Healthy catering for a small party

After an early morning start for hair and makeup I knew my bridal party and I would be so hungry. I contacted my friend Elise, who is the person behind Lillybelle Foods, and asked her if she could make a healthy lunch for us. 

She was SO on top of it, creating an amazing  colorful and healthy menu and taking into consideration things like allergies and food restrictions.

She told me the menu beforehand, and I was excited, but I was even more excited when I saw it come to life and tasted it. OMG it was seriously amazing. It was perfect for us to grab and eat, all the bridesmaids loved it!!! Total success. THANK YOU ELISE!

If you are a Boston local and are interested in a small group catering contact Elise. She delivered the food to us, set it up, and really took the worry out of "how am I going to feed my bridesmaids?!!!" It was easy, she is reliable, and this was seriously a highlight of my day.. sounds silly, but its true!

What was on the menu?

I loved knowing that I was eating clean food that I would have normally made myself.  OK now go call Elise! 

Cucumber and lime juice

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Every morning, while in Con Dao, I have been drinking cucumber and lime juice. It is so refreshing and really cools me off! I will continue to make this juice combination on my own for the summer:

- 1 large cucumber - 1/2 or a whole lime peeled (depending how limey you like it)

The weather here has been SO hot. If I am outside for a long period of time I can only stand it if I am in the shade, ocean or the pool.

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Con Dao is a small island off Vietnam. It is very tropical and there are a lot of mosquitos!!! The mosquitos seem to love me as I have had about 20 "kisses" already and my camera man maybe only about 5??  Bahhh

The food is so fresh and delicious! I am really enjoying all the exotic fruit! My favorites are the mangos (sooooo good and meaty here!!!!), drinking fresh coconut juice, and something called mango steen! They are not too sweet and just a little sour. I have never seen or heard of mango steen before coming to Vietnam.

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Can you name all the fruit above???

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Mango steen!

The Vietnamese diet is mainly some form of rice, vegetables and some type of meat or fish. I have never eaten so much rice in my life! Everyday, without fail, I have been eating rice! They also use a lot of lemongrass for things like seasoning dishes, scents for soap, massage oils, candles, insect repellant... pretty much everything. Good thing I like the smell...phew. Actually, check out the picture above of the fresh green coconut. The green straw that is stuck inside is a lemongrass straw!!!

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Lemongrass

I was able to film a short arms and abs video for you. Enjoy!!

We only have a couple more days here until our trip is over! Ok now I am off for some dinner.... (probably rice!)

xin chào!

Cooking class in Vietnam

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Brandon and I took a cooking class today! As part of the class we went to a Vietnamese market and picked our own produce. The produce was abundant but there were also things in this market that I had never seen before. Out in the open were pig brains and every part of a cow you could think of. There are no fridges in the market, so everything is fresh and must be sold that day. We saw live fish having their heads cut off, and most shocking to me were frogs that were being slammed on a counter in order to kill them. I accidentally took a video of this, but have decided not to show it.

This is the culture in Vietnam, so I am being open minded. All very interesting.

Brandon and I have a driver/tour guide while we are in Saigon. His name is Hung!

He is the sweetest! He is Buddhist and as part of his practice he and his wife buy a fish from the market twice a week and set it free in the Saigon river. He does not believe in killing animals, even mosquitos!

For our cooking class today we made 3 main dishes:

I tried to take a video during class, but this was a little difficult. I did get a quick one though and will post later.

First dish was a mustard leaf roll. Inside was carrots, onions, coconut stalk, lotus stem, lemon basil, mint, and some other green thing. Ill get that name later :)

This green wrap really reminded me of a wrap I made with Elyse from Lillybelle foods! Just a Vietnamese version.

Next: sticky rice fritter aka fried rice balls

Inside these balls I chose not to put meat, rather I stuck with veggies.

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They were crispy on the outside and very dense. The chef said this is traditional Vietnamese street food. It's cheap and filling!

Last dish: fresh rice noodles with BBQ pork! I do not eat pork so I took a picture of Brandon's dish. I just made mine sans meat. There was not much cooking for this one other than making the sauce and grilling the meat.

The sauce was made of mostly:

Kumquats Garlic Water Fish oil Sugar Salt Chili peppers Pepper

Sing Ciào! Off to De Lat tomorrow!

PS excuse any typos! This is all done on my phone!

Vietnam for honeymoon

After flying for a whole day we have arrived to Vietnam! So far the food here is awesome and I have been more adventurous than usual, even eating fried food! Pictured above is a fried elephant ear fish. We ate it wrapped with rice paper and veggies.

Today we went on a private river tour. We had multiple stops along the way, each stop showing us a bit of the Vietnamese culture.

We watched rice being turned into popped rice (kind of tastes like popcorn) and Brandon drank some snake wine, I passed on that!

On the cruise they served us some cool exotic fruit. Dragon fruit, "red hairy egg" and "dragon eye". Yumm. Wish we could grow these in the USA.

Tomorrow we are going to the local market to get some produce then we will be taking a cooking class and making lunch! Can't wait. Will update more tomorrow. Xin chào!

Xin chào is the formal way of greeting and saying hello or goodbye.

Married! A little preview of my wedding weekend.

This weekend was the best weekend of my life... so far. I will wait after the honeymoon for a detailed post, but I wanted to capture a few highlights of the day/night. (pictures are in random order) Right before our big reception entrance, my friend snapped this picture.

Morning of the wedding. Such crazy high energy! Getting ready to get my hair done... AHH!!!!!!

Our venue. Inside is a blank canvas where you can do anything. Artists for Humanity.

Elise, from Lillybelle foods catered our lunch! My bridesmaids and I LOVED it. I can not wait to share what was on the menu.

Our first dance!!! I will share the video when we get it :)

TIEKS!! I had to spread the love that I have for Tieks with my (7!) bridesmaids and my mom(s).  Everyone was so excited to get their gifts. I wore my Tieks for all the dancing!

A while back I asked for your advice on which hair piece I should wear at the cocktail hour... most of you said this one!

One of a kind, custom made necklace made by my sister in law! How amazing?!  This piece got a lot of attention at the wedding.

I am exhausted and still have to pack for my honeymoon. I leave the house in 5 hours!!!!!  Off to Vietnam. I will be posting (hopefully I can get internet somewhere) videos on YouTube.  Follow on with #brandonandlauren

Ciao!