I Fell!

off the face of the Earth, that is

I haven’t had internet connection since Sunday and it feels like ages.  I moved our family computer to my brother’s room and destroyed our connection,  but it’s working now and I’m baaaack like ripoff pants.  No?  They will never be back.

Anyways, the last few days have been a huge jumble of work, working out, food shopping, friends, cooking, biking, tving, wasting time, loving my life.  I haven’t taken any photos, but I will leave you with one that was taken before going shopping

The Real World is on tonight!  Grab someone to snuggle with, get a snack, get a snuggie and make sure you watch it!  You won’t regret it

Questions:

• What TV shows do you look forward to?

Happy Mama’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you and your mothers!

We never really do much on Mother’s Day.  We just have a BBQ and do little things like give cards and bring her juice in bed.

My mommy and me in Puerto Ricoooo

I didn’t get to sleep until 4AM this morning because my friends were over and we watched Girl Interrupted.  It is such a weird movie, good, but definitely strange.

I woke up bright and early to walk to the farmers market with my parents, but of course, at 10:30, they weren’t even up.  Instead of going back to bed, I made breakfast for my dad and me:

Oatmeal pancakes

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

• 3/4 cup raw oats
• 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk
• cinnamon to taste
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 banana

Mix all of the ingredients together.  It should be pasty-the texture of pancake batter.  Heat a griddle and spray with cooking spray and spoon the batter into the pan.  When they’re brown on one side, flip them.  Cook them until they look cooked mostly through, but they can be a little bit uncooked to keep them from drying out.

Top the mini pancakes with banana slices and then I made an apple-peanut butter sauce.  Chop a quarter apple and put the pieces into a small bowl with cinnamon and water.  Heat for one minute and then add a spoonful of peanut butter and heat for another minute.  Stir and pour over pancakes.

They were delicious and SOOOOO filling!  My dad couldn’t even finish them all.

We went to the farmers market and I bought a vegan & gluten free oatmeal raisin cookie.  I can’t wait to try it later

I just made lunch for my dad and me.  After seeing the ice cream truck multiple times on our walk, we decided that a childhood favorite sounded like a good choice for lunch…with a side of vegetables, of course.

7 grain wheat sandwich thin with peanut butter and strawberry slices

The spinach salad was topped with salsa and homemade hummus that I made last night.

I used chickpeas, olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper, harissa and cayenne pepper.  amazing

Questions:

• What are you doing for mother’s day?

On The Floor

Gooood evening, kiddies

Before embarking on our tuxedo journey,  I had a quick and easy lunch that was super filling (for a while anyways):

Ezekiel bread with a thin layer of hummus, salsa, a quarter of avocado, spinach and tomato

with a side of:

dry edamame

The tuxedo shopping went well.  The guy at the store was in the process of selling my brother a $185 tux.  He didn’t bother to tell us that they had a prom package for $100.  Good thing I was on the look out!

We also bought a ton of produce, so I’ll be set for the next week couple of days:

one of our boxes..

The goods: apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, mangoes, plums, cantaloupe. honey dew, spinach, mushrooms, cucumbers, edamame, sweet potatoes

So I immediately made myself a snack:

apple, strawberries, natural peanut butter

and then got started on dinner for my dad and I:

Before that though, I sent the girl a message and tried to work things out…no answer…..

Dinner:

asparagus, carrots, mushrooms

I roasted them in the oven for a half hour at 350*. after coating them in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper

• 
• roasted tofu and brown rice. The rice was leftover from a few nights ago.  For the tofu, I baked it three ways.
• The first was Blond Hair Don’t Care’s BBQ Tofu.  It was delicious!! Thanks for the recipe!  I don’t know how to tag…
• The second was Balsamic Peanut.  I mixed 3 Tbs peanut flower, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, a splash of Pom Juice and a spoonful or peanut butter and microwaved it for a minute.  Then I spread it on both sides of the tofu.
• The last was a mixture of mild salsa and apple sauce.

I baked them for a half hour at 350*

When I took the sheet out of the oven,  I turned my head for a minute and the next thing I realized, the ENTIRE thing flew onto the floor.  It ended up being funny, but I had to scrape everything up.  We ate it anyways

Questions:

• Do you eat food off of the floor?

I do when it’s at my house.  Otherwise I abide by the 5 second rule….

What Would You Do?

Happy Saturday!

I ended up staying in and killing a load of braincells watching tv with my parents.  Woooow I sure do know how to spend the first night of summer!

I really want to be cool with the girl I mentioned in the previous post, but I don’t know if the ball is in her court or if I should make more of an effort.  I don’t want to necessarily be friends with her, I just want to be okay with each other.

Anyways, while getting our fix of “What Would You Do?”,  I had a little snackie

General Mills High Fiber Cereal, banana, cinnamon, soy milk and a spoon full of crunchy peanut butter

Have you guys ever seen that show?  It makes me think-what would I do if I saw people openly discriminating in a restaurant or parents yelling at their crying teenage daughter who whats to keep her baby?  What would you do if you saw a blind man on a “blind date” with a woman who says she’s a model and she is obviously not a model and continues to lie about her life?

I don’t know what I would do, but I probably wouldn’t say anything, unless it gets out of hand…

I turned in for the night embarrassingly early so that I could get up and drag my dad to the gym with me.

I did my usual 30 minutes of intervals.

• 2 minute intervals of speed 8, incline 3 and speed 5, incline 10
• 2 sets, bench press 10 reps each
• 3 sets, dips, 10 reps each
• 3 sets, reverse butterfly, 10 reps each
• crunches
• leg lifts
• V-ups
• medicine ball twists
• front and side planks

and then sped home for breakfast because I was starving!  I made the same Vanilla Mango oatmeal as yesterday, but replaced the banana with apple.  It’s better with the banana because it adds sweetness.

Vanilla, Mango & Apple

I’m going with my brother to get a tux for prom.  Prom is so exciting!  This time last year, all anyone could talk about was prom-who were the dates?  Who is at what table?  What dress were you wearing?  Where did you go after?  We couldn’t stop talking about it!  Of course, it came and went

Prom 2010

I like this picture

Questions:

• When you’re witnessing a situation where someone isn’t being treated right, do you speak up or keep to yourself?
• Tell me about your prom!!! I want details!

We took a party bus to the Hyatt at Penns Landing, danced the night away, dealt with disasters as I spilled spaghetti on myself, took pictures, hugged, changed, went to post prom, danced more, ate, played games, signed year books, drove home, slept and made our way to the beach for the weekend   It was soooooo much fun!

Tofu Parmesan

Happy Friday night, everyone!  Hopefully none of you are home reading this! I hope you’re out doing something fun (like i should be!)

Anyways, before going on what ended up being a 50 minute run, my mom came home a surprised me with a little mood-lifter- a tub of natural peanut butter!

I used it to make a quick pre-run snack:

gala apple with freshly made peanut butter!

The run went well and I ended with 25 minutes of abs.

• crunches
• medicine ball twists
• planks
• V-ups
• leg lifts
• other random exercises

My brother and I made our way to the market for tonight’s dinner ingredients.  Can I just say that I love supermarkets?  I could honestly spend hours just looking at the products and thinking of things to make…

We made a large salad and Tofu Parmesan:

It was not vegan, however, all of the dairy ingredients can easily be changed for vegan!  I haven’t gotten my family on the vegan cheese bandwagon…yet…

Tofu Parmesan (This is not my recipe.  It was printed offline)

Ingredients:

• 1 block tofu, soft or firm
• tomato sauce (we mixed it with a bag of steamed veggies)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 5 Tbs. (vegan) parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• (vegan) mozzarella cheese

Step 1: mix the breadcrumbs, 2 Tbs parmesan cheese, oregano and salt and pepper in a small bowl.

My phone died before I could upload the picture.

Step 2: cut the tofu into 1/4 inch slices and dip each piece into a bowl of water and then into the breadcrumbs to evenly coat each piece.

evenly coated

Step 3:  get your sauce ready.  We used Ragu and included some steamed veggies.

Step 4:  heat a medium sized skillet with a table spoon of olive oil.  Brown the tofu slices on one side and then flip them.  (some bread crumbs will come off-that’s fine)

Step 5:  coat the bottom of a baking dish in sauce, layer the tofu on top, pour the rest of the sauce mixture.  Then coat it with 3 Tbs. parmesan cheese, some mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of leftover bread crumbs.

Step 6: bake at 400* for 20 minutes and let it set for a few minutes.

Step 7: enjoy!  Share it with friends and family…or eat it all yourself!

all that was left!

I tried a small bite and it was so good!  My family loved it, even my mom…she isn’t completely sold on the totally meatless thing.  We’ll get her there soon

Anyways,  I’m staying in tonight while my friends and my entire grade are at a party.  The girl who is having a party has been holding a grudge against me for three years.  I really just want to be friends with her, but she isn’t having it.  Oh well, I tried, right?

Have a good night!!

Questions:

• Do you know anyone who is holding a grudge against you over something small?  How do you deal with it?
  

Lucy, I’m Home!

I Love Lucy, don’t you? 

Yesterday, we had our last fro-yo date:

dairy free raspberry yogurt with black berries, raspberries, kiwi, strawberries and peanuts

Frozen yogurt just might be the best “outting” dessert ever created…convincing my dad to open a fro-yo shop is a work in progress.

We reminisced about the year and gabbed about the latest Real World drama.  If you don’t watch the Real World, I highly suggest that you do!  It’s great for weekly trashy tv.

I then embarked on my long 50 minute drive home, which ended up being 2 hours thanks to rush hour traffic.  Almost ran out of gas, but I made it home, quickly showered, and got dressed to go out to dinner for my parents anniversary!

My brother, he's single and ready to migle, ladies!

• Forever 21 dress and jacket

We went to Tiffin, an Indian restaurant near home.  All of the food was delicious and so filling!

Lentils cooked for 36 hours with Indian spices

Chana Masala

Traditional north indian chick pea curry flavored with fenugreek, onions and tomatoes.

Chicken Korma

My mom’s dish-Chicken in a spiced cashew cream sauce.

All dishes were enjoyed and highly recommended!

We got home around nine and I passed out within an hour.  Sleep deprivation finally caught up with me so it felt good to pass out without an alarm to wake me.  However, I still woke up around 9:30 to find that my dad had just gotten up as well so I made us both breakfast:

Mango Vanilla Oatmeal

• 1/2 cup raw oats
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 mango, split into 2 parts
• 1/4 cup frozen berries
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• cinnamon to taste
• allspice to taste

Combine oats, almond milk, water and sliced banana.  Microwave for 1 minute and then add half of the mango portion, 1 teaspoon vanilla, cinnamon and allspice.  Microwave for another minute, remove, add the other teaspoon of vanilla extract and more cinnamon or allspice if desired.  Top with the rest of the mango and berries.

The mango and vanilla flavors really complemented each other and the fresh fruit made it the perfect summer breakfast!

That breakfast fueled my afternoon of unpacking my life.

I took my room from this:

a tornado came through

I spy a doggy that just woke up!

to this:

see, there was a floor in there somewhere..

I spy my best friend, Collin

I recently took a well needed break for some lunch and blog reading:

arugula, spinach, carrots, broccoli and artichoke/tomato salsa

Ezekiel sprouted bread, orange, grapefruit

I didn’t even need to edit the above 2 pictures to keep them from looking like something out of a black and white movie!  I love sunshine and fresh fruit and vegetables!

I’m getting ready to go for a run and then I’m going food shopping with my brother.  We’re making dinner tonight…stay tuned for a vegan tofu Parmesan recipe .

It’s Friday!  The weekend has finally arrived.  Summer time definitely makes weekends less exciting, but I’m going to make this a good one!

Questions:

• What are you doing this weekend?
• Do you love Lucy? Hehehe

Homeward Bound!

Ahhh, the final moments of my freshman year.  I’m so anxious to get home and begin the HUGE project of unpacking.  It might kill me.  If I never post again, at least you all will know what happened…

Anyways, work lasted for all of an hour and then it was time for lunch and gossip.  Shannon and I love gossiping about our lives.  Hehehe we find ourselves so entertaining!

romaine, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, firecracker tofu with roasted veggies, bean salssa

I wolfed that baby down in about 10 minutes.  Move out day has had us constantly moving!

In an attempt to use up my last meals, I purchased:

le fruit cup

unripe fruit for $4.00.  Gotta love the college mark-up!

Then it was clean, clean, clean, run, run, run.

Now it’s wait, wait, wait (til that second date, but I can’t, can’t, can’t even contemplate waiting one more minute…)  Mike Posner, anyone?

I’m waiting to get frozen yogurt with the girlies and then I’m outta here!

I can’t wait for a home cooked meal!  There is something special about eating at home with your family, even if it doesn’t happen very often.  Treasure those moments, people! They don’t last forever and as the saying goes, “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone”.    True statement.

Questions:

• What was your favorite meal growing up (or now)?

I used to love home cooked macaroni and cheese or risotto.  I don’t know what my favorite meal now would be.  I love it all!

Crepes

Good morning!

I kind of went M.I.A yesterday, but I’m back now!  I had to quickly pack up the rest of my life here at school and go to an orientation program last night and then drive back early this morning (on 3 hours of sleep)-always fun!

