Christy - Another day, another break down

Luckily I am talking about my car that broke down and not a mental breakdown :)

This is quite a theme for me recently. I think it is the fuel pump again. Anyway, after a long, hot day of tow trucks and such, I decided to eat out instead of cooking at home. So I went over to M Cafe and got some tuna sushi. And when I got home I made up a leafy green salad with tomatoes, olives, cucumbers and balsamic dressing.

I felt much better after dinner and cold shower and now I think I will chill out with a chick flick. Maybe "Waitress"? That one always makes me laugh and the pie looks so good!

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Lynn - Sunday with Friends

It's been very, very hot in Southern California this week. I'm assuming this doesn't help the awful wildfire situation...

Between being sick and the heat, I haven't really been working out. I managed to do about 15 minutes of Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones (which I get for free on demand through Time Warner Cable) before quitting to watch an episode of "Ruby" and lift some 4 lb weights instead.

For breakfast I had a Shakeology. Julius stole my spot on the couch; he was pooped from his run with Abe this morning.

Then we all got in the car and drove down to Long Beach, where we visited our friends Sam and Chris, saw their new house, and met their adorable pup Charlie -

Unfortunately, Julius was more interested in Charlie's toys, which we put out of his reach....

We helped christen their new grill -

I had a boca burger with some lettuce, mustard, and ketchup with a side of grilled eggplant.

Neither Abe nor I grill; I'm so impressed with people who do on a regular basis. Sam and Chris know what they're doing - the food was quite tasty.

After lunch we hopped in the car and headed further south to Irvine, where we met up with our friends Emily, Thad, and their son Lincoln.

We walked around Fashion Island for about an hour - which is like The Grove, on steroids.

Then we headed back to their house, where Thad (another excellent cook) made dinner.

We started off with some pre-dinner watermelon - I enjoyed one slice -

Those are Lincoln's darling little hands picking out the pits. I realized it's been forever since I've had watermelon that wasn't seedless.

Thad made quesadillas with cheese and veggies, a side salad, and a side dishes of fresh corn and tomatoes. My plate -

Plus some brown rice and black beans -

I had a scoop of these, plus seconds on all the veggies and salad. All scrumptious. Plus another slice of watermelon.

On the car ride home I had a chocolate tootsie pop.

It was great driving down and seeing our pals, one of my favorite ways to spend the weekend. This week is CRAZY - I have an early audition tomorrow, press for "White on Rice" and an exciting trip coming up!

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Lynn - Robert, David, and Michael

Last night we headed to my Uncle Robert's house on the beach so I could cook him a birthday dinner. He is sick, so I made a tomato lentil soup from Paulette Mitchell's "A Beautiful Bowl of Soup." Whenever I cook for a bunch of people, I always follow recipes (I don't have the confidence to wing it when there are so many mouths to feed)!

(This is the cookbook Christy gave me last month.)

The recipe was uber easy and took about an hour and a half from start to finish (served 6 of us fine with a little leftover) -

My bowl -

Along with a salad my Aunt Heidi made with goat cheese, toasted walnuts, and fresh figs; also, a slice of multi-grain bread I picked up yesterday while at the Farmers Market/Grove.

It was an incredibly delicious (and indeed beautiful) bowl of soup. I'm pumped to try out these other recipes once the weather cools down.

We headed outside to watch the sunset and eat some dessert.

A snack size Vanilla and Almonds Haggen Dazs bar and the gorgeous view.

Julius loves the beach!

On the way home, we drove by one of my favorite houses in Los Angeles - it is all white, insanely ornate, with a bunch of tiny David statues out front (which is why some people call it the "House of Davids"). There are usually two orange vehicles parked in the driveway too. This is what it usually looks like:

(photo credit: losanjealous.com)

Sometimes Norwood Young (the owner) changes things up - for example, during the holidays, each David wears a tiny Santa Hat. I always get a chuckle passing by and seeing what's up with the house, but nothing could prepare me for last night -

There was a party for Michael Jackson's birthday! Abe and I had to park and gawk.

There was a screen playing MJ videos...

...next to some giant Michaels and a gloved hand...

The Davids all wore little red Michael Jackson "Beat It" jackets...

...the house wore a crown.

Julius did not know what to make of this spectacle.

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Tweats of the Week Part 2

For those of you who follow us on twitter, you know that we retweet what other actors eat - the good, the bad...all of it. Here's the second half of highlights from this past week:

SherriEShepherd 12:37 p.m. Finished working out... even though I was hating life while doing endless squats, glad I went. Now why do I want a cheeseburger?

frankiemuniz How'm I supposed 2 go 18 hours with nothing to eat or drink? Not even an ice cube they said before the surgery, I'm starving! 10 hours to go

kirstiealley OTHER OPTIONS...STEVIA...AGAVE NECTAR...and others that I am researching...I won't BS you. We are poisening ourselves unknowingly.

emmyrossum food poisoning is no fun... going to try to find some gluten-free bread and watch a movie with my ginger ale...

mileycyrus "You have to choose. Either A. Be skinny or B. Be able to booty pop. I choose to booty pop! Its more fun and CPK sounds awesome" – ME

TheMandyMoore also i <3>

THEsaragilbert I don't want your raw celery. Please keep it out of my salad.

TiaMowry Okay so I am gonna grill some fish and veggies! Trying to be healthy...

candacecbure Here's the cauliflower- which never looks that pretty, but it's delish! http://twitpic.com/f9mh6

DrewFromTV Am currently paying the price for eating 4 slim jims yesterday.

paulfeig Let's see ... chicken wings and brownies. Um, and a pizza. Oh, and a chocolate shake. Ooo, and donuts. Waitress, we're ready to order now.

Marielhemingway green drink.... alkalize he body first thing is a GREAT way to start your day...food wise that is...

greggrunberg Being A Dad Means: eating a whole meal standing at the open fridge & putting 1/2 eaten crap back you don't want - I paid for it damnit!!

TameraMowryTwo I love Italian Food...cheese, chocolate, bread and wine. My favorites…

rosemcgowan Okay, I just had the best burrito I've ever had. And it has made me absurdly happy. It's the little things.

jairodriguez At airport online at McDonalds. McMuffin. Yum!!!

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Lynn - Top Of The Muffin To You

Happy Friday everyone! Even though I didn't get enough sleep (Julius was growling in my ear at 5:30 this morning) I feel a lot better than I have in days...well, at least so far! I'm wondering how much of this illness has been psychosomatic - my body's way of telling me to take a day off from everything (which I did, yesterday).

I went to the gym before my mind could decide I was still sick, or too tired. I did 15 minutes on the elliptical, 15 on the Arc Trainer, 15 of lower body weights, and 5 of stretching.

Yesterday, I got a heck of a delivery from Vitalicious -

Katie, their uber-generous PR person, sent us a plethora of goodies to try - plus instructions to put them in the freezer right away since they don't have preservatives. I did as I was a told!

This morning I took a Banana Nut Vitatop out of the deep freeze and toasted it - it looks just like the top of a muffin (the best part, according to Seinfeld)...

Along with a chug of Greens+ in a mug, some Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt, 1/2 an organic peach, and ground flax -

I crumbled the Vitatop to make a beautiful mess -

I found these to be pretty tasty - as did my hubby Abe, who had the same breakfast. Even though it doesn't taste as moist (or sweet) as a regular muffin, it is a really nice alternative, since most can be calorically dense and high in saturated fat (a problem for me). Thank you Katie and Vitalicious! I am excited to try the other flavors. Here are some stats -

I knew my co-blogger Christy might not approve of this long list of ingredients, so I just packed up a small variety for her to try so she can give her own review through a nutritionist's eye. We met up at The Grove, to run some errands, and she helped me shop for an outfit for "White on Rice" press next week.

There was a sale on organic figs - two pints for $5 - so of course I had to get them.

I wrapped one pint in the regular grocery plastic bag and the other in a Peakfresh bag that I received the other day. We'll see how well it works, since figs ripen fast!

My freezer is filled to the brim...

...so I decided to make a "Freezer Salad," with some frozen organic string beans, frozen asparagus, and Trader Joe's Just Grilled Chicken Strips -

I love this product; it's perfect for someone like me who has a vegetarian hubby so I can just take what I need without having to cook a whole bunch of chicken for myself. I wish there was an organic, free range version of this - does anyone know of one?

I nuked the goods for 3 minutes, tossed them in some eggplant hummus, and added in some fresh figs -

The figgy goodness continued in the form of a Lundberg Brown Rice Cake topped with some Ficoco and more fresh figs...

All together now -

I really loved this lunch and will be having it again and again. Sorry, I realize that will probably make for a boring blog but it was delicious! The Ficoco we were sent was the perfect combo of figs and chocolate - neither overpowering the other. It actually reminded me of a high quality balsamic, a little, because there was a tartness to it.

Boy oh boy I need a nap.

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Christy - Guess What's For Dinner

Guess what I finally used tonight - the Spiralizer!!!!!

I made the same raw pasta recipe that I have posted before. But this time I used my brand, new spiralizer (Paderno Spiral Vegetable Cutter) to make the "noodles". I used two zucchinis and one yellow squash. You wash them and cut them in half. I didn't peel it but you could if you want. Then you stick it on the vegetable holder, press it against the blade and turn with the handle.

It is super easy to cut. I hardly had to press. I chose the medium sized blade for the zucchini.

Look at how long the spirals are!!

Then I used the smaller blade to do the yellow squash.

This is what is left of the piece of squash after I spiralized it. Kind of phallic huh?

I made the raw marinara pasta sauce to go on top and we had some roasted chicken with it.

I think I like the texture of the smaller blade better for raw pasta. It makes the noodles more delicate. The medium size blade will be great to do potatoes with and make some healthy fries soon.

I cannot express how much time it saved me though. The whole thing - from washing to clean up - took me about 10 minutes! Talk about a fast way to make dinner. I totally recommend adding a spiralizer to your kitchen, especially if you want to experiment with some raw recipes.

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Christy - Zucchini Bread

I really love Zucchini Bread and this recipe has a special place in my heart because my mom got it the summer that she was pregnant for me. She said she had just been reading about all the horrible things that they were putting into bread (plaster, sawdust, etc) and decided to start making her own. So she an a couple of her neighbors had a lunch once a week where they would take turns making a different kind of bread. Her neighbor made this one and gave her the recipe. Here are the ingredients:

3 Cups of Flour (We used unbleached wheat flour)

1 1/2 cups of sugar (This time we tried using honey instead of sugar - 1 cup)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini

1 cup nuts (we used walnuts)

1 cup raisins (we didn't use raisins)

3 eggs

1 cup oil (we used canola)

The Chefs!

This is the zucchini we used - it was HUGE! My mom got it from a friend who grew it in her garden.

We were trying to show the perspective of it using my mom's jack russell - Maggie but she started licking the zucchini!

I shredded the zucchini in the Vita Mix

Meanwhile, my mom lined her pans with tin foil

And then we put the flour, honey, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, nuts, and zucchini into a bowl.

And then used the Kitchen Aid Mixer to whip the eggs and oil together.

And dumped the eggs and oil over the dry mixture.

Then mixed it all together

And put it into two loaf pans.

Then we cooked it at 350 for 50 minutes

With the honey the loaf turned out a little bit sticky. But we let it set for a little while and it turned out okay. But if any of you out there have tips on how to adjust the recipe for the moistness of the honey, I would love to hear them!

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