swirling tides

you know that feeling you get when life is changing? 
it's like standing in the middle of a river. 
you can feel the current pushing you forward... or you can fight it and try and walk upstream. 
(i don't usually recommend the latter)
i have this theory:
life is going to work out.


i get so caught up in the fast-paced lifestyle... that i forget to stop and smell the roses that are blooming all around my house...

i keep thinking that everything has to be done NOW!
there is no time to breathe. to think. to do anything other than stress about life.
but you know what?
it's all going to be ok.
so sit back. 
breathe.








i have a slight obsession with this song.
:)

the garden. 
my mom didn't get the memo that slavery was abolished...
at least it gives me something to do while i am looking for a job. (any takers?) my dad says that i have "slave labor" written on my forehead. 


speaking of change, my mom talked me into doing a diet... (shhh! you can't tell anyone...)
being an exercise physiology major, i personally find all of these things fascinating... so i am considering this more "research". 
it's all about becoming "leptin sensitive"
so what is leptin you ask?
it is a protein hormone that plays a "key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism." thank you wikipedia for that flash of inspiration...
basically. if you are "leptin sensitive", you don't get hungry. it's a natural appetite suppressant. 

basically... the mouse on the left is you without leptin.

i'm kidding.

there are 5 basic rules to this "leptin reset"

(the foodie in me died a little when i read this.)

rule 1:  never eat after dinner.  

rule 2:  eat three meals a day.  

rule 3:  do not eat large meals.  

rule 4:  eat a breakfast containing protein. 

rule 5:  reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten.

if you want to read more in-depth about these rules see here.

what i've learned is that WHEN you eat is much more important than WHAT you eat. (this is only partially true... but you will need to do a little research on your own from here on out.)

suffice it to say, when i get munchy around 9:00 every night, the rest of the family packs up and leaves the room. ;)

the basic way of eating follows the paleo-diet. if you've never heard about it, just think caveman. if you didn't have a wal-mart down the street, and instead lived a million years ago, what would you be eating?

and then you eat it. 

and ONLY that.

which is all fine and dandy until you drive past the chinese buffet... 

self control might need to undergo an overhaul as well...

so we're still in the intial stages of this "experiment".

i'll keep you updated.

only 4 more weeks to go...

--------------------

if you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. 

for where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained.

keep adding, 

keep walking, 

keep advancing.

saint augustine

a little bit of every scattered thought.

how is everyone this (lazy) holiday morning?!


i'm fantastic... just in case you were wondering. :)
today is one of those mornings when life is just good. 
happy music-baking-motivated-i'm gonna go on a long run-type of morning!








so i have to work on my motivation to try this... because you know me, i am a very lazy person when it comes to my hair. anything that takes over an hour to do just isn't worth it in my book. 
this one looks like it could take a while...





and you remember that granola that we made like, two days ago?
it's gone!
crisis! i need to make some more!!!
this time, i think i'm going to try this recipe. and then maybe this one. this one??? (i have a surplus of recipes, most of which i haven't had the chance to try yet!) 


pumpkin granola
originally from baking bites


ingredients:
5 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
¾ tsp. salt
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
¼ cup applesauce
¼ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pepitas


directions:
1. preheat the oven to 325° F. line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. in a large bowl, combine oats, spices, and salt. mix well.
3. in a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract. whisk until smooth. pour wet ingredients into oat mixture and stir until the oats are evenly coated. they will be moist. evenly spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.
4. bake for 20 minutes. remove pan from the oven and stir. bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. remove from the oven and stir in dried cranberries and pepitas. let cool completely. store in an airtight container.




i was reminiscing this morning... and decided to plan my next big adventure.

i'm gonna get over you.

this is my happy thought for the day. :)

i want her clothes. and her hair. 

so we tried an experiment today, and made super yummy pumpkin crunch granola. 

(this is like pavlov's dog... i say a food, and you start salivating. muahaha!) 

looks pretty delish don't you think?

(we did make a little subsitution and just used honey instead of all the agave-necter-health-nut stuff... i mean, we are poor college students after all!)

so i told you about my dream yes?

of running a half marathon.

tomorrow is the 5-mile run.

and guess who is a little scared.

NOT ME!

i'm gonna dominate this thing.

:D

bubbly toes

do you ever have a day when you don't know why, but you just wake up and feel glum?

i have a solution for you:

(just try it one time and tell me that it doesn't make your whole entire day that much better!)

last night, the sis and i decided that we needed to use the massive amount of food that we had just received from the parents... and grandpa.. and winco...

(i think my roommates hate us. we take up at least half of the refrigerator.)

but we got squash.

buttercup squash.

and a lot of buttercup squash.

and guess who got a box of apples from grandpa's tree yesterday?

it was meant to be.

my version of buttercup squash & apple soup

kind like this one. and this one. but mostly different.

ingredients:

chicken stock (mom got us some rotisserie chickens from costco... so we de-boned them and then used the carcass to make stock)

2 buttercup squashes

3 onions - roughly chopped

2-4 apples cut into large chunks(depends on the size... and how much you want your soup to taste like apples)

cut the squashes in half and throw them, the roughly chopped onions, and chunked apples on a cookie sheet that has a little bit of water on the bottom

bake in oven until you can easily scoop the squash out of the shell (we left ours in about a half hour at 400)

throw the squash, apples and onion in stock, let simmer and cook together for a few minutes (you can season it with salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, chicken bouillon... i don't ever really measure when i'm making soup. i go purely by taste)

throw it into a blender - and voila!

yummy soup and a very happy tummy.

one proud nerd.

call me a nerd, but i love science. 
call me an even bigger nerd that i watch youtube videos about science. 





(you know you wish you found this first...)


but guess what? today is friiiiiiidayyyyy! :) 
and friday is the day that:
1- i can stop thinking about school for the next 48 hours
2- i can have adventures (and not feel like i should be at home studying)
3- no homework
4- my parents are coming up to visit!
5- did i mention i get to go shopping with my mom???
6- i don't have to wake up at 6. (wait... that really happens any other day of the week???)
7- quality time with me and my book. because i promised myself that i will finish one book every other week. (by the way, this is book #2)
8- i don't have to be any where important. so i can sit on my butt and look up useless things like this:





9- and this: 

(this just makes me want grilled cheese ohhhhhh so badly! i should stop torturing myself because i don't get to eat lunch for another 2 hours... this is just cruel...)

http://www.grilledcheesesocial.com/ has some of the BEST looking grilled cheese sandwiches i've every seen in my entire life. i mean, this chick has the art of perfectly grilling a cheese-which down to a science. nay, it is art. pure and simple.

if you really want to get down to the science behind the grilled cheese, check out the sporkful.

they are my new favorite when it comes to analyzing the nitty-gritty necessities of good cookin'.  

10- lunch today: leftovers from last night's cooking escapade.

 this is yet another one of those meals that just kinda... happened. we threw in a couple of onions, green onions in the fridge, an eggplant, peppers and jalapenos, leftover hamburger and spinach that was not lookin so hot... (not slimy... just a little wilty...)

toss it all in a skillet with some spices and BAM! 

PRESTO!

the most time consuming part of the dinner was finding out how to get the blasted cabbage leaves OFF of the head.

how do you perform this feat you ask?

you toss the head of cabbage into boiling water for a few minutes, and then the leaves just come right off!!!

simple as that.

then we threw those in a casserole dish, covered it in prego or ragu... and then topped it with some cheese right before it was done.

oh heavens.

yum.

don't tell anyone... i think i had two.

but it was gone so fast i'm not really sure.

11- friday is just a good day.

:)

now go partyyyy!

taking liberties in the kitchen.

i keep hearing this sound lately.
it sounds a lot like a woooooooosh...! 
and then i realize that it is life. as it goes rushing by. 
i remember when i was a kid, and the school year seemed to go by. soooooo slowly. what happened???
we're already a month into school, and i barely feel like i've even gotten settled in.
it's times like these that i realize that if i don't start DOING something, the whole semester is going to go by and i won't have done any of the things that i wanted to! 
so my list of pre-planned adventures for the rest of the semester:
     go on a hike
     watch a sunrise
     have brunch before church (since it starts at 2!)
     have a very merry unbirthday tea-party! 
     have a pie social, potluck, waffle party... basically any party with food involved. especially fall foods.
     go to the dunes and have a bonfire
     train for a half marathon. (this will be tricky since i barely have time to do my homework... let alone run!)
     keep my room clean. ha.
     read a book a week. (or maybe every other...)
     stop procrastinating. 
that being said... i'll make this short. :)


my sister and i wanted to make these:

and we kinda did. but not really.

i have this problem with following recipes. if i don't have something, i will either leave it out or stick something else in. sometimes this is good... other times not so much. (honey and sugar don't make an adequate brown sugar substitute in cookies. just sayin.) 

we didn't have any brown rice.

did that stop us?

nope.

this ended up being more of a throw-whatever-we-have-available-in-the-fridge type of recipe... but we were both HUGE fans. definitely gonna make it again. 

here's the real recipe. 

this is what we did. 

2 large green bell peppers, bottom trimmed, cap end cut off and diced, and seeds removed
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 leftover yellow bell pepper in the fridge

2 jalapeno peppers

1 eggplant (it was headed downhill and needed to be used!)

1 tomato

1-2 cups shredded cabbage

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

(i'm pretty sure we threw in some chili powder and red pepper flakes in there somewhere...)
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

preheat oven to 375F. trim bottom of bell peppers so they have a flat surface to stand on. cut off a fairly generous amount of the stem end of peppers, then remove seeds. (our bell peppers were monsters!) place hollowed-out peppers in a baking dish that you've sprayed with non-stick spray or olive oil.

remove stem part from the pepper caps and trim off any white membrane, then dice pepper caps and the onion into fairly small dice. cook hamburger until done, add whatever spices you suit your fancy, then add in onions (and in our case eggplant) and cook until tender. then add in peppers (i made sure to dice the jalapenos up reallllllllllly tiny... i hate getting a bite of pepper that is a little too big. because my tolerance for heat is basically non-existent.) last of all, add in cabbage - it doesn't take long to cook. remove from heat and add tomatoes. i didn't want them really cooked, and i knew that they would get cooked more in the oven. 

stuff the filling mixture into the hollowed-out peppers, using a spoon to press the mixture down so it's tightly packed into the pepper shell. the recipe we found didn't say that we needed to pre-cook the peppers... i was hungry anyway. and when i'm hungry, the lazy, speedy way is the ONLY way. (we actually saved the extra "stuffing" and had in the next day in an omlette... also a BIG success.) 

bake peppers for 30(ish) minutes, then remove from oven and put a generous pinch of grated mozzarella on top of each pepper. put peppers back into the oven and bake about 10-15 minutes more, until cheese is melted and lightly browned. serve hot.

believe me... this was good. and super healthy! 

:)

a random side-note:

one of my roommates is our cousin - who is currently taking a culinary fundamentals class... i'm sure she comes home every day and is mentally making notes on how not to cook. just take a look at jess, and don't do any of these things. but oh, what fun we have in the kitchen!!!

and just for kicks and giggles.

how i feel today. 
(minus a few of the less-than-honor-code-approved behaviors.) 

--------------------------

i haven't been thankful in a while.

today i am thankful for sweat pants.

after running around in a skirt all day, i love the feeling that you get when you can just sit down in the sweats and not have to sit all prim-and-proper anymore! 

hellllllo unladylike behavior!

(just kidding...)

and belts.

that come to the rescue when:

pants are too big.

shirts are too baggy.

you lose your backpack.

don't tell me you never fantasized about carrying your books to school with a belt.

maybe it was just me...

ready or not... life here i come!

i need some chill music right now.

this is just one of those days when life just seems to press down on you from all sides.

you know?

the feeling that you have to make a decision, but the stress alone threatens to incapacitate you...

i'm feeling that way about grad school right now.

(lame right?)

scared out of my wits.

the future is a scarrrrry place.

do i really have to grow up?

not that i don't have a plan for my life,

i just don't know what to do with the 5 different plans that i have. (i'm the type of person that has the plan, the backup plan, the backup-backup plan... you get the picture. i don't believe in failure.) 

the problem with that is that sometimes i don't make a decision because i'm afraid that it won't work out.

so while sitting in class, plotting out my life (for about the gazillion-th time this semester) i came to a conclusion:

life is gonna happen.

no matter what i decide to do, the rest of the world is going to continue to spin, and everyone else is going to keep going on with their regular day-to-day lives.

so what am i going to do about it?

two words.

no.

fear.

imagine me gritting my teeth and attempting very hard to look like a very menacing individual...

you ready mr. future???

{cuz you gotta deal with THIS!}

:)

so no matter what happens, i'm going to give life my 100%.

i know it's cliche, but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and the worst thing that can happen is that they say no.

well what do you do when they do say no?

time for plan b.

and then plan c.

plan d?

you keep tryin' stuff until something works!
(and by george something will!)

so here is to all of the plans, and the backup plans...

but never give up!

(that's the only time that i believe that failure exists. when you decide that you aren't going to try anymore.)

so we are making a pact.

right now.

you and me.

to never

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

give up!

(pinkie swear.)

alright.

good luck!

now for some light-hearted kicks and giggles:

(i was in my exercise physiology class, and i got this brainy idea that i wanted to develop my own line of energy bars... so i started doing a little research. and this is what i found.)

scooby snack protein bars

scooby poo bars 

(i didn't come up with the name...)

th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks!