Choir Concert and Partayray

So as you may notice, there are a lot of undocumented days between my last post and this one. My only explanation is that I am starting to think that if I don't just skip to the present I may never get to the present! And, I'm sure that it's more interesting as a reader to read what I'm doing and eating when it's as close to the moment as possible. In light of that, on to Friday!

Workout

Because I've been a slacker about getting caught up on posting I haven't gotten the chance to tell you all about the exciting new workout I've been doing: Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred!

Kelsey ordered this video online and it has successfully infiltrated the workouts of my whole house! There are three levels each increasing in intensity and personally my favorite thing about it is: they are only 20 minutes long! It's perfect for a quick morning routine. This also means that you really have to push and be disciplined. Friday is Day 5 for me.

Breakfast

For breakfast I made a yogurt mess with

• cherry flavored soy yogurt
• peanut butter puffins
• honey and oats granola
• fresh strawberries
• fresh cherries
• chia seeds
• milled flax seeds
• 1 banana

I made a delicious mug of half-caff hazelnut creme coffee with soy creamer and sweetened it with stevia. A little water to rehydrate from my workout (that video makes me sweat!) and a Women's One a Day to go with my yogurty breakfast.

Lunch

For lunch I had a balsmaic vinegar grilled tofu sandwich with grilled onions and mushrooms. On the side I made a huge batch of kale chips and homemade guacamole and blue corn flaxseed tortilla chips. Dang, this is a good lookin lunch!
To round things out I shared my fresh cherries and strawberries (and kale chips and guac!) with Matt and Savannah.
Then the craving for coffee struck and Matt took us to a favorite cafe in town called Cajé. I went with the vanilla ice blended latte with soy and half the amount of vanilla. They make their vanilla syrup in the cafe and use only real ingredients which is why they have most amazing vanilla lattes! (Btw, I counted this as part of my Cookie Friday!)

Chamber Choir had our final concert last night and it was a total success. With spring quarter coming to a close and choir ending for the year, it was bittersweet knowing that it was the last concert for some of the members. Luckily we don't have to say our final good byes yet and we yucked it up after the performance at the choir party!

By the time we got there it was already poppin. I brought a hummus party pack with three different kinds of hummus yessss!
This dog was so sweet and mellow, and just kept licking my arm haha!
I had a glass of white wine but quickly realized that since I had such a late, filling lunch, I had forgotten to eat dinner and the wine went right through me! I had some hummus and pita chips (not pictured) to make sure there was something in there to absorb that wine!
Choir girls! I couldn't figure out what the right setting was for the lighting. Apparently the party setting= blurry demon pictures!

Flash is always better :)
Outside there was a fire pit blazing.
One of the basses had the brilliant idea to bring all the fixins for s'mores!

I know that marshmallows aren't actually vegan because they have gelatin but I couldn't resist having a little taste of this dinosaur looking marshmallow. It was totally worth it.
The rest of the night continued with plenty of choir smack talk and singers gossip! I love music people :)

Dinner

When I got home I made myself a PB&J Pita but didn't take a picture of it :/ I had no appetite at all but I knew I needed to put something in my stomach.

I ended up having a much later night than I thought I would and it was a total blast. I have the best girlfriends ever so this is a shout-out to my ladies Savannah, Amanda, and Barbie I love you girls!

CC Goes to Pepperdine!

UCSB Chamber Choir Goes to Pepperdine!

Breakfast

We had to up bright and early on Thursday morning to be on the bus at 7:45. The lovely Choir President Blythe arranged for bagels and cream cheese to be provided for breakfast and she was even thoughtful enough to bring almond butter and vegan cream cheese for me! (She is also vegan-ish.) I brought her a banana as thanks :) I also had a mug of coffee with soy creamer sweetened with stevia.

The view from the road.
The campus is really beautiful and feels more like a gated community! We had lunch in the dinning commons when we arrived.

Lunch

Pasta and salad for lunch. Nothing special but not bad either.

