HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: spaghetti with meatballs, Paleo style!

Ok I am back!  We're all moved into to our house and we're feeling comfortable.  We still haven't completely unpacked and the hubs is not too happy about the garage being a dumping ground for all my knick knacks but it's all good...because it's starting to very much feel like home.  :)

So I am back to cooking all kinds of randomness!  I am so looking forward to summer, to grilling!  We are contemplating on moving our old grill from the old house or purchasing a new one (as the old one has a broken wheel and has been put to great use).  Well no grilling tonight.  Tonight I make spaghetti with meatballs yeah!

Remmalicious Meatballs

1lb grass-fed ground beef

1 large organic egg

1/2 small organic red onion

1/4 cup grated carrots

1/4 cup almond meal

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

1 tablespoon of dried basil

salt and pepper (to taste)

Ok this is extremely easy.  Preheat oven at 400 degrees.  Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Grab a golf-ball size of the mixture and round.  Place all the uncooked meatballs in a glass pan and cook for 20 min.  Done!  So easy!  Pair it with some home made spaghetti sauce and spaghetti squash!  

ingredients

oops...forgot this in the first picture

mix it all up!

yummy!

spaghetti with meatballs!!! yummy!!!

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: no more chocolate milk in our schools!

Today is a great day for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) kids...Superintendent John Deasy announced that there are plans to remove chocolate and/or strawberry-flavored milk, starting next fall.  Yeah!!! Check out the article!

Why am I so excited about this?!  Yes, I know I don't have children at LAUSD.  I actually don't have any children at the moment.  But soon, the time will come when the hubs and I will have kids and they will attend LAUSD.  Another reason why I'm so excited about this?!?!  Well because I know I was a small part of the team that helped to make this happen.  I loved Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution season one!  I mean here's a show that's not out there to change just an individual's life or even a family's life - it's a show trying to make such an impact by targeting a whole school district.  It's absolutely incredible!

So when my friend Juice and I heard that Jamie Oliver was coming to the LAUSD, we were excited!  But of course the LAUSD members didn't want any part of the show and didn't want any of the schools to be filmed.  I wondered why?  What's the big deal?  He's trying to clean up our cafeterias! Well I must admit that I attended private schools only up until college so I never experienced LAUSD's cafeteria food.  So I don't really know first hand how bad the food is.

I was watching the second episode of this current season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution when the children from LAUSD brought the food they were being served to Jamie Oliver's kitchen.  What I saw shocked me...there were wrapped danishes, pizza, chocolate milk - all kinds of junk food.  Had I known this was being served, I would have begged my parents to enroll me in a public school haha!

Well that episode made me realize that wow, they have a lot to hide and to be afraid of should this show air.  At the beginning of the year, I was one of those people who emailed every single LAUSD board member to let Jamie Oliver into their schools.  Watching this second episode made me realize how important those emails were and how truly we can all make a difference by doing something small.

So if you don't like the food being served to your kids at school, do something about it! :)

HOMEMADE MONDAY MEALS: balsamic pork chop & sweet potato fries!

I love pork, I love pork chops!  I recently made some yummy pork chops on my new favorite kitchen gadget, the grill pan.  Oh and I made some sweet potato fries to accompany my pork! Here are easy recipes I came up with.

Balsamic Pork Chops & Sweet Potato Fries

4 lean pieces of pork chops (with or without bone)
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic
pepper

2 large sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt & pepper

First pre-heat the oven at 375 for the sweet potato fries.  Then marinade the pork chops with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic and lots of pepper.  Marinade for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, prep the sweet potato fries by peeling and slicing them into "french fries" pieces.  Then add olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Then place into the oven, about 10-15 minutes each side.

