Oat-ful & Veggie-ful Weekend

Let me update you on my weekend. There has been a big change in my life.... no more soy lattes for me! I've officially changed my Australian drink of choice to a long black w/ soy milk & honey. More caffeine & less soy milk.

Go Socceroos!

My mornings have been very oat-full

Pumpkin Oats

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbs honey, a couple of cubes of steamed pumpkin

Pistachio Oats

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbs honey, pistachio bits

PB&J Overnight Soaked Oats

1/2 cups oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbs honey, 1 tbs crunchy peanut butter soaked overnight w/ a few strawberries added in the morning. This was my first time trying to soak oats overnight & I think I may have done something wrong; they had way to much excess water that had to be drained out. They were still very yummy though & easier than making them on the stove like I usually do.

Lunch & dinner has been very veggie-full

Arugula salad w/ steamed pumpkin, cherry tomatoes, 1/2 avocado and hummus & BBQ sauce

Toasted wrap from the Bondi Junction food court w/ spinach, carrots, cucumber, onion, & avocado

Vegetable soup w/ roll from a cafe at the Spot in Randwick

Salad w/ spinach, cucumber, avocado, & capsicum

& bowl of whole wheat spaghetti w/ marinara that was seriously lacking vegetables.

I also tried out a new juice company Emma & Tom's. No added sugar, no concentrates, nothing artificial. The extreme C was delicious.

Other weekend highlights included attending a very fun house warming party for our friend where I ripped my favorite faux fur jacket, going to the movies & seeing Get Him to the Greek which was hilarious, watching the World Cup and rooting for the Socceroos, & making a very decadent non-vegan dessert (pictures to come). Hope you had great weekends too!

Samurai on Stanley

With this cold weather outside lately I've been craving a bowl of warm oats.

1/4 banana

3 sliced strawberries

1/2 cup oats

1 cup water

pinch of salt

1 tbs crunchy peanut butter

Then I enjoyed a soy latte w/ honey at the Paddington Grind while I read my book.

For lunch I took the bus to meet James' sister at her school & we walked to the Westfield Mall at Bondi Junction to grab lunch. I had a mix of the Thai salad w/ tofu and spicy vinaigrette & a mixed green salad w/ onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado.

Can you believe this is what they serve at mall food courts? This is not your average sitting out all day under heat lamps normal mall food... everything is fresh and healthy (maybe not so much the fried tofu).

I spent all day getting ready & planning for James' big 21st bday party on the 26th. So far everything is looking great, I can't wait!

For dinner James and I were craving sushi so we tried out a new place on Stanley St. near the city. I love this area. There are tons of quaint restaurants & cafes w/ tables facing the hustle & bustle of the street. I'm a bit skeptical trying new sushi restaurants in Aus, I've had a couple of bad experiences, but Samurai was my best sushi experience in Australia yet.

We started off with some drinks & edamame. Like my new manicure? OPI Light my Sapphire.

I was expecting a little seaweed salad but they brought me this enormous bowl of greenage. Trust me I was not complaining.

I also ordered a vegetable roll.

Dinner was delicious! I always thought that fish would be the one thing I would miss becoming vegan since I used to eat sushi about once a week, but oddly enough I have not craved it once. It's weird how much being vegan has changed my taste buds.

I saw a couple things on my way home that made me happy including an adorable white Vespa...

& a possum in the tree outside. Possums are way different in Australia than they are in America (i.e. overszied rats w/ fangs). They are the cutest things ever. Last winter James & I would go on walks in Centennial Park at night & try to find them climbing around in the trees.... I know we're weirdos.

It's a Wrap

I've been a bit behind in blogging so brace yourself this is going to be a long post. Life gets kinda hectic when your trying to simultaneously take finals & pack up your apartment.

Wednesday:

1/3 cup oats, soy yogurt, crunchy peanut butter, pumpkin pie spice

(pre mixage)

(post mixage)

I normally never eat soy yogurt because the few times I have tasted it, it was really awful. The only reason why I purchased it this time was for my muffins I made the other night, and I had some left over so i tried it with my oats. It was really yummy! I wish I remembered the name of the brand. Of course I had coffee too.

