Woofers, Noms, and Other Blabs

March 13, 2014 by Christine Skari

TGIF friends! Well, I’m not too thankful because that means that my dreaded finals are one day closer.

The next few days are going to be a bit hectic for me. It’s currently dead week at my school (the week before finals in college), and I’m probably going to end up falling in to that exam-induced blogging coma where my posts are on the sparse side. I’ll do my best to stay chipper and positive, but organic chemistry has a way of sucking the life out of you and it’s hard to be in a good mood when you literally are not sleeping well because you’re solving chemistry problems in your head at night.

NIGHT IS FOR SLEEPING, BRAIN. Not ochem. Sheesh.

So here are a few things that have been happening lately!

Running is starting to make a comeback into my life. I mean, how can I not enjoy lacing up my shoes and enjoy a morning run along a place like this?

The week before finals, my university puts on a “Dog Therapy Day”, where all sorts of woofers come to help shake some stress out of us students. Funny how much a furry pup can cheer you up! I’m also thankful for all the sunshine. I hate the gloominess of winter and find that it usually makes me feel much more depressed and sad when I’m stuck inside pouring over textbooks. Nothing like some sun on your skin!

One thing that Kyle and I aren’t good at is making home-cooked meals when we start to get stressed out. Kyle is studying to become a mechanical engineer, so he has a ton of work to do as well. At least we can be miserable together hahah (he’s the best library buddy ever). Anyways, that means lots of meals out.

A Wednesday night isn’t complete without dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant and some pineapple fried rice and Thai tea are just what I need to get through my late night lab.

Also, Chipotle 4eva, please.

I know this post wasn’t organized/coherent at all, so my apologies! I’m trying my best to respond to comments, but I’d rather spend the free time I have reading/commenting on what you guys have been up to. I read every one of them, though, and they always make my day! Will catch up with them soon :)!

Happy Friday, all!

Question of the Day: What are your weekend plans?

Workouts of Late and Practical Uses of Bananas. Also, Food.

March 8, 2014 by Christine Skari

Hi friends! Today Im linking up with WIAW to share some food tidbits . Thanks, Jenn, for hosting!

I’ve been a bit busy this week, but I’m using a peaceful morning to get some blogging-related things done. Here’s a few life updates:

Workouts have been going well!

Lately, Kyle and I have been making an effort to get to the gym together. I love how going with another person motivates you! Our big campus gym is relatively close to us (about a 15 minute walk), so we also get some time to just enjoy each other’s company. Not to mention the weather here is absolutely gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky and 72-75 degrees with our ocean breeze :).

We’ve been sticking to 20-35 minutes of cardio in the beginning (usually a treadmill workout for him, more variation for me), followed by a weight lifting session together. Yesterday we got in a terribly terrific triceps/chest workout and the day before that, back and biceps. I’m definitely feeling it today haha!

It turns out bananas have many functions.

After a trip to the grocery store, I was going to unlock the front door of my apartment complex when I noticed something a bit off. Someone decided that using a banana as a door stop was a good idea. I swear, only in college. #collegelife

New food discoveries!

Recently, I went home for the weekend and my mom introduced me to Kefir. It’s basically a delicious yogurt-smoothie that’s high in protein, calcium, and probiotics, almost completely lactose free, and super filling. I’ve been having some with cottage cheese/granola for breakfast most mornings and getting a good 22g of protein in to start my day off right!

Where has almond butter been all my life??

Okay, so this is going to sound reeealllll mean and ig’nant like, but I had always just assumes that almond butter was a sad substitute for people allergic to peanuts. Don’t hate me hahah… I couldn’t have been more wrong! SO GOOD. I bought some recently because I wanted to make those No Bake White Chocolate Cranberry Bars and didn’t think peanut butter and white chocolate/cranberries would go too we together. Well, now I’m hooked and I’ve almost finished my first jar. Dare I say I like it as much as my normal nut butter?

Anyways, plans for today include getting some breakfast in my belleh, heading to a coffee shop to get some dreaded organic chemistry studying done, cooking up some new recipes for the blog, and perhaps a Great Fratsby party tonight with my girls (yes… you read that right. As in a Gatsby-styled frat party haha).

Have a wonderful day!

Question of the day: What new food find have you come across lately?

WIAW: Noms of Late

March 5, 2014 by Christine Skari

Well howdy-doody all you party people!

Today’s post is brought to you by Jenn at Peas and Crayons who hosts What I Ate Wednesday, well, every Wednesday!

Since I’m tired and just got back from four hours at the library, this post is going to be a bit picture-saturated.

Breakfast:

Hellooo deliciousness. If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m still obsessing over my brown sugar banana oats. Did I mention that the bananas get all caramelized by their own natural sugars when you cook the slices into the oats? And guys. Pools of brown sugar. Swoon.

Also, black coffee thanks to my new Keurig!

I had an organic chemistry lecture that started at 8 am, so I scarfed down my breakfast and hurried out the door. By the time the class was over, I was ready for a snack. Snackage included your stereotypical granola bar:

I had various classes till 12:30, then headed back to enjoy some leftovers from last night’s chicken and sweet potato bake.

After lunch I re-read some notes for one of my bio classes before taking a 30 minute cat nap to replenish my brain juices. After waking up, I dawdled and replied to some blog-related emails and worked on a freelance project before heading out to the gym to get in a quick cardio session so I wouldn’t be antsy from sitting all day.

My workout consisted of 35 minutes split between the treadmill and elliptical, all done while watching Bridezilla on Netflix. Quality tv, of course!

Once I got back to my apartment and cleaned up a bit, I started on dinner! Kyle and I feasted on Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo via Gimme Some Oven. It was delicious and I highly recommend the recipe to someone who’s looking for all that great alfredo taste minus all the butter and heavy cream!

Around 7, Kyle and I drove over to the campus library after making a pitstop at Starbucks for two nonfat caramel machiattos complete with 3 shots of espresso to help keep us goin’.

Ain’t he cute? I like him a latte.

A small post-study snack included a few bites of my White Chocolate Cranberry Protein Bars.

And now I’m just about ready to fall asleep on my laptop. Hope you had a good day of eats as well!

Home Sweet Home!

February 28, 2014 by Christine Skari

Happy weekend, all!

I’m happy to announce that I’m home for the weekend to relax and catch up on some of the hometown I’ve been missin’.

Early this morning, I went to the gym and got in a great workout. It involved 30 minutes of the elliptical, 15 minutes incline walking, and this awesome Youtube chest circuit workout. I only had dumbbells available to me since I went to the smaller gym that belongs to my apartment complex, but my muscles are already feeling pretty immobile and I’m sure I’m going to be ridiculously sore tomorrow!

After my time at the gym, I walked back home and put together a hot bowl of my favorite Banana Brown Sugar Oats made with those Costco Quaker oats I’ve been raving about. They never gets old and I even brought some home so I wouldn’t have to miss out them haha!

After breakfast, I showered and cleaned a bit before packing my bags. Kyle and I grabbed some Subway to go and enjoyed it on the car ride home. One thing I didn’t enjoy so much? Driving in the pouring rain. I mean, California really needs the water, but it was terrifying at some moments when there was so much spray that you couldn’t see clearly. Not something I’d like to do again!

Don’t worry, Kyle snapped the pic! No phones out while this girl is driving.

After arriving back home, I scarfed down some leftover Chipotle and watched some Netflix under the blankets on my couch while watching the rain pour down. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the evening. Another perk about being home? The latte machine!

My mom had made me reservations for a massage at 7, so I went in and had a glorious time being pampered and got a bit of time in to relax after the last few hectic and stressful weeks. The one not-so-pleasent part of the massage came when the lady forget that I requested not to have my feet touched. I’m extremely ticklish and had to literally bite my tongue and dig my nails into my hand in order to not kick her in the face while she was massaging them hahah. Luckily, when she started on my right foot, I couldn’t help but jerk slightly and she remembered that that was a big no-no.

I’m hoping to keep this weekend pretty low-key and don’t have too many plans other than getting some studying done, blogging, gyming (because that’s a verb…), and spending some time catching up with everything you guys have been up to!

Oh, and in other important and life-changing news, I took this survey to find out what my inner potato is, and I got latkes. Good to know. Also, you should follow me on Twitter so you can get important updates like this one straight to your mobile device!

What is your inner potato?

What are your plans for the weekend?

Thinking Out Loud…

February 26, 2014 by Christine Skari

It’s been a rough week for me, so nothing sounds better than being able to spew out random thoughts and call it a post! Thanks for hosting, Amanda, always love how easy the writing comes!

I’m tired.

Like I mentioned before, this week has been rough for me. This whole year, actually. Right now I’m going through the toughest year of studies for biology majors and I feel like I’m in a constant state of exhaustion and lack of sleep. Most days, I have class in the mornings, and in the evenings, I either have long labs or go to the library till 11:30-12 at night with Kyle to study and get work done. That means I’m running around from 7 a.m till 12 at night most days and am fitting in at least 35 hours a week to my Organic Chemistry class alone. Along with that I have two other bio classes, bio lab, and French. And weekends? What are those? Just extra long study days with no class. It’s ridiculous.

Anyways, that turned in to a small rant. Hopefully your eyes didn’t glaze over too much haha! But in all honestly, I’m incredibly stressed and have been having a few breakdowns and a hard time mentally with all the work I have on my plate, which is something that’s hard for me to admit.

I’m still absolutely in love with the post my best friend Kelty wrote.

If you haven’t read her post “Never Merely Pretty” yet, do it. It’s something all women should read.

The promise of Vietnamese food for dinner is the only thing that gets me through Wednesdays.

For both Kyle and I, Wednesdays suck. We both are stuck in morning classes and have labs so our day is pretty packed and we’re on our feet for most of the day. Since I have lab from 7-10 p.m, Kyle and I have a tradition of going to one of our favorite restaurants to get some delicious food to power us through!

My freelance writing gig is going well!

I haven’t talked about it too much on the blog, but a while back I was contacted to work for a fitness website as a freelance writer and recipe developer! So far, I’ve created three recipes for them (along with photography/writing/etc) and am excited to see them go up on the site. Here’s some examples of the goodies I’ve made!

I’m loving my new camera lens.

I’ve had my eye on the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens for a while, and finally broke down and planned on going to the camera store to buy one. Since I was home for weekend, my dad wanted to come with me (hi, dad!), and surprised me by insisting that he pay for it.

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Pretty sure he’s Apple of My Eye’s biggest fan! Love you, dad!

So I realize that this post isn’t very coherent or organized, but hey, cut me some slack! I just had a big Organic Chemistry midterm yesterday and wrote a long research paper on worms that kept me up till 2 last night and working all day. My brain juices are a bit depleted ;).

Hope your hump day went well!