Monthly Archives: March 2013

Let’s Talk About My Paper Because I Just Finished and I Swear it is Interesting

Date: March 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Like my title? Haha. But first let’s get down to business with some eats! Dinner last night was awesome! We had leftover rotisserie chicken, so I searched for a soup recipe that called for it, and boy did I pick a winner. Since I’m attempting the whole Whole30 thing, I wanted a recipe that was paleo, so I found one on Against All Grain. The recipe is for leftover roast chicken soup with roasted vegetables. My family and I could not get enough of it!

On the side was an artichoke and dipping sauce made from store bought garlic aioli and vinaigrette salad dressing.

And guess what I did this morning guys?!? SPIN CLASS! I was so pumped to be back in it, and even though it was a 6 am class, I was up before my alarm. It felt awesome. It wasn’t that difficult of a class (and I didn’t try to make it harder) so it was the perfect class to come back into. I listened to the radio in the car and realized that lots must have happened while I was sick because I didn’t recognize half of the songs!

After a good workout, I had a smoothie and some mashed potatoes.The smoothie is a few weeks old, and was the second half of a smoothie I had when I was sick. It is much better when my throat isn’t so swollen up! I’m not 100% sure what is in it, seeing as I didn’t make it myself, since I was incapable of leaving my bed, but I know it has 2 kinds of grapes, and strawberries. And is fancy because it was made from an actual recipe. My mom has been begging me to finish it all week because we got new glasses and she wanted to get rid of the old ones. Notice the new glasses?I also had half a banana with peanut butter. I am trying to have low quantities of nuts every day so that I don’t completely lose my tolerance. Sigh. The only thing better than an early morning workout? Going back to bed after an early morning workout. Yay spring break! Well kind of. I had to finish a paper today. Which is worth like half my grade. Let’s just say I spent a long time staring at a computer screen today. Actually, I’ve been on the computer way too much these past few days. Everything is starting to get blurry. When I was finishing up my research late tonight I had to blow up the words so I could read them. So sorry if I have a ton of typos in this!

I was hungry by 10:30, but at 11, I had to take a field trip to the grocery store to do research for my paper. I recorded the sugar content of tons of different foods, more on that later, as well as empty health claims. Yeahh I’m kind of angry about marketing right now! Anyways, staring at the worst junk food for about an hour while you are hungry turns out to not be the best idea. I ended up picking up some flavor blasted goldfish which just happened to open themselves in the car. Goodbyeee Whole30. Lunch was leftover soup and nachos (tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese).Plus a probiotic chocolate bar. Gotta recover from all those antibiotics, right?? My mom picked up Poptarts at the grocery which were on my mind all afternoon, so yeahh that happened. HahWHOLE30hah. Dinner was Whole30 though, mostly because I planned it out ahead of time.Turkey burgers (Minus the bun), sweet potato “fries”, green beans, and tons of homemade ketchup of course! I made a delicious last minute decision to add garlic powder just as the burgers were finishing up in the oven. The sweet potato fries (which we made with yams) were delicious. We just cut up yams and roasted them in the oven. They weren’t exactly crispy, but I’m not a fan of crispy fries anyways!

Today was another reminder as to why I really need to do this Whole30 thing. I don’t think I will survive break (which is extra long, this week is technically finals week but I don’t have any) if I don’t have some sort of control! And I seriously do feel better when I stick to it! Plus, I’m going to go into the scary world of sugar in a bit! But first:My failed attempts to convince my sister that she really is missing out on cat time.

Ok, onto my paper! I just finished writing a 12 page research paper on the connection between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic, as well as other health problems. So lucky you guys, you get to hear all about it!

So first let’s talk about why sugar causes people to gain weight. One of the biggest factors is that it doesn’t suppress ghrelin, the hunger hormone, to stop telling you that you are hungry. Additionally, it the fructose half of sugar does not trigger any insulin response, which therefore doesn’t trigger leptin, the hormone that tells you you are satiated. But it gets worse. Chronic sugar consumption can cause a condition called leptin resistance. Leptin is produced by fat cells. Back in the caveman days before we messed up our hormonal signaling, this would regulate body weight. If we were underweight, fats cells would not send leptin signals telling the brain to stop eating. Instead, the brain would be instructed to eat more and move less (to conserve energy). If we were overweight, the fat cells in our bodies would be full, and therefore signal the brain that we don’t need to eat as much. Here’s where leptin resistance comes in. It is believed that chronically high insulin levels somehow block the leptin signal. Anyway, what happens as a result is that if you are leptin resistant and overweight, your fat cells will send leptin signals to the brain, but the brain won’t be able to “see” these signals, so it will think you are starving, driving you to eat more and move less. If you are dealing with this hormonal jungle, how can you possibly lose weight? And did I mention scientists can induce leptin resistance in rats by feeding them sugar? Yeahh kind of scary.

I’ll briefly do through some other scary sugar related diseases. If you want a full explanation of the processes, feel free to email me! (astottler@gmail.com) Metabolic syndrome often comes with obesity, and is a whole set of diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, fatty liver disease (yes, like the kind alcoholics get), and heart disease. Oh yeah, and there are links between sugar consumption and cancer. Pretty scary stuff! But of course this all only happens with EXCESS sugar consumption (which pretty much sums up MY day haha!).

So let’s talk about sugary foods for a minute. I won’t go into WHY sugar is in everything we eat (hint: low fat trend and High Fructose Corn Syrup), but let’s talk numbers. Let’s talk advertising. The maximum recommended daily consumption of added sugar is 20-24 grams. That’s not very much, considering the average American eats 88 grams. I could easily make a day of eating that gets the sugar count up to 88 grams. Here’s the example from my paper:

‘Many people may read about the dangers and sugar and think, “well, of course that isn’t talking about me. I don’t eat too much sugar.” However, it is amazing how fast the sugar adds up. The American Heart Association recommends Americans eat no more than 20 grams of added sugars a day (Main). But how much are we really eating? Adults eat about 88 grams of sugar a day (Krum). It is estimated that Americans consume nearly 500 calories of added sugar every day (Krum). Where is all this sugar coming from? A health conscious person may start the day with a bowl of Raisin Bran. That is 18 grams of sugar right there. For a snack to “satisfy hunger longer” as the box claims, this person might drink a delicious 18 grams of sugar in a Special K protein shake. For lunch? How about 6 ounces of low fat Tillamook vanilla yogurt? That is 34 grams of sugar, although it can be assumed that 10 grams of that is due to natural lactose sugars, leaving us with 24 grams of sugar. Our health conscious person might as well have an entire Hershey’s chocolate bar for 24 grams of sugar. The yogurt alone puts our healthy friend here over the maximum daily sugar recommendation. For dinner, he has a cup of Campbell’s tomato soup, for 14 grams of sugar, most of it in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. But the soup comes in a microwaveable container that serves two, so he finished it off for a total of 28 grams of sugar. A health conscious person can easily consume the average amount of sugar an American eats in a day, 88 grams, without eating a single dessert.’

Children eat on average 128 grams of sugar a day. That’s what, 6 times the recommended quantity? And I can certainly see how. I made up a meal with the sugar quantities I found at the grocery that a child could easily eat for lunch at school. Let’s say he starts with a 12 ounce Pepsi. 41 grams. 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 6 grams each. 1 tablespoon of grape jelly, 13 grams. Peanut butter? 4 grams. Then for dessert, some fat free (!) devil’s Food Cookies, 2 at 7 grams each. That is 84 grams of sugar in a single meal. A meal many children might take to school. So let’s say the student is a little healthier and takes apple juice instead of soda, as many kids do. that’s still 28 grams of sugar, that’s still 71 grams of sugar in a meal. That’s about the size of 4 ping pong balls. This is all so crazy! No wonder we have so many obesity problems! And how many people realize this? How many parents buy these foods trying to do something healthy for their children, not realizing these foods are laced with sugar? I started to get really annoyed at marketing as well. Fig Newtons. “100% Whole Grain.” Healthy, right? How about 12 grams of sugar a serving (not TERRIBLE), and full of High Fructose Corn Syrup AND trans fat? Who still puts trans fat in foods anymore?? And how about frozen yogurt. Ben and Jerry’s frozen yogurt has like 24 grams in a half cup serving. That’s not horrible, given there are probably 10 grams of lactose sugars, but it is misleading, because seriously, who eats half a cup? Or one of my favorites, the Heart Healthy stamp of approval. As we’ve seen, sugar isn’t particularly heart healthy. All foods need to be to get that stamp of approval is low fat, and the company must pay money. On the sugariest soup I found (14 grams for a cup) was the heart healthy stamp.

