Things I am LUh-HUV-VING

A few things I am really loving as of recent:

 

1. My Toms. I put some miles on these suckers the other day. Literally walked all around San Fran and probably would not have made it without them. I feel like I could wear them forever, but I have to take them off (even though the world would probably appreciate it if I just kept them on my feet…It was a hooooot day in the bay)

2. Rainbow Grocery. If you haven’t been go. If you have been, go again. An amazing coop run grocery store. Lots of fun and a lot of things I have to try unfortunately though I was traveling by foot when I visited (see above) and didn’t actually purchase anything but rather just explored. Next time for sure.

3. Heath Ceramics-I walked the ferry building today and fell in love with the dishware here. There were these beautiful bowls and amazing coffee mugs…etc. I was tempted to buy one, or a few but I have a few problems here…No man, no money, no reason. Let me explain. 1. I am no where near being married (there is a slight detail that still needs to be worked out before that happens…) so the whole gift registration/building a life together excuse to buy beautiful dishware is out  2. I just graduated, and am now a broke college student unemployed. So $50 bowl ain’t gonna make the budget  3. I packed up my stuff and moved home, so there is really no reason why I would need beautiful ceramic dishware at this time in my life #justcryforme

SOMEDAY

4. Acme Olive Bread. I love bread. I have eaten a lot of bread. There is a lot of great bread out there. Tartine is BOMB. Homemade rosemary bread is incredible. Warm brioche and challah out of the oven in labs is really just beyond good. However, I have decided that my all time favorite bread is Acme’s olive bread. It is The. Best. Bread. Literally so salty and chewy and tender and flavorful. GAH I love it.

5. Gardens. Blackberries right off the vine. We went to my grandparents this weekend to celebrate my Grandpa’s birthday. This included some time with the g-parents outside in the sun, some delicious pasta dinner, scrumptious birthday cake (thankfully I basically am my grandpa so I knew I would like his choice in cake…I ended up making him a vanilla cake with strawberries and whipped cream yum) But the best part of visiting my Grandparents house at this time of year is getting to see my grandma’s garden when the blackberries are ripe. My grandma kept asking us if we wanted to get a bowl to put them in so we could take some home with us but we couldn’t stop stuffing our face long enough to answer her and quite frankly, by the time we attacked, there were no more to pick. Later we noticed my mom had purple fingers, proving her guilt as a berry snatcher.

I will leave you with some cake…

Happy 45th Birthday Grandpa

Figuring Things Out

Talk about a break from blogging.

With my crazy end of the year schedule, something had to give, which meant less time to post on the blog. Ok, more like NO time to post on the blog. Hence the long break.

Besides just being crazy busy with the end of the school year/graduating/moving/figuringoutsummer/life, I think I got a little confused by the blog world.

I love blogging. All aspects of it.

I love…

looking at blogs,

reading blogs,

hearing about blogs,

supporting blogs,

writing on my blog,

saying and typing the word blog…

It is an awesome release and a great way to connect with other people that share a similar interest.

However, I think I got a bit caught up in the whole “health blog” thing and started feeling this pressure to take pictures of everything I ate and exercise in a health blog way and I stopped liking it. I have come to the conclusion that I just don’t want to be that type of blog because it is just not the best thing for me personally.

I needed to take time and decide whether I wanted to keep blogging and if so I needed to decide where to take this blog.

I really do want to keep blogging. I have missed it over the past months but I am sort of restructuring it. For me, that means sharing my expertise in food and thoughts on nutrition, but not showing every meal I eat. That means sharing about life in general, what I am up to, that means sharing about things in life that don’t relate to food and fitness, and most importantly, that means NOT preparing for, signing up for, or attempting to be a marathon runner (I feel like that is now a qualification for all blogs these days but alas…not me, but congrats to all that love it!)

Honestly I think this is my way of just committing myself to approaching blogging/my blog/reading other blogs in a different way.

So I am backing up, starting over, restructuring my mind so that I can really enjoy this little blog, and I hope you will too.

Thanks

Nikki Noodle

Well, my sissy was visiting this past week and let. me. tell. you. it is VERY hard to focus on school/work/life/blog/anythingelseintheworld when your sister is present and in relaxation/vacation/springbreakmode. So no, I didn’t do my usual food prep last week, no, I haven’t been remembering meals or keeping track of recipes, and yes, I have been enjoying many meals out and wonderful indulgences. But everyone needs that every once in a while right ?

What I have learned from all of this indulgence in the past week or so is this:

I am definitely lactose intolerant (ok probably not the deep insight you were looking for but oh well…) Rather than a “special occasion” thing, froyo has become more of a “regular outing” thing. Cheese has entered its way back into my diet in full force…

 

Oh and I might have had one or two three or five bites of this very milky shake… (I might have even had a few bites of the cake despite me “not liking chocolate” because that is definitely starting to change.

So, all that has made for a rather upset stomach. So, while it was fun, cheesy and delicious, it is time for be to get back on the “yogurt as the only for of dairy” train for a while so that I can feel good again. (in case you were wondering…yogurt is much easier to digest and even if you have problems with lactose most can still handle yogurt…although even that hasn’t been the best lately )

Other than that, it has been another great week full of sunshine. Nicole and I went to Steuben’s for the infamous Gravy Fries (see above), she came to class with me, (and endured some very looooong classes, thanks to pinterest…)

we hit up Zumba (ooobbvvvioussly)

we made dinner and had it in front of a movie (yum fritattas…my obsession as of late!)

