by | August 6, 2010 · 9:14 am

I Fall Down, Go Boom :(

     Twas a long, long day. All was well until I was leaving work, then I tripped and busted up my knee on the stairs, and proceeded to whimper and sniff all the way home. Now I’m blogging with a fatty ice-pack on my knee, and a small glass of red wine that my roommate poured me to help me feel better.

     I started off the day with a Monsta.

5 cups of spinach, 3/4 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/3 of a VERY ripe banana, 1/4 of a cup of frozen blueberries, a few frozen strawberries, and the juice of a lemon and a lime. The ripe banana REALLY made a difference – really cut out the spinach-y taste and sweetened it up.
     We went on another amazing hour-long hike down to the bridge and back. I LOVE HIKING!!! Afterwards, I refueled with some multigrain and flaxseed water crackers, and a few prosciutto-mozarella-basil slices.
YUM! Lots of protein and some great whole grains!
     I went to work with one goal in mind: to get a free lunch at the farmers’ market. I succeeded! Kinda…
Rainbow chard! Must try soon!
So many things I’ve never heard of!
I ran into my friend Duck-Duck and he joined me on my revolutions for samples. I made about four circles, sampling peaches, plums, sweet breads, apples, orange slices and honey. And that was lunch.
     I wasn’t very full after that lunch – surprise surprise, so I stopped by Paciugo for a child size brown-sugar-waffle-cone, and amaretto chocolate chip to get a few more calories in. As the day wound to a close, I went to Teavana and got a jasmine tea with no sweetener added, and sipped on that while reading “Nick and Norah’s Infinte Playlist” by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: my current book–>movie. It’s actually turning out to be a good read! 
I loves me some jasmine tea!
     Then I fell. The day was ruined and now I’m going to feel sorry for myself, watch some crappy TV and keep sipping my red wine. I’ve upped my allowance to a small glass a day at most. It’s good for my health – CNN told me so.
Have you ever had a sample lunch? One of my favorites (and also unhealthiest) is Costco!

3 Comments

Filed under Costco, fall down, farmers' market, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, ouch, Paciugo, Teavana, whimper

by | August 5, 2010 · 7:33 am

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!

4 Comments

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

by | August 4, 2010 · 9:41 am

Baking and Pottery!

     Today was a perfect day. All of my perfect days start with a Green Monsta! Today, I had a Monster Monsta!

This thing had five cups of spinach in it! FIVE!!! It definitely tasted a little more spinach-y than usual, but in a good way. I could feel myself absorbing that green energy with every sip!
     My roommate and I, fueled up with green, went on an hour long hike down and back up our ridiculously painful trail. It was a hot one outside, but it felt great to finally be moving again!
     After we got back, I threw some of the leftover Oatmeal Blueberry-Cocoa pancake batter into the pan.
The batter really thickened up overnight! I mixed up the leftover mashed banana into the batter and didn’t need to use any to top it.
They were good the first day, but today they were AMAZING! Thick and rich and gooey inside!
     Since I had gone to all the effort to make my CocoButta, I decided to put it to good use and make Angela’s Summertime Cherry, Banana, Coconut Butter Bread. This recipe has been on my mind since she first posted it in June. Prep was very easy – I find that vegan baking setup generally is very fast.
I used the cherries that I pitted, halved and froze last week.
It took a little longer to cook than she stated. Mine was in the oven for roughly an hour.
Delicious and gooey! Overall impression: it’s good, but very, VERY dense. It was so thick that I stopped after 1/4 of a slice. I think next time I’ll use fresh cherries, add another tablespoon of coconut butter, and try a different flour (I used oat flour). I also added 1/4 of a cup of walnut pieces to the batter for some added crunch.
     All that baking made me hungry, and since I’d only had a quarter of a slice of the bread, I threw together a mini-burrito.
A small raw tortilla topped with 1/2 of a cup of refried beans, 3 tbsp of salsa, 2 tbsp of guacamole, 1 tbsp Tofutti’s “Better Than Sour Cream”, all on a bed of lettuce. I finished about 3/4 of this before I was satisfied and made myself stop. So. Hard. To. Stop!
     I did a little work for the manager from home, ate 2/3 of a cup of leftover Potato-Corn Chowder from yesterday, and then it was time to head to POTTERY CLASS with my mum!!!
I was excited and grungy! I wore all old clothes, prepared to get dirty!
     We got to the studio, which is located in an adorable little neighborhood on the beautiful property of the owners/teachers. I wanted to dig up their backyard and transplant it to my house.
We went under an archway that is covered in grapevines, with HUGE bunches of grapes on them! This backyard really is magical and alluring.
     We got inside, got on our aprons, and had a quick lesson on kneading the clay, throwing it onto the wheel, centering it, opening the clay, drawing up the sides, and shaping it. It was really that quick of an introduction, then she let us get straight to the wheel.
Boo to the Yah.
Yay, mom!
     My mom made 3 bowls, a mug and a soapdish, and I made 4 (really, really flat) bowls, and a small teacup. The teacher watched us center, helped us even out the clay, and walked us through every step. It was nice to get right into it and get our hands (and clothes) dirty – I’m not a fan of watching, I like to DO! This class was perfect for me, and I got some awesome girl-time in with my mom :).
     We got out of class around 8:45pm, COVERED in clay (I found some underneath my ear when I washed my face), and headed home. I had a big mug of caffeine-free peppermint tea, and a few water crackers with a little smoke gouda on top. Since I have another day off tomorrey, I’ll be hanging with the parental unit and enjoying being HOME! Charlie St. Cloud might make an appearance too, depending on our lunch schedule :).
What’s your favorite arts/crafts to make?

