Shots and real food

I used my alarm clock every morning this week, and unfortunately that theme continued into the weekend as well.  Rough life, huh.

On Friday morning I woke up early, ignored the drizzly weather and went for a quick 15 minute jog around the neighborhood, followed by an abs & arms workout back at the apartment.  Half-way through my sweat session there was a knock on the door.  Hmmm…

Hesitant to answer the door in a sports bra (or reveal that I was watching The Real Housewives of D.C. reunion while working out), I opened it just a crack to peer out.  Electricians.  Frick.  Here I thought our water and electric “issues” were sorted out…  Turns out the owner just wanted to check their work to make sure everything was done to his satisfaction.  It still ended my workout a bit early.  Annoying, but whatever.

I showered, coffee-d, and went to Westwood for my tetanus shot.  Ouch.  As a nurse, I love giving shots and drawing blood…basically anything and everything with needles, but I don’t really like it when I have to get it done.  Actually, that’s only partially true.  I like donating blood and I don’t really mind getting labs drawn.  It’s shots that aren’t fun.  The tetanus shot is a painful one too – it still hurts now, three days later.  Also, as a new employee I had to have a double negative TB.  The rest of my immunizations were up to date, and I even managed to have all the paperwork proving such.  Keeping all my important files and documents organized throughout our cross country move has been a real beezy, but at least I’m done with all that stuff now.  Until I deal with the name change business, that is…

By the time I got back home, my sister’s ETA was not too far off, so I held off on grubbing.

We went to Huckleberry, my fave neighborhood cafe.

I got the trio of salads with a chickpea salad, a stone ground mustard potato salad, and a white bean puree…and a slice of fresh sourdough bread on the side to scrape it all up.

I’ve had the white bean puree before, and it was just as creamy and amazing this time around.  The stone ground mustard potato salad was also delish.

My sister doesn’t even like mustard and she had a bite to taste and loved it.  The capers and vinegar made it pretty acidic, but the bean dip and bread were nice neutralizers.

The chickpeas were also a winner of a dish.  Although not overly imaginative, they still had good flavoring.

I definitely had leftovers though…my appetite has been a bit out of whack lately.

My sister got the chopped chicken salad with baby gem lettuce, radicchio, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, garbanzo beans, parmesan & red wine vinaigrette. It had minimal chicken, but aside from that she had no complaints.

After lunch we went shopping.

Yea right!  😉  Window shopping is one thing…but we actually went into Tiffany’s to try things on (and by “we” I mean Marie).  No purchases were made, but my sis definitely has her eye on the prize as far as engagement rings go.  Next on the to-do list is find the baller who can afford her…

For dinner I treated my sis to a vegan meal at Real Food Daily.  The menu is SO good, it’s almost too difficult to choose.

My sister helped point out that I should go seasonal.  So the Shephard’s Pie in the Sky won.

It had a millet and parsnip crust with tempeh, lentils, and veggies inside, plus whipped sweet potatoes and a miso-tomato sauce on top.

The lighting was as bad as the food was amazing.  In other words, ignore the crap photo and take my word for the hearty flavorful dish.

As filling as the Shepherd’s Pie sounds, it was actually the perfect portion.  I was full at the end of it, but not stuffed, and not uncomfortable.

On the side were maple roasted acorn squash and garlicky greens.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the chard.  There was way too much garlic for my taste.  Even after adding a fair amount of sesame seasoning (see below), the amount of garlic was overwhelming.

I choked down a few bites, but in the end, the greens were left abandoned on my otherwise polished plate.

Marie ordered The Club with seitan, tempeh bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato and veganaise on sourdough bread.

I got this sammie last time I ate at RFD, so I knew she’d love it.

After dinner we made our way to bars.

There were some interesting sights along the way…

Crocheted bicycle?

My photos from the night are pretty poor.

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

In any event, midnight rolled around and my parents finally arrived (they drove from Nor Cal after my dad got off work).  They hadn’t seen our new apartment yet, so we gave them a tour, hung out a bit, then hit the sack.