Hi there party people! How’s this fine Sunday treatin’ ya?

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m beginning to feel like I’m losing touch with my little food/lifestyle blog and have been wanting to bring back some more personal touches that show more of my day-to-day-life. Anndddd what better way to do this than a fun day in the life post? Here’s what my Saturday looked like:

Wakeup: 6:30 a.m

Wasn’t able to sleep too soundly at night, so my morning started a little earlier than I would have liked. I got out of bed, made some coffee, and put a batch of brownies in the oven for a supah delicious and supah chocolate-y recipe I’m making. Some Netflix might have been involved as well 😯 .

8-9:00 a.m

I go upstairs and wake Kyle up. He slept over last night since we were up till 12:30 last night studying and wanted to get an early start with more studying this morning (party animals- I know). Make him a mocha and sit with him at the kitchen table for a while as I wait for him to wake up a bit more (he’s super cute when he’s sleepy :’) .) I then make a bit of breakfast, which includes a yogurt/fruit/walnut bowl and cinnamon swirl bread with cream cheese and a sprinkle of cinnamon + brown sugar.

Garage Time: 9:00-12

And it’s into the garage-turned-study-room we go! One good habit I’ve gotten into doing is making a daily work plan of things I want to accomplish. I usually am a bit over-ambitious with what I think I can get done, but it keeps me honest and helps me balance all the things I’m juggling.

Lunch: 12-12:30

I made tacos for dinner last night and enjoyed a taco salad for lunch. It was a STUNNING day (80 degrees, all sunshine), so Kyle and I ate outside with an ocean view .

NAP! : 1-2:30

I’ve been trying to not nap as much since I know it’s not always that great for you, but I’ve come to realize that I really really need the extra sleep. I usually only get 6 or so hours of sleep a night and I simply cannot function for days at a time with all the sleep debt I have building up. An hour or so nap always makes me feel so much better and less like a zombie during that mid-afternoon slump.

Garage Time: 3-4:00

More study time!

Good Things in the Kitchen… 4-5:00

Get ready for something freakishly delicious coming your way!

{From my Instagram}

Photo Session 5-6:00

I had a girl contact me who was interested in getting a new profile for her LinkedIn account. It was nice to get out of the house and play around with my camera for a bit. In case anyone is wondering, I recently upgraded to a D750 Nikon body, which has been HUGE in improving the quality of my photos. If there are multiple people who want me to put together a small tutorial on how I take/edit my photos, let me know! I’m still learning, but each shoot I photograph/edit makes me happier with the end results I get. Practice makes perfect!

Dinner+Chatting: 6:30-8:30

I went over to Kyle’s apartment for dinner with him and a few of his roommates (Raamis & Forrest). He made his specialty -chicken noodle soup- served with crust french bread and a shirley temple (my guilty pleasure). We stuck around the table for a while and just caught up before deciding that everyone should come over and do more work in the garage (it’s the hot place to be, obviously).

Anddd that brings me to where I am now! I’m going to finish putting this post together, upload the photos, hit publish, and do some more biochem studying. Not exactly how I like to spend my Saturday night, but I know it’ll pay off in the end. Tomorrow involves an 8 mile run in the morning, recipe development, more studying, and a couple’s session (!).

Hope you guys liked this post! Let me know if you want more things like this- they’re really fun for me to put together!

 

Anddd I’m back. I feel like I go through numerous mini blogging hiatuses every few weeks as soon as the third week of college starts for me. The quarter system is brutal and unforgiving, with 10 weeks of instructions that are filled with multiple midterms and essays for each class, then a week of finals. *shudder*. I just finished my second round of exams for genetics and biochem, so now I have a week or so to semi-relax before I really have to kick things into gear. I bring this up because it’s the culprit behind one of my biggest blogging woes: staying consistent. Ideally, I would like to be posting around five days a week with at least two of them being recipes. Has that been happening? Not even close. I have a bad habit of getting posts up at around 11:30 at night on the days I do blog, and by that time, I’m exhausted and not really in the mood to write. More often than I care to admit, I end up just calling it quits and going to bed.

