Julia Cooks Among the Hmong

Ah Monday! Today I tried the “fake it to make it” trick and it really worked! I left work with a big smile on my face and ready for a fun night. Oh yeah, the other trick to a good Monday — making plans for a relaxing night 🙂

The day started with an exceptionally good yogurt mess, packed with frozen blueberries, frozen mango, bananas, strawberries and cereal.

We had our regular Monday morning meeting, which is never fun. It does move the day along pretty quickly though. For lunch I had a side salad of broccoli slaw and mushrooms topped with a lil balsamic vinaigrette.

I also had a La Tortilla turkey wrap with Popchips on the side.  The turkey was on its last leg (ick) but it did the trick.  This meal holds me over like WHOA.

After lunch I took a nice little walk to get some fresh air. It might be chillayy but at least that sun is shinin!!  I got snacky around 4 but decided to just save my appetite for dinner. It was a multi-course meal — my favorite kind!  I started with a little bit of Honey Moon.

Followed by 1/2 cup salted edamame, nom nom!

And a TJ veggie eggroll. I love how these are so easy to make AND low-calorie…could it be any better?!

My roomie was inspired by her trip home to make some Hmong cuisine.  Apparently St. Paul has one of the largest (if not THE largest) urban Hmong populations in the WORLD so restaurants there are aplenty.  LA however doesn’t seem to have any Hmong restaurants (if you know otherwise, let me know, Julia will be so happy!) so she decided to whip up some on her own.  And graciously share with me of course! While she was cooking, I nibbled on a few carrots and broccoli florets dipped in spicy chipotle hummus.

Julia’s dish contained lean pork, veggies, garlic, EVOO, lemongrass and lots of spice…jalapenos and chile paste! My mouth was on FIRE. It was amazing 🙂

Right now we are watching Nurse Jackie and I am contemplating a Skinny Cow to finish off the night. Can you picture it? Probably — here’s a gratuitous shot anyway 🙂

On another good note, my girl Amy gave me the One Lovely Blog Award; isn’t she the sweetest?? I love the pretty roses. Thanks for the Monday pick-me-up girlie!!!

I’m supposed to pass this along to another seven people; my bad if you already received it!

1. Lara, with her fabulous food and adventures across the pond!
2. Diana, with the best photography skills, hands down!
3. Kaneil, with her bubbly personality and great advice!
4. Kailey, with her undying love for PB!
5. Jess, with her wicked photo recaps!
6. Biz, with her fabulous meal plans and savory breakfasts!
7. Coco, with her brilliant food — everything always sounds delicious!

Hope everyone had a great Monday.  See y’all tomorrow!

 

breadS

This morning I woke up on time, meaning I actually showered, YAY! I mixed it up for breakfast with a bowl of microwave low-sugar apple cinnamon oatmeal with 1/2 banana. I love how the ripe bananas get so sweet and fluffy!

After breakfast I did some work and discovered Google Reader. Yup, just jumping on that bandwagon!!  For lunch, I made a Perfect 10 bagel with 1 tbsp. Better ‘N Peanut Butter and 1 tbsp. Chocolate Dreams, with some frozen veggies on the side. I like the Better ‘N PB but when you are eating it at the same time as Chocolate Dreams, you just can’t compare!!!

I saved this yummy bite for last 🙂

After lunch I left the office for some errands and fresh air. The rest of the afternoon was taken up by a meeting with my favorite client! After they left, I ate the rest of my lunch, a salad topped with a lil Catalina Free.

I also taste tested a few Honey Wheat pretzels. My coworkers are HOOKED on these things!!

When I got home, my roommate surprised me with a big bag of leftover bread from her restaurant. YAY!! I immediately toasted a slice of 9 Grain Health and topped it with cherry jelly. AH-mazing!!

Then we walked to Target, which was a nice way to get my legs moving.  We got home around 9 and then I centered dinner around more bread, of course! I cooked up 1/2 portobello and some eggplant, pepper & carrot slices which I used to top one slice of bread and half a pretzel roll. The pretzel roll was topped with caraway seeds, which I haven’t tasted in so long. I forgot how much I love this flavor! Think I got enough carbs in this meal?!

For dessert, I am having my Skinny Cow with a side of Housewives. Dang Jersey girls!!! Danielle is not helping my state look good Sketchball!!

Three Things for Tuesday

1. Added lots of veggies to my lunch
2. Saved part of lunch for an afternoon snack
3. Didn’t eat candy at our meeting (Swedish Fish & Sour Patch Kids everywhere!)