And cereal. Guess which cereal wins the prize for most sugar? Not Lucky Charms. Not Cocoa Puffs. Raisin Bran. The traditional “healthy” cereal has 18 grams of sugar for a cup! At softball tournaments, hotels we stayed t usually had raisin bran and fruit loops. This used to be the one time I would have fruit loops. Then, I became more health conscious and switched to Raisin Bran. Heck, I should have just gone with the Fruit Loops! they have less sugar! How crazy is that??

My other favorite: I was looking at Nesquick mix, and it had huge writing on one container that said “25% less sugar!” I examined the regular Nesquick, which was in a different container, and was utterly confused when I saw they had the same sugar content. Then I read the fine print. It was actually “25% Less Sugar Than Chocolate Syrup.” I saw this marketing trick on a couple of other things. The product seems like a healthier version of itself, but the fine print reveals it is just slightly healthier than some other brand or something.

Ok, rant over! I hope you guys learned something interesting! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or comment below!

What marketing do you find misleading?

I don’t eat pork, but I just found out the chicken sausages my family buys are made with pork casings! SO MAD!

Getting to Know Me

Date: March 18, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! How was your St. Patrick’s Day? Lots of green food I hope! I began my morning by going to the Farmer’s market with my class (our end of quarter field trip). We bought all kinds of delicious, university paid for food. Gotta love this school! Of course the Farmer’s market had all kinds of wonderful things. They had the most amazing looking avocados, although I didn’t buy any. I will definitely have to go back more this spring! After getting back on campus, we had a feast. It was awesome. I cannot wait for peach season though. I sampled all kinds of citrus, which was great, and I enjoyed it, but nothing compares to fresh peaches and nectarines. Dinner was quite festive last night. My mom made corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. Since I don’t eat red meat, I had some rotisserie chicken. Corned beef is one of the only red meat products I miss. Also, I don’t know why my family only eats cabbage once a year; we all love it!I topped my chicken with pesto. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do that just because it is green. HOWEVER. Notice that little red sauce in the upper right corner? Guess what that is? Homemade ketchup! I LOVE ketchup, and I eat it with a lot of types of meat. So if I want to do any type of Whole30, I need some ketchup without sugar, which is nonexistent at the store. I used this recipe from Spoonful of Sugar Free. I love Alex’s blog; I am always looking for delicious recipes without sugar! I liked this recipe, and my dad loved it. In the future, I might try it with a little less vinegar, just to see what it is like. It’s a winner though!

After dinner I made a smoothie.Banana, coconut milk, cocoa powder, and a touch (and I mean a touch) or mint extract. I learned my lesson! it was just enough mint to not really taste minty, but to be refreshing. I’ll take it!

Before I get to anything from today, I just wanted to address some blog issues. I wanted to apologize for the slightly (ok sometimes a lot) depressing/negative nature of my posts as of late. This whole sickness thing can get me pretty down, but I swear I’m normally a super happy person! I want this blog to be a fun place, without negativity. And this blog will become a fitness blog again soon, I promise! I’m planning on some normal exercise this week, and boy, I cannot wait! I also wanted to clarify why I’m going to attempt a semi-Whole30. I figure it is a good way to get more nutritious foods into my diet, which is super important for me to get to feeling 100% faster. Plus, my liver function is kind of off so reducing sugar is pretty important! Also, I think it will be a fun way to try new recipes and experiment with new flavors. Although eating Paleo is generally pretty meaty, and things should get interesting when my vegetarian sister comes home! The current plan is to try this strict Paleo thing for 5 days, and then reevaluate this Friday night where I want to go from there. And given the possibility of a gluten sensitivity, I don’t need anything else putting me to sleep! With that in mind, here’s today’s lunch (brunch?).Leftover chicken, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. Plus mashed avocado and mango salsa for the chicken. The avocado took some of the kick out of the salsa, which was a relief! I also ate a mango, which I WAS planning on photographing….

Ok, now to the meat of the post. I’m sure a lot of you guys have been seeing stuff about the Liebster Award going around, and since Brittany gave me a shout out, I figured I’d take this opportunity to let you guys get to know me a bit better. I mean, I talk a lot about my life, but not really about myself. I’ve never really done any surveys or anything, so hey, why not!

Random Facts About Me

1. I love to read, but I seriously cannot read any books during the school year. It’s fine for a few chapters, but as soon as the book gets exciting, I CANNOT put it down. Note: Reading an entire book on your phone in a day is a bad idea. You will likely walk around in a daze and squint a lot.

