Hello from the sky! I am on my way to Seattle for the Blogher Food conference right now 
I flew out of John Wayne (the Orange County airport) and it was easy peasy. 
Good News – the new carry on suitcase that Ben bought me got through security and is happy in the overhead bin above me. (I was worried it was too big.)
I am digging this bag, but the one negative is – It’s meant to hold your laptop in the front pocket, but that makes it front heavy and it falls forward. We noticed this right away, but figured once it was packed full of stuff it would be fine. Nope.
So, I am hanging my purse off the back (which is super heavy!) and now it’s fine. 
I walked the terminal and checked out dinner options (normally I prefer to pack something but our fridge if pretty bare). Finally I decided on CPK. I used to eat here all the time back in the day when I was just a little gigolo. 
I wanted a big salad and figured this would fit the bill…
Another reminder of how salads are not necessarily healthy – this baby checks in at over 700 calories and 40g of fat! I’m not surprised by this, but thought I’d share the reminder…
That’s more than their Tuna Salad Sandwich (you know with all the ‘evil’ mayo) 
Moral of the story – get what you really want and satisfy your craving if it’s all the same.
I ended up choosing the BBQ Chicken Salad because that’s CPK’s “thing”. I’m going to ditch the tortilla strips to knock that calorie count down to 699 and call it a dinner. 
I just got my new copy of Runner’s World and Oxygen magazines this week and saved them for the flight.
I started with Oxygen and was casually flipping the pages when I came across a very interesting article…
A recipe for French Toast Cups?!?! 
It’s my recipe!!! I made the Reader Recipe of the Month!!!
Being in a magazine is on my bucket list and I’m proudly checking it off with this. I was smiling so big when I saw this and it took all my effort not to stand up on the plane and announce this to my fellow travelers. I’m suck a dork, but this is a BIG deal to me! 
You can check out my French Toast Cups recipe here
See you in Seattle!
That reminds me, I better get to updating that bucket list…
Congratulations on making the Reader Recipe of the month! I actually wondered if you took those pictures in the magazine yourself. It was such a clever recipe. I believe a recipe of mine will be featured in an upcoming issue. I am just as excited as you were about yours. This is how I found your blog, which I am now following. 🙂 Also, I would have to agree about the salads. I feel like they are disguised as a healthy option but are loaded with so many unhealthy extras and filled with the least nutritional lettuce. Im excited to see more of your blog. Thanks for writing creative and cool stuff.
Hi! Congrats to you too!!
amazing post.http://www.headfone.org
I just saw this in Oxygen – CONGRATS!!! How cool is that!
i subscribe to oxygen and had no idea u were in it…i just stumbled upon ur recipe!! thats SO awesome congrats!! i was just in seattle too and had no idea the blogher conference was going on…oops..i need to pay better attention!
Were you still there this weekend? How ya feelin’?
That is so exciting!!! I don’t know if I would be able to contain myself if I was featured in Oxygen. I actually just got my copy today and am whipping through the pages to find you. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!
Thank you Tiffany!
What is a bucket list?!
A list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket!
I hope you have a great time at the food event! And congrats onthe magazine article! How awesome!
Thanks Andrea!
Personally, I think it’s really cool that you’re in a magazine! 🙂 Congrats!
Thanks Amber!
That is so awesome!!! Congratulations!!!
That is so cool, Monica!! Congrats. 😀
I might have to make those…
Thanks Shannon!
I love the calorie comparison on the salad and sandwich. Too true!
Congrats on getting your recipe in a magazine!
AWESOME!! Congrats!
Have fun in Seattle.
Thanks Missy 🙂
OMG! How exciting!! CONGRATS!!!!! I’m going to go pick up a copy 😀
Thanks Sable!
Congratulations! I will be celebrating French Toast Friday in your honor tonight 😉
Yeah! French Toast Friday!!
Congrats! That’s awesome and it looks divine!!
I would flip out too if I was in a magazine! Thats so awesome, congrats!
Thanks!
Congrats, that is majorly cool you should be super proud!
Great job, Monica! Did you know it was going to be published or was it a surprise?
I knew it was going to be published at some point, but didn’t know when.
You didn’t know ?! What a nice surprise to see yourself in a magazine. I’m jealous ;0)
I knew they were going to post it, but had no clue when. I forgot about it!
That is so awesome!!! Congrats!! I need to try that 😀
Enjoy Seattle! So cool all you gals are in town. Sorry the weather isnt that great for you…today looks like it might be a bit better!
That’s so awesome about your recipe!! I probably would have been tempted to show and tell everyone within speaking distance. And maybe some who weren’t. 🙂
Congrats on the recipe! Where did you get your purse?
Congrats on the magazine article. That’s awesome!
What gives? They use your recipe and completely ignore the one I sent in for my world-famous “Air Pudding”?
Yay!!! Congrats on being featured!!
Congrats! That’s sooo exciting! I would totally wanna tell the whole plane, too 🙂
Seattle is pretty much the best place for food. Especially Asian cuisine. I’m not sure what extra time you’ll have when you’re there, but there’s a fantastic Asian market on 5th Avenue in the International district – Uwajimaya. There’s also an unassuming Chinese restaurant just down the street from it called Honey Court. It looks like a dive, but the food is amazing (especially the honey walnut prawns), they’re open late, and the waitresses are amazingly funny wiseasses.
Congratulations! That is super cool that your recipe is featured in a magazine – and the recipe looks delicious. Definitely going to try it out 🙂
That is really cool, wow! Good job! I have to say I am getting jelly over all of your traveling, I am itching for a trip somewhere!
That’s awesome! Congrats. You really do have to watch out for the salads. I knew someone once who thought they were eating healthy by choosing the McDonalds salads all the time. Not at all healthy.
The Kidless Kronicles
Congrats on the recipe! I was a featured recipe for oxygen too for my bison meatballs! Have fu I. Your trip!
Woo hoo! You’re a celeberity!
Congrats- so exciting!!
SO cool about the magazine – how did you submit that? Were you asked or did you like reach out to them? I’d love to do some freelance stuff like this and don’t know where to start.
CONGRATS! That’s so cool! And the recipe looks delicious!
Wow, that is pretty cool that you got your recipe published! Congrats!!! Surprising though that they didn’t somehow contact you beforehand and told you that they chose you to be featured. Maybe they didn’t want to spoil the surprise ?
Yay!!!! Congrats! That recipe look awesome! Can’t wait for my new Oxygen to come now…
Congrats on being in the magazine! That’s awesome!
WOW that’s awesome! your blog is one of my daily reads and I love your writing voice!
That is awesome!!!! I am honestly surprised by the calories in the salad. It sounds healthy expect the tortilla strips and ranch…this might be why I LOVE salads out, but they taste horrible when I make them…it is because the salads out are full of fat and calories!
Congrats on being published!
I know what you mean about the salads – I always think I’m being so virtuous (well not really, but I kid myself that I think I am…) by having a salad, and always feel resentful of people who can just eat a sandwich or whatever they want and be thin while I have so many problems with my weight. Then I realise for all of the crap I’m dumping on my salad, I could have just had the proverbial sandwich in the first place. Yet I keep repeating this same pattern because I have salad=weight loss stuck in my head.
For what it’s worth you look very slim and pretty in that first photo 🙂
Congratulations Lady!!!! So proud of you!!! Your amazing and inspiring!
Wow! Any more feature articles/recipes in mags coming up?
BTW, just reading this post reminded me to pack something for my trip this weekend. Can’t believe a salad is a whopping 700 calorie meal!
Way to go Monica. You are such a cool girl now. I’d love to see my face in any magazine. Living the dream!
Congrats… and I’m hungry now 🙂
SUPER COOL about the magazine article! I’m pretty sure anyone within ear shot would have known about my celebrity and my fab recipe to boot! Congratulations, that is super exciting!
Congratulations!!! That is so exciting. You totally should have jumped up and told the entire airplane about your accomplishment!!!!
girl, you are famous! congrats, that is awesome, my friend!!
Super exciting to be in Oxygen mag! I’m going to have to buy it and check out the recipe!
No way! A huge congrats on the recipe being published! 😀 And enjoy BlogHer and Seattle for me – one of my favorite cities for sure!
Wahooo! You’re a celebrity! So does that mean I get celebrity status by KNOWING a celebrity? It’s celebrity by association isn’t it?
French Toast Cups? No wonder you got into the magazine…those sound deeeeeelicious. I bet they’d be good with Greek yogurt poured in the middle, too!
That is so cool! Congratulations!!
WOW!! That is so cool!!! Congrats! Did you have to submit it, or did they find you? Either way it is very neat!
Aaaa that is so cool!! Congrats Monica!!!! I would not have been able to hold back my a squeal before noticing I was still in public lol when you get off that plane you better skip, click your heels or pump your fist in the air!
Oh my gosh. Seeing my own stuff in a magazine would be amazing. I would have stood up and screamed. Great job restraining and congratulations.
That is so cool!!! Congratulations!
I’m kinda surprised they didn’t let you know that you’d be featured – but how cool it must have been to flip thru a magazine and see your own photo in there!! That might have been even better than knowing in advance!
congratulations, how exciting for you! Have fun in Seattle, it’s one of my favorite cities!
That is so neat, your recipe in the magazine. It looks like it would be easy to bake with the kids. Thanks for the idea.
oh my gosh- that’s so exciting! congratulations! 🙂
Wow! That’s so cool! Did they tell you they chose you or was it just a complete surprise when you saw it?
Congrats!
Awesome! Congrats on the mention! I love the Margherita pizza from CPK.
Congrats, that is super exciting! Oxygen magazine is my favourite! I had a recipe published in a Clean Eating e-newsletter and that was a huge thing for me so I could imagine how excited you are for this. Congrats again!