Having a blog is awesome. Especially on Thursday evenings when the delivery guy comes bearing a package of food! A couple of weeks ago Jennifer and Kevin from Gobble Green Gourmet Vegan Delivery Service contacted me to see if I'd like to try out their meal service in return for a review on my blog. Seven days of gourmet vegan food? uh, yes!

I sat in the living room with Josh sorting through the vacuum sealed meals and each time I'd pull something out  I'd yell "look it's pizza!" "look spaghetti!" it's the small things folks.

Here's the question...was I nervous about vegan food? Yes. Was Josh giving me weird looks as I pulled the food out? Food with ingredients pretending to be something they aren't? yes and yes. We eat meat, and we eat dairy (albeit local as much as possible) on a regular basis around here, so I think he (as open as he  is about food) was slightly relieved that he wasn't the one blogging about this sort of thing. That is, until I couldn't find my Gobble Green snickerdoodle cookies. Where had they gone?

Friday, day one. I decided to stick with the meals they had planned for the day despite my rebellious tendency to dance around rules. I was excited that I wouldn't have to think about what I was going to eat for breakfast or lunch. In the morning i plugged everything into Weight Watchers online...25 points total including dessert, not bad, not bad at all.

Breakfast started with a banana muffin and fruit salad. I let it sit on the counter straight from the freezer while I got ready for work. I took a picture frozen:

I heated up the muffin in the microwave per instruction and it was good, but nothing like the cloyingly sweet cake-like muffins that I'm used to. This one was more like a scone, lightly sweetened, dense, with a strong banana taste. I felt like I was eating something good for me rather than dessert pretending to be breakfast.

I felt good for it. If there were more, I wouldn't have eaten them with wild abandon. One was filling and sufficient. The wrapper did stick to the muffin a bit, I imagine from the freezer+ microwave moisture.

I placed the fruit in a bag and let it thaw out in transit to work. The photo above is the exact portion.

A couple of hours later I dug into my bag of trail mix that was assigned: mid-morning snack. And I snacked pretty much all morning on this.

By noon I was feeling good. I didn't feel bloated or full. I was comfortable. My energy was up, my moods were balanced, but I was ready to try the vegan "chicken" nuggets.

I took them out of the freezer in the morning and left them in the refrigerator until I was ready to eat them at noon. I preheated the oven to 425 degrees and baked them for about 5 minutes.

I was nervous about eating this. They looked a bit slimy coming out of the package and well, I don't like real chicken nuggets. Verdict? Chewy and flavorful. The dipping sauce was amazing! I loved it. I let a couple of my co-workers try them and one said "I love the texture! It's like real chicken and they are really flavorful" she was also impressed by the calorie count, protein and ingredients. Another co-worker tried them and she immediately said "I love these! They are addictive, I could eat a lot more!" She also noted that they tasted good with or without the sauce.

For dessert I chose the chocolate cake and let me just say it was amazing! It wasn't just good for being vegan, it was good period. It may have been one of the best tasting chocolate cakes I've ever had, it wasn't over the top or too sweet. I didn't let it thaw all the way, but I'm convinced that half-frozen desserts are just as good. The chocolate cake was rich and fudgey and the icing was smooth. Delicious. The ingredients are not bad at all:

organic vegan sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, salt, organic flour, baking soda, soybean oil, vanilla extract, white vinegar, expeller-pressed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, canola and olive oils), soy protein, soy lecithin, lactic acid (non-dairy, derived from sugar beets)

That evening I had Indian food for dinner so I saved my vegan dinner for another day.

The next morning I pulled the vegan sausage and cheese biscuit out of the freezer and put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. This meal wasn't on my list for day two, but I was eager to try it as I have a weak spot for breakfast sandwiches.

The biscuit was dense, and the sausage tasted like sausage with a chewier texture. The cheese didn't add or take away from the sandwich, it was just another flavor. Overall the sandwich was very flavorful, but not addictive like I find fast food sausage biscuits to be. It wasn't greasy or fatty in any way, it was like a biscuit minus all the bad stuff.

How did this get in there? Okay, after you eat one of their vegan chocolate chip cookies, you will know that the folks at Gobble Green can do no wrong in the world. Seriously, top chocolate chip cookie ever.

I had lunch at a meeting and later on in the evening I broke out the vegan supreme pizza. Baked it in the oven at 425 for about 12 minutes.

It was really good, I loved the green peppers, the crust and the sauce. The cheese wasn't like regular mozzarella, in the way that is strings out when melted. This cheese melted much like American cheese, in a gooey sort of way. It wasn't bad, just a texture to get used to. Josh tried a slice and said that it was way better than he expected and flavorful.