Almost hump day! I have a lot to get done tomorrow. Is anyone else having a busy week?? Hope it’s a good one 🙂

 

Bossy Eatin’

I can’t believe it’s hump day already!!! My humps! Breakfast was the regular.  Doesn’t it look goooood?!?

After breakfast I called about 8 million editors and got in touch with three. Gah. All morning, I sipped on my latest discovery, a sparkler from Cascadia.  I picked up Black Cherry, Lime & White Grape last night at the grocery store to taste test! I am totally loving it!!  It is sweetened with Splenda though, so I don’t want to go crazy overboard with it I guess, but it worked amazingly today for a taste of sweet after my meals. This would be perfect for making low cal cocktails too!

Right at noon, I dug into Monday night’s leftovers. More TJ action!

After lunch, I took a little walk outside. I was in a FOG all day today and I just couldn’t shake it! The fresh air helped…a lil bit.  Around 3, I went for another walk with my work girlies for some iced coffee.  I also whipped out the biggest cinnapple ever!!! I put half in a bowl and nuked it for 2 minutes for some faux warm apple pie filling. The other half I started to eat cold and crunchy but the hot apples were so much better that I ended up cooking those too. I can’t believe I forgot about this easy, yummy treat! Nothing but apples & cinnamon and it was still perfectly sweet.

Look at all those slices! Jumbo apple, right?!

Hot apple deliciousness

Okay, I’ll stop boring you with the endless apple discussion! After work, I met up with the office girls at Runyon Canyon for a hike. I just wasn’t feeling the gym today. This time, the fresh air kicked my fog for good! The trails were decently crowded as usual. The people watching at Runyon is awesome. I seriously stare people down. So many gorgeous shirtless men! And Jessica Biel today! She was walking her puppers 🙂

We hiked for maybe an hour, hour & a half before splitting up and heading home for food. Tonight I made the BOSSIEST salad ever.  Sorry Homegirl for stealing your vocab, but that’s the only word to describe it!  This baby had some lettuce blend, green onions, red onions (hmm double onions, no kissing for me tonight), mushrooms, grape tomatoes, baked tempeh squares, a few mango slices, a sprinkle of spaghetti squash, and some Catalina free dressing.

I ate the rest of the spaghetti squash salted on the side!

Right now I am watching Grey’s!!! I am so behind & I can’t wait to see this finale everyone is talking about! Just munching on some popcorn, the whole grain Target brand kind. I love this stuff!! A huge bag is 100 calories or less 🙂

Three Things for Wednesday

1. Ordered iced coffee instead of a light frap at Starbucks
2. Skipped the usual pre-workout bar (that apple was enormous, did I mention that already?!)
3. Picked popcorn for my TV snack

 

Becky’s Blowout!

Hi everyone, hope you all had an awesome weekend!  Sorry I have been MIA…I hate not being able to post but my computer was SO SLOW yesterday and every word took five minutes to type!! Why?!?  Anyway, I’m here now!! Okay, backtrack. Friday morning I woke up a little early and shredded before work.  It was great getting it out of the way and then I didn’t have to worry about it, which was nice. I kicked off the morning with the usual. So many good fruits, finally!

I was planning to eat the rest of my stir fry from Thursday for lunch, but at noon my boss paged the whole office on our phone intercoms and asked who wanted to go out! YAY! He hates leaving the office with no one there and sending calls to voicemail, but we did it anyway and all went to lunch — at Bloomies.  Only my boss decides to eat at a department store! And yes, it was all sweet old ladies there, and us HAHA.  I had a little piece of bread when we first sat down and then proceeded to order an amazing sandwich that had grilled chicken, avocado, cranberries, figs and some other good things that I am clearly forgetting in a sun-dried tomato wrap. AHH it was great! I also got some fries on the side, which I promptly split in half and gave the rest to our just-announced preggers VP.  She is so tiny and healthy and has just started ordering a grilled cheese every afternoon. I love it.  Sometimes work drives me crazy, but the people I work with are pretty darn cool. We had such a good time at lunch together…all of us talking at once and sharing food off each others plates.  It’s cute!

After a fun lunch, the rest of the afternoon went pretty quickly.  I got home and decided to take advantage of the nice weather with my good friend, 2 buck chuck.  Isn’t he sweet??

I had a nice glass outside with a pre-dinner snack, yogurt mess!!!! I made this one slightly smaller than usual just to tide me over to our late dinner. I can’t drink wine and then not eat til 10 PM, just doesn’t happen!!! I think I might turn into this yummy creation, I eat it that much…

Julia and I got all gussied up & as soon as her friend Jen headed over to our place, of course I couldn’t find my wallet.  I looked EVERYWHERE and then drove all the way back to my office…still no wallet. 40 minutes later, I got home and remembered I put it in my gym bag. DUH!!!!!!!! We hollered for a taxi and headed out to Yatai, our fave Asian tapas place.

We started with some cold bamboo sake and beers, but I ended up passing along the sake and drinking most of this Ginger beer and most of the Berry beer we ordered.  Flavored beer rocks!!

For dinner, Julia and I split a bunch of the dishes we order every time, including the best CA roll in all existance.

And some insanely delicious crispy rice with spicy tuna.

Plus a newcomer to the usual rotation, tempura pumpkin with curry salt. OMFG.

Last but absolutely definitely not least, popcorn shrimp. I wish I could share a bite of this with everyone!!

After our amazing meal, we headed back down to Santa Monica Blvd and Bar Lubitsch, which is luckily right by our apt and an easy walk home at the end of the night.  Julia, Jen & I enjoyed a few free shots with Jen’s friends and some dancing.  Jules and I ended the night with some extra-flirty action on our parts. I may have gotten a text at 3 AM about my great looking ass, but of course, that was just factual reporting. Obviously. Julia & I smartly stayed awake chatting for a while after we got home, and I made us La Tortillas toasted with a bit of Chocolate Dreams. Perfect for sweet dreams to follow!

Three Things for Friday

1. Shared my fries at lunch
2. Ordered my wrap without cheese or dressing
3. Split all my dinner plates with Julia

We woke up Saturday morning needing BREAKFAST stat. I actually slept until 9, which is possibly the latest I’ve slept in years. We headed out to Venice to check out Flake, a really cute cereal restaurant. 

While you can order eggs & such, the star of Flake is the huge list of cereals and toppings!!  I got a bowl with one scoop frosted mini wheats, one scoop raisin bran, topped with bananas and blueberries and served with skim milk.  This place is perfect for when you are craving some cereal but don’t necessarily want to go out and get a whole box of just one kind. And it surprisinly held me over for a really long time!

All mixed up!!!!!

Plus a really frothy non-fat chai latte on the side. 

Here’s where I become a bad food blogger, no pictures of the rest of Saturday, sorry!!! So after breakfast, I headed down to Laguna Beach for Becky’s big going-away party.  I got to the beach at that awkward time when it’s too late for lunch but eating a big meal would spoil my dinner. Luckily, I had a Nature’s Valley bar in my beach bag, probably from last summer. Whatever, it did the trick! It wasn’t hot at the beach, but we played some bocce ball and the sun came out around 4, so we got a few rays!

Back at the house, we raided Becky’s closet filled with lots of things she can’t take to NYC (I scored tons of cute clothes and a pair of Gucci heels that are a wee bit too big but I’m determined to make fit anyway!!) and drank the house Cosmo Lights while doing our fashion show.  A ton more people showed up, including Becky’s friends from high school and friends of the family.  Her dad made an awesome taco bar with tortillas, chicken, rice & beans, homemade guacamole, pico de gallo, salsa & cheese.  I had two tortillas plus a few handfuls of chips with the killer guac. He made a HUGE container, which the party devoured in no time!!!  The food fest was followed by many games of beer pong in the front yard. I promise I will take pictures of the next Laguna weekend to share with y’all!!!!  We also made Becky cry when we gave her the scrapbook made secretly during the party, where everyone made a page with photos and notes, like a way-cooler yearbook.  I am going to miss her so much!!!

Julia came down when she got off work, carrying a big bag of muffins from her restaurant. Perfect to fill our bellies before bed 🙂 Sunday morning, I woke up and settled down in the living room with another half muffin (strawberry, MMM) and Twilight #3.  Julia woke up a little bit later and we snuck out of the house for a bit to pick up coffees and flowers for Kate & Becky’s mom.  I called my mom too and she got my package and loved it!  I was sad that I couldn’t be there with her to make her breakfast in bed and spend the day together but I talked to her at least 5 times so it felt like I was there a little bit 🙂

When J & I got back to the Laguna house from our errands, everyone else was awake and Becky was whipping up a huge breakfast for her parents and the little group of us that spent the night.  The spread included a gorgeous Mexican frittata…

…lots of bagels…

…and tons of toppings, like smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomatoes, onions, avocado, and capers!!

My brain was bigger than my belly, and I topped two big bagel halves and cut a little slice of frittata.  I ate one of the bagel sandwiches and most of the frittata.  It was amazing!

After our big meal, we all just laid around and read books for a bit, waiting for the sun to come out.  When it looked like the clouds were sticking around for the rest of the day, we all gave Becky big kisses and headed back to LA.  I brought along the other half of my bagel, which made for a perfect late lunch when I got back to the city.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning my room, doing laundry, attempting to blog, and finishing off Twilight #3 in between.  Throughout the rest of the day, I sporadically snacked on a few different things, including strawberries,

5 leftover TJ multigrain & flaxseed crackers with hummus,

salad with baked tofu,

some shirataki tofu noodles mixed with 1/4 cup tomato sauce, basil, S & P,

and the final scoop of TJ organic soy-creamy non-ice cream ice cream.

Man, I love the weekend!  Sunday nights are always so relaxing and bittersweet at the same time, you know??  This week is looking pretty busy because I have a lot to get done before leaving Thursday night for Boston to see my Rachiekins! Hope you are all having a good Monday, can’t wait to catch up on your fun lives 🙂

Three Things for Saturday

1. Skipped the Lucky Charms & Cinnamon Toast Crunch @ Flake
2. Ate a light snack between breakfast and dinner so I wouldn’t fill up
3. Cut my Cosmo in half with soda water

Three Things for Sunday

1. Saved half of my breakfast for lunch
2. Made salad & shirataki instead of continuing to snack
3. Ate a healthy dessert portion (you can’t tell from the picture, but I just had one scoop and then closed down the kitchen!)

 

Happy Almost Friday! I mean, Thursday :)

Just kidding about catching those rays! As the lovely Caroline pointed out to me… “wait, isn’t it supposed to rain this weekend?”…Ryan Seacrest is a BIG FAT LIAR and it’s actually supposed to be 60 and raining. Boo, hiss!!

I kicked off Thursday (can I rename this day to Almost Friday??) with my yogurt mess.

Today I knocked some magazine reading off my to-do list. I had a huge pile to get through! Think this times 20. I know, such a hard task 🙂

For lunch, I started with some cinnamon-doused fuji apple slices, which I ate while reading about Chef Chris Bianco’s delicious pizzas. I can’t wait to try his dough recipe!

I also had spinach, grape tomatoes and mushrooms tossed in some light balsamic and topped with my leftover bean burgers.

I saved some of the burgers to eat along with a sweet potato. This lunch was super filling!

At 2, we all got booted out of the office for a building fire drill.  We had to walk down from the 14th floor…YAY for boosting my heart rate!  It was super long, which was annoying, but we got to spend 40 minutes outside, which was nice 🙂

I grabbed an iced coffee from Coffee Bean because I really needed the caffeine boost.

I got a second boost with my pre-workout snack, the Fiber One Chocolate Mocha bar.

After work, I was having one of those days where I really wasn’t feeling the gym.  So I made a bargain with myself to do 30 minutes.  Plus, I am out of Kashi and the grocery store is next to the gym 🙂

After my half hour on the elliptical, I headed home for a good free weights workout.  This is one thing I really want to add back into my routine!

For dinner, I decided to make chicken potstickers, veggie eggroll, edamame and broccoli.  I cooked the potstickers in 1 tbsp soy sauce to get them extra flavorful!

This ENTIRE dinner, complete with the soy sauce for cooking, comes to 460 calories. Pretty good, right?! Much better than if I ordered from a Chinese restaurant for sure.

Three Things for Thursday

1. Ordered iced coffee instead of a latte
2. Bargained with myself to do 30 minutes at the gym AND a free weight session
3. Decided I was full enough after dinner to skip dessert!

Tomorrow night I am hoping for a relaxing evening, maybe with Bride Wars and another calzone. I have been oddly tired this week and am in need of a major lazy Friday night!

 

Picking Up Speed

I actually made some progress on my work today — always a good thing!!!  Breakfast was the usual 🙂

For lunch, I heated up some Indian food that I cooked last night — Tasty Bite Punjab Eggplant with a serving of brown rice and a side of veggies.

It was pretty good and sort of spicy. I got this at Fresh & Easy and it made 2 servings at 140ish calories each!!

Of course, I went shopping on my lunch break and didn’t get back to the office to eat until 2 and I was WAY past the hungry point.  So right after I finished my lunch, I dug into my pre-workout snack — a chocolate mocha Fiber One bar.  This is the first time I’ve had this flavor and I wasn’t disappointed!  The PB is still my absolute favorite, but this one definitely gets second place.  The mocha was a great extra 🙂

Orange you glad I painted my nails this fun shade??? HAHAHAHA, I’m so funny.

After work, I hit the gym for 60 minutes on the elliptical. I found some Fine Young Cannibals to rock out to on my iPod, old-schooL!!  For dinner, I made a quick salad with spinach, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, and Catalina free dressing to get something in my stomach before showering.

After my shower, I cooked up a batch of black/kidney bean burgers.  1 cup of beans made 4 burgers, two for tonight and two for tomorrow.  They didn’t stick together all that well, but they still tasted good!  Especially drizzled with Bone Suckin’ Sauce.

Right now I am watching last night’s Law & Order SVU while eating a little dessert. This cup of ice cream with 2 dried cantaloupe pieces is DEEElicious!

Three Things for Wednesday

1. Ate the lunch I brought from home instead of picking up food from a restaurant with everyone else (yes, my office eats out a lot!)
2. Tricked my hungry tummy with a mug of tea instead of another snack before going to the gym
3. Skipped the carb-y side with dinner

The weekend is almost here! It’s supposed to be warm again, so I am crossing my fingers for the beach! Anyone else planning to catch some rays?

 

Burger Heaven

Clearly I didn’t get to the store last night for yogurt or kashi, because breakfast today was a packet of apple cinnamon low sugar oatmeal with a banana cut up and mixed in while cooking. The banana was decently ripe, so this bowl was especially fluffy and sweet!

For lunch, I had a side salad and the Chicken Pasta Pomodoro Kashi frozen meal.  I really wasn’t in love with this, but I do like the pasta a lot and the 19 grams of protein keep me full forever!

My dinner tonight was awesome! I made black/kidney bean veggie burgers again and they totally ROCKED!!!  This time, I used black & kidney beans, mushrooms, red pepper slices, onion, basil, red pepper flakes, bread crumbs, egg white, and BBQ sauce.  I shaped 4 burgers so I still have some for lunch tomorrow!  I put the burgers on top of some lettuce and topped them with TJ tomato & basil hummus.  This combo is BOMB!! If you have never had hummus on your veggie burgers, do it now!  I also sliced and baked a sweet potato for the side.

After dinner, I swung by India’s house to watch her show — it’s super funny!!  She also made my muffins for the office brunch tomorrow so I wouldn’t have to do it when I got home 🙂

For dessert, I had the other half of my froyo. Just as good the next day!

I’d love to stay and chat for a bit, but I am so sleepy right now!!! Leaving you with my three things 🙂

Three Things for Thursday

1. Got a Kashi frozen meal instead of the Amy’s I wanted to try because there was a lot less calories and much more protein in the Kashi
2. Passed on the chocolate almond toffee one of our clients brought into work today
3. Skipped the chocolate chip muffins at India’s house

 

Three Things, Eight Things

Thanks for all your great feedback on the event Saturday!! The rest of the weekend was very relaxing. I tried to sleep late but was up early anyway, so I relaxed for a bit with a cup of coffee.

Then I started getting a rumbly tummy, so I made the usual.

After getting ready for the day, I made a pit stop at Best Buy to drop off my camera. All the rest of my photos will be from the old camera I resurrected from a drawer in my bedroom. So glad that I am a pack rat!  I have the special charger for the batteries (yup, old school batteries) and the USB cable, whew!  After leaving my camera in the capable (hopefully!) hands of the Geek Squad, I hopped on the highway and headed down to Laguna Beach. I don’t have any pictures from Sunday because the camera batteries were charging at home, but believe me, it was an amazing day!

We are having a heat wave in CA and it was 95 degrees so of course we had to do a big beach trip. Laguna isn’t the closest beach by far, but Becky & Kate J (they are sisters, in case you were wondering!) hail from Laguna and their parents still live down there, making it the perfect place for beaching and having a big, family-style BBQ/beer pong/piano-playing food fest afterward.  On the way down to the beach, I got caught in some traffic but snacked on some strawberries that I so ingeniously thought to pack. For lunch, Becky and I traded halves of two delicious sandwiches — smoked salmon with cream cheese and grilled veggie with hummus & olive tapanade. MMM! Later I snuck 4 Sun Chips to crunch while reading Book Numero 2 in the Twilight series. Yup, 4…I am v. impressed by the brief appearance of my willpower!!

