five things friday.

TGIF, y'all. too bad i have work all three nights of the weekend...starting with a majorly mad dash from a callback this afternoon to the restaurant. pray for my sanity.

and in case you were wondering...

the last five meals i ate

1. green monster smoothie with a nana, frozen raspberries, spinach and frozen strawbs

2. pumpkin oats with brown sugar and maple syrup

3. basil pesto sausage with roasted broccoli and sauteed spinach

4. an insane amount of sushi with salmon, spicy tuna, crab and tempura

5. a sandwich thin with provolone and jam + clementines

five places i'm going:

1. vegas to see mama d

2. thousand oaks for thanksgiving

3. san diego to see the boy and moving mountains

4. home for christmas

5. hawaii for vacation!

last five books i read:

1. one day

2. kitchen confidential

3. last night at chateau marmont

4. poor little bitch girl

5. something i probably read for my colloquium and never want to think about again

five things in my bag:

1. emergency girl's kit from the container store (clear nailpolish, advil, chapstick, etc.)

2. wallet

3. keys

4. cliff bar

5. dance shoes

five things i do everyday:

1. read food blogs

2. exercise

3. plan meals

4. wash dishes

5. talk to my parents

that's all folks! have a wonderful friday and maybe the next time i catch up with you i'll be able to say i got hired :)

xo jordan

a day in the life.

i reflect upon the past 14 hours as very..."LA." or really, a typical day in the life of an LA dancer.

i woke up early to straighten my hair, pile on eye makeup, pull on sequin shorts, down a cup of coffee and shove this whole wheat sandwich thin with provolone and raspberry preserve (inspired by julie) down my throat before the audition for the X-Factor dancers.

it was exactly as i'd expected - about 300 girls ages 12 and up, scantily clad and dressed to impress. i caught up with my friend elana and another girl i knew early on, and thank goodness because we waited a looooong time just to get in there and learn the combo. and then we waited even longer before we got to audition with the combo in groups. and then get cut...but it's a comfort to know that a lot of amazing, bigger-named dancers in there didn't make it past the first one either. and hey, i just like to think of it as "taking class" with bobby newberry (the choreographer)! ma fave.

getting cut was really just an excuse to go and stuff our faces with sushi because "we deserved it," in the words of elana. and we totally did. i ordered far too much in terms of money and portion size, but it was so. amazing. i missed sushi too much.

that would be a tempura california roll that we split and the one in front, a sunkissed roll with spicy tuna, salmon and avocado was all for me. oh, and there was edamame to start!

mmm love me some japanese food. i mean, we were originally supposed to be fueling up for our callback, which we were told was later this afternoon, until we called the agency and found out it's actually tomorrow...when i'm schedule to work. and that, my friends, is so LA. a miscommunication, people waiting 'til the last minute to inform you of important things, a last minute switch. yep, i can come to expect this many more times in the future.

but it's okay! because i can always go grocery shopping at trader joe's and buy new things to make dinner! like this sweet basil pesto sausage that i had with spinach sauteed in sesame oil and roasted broccoli with olive oil and sea salt.

now i'm snacking away and watching tv, obviously. tomorrow brings more hectic-ness with an audition at 4:30 and then a rush down to work, to which i'll already be at least an hour late. cross your fingers i'm sexy enough for new year's in vegas*

xo jordan

my first WIAW.

if you haven't yet heard of a WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday), feel free to head on over to jenn's blog at peas and crayons for some info :)

here's my first time attending the party!

breakfast: pumpkin oats with water, a splash of almond milk, some brown sugar, half a chopped green apple and a touch of maple syrup! + coffee. the perfect pre-audition fuel.

lunch: with my friend elana at EAT in NoHo. i ate here with my mom when she visited and remembered breakfast was delicious, so i went with an egg white omelette with cheddar, mushrooms and onions with whole wheat toast and fruit! just what i needed.

also, this weird fruit i cannot seem to identify. ideas?

snack after hot yoga: about 8 clementines. not even kidding, maybe more...

dinner: tuna salad with miracle whip, the rest of the granny smith apple from breakfast, and dried cranberries. with a side of a whole wheat sandwich thin with butter and jam! since i didn't get enough carbs from breakfast and lunch...

dessert: some almonds, peanut butter puffins, and this tea. green jasmine from trader joes is soooo good.

on tap for tomorrow: an entire day of auditioning. one at 10 and a callback at 2pm :)

xo jordan

live a little.

in the past 24 or so hours, i may or may not have ruined all or most of my hard work from hot yoga 5 days in a row. and i have to tell you, i don't even feel all that guilty...

from indulging on some of my favorite, super tasty treats, i can share with you several life lessons.

1. it is okay to purchase a $2.20 block of cornbread with your salad at dinner because nothing beats something moist, sweet, and perfect that basically tastes like dessert.

this may have been the best piece of cornbread i've ever eaten.

2. it is okay to have several margaritas with frat boys you used to live with (that are much more tolerable in small doses), even if it means going into work exhausted and hungover, because the coconut ones taste like spring break and happiness. [jaime, i seriously wish you could've tried this one!!]

3. it is okay to satisfy your sweet tooth at your favorite dessert place if you haven't eaten it in a month and it's free and it contains the best chocolate chip cookie ever.

recycled diddy reise photo. mine had peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies with strawberry cheesecake ice cream!

4. it is both challenging and dangerous to eat hot wings with cool asian ranch while driving in traffic on santa monica boulevard, but totally worth it since they are amazing.

mine looked even more delicious. unfortunately, i was too busy multi-tasking to snap a photo...

and finally, 5. it is important to live a little, even if it means letting go of some rules you've set for yourself for just 24 hours. 'cause hey, you'll probably be back to exercising and healthy eating in no time :)

xo jordan

honestly.

let me be completely honest with you for a moment.

i spent $4.55 on a grande non-fat pumpkin spice latte (no whip) at starbuck's yesterday for a post hot yoga/ pre-work treat, and it was such a letdown.

is it just me, or were those better last year? maybe it's my own fault for not getting the whip...but from now on i think i'll be sticking to my regular homemade coffee (with cinnamon) and saving my precious five dollars.

and honestly, these whole wheat pumpkin gnocchi from jessica's blog are out of control. three ingredients, two minutes to prepare and three minutes to cook? why yes, yes i will.

for a single serving, i basically put 2 heaping tablespoons of pumpkin in a bowl with 4 tablespoons of whole wheat flour and combined until a dough. if you think it's too sticky, just add flour! i also added some cinnamon and allspice, rolled it out into a log and cut it with a knife until it looked like barbara's peanut butter puffins. (if you don't know what those are, you should probably go buy a box before you come back to read this blog again...) after all that hard work mixing and rolling for two minutes, pop those babies in boiling water for another three or until they float to the top!

strain the water, put them in a bowl and cover them with butter, brown sugar and just a touch of maple syrup (or olive oil + asiago like jessica) and oh. my. god.

oh, and another thing - if i promise to bake you a pie, will you buy me this adorable little pie carrier? please and thank you :)

xo jordan

early riser.

apparently i'm very into productive weekends because i woke up this morning at 7:30am...without an alarm. granted, i went to bed ungodly early for a friday night. i guess that's what happens when you drink at 4pm, come home, bake and watch tv...

i headed to hot yoga for the third day in a row, and it was excellent as usual. i didn't really want to get out of bed this morning, especially because it was oddly gloomy (and actually drizzled! lightly...), but i'm so glad i did. i'll probably be exhausted later tonight, but maybe work will be busy enough to keep me awake.

before yoga, i fueled up with a couple of my whole wheat graham crackers spread with a little butter and raspberry preserve. the perfect pre-workout snack!

by the end of class i was starving, of course, so after a quick shower i had one of these cottage cheese doubles. a guy i work with was telling us how much he likes cottage cheese, and i know it's very healthy, so i decided to try one of these when i saw them for a dollar at the store. the verdict? cottage cheese is...cheesier than i expected. the texture kind of bothered me, which i predicted, but with the strawberry jam it was actually kind of yummy. i'm going to give cottage cheese another try - perhaps with some pumpkin puree and cinnamon, too.

+ a cup of hot coffee. how cute is that happy harvest decoration?? connor grabbed one at target with his mom last week!

lunch was one of my turkey/avocado/provolone/mustard sandwiches on a whole wheat thin popped in the oven for a few minutes. so. freaking. delicious. i also had a side salad.

and then a piece of this amazing banana bread connor made for us! his mom sent over her recipe and woah. it's like, too good. and probably dangerous to have in this apartment...

oh so domestic!

now i'm sipping on my daily cup of tea (chai green!) and getting ready for a full evening of work. hope you're all enjoying your weekends :)

xo jordan

happy hour[s].

in case you haven't been able to tell from the past few, or all, of my posts, i'm pretty friggin' happy. and for some reason, this past week has been especially fantastic despite the lack of auditions. today was no different. i woke up early, which was a little rough, but it was worth it because i made it to hot yoga by 8:30 and took class with another amazing teacher. by 10:30am, i'd already gotten in a great workout, shower and breakfast!

i had a coupon for oatmeal at mcdonald's (surprisingly really good? i had it on my road trip here and remember how much i liked it) and a coffee, which i grabbed for the road on my way to the restaurant.

work today was decent, too. i really like who i worked with and we were actually kind of busy. connor met me afterwards for happy hour. we each had a couple drinks (pear and granny smith cider for me! too good.) and some guac + chips and fried green tomato rings.

2 hours in traffic (and a phone call with my favorite cousin) later, i was back home doing what i do best: baking! i decided to tackle a recipe i've been meaning to make for awhile. tackle might be the wrong word, though, because the whole wheat graham crackers were super easy.

thanks for the apron, michelle :)

the recipe can be found here and i highly recommend that you make these stat. they don't really taste like the nabisco kind or ones from a box, they're more like biscuits? but they're amazing topped with some butter and jam or a little peanut butter.

the process is fairly simple: mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ones in another. mix together into a firm dough and put in freezer in plastic wrap to firm for 30 minutes or so. roll out dough and cut whatever shape you feel like!

poke holes with a fork and place on greased baking sheet. bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes and enjoy!

so delicious :) be back tomorrow!

xo jordan

intention.

i started my new yoga practice today at corepower yoga in sherman oaks. i took hot power yoga, which is a mix of bikram and power yoga at 100 degrees for 60 minutes and it was intense. but i have to tell you, i felt great afterwards. and i can't wait to go back tomorrow morning. and the day after that. and probably the day after that since i have a free one-week unlimited pass!

this place is hands down the nicest yoga studio i've ever been in and the teacher was super helpful. she took care to learn our names and gave constructive criticism throughout the class. one of the most helpful concepts we shared today was to come up with a word in our minds to describe our intention for participating in the class. she told us that whether it was grace, strength, happiness, peace, control, or anything else, we should remember that word when things got too challenging so we would stay in the moment and push ourselves to reach our goals. i'm going to try and find one word that describes my intentions for each day, and remind myself of it anytime i lose sight of my priorities or forget why i'm here. ya know, just in case i get cut from an audition and get discouraged or get homesick or anything else :)

and now, back to my delicious eats from the past couple of days! i totally missed out on the "what i ate wednesday" in the food blogging world, but i did take pictures of most everything, including those donuts from yesterday that were a huge hit! here they are:

dinner from last night, thanks to connor's mom again! italian food from Prosecco in Toluca Lake. this bowl of farfalle, sweet sausage and portabello mushrooms with tarragon cream sauce literally tasted like autumn.

breakfast this morning was a big bowl of peanut butter puffins, a banana and skim milk. i know i kind of swore these addictive little peanut pillows off, but they were on sale! i had to!

a gala apple eaten after leftovers from last night's dinner), because apples are in for fall :) and just about the greatest snack ever.

a fiber one caramel peanut butter brownie...because they were on sale, too and i like having little desserts around. pretty good, but very tiny and definitely only 90 calories.

dinner tonight was a big salad with carrots, cucumber, turkey, avocado and red onion with light ranch alongside an unpictured whole wheat thin with butter and jam (because breakfast is my favorite meal and i need to incorporate it into all the others...)

and some yogurtland for dessert...well before i ate it all. it was filled with oatmeal cookie, red velvet batter, ny cheesecake and peanut butter jelly frozen yogurt + carob chips, strawberries, cookie dough bites, graham cracker crumbs, nutter butters and caramel sauce. yeah, when i do frozen yogurt i do frozen yogurt.

tomorrow it's back to hot yoga first thing in the morning, then on to work and happy hour at SmithHouse! sleep well, kids.

xo jordan

baked pumpkin maple cinnamon sugar donuts.

things i learned today:

1. it's important to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and take advantage of the opportunities presented to you at any given moment.

2. it's important not to wear a white skirt when working with orange or brown things in the kitchen, such as pumpkin and/or cinnamon.

3. making donuts is not hard, but it is not easy either.

...aaand i think that's it. i went to dance this morning to take one of my favorite classes and try a new one with a teacher i've been meaning to take for months now. i had a feeling i wouldn't love the second class, which came right after the first, but i'm glad i took it. i got a little tired and almost backed out, but i pushed through and i definitely feel like i got something out of it.

and then i got home and ate this delicious turkey, provolone, avocado, spinach and mustard sandwich on a whole wheat thin:

while eating my lunch and drinking a cup of tea, i found myself wanting to bake. i haven't baked anything (aside from that falafel loaf last week) in quite some time and i've got so many pumpkin recipes on my dash that they're taking up all the space! i can't even see my facebook link anymore...

no, but seriously. i found my recipe for whole wheat pumpkin donuts, and considering that a) i'm obsessed with pumpkin and b) i've been meaning to make donuts, not to mention c) the name of this blog...i thought it was perfect for today. i halved the recipe from here, took out the nutmeg 'cause i don't have any, and used extra baking powder instead of baking soda. and then made a maple cinnamon sugar glaze, of course :)

baked pumpkin maple cinnamon sugar donuts

(makes about 20 mini donuts)

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 Tbs skim milk

1/8 cup butter (or 2 Tbs)

1 tsp vanilla

beat butter, pumpkin and sugar in large mixing bowl until combined. add egg, vanilla and milk and beat. in a separate bowl, stir flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. slowly add flour mix to pumpkin sugar mix.

when ingredients begin to combine, turn off mixer and use spatula to mix the rest together. be careful not to over beat.

spray the mini donut pan (or muffin tin) with pam or other oil, and use fingers to shape dough around the holes in the mini donut pan. warning: dough is super sticky.

bake for 7-8 minutes or until donuts are firm to the touch. let cool and place all donuts on a plate to be glazed.

in one bowl, combine a couple tablespoons of maple syrup and a splash of water to thin it out. in another bowl, combine a few tablespoons of white sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon. stir together.

dip the top of each donut into the maple mixture first. when all the donuts are dipped, start dipping them into the sugar mixture. it is important to let the maple dry just a touch before dipped in the sugar, otherwise it will dissolve!

enjoy with warm with a cup of tea or coffee and be happy that autumn is here :)

xo jordan