These photos won’t be pretty, but I have decided to do a snapshot of a typical day of food.
My Beloved Borogove Latte
In addition to this I also consume quite a bit of coffee. It is one of my very few vices, and as far as vices go I keep it fairly upscale and good. I drink good coffee, I prefer espresso but at work I do have some drip coffee. I do not actually enjoy drip coffee as a rule, but I can either go next door and purchase coffee, or have some for free. My bank account prefers free right now. I do have to make a fresh pot when I want it. My coworkers do not understand how you make coffee and end up with coffee flavored water. I don’t drink coffee that is over 20 minutes old either. I live in Seattle and can be a bit of a coffee snob. I found my *perfect* coffee about 2 years ago, but sadly the roaster went out of business. Now my favorites come from Caffe Vita, Zoka, and Cafe Ladro. All based out of Seattle.
My new reason for joy!
Now, in my morning coffee (which consists of 4 shots of espresso) I use So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk. This stuff is DIVINE. I was using hemp milk (almond milk does NOT taste right). But it has a weird flavor, and separates. It is a decent sub if you cannot get your hands on the amazing coconut milk, but it is not my personal preference. When I go out to a coffee shop I always get soy, but I do try to limit my soy intake whenever possible. Coconut is the answer to so many of life’s problems. Side note, they are soon going to have Coconut Milk Kefir in stores!
So on a typical work day I have my morning cup of espresso, and then around 11 I also have about a cup and a half of drip from the office. I bring coconut milk in a glass jar to put into the drip coffee since the only thing we have in the fridge here is faux-cream filled with the devil HFCS.
Into my coffee I put xylitol. I know that it isn’t necessary, or “healthy”, but compared to the other things it isn’t as bad, and it at least keeps cavities at bay ;-) I do not like unsweetened coffee. It does not spike the blood sugar, and does not seem to cause any damage otherwise, so this is why I chose it. If I forget to bring my container of xylitol with me somewhere I will use a little bit of honey, but this is not something I make a habit of. Xylitol seems to have a laxative effect on some people. I have never experienced this, but I don’t use much of it at all. It is a very very small part of my dietary intake, and I do not recommend putting xylitol into everything you consume. I also do not recommend using xylitol that is not made from birch. There is only one company right not that exclusively uses birch (and not corn cobs). It is also the only company that is made in the USA (most others are in China and personally I do not trust it).
Do be careful with the xylitol as it is toxic to dogs and cats.
So for breakfast…
I start off with 3 eggs scrambled in about 1 T of virgin coconut oil I buy my eggs from a neighbor who has backyard chickens who extremely well cared for. They are also tiny little workers who go through his organic garden scraps and compost to pick out every last bug and worm. I feel comfortable eating the eggs these chickens produce. I have seen where they live, how well cared for they are, and I have no ethical qualms with their set up. Grocery store eggs are another thing entirely and I do not eat those. When I eat out I tend to stick on the vegan side of things. Not only are the eggs not as healthy as well cared for (and preferably pasteured chickens), but the animals are usually abused. My personal standpoint is that if I cannot stand to see how the chickens are being kept, then I won’t be supporting the place where they are being kept. I am not sure what I will be doing in the Winter though, as these chickens will not be producing many eggs and I am sure they will all be going to his family. I can tell you that I definitely will not be buying any eggs from conventional battery chickens, or where I feel the animals are being abused. I may have to make a drive into the country though.
Into my eggs I put some sort of greens. Today it was 4 kale leaves and some freshly dehydrated chives I got from my CSA box. I dehydrated the bunch because I wasn’t sure I could finish it all off quickly, but I am loving it and I think I could have kept it fresh ;-)
I then had about 1 lb of fresh WA state Bing cherries. I cannot get enough of these. Ok yes I can, and I got a belly ache the other day because of my gluttony. But I still want to eat 2 lbs in a sitting ;-)
Then about an hour later I had a banana.
For lunch, which was about 2 hours after the banana I had leftover raw “pasta” from the other night. I topped it with some vegan Parma! Some fresh Roma tomatoes, and garlic stuffed olives from Trader Joe’s (I love them).
When I got home I had 3 prunes from this local fruit stand. They are divine, they have pits, are moist and extremely flavorful.
I also had a handful of goji berries as I waited for my mother to get ready to go on a walk.
After my walk I came back and had a huge hummus salad. I go through salad phases, and recently it has been about a lb or so of lettuce (a full head of lettuce, 2 hearts of romaine, or here where I used a lot of very fresh salad greens from my neighbor’s garden). A red bell pepper (or here I used a packet of mini-sweets), a tomato (or equivalent in grape tomatoes), a couple of carrots, some olives, a handful of fresh sugar snap peas from my CSA box (cannot let them go to waste), and a container or so of hummus. My favorite being Trader Joe’s Eggplant hummus. I also like to make my own, but this Eggplant hummus is to die for. I need to figure out that recipe ;-)
Giant Hummus Salad
Ok I had a few more cherries too ;-)
This was the night when I made crackers and my banana bread, so I had to try them both of course, just to make sure they were not poisonous.
And then to top it all off I had a serving of my raw chocolate pudding with some raw dried coconut :-)
Puddin in my belly!
Told you I eat a lot ;-)
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OK, so I think I need to give the unsweetened coconut milk in the coffee another try. It just didn’t taste right to me, but I hate almond milk in my coffee. Blech! You’ve inspired me.
