Category Archives: kitchen sink salad

Quesadillas and Serenades!

     Busy, busy day today! I woke up at 7am and hit the gym for an hour and fifteen minutes. I spent 35 minutes on the stair-climber: 35 minutes, 2.92 miles, and 140 floors. The stair climber is no longer my favorite cardio at the gym. Ouch. I did three sets of ten leg presses at 120lbs, then spent the rest of the time attempting to do arm weights (couldn’t because my arms were crying), and crunches (couldn’t because my abs were crying), and stretched out.

     I got back home and blended up an icy Monsta!

This had 5 cups of spinach, 1/2 of a banana, 1 carrot, 2 sprigs of asparagus, 1/2 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 of a cup of frozen blueberries, the juice of a lemon, and a handful of ice.
     Next up: Audition time! I fought the LA traffic, had an amazing audition, then headed over to my friends’ Dan and Malachi’s for some lunchy goodness.
Malachi got all gourmet – frozen chicken, defrosted in the microwave, then sauteed…
While Malachi chef-ed, Dan serenaded us with some lovely acoustic guitar.
That chicken turned into a magical quesadilla with green chilies and cheddar cheese!
Malachi was not pleased with my picture of his quesadilla. It was delicious, though!
Dessert was the same theme: Green Chile Peanut Brittle. I am in love! This stuff is amazing! I’m thinking of taking a road trip just to get some. Or maybe making my own…
I brought the boys some delicious, ridiculously cheap wine (Monte Ducay, $5.99 at Trader Joe’s) in exchange for all of the fooding and serenading.
     After the deLUSCIOUS lunch, I headed over to my parental units’ house for pottery class. FIRST…
Tutti Frutti is always a necessity. I was craving sweets and got red velvet with cookie dough, peanut butter cups, a shortbread cookie stick. Oh, yeah! My eyes were too big for my stomach, and I had about 1/4 of this leftover that got trashed :(.
I also had enough time to make a miniature Kitchen Sink Salad. This had 2 cups of chopped lettuce, 1/2 of a cup of warmed lentils, 1/4 of a cup of egg white salad, and some leftover sauteed zucchini and summer squash.
      When we got to pottery class, we found out that our glazing was finished! Yay!
Here are mine. Meh, not bad for a first try, but EW!
My HikeBikeEat bowl failed. BIG crack down the middle. Oh well…
I made FIVE pieces tonight! My favorite is the one on the far right – my new mug!
These are my mom’s! They turned out AMAZING! I’m only slightly jealous – and by slightly, I mean COMPLETELY!
     We headed back home, stopped by Trader Joe’s and picked up some Panang Curry Sticks and we’re now relaxing, sipping some wine and watching Glee. My life is a fairy tale! I am so content :).
Do you have any artwork you’re proud of? I’ll be posting pics of my favorite craft pieces tomorrey!

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Filed under audition, glazing, green monster, gym, kitchen sink salad, Mom, peanut brittle, Pottery class, quesadilla

Merlot and Fire!

     Farmers’ market! There’s nothing so wonderful – except a farmers’ market that’s not 95 degrees! I had a nice cool breakfast to start my day with.

A Monsta. Duh. 5+1/3 cups of spinach. I have 5 servings of veggies in my before 8am. Boo to the Yah!
Enjoying my Monsta with a view.
Life is good. God is great 🙂
     I spent a lot of the day doing laundry, cleaning my room and the house, and doing all the things I’ve missed while I was gone for over nine days. Getting my room and house in order helps me feel like I have control over my life, and helps de-stress me. Cleaning is so therapeutic! And I’m weird. You all know that by now :).
     After breakfast, I did a little interning for the talent manager, visited the bank to deposit some checks, and headed out to the farmers’ market.
Need eggplant recipes! Anyone???
A jungle of kale and chard. I’ve tried the kale, what do I do with chard?
Normally I’d buy some flowers, but nothing grabbed me today.
Here’s the bounty I returned with. I LOVE VEGGIES!!!!
Lunch was a Kitchen Sink Salad with about 2 cups of mixed greens, a whole chopped red bell pepper, 3/4 of a cup of lentils and some homemade balsamic dressing.
     After sweating through the farmers’ market, I headed back to the wonderful comfort of air conditioning and finished my current book, “Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana de Rosnay. The book was breathtaking until the halfway point, but really petered out by the end. Actually, it was really disappointing. I feel like the author stopped caring and just decided to add some busywork to add some extra pages. Oh well.
     Next up was some chopping in preparation for dinner!
Slicing kernels off of corn, dicing cooked potatoes and sipping merlot. I had a rough night ;).
Dinner was delicious corn chowder, a glass of merlot and an amazing script. I have lots of memorizing to do! It’s so nice to get a script you really can connect to. The last one I felt so strongly about was Summer Campbell, which I just filmed. I have high hopes for this next one :).
     The night was spent sipping merlot, eating a freshly picked farmers’ market dinner and sipping on merlot. Oh yes, and roasting marshmallows.
Roasting marshmallows/setting skewers on fire. Same thing!
     Now it’s 11pm and I have to sign off and head to bed so I can wake up at 6am for a beautiful run on the beach up in Santa Barbara! I feel so blessed in life right now. Thank GOD for his peace and balance 🙂
What’s the most therapeutic activity for you?

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Filed under farmers' market, fire, green monster, kitchen sink salad, marshmallows, Sarah's Key

Back to Retail. Yay.

     Today I had to get back to the grind. It was extremely depressing to go back to retail after having nine days of pure bliss. I may have had a mini breakdown at lunch. Very mini…

     The day started off wonderfully! I had my first Monsta in DAYS and I needed it!

1/2 of a cup of soymilk, 5 cups of spinach, a handful of frozen strawberries and blueberries, 1/2 of a banana and 1/2 of a lemon and 1/2 of a lime. HELLO ENERGY!!!!
     My stomach has massively shrunk since beginning filming. I finished my Monsta, but it was a challenge. This baby kept me full until around 11:30am. I decided that I just hadn’t had enough veggies, so my roommate made us some Kitchen Sink Salads.
We were low on lettuce, so it was mostly warmed lentils, egg white salad and sauteed asparagus in Herbes de Provence. It was a perfect petite meal.
     And then came work. My friend Duck-Duck came to visit, which made it slightly more bearable. It was a pretty dead day, and I had to work in the women’s section. Utter hell. These women fight over sales and will bite you in order to get commission. I am most definitely NOT competitive when it comes to sales. If I ever feel the need to be competitive in my job, I will quit. This was meant to be temporary anyway, and this last week has put a hunger in me for the career I really want – acting.
     My mom came to visit me for lunch and helped calm me down after my mental breakdown. She helped me put together a plan for the next few weeks that involves lots of filmed auditions and focusing on the future instead of dreading my retail job. She helped so muchly. Thanks, mom!
Some Mini Spicy Tuna Roll with Brown Rice helped too. I asked for some avocado to up my healthy fat intake. I needed all the buffer I could get today.
     The day passed by very slowly. I met a new coworker and had some awesome conversations with her, and finally got to go home. I was greeted by this lovely sight:
A glowing glass of Merlot. I may actually be LIKING wine! Who woulda thunk?
     Tomorrow is a day off (already needed), so I’ll be filming some auditions, organizing my room and my life, and interning from home. OH! And I just remembered that it’s Thursday, so I’m going to try and hit up the farmers’ market too! It’s the little things in life :).
I survived my first day back at work. Barely. Time to join a gym and work off my anxiety!

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Filed under green monster, kitchen sink salad, Merlot, sushi, wine, work

Death by Cheese!

     Our neighbor took a trip to Reno, Nevada, and brought back a gift last night for watching over her house.

