On the Go

This last week I was a little busy. I'll give you guys a recap of my crazy week. I'm very happy to say that I didn't miss any of my workouts the whole week. Finally my friend Stephanie was able to join me again on Tuesday & Wednesday's workout. She was slacking the last month...no just kidding she's been sick and really busy with work. I decide to stop living the high roller life (eating out every night) and being to cook homemade meals again.

Vegetable Chicken a la Valeria

Ingredients:

1/2 Green Pepper (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (mashed and diced)
1/4 of a red onion chopped
1 handfull of mushrooms (chopped)
2 handfulls of broccoli (stem free and chopped)
2 strips of Jennie-O turkey bacon
Black pepper
A splash of red wine
1 tbs of Light Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbs parsley
Cumin
2 lbs of chicken breast (diced)

Directions:

Heat olive oil on a skillet over medium heat, throw in all the vegetables, seasonings, red wine and turkey bacon let them sauté until the vegetables almost tender in the skillet with a close lid.

Then mix in the chicken till it's fully cooked.

Wala Vegetable Chicken a la Valeria!

There is a tasty and inexpensive pizza place in south beach called Pizza Rustica. I believe the owners are Argentinean. Pizza Rustica is the place we end up at after a long night of partying in south beach. Well I'm very happy to say they opened one about 3 blocks away from my work. The parking is a little tight, but there is no need to drive when we can walk. Last week I had the bar-b-q chicken pizza. mmmm
You can also create your own salad and the sky is the limit!

My cousin Alejandra had asked me if I could take some pictures of her daughter Dali, she was going to present them to a Nickelodeon audition. Javier has a lot of different size lens and a great flash so i could borrow. I'm not a professional and I’m not that good, but I love taking pictures as you can see. Dali is 13 years old she is in 8th grade, and is in the drama program at her middle school; she just finished her second audition to get in the most prestigious performing art high school "New World School of the Arts" here in Miami. She tried out for Theatre; I went to school there for Art. I LOVE her name, it's like Salvador Dali. At last minute I second guessed myself because I really wanted Dali to get quality pictures so I asked Javier if he would help me out with the shoot. Gladly he said yes and also proposed that I should ask his friend Tim that was in town from Nashville to come and help out and that i would treat him to some beers at the Yard House. :) Here are a couple of shots from Dali's shoot...it was a three man process.

So as I promised the three of us headed to the Yard House in Merrick Park in Coral Gables. Since it opened I had always wanted to go, but I never went because i herd the line is ridiculous if you want to have dinner. Luckily it was a Thursday and there was no line. Javier's friend Tim is a beer expert. SERIOUSLY he belongs to different beer clubs which they travel around the world to taste the best beers and they host beer tasting nights at there own home. This guy knows all the beers on the Yard House menu and more he can tell you where it's from, how it taste and how it's made. I love beer, but I stick to the basics Heineken...lol. I told him to order for me, well he got me a sampler of three different types of beer and he was right on the money. I loved all three. :)

The Yard House

Cheers!

My Sampler

Yummy...Bacon Cheeseburger with sweet potatoe fries

I have a coworker named Marilyn she is one of my closest friends in the office, it's weird we’ve been working in the same office together for the past three years and we recently connected 7 months ago. Once we started talking more than just your regular hello and goodbye we realized we had a lot in common and that we both enjoy each others company. She is so genuine, fun, caring, fashionable, intelligent and loving person. Marilyn is 50 years old and takes amazing care of her skin it's like silk soy milk…it’s beautiful. I’m not sure how we started talking about skin care last week, but we got into a deep discussion about how she takes care of her skin and what products she uses. Omg she uses a moisturizer called Crème de La Mer it runs for $230 for 2oz. It’s suppose to be the best cream ever made, it was created by a aerospace physicist Dr. Max Huber which he set out to help heal the appearance of the scars he suffered in a lab accident.
She put me to shame; I realized I’ve been doing everything wrong. I learned so much from her. She wanted to kill me when she herd that I would just wash my face with soap and then I would apply moisturizer. I was a little embarrassed that no one really taught me or I was never curious to ask anyone. My mother always told me to wash my face and put moisturizer, but never to this extent. All I can think about is why I didn’t start when I was 17?
Well now I’m obsessed, all I want to do is go to the mall and learn about every single beauty line and try out which are the best products for my skin. On Friday night I headed over to Macy’s with my mom and I stopped by the Clarins booth and asked about their toner. Well the lady noticed how intrigued I was that she sat me down and gave me a full makeover with their skin products. When my mom met back up with me at the Clarins booth she was amazed of the difference it made on my face. I was sold.
Marilyn taught me to clean my face first with a cleanser in order to take off all the dirt, then with a cotton apply the correct toner for my skin type, with my ring finger apply the eye cream around my eyes because the skin around your eyes and above your lips is the most sensitive skin in your body and you need to apply a different cream (I thought eye cream was only for older ladies, I was wrong), then apply an anti-aging serum that is full of vitamin C and other ingredients to my face, let that dry and then my moisturizer. Sounds like a lot but she was right it only takes 5 minutes morning and night. Since I had the chat with Marilyn I haven’t failed in taking care of my skin!

Do you take care of your skin? If you do what is your process and products that you use?

Saturday the two cleaning ladies came over and left my house spotless. I was inspired by the cleanliness and decide that it was about time that I unpack all the boxes from when we first moved back in September. The boxes were taking up the whole room in which we wanted to make into an office. About 5 hours later I finally finished, I categorized all my books by size. I have to confess I have over 60 cook books and have only cooked from 2 of them. You name a cook book I probably have it. Lol I assorted through all my crap and threw out about 3 big garbage bags full of nonsense. I also put in bags all the things I want to sell at a garage sale (knowing me that garage sale will never happen). I’m so excited that we now have an office with a desk with our huge 27” iMAC computer Santa brought us and our all in one printer/scanner/copier. I just now have to design the room and make it cozy.

At night I had a coworkers Surprise 60th birthday party, it was a James Bond theme. The party was a hit over 120 people went. They had a red carpet with a photographer taking picture under a huge arch that read “Casino Royal”; they had an ice sculpture with the 007 logo, they covered the pool with black and white dance floor plywood, they hired a catering company and the girls that served were dressed as bond girls, they had over 50lbs of Joes Stone crab, sushi, quail eggs, filet mignon covered in bacon, shrimp cocktail you name it, they also hired a casino company with a roulette table, a poker table and a blackjack table the dealers were a lot of fun and they set the mood of the party. Also all the picture frame around the house had picture of all the James Bond movies.

Jerry the Birthday boy and Me :)

I hosted Family Sunday Brunch at my house because my very first roommate from college was coming to visit with our mutual pregnant friend Sandy (by the way she is due this week) I haven’t seen Beth (my roommate) in about 2 years since she last came to visit, she is a traveling nurse. She had just got back from Uganda it was a voluntary trip; she had to pay for everything even though she went out there to help everyone. I love her, she is an Amazing person and I love that even though we don’t talk every week that we are still amazing friends. I was happy to see Beth and Sandy. Sandy has only gained 27 lbs with her pregnancy she looks fabulous. Beth is originally from Vermont but she is a traveling ER register nurse her so called home is everywhere; her last travel job was in San Diego, I loved hearing Beth stories about where she lived and where she had to work. When she told us about Uganda my heart broke, I wanted to pack my bags and leave, but at the same time I know I could never. If I’m in the sight of blood I faint. You guys will be seeing more pictures of them as soon as Sandy has her baby.

Well talk about a busy week!

Thanks for dropping by!

 xoxo,