Salty/Sweet Sunday

Today was pretty bland.  And, really, this whole weekend has been fairly bland/lonely/[insert downer adjective here].  There are really times when I wish I didn’t live alone.  It’s hard to be by myself for days on end.  Makes me sort of look forward to class tomorrow, if only just to hang out with people, anyone/anything other than my television and laptop.

As for the day, I woke up around 9am and got up rather quickly because I had big breakfast plans: almond joy pancakes.  I used chocolate protein powder, whole grain flour, baking powder, almond extract, and vanilla almond milk.  I then added in some coconut flakes.  I cooked them up silver dollar style and loaded my plate.  The topping of the morning was almond butter mixed with maple syrup.

Some additional maple syrup was required in the end.  Seriously delicious breakfast though, really.  I honestly love pancakes and its been way too long since I’ve had some.  Well played, Sunday, well played.  Speaking of a certain first day of the week, I headed to church a little after 10:30.  Mass was nice.  We baptized a cute, little, very outspoken outcrying newborn girl.  It was kind of adorable.

After church I came home to more Vampire Diaries and thesis work.  I made some progress though it continually feels like it’s not enough.  The whole presentation needs to be something like 45 minutes and I don’t think what I have now will last that long.  But I also feel like I have said everything I can.  Hopefully my committee can help with the addition of new slides.  After working I got hungry.  My late afternoon lunch included some vegged-out quinoa and a halved chicken sausage dry-fried in a non-stick pan and topped with spicy brown mustard.  Orange on the side for some fruit goodness.

Nomnom, gotta love the slight caramelization on the sausage with its hint of salt.  Sad, dreary day backlighting though.  It rained like crazy today, so much so that the temperature dropped like a rock and my windows fogged up.  I keep my apartment real warm.  =D  Through the late afternoon I continued to work and watch TV.  I also menu planned a bunch for this week.  I also did an inventory of leftovers in the fridge and started a running tab of how many servings I have left on my fridge’s whiteboard.  I figure this will give me an easy way to eat my extras in a timely manner.

Dinner came in the form of a salad.  They say to eat the rainbow and I’d say I certainly did.  I used a bed of romaine lettuce and chopped up some celery, carrots, yellow and red pepper, mushrooms, onion, grape tomatoes, cranberries, manchego cheese, and southwest ranch dressing.

I must say that manchego cheese on a salad is pretty darn awesome.  I loved how salty it was in contrast to the cranberries’ sweetness.  For a bit more sweetness, I had a little treat: vanilla cupcake pudding with a giant glob of almond butter. 

I could honestly probably eat this every day of my life.  Again, the salty AB and sweet pudding just makes a killer combo.  Mmmm, love.  And now, dear readers, I’m off for some one on one time with my visual aids.  I need to work up my new prenatal specific speeches.  Better to do it before than during a session in front of a patient, huh?  Yea, that’s what I thought.  See you all later!

Questions: What’s on your docket for this week?
What would be your ideal nut butter/pudding combo?

Thanksgiving Break 2012

[by iPhone and Instagram]

Question: How was your holiday weekend?

Solo Smile

You know the day is going to be great when you wake up to this kind of e-mail –>

Oh, if only...  I think this is pretty cute.  You can never go wrong with old school Star Wars.  Gave me a smile to get me out of bed.  I headed to the gym shortly after for a sweat session on the elliptical.  Came home and did some ab work before cooking up some egg white almond pancakes.  I topped them with some chocolate protein frosting for a kick, some flax and chia seeds, and then syrup.

Good sweaty breakfast.  Followed this up with a trip to church.  I was a Greeter today for the 11 o’clock service.  Basically, I stood at the nametag table to greet everyone and spot newcomers to make all feel welcome.  Pretty nice way to spend the morning especially since there were like twelve new people today.  One of the new couples actually do a meet-up here every year.  They both come halfway to attend mass and do lunch.  It was so cute hearing their story.  Today was a high feast day of the church courtesy of All Saint’s Day (Nov. 1) so that meant that we were incensing the church and we had baptisms.  I could smell the incense coming a mile away.  Reminded me of a Christmas candle.

When I got back home after mass I had a hungry tummy to satisfy.  Lately egg salad has been on my brain so I made a quick egg salad with a single hard-baked egg, half a tablespoon of mayo, and a healthy shake of curry spice blend (courtesy of Tina’s blog).  I smooshed that mix between two slices of wheat toast and added a side of pretzels and apple.

I ate this lovely lunch on the floor while I watched the rest of the the most recent episode of Nashville.  Sadly that finished much too quickly and I was forced to read two chapters in my embryology book.  I learned all about muscles and limb development.  I have to blow through the integumentary system before Thursday’s class.  Speaking of embryo, I kind of wonder how I did on my test last week.  Probably won’t know until the week before Thanksgiving though.  Oh well, for now, I shall resume my focus on mastering the material as it comes my way.

After reading, I vegged a little more cleaning out my DVR and watching more Netflix.  Seriously, I have to say that this weekend has been really restorative.  This past week was rough and the upcoming weeks, especially those after Thanksgiving break, are going to be rough too so I won’t apologize for being kind of “lazy” these past two days.  Call it feeding my soul!  Later, dinner came in the form of some tempeh butternut bake mixed in with broccoli.  I also decided that a glass of Obsession white wine was in order.

Fairly sure I was so hungry (and it was only 5:30 in the evening) that I ate this whole bowl in seven bites.  I also had to grab a huge glass of water to keep me from downing the wine just as fast.  Patience, my dear, patience.  More TV came after though I debated reading another chapter in my embryo book.  That quickly got shut down when I remembered I had already done two today.  No more for me.

Since I had eaten my dinner so early I was hungry a bit later and I decided to indulge in dessert to finish out the night.  I contemplated for a while about what I wanted and since I couldn’t just whip up some of the incredible things on Pinterest I had to settle for something a bit more realistic: ice cream.  Now it’s off to watch The Vampire Diaries before heading to bed to start another week.

Questions: What is your favorite kind of wine?
How do you feel about the time change and the early darkness?

Balance

Today’s good habit: balance.  We’re talking all about a mix of work and patients and house-keeping.  I started off the day with a weights session courtesy of NROLFW.  After I got back to the apartment and showered, I grabbed my breakfast and headed to the shuttle.  I chowed down on some yogurt with a few blueberries, some rolled oats, chai latte protein powder, and flax seed mixed in.  Cinnamon on top.

Sadly this only keep me full for about 2.5 hours through specing some samples and organizing 69 pellets then labeling all 207 corresponding tubes.  Yea, we waste a lot of plastic in that lab, I swear.  Though I’m not sure we could do the procedures any other way.  Anyways, because I was hungry around 10 I stopped for a snack of raisins. 

A little refreshed, I finished up 24 of the 69 pellets in an hour and a half and then left for a working lunch.  Last of the leftover red curried chicken and cabbage anyone?

I made some revisions to my metabolism outline and then headed to clinic to see some patients.  When the appointments were over, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on a long list of patient follow up things: calls, checking on insurance, searching for results, etc.  A lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff is the time consuming part and the hunger-inducing part.  Cheese helped.

Yea…finally I escaped around 4:30 only to come home and read a whole other chapter in my embryology textbook due to a very recent syllabus change.  Thankfully it wasn’t a huge one, maybe ten to twelve pages.  Right about the time I was finishing up with the chapter, I actually had to head out to church for a storytelling ministry meeting.  We grabbed dinner at Potbelly’s by the church.  I ordered a chickpea veggie salad with red onion, egg, blue cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

When I got back to church to eat the salad, I used some fat free Catalina dressing from the kitchen.  Tasty.  We had a long meeting and discussed quite a few of the logistics of our ministry like which stories we want to gather, how we will do that, when, what medium we are going to publish in, etc.  When we wrapped up I came home to read more and then do the dishes.  Dessert cheered me up in the form of some butterscotch pudding with a glob of peanut butter, kind of like last night.

I could live in a vat of pudding.  Oh man.  Now it’s time to finish up some visual aids for my counseling session tomorrow and then head to bed.  Sleep well group.

Questions: What’s your favorite restaurant salad?
Do you like raisins or other dried fruits better?

Alterations

Why do Mondays always feel so sluggish??

Probably because when you’ve had a stellar, relaxing weekend, work just doesn’t rank high on your list of things to do.  My weekend was just that: super!  My church service was trilingual: English, Portuguese, and Dinka.  We had the bishops and the deans of the churches of Bor and Brazilia with us for a Sunday. They waited for 19 days in Nairobi to get their visas to come.  Now that is dedication.

After the church service, I got real friendly with a nice big plate of croissant French toast with candied pecans.  Oh yea, it was as great as it looks.

I also attended a really sweet wine festival.  It was held in a local arts district and was $15 for unlimited tastes.  Your price of admission got you a beautifully etched glass with which to taste…

…as well as some beautiful weather and live entertainment from Scars on 45.  By the way, I am now totally obsessed with this band.  I loved them and you will too when I give you a taste tomorrow for Tune Tuesday!

I also spent some time this weekend working on my neuro rotation assignment with the help of some Summer Shandy.  It definitely made it more bearable.

There was also a gorgeous sunset to witness too.

To go with the sunset I painted my nails oranges and pinks.  It was nice too since at the wine festival you’re always holding onto a glass.  Your nails need to look pretty, right?

So, you can obviously see why Monday for me was slow.  Work was long and the lab was incredibly warm and then patient prep went well but it was fairly intense.  When I got home I couldn’t even relax.  I had errands to run.  First up, bridesmaid dress fetching.  My friends wedding is in Sept and our dresses finally came in.  I had never tried this cut on before, nor had I seen the color, so it was all one big surprise to me.

Best thing: I LOVE the color.  I’m a sucker for orange.  Worst thing: It is tight as all get out and there is a massive amount of boning in the bodice.  Like when I sit down, which is a feat in and of itself unfortunately, I get poked a bit.  I guess I won’t be slouching at the wedding…not that I slouch normally.

With dress in hand (and my wallet $160 lighter) I ran to the post office to mail some books and then to Sam’s Club for some well priced apples and yummy orange grape tomatoes.  Then it was off to Walmart for a whole bunch of random things like apple chips, peanut butter, balsamic vinegar, and yogurt.  Finally, I hit up TJ’s for two blocks of tempeh and two kinds of goat cheese (creamy and crumbled).

By the time I got home it was well past what I was expecting.  I suppose I can’t expect to leave my house around 5p, get stuck in rush hour traffic, and do all my errands only to get home at a decent time.  Nope, I got home at 8p roughly and I was pretty hungry by that point.  I also didn’t want to do anything though so I scraped the idea of sautéing zucchini and mushrooms and warmed up chili instead.  I topped it with goat cheese and had a bagel with butter and garlic powder on the side.

Simple and quick and very minimal effort.  Just what I needed.  Now I need to go and work more on my neuro assignment.  Blah.  Plus I need to go and fight the urge to eat dessert.  Now that I know if I gain a single ounce that nice orange dress won’t fit, froyo and cake seem all the more appealing and all the more off limits.  Seriously having a Bride Wars moment.  First 30 seconds say it all.

Ugh.  Good night group!  Sleep well and have a lovely Tuesday.  Come back for some music that will ring in your ears, in the best way possible.

Question: Have you ever “altered yourself” for a piece of clothing?

{Splurges}

I was going through my Google Reader this evening and I came across Healthy Diva’s post from earlier today and I thought I was go with it.  It’s all about splurge-worthy things based on this article here.  The original listed the following seven things as those you should spend your money on:

1. Kitchen renovation – I would like to never have to renovate at all by just nipping this in the bud and designing my perfect kitchen from the start…but I guess that’s a splurge in and of itself.
2. Apple stock – Haha, right. I’m kind of a PC girl but I do have an iTouch that I love.
3. Non stop flight – Connecting flights aren’t awful but there is totally something to be said for getting on and getting off once each.  I will say though that if paying less for the flight (aka it’s not direct) means I get an extra day in paradise, or where ever the destination, I’m okay with that.
4. Digital SLR camera – Oh this would be cool!
5. American Express premier rewards gold card – I’m actually pretty content with my credit card, thank you.
6. Cartier watch – No thanks, I am very happy with my beautiful Bulova big-girl watch.
7. Prix Fixe Fine Dining –  Fancy food? Heck yes, please count me in, eight times over.

Now, here are seven things I think are worth my money…if I had any to actually splurge with.

1. Kitchen supplies – I really want a Kitchenaid stand mixer and some other cool gadgets.  Basically, my mother has to keep telling me not to buy these things for myself because I  won’t have anything to put on my wedding registry.
2. Food – Whether this is another dinner out at BRU, a package of Gardenburgers for my freezer, or an afternoon froyo run with my classmates or city friends, I would love to have enough money to not worry about going out or buying exactly what I want at the store.
3. Vacations – Jack and I went to Jamaica for New Years between 2010 and 2011.  It was incredible and we had a wonderful time.  We were so rejuvenated by the end.  And I’m not even saying the vacation needs to be long and tropical, it can literally just be hanging out with my parents or my family or Jack’s family for some time away from school and stuff.  Days off are priceless.
4. Clinic clothes – When you’re seeing patients daily and you have to look all nice and put together, having nice clothes that you feel comfortable in are a must have.  I totally want to expand my wardrobe so I have more options.
5. Massages – I get these in conjunction with my chiropractor appointments and I could not be happier about it.  It’s awesome to get a good loosening after all the workouts and backpack carrying.  I feel like a different woman when I wake up at the end of my 60 minutes.
6. Genetic counseling board exam – Yes, this is a splurge. It’s literally >$1300 to take it once. That’s right, once. And you could potentially fail it and have to take it again. We students need to pass it to practice after graduation so for me it’s a splurge, a necessary splurge, because I can’t be what I want to be without kicking its butt!
7. Health insurance – I know this seems boring but given my horrible kidney issues I can’t take chances.  I would feel so much better knowing I’m covered and that I’m not going to have to maybe put my health on the backburner because of money.  No one should have to make that kind of decision.  (P.S. While I say I would splurge on this, I confess that being on my parent’s health insurance right now is a TOTAL Godsend. Thanks mom and dad.)

So, after reading the article and my picks, what are your splurge-worthy picks??  What in your life would you gladly spend your hard earned money on?  Speaking of hard earned money though, today I baked for the family I work for.  It was 90 degrees outside and I had two ovens going as I made a quadruple, yes X4, batch of chocolate chip cookies, a double batch of pinwheel cookie dough to chill, a double batch of cheese nips made with goat’s milk cheddar, and finally a double batch of Udi’s copycat gluten-free bread.  I was on a roll…and I was really warm.  I must say though, it’s a really fun gig I was super lucky to get.  I enjoy it and the family is just too cute and sweet and polite for words.  The little boy that I make all the baked goods for thanked me twice today.  How adorable!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After a whirlwind weekend of housewarming parties, giant, powerful, moving 3000+ people Episcopal eucharists (essentially the largest on the world that only occurs once every three years),

BRU Burger Bar dinners with visiting classmates,

crazy calorie-burning Insanity workouts,

and boyfriend made Sunday morning pancakes,

I’m off to bed for the night.  Some nice long hours of sleep will be appreciated for sure.  Sleep tight group and we’ll catch each other after the work week kicks off.  G’night!

Questions: What’s your go-to weekend breakfast food?
What’s the largest church service you have ever attended?