I'm Cheating on Fresh & Easy with Trader Joe's

I've been vegan for almost two months now.  I had my moment where I cheated, and I immediately regretted it.  The eggs tasted good going down, but they weren't worth the guilt, nausea, and lingering stench of egg-smell left in my kitchen.

Lately, though, I've been bored out of my mind with food.  I've started running out of ideas, and trolling the Internet for creative, easy, cheap dishes has become a pain in my big vegan behind.  My dear, dear friend, Joanna, is a big fan of Trader Joe's.  Knowing that I've usually stuck with Fresh & Easy (and sometimes Sprouts, when I don't mind going broke for food), she encouraged me to give it a shot.  So I made the trip out there today, and I wasn't disappointed.

I was like a kid in a candy store.  They had a wonderful vegan selection, and the prices were undoubtedly the lowest I've seen.  I found these meat-less items for about $2 less than they usually are.  $3 each for these packages of big, juicy, hot diggity dogs.  I was overjoyed.

I also picked up these amazing cookies.  I had tried the trail mix kind with Joanna, but I love chocolate chip oatmeal. These will probably be gone by tomorrow. 

For the last couple of months, I've also been searching for a solution to dry, troublesome skin.  I keep hearing that tea tree oil is a winner, and Joanna recommended jojoba oil as well.  I'm hopeful that this will finally solve my problems!  

I'm sooper dooper excited about this one.  Salty snack foods are my weakness.  I don't crave sweets too often; I want SALT.  I want CHIPS.  Again, Joanna introduced these to me.  They're bananas, BANANAS, but they taste like chips!  I shall unhinge my jaw and swallow the bag whole.

I'm a nut for autumn.  It might be my favorite season; and I've felt deprived of it ever since moving to Vegas.  Trader Joe's knew this; so Joe said, "Hey Meg, here's an entire display FULL of pumpkin-themed everything."  They had coffee, pancake/waffle mix, tea, cookies, and more.  I chose the delicious Country Pumpkin Spice Granola Cereal.  And then I cried tears of happiness.  

One of my last great finds was this tea tree oil soap.  I'm always on the look-out for all-natural, chemical-free products.  I was so frustrated with the lack of them in stores that I finally started making my own.  Even this has its limits in some cases though, as you might not be replenishing your body of the nutrients it needs.  This one gets an A+, however.  The ingredients were promising, namely because there were so few--as in, seven, most of which I recognized and could pronounce.  (How often does THAT happen?)

I had been putting off this first trip because Trader Joe's isn't exactly a five-minute drive from my apartment; and on weekends, I'm a major couch potato.  After trying it out, though, I'll probably be doing most of my shopping there.  Thanks, Joanna!

Washboard Abs You Could Grate Cheese On. And Another Smoothie.

It's 12:15 and this writer is already pooped.

I tried this work-out for the first time today, another video from Body Rock TV -- which always kicks my ass.  This one was for the abs:

I want to make love to her accent and she has the best damn implants I've ever seen.  If you can get through this work-out without spitting or farting or involuntarily doing anything else completely unladylike, I salute you.

I'm trying to get back on the smoothie bandwagon, but today was a little tricky.  It's the end of the week, so the fridge is a little nekkid.  So I just took whatever I had and threw it in.  

Smoothie!

This one has spinach, kale, frozen strawberries, frozen peach, almond milk, and ginger.  Not bad, actually.  It was sooper refreshing.  Make sure you LOVE ginger, because I used a piece the size of a booger and my eyes were still watering.

One final thing: I tried these for the first time, which is a miracle because I've never been a huge cabbage person...

And I loveeeeeddddddd it. I threw in some brussel sprouts as well, and it was all gone with a few days. Or, if you want another snack that actually tastes like it should be junk food, try THESE!

Anyone have a smoothie recipe to share?  Leave a comment with your fave!  The Skinny Confidential has some really good ones, too.  This is why I started making them in the first place, and it literally changed my body and how I feel.  The vegetarian quest is still going well.  Five months and counting.  But I dream of beef every night. 

Why Your Hair is Falling Out :-( And a Really Tasty Smoothie :-)

Hello lovelies!

In my quest to become as chemical-free as possible, I've been exploring homemade soaps, lotions, etc.  My hair has thinned out substantially over the years, and one thing I had not yet looked into was the effects of various shampoo ingredients.  I was shocked to learn that there is a handful of REALLY bad ones that you can find in most shampoos.  Some ones to stay away from...

• sodium lauryl sulfate
• ammonium lauryl sulfate
• ammonium laureth sulfate
• ammonium xylene sulfonate
• TEA lauryl sulfate
• sulfur
• magnesium sulfate
• sodium thiosulfate
• alkyl sodium sulfate
• alkyl benzene sulfonate

And this isn't even all of them!  Sure enough, I went into my shower and checked out my shampoo bottles, and almost all of them had some of these ingredients.  Ironically, the only one that DIDN'T was the generic horse shampoo I got from the dollar store.  Go figure. 

One of the side effects of these ingredients is hair loss, so ditch the toxins and find something better!  Apparently, L'Oreal Vive Pro Nutri Gloss and Garnier Fructis Fortifying are supposed to be good, but I can't yet vouch for them myself.

I've been advised to be very careful with homemade shampoos, because it derives your hair of the oils and nutrients it needs.  Conditioner seems to be a little easier--coconut oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil.  I've also read that mayonnaise is replenishing.  You can find all sorts o' shit online.

Moving on!

I'm getting back into making smoothies, and I already feel amazing.  This was today's:

I made it with my state-of-the-art $20 blender from Target.

1 banananananana

Enough rice milk so that it doesn't have the consistency of vomit

A handful of spinach

A handful of kale

A handful of frozen strawberries

A handful of baby carrots

Blend!  This made two servings.  It's a great snack, perfect to go with these.

For today's workout, I went for my normal jog, and then did THIS from Pinterest:


Ok. I lied. I did part of it. But it's the thought that counts. Here's what the sumo squats look like:



Remember to squat as deep as you can.


Ciao for now,
Megan