Tag Archives: lunch

Quick Family Visit (or My Extra Long Lunch From Work)

Posted on December 9, 2013 | Comments Off on Quick Family Visit (or My Extra Long Lunch From Work)

My parents were driving down to San Diego this past Thursday. Originally, the plan was for me to go back down to San Diego again this past weekend and spend time with them there. But my schedule wasn’t going to allow me to be there for too long, so the new plan was for my parents to stop in LA for lunch with me.

My boss at my day job okayed me taking a long lunch that day (as long as I was back by 6pm because I was running a table at the show that night). My parents got to my work around 2:30 with my dog. I was so excited to get to see Dante again! After his diagnosis, I wasn’t sure how many more times I’d get to see him, that’s why I took the quick visit home a few weeks ago. And of course, I was excited to see my parents again.

We went to lunch near my work and had a nice chat. My parents wanted to know all about the film festival and other things going on in my life. And of course, my dad and I chatted about my spin class.

After lunch, we drove down near the Santa Monica Pier and took Dante for a walk. He’s doing so much better compared to the weekend I was home. His incision is healing nicely and he can walk properly again. You can see the tumor on his leg growing again, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting him. And every time we passed another dog, Dante perked up and wanted to play with them. It was nice seeing him act like his old self again.

Before I knew it, my parents drove me back over to my work so they could continue the drive to San Diego (it should only take 2 hours from my work, but it ended up taking them 4). But before they left, we exchanged Hanukkah presents. I got my mom tinted lip balms (I use them and she tried mine and liked it when we were at my brother’s wedding). And when my dad was visiting me a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he needed to buy a new belt. Right after my dad left, I got an Uncommon Goods catalog and saw this belt that was made out of recycled bike tubes. So I got him that and I think he loved it! I also got my brother and sister-in-law presents but I haven’t giving them their gifts yet so I can’t share what they are.

And my parents got me noise canceling headphones! I had mentioned after flying to and from Hawaii that my ear buds weren’t that great on the plane. I could barely hear my movies and that I really should invest in better headphones. I’m so excited to have my new headphones and I’m planning on using them on my flight home soon!

Even though I only got to spend a few hours with my parents, it really revitalized me. I got to see that my mom and my dog are doing great. And it helped me get over the weirdness that I felt over Thanksgiving. I’ll be seeing my family again in about 2 weeks and that time I’ll get to see them for a few days. I’m already looking forward to that!

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Back Into The Groove (or Staying On The Right Path While At Work)

Posted on October 31, 2013 | Comments Off on Back Into The Groove (or Staying On The Right Path While At Work)

I’ve been back at my day job for a week now. And it feels like I never left (not necessarily in a good way). I’m back to being on the phone for 8 hours trying to sell memberships and tickets. So far, it hasn’t been the most productive time, but that’s typical for this part of the year (plus we don’t have any shows going on for another week and a half).

Yes, I’m missing my free time. I haven’t been going to spin class as often as I want because I have to work around my work schedule. I’m still trying to figure out a better way to go before work and have enough time to get ready. Right now I’m cutting it very close.

The one thing that is going my way right now is food. I’m doing so much better this time at work with my meal planning. I’m not sure why it’s gotten easier, but maybe I’ve finally gotten used to it.

I’m pretty boring when it comes to my breakfast. I’m either eating eggs and toast or peanut butter on toast. And for dinners I’m either getting a veggie sandwich from Subway or my latest dinner obsession is heating up some of the frozen pre-cooked chicken breast strips from Trader Joes and then putting that on top of either brown rice or veggies (I’m using the cooked frozen brown rice that cooks in 3 minutes and the Organic Foursome frozen veggies, both from Trader Joes). I’m not sure why I’m obsessed with this meal, but it’s healthy so I’m going to keep eating it.

Lunches have always been tough. Last week, there was a day that I forgot the lunch I made, so I had to go get something. It’s tough when you only have 30 minutes to eat, but I was able to go over to 7-11 down the street and pick up a yogurt and a banana. That held me until I had my dinner at 9pm. But most days I’m remembering my lunch. I typically bring either a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a pre-made salad from Trader Joes (can’t you tell what my favorite grocery store is?) and some fruit. While I’m getting pretty hungry toward the end of my work shift, I’m staying in my calorie range pretty much every day.

I’m hoping I finally turned a corner in my meal planning. The next step would be to stop relying on so many pre-made things and cooking more from scratch, but that’s going to be a slow process. I don’t want to be cooking at 9pm when I get home if I have to be at work the next day at 9am. So most of my cooking will have to be done on either one of my half shift days or on my one day off.

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Working On Figuring It Out (or I Wish This Was Easier)

Posted on July 23, 2013 | Comments Off on Working On Figuring It Out (or I Wish This Was Easier)

I was starting to get into a good flow with my food. I’ve been making much more stuff at home and remembering to take it with me to work for lunch. And this was great for a while.

Until I got to my two half days of work where there isn’t a lunch scheduled. Somehow, that got me all mixed up. I forgot to eat lunch those days and was so starving my dinnertime that I didn’t make the best choices for myself.

It’s tough on those days because I’m trying to get so much stuff done. On Fridays, I work from 9-1, so I have a good portion of my day free and like to try to get some errands done. This past Friday I left work in Santa Monica, drove to West LA to go to OSH, drove to the far side of Culver City to return some things I ordered online, then went home. By the time I got home, it was almost 4pm and I didn’t want to eat a super late lunch or a super early dinner.

And yes, I’m aware that the smart thing for me to do would be to go and get some lunch before running errands or bringing something with me that I can eat on the run. But I don’t think of doing that when I’m rushing out to work for my early shift that day (also, I don’t get home until after 9pm the night before so I’m rushing around from the time I get home the night before until I leave the next morning). I also don’t want to spend a lot of time eating lunch because I really want to maximize those hours I have (and I’m working on figuring out how to fit in a spin class too).

I had a similar problem on Sunday, which is my one day off. I got up at my usual 7am (it really is better if you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day) and was cleaning my house and running errands as soon as I woke up. And at 2pm, I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything yet and had to time out when to have lunch and dinner.

It’s tough to schedule out my meals when everything else isn’t crazy scheduled. I never know when I’m going to be doing my errands, and sometimes if I’m not hungry, I don’t want to force myself to eat.

I’m hoping that I start to figure out how to plan on my unscheduled days soon. Even though I’m eating great 4 days a week, those other 3 can really go wrong and screw up all my hard work!

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Trying To Cook (or Eating Something Different From Day To Day)

Posted on July 10, 2013 | 1 comment

I’ve really been trying to be better with my food. I feel so much better when my food is something nutritious (and not just something that stays under my calorie goal for the day).

On the mornings that I go to spin class, I have a specific breakfast plan. I have a chai tea protein shake that I get from the grocery store that I’ll drink before class. I usually drink half of the shake before class and the other half when I get home. This way, I’m not working out on an empty stomach or feeling too full in my workout (both make me feel very nauseous). I usually have a second breakfast closer to when I go to work at noon (since my lunch break isn’t until 4:30pm). It’s been working well for me.

On the non-spin class mornings, I have been in a bit of a breakfast rut. I like to eat eggs because they keep me full and are good for me, but most days I do scrambled eggs (2 egg whites and 2 whole eggs). But I’ve been working on being creative. The other day, I made this awesome breakfast.

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Toast with mashed avocado on it topped with a sunny side up egg (with a drippy yolk). It was so simple, yet so delicious! And it was very very filling!

I’m also getting better with bringing my lunch to work with me. I’ve discovered these really amazing containers that I love to use for my lunches.

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It’s a 3 compartment container, and it fits perfectly in my lunch bag. For this particular lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, sliced strawberries, and a piece of flattened banana. I’ve also brought salads in this container with fruit or protein in the smaller compartments.

It’s funny how the simplest thing can help me on my goal to bringing my lunch with me to work!

And speaking of simple things that help make big changes, I’ve been working on drinking more water at work as well. For some reason, I do fine at home, but not at work. And then it hit me. The straw in my cup at work is significantly bigger than the straw in my cup at home (I always try to drink water with a straw). Once I switched out my cup, my water intake at work got much better. It’s such a stupid little change, but whatever works! Right?

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No More Novelty (or How Do You Stay Interested?)

Posted on June 25, 2013 | 2 comments

Whenever I start something new in my life, there is a sense of novelty with it. I remember when I moved into the house that I live in now and I realized that I had my own trash can (as opposed to a dumpster that all residents share). I remember telling my dad how now I have to take my trash can to the curb on trash day like a real homeowner. Now, I’m annoyed on trash day if I’m at work and I forgot to take the can to the curb. I’m sure that I was also excited at first to pay bills. Now they are just something else that I have to do (there is no fun in paying bills).

When I started work again this season, I was having fun bringing my lunch to work. I’d make salads, sandwiches, or bring a bunch of snacks to eat. It was fun to know that I was doing something good for me (and not spending money going out to eat at lunch). But I’m getting bored with my lunches. There have been many days where I’ve just forgotten to pack my lunch, and I have to go out to get something.

I’ve looked up a lot of non-sandwich lunch things, but a lot of them involve cooking or using leftovers. Since I don’t make dinner most days (I really don’t want to cook when I get home at 9pm), I don’t have leftovers.

I’m trying to think of new ways to make sure that I don’t have to spend money I don’t have to spend on lunches every day. Maybe I need to cook at 8am on the days that I don’t leave for work until 11am (and just put the freshly cooked food in the fridge immediately). I don’t know if I really want to do that with my mornings (or make my house smell like that as soon as I wake up).

I’ve also thought of letting my slow cooker go overnight, but the idea of sleeping while something is cooking in my house makes me nervous. But you are supposed to be able to use a slow cooker when you aren’t home, so I don’t know if sleeping while one is going is any more dangerous (and I do have smoke detectors in my house that go off pretty easily).

Anyone have any advice to stay interested with food while I’m dealing with my crazy schedule? I’m seriously trying to stay on the healthy (and cheap) path with my meals, but there are only so many PB&J sandwiches that I can eat in a week (I have one for lunch today).

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M Street Kitchen (or A Happy Hour Adventure At Lunchtime)

Posted on May 28, 2013 | 1 comment

I used to go on a bunch of happy hour adventures with my friend Kate. It just happened to work out that she and I both had Wednesday evenings free. But Kate’s schedule changed recently and we can’t do happy hour adventures any more.

But we were able to meet up for lunch this past Friday and catch up (it was the first time I had seen her since the horrible 5K). We decided to check out M Street Kitchen. I had actually never heard of it before, but Kate’s sister had gone there this month and loved it. Plus, it was close to my work so I didn’t have to go far for lunch.

I had checked out the menu online before, but I was still a bit undecided when we got there.

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But I did know pretty quickly what I wanted to drink. I’m still diet soda free (with the exception of the calorie-free sparkling flavored water I get every once in a while). I’ve been trying to find drink that I like that aren’t sodas, and one that I’ve re-discovered is iced chai lattes. I get a non-fat one from Starbucks maybe once a week or so. I need to start keeping milk in my house so that I can make them at home.

But I will say, the iced chai latte (even though it wasn’t non-fat) was pretty yummy at M Street Kitchen.

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For my lunch, I got the BBQ turkey sandwich. It was good, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. First of all, it was a bit spicier than I thought it would be. Also, somehow in my mind, I thought the turkey would be ground turkey (like a turkey burger). This was sliced. But it was still a filling sandwich.

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Over lunch, Kate and I discussed our plan for the 5K that we are doing this Friday. Since it’s a nighttime 5K (my first evening one), we wanted some glow-sticks. So I made a stop at Party City to pick some up, along with a few other items for me which you will see in my recap post next week.

Even though I miss my happy hour adventures, lunchtime adventures are pretty much just as good!

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Chinese Broccoli Slaw (or Changing Up A Family Favorite)

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 1 comment

I’ve been working hard at being better about bringing my lunches to work. I’m trying to use recipes that sit well in the fridge so I only have to make a batch over the weekend.

This week, I’m going to be eating a modified version of a family favorite.

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Chinese Coleslaw! This recipe is such a family favorite that when my mom and I made a cookbook for the whole family last Thanksgiving, we made sure to include this one!

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The original recipe is as follows:

1 head green cabbage (shredded)

4-6 green onions

2 packages of Ramen (Oriental Flavor)

almonds (optional)

And for the dressing:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 salad oil

1/4 cup water or chicken broth

1 tbsp sesame oil

pepper

seasoning packets from Ramen

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The main modifications that I made were using broccoli slaw instead of cabbage (no shredding necessary!), using about 3/4 cup vinegar (I love things vinegary), and using 1/4 oil and 1/2 water instead of the other way around.

Seriously, this is such an easy recipe but it’s so delicious and impressive!

First, I put the broccoli slaw in a big bowl (I used about 1 1/2 packages of slaw, each package was 12oz).

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Next, you break up the Ramen noodles. You can do it by hand, but I put them in a plastic zippy bag and smashed them with a mallet.

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Thanks Dad for giving me a mallet!

Pour the crushed noodles over the slaw.

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Next, slice up the green onions. Tip: if you put the rubber bands on the green onions where you want to cut away, it will keep all the ends together and easier to throw away.

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Green onions go on top of the slaw and noodles.

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Then mix up all the dressing ingredients together. I did this in a measuring cup so it would be easy to pour. Also, this way I didn’t have to get my little measuring cups messy. I just used the measurements on the side.

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Finally, pour the dressing on top of the salad and mix everything together.

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Let the salad sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but the longer the better. I made this around 5pm on Saturday and took it out of the fridge to stir it up a bit before going to bed. I had some on Sunday and it was so delicious!

I have some pre-cooked chicken that I can add on top of it for lunch so it will be a bit more filling.

While this recipe is wonderful the original way, I have to say I think I like it more with broccoli slaw instead of cabbage! I might have to do another batch of each and do a taste test!

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A Book Nerd’s Dream (or My Fabulous Lunch With Lindsey Kelk)

Posted on March 27, 2013 | 1 comment

I’ve previously mentioned on here that I’m a bit of a book nerd. In that previous post, I mention how I love Lindsey Kelk‘s I Heart series.

Well I was able to connect with Lindsey over twitter (and you all know how much I love twitter!). She had mentioned being in LA for something, and I asked her if she would be doing a reader event while in LA. She wasn’t, but somehow over a bunch of tweets, we ended up making plans to get lunch together!

We decided to go to La Sandia (based on it being Mexican food and there being a lot of parking right there). And I have to say, walking up to meet Lindsey at the restaurant, I was nervous.

Obviously, I’m a fan of hers, but I didn’t want to be a creepy fan.

Well, lucky for me, I didn’t nerd out too much over lunch. Lindsey was so nice and friendly toward me from the get go. We spent a lot of time just chatting about life and our mutual hatred toward some certain reality stars.

We did chat a bit about her books. Mostly about how she’s got a deadline coming up and needed to get on it. And since so much of the other stuff we were talking about (like my online dating experiences) were so funny, I was more than happy to talk about “normal” things and not “fan” things.

Best of all, I found out that she is a Disneyland person too! So we made plans to go to Disneyland when she is in LA next month!

We ended up having lunch for about 4 hours and then parted ways, but I’m totally looking forward to our Disneyland adventure soon!

As I was driving home, I was thinking about how star struck I get about authors. I don’t really get that way over actors. But maybe it’s because I look at actors as my peers and they are doing things that I want to and can see myself doing.

I don’t think I could ever write a book. The way that authors create an entire world and make you fall in love with their characters is incredible!

I’m so glad that I was not a creepy weirdo fan at my lunch. I knew it was a possibility, but Lindsey was so cool, she totally put me at ease right away.

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And if you haven’t read one of Lindsey’s books yet, shame on you, and go get a copy of the first book in her I Heart series now!

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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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