Going down the veggie path (WIAW)

Hey ya’ll! I have finally decided to come back from my period of rest and dealing with complicated things to bring you a wonderful What I Ate Wednesday post. After reading a variety of books like the China Study, I have decided that I’m going to eat vegetarian for 4 days of the week out of 7. Another reason is because my future roommate is a vegan and I can’t wait to enjoy some amazing meals with her. Eventually I may go full veggie, but lets be honest with ourselves I really do love me some good pieces of meat. Mainly healthier cuts of meat like lean turkey, chicken (not so much anymore after watching Food Inc a million times, but still like it), and I love fish. Maybe I’ll go the pescatarian route. We shall see, but in the mean time I want to give a big thanks to Jenn from Peas and Crayons for hosting this awesome day. Seriously it brought me out of my sad funk.

Get this party stared on a Thursday morning….yes I rewrite songs.

I have no idea what my images are being stupid right now, but for some reason my breakfast wants to be sideways. For my first day as a vegetarian, I had cinnamon burst cheerios, banana slices, blueberries, and almond milk. I actually was going to have oatmeal, but I woke up so late that I did not have time to prepare it to my high standards. I was going to be late to class, so I opened my cupboard and was like oh thank god I bought some cereal the other day. Good buy for once at the grocery store (unlike the bag of chocolate chips and marshmallows that I decided I needed).

Okay, so I guess all my photos will be crooked. Oh well. That is me. For lunch I decided that I wanted some brunch. Actually I was at my mom’s for an infusion treatment that I had to go to later in the day, so all she really had to eat was eggs. I made an egg white omelet with tons of veggies. It had mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Yummmy. Oh and obviously cheese because truth be told cheese is the best food in the entire world (besides candy). The omelet was tasty and very filling, so my stomach survived my 2 and a half hour infusion treatment. Success.

For dinner, I picked up my younger brother and a friend of mine and then we met another one of my friends at this amazing Thai restaurant in Austin called Titayas. Isn’t the name fab? I love making jokes about how I’m going to be getting some titties or how I want tits. They should really just change their name to Tits. Yes, I have the humor of a 13 year old boy. Anyways, after waiting for 30 minutes for a table, we sat down and ordered appetizers. My brother and I split an order of mushrooms. Best choice. They were lightly battered and topped with a sweety and spicy thai sauce. It was a great combination with the simple taste of mushrooms.

For my entree, I decided on yellow curry with tofu. I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I have been craving curry and tofu for weeks now, so I actually already knew what I was going to order before we even got there. It was a good choice because the curry was more sweet and not as spicy as expecting. I love spicy things, but curry can be way too spicy and make you sweat. My brother for example. He ordered a green curry and holy heck it was so spicy. My eyes watered when I sampled it and he was sweating to death in the restaurant. That was actually funny though. He makes me laugh. My two friends both ordered chicken pad thai without bean sprouts. It was cute because they are actually roommates and I was like no wonder they get along so well, they like the same things. It was a great meal with good company.

Cake balls are the best dessert to have after an amazing day. Really though. These especially. I had a cake ball at Starbucks over break that was peppermint brownie. So good. I decided that I could recreate this (especially with my new pan) and not have to shell out a ridic amount of money for one stupid cake ball. Another point for Lindsay. They turned out so good. I made a batch of brownies and let them undercook a little, so they were super gooey. I rolled them into balls and stuck lollipop sticks into them then placed them in the freezer for a little while. I then rolled them in melted white chocolate bark and then quickly sprinkled them with crushed peppermints. These were a big success. Everyone loves them. I’m going to have to start creating crazy cake balls.

I’m going to end the day with a laugh. I saw this shirt at Walmart in Missouri while I was there for my grandpa’s funeral service. In such a dark time, this shirt brought some joy to my life, so hopefully it will make ya’ll laugh. Surprise. I bought one. It is green with a huge cat’s face on it. I wear it around my apartment. It is pretty epic, not gonna lie.

Hope everyone has a great day!

What is your opinion about these crazy animal shirts, like the famous wolf one?
What is your favorite thai dish?

