So, How Was Your Day? Breakfast: 3 or 4 cups worth of stone/citrus fruits and berries. Lunch: Doritos. Peanut M & M’s. Chips and salsa. Ruffles and Sour Cream Onion Dip. Crudite. About 4 or 5 Oatmeal-Something-Cookies. Mock “chicken wings”. 2 pasta salads. Kale. A chicken sandwich with grapes. Crackers. Veggie dumplings. Strawberries. A small piece of Pineapple Upside Down cake. Dinner: Hot Cocoa with mini marshmallows. Caramel Apple lollipop. Morning ➛ Wake up, journal, blog, and tell my Jack Russell Terrier, Julius, how cute he is. My husband, Abe, just became one of the producers for The Huffington Post Live (launching next month), so we walk into Larchmont Village to meet his new co-workers. Stroll through the Sunday farmers market, where I bought some figs to freeze, 3 melons for $5, peaches/plums, and a couple grapefruits. I fill up on samples - nobody gives fruit away for free like Larchmont! Noon ➛ Don’t have time to put up an afternoon post (I blog twice daily), so I upload a guest one written by Purlisse skincare founder Jennifer Yen - a DIY, all-natural recipe for pretty hair. My friend Melanie Maras and I head to a party hosted by actress Josie Davis. I have a heck of a time parking in the Hollywood Hills, and Melanie directs me in and out of two spots. There’s an appetizer contest, and my dish (vegan cheese and spicy jam on toast crackers) is crowned one of the winners! I celebrate by eating a couple of those. Night ➛ Prepare my blog post for the next morning, and google some people I met at the party (the ones who gave me cards; I’m horrible at remembering names). One wrote a movie I watched about a hundred times in 9th grade, so I freak out a little and add that to the top of my Netflix queue. Then I shower, get into my PJ’s, and spend way too much time on Pinterest looking up creative uses for boxed cake mix. Put on some hot water for hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. This cup is enjoyed with a Caramel Apple lollipop while watching the series premiere of Breaking Bad. We became seriously addicted to this show last year, watching all four seasons in about a month, so having to wait a week to find out what happens next is going to require some adjusting. In bed I read Abe the “Steve Wozniak” chapter in Kathy Griffin’s memoir, which he gets a kick out of because he directed a documentary about him (Geeks on Board) years ago. Before turning the lights out, I remind Julius how cute he is. Three Last Things… 1. What’s up with vegan cheese and spicy jam? Please share your winning recipe. Cream Cheese + Hot Pepper Jelly is a popular Southern appetizer that is so insanely delicious and addictive, it blows people’s minds when they hear what it is: take a block of cream cheese, plop the hot jelly on top (Jenkins Jellies makes a good one), and surround with carbs. I’ve made it with pretzel bread, crackers, and baguettes, and it’s always the first thing to go. The one I made for Josie’s party was a vegan cheese by Wayfare, which has an oatmeal/nutritional yeast base. Together with the mini toasts I served it with, it kinda looked like PB & J. 2. Your site Thick Dumpling Skin focuses on the struggles of Asian Americans with food and body image. What prompted you to start the site? I heard my co-founder Lisa Lee on NPR talking about an article she’d written for Hyphen Magazine about her past struggles with food and body image, and how being Asian specifically played into her obsession over being skinny. Initially, I didn’t even know what I wanted from Lisa, but I felt compelled to start something. When I first began my own eating disorder therapy in my 20s, I had contacted various national eating disorder groups to see if there were any support groups for Asians. I was left at a dead end, and the messages I got over the next decade were that eating disorders and body image were not problems that affected people in my community. I immediately knew that Lisa and I needed to connect, and less than a few weeks after talking over email/phone, Thick Dumpling Skin was up and running. 3. Rumor has it Walt won’t be making it out alive at the conclusion of Breaking Bad. Give us your own fairy tale/super fan ending. I like a happy ending, but to be honest, my favorite part about the show are the unexpected, random twists. If Walt just dropped dead from cancer and Jesse wound up teaching chemistry/making pancakes for Walt Jr., I’d be pretty satisfied. Lynn Chen lives in Los Angeles with her husband Abe Forman-Greenwald. She often writes about food & body image and holds some sort of record for number of appearances on Law & Order. theactorsdiet.com thickdumplingskin.com

So, How Was Your Day?

Breakfast:

3 or 4 cups worth of stone/citrus fruits and berries.


Lunch:

Doritos. Peanut M & M’s. Chips and salsa. Ruffles and Sour Cream Onion Dip. Crudite. About 4 or 5 Oatmeal-Something-Cookies. Mock “chicken wings”. 2 pasta salads. Kale. A chicken sandwich with grapes. Crackers. Veggie dumplings. Strawberries. A small piece of Pineapple Upside Down cake.


Dinner:

Hot Cocoa with mini marshmallows. Caramel Apple lollipop.

Morning ➛

Wake up, journal, blog, and tell my Jack Russell Terrier, Julius, how cute he is. My husband, Abe, just became one of the producers for The Huffington Post Live (launching next month), so we walk into Larchmont Village to meet his new co-workers. Stroll through the Sunday farmers market, where I bought some figs to freeze, 3 melons for $5, peaches/plums, and a couple grapefruits. I fill up on samples - nobody gives fruit away for free like Larchmont!



Noon ➛

Don’t have time to put up an afternoon post (I blog twice daily), so I upload a guest one written by Purlisse skincare founder Jennifer Yen - a DIY, all-natural recipe for pretty hair. My friend Melanie Maras and I head to a party hosted by actress Josie Davis. I have a heck of a time parking in the Hollywood Hills, and Melanie directs me in and out of two spots. There’s an appetizer contest, and my dish (vegan cheese and spicy jam on toast crackers) is crowned one of the winners! I celebrate by eating a couple of those.



Night ➛

Prepare my blog post for the next morning, and google some people I met at the party (the ones who gave me cards; I’m horrible at remembering names). One wrote a movie I watched about a hundred times in 9th grade, so I freak out a little and add that to the top of my Netflix queue. Then I shower, get into my PJ’s, and spend way too much time on Pinterest looking up creative uses for boxed cake mix. Put on some hot water for hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. This cup is enjoyed with a Caramel Apple lollipop while watching the series premiere of Breaking Bad. We became seriously addicted to this show last year, watching all four seasons in about a month, so having to wait a week to find out what happens next is going to require some adjusting. In bed I read Abe the “Steve Wozniak” chapter in Kathy Griffin’s memoir, which he gets a kick out of because he directed a documentary about him (Geeks on Board) years ago. Before turning the lights out, I remind Julius how cute he is.

Three Last Things…

1. What’s up with vegan cheese and spicy jam? Please share your winning recipe.

Cream Cheese + Hot Pepper Jelly is a popular Southern appetizer that is so insanely delicious and addictive, it blows people’s minds when they hear what it is: take a block of cream cheese, plop the hot jelly on top (Jenkins Jellies makes a good one), and surround with carbs. I’ve made it with pretzel bread, crackers, and baguettes, and it’s always the first thing to go. The one I made for Josie’s party was a vegan cheese by Wayfare, which has an oatmeal/nutritional yeast base. Together with the mini toasts I served it with, it kinda looked like PB & J.

2. Your site Thick Dumpling Skin focuses on the struggles of Asian Americans with food and body image. What prompted you to start the site?

I heard my co-founder Lisa Lee on NPR talking about an article she’d written for Hyphen Magazine about her past struggles with food and body image, and how being Asian specifically played into her obsession over being skinny. Initially, I didn’t even know what I wanted from Lisa, but I felt compelled to start something. When I first began my own eating disorder therapy in my 20s, I had contacted various national eating disorder groups to see if there were any support groups for Asians. I was left at a dead end, and the messages I got over the next decade were that eating disorders and body image were not problems that affected people in my community. I immediately knew that Lisa and I needed to connect, and less than a few weeks after talking over email/phone, Thick Dumpling Skin was up and running.

3. Rumor has it Walt won’t be making it out alive at the conclusion of Breaking Bad. Give us your own fairy tale/super fan ending.

I like a happy ending, but to be honest, my favorite part about the show are the unexpected, random twists. If Walt just dropped dead from cancer and Jesse wound up teaching chemistry/making pancakes for Walt Jr., I’d be pretty satisfied.

Lynn Chen lives in Los Angeles with her husband Abe Forman-Greenwald. She often writes about food & body image and holds some sort of record for number of appearances on Law & Order. theactorsdiet.com thickdumplingskin.com

Notes

  1. cyan-013 reblogged this from thickdumplingskin
  2. thickdumplingskin reblogged this from so-how-was-your-day and added:
    Lynn’s recent appearance on
  3. eightbitbea reblogged this from so-how-was-your-day and added:
    Lynn Chen gives me hope.
  4. time-lord-genocide reblogged this from so-how-was-your-day
  5. so-how-was-your-day posted this