Let’s Be Real: Is Daily Harvest an Influencer-Only Cult Food Delivery Option?

According to my screen-time record on my iPhone I spend 8 hours a day on Instagram (It’s my job, don’t @ me, mom). so its no shock I’ve run into so many of those Daily Harvest adds. During one of the adds, I decided to swipe up and take a look. Surprisingly, it’s pretty affordable for normal people! I got 9 cups, weekly, for an intro cost of $45 ($65 after your first order). These are marketed for breakfast or lunch, but I’m mostly using them for dinner. I got a couple breakfast options, but prefer a savory breakfast and smoothies/ oatmeal just ain’t gonna cut it. Here’s what I ordered in my first box:

The best stuff:

Coconut Lemon bites: Not a huge fan of coconut that isn’t sweetened but wow yes to this. Great when you just need a quick little something sweet

Sweet Potato + Wild Rice hash: So good. We’re in a committed relationship now

Cauliflower Rice + Pesto: I’m not a pesto person, but this is amazing.

Mulberry + Dragon Fruit: This was an oat bowl and I’ve never had either of these fruits (cause who’s confident enough to pick up one of those dragon fruit things at the store?). Still not 100% sure what Dragon fruit tastes like, but love mulberry.

Everything I ordered was surprisingly pretty tasty good. For someone who literally only makes food for one person, these are fantastic. The serving sizes are great and everything you need to make it is already in the cup, just add water. Another great thing is it’s all plant based meals, which can be hard to make without buying a million different ingredients that go bad in 7 seconds. Truthfully, I will probably do this about 2X a month so that I have a variety of meals and I’m not overstocking my tiny fridge. Trader Joe’s freezer section has some competition.

Week 4: The Finale

Oh. My. God

This last month has been the toughest shit ever. Yes, I am a health freak for the most part, but ya girl loves junk on a occasion. I have never gone this far without eating any thing I would consider “bad.” That horrible, dumb quote from Kate Moss that’s like “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” is a giant, awful lie that she tells herself because she hates her body and herself. Guess what? I love myself and I’m gonna eat fries when I’m hungover on a Sunday and that’s FINE. I like my body enough to where I’m gonna do what I want. It aint perfect, but if I have to suffer like this to look like her, then nah.

As a human who interacts with other humans on a daily basis, I am BOMBARDED with sugar every single day. It’s in the office, it’s on the subway and it’s even on my Instagram. There is no point where I “forget” about sugar, it’s everywhere, all the time. Because I am also a human of 23 years, I know what sugar tastes like and my brain is like “oh yeah that shit is good please get back to eating that” so of course I also think about it all the time.

I will say this week wasn’t as bad since I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m kind of nervous I’ll get back into some of my bad habits, but I’m determined to keep this up for the most part. I’m definitely not gonna eat sugar just for the sake of eating it, but will be giving in when I wanna claw my arm off for some chocolate (i’m human).

The 2 reasons I’ve made it through this horrible month:

1. Other millions and billions of people have done it, and if I didn’t do it, I’d feel like a failure. I’m super competitive and I gotta at least be on par with other people when it comes to health.
2. I said I would on this blog. I could have just lied and said I did while I ate my cupcakes, but I would feel bad for lying. Not sure why, cause who cares, but I wanna be authentic on here. I also verbally told people, so again, I’d feel guilty.

Body Feels

My body does look pretty great I will say that. I lost the little bit of “pudge” or whatever you wanna call it and I’m back to my “normal.” Don’t have abs now or anything crazy, but that its what has gotten me through parts of this whole thing is the fact that I look damn good again. I never weigh myself, so I always go by what I look like in clothes (it’s weird but it works). “I “feel” overall pretty good too. Not like “wow night and day totally different person” good, but pretty good. Waking up in the morning is noticeably easy and I have a good amount of energy like all day. The exception is when I eat almond butter, I feel like shit but I think that’s just a me thing. My body rejects all things nut related, I have figured out(or am I allergic??? scary thought).

The Face

My face didn’t change at all really. I’ve pumped my body with enough meds (acutane thank you) to where I just don’t really breakout anymore, so not having a breakout is kinda normal (although even the occasional breakout didn’t happen). I kinda just look the same. I thought maybe my dark circles would get better, but nope. Those babies just occur no matter what, I suppose.

Foods I will Be Keeping Around in my Diet:

Cinnamon

Kinda dumb, but this has made things taste sooooooo much better without adding sugar to it. I used to not like cinnamon very much (cinnamon buns are still really not my thing, no I’m not dead inside), but I’ve found it to be so useful lately when it comes to a sweeter breakfast/snack.

Apple Cider Vinegar 

Okay I’m gonna be really real, I have no idea what this has actually done for me because I’ve added so many things to my diet. HOWEVER, for the simple fact that I still have some left and have gotten used to it, I’m gonna keep it up. I feel like its really good for digestion, but that could be all in my head.

Clementines

Or mandarin oranges, I’m not picky. I absolutely love them and I bought them on a whim. It’s replaced my sugary dessert after dinner and it’s almost as good.

Foods I’ll Probably Never Touch Again

Tahini

Okay this stuff is pretty good, but I got sick of it pretty quick. Might still put it on veggies, but as far as salad dressing and having to buy it all the time, nah. I liked it, but not in love with it.

Almond Butter, Peanut Butter and all the stupid nutt butters

I love this stuff, which means I eat a lot of it. That also means I feel HORRIBLE after eating this stuff. It’s not like “oh wow I’m full whew I gotta chill” it’s more like “please let me go home in the middle of work to sit in the fetal position and fart myself into oblivion.” TMI , but I can’t have this in my home anymore it’s detrimental to my health and happiness.

Chia Pudding

This stuff just takes wayy too much to be good and even then, isn’t great. I’m sure its very healthy, but just not for me. I’ll be sicking to GF overnight oats from now on.

Cacao Nibs

I don’t need to say much more on these, but I really wanna know how health people are eating this. They are literally so bitter. I just can’t. So awful. I spent 20 bucks on a bag of them, please hold me.

 

Overall, I felt the most amazing at week 1 and some of week 2(besides the hormonal thing). Past that, it’s kinda made me hangry and super annoyed. I’m thinking about how badly I want a cookie and it annoys me that I’m not eating it, basically. I love myself and treat myself often, so this has just not been great. I definitely think this is something that’s easier with someone doing it with you. I have no one who wanted to do this horrible thing with me, so there’s no one to suffer with. Misery loves company.

I do feel like this was worth it. I will not be going back to putting pounds of sugar in my coffee, or eating a cookie every night. I’m NOT a diet person, its either a full lifestyle change or nothing for me(and its let me stick to a healthy life way easier). I needed this just to break some dumb sugar habits and now that I have, I’m sticking to it(just not gonna go a straight month without sugar again).

 

I proved I could do it and I’m sure my body loves me not trashing it with all the sugar. By tomorrow, I will be celebrating my victory with a cookie coma!!!!

 

The Sunday Summary

Talking about some realness on this Sunday summary. All about putting lemon juice on my face, what to do when your running day doesn’t workout because the weather is horrible(or maybe you just don’t wanna run because who really likes that shit?) and what book I am loving right now(and how to get a free book)!!

Beauty

Okay I touched on this a little bit in my last post, but I wanted to go a little bit more in-depth about it. I’ve always had “problematic” skin and I will try anything once if it will help in some small way (and doesn’t cost my left arm). I just started putting lemon juice on my face randomly one night and I got say, I love it. My skin is naturally super oily, uneven and I have dark marks from my time with cystic acne. I’m so serious when I say, I’ve never had my skin look so even and bright when I wake up in the morning. And this is just using a lemon. A LEMON. I highly recommend if you have skin like mine. I just squeeze a little on my face where I have the most issues and sleep with it on (kinda sticky, but worth it). 

Style

The newest trend among the fashion conscience people is, the mom jean. Basically loose-r fitting jeans that are super high-waisted and usually light-washed. I love anything high-waisted to cover the *ahem* problem areas and suck that crap right in. However, I can’t help but wonder if I would actually think these were cute if half the world wasn’t wearing them? Probs not. All the fancy people are wearing the 501 Levi’s (you know which ones) and ya girl was on the hunt for cheaper ones (NOLA trip coming up and also wanted Steve Madden strappy heels). After going to Levi’s in Brooklyn for a wear test, I set off to find similar fitting ones for cheaper. I found these babies and after trying on several decided they were my closest match. Keep in mind they are crazy tight when you first put them on, but they stretch out after a couple wears and aren’t meant to bounce back(no spandex or stretchy material). I thought about going a size up, but ultimately stuck to my true size and I’m glad I did. if you wanna be trendy, but not spend a cool 100 bucks, these are for you.

