a day off.

after 6 straight days of work, i'm finally getting the chance to go to any dance class i want because i'm off today! :)

instead of dancing the past couple of days (no auditions either, unfortunately), i've been resorting to the ever-feared Insanity program. i found a video of the cardio abs on youtube and man, is it kicking my ass. after a vacation at home, i seriously need to get back into shape and this, combined with dance, just might be the way to do it! it's only a 22 minute workout, but i'm telling you, it hurts. so good.

but, today, i'm heading down to west hollywood to take my all time favorite jazz class with a teacher who's been gone all summer, and then a hip hop class with another favorite teacher of mine. as you can see, i'm very, very excited. when i woke up this morning at 8, i was oddly starving. i made myself a whole wheat sandwich thin topped with butter and strawberry preserves, popped in the microwave for 20 seconds until doughy. i swear by these.

+ a side of coffee with skim and splenda. since that wasn't exactly a filling breakfast for my big day, so i just whipped up a smoothie to take with me in the car.

one banana, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, a handful of spinach and vanilla almond milk. i think i'm ready, now. oh, and one last thing:

insta-graham cookies. if they didn't look so complicated i would make them in a heartbeat. have a good day! :)

xo jordan

new house.

on my birthday (about 3 weeks ago), my friend connor and i moved into a sexy pad in north hollywood. after living in a frat house for 2 and a half months, this place is a godsend. not to mention the perfect place for hanging out, relaxing, cooking, baking, reading, writing and even doing embarrassing fitness videos. hell yeah.

coziest bed ever, complete with throw pillows galore (courtesy of mama d)

decorations: clothes line photos, jewelry stand & anthro frame (thanks michelle!), dvd holders, vase (thanks colie!), and movmou banner from the boy :)

closet space x3

having my own personal bathroom for the first time in pretty much ever = amazing

swanky kitchen complete with dishwasher, stove, microwave and fridge (actually we had to get that delivered from a stranger on craigslist...california apartments are weird.)

loveliest dining room table ever, barstools and breakfast bar

...from which i'm currently blogging...

and the living room! where we watched tangled last night...

have you noticed a color scheme yet? :) and by the way, those black and white pillows are the cushiest things in the world.

xo jordan

sunday brunch: Mo's

4 days in a row of work down, 2 to go! i won't normally be having work so many consecutive days like this (which is both good and bad...for my bank account...), but i think they wanted to give me hours since i was away in new york for so long. in any case, i didn't even have work until 4:30 yesterday, so my day started out like any other sunday. with food blogs and breakfast!

i kept things light with a small bowl of honey bunches of oats (that box came for free with my tupperware. so random.), some leftover vanilla almond granola and almond milk. i didn't want to fill up too much on breakfast since a few hours later, connor and i headed over to Moe's in Burbank for some brunch! we'd heard good things from a friend, and something about unlimited banana bread and mimosas, so obviously we decided to go asap. this place did not disappoint.

we started out with a mimosa right away (most attentive server ever) and each ordered an omelette with sauteed mushrooms, onions, bacon cheddar cheese and guacamole. mine had egg whites and wow. we seriously both agreed this was the best omelette we'd ever eaten. the thing was huge, first of all, but something about all the ingredients together was perfect. there wasn't too much of anything, but just the perfect amount. and on the side came potatoes (mine mashed, connor's home-fried) which were also delicious, but i saved myself mostly for the banana bread. spread with a touch of butter, and i was in heaven.

unfortunately, i didn't snap any more photos of my delicious meal than the one above, probably because i was too busy downing my food, sipping my bottomless mimosa, and swapping stories with the roomie. all in all, this brunch is definitely one of my new favorites and we definitely be had again soon! it even tided me over until about 7pm, where i snacked on a banana and cliff bar at work.

new favorite flavor. hands down, the best cliff bar i've ever eaten.

and now, back to work and then finally back to dance class. hopefully with my favorite teacher, too! *cross fingers he doesn't cancel

xo jordan

a moment of peace.

after working long shifts the past 3 days, having those 2 auditions in a row yesterday and still being on east coast time, i took a much needed relaxing saturday afternoon for myself. i grabbed some fresh groceries on my way home from work, sat down on the couch for the first time since we moved in and turned on season 7 of friends (favorite season of my favorite show!) by about 530pm. but let's backtrack to this morning...

i woke up at 9:45 - a new record for me in this apartment! it's been 7:30 or so lately...probably because i worked until 1:30am last night...and was craving something refreshing. i made myself a smoothie in the ninja (best blender of life) with a banana, 6 or 7 frozen strawberries, a handful of frozen raspberries and a bit of almond milk. so delicious!

i also topped it with some of this granola from target. i know it's not the healthiest thing in the world, but it makes me happy. i'm also trying out buying it in these trial size packets for portion-control purposes, although i'm not proud of how environmentally-unfriendly they are.

i brought my daily coffee to work, instead of downing it before leaving, in hopes that it would keep me more awake longer. yeah...right...and a variety of snacks were eaten between the hours of 1pm and 5pm, including:

1 larabar, a TJ's fruit leather, a nature valley granola thin covered in dark chocolate (new favorite!!!!), as well as some frozen mango chunks and a spoonful or so of peanut butter. let's just say it was a day of snacking. and after the groceries were unloaded, i popped in a yoga dvd i brought back from home. i imagine it must be several years old, and never used since the plastic wrapping was still on it...

i have to say, i'm not a huge lover of yoga (it's just a little boring in comparison to taking a dance class, i think), but this dvd was great! i felt like i definitely got something out of it, although for a more rigorous workout i might have to pair it with some extra cardio/ab exercises in the future. but for a gym membership-less girl in hopes of getting paid to look good, this may be a good option for the lazier days.

in keeping with the relaxing yoga feel, i took a bubble bath while reading Kitchen Confidential (birthday present courtesy of jaime!) and lit an apple cider scented candle. hey, it may still be summer in cali, but it's turning to fall back home and i miss it...

aaaanyway, dinner consisted of a salad with a lot of ingredients. in that bowl is a bunch of spinach, some craisins, 3 chopped dried figs, half an avocado, some edamame, too much red onion, and a touch of crumbled goat cheese. i used balsamic vinaigrette for the dressing! it feels good to have fruits and veggies back in my diet after an overly indulgent vacation at home :)

the rest of the night will probably involve more friends season 7, some tea, some ice cream, and browsing of health food blogs. see you tomorrow!

xo jordan

home is wherever i'm with you.

i'm baaaack! phew, that was a long blogging break. my trip home to new york was composed of running around, grabbing coffee and meals with friends, traipsing through manhattan in pouring rain, baking and spending time with my family, and hanging out with the boy. it went all too quickly, but it's nice to be back in sunny LA in my gorgeous apartment with my awesome roommate! it's only my first full day back and i've already been to two auditions and one shift at work. i can already tell that autumn is going to be both busy and wonderful :)

here are some pictures from my visit to the east coast. you'll notice a lot of them have been messed with on instagram...my brother is obsessed and finally showed me how to use it!

and now, back to work! today is busy. normal blogging to resume tomorrow!

xo jordan

mama d visit: days 2 & 3

happy labor day weekend, y'all! yesterday started early, 6:30 to be exact. i swear my mom is putting me on east coast time. we got a heck of a lot done, though! we had a super filling breakfast at EAT down the street. it was rated top breakfast in north hollywood and it's only 2 blocks away! i got these caramel nut banana pancakes, of which i seriously regret not taking a picture to share with you. taking photos of my food all the time is going to take some getting used to.

we then hit up ralph's for some essentials (whole wheat pasta, spices, dried cranberries, splenda, tin foil, and stuff to make dinner), ikea for some living room furniture (tv stand, coffee table, lamp, chair, pillows, a vase, blankets and some glasses), and best buy for a tv my wonderful father bought for me! we built furniture forever and were so busy decorating that we didn't get around to making this gorgeous dinner until about 8pm:

that, my friends, would be fresh wild salmon baked with onion slices, salt and peper, pasta with goat cheese, shallots, asparagus, onion and balsamic vinaigrette, and extra asparagus sauteed in sesame oil.

served with 2 delicious glasses of prosecco. my favorite :)

everything tasted so unbelievably good, and it was so quick and simple to put together. i think balsamic vinaigrette makes the best "sauce" for pasta, and it's healthy, too! we ended the night with some squares of dark lindt chocolate (mint and almond brittle) and passed out at 11:30.

this morning was another early one, but today we actually have no errands to run! we hung my bulletin board, map of california and some other pictures this morning, but now we have the day to do whatever we please! we made a hearty, healthy breakfast with some leftovers from last night since i'm leaving for a few days and need to use up some food in my fridge. my mom whipped up a scramble with egg whites, asparagus, shallots, salmon, tomato and feta cheese.

it was. so. good.

plus a whole wheat sandwich thin topped with butter and strawberry preserves. there was also a lot of unpictured coffee, of course (my mom keeps make a ton). now we're off to spend the day doing some shopping and beach-ing in santa monica, picking up some things i left at the frat (oops), and having a dinner i'm very excited for at SmithHouse! then it's off to LAX and back to the east coast. talk to you from new york :)

xo jordan

mama d visit: day 1.

hey there! i'm currently blogging from my newly decorated adorable bed,

thanks to my lovely mother :) pictures to come soon!

unfortunately, i had to work for 6 hours today starting at 10am even though my mom is here. luckily my shift was only to answer phones in the restaurant and make reservations, so i was allowed to have her there for some company! our morning started out in traffic...but things started looking up with a delicious berry yogurt parfait from the coffee bean. i was so starved by the time we got there that i obviously forgot to take a picture. now, i usually do not like to spend $5 on something i could probably make myself for just $3, but i ran out of time to stop by the grocery store since the traffic was so horrific. nonetheless, my breakfast was delicious! it held me over for about four hours until my mom brought back salads for us to eat at the restaurant together, a lunch only interrupted by about four phone calls!

she picked them up from this place called California Cafe in Century City and for only $6, this salad was both huge and satisfying with chicken, cranberries, almonds and a ton of romaine in honey poppyseed dressing! it actually came with a roll that i ate only half of (at first...) because we had this amazing plate brought out to us by one of the chefs working in the kitchen:

please excuse the terrible photo but that, my friends, is the SmithHouse take on a philly cheesesteak + a boat load of herbed truffle fries with parmesan. and you can bet your bottom dollar that we ate every single last one. i seriously love working in restaurants and i'm pretty sure you can't beat the people at mine. they take such good care of us :)

when i got out of work at 4pm, we sat in traffic again for a little over an hour and then made our way to target to pick up a ton of cleaning supplies and essentials for my new apartment. my mom is one of the most generous people i know - not only did she go out while i was at work to pick out gorgeous throw pillows and a comforter for my bed, but she also bought us everything we need to get started in our own place! to top it all off, she took me and connor out to dinner! we actually ended up going back to the Pitfire in North Hollywood because i had such a great meal there on tuesday.

connor and i both got pizzas while my mom ordered the steak salad i had the other day. mine had burratta cheese, arugula, hazlenut and a touch of tomato sauce (i hate when there's too much!) on the most delicious dough ever. this place has such good drinks, too. i had a pineapple soda and some of my mom's cucumber mint lemonade. she and connor got some red sangria, too. i love sangria, but just not red wine...bad experience freshman year...haha

now it's only 10:15 and i'm exhausted...which is weird since i didn't do much today. my mom and i did clean up a bit and re-did my bed with all the things she bought for it. i also managed to fit in 15 minutes or so of ab exercises. i can't wait to get back to dancing more, but while my mom is here and i'm back home for a few days i'd rather spend my time seeing the people i love. so, quick exercises here and there will have to do! anyways, i'll be back tomorrow with more eats and adventures with mama d!

xo jordan