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It’s Crunch Time, My Friends

Well, we’re in the home stretch. My app will be submitted on Friday. Lots to do before now and then! (Just a note for anyone who may see this post and benefit: I’m submitting my app about a month before the deadline so everything has time to process, just in case!)

Although it’s Tuesday, I thought we could still do a little weekend recap!

My Saturday morning began with a fun spin class and a trip to the farmer’s market.

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I really, really love figs. And California peaches—they cannot be beat! Pro-tip: put your farmer’s market peaches in the fridge ASAP even if they are still hard. They ripen super fast and will start to rot otherwise! (I knew this but still failed to do it…)

For lunch, I picked up a falafel salad with tahini dressing from a food truck.

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And enjoyed the last of the caramel sauce with Halo Top and whipped cream.

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The afternoon was low key, but dinner was delicious. We had grilled romaine salad with avocado, chicken, and grilled corn. Last time we made this salad, we used grade B maple syrup for the dressing, and this time we used syrup that was less than A. It made a HUGE difference—I’m never going away from B again! This was sweeter with less mapley flavor and the whole salad didn’t hve the same “wow” factor as before.

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I was in the mood to bake, but didn’t want to commit to a giant loaf of bread, so I tried the 2 ingredient cookies I’ve been seeing all over the internet lately. 2 bananas, 1 cup of oats, 12 minutes in the oven at 350. I spiced them up a bit by adding some milk and semi sweet chocolate chips (I may or may not have gone to the store exclusively to buy milk chocolate chips, but worth it!), and fresh strawberries to some of them.

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The verdict? Delicious, but I highly recommend adding chocolate chips. They MADE them.

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Sunday morning, I went for a run! I went to my favorite place ever to run, down by the reservoir. It is just so beautiful there. I was struck by the fact that the last time I ran there, I was running on a stress fracture. I ran 3 miles! This is a big deal, because it’s the furthest I’ve gone since my stress fracture. I don’t think I’m going to be running longer than 3 miles for a while though. It’s a good distance, and there’s no reason to take any risks. My foot definitely doesn’t feel as good as new. It feels really creaky, and I think there might be some scar tissue there. But again, I am being careful.

Sunday afternoon, I went to a Giant’s game with my friend. It was AMAZING weather. No jacket—what??

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My lunch was actually a salad. At a baseball game. I do concede that that is sort of ridiculous. I normally get amazing flatbread, but I’ve gotten it the last couple of times. This beet+parmesan salad was delicious though!

We left a little early to get on the train to go home, and in that time the lead was blown and we lost. :/

I was hungry by the time we got home, so my family and I quickly threw together fig and goat cheese salad with grilled chicken, and had some of the homemade buttermilk biscuits my mom whipped up that morning.

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Monday consisted of vet school apps and a hard but fun Crossfit workout. We worked on snatches, and I was able to hit the prescribed 65% feeling good!

The WOD was full of all the things I love to do. I was the only one in the class, and would have preferred someone to suffer through it with! It was:

10 rounds: 5 pull ups, 7 front squats, 9 push ups

I think it took me around 16 minutes? I used 75# for the pull ups.

Food highlights for the day included butternut squash, chicken, and quinoa stew with roasted brussels spouts:

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And leftover graduation cupcakes from the freezer:

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2 months later, I stand by my decision to ask the cupcake place to switch the dulce de leche and chocolate frostings, resulting in dulce cake with chocolate frosting, and chocolate cake with dulce frosting.

The best part? I still have 2 more in the freezer, which I’m eyeing for dessert tonight!

Did you ever apply to grad school? How was the process?

 

WIAW-Birthday Edition

How is it Wednesday already?? I swear I was just typing up last week’s WIAW. Thanks as always to Jenn for starting this weekly fun!

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A few things before we get started. 1. No word on my MRI which is super frustrating.

2. This week’s soup was a winner! I wasn’t sure how split pea would be, but the verdict was LOVE. It has mushroom and parmesan, and is full of flavor!

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I also appreciated time with my crazies.

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Now let’s get on with it!

Tuesday was my birthday! Nothing too crazy around here, just food and spending all day studying for a midterm!

Pre-Workout:

Lemon blueberry bread. Yum.

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Workout: Crossfit. I was super excited that this workout was a collection of most of the things I can actually do! We started with bench press, and then the WOD was 4 rounds (90s rest between) of the following for me (with some subs):

250m row

10 push ups

1:00 airdyne bike

10 push ups

1:00 airdyne bike

It felt so good to be moving and pretending to be a normal person!

Breakfast:

Eaten on the go between Crossfit and squirrel watching. Fage 2%, blueberries, and sunbutter.

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I wish I had a more clear picture, but this guy was really funny! He was walking around with a huge amount of grass in his mouth.

Lunch:

I went out to a cafe on campus with my family! I had a arepa with black beans and cheese, plus a side salad.

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As you can see in the background I brought my own dressing since there’s something in the dressing that comes with the salad that my body doesn’t love.

But the highlight? My parents brought cupcakes from my favorite bakery! Gluten free chocolate and dulce de leche. But look at these decorations!

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I had a chocolate.

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Snack:

Avocado toast on GF bread, plus the inside of another piece of bread (don’t ask, it’s good bread!).

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My dinner was sort of snack-y since I had a test through dinner.

Dinnerish:

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Cheddar popcorn+dried mango (more than in the picture).

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The other half of my arepa from lunch+beet and apple salad with goat cheese.

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Dulce de leche cupcake.

After my midterm, I had a few bites of stir fry veggies, half a piece of GF pumpkin bread, a couple of carrots and hummus, and a strawberry the size of my head thanks to a fruit of the month delivery.

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Also—check out these beautiful flowers from my mom! Sometimes you have to improvise a bit in a dorm…

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For my birthday, my friends got together and got me some of my favorite ice cream—Tin Pot! We had orange creamsicle, Tcho chocolate (of course) and maple.

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I had another mini dulce de leche cupcake to go with it because birthday 🙂

We were all feeling the sugar a bit, so we went for the protein. I had a beautiful meatsicle (chicken with ketchup. #classy).

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My friends are seriously fantastic.

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Thanks guys for a great birthday!

What is your birthday cake of choice?

My typical with my family is probably mint chocolate chip ice cream cake, which we enjoyed a few days early this year!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me…

10 best things I ate in the past year.

This is arguably my favorite post I do for 12 Days of Christmas. So here’s a peak at the best things from the past year!

1. This raspberry pastry thing from the Danish Christmas town, Solvang. It was sort of like a fancier, better, moister pop tart.

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2. Chocolate ice cream from Tin Pot. This is my absolute favorite ice cream, and I’m pretty sure it’ll make the list every year.

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3. Nutella-filled chocolate chip cookies with sea salt. My roommate made these right before winter break and they were AMAZING. (Note-this is before I started avoiding nuts 100%.) Picture perfect chocolate chips cookies, and then stick nutella in the middle. And the sea salt on top? Perfect.

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4. Guacamole from the restaurant Reposado in downtown Palo Alto. It was amazing. I think it may have had cheese mashed in?

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5. Salmon from fancy restaurants in DC. My parents came to help me move in and get settled, and we went to a couple of nice places, one of which was in our hotel. Both were delicious!

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6. Guacamole greens salad from Sweetgreen. The amount of times I had this over the summer was ridiculous. The salad was fabulous though-it tasted just like fresh guacamole!
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7. Maryland crab cake at the Nationals ballpark. I have rarely had crab cakes, but my grandma insisted I needed to have something with Maryland crab while I was over there. When it was my last weekend and I still hadn’t had any, I opted to get a crab cake at the ballpark, and I’m so glad I did! Phenomenal! I may be a crab cake person now.

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8. Arepa from a place at the Oxbow market in Napa. The place was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and I can see why! This sweet corn arepa had tofu, platains, avocado, cheese, and black beans.

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9. Pumpkin soup at Thanksgiving in Napa. Last year, butternut squash soup was on the list. Now-I think I’ve moved on! I can’t wait to make this over break.

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10. Sibby’s cupcakes. Honestly, I think this place deserves its own post. After searching all over DC for the best cupcake, I found it was right under my nose, 10 minutes from my hometown. I have nothing but amazing things to say about these cupcakes.

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What is the best thing you ate in the past year?

 

 

A Day In The Life Fall 2014

Hey guys! It’s been a looong time since I did a Day in the Life post! (See my last one here! After looking over it, my quarter is definitely much saner!)

7:05 Alarm goes off. Jump out of bed and remove my foot straightjacket.

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It’s a night brace for my plantar fasciitis. It really helps, but I feel really constrained so I typically wear one at a time to give one foot some freedom.

I wake up grateful that my feet are feeling good! They were bad yesterday.

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Heading out for a run. I have trouble getting out the door on time this morning. My route takes me 2.5 miles more or less up a gradual hill, and 2.5 miles back. It feels pretty good. The plan was 6 but I’m short on time and the turnaround works better this way. I think about how much I miss running in DC. 2.5 miles there would take me from my house in Georgetown to the monuments. Here, it takes me…up a street.

I had to wear long sleeves! It was cold this morning! I think about how hard it will be to get out the door in a few months, but it’s fine once I get moving.

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Not the fastest time, but it was up hills and felt better than last week!

9:00am Go to breakfast. They had roasted cauliflower with the eggs! I get a small bowl of eggs+veggies, plus my usual yogurt bowl with sun butter and pears. It seems like a lot of food, but run days make me hungry!

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I contemplate getting coffee. My decision is made for me when the dining hall is out! I decide that taking back some roasted veggies for lunch will save time in my lunch prep, and I’m still running late.

9:15 Pack up lunch and back pack, and then shower and get ready.

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9:52 Walk out the door and refill our candy bowl.

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Bike clear across campus to my first class.

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10-11:50 Developmental Neurobiology

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We talk about synapse elimination in the spinal cord.

12-Lunchtime! Contemplate getting coffee because I’m dragging a bit, but decide against it.

