Category Archives: Food

Blogger Cookie Exchange (or Why I’ll Have A Sugar High For Weeks)

Posted on December 18, 2012 | 1 comment

After all the sadness on Friday, I was glad that I had something fun to look forward to this past weekend. I had previously attended the Blognic, and the same group of bloggers decided to organize a blogger cookie exchange!

The deal was that we would all make 6 dozen of our favorite cookies, bring them to the event, and we’d leave with lots of different types of cookies to enjoy over the holidays! I had never been to a cookie exchange before, but I was in.

I searched Pinterest for easy to make holiday cookies, and I found a recipe for Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip cookies (recipe to come tomorrow!). The recipe involves cake mix, so I figured it couldn’t be too bad.

I made my (almost) 6 dozen and brought them to the event on Sunday.

The cookie exchange was held at Amanda from LoveCreative‘s house. And I have to say that she has a gorgeous house and did an amazing job decorating it! The cookies looked pretty amazing too.

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Amanda even set up a hot chocolate bar (I added marshmallows but skipped the candy cane and Bailey’s)!

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I enjoyed getting to spend some time with all the bloggers and getting advice from them all. I also enjoyed having some fun back in my life.

I had to leave the cookie exchange a bit early because I had my final night of Porter Kelly’s commercial acting class, so I filled up my to-go box and headed out the door.

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Also, Amanda had collected all the recipes for the cookies ahead of time, so we all got to take home a super cute recipe book!

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Thank you so much fellow bloggers for welcoming a blogging newbie! I’m really looking forward to fellow blogging events! And if you are a blogger and want to be invited, let me know!

And just so you can learn more about all the fabulous ladies who attended, here are all of their blogs:

Rachel (Lupa & Pepi)

Jennie (Garlic My Soul)

Kelly (Studio DIY)

Sarah (Very Sarie)

Amanda (LoveCreative)

Irene (Design Stiles)

Mindy (Budget Fairytale)

Jessie (You & Me Events)

Amanda Jean (Jean & Gene Creative)

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

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Alternative Motivation (or Why Can’t I Transfer My Dedication From One Area to Another)

Posted on December 10, 2012 | Comments Off on Alternative Motivation (or Why Can’t I Transfer My Dedication From One Area to Another)

On Friday evening, I attended the Actors’ Network annual holiday party. I love this holiday party! It’s a great mix of industry types and I always run into people who I don’t see as often as I’d like.

I haven’t been able to go to many Actors’ Network events since starting my new day job in May. Most events are between 1 and 7:30pm and I pretty much always working then. I plan on attending more events when I’m (f)unemployed soon.

As I was chatting with a friend who I hadn’t seen in almost a year, we were discussing what had been keeping us busy. I mentioned this blog, and they asked me about it. I said how I just recently passed 100 blog posts and they commented on how motivated and dedicated I must be.

I always have thought of myself as someone who needs more motivation in life. If I was a motivated person, I shouldn’t have a weight issue. I would be motivated to eat better and exercise more.

But the more I thought about it, it’s true that I’m really motivated.

I’m motivated to write every day here, and I’m super happy about that. I love thinking of what to write about and what you will all think about it.

I’m also really motivated in my job, which is good.

I’m motivated to keep acting. I know that one day I’ll “make it” and it will all be worth it.

I’m motivated to watch my favorite tv shows even when I’m tired (this might not be the best one, but it’s true).

I just can’t find the motivation all the time for my health. I don’t know what the block is in my brain. I want to do it, but I can’t seem to do it. I don’t know if I’ve convinced myself that I don’t have enough time/energy/whatever to do it. But now that someone else has made me realize that I do have a motivated personality, I’m going to work on figuring it out.

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Posted in Acting, Fitness, Food, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss, Work

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

Posted on December 7, 2012 | 3 comments

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.

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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.

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Posted in Beauty, Food, Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Aria V Wine Shop (or Another Living Social Win!)

Posted on December 6, 2012 | 1 comment

I’ve had some good Living Social deals and some pretty awful ones. And over the summer, I had seen a deal for 12 wine tastings plus 2 appetizers at Aria V Wine Shop in Culver City. Seemed like a decent deal to me since it only cost me $25.

The deal was going to expire next week, so yesterday my friend Kate and I decided to finally test it out. It was located in a kind of weird area of Culver City (almost under the 405 and right next to a shut down hospital). But we managed to find some free street parking around the block and headed inside.

It’s actually located inside the Polentoni restaurant (so if you are going look for that sign), but inside a little private room. When Kate and I got there, we were the only ones in that room, but it quickly filled up.

We explained to our waiter that we were here for the Living Social deal and he explained that we could choose 2 appetizers that were priced at $12.50 or under and then 6 wines each to taste that were priced at $42 a bottle or under. Anything over that and we would just have to pay the difference.

We checked out the menus.

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I asked our waiter if I could get the Prosecco as 2 of my tastings and then pick 4 more and he was ok with that.

We got our food.

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(I ate lightly earlier in the day to save up for these calories).

And when our “tastings” arrived, we were shocked by how generous the pour was.

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I’m a pretty lightweight when it comes to alcohol, and there is no way I could do 6 tastings like that!

In the end, I had 2 glasses of Prosecco and one glass of a rose that the waiter had selected for me. And Kate had 3 glasses of Italian reds that the waiter had selected for her (one was called a Super Tuscan, but I don’t know the rest).

As we were brought the bill, the waiter also brought us glasses of their special holiday mulled wine.

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It looked and smelled delicious, but personally I didn’t like it very much.

And when our bill arrived, it proved that we got our moneys worth on this deal.

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We left a very nice tip.

I’ll totally go back to Aria V, even if I don’t have a deal for it. It was yummy, the atmosphere was fun, and it’s pretty close to my house.

And I’ve been in a bit of a funk the last few days (the work schedule and lack of sleep is getting to me a bit). But nothing can bust you out of a funk better than hanging out with your best friend and having moments where you are laughing so hard that you are crying.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Saving

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Maybe I Should Be A Wine Drinker (or How We Spent My Grandma’s Birthday Dinner)

Posted on November 27, 2012 | Comments Off on Maybe I Should Be A Wine Drinker (or How We Spent My Grandma’s Birthday Dinner)

One of my family’s traditions at Thanksgiving is to go out for a really nice dinner for my grandma’s birthday. Her birthday falls around Thanksgiving, and we either go out the night before or the night after Thanksgiving.

This year for my grandma’s birthday, we went to Plumed Horse in downtown Saratoga. This is totally a place that I could not afford on my own (the menus didn’t have prices on it, so you know it was very expensive).

The food was unbelievably good. We could order up to 4 courses, but most of us seemed to get 3 (appetizer, entrée, dessert). But since there were 2 appetizer courses, if you hadn’t ordered something to go for that course, they brought out a treat. My first appetizer was a green salad (my choice), my second appetizer was a parmesan black pepper soufflé (their choice), my entrée was a steak, and for dessert I had the Meyer lemon soufflé. The portions were on the smaller side, so even though I felt stuffed after the meal, it wasn’t too bad.

One of the highlights of the restaurant was their wine cellar. The head waiter for our private room gave us a tour of it. There are hundreds of bottles and the floor is clear so you can see everything in the basement.

 

For the meal, we had some red and white wines for the table. I really don’t like red, so I had a little of the white. But I really wish I could have ordered one of the yummy sparkling wine bottles I had seen in the cellar.

 

It was a great evening. Almost the entire family made it (one of my cousins wasn’t able to fly in until Thanksgiving day). And I’m glad I had a super cute little black dress to wear too (I got several compliments on it).

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

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Thanksgiving Recap (or My Attempt At Blogging From an iPad Today)

Posted on November 23, 2012 | Comments Off on Thanksgiving Recap (or My Attempt At Blogging From an iPad Today)

First of all, if this blog looks weird, I’m blogging from an iPad. I did buy a wireless keyboard to use with it in the future (thank you Apple Store for doing Black Friday online), but for now, it’s the touchscreen and an app.

Thanksgiving was awesome. Lots of good food and fun with my family. My mom made an awesome turkey.

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Even my dog wanted to eat it.

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While we were waiting to eat, we started playing with my cousin’s kids’ sticker set. And of course, in our silliness we took pictures.

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Our table looked beautiful and I made a nice plate for myself (even though I didn’t calorie count, I don’t think I went too overboard).

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Today is another family day, and then tomorrow I’m back to LA and hopefully back on track with everything.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

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Happy Thanksgiving (or Hope You Are Spending Time With Those You Love)

Posted on November 22, 2012 | Comments Off on Happy Thanksgiving (or Hope You Are Spending Time With Those You Love)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I’m at my parents’ house spending time with my family (all 4 generations of us). Yesterday, we went to my cousin’s ultrasound and found out she’s having a boy!

This is going to be a short post because I’m trying to help out with the table settings and the food.

I just wanted to say how thankful I am to have all of you reading and joining me on my journey!

Now time to google now long we need to cook the turkey! 😉

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

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No Stress Dinner (or Not Missing Thanksgiving Dinner Again)

Posted on November 21, 2012 | Comments Off on 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.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Tough Stuff

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Trip Prep (or Guess I’ll Find Out Who Reads My Blog Soon)

Posted on November 20, 2012 | Comments Off on Trip Prep (or Guess I’ll Find Out Who Reads My Blog Soon)

It’s almost time for my Thanksgiving trip! Thanksgiving is a big holiday for my mom’s side of the family. We all get together every year. It rotates whose house it’s at, and this year it’s at my parents’ place.

I’ve been busy getting all my clothes and stuff ready for the trip (Thanksgiving is casual but we also have a fancy dinner for my grandma’s birthday another night). I’m also helping out my mom a bit by doing the place cards, so I’m bringing those in my suitcase. And I also have Hanukkah presents for my mom, dad, brother and his fiancée (it’s cheaper than shipping it all to them).

There will be 15 members of my family over 4 generations at Thanksgiving this year. I personally thinks that’s awesome and I feel lucky that we are all able to gather every year.

I’m so excited to see my relatives. My cousin is expecting her 3rd baby and we are going to find out the gender tomorrow! My cousin’s son and I have a super special bond and I can’t wait to see him and hear all about his adventures in school. And there’s one aunt that I’m super close to (we speak every week), and I’m happy to see her in person to discuss all of our favorite TV shows.

But I’m also a little nervous this year. I know that there are some of my relatives who read this because they’ve mentioned something to me. But then there are other relatives who I have no idea if they’ve read any posts or even know that I have this blog. I have revealed things on here that I’ve never discussed with my family, and I really don’t necessarily want it brought up at dinner.

Obviously, all of my family has known for years that I have a problem with my weight, but I don’t think anyone really knew that I have an eating disorder (and have been through some treatment for it). And I can guarantee that nobody in my family outside of my parents knew that I had any credit card debit.

I don’t want Thanksgiving to be any different this year know that I’ve made this information about my life public. I’m hoping that either we will casually discuss this blog or it doesn’t come up at all.

Just want dinner to be filled with our old traditions. Which include someone making a big announcement at dinner (it’s usually my cousin announcing she’s pregnant but I wonder what it will be this year), watching a kid’s movie at some point (this year, it’s “The Brave Little Toaster”), and something making us laugh so hard that we cry.

All of us (minus my cousin John) at Thanksgiving last year.

 

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

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Work Lunches (or Prepping for The Week)

Posted on November 14, 2012 | 1 comment

I’ve set a mini-goal for myself this week: I’m going to remember to bring my lunch to work all week this week. There have been too many days where I make a lunch and then it ends up getting left on my kitchen counter to spoil while I’m at work. And then I either have to not eat anything until after I’m out of work at 9pm or I have to spend my 30 minute lunch running around finding something to eat.

Part of remembering my lunch involves cutting down my lunch prep time. For some reason, the longer I spend getting my lunch ready in the morning, the more likely I am to forget it (I don’t know why, it just is). So I wanted to make something on Monday (when I had the day off) that would last me throughout the week and would taste yummy.

I decided on making a pasta salad, and while doing a search, I found Greek Pasta Salad from EatingWell (you can click on the link for the recipe). I’ve had one of the 4 servings already, and this is a delicious pasta salad! And I’m sure the longer it sits in the fridge, the better it’s going to get!

So now, my fridge looks like this:

 

I’m ready for my week, and hopefully I’ll meet my mini-goal!

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Posted in Food

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