Many Pictures of Gross Things I Ate

#1: Shout out to my broseph since middle school, Chris, who just read my blog from start to finish. I miss you, buddy!!

As I began writing this last night, I was in bed, stuffing my face with nacho kale chips I purchased for tonight. I finished eating them in the car on my way to the CVS drive thru (CVS is across the street).

Wanna see what I ate this weekend? (I don't).

We went out to Leggett's in Manasaquan because Steve's friends, Matt and Mary (hi guys!), participated in the Valentine Plunge to raise money for ALS. Leggett's was packed for the after party, so after a Bloody Mary, we ended up at O'Neill's, now known as Manasquan Beach House. 

The sliders and the wings are not mine. Well, neither is the pizza, but I ate a slice. The mac and cheese was supposed to be buffalo mac and cheese, so after Briele and I ate this one, we made sure to get the correct order.

In the shadows of my iPhone lies BUFFALO MAC AND CHEESE!

The stuffed avocado with mushrooms and herbed bread crumbs was amazing. 

As were the shrimp egg rolls and sinus-clearing wasabi sauce. 

When we got back to Steve's, Briele and I devoured the vegan cupcakes I had brought from Papa Ganache (can I have a job, please?): another caramel pretzel and a Samoa. 

We each got a half. The Samoa was AMAZAZING. (extra AZ)

Thus began the weekend of Briele's 26th birthday. After a food-coma-induced nap, we went to Connolly Station, my most recent version of Cheers, although I haven't been there in ages. While there, we had mucha tequila and this was the best we were able to look all night:

After sleeping until the wonderful hour of 11 AM, it was clear that we needed brunch so we headed to

This is orange juice. It goes well with champagne on a Sunday morning.

These are delicious potatoes. And challah French toast (chaaaallahhhhh!). And an egg white omelette with BACON and Brie.

After downing all of this and lingering at the table for a bit, we went to get (free) pizza at Johnny Mac's. Like every trip to Asbury Park, we ended at Confections of a Rock Star (cupcaaaaaaaakes!), where Briele paid homage to herself.

We probably ate more after that. Ever since, I've been moody and feeling farty and bloated. I had to buy coffee at work on Monday, and I had to put milk in it because there was no other choice, but I've gone back to eating vegan since then (woopty doo; it's Wednesday). 

Anyway, tonight is traditionally taco night, but because the weather forecast looks like this, 

Courtesy of Mrs. Boyarsky

I opted to stay home. I'm supposed to be leaving for Nashville tomorrow night anyway (provided that my flight will get off the ground in Snowpocalypse 2K14 # 8,0000), so I'm glad I have time to do some more stuff around the house, anyway. However, Solo Dolo Taco Night feels a bit like this:

Courtesy of http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/

I put on the Taco Cloud playlist. I made my guacamole and assembled my ingredients.

I made some Spanish rice and heated up some vegan refried beans. Then I assembled my vegan burrito...

... and texted Steve and Briele, "I miss you guys."

However, without those two bad influences around, I could only muster 1.5 burritos :)

Pros: That Daiya cheese was good.

Cons: Whole Foods regular fresh salsa is better than their chipotle garlic. 

Well, time for my final preparations for Nashville and (but hopefully not) work tomorrow.

Adios!

A Rave and a Review

It's about to get TMI with 3 additional letters. I am PMSing and that means I want to eat everything and I don't care how many calories I consume today. My boss brought a box of Munchkins into the office today and it was on - I needed a donut.

The day started off well with a smoothie + a cup of blueberries for breakfast. My new supply of garcinia cambogia came in the mail, and this kind also has coffee bean extract in it. Oh yeah, of course I drank coffee, too.

I forgot my salad dressing AGAIN so I ate the other half of my satay noodles for lunch along with the snack I packed - guacamole hummus and some baby carrots. So few calories for so much deliciousness! 

Well, by 1:00, I was hungry again (remember how my lunch is at 10:27 AM?!). I had made a delicious chickpea salad last night and I brought in a small container of it...and housed that as a snack on hall duty. The need for donuts persisted.

Forty minutes later, it was my prep time. I tried to hold myself over with 3 water crackers, but those are not very donuty. The closest thing to donuts in the office, besides the actual donuts, was the caramel popcorn. Although I now know that the caramel was made with butter, I also knew that the popcorn would be a better bet than a munchkin. I had to remind myself that I said I wasn't going to be "that strict" about my veganness anymore. 

I had to tutor 2 students after school and I had a plan for my way home: we'll get to that in a second. First, the chickpea salad (this is the rave)...

