Lesson Learned

I woke up groggy this morning, but it quickly turned into a lesson about what you should and should not put into the microwave…

I’ll just give you what you shouldn’t put into the microwave:

This. TJ’s sunflower seed butter.

See the burn on the rim of the container? There was a giant spark that came from that spot. Ok, ok, microwave. Point taken. Lesson learned.

I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. Obviously this is plastic and plastic does funky things in the microwave. I’ve just gotten so used to putting my plastic storage containers in there to reheat food I forgot that those were special plastic. As in not TJ’s sunflower seed butter plastic.

Moving on.

The dark chocolate PB did much better in the microwave, seeing as it is glass so I was able to nicely drizzle it over my oatmeal, and just blob on the sunflower seed butter.

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 tsp goji berries
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1 microwaved banana

Topped with:

• warm dark chocolate PB
• cold TJ’s sunflower seed butter
• a handful of strawberries

AHHH-MAZZZING (despite the little lesson learned in the process)

Lunch

Lunch was eaten in class today as usual, so I packed it up in my usual tupperware.

Firstly, a veggie wrap.

I would love to show you the insides, but I’m afraid once its in there it isn’t coming out with out falling apart (trust me on this one, I tried)

But I will tell you that it contained:

• pesto
• red bell pepper
• green bell pepper
• tomato
• spring mix
• salsa

It definitely needed some umph. Perhaps some brown rice next time?

An orange that was eventually dipped into greek yogurt also came along for the ride.

yummy and nutritious as always.

Well I’m off to feed my hungry-hungry giraffe with some leftovers. Catch you later

Anyone else learned some microwave lessons? Either recently or when you were a kiddo? I remember my siblings and I had these plastic, sparkly Disney cups that we put in the microwave to make some hot cocoa. They started to melt and bubble and my mom had to throw them away

Burned and Sidekicks

So I’m on a burning spree with my foods right now.

Breakfast

It started with this veggie and turkey omelette. Low on the veggies, heavy on the burnt.

Surprisingly with a non-burnt sidekick of grapefruit sprinkled with some truvia

It wasn’t too bad considering the omelette was heavily burnt.

Lunch

While eating my breakfast, I was busy burning lunch

A burnt tuna & quinoa sandwich. The toaster oven didn’t turn off when the timer was done. I knew I always hated that thing.

And a non-burnt sidekick of greek yogurt and oranges

I have recently fallen in love with the orange + greek yogurt mix. I love dipping the oranges into the yogurt. It’s tangy and sweet, and just perfect for summer livin’.

Anyone else been burning their foods recently? I used to undercook my food like a typical newbie, but I think I’ve just gotten way to comfortable in the kitchen (and a little bit too distracted)

Many commenters seemed interesting in my grocery-shopping tactics, so stay tuned for a guide to how I make my grocery lists later today!

I Gotta Run!

Usually this would mean I have itch to go running but this whole day has been absolutely jam-packed with really fun activities and I’m only going to be doing more as the day goes on! I just gotta run!

Breakfast

Breakfast was a random mix of foods. I’m absolutely loving the banana and sunflower seed butter wrapped in a tortilla! I was craving it last night and knew I had to have it this morning.

It also came along with toast covered in maca, cinnamon, mesquite and truvia; as well as 3/4 of an orange and some cantaloupe.

I think the calorie count was a bit high on this, but it kept me full for a really long time. It was definitely worth it

Lunch

I’m joining Kalli in smoothie friday with a very tropical creation.

Most definitely not a green monster, but I’m a bit scared to try one again after yesterday’s disaster. I think it may be the peach where I went really wrong.

In this very tropical smoothie:

• frozen peaches
• frozen bananas
• frozen strawberries
• almond milk
• coconut milk
• banana for garnish

A super simple smoothie but it was pretty good. I kept getting brain freeze though!

I also wanted something carby so some brown rice with a little soy sauce accompained the smoothie

All together.

I got a huge kick for some chocolate so I broke into the dark chocolate Attune bar.

It was really good, but I think I’m still a sucker for the almond milk chocolate

I went outside to play cards with Richard but my stomach was killing me for some odd reason. I went inside to put on some sunscreen (I had realized that I forgot to spray some on! Yikes!) and I sipped on some water and ta-da! my stomachache was much better. It’s funny how you can be dehydrated and not really even realize it.

I’m off to run to play some more with some friends. Afterwards I’m having roomie dinner and it’s Cally’s turn to cook.

Any dehydrated stories? I was hiking during the summer and had absolutely no idea why I was having really bad stomach cramps, my legs were cramping and I felt nauseus

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?

A Splurge Night

Morning bloggies!

I woke up at 6:15 AM this morning…for a 10 o’clock class? Yeah, my alarm was set for 8:30 but I woke up WAYYYY earlier.

I filled my morning with catching up on reading some blogs, zumba and working on my grocery list. I swear grocery shopping is the highlight of my week. I mean new, fresh foods and fun recipes come out of it! What’s not to love?