11 Comments

Filed under burrito, Cherry-Banana-Coconut-Butter Bread, clay, green monster, Home, Ohsheglows, pancakes, Pottery class

by | August 3, 2010 · 9:25 am

Pancakes and CocoButta!!!

     “The Chief” aka portion-control, is going wonderfully! It’s ridiculous how much food I was stuffing myself with. Taking my time to enjoy every meal and starting with smaller portions really cuts down my consumption! As of now, I’m satisfied food-wise, full of chamomile tea, and very happy.

     I did something DIFFERENT today! I made a new recipe… kinda… We were out of spinach for Monstas, so I whipped up some pancakes: adapted from Angela’s Blueberry-Carob pancakes. Thanks, Angela!
Oatmeal Blueberry-Cocoa Pancakes!
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup quick cook rolled oats
1 tbsp Trader Joe’s sipping chocolate powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk
3/4 cup blueberries
1/8 tsp sea salt

In a large bowl, mix together the oat flour, rolled oats, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour the soymilk into the dry mixture and whisk. The mixture will look VERY watery, but don’t worry, the oatmeal soaks it up after a few minutes! Stir in the blueberries.
Chocolate milk!

Pour a HEAPING scoop of batter into a pan that has been sprayed with canola oil and heated over medium for 3 minutes.
See? They turn solid! It’s like magic!

Wait until the tops of the cakes have begun to dry out and the little bubbles have popped (about 2-3 minutes), then flip the pancakes and cook the other side for 2 minutes. Plate and top with some mashed banana instead of syrup!
(I took the mashed banana tip from Angela as well. Delish!)
This made about 12 small pancakes. I had 3, made some for the roommates, and now have some leftover batter in the refrigerator for tomorrey morning :).

     After my awesome culinary expedition, I had to go to work. Sigh. This is how I spent my day:
This is a piece of paper that I sliced into oblivion using a pair of small scissors. It took me 2 hours to do this. I think I need a new job that mentally challenges me a little more…

     Lunch was the same old, MSTRwBR. You should know what that means by now. From now on, just assume that’s what I eat for lunch – If it’s ever anything different, it shall be photographed and blogged about!

     On the way home, I swung by Sprouts to pick up some unsweetened dried coconut to make my own CocoButta! I spent a lot of money on this coconut, so if it didn’t turn out, I would have been bummed!
That’s right, I splurged and spend $1.41 cents on this half-pound of coconut!

     I threw the whole thing into the food processor and pulsed it a few times.
Hmm, that didn’t do much…
7 minutes later…COCOBUTTA!!!!!
(Thanks for the recipe link, Justin!)

     I poured the CocoButta into a tupperware and set it on the counter. I’m still waiting for it to solidify. Am I supposed to refrigerate this? Does anyone know?

     Dinner was made for me by the roommate! I am so freaking spoiled!
1/2 cup of Summer Corn, Bacon and Potato chowder (soymilk was used instead of regular milk), and a glass of Brochelle.

     We took our amazing Zinfandel (Brochelle is EPIC!) outside and spent the evening enjoying the (somewhat blurry, thanks to my camera) view.
Now I’m off to start my “weekend”! I’m really looking forward to making some coconut-cherry-banana bread tomorrow, then throwing around some clay at pottery class with my mum!

What are you most looking forward to this week?

6 Comments

Filed under bacon, Brochelle, coconut, coconut butter, pancakes, potato chowder, summer corn, sushi, work

by | August 2, 2010 · 9:26 am

August Bucket List

     What a beautiful day! I wish I’d been able to get outside a little more, but I had a nice morning to enjoy the sun and fresh air. I started my day with a gigantic Monsta that had 3 cups of spinach, 3/4 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 a banana, 1/2 a cup of mixed frozen blueberries and strawberries, and the juice of half a lemon and lime.

     I headed out to work and made a very important stop to visit one of the most important people in my life.

Mrs. Godiva. She gives me one piece of overpriced candy FREE every month! She loves me!
     I’ve begun a new plan for this month: portion control! I’ve realized lately that I’ve been having way too much of everything. I’m generally comfortable with eating almost whatever I want, but recently it’s been sliding out of control and into massive bingeing. Here are some of my goals for August:
– Eat slowly and enjoy every single bite.
– No more visits to See’s Candies (Godiva is allowed once a month for my free piece).
– No more sugary coffee drinks (To save money, and needless sugar/caffeine intake).
– NO MORE BEER!!!!
Don’t freak out! The no beer rule is only for August. I’m still allowing myself two glasses of red wine a week for health reasons. The last time I quit alcohol, I dropped 8 pounds over the course of the first month, and my beer gut needs to go, especially since I start filming in two weeks!
     Even though I have a new plan (Now known as The Chief – no reason why, I just feel like using a code name), lunch was still the same.
A mini-spicy tuna roll with brown rice and sriracha. I only used about a teaspoon of soy sauce with my sriracha for dipping. Salt is slowly being cut out.
     I did some speed walking on my breaks (My current “strutting” song is “Your Love Is My Drug” by Kesha – perfect for walking to a quick clip), and for a late afternoon snack had Paciugo. This time, I had a child’s size, which is two small scoops, of rocky road and amaretto chocolate chip. There’s really no need for any more than a small taste!
     Dinner was a small bean and cheese burrito made with a raw tortilla that was cooked in a skillet. I had 2 tablespoons of pre-made guacamole on the side.
Have you ever tried a raw tortilla? You can buy them in a regular grocery store in the cheese section. You just plop one of these into a dry skillet and slowly cook it until it looks a little opaque. These are the tortillas that they use in restaurants – the ones that make the burritos so unbearably good that you can’t help but inhale the entire thing. Luckily, this one was small.
     I’ve also made my August bucket list! A few key points:
– Take a pottery class (I start Tuesday night! My mom and I are going to be throwing clay together 🙂 ).
– No See’s!
– Have a 3-hour dinner at a local fancy restaurant with friends (I LOVE having extended meals!).
– Bike up “the Bitch” – a 7 mile bike trail that gently slopes from sea level to 300 feet, then climbs another 350 feet in 1/2 a mile. 
– Finally do my “audition intensive” where I put a bunch of auditions on tape to send in.
– Fax in my contract to Foodbuzz!
– L.A. Blogger meet-up! So excited!
– Cut out the brews and sub in 2 glasses of red wine per week.
– Film a festival short (August 14th-22nd).
– Read the Bible every day – I’m going to be doing a little Bible study in the next few weeks.
     My day was very productive and cheerfull with all the list-making, and I leave you now with some cozy pictures of happiness.
Enjoyed the final beer last night while sitting around the fire pit. Happiness.
Perfection in a fluffy package.
Do you have anything you want to accomplish/do for fun in August?

4 Comments

Filed under burrito, gelato, green monster, Kesha, Paciugo, raw tortilla, sushi, work, Your Love Is My Drug

by | August 1, 2010 · 5:43 am

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?

6 Comments

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

by | July 30, 2010 · 9:18 am

Quasi-Gourmet

     My camera was usurped this morning (the roommate is in Florida visiting his family), so here’s the photo-booth Monster picture of the day:

We had no bananas left, so this had 3 cups of spinach, 1 cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 of a cup of frozen strawberries, 1/4 of a cup of frozen wild blueberries and the juice of 1 lemon.
     It was definitely not epic. Ah well, we shall move on. I had a bunch of errands to do: one that took me to Costco, I.E. lunch. My lunch consisted of samples of chicken-apple sausage, turkey-pesto meatballs and teriyaki meatballs. Not very healthy, but when you’re on-the-go, you can’t be picky. Plus, free lunch is always good, even if it is too few calories :).
     I was going to make Angela’s Cherry, Coconut Banana Bread, but alas, I could not find coconut butter. I tried! I called Whole Foods this morning to ask if they had it in stock: they transferred me a few times and finally told me that they had it in stock. I drove all the way to the store, dug through the baking aisle, and found coconut oil… When I got in line with my coconut oil and 10 cherries, I asked if coconut butter and coconut oil were the same thing. Turns out, they’re NOT! They told me they had it in stock, but apparently had sold out before I got there. Uncool. Whole Foods is on my $h!7 list at this moment >:(.
My cherries are pitted, frozen, and waiting to go on top of the banana bread!
     I searched FIVE other stores to see if they had it in stock, and no one carried it! C’mon! This is SoCal: all the stores should carry these crazy ingredients! Alas, there was no CocoButta. I did find whole-wheat/sweet potato gnocchi at Bristol Farms, as well as Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. Half-win for them! I’ve tried to make my own gnocchi before with a recipe via Giada de Laurentiis, and that was a massive fail (Giada loves her salt. I do NOT!), so I think I’ll stick to store-bought from now on.
     Dinner was the whole-wheat gnocchi with vodka sauce and grilled zucchini, and a glass of Dogfish Head IPA.
“D-Lish”, as my friend Duck-Duck would say :). I ate half of this bowl before I was completely stuffed. Whole-wheat gnocchi is amazing, and fills you up a lot faster than the regular gnocchi so you eat less! Win-win-win!
     I saved some room for one of my chocolate bon-bons from Trader Joe’s (which Lynn coincidentally happened to have today as well! Random, eh?). I’m so stuffed that I could only have one, but I’ll try to fit a second one in later ;).
     As for now, I’m off to watch AWtR, yet again. I’m a corny, naive and innocent lady, so I’ll be watching my sweet movie with another glass of Dogfish and bon-bons and NOT feeling any guilt! Tomorrey I’ll be heading out to see “Charlie St. Cloud” in theaters on the opening day! I’ll give a full review tomorrow night after work!
What movie are you dying to see?

