Blogger Brunch (or My Adventure at Bottega Louie)

This past Sunday, I had a brunch with a bunch of fellow bloggers. This was the same group of ladies who did the Blognic and the cookie exchange.

This time, we met at Bottega Louie in downtown LA. I had never been there before, but from the reviews I read online and got from my friends, I was excited.

My original plan was to take the lightrail there. The last lightrail stop is a few blocks from my house and it ends a few blocks from the restaurant. But I was still feeling a bit sore from the 5K and didn’t want to risk getting lost and having to walk around a lot.

I managed to find free parking a block away (yay for not having to pay for meters on Sundays!), and went inside to meet the girls.

As I was checking out the menu, I was trying to find something that wouldn’t be too unhealthy to eat, so I went with the mushroom and pancetta scramble.

 

While we waited for our food, I was checking out the restaurant. It’s really nice and open, and even though it was crowded, it didn’t feel packed.

 

One of the girls ordered beignets for the table. I tried a half of one, and it was really good!

 

Finally my food came, and it was good, but nothing special.

 

About half of our table ordered Eggs Benedict and loved them, so maybe I’ll try that next time.

I loved that I got to enjoy some good food and good company. And two of the other bloggers were also at the Color Run so we exchanged stories and advice on how to get clean.

Besides having a fun brunch, the point of this gathering was to plan out some fun workshops and classes that we could do as a group over the next year. We all want to advance our blogs to be the best that they can be (I have a way to go to catch up to their blogs), and we came up with some really fun ideas for 2013. If you blog in LA and want to join us, let me know.

Bar Chloe (or How Being A Blogger Got Me A Free Drink)

Since Monday was my one real day off this week, after I recovered from spinning class, I went out for happy hour.

A friend of mine had suggested Bar Chloe. She had been there before and liked it, although she had mentioned that it wasn’t the cheapest happy hour in town. We decided to carpool since the parking structures in Santa Monica are only free for 90 minutes now.

As I got to my friend’s house to pick her up at 5:30, I looked at the website for the bar and realized that it didn’t open until 6pm. We took our time getting to the bar (and the fact that many lights were out at intersections helped kill some time), and ended up getting to the bar just a few minutes after 6pm.

When we got there, the place was totally empty. But it allowed us to chat with the bartender a lot (I never got his name). The bartender mentioned that he had dreamed up a drink the night before. He wanted to make a Hot Toddy with cherries and brandy and asked us if we’d like to try one. We both agreed.

While we were waiting for the drinks to be mixed up, I took a look around and got a couple of pictures of the place (sorry I only had my iPhone with me).

 

The bartender was looking at me strangely as I took the pictures, so I explained that I was a blogger and wanted to write a post about my happy hour adventure there. He asked me about the blog a bit, and then my friend and I decided to check out the food options with happy hour prices.

 

$5 bites! Not too bad. I had a grilled cheese (I earned it from burning so many calories at Soul Cycle), and my friend had calamari. And just before we ordered, the bartender brought over our specialty drinks.

 

It was pretty yummy and reminded me of a cherry Lifesaver. I had never had brandy before, and it turns out I don’t totally love it, so I only had about 1/5 of that glass (but it was sure nice to have something to warm me up!).

When the bartender handed us our drinks, he looked at me and said that mine was on the house since I was going to blog about them (I feel like I need to disclose that fact).

That was totally unexpected but appreciated.

Overall, I have to say that Bar Chloe was a pretty fun night out. I think the next time I go I’ll order a drink that I know I’ll like (like a Dirty Shirley), and maybe try some food off of the regular menu.

But I will totally be back, but not before 6pm for happy hour!

Pinning Freak (or I’m Going To Turn Myself Into Someone Crafty)

I’m totally addicted to Pinterest. I know a lot of people who are as well.

I’m always pinning awesome recipes, beauty ideas, organizational tips, book suggestions, and even ideas for the future like wedding or baby things. I’m hooked.

I love seeing all the cute baby things that my friends with babies are pinning. And my future sister-in-law is now on Pinterest pinning ideas for their wedding.

A lot of the time, I’ll email my dad some of the things that I’m looking at since he is very crafty. And we have done some projects that we found on Pinterest. One of the big ones is cutting the bottom off of wine bottles so you can put candles underneath. Cutting off the bottom of the wine bottle is pretty tough. I believe my dad has been able to successfully do it 2 or 3 times. I don’t have a great photo of what the wine bottle candle holder looks like, but you can see it behind my birthday bouquet in this photo.

I wish I was crafty enough to do most of the things I see. Just today, I saw a pin on how to make your own glitter tights (perfect for New Years Eve!). If I made them, the tights would probably get glued together and somehow I’d get glitter glued to various surfaces in my house (even if I did the project outside).

So I’m going to start small with my crafty projects from Pinterest. There are a bunch of recipes that I’m going to try soon (and I just got a CrockPot so that’s pretty awesome!). And I found directions on how to make your own dry shampoo for dark hair. I could probably do that without too much craziness.

I know that I’ll probably never been as crafty as the ideas I see, but I’m going to take some baby steps and maybe one day I’ll get close to that. In the meantime, I’m excited to pin silly things like travel ideas, quotes that I like, blogs that I like, and ideas for a dream home in the future.

Oh, and if you want to follow me on Pinterest, you can do so here.

No Stress Dinner (or Not Missing Thanksgiving Dinner Again)

I’ve mentioned how I’ve done the UCLA RFO diet before. I actually did it two times, in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, I did it mainly because I needed a fast way to lose weight before having hip surgery. I started the diet in February and stopped in October so I could eat Thanksgiving dinner.

That Thanksgiving dinner was one of the first real meals I had after being on the RFO program. I was so nervous to eat food, so I spent about 2 months prior to the date working with a therapist on exactly what I would eat. I planned out every bite. I brought my own measuring tools (because I knew I could trust them).

And what I learned is that the meal I planned out was actually more food than I usually would have allowed myself to have. My big weakness is the stuffing, so I do have to make sure I don’t go overboard on it.

In 2007, when I did the diet again, I actually was on the diet on Thanksgiving. Everyone was enjoying the meal, and I drank a 100 calorie chocolate shake. Not so fun.

Since 2007, I really did realize that one meal will not make or break it. It’s how I react to that meal that makes the difference. If I feel like I blew it, I can’t go overboard for a month after (it’s happened), because I screwed up for one night.

So for tomorrow, I’m going to enjoy my meal. I will possibly measure out the stuffing (since it’s at my parents’ house I know I can trust their measuring devices), but I’m not going to stress over it.

Tonight is a fancy meal to celebrate my grandma’s birthday, so I know that I’ll be having 2 big meals in a row. And to keep my sanity, I am not planning on weighing myself again until the middle of next week. The combination of big meals, stress from flying, and taking my panic medications will make me take on some water weight, and I know that the number will be a “fake” number.

My Current Diet (or I Miss Food)

I’ve been on a weird diet lately. And I don’t mean that I’m on Atkins, the Zone, Paleo, or the HCG diet. I mean the food I’m eating is weird.

I had the start of my dental adventure, and next week, it finally ends. I’ve had one permanent crown repaired and I’ll have my temporary crown replaced with a permanent one next Tuesday. For a while, I could not have any food that needed to be chewed. My meals pretty much all looked like this:

 

Not too exciting. I can now  have “regular” food, but I can only chew on one side of my mouth until next week. So I’m being safe and only having soft foods. So a lot of overcooked pasta and soup everyday.

This makes me miss food.

It also brings back memories of the times I was on the UCLA RFO Diet. Basically, it’s an all liquid diet. Everyday, I had 6 shakes that were each 100 calories. I was constantly monitored by doctors (appointments every week, blood draws and EKGs twice a month). I also went to therapy classes there. The first time I did the diet, I did it for 9 months without cheating. The second time, 10 months without cheating. I lost 100 pounds both times.

I missed food so much when I was on the RFO program. All the shakes where so sweet and I craved salt. Eventually, I just got a spoonful of Kosher salt once a week and ate it.

The diet worked while I was on it, but obviously, I wasn’t able to maintain the loss. That’s one reason why I’m trying to do it this time in a “normal” way. I can’t keep bouncing back and forth.

Right now, while I’m not really eating, I keep having dreams (or nightmares) that I’m back on the RFO program. I wake up panicked about it.

I’m so glad that by Wednesday next week, I won’t have to miss food anymore.

I’m A Lazy Cook (or I’m a Fake Vegetarian)

I’ve been making a conscious effort to prepare more of my meals at home. I’m probably going to always stop at Subway every so often for my veggie sandwiches because sometimes when I’m done with work at 9pm, I really don’t want to have to think about dinner.

I’m a decent cook. My mom is an awesome cook, and for some reason, I didn’t inherit her cooking abilities. As long as I have a recipe, I’m good. But I don’t know if I’ll ever be the person who looks at what is in their fridge and can come up with an amazing meal.

The cooking part I don’t mind, it’s the clean up that I hate. Also, I hate that most recipes are for 4 or 6 servings and there’s just me. There are only so many days I can eat the same thing in a row. And when I’ve tried to freeze my leftovers, I end up forgetting about them until it’s a questionable amount of time later.

So I’ve been pretty lazy with my cooking. A lot of salads, a lot of yogurt creations, and once it’s cooler here I’ll make a bunch of soups.

But one thing I’ve discovered is that for some reason, I pretty much cook vegetarian at home. I’m not a vegetarian at all. I love steak. But steak seems to be the only meat you can cook and not have to worry if it’s done enough. Chicken can’t be only partially done. And I’m not too fond of fish. But steak is expensive, so unless I’m having a crazy craving for it, I won’t buy it.

I think I need to get over my issues with eating so many leftovers. Maybe I can try to cut each recipe in half so I don’t have so many meals left over. And I’ve seen single serving recipes before, but that just seems like too much effort for only one meal. I’d like at least one extra serving.

Any recommendations for cookbooks that have recipes that only have two servings? That would be awesome!

Fabulous Lunch Food (or Enjoying Champagne on a Beer Budget)

I’ve mentioned previously that I pack my lunch for work most days. This is for two reasons. One is that we only get 30 minutes for lunch, so I don’t want to waste time going out and getting food. The other reason is that I’m cheap.

I can’t afford to spend $8-10 four days a week for lunch. I’m trying to save money, and one of the easiest ways is to not go out to eat. If I’m going to splurge, it’s going to be on something wonderful, like my dinner at Magic Castle last week.

But bringing a lunch to work can be boring. I do have a fridge and microwave there, but there are only so many ideas in my head for lunches. I’ve gotten bored of sandwiches, even if I add lots of veggies and use nice bread and lunch meat. I’m currently bringing picnic style lunches: some yogurt, a little piece of cheese, some crackers, some fruit or veggie, and something sweet to end the meal with. I haven’t figured out the cost per lunch yet, but I know it’s cheap. And I know that the calories are under 500.

But those picnic lunches are starting to feel a bit tired. I think that I can only do the same type of lunch for like two weeks before it gets boring. So I’m asking you all for some fabulous lunch suggestions. I don’t normally have leftovers because when you get home from work at 9pm, the last thing you want to do it cook dinner.

So please, comment with some lunch suggestions! I can really use them!

Hello (or Tomorrow Never Comes)

I’ve been putting off writing this post for a long time. I wanted to wait until I had an idea of what this blog would be about, or when I had my page looking beautiful, or when I had something amazing to write, or after I had written a lot of posts offline and then was able to post them all at once…

Procrastination sucks.

So, here I am writing this post finally. I don’t know exactly what to say, but I’m saying something. I created this blog because I wanted to find a way to keep me accountable as I try to lose weight (for the millionth time) and as I try to start being more financially responsible. Turns out, being overweight and having credit card debit can be related (http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2010/11/10/debt-and-obesity-whats-the-connection/).

So here I am trying to create a healthy lifestyle and checkbook at the same time. Hope you enjoy my journey. I’m not quite sure where it’s going, but it’s going somewhere.