Food baby

I was nervous to try this because usually with certain dairy-free ice creams they like have a drier texture and just aren’t as delicious as regular ice cream. I swear, this brand puts out the best dairy free stuff cause this tastes creamy and ah-mazing. I literally come home and eat it immediately after work(don’t @ me). This is the best flavor, 10/10 you won’t regret it.

Fitness

In this endless winter NYC calls “normal” and “not a big deal” and “a livable place,” some days I don’t wanna go outside. I’ve committed to two days of running, but some days, when its 30 degrees or snowing in March, I don’t. I love the feeling I get after I run, (not the actual running cause who actually likes that), so I needed to find a cardio routine I could do in my apartment that gave me a similar feeling. In comes PopSugar Fitness to save the day. This is one of those cardio videos where you are constantly moving the entire time, which are my favorite. I feel pretty much as winded as I do when I run when I finish this video. The best part? Only 10 minutes. Quick and a great workout!

So I read a book…….

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this yet, but I signed up for Book of the Month in January and I am in love with it. For those who don’t know what it is (which I didn’t either) basically they have a list of amazing books and you pick one for them to send you! It arrives in maybe two days, tops, and I haven’t gotten a book I didn’t absolutely love, yet. The book I chose for this month was Other People’s Houses. I’m normally a murder mystery gal, but I decided to branch out for once and see if I liked this book since it wasn’t something I would normally get. I gotta say, I loved it. I binge-read(is this a word????) it in a literal week any time I had a few minutes. It’s mostly just about the lives of these people in this one neighborhood in L.A. Sounds boring, but the characters are so funny and relatable I couldn’t put it down. Here’s my link to get a free book! 

So I listen to this podcast

Podcasts are slowly becoming my favorite things to listen to at work and they’re fabulous for long flights (NYC—>NOLA). “Keep it!” is a new podcast from my faves at crooked media which stars Ira Madison III, Kara Brown and Louis Virtel. They talk mostly about celeb news and the occasional politics. The most current episode talks about Cynthia Nixon’s run for governor of New York (Mirandas everywhere rejoice!) and the Donald Trump Jr./ Aubrey O’Day scandal. To be honest, Louis could probably do a dramatic reading of my to-do list and make it funny. 10/10 look forward to these every week.

I did a thing in NYC and you should too™

Okay on Saturday I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for like two weeks. I had an entirely vegan meal at a Mexican restaurant. Yes you read that right. Thrillist did a piece on the owner talking about his amazing new creation. I went, mostly because I really wanted the nachos and didn’t wanna feel bad about eating crap (trying to save my calories for my trip to NOLA next week). I highly recommend the nachos , as they were the best part. I also had the quesadillas, which are my favorite at any Mexican restaurant because of my love of cheese. They were pretty good, considering I absolutely hate vegan cheese of any kind. Also had margs of course, which you can’t go wrong with. Definitely something to try and I’ll probably come back just for the nachos. 

The Sunday Summary

You might be reading this title and saying to yourself “Excuse me, is this……the vibes???” to which I would say “uhhhhmmmmmm no????????? Obviously the title is totally different can’t you read?”

Okay I know I said I was canceling the vibes and you know what

This is my attempt at revamping/classin’ up the vibes okay? “the vibes?” what am I 22??? No I’m 23 so now I have just a summary of my classy life. (honestly the title is TBD cause summary is not my best work with words but its HARD okay?)

Lets get into it.

 

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Beauty

As per usual, I am trying to revamp my skin care. I’ve switched completely to the charcoal life and i gotta say I dig it. I use both of these products, but the exfoliating one I only use every other day. I definitely notice a difference in my skins overall oily-ness. Let me also add that the exfoliating one smells like a beautiful man so extra added bonus in my opinion.

Style

I just got these beautiful babies and I got sooo many compliments at work(and the gram because I had to post about them). Bad news is I cannot for the life of me find them online but I swear they exist somewhere in the abyss that is Forever 21. Happy hunting!! In all seriousness, based on the fact that I went through every pant they had online, they have a TON of striped pants of all colors. Just an FYI ya know.

