The Aftermath

Felt kind of similar

Okay, you know what, I've been skirting around the issue, so let's just discuss it: The Super Bowl. 

Steve's coworker had a party and said he could bring whomever. I figured I would try to stick to "safe" foods but I'd be open to...sampling. I bought tortilla chips and Trader Joe's guacamole hummus to contribute and of course, picked up a GH for myself. I knew I shouldn't eat too much before the party, so I had a GH/sun dried tomato sandwich before I left my place.

Heaven. For realz.

I decided to wear Giants gear for the party since the Super Bowl was being played in "our house." I was feeling pretty good because I bought this t-shirt in August and I never really felt comfortable in it this entire football season - it's an XS, and I typically wear a S anyway. Luckily, the Giants played so poorly that I rarely even bothered to sport my collection of too-tight fan apparel. But now my muffin top and love handles have almost completely disappeared.

Ignore my messy room

Well, then I went to Steve's and before we even left for the party, I had downed a beer, a cookie, and half of a peanut butter and jelly pancake. En route, I declared, "If there are no wings at this party, I am going home. I will legit call a cab and go home." Eat all of the things?

After visiting the keg and swearing that we would never tell anyone we drank light beer (sorry, Steve and Briele), we headed inside to worship at the altar that is the Super Bowl Buffet. I loaded up my plate for Round 1, feeling a little uneasy.

What you see here is (clockwise): guacamole hummus, blue cheese? (Ranch?), a buffalo wing, Tostitos scoops, broccoli, buffalo chicken dip, Ritz crackers, a small sampling of chicken Murphy that was mostly potatoes. The verdict: Keep the buffalo chicken dip coming. The buffalo wing itself was as disappointing as my DiGiorno pizza slice: just anti-climactic and not worth it. 

As the night wore on and the game became a blow-out, the commercials a sentimental snoozefest, and the halftime show the biggest bore since watching figure skating on mute while waiting for my MRI, I continued to make trips to the buffet table and the cooler (we found the good beer!).  Eventually, I told myself, "Just go HAM. Who says you have to stick to chicken only? There are Italian subs here! Italian subs!" 

I helped myself to a small piece of Italian sub. It was: disappointing, anti-climactic, not worth it.

I continued to gorge. There was an ice luge. There were cookies.

"Let's leave by the end of the third quarter" turned into "let's eat more" and a discussion about why the day after the Super Bowl should be a holiday instead of Black Friday or President's Day (or, at the very least, can we somehow combine the Super Bowl with one of those things?). Well, because the day after the Super Bowl is not a holiday, we figured we needed to eat even more to ensure that we felt functional for work the next day (i.e. not hungover - not that we drank that much, but who needs an excuse to pig out even more?). 

This necessitated a trip to Wawa and for me, a binge on all of the foods I could have during my 24-hour "pass" period: an apple fritter, Doritos (both Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese) and, obviously, macaroni and cheese (sometimes scooped up and eaten on Doritos). 

I woke up at 5:45 AM with a clear head, a text that I had a snow day, and a terrible feeling in my gut. I couldn't wait to get home and whip up a smoothie. I had a ton of fun during the Super Bore, but the meat and dairy didn't really contribute to that. Now I know that I just don't need them - hell, I don't even really want them!

Day Seventeen: Snow Day Cravings

I am certainly not done eating for the day, but I'm going to post anyway. I will also probably go over my calorie limit since I have a snow day tomorrow and it took me 3 hours to make the 16-mile commute home. The roads were treacherous and terrifying and I need to stress eat and stress drink wine. I don't have anything good to drink, so I probably won't have much, anyway. It's basically just an emergency stash and I think this counts as an emergency. On the other hand, maybe I'll save the wine for tomorrow, when I'll need motivation to dig out my car (thanks again to my awesome co-worker, Andrew, for lending me a shovel! If I had to go buy one on my way home, I never would have made it!). We already have over 6 inches of snow on the ground and we are supposed to get 6 more overnight. Then it's going to get up to a whopping 15 degrees tomorrow. Yes, I'm really going to want to go outside.

For some reason, I couldn't get my act together this morning and I forgot breakfast. I did have - you guessed it - my standard coffee with almond milk.

For lunch, I packed last night's Israeli couscous, seared cauliflower, and a side of white bean hummus with a serving of Wheat Thins (16 crackers - I ended up snacking on this hummus and cracker combo last night, too). Although I picked all of the red peppers out of the couscous, I still could not stomach the cinnamon and vinegar combo. The pearl couscous seemed to get chewier overnight. To be blunt, this recipe sucks. Do not make it. I ate about a quarter of the serving of couscous, if I'm being generous (it was probably more like a tenth) and half of the cauliflower (it still tastes weirdly fishy to me). I did kill all of the white bean hummus and crackers. I really cannot rave enough about that hummus. 

