Prepping for “The Natty”

Hey bloggies! Yesterday was such an emotional day, by the end my friend asked me how I was doing, and I literally couldn’t answer. I was just so drained of emotion.

Yesterday the Oregon Ducks played for the National Title against Auburn in the BCS National Championship. I knew I wasn’t going to be doing anything productive after the game, whether we won or lost, so I had to do some preparations.

First off was the Library for 4 hours on Sunday. I got done 1 project, 1 paper, a reading and an extra credit paper as well. It felt so good to get that all out of the way.

I packed an apple, Snyder’s Oat and Whole Wheat Pretzels with Sabra Pine Nut Hummus for study snacks. They kept me perfectly full, so I didn’t have to go and get lunch in the middle of studying. I just had a super late lunch instead.

Then it was game day.

Breakfast

I started off the day with some banana action.

Sprouted Wheat bread with sunflower seed butter and banana

Vanilla Goat Milk Yogurt with the rest of the banana.

If you’re new to the blog, the reason I eat goat milk yogurt instead of regular yogurt is because my stomach can handle the goat milk a lot better than it can regular yogurt. Just as an FYI. It’s not miraculously healthier than regular (no weird sugars/preservatives added) yogurt–at least I don’t think.

Snack

My stomach couldn’t quite make it till lunch so I dug out a Skout bar from my bag.

I’ve never had this kind before, it was just the flavor that really stood out to me.

Verdict? I absolutely LOVED this. It felt great in my stomach and was super yummy. The bar is made nearby in Portland, so I was very glad to be able to support the local economy in this purchase. I will for sure be buying more of these in the future.

Lunch

Lunch was a salad (corn, red onion, peas, green bell pepper, chickpeas, carrots) with Annie’s Creamy Asagio dressing with a bit of baked beans on the side as well. I definitely went back for seconds on the baked beans.

I usually don’t eat the chickpeas, because they’re canned and canned foods are hard on my stomach, and the baked beans, because they usually also have some kind of weird preservatives in them, however, I only had slight discomfort after eating this. I’m wondering if my stomach is reacting better to these foods because I’m more relaxed this term, or what.

 

I ran off to Rock Climbing class then headed straight to a Natty viewing party.

I so failed as a blogger and didn’t bring my camera. But we had Domino’s pizza, homemade meatballs, a veggie tray, a fruit tray, bread & brie cheese, another cheese tray, brownies, Oregon cupcakes and lots of soda.

I filled up on cheese pizza, some meatballs and loads of veggies and a brownie for dessert. I was literally stuffed for the entire game. I overdid it a bit, but its okay. It happens. I learned my lesson and I’ll get back on track.

 

For those who didn’t watch the game, Oregon lost to an Auburn field goal at the very end. 22-19 Auburn

(source)

The ducks played very well, despite a few costly mistakes.

(source)

I still love my ducks.

 

I embraced in some retail therapy this morning to help with the heartbreak.

New copic markers which got stolen at the end of last quarter as well as some new mechanical pencils. I’m a nerd what can I say.

 

Did you watch the “Natty?”

or

What is your way to deal with heartbreak?

Mine is generally to go for a run, shower then curl up with a good book, but I really needed some more school supplies this time

Battle of the (Nut) Butters

Battle of the Butters sounds much better than Battle of the Nut Butters but what can you do? It’s not like I had butter fighting a tough battle for my heart this morning. Nope, that honor goes to the Nut Butters. Specifically sunflower seed, almond and peanut butter.

Which nut butter is the best on toast with honey?

Let’s meet the contenders:

On the right side of the toast we have almond butter

On the left side we have sunflower seed butter

and stuck in the middle (sorry peanut butter) we have peanut butter

The winner?

…

….

…

Almond Butter! The perfect mix of bitter and sweet.

Sunflower Seed was in second, with peanut butter (sorry again, PB!) in last. It was far too sweet for my liking!

Accompanied by a green tea frappachino with MATCHA! The real good green tea. It cost me $40 for a small packet (or relatively small) of it, but hopefully it will be worth it.

In the energizing frappachino of heaven:

Who knows how much amounts of,

• matcha (about a teaspoon)
• coconut milk
• coconut milk creamer
• spinach (about two handfuls)
• ice

I feel like I got so much done today

I was at my internship for 6 1/2 hours, picked up my new (altered!) jeans from Nordstrom (and emptied $60 of my wallet at Sephora…ahem, there might be an addiction starting), got my car washed, bought produce from the produce stand, picked up my paycheck, made a killer summer mix on iTunes starting off with Waka Waka from Shakira, recorded my internship hours and gave myself a mani and pedi. I’m hoping to walk the neighborhood with my mom, but she’s still on her conference call 2 hours later…

We will see what happens.

