OC Foodie Fest

I just wanted to say, "Thank you" for the nice comments on my post regarding my weight loss/exercise goals. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed that I haven't gained weight since my injury started to really flare up. Although I did notice some pain during my lower body workout with Jackie Warner. Squats kill my knees. I wonder if it's my form? I'm starting physical therapy tomorrow (2x a week for 4 weeks) so hopefully they'll be able to help me.

I swear I feel 86 instead of 26!

By the way, Andy's surgery is healing nicely. I'll take updated Gnarls Scarley pictures soon.

On Saturday, Andy and I attended the OC Foodie Fest. This was our third food truck festival and we had high hopes.



The lines were pretty intense when we got there. We were there about fifteen minutes before it started. While the lines looked bad, they actually moved fairly quickly.





Once inside, we went to the India Jones truck.



The India Jones truck served roti roll-ups called "Frankies", paranthas and curries. We decided on one Frankie and an order of samosas.





Andy ordered a lamb Frankie.



The samosas with some chutney. They were fried and a little bit greasy but HEAVENLY! Very, very tasty indeed. Each samosa was about 2 bites.



The lamb Frankie was delicious too. Andy and I are huge fans of Indian food so we were pretty happy at this point.



Our next stop was LudoBites. We'd seen it before but never wanted to brave the line. The line at the OC Foodie Fest was pretty decent so we decided to go for it.





We just ordered one and shared it.



Andy took a picture with Ludo himself.

For some reason I cannot find my picture of the chicken ball. It was pretty good! The biscuit was my favorite part surprisingly.



I stopped by the PopChips booth and grabbed a sample to eat at home later.



Then we lined up for CoolHaus. Luckily the line was short but not too short. We needed some time to digest.







We split a coffee toffee ice cream sandwich with snickerdoodle cookies. My friend Laura told me she got coffee toffee when she went to CoolHaus and we had to copy. It was really good! Quite filling though even with sharing.

At this point we walked around for half an hour.



The trucks were mapped out in different themed areas. Cute huh?



I decided to try an ice cream bar from Longboards despite being full.



I picked cookies and cream, dark chocolate dipped and topped with peanuts.



It was really good but I was too full. I had a few bites, gave Andy a bite and tossed it. I should have known better! Still, Longboards is really delicious.



We walked around a bunch and eventually sat down to relax and people watch. The Foodie Fest went from 11:30-7pm and we had already hit 4 trucks in 2 hours. (I thought this was perfect.) We debated on going home but decided to wait a few. We picked one more truck to try.





Louk's Greek Gourmet.



This truck had a long wait. We were in line for 25 minutes and then in a second line to wait for our order for another hour. It was nice because it gave us time to digest, interact with other fest goers and watch the cooks in the truck work.



We ordered a gyro. It came with fries and tzitaki sauce. It was pretty good but super filling. I don't know how people can eat at more than a couple trucks! There were plenty of other trucks to try but we were way too full to go on. (Plus, really...I had over-indulged enough!)




Andy filling out our "cheat sheet." A list the OC Foodie Fest provided with a list of all of the different food trucks.


Overall, we both agreed that the OC Foodie Fest was better than a lot of the other fests we'd been to. We really liked the variety of trucks, the shorter lines, the sitting areas and booths to check out. We also didn't feel rushed at all. We probably could have been more leisurely if we wanted. We'll definitely be back!

I do reccommend going to one of these things with a few friends and sharing. Especially when the portions are pretty big.

Can you see why I decided to start food journaling again? HA!

Have you been to a food festival? Any suggestions?

Weight loss and exercise

I haven't talked about my weight loss goals in a while. I guess I just didn't know whether or not it was appropriate for me to share those goals in a public forum like this. After some thinking, I'd decided to share my action plan with you. (I'd love to hear your feedback as well.)

-I'd like to lose at a healthy pace while NOT counting calories. Counting calories becomes troublesome for me. I am just not a numbers person.

-To combat this one of my friends suggested journaling what I eat daily. She said not to write down calorie counts but to write down whether it was a protein, whole-grain, dairy, fruit or veggie serving. Eventually I'll work with a nutritionist on this. Ideally my goal is to cut back on portions.

-As you know, Andy and I attended a few food truck and beer festivals (which have yet to be blogged) I think we did a decent job at keeping our portions down. I'm pretty proud of that!

-Since I can't run yet, I am planning on getting my cardio in via Jillian Michaels Shred DVDs. (I own a ton of workout DVDs so I'll change it up. She has a kickboxing one that I love.)

-I'm working on yoga and weight-lifting as well. I love both. I think my body really responds to any kind of strength training. I do all of my yoga via DVDs since my schedule is too weird for taking classes.

In short, I'm hoping that journaling and increasing my exercise will help. I don't want to give myself a goal of X amount of pounds in X amount of time because that has NEVER worked for me. I want to be healthy and strong, not skinny. I don't want to talk about my weight loss obsessively or hate myself for eating ice cream. Hopefully this plan will work for me. We'll see.

