Monthly Archives: September 2010

Just Call Me Mrs. McDreamy

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Tuesday, every other week, is my crazy day.  I have class from 8am – 7:40pm and I stay on campus the entire day!  During my late night yesterday I found time to pack my lunch (and write this post!).  I packed a turkey sandwich

(3 slices of honey roasted turkey, blue cheese Laughing Cow, whole wheat Sandwich Thin),

and a nice purple plum.

Golly, what an innovative sandwich!  I bet you guys were shocked to see that combo!  Thankfully I have a little something not so boring to make up for my predictawich.  Remember when Adam and I helped some friends out by acting in an orientation video for the medical school first years?  Yeah, it’s hilarious!

Our scene starts at 2:52, but the whole thing is pretty funny.

The Dog Ate My Homework

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A few facts about this morning –

  1. I got into bed (not even asleep, just into bed) after 12:45 last night
  2. my alarm rang at 6:20 this morning
  3. the husband is driving me to school for my 8am class and then I am staying on campus until my classes are all finished at 7:40

Those facts define what I need from this morning’s breakfast –

  1. energy (caffeine, sugar)
  2. staying power (protein)

And those facts and needs basically are just there as excuses to explain what I put into the blender for my smoothie this morning –

  • a small frozen banana
  • leftover (vanilla cinnamon nut) coffee
  • Brown Cow 0% plain Greek yogurt
  • 2T Hershey’s chocolate syrup with added calcium
  • ice

Did I also mention I’m tired?

It actually wasn’t bad!

By the way, if you want to see something funny I suggest you stop by the blog around noon!

What is the strangest thing you’ve ever put into a smoothie?

A Lesson Learned

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Today has been insane, and it’s still going!  I’m going to be up very late tonight; I’m never doing nothing on a weekend again; “oh my god! oh my god! oh my god!” I’ll leave it at that.

For lunch I dug into my Naan Pizza sample stash from Tandoor Chef.

Spinach and Paneer Cheese.

Here is the ingredient list,

and the nutritional panel,

both of which checked out positively.  The fact that these pizzas are packed with real foods is definitely what keeps them from tasting frozen.  In fact, the taste was divine!

I burnt the crust last time, but now that I know my oven is set too high and lowered the temperature accordingly I was rewarded with perfect crust; it had great chew and was just crisp enough.  There was just the right amount of red sauce and its tang complimented the paneer cheese.  This was pretty plain, a child would probably enjoy it, but still had a great degree of interest.

I ate the entire pizza (technically two servings) and that ended up being just right.  I needed some extra lunch calories since my “breakfast” was coffee, but it wasn’t too much cheese and this didn’t leave me feeling heavy at all.  I was perfectly full and awake for Orgo and Anatomy class.

I had a bit of a quandary about how to divide my time this afternoon – study or gym?  I have three medium assignments and big presentation due tomorrow so I knew I needed to work.  But along the same vein I can’t go to the gym tomorrow (I have classes, with breaks, from 8am – 8pm) so I wanted to work out.  I ended up deciding to work out, even though I didn’t really have time, but to push the timing back.  Adam met me on campus after class and we spent a few hours studying together. 

I had to organize some e-mails when I got home so I got in a small serving of carbs before my run.

That’s a Van’s pancake (1/2 of a serving) topped with Smart Balance and Crofter’s strawberry.

Running with Adam was wonderful, he definitely pushes me to go faster than I do on my own.  We kept it casual, the husband says we ran ~2miles but I have no idea what our time was; we ran the whole time and the pace felt pretty good though.  We finished things up with a short walk, and some stretching.

Dinner was speedy, tasty, and healthy.

I put some of the (best ever) chilli leftovers on a bed of steamed dinosaur kale.

The kale was pretty bitter, but it felt good to pack in the nutrients.  I totally save the bites with sharp cheddar in them for last 😉

I’m going to be up past midnight (ack!) but if I do any snacking I’ll put in the morning post.  Wish me luck!

Was it the healthiest decision to honor my workout today, or should I have tried for an earlier bedtime instead?  What do you prioritize over exercise?

Home Improvement, A Giveaway

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Don’t be looking for Tim Allen (or JTT as the case may be!),

this post is about my personal home improvements.  And I use the term “home improvement” both figuratively and literally here.  You will have an opportunity for some (literal) home improvement too; scroll on down to the bottom if you are looking for the giveaway.

I didn’t do any school work this weekend, but I certainly spent some time crying about it – I’d say there’s a lot of room for improvement there, don’t you think?!  Today is all about getting myself on the right track.  I started my morning at 7; I took a refreshing shower, I brewed a pot of coffee, and then I got down to business.  I have a ton to do still, but now I’ve made a dent and the list seems more manageable.

Sidenote – Target’s Archer Farms Cinnamon Vanilla Nut coffee is fabulous.

I’ve had two big cups throughout the morning, with skim milk and a cinnamon sugar sprinkle.

As proud as I am of my scholarly achievements, I’d say the biggest improvement of the day relates more to the shower.  We share a small deck with all of our neighbors.  Said deck is directly in front of our bathroom.  I’d say after almost 3 months of standing naked in front of the window to the shared deck it’s high time for a curtain!

My mother actually made the curtain for us (thanks lady!) and we love it.  The pattern totally reminds me of our wedding!

The nudity thing wasn’t really a problem for me – I spend a good 50% of my time at home naked and none of our other windows have curtains! – but I love how much nicer the bathroom feels.  A tiny little home update can make a whole room feel special and new, which is why I’ve paired up with CSN Stores again to offer you guys a $55 gift certificate!

