Decision Made

Hey Guys, I am officially switching over me. Please follow me at anappleaday13.wordpress.com

I just feel like switching to wordpress is the best thing for me right now. Feel free to comment, follow, or follow me on twitter!

Thank you and I hope to see you there. (I just posted!)

Last Minute Trip to CaLi...why not??

This past weekend was my Grandma’s 87^th birthday and for the first time in forever the whole family was flying/driving up to the Bay Area to be together and celebrate. On top of that, my oldest sister, brother and law, and nephews were moving to a new house about an hour away. This meant that they were exhausted and losing their minds, and the kids would be taking up residence at our house for a few days. My parents decided to call in reinforcements…enter Auntie “Barah” (Caleb is recently into rhyming, so goodbye Sarah and hello Barah)

I got a text on Tuesday explaining the weekend’s events and asking if I would like to come home because the whole family getting together might not happen again, or at least not for a long time. And let’s be honest, they really needed some help with some riled up boys that they would be watching over the weekend. After figuring everything out I booked a flight and arrived in Cali on Friday and had a whirlwind of a weekend, and caught a 6am flight back to Denver Monday morning.

I had an awesome weekend that actually felt like a week home rather than two days but left me rather exhausted. Though everything that went on was a blast, the best moment happened on Saturday morning. Friday night Hol and Mike stayed at the new house and the boys stayed at ours. On Saturday morning at about 6:50am I heard my door creaking open. I looked at the door and saw a very small little boy standing in the opening. It was my little 2-year-old nephew Luka. I don’t know what made him come to my room, but he did and I am so glad. I called him over and lifted him up and held him. He ended up falling asleep for another hour or so. I stayed awake, thinking about how much I love that little boy. I felt such protectiveness over him and kept holding him tight thinking how I would never let anything bad ever happen to him. I love being an Aunt! It was a super special moment that I will never forget.

Once they were both awake, the chaos commenced. Blueberry pancakes, play, play, playing, running around, cookie making, and some more playing. 

Finally Hol and Mike got back and I went with them to see the new house…

 

Which has this little beauty sitting in it…

We then played some more in the backyard which contains

This…

How can you go wrong??

Oranges for dayzzz

That night was the party, which was super fun, but went really quickly. The next day I got to spend relaxing with my mom, walking through town, and enjoying the day.

It was a lovely weekend and I am so glad I got to go!

Done anything spontaneous recently?

Mind Blown

So I ended up taking a quick trip back to California this weekend...but more on that later. First, I need to talk about a few things I tried today that I L-O-V-E!

So I have tried freeze dried fruits before. They are great, tart and fun, but nothing I feel like I need in my life everyday. That is, until I tried Trader Joe's freeze dried GRAPES! So good. Basically candy. They kind of stick to your teeth in a fun way and are tart but still sweet and they don't have that chalky texture that freeze dried fruits usually have. I am in love. We went back to TJ's today to grab some for me to take back to school (because...sigh...we don't have TJ's in Denver...YET!) and I had to try the freeze dried bananas. Which I also love, and they happen to pair perfectly with the grapes, yess! The bananas are a bit more chalky, but they are super flavorful and fun. Like eating bananas without getting sticky and gooey hands :)

So, just in case your mind has not been completely blown by the above, enter the most amazing corn tortillas I have ever had.

I apologize in advance, because I have absolutely no idea as to whether these are sold at all Whole Foods and grocery stores, but if you see them, please buy them. They are thick and doughy and chewy and soft and moist. They are a mix of corn and wheat so they aren't super dry and they hold up, bend without cracking and are strong. I tore off a piece of one and immediately had to make lunch with them. It ended up being turkey, tomato, guac and mixed greens in a tortilla and it was incredible. Quite frankly though, I could have just eaten them plain (as in the whole bag of them... ;)

Sit tight, one more life changer to come. I might be a little late to the game with this one... 

Thank you Cheerios for making a sweet and peanut buttery deliciousness that I will now need to have regularly around to snack on. Or I may need to prohibit them from entering the house due to the fact that they may not last more than two minutes. I will be snacking on these for dessert tonight...

#ilovecereal

What's your favorite cereal?

Still Deciding...until then SATURDAY

I am still deciding whether or not to make the switch to wordpress...any thoughts? 
 Until then...

When you start off the day with an awesome workout, there is almost no doubt that it is going to be a good day. I woke up without an alarm on Saturday, and luckily it was still rather early! I did pbfingers 45 Minute Beat Boredom Treadmill Workout. It pretty much did what the title said, it kept me majorly entertained, which says a lot considering I have a little bit of a problem with getting bored at the gym. It switched between inclines, sprinting, and jumping off the treadmill to do other exercises. Let me tell you, 6.0 feels like a slow jog after sprinting at 9.0!
This sweaty mess of a workout was followed by a trip to the indoor farmer's market! My roomie and I went in together on some blueberry, cinnamon, walnut butter. YUM! It is like an oatmeal cookie in a jar. Lots of fun booths and good food.

Next, I packed some lunch, grabbed a coffee and went to my new favorite place ever...The local LIBRARY! I know I am a nerd, but they have loads of fun CDs to listen to, awesome desks to sit at, and you are surrounded by books, which is incredibly inspiring. I ended up spending like 3 hours there. I then checked out a movie and two books and the experience changed my life. I went up to the self check out, scanned my library card and then placed the three items on the glass plate and before I even really put the books down, the computer had read what the three items were and they were checked out. AMAZING. I really don't know how it works but my mind was blown. I then proceeded to tell everyone I saw the rest of the night about the amazing library check out.

The day ended with a pizza party. I came home and Katie was busy making a bunch of pizza dough. And don't worry...she kept it nice and warm and cozy in bed...

A bunch of friends came over and we made a few pizzas, which included a pesto/chicken/mozzarella pizza, a brussels sprout/goat cheese/caramelized onion pizza, and a zucchini/pecorino romano/arugula/balsamic pizza.

The day ended with a relaxing movie and then I was off to bed. Overall I would say it was a successful day.

Anappleaday13.wordpress.com

I think I am going to switch to wordpress. My new address would be anappleaday13.wordpress.com

Trying it out...check it out. 

A little Cardio, a little muffin

I got sick :(. Last week was painful and I hadn't felt that sick in a long time. So, knowing that the gym was going to be a painful experience after spending the week sitting and aching, I was feeling a little anxious and indecisive about my trip to the gym. So I hit up my Indecisive Cardio Workout. You can extend the time on each machine and challenge yourself more depending on how you are feeling. 

I started with about 5-7 minutes of warm up and ended with 5-7 minutes cool down to make a 40-45 minute workout!

I also have a new favorite snack. These non-fat bran muffins. I adapted the recipe from Nancy Silverton, changing a few things up a bit to make them fat free and a bit healthier. Perfect little snack, fiber, fiber, fiber and yummmmmm.

Fuel for that midday hump. Or I can't wait to grab a cappuccino and head to the library with a muffin and my coffee :)

At the last minute I added in a spalsh of vanilla (1 tsp) and a sprinkle or two of cinnamon! Adjust to your liking!!

Because of the applesauce these are suuuuuper moist! BEWARE of moist deliciousness. 

Can You Find Me?

 Just at work, sitting at the front desk, when I looked up and saw myself in the distance...can you find me???

Recently, I was at Whole Foods and I cam across these delicious guys...

They are brand new sweet potato and cinnamon crackers. I love them. They have just a hint of cinnamon making them somewhat spicy, along with that wonderful sweet potato flavor, and they still satisfy your need for salt and crunch in a cracker. 

I dipped these in hummus and enjoyed. Although, they are just as good on there own. I would highly reccommend these!

THERE I AM! :) 

Have a great day everyone!

What's your favorite midday snack? 

Up To No Good

After a long week of freezing cold weather, major sickness and every possible midterm, project, paper and presentation due, it was time for a long weekend filled with fun and relaxation, no homework allowed.

Thankfully this weekend came with some much needed SUNSHINE!! Finally, some time to soak up some sunshine for my vitamin D intake, go for walks and bike rides, and feel some sense of hope of winter actually eventually ending. 

 It started with some amazing people and deep conversation, which required glasses for thinking. My friend meg and I recently went to an all day summit for Educating Children of Color (more on that later) we were incredibly inspired and passionate to make a change. One of the things that really stuck out at us was when one of the speakers, Marianne Williamson, referenced how we as a society tend to keep things shallow in the hopes of including the most people rather than going deep. I mean think about it, how often do you really go below the surface with people? One lady stood up and mentioned how she had a "Food For Thought" where they got together, ate food and talked about some of the deeper issued. Meg and I decided to take this idea and run with it and on Friday night we had our own Food For Thought. It was amazing. We all talked about different things that we were passionate about and changes we want to see happen. I am SO excited to see where this goes because I have a feeling some amazing things are going to happen.

I think it was friday morning that I turned to Giorgia and told her that I wanted to do something to my hair, either dye the tips or just add in a streak of color. I asked if she would do it with me and she happily agreed so we hopped on the bikes and went and got some hair dye. The color of choice was red. On Saturday the sketchy hair dying commenced. We had to put up all the parts of our hair that we didn't want dyed which made for quite the fashion statement...

It didn't come out super strong so we did a second round on Sunday. It is still light and barely noticeable (which I am mildly thankful for) but I like it and I like knowing it is there. Fun and will probably fade away in a few weeks.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was going to the library and sitting in a study room and get piles of cds and downloading some awesome music. Best. Idea. Ever.

This was followed by some failed attempts at baking. We have tons of pretzels in the cabinet and so Giorgia and I were trying to think of something to do with them. We ended up making this peanut butter pudding thing with a pretzel crust. Good, but needed some adjusting. maybe we will try it again and alter it a bit....We used this lemon pudding recipe and substituted peanut butter for the lemon. Interesting

The weekend final event included a trip to boulder to a tea house where we enjoyed tea and lunch. A wonderful appetizer of flavorful shrimp and white beans, Vanilla nut roobios tea and then a delicious salad of figs, poached pears, walnuts, arugula and the most amazing tea vinaigrette.

So fun, so classy...

Finally, I wrapped up my weekend with a delicious dinner. I had a one bun with pasta sauce some cheddar and parm and a fried egg on top for my own mini pizza with some broccoli and peas on the side. YUM.

Now it's back to school.

A Quick Break!

After eating a really good lunch, I decided to give a little food update. Also, I have definitely been working on homework for too many hours and it is making my back ache so I need a little break :)

This is also an awesome opportunity for me to do some product reviews because I have been trying some awesome new foods that I would highly recommend.

When I went shopping the other day I was really looking forward to buying some Applegate Chicken and Apple Sausage which I had over break and they were soooo good. Unfortunately they were out so instead I went for The Natural Brat Hans Mild Italian Chicken Sausage, which was a great choice! Last night I sauteed some sliced apples and cinnamon and sliced the sausage and cooked that. I then added some leftover spaghetti squash to the mix and threw in some peas. It needed a sauce so I mixed a little bit of pumpkin and almond milk and heated that up and mixed it in with some thyme, salt and pepper. It was a bit of a mish mosh, but ended up being really good.

Today I had one of my favorite Fat Flush Plan tortillas (its a healthy tortilla without that usual taste. I love it because it is still really soft and chewy.) I spread some hummus and then put some sliced mushrooms and some West Soy Thai Sesame Peanut Baked Tofu. This tofu is the best! It doesn't taste overly salty and it really taste marinated, rather that just patted with a bunch of flavor on the outside and then left cold and bland once you bite in. I love the texture, it is smooth and creamy, but still easily hold its shape when cut up! Finally, I love it because each package is portioned into four 90-100 calorie (depending on the flavor) perfect squares that always seem like the right amount! Finally I added in a bunch of romaine lettuce. It was a really good wrap. Well actually I ended up eating it more like a soft taco but hey, no big.

 

And on a final note, yesterday in my food science class we made marshmallows....FUN! Just thought I would share. I can add the recipe later!

 

Ok more later...back to work!

Anticipated, Arrived...History.

We are well on our way to 2014 now and I didn't even see that happen. The holidays came and went and before I knew it I was walking down Christmas Tree Death Row. I really do not feel like I got enough use out of my ugly Christmas Sweatshirt and Pandora is still trying to play jolly Holiday music for me. I guess all I can do now is hunker down and start looking forward to...summer?

The Christmas break was relaxing. Maybe a little too relaxing because I definitely did not get nearly as much work done as I was planning and am now beyond swamped, and just trying to take it a day at a time.

Here are my "12 Days of Christmas" or a quick recap of break in pictures

1. Plenty of time at Peet's with the mom and pop, drinking small decaf soy caps, and splitting their delicious low fat blueberry muffins with my mom!

 

 2. Movies, heater vent time, and family time around the Christmas tree. 

 

3. Baking and shaking puppy chow and rice krispies with this goof. 

 

4. Plenty of walking around town, which may have been interrupted by stops in this place... 

 

5. An amazing and calm Christmas dinner followed by apple pie and cheesecake YUM!

 

6. Coffee and great conversations with the sister. 

 

7. Hiking around the amazing and beautiful Muir Woods with the fam! Must go if you are in the Bay Area!

 

(Note: My mom is really smiling here...this rarely happens!!)

8. Hang out sessions with some awesome boys with stylin' haircuts and hip backpacks

 

9. Visiting old friends for the first time in a long time!

 

10. Delicious Birthday brunches and dinners for the sisters

 

11. A crazy New Years party with some crazy kids. 

 

12. ZZZZZZZZZZ, plenty of sleeping in my bed. (Electric blanket....need I say more??)

Well, I am pretty sure that covers it. I hope everyone else had a relaxing and fun holiday season/break!  Happy New Year!