Category Archives: Dessert

Milk

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After the race on Sunday I wanted more food (running 6.2 miles with an 8:44 min pace per mile will do that to you). Kelly and I have been dying to try Milk for months and Sunday was the perfect day for it.

Milk had a mixture of sandwiches, salads, ice cream and treats. The star of the show here is the ice cream. I asked my friend Molly a few months ago where the best place to get ‘real ice cream’ in LA is and she said ‘Milk’. Tangent: most ice cream in LA is in the vein of Pinkberry. There is a special place in my heart for Pinkberry and Yogurtland, but sometime you want good old fashioned ice cream like you ate when you were a kid. I am not afraid to indulge every once and a while. From time to time you need to have something you really like. In my opinion, if you don’t occasionally give in to ice cream a healthy lifestyle can’t really be maintained. My opinion only.

I was still hungry from throwing down 6 miles that morning so I got a sandwich before sampling the ice cream. I read the words prosciutto and I knew which sandwich I wanted.

The sandwich had prosciutto, slivered potato, picked onion, arugula, provolone and black pepper cream. The sandwich was delicious. The bread had crispy crust and the potato in the sandwich was unexpected but a great choice with the prosciutto and the arugula.

It also came with a delicious side dish.

Lunch was delish but the real star of the show was the ice cream. There are several flavors of ice cream and several delicious sandwich and drumstick treats!

I opted for a scoop of nutella flavor and a scoop of coconut flavor.

The nutella literally tasted like ice cream fudge. It was AMAZING. The coconut flavor was better, can you believe it!? It tasted like I was eating a coconut. The flavor was fragrant and delicious. I will be coming back to Milk whenever I need my ice cream fix.

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New Obsession

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Post run I was craving gelato so I got my fix from Whole Foods.

I have a new favorite gelato.

I cannot tell you how much I love to see this on a label:

Creamy and delicious. Clearly I had to top it off with Chocolate Chips!

MMM. Washing my gelato down with a viewing of “If God is Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise”. Education yourself about post Katrina NOLA people! Ignorance shouldn’t be an option. Hoping it’s a good follow up to “When the Levees Broke”. I’ll probably be crying into my gelato in about 1o mins.

Piece of Cake

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One year in California? I think that means I should have a treat.

There was only one place to go…

I celebrated last night because I have dinner out planned for tonight. On the way home from yoga I stopped at Susie Cakes and got a slice of cake which I enjoyed with an adult beverage.

I love prosecco.

And then, there was cake.

Susie Cakes’ marble cake was everything that I wanted it to be and more. Moist cake, perfect frosting. I do have to admit that it took me about an hour to eat. I am not sure if it is a reflection on the cake or the reduced size of my stomach. And yes, of course I licked the plate. It was just that good! One year in LA never tasted so sweet.

The Thirsty Crow

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Sorry for the blog break. The holiday weekend was calling me and I neglected my camera. However, before I put the camera down my friends and I went to The Thirsty Crow in Silver Lake for drinks to celebrate Emily’s birthday.

The Thirsty Crow is a whiskey bar, of course Catie and I ordered champagne cocktails!

Catie got a champagne and lavender and I had St. Germaine and prosseco. They were delicious!

Thirsty Crow was awesome! Great small bar which awesome drinks and a good vibe. All my friends really liked it and we will be back in the future.

Before we had birthday dessert. Catie made a delicious creation. It was malanos, chocolate pudding and raspberries!

Yumm! This was a great dessert and a great start to the long weekend! It was fun to go out with Catie, a lot like college, but I’m single now which is exciting. We were basically holding court while at the bar so expect more Katherine and Catie bar hopping in the near future!

Bite Bar & Bakery

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Happy Long weekend!

My long weekend started with another LA initiation, my first fender bender. Don’t worry “Ryan” and I are fine. A little shaken but were OK. What was your first fender bender like?