2. I really want to study abroad, probably in Chile. I loved studying Spanish in high school (and I love Spanish music), so it would be awesome to improve my Spanish. Plus, they have penguins. And who doesn’t love penguins?

3. I love avocados. I sprouted 2 avocados pits almost a year ago (my babies are growing up!) and now I have 2 beautiful avocado plants!They’re much bigger now, but I don’t really have any recent pictures. And they’re not too photogenic right now. After much stress (as any concerned parent would feel), I learned that in cooler climates avocados drop their leaves in winter. PHEW. But they are my babies and they live in my dorm, weather permitting (one wasn’t getting enough sun inside).

4. I hate talking about myself. Hence why I probably have not done any surveys yet. But I have a blog….hmmm….

5. One of the main reasons I wanted my own healthy living blog was because the whole community seemed so awesome, and I wanted to be part of it.

6. My dad reads every single one of my posts, usually right when I post it. WHich begs the question, how often does he check…?

7. I am the hugest Giants fan. I watched about half the playoffs last year on my phone between classes. #dedication

8.I love celebrating holidays and going all out. I love traditions. And I am dying to do a Turkey Trot.

9. That being said, I take Thanksgiving very seriously, and try to do everything to maximize food intake (morning run, tapering meals in the days up to, wearing expandable clothes).

10. Last year I gave myself frostbite on my foot. In the middle of spring. In California. Apparently I left the ice on a LITTLE too long. I’ll spare you guys the pictures (you’re welcome). It was really embarrassing to not be able to practice (softball) because of this. In 70 degree weather.

11. Hair is my 4th greatest fear. All my friends know this. I absolutely CANNOT STAND those hairs that seems to be left everywhere from shedding. This is possibly the worst part about living in a dorm. Black hairs in the shower (shiver).

Questions that I am stealing from Brittany:

1. What’s your favorite movie of all time?

I haven’t really seen too many movies lately, so I have no idea what modern-ish movie. I mainly watch TV shows (detective ones mostly!), so I’m going to take the Disney cop-out and say Aristocats. Or Sleeping Beauty (hello, Princess Aurora!).

2. What do you do as soon as you walk in the door after work/school?

In theory, this should be take a nap. But let’s be honest. It’s all about the food.

3. Do you put your toothbrush in a drawer or in a toothbrush holder?

A drawer. But I don’t know that I like this situation. It doesn’t seem very sanitary….(I guess I forgot to mention that I’m a bit of a germophobe!)

4. What vegetable do you love? Hate?

I love brussels sprouts. And avocados. And sweet potatoes. I find it amazing that a lot of people didn’t have veggies that they hated. Don’t get me wrong, I love veggies. But I hate cucumbers. And green peppers. I’m coming around on red peppers, but it will be a while before they fall into the “love” category.

5. What is your favorite go- to outfit for a saturday?

Definitely shorts and a T-shirt. Let’s be honest. I’m not going anywhere interesting.

6. Whats your favorite workout?

Weight lifting. By far. I cannot wait to get started again!

7. What does your Tupperwear drawer look like?

At home, in theory it is organized, but more realistically, an avalanche. At school? Yeesh. Let’s just say I’m not great about doing dishes regularly. I’ve learned about some interesting specimen as a result….

8. If you had to chose one thing you could not live without, what would that be?

Definitely cats. And yet I don’t have them at school….

9. What’s your favorite thing to order while eating out?

Anything with avocado

10. What is the temperature outside when you are the happiest?

Probably 70-80. I’m the biggest wimp in the cold, but I can handle heat pretty well. I always thought my internal body temperature has changed as the result of frying my brains out at softball fields in the summer for however many years (117 in Las Vegas, seriously??).

11. If you could pick anywhere in the world to be right now, where would that be and what would you be doing?

I would be in Chile watching the penguins.

As for the nominations…I feel like a ton of them have already been going around, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea how many followers people have and I would hate to offend anyone! SO let’s have this post be just for fun!

Tell me something about yourself!

Whole30?

Date: March 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How’s everyone doing this fine weekend? Any fun plans for St. Patrick’s Day? Lot’s of green food for me!

Now without further ado, let’s launch into this post!Yesterday’s breakfast. Peanut butter on toast. Notice: that really isn’t that much peanut butter. Well, as it turns out, laying off nuts for a while seems to make my nut sensitivities stronger. Anyone have experience with this? A couple of hours after this meal I noticed a series of lumps on my face. How crazy is that? I think I need to try to maintain a constant yet small nut intake.

The only other semi-interesting eat from yesterday is the oatmeal I had at dinner. I knew I was having major sugar cravings, and if I didn’t try to deal with them in at least a semi healthful way, things were going to go down hill in a hurry! My solution? Chocolate oatmeal!

I made my typical Banana Oatmeal with a few changes. I was too lazy to add the eggs, and I added vanilla, a touch of brown sugar, and cocoa powder. Then, for fun, I stirred in some semi-sweet chocolate chips.

That night however, I got to thinking. I’m going to be home for 2 more weeks, which means access to all kinds of food at any time of day (or night). I could envision my eating habits going downhill fast, and that just isn’t a good way to recover quickly. I’v read about the Whole30 before, and I think adopting a cleaner way of eating is a great idea. (If you don’t know Whole30 cuts out grains, dairy, legumes, sugar, and peanuts). It doesn’t make sense for me to do EXACTLY the Whole30 (Easter…hehe), but using some of those eating guidelines could be a great idea. So I went into the next day with a day of Whole30 ahead of me. I grabbed some fruit at breakfast because I wasn’t super hungry, but I whipped up a nice egg scramble for lunch with tons of veggies and avocado.Snach was another piece of fruit. I also went to Whole Foods, looking for some Whole30 compliant eats. And wow. It made me so angry. I read sooo many labels. There was hardly anything I could eat on Whole30. And this is Whole Foods! If I can’t find things there, where can I find them?? There is added sugar in absolutely everything! Out of all the soup in the store, only 1 type was Whole30 compliant. I mean I understand the goal is to eat REAL food, as in “make it yourself” food, but still! For dinner, we picked up a Rotisserie chicken and prepared hot Brocculini. I also grabbed some fresh mango salsa (which was spicy!).I’m so excited it is starting to be mango season again! Manilla mangos (the small yellow ones) are possibly my favorite fruit ever, and I eat them almost constantly when they’re in season! We got some from Costco the other day, and they were on sale at Whole Foods!

One thing about cutting out grains….my sweet cravings go away, because I’m more focused on how I miss bread. I broke down last night and had a bite of macaroni and cheese. So after a trial day, I think I can really make this thing work for me, but with some degree of compromise. I may allow small quantities of dairy, and I won’t beat myself up over a bite of grains, or a special occasion (read: today’s field trip and feast at the Farmer’s Market), but I want to try to maintain the principles as much as possible. This could be the focus and project I need for this break. I really don’t want to compromise on sugar though, but I have gummy vitamins that have sugar. And let’s be honest. I am SO DONE with any type of swallowing pills after being sick for so long, so I’m kind of on the fence about this. Anybody have any thoughts on this new way of eating? I felt pretty good last night, and I really think I can make this work for me.

Any fun plans for St. Patrick’s Day?

15 Minute Pie for Pi Day!

Date: March 15, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Pi Day everyone! Do you guys celebrate this holiday? It’s well worth it! I really haven’t celebrated it enough. Back in high school/middle school we got pie in math class maybe once or twice. This year though, I wanted to rock it! I will get to the recipe in a bit, and it’s a keeper. Did I mention it is 3 ingredients?

Taking us back to yesterday. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with leftover mushroom artichoke dip again, but this time with an Asian pear from Costco. LOVE.

Lunch was also from Costco: Afghan food. Pumpkin Bolani plus sauces. I first tried these at my local farmer’s market. The vendors are so friendly and push tons of samples at you! I’ve also found them at Whole Foods, and a couple of other local grocery stores. They’re definitely worth a try! I like the Spinach Bolani as well.

Class yesterday actually ended early, since it was the last class of the quarter. We are going on a field trip to the farmer’s market this Sunday! I also found out that my sister has mono. What are the odds? Ok, you’d think they’d be pretty high since she is my sister, but I’ve seen her once this quarter, way before I could have caught it. It must be seriously going around! Anyways, since she’s in the sore throat stage, she wanted to go to Wildberry for frozen yogurt on our way out. Well if you twist my arm….I tried the tart mango that time, which was so good! All their flavors are awesome! And here’s some more exciting news! When I got home, I laced up my running shoes for my first “workout.” I put that in quotations because that is a gross exaggeration. I did lunges up my street. But to be fair, it’s not THAT short. And it’s straight uphill. And then I ran maybe a block to see how it felt. It was interesting; I was expecting to be much weaker, but I actually wasn’t too bad. But I got out of breath super quickly. But at least exertion doesn’t send me into a coughing fit anymore! And hey, I’m sore today so I’ll take it! But I see lots of Spinning in my future. I’m not allowed to lift weights for a while, since my organs might still be in danger of bursting. I’m itching to lift though! I keep drooling over peoples Crossfit workouts on blogs! I am getting blood tests tomorrow though to see if I’m my liver and spleen are more normal (i.e. find out if I can start running into things again).