While I was at Starbucks I bought this Gojiberry Granola bar by Two Moms in the Raw. I love how Starbucks carries all of this really great wholesome snacks now. The first time I saw them was when I was stopped off at Starbucks on a road trip to New Mexico and I bought an armful of snacks for the car ride. This bar was delicious! It was super crunchy and oddly enough almost spicy?

You can't beat these ingredients. Raw, no refined sugars, no added oils, 100% organic, 100% vegan.

I was so engrossed with studying that this bar and a coffee sufficed for lunch, and I did not stop to eat until dinner time.

I bought dinner on campus and had the sorina salad w/tofu in a spinach wrap w/ a side of BBQ for dipping, and a bunch of grapes.

Lettuce, tomato, tofu, onions, raisins, carrots, almonds w/ balsamic vinaigrette.

Thursday:

My eats were almost identical to the day before, I was busy cramming for my advanced stats test so I didn't have much time to eat let alone to try and be creative.

1/3 cup oats, 1/2 banana, soy yogurt, walnut bits, and pumpkin pie spice

Coffee!

A wrap again. It was definitely a groundhog day.

This time it was grilled w/ a spinach tortilla filled with lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion, jalapenos, and cucumbers and a side of pasta salad.

I took my stats exam which ended up being pretty tricky. I'm done with school now, yey!!!! Four months of freedom! I cannot even begin to explain how happy I am to be done with school.

After finishing the final I came home to start packing. It's time to say goodbye to my 1st apartment ever where I have lived for the past two years. I'm excited because next year I am moving to Santa Monica which has a lot more going on than Malibu, and Cami and I will still be living together. I can only hope that my new house is even close to as nice as the one I am leaving. I have made a lot of great memories living here w/ my roommates.

My bedroom.

Night table

Inspo board

Living Room

Kitchen (where the magic happens)

Ahh... goodbye Villa Malibu apartments, but not so quick... first I have to pack all of this up! Before getting down to business I enjoyed a snack of 1/2 banana, the last of my soy yogurt (I can't believe this 1 container lasted me 3 days), and a scoop of crunchy peanut butter.

After finishing packing up my desk, I got ready to go out and celebrate the end of the school year. First my friends Cami, Tyler, and Nick, and I went to go get dinner and drinks at Charlies in Malibu. The only other time I have been here was once for karaoke, and I didn't get to try the food.

We started out with a bottle of sauvignon blanc and copious amounts of foccacia bread.

I'm no wine connoisseur, but I would not not recommend this bottle. The bread was delicious though.

For dinner I had the seasonal vegetables- they were very bland, and the waitress offered to have the cook saute them in olive oil, after which they were a bit better but still not great.

After dinner we went out to Irish Pub in Santa Monica called Fin McCool's. It was a great way to finish out the school year.

Here are pics of me & my roommates that I have lived w/ in the past 2 years.

Emily, Cami, me, and Erin.

(yes i think that is my lipstick on Cami's check)

Me, Cami, and Diane (I'm getting Cami back in this one).

Friday:

Thursday was a veerry long night, I'm embarrassed to say what time I woke up at today but let's just say it was way bast breakfast time. I decided to make a very large portion of savory oats.

1 cup oats, peas, roasted corn, shredded soy cheese, nutritional yeast

These oats were the epitome of comfort food. Yum. I could not eat all of them at once so I kept snacking on them throughout the day. While the oats were cooking I munched on some soy nuggets w/ BBQ.

I spent the day packing, packing, packing, interspersed w/ catching up on lost and modern family. I made a smoothie too.

1/2 banana, vanilla almond milk, crunchy peanut butter

I also added a scoop of my roommates hemp protein- I love this stuff it tastes amazing and is really good for you too. This smoothie ended up being my favorite color- green.

i

Isn't it purdy?

I tried to ignore my pounding headache all day, even after 4 tylenols it would not stop throbbing, so finally at 5 in the afternoon I had to give in and grab a Starbucks. I didn't get a picture, but it helped relieve my headache immediately. Oh addiction, it's a b*.

I didn't have dinner until way later, and when I did it was quite odd. My fridge is running low, and I was not sure what I felt like... sometimes I eat really weird stuff. I ended up having spinach and meatless meatballs topped w/ vegan caesar salad dressing. Believe it or not it got even weirder after I took this pic.... I added nutritional yeast and garlic croutons. I know your probably gagging as you read this, but i thought it was quite delish.

Wow that was a long post!