Lunch is mashed sweet potatoes, roasted veggies from this morning, and precooked lemon pepper chicken from Trader Joe’s. I was impressed and surprised by how lemony the chicken was.

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Also here’s my outfit. Jeans. Moccasins. Long sleeve shirt+scarf. It’s fall my friends.

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12:30-3 I did work. Normally I’d have a Chem section in there too but since we just had a midterm, there wasn’t much material to go over.

I spent some time working on Wednesday’s post.

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I also watched Monday’s CS lecture. On Mondays I have overlapping classes, but one of my lectures is filmed so I watched the lecture today!

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~3:00 Head over to CS lecture. This class has 700 people in it, but luckily in week 5 people stop going to class so it’s easy to get a seat!

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4:15 Return to dorm. I need a nap! Dinner doesn’t seem like it will have a ton of substance so I eat a bite of blueberry vanilla goat cheese.

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I then change into leggings-GOTTA SUPPORT THE TEAM-and crawl into bed until 5:00 when the game starts.

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5:00 Alarm goes off. I just up and run to the dining hall to grab dinner before first pitch at 5:07. Dinner looks better than expected.

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A piece of quesadilla, salad, roasted carrots, a little cilantro brown rice, some dry chicken.

Then-game time!

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Between innings I run back to the dining hall to return my dishes and grab a bowl of ice cream with hot fudge.

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Continue watching the game and work on pre-lab during commercials.

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Game ends around 8:45. Sadly we lose. We’re now 1-1 for the series but we’re headed home!

8:45-9:15 Work on this post and chat with a friend. She learns about this blog and wants to follow it.

9:15 House meeting. Only a couple of announcements, but they bring in Sprinkles Cupcakes! I haven’t had many sweets this week so I don’t worry that I already had ice cream.

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I decide that Sprinkles doesn’t compare to the other cupcake places in DC, although I swear the Sprinkles Cupcake I had in DC was better. And bigger…

9:38 Now. Typing up this blog post. I’m ahead on work so I’ll probably go to bed soon. I also realize that I’m almost certainly allergic to the Halloween candy that doesn’t contain nuts, but is packed and processed near so many nuts. Booo. I’ve gotten so sensitive!

It’s interesting to see this Day in the Life compared to the last one-my life is so much less crazy now!

What do you think of Day in the Life posts?

 

Non-DC Cupcakes

Hello! I hope everyone’s week is going well. I started my morning with an early spin class, followed by a nice long post-breakfast nap.

For breakfast, I was planning on having this:

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I’ve seen it around the blog and twitter world a bit-it’s a soft cheese that is eaten like yogurt but it doesn’t have the tangy taste. I had high hopes.

Well, it was terrible. I couldn’t eat more than a bite. It tasted like chemicals. It was sweetened with both sugar alcohols and stevia, so from the start I wasn’t a fan of the ingredient list. And sugar alcohols taste especially weird in dairy. On the plus side, there were real chunks of pineapple. As far as the whole soft cheese concept, I think I’ll reserve judgment until I try the plain flavor with no sugar alcohols or stevia.

Instead, I had a coconut Chobani with sunflower seed butter and a side of roasted carrots. I’ve been looking for coconut Chobani for no less than a year at every grocery store I’ve gone to and I finally found it!

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For lunch, I had leftover BBQ chicken with cumin roasted purple cauliflower (that color is so much more exciting!) along with some unpictured grapes and crackers.

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After lunch, I was looking something up on the internet and I found a reference to what was supposed to be an amazing cupcake place near my home that I had never heard of. Given all my DC cupcake expertise,I felt it was my duty to taste them. I feel like my entire summer was preparing me for that moment. So off I went with the company of my mom.

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Here’s the thing about going with your mother. It’s much more socially acceptable to get more cupcakes. The cool thing about this place is they had three sizes-mini, normal, and large. So she suggested we get one of each mini cupcake to try. I have absolutely no problem with that, and this way we got to try all the flavors since my family split the minis. The place was called Libby’s-it’s in a sort of industrial area at the edge of downtown, and mostly does cupcake orders but they have a ton of “extras” you can just buy (which is what we did).

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Appearance and flavor selection were on point. To name a few, we got red velvet, key lime, cookie dough, salted caramel, dulce de leche, buttercup, snickerdoodle, and carrot cake. I think my favorites were salted caramel and cookie dough. The frosting on the cookie dough tasted just like cookie dough, but it was light and fluffy. The verdict? Definitely going back.

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For dinner, we had butternut squash macaroni and cheese from Cooking Light. This recipe is amazing and the only one we ever made-it uses butternut squash for some of the creaminess and you’d never know it!

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In terms of entertainment, I have a couple of things to share. First is this book-The Price of Inheritance, by Karin Tanabe.

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The author is one of my friends from run club in DC, so I was excited to find her new book at the bookstore. I’m really enjoying it so far, and highly suggest you go out and buy it! It’s really well written and I love her writing style.

Another fun thing-has anyone seen the Cropfit Subway commercial? I love it-it’s especially funny because some of those things are a lot like some of the stuff we do. Now where can I find a giant pumpkin?

Here’s the link.

What book are you reading now?