You can upgrade to some modern bedding –

You can pick some cuter (dachshund!) lighting –

You can spiff up a room with a piece of art you enjoy.  CSN stores recently offered me an opportunity to do a product review.  Adam and I decided to go the art route and choose some mobiles we adore.

The hedgehog family is in our living room and the elephants (we call them “L-a-FONTS”) are in the kitchen.  The sky is the limit!

Giveaway info and rules –

  • The $55 can be used on ANY product at ANY of the CSN sites
  • The gift certificate does not cover shipping (but many items include free shipping)
  • Only US residents are eligible (sorry!)
  • The giveaway runs until Thursday, 9/16

In order to enter –

  1. Leave a comment on this post telling me which room in your house you’d most like to jazz up
  2. For a 2nd entry – link back to this post from your blog and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so
  3. For a 3rd entry – link back to this post from Facebook and/or Twitter and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so

Tough Transitions

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I did not get enough done today (don’t I say that every day?!?!) so I’ll keep this post simple.  I did accomplish a walk to the farmer’s market/co-op for some local goodies.

And a trip to Wegman’s to complete the groceries.  We had a hot bar coupon so the husband and I got lunch.

Can you guess which side of that container is mine?

I filled up on an assortment of veggies,

with sesame tofu and chicken.

Not even an hour after eating I felt empty.  The feeling was so bad I ended up walking to get a (ginormous) slice of bbq chicken pizza.

Post-pizza I had a Double Fudge Brownie mini ice-cream.

And then I was FULL.  I ate my 2nd lunch around 3:00 but I ended up calling it dinner because I haven’t gotten hungry again!

I am finding the transition back to school to be much harder than I expected; and I didn’t think it would be easy!  I think part of the issue is that I didn’t just quit my job and go to school, but rather worker bee –> unemployed –> student.  Do you have any advice to help me become a student again????

Patriot Day

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I’ve been missing the husband lately so I skipped my run this morning in leu of cuddle time.  Instead I did 15minutes of strength and stretch moves.  I finished on my yoga mat, with a few minutes of silence for the victims of September 11th.

I made a patriotic breakfast too.

I added blueberries into my Strawberry Danish Oats mix.  I used ~1cup of fruit total.

Hopefully that breakfast will fuel me well, because this weekend is going to be pretty freaking stressful.  Here’s a breakdown of what I need to do for next week –

Monday

  • Orgo – read and take notes on ch. 3
  • Orgo – hand in my recopied class notes
  • Anatomy – read and take notes on ch. 5 -6

Tuesday

  • Nutriton100 – read ch. 3 + 5
  • Nutrition110 – read ch. 1 -2
  • Nutrition110 – 20 post reading questions
  • Nutrition110 – article analysis
  • Nutrition110 – 15minute presentation

Wednsday

  • Orgo lab – flow chart and pre-lab questions

Thursday

  • Anatomy lab – quiz identifying 150+ bones
  • Nutrition100 – prelab questions and last week’s post lab

Friday

  • Nutrition230 – a personal philosophy statement
  • Orgo – read and take notes on ch. 4

Oh, and before I can start any of that today I have to go grocery shopping (at multiple stores), go to Target, go to the Post Office, and fill out a few financial aide forms.  {insert hyperventilation}  Think productive thoughts for me please!

Friday (Mostly) Freebie

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So it’s been 14 hours since my last post, also 14hours since I last sat at my laptop; yikes!  I’m a bit concerned that this semester is basically going to be insane.  My packed lunch was tasty, I guess, I’m not really sure since I inhaled the sandwich while running to class.  The cucumber slices were good, but perhaps a bit loud for crunching during Orgo; insert red face here.  I did squeeze in some Friday fun though.

After my last class ended (3pm) Adam came over to my campus for a study session with me.  I am so much more focused when the husband is next to me, probably because I’m not texting him!  A little after 5, I headed to the gym.  30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6.  I wasn’t so lethargic today so I was able to run interval sprints for the last 10minutes or so.

After a shower we headed to the mall to Johnny Rockets.

I came home from BlogHer with coupons for 2 free meals so we made that our dinner date.  Usually JR would not be my first choice, but I’m kind of cheap 😉  Adam and I decided to do some sandwich splitting –

I got the #12 turkey burger,

and he ordered a tuna melt on sourdough.

He loved the melt (I thought the tuna tasted funny) and I thought the turkey burger was actually pretty fabulous, not too greasy at all.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy pickles on burgers.  I ate ~ 1/3 of each sandwich and half of my fries.

Since all we had to pay was the tip we brought the evening’s cost up to a grand total of $6.71 by splitting a mini Brownie Batter Blizzard.

Cons – I don’t like brownies so I’m not sure why I thought I’d like this (I ate about 1/3 of it though).  Pros – our DQ has mini Blizzards now, yippie!

Does your DQ offer the mini?  What is your Blizzard order?

Signs of the Season

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Friday, Friday, Friday!  But that’s not all I’m excited about.

Adam left first today and when he called to tell me he was cold I had one thought – “Blazer!”

Some people are excited about the first Pumpkin Spice Latte (don’t get me wrong, I am too, but October is the pumpkin month!), I’m jazzed about the first blazer of the season.

I’m not ready to give in to fall yet though, I’m still rocking the Reefs and my breakfast felt pretty summery.

A serving of Kashi H2H topped with a chopped nectarine and Silk Almond Milk.

Here’s what I’ll be eating for lunch –

Turkey, Laughing Cow, Sandwich Thin.  Yes, that is an entire cucumber in the bag, and I am happy to see you 😉

What is your favorite sign of fall?