A Mitten Blizzard

How did Sunday night get here so fast?  Weekends always go by fast but they seem especially speedy when I'm in The Mitten.  Friday morning I woke up before my weekly intern class to finish packing and get some things done.  I had eggs over easy and they were delicious.  I actually didn't over cook them this time!

I also packed up a lunch for class and the road.  I had a turkey wrap, fiber bar, apples with cinnamon and everything pretzels.

After class I hit the road under clear, blue, sunny, beautiful skies.  Illinois was nice, Indiana was nice, then I drove under the Pure Michigan sign and BAM!  I had to hold on tight to the steering wheel because the wind was blowing my car all over the place and the snow was creating a white out!  I've lived in MI for my whole life so I'm no stranger to driving in the snow but my freshman year of college I got in a nasty accident and have been nervous in bad weather ever since.  Anyway, I ended up sitting in park on the expressway due to an overturned semi.  I hope the driver was okay however I hope that made them realize that they CANNOT go seventy five mph when everyone else is going twenty five.  UGH!  I made it in just under six hours (usually takes me 3.5) and Keith was nice enough to have dinner waiting.  Side-note...one thing I love most about MI is the awesome Pure Michigan commercials they have.  They always remind me of being home and Up North and why I truly love The Mitten.

We had bread with dipping oil for an appetizer.

I love making my own dipping oil mixtures!  This one had olive oil, basil, oregano, garlic and pepper.  I suggested Keith try a recipe I found on FMF's blog.  It was great!  (Also great when we got home from the bar last night.)  We added a bit of cheese on the top as well.  Can't be too cheesy for us!

I was so stressed from my ride that Keefer was nice enough to go out and get me a Burger King strawberry milkshake (I'm very picky about my strawberry milkshakes and I rarely get them but this one is great!) and he also got my a grown up juice box.  YUM!  I think I inhaled the milkshake too fast to take a pic haha.

Yesterday morning Keefer had to get up and go to work so I stayed in bed for an obnoxious amount of time.  It was glorrrrrious.  When he got home he made me this yummy omelet with sausage, tomatoes, mushroom, onion and cheese.  Best om I've had in a while!

We then headed to a coffee shop to study.  One of my midterms was pushed back until after spring break so now I only have two this week woohoo!  (Can't believe I just said woohoo to two midterms, ugh.)  I grabbed a rice krispie treat (my fav) and picked out a tea for two that included vanilla and rooibus tea.  I was trying to recreate the Starbucks kind and it was good but it didn't compare.

Like I've said before, we love trying new recipes together so we thought we would try another Ellie Kreiger recipe.  I love chicken pot pie so I chose this one with phyllo dough.  It turned out to be okay but we both agreed you can't mess with the original recipe.  It's just too awesome the way it is.  We missed the crust.  

Today I had big plans to get up early and study and they didn't really happen.  We made french toast on texas toast bread, always amazing.

We were then off to the library for a good part of the day.  I felt like I was back in undergrad again and actually missed it.  Every time I'm back on the MSU campus I get so nostalgic and miss it terribly.  Especially living in my house with all my roommates!  We packed some grapes, Pringles and trail mix to hold us over.  Studying always gives me the munchies..and Keith the crazies I guess!

This mix from Costco is awesome!  Ignore the hideous econ notes underneath.

We get to use one 4x6 notecard as a "cheat sheet."  I don't think I've ever written so small.

We finally had to leave because I was starving and we had homemade pizza on the brain.  We made our pesto pizza again and this time topped with sausage (which we couldn't even really taste), mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, roasted onions and garlic, mozzarella and feta.  SO delicious.  I could eat this everyday.

For dessert Keefer made me some cinnamon sugar toast.  I used to love this when I was younger and forgot how good it was!

Off to bed.  I have an early (and hopefully less snowy) drive back to Chi tomorrow morning.

Tara (:

Rotten Potatoes

This morning I forgot to take a pic of breakfast!  Woops!  I made two eggs over easy and wheat toast though so you get the picture.  I also forgot to take pics of my snacks during class.  I had a blood orange, Pringles and a fiber bar.  I did another work out sesh with Hannah today but didn't push it as hard as I did last week because I wanted to be able to move my arms. haha  When I got home I finished off the rest of the pasta salad from last night.

