What We Ate Wednesday – iPhone Edition

May 22nd, 2013 - filed under: The Food » Food Styles

Strawberries + hemp seeds every day when I pick him up from preschool. ♥


So as I mentioned a few Weekend Send-Offs back, my big camera broke right after Beer Fest. Booooooo! I love that camera, and I love the pictures it takes, and it’s hard to be a blogger without a proper camera! I tried to do a full WIAW with just my iPhone, but I wasn’t ever able to get an entire day’s worth of usable shots. Sometimes that little thing takes a great picture, but other times . . . not so much.

So this is a composite WIAW, spanning the past few weeks, and comprised of the iPhone highlights. Hope you enjoy!


Fireman eat breakfast on the floor! He was having the standard these days, which is oatmeal + raisins + cinnamon + maple syrup. Plus a fireman suit and shades, obvi.




Preschool lunch all packed up, from left to right: homemade “Better Than Larabar” (recipe coming soon!), homemade kale chips, peanuts + raisins in the snack ball, black beans with olive oil and nutritional yeast, carrots + cucumbers, snap peas. Vegan kid power!





Damian and I had our weekly “State Of The Waits” luncheon. We always order the same thing, the tofu curry noodle bowl, fried tofu for him and steamed tofu for me, add broccoli. Best meal in SB, period.




Another day, another lunch. This was black beans mixed with green salsa, olive oil, and nutritional yeast, and topped with hot sauce. Eaten with chips, quick and easy and healthy and delicious! I eat some sort of variation on this meal multiple times every week. Although . . .




. . . it usually has avocado!



Afternoon tea while grading papers – this smoked green tea was fantastic! // Selfie to take a break from grading, this was the day before I re-dyed my hair.




A mid-week picnic dinner with friends! I was totally lazy and grabbed stuff from the Whole Foods deli (gift card, baby!) – Beyond Meat “classic chicken salad” and Beyond Meat “Sonoma chicken salad”, for comparison (I preferred the classic) plus a bunch of roasted broccoli plus a few sesame tofu sticks for Waits. He mostly just ate broccoli though.We also had coconut water boxes, and you can see my friend’s amazing quinoa-mango-avocado concoction.




At the end of that week I made this amaaazing lunch bowl, with black beans and an entire bunch of swiss chard (steamed), drizzled with Goddess dressing. And can I just say, chard is the most under-appreciated of the greens! It’s soft and salty and RULES. My absolute favorite. Sorry all you kale heads!




Beautiful!




And that’s when I learned that Mr Harley loves raw chard stems! Haha, what a silly guy.




Starting the weekend off right, with a wheat grass shot at the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market.




A Saturday afternoon snack – 2 mini artichokes with Vegannaise. I love artichokes somthin’ fierce!




Weekend brunch, cajun tempeh scramble with salsa verde and half an avo. Heaven.




Last Sunday night we made hummus tacos: corn tortillas smeared with homemade chunky olive and garlic hummus, topped with shredded carrots + sun-dried tomatoes + avocado (can you tell I’m an avocado fan? yeah, lots of avo ’round these parts). These were epic!



This is my weekly farm box, which makes me squeal: “I heart you, southern California!”. This is a half share, and it had: a bunch of spinach, a bunch of rainbow chard, a giant head of romaine, TWO bunches of kale, THREE boxes of strawberries, 5 oranges, 2 avocados, 4 mini artichokes, 3 small zucchinis, and a whole paper bag of carrots. I am incredibly grateful to my papa, who gives shiatsu massage to the farmer in exchange for my CSA box. ♥ // My current favorite juice: two beets, greens and all + a carrot or two + 3-4 oranges. So delicious!



And thus concludes this iPhone WIAW party. Next WIAW is the Portland Foodie edition, and my friends, it’s gonna be goooooood!

♥

  • veggiesara

    This post makes me hungry!
    Have you tried grilling or sautéing bigger chard stems in some soysauce (or tamari)? If you haven’t you should give it a try, it is SO good. Chard over kale!

  • Chantelle

    Great post!
    Quick question.. As crazy as it sounds , I’m put off by going vegan because I can’t t stand beans. LIke hate em.. Makes my skin crawl thinking about their texture in my mouth. *SHUDDER*
    Beans seem to be not just a staple , but completely necessary in a vegan diet.. Is that correct?

  • juana

    i would love it if you adopted me and fed me and packed me lunches and fed me at home and took me on picnics
    i always feel like this after wiaw
    and waits is the luckiest kid
    and my hat is off to you and damian, the co-parenting, state of the waits lunches… it seems your relationship is based on love and respect and oh yeah, love love love for waits.

  • The Cookie Fairy

    Just looking at your food makes me happy. It’s SO COLOURFUL!!! I’ve never been able to find chard in the UK though, is it native to the US?

  • Deirdre

    looking forward to that recipe and thanks for all that sunshine goodness!

  • http://windycityvegan.wordpress.com/ Monika {windycityvegan}

    I love growing my own food all year long, but I really miss my CSA box I used to get when I lived in Chicago! Few things were as exciting as opening up a new box every week overflowing with local produce – one year we even received a free copy of the Farmer John’s Cookbook (he owned the CSA I belonged to).

    I finally tried Beyond Meat and was surprised that I liked it. Sort of. I was out of beans and threw it into my giant lunch salad and was so sure I would hate it, but I didn’t. (Why am I so conflicted about this new product? Bah.)

    Have fun at the Con, I can’t wait to see your pictures even though I am so jealous I couldn’t make it!!!!

  • G

    I’ll leave the nutritional advice to Sayward, but here’s me butting in. My taste buds changed completely when I became vegan (some years ago). I used to hate beans as well… like, A LOT. Always picking off every morsel on any salad, taco, chili, etc. But now I FREAKIN’ LOVE BEANS. Garbanzos are my fav. You can also mask the bean-y taste by eating hummus all the time! (Which I wouldn’t mind… ever.)

  • G

    I also love love love love loveeee chard. Yes, kale is good… but chard is definitely underrated :(

  • http://michellestinykitchen.blogspot.com/ Michelle Thiele

    I want to add to G’s comments too: my husband used to literally shudder at beans as well, but he became vegetarian anyway, and then little by little he expanded his diet (hummus is great, crispy roasted chickpeas are also a gateway bean, and lentils were a good stepping stone) and now he requests black beans for dinner more than I do. I never tried to get him to like beans (I honestly didn’t think it was possible), and I think letting him discover them at his own pace was key. Beans aren’t just important to a vegan diet, they’re a really healthy component of an omni diet as well (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-fuhrman-md/gombbs_b_996352.html). Also, I thought this recent article on taste psychology was interesting: http://io9.com/the-psychology-of-hating-food-and-how-we-learn-to-love-47672025. Good luck!

  • http://michellestinykitchen.blogspot.com/ Michelle Thiele

    Thank you for the post, Sayward! So many foods to be inspired by

  • Rachel from The Vegan Mishmash

    That curry bowl looks amazing. Curry is one of my all time favorite meals…ever! I love it with pineapple. I also recently tried strawberries with hemp seeds as a snack. Delicious!!!

  • Genki Kitty

    Now I am totally hungry and jealous of your farmers box. I can’t wait to see the Better than Larabar recipe, yum! For now I’ll have to settle with finding myself a fireman outfit for oatmeal tomorrow morning- I’ve heard it’s the latest thing. *wink wink

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    I have tried that! That used to be my jam. These days I’m all about steaming and smothering in sauce. =D

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Do you hate all legumes, or just beans? Like do you eat lentils, lentil soup, split pea soup, red lentils, dahl, that sort of stuff? Beans are not necessary per se, but legumes as a whole are pretty important. Of course it’s completely possible to be vegan without legumes, but it sure does help if you like some of them at least. Peanuts? Peanut butter? Soy?

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Ha! Love this. Wish I could feed all the Bonzai readers!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Hmm, I’m not sure exactly where it comes from. Wiki says it’s used in both Mediterranean and Arab cooking, so I’m guessing it’s found worldwide?

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Yeah! Recipe coming next week or in 3 weeks, haven’t quite decided yet . . . ;-)

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    I feel the same way about Beyond Meat! I’m so-so on it, the texture is a bit too dense for me. I really wanted to love it, expected to hate it, and feel like I’m just not sure how I feel at all. ha!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    YES!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    My pleasure!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Curry is like warm delicious heaven in a bowl. Period. ;-)

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    HA! Love this comment. =)

  • skeptk_vegan

    Oh my… definitely triggered a growling stomach!

  • Sonja

    looooove your meals! They looks so delicious, healthy and simple (in a good way) <3

  • Sarah C.

    That chard is really lovely, and I’m with you on chard over kale, though I also like kale when done well (big heart to kale chips and lightly braised kale). My fave prep for chard is wilted with plumped up raisins and a squeeze of lemon juice.

  • http://justmeactually.com/ Rachael

    So I’m not totally the only blaspheming vegan when I say chard kicks kale’s ass?

  • Chantelle

    All legumes :( Even if there crushed up into hummus.. or anything like that. I like nuts. All nuts ( lol) .

  • tara henderson

    I understand. I don’t have that problem with beans, but I can’t stand avocado because of the texture. I’ve never even tried guacamole. Texture aversion is, in my experience, hard to overcome. A long time ago, when I wanted to be able to eat cheesecake, I was only able to handle it with other stuff mixed in, like the turtle or cookie dough cheesecake. I know that’s a horrible example! My point is, try beans mixed with something else. VeganYumYum has a great minestrone recipe that includes beans, along with other goodies. And you can throw in any additional veggies you like. Try making that with only one type of bean in there, and just put one bean in the bite with a spoonful of other good stuff.

  • Vegyogini

    I’ve been to Saigon! I may have even had that exact meal. I live in LA and was in SB for a business trip a couple years ago when I ate there. Although, I went to UCSB for my BA and don’t think I had even heard of Saigon while in school. I’m happy to hear you’re in SoCal now! If you’re ever in LA, I’d love to meet you for lunch!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    I go to LA all the time – are you part of any of the LA Vegan Meetup groups? I’ve started going to those events. =)

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