One down...

Paper is done and submitted!  Only a couple more projects and exams stand in the way of having two semesters of grad school under my belt.

Yesterday after I hit the gym for a work out I made a smoothie with a frozen fruit blend.  I love eating smoothies after the gym, I feel cooled off and refreshed.

Before class I made a big salad with a grilled chicken breast.  It was good and it really filled me up!

Today I forgot to snap pics of my breakfast eggs.  I did make some brown rice and a salad for lunch that was so tasty!

When I got home from class I made an open faced tuna melt.  It really hit the spot.

I also grabbed some ice cream after that I had been craving.  It was SO worth it!  Love mint chocolate chip!

Off to bed, I have an evaluation and an interview tomorrow, wish me luck!

Tara (:

Chili Flop

Hey ya'll!  My late dinner last night turned out to be kind of a fail.  I've had some chili frozen in the freezer for a while so I took it out to eat it last night and it was pretty dry.  I threw some cottage cheese on top but it just didn't taste right.  Good thing I had made a  yummy salad to go with it!  I was craving ranch dressing last night, weird!

This morning I woke up and decided to make an omelette.  I threw in two eggs, mushroom, onion and cheese and topped it with avocado.  I also had two pieces of toast and a banana.  I couldn't even finish my omelette and it held me over for hours until I ate a smoothie (which I forgot to take a pic of.)

Avocados are SO yummy!  

Before class I threw together a quick dinner. I chopped up a potato with onion and garlic and topped it with some basil.  I also dipped in ketchup which made them almost taste like hashbrowns.  MMM.  Because the weather was so nice today I ran outside and for some reason that made me feel like a piece of BBQ chicken.  Had to have some green beans too!  Unfortunately they aren't fresh green beans.  Canned green beans really stink compared to the real deal.

I had a sweet tooth when I got home from class so I put PBJ on a rice cake.  It really hit the spot!  (:

I can see myself becoming addicted to these.  

Off to relax before bed, night!

Tara (:

PB Problemo

Phew, I made it through Tuesday.  They are my longest days because I have interning all day and then class.  It feels like a mini accomplishment when they are over.

Yesterday when Keefer left I gobbled up the rest of my dad's beef veggie stew.  YUM!

After the gym I ran to Johnny's to get their italian ice.  It is SO good and such a treat.  I just need to find out the nutrition facts.  I'm sure there is a fair share of sugar in there but the best part about it is that it's not TOO sweet.

I also snuck a piece of Gramma's oatmeal bread.

Before class I heated up my leftovers from the other night.  Roasted veggies and roasted chicken.  MMM

I grabbed some yogurt with my granola added to it for dessert.

This morning I had to wake up a bit early so that I could register for summer and fall classes (which means I'll only be registering for classes ONE more time, YAY!)  It was so nice to drink my coffee and relax instead of rush.  I added pb to my oatmeal this morning for some protein but for some reason I just CANNOT get into pb in the morning.  Weird, I know.  I also topped it with a nanner.

I snapped a pic of my lunch last night while packing and then dumb me left out my turkey sanwich.  Needless to say, I threw it away this morning and made a quick pbj.

Today I met with a patient at the hospital who was a type 2 diabetic in poor condition and he REFUSED to talk to me saying that he would not change any of his habits.  I know we all have habits that are hard to break but it's really sad that some people let it harm themselves.

I had lots to do after my internship and before class so I stopped at Subway for a turkey sub loaded up with veggies and some broccoli cheddar soup.  No pic, woops.

Dessert was chocolate and a smoothie tonight.  YUM!  My smoothie was a banana, OJ, whole grain drink, yogurt and an apple.  The apple was a weird texture but yummy.

(Blurry pic, eek)

Off to bed, night!

Tara (:

Spring in my Step

Hello bloggies!  Hope you all had a great weekend.  Mine was wonderful and relaxing!  Keefer came this weekend because I was dog/house-sitting for my mom's friend and didn't want to stay there alone.  It was nice to not be crammed in my studio but it's always good to be back in my own place with my own things. This weekend was filled with some good eats so here goes a mixture of my weekend...

Breakfast...

My usual cream of wheat with bananas.

Scrambled Eggs.

Old fashion oats with dried cranberries and cinnamon.

Keefer's hashbrowns.  YUM

Breakfast out!

This served as breakfast...and then again for lunch later.

Mine too!

Monday fuel.  Lots of eggs this weekend it seems, huh.

Lunch...

For lunch we tried this little place in town called Alpine Deli.  It was SO good and cheap.  I love finding these little gems.  It was cheap too!

One of our snacks...

Dinner was courtesy of Ellie Krieger this weekend.  She really has some amazing recipes.  This weekend we decided on tuscan roasted chicken and vegetables.  We added acorn squash, mushrooms and onions to the recipe.  It was SO good.  I cannot wait to eat the leftovers!

We paired it with some garlic bread we bought from the Alpine Deli...again, SO yummy!  This may be my new fav place.

Last night we prepared Ellie's penne roasted tomatoes, garlic, and white beans.  We used whole wheat shells instead of penne and pinto beans.  It was a GREAT recipe that I also can't wait to make again.  I think I may add spinach and more tomatoes next time though.

I also made salads topped with tomatoes, onions, sprouts, mushrooms, olives, croutons, avocados, pepper and balsamic dressing.  Green beans on the side too!

This wasn't everything we ate this weekend but it's everything I remembered to take a pic of.  (There may have been some brownies in there too haha.)