It's time to grill the pork!  So place the marinated pork chops into a hot grill pan, it takes about 5 minutes on each side if you are using a grill press.  If you don't have a grill press, just cover the pan. Once both sides of the pork chop turns a bit brown, then you may want to cut a little piece to make sure the inside is cooked also.  That's it you're done.  Pair it with an easy salad of spinach, sliced tomatoes, avocado and sprinkle with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Yummy!!!

what you need

marinade the pork chops with balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil and pepper

looking like they are done!

organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's - a staple in our home

prepping to go into the oven

our yummy and healthy dinner!

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: umami burger in Studio City

I'm really am not one of those people who like to follow the hype, at least when it comes to food.  So last week we had dinner plans with a couple of our good friends and they wanted to try Umami Burger.  One just opened around our area and they wanted to try it.  I was excited but I knew there would be a long wait.  Sure enough when we got there, there was a handful of people waiting outside and the wait was 40min!  AND they didn't have pagers, we were told that they could contact our cell phone when our table was ready but it would be a $10 service charge.  What the heck?!?!

So we finally get seated and we peruse the menu which is not extensive.  I order the day's special of a pastrami burger - burger meat and a think slice of pastrami with grilled onions and some special umami sauce.  Oh and of course I also ordered some malt liquor tempura onion rings and sweet potato fries to go with it.  The food came pretty quickly.  I'm not sure if I was just famish or the food was really just that good or a combination of both.  But the burger was delicious - it was moist and tasty and the bread is awesome (I think they used potato bread).  The onion rings were awesome, the perfect amount of tempura batter.  The sweet potato fries were like addictive, they had a cinammon/nutmeg/salt/seasoning and I think they added some sugar too.  Sooo bad for you but tasted sooo good!  

Anyway, I highly recommend the place although I recommend that you wait until the hype has subsided - that way you don't have wait so long for a table.

my pastrami burger (not much lighting at the place)

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: your hood as your work out tool!

Before we moved into our new place, I told my girlfriend that I will be walking to Wholefoods everyday.  It's a one mile walk and another mile back, not bad right?  No, not bad at all except that we live on a hill - a fairly steep hill at that.  I've only walked to Wholefoods once and I was picked up by my husband on my way back - ugh so annoyed as I didn't get the chance to feel the pain of walking back uphill.

So I have not been following my routine lately of going to the gym during my lunch break.  So yesterday I decided to punish myself and run around my hood.  We always make excuses not to exercise - too busy to run, gym membership is so expensive, gym is too far, we don't have the right equipment, and the list goes on and on!  But you know running is awesome - it's free and heck you don't even need shoes AND you can run anywhere!  So yesterday I ran around my hood.  Going downhill was easy breezy, didn't even break a sweat.  Coming uphill was a different story.  I felt like I was barely covering any ground as I was running uphill.  I'm sure it looked like I was strolling if you were driving by me.  I only ran for about 25 minutes and I was drenched in sweat, like I've been in spin class for 40 min!  I took a couple of pictures of the dreaded hill.

easy breezy downhill

pure pain

HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: rainbow trout, asian style!

So last weekend, the hubs and I decided to take a stroll down Pacific Palisades.  We had a delicious brunch at Cafe Vida and the Mexican hot chocolate was amazing!  Then we went shopping at the farmer's market down the street.  I've been to handful of farmer's markets and I get very excited when they sell poultry or any types of meats because it's not so common.  So imagine my excitement when we came across a booth that sold seafood! We had to get something just to support the local fisherman!  So the hubs decided on rainbow trout, not sure why.  Well I've never made it before but I did come up with this marinade for salmon a while back...I figured it's pretty fool-proof and it was haha!

Rainbow trout, Asian style!