I was lucky enough to get to leave work today at 12 pm. After I figured I deserved a treat so I decided to try  Bite Bar & Bakery in Santa Monica.

I decided to try Bite after I got a discount code from Blackboard Eats. Blackboard Eats is a great website that provides discounts for various restaurants in LA, New York and San Francisco. They send emails out that allow you to access a promo code which is good for a month. Lots of the restaurants are more expensive so the 30% discount makes it easier to afford. Thanks to Rachel for tipping me off to it several months ago!

I really love the vibe here! All the sandwiches are $10 and under but you still get to sit down and be served which is just what I needed today. I had no problem getting a table, but the restaurant wasn’t empty. This is a great place to dine alone with a book. The service was excellent and right after I sat down I got some olives and the iced tea that I ordered.

Can I just say that I love this? Luxe extras and simple touches are kinda my favorite. I asked the waitress what in her opinion was the best sandwich because there were 4 that looked amazing (all under $10!!). I settled on the grilled asparagus and sun dried tomato pesto sandwich.

This sandwich was so yummy. I love a pressed sandwich, the asparagus was perfectly roasted and the sun dried tomato pesto gave a great, but not overwhelming flavor. The bread was perfectly toasted and the service was fast!

I was having such a great time just sitting and reading that I decided I had to have dessert. Plus, I figured after the kind of day I had, that I deserved it. There were a lot of delicious goodies to choose from but I had no problem settling on a chocolate ganache and cocoa nibs.

Mmmmmm. This was well deserved and so delicious! The chocolate was the perfect consistency, moist and rich. It totally hit the spot after a stressful day.

Overall, I loved my experience at Bite and I will be going back for sure! I got a nice, sit down meal and before the discount my meal was only $12, and after the discount it was less. It’s so great to be able to go to a nice, relaxed sit down restaurant to be waited on and not have to pay tons of cash for the experience.

After lunch I hit the Santa Monica Library and Coffee Bean. I got an awesome combo of chick lit and books about education, race, and housing issues. Cannot wait to dig into them tonight. Also, my knee is feeling much better and my arms are super sore from power yoga so I’m taking it easy on my knee for one more day with the hope that my knee problems will be resolved for my race a week from Sunday.

Happy long weekend everyone!

Yoga brings me home

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You know what the best destressing technique is? Sitting with one hand on your heart and one hand on your stomach and deep breathing. Yoga taught me this little move and it has always helped me when I feel overwhelmed. That is my tip of the day.

Today I actually took a picture of everything I ate. It is harder to do then it might seem! Here we goooooo!

Breakfast:

I had a super filling Cinn breakfast cookie!

AM Snacks:

In the morning I snacked on a piece of candy and some Trader Joe’s Fruity Flakes…

Check what we found in the candy dish today! Hangen’ Tough!!!

Sweet!!

Lunch

For lunch I had a homemade salad, pop chips, and one slice of Ezekiel bread…

On my salad I used hummus instead of dressing which is lower in calories and also had protein and, I think, tastes better.

Only 100 calories!

I only had one slice out of the two. I was so full!

And to drink? I had a non fat sugar free iced latte from Coffee Bean! WEEEE! I love Coffee Bean!

PM Snacks:

Throughout the afternoon I had a zbar (because it tastes like dessert!)

On the way to yoga after work I had a larabar. I was really stressed during the final hour of the day and, despite having lots of filling food today I was starving because of the stress! Today was a little “bar heavy” but its easy and quick. I packed an apple bar being its my favorite flavor!

Workout:

Power Yoga tonight was awesome! We did a ton of arms stuff, push ups, and hip openers. I loved doing frog pose. We also did tons of abs work including a crunch where we were lying on our backs with our legs in butterfly and then doing crunches! Holy lower abs! Then we had to lift our legs off the ground by 1 foot and continue crunches. Yowza, I will feel that tomorrow.

We also had an awesome meditation. This teacher actually plays a song on his ukulele and sings while we meditated. I love meditating after a good sweat. It always puts life in perspective and calms me down. Overall, a wonderful yoga workout.

Dinner:

I had a conference call after dinner so I had a quick dinner:

Trader Joe’s tomato bisque

During my meditation my mind kept drifting to Brussels Sprouts so I just had to have some for dinner.

I’m exhausted and off to bed! Who is getting excited for a three day weekend? Do you have any fun 4th of July plans?

The End of June Gloom

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When I say June Gloom I mean both the LA weather and my bad mood! I got a great nights sleep last night and when I woke up today I was in a much better mood. Thank goodness. Bad moods can be really trying sometimes.

Today at work I did a good job of controlling my candy cravings. At my workplace there are several dishes of candy sitting out. I’ve been eating 5-8 pieces a day. :\ Oh well, can’t win them all! Today I was much better and one had one piece. I need to keep this up! I have a definite propensity to over eat, especially when I’m stressed, in a bad mood or bored.

After my glorious success at work I came home. Today is an off day for workout and I simply put some ice on my knee. I decided to have a “catch as catch can” type of dinner. About a 1/2 portion of leftover mac and cheese and this salad…

What can I say, I was craving a salty meat. The arugula in this salad was super spicy. I bought from a different vendor this week and I think it made all the difference.

For dessert I had a “new invention”

Peanut butter spoon! So so delicious. One tablespoon of peanut butter and a small amount of chocolate chips. Can’t go wrong. Plus the peanut butter is filling so I can’t just snack on chocolate chips all night.

Plus I also had..

Sleepy time tea in my Starbucks double walled Valentine’s day mug makes my night. Especially a cold cool night like this one.

I think the key for me to lose weight is eating super healthy filling snacks and meals. Anyone have any snack suggestions?

Put Some Ice On It

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First order of business…

This suped up version of Paula Deen Brown Sugar Chewies were a big hit at work today. Non profits love free baked goodies. The cake was moist and spicy because of the nutmeg and Saigon Cinn. Will be making these again at some point.

Today was another crappy day. It actually rained today which is kinda unheard of for So Cal in the summer. Ok, by “rain” I mean that it misted enough for me to put the wipers on the lowest setting. Between the overcast weather and being a bit hormone whacked at the moment I kinda had another gucky overly tired day. Positives from today? Free iced tea day at Coffee Bean and while I was at coffee bean I spotted this truck!

Dainty Cakes sounds like it would be right up my ally, right? I have to get this dessert truck thing under control because roaming cupcake trucks are SO TEMPTING! Of course, I got a cupcake. I’m human and my mood was mediocre.

Can I just say that the frosting was incredible. It was super light butter cream and you could tell it was made with tons of butter. It tasted totally homemade.

However, I will say that the cake part was not exactly “dainty”. It was cakey, not very moist and really tasted like it was from a box. I am not totally positive that it was, but it was a bit heavy compared to other cupcakes I’ve had. This is also surprising because the frosting was so amazing and homemade tasting. Either way, it was worth the calories but I was still in a bit of a funk…

Best cure? Working out! I went on a 2 mile run to the UCLA stairs which I went up and down 5 times and then ran about 3/4 miles home. I also did some weights, triceps dips, and crunches. It energized me and boosted my mood. However, my right knee didn’t love it. I had some pain so I decided to put some ice on it.

Its already feeling better, but tomorrow is for sure going to be a yoga day.

Dinner tonight was a veggie a thon because I wasn’t that hungry after my supervisor approved hour and a half long lunch/ oogling the Spain Soccer Team break. I had a chicken sandwich on wheat for lunch but I forgot to order without mayo. I forgot how glorious mayo kinda is… don’t get me wrong, I love replacing with avocado but mayo was kinda a special treat! So for dinner I went light…

I made even more veg then you see here so I have something to enjoy with lunch tomorrow!

And my potato “chips”

LOVING farmers market potatoes. Look at all the pretty colors! Delicious.

OK so “negativity off, positivity on!” Extra credit to those that can identify the show where I altered that phrase from…

Funky

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Hey Hey Hey,

How was your day blog world? My was funky. I was tired, had a headache and just couldn’t get motivated at work. Then my lack of motivation made me feel stressed. Deadly cycle.This might be because my workspace felt like the bayou today or because basically everyone in my workplace was slap happy. Who knows.

Tonight I did manage to make it on a run. However, I forgot to turn on my timer but I remember the songs I listened to and I didn’t end any early. So, my run was roughly 24:00 mins give or take about a min, if my math is ok. While on my run I ‘ran into’ Hiroshi. It was probably the most awkward 30 seconds of my life but whatever, awkward happens. Has this happened to anyone? Do you say hi or just run on when you see a Professor while on the road? I felt better after my run but still kinda stressed.

So I did the only logical thing… Mac & Cheese with mix ins!

Arugula, prosciutto, broccoli, and pepper. The pasta was Trader Joe’s from a box (what can I say, unmotivated) and should be noted that this is only a half portion.

Still didn’t fully kick the funk so I made brown sugar bars loosely based on Paula Deen’s recipe.

I browned 1/4 cup of butter

Combine with 1 cup brown sugar

An egg

Separately, mix 3/4 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of Saigon Cinn, some grated nutmeg…

Combine flour with brown sugar

and the finishing touch was 1 teaspoon of vanilla…

Put into a greased pan and bake at 350 for 20 mins…

and the final product will debut tomorrow I promise! I have to let it cool before cutting it up, thus everyone can be on virtual tetherhooks waiting for me to reveal the final product. I will say that the dough was delicious. Saigon Cinn is like my CAT NIP!

The moral of the story? I did feel better after baking brown sugar bars barefoot in my kitchen listening to the Temptations Pandora station. Baking cures all.

(Fri) Day off

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Greetings! Today, as I mentioned earlier, I had the day off! I spent the day at yoga, watching a movie, and enjoying treats.

But first…

Hey Iz.

As mentioned in my last post, I started my day off with a vinyasa yoga class.  I had an OK yoga class. The stretch was great but there was something off about the class. I think the teachers voice was too soft. I couldn’t really hear her despite there only being three people in the class. One person was clearly an expert yogi but I couldn’t see her so I was trying to follow this guy on the other side of me who was kinda doing his own thing and, also, singing along to the music. I mean, it was the Beatles, so I can’t really blame him but it was a little bit odd.  Overall it was a good class. I can already feel my abs!

Anyways, I soldiered on with a coconut Larabar.

Afterward I went home and then embarked on a walk in my neighborhood. I got a small treat from Paris Bakery. I have heard about the Paris Bakery before but had never tried it.

How could you not go in?

I picked up some macaroons.

I ate the chocolate immediately, obviously. I saved the other two for when I was watching a movie at the Majestic Crest. I have never really had this type of macaroon but I was a big fan! The chocolate especially was chewy on the inside and the outside was thin and presented a nice contrast to the chewiness of the inside of the macaroon. The fruit flavors were good too:

I got an email earlier this week from the Majestic Crest Theater in Westwood about their financial struggles so I decided to go to a movie there today and do my part to help them. The Majestic Crest is a single screen theater in Westwood that is privately owned. They’ve been struggling to stay open recently with all the other theaters in LA. I love the Crest. When I first moved to LA, before school started, I was feeling really home sick. One day I felt really down and I went to the Crest to see “Julie/Julia”. Going into the theater totally put a smile on my face.

The theater has a curtain, a beautiful mural and decent prices. I really love this theater so if you are in LA please try to go to the Crest! I went today and saw “Grown Ups”. It wasn’t my first choice movie to see but its escapism and I wanted to support the Crest so I can’t really complain too much. It wasn’t the worst $8.50 I’ve ever spent.