Baked Ziti!

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So by the last day of my cleanse, I really was bored of all the drinks- the flavors, the drinking, the taste [although I really liked it as a juice]. I am supposed to ween off the diet by slowly incorporating fats and oils, but I really just wanted real food so I decided to make a baked ziti. I found this baked ziti recipe at Pioneer Woman’s blog! She does a great job documenting all the steps and her thoughts during. Its a great read, so if anyone is interested, check her blog out periodically! =)

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Fig and Olive – Melrose

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My first DineLA eating out adventure! I go to Restaurant Week in SD a lot because I just want to try everything! I could not wait to go to LA to eat again– they have the most amazing restaurants and also the chefs there have space to create. SF and SD restaurants are usually very small because of space constraints and the way the cities are set up.

My friend and I chose this restaurant because 1. We have heard it before; 2. We know celebrities go there all the time. I looked at the menu and it looked great. Mediterranean food! Done deal. We were going! We ended up walking up Melrose looking at the clothing shops to kill time because we got to the area a bit early. By the way, if you have never been to Melrose and you love clothes, you should really go. There are sooo many shops and each have their unique style and flavor to it. You can literally find everything. Anyway, we got to the restaurant a little bit before it opened…they open at 6pm for dinner! When you walk in, the walls are lined with olive oil and you immediately see couches and candlelight. Beautiful decor.

They presented us with 3 different olive oils: One from NorCal, another from Italy, and Spain. We all agreed we liked the NorCal one the best- it tasted less olive oil-y, like less bitter. And because they are famous for their crostinis, we got a plate of 6. The fig&prosciutto and mushroom ones were outstanding! The shrimp and salmon one were alright– sort of plain. Goat cheese one was sweet but tasty.

For appetizers we got 1. Mushroom Croquette; 2. Salmon Crostone; 3. Beef Carpaccio. The mushroom croquette was super creamy and flavorful. The salmon crostone was just a bigger version of a crostini. It was alright… and the beef carpaccio was tasty- the beef was sliced very thin and the tomatoes were an amazing paired with it. The service was great there and they even stopped by to talk to us and asked us where we were from and what brought us there! I love it when they interact with you!

For the main course we got 1. Chicken Tagine; 2. mushroom risotto; 3. filet mignon. The chicken tagine was pretty bomb. Not as many spices as the one I had at Kous Kous in SD, but the Fig & Olive one was pretty tasty in its own way. It had figs and olives, and apricots! Cous Cous and 2 different sauces came with: chimichurri and this spicy one. Very good! The mushroom risotto was rich and creamy. And the filet mignon was pretty good. 
Finally, the dessert! We had 1. dessert crostini which was crostinis with mascarpone? and dried cherries. The dried cherries were very tangy and paired well with the crostini. 2. Dark chocolate pot de creme. It was thicker than I had expected, but it was a rich dark dark chocolate. Amazing!
What a great Sunday evening with friends! And I cant wait to try more LA restaurants!!! 

Cleanse Diary!

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Day 1:

OK ya’ll! I survived Day 1! It was not bad, and I have a juice to spare. Drank 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple, and 1 Lemonade. I did snack on a few extra cucumbers, celery and some avocado though. Don’t worry, thats not cheating the cleanse–when Blueprint mails the juices, they mail you an extra card that says if you get too dizzy/hungry for some solids, you can munch on a few of those things. To be honest though, I didn’t need the extra munchies, but I had to wait for one of my juices to defrost [I ended up freezing the juice to make sure it didn’t go bad (precautions after I spent 2 hrs juicing)].

I didn’t feel dizzy or out of the ordinary today! I still went to the gym and ran/walked for 3 miles. My usual routine anyway, so I feel great and green!

Day 2:

Yay! Made it through 2/3 of it! I still feel good. I’m still not that hungry where I will keel over and die. I  did the same-ish routine from yesterday. I drank 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple, 3/4 of the Lemonade. I exercised too. I found that I sweat more both today and yesterday. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the cleanse…

I am SO HAPPY that I inspired 3 friends to do it today! Thank you for the love and support =)! And I know you can survive this cleanse!!!

I really am excited about eating a Costco hot dog on Saturday for lunch. And the many recipes I bookmarked in class to make in the future. And I bought a 6 pack of Nando’s hot sauce immediately after my friend mentioned it. And finally, I am super excited to make finger food for the Superbowl! I swear this obsession with food didnt come because of this cleanse– I do this every day of my life. Hehe stay tuned! =)

Day 3:

I MADE IT!!! I drank even less- I had 2 Greens, 1 Pineapple. I just wasn’t thatt hungry and also I was so bored of the drinks by now. I felt great though!!! I made baked ziti and nommed on some at midnight! 

***I ate a Costco hotdog the next day. I didn’t ween off the cleanse like I was supposed to. It was a terrible idea…I felt sick after and my stomach hurt and I felt like I had no energy. =( so dont be like me!!! Ween off of it by slowly incorporating more fats. Only reason I craved the hotdog was because my friend mentioned her love of hot dogs last weekend =(. 

RESULT: LOST 4 POUNDS! woot! I guess its all water weight, but oh wells! I felt skinnier in the morning and felt good and felt like everything left my body until I ate that stupid hot dog.

BRB Going on a Cleanse!

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BRB going on a cleanse. Dont talk to me, I’m not eating.

I discovered the Blueprint Cleanse reading gossip posts about celebrities going on it to slim down for certain events and award nights. Recently, too, a few of my friends have been on it and have posted their success stories! This uber inspired me to go on it because I am on this fitness obsession right now: I must be happy and fit and skinny and healthy again! (It also doesnt hurt when I have Miami for spring break coming up either :D) So I read up on Blueprint Cleanse and it looked great! I liked the ‘Foundation’ one- 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple one, 1 Spicy lemonade, and 1 Cashew Milk. I normally LOVE veggies and fruits and juices and healthy tasting stuff so I got excited that the cleanse involved that. I have heard of the Master Cleanse [or the lemonade diet] and was sort of grossed out by drinking lemonade all day everyday– sorta boring if you ask me!

Then I looked at the price tag and was blown away! At first I thought it was $75 for the recommended 3 day cleanse, but boy was I wrong. It was $75/day [including shipping to your home]. Each day involved drinking 6 bottles of various juices. So I decided to just make my own. The internet is amazing and I found a recipe by Home Fitness Manual. Because I dont like cashews anyway, I decided to do 3 Greens, 1 Pineapple, and 2 Spicy Lemonades [I read on their website that if you are allergic to cashews, they send you an extra Spicy Lemonade].

I tweaked the recipe from Home Fitness Manual a little bit because for some reason every grocery store I went to ran out of kale -_-. So I decided to use Swiss Chard in place of the kale.

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Halal Chicken and Rice!

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Whenever people go to NYC, they always go to this place and drunk take a picture of the Halal Guys chicken and rice. I’ve always seen it, but never ever had it before. I don’t plan on eating the real thing anytime soon either because although I am going to NYC this summer, its going to be with family again. Parents are always in search of good Asian food, but never anything outside the asian cuisine. Also, I figured that because I don’t drunk eat, I can never eat this with my friends if I ever go to NYC with them, so the only way I can eat it is to make it myself.
So I did my research and learned that halal food is food permitted by Islam for consumption because they have a list of things they can’t eat, such as pork, because they are slaughtered in a certain way. “Halal” means lawful. “Haram” means forbidden. Interesting right? I also learned that there are numerous halal street carts around NYC, and each have their own unique ‘white sauce’. I seriously thought there was only one cart that people go to, but I guess only tourists like my friends only know about one. haha! I tweaked the recipe a little bit- for example, using romaine lettuce instead of iceberg. Ew…*shudder*, I hate iceberg lettuce because its so cheap, flavorless, and nutrition-less. I also used A LOT less mayo for the white sauce…I HATE MAYO. I think mayo is awful. Anyway, my recipe and tweaks turned out pretty well- I enjoyed eating it because I love all the spices and freshness of the white sauce. Because I have never tried the real one, please dont hate me if this recipe doesnt turn out exactly like the halal cart ones in NYC.

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Compost Cookies!

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In the summer, I was exposed to the world of the Momofuku Milk Bar layer cakes. I was so obsessed with the way it looked that my very first cookbook became the Milk Bar cookbook! For those of you who don’t know this place, its a very famous bakery/restaurant in New York. Their layer cakes and cookies are made with a very interesting mix of ingredients. I spent all summer collecting different things required to make most of the things in the cookbook: cake rings, acetate, quarter sheet pans, glucose, grapeseed oil, mini choc chips for every flavor imaginable, milk powder– the list goes on and on. Its never ending if you want to make something from this cookbook haha! But its fun to walk around the grocery store and see something and be like OH! I can use it for X recipe in the cookbook! I followed the recipe exactly, but if I were to make it again, I would have made the cookie portions smaller because the cookies spread, and I like my cookies medium sized. My friends love them, so I guess I cant complain since I only eat like one. haha! The cookbook is great because the recipes reflect exactly what you get if you go to the actual bakery to buy it– even the sizing of it all is the same =) Recipe after the jump!

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"The Soup"’s soup that only comes twice a year

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Albondigas soup-[“the crazy meatball soup”]-Ever heard of it? Well I go to Souplantation [“The Soup”] with my friends a lot and one time we happened upon the Mexican theme when The Soup was doing the Around the World themed months. So I set down my tray and I go get soup because I’m usually uber cold everywhere. I see this soup, and thought well what the hell I’ll give it a try. So I scoop some up and go through dinner. I drink some of the soup and was pretty amazed by it! My bestie then went to go get some and there weren’t anymore!!! So I basically took the last ladle of her favorite soup. We decided at the dinner table that we would re-create it one day and so we did! This is my second time making it– I am sort of on this ‘make more soup’ phase and I craved it during the holidays!

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Kale and Bacon Lasagna!

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It’s been awhile! I moved back to SD for Spring semester of my second year in law school so its been quite hectic trying to settle back in. For the holidays, I got a few new kitchen appliances to play with! I really hope that it will pave the way to many more posts! Now on to the food I made tonight =)

I first saw this cute little recipe on Skinny Taste! It was so clever– instead of layering the lasagna parts, you roll the noodle with the filling! I wanted to be healthier for the new year, so instead of my usual all fat everything ingredients, I used fat free ricotta instead. I also forgot to buy mushrooms, but luckily  had bacon. For those of you who know me though…I don’t really like bacon, but I had to use it for my potato leek soup the other night. Well, no matter what, this kale bacon lasagna is amazingly good!

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My first post!

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This is my rudimentary first post! My little sister loves Portuguese egg tarts so she asked me to make some. I have never made puff pastry before so this is my first attempt to do it. It sounds so scary at first, but when you finally make it, it isnt really that bad! I surprised myself and am super excited to make more puff pastries, especially with my Tartine bakery cookbook in the future.
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Long Overdue

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I have thought about making a blog for a long time now but life got in the way of me doing so. A new year has arrived, so I figured it was the perfect time to start something — something long overdue like this blog. I plan to document my culinary creations, things I love, and any random thoughts for anyone interested in reading!