I also finished off the last bit of my granola while I made some more!

I bringing this to Keefer tomorrow because he really liked it last time but I was going to read this so if he reads this before I get there, SURPRISE!  haha

While I was looking around for something to make before class I went to grab for a potato and realized they were rotten and stuck my finger right through one.  It was sooooo nasty.  One of the worst smells ever ugh!  Thennnn while I was reading my book today I noticed that THIRTY pages were missing so I had to run to the library so I wouldn't be out of a book to read in bed.  Thank goodness they had a second copy haha.  I ended up eating a bagel with cream cheese and cucumber with ranch.

After class I was ready for some food so I had chicken corn chowder soup and vanilla yogurt with Puffins.  Marie surprised me and brought down delicious sweet potato cookies.  They were SO good and I can't wait to try and make them myself.

I'm off to read some of my book with all of the pages!

Tara (:

Cookie Spills and Books

I've just finished doing homework for the last seven, yes SEVEN, hours.  The worst part is that is was for ONE class that I have a midterm in next week.  UGH!  I did do the homework with Hannah and Marie and we had a few glitches and also decided to make it a pot luck study sesh so I can't blame it all on the Prof.  (But I can blame most of it!)

I'm feeling better today but still not 100%.  Hopefully either tomorrow or at least Friday by the time I'm heading back to The Mitten I'll feel great again.  This morning was another day at the hospital so I had my usual cream of wheat, banana and agave before I left.

PS. Last night after my post I was feeling insatiable and had to have a dessert bowl with vanilla yogurt and Puffins.  So good!  These mini bowls are the best way to minimize my portion sizes.

For lunch I had the same ole same ole but I couldn't finish my orange because I was too full!

Today was my off work out day but Marie and I did walk to the public library to check out some books (I love reading on the train, it makes my commute to the hospital fly by!)  I also grabbed the third Twilight book on cd to listen to on my way to Michigan.  I am not the biggest Twilight fan but they do keep me entertained.  (I'm a 100% Harry Potter fan...aka nerd!)

I made a pasta salad with whole wheat penne, tomatoes, green onions, peas, broccoli, cheese and a little bit of Italian dressing.  (Not enough actually.)  Hannah made a salad and Marie made an awesome Mexican dip.  Studying for hours on end is the worst but making it into a mini potluck definitely lifted our spirits.

We all had a MONSTER sweet tooth so I volunteered to make some homemade chocolate chip cookies (one of my study breaks.)  It was an epic fail, sort of.  I forgot to add the butter until the very end(duh!) so the batter looked/tasted funny (I am a professional chocolate chip cookie dough taster) so we decided to make it into a cookie cake.  When I smelled something burning I looked in the oven to discover it was spilling over everywhere!

The cookie didn't end up tasting too terrible but it was more like a cake than a cookie.  We indulged nonetheless.  I have the rest wrapped up to give to my fav maintenance man tomorrow because he'll eat anything and I'm not keeping it around my apartment!

Look, I already have my vitamins laid out for tomorrow, I must be off to bed...my eyelids are struggling to stay open.

Night bloggies!

Tara (:

More Veggies Please

Sickness, sickness, GO AWAY!  I felt better this morning than I did yesterday morning but it was more of a head cold today.  I did make it to my internship but didn't see any patients so i left a bit early.  My morning fuel was cream of wheat, banana and agave.

For lunch I snapped a pic last night when i was making it so I wouldn't forget.  I had melon, an apple, a blood orange, a cheese stick, a fiber bar and a turkey sandwich.  My lunch for tomorrow looks very similar so I think I need to make a goal for next week to throw in some more veggies.  (I only had spinach on my sandwich!)

When I got home I hit the gym for my 30 min cardio day and the treadmills were full so I rode the bike.  I also did some abs and planned on doing a yoga video when I got home but it wasn't working!  

Today turned out to be kind of a four meal day so for a linner I had my leftover pizza from The Cheesecake Factory, cottage cheese and an acorn squash with butter and brown sugar.  (When I have acorn squash like this it is like a dessert, my fav!)

After class I was starving so I made an open faced tuna melt on a Slimwich!