4 rainbow trout fillets (we made the mistake of buying ones with bones and skin - it was a pain to remove after the fish was cooked!)
1 bunch of scallions/green onions
1/4 cup of grated ginger (peel first - love ginger!)
1 tablespoon of garlic
2 tablespoon of tamari or soy sauce
olive oil
salt and pepper

Ok this is extremely simple.  Chop up the scallions and grate the ginger.  Place half of the chopped scallions and half of the grated ginger in a storage bag.  Add the tamari or soy sauce, garlic, a little bit of olive oil and the fish fillets.  Mix it all up and marinade for about 10 minutes.  Then add some olive oil to a heated skillet. Stir in the other half of the scallions and ginger for a about a minute, then cook up the fillets!  It only takes a few minutes to cook each side of the fish.  That's it, you're done!  I've tried using this marinade with salmon and baking the salmon instead of cooking it in a skillet, and I have gotten the same yummy result!

ingredients

fish in marinade

the smell in the kitchen was so awesome when this was happening

rainbow trout, asian style!

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: costco!

I LOVE Costco!  They have everything you can ask for...for less and in bulk.  Yes, I know sometimes I leave the place with a year's supply of toilet paper or toothpaste and I have spent over $100 but it's an awesome place.  A couple of years ago, our local Coscto started carrying organic chicken breasts!  Score!  It was about at least 1/3 cheaper than Wholefoods or even Trader Joe's prices.  Last year, they started carrying organic, grass-fed ground beef!  Score again!  I love that I can get the organic poultry and meats for much less.  I also heard a rumor that Wholefoods and Costco get their organic meats from the same place, that I cannot confirm.

But this week, I came across this article..."Costco to Become Leader in Sustainable Seafood Industry." Bam!  Another reason to love the place!

HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: bacon wrapped chicken breast!

I love bacon, most people love bacon! Anything with bacon is always extra yummy.  So this past Monday, I made bacon-wrapped chicken breasts.  The idea sounds good (like the bacon-wrapped hot dogs they sell on Sunset after a long night of drinking and clubbing!) and OMG it WAS AWESOME!  The hubs even had the leftovers the next day!

Bacon-wrapped Chicken Breast

What you need:
2 chicken breast
1 packed of organic, uncured bacon
pepper
olive oil

So all I did what cut up the chicken breast into about 4.  Then I rubbed some olive oil and pepper on the chicken and then wrapped it in with bacon.  Placed it on a hot grill pan and that's it!  Cook until the chicken is fully cooked (cover pan so it cooks faster).  I am absolutely convinced that the bacon keeps the chicken breast moist because it was very moist and tasty and the bacon was crispy.  So yum and super easy!

beginning of some deliciousness!

voila!  so easy and so yummy!

HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: intro to tagine chicken!

tagine = my new toy

I was going to wait to use our new cooking gadgets until we moved into our new house.  But I couldn't wait to use my new fancy tagine given to us by my cousin, Tina, and her family.  So I was thinking of following this tagine recipe, instead decided to just make one up haha.  I really wasn't sure how it would turn up but man, it was good...it was darn good!  I didn't tell the hubs that I made up the recipe until he tried it and he loved it! I'll have to make it again sometime soon...it's perfect for cold winter nights!


Remy's Bad Ass Tagine Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

ingredients

2 organic chicken breasts and 2 organic chicken thighs cut into 1in. pieces (or just breasts or just thighs)
1 small butternut squash - seeded, peeled and cut into 1in. pieces
1 medium sweet potato - peeled and cut up
1 carrot - peeled and cut up
1 small yellow onion chopped
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1 15oz can of organic diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons of garam masala (yes, I am using Indian spice on a Moroccan dish!)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt & pepper

my new recipe - tagine chicken

First add the olive into a tagine (or a skillet with cover would be fine too). Saute the garlic and onions until slightly brown.  Add the chicken and stir.  Once chicken is slightly brown, add the sweet potatoes, carrots and a can of diced tomatoes. Then add salt and pepper and cover. Let the dish simmer for about 30 min in low-medium heat.  Then add the the butternut squash and garam masala.  Cover again for another 15 minutes.  Voila!  That's it!  I realized that I am a pretty efficient cook.  I cook mainly during the weeks after a long day at work so I like things easy and very simple but tasty.  This dish is definitely simple and tasty!  I'll have to make again soon as it's a perfect dish for a cold winter night.  Enjoy it and please feel free to leave feedback, would love to hear it! :)