Love all your eats…seriously, I love them! I was wondering what a whole day of eats looked like for you.
Ha ha – my husband loves Washington state cherries…well we both do, but he went to town on them when we were last in Seattle. So good!
My favorite hummus it TJ’s horseradish hummus. Good to know I’m not the only one who eats the whole tub at once…they’re way too small, don’t you think? :)
Triple-certified locally-roasted coffee! Yeah! I don’t consider my one cup a day a vice. I DO consider that Silk creamer a vice, however. I haven’t found anything that works better. Hempmilk was the worst thing I tried. Does the coconut milk separate in the coffee? I’m actually planning to try to make my own creamer after my bottle runs out.
So excited about the coconut milk kefir!!
For a while, I got eggs from a friend with backyard chickens. I’d been vegan for a while but I wanted to focus on local protein sources. I tried and tried to like those eggs but I just couldn’t. I guess my body is just done with animal products.
I love hummus salad! Think I’ll go have some right now…
in a word YES! This is why I have to figure out the recipe. I wanted to buy about 4 of them the other day, so I would have a few days of salad, but they just had 1 container left! I haven’t seen the horseradish hummus, but this definitely intrigues me! I am not big on horseradish but I LOVE spicy cocktail sauce, so I wonder…
So far the coconut tastes the best to me, but it isn’t perfect. I hear that Mimicreme is coming up with one that works in coffee, but I haven’t been able to find it yet :-(
I was at my boyfriend’s last weekend and had the choice between hemp milk and canned “light” coconut milk (as opposed to my So Delicious carton). I chose the canned coconut milk. I chose WRONG. I don’t know what So Delicious does (and that sort of scares me) but it doesn’t separate. The canned does, and so does the fresh. I really would stay away from those in your coffee ;-) hemp does a better job, and that is pretty weak.
I can respect that! I would never ever push animal products on anyone. I would also never suggest someone buy conventional eggs. I will go without rather than eat them. Not only are the chickens tortured, but the eggs do not have even close to the level of nutrition as truly pasteured chicken eggs.
I am off to have my hummus salad too! Sadly they were out of organic red bell peppers at my Trader Joes though :-(
That latte photo is so beautiful, I had to restrain myself from slurping my computer screen! I love using So Delicious Coconut Milk beverages in coffee and chai, too . It’s so much tastier than soy or rice milk. And I found the coconut milk kefir! It’s fabulous! Thank you for posting the raw chocolate pudding recipe. It looks so simple and tasty…I can’t wait to try it!
I hope you enjoy it! That latte truly was amazing. I really miss that roasting company! I am SO grateful for So Delicious coconut milk. I was quite cranky when I only had the hemp milk option. I do hope that Mimicreme works as well, but the coconut milk also has a lot of benefit nutritionally so I am a happy camper!
Let me know how you like the pudding. I am wondering if it would make a good frozen dessert as well. I know some people have frozen avocados, so I am curious to see if the whole pudding freezes well. I had to admit that the idea of a pudding pop is sounding really attractive to me today :-)
Last night I topped my pudding with the famous ABU though I make mine with 2 C. Almond milk and 1 C. almond butter (and no sweetener)…so it is a little more like the original PBU QUITE satisfying :-)
I’m thinking they probably put the coconut milk through some sort of high-speed emulsion process to homogenize it with the water, sweetener and supplementary nutrients. I’m wondering if there’s any way to replicate that at home to make coconut milk creamer. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything. :) Wish I wasn’t so dependent on that nasty Silk creamer, but I just don’t like coffee without milk.
I too wish I could drink my coffee black, but I can’t! I am just so glad I found this stuff. I try to stay away from soy whenever possible. Though I am not perfect.
Your coffee looks so pretty with a heart in it!!! What is a Borogove Latte? Yeah, I tried almond and hemp milk in my coffee. I just can’t get over the ugly separation! And I like my coffee creamy. I have been doing the one can of coconut milk mixed with one can of coconut water thing, and trying to tell myself that it tastes like real cream. It seems like the only cream substitute they have at coffee houses is soy. Xylitol doesn’t sit well with me. I get cramps and have to use the restroom. I use liquid stevia, and hope my body doesn’t think I am eating sugar.
If you work on a eggplant hummus recipe, will you also try a spinach hummas recipe? I used to buy that years ago, and now can’t find it anywhere, and it was so great.
I loved your post today; I like knowing what other people do and eat.
If you can find the So Delicious coconut milk you might give it a try. I tried canned coconut milk and it just didn’t work well, but this stuff is wonderful! Borogove was the name of the coffee roasters, but they sadly stopped roasting :-( It was the best ever!
Was the spinach in the hummus roasted? Blended in? or were there just pieces of spinach IN the hummus? Sounds yummy!
As for the xylitol, yes some people do have trouble with it. There is also a lot of good talk about coconut sugar but I haven’t gotten my hands on any yet. I have tried stevia, but I cannot seem to find a variety that doesn’t have an odd after taste to me. I know it isn’t a chemical, but it has an odd chemical taste to me.
I am also glad you enjoyed the post. I will definitely post like this more often if it is something people like to see. My normal “everyday food” isn’t as pretty as the recipes I usually post though, be warned!