Not this kind of rave

How to Make TO-DIE-FOR Curried Chickpea Salad (adapted from The Simple Veganista)

Mix together the following:

• 2 cans of rinsed and drained chickpeas
• 3 peeled and diced carrots (1 cup)
• 5 sliced green onions (1 cup)
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup reduced sugar Craisins
• 1/2 cup raw cashew pieces

In a separate bowl, mix together these ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup tahini (thin with water until it reaches desired consistency)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Then, mix it all together. I swirled a little bit of agave on top to pick up the sweetness of the dried fruits and mixed it together even more. Mash it up a bit with a potato masher. Then, eat it plain or make an awesome sandwich on a multigrain sandwich thin with arugula and tomato like so:

...freakin HEAVEN.

And what's even better? Let's talk about my pit stop.

I always describe where I live as boring, but convenient. I am close to several major highways and it's easy to get pretty much anywhere I need to go. But there is really nothing to do in the immediate area.

However, we have a pretty cute little Main St. Again, there's not much on it, but there is a bar specializing in craft beer and...a vegan bakery (there is also a vegan restaurant somewhere in town now, so apparently my boring slice of suburbia is pretty vegan-friendly). 

And this is not just any vegan bakery. Papa Ganache won Food Network's Cupcake Wars (to be honest, I've never seen the show and the whole cupcake/cake pop trend irks me a little), which is kind of a big deal. I'd been wanting to try the place for a while and I was also curious how they manage to stay in business in such a tucked away little corner of nowhere.

First of all, when I arrived, the parking lot was packed. I'm pretty sure I parked illegally in a bank of icesnow. 

I didn't take a picture of the front because I felt like a creep

The inside was pretty busy too, with a guest presumably planning a party and some people playing Connect Four at one of the tables along the wall. The walls were decorated with adorable muffin tins and other baking accoutrements. I was psyched to see that they also offer vegan food: stromboli, pizza, chili, macaroni and cheese, and soups. I was not psyched to see that they didn't have any donuts. :( I've actually been obsessed with vegan donuts for some time now...one of our students works at the amazing food truck, The Cinnamon Snail, and she would frequently bring us tons (possibly literally) of leftover pastries. 

Anyway, do you know what they did have a ton of? Cupcakes. I figured that was a good place to start. I had already perused their menu online, and the list of available treats scrawled on a chalkboard display was daunting. Sometimes I didn't know what was what. There was a line behind me, so I didn't want to linger. I decided on a caramel chocolate pretzel, because how can you go wrong with that? And then I spotted them: SEVEN-LAYER COOKIES. I am obsessed with seven-layer cookies and I had even been craving my Nana's light and airy almond cookies out of the blue today. 

"Are those rainbow - or seven-layer - cookies?!" I cried.

"Yes, but they're $2 each," answered the bakery employee, as if that was going to stop me from getting one (it did stop me from getting more than one, and that's probably a good thing). The mac and cheese's price of $8.50 did deter me from a purchase today, but this weekend might be a good time to dive in.

My cupcake and cookie came to $5.89, and I left a $1 tip because I knew I'd be back. Now the important question was, could I make it home without opening the box and stuffing my face?

I guess today's willpower is a little bit stronger than I thought. I downed my dinner of a chickpea salad sandwich in record time and went for the seven-layer cookie first. 

HOLY SHIT. Yes, I am using an actual curse word on my so-far pretty-clean blog. I ate this too quickly to take a close-up photo - and I really tried to savor it and eat it in five or six little bites. This tasted better than any seven-layer cookie I've ever had - and admittedly, my ex's Italian grandmother made some pretty good ones. This one was more moist (I hate that word) that a non-vegan cookie and it had just the right amounts of almond and chocolate. They could charge $4 and I'd still go back and get another one. I wish they made these, like, brownie sized. Amazing. 

Then it was time for the cupcake. I think I've had a similar kind from Confections of a Rock Star, but it wasn't vegan (although they do have vegan options). This one was good: the cake wasn't super dense like vegan cakes can be and the pretzels were nice and fresh (I feel like it's easy for them to get stale-ish when they're sitting on top of a cupcake).

My only complaint is that this cupcake was a bit shallow and piled high with frosting.

Cupcake under my nails like a slob

There was a filling in the middle and it was good, but I'm not sure if it was caramel. Overall, this was enjoyable, but I'd be happy to try something else next time (maybe even a non-cupcake baked good). I wish they made seven-layer cupcakes...OMG I can't get over these.

It's also really cool that Papa Ganache is owned by an LCSW who runs the Papa Ganache Project, an interactive and educational bakery program for at-risk kids. I am thrilled to have this business in my community and I know that I will be back soon...like, possibly tomorrow.