Last night I made a batch of pudding and we topped it with a banana!

Keefer got to stay a bit later tonight so we got to go for a nice walk.  It's beautiful outside but still a little chilly.  I LOVE thinking that summer is getting so close.  Can't wait to have warm weather and a year of grad school under my belt.

(So glad I was walking and not taking the train anywhere today!)

I'm off to ask for donations for National Nutrition Month and hit the gym.  Happy Spring!

Tara (:

Poor Packer

All done with classes until after spring break, YES!  Only one nutrition conference stands in my way of going home.  Tomorrow my school is hosting Chicago area dietetic interns to learn about diversity in dietetics.  Hopefully I can head home before it gets too late tomorrow.

Woke up a little early this mornin so that I could make myself this awesome omelet.  

I stuffed this omelet with tomatoes, mushroom, onion, and mozzarella.  Had some whole wheat toast on the side too.  I was also craving some OJ.

I hit the gym before class to do my weekly lifting with Hannah.  I really do think I'm getting stronger!  I also did a run/walk for 40 min which felt great.  I hate going to class sweaty but it's worth saving the gas and only driving to campus once.

When I got home I split up my chicken breast and the rest of the leftovers from last night.  On the side I had some cottage cheese.

For a snack later on I grabbed some yogurt with my homemade granola mixed in.  So tasty!

My fridge is just about empty!

After class I snacked on grapefruit.  So juicy and yummy!

I need the award for the world's worst packer.  I have NEVER been good at packing.  I imagine every possible situation in my head and end up packing a ton of outfits as a result.  I love shoes too so it's always hard to decide which ones to bring.  (Yes that is my tiny kitchenette in the background....only a couple more months in this kitchen!)

Thankfully it fit!

I'm off to bed for an early rise and long day tomorrow.  Night bloggies!

Tara (:

Pink Inspiration

Howdy folks!  We are over the hump.  Can't wait until Friday when my spring break starts!  I'm headed back to MI and I'm sure it won't be quite like my trip last year to Puerto Vallarta but it will be wonderful to be back home with friends and family nonetheless.

Today I forgot to take a pic of my breakfast oatmeal AGAIN.  What's wrong with me???  Oh well, I did remember to snap a pic of my lunch today.  Like I said, I don't like to go grocery shopping before I go home so my fridge usually gets pretty bare the week before.  Today I had a PBJ, blood orange, everything pretzels, cheese stick and carrots.

Today was an interesting day at my internship...like I said yesterday, we worked on a display for National Nutrition Month, Nutrition From the Ground Up!  It took us a while to figure out what we were going to do so we didn't quite finish.  This will have to be to be continued...

haha it looks like the second layer of grass is floating but thats a second shelf.  The top shelf will be nutrition info!  We tried to give it a "grass roots" kind of theme so hopefully that's how it will turn out.  I really do love this theme!

So now for the really interesting part of my day.  We have to choose a case study patient to research and present to all of the RDs at the hospital at the end of the semester.  Yesterday I found the most interesting and one of the saddest patients I have seen.  A teenager who had a gun shot wound to the face.  Everything about his story amazed me and drew me in  (I'd love to share it all but that's not exactly legal.)  I will be reviewing his fractured jaw diet and his progression back to a general diet.  I got to speak to him today for a while (while he was eating his pureed diet) and I spoke with him about how lucky he was to be alive!  It also made me think of how grateful I am not to have grown up in a neighborhood where I EVER had to worry about guns or crime.  Definitely something I take for granted.  Anyways, the good news is that he is 100% okay...crazy, I know!

When I got home I could not bring myself to go to the gym because it was just too beautiful outside (yes, sunshine and 35 degrees = beautiful.)  I went for a run around the neighborhood and it felt AMAZING.  So good to be back outside running.  Come onnnnnnn spring!  I also tried to do the first ab work out on the p90x dvds.  I couldn't even make it through the whole first work out!  So hard!  Hopefully I'll finish up the rest of it tonight.

I just got these today and I'm not saying that I approve but I heard so much about it and a friend gave me the dvds so I wanted to familiarize myself.  Plus, Pink does it and if I haven't said it yet I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Pink.  LOVE her.  haha

I'll get into all the reasons why I love her another time...

For dinner I decided I needed to use up some of the things in my fridge like mushroom, onion and goat cheese.  My fav recipe that my mom always made growing up was cream cheese chicken which is a chicken breast stuffed with butter and chive and onion cream cheese wrapped in bacon.  (The amount of cals/fat in this recipe CANNOT be thought about...it's just too good.)  I thought about doing this kind of thing but hopefully not as fattening haha.

I also had some broccoli with mozzarella and brown rice on the side.  It kind of looks like the plate method (half veggies, quarter starch, quarter protein.)  My meals never do this!

It was very good but next time I would use less goat cheese, I forget how strong it is.

Here's what I did:

• Preheat oven to 375*
• Sauté mushroom, garlic and onion with olive oil.  (I don't really use amounts...just eyeball it.)
• Pound chicken breast flat.
• Spread mushroom and onion on the chicken breast.
• Put 1 Tbsp (use less!!) in chicken breast.
• Roll chicken breast up.
• Sprinkle with basil and parsley.
• Bake 25 minutes on each side, 50 minutes total.

I have another huge chicken breast leftover so I'll have to eat some of that tomorrow.

I'm going to try and finish this ab session.  Night!

Tara (: