Samurai on Stanley

With this cold weather outside lately I've been craving a bowl of warm oats.

1/4 banana

3 sliced strawberries

1/2 cup oats

1 cup water

pinch of salt

1 tbs crunchy peanut butter

Then I enjoyed a soy latte w/ honey at the Paddington Grind while I read my book.

For lunch I took the bus to meet James' sister at her school & we walked to the Westfield Mall at Bondi Junction to grab lunch. I had a mix of the Thai salad w/ tofu and spicy vinaigrette & a mixed green salad w/ onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado.

Can you believe this is what they serve at mall food courts? This is not your average sitting out all day under heat lamps normal mall food... everything is fresh and healthy (maybe not so much the fried tofu).

I spent all day getting ready & planning for James' big 21st bday party on the 26th. So far everything is looking great, I can't wait!

For dinner James and I were craving sushi so we tried out a new place on Stanley St. near the city. I love this area. There are tons of quaint restaurants & cafes w/ tables facing the hustle & bustle of the street. I'm a bit skeptical trying new sushi restaurants in Aus, I've had a couple of bad experiences, but Samurai was my best sushi experience in Australia yet.

We started off with some drinks & edamame. Like my new manicure? OPI Light my Sapphire.

I was expecting a little seaweed salad but they brought me this enormous bowl of greenage. Trust me I was not complaining.

I also ordered a vegetable roll.

Dinner was delicious! I always thought that fish would be the one thing I would miss becoming vegan since I used to eat sushi about once a week, but oddly enough I have not craved it once. It's weird how much being vegan has changed my taste buds.

I saw a couple things on my way home that made me happy including an adorable white Vespa...

& a possum in the tree outside. Possums are way different in Australia than they are in America (i.e. overszied rats w/ fangs). They are the cutest things ever. Last winter James & I would go on walks in Centennial Park at night & try to find them climbing around in the trees.... I know we're weirdos.

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.