After a Vegan guest lecturer...

And I'm back! all it took was one speaker on animal cruelty and THIS to make me 100% vegan again. I've tried thinking of what I've had to eat recently since my "one month" experiment ended and it's pretty similar to what I was eating before but with some chicken and fish. Class is ending and I need to go buy medical supplies but I'll post again soon and try to re-energize my inner vegan-ness. To be continued...

Last week recap

A lot has happened since I've last written in this... Discovered an awesome vegan/gluten free place in Miami called Choices Cafe that is amazing. It's a bit expensive but it is definitely worth going to once a week as a reward for making it another week lol Brittany was the one that knew of the place so after the Crohn's and Colitis walk we went to eat there and mom (trying to be supportive) joined us for lunch. She had a soup and as you see... She didn't enjoy it too much and her body actually later rejected the food lol it was a case of the "too-healthy-to-be-in-my-body"

I've gone back with Steph and had a quinoa wrap that was really good. It had tofu which I didn't particularly like but I did like these cookie dough bites that we're gluten free and vegan. They were delicious.

Since then I've moved back home so it's been difficult to continue cooking and preparing my meals. I've been staying at Steph's a lot so that I don't have continue driving back and forth to Doral which is a pain in the behind. Whole foods has become my source of nutrition which sounds expensive but actually hasn't been too bad. I'm spending about $10 a day for lunch and most of the time I have leftovers for dinner. They have some pretty good variety of quinoa salads and smoothies. I've also bought some veggie burgers and black bean burgers that I've taken to some of the BBQs I've been to. It's a lot easier now to find things to eat since I've gotten pretty used to the switch. 

I'm most impressed that I haven't caved and had chicken or something. I really don't mind when people are eating quesadillas or things like that around me, as long as I have my own food to eat. I had dinner at Monica's on Sunday (after the Marlins nearly won a game against the Padres) and they ordered from Villagio some pasta and lentil soup for me. It was good and very filling so that was nice to be able to order something with everyone else. Mostly, I've craved chocolate and sweets but I've been able to keep that under control with chocolate chips and Brittany also made these addicting Almond Butter Chews http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/05/top-21-vegan-dessert-recipes-of-2011/

(Sorry I'm blogging from my phone at the pool!)

And I've had these after every meal lol take about being a Cuban Vegan... Everyone asks me if I've lost weight and I honestly don't think I have because I'm eating a lot more than I think I ate before haha even without the mcdonalds and constant chicken nuggets from Wendy's (oh, how I miss thee).

So yeah... Long post but that's pretty much what's been going on with my diet and I wil have been doing it for a month next Monday :) proving that a Cuban can indeed be vegan AND gluten-free. Not sure what I'm going to so after the month but i have some time to figure that out. 

And in case you all were craving a Marlins update: my favorite player and the best pitcher in the MLB right now, Jose Fernandez is on the DL for 15 days due to an elbow injury that will most likely need surgery (Tommy John sx) and take him out for the season. Yeah... 

day... what day am I on?

It's been a while since I've posted but only because I've been busy with finals... and the Marlins :)

Last I left off, I was going to go to Lime for dinner. IMMEDIATELY REGRETTED THAT DECISION. We went to the Lime on campus which had terrible service (they didn't know what gluten-free entailed) and the food made me feel terrible AND made Rachel & Steph feel bad too. So it wasn't just me.. We think they use the school food instead of the food from the Lime company like the one I had been to before in Dadeland. Anyway... not ever going to UM's Lime again. They didn't even have margaritas pft.

I've been eating mostly lentils and brown rice along with corn chips. Pretty filling and easy to heat up during finals. Tons of water is a must with this meal because it can be on the heavier side.

I continue to make the breakfast smoothies and mostly oatmeal in the morning. Establishing a daily routine seems to help and decrease the stress of having to find something to eat all the time. When I have gone next door to the quick shop, I've bought hummus and carrots or celery that is good to munch on while studying. I have to run to catch the Marlins game with Papi but I'll update the rest of the weekend after the game.
Later

Cashews are on my naughty list

Who knew cashews could give you intense heartburn? I sure didn't... if I did, I wouldn't have had an entire pack while studying in a room full of silent people that can now hear my intense heartburn.

I've pretty much just been eating my gluten-free pasta with the cauliflower dressing for days now because I made WAY too much and refuse to throw it away. I finally finished it for lunch this afternoon and then I went to starbucks and bought a passionfruit tea with lemonade
which was delicious! I proceeded to eat a bag of cashews about two hours later... and well... you all know how that went.