4 Comments

Filed under Charlie St. Cloud, Costco, Dogfish Head, gnocchi, green monster, ice cream, samples, Trader Joe's

by | July 29, 2010 · 9:28 am

Routines, Routines…

     Good Wednesday! Prepare for another quick blog. I’m tired and ready to crash. Let’s start with a picture of the love of my life that I wake up to every morning:

3 cups of spinach, 3/4 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 a banana, 1/4 of a cup of frozen cherries, and the juice of a lemon and a lime.
     This one turned my tongue green! I felt the need to Tweet that. No pictures, don’t worry, a green tongue isn’t photo-worthy, only Twitter-worthy.
     I had a few hours to lollygag around the house, so I caught up on some of my favorite bloggers and whipped up some lunch to fill me up a little before work.
Lunch was a fried egg sandwich on Great Harvest 9 Grain bread. Quick, easy, and full of protein!
     Work seemed exceptionally long. I had to take an early lunch, which made the rest of the day crawl by. I was tempted to get a “fatty sammich“, but instead went for the healthy alternative.
Say it with me now, “Mini-spicy tuna roll on brown rice”. Lunch was followed by a small gelato from Paciugo – I’m ridiculously predictable.
     When I got home, I put together a plate of pepper jack cheese and water crackers. I’ve been having dairy a lot lately, and not having any effects from it… I’m not sure why, but I’m going to go with it, since I can currently have gelato and cheese, the other loves of my life, with no troubles. 
CHEEEEEEESE! Pepper jack cheese is my all-time favorite cheese.
     We were planning on watching Paranormal Activity last night, but it wasn’t available on On Demand, so instead we would up watching all of the dance scenes in Step Up 2 (AWESOME dances! Crappy storyline, but that’s not what we watch it for 🙂 ), and then watched A Walk to Remember. AWtR is one of my favorite movies (such a sweet story!), and is the only movie that is better than the book it’s based off of – at least in my opinion.
     What’s your favorite book -> movie?

2 Comments

Filed under A Walk to Remember, fried egg sandwich, green monster, pepper jack cheese, sushi, water crackers, work

by | July 28, 2010 · 6:47 am

Fancy Lookin’ Foods

     I went off the deep end yesterday food-wise, but today I was (kinda) back on track! I woke up at 5:45am by the roommate who was heading up the coast for a getaway, and just had to get her Monsta in!

No idea what was in this. I was still asleep as I slurped it down.
     I went back to bed until 8am, then got up and had another cup of coffee. Today was my day off – Tuesdays I normally go to acting class in LA, but in order to save some cash, I’ve had to give them up for the time being. My gas tank and wallet are smiling. Since I had so much time on my hands, I decided to make a fancy gourmet lunch.
I reheated some grilled eggplant and zucchini slices and put them between some of Great Harvest’s focaccia with pepperjack cheese, lettuce and garlic-mustard aoili. It was kind of a bummer. It definitely would have been better with fresh tomato and red onion slices, but I made the best of what I had.
     I had to work from home for the talent manager today, so I spent the majority of my day on the computer. Luckily, there was plenty of time to turn on the stove and make a fancy dinner!
Trader Joe’s flatbread with caramelized onions, ham, and gruyere cheese. DROOL!
I had two slices with a side of Poor Man’s Black Velvet – cider and Guinness. Wasn’t a fan – I really don’t like Guinness. Ew.
     Now I’m heading off to watch Paranormal Activity with my roommate: he’s a big horror-film freak like me :). 
What’s your all-time favorite horror flick?

4 Comments

Filed under Black Velvet, Cider, eggplant, flatbread, green monster, Paranormal Activity, sammich

by | July 26, 2010 · 8:26 am

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?

2 Comments

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