Back at the house, Chef Becky got cooking for the group…there were maybe 15 of us all together? We snacked on bread and cheese while everything was being marinated, mixed, boiled & baked.  The boys grilled chicken and turkey sausage, and I helped BeckO make a dreamy potato salad that was just red potatoes, balsamic vinegar, S&P, green onions, dill, cilantro & basil. It was delicious! She also cooked some beans and I made two chocolate cakes topped with some of Becky’s homemade icing.  Oh!! She also made the house drink, Cosmos, to go with our Coronas. It was a great night! I ate a little bit of everything we made, but was actually kind of full from the sun and the taste testing bites I took while cooking, so I didn’t over indulge in anything except maybe the bread when we first got home.

The weather stayed gorgeous all night, so of course none of us wanted to leave! I finally headed out around 11 PM and it was STILL hot enough to be outside in just our bathing suits and sundress cover ups…crazy!!

Three Things for Sunday

1. Snacking on 4 Sun Chips instead of mindlessly munching from the bag
2. Enjoying my Cosmo from a short glass, instead of a tall one
3. Eating a few bites of chocolate cake instead of a big slice

Yesterday I was SO excited to be back at work of course. Kicked off the day with the usual good start!

I was too tired last night to think about food, so I just swung by the grocery store and picked up a Lean Cuisine and some of those Green Giant Immunity Blend veggies.

By the end of the day, I basically felt like crud and just wanted to get home as fast as possible. I had every good intention of making myself some soup and buying some fresh Vitamin-C packed veggies to juice for a refreshing, throat-soothing pick-me-up, but by the time I got back to the apartment, I realized that my plan actually required having some energy in the first place, so I just raided the fridge instead. I started with this cool, soothing bowl of fruit.

Followed by a cup of icy frozen peas.

I was still sort of stuck on the idea of soup, but the 100 million degree heat in my apt changed my mind. Instead I made a super fast cold Mexican salad with lettuce blend, cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup cold black & kidney beans mixed, one 100 calorie Wholly Guacamole pack, and some salsa. On the side, I had a La Tortilla Factory tortilla spread with some of the guac.  I ate this outside becuase it was cooler out there than it was in my place!!

I finished off dinner with a freezer-burned mango popsicle from Trader Joe’s. All I wanted was something cool and soothing! I love these TJ popsicles, especially the Caribbean ones!

Three Things for Monday

1. Going to the grocery store to get a Lean Cuisine & veggies instead of picking up food or ordering in
2. Skipping the office latte run
3. Eating a popsicle to soothe my throat instead of running out for some ice cream (which I seriously debated…being sick/tired won out!!)

Today I am feeling better but not awesome. I made the usual for breakfast. I am out of frozen fruit and almost done with my box of Kashi, oh no! I might have to make a grocery run today…

For lunch, I finally got my soup! I had a bowl of Progresso Minestrone with a serving of ak-mak crackers on the side. Yum, it is much cooler in my office since we actually have AC here!!

I have also been guzzling Emergen-C all day, so hopefully this stuff works its magic 🙂

After lunch, we celebrated an office birthday with some ice cream cake. In my office, we all sing and then eat the cake together and chat, sort of a little break/bonding. I tried to be good by asking for a smaller slice. Some cake I could turn down completely, but not a chocolate peanut butter ice cream one! Ice cream cake is my absolute favorite. For some reason it did NOT sit well in my stomach though! I could feel my belly sloshing all over the place.

Once I got home, I decided to take a walk to Trader Joe’s to pick up some goodies for dinner. I am feeling better but not great, and this seemed like the best way to get some air and movement! Back home, I made a nice side salad with Catalina free dressing.

I cooked up some Italian, TJ style. First, eggplant cutlets. These are great! About 170 calories per serving and SO tasty.  I also made 1 cup dry whole wheat and vegetable pasta blend. Delish!

I also sipped on a bottle of Full Sail Pale Ale. I am not a big beer drinker, but for some reason, a cold beer sounded so amazing to me, and since you can get just one at TJ, I picked up this guy! I drank half with dinner.

