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On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my True Love Gave to Me…

11 cats!

I know this is a total cop-out post but this is finals week and I spent all day in the library working on a take home test that I still need to finish tonight. Either way, be sure to check here on Tuesday for something fun 🙂

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2.

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3. Twins!

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4.

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5.

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6. My visit to the kitten nursery this summer.

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7. This is my cousins’ cat! He’s 19!

 

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8. This was the night I came home from DC after being gone all summer.

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9. This is why is took me a good two weeks to unpack once I came home from DC…

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11.

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SO CLOSE

Happy week before Thanksgiving! I officially have 1.5 days of classes before I get to return home! So what’s new?

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The view around campus. Who says California doesn’t have fall?

Yesterday morning began with the typical Wednesday 6 mile run. My feet felt surprisingly good-no clue why!

Post run was my typical dining hall breakfast of a yogurt bowl, but also some veggies. I love when they have them at breakfast!

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After classes, I stopped by a cafe and grabbed a salad.

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It ended up being pretty wimpy. No match for my runger! I went back for a blueberry bran muffin-perfect!

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And dinner was a dining hall salad with hummus and chicken, rice, and carrots.

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For dessert-the return of pumpkin froyo! I’ve been waiting all year for this! On top of some bread pudding. A great end to the day!

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And now I’m back to programming! I have one assignment between me and these guys:

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How excited are you for Thanksgiving?

Chocolate Muffins with Ricotta Filling

Guys. I have a recipe. I know, it’s been a while, right?

But first, a couple of things.

1. I’m trying to do some work on the blog. Does a right sidebar appear when you view my blog? It should be there but I can’t get it to come

up on my computer and I can’t figure out why…

2. I have some food pics first.

I had the best morning yesterday-I went to Crossfit and had my baking in the oven by 9am. I love jet lag. My before Crossfit breakfast was

random but functional.  A biscuit+roasted carrots+watermelon.

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Lunch was a hummus veggie wrap-whole grain wrap, red pepper hummus, lettuce, tomato, cucumber. Delicious. Plus more watermelon. And

muffins.

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And then dinner was take out-terikayi chicken tacos.

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And homemade guac and salsa.

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Also-I haven’t unpacked yet. You want to know WHY I haven’t unpacked yet?

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They were on it ALL day.

Ok-recipe time! This recipe can be used in parts or all together.

Chocolate Muffins with Ricotta Orange Filling

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The ricotta filling is from a recipe we used when I went to a culinary bootcamp for school lunch cafeteria workers for work. It originally was

used as a fruit dip. The recipe makes a bit more than necessary for the muffins so I recommend dipping some watermelon or oranges!

Ricotta Orange Filling

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Ingredients:

15 oz reduced fat ricotta

1/4 c orange juice

3 T honey

1 1/2 t orange zest

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t cinnamon

Instructions: Beat all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl until smooth.

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For the chocolate muffin:

I used the recipe for my double chocolate banana bread (I swear you won’t taste the banana here so it won’t

clash, I promise!), although I only used 3 bananas.

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

1 egg (or 2 whites)

2 T oil (I used canola)

1/3 c milk

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 c cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate, hence the color)

1 c flour-I used whole wheat pastry

1 T honey

1/3 c bittersweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas and mix all ingredients besides the chips.

3. Stir in chips

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4. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cups. I also highly recommend greasing the tin so that the oversized muffins come out more easily.

5. Divide the batter into the 12 cups.

6. Place a heaping table spoon (more or less if desired) of the ricotta orange filling on top of each muffin.

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7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

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Enjoy!

 

A(urora)-Z

Hey! Since I have nothing super groundbreaking to say-I’ve either eaten my meals out of ziplock bags or I haven’t taken pictures, I’m going to go ahead and post one of my prepared posts I made over the summer for when things got busy! So-this survey was going around forever ago and maybe made more sense at the time, but let’s go with it! It’s funny though-I swear my writing voice/I have matured since writing this!

Hey guys! I’ve seen this in the blog world a lot, and since I know you guys would just love to learn about me, I thought it would be a good post to have in reserve for when the days get busier. So, here we go!

A. Attached or Single?

Single. Attached to my cat-which is no secret. 

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B. Best Friend?

I have a few best friends, but given only one of those people might actually read this, I’m going to go with my friend Jessica, who I’m known since 6th grade 🙂Image

We’re such babies here! We were also plaid obsessed, if you can’t tell by the cookies…
C. Cake or pie?

Cake. One hundred percent. This is my favorite dessert. 

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D. Day of choice?

I’m going to have to go with Friday. I like having a routine, but it’s also a day to relax and not do homework, 
E. Essential Item?

My phone. I admit, I can’t go anywhere without it. And if it ever dies, I feel lost. It’s kind of sad. 
F. Favorite color?

Blue.
G. Gummy bears or worms?

I’m not a huge gummy bear fan, with the exception of my vitamins. So worms. 

H. Home town?

Just south of SF 🙂
I. Favorite Indulgence?

