Kristen Suzanne to be precise.

She runs a very popular and one of the first raw food blogs over here and has quite a few ebooks and books that you might like to check out, as well as an awesome published book called Raw Awakening which if you pre order now, you will also get a FREE copy of her ebook Raw Transitions – perfect for the raw food beginner or trying to introduce more raw food to your family.

So Kristen and I developed an online friendship when I first delved into raw food when I was still a flight attendant out of London.

I bought her ebooks online and we got to know each other through our emails, which developed into a mentoring relationship then friendship, with Kristen being the first person I spoke to when considering going to Raw Culinary school.

Pat affectionately called us soul sisters, as we got to know each other, that we had plenty in common too.

So of course I was elated when Kristen told me she would come to visit us in Long Beach (she lives in Arizona) on our trip to LA. It would be the second time I got to see her in person (the first was here) but the first time I was able to meet her precious daughter Kamea and this time Pat was also able to meet their family.

We lunched at Long Beach’s only known vegetarian cafe, Zephyr’s – Kristen had dined there the night before so we decided to head back there the following morning!

We all ordered the popular MK works burger (black bean patty) and it was quite nice – in between trying to keep Manus entertained, you know a mother of an active child rarely enjoyed a sit down meal in a restaurant. Even this pic was snapped mid way between shoving some in my mouth and trying to pacify Manus.

The food was ok, but the service – 45 mins to get our food when we were the only ones in the cafe. Weird.

It was so lovely to chat (between looking after the kiddos) with my friend whom I wish we lived so much closer to! The food alone we could share would be incredible – she an incredible raw food chef.

After saying our sad goodbyes and sending Kristen and her family off on the last part of their road trip, we headed off on a mini road trip of our own.

The weather was overcast but we were still yet to see the local beach.

Here’s one of the local beaches at Long Beach – you can see the Queen Mary and the port in the background.

Being a Sunday, there were plenty of families playing on the beach (and in the water, which we were advised to stay out of due to the oil refineries spilling oil and possible sewerage – ew!) and also I wish I had of taken a photo of the family that were grilling on a BBQ in the back of their truck. It was pretty cool.

Then we drove further south to Huntington Beach.

After a beach side drive we ended up at, you guessed it, Whole Foods.

Check out this awesome juice bar. They even had a beer and pizza bar in this one too. NICE!

We got our token green juices and watched Manus create a lot of noise.

Before calling it quits and picking up some stuff for dinner.

I picked up the avocado and mango brown rice sushi – GREAT flavour combination!

And a seaweed salad.

Who would you really love to meet?

Hey bloggies

Just a quick note to let you know I’ll not be back to regular posting here til June 13th when I’ll be back from Dubai & Italy, I’m traveling on my own with an infant so I’m leaving the treasured MacBook behind for this guy.

My sister is getting married in Verona, so I’ll be there to give her away with Baby M as my date.

Just happened that hubs couldn’t escort us due to studies and mum and dad couldn’t make the last minute trip from Australia either.

We will all celebrate together anyway down the track I’m sure.

I’ll have plenty to share with you all when I return, including some recipes I’ve been playing with this week and a couple of book reviews and MORE giveaways for YOU

In the meantime, if you’re on Facebook or twitter and not following me yet, I’ll be posting more frequently there.

Bye from M & I

Rewind to last night and after school I headed out on a mission to get me a travel blender. Yeah I know I already have one back home but it is a Tribest Personal Blender 240V which is great for the UK, Europe and Oz but unless I travel with a gigantic transformer, I thought it a better idea to buy one here to make my smoothies for when I am not at school (but it is happening that I am pretty much eating most of my food at 105 degrees. I did consider bringing the Vitamix but when you are paying for luggage, it ain’t gonna happen!).

Step in the Bella Cucina…

One of the other students told me she had one and it was adequate for Hotel Room Smoothies and at around 30 bucks at Target I thought why not give it a shot. Has anyone else used it before? What kind of things do you NEVER leave home without? When I am travelling at work I do like to have quite a bit with me like here, but when I pay for my baggage I have to scale it back a bit.

I had a plate of grapefruit before I headed out.

Then I went to ‘check out’ the gym, but I never made it past the door of the centre but at least I found it! I had no idea how far away it was, and jet lag (that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it hehe) has me tired by 8pm. Thank goodness class only goes for around 6 hours a day, but I think jet lag and I are almost finished with each other now

When I rocked back in the door I unpacked my hand roll from earlier in the day and scoffed it with the red chilli and wasabi mayo.

And left overs from my visit to 105 degrees on Sunday

(Photo from Sunday)

I’ll be back later with more in Day 2 at Chef School.

Any bloggies in Oklahoma or Dallas  that may want to meet up over the next few weeks?  Am thinking of making a road trip to Dallas with one of the other girls that wants to see Bon Jovi

Saturday, I heeded my pal Jenn’s (of the Robertsons of Mumbai who have suddenly moved to Thailaind) advice and checked out Central Market and fell in love.

Photo courtesy of here

I just forgot that it was the weekend so probably not the best time to check out a new place, but I walked out with some goodies including a mango slicer (did I mention I am a kitchen gadget FREAK?) and this delicious green juice….ahhh love.

Celery, parsley, spinach & cucumber.

This place was pumping with outdoor music, plenty of food to sample (March of the Foodies is the festival and flavour of the month) and sooo much to choose from. My senses were completely overwhelmed but I was extremely jealous of the locals having access to this wonderfully stocked gourmet market. I walked out with an unpictured bottle of Pomegranate Wine and a large spinach salad for lunch. Then headed on my merry way to do some outlet shopping at Katy Mills. Bring on Victoria’s Secret and Nike

But back to some exciting news! I caught up with my tweetie pal and Flight Attendant podcaster extraordinaire  The Flying Pinto and former Flight Attendant Sissie for dinner on Monday night  and it was so lovely to meet for real. Sara and I first ‘met’ when I appeared on her podcast show The Crew Lounge a few weeks back (along with some of my other flight attendant bloggy pals that appear from week to week – check it out!), but I’ve also been checking out her  terrific Flight Attendant blog here for some time.

Me, Sara & Sissie

Sara was such a darling, knowing my ‘eating’ habits, and her with one foot in the vegan door she thought she had found us the perfect place to dine, but we arrived to find it was shut up and closed for business. So I was in the hands of the local ladies and we headed off to chain restaurant PF Changs which actually wasn’t too bad. The company made the night though. Was lucky we were all eating veggie so we shared the appetiser of

CHANG’S VEGETARIAN LETTUCE WRAPS

A vegetarian version of their signature appetizer with tofu instead of chicken

COCONUT CURRY VEGETABLES
Stir-fried mixed vegetables, crispy silken tofu and peanuts in a vegetarian coconut curry sauce

MA PO TOFU
Sichuan’s famous dish of crispy silken tofu in a vegetarian sauce with steamed broccoli

All served with Brown Rice!! I love that you can have Brown Rice at restaurants. Seriously it should be standard EVERYWHERE.

Accompanied by a very delicious

ORGANIC AGAVE MARGARITA
4 Copas Tequila and Organic Agave Nectar shaken with fresh lime juice

and yes I was definitely attracted to it because of the Organic Agave

It was a great night and I hope to catch up with the lovely ladies again very soon. Isn’t cyberspace terrific for meeting up with new, likeminded friends?

Have anyone ever had any Blog or Tweet ups (Twitter meet ups)?

Time for me to buzz off but I will be back later with some of the treats I have managed to snag over the last couple of days of shopping ready to take back home

Nighty night