Breakfast was a mix of cereals: about 1/4 c. Special K Fruits & Yogurt, 1/4 c. Life cereal, 1 1/2 cups puffed millet splashed with 1% milk. I had to borrow my roomie’s milk, since I’m completely out of almond milk.

It was still fairly good, but it definitely made me realize how much the almond milk compliments the rest of the cereal.

A few minutes later I followed it with a semi-dry orange

For some reason this picture reminds me of a pile of bones. No wonder my mom was so shocked over spring break how I would devour a cut up orange, look at what the final product is!

Anyways, what was this splurge night?!

Well we had formal dinner, aka we have our super nice house boys bring out our food to our tables that is filled with our nice dish ware. Kinda like a restaurant.

Tonight was Mexican night filled with a romaine salad with a light coating of a vinaigrette with enchiladas, rice with some kind of tomato mixed in, refried beans and corn with red bell pepper and other sorts of veggies mixed in.

I first filled myself up on about 2 cups of salad.

Enchiladas are my absolute weakness. They were served in portions about the size of a typical cell phone. I only got one portion and by the time I had seconds, they were all gone. Oh, darn

The rice was just alright so I had about 1/4 c. of that, about 1/2 c. of refried beans which were fantastic, and about another 1/2 c. of corn. The corn wasn’t particularly good, but I mixed the beans, rice and corn up so it tasted alright.

Afterwards dessert was grasshopper pie! It has oreo cookie crumbs for the crust, mint ice cream for the filling and topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. There was a TON of whipped cream on top so I scooped off half, but I devoured the rest and savored every bite!

It was definitely a splurge night, but I don’t feel too guilty about it. The only thing I felt really sorry for was my stomach last night that was a little bit angry with me. Oh well.

Despite these clouds, today will hopefully be a good day. I have a ton of homework to do that’s stressing me out a bit, but I’ve made a plan how I will tackle it and I should be fine.

My question of the day: How often do you have a splurge meal? Usually Monday nights are the biggest splurge meals, and I’ll usually have another meal at my sorority during the week, but I eat a little bit healthier at that one. I usually always pass up dessert, but you can’t really pass up grasshopper pie

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?

Grocery Bill Grawrs

‘Ello puppets! How is everyone doing today?

It’s a pretty gloomy, cold day here. Definitely getting a case of the “blah’s”

Oh well.

Woke up to a beautiful mix of Kamut, Life cereal, an apple and topped with Chobani greek yogurt surrounded by a sliced orange that sorta looks like rays of sun.

The result after carefully mixing an overfilled bowl of cereal

Ta-da!

For some reason it really didn’t fill me up, and a couple hours later I stripped some of this guy…

It’s just string cheese sillies!

Class got out early, so I was able to enjoy this baby

My go-to sandwich of spinach, turkey and cranberries on Buckwheat sourdough bread.

I absolutely love this sandwich, and even got my mom hooked on it, but I’m perhaps getting a bit sick of having it a lot. I think the bread isn’t really fresh anymore, so the crust is harder than usual.

Today is grocery shopping day! I usually love grocery shopping, today didn’t go so well though

I went to Albertson’s instead of my usual Safeway, because our Safeway doesn’t sell cleaning or make up products. Ugh, so I trucked to an unfamiliar Albertson’s and was totally thrown off my game.

1. The produce section was so disorganized

2. The strawberries looked sick!

3. The signs weren’t labeled right! I don’t count brown rice as a “canned food” nor do I count weight-loss supplements as “nutrition”

Ugh. Plus the checker couldn’t stop hitting on his bagger who was rolling her eyes. So it took like 5x as usual to do the shopping which really frustrates me.

I really wanted to check out another healthy food market, so I ventured to it, but naturally my google map directions only gave me 1/2 of the directions to find it, so I had to drive around the streets till it popped up!!!! Grawr.

Anyways. IT WAS WAYYY OVERPRICED! Almond milk does not cost $4 each, Annie’s cereal is not $5, and this little guy cost me $12!!!!

Grawr. I’m such a cheap college student.

Anywho, this is what I came back with:

basil, brown rice, organic marinara, almond milk, mango, raw revolution bar, soy noodles, saffron, avocado, apples, cucumber

Annie’s fruity bunnies cereal, frozen strawberries, strawberries (not from Albertsons), pears, tomato, carrots, acorn squash, deli turkey meat, Chobani yogurt, protein powder, mesquite, mushrooms

I spent way too much money this week on groceries! I did go off the list a bit and buy the pineapple Chobani yogurt, mesquite, soy noodles, and raw revolution bar. All there is left to do is improve for next week and go back to my regular grocery stores and NOT GO OFF THE LIST! Anyone else have this problem?

After all this uber frusterating shopping a PB&J Larabar was consumed.

Thank you Larabar! I loooooove you!

Going to a body sculpting class later today! I’m hoping my body can make it, it’s been hating me recently.

Anyone else have any frustrating grocery shopping stories? Or pet peeves?

I hate it when the clerks put everything but your “feminine products” in the reusable shopping bag, and then put them in a clear one. It just bugs me. I want everyone to know I’m on my period and out of tampons.