…and then…

We got to spend the day at the spa!

OH MAN.

Thanks Mom!!

After the spa we went to Udi’s and split an apple and brie sandwich and a mango chicken and goat cheese salad (see what I mean with the cheese?)

We then went to my favorite bookstore and sat and looked at magazines. Wonderful day. Later that night we hit up D Bar for a Cake and Shake.

The next day she was off and it was all over sooner than it began.

I would say it was a good trip though

What is your favorite treat/indulgence/snackthatmakesyoufeelsickbutyoueatanyways?

 

WIAW (where the W stands for weekend)

This weekend was probably the best I have had in a while. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my roommates in the sunshine which was much needed!

On Friday night my sister and her friend Jules flew in. My sister is here for less than a week and somehow managed to pack two large suitcases. Oh and despite the two of them arriving two hours early for their direct flight to Denver, Jules’ luggage ended up in Portland. Good thing Nicole packed enough for the two of them.

While they didn’t get in until about midnight, which meant for a late night to bed, we decided to wake up early and head out to Snooze for breakfast. Definitely worth the lack of sleep.

They brought us a DELICIOUS cinnamon roll pancake to split with white chocolate chips, cinnamon butter, pecans  and I am sure a bunch of other delicious things that I don’t remember but definitely enjoyed!

I got my usual decaf soy cappuccino, which was nice and foamy . I also ordered the vanilla, almond bruleed oatmeal which was fabulous.

Nicole got eggs and sausage on a pretzel bun, which was actually soft and easy to bite into which made for a delicious combo of flavors. Jules got a benedict with salmon on rye bread. Katie ordered their amazingly delicious french toast and their panacake of the day which had cranberries and lemon noosa. Who can say no to anything that has noosa? We all got to taste that one.

It was a good way to start to the day

Afterwords we said goodbye to Nicole and Jules (as they headed off for a weekend in Vail), hopped in the car, pumped up the tunes (where there was definitely some Britney, Jessica and Christina being played) and headed to boulder for some hiking and sunshine.

After that we stopped for ice cream. Oatmeal cookie ice cream anyone? Then back home for supper group, which was Easter themed (no picture, sorry, but ham, egg salad, fruit salad, chocolate eggs….)

The next morning was EASTER, which meant I had a big bowl of cereal!! WOOHOOO

After that we headed to church, came back to campus for a picnic in the sun, came home and dyed Easter eggs outside and then made a Easter dinner Roomie style

We made chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese topped with a nice chunky tomato sauce, a salad with peas, slivered almonds and cranberries, hot crossed buns, roasted baby potatoes and this rocking dessert:

Some leftovers of Giorgia’s famous Easter Pie (her Grandma’s specialty!), Lindt chocolate bunny broken into pieces, oatmeal cookie ice cream, and Cadbury eggs, epic presentation and ultimate deliciousness.

It was a fabulous meal.

That’s the weekend…pretty indulgent but more to come on the week later. Lots of good eats but also excited to get back on a normal routine and I have a bunch of new recipes I want to try out!

What is your favorite Easter treat? Do you eat ham?

10 Reasons To Smile: April 2013

Welcome to APRIL! Another month down in the pursuit of summer

April is SPRING so here are 10 reasons that I am smiling this month and why you should too!

1. Cereal is back in my life and it should probably be in yours too. Although, I do have to say that while I love cereal as a snack, it just doesn’t make the best meal/breakfast. I had a nice bowl this morning but I missed my oatmeal or yogurt or toast when I started getting hungry shortly after.

I had some fiber one with some frozen banana (love it because it makes the milk super cold and creamy) and raisins with some whole foods unsweetened, original almond milk.

Cereal has a tendency to make you really full and then one hour later you are hungry again. SO, I definitely look at cereal as a treat or dessert in my life. I love snacking on it plain We indulged a bit this weekend in some Peanut Butter Toast Crunch…like eating a butter finger. So you should smile because someone thought to create that. MMmMMm peanut buttery goodness. We also grabbed some delicious Fiber One Honey Clusters and Frosted Shredded Wheat along with some cheerios for some fun on Easter Morning.

2. Spring means sunshine and sunshine means hiking. Being outside in the sun is like the best form of medicine.

3. Sunshine also means FROYO. I always crave frozen yogurt. Period. And when I finally do get it, I am one happy camper.

We went to a new place called Boom! I loved it and really appreciated their smaller cup sizes mainly because I like to have everything fitting together in a compact cup. For some reason, in my mind, the larger the cup, the more spread out the yogurt will be and the faster it will melt. So having a smaller cup just eases my mind.

4. Spring also means rain, which means places like this are going to get even more gorgeous. So smile when it rains (even when you secretly want to complain)!

5. Easter means beautiful Eater eggs as a centerpiece which later means eggs for days. SO that is worth smiling about.

 

6. I can now say that I graduate next month, which is exciting but also makes me sentimental. It reminds me to try to enjoy each moment and appreciate wherever you are in life.

7. Lent is a time of giving something up and now that lent is over our Pastor at church challegned us to take something up. Add something to our lives that we have been meaning to add that we know would be beneficial. I am still deciding exactly what I want to do, but I think this is a great idea and a great challenge and I am excited about it.

8. We are doing another showing of MissRepresentation this month which reminds us to be proud of our bodies and treat them with respect and respect and love the people around us!

9. You are beautiful and wonderful just the way you are. So you should definitely be smiling by now.

10. He is STILL RISEN!