Category Archives: Lunch

Late Summer Menu is here!

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Oh Clementine, how I love thee. I had several “housekeeping” tasks to take care of today. I was super productive this morning finishing my tasks so I treated myself. It’s been so long since I’ve been to Clementine, the whole menu changed!

One thing stayed the same though, Moroccan Mint Tea.

mmmmm. Delish!

I asked the server what her favorite was of, oh about 5 dishes. She recommended the BLT, which is called the “Best BLT”.

Let me tell you. It is called “best” for a reason. This was the best BLT that I have EVER had. Bar none.

Let’s break it down:

  1. The bread was delicious and had mayo on it. Actual mayo. Normally I don’t have mayo, so maybe I thought it was the best because I haven’t had mayo for so long. This was what was going though my mind while eating.
  2. The bacon. Crispy but not too crispy. The flavor was amazing. You know when bacon is too crispy and it tastes oddly burned? I hate that but this bacon was savory and the oil was flavorful.
  3. Lettuce was crisp and cool. Excellent contrast to the bacon.
  4. The tomato was better than normal tomato. I can’t really put my finger on what it was but it was amazing. The tomato was marinaded a little bit. It was fantastic.

And that was it. The perfect BLT. I think everyone should run out right now and try it.

Fish Tacos: the remix

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I was able to come home for lunch because its the last week of work and I have very little to do. I have a lot of errands to run in advance of school starting in about 2 weeks that I want to check off my to do list. Can you believe school starts so soon? Time is flying by!

For lunch I took leftover taco ingredients and made a salad:

In the mix: lettuce, yellow pepper, red onion, cucumber, goat cheese, peach salsa, pita chips, and tilapia.

I cannot lie. I have a love for peach salsa with goat cheese. Best combo ever! Off to run more errands and hit a yoga class per my plan!

Farmer’s Market Friday

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Yup, today was another farmers market Friday. Today I opted for a quesadilla.

I only ate 1/2 because it was BIG. I knew I wanted to run after work and I didn’t want the meal to be sitting in my stomach like a brick.

I also had a samosa. Rather 1/2 a samosa.

It was DELISH! This was by far the best part of the meal and I will be enjoying it again. Did you know its vegan? Well it was and it was also super yummy. I was concerned that having one wouldn’t be enough for lunch but if I were to add a salad it would be  a passable lunch, right?

Assembly Required

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Today’s lunch required some assembly…

Don’t you just love leftovers? It makes lunch so much easier. I just had to slice some tomato this morning and I was all ready for work. I noticed that I had gotten into buying my lunch far too often. This way I can save money and have something delicious to eat.

Ezekiel bread, goat cheese, tomato, and leftover salmon cakes. The salmon cakes made for a delightful and very hearty sandwich.

Much better than the typical wheat sandwich that I’ve been getting weekly with stale bread.

After work I ran 5 miles! I haven’t started 1/2 marathon training yet, but I’m feeling pretty confident about it. All a 1/2 marathon really is is the loop that I typically run about three times. I can’t do it right now, but if I work on upping my mileage and taking it slow I should be able to do it.

For dinner I had whole wheat pasta with broccoli, red onion and goat cheese. The recipe calls for ricotta but I really don’t like ricotta (its the only cheese I don’t love). Goat cheese was a wonderful substitute.

Yep, it was a hungry girl portion…

I deserve it after the long run. Tomorrow’s dinner will be a major treat! I am finally checking out Taste which I have heard is amazing. Can’t wait!

Tofu House

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Lunch today was an adventure! The law clerks wanted to shake it up a bit by going to Belly Time, but it appeared to be closed so we went into Tofu House instead. The sign on Tofu House had tons of writing in Korean and most of the menu was in Korean so we weren’t totally sure what we were getting into and thus I do not have names for the dishes. They were good though, I can tell you that much.

These appetizers were brought to the table after we ordered and came with the meal. We noshed on them while waiting for the entrees. We had no clue what most of them really were but that’s always a fun experience, right? Dan and Diana are more adventurous than I am and actually ate some green jello thing. I was not that brave.

Then we got this rice and soup thing. Again, I don’t know what it is but I know that it was delicious.

And then it was time for the entree… bring on the beef!

I would like to now state that I ate like, 1/3 of the food maybe? It was A LOT! I actually didn’t eat very much and I didn’t eat until I was stuffed. I barely snacked at work today minus 4 salt water taffies. Gotta give love to the treat jar.

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!

Best of the Rest

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of Saturday!

After brunch I hit the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

The farmers market was awesome! I got all my veggies and fruits for $19! This included: potatoes, kale, avocado, 2 tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, pepper, green beans, and cherries. Yum!

When I got home I had a salad with some chicken curry salad from Coral Tree Cafe. I gave some to Catie as a house warming present and she said it was really good so I decided to try it for myself! I put the chicken salad on top of an arugula salad, purple carrots, and green pepper (all FM buys!)

I LOVE the contrast of the purple carrots and the curry chicken salad. It was a delicious late lunch.

I went to Whole Foods earlier today (where they have 17 flavors of Larabars!) and stocked up. Before my run I had 1/2 of a Gingersnap flavored larabar.

Then I went on a 4.1 mile run which was good.

I haven’t gone to yoga this week and my hip is angry with me. I should have stretched more. I probably only ran just short of 4 miles. Today I read Runners World and they were talking about the importance of hills. My run is already very hilly so I felt good about that. RW said that you should push to run faster on the downhills and I incorporated that into my run. After my run I finished the larabar.

Then I relaxed until dinner. Dinner was roasted veggies with a multigrain pilaf.

I love Trader Joe’s Multigrain Pilaf because there are only a few ingredients and I know what all of them are and its well spiced. How can you argue with that? While cooking I snacked on this…

Cook the pilaf and combine with veggies.

Dinner! Tons of fiber in this meal so its super filling and everyone knows how I love a roasted veggie.

After dinner I noshed on a Z Bar. These were recommended to me by Carolyn, my fitness foodie friend, who said they tasted just like a cookie and were only 130 calories. Clearly I had to check this out. First, I checked the label to make sure that it was made of ingredients that I knew what they are and the calorie and sugar count. I figured if Carolyn likes them then there probably good for me.I decided to dig in.

It DOES taste just like a cookie! This was wonderful and I will be buying again. It was kinda like raw cookie dough with oats. I love oats, cookies and chocolate. All together was pretty much amazing.

Night readers!

Less healthy, more healthy

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So unless you live in the fly over states and don’t follow basketball you know that the Lakers and Celtics had a massive showdown last night for the NBA championship. By now we know that the Lakers won. I haven’t been following basketball this season but I have lived in Boston and I do live in LA now, so I had a decision to make. I was leaning Celtics but honestly, its so awesome for the team that lives in your city to win, I had to cheer for the Lakers. Also, I’ve lived in three major cities and all the NBA teams have won championship while I’ve lived there! Clearly, I am the lucky charm.

I met up with some friends at Q’s Billiard Club in Brentwood. I’d been there before for “bar review”. We waited on line for the first half but it was fun once we got in.

I had garlic fries and artichoke dip with a side of this (underneath the foam its a Blue Moon):

Every question I had about how 20 somethings gain weight has been answered. No nutritional value in this meal. Although, I suppose I was ok with the artichoke dip.

Now that I have been eating healthy for a while I have cravings for greens. Today was Farmers Market Friday so the law clerks hit the farmers market. I got Hawaiian grilled chicken and I substituted white rice for salad. Excellent choice! The chicken was super flavorful and thus, the salad didn’t even need dressing.

I also had a small side of macaroni salad..

Much better, although still not an ideal level of health but eh, can’t win them all.

Now I am chilling on the couch with Isala watching “An Affair to Remember”. I love this movie. Carey Grant and Deborah Kerr have great chemistry and Carey Grant is a fox. More to come later!

Power(flow) Hour

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Today I did my first Power Yoga class. Holy yoga! I left a pool of sweat on my mat. I know, gross but in an awesome way. The class was really intense and fast moving. Towards the end it slowed down and we did inversions. We even did pranayama breathing in the chair position. I’ve never done that breathing in a class that wasn’t Bikram. It was pretty interesting. I got a decent stretch from yoga including a long time in pigeon which I hope makes a difference in my running. I noticed my ankles were very stiff which made child’s pose a bit uncomfortable which is depressing since child’s pose is my favorite recovery poses. Anyways before yoga I went to Clementine and  had lunch. Much to my delight I was greeted by this wonderful sign…

Yes! A whole new menu with all types of new options!!! Some items are still the same, like the rare roast beef sandwich. I was momentarily upset because I couldn’t get my favorite egg plant sandwich but I soldiered on and ordered the local mozzarella sandwich. It had mozzarella, greens, and artichoke on whole grain bread.

And of course being at Clementine I had to treat myself to a cookie! I tried peanut butter sandwich cookie and it was delicious of course! I enjoyed it while driving to power yoga (where I promptly burned it off).

So delicious.

And now I have an announcement: I am going to run my first race! I have been playing with the idea of running a race for a while. I have been asked if I would like to run a half marathon and Carolyn just ran one recently so I got her input on it. I’ve decided to hold off on the half for now. However, thinking about running a half has made me consider racing seriously for the first time.  So I have decided to start racing. I will start with a 5k, then do a 10k, then a 15k and then reassess the half marathon. I want to start with a 5k because right now I am running 4.1 miles a couple times a week. I would like my first run to be a confidence booster and also not too intimidating. So my first race will be on July 11th. Of course, my training plan will be documented here!

Do any racers have any words of wisdom for me?

The Happiest Place on Earth

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Today, David and I went to Disneyland. I went to Disneyland on my birthday last August (because I was able to get in for free) and I had been to Disneyland and Disney World on several occasions. David hadn’t been to Disneyland since 1995!

After a long trip on the freeway we arrived!!! Monday at Disneyland + it was overcast. There was almost no one there. Literally we walked right onto Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion with no wait. We also went to the pirate island (which was Swiss Family Robinson at one time- sadly no more). We only had to wait for 10 mins to get on the runaway train, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, It’s a Small World, and we waited 20 for the Matterhorn and  Space Mountain. After a few rides we got lunch. We ate at the Orleans Cafe, a lovely recommendation from Ms. Catie Shea who is a Disneyland aficionado.

My goal for this trip was to be healthy. There was a ton of walking all day which was good. I had ratatouille for lunch:

I could have made a worse choice. Disneyland has HUGE portions, but this was corn, tomato, asparagus and a mixture or zucchini, squash, eggplant and onion. There was a bit of cheese on top, and of course, whatever they cook this in adds calories. Overall, it was pretty good. David had a three cheese Monti Cristo, which is where healthy eating kinda died. I had a solid portion of his which was more desserty than anything. Luckily, I let it go and enjoyed the park. Sometimes, you eat unhealthy things. Crap happens. We enjoyed the park:

And then I snacked on pineapple “whip” from the tiki room fruit stand, which was the only snack I had in park!

Tomorrow David goes home to Chicago, and I will go to yoga. I ran on Saturday (2.5 ish miles with stair running). I’ve had two full days off minus some serious walking. Every day for the past three my feet have killed me after walking. I am excited to go to yoga and then Boston on Wednesday, which we all know will include some serious walking and health, right Carolyn?