I've been eyeing the blueberry pancakes for a couple of days now and decided to have them for breakfast this morning. I took them out of the freezer and let them thaw out for a few minutes before heating up in the griddle. In the package, they look weird and sad. Just pressed in there with a package of organic syrup dangling behind. After heating them up and putting the syrup on I had two thoughts:oooh butter and aunt Jemima. That would defeat the purpose and I ate as-is.

They were glorious. They smelled like waffle cones in an ice cream shop, they were slightly crunchy around the edges (how I like them to be) and soft, sweet and hearty. The syrup was the right amount. So good, and highly impressed, I couldn't get over how good these were.

I have a few more days left of Gobble Green meals and at this point all I have to say is: bring it on!

What was I so excited to share yesterday? My GoWear Fit arrived in the mail yesterday! I considered purchasing one for a very long time and Monday afternoon I got a wild hair and bought it. And just as an FYI, I bought this myself and was not contacted by the folks at GoWear Fit to promote their product, although I would have gladly accepted!

This is what it looks like:

What does it do?
Simply wear it during the course of your regular day, then plug it into your computer and upload your data to your personal GoWear fit Online Activity Manager. The Manager will help you establish your goals, track your progress, and give you tools to help you know how many calories you're eating, on average, per day.

Multi-Sensor Armband
Your armband is a small computer that measures a variety of physical characteristics, including motion, steps, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, and heat flux. It's the only multi-sensor monitor that can accurately track:
Calorie burn
Physical activity
Steps taken
Sleep duration
Sleep efficiency

I've always been curious to know how many calories my body at my current weight burns in an average day. Today I decided to wear it without exercise just to gage where I'm currently at. I read the reviews on amazon.com and they were very good. It is exactly like the bodybugg (used on the biggest loser) but more affordable and tracks sleeping patterns.

I took it off during my shower and so far it feels pretty comfortable. I have really big arms, which makes it slightly more uncomfortable for me and more noticeable that I'm wearing it than someone else with smaller arms. But, it is not painful or circulation inhibiting, you'd be hard pressed to know I'm even wearing it under my cardigan.

From the reviews a lot of people mentioned how the GoWear Fit device has helped motivate them to burn more calories during the day. The online tracker gives you target caloric goals for the day as well as a place to track the calories you are consuming. This tool is definitely not  needed for weight loss, but it is a nice to know where you stand with daily activity, something I struggle with.

I put it on as soon as I got up around 5:30am this morning, took it off for my shower, and then put it back on. I plugged it into my computer around 7:30 because I was curious to see what my calories burned were while getting ready for work. 922. This includes any huffing and puffing while put on hose which it no easy feat.

Tomorrow morning I will log how many calories I burned today and compare them with my calories tomorrow when I resume exercise. I'll keep you posted!!

Food for yesterday:

organic blueberry greek yogurt w/ 1T chocolate chia goodness, 1T carob chips, and a few frozen blueberries: 225 calories

chicken fajitas (grilled chicken, onions, green peppers, lettuce, 1 T sour cream, 1/2 C pinto beans) approx. 650-700 calories

1 serving pizza ( 410 calories)

1/4 C pistachios: 170 calories

Total: 1,480

Lately I've been getting a few emails and requests asking for low calorie meals that are really easy/quick to prepare. I'm not a hugely devoted fan of convenience foods, but sometimes that's just what happens. Last night I wasn't in the mood to spend a lot of time on dinner, but I needed something quick, healthy and low in calories.

And this is what I made:

I split each bag with Josh making it 380 calories total each (including the soy/teriyaki sauce I put on my broccoli.) The shrimp was really good, but a little pricey at a little over $6 a bag. I think the rice was $1.94 and the same with the broccoli. The shrimp had 110 calories per serving (9 shrimp) and 18 grams of protein. The broccoli was bright green and tasted very fresh, not wilted or overcooked.

Buying these ingredients separately, I imagine, would have been cheaper especially where the rice is concerned, but again $5 per person is better than a restaurant meal and I know exactly how many calories I consumed.  You could also add a salad to this, but regardless it was pretty filling. I tend to get excited about lower calorie/filling meals.

Anyhow, I'm going to work on some quick and easy meal ideas. My mom mentioned that she doesn't like to cook on days when she works and has class, which I totally understand, so for someone like her this meal would be perfect. Ready in less than 14 minutes, and the only dish I used was a baking sheet for the shrimp.