Our First Snow!

Excuse my excitement - but --- it SNOWED last night!  Living in So Cal and Las Vegas my whole life has made me extremeley sheltered from cold weather.  However, I am getting a crash course in it this week!!  It has been COLD and WINDY and it SNOWED!  


While it is COLD - I am excited to try out the snow!  Here are some pictures from my walk to work!

This weekend was filled with many Christmasy activities around the city!


The Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes!  Much better than expected!

The Charmin restroom in Times Square!  Yes - I am weird getting excited about a huge public restroom but....


 - it only is put up before Christmas
- it features fun things to do such as getting your picture taken on a large "throne"
- each bathroom is decorated and is cleaned after each use!
- I LOVE FREE RESTROOMS - probably because I have the world's smallest bladder and am always looking for the nearest place to "go".  

It was not as good as the one two years ago but it was still entertaining!

Shopping at the Holiday Market, near Columbus Circle - note my boots in the pic -- my very first pair!

The famous Chocolate Orange - I absolutely love whacking it on the ground/table, etc!

There was one slight disappointment among all of the fun.....

I LOVE Sarabeth's jams - especially the blood orange marmalade!  So I decided to go to the famous cafe for breakfast located just a few blocks from our apartment.   The boyfriend loved his french toast (which I should have ordered) but I was not too happy with my pumpkin waffle :(  Sounded great on paper but didn't quite deliver.  I was intrigued because it was served with raisins, pepitas, sour cream, and honey...... but it just did not come together.  

This next week should be quite busy!  9 days till I leave for CA!!!  So excited to go home and see my parents and Holly!

Love, Allison 

Levain Bakery - My Heaven on Earth!

Well, its about time!


I live exactly 10 short blocks from the famous Levain Bakery and I have finally tried the magic that is the chocolate chip walnut cookie.  This is the best cookie I have ever had (sorry Mrs. Fields at South Coast Plaza!) and I hope to make this a weekly, monthly, bi-weekly (that sounds better!) habit!

As soon as you walk in this place - the smell of butter is so prominent you can almost taste it!

It was still warm and cookiedough-ish on the inside and the chips were all melty!  I enjoyed mine with a glass of milk!

The bakery itself is  cozy with just a few seats at the counter - it has a wonderful upper west side neighborhood feel to it.  They sell other baked goods as well - the selection varies each day, so its a surprise every time you come!  They are always baking the cookies fresh and I would love to try the softball sized cookie dough balls I see them put in the ovens!  Next time you are in NYC - make sure to stop by the Levain Bakery!

After Levain some shopping was in order at Bloomingdale's!  In addition to some Christmas sightseeing around this beautiful city!

Love, Allison  

P.S. Here is a breakfast shot from this week - 

Kath's Whipped Banana Oatmeal topped with more sliced banana, a packet of trail mix from Trader Joe's and brown sugar!

Visiting Verona

Well, it wasn't Verona Italy -- but Verona, New Jersey was quite nice!  We took the subway, train, and bus to visit Scout's brother!


Here is the first meeting - 

Scout's brother Bosco is like 3 times the size of Scout !!!  We definitely do not think she is a Mini-Pin mix with Chihuahua ..... now my sister thinks she may have some Manchester Terrier in her since her brother is huge!  

It was pretty overwhelming at the adoption event so they were both distracted - yet, I don't think that they remembered each other :(  He is like a larger liver-colored Scout!  Here are some pictures of the reunion - 

Bosco - Scout's brother!

See the size difference!

There was even a family Christmas portrait!

I love this picture of Scout -- she is totally a loner like her sister and aunt!  And I use that word in the best possible way - I actually like to spend time alone :)

When we got home from our LOOOOOONG journey - 4 hours roundtrip travel time!

 - we had our Christmas tree decorating party!

We decided to string popcorn this year - something we never did at home!  We made sure to put it on the tree high enough that little Scoutie couldn't reach it!

Here is the finished product - a little sparse - but we only had my ornaments - I definitely need to collect more!  

For the party we played Mariah's new Christmas CD and drank mulled wine and ate coconut date rolls from Trader Joe's.  The mulled wine was made with Trader Joe's mulling spices and some sugar - my sister and I love sweet wine!

Wine out of my Bordeaux mug = Heaven :)

Finally --- I am working on my first original baking recipe for the blog -- I am trying to copy a cookie that I love from our local vegan bakery -- here is a preview -- I think I may have come close!

Phew - I'm tired!  Time for Bed!

Love, Allison 

P.S. Staying in the points was HARD today with cookie baking -- I always want to eat the ingredients!  Also - went to Subway to get a veggie delight sub - however it doesn't come with avocado in NJ -- in fact they didn't have avocado AT ALL!!!  Where the heck am I?  Where are all the avocados.... therefore, my day food-wise was a little disappointing, but I hope to make up for it tomorrow!

Keeping on Track

Happy Saturday!

Had a wonderful bowl of oatmeal this morning - thanks to Kath for inspiring me to eat oatmeal!  (If you haven't checked out her blog - you should - its amazing and addicting!)

Inside:

- 1/3 c. oats (2 pts)

- 1/3 c. water

- 1/2 cup almond milk (0 pts)

- 1 tbsp. flax meal (1 pt)

- 1/2 a banana (0 pts)

Toppings:

- 1 tbsp. walnuts (1 pt)

- 1 tbsp raisins (1 pt)

- 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar (1 pt)

- 1/2 a banana (0 pts)

That is a wonderfully cozy, satisfying breakfast for 6 PointsPlus points (sounds a little redundant huh?)  

Well, I have to go shower now - Kendall and I are off to Verona, NJ to visit Scout's brother!  This is the first time they will see each other since they were adopted over 2.5 months ago!  Do you think they will recognize/remember each other?

Love, Allison 

The Holiday Spirit!

Scout is happy its Friday and that the Christmas Season is in full swing!

Kendall is super excited too!

They are excited because we have a tree! 

Carrying a tree around the streets of New York is pretty comical!  But I love the smell of the tree sellers on the streets - It is my favorite thing about NYC right now!

We are also excited because of the Christmasy things we have been doing - like going to the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center!

However - during the countdown to the lighting all we saw was a blank screen - thanks NBC -- due to the letdown there was alot of cursing and and everyone started rushing to get a look at the tree causing panic and an almost-mob-crush-panic scenario :/  But it was pretty :)

While all this is very cool - Guess what I am really excited about this week!

The NEW Weight Watchers Program!  Yay!  Its all revamped and do you know what the best part is

    FRUIT IS ZERO POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since I've been doing the program - I lost weight at first but gained it back when i got bored of tracking and the food of NYC became too tempting!

But - I feel like this new program is what I have been needing - I seriously have eaten so much food the past few days and have been sticking to my points!  

So here are some of my creations and their PointsPlus values!

Cinnamon Crumpet topped with Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Mashed Banana - 3 pts!

Parmesan Eggs with Ketchup and Wilted Spinach - 5 pts!

I will leave you all with how a SoCal girl gets to her yoga class in 42 degree weather - 

You mean I can't wear flip flops in December in NYC?  Sigh......

Hope you all had a great week and a great start to the weekend!

Love, Allison