Dreams of food & travel

Sweet Paul's new issue is out with lots of recipes. I also found another online magazine, Dabble Magazine. They have a wonderful, summer-reminding home tour of interior designer Erinn Valencich. I was excited about their article on Nashville since I've wanted to visit since watching Design Star a few years ago. If I could visit around the world, I would appreciate this magazine so much. They are quite worldly though they are based in Canada.

Not so raw downtown

Mom and I had quite a day.

She was late. Then she got lost. I get super stressed and panic. I was almost late save for the fact that the instructor was also late.

Anyways, I didn't have a great morning. The green drink I made was not quite smooth so I had to toss it and plan B, I chose 1/2 an apple with some PB.

I went to a class at Studio Fusion called cardio sculpt fusion. The instructor, Molly Richards, was fantastic. I realized that my kickboxing instructor at home, the Turbo Kick coordinator in my area, and Molly all have these scratchy voices that I love. I don't know what it is about their voices that soothe me.

After my awesome workout in which I was the only one dripping with sweat on the floor, I ate a banana.

Mom and I decided to go to LA. First stop for some real food at Bottega Louie at around 1. When you first walk in, you see a display of cupcakes, macarons, and beignets then a huge and gorgeous display of tarts, napoleons, eclairs, and their new chocolates. They also have to-go sandwiches and salads.


However, I ordered take out and waited only a few minutes for Portabello fries. Yes, I was not all raw today.

I had to order some desserts. I chose a rose raspberry cupcake, beautifully packaged and decorated with a rose petal and macaron. The cupcake is not typical and not all that great. The frosting was too buttery for my taste. But the mini macaron was fantastic.



Since the cupcake allowed me to taste the macaron, I didn't need to buy one, but I had a lovely little plain beignet. It was not very sweet. Maybe I should've gotten a filled one, but I wanted to go plain and simple.

So I was not impressed so much by Bottega Louie's food as I was by their ambience. It's very modern Italian I suppose with marble counters and intricate designs.

We walked a few blocks to Babycakes NYC. I've been there once and loved it. I'm pretty sure it's a stop I'll have to make every time I'm in Southern California.


I love cinnamon buns so I had to have the agave wonder bun. Not bad, but nothing like a real cinnamon roll. The vegan recipe is still the best for the time commitment thus far.

I'm awaiting the new Babycakes book, Babycakes Covers the Classics for donuts. I've made donuts once and I'm not a fan of frying oil, but I'm surprised they made donuts kind of good for you. Today, I had the cinnamon sugar.

Finally, I picked a cupcake. I didn't have a cupcake last time. I've tried their vanilla and red velvet cupcakes. I couldn't decide, but I like red velvets more than just plain vanilla. Both of my recipes turned out poorly - red velvet was hard while vanilla was strange overall. The frosting is indeed quite good, but again, I had failed TWICE at making it.

I consumed only a little, and I mean it, at around 1:30.

We headed to La Brea Tar Pits. It's free the first Tuesday of each month. We just paid for parking.

We took the tour. I hate tours, but I forced myself anyways.

I don't know why I didn't take any outdoor pictures - it was beautiful day in LA and the museums on Miracle Mile have beautiful park-like green spaces.

I decided against going to hip hop tonight since it started so late (7:30) and wouldn't end until 8:30.

Good to go raw (raw day 5)

I forgot my post yesterday so here's a double whammy!

I started off my morning with Raw Protein at 7:30 before my barre fusion class at 8:30.

Afterwards, I nibbled on some kelp noodles in peanut sauce (PB and sesame oil) with bell peppers and yes, blueberries.

Mom and I headed to Good to Go for lunch at around 12:30. She did not like her food. I picked up some dehydrated kale chips. Yum yum.

Since I had some kelp noodles, I had a fruitizza made of flax cracker with strawberries, mango, and banana.

I also got this donut hole.

I went to kickboxing at LA Boxing, which was pretty good and made me feel strong. The instructor was pretty hot too. Most of my classmates were girls with pink wraps so I chose blue. I'm more of a green/purple type of girl.

After class and a shower, around 8, dad and I made Make Juice Not War smoothies though we subbed apples for pears because I forgot to get pears from mom.***

***As I was finding the recipe for the blog, I found out that the recipes online say apples though the book says pears.

Make Juice Not War by Kris Carr

• 2 large Cucumbers (peeled if not organic)
• Big fist-full of Kale
• Big fist-full of Romaine
• 3 stalks of Celery
• 1 Pear or Green Apple
• 1-2 big Broccoli stems
• 1/2 inch of Ginger