Sometimes I get a little behind...

Hey girls!! Yesterday I basically went off the grid (i.e. no Facebook and my phone was on silent). This wasn't intentional. These things just happen sometimes. Especially to me. And I kind of like it. :) Anyway, I came back to the world today and saw that I missed VMars making their movie goal, Jen's healthy snack blog, Leigh's Disney man and Kiki's TJ face wash. (On that note, lately I've just been straight up putting TJ vitamin E oil on my face.) Whew. You girls were busy yesterday. 

It's so funny that Jen has been posting all of these food blogs, as I was really thinking about doing the same thing. Great minds, Jen. But... I kinda want to do it on a larger scale.. so I'm playing with the idea of starting my own blog about the food I've been making lately. We'll see if that happens. 

As for now.. I'm just going to use this opportunity to catch up with my lovelies! (Fair warning. I did not plan this blog out ahead of time. There will probably be no central theme or narrative and therefore lots of rambling.) 

I feel like I've actually been doing a ton of little things lately. I know you are hanging in suspense about  this "food I've been making". Let's start at the beginning. In July, I will have been a vegetarian for two years. (Woot! That's for you, Piper!) In May, Chris will have been a vegan for a year. (Previous to that he was a vegetarian for... 5? 6 years?) While I would never call myself a vegan, I feel like an honorary one as Chris and I basically only eat out on special occasions. A normal week consists of us making every meal we eat and about half of the time I make a lunch to take with me to work. So while I'm not a vegan, I eat vegan a lot.

And Boogie... because she's cute and I miss her and my parents caught her in the drawer where they keep her treats. :)

Several weeks ago we saw that there was going to be a vegan cooking demonstration in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. (Kiki's hood!) She met us there and I don't know about Kiki, but I basically fell in love with the very nervous Annie Shannon and her very calm, cool and collected husband, Dan Shannon. They created a cookbook where they veganized Betty Crooker. It's called : Betty Goes Vegan. Kiki and I both took the bait and bought the cookbook (and got it autographed.) For a while now, my domestic side has been going into overdrive. (I think Piper kicked it off by triggering all of my maternal urges.) 

Therefore I've loosely decided to do what many women (and men) have done before me and cook my way through the cookbook. The first meal I made (on Valentine's Day no less) was... horrible. Sweet potato risotto something or another. Euch. However! Since then, everything has basically been delicious! Last night I made German Potato Salad and Maple Pecan "Chicken". Funnily enough, I wasn't crazy about the chicken because it was too.... chicken-y. I feel like I just passed some sort of vegetarian test I didn't even know I was facing. 

Maple Pecan "Chicken" with Goodfellas Crositini ... and I think the potato salad pictures are on C's camera.

Chris and I have been collaborating on a lot of projects lately. One of which is a documentary we're making on his old roommate, Camilla Ha. Camilla..... is basically one of the most fascinating and exciting people I've ever even heard of. She is and artist on every level: musician, drawer, painter, filmmaker, sculptor, installation. For the past several months, Chris has been working on a Mens Dance documentary to present to Rahm Emanuel about.. well, men's dance programs in high schools in Chicago. He recently wrapped it up and I could tell he was feeling really cagey to start a new project. I suggested Camilla because it just seemed like the obvious choice. Several weeks ago we filmed her dancing with drag queens. I made my first stop motion movie of a book of drawings she made and I think we've finally figured out how to put this puppy together. We didn't want it to be a straightforward documentary... more a piece of work in and of itself reflecting her. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to do more with it. 

Camilla, a very angsty blonde and Bobby... if he were a drag queen.

An awkward (yet in my opinion, awesome) photo of a queen durning a play Camilla was in.

....and. ya know. these guys. and yes. this was the middle of the afternoon.

http://camillaha.com/

For my dad's birthday, Chris and I covered one of his favorite songs. Chris did all of the music and I sang (yikes!!!!) and "engineered" the song. He's teaching me to use Pro Tools (and Final Cut) so I can be a sound engineer (or film editor) in my spare time. Singing, out loud, for real, for people to hear was a fear I wasn't even fully aware I had. I was trembling when I was holding the microphone. But. I did it. And it sounds... ok. :) One day when I'm feeling more confidant, maybe I'll let you guys have a listen. My dad loved it and immediately forwarded it to all of his friends, much to my mortification. 

Other things of note... I'm going to be taking ballet lessons at The Joffrey soon. I bought the lessons and my ballet shoes! Before Christmas, Chris's dad gave me some ballet lessons in our apartment and I really liked it. Seems like a nice, relaxing hobby. (Just kidding guys. I know ballet is super rigorous. But I've never had ballet lessons before!) C and I just found out yesterday one of his best friends got engaged. They live in London... so I desperately hope this means a trip to London is in my near future. (Or Indonesia!! The groom is Indonesian) I've been reading a lot of books about Paris during World War II lately. Also I want to read more about The Great Leap Forward in China. I read a book about that recently and all of the famine that ensued. It makes me very conscious about not wasting food...

And finally! I know you girls have  been bandying about a trip to Disney to run the marathon. I've been thinking about it, and I just don't think that's something I can do. I know you guys said we could just (basically) walk it, but I feel like if I did something like that, I would want to actually really attempt to do it. And I know I'm not going to train enough to even remotely be ready for that. I have my sights set on something more like the 5K color run. I hate to be a party pooper. And of course I think you girls should do it if you want to! But, if we want to go somewhere fun and do the color run, I'd be much more willing to do that. (I know the deadline has come and gone for the NYC one). Or if you guys even wanted to go somewhere and not run, I'd be cool with that too. We could go to Maine and visit Jean, or go west and do something in California - Jen if you wanted to get away from LA, we could go to Napa or something. Hell, perhaps we can stay at some crap-o hacienda in Mexico and just eat pudding and margaritas like Charlotte. I'd love to do something exciting, but I've been thinking about it and I know I can't commit to a marathon. 

Portland, Maine

Napa Valley

Not sure where... but somewhere in Mexico....

http://thecolorrun.com/

xoxo...

not a granola head just yet

so i've been here 3 years (in 20 days) and everyone tells me that's how long it takes to like la. tho my friend elizabeth has been here 13 years and still says she doesn't like it, but it's where the work is. i'm liking it better. getting out of the silna family routine was a sharp change but, i'm getting back to doing the things i like to do, like going outside to run rather than the gym.

i never thought i'd see the day when i was looking forward to daylight savings, losing that hour is so painful. on the bright side (get it?) it will finally be light enough for me to go running after work. this is good news for my lazy self since i absolutely cannot get up early enough to run before work. i've tried and failed, there's no getting around it. the past week i've been on a pinterest binge trying to motivate myself to get healthy after my lady doctor visit resulted in me needing to stock up on some vitamins. oh 31 25, how i loath what you're doing to me. in addition to vitamins and probiotics (thanks leigh), i decided i'd try making some healthy treats at home, smoothies, energy bars, pasta alternatives. if i'm going to start doing this on the regular, i should prob see where the stuff is the cheapest right?

this weekend i did a grocery crawl to see where the least expensive groceries were. the plan was to hit target, trader joe's, whole foods, ralphs (kroger) and alberstons (lowes) then compare with anything i could auto order thru amazon.

the grocery list

spinach

bananas

kiwi

almond milk

chia seeds

maca powder

goji berries

dried cranberries

walnuts

whole dates

quinoa

lentils

laziness + $4/gallon gas + reality = i only hit target, trader joe's and amazon. my reasoning being, i really only go to a standard grocery store if i see a sale on something i need and whole foods always costs more. i decided i'd only do whole foods if i absolutely couldn't find an item at tj's or target. i was pretty surprised by what i found out. on the average, trader joe's had the best deals, and they never even put anything on sale! the bonus, i can walk to trader joe's (usually on sundays while talking to mom). while everything is basically within a 0.05 difference, i was shocked that at both target and amazon, almond milk was twice as much per ounce. what?!

anyone who's read a celebrity health interview knows they're addicted to green drinks. wether it's the pressed cleanse or something whipped up at the gym, everyone's walking around with a green drink. i'm more on board with selena on these drinks.

that being said, my green smoothie this morning was amaze!!! last year, the same day unc kicks dooks ass at home, i bought this little mixer in green. it was def on sale. it's been nearly a year to the day and i still hadn't used it. inspired by leigh's juice post on facebook, this weekend i preped for a few smoothies: 1 banana sliced in a freezer bag, 1 kiwi cut up in a bag in the fridge, 1 cup spinach in a bag in the fridge, 1.5 cups almond milk in the fridge, 1 tbsp chia seeds in the pantry. this morning i just had to dump and blend.

voila!

it was super tastey! so these chia seeds are kind of a new craze. i read about them a while ago, but now they're popping up all over the place. they've got fiber, omega 3 and supposedly boost energy. i can't speak to the energy, altho i'm a little higher off my coffee than usual, but the fiber is def working. it's nearly lunch time and i'm not hungry at all, i'm usually starving by now.

this weekend i'll try out the energy bars and post on my blog. i'm thinking dates, cranberries and walnuts. we'll see how the first week back to running goes.

i'm gonna toss in this little gem of a video b/c it's so true. and b/c every time i think "goji berries" i can only hear it like this girl.

xoxo!