When I got home about 6 hours after lunch, I was obviously still hungry. I had been craving Chinese food on my way home - egg drop soup and noodles and dumplings. Snow days just make me crave junk and comfort foods (grilled cheese and tomato soup!!!). When I went shopping over the weekend, I decided to give Dr. McDougall another try, even though I did not like the vegan tortilla soup I had earlier. This time I bought vegan pad thai noodles, and the preparation was basically the same - add the seasoning packet, fill with water to fill line, microwave for 2 minutes, cover and let sit for 4. When that was all done, I spritzed a little lime juice on top and then crushed 10 peanuts in a plastic bag with a rolling pin and sprinkled the peanut crumbs on top. In retrospect, I should have added green onion but hollllleeeeeeee shhhhhhh this was good. The portion was on the smaller size, but it tasted like legit pad thai - and no sneaky eggs this time! I'm now a full-fledged fan of Dr. McDougall. I'm debating buying his stuff by the case from his website.

After this second late lunch, I decided it was time to veg out and read in bed for a bit. At 6:00, I got up to make my smoothie. This one was no bueno.

This is the height of luxury!

Dinner: Strawberry Kale Green Smoothie

I prepared this smoothie according to the directions, with 3 tablespoons of vegan protein powder, 1 tablespoon of organic super greens, a cup of almond milk (I use original unsweetened), and 3/4 cup of ice. I didn't want to use up any more bananas, so I added a cup of kale (from the freezer) and a cup of sliced strawberries. 

Side note: The green sludge from yesterday's smoothie did not wash off the inside of the Ninja lid in the dishwasher, which completely grossed me out.

Additional side note: This came out an even darker, slimy green mud color. 

Oh, also, this was pretty gross. It definitely missed the sweetness of the banana and the vanilla. It actually tasted a bit sour, which the strawberries may have added to (they were not completely ripe yet). It's also chalky. It took me about a half hour to get through it (this seemed to make around a pint), but I got used to it as I went on. 

Without going into too much detail about my bowels, let's just say that this smoothie did what it was supposed to do and it did it rather quickly.

I followed up with the aloe, probiotic, fiber, and my multivitamin. I've noticed that I've been feeling colder since I started my vegan diet, but I am taking 100% daily value of iron every day. This could be my Raynaud's, but it's not just my fingers, toes, and nose that feel cold (although those are the worst). I thought about doing an hour of yoga (my Roku has a fitness channel with streaming exercises) but since I can't log it into Gympact and I'm so cold and achy, I think I'll settle for a long, hot shower. At least I've resisted wine so far.

Post-Shower Snack: Vegan Oatmeal Cookie and Vegan Hot Cocoa

Remember how I said I loooooove junk/comfort food when the weather is crappy? Well, hallelujah, I have found the remedy! (I'm just hoping my craving for grilled cheese and tomato soup subsides tomorrow; otherwise, I'm walking to Quick Check for bread and soup and slicing up that almond cheese, casein and all). 

I've been mulling over this recipe for a while and I decided that today was the day:

I followed the recipe to a T, except my bananas were not that ripe and therefore a little more difficult to mash. I used Shoprite organic unsweetened applesauce and mashed some more.

I then added the rest of the ingredients:

...and used a teaspoon and my hand to form 16 irregular cookies (my specialty shape) on two cookie sheets sprayed with Smart Balance cooking spray.

Then I baked them on 350 for 20 minutes. The smell was heavenly. However, I remember the same enchanting aroma when I baked oatmeal banana bites on Day One and those came out dry...so I was worried. 

While those baked, I prepared the hot chocolate: 2 tablespoons of unsweetened baking cocoa, 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of almond milk (I ended up adding more because it looked like the powder would never dissolve). I put this in the microwave for a minute and when I took it out, it was almost cakey on top - but once I stirred it, everything mixed together nicely. I put it in for another 30 seconds and sprinkled some nutmeg on top.

The final result:

Holy Bejesus. The cookie is awesome and a mere 76 calories if you make 16 irregular shapes, too. The hot cocoa is rich and spicy and not sickeningly sweet. That's 158 calories and 25 grams of sugar - a little high. Still, at 234 calories total, this is a decent snack that satisfies my cravings - better than the apple I ate in my marathon commute home. 

I can do a little better, but I can confidently say that I'm done for the day. 

Totals	1,140	192	26	46	1,882	65
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	60	-42	14	14	418	-20
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Definitely went overboard in carbs and sugar, but it's a snow day! And I don't even want any wine. You know why? I have been so. much. less. stressed. since I stopped eating animal products. Even though (many) parts of my drive home were scary and aggravating, my heart wasn't racing or in my throat and I wasn't screaming obscenities like I typically do if I'm stuck in 45 minutes of summer Shore traffic...or doing a routine drive down any of Monmouth County's super-annoying highways. 

This feels good.

Bonus: Look at this treasure trove of vegan slow cooker recipes I found!