For dessert, I grabbed some TJ Organic Soy Creamy Chocolate goodness. I wanted something cold but the freezer was seriously cleaned out!! Everyone must be thinking the same thing as me in all this heat. I had a few spoonfuls of this — pretty good!  I should have just put it in a bowl because my few bites definitely turned into at least a serving, oops.

Right now I am watching TBL. Mike is about to talk to his dad…Can’t wait to see what happens!!

Three Things for Tuesday

1. Brought healthy crackers for my soup instead of grabbing a roll
2. Walked to the grocery store
3. Drank 1/2 beer rather than the whole bottle

Last but not least, I got tagged by Danielle to do the Survey of 8’s that’s been going around.  Thanks Danielle!!

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

1. Visiting my sister in Boston
2. Getting my camera back
3. Becca coming to LA
4. Weekend trips to Laguna
5. Eating my first watermelon of the season
6. Using my tax return to pay off my credit card!
7. Going to Julia’s movie screening tomorrow night!!
8. Next girls’ weekend in Vegas

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1. Finished the New Moon book
2. Ate dinner outside
3. Turned on my fan for the first time since last summer
4. Snuggled in front of said fan with the kitties (they wanted to get cool too!!)
5. Bummed around on the couch, being sick…sorry, I’m not very exciting when I don’t feel good!

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Remember to schedule my long list of doctors appointments!!
2. Surf
3. Live even closer to the ocean
4. See my family and friends back East all the time
5. Have a list of ever book I’ve ever read
6. Find 1 new sport and 1 new hobby I really love
7. Sail a boat
8. Roadtrip cross country

8 Shows I Watch:

1. The Office
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Gossip Girls
4. Private Practice
5. Grey’s Anatomy
6. 30 Rock
7. New Adventures of Old Christine
8. Samantha Who

Now I have to tag 8 people to fill out this survey…hope you guys haven’t already done it (or actually want to do it LOL)!!

Mariposa
Marisa
Diana
Melissa
Ashley
Kailey
Kaneil
Coley

 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!!

Hi everybody! Hope you are all having a great weekend. I am relaxing and enjoying my morning cup of joe. Still pretty tired after the 12 hours I spend driving yesterday so I could go to Pebble Beach Food & Wine. It was awesome!! I have so much I want to share with you guys so look for all that jazz later today!

Friday I woke up very happy about the impending weekend. Whew, this week was a real creeper for me!! I had a really great mess for breakfast.

At lunch, Stephanie picked me up from the office and we headed over to Poquito Mas for burritos. I got the Nature’s Grill again — the eggplant/black beans combo is killer! No cheese or sour cream needed, simply pure veggie delight. And I kept my fingers out of the basket of chips only to discover that just the burrito itself will keep me full! Surprise, surprise 🙂

Can you tell that I’m loving neon lately?!

I also grabbed my payday Starbucks, an iced coffee this time, for a late afternoon pick-me-up.

After work, I raced home to get ready for my first Dodgers game! I snacked on this oddly non-juicy green apple with cinnamon.

For the game, the girls picked up beers and I grabbed this very cute mini bottle of Chardonnay for less than $2!

I THOUGHT dinner at the game would be Dodger dogs and hot pretzels but Becky brought ingredients for salads and whipped up these individual dinners for us at the game. How cute is that?!?

Our salads had spinach, peppers, walnuts, goat cheese, avocado, seasoned & grilled shrimp, and homemade dressing.  It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

Plus a piece of olive bread on the side.

Becky, you ROCK!!!

I had another glass of wine at the game. Wait, make that plastic cup.

We had awesome seats behind home plate. The Dodgers were losing when we showed up, but we must have been their good luck charm for the night because they won the game! Go team!!!

Manny Ramirez making solid contact!!

Here we are with our game faces!! Oh yeah, India is munching on our dessert — baby carrots! Yes, the people around us eating greasy food were both amused and jealous. Well, we are assuming the jealous part after all the oohing and ahhing we did over Becky’s food!!

What a great night!!

So my sister and I had a long talk and we were discussing healthier habits in general. I decided that each day I will do 3 things, or make 3 choices, that contribute to a healthier lifestyle. These things can be small, they just have to be conscious decisions to do something differently.

Three Things for Friday

1) Skipped on tortilla chips at the Mexican restaurant at lunch

2) Went with Steph to get froyo after eating but listened to my “full” body cues and didn’t get any

3) Ate salad for dinner at the game and refrained from eating hot dogs or pretzels or nachos or any of that stuff

There you have it! I am amazed at how those 3 little things on Friday probably saved me hundreds of calories. Hopefully this will jump start a healthier mindset!!

I’m headed down to Laguna to finish out the weekend with a beach day but will definitely post tonight about Pebble Beach!! Peace out 🙂

 

Taking this Show on the Road!

I’m out of my best yogurt supplies! B-fast today was a mess with the rest of my strawberries, half banana, some figgies & kashi.

For lunch, I started with a salad that was a duplicate of the one I ate last night. So easy to make two at once and eat one the next day!

I also dug into the remaining 6 inches from the sub I got yesterday. Usually these still taste great but the bread was SO SOGGY. Ick. So I just ate the turkey and some of the veggies and left the bread.

Instead of bread, I had some pretzels. More than this one cup to make up for my lack of carbolicious goodness 🙂

Of course, I was v. hungry by the end of work, so I ate the other half of my breakfast banana to help tide me over.

Still not enough! I ended up skipping the gym and went home for an early dinner. I started with frozen edamame.

Then came a gorgeous, crispy slice of red pepper!

I also rolled out the last piece of my pizza dough from Friday. I got 3 meals out of this recipe!  I topped the honey whole wheat crust with grape tomatoes, mushrooms, goat cheese, rosemary and sea salt.

After dinner, I decided to try Yogurt Stop for some froyo! I got chocolate, peanut butter, and vanilla bean. I always choose chocolate over vanilla, but this vanilla bean was awesome!!  Mango and rainbow sprinkles were the perfect toppings, plus a cube of red velvet (which surprisingly wasn’t that good, weird…).

Okay, does anyone else think this is the most random frozen yogurt logo ever?! Welcome to Hollywood!

Right now I am stuffed to the max and watching the last five minutes of TBL…freaking!!!! How cute was Mike talking with his brother, by the way??

And now, for my exciting food news!!!  Foodbuzz sent out an email last week annoucing that they have again partnered with Pebble Beach Food & Wine and are sending 8 featured publishers to the Lexus Grand Tasting Event. To enter, you had to fill out a form and answer a few quick essay questions, and then Foodbuzz selected based on proposed coverage creativity and enthusiasm for the event! Well, apparently I am very enthusiastic about food & wine (duh, who isn’t??) because I am getting to attend the Tasting Event this weekend!!

Here are some more details from Foodbuzz:

Lexus Grand Tasting at Pebble Beach Food & Wine is the most spectacular opportunity to enjoy over 300 wines from 200 of the world’s most prestigious wineries.  This is a must-do experience for anyone who loves food and wine.

Guests will have an unprecedented chance to interact with 24 of the weekend’s participating chefs.  Saturday’s line-up includes Chris Cosentino of Incanto and Boccalone in San Francisco; Mark Estee of Moody’s Bistro in Lake Tahoe; Dean Fearing of Dean Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Dallas; Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park in New York City; Jean Joho of Everest in Chicago; Christopher Kostow of Meadowood in Napa Valley; David Pasternack of Esca in New York City; Cindy Pawlcyn of Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and Mustard’s Grill in Napa Valley; Roy Yamaguchi of Roy’s; and Sherry Yard, Pastry Chef of Spago and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide. Sunday’s line-up includes: Traci Des Jardin of Jardiniere in San Francisco; Bill Corbett, Pastry Chef at MICHAEL MINA in San Francisco; David Kinch of Manresa in Los Gatos; Michael Mina of MICHAEL MINA in San Francisco; David Myers of Sona in Los Angeles; Nancy Oakes of Boulevard in San Francisco; and Michel Richard of Citronelle in Washington DC.

I am so excited!! I can’t wait to speak with the chefs, taste the food & wine, meet Foodbuzz staff & other bloggers, PHOTOGRAPH, and enjoy this awesome opportunity!! Pebble Beach is in Carmel, CA, about 5-6 hours from LA. I am planning to just wake up super early and make a day of it!! I think the long drive will definitely be worth the fun day, don’t you agree?! I put down to attend Saturday, but I am still waiting on final confirmation of the day, when I will find out which chefs I will get to see in action. WOW! The more I talk about this, the more excited I get!! I can’t wait to share my day with you guys!! I wish we could all go together LOL.

Anyway, that’s my foodie news 🙂 More details to follow!!

Leaving you guys with a pic of the kitten babes…such smooch faces.