lot of red because I have it in weight gain mode I guess most clients are trying to loose weight. But if you read closely, it says I can eat 210 more calories. I already ate 2400 calories! I got 100 grams of protein, 273 grams of carbs, and 90 grams of fat. I am a little shocked about the fat since I tend to have a low fat diet. Not really intentionally though.

Well, I am off to watch some TV with the hubs and count kicks for the doctors. Ugh. It’s so sad, it is always within 10-15 minutes I count 10 kicks. Plus I tend to ignore the small ones, depending on how interested I am in the TV show.

What are you guys snacking on today?

Posted by Jennifer in Pregnancy Tags: macaccino, pregnancy, raw rev glo, third trimester, vegan eats world, vegan richa, week 29, what I ate wednesday, wiaw

6 comments

Quick Cookies and Cream Coconut Pie

September 23, 2016

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I’ve been sitting on this recipe for awhile now. It came about early on in my pregnancy when Jon and I had two different family get togethers back to back. We are pretty big home bodies. We are both introverts and usually need a day to relax and calm down from family get togethers. This was going to be a VERY busy weekend. It would involve me running to our CSA, quickly go grocery shopping, and then cooking something for party number one.

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But being pregnant I kind-of wanted a dessert. But I didn’t have much time to prep anything. I remember loving the No-Bake Dark Chocolate Chickpea Pie with Pretzel Crust from Pickles and Honey, but had a craving for ~~oreos~~ cream filled chocolate cookie sandwiches. I also didn’t have some of the ingredients on the list and didn’t have the time to go to Whole Foods to get them (read: cocoa butter and coconut sugar.)

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So I decided to make two pies, which worked out wonderfully. Everyone loved the pie, and I got so many people asking what made it vegan. Chickpeas! Funny thing is that I have no idea how to make these type of no bake pies without vegan ingredients (pudding mixes?) It has always been beans and tofu for me. No one could even taste a hint of bean-y-ness to the pie. The big kicker? All the “tweens” went to town on the pie since they never heard me utter the word chickpeas in their presence. Most came out to the adults to say how much they loved that pie.

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So how did I make two pies on such a tight schedule? Well, there was a lot of cutting corners. One is that I bought pre-made pie shells. I picked up the Nabisco Oreo brand pie crusts because it was the only vegan chocolate pie crust option at my local grocery store. You can make your own pie crust just by googling oreo pie crust or just making a chocolate cookie crumb crust. What I do like about the ready made pie crusts (other than saving time) is that you have a plastic dome that you can use to cover the top of the pie for traveling.

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I also cut time down by using cocowhip. Make sure you plan ahead so you can thaw the whipped cream. One container makes the perfect amount for two pies, but below I will give the amount to use for only one pie (because you rarely need TWO pies.) You can double recipe if you like a lot of whipped cream on your pies if you want. But the whipped cream topping is where most of the “cookies & cream” flavor is coming from since you beat the sandwich cookies into the whipped cream. And naturally you could always make your own rad whip or coconut whipped cream.

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The last reason this pie is so quick to make is because you just need to blend all the ingredients in the filling, and that’s it. I strongly suggest that you use a blender not a food processor since a blender will get smoother results. I recommend putting all the ingredients into the blender as I have them listed since I had the best blending results (aka less times I need to stop and scrap things around.) The recipe is largely similar to chocolate chickpea filling on Pickles and Honey, so I recommend checking that recipe out if you want something less sweet.

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The pie can be eaten right away, but I suggest letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight. The chickpea filling naturally thickens up a little so you get cleaner cuts. I didn’t wait long enough for the photo (oops!) and got a more squished slice. Yikes! But since it is so easy to make, you can easily impress family members with your crumb decorating. I know I had a few family members saying “You made this?” with an air of surprise. Not sure why… maybe it didn’t seem like something I would make?

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: chickpeas, chocolate, chocolate creme sandwich cookies, cookie crumb crust, dessert, newman os, oreo, oreo pie, pickles and honey, pie, recipe