Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend

Coffee!!!

Breakfast- Smoothie w/ strawberries, 1/2 banana, almond milk, ice

Memorial Day Weekend = lots of beach time. I'll be black by Tuesday.

Kettle cooked potato chips, the nutritional info on these was pretty good surprisingly.

Rather than eating a 'real' lunch I just decided to keep on snacking once I got home. I had some garden veggies straw from Costco w/...

some red pepper hummus & humguac from TJ's. Humguac is equal parts guacamole and chickpeas w/ seasoning, I know it's brilliant idea. All I need now is BBQ hummus and i'll be set for life.


My mom had some friends over & had the below amazing spread, so once again I snacked for dinner. Mostly hummus & stacy's pita chips, dates, and lime & chili cashews.

Afterwards I headed out for a night on the town in Laguna, we went to the Royale Hawaiian where there was an 80's cover band playing and then down to the Marine Room.

Ari, Raveena, and Me
Showing my affection for Rav.

Today I skipped breakfast and just went straight to lunch. I had a tofurky & arugula sandwich w/ hummus, avocado, and soy cheese on a 100 calorie whole wheat roll.


Open Wide!

This did not fill me up so I had some soy nuggets w/ ketchup too.

I shopped all day & got clothes for my upcoming trip, and picked up a GRE study guide from Barnes and Noble.... time to crack down and study soon : ( I was also able to visit my grandma who is finally out of the hospital yey!
We brought home this enormous edible arrangement for Issy because she took a pretty bad fall earlier in the day and bumped her noggin on the pavement. She had to go to the hospital and get a CAT scan. She's okay though, just a minor concussion.

Milk chocolate dipped strawberries & pineapple, white chocolate & milk chocolate dipped banana and marshmallows. Craziness- I nippled on some strawberries & grapes, I'm not a fan of chocolate plus it has dairy in it.

Issy loved the chocolate though!

For dinner I dipped slices of tempeh first in TJ's Island soyaki and then dredged them in flour and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.


Then I added the tempeh to a big bowl of arugula w/ 1/2 avocado & raw broccoli.

This was the first time that I had marinated the tempeh in soyaki and it ended up being delicious.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Venice Beach

I had to wake up super early this AM and drive to the Chatsworth courthouse to take care of a speeding ticket that I missed my previous court date for. So frustrating. It was my first ticket ever & I didn't realize that they don't send you any information in the mail about your court date. Luckily I was able to get traffic school & 45 hours of community service rather than having to pay the exorbitant fee.
I decided to have a hot coffee instead of iced to last me on the drive up.
Venti coffee w/ sf hazelnut & a splash of soy.

Afterwards after spending far too much time waiting in lines at the courthouse my mom and I were ready to get the heck out of there. I dragged my mom to check out my new favorite restaurant Mercedes Grille in Marina del Rey and Cami joined us too.

We ordered mimosas w/ our meal.


Sometimes I am really a creature of habit, and even though I ordered this salad the other day I had to have it again.It is insanely delicious!

Grilled Vegetable Tostada Salad w/ marinated tofu and no cheese.

When we were finished with lunch and said farewell to mi madre, Cami and I decided to work off our lunch by renting beach cruisers and taking a bike ride from Marina del Rey, to Venice, and then Santa Monica.

When we got to the Santa Monica Pier we stopped off at the Coffee Bean and I ordered a large ice coffee w/ soy milk. I love the Coffee Bean, it's a bummer though that all of the powders they use in their drinks are dairy based, otherwise I would frequent here more often.


At the pier we enjoyed the people watching and scenery.



We acted like little kids in the arcade after I kicked Cami's butt at air hockey (one of my favorite games).


Eventually we made it back to Laguna despite the Memorial Day traffic, and I arrived home just in time for dinner. The family was BBQing for my little sister Summer and her girlfriends (think lots of screaming little girls & blaring Keisha i.e madness), so I had to fend for dinner on my own.
I tried a new hummus from Costco; organic basil & sundried tomatoes- this tub is enormous!


I paired the hummus w/ a mixed green salad w/ shredded carrots & raw corn, some cous cous
from Costco too, and a hundred calorie whole wheat roll (w/ some BBQ sauce on the side).


This hummus was pretty good, the calories compared to other hummus was not too shabby either. The couscous was definitely the best part of the meal though. I loved how there were big pieces of couscous (compared to little ones), olives, and bell peppers. Yum!


Later Raveena came over and we enjoyed some Chardonnay & strawberries for dessert as we watched the crazies on the Real Housewives of NY and chatted it up.

Days like today make me realize just how lucky I am to live and go to school in the LA area (I know Malibu is on the outskirts but it still counts). There is nothing more fun than exploring your own neighborhood, and no matter how many times you have seen it before you will always notice some new quirk that you had overlooked. The bright graffiti, crazy characters, and chaos of Venice Beach as well as the charm of the Santa Monica Pier will never get old.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

118 Degrees

It has been soo long since I've gotten my usual Starbucks drink. Venti ice coffee w/ sugar free hazelnut syrup. I forgot just how quickly I slurp these drinks down. I swear it always seems like ice coffee has more caffeine than regular coffee. Even though that doesn't really make sense, I always seem to get a buzz after drinking ice coffee whereas w/ regular hot coffee I don't. Weird.


Late last night as I browsed blogs I read about this restaurant 118 degrees on quarry girl, and I realized that it was the same restaurant I have seen a million times while eating at Native Foods and visiting the tattoo shop at The Camp in Costa Mesa. I have always admired the cool wood exterior but I had never ventured inside. I had to go check it out when I heard that it wall all organic, dairy-free, raw, and eco-friendly.



After picking my sis Isabella up from school we decided to venture out to Costa Mesa to check out 118 degrees. The three of us sat at the bar and were immediately impressed by the large selection of drinks ranging from fresh juices & smoothies to coffee & tea. Issy had the Mango Madness 6 with fresh mango, banana, maca root, bee pollen, and orange juice topped w/ a rasberry puree.


OMG this was delicious. It tasted like a tropical cocktail minus the alcohol and much healthier. My mom and I both had the electrolyte lemonade 5 which was reminiscent of the lemonade you drink during the master cleanse except much yummier. It was made w/ coconut water, lemon juice, and agave (you can have it w/ cayenne pepper too). So refreshing, I want to make my own version at home sometime.


We started out with fried avocado mini-tostada 6.


Crispy buckwheat shell, spicy peppita sauce, chopped spinach, cilantro, corn, and fried avocado. The fried avocado was deliciously breaded and the sauce was super creamy.

For my main I had the lemon pesto pasta 10 with lemon pesto sauce, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, and fresh basil. This was my first time every having zucchini pasta and once again I was surprised how creamy the sauce was. I really need to buy a spiraler so I can make some zucchini pasta of my own.


My mom had the baja burrito 12 with marinated mushrooms, spinach, corn, red bell pepper, cilantro, salsa and spicy cheese topped w/ sour cream, and guacamole. I stole a few bites & it was great (almost as good as my pasta!)


While the food tasted insane there were a few let downs. Firstly they forgot to bring out the appetizer and it didn't arrive until after our main courses. Secondly the service was really slow. Both of these first 2 issues were excusable because the food was so good, but the main problem was that both my mom and I have felt really sick all day long afterwards : ( My stomach has ben killing me, and is still grumbling as I write this (and we ate like 10 hours ago).

Trying to calm down my upset stomach I munched on a couple of simple carbs...


peanut butter filled pretzels & ...


a 100 calorie whole wheat roll.

My stomach stopped bugging me for a bit so I was able to enjoy some vegan margarita pizza from Z Pizza. This soy cheese is so deceiving it really tastes like the real deal.


I had this below pieces plus too many more pieces Just to give you an idea of how much pizza I ate my mom and I almost split this entire medium pizza! Ahh I could almost kill my friend Tara for introducing me to this pizza, it just tastes way to good.


I'm going to go much on a few Tums now and hopefully get rid of this stomachache!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Warehouse Parties & Mimosas w/ Moo

Yesterday started out pretty normal with a big cup of coffee & an unpictured apple cranberry fiber mini-muffin. I ate it up before I could even think to grab my camera.
Spur of the moment I decided to drive up to Marina Del Ray and spend the day w/ Cami at her family's apartment. I mean who could resist this view?
We laid out and got our tan on. Cami's french bulldog Moo wanted to bronze w/ us too.
My lunch was not of the healthiest variety, but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyways. Wheat thins & mimosas.
I let Moo snack on some wheat thins, we had to keep her away from the champagne though she can never seem to hold her alcohol!
After tanning all day Cam & I got ready and headed over to our friend Jared's house in Hollywood. We were both starved (wheat thins are not the most filling lunch), so we headed to the nearest restaurant- Sushi Kingz. Jared forewarned us that the sushi was sketchy; I believe he described the restaurant as looking like Christian Audiger's baby. This was a very apt description- the walls were adorned w/ Ed Hardyesque dragons, clubbing music was blaring, and we sat in enormous, gaudy gold chairs w/ velvet upholstery.
The meal started out w/ edamame.
I had the vegetable roll which was just average.
Afterwards we drove into downtown LA for a birthday party in this enormous warehouse that some of Jared's friends live in. Cami and I were unaware that the theme was 'tribal'- oops.
At first Cami and I were the only ones dancing, but by the end of the night everyone was on the dance floor.
Such a fun night. My camera ended up dying so I wasn't able to snap a picture of the veggie sandwich on flatbread that I ate at 3:30AM. We were so happy when we found a 24 hr Subway on the drive home.
By the time Cami & I were up and ready this morning it was lunchtime so Cam took me to this restaurant in Marina del Rey that she has been raving about- Mercede's Grill. We sat outside in the sunshine & downed ice coffees w/ soy milk. Both of us ordered the grilled vegetable tostada- I had mine w/ out cheese & w/ tofu.
This salad was INSANE, one of my all time favorite salads which says a lot considering that I eat salads all of the time. The tofu was really flavorful; it was marinated in this spicy/sweet cuban style sauce. There were a ton of grilled veggies including asparagus, corn, zucchini, along with 1/2 avocado on top of chopped romaine lettuce. Underneath there was a crispy flour tostada w/ black beans, pico de gallo, and white rice. The salad doesn't even need dressing, but the dressing was amazing it was served w/ the house vinaigrette & pesto jalapeno sauce. YUM.
Lunch was a bit pricey ($50 for both of us), but the waitress let us know that salads are 1/2 off if you come between 1-2 Mon-Fri.
Before driving home I stopped by Starbucks and grabbed a soy strawberry & creme frappuccino.
I'm a total sucker for Starbucks' advertising campaign right now, I never order frappuccinos but the ads lately have just stuck in my mind. I tried to order the vanilla bean one w/ soy, but the lady making it let me know that it's not actually dairy free because the powder they use has dairy in it. The strawberries and creme one though has a sugar base and is vegan. It was pretty delicious- tasted like a strawberry milk shake.
Dinner was nice and simple- steamed baby carrots, cauliflower, broccoli w/ hummus, BBQ, and mango chutney. On the side I had 100 calorie wheat roll thingy.