Tijuana, Mexico

So yesterday my mom, my boyfriend and I traveled down to Mexico to help out an orphanage.  The orphanage is called City of Angels and was about half an hour from the border.  We went down to drop of 100 toothbrushes because most impoverished areas don't realize the importance of oral health.
While I was on Semester at Sea, I heard of the program called "Global Grins" which supplies the toothbrushes all around the world to people in need.  They send a box o' toothbrushes to a delivery squad (aka me) and then we go and deliver and leave the recipients with contact information for Global Grins so they can reorder whenever they need.  Such a great idea!
It was a very rewarding experience to go down there and realize just how fortunate we are to live in such an amazing area that is so close these impoverished towns.  The kids at City of Angels were all seemed really happy and playing around with each other, laughing and smiling.  One of the administrators that I had been in contact with when organizing my trip down there, told me a little bit about her.  She is originally from Nebraska but came down City of Angels with her church to help build houses and fell so in love that she decided to stay and work there full time!  Such an incredible decision that I don't know if I could make.

There are many ways you can help and I've attached a link below to the Global Grins website.
http://www.globalgrins.com/
You can donate or you can start your own delivery!

And here is the link to the orphanage in Mexico.  They mostly need hygienic items such as shampoo and deodorant because they go through that so fast.
http://www.tjkids.org/

Go Help Out!

Bellemani Salon

Yesterday was my mom's birthday so after my internship I took her out for a day in La Jolla.  We went to Herringbone for lunch and I almost had to unbutton my pants, I was so full.  She had the lobster roll while I had the short rib burger and we also split a peach and burrata salad.  Everything was so yummy and it was such a beautiful day so the entire dining looked really pretty.

After our lunch we went over the Bellemani Salon on Girard.  I saw them at the SD Mom's Night Out event and received a mini mani and a coupon in my swag bag.  It is a really cute looking salon that feels so different from any other salon I had been in.  None of those cheesy spa chairs but rather, comfy individual sofas.  There were so many color choices and they were all organized by color and brand.  You can tell they really focus on cleanliness which is a wonderful thing to know about a salon.
I got a regular mani-pedi from Jules but it felt like I was getting a top of the line one.  She was very detail-oriented and personable.  Kathy did my mom's nails and I could hear them over there just chatting away.  Oh and there were also an amazing magazine selection that was up to date! Love that.

Overall, very good experience and for $35 for a mani-pedi, I will definitely be back!

Thanks Bellemani Salon!

SD Mom's Night Out Event

As an intern for Be Social PR, I was able to attend the SD Mom's Night Out fitness event.  It was held at Xtend Barre Carmel Valley and it was a lot of fun.  I had only taken one other bar class before at another studio so I was nervous to try it at Xtend with the owner of the studio teaching the class! Amy, the owner, was a powerful woman and you could see how passionate she was about the program.  I saw these little, baby 1lb weights and thought it was going to be so easy.  Haha oh I was wrong!  I felt like my arms were about to fall off!  I really enjoyed the workout because it worked all the body parts that I wanted to work on and then some.  It was very specific to women which I really liked and it was a lot of fun.  Sometimes, at group fitness classes, I get confused in between dance steps and look like a klutz but I was totally able to keep up with the fun music.
Once our awesome workout was over, the networking in disguise began.  Booths were set up in the other studio with the sponsors and we were able to enjoy the benefits.  I got a fabulous mini mani from Bellemani while snacking on some toffee and caramels from Sea Salt Candy.  It was fun getting to know everyone and seeing what these women are doing in San Diego.

To keep up with SD Mom's Night Out Events, subscribe to their mailing list and check out their website!
http://sdmomsnightout.com/home/

And make sure you take a class at Xtend Barre!
http://www.xtendbarrecarmelvalley.com/wp/

Humanity

Sometimes in our day-to-day lives we lose sight of kindness.  Here is a link from BuzzFeed that will help you restore you faith in humanity. My favorite is number 10. So precious.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity

Definitely go and check out and let me know what you think!

Grilled Artichokes

So along with the homemade mayo, we needed to make some artichokes to go along with it.  We picked some up at Trader Joe's so they were the smaller globe ones.  I didn't exactly have a recipe, I just kind of made it up as I went along.

First, I trimmed the artichokes and cut them in half, removing the choke.
Then, I added some lemon, garlic, salt and pepper into the water and then the artichokes.

 Always have bruschetta to eat while cooking :)

 Grilled Chicken

Eric proud of his new, just built grill. 

 I made a little olive oil mixture with 3/4 cup of olive oil, 4 cloves of garlic and some salt and pepper.

 Baste prior to putting them on the grill and during.

 I grilled them for about 5 minutes on each side.  Continue to baste with olive oil mixture

 Keep them on the grill until they achieve this nice charred color

So yummy! 

 Oh and you can use the remaining olive oil mixture as a dipping sauce as an alternative to the mayo. 

Homemade Mayo

I was never raised on mayonaise so I don't really eat it that much but out at restaurants, I discovered this thing called aioli, which is just a fancy word for mayo-based sauce.  Technically, it is a mayo that is made with olive oil, a much healthier alternative.  There are so many preservatives in store-bought mayo too which can be really unhealthy and kinda creepy seeing as how it is made with raw eggs.... So I looked up some recipes on Pinterest and found a great one that only uses one egg, which was perfect because I only had one egg left!

Here is the recipe that I used:
1 egg yolk
Juice of half a lemon
1 cup of olive oil
Some salt and pepper

My steps:

 Beat the egg yolk

 Add the lemon juice and olive oil in VERY slowly. Like one drop at a time slow.

And there ya have it! Homemade mayo.

After a great arm workout, it finally started to look like mayo.  Eric built the grill up for us tonight and we had some artichokes in the fridge so we grilled them up and ate them with our aioli :) 

Solana Beach Eats

As soon as I get off the Lomas Santa Fe exit on Solana Beach, I instantly have an urge to eat Jersey Mike's.  That location is the busiest in the country and my favorite one to go to.  I work across the street from the one in La Jolla but the this one is by far, the best one.  I always get a mini #6 on wheat, with no cheese, Mike's Way of course.  My favorite part of going in there in the consistency.  I think that is the most important thing about a restaurant.  Every time I go in there I see the three brothers hard at work and today I saw a fourth in there.  I asked the older brother if they were in there everyday and he said "Yes, the last day we had off was the Chargers game."  And he said that the last time he went back home to Jersey was the Chargers vs. Jets game.  I really admire their passion and positive attitude whenever I walk in there.  He said he grew up just 4 miles from the original Jersey Mike's and now there are over 700 across the country!  It is crazy how fast it has grown but it still maintains a local feel with such fresh ingredients.
He was so nice and wanted us to get the true experience by letting us try some Tastykakes.  He gave us the chocolate cupcakes that his mom used to pack for him in his lunch in the second grade.  They are an authentic piece of the east coast that were pretty tasty :)
Thanks Jersey Mike's for another great lunch!