Blogging and Body Confidence

Life is interesting, full of twists and turns; makes things interesting yet fun. That is how I am back to blogging I have made turn to start writing and start photography again. Some where down in my heart tells me it is the right thing, to listen to your heart is to listen to soul. It's like the saying that music is the heart and soul for singers, will I happen to be a really good singer... Yet I hide that I am simply because I am shy..

I am going to start a blog series based on positive thinking, positive  thoughts and self improvement; along with that I will share my adventures of me learning to be myself with confidence. All of this came upon after watching a couple YouTube videos from Sarah Rae Vargas, she is awesome. She made me realize that body confidence and confidence are really important to oneself. 

I will still be doing my food and nutrition part of my blog, I will sharing more of my daily life posts to show you how I have been able to be successful at my weight loss. Yes that's right all the weight I have kept off has not come back and I will go into how it has been possible. For now I will leave you to wondering where I have been....

Vegan Comfort Food: Taco Edition

It's no secret if you look almost every blogger here in Texas is big on tacos, it's almost the state food you would think lol. Personally I don't mind taco's for breakfast/lunch or dinner because they are simple, versatile and you can make them how every you want. Last night I made tacos with a slight fusion to them; I made spicy turmeric onions for bean tacos.

The spicy turmeric onions are four simple ingredients: yellow onion, coconut oil, pepper, garlic and turmeric. Sauteed together on high heat for about 5-7 minutes until they were slightly caramelized almost. Once you cook them I transfer them right over to the taco for the best flavor, these onions are delicious while warm. I served them with re-fried bean tacos that were topped with guacamole and lettuce. These were topped Skyville Taco Sauce which paired perfectly with the onions creating a perfect in flavor. 

If you have Instagram follow me @southernpurpleveg , you'll be able to see my daily posts of vegan goodness and the scenes behind why I don't blog all the time.

Hello I'm...Late

Wow I'm late to the party by 3 days oops!, I do apologize and this is what happens when I post on the fly. I wanted to start about with a huge Vegan MoFo boom but Larbor Day happen it's a pain in the neck for me at work. It's like one of the insanely busy days that everyone wants to return anything plus the big regional/district bosses like to come out to the store since it's one of the bigger/higher selling stores in the area. 

That's okay things happen but from here on I'll be more part of the community and the Vegan MoFo environment. I'm like a quick ninja I'll post when your not looking ha ha, I'm really a smart ass and this year I decided to show my true self in my working for everyone to understand who Southern Purple Veggie really is. For example it's about 11pm on September 3 and I have work at 5am; I really need to be asleep so I am going to make this post short. There will be better and longer posts to come in the next few days when I am not typing with one eye open.

So this year during Vegan MoFo part of my theme was to show vegan grocery hauls or things I usually buy around where I live. Mostly recently I purchased the Earth Balance vegan cheddar flavor squares,  dark chocolate bixby bar, and emmy's macaroons. All of these are products I have never tried and I loved them all, especially the Earth Balance vegan cheddar squares. I love them with a passion I even have a box at work now, that even my co workers who are not vegan eat also because they taste good. 

I think for now I'll leave you with this picture of vegan yummies until next time. Oh and one more thing I introduce my new lovely kitten lucky sugar bear; he's a rescue kitten from a truck that was parked in my work parking lot when the weather was over 100 degrees.

Release Hot News #VeganMoFo2014 is coming

Hello, everyone this is start of VeganMoFo aka Vegan Month of Foo; its the time of year that a team of bloggers unite to kick up this wonderful blogging event. They are such a wonderful team of people that in fact you don't have to be vegan to be of it but you do have to post 100% percent vegan recipes during the event. 