I'm going to go to Lime with Rachel later tonight to eat dinner (Old fashion nachos here I come!) and then continue studying. Not much else going on... finals finals finals! This next one is the mother-final and I'm studying my behind off so I ace it. Hasta manana!

Day eight is Great!

It's been a while but it's finals week.. bear with me.

So dinner with Brittany and Hugo was awesome. Maroosh had a veggie platter that was your typical veggies but with this really tasty curry sauce. I think it gave me slight heart burn... but it was worth it.
Sunday was Seby's pool party. I had oatmeal before going to yoga (not the best idea I've had) and then didn't really eat too much except hummus and carrots at Monica's house. I went home around 7 and had my left overs from Maroosh which were even better than the night before. I love left overs.
I had a friend from class post a link on my FB wall about this recipe she tried. It's called Cauli-power Fettuccine "Alfredo" (Vegan) and I just had to replace the fettuccine with the gluten-free pasta I had bought at trader joe's. Winning.

I made this recipe Sunday night and had it for lunch today. I think I didn't make enough dressing for my pack of pasta but it was still yummy. anddddd apparently Mondays are bring-pasta-to-school-day because everyone in my class had pasta for lunch... so i'm glad I didn't feel left out and had brought (gluten-free) pasta too! I had some more for dinner because I had to study for tomorrow's practical but tomorrow I'll make lentils to change it up a bit.

Other than that... not much else going on. Studying for finals = no time to be a creative gluten-free/vegan chef. boo :: thumbs down ::

highlight of the weekend: GLUTEN FREE VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIPS from Brittany!

confession of the weekend: How I felt when mom told me she had diarrhea Sunday night

day six and i don't need no cake mix

Starting this post off with these beautiful Old fashion nachos at Lime... this was the FIRST AND ONLY place that i've gone to thus far, told them I'm looking for a gluten-free/vegan dish, and that they were helpful and happy to help. The guy behind the counter even told me that they cut their chicken with the same knives so he'd make sure they cut the ingredients with a clean knife. Amazing. Pretty much it's corn chips with beans (so many beans) onions, peppers, pico de gallo, guac, carrots, tomatoes, and lime. I added cilantro from the condiment bar with more pico de gallo but it was amazing! I could've cried.

So that was thursday after school and then I went to yoga and almost threw it all up with my downward dogs. but life was good after Lime. 

Yesterday I didn't have class so I slept in and woke up around lunchtime. At which point I had a salad (spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, cashews, pomegranate seeds, almonds, apples and raspberry dressing) with Brit's smoothie. This smoothie is becoming a daily occurrence. 

 I was at the library studying all day so I took an apple, corn chips, hummus and a bag of cashews with me which was enough to hold me over til dinner time. There's a microwave in the building next to the library so I was able to heat up my black bean soup which was way more filling than I thought it was going to be.

Today I did wake up on time and had a almond butter and fruit jelly sandwich with gluten free bread. I hadn't tried it yet but it is actually pretty good. I had the daily smoothie and now I'm going to pack some snacks for the day since I'm going to be studying again.

Tonight I'll be meeting the two lucky winners of my blog's contest 

Take-SheilaMG-Out-To-Your-Favorite-GlutenFree/Vegan-Restaurant-And-Have-Her-Mention-You-In-Her-Next-Post

Congratulations Brittany & Hugo !

:)

On the fourth day of my vegan diet, my stomach growled to meeeeee

Yesterday went a little bit like this:

Morning: woke up late... again... So I skipped breakfast and had my leftover LQCC salad for lunch with corn chips and garlic hummus. For dinner, I had oatmeal with raspberries. Yes, I'm aware I didn't eat much yesterday but I was busy with school.

Todayyyyyy, I woke up on time and had oatmeal again with raspberries which is actually really good and filled me up pretty well all through my morning lab.

Coconut oil is a gift to vegans! it smells amazing and makes the oatmeal taste so yummy!

I also replaced the agave in their recipe for maple syrup (Hugo-style). I think I found a promising breakfast meal. 

For lunch I stilllllllllll had LQCC salad left overs so I finished that and had chips with guachummus which was amazing. All my classmates wanted some so they finished my LQCC salad and pretty much my entire bag of corn chips and most of my guachummus lol vultures. 

I think I'm going to have to really try to come up with a hefty dinner because I haven't really had a planned/big meal in a while. 

Options are: 

Black bean quinoa tacos

OR

Gluten pasta with tomato sauce

Going to take an hour nap then go to yoga at 6 and we'll see how dinner goes.