Cheese bread. Our neighbor is evil… and so wonderful!
     I seriously ate about 1/3 of the entire loaf, then spent the rest of the night feeling like I was going to hurl. After practicing portion control all week, this was massive overload on my stomach. I woke up this morning with a greasy-cheesy-carbalicious hangover. Blah!
     Breakfast was a cleansing Monsta that made me feel all better, and then I headed to work. Coffee was desperately needed, so I headed to Nordstrom’s E-Bar to get a coffee. They have begun listing calories next to their drinks – my usual latte is 210 calories!!! Instead, I got a small brewed coffee with a little soymilk stirred in, and a Luna bar to tide me over until lunch.
“Nutz Over Chocolate” – not too sweet, with a little salty bite. Perfect for the five hour wait before lunch.
     I changed it up for lunch… well, kinda… I didn’t have sushi, does that count?
6-inch on wheat with turkey, extra spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, pepper jack cheese, a little mayo and mustard. A lot of the bread was discarded – the loaves are way too thick! Hooray for healthy Subway!
     When I got home, I poured a glass of “red wine” (Seriously, the bottle doesn’t say Zinfandel or Syrah, it just says “red wine”) from Trader Joe’s and had a KSS.
This KSS just had 1/3 of a bag of chopped baby greens, 1/3 of a chopped bell pepper, 1/3 of a container of egg white salad and a little dressing.
     It was a very healthy day! That is until…
Crap. Apparently overdosing on cheese bread last night didn’t kill my appetite for cheese and carbs. I had two slices of ham, caramelized onions and gruyere cheese tart. 
     Ah well, you can’t win them all! I don’t feel overstuffed, if that’s any consolation. Tomorrey is my day off, so I’ll be hanging with my cousin and friend Allie and doing some shopping, some eating of good foods (in controlled portions) and possibly facial-ing! We’re looking for some cheaper places in the area.

     Side note – my friend Heather has started a Green Monster mission! Heather, blog about it so we can cheer you on :)!

How do you spend your days off?

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Filed under cheese bread, coffee, green monster, kitchen sink salad, Luna bar, Subway, wine

Trailer Trumped

     Here’s a tip: DO NOT go see Charlie St. Cloud. It was long, it was slow, it was PAINFULLY cheesy, and there were way too many violins trying to tell me to feel sad. Don’t get me wrong, this definitely had its tear-jerking moments, and Zac Efron is a great crier with an even better bod, but it wasn’t worth the money paid. My favorite part of the movie was the trailer. Honestly, the trailer definitely trumped the movie, and I wish I’d just watched that and obsessed over how wonderful the movie COULD have been without actually seeing it. Those amazing trailer editors got me!

     Before the whole movie debacle, my parental unit took me out for an amazing lunch at the local Indian restaurant. We split two dishes, and a side of naan.

A slice of naan, chicken tikka masala, and saag. Sorry for the awful plating – I was focusing on my portion-control. I had another half piece of naan after this, as well as a little more tikka masala sauce and a small spoonful of saag. I left satisfied, on the edge of full.
The restaurant has this beautiful courtyard outside.
A little slice of paradise :).
     My mom and I released my dad from our girly-movie grips and headed to the theatre on our own. We were half an hour early, so we each got a child size gelato and sat outside to enjoy the fresh air before heading into the theatre. An hour and a half later, we walked out dazed and chuckling at the complete absurdity that we’d just endured.
     We swung by Trader Joe’s to pick up a few key ingredients for dinner, then headed home and put together this amazing setup:
We all split a plate of Multigrain and Flaxseed water crackers from TJ’s with some smoked gouda cheese, and had big KSSs. Each KSS had 1 chopped and sauteed zucchini with HdP, 1/2 of a cup of warmed lentils, 1/3 of the egg white salad, 1/3 of a diced orange pepper and 1 bag of chopped baby romaine lettuce. The wine of the night was Murphy-Goode’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon – I had one glass and was content :).
     After a leisurely dinner out back, I heated up three chunks of the frozen Summertime Cherry, Banana, Coconut-Butter bread, and made a big mug of tea. The night so far has consisted of good food, good wine, and a LOT of ridiculing of Mr. St. Cloud. It is WONDERFUL to be home, indeed.
What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen? When In Rome gets my vote – I have no idea what possessed me to watch that one!

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Filed under Charlie St. Cloud, Cherry-Banana-Coconut-Butter Bread, courtyard, Indian Food, kitchen sink salad, Murphy-Goode, wine

Quick and Painless!

     I love Green Monsters. I really, really love them. It’s ridiculous how much I crave them every day. I’ve officially crossed the line into crazy in love.