This was the view from where we sat and ate inside.
After our rehearsal, Savannah and Amanda and I decided to go chill out by the pool! Here? Yeah, this looks good. haha
Olympic size pool!
I brought an apple from the home that I used to finish off the rest of the vegan cream cheese and almond butter.
I also shared my homemade kettle corn with the girls!
This is the view from the dorm area where we were staying. We got lucky and had beautiful weather every day!
Savannah and me :)

Snack

Later that afternoon the girls and I just relaxed and enjoyed the fact that we were legally missing classes! I snacked on this Z bar and a few pieces of dried mango.

Dinner

After yet another rehearsal, the three of us met up with Amanda's sister who goes to UCLA for a Thai food dinner! The restaurant was called Cholada and it really didn't seem like much from the road but inside were all sorts of interesting, trendy "LA" people and the food/service was great! We started by ordering a bottle of unfiltered sake, my first time having sake at a meal! I really liked it; not overwhelmingly sweet and went down smooth.
I shared some of the tofu broccoli that the girls ordered.
We all had some of this crazy looking rice!
My entree was tofu peanut curry (sans coconut milk which I just don't like for some reason).
Sake!
Everything was soooo good! The broccoli was savory and garlicky while the curry tofu was spiced rich.
After our entrees we switched to hot sake which I also liked. I don't feel like I could pick a flavor between hot and cold though. I feel like they would each be good at different times of the meal and with certain flavors.

Dessert

You can probably imagine how excited I was when I realized that one of the desserts was coconut ice cream with fried banana. This ice cream was unbelievably good. It wasn't the kind of coconut ice cream that is meant to be a replacement for cows milk ice cream. Instead it tasted as though they had just chopped the tops off a bunch of coconuts and used the water and the meat to make this intensely fresh tasting creamy treat. The bananas were like egg rolls but with bananas inside.
Damage.
Little candies came with the check. I went for cherry.

The next day I forgot my camera at breakfast but don't feel like you missed out on anything, it really wasn't anything special. I mostly stuck to fruit and whole wheat toast with peanut butter.

Our morning started with two back to back performances in this awesome chapel. The stained glass was beautiful and in between our performances we listened to the group before us. It was a very meditative experience.
While we waited around I shared the rest of my dried mango with this frog..I mean with Savannah!

Lunch

For lunch they had polenta which I was fairly enthused about! I also loaded up on some fruit salad and raisin bran crunch on top. I grabbed an iced tea from the fountain machine and even though I have that coconut cream pie Lärabar in the picture I didn't end up eating it at lunch time.

Snack

Before a rehearsal for our last group performance Amanda and I shared the Lärabar. This has to be one of my favorite flavors for sure.
With only one performance on Saturday left, we decided to relax in our room and watch Tropic Thunder! That movie is hilarious! I snatched this apple from the dinning commons.

Our last day at Pepperdine we got to have a master class with the conductor of the symposium: Robert Page. This man was so inspiring and I feel lucky that the choir got to have such an awesome experience. We spent the weekend making music and getting to know each other a little better. The perfect little trip to end the quarter with. From left to right is Professor Gervais our choir director, Robert Page, Amanda, Savannah, and me.
A few more of the choir kids jumped in!

Lunch

My last meal at Pepperdine! I was pretty darn excited when I saw that the buffet was a burrito bar. I never have a problem eating vegan when there's mexican food. Beans, rice, and veggies! I also attacked the salad bar and got some salad with beets and onions and a fruit salad with those prune things.

It was weird coming back to "real life" and we were all sort of thrown off that it was only Saturday. All in all it was a fun trip and I'm glad we did it.

Now all I want to do is get caught up with blogging and be in the present!

CC Goes to Pepperdine!

UCSB Chamber Choir Goes to Pepperdine!

Breakfast

We had to up bright and early on Thursday morning to be on the bus at 7:45. The lovely Choir President Blythe arranged for bagels and cream cheese to be provided for breakfast and she was even thoughtful enough to bring almond butter and vegan cream cheese for me! (She is also vegan-ish.) I brought her a banana as thanks :) I also had a mug of coffee with soy creamer sweetened with stevia.