This year is the 8th Annual Vegan Month of Food (aka VeganMoFo) is ready to take the internet by cats and dogs. September 1,2014, is the date that several hundred bloggers and now including instagrammers from all over the globe will commit to posting vegan food for at least 5 days a week for the whole month of September. Most dedicated participants try to blog all 30 days. Food writers, bloggers and home cooks will write about what they eat, what they cook and even what they imagination to cook with the intention of showing off the wide and delicious world of vegan food. Some participants use VeganMoFo as a motivation to tackle massive culinary projects, some choose a theme for each day or for each week; while others take the challenge on of daily posts from the seams of their pants!

Ha! that's me this year I'm doing this from the seams of my pants, yes I do have a theme but it's on the fly when it comes to writing up posts. On to the press release info, early I mention that instagrammers are part of this even this year. This is something new to the VeganMoFo event, in fact there is a hashtag you can you during the event which is #veganmofo2014. That way if you are curious what vegans are eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - you can take a look and will be amazed at the variety meals and foods. I mean there will be everything from summer produce, family dinners, green smoothies, mountains of cookies, waffles, and ice cream. 

Local blogger Ashley Nikole of Southern Purple Vegan is one of the blogs participating this year. She first began Southern Purple Vegan back in 2011 which focused on her love for vegan food, local restaurant reviews, food recipes and much more about her journey in Texas. 

An alphabetized list of all participating blogs and Instagram accounts will be posted online at the Vegan MoFo Headquarters International (http://www.veganmofo.com). There you will also find information about generating an RSS feed to help you keep track of all the food writing. Vegan MoFo can also be followed on Twitter @veganmofo. VeganMoFo is a grassroots event that has evolved from an international community of vegans who love to cook, and are passionate about sharing their love of vegan food with the rest of the world. First organized by famed vegan chef and cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz (theppk.com), Vegan MoFo has been gathering more and more enthusiasts each year. Anyone interested in food should definitely go online and check it out. And be prepared for a growling stomach!

Wow! Did you get all that awesome information? Isn't it exciting?????! My theme is slightly random, I'm keeping it interesting needless to say I have three themes at one time. My main theme is dinner with a movie, which I pair a vegan meal to the movie I am watching, my other theme is vegan lunches for work and last but not least my 3rd theme is my love for vegan food finds/grocery hauls. I might even include a few vegan friendly places around my area I live.

Hello to Earth

Hello everyone I am back after a long break or whatever you want to call it. However I have come back with quiet a few updates that I have been dying to release. One I mention before I went on break, was that I moved positions at my work. The opportunity I was given was an blessing, I love my new position it's the best; my boss and co workers that I work with are awesome. 

I think that's one of the many updates that I wanted to share along with that I have finally gone to Austin,Texas for the first time. My trip to Austin was a trip to never for get it was a bunch of first's for me and my fiancee. Yes you read that right I am engaged, I have a whole post about my trip to Austin and the proposal. Since the proposal life has been moving so fast, that if I even stop to blink it seems that I miss time. 

It's strange to be back on here but yet very comfortable and nice like a big warm fuzzy blanket. Speaking of fuzzy and warm; I have a rescue kitten that's from my workplace. Yes at work my co worker saved a little orange tabby kitten he's name is lucky sugar bear. He is probably the cutest thing in the world that I have seen this year beside my moms cat Sgt. Pepper.

I think I may have gotten to all the updates I want to post for now, expect for one last one. I am going to be part of vegan mofo for the second time. I am very excited for this years #veganmofo2014, it seems like there is going to be a lot of interesting things. 

Until next time my veggies, I leave you with these updates and one picture of kitten cuteness out of this world.

Learning the meaning of balance

I may not be the best blogger in the world or even consistent at it either. I have learned a few things over the past few months about balancing my work life and personal life plus this blog. Southern Purple Vegan got put aside until now, I took on new responsibilities and moved departments at my current job. The position I have new required my full attention during my training and to this day at times it will require my full attention.

Even though I haven't blogged in a while it's still something I like doing, it's a creative outlet. I recently have been eating a more raw diet, because it's been so hot plus humid in the building I work at. That eating a fresh non cooked meals at work made more sense than eating something cooked. My meals may show up on here from time to time that I take to work, but mostly this blog is about my weight loss journey and healthy recipes plus food.

