A Look Into the Fridge

Why does it always interest me of what someone keeps in the fridge? I feel like it tells a lot about them. Do they have a sweet tooth? Are they all about the sports drinks? The frozen dinners?

So I thought I would show you what my fridge at the sorority contains (now that it’s fully stocked again )

• Zico coconut water- for post workout hydration. I started off with 4 of these bottles, but I’m quickly going through them
• pine nut hummus- for pretzel and carrot dippage
• tapioca pudding- I was craving tapioca pudding a while ago, what can I say?
• salsa- for huevo ranchero action
• whole wheat flatbread- for when we have gyros and make-your-own-pizza at the house
• whole wheat bread- toast, sandwiches, need I say more?

In the door:

• Annie’s Dijon Mustard
• Annie’s Dressings
• Sunflower Seed Butter
• Crofter’s Superfruit Spread
• Coconut Milk Creamer- to top oatmeal with and to go with my green tea in the morning
• Goat Milk Yogurt- for a snack or to fill a papaya with
• Almond Milk
• Green Tea

 

That’s it!

What is something surprising someone would find in your fridge?

Extraordinary Sandwich Roll

Good Afternoon bloggies! Even though I had a tough night’s sleep my blood sugar level seems to be doing much better than yesterday and I’m feeling great!

Breakfast

Since I had one more cookie left from last night’s Relay for Life meeting I knew what I was going to be crumbling it over…oatmeal!

(The sun never showed up today, so I unfortunately had to use artificial lighting.)

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. oatmeal
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1 tsp flaxseed meal
• 1 tsp chia seeds.

Microwaved for 1 1/2 minutes then topped with:

• 1/2 a oatmeal/almond/raisin cookie
• 1/2 a naner
• 2 T coconut milk creamer

It was really good if I do say so myself.

Lunch

I had quinoa + tuna salad leftovers so I knew exactly what I was going to make for such a rainy and gloomy day.

A scrumdeliocious tuna melt (with an apple hiding in the background)

• oatmeal & honey bread
• 1/3 c. leftover quinoa + tuna salad
• laughing cow cheese
• dijon mustard
• spring mix

This was the best tuna melt I have ever made! I love how the quinoa adds some fluffiness and the dijon added some great kick to it. I am really on an extraordinary sandwich roll after last night’s Tempeh sandwich also topped the charts. I’m really excited to make this again in the very near future seeing as I still have some left.

Relay for Life

On a more serious note, not that my extraordinary sandwich roll wasn’t great enough, while Richard and I were sitting in the sun this weekend we talked about sunscreen. He never puts on suncreen unless he’s going to be out on the lake all day. But here we were chilling in the sun playing cards for two hours and he didn’t have sunscreen on. We then went to the farmer’s market, a softball game and a track meet. He didn’t have sunscreen at any of these events. Some parts of his body look like a lobster now, but it doesn’t matter to him because they don’t hurt. I asked him if he worried if he will ever get skin cancer and he responded that he had made it this far with out cancer, why start preventing it?

I grew really quiet as he talked more about it. My grandfather died of complications from skin cancer as well as both my Aunt and Grandma have also battled cancer as well. Considering skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in North America with 2 million people diagnosed annually, and the fact that 1 in 5 Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetimes, I feel that you need to prevent it (source). You can prevent it so easily by just slathering on some sunscreen. With SPF infused into moisturizers this has become easier than ever. And ladies pay attention: birth control can make your skin even more prone to sun damage.

I have such a close connection to the disastrously effects of cancer. Like I mentioned, my Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt were all diagnosed with cancer. Both my grandparents lost their lives to cancer and recently my Aunt was pronounced cancer-free. Because of this, I have participated in Relay for Life for the past 5 years. The money raised from Relay for Life goes towards education for prevention of cancer, support for cancer patients and research towards a cure.