That is me in the morning (sans makeup -aaaaah!), drinking my Monsta straight from the blender. I may have officially lost my mind!
     Since I started off the day with an insane amount of green, I figured, why not go way overboard and have some for lunch as well?
This KSS had an entire bag of chopped baby greens, 1 sauteed zucchini, 3/4 of a cup of warmed lentils, and an entire package of egg white salad. It took me an hour to finish this! LOVE!
     By then, there was just TOO much health and goodness in my system. I figured I should balance it out with something carb-y, greasy and cheesy.
It was so worth it! My pretzel craving is officially quashed. After the past few days of crazy eating, I feel like I’m ready to get back on track… Starting tomorrey of course 🙂
     I didn’t go see Charlie St. Cloud. I decided I wanted to save it for one of my days off when I could fully enjoy it and not be worrying and checking my watch to calculate the time it would take to get from the theatre to work. I’ll be seeing it either Tuesday or Wednesday, and you’ll get a recap then :).
     I’m off to enjoy the beautiful weather we’re having, and to sip my Franziskaner while overlooking the amazing view of the city with my BFF :). Homebody alert!
Do you like to go out and party on the weekends or keep it laid back with a few friends?

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Filed under Charlie St. Cloud, Franziskaner, green monster, kitchen sink salad, pretzel

Sunday Night Bliss

     I normally enjoy Sunday nights, but when I don’t have to work a full shift AND get to sleep in on Monday morning, I love them even more. Today was a good day because it started with a long-awaited Monsta!

FINALLY! 3 cups of spinach, 3/4 cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 cup of frozen cherries, a few chunks of frozen pineapple, lime juice and 1/3 of a banana. YUM.
Since I had a long day ahead of me, I decided to carb up and had two frozen blueberry waffles with agave-maple syrup.
   I was supposed to have someone else to work with today, but she didn’t show up, so I got all the sales and commission to myself. Muahahaha! I had a standing lunch-date with the lovely Vicky who is totally not the one who convinced me to get thirteen cookies yesterday – the ones that I totally didn’t finish or anything, and we stopped by Stone Oven for some of our favorite “fatty sammiches”.
Garlic Basil Chicken Sandwich with Basil Pasta Salad and Unnecessary Caps.
I found a flat noodle! I should send it in to the Guinness Book of World Records! I’m easily amused!!!
    Work took awhile to get through. I spent most of the day reading, and am about 100 pages into Up in the Air. Nothing has happened yet! It’s almost impossible for me to stop in the middle of a book – I’ve only done it once in my life, and I fully intend on going back to that book and reading it through! For now, I’m struggling to find a plot in this one, but I will be finishing it in the upcoming week.
     I came home to an awesome dinner. The roommates had grilled some turkey sausage, bell peppers and onions, and made a big KSS. A tall glass of cider rounded out the meal.
My cider is on my plate. I’m cool like that.
   That sums up my day. I apologize for how boring I’ve been, but such is life. I’ve got a few things to look forward to this week, so these posts will get a bit more interesting. I’m off to enjoy some music and hang-time with the roommates.
Any big, exciting things coming up for you this week?

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Filed under Cider, green monster, kitchen sink salad, sammich, Stove Oven, waffles, work

Last Class!

     Today, a Tuesday in LA, I ate real food! Shocker, I know!

First, I had coffee with my new peppermint mocha non-dairy creamer. FAIL! It tasted okay, but kind of chemically, then when I looked at the ingredients, I found there isn’t a single natural ingredient except for  water. This’ll be going back to the store tomorrow.
Breakfast was powerful! 3.5 cups of spinach, 2/3 cups of unsweetened soymilk, 1/3 a banana, 1/8 a cup of frozen berries and the juice of 2 small lemons.
     I toasted up a slice of my fresh bread and covered it with my new chimichurri sauce!
This tasted like a freshly cut lawn. I don’t know why it always turns out like this. The stuff I buy pre-made from the farmers’ market tastes amazing! I’ll try tweaking my recipe. Any tips to make it taste not-so-fresh-from-the-yard?
     It was a slow drive into the city. Luckily, I had the new Sky Sailing album to cruise along to: such a lovely album. Very relaxing and nostalgic. Go listen to “Brielle” as soon as you can! On the way in, I got hungry so I ate the single banana I’d brought with.
Banana. Exciting.
     Today was my last class for awhile. I’m trying to buffer my bank account, so my class is one of the first to be cut :(. Sadness. It was a great note to end on – adjustment day. We get a scene, perform it in front of the class, then get an adjustment (first half irritated, second half impatient, on this line, throw the paper down, on this line cross to the couch and sit, etc.) and apply it. It’s incredible to see how many actors can’t take direction. It’s much easier to work with someone who’s open to suggestion and able to handle surprises on the fly. After class, I got tons of good-bye hugs and well-wishes, and I was pretty bummed to walk away. Sniff.
     I got to interning around 4pm and had to fill out some booking info for clients. It was a busy day on the submission front and I was go-go-going! My boss wonderfully made me a ham and cheese sandwich when she found out I don’t eat on Tuesdays if I don’t have time to stop by the store, and I inhaled it!
Ham and swiss on wheat with a little mayo. Yum! Thanks, Terry!
     The drive home sucked massively, but when I got back, my roommate had made me a big KSS!
Lots of chopped lettuce, diced bell peppers, sauteed zucchini, warmed lentils and egg white salad with homemade dressing. I’m so spoiled!
I also had a glass of pear cider that I forgot to take a picture of. Take my word, it was delicious.
Dessert was another slice of bread toasted and drizzled with honey.
     I’m getting dozy and watching That 70’s Show, so since I have nothing profound to say, I’ll leave you be :). Good night!
What are some bands that you’re obsessed with? Owl City/Sky Sailing has my obsession over the last year!

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Filed under Class, coffee, green monster, honey, kitchen sink salad, Los Angeles, sammich

Lovin’ the Carbs!

     Good evening! I am completely wiped out from a busy day, so let’s get through this before I pass out! The morning monster was huuuuuuge!

Okay, so it doesn’t look any bigger than normal, but this GM had the most spinach ever included! There was probably about 3.5-4 cups in this. Lovely!
     My roommate and I jumped on the trails around 9:30am and headed down our recently discovered trail. We got to the bridge where we usually turn around, but decided to keep walking and see where we ended up. I don’t know where we were. It was awesome.
We were so busy chatting and enjoying the views, that by the time we turned around, we’d added an extra half hour to the hike. 90 minutes of hiking? Sweet!
     When we got back, I refueled with another mug of coffee, and an indian-spiced KSS.
This had 1/3 a bag of chopped baby greens, 1/2 a chopped bell pepper, 1/2 a cup of warmed lentils, and some of last night’s indian-spiced chicken and vegetables reheated and thrown on top. This was so good! The chicken was still incredibly salty, but when it was combined with a plethora of veggies, it fit right in!
     I ran out to the library to pick up a couple of books that had finally come in: Up in the Air by Walter Kirn, and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Finally I have something easy to read! I love all the beer brewing books and mountain biking books, but sometimes it’s nice just to get drawn into a story and get lost in the book. I’ll be reading The Help first, because that one is a two week loan.
     The Great Harvest Bread Company was next! I stopped in for a free slice of pumpkin-seed bread and bought another loaf of the 9 Grain bread. I’ll be throwing most of it in the freezer since I didn’t get through the last loaf. I made another batch of Chimichurri sauce to spread on top of my new bread :).
I used actual oregano, instead of marjoram like last time (The vendor at the farmers’ market gave me the wrong bunch last time, but the marjoram still worked!).
I love food processors!
I re-used the bottle from the farmers’ market that I based my recipe off of. It fit perfectly and is now chilling in the fridge.
     I pored through the Veganomicon cookbook for awhile trying to find something to make for dinner, but instead opted to go out to The Natural Cafe with my roommate, who was treating.
I got the Local Favorite – my usual. I told myself I would try something new. I knew I was lying…
My roommate got the albacore sandwich and was done with the entire thing before I’d finished my first half. He had to sit patiently while I scraped up every last crumb.
     Since he treated to dinner, I offered up dessert.
Of course we went to Paciugo! Where else would we go? I got a small with peanut butter caramel, chocolate turtle cheesecake and amaretto chocolate chip. The roommate got chocolate. Just chocolate. At a place that has 20 different flavor options. Seriously.
     There happened to be a Vitamix blender on display at Williams-Sonoma, so we dropped by and got a demonstration of the terrifying sound it makes when turned onto high speed. I’ve been obsessing over these for months now and researching everything about them. I WANT ONE!
     It’s now 9pm and we’re still uncomfortably stuffed. Since I can’t fit anymore food into my stomach, I’m going to head over to the Vitamix website and mentally drool a little. 
Are there any amazing books that you’ve read recently?