This is something I’m really hoping to work on. My goal is to have posts written up at least a day before I hit the publish button. In the land of rainbows and unicorns I’d have them prepared a week in advance, but that just ain’t gonna happen. A girl can dream, no?

I bring this up as a semi explanation-turned-apology to why I haven’t been very active on AOME and as a bad segway into talking about the actual recipe itself. I’m basically saying, “sorry I’ve neglected you…” then shoving a huge blown-up photo of yummy fried rice in your face to distract you. Diabolical, simply diabolical.

Did it work? 😉

But seriously, don’t you just want to face-plant into this bowl? Fried rice is one of my biggest comfort foods and one of those universally-loved meals. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone not liking it, and with good reason! It’s warm, filling, salty, and just generally shove-it-all-in-your-face good. Kyle made this recipe and brought over a HUGE batch for us to eat for lunch. Since I live in a house filled with girls, there was obviously a small feeding frenzy and, within 3 minutes of trying some, two of them were inspired to make some of their own to have. As my friend Taylor puts it, “This is the kind of food you eat with a spoon so you can shovel it into your mouth faster.”

The fact that fried rice isn’t all that healthy for you is one of the banes of my existence. Most restaurants and fast food chains use copious amounts of oil and saturated fat, so eating out is more of a treat for me. This recipe combines health and flavor by using much less oil, extra broccoli, and lean chicken. While I’m not a big fan of brown rice in this dish since the soy sauce and nutty-ness don’t mesh that well, it’s certainly a swap you can make if you’d like!

On your mark, get set, EAT!

 

 

Hi friends! I hope all of you had a lovely weekend . Mine was spent doing a lot of studying, freelance work, photography, and studying. Which I just realize I already said. Brain=dead. I have a biochem midterm on Tuesday that I’m hoping to do really well on, so wish me luck!
I had big plans to go on a 7 mile run today, photograph/make two recipes, do a massive amount of biochem, photograph a couple’s session, and get up a nice long weekend recap post, but it’s 11:08 p.m and I have yet to finish nearly all the stuff I had planned out. That seems to be a common trend for me haha! Unrealistic time expectations will do that to ya. So instead, I’ll just be posting a big photo recap. Hope that flies with all of you!
On Friday after my genetics midterm, my housemate Lana and I took our new foster dog, Charlie, out on a beach playdate. He’s been neglected for the last two years or so and was extremely skittish when we first got him. Within a week he’s become to most loving, cuddle-obsessed pup (that dog will not leave you alone and INSISTS on being held/pampered/babied 24/7) and it brought me so much joy and happiness to see him having the time of his life at the beach. Love him so much already and not sure how I’m possibly going to give him up eventually (hint to my mom and dad to adopt him…)
The rest of Friday was spent relaxing, watching Up, baking an apple pie, and beautiful, beautiful sleep.

Saturday involved hitting up the library with Kyle for 3 or 4 hours to study, taking a looooong 2 hour nap, doing a bit more work, running a nice 5 miles to the pier and back, and doing a bit of freelance work.

Sunday was another big work day and I was up at 6:30 plugging away at taking biochem notes in our garage-turned-study-room until walking with Kyle and Charlie to a bagel cafe that’s nearby my house at 9. I baked up some tasty dark chocolate sea salt coconut macaroons to photograph later (doing that right after I finish typing up this post) and then got back to work before taking a quick nap. More studying that was then followed by a super sweet and fun couple’s session with some folks who are fellow students at UCSB. I love love LOVE photographing couple’s and capturing their dynamic together and can’t wait to have more time to finish editing all of their photos! After getting back to my house, Kyle and I drove to pick up some dinner, then it was back to the garage to do some more studying.

So that’s my weekend in a nutshell! If you haven’t noticed, it wasn’t all that eventful and involved lots of biochemical reactions. Fun stuff 😉 .

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of V8 Protein for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

This college quarter has involved lots of early mornings, rushing to class, and eating meals on the go. I swear, getting out of the house by 7:45 each morning to either get to my lecture or head out for a run involves some serious fast moving. While I’m usually on time, I do struggle immensely with eating a balanced breakfast and often find my stomach grumbling midway through my class or feeling the low blood sugar on my runs. That’s why, when V8 asked me to sample their new line of protein bars and shakes, I was beyond excited! The new V8 protein products blend ingredients such as quinoa, brown rice, and sweet potatoes with tasty ingredients like honey and cocoa to give you a great burst of energy that is not only nutritious, but absolutely delicious.

After excitedly opening the package that had come in the mail, I immediately tried the enticing chocolate shake and was thrilled on how smooth and sweet it was. My favorite, however, turns out to be the vanilla shake, which is a big shocker because I am usually such the chocolate girl at heart! I’ve been sampling the variety of bars I was sent (ranging from chocolate peanut butter, chocolate pomegranate, oatmeal raisin, etc) and love how filling and perfectly sweet they are! Of those, I’d be hard pressed to find one that I could call my ultimate favorite!

And in case you’re wondering about the nutrition behind these shakes and bars, have no fear! Like usual, V8 does a great job in balancing deliciousness with protein, fiber, and hidden veggies.

• Shakes: 12 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, quarter cup of vegetables, no high fructose corn syrup and as much calcium and Vitamin D as a glass of milk
• Bars: 10 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, no high fructose corn syrup an a quarter cup of vegetables in each bar

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Bars and shakes can be purchased online on Amazon or can be found at your local store’s health and beauty aisles.

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Soffe for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

As many of you know, I’m not a big runner.

I grew up playing soccer from the age of 5, then played on the same competitive club team for over 5 years until I graduated high school. For me, the team aspect and feeling the togetherness that comes with being part of something greater and stronger than just myself played a huge role in making me fall in love with the sport. Once I moved away to college, though, my workouts started to revolve around solitary trips to the gym and sweating and being active became more of a chore and less of something that I absolutely loved to do. Then, just about a month ago, a group of my housemates and I made exciting (albeit a bit scary!) plans to sign up for a half marathon to run together. We started pairing up for runs and BOOM. It hit me. I fell head-over-heels in love with running. Something that used to be so tedious and painful for me transformed into a new form of connecting with my body by simply experiencing it with some of my closest friends. Counting the miles turned into lots of laughs and the miles started to fly by. I can still remember the exhilarating feeling that I had when I went running with my roommate, Abbi. We were only planning on doing four miles, but ended up pushing our limits and reaching six (and sprinting at the end). That was the farthest distance I had ever run at the time and once we reached the six mile mark, we were all smiles and hugs and I felt an overwhelming amount of joy in my heart. I was part of a team again and it felt simply magical to experience that running milestone with someone I’ve grown close to.

I know that was a bit of a rambling story, but I want to lead into a new product discovery that emphasizes the importance of the team mentality and focuses on bringing young women together to stay active and realize that the strength is in us to empower our bodies and reach new personal fitness goals. When I was contacted about Soffe‘s new campaign titled “Strength Is In Us”, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. A few weeks ago, I received a package in the mail containing an amazing pair of performance leggings and a gorgeous blue dry-fit top. And yes, and couldn’t help but squeal when I opened up my mail and saw how cute the apparel was! I changed into them a second later and was amazed by the quality and comfortable fit. I’m usually a little weary about trying on new pants/ since I’ve always been a bit self-conscious about how my muscular legs look in them, but I fell in love with how flattering the pants were and how well they hugged my body. I took them out for a quick run with my friend Taylor and found that, unlike a lot of other fitness apparel, they didn’t ride up/fall down and I didn’t have to concentrate on my clothes staying put. Instead, I could focus on having a wonderful ocean-sidejog! Talk about literally the perfect fit!

I would highly recommend Soffe athletic wear for anyone looking for comfortable, flattering, and affordable gear that will help you reach your fitness goals (and look darn cute doing it!)

Want more of Soffe? Follow Soffe’s Instagram and Soffe’s Facebook