You Can’t Control Your Environment, You Can Only Control Your Reaction

by Emily

I wasn’t going to post at all today; I’ve been in a inexplicable (unshakeable) bad mood and I didn’t feel like bringing my rain cloud to the blog. I’ve said at least ten times today “I hate everyone.”

However, then I read this. The article in general makes me even angrier – and sad, and disheartened, and shocked by how harsh we’ve made this existence. But more than that I am moved by the optimism of Bethany Storro. I am inspired by her courage, and the grace she brought to an untenable situation.

I often forget that no matter what the situation is, we always have control over our response to it. And our response – whether it’s a positive or negative one – ends up coloring the entire experience.

Who or what has inspired you lately?

1Sep2010

Wordless Wednesday Giveaway

by Emily

31Aug2010

Second Day Snowballs

by Emily

There is a reason why health professionals advice against skipping meals. I didn’t actually chose to go dinnerless last night, it was more a necessity of circumstances, but I paid the price all the same. That unhealthy act snowballed into a whole day of poor nutrition.

I was starving when I woke up, but Tuesday is my 8am class day and there just wasn’t time for breakfast. I packed a Cookie Dough Balance Bar instead.

I have class from 8am – 7:30pm (with some big breaks) most Tuesdays and I wanted to stay on campus to study. I packed myself a healthy lunch.

I spread a wedge of Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle on a Whole Grain Thin Bun and topped it with three slices of turkey.

On the side I had a baggie of green bell pepper slices and baby carrots.

And a small dark chocolate for dessert.

And that held me over for a good minute and a half. I sought out sustenance in the food court and came back with, this –

Yeah. Clearly if I want to eat healthfully on campus I’ll have to pack my own snacks from home. I ate 90% and felt like crap, but that was at least less distracting than gnawing hunger.

My evening class snack was also unhealthy, but that was by choice.

Who could say no to caramel apple frozen coffee? That’s just unAmerican.

Adam made himself a respectable dinner, but I had yet another coupon that was about to expire so I picked up a Moe’s kids’ meal.

I’m going to try to turn in early; that’ll be the healthiest thing I’ve done all day!

30Aug2010

The Day Took an Upswing

by Emily

After my rocky start this morning the day got much better. I’m glad that I’m becoming more successful at defusing my all-or-nothing issues. Something may not be as good as all, but it’s sure better than nothing!

I have two classes on Mondays – Organic Chemistry and Anatomy. Eeek, both courses seem like they are going to be a lot of work! I’m feeling extra thankful to have a doctor-in-training for a husband, I have a feeling I’m going to have lots of questions!

I spent most of my afternoon on housekeeping; financial aide issues, taking an online violence course requirement, actual house cleaning… I also made a pretty amazing snack, full of new and exciting things.

Like my new bowl (made by local artist Jennifer L Clark) –

I feel in love with this bowl during the Elmwood Arts Festival last weekend. It’s handmade and the yellow and black polka dots fit perfectly with my dream house decor scheme. I love things that are mod but rustic all at the same time.

I also tried some new (to me) yogurt, Oikos Chocolate.

The fabulous people at Stonyfield caught wind of how obsessed I am with their products (due to my raving about this froyo recipe) and set me some free product coupons. I normally stick with 0% plain but since I had the coupons I decided to go a little crazy and try something new. The nutrional stats are pretty great, especially for something that feels so desserty.

I was expecting the chocolate to be too sweet but it ended up having the perfect balance with the tart yogurt. I’m not sure why, but this was much thinner than regular Oikos.

Finally, I tried out a new granola recipe today, Honey Coconut Crunch.

My batch got a little overdone but I definitely recommend making it yourself.

Oh, and this white nectarine felt like new since it’s been so long since they’ve been in season!

In my new bowl went 1 Oikos Chocolate, a chopped nectarine, and 1/4cup of my homemade granola.

This was the perfect texture and flavor medley, I foresee an encore soon!

Sadly, through a series of annoying events, each one more annoying than the last, dinner never happened. We did take a walk to pick up some cupcake liners which will allow us to make dinner tomorrow though. I’m hungry, but at this point it’s more important that I get in bed.

Have you ever made your own granola?

30Aug2010

First Day Flops

by Emily

I have a hard time coping when things are not just so. I’m working on it.

For example, I wanted my first day of school to be perfect. I’d go to bed early the night before, get up for an early run, review all my materials, have a great brain food lunch; perfect. Do you think it all went down like that? Actually, Adam stayed up super late studying for his first test of the year, and then we stayed up super later while he dominated me in Word Feud (Scrabble for cell phones).

This morning I hit snooze a billion times and lamented my lack of the “perfect” start to my school year. Breakfast just might have been eaten on the couch…..naked……and consisting of a mini container of cookie dough ice cream.