Probably cake. Image
J. January or July?

July. January is always sort of depressing because the fun of winter has worn off and the holidays are over. 
K. Kids?

Just my kitties 🙂Image

L. Life isn’t complete without?

Ok if I say cats, will I be crossing into crazy cat lady territory? Let’s go with friends and family instead (but technically cats are family too soo…)

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M. Mountain or Beach?

Hmm not sure. Probably mountain? I’m not much of a beach person I suppose. 

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N. Number of brothers/sisters?

1 sister.

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O. Oranges or Apples?

My first instinct would be apples, but I haven’t had great apples lately, and I’ve had some pretty darn good oranges. I used to hate oranges though so let’s go with apples. 
P. Phobias?

Anyone fairly close to me knows my list, and its order.

1. Puke

2. Drowning

3. Scorpions

4. Hair
Q. Quotes?

“I am Ted F-ing Williams and not even Jesus Christ himself can get me out.” My hitting coach told me to tell this to myself at the plate-power of positive thinking! Fun fact: I began a college essay with this quote. And got in. And now go to said school. 
R. Reasons to smile?

I’m healthy and my body can carry me 12 miles. 

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I have a loving and supportive family. 

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I get to help raise adorable kittens and give them a second chance at the local shelter. 

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S. Season of choice?

At this point I may have to go with fall. I love spring, but fall is more interesting. 

T. Trip for the Future

Hawaii! I’m going at the beginning of September. So this might be posted during that time. 

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U. Unknown fact about me?

Before I started blogging, all the photos in my phone consisted of cats or injuries. I’ll spare you pictures, but let’s just say that I had a lot of softball shaped bruises. And of course the gashes in my shin from box jumps…and the frostbite on my foot…Yeah I’m pretty cool. 
V. Vegetable?

Hmm maybe brussels sprouts? Lettuce is an easy go-to though too. 

ImageW. Worst habit?

Running my hands through my hair and pulling out loose hairs. I hate hairs, and obsessively pick them off myself. 

Or just running my hands through my hair when I’m nervous. 
X. Xray or Ultrasound?

Xray? Weird question…
Y. Your favorite food?

I’m a food blogger. I can’t possibly have just one favorite food. Hmm how about favorite meal? Cheese souffles, mushrooms with thyme, and herb salad. 

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Z. Zodiac sign?

Taurus. But I don’t really know anything about this kind of thing.

Well, hope you enjoyed a peek into my life! I loved looking at old pictures…any photos with my family are pretty old because any newer photos are on my parent’s computer!

Have a great day!

MIMM-Chocolate and Friends

Happy Monday. Who has the day off? My weekend has certainly been marvelous so far!
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Marvelous is..

Oatmeal! x2. Banana oats topped with strawberries, sun butter, and a dollop of plain yogurt.

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Marvelous is…

An iced chai! I had every intention of spending the day working at a coffeeshop so I got a big chai tea! The only problem was that I for somer reason woke up much too early that morning and could barely keep my eyes open so I left for a nap…whoops. There went my productivity!

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Marvelous is…

Trying a different dining hall for lunch! It was actually really good! They had about 9 types of cream cheese, which looked homemade. I tried the cinnamon raisin, triple berry, basil and olive, and chive and onion.

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Marvelous is…

A dessert party! My sorority had a Valentine’s themed party on Saturday, so I got to dress up and eat delicious things. Fun fact-there are 3 girls in my sorority who seriously want to go to culinary school-let’s just say that we eat well!

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Marvelous is…

A kick butt run! There’s no question I’ve gotten in better shape and faster in the last few months. I did the same run I’ve done a couple of times before-it’s one of my absolutely favorite places to run because it’s SO pretty! There’s a fairly big hill in the middle-the last time I was proud I kept my pace until 11:00 for the hill. I ended up powering up the hill around a 9:00 pace! And it wasn’t death!

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Marvelous is…

A reunion with my best friends from high school! We actually went the same place the same weekend last year! (Sadly, it was the last day before I was sick for 2 months…)

Last year:

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This year:

(Excuse my sweaty-just ran self)

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But more importantly-the delicious food! We couldn’t decide between sweet or salty, so we got pancakes for the table to share. 

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Marvelous is…

Relaxing at home! I spent the day lounging around with these guys and watching the Olympics.

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Things are going to get crazy starting tomorrow because I have loads of studying to do and a crazy amount of stuff to do this week!

Marvelous is..

Homemade chocolate for my family! And heyyy I finally took down the recipe for those interested!

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Ingredients:

2 T coconut oil

2.5 T maple syrup

1 t vanilla extract

2 T half and half

1/2 c cocoa powder or cacao powder

1. Melt the coconut oil and maple syrup in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds and blend well. Then stir in vanilla.

2. Stir in cocoa powder and half and half (if the half and half is very cold, you may need to heat the mix up a bit).

3. Chill in the fridge on wax paper, or grab a spoon and enjoy!

Marvelous is…

Visiting my home Crossfit tomorrow morning! Yay!

What did you do this weekend?