Good morning upper west siders

Yeah, too bad I don’t live on the East side…then I’d be a true gossip girl.  Riiiiight.

 

I was in a barista kind of mood this morning :D

Froth machine + silk + truvia + cinn = the best coffee EVER!

Even better?  I had the day off, AGAIN!  Plus I am going home on Thursday for a girlfriend’s bridal shower/bachelorette weekend, so I’m beyond excited.  California sunshine here I come…

PB Puffins and an apple to get the day off right.  Somehow I wound up talking on the phone (mostly with my mom) for hours, and the next time I looked at the clock it was 3 pm!  What!?  So I made myself a really late lunch.

Soynut butter quesadilla, blueberry Chobz, and dried figs.

And a tall glass of home-made iced coffee (heavy on the silk).

And off to the gym I went…tread mill, elliptical, AND spinning (sweet!!)  I came home to quite a nice surprise too…

PACKAGE!!!!!!!!

I ordered sugar cookie sleigh ride tea last week, so I was like a second semester senior checking the mail every day for big packages.  Remember those days?  I don’t miss that phase of life!

So now I’ve got six glorious boxes of my fave tea…oh, happy day. 

As if the day could get any better, I had a dinner date with my girlfriend at Nanoosh (hummus bar heaven).  Me and Jess are both Upper West Siders, so I’m pretty sure Nanoosh took us into consideration when they were deciding where to start their business (obvi)!! 

I ordered a hummus wrap, which had spinach, cukes, tomatoes, bell pepps, quinoa and HUMMUS all in a whole wheat wrap. 

Oh. My. Goodness.  I wish my wraps tasted this good.  The freshness and crunch of the cucumber with the creamy smooth hummus was delish beyond words.  I’m going to have to start adding that to mine!  Genius!  On the side I had a quinoa salad with organic quinoa, red pepps, red onion, roasted walnuts and raisins.  I avoided the walnuts like the plague, of course, but the rest of the salad was SO good. 

Jess got the hummus with sun dried tomato pesto, and a side of carrots.  I’ll let you read her description of the whole wheat pitas, trust me, it’s accurate.

 

After dinner we decided to take a trip to my local health foods store (aka my idea of life support), so I could introduce Jess to the shelf that would single handedly rock her world lead to her ultimate demise.  I’m talking about the vegan dessert fridge.  How in the world Jess missed this key area in the store, is BEYOND me, but hey, that’s what she’s got me for!!  ***On a side note – I was also the first person to get her trashed in college too.  I’m noticing a theme of corruption!!!  Mwahahaha (evil laugh).  Erin can vouch for me, I’m not lying, “addicting” doesn’t even describe how amazing carob raisins are…

 

For dessert, I polished off this bag no prob and then moved on to figs and coconut date rolls.  Kyle was working late, so I may have had a bit more.

Oh SCSR, how I’ve missed you…let’s never fight again.

T.G.I.H(ummus)

The aroma just opening this bag was intoxicating (I lurrrrve the smell of fresh coffee grounds)…I mixed it with half regular coffee from the bucks, so the choc/rasp flavor was super subtle and quite nice.  To be honest, I couldn't really taste the raspberry much at all.  Either way, it has caffeine, so mission accomplished.

I started the day with a ridiculously heaping bowl of PB puffins.  Kids, this box isn’t gonna last much longer – these babies are TOO good for words.

I figured I’d get the show on the road with the bag tag…

The rules:

1) Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go up to your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back before you had kids. I want to know what you carried today or the last time you left the house. No cheating!
2) I want to know how much it cost And this is not to judge. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I’d love to hear it.
3) Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your bag.

Even though I didn’t work today I’m still rockin’ my massive “pinky” bag (it’s my work bag), because I’ve been too lazy to transfer everything to one of my other cute(r) purses.  This baby is from my UCLA days, when my best girlies called me pinky (it has several meanings, but for my G-rated blog, let’s just say it’s my fave color).  My lover, Jess (you’ve met her before here), got it embroidered and gave it to me for my 21st birthday – it’s barely pink anymore, that’s how much I’ve used it! 

Dumping everything out was quite eye-opening, to say the least.  Talk about random crap that I had no idea was there.

• umbrella
• beanie
• Kyle’s lacoste gloves (he’s never getting them back)
• pink watch (I only wear watches for work)
• random candy from valentine’s day (twizzlers and butterscotch hard candy)
• black faux-leather wallet (replacement for the one that got mugged in Nov)
• keys (with a million scan cards – gym, grocery store, etc.)
• cherry chapstick (katy perry where are you?)
• work ID badge
• gum
• individual tissues (with some awesome pattern, no doubt)

*had this been a work day, there would also be 2 newspapers (the AM & the Metro), my current book, my pre-packed lunch, and water bottle…now you see why I lug pinky around?  With all that weight on my shoulders, it’s amazing I don’t have back issues can still walk.

Lunch: vegan BLT

Soy bacon, tofu, and tomato (no lettuce), all on Alvarado street bread with greek yog.

I may have gone overboard with the greek yog?  Nah. 

Plus some fruit. 

I was debating going on a run outside, but the wind factor sealed the deal.  I enjoy my skin ATTACHED my face, thank you very much!  I had tears streaming down to my chin just from the 3 block walk to the gym…but once I was there, I had a pretty decent sesh.  I did more than I thought I would, so I guess my new high energy playlist is really working.  I even tried 2 new arm machines!  I’m such a wuss when it comes to things like that, so it’s a big accomplishment for me.  Don’t worry, my arms are nowhere near Kelly Ripa status.

  

Post gym and 150 degree shower (to de-thaw myself), I had a chocolate o’soy, which is NOT their best flavor, but it was the only one they had last time I was at the store.  I added in some chopped up figs and raisins, because that makes everything better! Still…not a flavor I’ll buy again.  Vanilla and blueberry are the best ones by far.  I also had a few coconut date rolls, but then I remembered I was going out to dinner so I stopped myself from spoiling my appetite (like that could ever really happen). 

FYI, these are my monthly dinner girls…(photo from a couple years back).  We go WAY back (kindergarten), and all ended up in NYC, so we do dinner once a month, alternating neighborhoods.

This time we went to dinner in my ‘hood, so I chose Nanoosh, a Mediterranean hummus bar (drool).  I was in heaven just reading the menu.  (Oh, and don’t worry, I changed my purse before I went out)

Naturally, we started off with a bottle of red.  We chose the Coq Rouge for no reason aside from the name.  It’s a medium bodied organic red with a “black cherry aroma and soft, but rich tannins.”  Not my favorite, to be honest.  Plus it was served really warm (way warmer than room temp), so that was kinda weird.

Fresh HUMMUS!!!  You know what a clown’s face looks like right after it gets a pie smashed in it?  That’s what I wanted to do with my dinner!!  For dinner I ordered the hummus with mushrooms, which was SO tasty.  They make their hummus fresh from organic chickpeas, extra virgin olive oil and spices, which they then served with 2 whole wheat pitas.

These pitas were like hot puffs of heaven.  They were so fresh out of the oven, they steamed when you tore them open.  DE-lish!!!  I literally could have made a meal out of the pitas alone, they were HUGE.  I guess it goes without saying that I devoured my dinner, wiping my plate clean with the beautifully, steamy bread.  The hummus was perfectly creamy and the mushrooms were a nice addition to the dish (I had to force myself not to order plain hummus). 

This picture gives you an idea of how massive the pitas were…(this is my friend’s dinner, hummus with chicken)

And this was my other friend’s dinner, the chicken wrap, which contained grilled marinated natural chicken breast, hummus, tahini, organic onions and greens.  Plus a quinoa salad on the side.  For the record, I hate when descriptions of dishes use the word “natural.”  What does that even mean?  There are no regulations on phrases like that, so the description is pointless in my book.

We chatted the night away, as usual, so by the time I got home I was ready for my usual dessert plate.

Carob covered raisins and figs.  If it ‘aint broke…