Foods

I was trying to figure out a way to make my cauliflower taste good but not have to use too many ingredients(cause money). I also wanted to try to use stuff I already had available. Pinterest came through though and I found a recipe! All I did was separate some cauliflower florets and heat some oil in a pan. Then put some minced garlic and the cauliflower in the skillet and let it brown for a bit. Next added soy sauce, juice of a whole lime and some strata sauce and voilà! Unbelievably good and easy.

So I watched this show……

*Spoilers maybe???

I finally got around to watching The Crown! At first, I was like sheesh every episode is like a mini movie how am I gonna finish this? Of course it reeled me in and I finished two seasons in a week hah. Literally my favorite episode was the one where the queen mother is in Scotland and she meets that cute little old man and he’s so nice to her. I cried and also I really wanted them to get together cause that poor woman could use some joy!!!

So I’ve been listening to some music……

This playlist though. It took me on a ride through the angsty early 2000s and I love it. It satisfied all of my phases including but not limited to: Blink 182, Good Charlotte and All Time Low. Very nostalgic and I love it.

So I found a new podcast…..

I stumbled upon this after a suggestion from one of the other podcasts I listen to. It’s all about this missing persons case from 2005 and it literally unfolds as the guy is doing the podcast its crazy. Theres a bunch of episodes and he also has another podcast called Atlanta Monster! Also makes me a little homes sick cause of the people have thick Georgia accents and its the cutest thing.

So I did a fun thing in NYC and you should do it too..

I haven’t done brunch in forever so I decided to try one of the best bottomless brunches in NYC at Agave. I couldn’t make reservations, but after an hour and a half(this place is POPPIN) we managed to get a table. It was definitely worth the wait!

The food was so good and these guys sitting next to us told us to get the prickly pear margarita and man were they good and so pretty! Our waitress was so cool and nice despite being so over-worked with all the people. So could not recommend enough.

Vegan Things I Tried So You Don’t Have To

So I’m still trying to find a good cheese (lol) and I tried a few new things and some of them were less than enjoyable as usual.

Okay so not really a yogurt person? I really can’t imagine anyone really is like who is really out there eating yogurt because they actually like it and not because they’re trying to be healthy. I tried this basically for the sake of trying it and I kinda just want to eat things that are easy to get and less likely to go bad in a few mere days (hello fruit looking at your ass). This was thinner than normal yogurt but other than that not bad! Tasted basically the same and dare I say good. If your a yogurt person definitely recommend this. Go this at Whole Foods (of course).

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If I think really really hard, I can still remember the days I used to eat a bagel and cream cheese every week. Those cream cheese days are over, but thankfully not my bagel days. Tried this stuff again, kind of just to try it. Everyone knows the beautiful taste of cream cheese and this, unfortunately, did not live up. It was not unenjoyable, but it tastes basically like unsalted butter. Smooth and creamy, but not flavor really. Still put it in my whole grain bagel with some raspberries and wasn’t mad at it so I mean if your looking to trick yourself into thinking you’re eating cream cheese, this is the spread for you.

I WAS going to use these to make a vegan cheese quesadilla but G-O-D had other plans and was like “just eat normal cheese Katie it’s fine” and honestly who am I to argue with God and the universe? So I cheated and ate it with normal cheese (also lets take a second and think about how I also ate these on the regular how was I not 700 pounds???) and they held up well guys. Thinner than the normal tortillas but taste very good so no complaints here. Funny story, also wanted to try a dairy free sour cream and accidentally bought lactose free sour cream instead of dairy free ugh. I was eating it and wondering why it was so damn good and then I read the ingredients…. You know what guys ignorance is very much bliss and I’ll attest to that.

As I was expecting, this was not a winner. Definitely not as bad as the macaroni I was eating, but not worth the calories. For some unknown reason, it was a lot of calories??? I’m sorry but if I’m gonna eat a pizza that is

1. vegan

and

2. small as heck

I would think it would be kinda healthy and not a ton of calories??? I was sadly mistaken because this thing is supposedly 900 calories. Among the strange ingredients are: psyllium(apparently good for digestion if you believe the internet), expeller pressed canola? seems unnecessary, critic acid and titanium dioxide. The last one is something they also use in their cheeses which is some sort of white powder used to make things white (I looked it up). Seems to be some debate on whether or not its safe to consume so I’m gonna pass on Daiya stuff from now on sorry not sorry. I would like to actually know whats in the stuff I’m eating.