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Filed under gelato, green monster, hike, kitchen sink salad, Natural Cafe, Paciugo, Vitamix

A Vegan Day!

     Today was a whirlwind! I went vegan for the entire day – mostly by accident, but I changed my tune at the end of the day. It was exhausting! Have you ever tried being vegan for an extended period of time? My brother has been a vegan for 10 years – I think I rebelled again veganism because of that, but I’m open to try again…. maybe…. eventually….

     I woke up to some beautiful “June” Gloom in July, and finally got to start the day with a big mug (or two) of coffee!

It’s been very difficult for me to be at the LBM house where they have no coffee maker! I don’t know how they survive!
     I used up the last of the spinach this morning, and discovered that we were out of berries, so after digging through the freezer, my roommate came up with a bag of frozen mango. Don’t ask me how long it’s been there… I don’t even want to think about it.
2 cups of spinach, 3/4 a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 a cup of frozen mango, 1/2 a frozen banana and the juice of 1 lemon.
     I jumped in my car and got on the highway to head into LA for class. I was running a little late and didn’t have time to stop and get food stuffs, so I grabbed a banana and a kiwi from the fruit bowl before I left the house. Since I ate the banana on the freeway on the drive out, I figured taking a picture would probably be frowned upon by police/other drivers/many people who read the blog.
     Class today was “small, medium and large” day. We got our scenes, ran lines outside for an hour, then came back and got our running order. Basically, the scenes are shown in order from the “smallest”, meaning the most conversational, to the “largest”, which means the most dramatic/comedic ones, that usually include lots of sight gags and screaming. Mine was a medium scene which was mostly just a conversation except for the one line I got to get pissed off and storm out the door. Wheeee!
     My audition afterwards went amazingly! I got to the casting studio early because I’ve been called in to this place many times before, and if you don’t show up early, you end up with a line of 5 people in front of you, which can take up to 45 minutes to get through. After a short wait, they brought me in and I had 2 scenes with the new (and very cute) casting assistant/reader. It always helps to have someone cute to read with when you need to have chemistry in a scene ;-). I got to have a southern accent, flirt, and argue. The CD gave me an adjustment, we ran the first scene again, then did profiles on camera. I spent a few minutes afterwards chatting and reconnecting with the CD, then headed out. Happy, happy times! I don’t think it could’ve gone any better, and for now, that’s good enough for me :).
     When I finally got to the talent manager’s office (about an hour later than I was supposed to because of my audish), I sat down and was treated to an apple/strawberry juice by the sweet older lady who shares another area of the office building.
Lots of delicious fiber and hard work going on here!
I sliced up my kiwi and inhaled it. I used to eat kiwis by cutting them in half and scooping out the insides with a spoon, but I discovered a few weeks ago that the skins are edible, and now I’m hooked!
     Work was really busy! Episodics are finally casting again! The past few weeks have been pretty slow with a few pilots and a few features, but now that the regular shows are back from hiatus, I’m working non-stop with no breaks until I leave at 7pm. It’s hard work, but I really do like it!
     I swung by Trader Joe’s on the way home and picked up a bag of spinach and frozen berries for my monster tomorrow, as well as a bag of lettuce to make a vegan KSS for dinner, and a new beer.
This had 3/4 a bag of chopped baby lettuce, 1/2 a cup of warmed lentils, 1/4 a cup of chopped bell pepper, 2 small zucchinis that were sauteed in olive oil and herbes de provence until soft and caramelized, and a teaspoon of homemade dressing.
     The shocker comes here – I didn’t drink the beer! I just wasn’t feeling it today – are you concerned? Instead I had a tall glass of water, collapsed on the couch and watched an episode of That 70’s Show. Tomorrey will be a day full of hiking, filming auditions, and then working a late shift. I’m looking forward to being back on the trails! It’s been far too long.
How’s the weather in your area? Are you jealous of the Cali chill?

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Filed under Acting, audition, casting director, fiber, green monster, juice, kitchen sink salad, kiwi