Parties & Dates

After a long work week, Kyle and I soaked up the weekend like two sponges.  And of course, I’m only just now getting around to blogging about it.  So pathetic.  But let’s just pretend this is timely and the weekend was yesterday, okay?

Starting with a Friday date night at Whole Foods.

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He got off work before I did so he walked from our apt and met me there once I peaced out of the hospital.

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I had salad bar ADD, but eventually got myself squared away with a monster salad – complete with BBQ tofu, croutons and Caesar salad dressing. 

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Under there is a whole lotta spinach, kale, peas, carrots, and I don’t even know what else.  Kyle called it a Buffalo Caesar.  Works for me.

He went the Indian route.  A bunch of vegan yumminess that looked real good.

Back at the casa we watched Olympics until we were both too tired to keep our eyes open any longer.  And yet, for some reason, we both woke up way too early the next morning.  Bummer.

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I had two fried eggs with cornbread (and Earth Balance).  And almond milky iced tea.

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I read and watched the Olympics while Kyle had an ironing party in the living room. 

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He really does call these ironing parties, by the way.  He schedules them into our his calendar (I don’t use the calendar).  I think it’s hilarious.

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Half way through!

I kept him company and munched on grapes.  Then we ran some errands together, including picking up groceries for a dinner party later that night.  More on that later. 

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Yes, I got a veg juice while at WF.  It had quite a bit of ginger and was spicyyyy.  🙂

Once back, I had a real lunch. 

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Fumi tofu salad from the previous night’s trip to WF.  Wow, I just realized that was two visits to Whole Foods in like 12 hours.  No comment.

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Anyway, I had three times this bowl and added soy sauce and picked out the almond slivers.  I wasn’t in the mood for them.

Post digestion, I went for a quick run (it was approximately 150 million degrees outside).  Then it was time to get ready for our friends to come over.

Menu:

  • crackers with brie & hummus (apps)
  • salmon
  • kale salad
  • fresh bread

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We went to Santa Monica Seafood (the best of the best) for the fish.  Since we needed 6 filets, they got a massive fish to cut to our specification.  Fresh and wild.

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I wanted a million other things there, but we managed to stick to just the fish (okay, that’s a lie, we got the cheese there too).

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For the fish, we made a sweet smoky spicy rub using this recipe.

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I was intrigued by the cocoa powder.  For the 6 filets we 1 1/2-ed the recipe.

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Rubbed it all in and set it the fridge until grilling time.

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Then I made candied walnuts for the salad using this recipe.  Followed by a simple sweet lemon vinaigrette (I’m not sure why it’s green).

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The recipe is in my ebook.

Lastly, I threw together the apps.  Nothing super fancy – Sabra hummus, fancy brie and WF entertainment crackers.

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After chatting and catching up, Kyle got to grilling and I made the salad.

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Look at that! 

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Sourdough & olive bread.  And of course, the kale salad.

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My first portion is below (minus the Earth Balance).

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After dinner we played games (like adult Uno) and before I knew it, I was yawning and it was midnight.  Snooooze.

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Another snacktastic morning.

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Leftover candied walnuts. 🙂

And the weekend dates continued!

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My uncle was in town and joined us for br/lunch at Rose Cafe in Venice.  It’s absolutely unacceptable that this was my first visit to this place.  I’ve heard people sing it’s praises for years! 

I’m happy to say it lived up to the hype.

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My uncle and I both got Arnold Palmers and the tofu scramble.  His had fruit on the side, mine had potatoes.  Both the scramble and the potatoes were delish.

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Kyle got a spinach & tomato benedict with potatoes.  He also got avo on the side and shared some with me.

I’m definitely going back…there was a veggie burger on the menu that sounded pretty awesome. 

We hung out with my uncle for a bit after lunch and eventually he headed back to his hotel and Kyle and I went for a walk (slash grocery run).

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On the menu for our Sunday night family dinner: tortilla espanola and a tomato salad.  With OUR tomatoes.

I picked so many the previous day!

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Weee!

Kyle’s the tortilla master…I showered and by the time I came back downstairs he was almost done and it smelled awesome! 

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All I did to the cherry tomatoes was drizzle balsamic, olive oil, salt & pepper on top.

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I wish this picture actually showed how amazing this was.  Simple.  But perfect.  Actually, spanish tortilla is pretty much the same.  It’s only really two ingredients. 

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Kyle’s so good at it.

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I cut it into quarters, thinking we’d each have half and the rest would be leftovers.  Wishful thinking Elise. 

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This was my first plate.

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So good!

I was going to have a smaller sliver for my second portion, but Kyle called us both out.  I believe he said “let’s not kid ourselves and just finish it off.”  Which we did.

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I had candied ginger and dark chocolate for dessert.  Twice.

And that was our date filled weekend.

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Comments (22)

  1. jess

    let’s just talk about how adorable kyle is. i heart him.

    and let’s talk about the fact that you guys did a date night at WF. atta girl.

    my kyle and your kyle should have ironing parties together. i can’t even remember the last time i ironed something. i would rather not wear an item of clothing than iron it. kyle on the other hand, he irons his shirt almost every single morning as part of his routine. yuck.

    miss you. love you. xoxo

  2. Elise (Post author)

    i dont even think i know how to iron. i mean, im sure i could figure it out, but im with you…id rather just leave it in the bathroom to shower steam out for a few months than iron it.

    if you moved back to LA we could have these parties often. i miss you so much!!!!!!!!

  3. Abby

    Because I’m a dork, I saw “dates” and thought of dried fruit. Go me!

  4. Caity @ Moi Contre La Vie

    This makes me wish there was a Whole Foods near my apartment! The one near my BF’s in Sacramento is AWFUL. the “salad bar” has lettuce and veggies, nothing else. It makes me sad just thinking about it… 🙁

  5. shelly

    ahh ive been wanting to ask how/when you decided to start eating fish again? is it for health reasons (protein, omegas, etc)? or just a general preference?

  6. Brigid

    Given your passion for ginger and your new-found love of milky iced tea, I wanted to share this recipe with you: http://globaltableadventure.com/2012/05/27/recipe-swahili-ginger-n-milk-tea/. I just made it last night with almond milk (and less sugar), and it’s awesome! I will be blogging about it today.

  7. BroccoliHut

    Haha! I’m definitely familiar with the failed leftovers phenomenon. I’ll make lots of something so we can have it later in the week, only to have us eat the whole thing in one sitting. Oh well. We like to eat 🙂

  8. Emily

    Okay…Kyle has ironing parties? How in the world did you get so lucky? That’s adorable!
    And I’ve definitely been the victim of multiple WF trips in less than 24 hours. I blame it on the fact that there are two within 10 minutes of me. It’s just too convenient and delicious!

  9. Elise (Post author)

    yes! this looks awesome. thx for the link!

  10. Elise (Post author)

    well its not so much something i have a set policy on. i had fish in cabo when we were there in june. and then i had it at dinner this past weekend. i dont have a great explanation really. that much fish in a few months span is pretty rare for me, but we were brainstorming a menu and it just sounded good. the decision didnt have anything to do with health reasons. i guess preference is the default answer?

  11. Elise (Post author)

    just last night i made my quinoa quiche in an 8×8 casserole pan. we each had half. in one night. the entire pan…gone!

  12. Elise (Post author)

    thats probably what id have thought of too if i werent the one writing it actually…

  13. Elise (Post author)

    what!?! they have whole foods with bad salad bars?? thats a crime. you should get on them about that!

  14. Elise (Post author)

    i know right?? so freakin cute.

  15. Ksenija

    The food you served at your dinner party looks marvelous! I would love to just take a seat and dig in 😀 Sadly the dinner parties I am invited do rarely present such amazing healthy plates.

  16. laurasplanet

    3 things:

    1. which uncle?

    2. more photos of people, and fewer of food (or the same amount of food and just more of people)…i miss you!

    3. thats so funny about Kyle’s ironing…Chris is all about ironing his shirts too and I don’t even own one. We had to try to use my hair straightener to iron his shirt one day – ha!

  17. Elise (Post author)

    1. matt
    2. this was a very people heavy post i thought! but ok, ill work on more.
    3. whats w guys and ironing?? jess’ kyle is an ironing nerd too (did you see her comment above?). i have to say though, chris’ macgyver maneuvers with a flat iron may be the most impressive of all. or desperate.

  18. Jill in Chicago

    Re: Ironing parties, can Kyle teach that fun habit to my boyfriend?? 🙂

    And in re: to WF Trips, I’m sometimes embarrassed about how well I know the workers at my local store. I met an acquaintances’ brother who works there, and sometimes I hope he doesn’t see me (like, for some reason it would be terrible for him to think ‘wasn’t she just here?’)

  19. Elise (Post author)

    ha. all the WF employees know us too. sometimes i wonder if they think im pathetic for being there all the damn time. also, i feel weird going there back to back days in the same outfit. something tells me its not normal to have to worry about being called out for repeating clothes by grocery store employees…

  20. Carly

    is there a difference between adult uno and regular? lol. I just moved to New Orleans (for college at Tulane) and I’m a little scared about the whole foods that is within biking distance. Maybe that’s just my wallet talking(; and maybe I’ll just make myself walk, you know, so I won’t have time to go.

  21. Elise (Post author)

    haha…no we were jokingly calling it that since one of the people at the dinner party works for mattel and we were “testing” out uno roboto (its this game here: http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-T8220-UNO-Roboto-Game/dp/B004U53A7Q). we tried to make ourselves feel more mature by adding the word “adult” first. its actually really fun. you record your voices in the beginning and then the robot talks to you (slash screws with you) throughout the game.

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