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: tacos at Grand Central Market!

yummy carne asada taco at Grand Central market

Grand Central Market in DTLA has been around since 1917.  Absolutely incredible since LA doesn't have much of a history.  It showcases the  international diversity of LA offering Middle Eastern foods, Chinese, Salvadorian, Hawaiian, Mexican, specialty foods, desserts, fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, bakery.  All kinds of foods!  One place that my work peeps and I keep going back to is Jose Chiquito, a Mexican food stand displaying some of the best meats for tacos, burritos, tortas. The carne asada and carnitas tacos are amazingly tasty and the portions are huge!  One taco is really three tacos...and even better, it only costs $2.50!  Yes, yummy food and good price can be found in LA, in DTLA!

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: no excuses

My friend Joy posted this on her FB page and it made me cry.  I have never heard of Team Hoyt until now...what an inspirational story.  It is humbling...it makes me realize that I am healthy person free of disabilities...and I should have no excuses to work out or to better myself! So now I watch it occasionally for inspiration.  I'm so inspired that I put the hubs and I on the waitlist to run the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon!  Why not right?  We are both physically capable of running one, so I am so excitedly hoping we both get to register, wish us luck! :)

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: learning from a gorilla study

The hubs sent me this link which I thought was incredibly insightful!  We can definitely learn a lot from this study.  Thank you mono!

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: more like UN-wellness wednesday!

So last Tuesday on my quest to trying out different restaurants in my neighborhood, I ended up acquiring the foodie's GREATEST enemy - FOOD POISONING!!!  That's right folks!  I was ill for three days straight.  My husband thinks I had it coming but judge for yourself.

So my brother and sister-in-law were over last Tuesday night.  I was too busy cleaning out the pantry preparing for our move that I didn't have time to cook.  My brother wanted burgers and my sister-in-law wanted sushi.  Well guess what?  There actually is a place that serves both in one restaurant!  Yup AND it has good reviews and came highly recommended by my girlfriend. The place is called Kings Burgers - Got Sushi?

So the three of us waited for the hubs to get off jiu jitsu class to go to this magical burger/sushi joint.  The place looked like a burger joint with a counter to order burgers and fries, although one section of it is for sushi.  My husband and brother ordered from the burger side, which they actually had to order at the counter.  My sister-in-law and I ordered a plethora of sushi and sushi rolls.  The sushi didn't look bad and the rolls were pretty tasty, and the hubs and bro thought their food was great.

Well later that night my stomach wasn't feeling so great.  I went to bed with a massive belly ache and I was just tossing and turning.  I felt warm and had the chills. The next morning, I threw up...A LOT.  I threw up my dinner from the night before...and actually felt happy about that because I thought I would feel great immediately after.  But no, it just got worse!  My fever persisted from the night before but on top of that I now had diarrhea.  All I did that day was sleep hoping I could just sleep it off.

As my fever, nausea and diarrhea continued onto the next day, I decided to go to Urgent Care.  The doctor confirmed my suspicion - food poisoning that has turned into the stomach flu.  The doctor gave me 2 shots on my bum that day (which I'm still recovering from as it left bruises!) - for nausea and an antibiotic in case I had a bacterial infection.  That day, I rested and drank lots of Pedialyte and coconut juice.

I thought the worst was over until the next day when I had the Montezuma's revenge aka "the shits."  It was AWFUL!  I still had the diarrhea so I had to keep hydrated so I drank lots of liquids.  But as soon as I drank something, it would come out the other way almost instantaneously.  Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in my bathroom that day.

Finally on Saturday afternoon, I decided to be brave and go to IKEA with the hubs.  I saw the Swedish IKEA cookies called Ballerinas and I had to have them!  I ate them on our way back to the house, half of the bag in fact and I knew the hubs was secretly judging me although he didn't verbalize it haha! Sure enough...I was able to keep them down!  In fact I went to the restroom expecting the worse but no...OMG never was I so excited to have semi-solid poo in my life!  After 3 days of not being able to keep any food down, the Ballerina cookies stayed!  Oh I love IKEA for so many reasons!

I'm back to my healthy self, even working out.  I'll continue my writing now and I am not eating sushi quite yet...just to be safe.  :)

HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: garam masala roasted chicken

So the hubs and I watched the documentary Food Inc. last year and it totally changed the way we viewed food, specially chicken and beef.  You see he and I love roasted chicken. We would always get a whole roasted chicken from Costco because they are always so juicy and so plumped...until we saw that documentary. There is a reason why those chickens are so big and it is not good! (Watch the documentary if you haven't!)  So we vowed NEVER to eat Tyson roasted chicken from Costco EVER AGAIN.

So I had to come up with my own recipe using organic, free-range chicken. One of my girlfriends from work has suggested that I try garam masala with my protein as it is very tasty.  So I bought a little container of Spicely organic garam masala from Wholefoods a while back. Garam masala is an all-purpose spice used mainly in Indian dishes.  Reading straight from the packaging...it contains cinnamon, coriander, fennel, cumin, black pepper, cardamom and cloves. That's it! So I came up with a very simple roasted chicken recipe using this and I was pleasantly surprised on how moist and tasty it is! The hubs really loved it too, so I'll probably make it quite often!

GARAM MASALA ROASTED CHICKEN
  
1 organic, free-range whole chicken (about 3 lbs)
1/4 cup of organic butter (slightly melted)
1/2 organic apple of any kind (cut in half)
1 tablespoon of garam masala (try the Spicely brand as it has no salt, preservatives, wheat, etc.)
salt & pepper

ingredients

First pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Rinse the whole chicken, removing the giblets, etc. and pat dry.  Now brush the melted butter all over the chicken including the cavity (I used my hand and it was messy so I suggest some sort of a brush).  Add salt and pepper everywhere.  Then rub the garam masala seasoning all over including the cavity.  Then insert the apple slices inside the cavity to keep the chicken moist.  Finally, place the chicken on a roasting pan and bake for an hour and a half (until the internal temp is 180 degrees).  That's it!  Super simple, super moist and super yum!!!  :)

garam masala roasted chicken - yum!!!

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: dine la week

I LOVE Dine LA!  It's an opportunity to try out nice restaurants in the Los Angeles area for less!  It includes a prefix menu to include appetizer, main entree and dessert for a set price - yum, yum!  This year, I went to Border Grill in DTLA for lunch, dinner at Fogo de Chao in Beverly Hills, dinner at Chaya in DTLA and Border Grill (again!).  ALL were very good!  Check out the food from my second trip to Border Grill...

crackalicious tortilla chips and salsa...sooo good!

baja ceviche...one of the most tasty and freshest ceviche I've ever had

tortilla soup

chicken poblano enchiladas

chuleta de puerco en pepian taco = awesomeness

capirotada aka badass bread pudding

pastel rufina - croissant-like pastry with cream and chocolate chunks, so good!

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: running with those funky shoes

Vibram Five Fingers Bikilas

I am not an avid runner.  I've done 5ks, 10ks and even a marathon but I am not an avid runner.  But I do enjoy it!  So in 2004, I decided to join Aids Project Los Angeles to train for the New Orleans Mardi Gras marathon.  I mean how can you pass that up?  A good cause?  Mardi Gras?  Great food? Beignets, anyone?  So I trained, I finished, and New Orleans was awesome (so much so that I visited it again the next year for a friend's bachelorette party)!

So a few years ago, I decided to train for another marathon - the inaugural Pasadena marathon!  I started to train and train and train and when we got to up to 13 miles, my right knee started to hurt.  Well it was bound to happen as I was running a lot but I was sure it would go away.  So weeks later, my knee still hurt but even more so.  So I decided to see an orthopedic surgeon who happens to be the sports doctor for the USC Men's basketball team...and he was hot - thanks Jane for the referral!  He checked out my knee, asked the routine questions.  Have you been training? Did you change out your running shoes after so many miles? Do you stretch  before and after running?  I did everything correctly while training.  So his diagnosis - "You have runner's knee.  You really can't do anything about it." LAME!  So my knee will hurt if I continue to run.  I was pissed as I recruited a couple of friends to run the marathon with me!  So I stopped training. :(

I continued to run but not long distances.  Months later, my boyfriend (who is now the hubs) read about these funky shoes on Men's Health magazine, apparently they simulate running barefoot.  So he got us each a pair to try.  I was really excited as the hubs DID NOT like running AT ALL and he was all of a sudden interested in running, yeah! We put them on and went on a trail run.  It was AWESOME!  It was like running barefoot...I felt like a little kid running around this hiking trail.  It was exhilarating!  It was so much fun!  So we continued to run with them on weekends.  Months later, I noticed something - my knee no longer hurt!  These funky shoes worked for me.  They simulate running barefoot and humans are made to run barefoot...and it totally fixed my knee!

So now I can't really run using any other brand of shoes.  I tried going back to regular running shoes and my knee started to hurt again so I am never going back!  Funky Vibram Five Finger shoes it is (my second pair now) or someday, I may be courageous enough to go all out and run...barefoot.  Whoa! We shall see!  :)

HOMEMADE MONDAY MEALS: thai chicken chile & basil

This is probably one of my favorite dishes to make because it's so simple and very tasty! Also, you can try it with different kinds of meats.  I have made it with chicken, salmon and even tofu!  All came out yummy!!!

THAI CHICKEN CHILE & BASIL

ingredients

2 chicken breasts (cut up)
2 red bell peppers chopped (I prefer yellow, orange, or red as they are sweeter)
1 big handful of fresh basil
2 serrano peppers (seeded and chopped)
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 teaspoon red chili paste with garlic (from Asian market) or Siracha would be fine too
1 tablespoon soy sauce (tamari sauce for Paleo or gluten-free peeps)
2 teaspoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of coconut oil

So first, mix the chopped serrano peppers and minced garlic with a little bit of salt using the edge of your knife.  (See pic below).  Place coconut oil in a heated pan, dump the pepper/garlic/salt mixture into the pan.  Stir until the garlic turns slightly brown.  Then add the chicken and mix for about 3 minutes. Now add the soy sauce, fish sauce and the red chili and mix until chicken starts to brown.  Then add the chopped red (or yellow or orange peppers).  Cover the pan until chicken and peppers are cooked all the way through.  Lastly, add the basil loosely all over the dish. Let the basil sit until wilted then mix.  Voila!  Done!  Serve with rice or eat by itself.  This dish is soo tasty and yummy!!!  You can even ask my friend Sheri, this one is one of her faves too!

garlic, serrano peppers and salt mixture

mixture in the coconut oil

with the cut up chicken breast

thai chicken chile & basil  (i should really start taking better pictures!)

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: WTF? blueberry breakfast cereal without actual blueberries

So this week I came across this article that shocked me!  I was so angry that I had to post it as soon as I could.  (I might post another Feature Food Friday to make up for this one hehe.) Here is an excerpt from it...

Looking forward to enjoying some wholesome antioxidant-chockedblueberries in your morning cereal? Chances are, you're going to have to look elsewhere. Nonprofit organization Consumer Wellness Centerrecently released a video report on blueberry breakfast cereals, breads, and pastries that are missing, that's right, blueberries.


I've always thought cereals, bake mixes that contain fruit have dehydrated real fruit...not fake fruit!  More validation why I should be reading food labels meticulously!  Here's another excerpt...

Take Kellogg's Blueberry Muffin Frosted Mini-Wheats. They contain "Blueberry Flavored Crunchlets," made of "sugar, corn cereal, soybean oil, modified corn starch, water, natural and artificial flavor, glycerin, corn syrup, red #40 lake, and blue #2 lake."