A Bite of the Big Apple (WIAW)

Hey ya’ll! I originally was going to actually do a what I ate Wednesday post about my normal eats, but then I thought how BORING. Instead, I’m going to showcase all of the wonderful things I ate while I was in New York. I definitely took a bite or two out of the big apple. While in New York, I ate a ton of gluten, which led to some bathroom parties, but it was so worth it because the food I ate was amazing. This is going to be a sort of long post, so lets get the WIAW party started that is hosted by Jenn every Wednesday!

The first full day we had in New York, we went to a french bakery for breakfast. My younger brother loves pastries, so my dad scouted out one of the best places in town. Mille-Feuille, a little French bakery near the NYU campus. While my brother and dad got actual meals, I chose to get a bunch of macarons. Best. Decision. Ever. Even my brother and dad were jealous of my pick. I ended up getting a raspberry, salted caramel, pistachio, passion fruit, and lemon macaron. My favorite was the pistachio (what is with my obsession – I know, so random), but it was followed by the salted caramel. Usually macarons have trouble getting the exact flavor, but these were little burst of strong traces of each flavor described. What a great way to start the day.

Later in the day, we had to grab a quick bite before seeing a wonderful musical (which I will talk about much later on when I recap my NYC trip), so we decided to get some pizza. Obviously New York has some of the best pizza because it is so large and when you pick it up it just flops, which is my favorite. I got the Hawaiian, while my brother got a more traditional slice with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. It was a great thing to tie me over for the show.

For dinner that night we decided that we were all craving some good Thai food. My dad realized that one of his favorite places, Lotus of Siam, had a place in NYC, so it was decided that is where we would go for dinner that night. No wonder it is his favorite place. The food is mind blowing.

For an appetizer, we had these spicy chicken wings. They do not kid about spicy. These lit my mouth on fire pretty much until the entrees came out. I think I chugged about 5 glasses of water in the span of 2 minutes. They were so good though. While the wings were spicy, they had a sweet taste to them. I would definitely get these again.

I decided to go pretty simple with my food choice, and ordered tofu pad thai. Normally I would have branched out and gotten something crazy, but I was in the mood for pad thai since I hadn’t eaten any in months. It was definitely a good decision. The tofu was browned perfectly, and the peanut flavor the pad thai was sweet with a little mixture of a variety of thai spices. It was the perfect portion too. I was full without wanting to barf.
My brother ordered green curry with chicken. It was really delicious. It was the perfect curry, not so spicy that it makes you sweat, but spicy enough to give you a kick. My only complaint was the weird assortment of vegetables. I normally eat everything, but there were some things even I couldn’t identify. It was still a really great dish though, and overall a delicious meal. My dad ordered this crazy fish dish, which is not pictured, but it may have been the best dish of the night. It was a huge fish that had been fried, wrapped in a circle, and the middle was filled with tons of chunks of fish that had been rolled in a batter and fried. YUMMY. You can’t go wrong with anything that is fried.

Dessert time!
For dessert, I wanted cupcakes. Not just any cupcake, but a Crumbs cupcake. In my opinion, these are probably the best cupcakes I have ever eaten. My friend’s mom, who is a baker, had recommended going here many years ago when I was in the city with her son, but we never had the time to go. I was so sad, so this time I was determined to go. Luckily a store had just recently opened in Times Square, and we were there a lot due to all the musicals we went to, so we treated ourselves many times to a yummy cupcake.
For our first trip to Crumbs, we got three cupcakes. I decided on the Dulce De Leche, which was probably the best in my opinion. The icing was so rich on top of a chocolate cake. Seriously the best icing I have ever had, and let me tell you I am a cupcake connoisseur. My brother ended up picking the egg nog cupcake, which was also really delicious. It was a holiday special, so ya’ll should get it soon if you are in NYC. My dad picked the vanilla coconut, which I thought was good, but just plain compared to the other too.

Well that is all I have for you today! Hope everyone has a great hump day and enjoys the best holiday WIAW!

What is your favorite place to eat in NYC?
What is your favorite flavor of cupcake?