Lagunatic

I've been slacking on blogging this week so this is going to be a long post, but a good one w/ lots of yummy food!

Wednesday:

The usual breakfast- coffee & a Lemmon Zest Luna Bar

I had to drive up to LA to go to a doctors appointment, and afterwards I met up w/ Cami to go apartment hunting in Santa Monica. While there seem to be hundreds of apartments available almost all of them were 1 bedrooms : ( The search continues.... We stopped by my favorite vegan restaurant in Santa Monica for lunch, Real Food Daily. RFD is similar to Native Foods, but the food seems to be a bit healthier. I hadn't been in a couple of months, and I was happy to slurp down my favorite acai tea.

The waitress told us about a new appetizer that has yet to be put on the menu. I think it was called a sea patty, because it is supposed to be like a crab cake but made w/ arame and done in a pesto sauce. Cami and I both agreed that it was absolutely delicious. I loved the plating too.

For my main I stuck with my old favorite the club sandwich.

This sandwich is to die for. It was enormous and came with a caesar salad on the side w/ my favorite croutons. It has thick breaded seitan that is crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, crispy salty tempeh bacon, soft chewy bread, loads of creamy vegeneise, lettuce, tomato, and avocado. I'm salivating as I write this.

I was totally stuffed after lunch- when I came home I unwound w/ a glass of chardonnay. I think my kitty apple wanted some too.

My mom made a very delicious white bean, broccolini rigatoni dish, which reminded me of minnestroni soup. I rarely eat pasta because I usually pig out too when I have it, what can I say I'm a carbaholic.

I added meatless meatballs to mine and my mom made a separate batch w/ sausage for the rest of the family.

Here is the recipe- Sauté 1 chopped white onion and 3 cloves garlic in olive oil in a large skillet. Add heads of 2 bunches of broccoli rabbe, and sauté until mostly cooked. Then add 8 cups of vegetable broth and 2 ounces of tomato paste and cook on medium heat until mixture begins to boil. Add ½ box of enriched whole-wheat rigatoni and 1 can of white beans. Cook until al dente.

Thursday:

Looking back on my Thursday eats there seem to be a whole lot of brown drinks, first beginning w/ a cup of joe.

Then I made a smoothie w/ one of Trader Joes's new products, Almond Butter w/ Roasted Flax Seeds. I love flax seeds but I don't eat them enough. I think that this product will replace my normal almond butter from now on.

Smoothie w/ above almond butter, plus ice, half a banana, left over coffee, and half a cup of vanilla almond milk

Brown drink number 2

For lunch I was at the hospital again visiting by grandma, so I had the only thing that looked edible in the cafeteria- a big ole' salad. Mixed lettuce, garbanzo beans, peas, carrots, baby tomatoes, all dipped in a rasberry vinaigrette.

Of course I needed some carbs on the side.I had a whole wheat dinner roll.

As I was waiting to pick up the girls from the bus stop I went and grabbed my third brown drink of the day- blended vanilla ice coffee from Cafe Vienna. Icy deliciousness.

For dinner I hapazardly put something together and had even more peas & corn. I really don't know what I would do without frozen food. Everything from this meal down to the brown rice from Costco was frozen.

Brown rice w/ corn, peas, and meatless meatballs (I added mango chutney & BBQ sauce).

After quickly scarfing down this meal I headed out for a night on the town in Laguna w/ my chicas Dru & Raveena. I think we went to almost every bar in Laguna- first Gina's Pizza for pitchers of Stella (more brown drinks)...

then to Big Fish for mojitos...

then to the Saloon for this crazy yummy pineapple drink where I bumped into one too many people from high school...

then we walked to Blue Laguna, then Hush, and ended up at the Sand Piper where we danced the night away. Here is Dru getting her funk on

and me and her canoodling/dancing? Don't mind my insane roots, i've been refusing to cut/color my hair for the past few months.

It was a really great night, lots of fun- Dru & I did some serious snacking when we got home late night, but luckily I didn't take any photos so there is no evidence except for me feeling bloated this morning. This post is already long enough, so I will share my eats from today w/ you tomorrow.

It's a Wrap

I've been a bit behind in blogging so brace yourself this is going to be a long post. Life gets kinda hectic when your trying to simultaneously take finals & pack up your apartment.

Wednesday:

1/3 cup oats, soy yogurt, crunchy peanut butter, pumpkin pie spice

(pre mixage)

(post mixage)

I normally never eat soy yogurt because the few times I have tasted it, it was really awful. The only reason why I purchased it this time was for my muffins I made the other night, and I had some left over so i tried it with my oats. It was really yummy! I wish I remembered the name of the brand. Of course I had coffee too.

While I was at Starbucks I bought this Gojiberry Granola bar by Two Moms in the Raw. I love how Starbucks carries all of this really great wholesome snacks now. The first time I saw them was when I was stopped off at Starbucks on a road trip to New Mexico and I bought an armful of snacks for the car ride. This bar was delicious! It was super crunchy and oddly enough almost spicy?

You can't beat these ingredients. Raw, no refined sugars, no added oils, 100% organic, 100% vegan.

I was so engrossed with studying that this bar and a coffee sufficed for lunch, and I did not stop to eat until dinner time.

I bought dinner on campus and had the sorina salad w/tofu in a spinach wrap w/ a side of BBQ for dipping, and a bunch of grapes.

Lettuce, tomato, tofu, onions, raisins, carrots, almonds w/ balsamic vinaigrette.

Thursday:

My eats were almost identical to the day before, I was busy cramming for my advanced stats test so I didn't have much time to eat let alone to try and be creative.

1/3 cup oats, 1/2 banana, soy yogurt, walnut bits, and pumpkin pie spice

Coffee!

A wrap again. It was definitely a groundhog day.

This time it was grilled w/ a spinach tortilla filled with lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion, jalapenos, and cucumbers and a side of pasta salad.

I took my stats exam which ended up being pretty tricky. I'm done with school now, yey!!!! Four months of freedom! I cannot even begin to explain how happy I am to be done with school.

After finishing the final I came home to start packing. It's time to say goodbye to my 1st apartment ever where I have lived for the past two years. I'm excited because next year I am moving to Santa Monica which has a lot more going on than Malibu, and Cami and I will still be living together. I can only hope that my new house is even close to as nice as the one I am leaving. I have made a lot of great memories living here w/ my roommates.

My bedroom.

Night table

Inspo board

Living Room

Kitchen (where the magic happens)

Ahh... goodbye Villa Malibu apartments, but not so quick... first I have to pack all of this up! Before getting down to business I enjoyed a snack of 1/2 banana, the last of my soy yogurt (I can't believe this 1 container lasted me 3 days), and a scoop of crunchy peanut butter.

After finishing packing up my desk, I got ready to go out and celebrate the end of the school year. First my friends Cami, Tyler, and Nick, and I went to go get dinner and drinks at Charlies in Malibu. The only other time I have been here was once for karaoke, and I didn't get to try the food.

We started out with a bottle of sauvignon blanc and copious amounts of foccacia bread.

I'm no wine connoisseur, but I would not not recommend this bottle. The bread was delicious though.

For dinner I had the seasonal vegetables- they were very bland, and the waitress offered to have the cook saute them in olive oil, after which they were a bit better but still not great.

After dinner we went out to Irish Pub in Santa Monica called Fin McCool's. It was a great way to finish out the school year.

Here are pics of me & my roommates that I have lived w/ in the past 2 years.

Emily, Cami, me, and Erin.

(yes i think that is my lipstick on Cami's check)

Me, Cami, and Diane (I'm getting Cami back in this one).

Friday:

Thursday was a veerry long night, I'm embarrassed to say what time I woke up at today but let's just say it was way bast breakfast time. I decided to make a very large portion of savory oats.

1 cup oats, peas, roasted corn, shredded soy cheese, nutritional yeast

These oats were the epitome of comfort food. Yum. I could not eat all of them at once so I kept snacking on them throughout the day. While the oats were cooking I munched on some soy nuggets w/ BBQ.

I spent the day packing, packing, packing, interspersed w/ catching up on lost and modern family. I made a smoothie too.

1/2 banana, vanilla almond milk, crunchy peanut butter

I also added a scoop of my roommates hemp protein- I love this stuff it tastes amazing and is really good for you too. This smoothie ended up being my favorite color- green.

i

Isn't it purdy?

I tried to ignore my pounding headache all day, even after 4 tylenols it would not stop throbbing, so finally at 5 in the afternoon I had to give in and grab a Starbucks. I didn't get a picture, but it helped relieve my headache immediately. Oh addiction, it's a b*.

I didn't have dinner until way later, and when I did it was quite odd. My fridge is running low, and I was not sure what I felt like... sometimes I eat really weird stuff. I ended up having spinach and meatless meatballs topped w/ vegan caesar salad dressing. Believe it or not it got even weirder after I took this pic.... I added nutritional yeast and garlic croutons. I know your probably gagging as you read this, but i thought it was quite delish.

Wow that was a long post!