My Vegan Mondays

Morning

Coffee with almond milk

Oatmeal

Some almonds

Afternoon

Veggie burger and a side of greens

A few dark chocolate squares

Red grapes

Evening

I tried my hand at Egyptian red lentil soup - not bad

This all sounds lovely and vegan, and it was. Except I also made chocolate chip cookies. The non-vegan kind. What can I say? I needed comfort and craved warm cookies.

But what’s interesting is that I improvised on a few of the ingredients—used spelt flour instead of all-purpose flour, and threw in some oats for kicks—and then had to improvise on a couple others. I discovered my lovely fiancé used up all the vanilla extract so I busted out some almond extract that I had bought in Paris. And during my increasingly frantic search for the vanilla, I knocked over an entire jar of dried oregano and some spilled into the batter. So as I gobbled up about a dozen of the cookies, both warm and comforting, occasionally I came across one with a savory, herbal flavor. It wasn’t bad. And the almond added an interesting dimension. And the different flour and oats made the consistency unlike any other time I’ve baked Nestle Tollhouse cookies. It was fun. A good experiment. Enjoyed while reading a few pages of The Yonahlossee Riding Campfor Girls. It wasn’t as good as the classic recipe, but I’m inspired to start deviating from recipes a little more often. We all should.

Just another day in Paris

These are random snapshots from my trip to Paris nearly two years ago. It makes me physically ache for Paris.

My Vegan Mondays

Errancy! Craziness! I'm not much of a blogger these days. But I'm still trying to maintain my Vegan Mondays. And even though I don't document my sweet feats the way I used to, I'm still indulging in regular treats. Last week, for example, I had a Chocolate Cloud cookie from Baked, I finally sampled Jeni's ice cream and my new favorite thing is our neighborhood ice cream shop, Ample Hills (holy cow). But in a remarkable show of willpower and consciousness, I have given up gummies and other corn syrup items masquerading as food. God, do I miss them.

Morning
Coffee with almond milk
Fruit salad 
Almonds

Afternoon
Salad with brussels sprouts and butternut squash
Apple
Banana
Yogi tea - my new favorite

Evening
Farro salad with roasted broccoli and almonds
Crackers and hummus
A binge of Hershey chocolate squares

Time, time, time…

It’s especially hard to believe that it is now March. Not only have weeks gone by and I haven’t blogged and I wonder what I do with my days, but the weather here in New York is on a cruel spin cycle. It’s just cold, snow, wind, repeat like a not-so-funny Groundhog day joke. I thought we were through the worst of it, but we’re slated for at least a couple storms this week. Le sigh.

Life has just become so much more inward-focused. While Andrew and I got to Kansas City and Rhinebeck in February…

 … and hit a couple new restaurants (River Park, Red Rooster, Bar Corvo), I obviously haven’t been sinking the same gusto into documenting these adventures. I did, however, check out the new Ladurée in Soho and get my fill of pancakes during Clinton Street Baking Company’s Pancake Month.

(Oui, they're as amazing as they look.)

There have been a few conversations about Paris, My Sweet and writing assignments.

There have been developments on the apartment front (I am planning to show some serious before and after photos!).

There has even been a little progress on wedding planning (nothing specific to reveal yet).

Mostly, I revel about my serious days of blogging and moonlighting, eating and adventuring. What fun it was. How life changes. And, what's new in your world??