On the Road Again

Home again this weekend! Back and forth a lot lately it seems.  I really don’t think I can handle anything more than the 3 hours it takes to drive! Whew.  But I’m super excited because tomorrow is the baby shower for my sis-in-law! Great excuse to be home right before finals :)

I started out the morning in Boston with a pretty substantial breakfast. Spinach and mushroom omelet, berries, and a muffin.

I had already decided to make the move back home easier that I was going to back some stuff up and bring it on the trip this weekend.  And man do I have a lot of crap LOL. I hauled out a bag of winter clothes, shoes, tons of textbooks, and a bunch of little odds n’ ends. I was starving by the time I got home and made a HUGE salad.

It ended up being a very veggie day (after all that talk about being more of a fruit girl haha) because at dinner we had both asparagus and sweet potato too. Plus salmon and wild rice.

After all that rain, it ended up being a beautiful evening so my mom and I took Lena and went out for a walk. 

Tomorrow I’ll show you what other exciting thing I accomplished today ;)

And a side note – my prayers are with everyone who has been affected by the tornadoes.  I’ve only seems glimpses on the news and it is truly devastating.

Starting the Day Right

After all that Easter candy, it’s only appropriate that I hope back into my go-to breakfast.  Even though it is hot today (for once!), I whipped up a batch of oatmeal, and had some extra fruit on the side since the Peapod order just came.

As you can see, I iced my coffee. It was very necessary today.

As I was eating all my fruit for breakfast, I kept thinking how it is so much easier for me to eat fruit than to eat veggies. I even wrote about it last month. I am a fruit girl above all else. It really is nature’s candy!

I’m very excited for the berries of summer :)

But before I get there, I’ve got to finish this semester. Less than 2 weeks left!!!!!! OMG I’m so excited.

 

For today, head on over to read my guest post on Carrie’s blog Moves n’ Munchies!

 

Until later blends! Happy Wednesday :)

Chocolate OD

ooohhhhh my.

Just Breathe

Today was a day where I could breathe just a little.  I didn’t have to go to campus today for this first time in long time and it felt nice. Sometimes that’s the advantage of taking a few online classes – I stayed in my PJ’s until noon!

So after a few days in a row of having a breakfast like this:

I switched it up. Or I should say I switched back. To oatmeal of course.

Hello gorgeous! Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats (yes because I had time!) with a diced apple, cinnamon, and walnuts. Oooh baby.

And since I was feeling frisky, I busted out the ol’ baking supplies. An orange was screaming “zest me!” from it’s lonely spot in the almost empty fruit bowl and I happily obliged. Then sliced it up and put it in a jug of iced green tea. But anyway back to the baking……

I present to you: Christina’s Blueberry (& Orange) Muffins!

Makes 12 servings.

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats (ground up, or you could use plain oat flour I suppose)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup Splenda (it’s got to be used up. But feel free to use a sugar of your choice)
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup 0% plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup water
• zest of 1 orange
• 1-1.5 cups (frozen) blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix dry ingredients (first 5) in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix canola oil, applesauce, egg whites, yogurt, water and zest.  Slowly add and mix dry ingredients to wet. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into greased or lined muffin tin. Baked for 20 minutes or until center isn’t gooey. Enjoy :)

The nutrition stats are pretty good too! I’ve developed a new love for Spark Recipes Recipe Calculator.

I also happened to make that crusted chicken again for dinner with some onion, leeks, and broccoli. It was a good day in the kitchen!

One more day til the weekend :) And just two days til I get to eat chocolate! Can you tell I’ve been counting down? ;)

del.icio.us Tags: blueberry muffin,baking

This Close

Counting down…..3 weeks until I am done with school for good! (Yes I will be doing the internship next year but that is not the same) A month from tomorrow I will be handed my diploma granting me a Master’s in Nutrition and Health Promotion.  Now that I think about it, that’s a pretty big accomplishment!

But I’m not there yet. I’ve still got A LOT of stuff to cram complete in the next few weeks. *Fingers crossed* that I survive :)

In the meantime, I went to take pictures of my breakfast and was surprised to find a dead battery. Since I had to rush off to campus, I ended up with no pictures all day.

So instead, here’s what I watched to waste time take a personal break today.

 

I love funny cat videos :)

Men of my dreams

Part of the reason I haven’t been blogging is because I went home and was spending some time with 2 of the loves of my lives.

They are growing like weeds!

I swear sometimes I forget that Charlie is only 3 because he’s so articulate! Smart kid and such a whippersnapper LOL

1 more month until I can see them whenever I want and less than 2 months until my niece is born! It’s going to be an exciting summer :)

Forgotten Blogiversary

I’m such a knucklehead. My mind is all over the place lately and I forgot my 1 year blogging anniversary! It was on April 6th (last Wednesday) and it just completely slipped my mind.

Besides that nonsense, I had a pretty special day on Friday as well. But first, I had to fuel myself for the exciting evening ahead. First, oats for breakfast (a classic) and then re-introducing salads for lunch! Yay for warmer weather :) I even made homemade croutons but just toasting a piece of Ezekiel bread and tearing it into pieces. So good.

That afternoon, I went back to WPI to visit my Alpha Xi Delta sisters and give them a little nutrition talk! I mainly talked about brain-boosting foods and stress-busting foods per someone’s advice.  It seemed appropriate for the given population anyway.  It was so nice to see some of the girls again, especially my little! And I even met my grandlittle and great-grandlittle. Yes I’ve been negligent and hadn’t been back to visit them. But we went out to eat for a family dinner later and it was so much fun. I was stupid and didn’t grab a picture but I will have to make another visit to make sure I get one!

For dinner, we went to 1 of the most visited restaurants by WPI’ers. A place I’ve greatly missed. Yes – The Sole Proprietor. Or just “the sole” as we call us. Seafood restaurant extraordinaire. I of course ordered some sushi since I hadn’t eaten it in ages. Say goodbye to the Rainbow Maki because I INHALED it.

My little (Colleen) and I also did a quick wine tasting at The Wine Vine across the street while we waited for our table. The owners are the nicest people I swear! The guy remembered me from 2.5 years ago when I made a birthday basket for my big! I was amazed.

But now of course it’s Monday and back to work. Well school. But you know what I mean. I mostly worked from home so I didn’t have to lug a bunch of food onto campus which was nice. I don’t buy food there usually unless it’s the occasional Chobani or Larabar from the cafe. I’m proud to say I’ve never eaten from Simmons cafeteria.

I screwed myself up by not eating breakfast right away but instead waiting a couple hours and had a late brunch. Spinach, Mushroom & Mozzarella Omelet, toast, and berries. And coffee of course.

Dinner was happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I made a yummy salmon recipe but sad because we had run out of vegetables. I suppose somebody should have run to the store but we didn’t. So I was stuck with just honey-soy salmon, brown rice & beans. Like I said, happy and sad.

Oh and guess who took advantage of the extremely gorgeous weather we had today? This girl did! I got my butt out for a quick run after dinner but before it got dark. I was able to get in 30 minutes and almost 3 miles. Surprisingly I felt really good too, no injuries to report! Woohoo!

Now it’s past my bedtime, Goodnight!

What did you do on this fine day?

Feeling Oh So Productive

This week I’m on a roll with school. I feel like I’m getting so much done! We’ve made amazing progress on our thesis, our first draft is due in a week and I’m very excited.  I even spent some extra time making up a presentation for a nutrition talk I’m giving to my sorority from undergrad. I’m not sure how many girls are going to come but I’m still happy to do it! Plus it’ll be nice to see them, I don’t really get back to visit even though it’s only an hour away.

I’m not sure if my positive mood has to do with my internship or not. To tell you the truth I cried at first. I was fully expecting to get into Simmons and stay where I am, because ya know I’ve gotten comfortable being here in Boston. But now that has worn off and I’m thoroughly ecstatic about my future 10 month stay in Michigan.  My amazing relatives (Hi Aunt Lisa and Uncle Steve!) are letting me move in with them and I’ll be commuting to each of my rotations. I even already know where my clinical placement is – Sparrow Hospital! I looked it up and it’s huge – almost 700 beds! My cousin Michelle is also moving back home and will be commuting to her grad school so we’re going to have the best time :) So I’m set and ready for this next chapter: Michigan here I come!

I also feel the strong urge to show you this meal from Sunday. It’s actually what I ate after I found out about my internship! I dipped chicken breasts in a greek yogurt/mustard mixture and coated them with Uncle Sam cereal and some parmesan cheese. It came out great! I also made some non-mayo based potato salad which was good except for the radishes (yuck!)

But that was so long ago now. Today was a pretty successful day on the food front too I think.

Steel cut oats made with too much almond milk and heated up frozen blueberries and cherries

Tomato soup and a half quesadilla (whole grain TJ’s tortilla + mozzarella cheese). Oh and an unpictured grapefruit afterwards!

Whole grain spaghetti with fennel, peas, and walnuts.

Carby day wasn’t it? I love me some good ol’ carbohydrates! :) Powers up the brain for all the nutritional epidemiology homework I was working on hehe

Let’s have a brag time just like #fitblog. Leave this week’s accomplishment as a comment! Mine is of course my internship :)

Results are in

Sorry to keep you all in suspense. I’ve been matched to the dietetic internship at Michigan State University.


Do I have to start saying “pop” now instead of soda? LOL

Waiting for Tomorrow

One more day until the rest of my life. Well maybe I’m being dramatic but still, tomorrow is Match Day in the dietetic world. It’s when all the students who applied for dietetic internships finds out if they have been matched.  Sadly, the match rate is only about 50% so there are going to be a lot of sad people at 6:01 (central time) tomorrow night.  For those that don’t know, a dietetic internship is required before taking the national exam to become a Registered Dietitian. It’s a big deal.  I feel like Match Day came fast and slow at the same time, isn’t that weird? So if I disappear from the world for a while, you know what happened :/

Anyway……My jar of Teddie p.b. is getting to the end (which mean OIAJ time!) but also means its to the point where its not exactly creamy anymore lol.

Example A: Oats with banana, strawberries, and p.b.

Example B: Oats with strawberries, blackberries, and p.b.

See how chunky it looks? But it’s okay, I don’t mind.

I also experimented with making tofu for the first time last night! I marinated it in soy sauce, vinegar, honey, and ginger but I think I added a little too much soy sauce considering how thin I sliced it because it was a bit too salty. I was still pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out!

It paired perfectly with the brown rice and steamed broc. Yum Yum! And today I used the leftovers with my salad.

Oh and I made beets with cabbage the other day using what I had gotten in my Boston Organics delivery last week. The cabbage soaked up all the red from the beets of course. Huge salad = perfect lunch!

Question: What’s your opinion on tofu? Love it/Hate it/Just okay?

Have a great weekend! Wish me luck for tomorrow :)