I promise I’ll eat something different tomorrow. I bought Marbled Rye bread from the produce stand, but I’m trying to resist it

Have you ever tried matcha?

Go, go, go

Whew! I feel like the secret service has called me out to do some intense food and clothing operations for them.

Operation: Clean out the pantry

Successful

My mom thankfully joined me in cleaning out the pantry. It took about 2 1/2 hours, but we managed. I even kept a tally of the most expired food item in there. Besides the leftover cookies I found in a prehistoric cookie jar (ew), it was the Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes circa 2002. I remember drinking those when I was in middle school. I have no idea how I survived off of those!

Anyways, we got the pantry from going like this:

To This:

Ok, so I guess it doesn’t look that much better, but we tossed out SO much expired food!

Plus I got my own shelf out of the whole gig:

Packed with new buys from the mecca of health food grocery stores, Whole Foods!

Just a few of the highlights include Justin’s Maple Almond Butter, Cacao Powder and Vega Smoothie mix.

Speaking of new buys another Operation was highly successful,

Operation: Summer Clothes

My wardrobe has been just stuck in winter clothes. I have only one light weight jacket and not very many spring or summer clothes.

My mom helped me change this.

Two sundresses with coordinating belts

A white cardigan and a yellow tank

A white lightweight jacket and a yellow cardigan

I swear clothes always look awful when they are laid out on the ground. I’ll definitely be modeling these buys in the next few days for you all

Operation: Food

Somehow in the mess of all of this shopping and cleaning I managed in a very fresh lunch

A sunflower seed butter and guava jelly sandwich, an apple and a yummy salad with walnuts and strawberries

We had beautiful sun for about 5 minutes so I could capture the great light it offered. Soon after a thunderstorm struck. Great light lost

Whew! I am pooped from such a long day!

What have been some great new buys for you?

Moving On

It should feel this good to be done.

But I’m not too proud of my presentation. I felt that it was a bit stale.

I made half of this model while I was sick, but I guess I’m just happy it all got done.

I had two reviews, but I was just so checked out of this project and architecture in general, that I didn’t care what they were saying.

It’s just good to know I’m done, and now I can move on in my life. I still have 4 more years to perfect these things.A

Breakfast

Breakfast was a super sad sight this morning. I only had a 1/2 a banana as far as fruits and veggies go, I’m super low on oatmeal and I didn’t have any almond milk for cereal. The only meal I could think of was an egg puff on toast (+ hot sauce & dijon mustard) and a 1/2 banana and sunflower seed butter wrap.

Pretty pathetic.

I really missed my fresh fruits and oatmeal today.

It’s time to raid the produce department of the grocery store.

Snack

In between reviews I was super excited for a snack! Breakfast didn’t fill me up at all so I inhaled a Kardea Bar.

The chai spice flavor was fantastic! I felt like I was taken out of the studio and put into a warm coffee shop in my comfiest and cutest clothes and just allowed to relax. The flavor was just that good.

But then it was time for another review and reality hit.

Have you ever been super disappointed of how a project turned out? I’m usually super upbeat about these things, but I just wasn’t feeling this one I guess

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

Operation Beautiful Take II

Happy Hump Day! It looks like a lot of you appreciated Part 1 of my Shopping and Saving series! I really appreciate the enthusiasm and your great comments.

Breakfast

I had been absolutely craving PB&J Oatmeal for a while now. I’m pretty sure its my absolute favorite way to top oatmeal.

In today’s case they were sunflower seed butter and raspberry fruit spread oatmeal

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 banana (microwaved for 30 seconds before hand)

Topped with:

• TJ’s Sunflower Seed Butter
• Crofter’s Raspberry fruit spread

Along side was 1/2 of a grapefruit sprinkled with truvia

All together

An absolutely delicious breakfast

Operation Beautiful

Before I fueled up again at lunch, I did some sneaky stuff and posted up three Operation Beautiful notes.

I adapted this from a mantra Oh She Glows says to herself while swimming It was so powerful.

I felt so good after posting up these notes. I can’t wait to hear what people have to say about them again.

Lunch

I was stuck in my studio all day today so I knew where I was going for lunch: Holy Cow!

I ordered the Classic Falafel that had black bean falafel balls, lettuce mix and tahini in a pita. It was yummy as always and it kept me full for a very long time!

I’m not done with the ethnic food for today because it’s Indian Wednesday!!! Guess what’s cooking right now?!?!

Question of the Day: what is your absolute favorite mix on top of your oatmeal?

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

I’ve Been Cheating

…on almond butter with sunflower seed butter. Or at least I have felt like it. I feel strange eating other nut butters when my blog is titled Give Me the Almond Butter. Note that doesn’t say Give Me the Sunflower Seed Butter. In fact, I feel like I have incredibly reduced the amount of almond butter I have consumed since I started blogging. Yikes.

Snack/Dinner

I enjoyed a what was supposed to be just a  preworkout snack of sunflower seed butter spread onto a whole wheat tortilla with a banana on top inspired by Gracie and Tyler’s recent eats. It looked so delicious and I knew that I had to try it.

Omigoodness. Yum yum yum yum! This was unbelievably tasty and unbelievably simple. I can see how it can easily be eaten without the banana as well.

Workout

I went to the gym for a total of 3 hours today. But it wasn’t a continuous work out or anything.

I went on the bike for an hour and finished up In Defense of Food (review to come soon!) then got on the rock wall and climbed for two hours and broke in my new shoes. I felt like I was complaining a lot about my feet, but it was painful to break in these babies! I was with some friends who really challenged me to do harder routes and I got a bouldering route that I had worked on last time on my very last try! My feet were aching and I couldn’t really walk in my shoes but it did it one more time and got it!

Snack

Since I didn’t really have dinner before hand I knew that I had to put something in my stomach so I whipped out some already cut up celery and poured a bit of TJ’s Champagne Pear Dressing for some dipping action.

It was ok. I just wish that I could eat celery alone. It’s too tasteless for me with out something to dip it in.

I might eat a bowl of cereal a bit later tonight. I don’t know what’s up with my appetite tonight. I think the many meals that I ate out had a ton more calories than I would normally consume if I cooked it myself.

G’night bloggies!

Do you feel like you sometimes “cheat” on foods? I’m definitely that way with my nut butters!

Quinoa, Parsnips and a Book Review

How is everyone’s weekend going?

Last night I finished Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen. Overall it was a great read for someone just transferring into living a healthy lifestyle. The author emphasizes eating lots of fruits and veggies and exercising. I would absolutely love to give this book to my overweight dad to push him to adapt a healthier lifestyle.

However, one of the negatives of this book was that it felt like I should be a hypochondriac. A lot of the chapters went over lots of different disorders and I felt that I have about half of these I took the test at the end which told me that I might have bipolar disorder because I sometimes have mood swings (um, because I am a girl and have a period thank-you-very-much) as well as a few other disorders.

I personally found this book slightly repetitive since I already know that living a healthy lifestyle is great for you in the long run. It wasn’t my favorite book, but it was in interesting read with some great facts such as the reason women have softer skin is because of our high levels of estrogen.

I’m excited to start a new book:

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, a health food bloggers staple. I’m excited to start reading it tonight!

Lunch

Before heading to a track meet I pretty much screwed up my lunch.

I had a beautiful wrap planned since I need to use up the brown rice I have in the fridge, but instead I killed it by eating 1/4 of a loaf of banana bread. I actually feel ashamed with myself. I just cut off a piece, then another, then another, and then there was only a wee bit left. And thankfully I left it on the plate, but I still feel awful.

I also had a berry smoothie

In the smoothie

• 1/4 c. blueberry kefir
• 1/2 c. very cherry frozen berry blend
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 1 T flaxseed meal

It was a relatively good smoothie, but I hate the little seeds that are in the berry blends! They just really annoy me

I wasn’t feeling super hot about such an overall awful lunch. I’d much prefer to have a homemade pita pizza or a wrap instead a ton of banana bread and an ok smoothie.

Snack

I got pretty hungry after the track meet and going into studio for a bit and I ended up having two snacks. An unpictured cup of brown rice and then half of a banana with sunflower seed butter

The second snack finally filled me up enough for a good hour nap.

Dinner

I have been pretty adventurous since starting the blog and just couldn’t help but cook Krista’s Coconut Quinoa and Oh She Glow’s Nut Butter Parsnip Fries.

Both recipes were absolutely mind-blowing! I have never liked quinoa until this recipe!!! I absolutely can not wait for left overs tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a great Saturday night. I think I’m going to have a nice night in.

What is your favorite quinoa recipe?

Some Mac & Cheese Loving

Good Evening bloggies!

Today is Tuesday which means grocery shopping day! Yayyy! I look forward to this day all too much

Limit the Bill

First I’d like to catch up on the first of two goals: Eat It, Not Buy It, which is essentially trying to eat more food in my pantry space instead of buying lots of similar food, thus eating up more space

What I did well on:

Went through both my instant and old fashioned oats

Exhausted my fruit and veggie selection (except the carrots)

Ate my many types of crackers for snacks

Started using all of my different types of cheeses in my cooking (provolone, swiss, cheddar, parmesan, goat cheese, feta and ricotta…do I have enough types?!)

Starting eating my Costco-sized box of Kashi bars again

What didn’t go so well

I gave in and bought a larabar today, but kind of for good reason as explained later in the post

I haven’t really used up any of the food in the two bins in my bookshelf

My bread supply is still fairly large

So I would so say I’m doing fairly well on my goal. I’m really proud of myself! When I have time I’m going to go through my boxes and find something to make out of them. I do have plans to use my box with a ton of baking supplies later in the week though

Lunch

For my grocery shopping I need some serious fuel. In comes the smoothie and Kashi bar

The smoothie was one of the best I’ve ever made! I was inspired by the Chocolate Peanut Butter smoothie by Heather

It contained:

1 c. 1% milk (once again, I was out of almond milk)

1 scoop Chocolate Whey Protein Powder (as subsitute for cocoa powder)

1 1/2 T Sunflower Seed Butter

1/2 cup ice

1/2 packet Truvia

and 2-3 handfuls of spinach

I had to omit the bananas cause I didn’t have any

Grocery shopping also requires a cute outfit (so that the guy in the bakery will give you fresh, right out of the oven bread )

I promise I did put on some boots before I headed out of the apartment

Grocery Shopping

I was soon off to the grocery store and realized that I didn’t even need to go to Market of Choice today, so I only went to Safeway.

Here’s the math for my $75 goal in Limit the Bill. I met my goal last week with a bill of $63. This week I was also going to try to keep myself under $75

My bill from Sunday’s Trader Joe’s run was $16.63 to be exact. This meant I could spend $58.37 today.

I shopped quite efficiently, looking at the higher and lower shelves for the best prices and deals. Here is what I came home with:

Eggs, Safeway brand quick oats, spring mix, almond milk, popcorn and blue corn tortilla chips

2 pears, orange and red bell pepper, 2 Red Delicious apples, Shirataki noodles, a grapefruit, avacado, 8 bananas, strawberries, and organic pastry flour

Also unpictured was a gallon of 1% milk cause my roomies were almost out of it and I felt guilty for using theirs this morning and some floss

Oh, and what was the price of all of this yummy food?

$46.69

add in the $16.63 from TJ’s and you get a grand total of $63.62. Almost spot on from last week! I’m really patting myself on the back for this one Two weeks in a row baby!

Okay, okay and little while later I stopped at our bookstore to pick up some Endangered species chocolate, when I saw a Lemon Lunabar! I had been absolutely dying to try this flavor, so I bought it. Add about $4 onto my grocery bill.

I also bought this book that I’m super duper excited to read!

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen, MD

It’s about how to improve your health in specific ways like maintaing your ideal weight, sharpening your memory and reducing stress by changing the way you think. I’m excited

A review is to come when I finish the thing

Snack

Whew, grocery shopping really takes a toll, so naturally I had to have a snack:

Jasmin-Oolong tea and left over brown rice with low-sodium soy sauce

‘Twas the perfect snack for a cold, rainy day

Dinner

After getting some much-needed help on a project I made some veggie-filled mac and cheese with a apple and pear salad for dinner!

Veggie-Filled Mac & Cheese makes 2 servings

1 box Annie’s Organic Mac & Cheese

1/4 c. milk of your choice

4-5 c. spinach

~1/4 c. water

1/2 c. frozen peas

1/2. cup onion

1/4 c. red bell pepper

Cook your favorite kind of Annie’s Organic Macaroni and Cheese (mine is Real-Aged Cheddar Shells) according to directions

Meanwhile, wilt about 4-5 cups of spinach in a saucepan in water (or olive oil)

add frozen peas, red bell pepper and onion when spinach is almost all wilted.

Once both are cooked, dump the veggie mixture into the mac & cheese and stir well.

Enjoy

I also made the an apple and pear salad that competes with my BBQ chicken salad

But I’m going to save this recipe for later. I bet you can’t tell what the two main ingredients are

Question of the Day: What book are you currently reading? Or what book inspired you in some way?