Hope everyone’s been having a fantastic week –  This week has been busy busy busy and has just flown by! It’s Friday tomorrow, but I am going to be just as busy, if not busier than I have the last few days.  Lot’s of big plans! – it’s gonna be a doozy! Good thing I have Monday off to recover!  Thank you George Washington and Happy Birthday!

I started the day yesterday with Habit #1, an hour long workout and some juice made from these Dandelion Greens. Rotating your greens is so important!  I try to rotate out between different types of kale, collards, rainbow chard, dandelion, parsley and cilantro every single week.  I just buy different ones every week, mix and match or buy whatever is the most fresh and go for that…When you juice them they all taste very similar to each other, especially when you add celery, cucumber, lemon, ginger and garlic almost every time like we do.

I followed up the juice with my “bird seed cocktail” as coined by one of my co-workers… Some protein powder mixed with chia seeds.

For lunch, I met an old friend and mentor from earlier in my career – he’s kinda famous on wall street and crazy smart.   We went to Halcyon Flavors from the Earth and lunch was so perfect. I haven’t had chicken in SOOOOOOO long – it’s been months!… This little piece was so cute and perfectly sized – probably about 3-4 ounces of meat.  It was from a local farm (no growth hormones! no antibiotics!) and served on top of wilted kale and farro.  The original dish has creamed kale, but the chef at Halcyon was happy to accommodate special requests. I love this!  Yeah for being flexible for the health conscience!

Back at my desk, I grabbed a few organic figs and almonds out of my drawer to snack on.  This is my favorite snack right now.  I’m addicted.

In the afternoon, I worked the rest of the day from home, where I drank some more juice to power me through a few tasks that had to get done.

I ate dinner while working too – a large arugula salad with TruRoots Sprouted Lentils and chomped down on some Mary’s Gone Crackers.  The lentils are incredibly easy to make because they are already sprouted – 5 mins and you have a really awesome source of fiber and protein – the perfect topping to salads. They are available on the Food Babe Shop if you can’t find them at your local grocery store.

For dessert I had some new cookies I created this week with raw cacao… they turned out great, but were way better with Coconut Bliss!

After dessert – I headed straight to the NC Music Factory – To get ready for filming at The Comedy Zone.  This week I was asked to be a featured guest in Crazy Late with Johnny Millwater – It’s a local late night comedy show similar to David Letterman or Jay Leno… I thought this advertisement was quite hilarious.  I love my title here – Blogger and Chef… so funny.

When I got to the show, they quickly escorted me to the green room, where I was pleasantly surprised by the big bowl of fruit and some other vegetarian options. I stayed far far away from that gallon of crazy neon liquid!  (Johnny – that’s made from those mutant foods I told you about in my interview!)

I loved the fact that the regular menu at the Comedy Zone has two different organic salads available to choose from – This was no joke!

Getting my makeup highlighted by the lovely Lenore Cuyler – One of the things I hate most in the world is getting ready for big events – I get so crazy stressed out! Having Lenore there to do my makeup and refluff my hair was really incredible!  No stress…. no worries…. just look at my smile!

Waiting patiently “backstage” for my queue….

I was interviewed by Johnny – he asked me some interesting questions… I had a lot of fun answering them and hope to share the clip with you here once it airs live next week on Monday at 11:30pm here in Charlotte – Check your listings!

At the end of the show, all of the acts came on stage at once, waved and clapped goodbye to the cameras – I felt like I was on Saturday Night Live!   All of the people who worked to put the show on were incredibly nice and so much fun to work with!  Johnny, himself was so humble and appreciative.  The funniest act of the night was a toss up between the Funky Geezer and Lyndel… Can’t wait to watch them again on TV.

Before we left, I caught the lead singer of the house band stealing a banana from the green room.  Smart man, I tell ya.

After the show, we were feeling a little snacky and wanted to decompress a little before heading home…we went across the street to check out the new restaurant Osso owned by the same people who own Blue uptown… The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous!  The interiors are breathtaking!  I can’t wait to go back and have a real meal…

My husband and I shared the Arugula Pizza (my half without Prosciutto). Please note – the crust was made in house from unbleached flour and the cheese was imported raw aged fontina from Italy! … pretty neat, eh? I had about two pieces with a cup of ginger tea – a perfect way to end the night…

Don’t you love when restaurants tell you what’s in your food and where it came from!?!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and lots of good real food eats!

XOXO,

Food Babe

P.S. Thank you to everyone at ‘Crazy Late’  for this fun opportunity and to my husband, brother in law (not pictured), Allen, Amy, Nicole and Tom for cheering me on! Your love and support is amazing!