James' 21st Birthday!

Special K vanilla almond cereal w/ 1/2 sliced banana & soy milk. So good.

With a long black coffee from the Paddington Grind. Like my shoes? ; )

I grabbed a quick bite from the food court at the Westfield mall in Maroubra where we were busy buying some last minute things for James' birthday party. This yummy salad from Sumo Salad gave me the energy I needed to blow up all 150 balloons. Whew.

A hodge podge of sorts. Mixed greens w/ corn, tomato, carrots, chickpeas, avocado & pumpkin w/ balsamic vinaigrette, a bread roll, & a diet coke.

At James' party there was a ton of food. I only got a pic of some of the appetizers including brie & crackers, hummus, guacamole, quiche, & spanakopita. For dinner there were unpictured kebabs, sausages, & lots of salads.

For dessert there was the healthy option of a big fruit salad...

& James' amazing birthday cake that his aunty had made for him. This cake was insane! I love the surfer. It was made by Chris at Cake Occasions.

It was such an amazing night. James' sister & I made a slide show of photos and videos of James' throughout his life, and some of his friends and best mates (along with me) gave speeches.

A million drinking songs later this cute couple from the beginning of the night turned into....

girlfriend taking care of a very wasted boyfriend. Poor James was more trashed than he has ever been in his entire life. I guess that's what 21st birthday parties are for. Interesting fact: the dress I was wearing was James' moms from about 20 years ago.

After sleeping in super late at James' parents house, we made it back to Paddington where I grabbed a soy long black w/ honey from The Grind.

We lucked out & there were tons of leftovers from the party so lunch was as easy as warming up some roasted vegetables & adding the usual hummus & BBQ sauce.

Even though it was James' birthday I was spoiled & received a gift from friend and fellow blogger Winnecke. She works at a bakery, Sonoma, and after reading my blog and seeing how much I love grains she gifted me some of their muesli.

For dinner I had a bit of both the honey & breakfast spice and spelt maple & almond cooked w/ soy milk. I think I died and went to heaven this muesli was so delicious, it won't last long. Thanks Winnecke!

Oat-ful & Veggie-ful Weekend

Let me update you on my weekend. There has been a big change in my life.... no more soy lattes for me! I've officially changed my Australian drink of choice to a long black w/ soy milk & honey. More caffeine & less soy milk.

Go Socceroos!

My mornings have been very oat-full

Pumpkin Oats

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbs honey, a couple of cubes of steamed pumpkin

Pistachio Oats

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbs honey, pistachio bits

PB&J Overnight Soaked Oats

1/2 cups oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbs honey, 1 tbs crunchy peanut butter soaked overnight w/ a few strawberries added in the morning. This was my first time trying to soak oats overnight & I think I may have done something wrong; they had way to much excess water that had to be drained out. They were still very yummy though & easier than making them on the stove like I usually do.

Lunch & dinner has been very veggie-full

Arugula salad w/ steamed pumpkin, cherry tomatoes, 1/2 avocado and hummus & BBQ sauce

Toasted wrap from the Bondi Junction food court w/ spinach, carrots, cucumber, onion, & avocado

Vegetable soup w/ roll from a cafe at the Spot in Randwick

Salad w/ spinach, cucumber, avocado, & capsicum

& bowl of whole wheat spaghetti w/ marinara that was seriously lacking vegetables.

I also tried out a new juice company Emma & Tom's. No added sugar, no concentrates, nothing artificial. The extreme C was delicious.

Other weekend highlights included attending a very fun house warming party for our friend where I ripped my favorite faux fur jacket, going to the movies & seeing Get Him to the Greek which was hilarious, watching the World Cup and rooting for the Socceroos, & making a very decadent non-vegan dessert (pictures to come). Hope you had great weekends too!

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.

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.