I know that a lot of you have also been affected by cancer whether it was yourself, a family member or a friend. Please feel free to honor someone in the comments sections or donating to Relay for Life.

The First Breakfast of the Day

Good Morning bloggies!

I’ve spent my morning and night just bursting with ideas for the blog. I’m really excited to vamp the blog a little. I’m setting some goals, writing a few articles and even working on a series! Do you have any suggestions for what you want to see?

Breakfast

In my usual fashion, today I will be having a two-part breakfast. I had the first part of my breakfast at home, but the second part will be coming later at a very special place

Today’s first breakfast fruit salad topped with Oh She Glow‘s 1 Minutes Coconut Banana Cream

In the fruit salad:

• 1/2 of a bananer
• 1/2 of an orange
• 1/3 of a grapefruit
• 4 strawberries

And topped with some Coconut banana cream

I changed the cream just a bit because I didn’t have coconut butter on hand. I used So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer instead. It also came out pretty thick, so I added some almond milk bit-by-bit

The final product was really good! Much healthier than the custard I had last night.

It made a good amount of leftovers!!! Be prepared to see a lot of this, cause my mouth is really excited to inhale it

I’m off to my second breakfast and to enjoy today’s shenanigans. There is lots of sorority stuff going on that I may or may not participate in. I haven’t decided yet.

What did you enjoy for breakfast this morning?

Feast Your Eyes on This

It’s Friday!!! Yeee!

Breakfast

I started off the day with one of the most delicious breakfasts ever. Feast your eyes on this guy.

Oatmeal topped with banana, strawberries and dark chocolate PB

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. quick cooking oatmeal
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1/2 T chia seeds

Topped with:

• 1/2 of a nana
• 3 strawberries
• 1 tsp So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer
• 2 T MaraNatha Dark Chocolate PB

I had absolutely no problem eating the entire thing in one bite

Major scraping action going on there, btw.

The only problem was that during the rest of the morning I was absolutely craving chocolate. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. All I wanted was more of this. I mean, it was absolutely amazing, but it was hard to concentrate on anything else but eating more dark chocolate. Hmmmmm.

Lunch

So after absolutely craving chocolate, I decided to give my body some veggies to get it back on track.

BBQ Chicken Turkey Salad

Absolutely delicious. I hope I start craving veggies again after this

Well I’m going to go out and enjoy this sun and do some more reading!

What are your plans for Friday?

Stressed to the Max

Happy Earth Day everyone!!

The past couple of days have been stressful to the max. I have felt overbooked, ran into problems galore with an assignment, and working with some personal relationships that are some what changing (not the ex-boyfriend though! He’s great!). All have taken a pretty big toll on me and has caused so much stress.

An education presentation was made to my sorority all about stress. Despite the awful things stress can cause: anxiety, grumpiness, snappiness, nerves and an overall icky feeling; stress can be good because it makes us productive. It helps us get assignments done (like my super huge vector assignment) and gets us to do the tasks you really don’t want to do.

However, when it gets to be too much, like how it has been, stress can be the negative effect that I have been experiencing. There are a few things you can do to prevent stress by the foods we eat.

Good foods are:

• fatty fish
• whole wheat bread
• oranges
• decaffeinated tea

However, some foods to avoid are:

• caffeinated tea
• coffee
• cocoa
• egg yolks
• butter
• cheese
• shrimp and other meat
• coconut oil
• cashews, almonds and other nuts
• soda
• sugar
• alcohol

Foods like soda, sugar and alcohol really didn’t surprise me, but the fact that nuts, coconut oil and shrimp can contribute to your stress is really interesting.

Breakfast

For breakfast this morning I started off with oatmeal, and later had my second breakfast of a naner dipped into chocolate PB

Coconut Oatmeal in a margarita glass

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. quick cooking oats
• 1 c. water (forgot to mix it with almond milk again! doh!)
• 2 T of the MIX

Topped with:

• 1 1/2 T So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer
• 1 T Coconut flakes
• 1 tsp brown sugar

I had to add in the brown sugar cause it wasn’t so yummy.

As far as being a stress-friendly meal, the only thing going against me was the brown sugar.

For the fruit part of my breakfast, the MaraNatha chocolate peanut butter went against the stress-friendly meal with the cocoa and the nuts

But naturally it was absolutely delicious!

Lunch

Lunch had to be packed this morning, so I packed a Veggie Wrap

How to make a Veggie wrap my way:

Place yummy toppings in a whole-wheat tortilla

todays toppings included:

• european blend salad
• red bell pepper
• onion
• avocado
• pesto
• Chobani greek yogurt
• laughing cow cheese

Attempt to wrap it up, and lay a knife over it so that it doesn’t unroll while I wash the tub its going to go in

Slice it up and take a pretty picture of all of the veggies inside

Then cram it into my tub and shut it quick so it doesn’t unfold. Put it in your backpack and run to class cause you are most likely running late…again.

Enjoy exactly 2 1/2 hours later

This had a little less flavor than I would have liked. I omitted the usual brown rice, just cause I didn’t have an precooked at the time, but adding that would have added just a bit more to it.

This was actually rather stress-friendly with the whole-wheat wrap and naturally all of the veggies, the only little thing was the light spread of laughing cow cheese. Oh well.

Snack

I had the most delicious Larabar ever for a snack

The lemon flavor was perfect. It made me not eat it quite as fast as I usually suck these things down. And it tasted like a real lemon square.

As far a being stress-friendly, this baby is packed with Cashews and other nuts. Sooo not so much.

Destressing

Wow, it is really hard to eat a stress-friendly meal. It’s hard coming up with a meal that doesn’t contain my usual eats such as cocoa, nuts, cheese and a maybe a little bit of sugar.

I have been taking steps to really calm myself. Yesterday I went rock climbing with friends, which was an absolute blast. I have taken time away from my computer just to read. I haven’t turned on my TV since returning home from school (a daily habit of mine) and I opened a window and let the sunshine and fresh air pour into my room.

I was planning to go to a yoga class tonight, but planning my meals around that actually stressed me out quite a bit (isn’t that really ironic?!), so I think I’ll do some yoga and strength training in my room later on.

What do you do to destress yourself?

Yay for a 5K!

Hey bloggies! I just got back from running a 5K

It went really well considering I didn’t care about my time one bit.

(In case you were wondering it was around 28:30-29:00.) I didn’t hear my exact time cause I had my headphones still blasting, but I will get the results soon.

I did cut back on my workouts this week which was really difficult! I kept getting the urge to do some serious cardio, but I knew I would die today if I did.

I fueled up with very watery oatmeal and a banana this morning.

In the mix:

1/2 c. old fashioned oats

1 c. water (I’m almost out of almond milk!)

2 T of THE MIX

Topped with:

2 T Coconut Milk Creamer

1/2 a banana

2 strawberries

1 T Crunchy PB

a dash of cinnamon

It was pretty good!

The other half of the banana was topped with maca and cinnamon

After the race I was handed samples of So Delicious Coconut Ice Cream Sandwiches, which I definitely ate. I’m pretty well stocked up on Cliff bar samples too.

I’m really feeling a smoothie for lunch, but I don’t really have any fruits besides bananas left. Time to get creative?!

Question of the Day: Do you usually run races for fun, or do you try to get a PR?

Oatmeal Makes Everything Better

It’s Friday and it’s sunny outside. It seriously can not get any better than that

Breakfast

This morning I woke up feeling so sick. I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast :0 (!!!!!) I knew I would feel better if I ate so I made some PB&J Oats

In the mix:

2 packets Instant Oatmeal (I’m done with it! Yay!!!)

1 cup water

2 T of THE MIX

and topped with

1 T Crofter’s Raspberry Spread

1T PB

1/2 a banana

2 T Coconut Milk Creamer

I had to force myself to eat it. My stomach was actually hating me for it, but once it was digested I came around and felt a whole lot better. See, oatmeal just makes everything better…that’s a really good name for a blog, FYI

Lunch

I’m joining Kalli and celebrating Smoothie Friday

Oatmeal bread toast with cinnamon and truvia and a 1/2 of a Green Monster

In the Monster (that I only drank half of the total mix- the other half is in the fridge for later):

3 c. spinach

2 c. frozen strawberries

1/2 a nana

1/4 c. coconut milk creamer (I am becoming so addicting to this stuff!)

1 1/2 c. water

3 ice cubes

a sprinkle of truvia

(forgot the flax seed)

And there was definitely an 2 squares of Green & Blacks dark mint chocolate for dessert

unpictured

Enjoy your Friday! I will be off enjoying the sun and later it will be my turn to make roomie dinner

Understanding My Lifestyle

We’re almost done for the week! I’m so excited

Last night was crazy-filled with sorority events and of course, dinner at the sorority.

It was burger bar.

The bar offered: white buns (no wheat available), beef burgers, garden burgers, sauteed mushrooms & sauteed onions (most likely soaked in a ton of butter), potato salad, a casserole with zuccini and corn and a salad bar. Toppings was swiss or american cheese, lettuce, yellow mustard, dijon mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce and mayo. Dessert was pound cake and blueberry yogurt.

Whew. Here’s my plate:

an open-faced gardenburger with swiss, dijon mustard, ketchup, and as much lettuce as I could get on it (I was at the end of the line…again). A small scoop of the casserole and the potato salad. A romaine salad with olives and pea with ceasar dressing. And the little bowl in the back has a little of blueberry yogurt.

I savored the burger, and didn’t finish either the casserole or the potato salad. They both tasted just a bit funky. I was planning just to get the yogurt instead of the pound cake with the yogurt on top; however the yogurt alone tasted awful but fantastic when I grabbed a very small piece of pound cake. Funny how that happens

I’ve told some of my sisters how worried I am about the food situation next year, as I will be living in the house. They say I’ll be absolutely fine and that the food here isn’t that unhealthy at all. Just slather on some sugary PB on some white bread and I’ll be living healthy! One sister I was talking to in particular later asked me how to lose weight. She wasn’t very happy when I said to stop eating the white bread and eat some whole grains and veggies. She asked if yoga or cardio was better to lose weight. I responded that if you want to lose fat, its most efficient to do cardio. She wasn’t very happy with my answer either

I’m a little too blunt sometimes :/

And I am in NO WAY recommending to these girls to lose weight! They are all relatively thin girls, so it’s annoying that they keep asking that. I wish they would go up to me and ask how to live a healthy lifestyle.

I’m finding it really stressful that no one understands my lifestyle. I feel like in addition to my non-drinking, non-smoking and other drugs lifestyle, the way I eat is isolating me in the house. I’ve tried to explain it to people but they don’t understand the problem with white bread, pasta and rice. They don’t understand my cravings for fresh fruit and veggies. They don’t understand why I have a problem with processed food. Eating like that everyday is really frightening me. I don’t know what to do

Fast forward to this morning. I was planning to make overnight oats, but by the time I got back from sorority things I was way to tired to make them.

Therefore chocolate and coconut oatmeal was made this morning with a side of a sliced orange.

In the mix:

2 packets Instant Oatmeal

2 T of THE MIX

1 tsp dark chocolate chips 70% cocoa

2 T Coconut Milk Creamer

The oatmeal was fabulous, the orange was super dry and gross. A half naner spread with TJ’s sunflower butter was needed to help the situation.

I love you sunflower butter!!!

I’m hoping I’ll start feeling better as the day goes on. I’m going to meet up with my ex-roommate from the dorms for lunch. Hopefully I can sneak a picture!

How do people generally react to your healthy lifestyle? What do you say to them?