Category Archives: Charlie St. Cloud

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!

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

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?

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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?

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

by | June 10, 2010 · 7:40 am

Three Day Weekend!

Have I ever mentioned how much I adore days off? I’m guessing I haven’t, since I’ve been blogging for less than two weeks, but I LOVE days off! I try to cram as much activity as I can into my free days, because when I work my day job, I basically stand around and pace. And yes, this Wednesday is the middle of my three day weekend – all the better to avoid the crowds.
I started the morning with a GM (Are you sick of these pics yet? Too bad!). At least I switched up the glass it’s in:

This one had 2 cups of spinach, banana, soy milk, blueberries and ice. I used the remains of the spinach which tasted about half a day past its prime, and forgot the lemon. This drink definitely needs the lemon juice to cut any spinach flavor! Remember that!
After that Monsta came a long hike. The June Gloom has taken over! I loves me the June Gloom! Any morning I wake up to an overcast sky, I do a little happy dance inside. I’m weird: get used to it.
Half an hour into the hike my stomach started rumbling, so it was time to start planning my next meal. I had a coupon to “buy one, get one free” at The Counter, a build-your-own-burger bar. I was psyched for this and then did something incredibly stupid: I looked at the nutritional facts online. A warning to anyone who wants to enjoy this place guilt-free, DON’T LOOK! Instead of a big, juicy burger topped with fresh guacamole, goat cheese and mixed greens, I had two slices of my dense homemade oatmeal-walnut bread with a tablespoon of flaxseed peanut butter.

These were chilling in the freezer, just waiting to be devoured.
The bread kept me satisfied during a trip to Barnes and Noble, and I got hungry just in time to go to my favorite Thai restaurant. We got there with ten minutes to spare before the lunch special deals ended. Phew! Nine bucks nabbed a starter salad with citrus dressing, chicken pad thai and panang beef.

Have you ever gotten so hungry you just devoured without thinking?
I did. That’s why I had to borrow someone else’s pictures. Oops!
The lovely chef sent out complimentary sweet rice and mango! We used to frequent this restaurant every other week and know the owner quite well. I find that when you become a regular at any restaurant, a relationship develops that is profitable for both the owners and the customers :).
I was zoning out from hunger before lunch, then ended up eating so much that I went into a food coma. The only thing that could bring me out is the elixir of life.

I spent a good year looking for a big, ugly rooster mug! I really wanted one where the rooster head protruded in 3D, but I’m pretty happy with this giant.

Next stop was my all-time favorite place: THE LIBRARY!!! I went a little crazy…

Any guesses as to what my current interests are?
I saw the trailer for the new movie, Charlie St. Cloud, last night and found out that it’s based off of a book. I’m obsessed with reading books before they come out on the big, or small, screen. I’ve most recently read Dear John (haven’t seen the movie yet), The Last Song (also haven’t seen the movie), and Julie and Julia (loved the movie, the book is getting better). I read a book a week when I get the time, more if possible! My name is Bexter and I’m addicted to reading.
Dinner was reheated Thai food and a cup of Trader Joe’s kettle corn. Now I’m sitting back watching The Next Food Network Star and craving some of the salmon that Brad Sorenson made. Ummm, I might have a bit of a crush… No, I definitely do. So cute! And now I want to do some funky pushups. Is anyone else watching this or do I just sound like a crazy person?
Happy midweek weekend!

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Filed under Barnes and Noble, Charlie St. Cloud, FOOD, green monster, hike, kettle corn, lemons, oatmeal bread, pad thai, panang curry, thai food