I FOUND A CHEESE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I FOUND A CHEESE ONE WHOLE CHEESE.   This passed the no-playdoh tasting test and actually ate a whole slice by itself like it was regular old cheese. The best part? There’s no weird ingredients that make me nervous. Lets compare ingredients shall we?

Ew gross and weird and tastes like playdoh g-bye

All things I can pronounce and know what they are without the aid of google!!!

 

 

Anyways, more to come! And a special week next week when I try Blue Apron for the first time! Yay!

 

2017 Was Lit

Okay so I made this video literally for my own enjoyment cause I had a good year and it was nice to look at. I wanna reiterate I had a good year. As far as the rest of the world, it is literally on fire and everything is scary and we will soon die either by nuclear bomb, the weather or robots its just a matter of which gets us first!!!!! So lets ignore that and enjoy this video that mostly features Tori, Lauren and my cat!!!

 

Some goals for next year:

More time and money spent doing stuff for myself that doesn’t include eating or drinking or CLOTHESSSSS: a hard one cause thats where most of my money goes looking at you pizza.

Get a couple tattoos I’ve been eyeing for literal years: new year new me????? Sorry mom and dad I promise they’ll be “feminine” (my moms word I would never say that and I can’t even spell it).

Try to be a whole vegan not just a I’m by myself and its convenient vegan: I do it for the most part, but I want to try it fully and see what benefits it really has (I’ll probably do a post on it too)

Try not to workout like a crazy person and feel super awful if I don’t workout: This one is hard because the workout part has always been the easiest thing for me to do, not the diet part. Its time to pull back a little on the working out and start making more changes to my diet.

Write more and not focus on if its actually good but just doing it more: I know I blog, but one day I would actually like to write a book, therefore I should be writing more stories of some kind and some stuff just for myself and no one else. I gotta flex my skills so I can write something actually good one day.

Set some long term goals like 5 years, 10 years etc.: I’m pretty good with shorter term goals, but Id like to set some that are also long term and something I’d have to work hard for a long time to achieve.

 

Excited for 2018 lets hope its even better than 2017!

Vegan Attempts: An Absolute Failure

As you guys are aware if you’ve ever followed this blog, I try my very hardest to be vegan. For the most part, it’s rather enjoyable and interesting to discover things I can substitute for dairy or meat in order to eat the things I love. Sometimes, it’s nice to be conscious of what you put in your body on a daily basis and require yourself to think before you eat. However, one of the worst things about being vegan is missing out on the glorious thing that is cheese. Cheese is beautiful and delicious and if you love it like I do, it can be a full meal all on its own. They are fabulous substitutes of milk and eggs, but I have found dairy free cheese to be the grossest stuff ever (although I haven’t tried every brand). Daiya makes amazing dairy free stuff and so I set out to try making vegan mac and cheese, aka my favorite meal of all time.

I used just these ingredients because I wasn’t about to get all fancy with it and have it taste gross so I decided to keep it simple and hope for the best.

First, I cooked the pasta and put a little of the pasta water with it because thats what PROFESSIONALS do thanks.

I added equal parts milk and cheese and started melting it. Usually, with regular cheese and milk there’s more milk but since this is weird cheese and different milk I just made them equal so it wouldn’t be runny.

It took foreeevveerrrrrr to melt and was extremely liquidy and so I got a lil nervous and added more cheese.

As it was melting, it smelled exactly like a boiling pot of playdoh. No joke. Here’s me feeling very nervous and hungry

Here’s it looking a lil weird, but fully melted!

And wow here’s the finishing product looks soo good right?

Here’s me chickening out cause it smells so bad and I don’t wanna eat it at all….

 

 

And here’s me thinking yes tastes exactly as it smells a steaming pile of playdoh with noodles

 

 

In conclusion:

So yeah, learn from me and don’t do this!!!! Maybe I’ll try some other cheeses and attempt this again, but for nowI am scared of vegan cheese and will not be attempting this until the playdoh taste is out of my mouth!