P.S. Andy and I started a Facebook Fan Page! Please like us and let us know if your blog has a fanpage so we can like it back! Two Boos Who Eat Fanpage

Dining with friends

It's probably obvious to many of you by now that I (Amanda) am a social drinker, eater, runner and blogger. I love connecting with like-minded people and having a good conversation.



I went out for Thai food with my friend Rebecca on Monday since we both had the day off. Rebecca and I have known each other for a long time. I was in a Hanson club with Rebecca's sister Sarah. (Sarah was one of my bridesmaids.) Yes, I said Hanson Club. Deal with it.



This salad looks simple but I swear the flavor was out of control. I need to find out what ingredients are used in this dressing so I can recreate.



For my entree, I had panang chicken with extra vegetables. Panang is a coconut milk based curry. It's one of my favorites, especially with a little sriracha mixed in. The white rice is okay but I'm really not a rice fan. (Unless it's spanish rice, all bets are off with spanish rice!)

A few days later, I met up with a blog friend from my livejournal, Laura and I have been friends for about seven years! She happened to be fairly close to me so she was nice enough to drive out to see me.



We went to Eggs & Things, one of my favorite breakfast places! They start off with a swedish pancake topped with boysenberry jam and powdered sugar.



I ordered a spanish omelette with fruit and an english muffin. The omelette is filled with avocado, cheese and sour cream. They you throw salsa all over it. It was decent but not my favorite omelette from Eggs & Things. It needed more fillings and less cheese.

Of course I forgot to photograph Rebecca and Laura when we dined together. I am not always the greatest blogger. LAME!

Life is still insane. Andy has to blog about our experience at a BEER FEST and I need to figure out where I am student teaching. Eventually it will all pan out. I hope.

Are you a social person? I'm totally a social drinker, eater, blogger and runner but I don't really think I'm a social person. I like to stay in with Andy most nights. I just hate drinking, eating, blogging and running alone. I need company for those things.

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome and banana soft serve.

Yep. I went to the sports medicine doctor and finally figured out what's going on in my knees. I suspected patellofemoral pain syndrome a while back after reading about Caitlin's experience with it but wanted to make absolutely sure.

Treatment starts soon with physical therapy and they promised that they'd get me running again! Seriously, you have no idea how happy those words made me. I may not run fast but I sure do love running! I'm also getting custom orthotics for my feet to help with the plantar fasciitis pain. Things are looking up.

We won't mention how old this all makes me feel.

We are super behind in posts due to going back to work, school and a regular schedule. This drives me nuts.



I have been making tons of guacamole lately. I am obsessed. I added a 2 lb box of avocados to our CSA list for next Saturday.



And I bought some corn and black bean salsa from our local farmer's market. This is the BEST salsa I've ever had. We're planning on buying more from him later today.



I made steak tacos to go with the guacamole and salsa. I used a packet of Trader Joe's taco seasoning to give the steak some flavor.



Yes, I am holding the plate up in my kitchen....



Seriously delicious. I used an organic onion and bell pepper to give it a little bit of veggie power. Next time I might try an all veggie taco.



Andy made us margaritas using Trader Joe's margarita mix. Have you tried it yet? It's got decent stats and is so tasty! I love that it's not super sweet.



Dessert was banana soft serve. To make this please read Gena's post on banana soft serve I'm telling you this was AMAZING. I added a little vanilla extract and some white chocolate wonderful pb to mine and LOVED IT! I can't believe this was made with frozen bananas!



Seriously Gena, you have changed my life. I love dessert but don't need all that dairy. This is such a perfect and cheap replacement!

Has a blogger recipe ever changed your life? Please share!

The Grilled Cheese Truck

Originally I was going to have Andy post this one but I decided that I should instead since I'm not working.



Andy is working however. He started back at school yesterday! I made him take a first day of school picture at 7am. I am crazy.

I was lucky enough to start school yesterday too. I was offered a sub job. I took it since I haven't started my student teaching assignment yet.



Last Thursday, I got a tweet sent to my phone reminding me that The Grilled Cheese Truck was going to be at The Americana (a shopping center in Glendale) that night. It was Daniel's birthday but I figured we could have time for both.



The line was pretty long. We got there a few minutes after they started and still waited about 45 minutes.



I'm not really complaining, it was worth it!





Their operation runs really smooth considering the throngs of people waiting in line. You wait in one line to order and another to pick your food up. While we waited some nice person walked by and handed us a menu. This helped things move smoother as well. We made our decision way before we got to the front of the line.





Finally, we had our sandwiches. It was getting dark and they were about to show "High School Musical 3" at The Americana so we ate fast.



We both ordered the cheesy mac and rib. It was perfectly crispy, cheesy and flavorful without being greasy or messy. You can't say that about most grilled cheeses!



We also split an order of tomato soup to dunk our sandwiches in. I figured it'd be boring but it was NOT in the least. The tomato soup had way more flavor than we expected. We loved it! You can order either a cup or a shot of tomato soup with your sandwich.

We're definitely going back. I'm going to get a grilled cheese with cheddar, bacon and avocado next. What would you get?

P.S. We're going to another food truck event on Saturday in Orange County. Can't wait to share pictures! Are any of you going?