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.

Crash

On Sunday night I went to go use my macbook, only to find a big question mark staring back at me in the screen and my computer unable to start up. Yesterday I brought it into Mac and they told me that my hard drive had crashed, and of course NO I do not have an external hard drive that I had backed up my files on. This has been one of those things that I have been putting off and putting off. They replaced my hard drive for free because my macbook is still under warranty, but all of my computer settings, photos, songs, papers, etc... are gone : ( I'm not going to dwell on it, but it is a bummer.

I do have my pics from Sunday afternoon though because I hadn't uploaded them on my computer yet.

While packing my sister's lunches for the next day I snacked on some peanut butter filled pretzels.

No preservatives, no artificial colors or flavors- I'm sold, and I'm sure it has nothing to do w/ the fact that they are filled w/ creamy peanut butter and have a crunchy pretzel shell. Addiction.

For dinner I had a monster raw salad.

Mixed greens w/ raw corn, sugar plum tomatoes, & shredded carrots. Topped w/ hummus.

Post mixage- I added some BBQ in there. Hummus just calls for BBQ.

My sister snapped a pic of my drinking a glass of chardonnay while working on the computer. Busted.

Post dinner I nibbled on some KooLoos while watching Date Night w/ my sisters.

I had never tried these before and decided to pick them up from Costco. They are little soy nuts topped in a crunchy flax seed coating w/ a honey BBQ seasoning. They would be good to satisfy a BBQ chip craving as they taste like healthy junkfood. I love oxymorons and this one couldn't be more fitting.

On monday morning I woke up and had a big cup of coffee w/ vanilla, soy milk creamer while I read Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. My friend Dru has been bugging me to read this forever, and now I understand why. It is soo good I havenot been able to put it down.

With my coffee and book I had a TJ's apple, cranberry, fiber mini-muffins heated up & topped w/ a pat of light Smart Balance. These muffins are delicious, plus they have simple ingredients and are vegan and low-cal.

As I read and ate breakfast I enjoyed the view from my balcony...

and played w/ my puppy Bondi.

Later I went to the mall to get my macbook fixed, and do a quick shop. My mom and I ate at the food court, and stopped by this delicious little place that I cannot remember the name for the life of me.

First you pick out your fresh veggies and a sauce and they add noodles....

and then they cook it in front of you on a a big Mongolian grill.

I added more sriracha & sesame seeds. So yummy & filling. Unlike a lot of other Asian restaurants where the sauce is often really heavy and greasy, this one is quite light.

Later on as I packed my sister's lunches I snacked on some of TJ's Honey, Pass the Snack Mix.

Sometimes I love little kid food.

For dinner I decided to keep on snacking starting w/ a piece of baguette bread w/ hummus, roasted eggplant, and spicy mango chutney.

I had some self restraint and put down the carbage, and ate some more chutney and hummus paired w/ carrots and celery.

The Cure

Here is a recap of my weekend:

Friday I woke up feeling a little under the weather from the night before (too many margaritas), so I had to have my hangover cure.

Step 1:

Berocca and lots of H20. I got this Berocca from Australia and it contains lots of vitamin B and vitamin C.

Step 2: Coffee

Venti ice coffee w/ sf hazlenut & soymilk

Step 3:

Lily's burrito. Lily's has by far the best Mexican food in Malibu. It gets so busy that it's best to make your orders at least a half and hour in advance, but it is well worth the wait.Everything is made from scratch, they are best known for their breakfast burritos. This is an awful photo, but I did not have the patience to take a better one. My burrito contained beans, potatoes, rice, and avocado topped with their homemade hot sauce.

I felt 100% better after eating this and was ready for a productive day at school Afterwards I drove home to my house in Laguna Beach to spend the weekend with my family. I was so stuffed from this burrito that it was my breakfast/lunch, and I wasn't hungry until 8 that night.

Arugula, corn edamame and red pepper mix from TJ's (defrosted), and asparagus topped with hummus & a little bit of this...

TJ's Mango Ginger Chutney- sweet with a bit of a kick, I highly recommend trying it. I also snacked on some crackers & hummus.

Saturday:

I got to sleep in and woke up to freshly brewed coffee from mi madre. It wasn't done in a coffee press but it was still great (everything tastes better when you don't have to do it yourself.)

By the time I got dressed it was almost lunch so my sisters and I made a picnic to bring to the park. I had a sandwich w/ arugula, avocado, mustard, & tofurky, and they had PB & J.

Issy even wrote my name on the sandwich bag, look how nice her writing is!

Before we headed to the park Issy had a photo shoot. I was able to sneak a few pics of her over the photographer's shoulder. Adorable.

The park was lots of fun.

Cute pic of my hippie sister Summer below.

I was able to get some reading in too.... i'm reading The Girl Who Played with Fire, I'm usually not into action/thriller books but this one has been holding my interest.

I also drank some vita coco and had some hummus w/ crackers.

Later that night my family and I went out for dinner at O Sushi. This restaurant is new, but they have great sushi & I love the way they decorated the place.

I started out with a ginger salad and miso soup.

Then for my entree I had a veggie roll and a veggie hand roll. Yummy.