Friday Faves - FOOD Edition!

It's been awhile since I've done a Friday Favorites post and since I'm in recovery/eating mode this week I thought I'd post about some great food items I'm enjoying lately.  Let's dig in (I hope you're not hungry!)...


1.  For breakfast, I discovered this incredible Nature's Path Coconut Chia Granola cereal.  In one of my previous Friday Faves posts, I revealed how much I love coconut flavored anything.  This is still the case.  I happened upon this new cereal by chance, while strolling down the 'natural foods' section of my grocery store.  I like that it's organic, non-GMO and vegan.  It also contains very little sugar (only 9g per serving) and 45% of your RDV of Omega-3's.  But despite how healthy it is, it is SO good.  There are huge chunks of dried coconut in it.  Mmmm. 

 

 

 

2.  Snack time!  I came across these Raw Revolution bars a few weeks ago while stocking up on my Kind Bars.  These are also vegan, organic and non-GMO.  In addition, they contain 7g of protein and are also pretty low in sugar.  The Spirulina Dream flavor does taste a little 'green' from the spirulina algae but I like the taste.  And the Chocolate Coconut Bliss is a definite win.  I always keep bars like this in my purse for snacking on the go and I'm so glad I have a few new options now. 

 

 

 

 

3.  Juice!  This one is not a new discovery, but it's been awhile since I've purchased it.  I discovered Sambazon Acai Juice a few years ago at Whole Foods.  When I worked downtown I would often walk to Whole Foods to pick up a salad and some of this yummy juice for lunch.  It's a bit pricey which is why I haven't purchased any lately, but my local grocery store had a sale on the large bottles this week so I splurged.  I've tried other brands of Acai juice but Sambazon original is still my favorite.  Do you drink Acai?  It's a touted superfood, but I just really love the flavor of Acai.  I even found an Acai sorbet at Wegmans this past summer.  I'll write that one up on a Friday Faves soon!

 

 

 

4.  Dinner time!  I don't think I've really mentioned in past posts how much I love seafood.  And I think I even left out that one of my favorite foods is crab.  I could eat snow crab legs for days, and in fact I did, when I was in Myrtle Beach last month.  However, this particular snippet is devoted to Mussels!  When I was in Belgium a few years ago, I sampled a very traditional Belgian dish called Moules-frites, which means 'mussels & fries'.  I'd had mussels before that trip, but only as part of Italian pasta dishes.  Well, after eating moules-frites, I unleashed a new found appreciation for savoring mussels all by themselves.

So, a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon these vacuum packed frozen mussels at my local grocery store and I have been eating them nonstop.  There are a couple things I love about them.  First, the bag contains just mussels, no sauce, no butter - so it fits with my non-dairy lifestyle.  Secondly, you can actually steam them in the bag, in the microwave!  For someone whose domestic skills are seriously lacking, this is heaven.  This bag says it contains 3 servings but that's hogwash.  For dinner, I steam and eat the entire bag myself.  Each serving contains 33% of your daily iron requirement, so I'm getting 99% of my iron in one meal!  Plus, there are 18g of protein in each serving, which means that's 54g all for me.  Watch out for my new Popeye muscles.

 

 

 

5.  Treat time!  Since Halloween is upon us, I thought I'd throw some candy in here.  Candy is still 'food' right?!  I know I've mentioned a few times one of the foods I really miss from my childhood when I could eat dairy was Snickers bars!  Seems trivial I know, but oh how I loved them. Anyway, a few years ago, I discovered that these Goldberg's Peanut Chews were VEGAN!  Who knew?  And they taste somewhat similar to Snickers.  These are made with dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, and instead of caramel as the filler, they contain molasses.  So they're not exactly the same, but they are really good!  I wouldn't consider these healthy, although nuts and dark chocolate are supposed to be good for you right?! 

 

 

 

 

6.  Another dessert!  I had to throw this one in there.  One of my favorite places to eat when I make trips back home to Bethlehem is Vegan Treats.  It is an amazing vegan bakery with it's storefront in Bethlehem, but it also has a large catering business and supplies baked goods to restaurants up and down the East Coast from NYC to DC.  Well, this weekend after the RWHalf, I stopped in to treat myself to some tasty vegan soft serve and I was rewarded with one of the most sublime, heavenly, tastiest things I think I've ever eaten in my life - Cheesecake flavored vegan ice cream.  I actually have no recollection of what cheesecake even tastes like anymore, and I'm not even sure I liked it as a child, but I could probably eat this ice cream every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it.  I wish I could describe the flavor accurately to you dairy-eaters.  It wasn't overly sweet, but it just tasted rich and kind of buttery?  I don't even know what butter tastes like but that's how I would describe it.  I can only hope the next time I go back home they are serving up this flavor because I will surely walk out of there with at least a cone in each hand! Hahaha.  If you are ever in the area, I would urge you to check out this bakery.  According to their reviews on Yelp, people travel for hours sometimes just to stop in!

 









Well now that both you and I are sufficiently starving, I'll wrap it up.  I hope you also had a week filled with wonderful tasty treats!



Your turn!

What foods are you loving lately?

Any favorite Halloween treats?


**Disclaimer:  I was not compensated or provided products for this post.  These are simply foods I purchase on my own, eat and enjoy!