En route of my travels, my dad and I stopped at the most amazing crepe truck!  I have had their crepes before and I had to show my dad how fantastic they are.  Sharing one with my dad ended up being my dinner.

Delicious and nutritious!…well, kind of.  At least it was whole wheat….

wheat crepe filled with dripped peanut butter, Nutella & banana

YES! it was as amazing as it sounds.  Warm, melted, chewy and delicious.

I am now quickly eating the usual:

bananas and oats

I promise that breakfast will get so much more interesting in the next 3 days!

I’m off to work!

Have a supercalafragilisticexpialidocious afternoon, everyone!

Mary Poppins, anyone?  I never liked that movie…

Questions:

• If you could make your own crepe, what would you fill it with?

-peanut butter and peaches, obviously! (and banana and strawberry)

“It’s Better to Do Than Not to Do”

After some back and forth…and back again…and forth one last time, I decided to chalk drop the anatomy course!

My dad always says, “It’s better to do than not to do” and he is absolutely right!  When I am 90 years old and sitting at the table in the nursing home playing Checkers (who am I kidding?  This will probably happen next week), I doubt I will be sitting there thinking “Wow, I sure am glad I took that anatomy course that summer.  It really was a great experience”.. I’m more likely to say “Wow, that trip to Israel was one of the greatest experiences of my life and has left me with amazing memories”.

Play first, work later!

I spent last night drawing:

the computer won’t let me rotate it!

and woke up bright and early to an easssssssssssy breakfast:

Chewy banana and vanilla almond milk

Insert running back and forth and back and forth to figure my life out along with a strength training workout:

• 3 sets of 20 rep rowing
• 3 sets of 20 rep chest press
• 3 sets of 20 rep fly
• 3 sets of 10 rep dips
• 3 sets of 15 rep shoulder press <—- made that name up
• 3 sets of 20 rep hip abductors and reverse hip abductors
• 3 sets of 10 rep leg curls
• 3 sets of 20 rep lower back extensions
• 3 sets of 20 rep “ab machine”
• 2 sets of 20 rep lunges with 8 lb dumbbells
• 4 sets of random arm workouts with dumbbells (curls, lifts, etc)
• 15 minutes of ab work (crunches, leg lifts, V-ups, medicine ball twists)

and then lunch!  I swore I just ate a few minutes before that….not complaining

romaine, tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, chick peas, black beans, roasted veggies

If you all knew what these pictures looked like before I edited them, you wouldn’t think the food looks that great.  The before photos look like something out of a 1950′s movie!

And the perks of working in a food establishment: your boss LOVES to feed you until you think you might explode.  When it has to do with peanut butter, I don’t complain!  When it’s yogurt, I tell myself that I don’t do this often and pray that my stomach doesn’t hate me later.

The culprit?

Homemade low fat peanut butter protein yogurt with banana chunks!

It was delicious, but my stomach is pissed.

Off to finish packing and figure the rest of my life summer out!

Have a great afternoon!!

Questions:

• What is a motto that you live by?

I like the saying “the proof is in the pudding”, but that might only be because it says pudding

• Does your stomach agree with dairy?

Mine definitely does not!

Opinions Needed!

This is gonna be a quick post.  I’ll make a real post later, but I need some opinions and what better way to get opinions than from people who have never met me?

Alright, as of right now I am signed up to take Anatomy I at the local community college this summer.  After completing that, I will take Anatomy II next summer.

• I’m not taking it at my University because I have heard horror stories.
• I know the professor teaching it because I have had him before.
• He loves me, which may have it’s benefits.

I am also signed up to go on a free trip to Israel for ten days during that class.  Obviously I cannot do both, as I can’t miss class and I definitely can’t be in two places at once (but I wish I could!)

• If I cancel my spot on the trip this late in the game, I may lose $250.
• If I go on the trip, I will have to take Anatomy I AND II next summer and that sounds awful. (only on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I think complaining is appropriate here…)

WHAT DO I DO??? I am literally completely torn.

Class

• over $1,000 dollars
• missing the trip and it’s competitive to go on it
• I could possibly get a really good grade because I know the professor
• splits the work between two summers

Trip

• Free
• I won’t lose $250 if I go
• I know I will have an amazing time
• I can always go sometime in the next 4 years
• I will have to take both classes next summer
• If the professor changes, my grade might change too

Do I take the plunge and live it up?? Or do I focus on school?

Will I look back and say “classes had such a small impact on my life, the experiences and things I did are what I remember?”

Someone, Anyone HELP!

Thank you