confessions of a sometimes vegetarian
Aaaand the winner of the Nature Made Giveaway is…
Clare! Congrats, Clare. You’ll be getting an email from me shortly. Thanks to everyone for entering!
(Source.)
I won’t be back for a few days… My bachelorette party is this weekend and we are heading to the Hamptons. Enjoy your weekend 🙂
On Bobby’s birthday we went out for an old favorite – Korean barbecue. Seoul Garden is on West 32nd Street right in K-town (Korea-town) across from H-Mart (one of my favorite places). I did not get bbq (Bobby did); instead I got cold bi-bim-bap, which is a salad-type-thing with a side of rice. (Bi-bim-bap literally means “mixed rice”.)
I forgot to snap a pic before I mixed it! This one came with lots of things: carrots, spinachy stuff, burdock, lettuce, an egg, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and I don’t even know what else. All (or most at least) of the veggies are cooked, sauteed, oiled, and seasoned, so you don’t need much dressing – I just add a bit of that special Korean red sauce.
What you get before the meal, though, is the best part…
Side dishes (banchan/panchan)! My favorites were the broccoli and cauliflower (we got seconds) and the bean sprouts. The fried tofu and potatoes are yummy too; they also gave us 2 kinds of kimchi, which I love (but not all do). That is a raw egg for Bobby’s soon dofu, a boiling hot spicy tofu soup. You crack the egg in when it gets to the table (broth still bubbling).
I’ve been busy with work, wedding planning, and classes, but I’ve managed to get in some good exercise, which I will update about soon – I have some great recs for all you Netflixers!
Do you like kimchi? I love it.
Today was a nice, relaxing Sunday. We ate in for breakfast – oatmeal and eggs (same meal for each of us… except I finished Bobby’s for him). Scottish style oats (1 cup, split between us) cooked in water (2 cups) with a dash of salt. Topped with a bit of sugar. 2 eggs (each separately; 1 egg each) cooked like a pancake in peanut oil.
This afternoon we headed across the street to Enliven Body Works for a Couple’s Massage. I just wrote a review of it on Yelp. This place is great. They seem very TCM-y and they gave me the deep (and almost painful, but amazing) massage that I wanted/needed. This was our second time there and we’ll definitely be back.
In wedding news, we booked our honeymoon today. We’ll be in Maui (Hawaii) for 11 days. Can’t wait. At the very last minute we were debating between Maui and Paris/Rome, and we decided to go for Maui since it’s more relaxing. I emailed Kirsten over at Newlyweds Next Door and she gave me a great (and fast) response and made me feel much better about our decision. I think she’s going to do a post about honeymoons soon so if you’re looking for advice, definitely check out her blog.
For dinner we ordered 2 medium pizzas from Domino’s. Now hear me out: Domino’s has the best thin crust pizza; we get it with “light cheese” (which apparently means no cheese? fine by me) and veggie toppings. So simple; so cheap. Just $5.99 for each pie. I can’t see how a thin crust pizza with tomato sauce and veggies is in any way unhealthy. I can eat more than half a pie before I even begin to feel full. This was mine – spinach and onions (imagine red sauce):
Yum.
We are watching the basketball game now. I have no idea what is going on. I can’t follow basketball at all. Too fast and confusing. I prefer things like the amazing movie I watched today – Days and Clouds (Giorni e Nuvole). It’s Italian. I’m trying to brush up on my Italian. And French. Next up I need to learn Spanish (never took that one).
Do you watch sports? Can you follow them? The only sport I can keep up with is baseball… I get very distracted with other sports.
My first Saturday Secret is not a secret – it’s my fiance Bobby’s birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) We had so much fun last night, first going to Kenka and following it up at Falucka Lounge (that’s really what it’s called!). We were with a few of our good friends and it was really fun. We ate things like this (both pics from Yelp):
The first thing is okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake-frittata-egg-thing-with-lots-of-mayo. See my healthier okonomiyaki recipe from April of last year (2009).
The second thing is omu-rice, which is fried rice hiding underneath an omelette (with lots of mayo). Kenka is one of Bobby’s favorite Japanese places – it’s essentially Japanese bar food. And it’s absolutely delicious, I might add. Not the healthiest place I have been to, but certainly delicious.
My second Saturday Secret is that you have until Monday to enter this contest. (Now closed.)
My third Saturday Secret is actually many Saturday Secrets. Here is a list of vegetarian/vegan/veg-friendly places that I either have been to or want to go to in New York:
Now I am off to take Bobby to brunch at this place. He doesn’t know where we are going yet.
What’s your favorite vegetarian restaurant? (In any city!)
One blogger that makes me smile every time her posts pop up in my Google Reader is Clare. She always offers up nuggets of wisdom about yoga, food, and life in general. Recently I won a giveaway of hers and got some yummy protein packed cereal…
Which was perfect for a quick breakfast/snack before work this week.
Thanks, Clare! (And Kay’s Naturals!) I also forgot to mention that I won another one of Clare’s giveaways a while ago and I have been wearing these ever since I received them…
These earrings remind me to stay balanced. Here are my other favorite ways to keep balance in my life:
What are your tricks for staying balanced?
