Cinco De Mayo!

It's Cinco De Mayo and instead of drinking margs and eating chalupas I'm studying...well not yet but I will be after this post.  I have an overstock of pics so I suppose I'll just post them all so I can get to my studying.  I am jobless for the summer as of now so I'll have more time to post after tomorrow night when my finals are DONE!  (Anyone have any job ideas?)

My fav, grilled with olive oil and parmesan

Homemade pizza with Keefer.  Pesto, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, mushroom, onion, YUM

First experience with overnight oats.  Verdict?  Not so good.  There was pb in here and as always, I just can't get into pb in my oatmeal.  The strawberries and bananas were the best!

Best part of the salads was the avocado.  I cannot get enough of it lately!

Keefer and I made veggie lasagna but it didn't cut it for me.  I didn't like the cream sauce and I missed the tomatoness, if that's a word.

One of my new fav desserts...banana with choco syrup.  Simple and delishh.

My first LUNA bar experience and I loved it!  So good!  Can't wait to try the other flavors.

More asparagus!

Spinach, cheese, mushroom and onion omelette.  This grapefruit was SO delicious too.  Best part of breakfast!

Sushi craving at the grocery store = mistake.  I really should know better

Before I came back to Chi my parents took me on a big grocery shopping trip and I got a ton of yummy food.  I love having a stocked fridge!

Grilled cheese with tomato and MORE asparagus.  I really think I could eat asparagus at every meal.  Kinda looks like a face doesn't it??

I've been waiting to try this ice cream and luckily it was on sale.  This is 150 calories of delicious goodness.  I'm an ice cream LOVVVVER and now a Skinny Cow Ice Cream lover.  I cannot get enough!  It took all my power not to eat it all and save some.

Kinda looks like yesterday's bfast but with avocado, avocado and more avocado.  I promise there is an omelette under there somewhere!

Off to study for my LAST accounting exam.  YAHOO!

OLE!

Tara (:

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 (:

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 (:

Weekend Munchies

It seems that when weekends roll around I become a serious slacker when it comes to blogging.  However, a couple of my best girlfriends were here this weekend so I needed some time to relax and hang with them. What a weekend!  I didn't take pics of everything but I tried to take them when we ate out.

I started my weekend with some maple syrup oatmeal.

Friday night we were celebrating Kate's bday so we were out and about in the city.  Saturday we all had a slow start to our day due to our late night on Friday.  We had tickets to a show at night so we found a cute little restaurant around the bar.  Wishbone was a southern cooking joint.  It was pretty good however I don't know if I would go back.  They did serve rolls and cornbread before which were so good!

I decided to get a burger on brown bread.

The show we went to after dinner was Bye Bye Liver.  It was an interactive, drinking, comedy show.  It was so funny and I had a lot of great laughs.  I would definitely go again.  I think that both men and women would enjoy it although just my girlfriends and I went.  After the show I saw they had one of my FAV beers.  I ordered a Founder's Red Rye and although it wasn't as good as draft, I still loved it!

We also got hungry again later on so we ordered the spinach artichoke appetizer.  (I like having my appetizer after dinner haha.)  It was AMAZING.  I love spinach artichoke dip I just wish it was a bit healthier for me.  haha

This morning I was in a little bit of a rush to get back into the city to meet up with the girls so I made some cream of wheat, banana and agave.  Yum!

We walked around the city until we were ready for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  I have never eaten at this famous restaurant but WOW.  My whole meal was delicious and then the cheesecake was amazing of course!  I got the four seasons pizza which had four different sections and a caesar salad.

For dessert, Kristi and I split the carrot cake cheesecake.  It was hard to decide from all the different choices but I think we made the right decision.  It was fabulous!

Like I said, what a weekend!  I had such a great time with my girlfriends but boy am I tired and I really think I'm sick.  They are preparing us for lots of snow here in Chi so I plan on staying in in my pjs, making spaghetti squash and cheering on Team USA in the hockey game!

Tara (: