Hungry Girl!

So I don't know if any of you know who Lisa Lillien, aka Hungry Girl, is, but she is AMAZING! I got hooked on her first cookbook way back when and she now has 5 or 6 books, a daily e-mail, a Facebook page, and a tv cooking show on Food Network (was on Cooking Channel but so many people didn't have that and complained and they moved it to Food Network).

She happened to stop in Portland, Oregon on her book tour, yay! So my mom and I have been planning this for the last month, the day that we found out she was coming to be exact lol. And we got my dad to agree to drive us to the big city (my mom and I hate driving in big cities). We arrived WAY early. The thing was 6-8 and we were there about 4:15 lol. My mom and I like being early.

So we are scoping out the place (Safeway) and trying to see where things would be set up. We asked customer service (who asked US if we were Hungry Girl, to which we both laughed a no. I mean do I LOOK like the thin Hungry Girl?) And then someone asked if we were with Hungry Girl (again, nope). Finally we were chatting with a head person from Safeway, just being friendly. And it paid off. Hungry Girl's book tour manager came over in a bit of a panic. None of the 100+ goody bags had been made.

Guess who volunteered to help? :D Yeah, my family and another HG fan, Jessica. We found ourselves filling goody bags with the tour manager (Lisa too, but goes by her last name Freidman lol and who was ever so thankful for our help). We packed Laughing Cow cheese, Pop chips, Vitatops, Flatout wraps, and Funky Monkey fruit. And Freidman told us to write our names down because.....they were going to send something extra special in the mail to us for helping!!!! I was doing it for fun, not because I wanted anything. I mean I'm a huge volunteer kinda person, so it was second nature.

Well we got to be first in line, guarranteed a prize to be sent in the mail, got our pick of the goody bags. And then I saw HER. HUNGRY GIRL! I contained myself. She smiled at me. I got to ask a question during Q and A time. And then Friedman whispered in Lisa's ear and Lisa looked at my family and smiled and thanked us for helping out with bags. And she signed my book and said my name over and over because she liked it. And I got a pic with her. And Friedman pulled us back into the back room and gave us extra Vitatops (muffin tops that are healthy and packed with fiber and yummo and expensive) and Pop chips and thanked us once again. And Hungry Girl's makeup artist (Jackie) came over and thanked us for "helping her girl out". Ahhhhhh so fun! And it pays off to be early and friendly :D Here's some pics!