The view from the road.
The campus is really beautiful and feels more like a gated community! We had lunch in the dinning commons when we arrived.

Lunch

Pasta and salad for lunch. Nothing special but not bad either.

This was the view from where we sat and ate inside.
After our rehearsal, Savannah and Amanda and I decided to go chill out by the pool! Here? Yeah, this looks good. haha
Olympic size pool!
I brought an apple from the home that I used to finish off the rest of the vegan cream cheese and almond butter.
I also shared my homemade kettle corn with the girls!
This is the view from the dorm area where we were staying. We got lucky and had beautiful weather every day!
Savannah and me :)

Snack

Later that afternoon the girls and I just relaxed and enjoyed the fact that we were legally missing classes! I snacked on this Z bar and a few pieces of dried mango.

Dinner

After yet another rehearsal, the three of us met up with Amanda's sister who goes to UCLA for a Thai food dinner! The restaurant was called Cholada and it really didn't seem like much from the road but inside were all sorts of interesting, trendy "LA" people and the food/service was great! We started by ordering a bottle of unfiltered sake, my first time having sake at a meal! I really liked it; not overwhelmingly sweet and went down smooth.
I shared some of the tofu broccoli that the girls ordered.
We all had some of this crazy looking rice!
My entree was tofu peanut curry (sans coconut milk which I just don't like for some reason).
Sake!
Everything was soooo good! The broccoli was savory and garlicky while the curry tofu was spiced rich.
After our entrees we switched to hot sake which I also liked. I don't feel like I could pick a flavor between hot and cold though. I feel like they would each be good at different times of the meal and with certain flavors.

Dessert

You can probably imagine how excited I was when I realized that one of the desserts was coconut ice cream with fried banana. This ice cream was unbelievably good. It wasn't the kind of coconut ice cream that is meant to be a replacement for cows milk ice cream. Instead it tasted as though they had just chopped the tops off a bunch of coconuts and used the water and the meat to make this intensely fresh tasting creamy treat. The bananas were like egg rolls but with bananas inside.
Damage.
Little candies came with the check. I went for cherry.

The next day I forgot my camera at breakfast but don't feel like you missed out on anything, it really wasn't anything special. I mostly stuck to fruit and whole wheat toast with peanut butter.

Our morning started with two back to back performances in this awesome chapel. The stained glass was beautiful and in between our performances we listened to the group before us. It was a very meditative experience.
While we waited around I shared the rest of my dried mango with this frog..I mean with Savannah!

Lunch

For lunch they had polenta which I was fairly enthused about! I also loaded up on some fruit salad and raisin bran crunch on top. I grabbed an iced tea from the fountain machine and even though I have that coconut cream pie Lärabar in the picture I didn't end up eating it at lunch time.

Snack

Before a rehearsal for our last group performance Amanda and I shared the Lärabar. This has to be one of my favorite flavors for sure.
With only one performance on Saturday left, we decided to relax in our room and watch Tropic Thunder! That movie is hilarious! I snatched this apple from the dinning commons.

Our last day at Pepperdine we got to have a master class with the conductor of the symposium: Robert Page. This man was so inspiring and I feel lucky that the choir got to have such an awesome experience. We spent the weekend making music and getting to know each other a little better. The perfect little trip to end the quarter with. From left to right is Professor Gervais our choir director, Robert Page, Amanda, Savannah, and me.
A few more of the choir kids jumped in!

Lunch

My last meal at Pepperdine! I was pretty darn excited when I saw that the buffet was a burrito bar. I never have a problem eating vegan when there's mexican food. Beans, rice, and veggies! I also attacked the salad bar and got some salad with beets and onions and a fruit salad with those prune things.

It was weird coming back to "real life" and we were all sort of thrown off that it was only Saturday. All in all it was a fun trip and I'm glad we did it.

Now all I want to do is get caught up with blogging and be in the present!