Category Archives: Food

My New Favorite Happy Hour Place (or Free Hot Dogs)

Posted on August 30, 2012 | Comments Off on My New Favorite Happy Hour Place (or Free Hot Dogs)

Wednesdays are nice at my job because I work “normal” work hours. I’m only there from 9-5:30. And I have a friend who has Wednesdays off, so we normally hang out after I’m done with work.

There are a bunch of good happy hour places near my job (the advantage of working in Santa Monica), but yesterday, my friend wanted to go to Bar Food because it’s down the block from her house.

She had told me about Bar Food before, but I just hadn’t checked it out yet. And I was very happy once I was there. Happy Hour prices were great, and you get a free hot dog as long as you order a drink. I wasn’t drinking, but my friend ordered a drink so I got her hot dog. And then we split an order of fries (which were $3.50).

So since I only had water, my bill for the evening was only $2! Not bad. I did check out the drink menu and there were a lot of yummy looking drinks. I just was exhausted (and haven’t gotten paid for this pay period yet), so water was just fine with me.

Another nice thing about Bar Food is the free parking that’s all around. There are so many places where free parking is impossible to find. The only downside to the free parking in the neighborhood behind the bar was it was a permit only parking area from 8am-6pm. So since I got there at 5:45, I just sat in my car until 6 when I knew it was safe for me to park there.

I’m totally going to be going back there more often! And yes, the free hot dog was pretty good!

 

*I know it might sound like I might have been paid to write this post, but I swear that this is my honest opinion of Bar Food. But if they want to pay me in free drinks for such a positive review, I wouldn’t turn it down. šŸ˜‰

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

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

Posted on August 29, 2012 | Comments Off on 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!

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Cutting Out My Favorite Drink (or Goodbye Diet Coke, Diet 7-Up, Fancy Water)

Posted on August 23, 2012 | 1 comment

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved diet sodas. There was never regular soda in my house growing up, so I truly enjoyed the flavor of diet soda.

At some point in college, my body stopped liking caffeine. Pretty much, my body will have symptoms of caffeine withdrawal pretty soon after drinking it. So I stopped drinking Diet Coke and started drinking caffeine-free Diet Coke.

I also have a love for Diet 7-Up and those no calorie flavored carbonated waters you can get at the grocery store (I’m partial to Albertson’s peach flavor).

In 2006 and 2007, I was on a no food diet. Literally, no food. I would only consume 600-800 calories in shakes each day. It was done at a hospital and I was being monitored each week, so it was safe. But during this time, I craved any flavor other than the chocolate shakes that I survived on. I would drink between 2-4 of the peach flavored no calorie carbonated waters a day. And each of those drinks was 1 liter. That’s a lot of soda. I also drank a lot of caffeine free sodas (I was on a weird orange soda kick for a while).

I’ve cut out most sodas in my life. I’ll occasionally get a caffeine-free Diet Coke at or a Diet 7-Up when I’m at the store. But I never was able to stop drinking my flavored carbonated waters (which I lovingly referred to as yummy water).

But now, Albertson’s doesn’t carry yummy water anymore. Or if they do, it’s in one of the weird flavors like blueberry acai berry. So I’m taking this opportunity to make a serious attempt to limit my fluid intake to water (and the occasional alcoholic drink).

This isn’t just a health thing. Sodas are expensive. Those yummy waters are $1 each. It adds up. I’d rather spend my money on paying off my debt or enjoying outings with friends.

I’m not going to try to cut out sodas and yummy waters completely. I feel like that is setting myself up for failure. Instead, I’m going to say only 2 sodas or yummy waters a week. And once that seems easy, I’ll cut it down to 1 a week.

So I had a caffeine-free Diet Coke today to say goodbye. I’ll see you again soon.

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Posted in Food, Saving, Weight Loss

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Continuing the Birthday Celebration (or Eating at Benihana for Free!)

Posted on August 16, 2012 | Comments Off on Continuing the Birthday Celebration (or Eating at Benihana for Free!)

Last night, I enjoyed another birthday perk. If you sign up for the email list at Benihana, you get a $30 gift certificate to use for yourself in your birthday month! I don’t frequent Benihana, but this is a deal that is tough to pass up.

The $30 can only be used on your food, so I got the filet mignon and a strawberry lemonade. I ended up going only like $1 over my $30. And then my friend who joined me got to splurge and get scallops because she and I just split the bill.

It was a fun festival dinner, and you can never go wrong with having a free meal. The only obnoxious thing was it seemed like everyone was celebrating a birthday in the entire restaurant. And at Benihana, they don’t just sing “Happy Birthday”, they shout it in very shrill voices.

After hearing the singing over a half-dozen times, I made sure to ask the waitress if they could skip singing to me. She looked at me a little confused, but when I explained that I had a headache, she completely understood. That made the meal a little better.

Oh, and an added bonus about going to Benihana? On MyFitnessPal there is already a category for the calories in all the sides that come with a hibachi meal (soup, salad, shrimp, vegetables, tea)!

I managed to have a free meal and stay under my calories yesterday! Double win!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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Birthday Hangover (or I Feel So Loved)

Posted on August 10, 2012 | 1 comment

I had a fabulous birthday yesterday! Even though I had to work an 8 hour shift, I still had time to enjoy it.

Thank you to everyone who posted on my Facebook wall, who tweeted at me, and who texted me!

Thank you to my family for getting me such awesome cards. Thank you to my parents for my awesome flowers. And thank you to my brother and future sister-in-law for my AppleTV.

Also, thank you to my boss who got a yummy ice cream cake for everyone at my work to enjoy (birthday calories don’t count, right?).

;

I still have a few more birthday adventures coming up such as going to the Hollywood Bowl to see Liza Minnelli, dinner at Benihana (you get $30 there for your birthday), and eventually another trip to Medieval Times.

But for now, I’m getting back on track with food and finances!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food

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Fabulous Free Food (or Why I Love My Birthday Twin!)

Posted on July 30, 2012 | 3 comments

If you ever want to go and eat out at lots of places and not spend money. Just wait until your birthday! There are entire websites dedicated to where to can eat free on your birthday.

One of the places that I go to each year for my free meal is Truxton’s. For your birthday, you get a free entree and a free dessert! For some reason this year, I got my birthday coupon in July, and it expires on August 14th, so I knew I needed to use it.

Every year, my friendĀ Joanna joins me for the free meal (she also writes a blog). Her birthday is also August 9th, so that’s just awesome. And when we go to Truxton’s, we both get a free entree and dessert.

So this weekend, we went. We made sure that we both had our birthday coupons printed out.

And we enjoyed our meal! I knew ahead of time that I would have a huge dinner, so I planned my earlier meals accordingly. This is one of those times that I am happy to splurge! (In case you were wondering, I had a 1/4 rotisserie chicken).

After we both had our meals and our desserts, we were stuffed! But we couldn’t help but smile when the bill came.

Since we both only drank water, our bill was exactly $0.00. We did leave a $10 tip, so the meal wasn’t completely free, but still.

I’m looking forward to all the free meals and experiences I get to take advantage of in August!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food

Sharing the Truth (or It’s Time To Rip Off the Band-Aid)

Posted on July 26, 2012 | 11 comments

There are some things that I just love to share with everyone (I mean, hello, I’m writing a blog!). But there are other things that I either keep to myself or share half truths about.

I’ve found that being secretive like this is dangerous. When something isn’t out in the open, it eats you up inside.

The two main things I’ve been secretive about in the past are my issues with food and my credit card debt.

I kept my credit card debt a secret because I didn’t know anybody else with debt. Maybe student loans, but not credit cards. Nobody in my family really has credit card debt. I was taught to always pay off the full balance each month. And I did do that for a while. But then I found myself without a job. And I still had bills to pay. So they went on my credit card. And now, I have debt.

But I’m working my way towards paying it off. It’s going to take some time, but I’ll do it. And once I started telling people I had debt, I started hearing from other people that are in the same situation as me. For some reason, people don’t like to talk about it, so it feels like something to be ashamed of. But it’s not. So here I am saying that I have credit card debt, it sucks, but I’m working on paying it off.

My issues with food is something harder for me to discuss. This is something that I’ve dealt with my entire life, and I’ve only been honest with myself for the last few years. For those of you who don’t know me that well (or I just haven’t told you this yet), I have an eating disorder. I’ve probably had it most of my life, but it was only properly diagnosed when I was in college. The thing that sucks the most for me is that I don’t have anorexia or bulimia, I am a binge eater. And that seems to be the eating disorder that isn’t as studied or as common to hear about. Most people are pretty secretive about having it. So as I’ve tried to get treatment, it’s very difficult to find someone who understands my disorder and doesn’t try to treat me as a bulimic.

So revealing this to you all is a big step. And I only had the courage to do it after something that happened yesterday. I was out at happy hour atĀ BodegaĀ with my best friend. She and I have been friends for 20 years, so she’s more than just my best friend, she’s my family. We were deciding on what food to order for dinner when I had mentioned that I hadn’t really had too much food that day. I was saving my calories for happy hour. I wanted to prove it, so I got out my phone and showed her my food diary I keep onĀ My Fitness PalĀ (which is an awesome app). We were laughing about it and she mentioned that she uses the app too. For some crazy reason, in my head I only thought that people who use the app are people struggling to lose weight. But my friend doesn’t have a weight problem. She’s super in shape and has even done a marathon before!

And then it hit me. Keeping track of your food is something that normal people do. Just like how I’m not the only one with debt, I’m not the only one who tracks my food and workout calories. Somehow, this made me feel so much better. I don’t need to be ashamed of tracking my food and trying to live a healthy lifestyle. This is what I should be sharing with everyone.

So I am.

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Posted in Food, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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

Posted on July 24, 2012 | 1 comment

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!

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