Since last year I have declined in blogging but have not declined in my regime of getting healthy I have maintained my current weight for a year with out gain more than 7 pounds and losing it. Needless to say I might be randomly posting at times when it's easy for me, at times there may be a gap in my blogging. So needless to say welcome to Southern Purple Vegan...oh here are some of my random moments of work from the past 6 months.

Random things you find in a drawer at a work.

Free coffee from a customer to all the employees working outside when cold.

Serious mix up on a order at work, who orders a coin operated dryer.

Need Red Bull?

Time Has Past

I'm not going to lie to you my fellow friends and followers, I did disappear for a bit. I need to rethink how I was going to continue this blog or if I was going to even continue it. After working over a month now at my new job I have figured out that blogging is a passion for me. So I am going to continue this blog, as far as my journey to get to a healthy weight it's still a big work in progress. My birthday has past and I didn't make my goal but overall I am happy with where I am.

 The job I have right now keeps me on my feet all day so I'm constantly moving during my shift so I'm always physical working my body even on my days off. So the journey to get to the weight I want to be will be here soon than later, right now I'm honestly putting a little effort into it right now and I'm just losing weight like crazy. I had to go out an buy a new belt after 3 weeks of working and now it's 3 weeks later I'm moving down a notch in the belt to make it smaller. So my journey is now in a new spot in my life since I'm back to working. I have to fine my perfect balance for everything in life since it's all new to me again.

I have a few things to share soon here on the blog one of them is a review of NatureBox an monthly subscription service, which is way over due. However the schedule I have been given recently doesn't really allow me to do barely anything expect for sleep,eat,work then sleep. So soon as the retail holiday season is over maybe I'll have more time again but for now I barely have any time for anything.

Wacky Wednesday at IKEA

Credit

Veggies I know I have been a bad little blogger , forgetting to blog  oops. I have been focused on loosing weight and trying to get myself ready for my family reunion next week. I always post on Instagram,  I usually post picture through out the  day instant of blogging it's easier right now. I got a infection in my middle finger on the right side from a hang nail and it's painful to use that finger.

However I had to write a post today I was in a blogging mood and I went to IKEA in Houston; it was fun. I found out today that IKEA has a cafe inside it which I never knew about until today. I was thinking right away that the cafe wouldn't have any vegan options well I was actually wrong. The IKEA actually had a section of there menu which was for vegetarians and they also listed a vegan option. 

A Picture that I love it's really bright in colors.

I decided to get the vegan option to be on the safe side because I have never eaten at IKEA's cafe. The vegan option was a daily soup that sometimes would be vegan. Well today was my lucky day it was vegan and it was chili; I was actually glad it was chili. It was way to hot today for a soup so chili sound good and in fact my mom who was with me recommend that I get fries too. She made the recommendation for me to put the chili on top the fries and have chili fries, it was the best idea. 

The chili was actually really good in fact it was even better over the fries, I know it was totally junk  food but it was good. The chili had LOTS of vegetables in it and beans so it was very filling. I was hungry when I was eating it so I didn't really look at the food.I did find a couple piece's of furniture that I liked that I will be getting later, me and my mom will buy our stuff at the same time to save on shipping. It's only $59 dollar to where we live which is awesome!

 I hope this wasn't too long of a post or boring. I would like to know what you would like to see me blog about I am not sure if you would like me blogging about my weight loss and my daily meals. Please let me know.

I'm So Excited

I apologize for my absence from my little blog, I didn't like blogging on a iPhone. It was slightly a pain in the butt with a small screen and no keyboard. I am able to blog now , because I got a mini netbook for my anniversary present from my boyfriend.

I was completely surprised that my boyfriend got this netbook as anniversary, it was the best thing that happen this week. This is all I have to write up today, I am off to spend the rest of my day with my lovely mom since it's mothers day.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!!