Bringing Back Color for Summer

Thursday:

I haven't really been eating breakfast lately, but I have been having lots of coffee in the AM. Check out my cool zebra rug from Target in the background.

For an early lunch I had a big, mostly raw salad.

Hidden underneath is mixed lettuce covered by sugar snap peas, broccoli, tomatoes, a few meatless meatballs w/ a dollop of hummus & BBQ sauce

(post mixage)

After eating this I started in on quite a project- unloading all of my clothes from college & organizing them. Since I will only be home for a month I decided that I would hang up all of the clothes that I plan on wearing for the month on a rolling rack in my room, and keep everything else in boxes. This is what I ended up with...

I was inspired to keep all of my clothing colorful & cheery for the month of May by a couple of bright maxi dresses from the 70's that my grandma gave me. I allowed myself to hang up only 3 black items (this is a major feat for me considering I live in black) and decided to let bright colors & patterns dominate. Even my black purses have bright scarves tied on them. I am telling you I think this is the best idea ever- it takes me 2 seconds now to pick out what I want to wear and everything is easy to view & access.

Anyway... let's get back to the food.

Once I finished organizing my clothes I made myself a smoothie with the only fruit that we had in the house- frozen strawberries & dates. Interesting combo, I added almond milk & ice and blended away on my mom's amazing blender.

This smoothie tasted like something you would buy at a diner, it was sooo sweet. Not really my cup of tea but I drank it anyway.

Last minute my mom & I invited a couple of her girlfriends & a couple of my girlfriends over for appetizers and drinks. We had to run to Trader Joe's to stalk up on appetizer foods- TJ's is the best for entertaining they have hors d'oeuvres that are so easy to make, all you need is a microwave.

Mmm look at all of the yummy food. For drinks we had wine, margaritas, & corona light. We munched on different kinds of chips (tortilla, parmesan sticks, potato, & pita) and baby carrots w/ 3 different types of hummus and guacamole. I also made chicken taquitos w/ salsa, and there were lime and chili cashews.

Left to right- dark chocolate covered pomegranate pieces, baby tomatoes, mixed mediterranean olives.

Cucumber wontons (filled w/ cucumber & textured soy protein) w/ a dipping sauce I made of soy sauce, miso paste, and sesame dressing. They were delish.

After stuffing ourselves w/ lots of yummy food we headed to downtown Laguna to go to art walk. We got there so late that we actually ended up not seeing any art at all but we did visit almost every bar in town and I managed to get some vintage shopping in.

Trouble- tequila shots & cocktails ( I had the blood orange cocktail)

Dru & I

Friday:

After my big night out the next day all I wanted was a burrito, the cure once again. Sadly there is not a Lilly's Cafe in Laguna so I had to make due with a burrito from Papa's Tacos.

It was filled w/ pinto beans, guacamole, pic de gallo, and lettuce. While it was tasty & filling, it was not the same as a Lilly's burrito. Oh Lilly's how I miss you.

Crazily enough I did not make it to Starbucks until 6 pm to get a coffee. I had the usual- ice coffee w/ soy milk & sugar free hazelnut syrup.

When dinner rolled around I was really excited to use my mom's steamer for the first time. I really wish I had a steamer at my house. I steamed a bunch of veggies (sugar snap peas, carrots, broccoli).

While waiting for the veggies to steam I munched on a few of TJ's lime and chili cashews left over from the night before. These are my favorite, they are way too addicting though. Ever once in a while you will bite into a chili and burn your tongue off.

My steamed veggies turned out perfect. I dipped them in hummus & bbq sauce while my family devoured Z pizza (I managed to steal a couple pizza crusts from my sistas)

It was a nice and healthy way to end my day, veggies are the best.