OMG!  All I can say is WTF.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: your local farmer's market

Isn't it amazing how much more expensive it is to eat healthy nowadays?!  Fast food places are EVERYWHERE.  They are inexpensive and easily accessible.  Veggies - not so much. An organic medium sized yellow onion can be $1 at Wholefoods, whereas you can get a cheeseburger at McD's for the same amount.  It's sad...very, very sad.

A solution to costly healthy foods is your awesome local farmer's market!  You get a better selection of fruits, veggies, and nuts for a lower cost...and it gives you the opportunity to support your local farmers, it's a win/win situation!  To locate your local farmer's market, click HERE.

Here are some pics I took this past Sunday from my local farmer's market...just another beautiful day in SoCal! :)

selling grass-fed beef and cage-free, organic chicken (which I used for Monday's meal) 

what we took home from the Farmer's market

HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: moroccan chicken stew

Yesterday morning, the hubs and I went to the local weekly farmer's market, which we try to do whenever we get the chance.  We always go to this booth which sells grass-fed beef and organic, free-range chicken. So we bought 2 one-pound ground beef and half of a whole chicken.  So I thought I would do something with the chicken.  First I thought I should roast it but then it wasn't a whole chicken so I don't how that would work and I didn't want to spend too much time waiting for the chicken to cook in the oven.  Then, I thought I'll use the slow cooker to make something so the hubs can watch a movie in the theater yeah!  Then I remembered this Moroccan chicken recipe my friend had given me a while ago.  Well I couldn't use the whole recipe as I wanted to make a healthy, Paleo dish and I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand.  So here is what I came up with which actually turned out really well!

Moroccan Chicken Stew

1/2 whole chicken or 2 lbs worth of chicken pieces (If you do not have good knives or just don't want to deal with the hassle of de-boning, I suggest getting boneless chicken pieces.)

1 onion (chopped)

1 red bell pepper (cut into 1in. pieces)

1 green bell pepper (cut into 1in. pieces)

1 27oz can of plum tomatoes

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

1 1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

2 tablespoons of water

2 tablespoon of almond butter

ingredients

This recipe, as most slow cooker recipes, is very easy.  First, place onion, red and green bell peppers, tomato, tomato paste, cumin, paprika and water into the slow cooker.  Mix it all up.  Then nestle the chicken pieces in the mixture.  Turn slow cooker on for 6-7 hrs on low.  (We didn't have much time so we had it on high for 3 hours but the veggies weren't as soft as we wanted them but were still yum!!!)  Add the almond butter at the very end when you are ready to serve.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  Voila, that's it!  For non-Paleo, serve with rice or couscous! 

Moroccan chicken stew

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: birthday sushi & triple chocolate mousse cake!

sashimi lunch special from Sushi Gen

Today's feature Friday revolves around two of my food loves: Sushi Gen sushi and Porto's Cuban bakery.  For my birthday celebration, a group of work peeps and I went to Little Tokyo for our sushi fix.  Not just any sushi spot, we went to my favorite - Sushi Gen!  I have been coming here for lunch for at least six years.  Hands down, the best, freshest sushi in Little Tokyo!  Why not right?  Fish market is seriously down the street from it.  So fresh the yellowtail just melts like butter in your mouth, yummy!  Here is a picture of my sashimi lunch special - it comes with miso soup, tofu appetizer, cucumber salad, rice and all this yummy sashimi all for about $15.  There is a price for the yummy sushi, everyone wants some and there usually is a line so come early!

Porto's awesome triple chocolate mousse cake

So it seems that there is a common denominator amongst all my friends...FOOD!!! That certainly is the case with my girlfriend, Marilyn.  She and I bonded over three years ago over a certain cake from a certain bakery - the delicious but light triple chocolate mousse cake from Porto's bakery.  Porto's has awesome empanadas, potato balls, guava rolls, cheese rolls, breads...all kinds of pastries and cakes.  So yummy!!  I've had their Parisian chocolate cake, cheesecake, mango mousse cake, fruit tarts, tiramisu, red velvet cake...but the one I keep coming back to is their triple chocolate mousse cake.  It's three layers of goodness, the bottom is like this dark chocolate cake, the middle is chocolate mousse, the top layer is white chocolate mousse topped off with a hefty serving of white chocolate shavings.  It's amazing - it tastes light and it is so tasty!!!  You'll have to try it out for yourself!  

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: korean day spa

I am definitely not a spa type of gal, seriously! I've been to a couple of Burke Williams, Glen Ivy, and have gotten some massages during vacations...but I am never the type to spend a whole day at a spa!  I like them but I get pretty antsy and bored pretty easily. So as a birthday activity, I decided to go to the spa - but not just any kind of spa - a Korean day spa!  What's so special about a Korean day spa?  Well first of all the prices are much more reasonable and second of all...you have to be completely nude!!!  Say what?!  Yup, no sporting your favorite bikini...just your birthday suit and it was appropriate for me as it was my birthday after all!

So I checked out the Olympic Spa in Koreatown after reading numerous reviews and consulting my Korean friends.  All said Olympic was good for my first experience as the place is popular for non-Koreans.  I signed up for the Pure Bliss treatment which included the famous Korean scrub, jojoba bead body polish, a shiatsu massage, scalp and facial massage with mask, and finishing it off with a hair wash and conditioning treatment.  All that for $100!

Upon entering, I dunked myself in a couple of hot baths, aromatherapy bath, went in and out of the showers and steam rooms.  Surprisingly, the nudey thing didn't bother me much, well maybe because there weren't as many people as I had expected, or I was too involved enjoying these baths and showers.  Mid-shower my number was called and this cute, petite Korean lady came looking for me to start my scrub.

Well...the Korean scrub is one of my favorite spa treatment...ever!  I got scrubbed down like I've never been scrubbed down in my life before!  It was fantastic!  The massage, facial and everything else were amazing too but the scrub is what will keep me coming back, for sure!  If you live in the LA area...you MUST try it at least once and you will be hooked!  Don't take my word for it...come on $100 for a full on spa treatment? Try looking for that elsewhere!

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: Korean food - all-you-can-eat yeah!!!

Today, my girlfriend Jen, took me to Hansong, a Korean buffet in honor of my upcoming birthday!  Whoohoo!!!  I have been dreaming about this for a week!  You see, I heart Korean food and...I am one of the few women I know who can thrown down at a buffet.  That's right, I believe in getting my money's worth, in this case, my friend's money's worth haha!

Unfortunately, I was too busy stuffing my face to take any decent pictures of the buffet!  I did manage to take a picture of 1 out of the 3 plates I consumed.  This place is nice and big, and very clean.  It has kalbee, bulgogi,  pork belly, chicken wings, seaweed salads, tuna, sushi, of course kimchee, Chinese food, seafood, and even cheese!  The food was good, not excellent, but good.  Service was great though - our waiter was attentive!  For $16.99 for lunch, I'd definitely go back!  Check out their website! http://hansongbuffet.com/

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: one of my loves...the spin bike!

So today I wanted to share with you one of my loves - the spin bike.  Haha sounds so dramatic!  Why do I like it?  Because you can burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time and you can just sit on the bike and pretend to work out if you're tired haha!  I introduced myself to spin about seven years ago at my local YMCA.  Through the glass door of the work out room, I saw a bunch of people in bikes cycling like mad and sweating like mad!  You see I feel like I haven't worked out unless I actually burn some calories and sweat.  So I tried it and my butt was seriously sore and after class, my clothes were drenched in my own sweat...so gross but so good!  Now I spin about two to three times a week and I have recruited my work buddies Joy & Jamie (time to go back, Jamie, I'm putting you on blast! haha) to accompany me to spin during our lunch break.  Such a great work out in a short amount of time and a wonderful break from work.  You should try it out!