I'm watching The Olympics and relaxing for the rest of the night.  I have three midterms next week so I better start studying tomorrow!

Night!

Tara (:

Blogworld sickies.

I feel like in every blog I read someone is getting sick, I hope we aren't posting germs!  I did end up stopping on the way to class to get the vanilla tea from Starbucks.  I also broke down and got an oatmeal cookie.  (I haven't had one since before winter break!)  They were so delicious and I enjoyed them during class.  Definitely my fav tea anddd cookie!

You can also see I packed an apple with cinnamon and my water bottle of course.  I cannot go to my class or internship without my water bottle or I die of thirst.  I haven't bought water bottles from the store at all this year so I'm saving lots of money!

Although these were great snacks, I was starving by the time I got out of class.  I needed to use up some leftovers and I wanted some protein.  My protein-less meal last night had me starving while I was trying to fall asleep.  Silly mistake.  I made a delicious nacho with my leftover taco meat.  I also had multigrain chips, refried beans, tomatoes, colby jack cheese, green and white onions.  This meal was definitely not lacking in protein (in fat either I suppose.)

I'm off to bed to try and end this cold.  

Goodnight!

Tara (:

Adios orzo

I woke up this morning feeling the worst yet!  I had a sore throat, runny nose and water eyes, yuck.  I'm feeling a little better now but I'm really trying to shake this thing before heading to MI this weekend.  I decided I needed a big nutritious breakfast to get me going today so I chose tea instead of coffee.  I also had two eggs over easy with two pieces of whole wheat toast and three, yes three, kiwis.  They were going to go bad soon and they were too delicious so I thought a couple extra servings of fruit wouldn't hurt.  I also had a big glass of OJ.

After my food settled I decided I needed to make a trip to the gym despite being a little sick.  I didn't make it there all weekend and sometimes the gym makes me feel better...which it did!  I did my "Monday Workout" from my workout plan.  It was tough but I think it's going to be great.  My arms were sore ALL weekend from my workout on Thursday.  

I was ready for some lunch when I got home so I cut up a grapefruit and finished off the rest of my orzo dish.  I didn't think it should sit in the fridge any longer.  I'm kind of glad it's gone though because I made such a big batch and was getting a little tired of it.  I have a ton of leftovers in the fridge so I think that's what I'll be eating this week.  I hate letting any food go bad.  I also cut up a melon for my lunches for interning this week but only snagged a couple pieces because I was pretty full.

I don't think I'll be hungry for dinner before class but I may have to stop at Starbucks and get some vanilla tea to keep me going.

Adios!

Tara (:

U-S-A, U-S-A!!

Just watched Team USA beat Canada in hockey.  Great game!!  My brother played hockey so I remember spending a lot of time in ice rinks growing up.  It's always fun to watch a good hockey game.  (Too bad I can't play, or skate for that matter.)

After a fabulous food filling weekend I thought I should try and cram in some veggies for dinner.  I made spaghetti squash for the first time ever!  I didn't end up cooking it as long as I should have but I like to call it al dente squash.  I cut it in half, scraped out the weeds and baked it upside down in a bit of water.  (Just like I do acorn squash.)  I baked at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Once I was done I scraped it out, added some spaghetti sauce and mushrooms and ate up!  I also made kale chips which I originally saw on CNC.  They were amazing!  I can't believe a dark green leafy vegetable can taste like a potato chip!  I will definitely be making these again.

Kale may be one of my new fav veggies.  (Not more than asparagus though...which I made the other night and forgot to post!)

Almost every time I make asparagus I brush it with olive oil, sprinkle with parmesan and grill on the George Foreman.  It is SO good and has to be my fav food.  MMMMMMMMMM.

For dessert I snacked on the rest of my dark chocolate pretzel thins.  (Good thing there weren't too many left.)

Now I'm trying to make sure I feel all better by the time I have to go to the hospital on Tuesday so I'm drinking green tea and taking Echinacea.  I don't always believe in supplements but Echinacea does seem to shorten the length of my illnesses when I take it as soon as I feel something coming on.  Whether it be the placebo effect or not, I'll take it.  haha.

Now I'm off to relax and get ready for the week.  Goodnight!

Tara (: