Eat Teach Blog

My weekend started out with good food and great company! Veronica, one of my co-workers (seriously one of the best people I’ve ever worked with), and I went to Stacks early Saturday morning. Stacks is a pretty popular brunch place in Downtown Campbell. I’ve been there a few times but I think this was the first time I’ve ordered their breakfast.

Feta Omelette w/Green Onions and Tomatoes

Coconut Macadamian Nut Banana Pancake. I just ordered one for the table. They usually come in stacks of 3. Holy moly.

That will definitely happen again. I guess a smart person would order the pancakes when the place is known for their STACKS. That was delicious. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

After breakfast, I met up with Jen and we walked over to REI to check out some of the gear. I had to buy a waterproof shell and a fleece jacket for our Yosemite trip next week. Yes, I haven’t mentioned it on here. I didn’t realize how quickly March had snuck up on us! But I’ll be one of the staff members going on the 8th grade Yosemite trip. I’m not too thrilled about leaving my students with a sub for a week, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun to get to work with other students. Especially seeing them in an entirely different kind of environment.

So I basically have no money now. REI on a teacher’s salary is not easy to do.

The rest of the day was spent attending a 7-year old’s birthday party.

One of Jen’s students turned 7 and they had so much fun playing with their teacher.

…And pushing her around in an inflatable ball.

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Your Turn!

• What’s your favorite breakfast/brunch food? 

• What is/was your favorite thing to do at the park or on the playground? 
  

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! One more day – and you’ve got a pretty good chance at this point!!  

Scenes from this past week:

Last Friday, I was beat. Completely done with work. Exhausted from writing reports. Tired of all the “grown-up drama” that comes along with this job. I just needed to take some time to myself. Away from everyone. So I left work shortly after the kids did and went to Stevens Creek County Park.

It was just me, my mini bottle of wine, and my book (hi-tech version). Nobody else nearby. It was exactly what I needed. Uninterrupted relaxation time.

I also picked up my first shipment of wine from Picchetti Winery! The cool thing about this place is that, with each shipment, you get a free wine gift. This time they included a wine stopper (although who really needs a wine stopper – isn’t it bad luck or something if you don’t finish the bottle?)

Saturday:

I spent most of the day running small errands and reading a lot. At night, I went broom balling with a couple friends in San Mateo. I haven’t done that since college and I had forgotten how much fun it was.

Sunday: Day of relaxation and FINALLY checking the mail:

My sister is the coolest. She’s probably the most thoughtful, selfless person I’ve ever met. She’s always thinking of others and ways to make them happy. Sissy sent me a package with this really cute dress in it. This is not the first package. Last time it was a pair of TOMS shoes. The time before that, it was this beautiful poster of LA to hang up in my room. The time before that, it was pillow cases to match by bedcovers.

Just try not to be jealous of Sister Budhraja. She’s pretty damn amazing.

 I also drove over to San Francisco to watch the Super Bowl. It was such a great game (but who am I kidding? I was in it for the Beyonce concert…). 

Monday: Learning Day and Happy Hours

AKA – Early Morning Walk of Shame 

Today was actually really great because it gave me the chance to get a program overview of one of the high schools we feed our students into. I was really impressed with the amount of support and the number of resources they had. It makes me feel really relieved to know where I’m sending them off to next year.

I also tried out a new-to-me place in Downtown Campbell called Sushi Confidential. They had a great happy hour:

I just got the California Roll. I know, I know. Boring. I get it. The guy who was making the rolls basically laughed at me like I was some sort of amateur.

Tuesday: IEPs and MORE Food

Call me a nerd but I love data. I don’t particularly enjoy having to be so consistent about monitoring and assessing students performance. But I love being able to visually see when a student makes progress. And for this particular IEP, the student had made a significant amount of growth both academically and socially. When I see things like that, it validates my belief that a particular program or intervention is working. I LOVE IT.

I went to another new-to-me place in Downtown Campbell called Jalisco Mexican Food. It’s definitely a hidden gem! I accidentally stumbled on it when I was trying to make a U-Turn and decided to pull into the parking lot. So glad I did. Look at this food:

Wednesday: Worst Day Ever

Wednesday has always been the worst day in terms of work. I don’t have any prep periods on this day so I always feel a bit overwhelmed. Today, in particular, was the worst. And not because of work.

One of my closest friends from college, Kirstin, recently got engaged!! A few friends were going to grab dinner in the city to celebrate. I left work right after the students were dismissed so that I wouldn’t hit any traffic. I parked my car about a block away from the restaurant we’d be eating at and then went into Vinyl – a really cute coffee/wine shop that I was going to work at until dinner. Around 6PM, I head out and walk back to my car to drop off my bag.

I couldn’t find my car.

I walked up and down that damn street, pressing my car alarm over and over – hoping I’d hear it off in the distance. But no such luck. A few minutes later, I realize my car had gotten towed. Here’s the fun part – it turned out to be a whopping $600. How’s that for a slap in the face? 

Anyway, I’m moving on with my life. Kirstin gave me some good advice. Pretend I bought a really expensive coat and never speak of this again. It happened. It’s over. It was my initiation into the bay area. I’m moving on.

Dinner ended up being great. (Can you tell it’s been a while since I’ve cooked at home?) We went to Nopa on Divisadero (also the street “I bought my coat” on). It was delicious. I wasn’t a huge fan of their cocktails to be honest, but the food was great.

Flatbread of spicy fennel sausage, pickled onions, and spinach

And, of course, the newly engaged couple:

Kirst and Brian!

The couple that drives my carless ass to the towing lot I owe them big time! Aside from my very expensive  drama ”coat,” it was such an enjoyable night with some of the best people I know!  

Now I’ve just returned from this:

…and I’m realizing I’ve eaten every single dinner out this week. Time to get back on track!

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When’s the last time you got a parking/speeding/towing ticket? 

Cheap, healthy meal ideas for a girl who is now $600 poorer? 

On today’s Thankful Thursday, I’m thankful that it’s Thursday. Because of block scheduling on Thursdays, I am done teaching for the day at 11AM. Usually, the remainder of the day is dedicating to testing students or holding IEP meetings, but fortunately for me, I’ve got none of the above scheduled for this week. So I’m going to spend the remainder of my time tackling the mountain of paperwork on my desk. I can barely see the surface of it – it’s always covered by folders, notecards, IEP paperwork, post-its…and occasionally lettuce….

I’m a sloppy eater. #sorrynotsorry

But let’s rewind to Wednesday.

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, cinnamon, peanut butter, and almond milk. Looks nasty – tastes delicious

Lunch:

Some leftover crockpot chicken on top of a bed of lettuce. Or now that I’m examining the picture above, I guess it was underneath the bed?

Snack/Dessert?

I met up with a co-worker in Campbell for dinner, but stopped to get dessert first at Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt. Couldn’t help myself!

Dessert before dinner

Dinner:

We ate at Sonoma Chicken Coop so we were able to watch the Giants game. Gotta confess here – I ordered the salad and forgot to take a picture of it. So this is a picture of the food display. Basically what I ate – but this one had been sitting out for a couple hours. Cool bro.

Bootcamp:

Done and done. I definitely feel it in my shoulders today. Remember yesterday when I couldn’t decide if I hated alligator crawls or burpees more? I’ve decided. Burpees are the worst.

Good morning and Happy Hump Day!

I’m a little more cheerful today because yesterday was surprisingly more relaxing than the average Tuesday. The district hired a sub for me because I was required to attend a training on a writing program I am going to start implementing in my classroom – Step Up to Writing. I can tell that this program will be so beneficial for my students. Color-coordination, kinesthetic activities, tons of structure – it’s a SPED classroom’s dream come true!

Work and Lunch

The training was supposed to last the whole day, but we were done by 1:15! I wanted to try out a new sandwich place for lunch so I whipped out the old iPhone and went searching on Yelp. I saw a place called Pebbles Deli Cafe with 4-stars, looked delicious, and it was brand new to me. Or so I thought…..
You know that crazy feeling where you feel like you’ve been somewhere before because it looks so familiar (yea, you idiot. It’s called deja vu)? When I parked my car and started walking toward the restaurant, that feeling hit. But it wasn’t just a FEELING. It was like a 10th sense. I knew I had been there before. So I stalked my Facebook pictures (how often do you hear that a person stalks themself on FB?). And SURE ENOUGH, I had come here back in 2009 when Jen, Randy, and I flew up north for a weekend in November 2009.

PROOF!!!!!!!

This was before I knew I wanted to live here. This was before I knew anything about Cupertino…or NorCal for that matter. It was some weird coincidence. Or maybe the stars aligned and some voodoo stuff happened and some magical higher power brought me to this place in 2009 as a sign that I would be returning as a RESIDENT in 2012. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

Anyway, I ordered the Cupertino Sub – turkey, avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, pepperoncinis, onions, mustard, mayo on top of some of the softest wheat bread I’ve ever had.

I also took a picture of where we were sitting last time. So craze.

Don’t mind my Trader Joes purse in the picture.

I spent the rest of the day catching up on e-mails (yes, I have e-mails from August that I am still responding to) and bootcamp (x2)!

Bootcamp:

The workout today for Best Body Bootcamp (which will now be referred to as BBB) included some steady cardio. I chose to do my cardio on the elliptical while reading “If I Die, Please Bring Cheesecake to My Funeral” by Donloree Hoffman. This was such a great, quick-read and I found myself not wanting to stop until it was done. If you get a chance, check it out. It’s reasonably priced and kept me laughing the entire time I was on the elliptical (which is hard to do). More in-depth review of the book coming soon!

I also went to the group bootcamp class last night and the instructor laughed at me when he saw how I wrapped my ankle. Apparently wrapping your ankle is an art and I clearly don’t know how to do it. But I was grateful that he wrapped it for me because it’s feeling a lot better today. I’m also feeling the effects of the “alligator crawl” - I can’t decide if those are as physically draining as burpees or a tad bit easier. Regardless, a love-hate relationship exists for both. Like a love-hate triangle.

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When’s the last deja vu moment you had? 

BBB Participants – what’s your cardio of choice?! 

Order “If I Die, Please Bring Cheesecake to my Funeral!” and let me know what you think! 

With less than two weeks left in Southern California, I’ve been trying to take advantage of all the places I’ve wanted to go. This past Friday, I made my way up to Manhattan Beach to spend the afternoon bike-riding with Gina. Well, that was the plan. But on a gorgeous day with beautiful weather, rental bikes were rather limited so we changed up our plans a bit.

I got there around noon and we were both pretty starving. After parking the car, we started walking up and down the boardwalk in search of a place for lunch. We wanted something casual, but also with an outdoor patio so we could enjoy the weather and the view! Thanks to Yelp (who knew you could search for ‘outdoor patio seating’ and get over 50 return results?!), we found a place about a quarter of a mile away called Ocean View Cafe.

They really made us trek to get to the food. Pre-calorie consumption hike.

It was exactly what we were looking for. The food wasn’t fabulous, but it was pretty cheap and we definitely got an “ocean view.” (Although, next time I’d rather try the pancake house next door for better food and the same view!).

Appetizer Platter: Pita and hummus, salad w/ mustard dressing, herb pizza, tabouli

Herb Chicken Pizza Wrap w/feta, chicken, sundried tomatoes, and tomatoes 

Our view from the patio beautiful day!

After lunch, we walked straight over to Manhattan Beach Creamery (a place I’ve wanted to try for over a year now!). I’ve kind of avoided it in the past because I haven’t really had a valid justification to inhale an enormous ice-cream cookie sandwich. But me leaving Southern California is a good enough reason! I got the chocolate chip cookie sandwich with Cookies N Cream ice cream in the center. Diddy Riese style, but I think I liked them better because the cookies were softer!

Gina =) AKA Gyn

They also sell loads of chocolate covered things. Like a $3.50 chocolate covered strawberry. I’ll stick to my cookie sandwich, thank you very much.

Yum. Every bite was glorious and WORTH IT.

So since bikes were out of the question, we just walked for about 3 miles on the boardwalk…talking about all the fun things we would do if we lived right along the water. Yes, it’d be expensive. But we had fun imagining….

Going to miss my Favorite Friend tons <3

After dropping Gina back at home, I headed north to West LA to meet up with Liang to play tennis! I had forgotten my tennis racket and tennis balls at home, so Liang wasn’t too thrilled with me.

Stopped at CVS to buy some tennis balls. A very unhappy and disappointed Liang.

But once we started playing, we were both just ecstatic to be on the court together. We played for over two hours and I am definitely still feeling the soreness in my arms. I LOVE PLAYING TENNIS. I forget sometimes. Because I don’t really know many people around here to hit with anymore. So I just let weeks…MONTHS (and I’m ashamed to say this…but even years…) go by without playing. But every time I get out there, I fall in love with the sport all over again. I think when I move up north, I’m seriously going to look into some online group that meets up to play on weekends. I’m still on an extreme tennis high. Anyone wanna play?!?!

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Any other Southern California natives have recommendations of places I should go to or restaurants I should eat at before I leave?

What activity gets you all giddy and excited?!  

My papa had to work all day so we decided to take him out for a nice dinner to celebrate his special day. Normally, we opt for Thai food when we go out to eat – it’s the typical “brown” thing to do. But my sister was pretty set on taking him to Tommy Bahama’s Island Grille in Newport Beach. 

Aside from Sissy, none of us had been there in years and didn’t really have fond memories from the place so we were hesitant to try it again – especially because it wasn’t cheap (Yelp says $$$ and we know what that means…). If we’re eating expensive, it’s gotta be good. (Would also like to point out that my dad’s a really simple guy. He just wants what tastes good and suggested we go out to Chipotle for dinner. Love him.)

We got the tortilla soup to start out with. It was nice and hot – just the way dad likes it. Really flavorful, but not overboard with the spices.

I ordered the chicken burger w/a side of sweet potato fries. It was your average chicken burger – but they added a mango aioli that made it really stand out. And it’s hard to really impress me with sweet potato fries – I’m very partial to the sweet potato fries at Father’s Office in Culver City and no other restaurant has wow-ed me enough to want to eat them.

Dad got smoked and grilled chicken with a side of the most butter-y tasting, melt-in-your-mouth kind of garlic mashed potatoes. Also, they said it came with a side of string beans. But they brought asparagus. Maybe they’re just dumb and don’t know the difference? But I like asparagus better anyway. =)

Mom got a Veggie Burger – I was jealous of the guacamole she got with hers. They also added some sort of tomato jam that made it REALLY yummy.

Sister got a Miso Marinated Hawaiian Butterfish (she’s the most expensive date). Didn’t take pictures of that, but the fish was surprisingly good. I don’t eat fish usually (or ever), but I really liked it.

The overall experience wasn’t bad and I liked it more than I expected I would, but I still would have preferred Chipotle.

What did you do to celebrate Father’s Day?! =)

Good morning and Happy Father’s Day! Going to head out soon to the Corona del Mar Farmer’s Market, but before I do, wanted to upload some pictures from this weekend. I did a lot of branching out and tried a few new restaurants!

Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza (El Segundo, CA)

Gina and I came here for lunch on Friday. They just opened up this location recently and I was eager to try it. The restaurant always seems pretty busy, the ambience was really nice, and I love woodfired pizza! Unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed with the food….

We started off with a Meditteranean tapa (appetizer) – Lebni, Soft Cheese. The description sounded like it’d be really flavorful: exotic spices, tomato, evoo, grilled herb flatbread. So we were looking forward to something really delicious. I think when they said “exotic spices,” they actually just meant “a shit ton of cumin.” It was hard to enjoy the food when it was entirely covered in spice. Not an exaggeration:

We also got a grilled chicken and hummus wrap and a garlic chicken pizza to share. Although the presentation was nice, I was, again, not too impressed with the taste of the food. The wrap had the same exact seasoning/taste as our appetizer. And the pizza was dry and I didn’t taste ANY garlic. C’mon Sammy’s – step up your game. I don’t understand why there were SO many people there….

We ate about 1/3 of it and boxed the rest up – never to come back again. Hahaha. Dramatic. But, probably a little bit true. They didn’t leave a great impression on my palate – sorry about it.

Luckily, we had this nice, chilled bottle of wine waiting at home for us. Made it all better:

Yokohama Sushi (Culver City, CA)

After living in Culver City for nearly two years and no longer a resident, I finally tried this sushi place. In my defense, it’s right next to a Subway, so I’ve never had the desire to eat anything else

He’s not posing. He’s just naturally that prim and proper.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything unique – just your regular, average sushi place. Hits the sushi craving, but doesn’t really go beyond that. I’m also not too much of a sushi connoisseur. I did, however, enjoy the chilled sake they had. I think I’m much more of a cold-drink drinker. I think red wine should be served chilled and that sake should never be served warm.

The one thing that did stand out was the Gyoza appetizer we ordered. It was really deeply fried, so I only had one, but it was DELICIOUS. The sesame seed sauce it came with was even more delicious and I wanted to dunk my sushi in that, instead of the soy sauce:

Forage (Silver Lake, CA)

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from dinner here. Probably because I was too eager to start eating. But I can assure you that no picture could really illustrate how AMAZING this food was. I got a plate of 3 sides: an arugula and kale salad with feta and breadcrumbs, a corn salad, and mac ‘n cheese (two different kinds of cheddar and grana padano). Unbelievable. The food tasted better than it looked – every bite was so, so flavorful and fresh-tasting. Apparently, they used to do this kind of “trading thing” with their customers that if customers brought in fresh produce, they would get a discount on their order. They would then use the produce in their future meals. They stopped doing that for obvious reasons…..but I like the idea. I will definitely be going back here for more…

Intellegentsia Coffee (Silver Lake, CA)

Not really a restaurant, per say. But still a notable mention. It’s a really high-end, exquisite taste type of coffee and espresso. Randy and Kent wanted to come here and splurge on a 1/2 pound of their coffee beans, so we all got a drink to end our amazing dinner. I got a soy latte – it was so creamy and delicious. Pretty expensive – and I thought Starbucks lattes were expensive! But it was a nice treat:

Now, I’m done with restaurants for the week. My goal is to be healthy and homemade for the next 5 days! Expect a lot of recipes on the blog this week…..

Just finished my breakfast: Honey Chobani, chia seeds, slivered almonds, and Farmers Market blueberries. YUM!

Now off to the farmers market to buy more fruits and veggies! I love this farmer’s market because it’s literally steps from the beach:

Corona del Mar, Newport Beach (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful fathers out there….my daddy’s gotta work on Father’s Day, but we will hopefully make something yummy for him to come home to.

What are your plans for Father’s Day?! 

So sad to leave New York. It definitely hit me when I got in my car to head back home and sat through 1.5 hours of 405 freeway traffic. Oh well, I’ve gotta learn to deal since I just accepted a job offer in Los Angeles!! (<— more on that later!)

To celebrate my last night in New York, I hopped on a Subway to head to Hell’s Kitchen to meet up with Stephen at a cute place called Casa Nonna. 

I got there at 6:40 and we had 20 minutes left for Happy Hour menu. Their happy hour is wonderful. They have a small little menu with 4 drink options:

Pinot Grigio for me, please!

And yes, if you look carefully above the drink selections, you are given a complementary “bite” when you order a drink off the happy hour menu. What a fun idea. Sure beats the PILED-HIGH plate of nachos or FRIED onion rings/fries/chicken/shit they serve at the happy-hours I’m used to going to. And it allows you to get a taste of the food they offer at their restaurant. Which was wonderful, by the way. If I lived in New York, I would definitely be going back to this place. We ordered the: Focaccia di Recco, Gorgonzola Crostini, Polpetta, and the Rotolo (two drinks each – four bites to try!). Don’t let the pictures fool you – I like to zoom in real close, but these are actual bite-sized items – which, to be honest, I enjoyed. I like trying LOTS of things without feeling disgustingly full and guilty at the end of the night.

Rotolo (Pork Sausage, Sweet Peppers and Provolone in Pizza Crust)

Focaccia di Recco (Ricotta and Stracchino Cheeses, Red Pepper, Rosemary)

They were all DELICIOUS. After happy hour was over, we went to two other bars/restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen that had Happy Hour til 8 or 9.

Why, yes. Barrage is a gay bar for men. They’re very subtle about advertising that. Needless to say, I was the only female in there.

After that, we stopped by at one of Stephen’s favorite places: Flaming Saddles. No pictures from there, because I was too entranced by the bartenders dressed up as cowboys that were dancing on top of the bar. We ordered a margarita to split and quickly left to meet up with the family at The Billiard Company in Forest Hills. It was really empty (considering it was a Monday night), but we still had a lot of fun. Thankfully, they had table tennis too (since I can never seem to understand how to hold the stick to shoot the balls <—– that sounds terrible, but I don’t know how else to describe it. I don’t know proper pool terms).

Proper stick-holding form. That’s not my hand. Clearly.

Incredible night, wonderful trip. So grateful for the family and friends in my life.