Dinner yesterday was a Teriyaki Chicken burrito, from the same place. I’ve never gotten this in burrito form before. Let me just say, I am not a burrito person. I’ve had one maybe twice before. And kind of embarrassed myself while eating it (it’s not normal to stab it with a knife and eat the insides out?). I’m not sure what motivated me to try this. My tastes have still been a little strange since getting sick. My evaluation? Way better in taco form. In this, the filling wasn’t uniform, and there was too much tortilla and cheese.

Not too many good pictures of eats from earlier today. I had my last class of the quarter today, and afterwards my sister begged to get frozen yogurt again. I swear, NOT my choice!I’ve had frozen yogurt AT LEAST the last 5 days. This is kind of embarrassing. But I swear that was my last opportunity for a while! Now on to the more interesting eats! For dinner, I wanted to make use of the leftover turkey chili. I based the idea for this meal off of a recipe in the Abs Diet cookbook, which is a taco salad, but I topped it with chili instead of taco meat. Into the salad went corn and avocado. The dressing was a mixture of tomatoes, olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Then, the salad was topped with chili and some fat free cheddar. It came out great!

And now for the best part of this post! Pi(e)! Last night when I realized today was Pi Day, I decided I wanted to celebrate. At the same time though, I was concerned with how high my sugar intake has been lately, so I wanted to have something lower sugar. Enter 15 minute pie.

I made individual pies. The crust is made of crescent role dough which we had hanging out in the fridge. It’s just the Pillsbury kind. I actually really enjoyed this as the crust, it was a lot more interesting than normal pie crust! The filling was simply frozen blueberries heated up in the microwave (although I did make 2 cherry pies). Blueberries are so sweet naturally that they really don’t need extra sugar in the filling! Simply line muffin tins with crescent role dough, fill with fruit filling, and cover (or not) with more dough. I sprinkled a little course raw sugar on top for a pretty finish. Then just follow the cooking instructions on the package (mine was for 15 minutes), and enjoy! These would be great with a little frozen yogurt (no kidding) or vanilla ice cream. And here is the beautiful process:Pre-oven

Post-ovenAnd here’s the inside of a cherry pie! The cherry pies were neater because I kept out the extra juice, but they were also drier. I enjoyed the blueberry pies more, but that’s just because I like blueberries more! In the future, I would make these with muffin liners just to make the taking out process a little neater. These would be great with other fruits too! Well, as long as the fruits are fairly sweet naturally. I can’t wait to try apple, and maybe a little later in the summer, peach! I hope you enjoy this super easy recipe!

Did you celebrate Pi Day? What is your favorite kind of pie?

Getting There

Date: March 13, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Ok I SWEAR I’ve been meaning to post for a really long time! Sunday was spent completely writing a 10 page paper that was due that afternoon. And then things kept coming up when I wanted to post (i.e. I was tired). And I promise I ACTUALLY have lots of food pictures to share with you guys! Yes, I’ve finally been able to eat fairly normally! After taking medication that brings down the swelling in my organs (liver and spleen) I’ve lost almost 10 lbs. It’s no wonder I’ve had zero space in my stomach these past weeks!

These are Teriyaki chicken tacos from a local Mexican place, Coyote Cafe. They are so good! They have pineapple on top and I’ve gotten them every time for years!

Here is a beautiful Vitamix smoothie with strawberries, pineapple, peaches, and mango. Not too shabby! I absolutely love this blender!

And here is the rest of this beautiful meal: leftover frittata.

Lunch that day was macaroni and cheese (this is Sunday, still playing catch up!). Plus steamed veggies. I swear I have not been able to get enough mac n cheese these past few weeks. It was one of the first things my stomach tolerated, and it feels amazing on a sore throat. Anyone with a sore throat: eat mac n cheese! Lunch was followed by a bit of a treat: trying the new froyo place in town, Menchie’s!

Sidenote: This post will include an embarrassing amount of frozen yogurt (sorry I’m not sorry!). This is salted caramel and devil’s food. My evaluation? Eh. I should have gotten the pistachio. I was trying to recreate my salted caramel experience from WIldberry, but this just wasn’t it. It was a bit bitter. And the devil’s food was ok, although I thought it was a bit bland, but it was sugar free, so afterwards I noticed a kind of weird taste. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I spent the rest of my Sunday cranking out my paper. This whole time I’ve been sick, I told myself that when my fever broke, I’d make chocolate chip cookies. And Sunday was close enough, and I was so ready to bake after finishing my paper (which ironically is about how sugar is hurting our country….). I made the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. Best recipe ever! Has anyone seen the Friends episode where Monica and Phoebe bake like 30 batches of cookies to try to recreate Phoebe’s grandma’s recipe, and then it turns out to be the Nestle Tollhouse recipe? Yeahh I’ve been watching that show a bit too much lately (I’m almost done with all the seasons…). Anyway, the cookies turned out great!

Let’s just say I never really make the effort to actually put them in nice balls….For some reason, everytime my mom makes this recipe, the cookies totally flatten out and run together. It is so weird that this didn’t happen to me! I also only made a half batch because a whole batch makes 5 dozen, and well, there are 3 of us.

In my opinion, there is one thing that must happen with chocolate chip cookies (and most cookies in general). They need salted butter. They have sooo much more flavor with salted butter! It’s the best!

So what was dinner Sunday night? An awesome dip from Cooking Light! My mom made it for my softball team party a year ago and we just couldn’t get enough! It is a mushroom artichoke dip, and is awesome with whole grain pita chips.

So good!

Yesterday I had class in the afternoon, and decided to stay on campus afterwards to clean up my dorm and get things squared away for break. Technically this is dead week, and next week is finals, but I don’t have any finals and I just have class up until Thursday, so I have a long break. Plus I had to meet up for a group project. After walking around campus a bit, and walking up and down stairs a few times, I suddenly realized I felt like I was going to pass out. It’s weird. I feel fine, but it’s the little things. Like apparently being on campus and living life for an hour and a half is enough to merit a nap. Luckily I have a bed there! It was so nice to see all my friends though! I definitely missed them! My mom had a class on campus that ended at 9:15, so she picked me up after her class, and I may or may not have demanded froyo. It’s embarrassing, the Internet search history on my phone is mostly frozen yogurt places. There’s a great place on campus, Fraiche, that is open pretty late, and is one of those healthy, organic places. I have come to seriously love tart froyo.

Plus mango and blue berry! Yay! So yes, after that day I basically fell into bed! I would have posted this morning but I had a project to work on. I can’t believe this was only yesterday!

Since we have extra dip, I’ve been thinking up creative ways to use it. Yesterday, I stirred some into my leftover mac n cheese (leftover mac n cheese is always so dry!), and this morning, I put it in scrambled eggs. That was certainly a delicious idea!

Tea and fruit on the side!

Lunch was quick on the way out the door. I’m realizing I’ve never posted this recipe before! I might need to make it its own post! It’s my all time favorite smoothie! Peanut butter banana!

Since this post is so long and the recipe is at the bottom, I’ll do a separate post for the recipe page, but I don’t want to leave you guys hanging, so here’s what this is: 1/2 cup milk, 1 frozen banana, a large spoonful of peanut butter. That’s it! It’s super creamy and delicious, and the more you blend it, the fluffier it gets! I haven’t had this in forever!

In class today, we skyped in with the guy who wrote our textbook, and gave presentations to him. How cool is that?

After class was a treat. My sister is sick and needed a prescription filled, so my mom offered to pick it up. Aaaand it just so happens my new favorite froyo place is right next to the drugstore, soooo….It’s not like I had a choice.

Salted caramel pretzel, chocolate, and brownie on top. YUM. Plus some tart with pineapple on the side, because I rally wanted to try it and YOWZA it was good! I might get that next time!

After that, my mom and I went to Costco, which I always love. It’s so fun to look at large quantities of stuff! Plus, is there really anything they don’t sell? And of course, the free samples!

Dinner was chili and broccoli. The turkey chili was topped with cheddar and avocado. Plus chips for dipping!

And let’s just say those cookies are as good as gone. 😉

And guess what? I am officially off medication! Hard to imagine I was taking 30 pills a day a week ago!

Have a great night everybody!

What is your favorite type of frozen yogurt?