But then I pulled it together and went out for a run. It sucked, of course; I hadn’t fueled or stretched properly and it was way too hot. I had to take so many walking breaks that my 2+ish mile “run” ended up taking 23minutes.

But that’s ok. I’m still proud of myself, in fact. I did something, and that’s better than nothing. And even though I walked earlier than I wanted, I didn’t stop until I reached my planned distance. I’m learning not to be so all-or-nothing.

But I won’t be proud if I’m late to my first class, gotta scoot!

29Aug2010

Weekend Ends

by Emily

Pretty much my only accomplishment today was eating so much junk that I put myself in a food coma. Good thing I’m not officially a dietetics student until tomorrow, huh?

Speaking of school, sorry for the quick post but the dork in me just can’t resist setting up my binders and getting to bed early!

What was the tastiest thing you ate this weekend?

*Updated to add – The husband just offered to make me eggs and (turkey)bacon; guess I’m staying up a little longer 😀

28Aug2010

It Was a Day Relano

by Emily

***Disclaimer – between crappy lighting, cheap camera, and no photography skills, I could not get a usable picture of dinner. But where I lack in artistic prowess I achieve in kitchen creativity; this recipe is a taste winner! So please ignore the lack of photographs and go ahead and try it anyways.

On the agenda for dinner tonight were Stuffed Poblano Peppers. I’ve had, and loved, chile relanos at restaurants before and I’ve always wanted to recreate them at home. I didn’t really look at or follow any recipes for inspiration but I did have a couple of goals in mind –

make the recipe healthier by baking the peppers instead of frying them
achieve a filling that is creamy and cheesy without being over the top

Here are the steps I took for 4 servings (measurements all approximate, eyeball things for your tastes) –

Preheat your oven to 400*. Prepare a baking sheet with foil and cooking spray.
Heat 1T evoo in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add 1lb 99% lean ground turkey to the pan. Cook through, stirring often and using a wooden spatula to break the meat into little pieces.
When the meat is almost cooked, stir in a drained 14.5oz can of crushed tomatoes (we used onion and garlic flavored).
When the turkey is cooked through and combined with the tomatoes reduce the heat to low.
Stir in 5 wedges of Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle cheese.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1/2cup shredded sharp cheddar.
Allow the filling to cool. Meanwhile, chop the tops off of 8 small-medium poblano peppers; be sure to remove all of the seeds (that’s where the peppers’ heat lies).
Use a spoon to stuff filling into peppers. If you have extra filling it would be delicious in Mexican-style Sloppy Joses.
Lay the peppers on the prepared baking sheet, at least 1inch apart.
Bake for 25-30minutes, until the peppers’ skin appears to wrinkle and blister.

Name that movie –

“She’s making her famous stuffed chile relanos!”

“Relanos means stuffed.”

28Aug2010

Super Saturday > Fail Friday

by Emily

Today has been one of those perfect days where Buffalo felt like a fabulous place to live and all was right with the world! It didn’t exactly have the smoothest start though, our fail dinner was like the gift that kept on giving (and giving and giving). I don’t want to fully blame Wine Thief, because I did help myself to way too many of the husband’s salt and vinegar chips, but I spent my midnight throwing up and cursing date night. Thankfully my super Saturday has all but canceled out fail Friday to restore the balance. 90% of the day has been walking, so that’s pretty much my perfect day right there 🙂

We started our morning with a mega-tour of my new campus. I start class on Monday so I needed to figure out exactly how long it would take me to walk to school (~35minutes) and where all my classes were located. Adam and I had a fun time exploring my new digs.

Here’s where I’ll be taking Organic Chemistry –

From there I walked over to the Elmwood Art Festival. Is there anything more wonderful than a good street festival? I think not.

After taking in the sites, I also took in some tasty treats. Fresh squeezed maple lemonade.

Peanut butter popsicle dipped in dark chocolate.

Plus a new cereal bowl that I’m sooooo excited about (I’ll show it off later). I actually went home for a spell and then came back with the husband. On our final loop I picked up some kettle corn,

which was the perfect snack for my next activity – the movies! The husband had to go to the lab so I decided to go solo to “The Switch.” We are big movie talkers so I packed plenty of snacks to keep myself occupied alone. A smaller portion of my fair kettle corn.

I probably could have eaten the whole thing, but I definitely didn’t need too! What’s in the cooler?

A Ginger Root Beer Zevia sample,

and some frozen lemonade.

My kettle corn was sweet and crunchy, my lemonade tasted like summer, and my Zevia had a great kick – it was the perfect movie meal! The movie was a win itself; Aniston and Bateman were the perfect foil and the plot was sweet and funny. Eating Chalk recommends it!

Now I’ve got to get going on dinner.

What was the last fair, festival, etc, you had the pleasure of attending?