Passing the Time

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and/or Friday last week.  The holidays are still going on until New Years, so I hope everyone is enjoying their laid back week!  First off, I miss J & San Diego terribly :( I can't wait to be back!  But while J is in the sweet land of California enjoying time with his fam and working his bootay off, I've been in Texas chilling the days away.  I've watched bunches of Redbox movies with the fam (Hunt to Kill (thumbs down), Eat Love Pray (Not what I expected), Ca$h (loved it!), Karate Kid (love love loved it!), The Stranger (confusing), & Babies (adorable! I loved it!)).  I've also munched away in my pajamas and watched tons of 30 Rock episodes.  And in picture form my last couple of days have consisted of this: 

Tons of shopping trips (I think I've been to 5 mall trips in the last week) and knitting in the car on way there to pass the time.

I call this Asian Soul Food.  Nothing like Sweet and Sour Vietnamese soup (Canh Chua Ca) to soothe the soul.  Courtesy of my pops.  It consisted of okra, pineapple, tomato, bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro, and fresh cat fish.

Ah I've missed fresh fruit being in college.  Blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries all from Costco.

I had a taste of this, my sister bought these at Costco.  Cinnabon make it yourself cinnamon rolls.  Too sweet for my taste.

I had some cereal on Christmas Day.  Almond milk and Quaker Oatmeal Squares!

Finished knitting the scarf during a Redbox movie!  I've never knitted so fast!

My sister started drinking this drink.  I've been doing some research on how healthy it really is.  Until I come to my conclusions I've just been having sips of her drink.  It's taste like kind jelly bits and coconut water mixed together.



Christmas Day lunch/dinner (I was full for so so long) consisted of ham baked with pineapple.  It was good, a bit dry because we left it in the oven a bit longer than it should have been though...good nontheless! :)

My plate: baked beans, loose corn, sally, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, and chicken marinated with a sweet tangy sauce.  I was stuffed!  My second plate consisted of bits of the ham for tasting. 

I was stuffed by the time it was dessert, but as I texted J: "It was pumpkin pie and when you have pumpkin you just gotta do it!!!" So I ate my pumpkin pie joyfully...and fell into food comatose a few minutes later.

Yesterday lunch consisted of vegetarian chili from McAllister's...in a bread bowl of course!  McAllister's is my favorite deli in Arlington, I'm sad they don't have it in California.  It's a fine establishment with really good sweet tea!  I stole sips from my sister's cup and opted for water instead ;)

My sister's boyfriend got her some Godiva chocolates for Christmas and I had half of this white chocolate starfish, it had raspberry jam inside, again it was way to sweet for my taste. 

I have plans tomorrow with a friend to catch up and then I am thinking yoga sesh, basketball game watching, and book reading!  The weather is suppose to be in the 40's tomorrow...YEOWZA!  Have a wonderful Tuesday.  I've been losing track of the days being off from work & school.   My next post should consist of some of my purchases over the holidays :D 

Cheers,

C

Oh How Time Flys

Hello World,

Long time no posts :( J and I sincerely apologize for the long delay.  So many things have happened since the last post and I guess life just threw us into a big fog.  We really didn't have time to blog.  And once one blog was delayed we kept at it.  We actually have taken pictures of all the food we ate...we just didn't post them on the blog.  But as the new year is approaching and our love for food grows I would have to say we are picking up the steam on this blog once again.  It will be full of food posts in no time (in a timely manner of course).

To recap the last five months in a few paragraphs...I started my first term at university and it went very well.  It was hard to try to balance everything but eventually everything fell into place.  J is busy as always with his business, lots of clients and lots of late nights at the office.  I started working at Bath & Body Works and let's just say I smell phenomenal when I leave work.  We've been on tons of adventures together, one of which I will talk about today.  And now here I am back in Texas, spending time with the fam for the holidays.  It's quite chilly here today and I can't wait to get back to California!  But in other news, lets get to the food!

Last Friday (I was leaving on Sunday) J surprised me with a trip to Hollywood after all my finals were finished.  It was a Christmas present for us both.  To my pleasant surprise he had booked us a tour on Tourific Escapes.  J heard about the tours from a blog we both follow Lynn Chen's The Actor's Diet. If you guys haven't heard of them, it's a Food & Tourist tour throughout Hollywood (they also have a Santa Monica tour) the tours are hosted by a husband (Matt) and wife (Trish) team.  We visited 6 restaurants on our tour and got to hear about the awesome history of Hollywood.  We don't want to ruin any stories if you guys are looking forward to attending, but let me just say this tour was amazaballs.  I left feeling well fed, knowledgable, and happy!  It was tons of fun and even if you've lived in LA all your life (like J) you still can learn loads on the tour.  We would definitely recommend this to future foodies and tourists visiting the city.  Here are some pictures from our day trip!

Just looking at the pictures again makes me want to experience it all again!  I would definitely be interested in attending their Santa Monica tour in the future.  After a wonderful tour we decided to some shopping.  Zara, H&M, then a detour to Santa Monica pier's mall (Nike, Love Culture, Nike, Forever  21, Urban Outfitters, and more I can't recount).  I scored some adorable boots for only $30.  

The next plan was to go ice skating but the storms begin to hit and the rain came a-pourin' so we decided to go back to San Diego where the skies were at peace.  Before heading off we hit up Real Foods Daily where J got a cup of coffee for the drive + a piece of hemp bread and I got a suppa strong ginger ale.  The atmosphere is nice but their service is definitely slow.  It took about 15-20 minutes to get our items. 

We got back to SD around 10 and hit up the restaurant Lotus Thai where I ate my weight in spicy fried rice.  J got the ush veggie dish minus Salmon and replaced with chicken this time.  It wasn't the best Thai food I've had in San Diego but it definitely hit the spot. 

Fast forward to Sunday where I boarded a plane from San Diego in flight to DFW.  I hadn't ate anything for about 10+ hours so when I landed in DFW it was safe to say I was famished.  I asked my parents to get me something to eat when I landed and being the Texans they are they showed up with Sonic Fast Food in hand.  I hadn't had this in months!  

 A cherry limeade 

 A double cheeseburger...I gulfed it down in T-minus 10 minutes.  Went home to rest and chill for a while.  It was definitely weird to be back in Texas...the weather actually felt like winter and the surroundings looked like it never changed from 6 months back.  That night my sister was raving about this restaurant that she had eaten at in Austin, TX and she found out they just opened up in Arlington.  

Let me introduce you to Rudy's...there's two gas pumps on the outside, a drive thru, a mini convience store inside, and a restaurant to take up the rest of the space.  Oh and the most important part?  You buy meat by the pound there.  Brisket, Turkey, Chicken, Pork oh my!  1/2 of Brisket is 5.99 and comes with unlimited amounts of sandwich bread slices, hot sauce, pickles, and pickled peppers.  Welcome to the South. 

 I can't say it wasn't delicious because it surely was and the price is hard to beat for meat.  I wouldn't recommend it for everyday consumption though! 

The next day was a potluck get together with my best friends.  Everyone was back in town and we cooked a vegetarian meal together!  I made raw vegan chocolate truffles (recipe out of Living Raw Food)  It was a big hit.  All the dishes were delicious. 

My plate all vegetarian filled with a taco roll, spinach balls, toasted bread topped with pesto and tomato, sweet potato hash, Teriyaki grilled tofu, and veggie scramble.  So delicious!  We were stuffed to the gills.  

Afterwards, the boys left and us girls had some catch up times.  We read old diaries and laughed at lists made up of cute boys, the hate list, and the love list.  Time flew by and we decided it was time to head home...but not after a thousand picture taking opportunities. 

Everything started off normal but then funny faces were put to action....

And ugly Christmas sweaters got involved. 

We ended up leaving way later than expected but all had a great time.  What a week it has been!  Look for future posts soon! 

Cheers,

C