Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Mmmmm, salad....


Now, this is what you call a power salad. Red kale and red cabbage with a thyme vinaigrette. Absolutely delicious. I've been taking this for lunch for like two days and it just makes me feel great. It doesn't require a blender (hehe) just a knife and a steady hand. I'll have to make some for my dad and see what he thinks (it's nice to have him validate my cooking skills)

Well ain't that a...


Picture this: I'm knee deep in a crucial raw recipe: chocolate pudding. The almonds have been soaking for like a day and a half, I've spent $10 on organic cocoa and carob powders. Halfway through pureeing the almonds, my blender dies. I do like the instruction tell me, unplug it for 30 seconds then try to turn it on again: no dice. Then I unplug it for 5 minutes, still no dice. And hour? Nada. I'm so annoyed. The guilty party (pictured above) isn't even 3 months old. Not only does this cramp my raw style, I don't have the money to get a new blender right now. Argh! So annoyed...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Ummm

Well, its been a long, tiring week, which may explain why I feel no reason to leave the house right about now.

It started earlier this week, training some people in NYC. It was mentally and physically draining, lots of talking/discussing/arguing, lots of walking/taxi hailing. And of course, when I got back into the office, I had a ton of work to catch up on. And its the end of the fiscal year, so I had to make sure all things financial were at least out of my bucket.

I haven't worked out in almost a week, my apartment is a mess, and even though I've had raw breakfasts and lunches almost all week, my body feels toxic. I'm craving junk. I don't want to lose my momentum, so I'm newly dedicating myself to my raw fitness this weekend, looking for new recipes so that I can be set for the week.

I'm also contemplating giving up coffee. There's been a wave of bad coffee at the office and I take that as a sign that I shouldn't have it so much. Plus, it doesn't have the same effect on me. It doesn't help my system, doesn't give me a buzz. So, maybe its time to let it go. Probably for tea. And caffeinated. Cmon, I gotta have something! And I'm on the fence about the creamer. Black tea is still quite bitter.

So the plan for the weekend looks like this: grocery shopping, cleaning, bill paying, shower planning, exercising, sleeping, done. Hmmm, that's a lot...

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Mmmm....

My new favorite cup with my new favorite coffee. I love my friends and I especially feel loved when they give me gifts that show they know me. N brought me TWO bags of Kona coffee from Hawaii and S brought me a Starbucks mug from Germany. And they make a wonderful combo. I thought the coffee would be ground too finely to work with my French press, but it came out just fine. A great start to a Saturday morning.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Eh, Thursday

I'm tres bored at work. I've been working really hard all week and now I have nothing to do. Well, nothing that I really want to do. And nothing that's going to take me more than 20 minutes. Senior flaked on a two hour planning meeting and barely batted an eyelash. So you know what that means: I'm done with him for the day until he redeems himself. Junior hasn't actually been that bad. I think he's trying really hard to get along with me, so I'm trying to make the same effort. Some of his ideas are still from left field, but I find it easier to just say okay and wait for him to work out the kinks than to get frustrated.

It may sound like I don't care about my job, but I do. I might even love it if I had a better idea of where I was headed and what everyone's agendas were. I would say 75% of the cubes feel that way, which is unfortunate. And I'm not sure the outsiders realize how miserable they'd be if we all left at the same time. So, I've been doing a grazing job search. Not really applying or tuning up my resume, but seeing what's out there. And there's a lot to see, so that not so serious job search may be stepped up.

In other news, guess who has a date? Yup, its more than a month away, and its to a wedding, but whatever. I'll take what I can get. I'm going with someone I've gone out with before. We didn't end badly, but I definitely didn't give my all in getting to know him, so I kinda feel like this is a second chance.  And I have a wonderful dress, now I only have to worry about looking good in it. I went to the gym last night and will probably go again tonight. I only did 30 minutes, but my muscles definitely felt it. Craziness. And I think I'm going to take a few long lunch breaks to do yoga or something. It'll get me out of the office and stretch me out. And on that note, I'm out of the office and on to the gym...

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Weekends Are Too Short!

Why does it feel like I only get one true day off? Saturday is usually spent running errand, visiting family, and hanging with my stick girls, so Sunday is the only day I get to putz around my apartment, clean up, pay bills, whatever. And of course since I was out until 2am last night, I didn't wake up until 11am; half the day is already gone.

So what did I do yesterday? Shopped for the bridal shower that I'm throwing in about two weeks. I think over the last month, we'd all experienced some type of reality check and decided that we weren't going to lose our minds or go broke over this thing. We tweaked the menu and decor a bit and called it a day with brunch at Marathon. Then I got to talk to S about her trip for a couple hours (we always end up parked outside her house talking for hours, it's great). I love talking to people after they've taken a trip out of the States and this was her first. It opened her eyes so much, I feel like she's ready for anything and will make some major changes in her life. Like, West Philly is already too limited for her and she's talking about moving. I love it!

Then, we had dinner with probably my second favorite family after my own. It was a great meal (all halal!) with even better conversation. The hajj stories especially inspired me. This was the first time I heard stories from people my own age and they made me want to go ASAP. I don't know who I'll ask to go with me or wear I'll get the money, but Allah is the provider, and as long as I keep my intentions pure, it'll work out, no worries.

In other news, I may have some news, but this post is already too long, so I'll save it for later. To be continued...

Friday, January 4, 2008

Fickle Friday

So, I'm home on a Friday night. I did try to hang with the fam, but they were getting a jump on the household shopping. Chilling at home sounded like a good idea when I was still at work, but now I'm bored. My stick crew is either out of town or getting married (should probably take that person off the list) so I don't even have options. I guess I could go to the gym, but somehow that doesn't see like fun. I could clean and organize my apartment. Boo!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

The Young Coconut (Part Deux)

What better way to start the new year than with a nice, fresh coconut? So I learned my lesson and this one was bought yesterday and refrigerated promptly. And boy, was it delish! The water was cool and light, as was the meat. Afterwards, I was nicely full; the only other thing I had for breakfast was a cup of tea. Aside from an evening dinner rendezvous with my mom and sister, the rest of my day was as quiet as my coconut (the similes are endless, I'm realizing). Insha Allah, tomorrow will be just as smooth.