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Full Day of Eating: Amazing Salads

Date: May 16, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

I’ve been eating the same lunches and dinners each day this week so far, and they’ve just both been amazing (simple) meals, so I thought I would share!

Pre-Crossfit: Typical Berry Cheerios.

Crossfit crushed me this morning. It’s been crushing me in general these past couple of weeks. We did back squats which I was super excited about because they’re my favorite thing and I haven’t been able to do them much lately between my back and my jacked up hips. Both are getting better, so it was so nice to squat and have it feel good! The WOD was intervals of wall balls, rowing, and walking lunges with two 35 pound dumbbells. It was ALL quads today folks! I was pretty ready for breakfast when I returned!

Breakfast: Sunbutter Banana Smoothie

Back in the day, before my peanut allergy, I used to LOVE a super thick smoothie of frozen banana, a huge scoop of peanut butter, and a little milk. I actually looked back on my blog for the amounts. It’s not quite as good with sunbutter, and the half cup of milk made this a little thinner than I want next time, but this was delicious! Also now that the weather is warming up, I want warm food less!

Lunch:

I’ve blogged this salad before but it doesn’t change how amazing it is. My blueberry and burrata salad! I haven’t had a ton of luck finding burrata lately, but I found it and blueberries are just starting to be giant and sweet! Burrata is one of my favorite things. It’s SO creamy. I had rotisserie chicken, which made this all the better. I also had a bowl of Pirate’s Booty.

Snack:

Bar+grapes. I’m loving grapes right now!

This evening, I had my last soccer game of the year! We lost, but it was a close one! I’ve definitely improved a lot since the first game in the fall. Yeesh.

Dinner:

I like to think of this salad as vaguely Hawaiian, partly because we made it in Hawaii for the first time. I tossed greens in Poppyseed dressing, then topped it with papaya, rotisserie chicken warmed up with GF teriyaki sauce, and topped with mozzarella cheese. YUM.

After dinner, I went to a kitty birthday party, and brought Jackson! He was clearly thrilled.

He immediately crawled under the tiniest space. He didn’t seem too overly scared under there though. I’m trying to put him in some more social situations before we fly to Nashville in a few weeks!

At the party I had some custard from a cake and a small glass of wine while we celebrated the birthday girl!

And to finish the night, back home I had half a rice cake with cream cheese.

Lemon, Dill, and Chicken Salad+ Other Spring Salads

Date: May 11, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

Guys. I created something amazing. I tried to make a Sweetgreen copycat one of their spring salads, and while it actually tasted nothing like it, it was SUPER delicious and insanely easy (thanks to Trader Joe’s.)

Ingredients:

Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper Grilled Chicken

Steamed or Roasted Asparagus (I steamed mine, and then for my last salad of the week when I didn’t have any broccoli, I broiled it)

Roasted Broccoli (I roasted with Trader Joe’s Everything seasoning blend)

Feta

Fresh Dill

Mixed Greens

Trader Joe’s Tzatziki Sauce

This salad screamed “spring” to me. Also, I got that bowl specifically to house large salads.

Just basically mix everything together. The Tzatziki is the dressing.

I’ve also had some other delicious salads lately that I thought I would share.

Granted this isn’t the best picture. But right now, aged balsamic massaged onto kale is my jam. This also has dried cranberries, creamy goat cheese, and deli chicken. I actually think I prefer deli chicken to turkey at this point.

Same idea but with honey goat cheese. I don’t have a picture, but I’ve also been doing blueberries instead of pears in my lunch salads this week. Partly because they were actually really sour and not the best to just have plain.

Avocado toast, plus an amazing salad that doesn’t look like much. Amazing thanks to the aged TRUFFLE balsamic vinegar that I used. I think aged vinegars are my current favorite thing. The kale was massaged with a little olive oil, aged truffle balsamic, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper.

And since I claim to be a vet student, here are some fun things from these past couple weeks:

Learning how to locate abdominal organs on ultrasound:

New bffs:

My first client simulation lab! My school puts a lot of emphasis on communication in our curriculum, starting in first year!

 

Birthday Full Day of Eating

Date: May 4, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

Yesterday was my birthday! It was definitely a good one! I celebrated with my family a little last weekend:

But yesterday was the actual day. I also had a super nice class schedule and only had a few hours of class! I figured, what better way to celebrate than a full day of eating?

Breakfast:

Birthday pear from my parents (amazing) and a flapjacked muffin.

Lunch:

Salad with chicken, pear, goat cheese, and crackers.

Bonus selfie with Jackson:

Snack:

One of my friends made me GF cupcakes, which was so nice because I rarely get to eat cake! Not a bad way to spice up lecture either!

Snack 2 was a bar.

Dinner:

My friends took me out to dinner, and it was such a nice night. I of course had to have a beer.

And then I got a salad with bleu cheese, currants, and grilled chicken.

And of course I finished the evening with more cupcakes.

 

Amazing Zucchini Soup + Sac Giant Race and Picnic Day

Date: April 22, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone is enjoying spring weather! The rain has stopped here, and it was mid-80s all weekend! Perfect for spending outside! I have some fun to share today, but I want to start with an amazing soup recipe I threw together tonight. And in true Fitness is Sweet fashion, this was done in less than 30 minutes. It would have been even faster if my blender wasn’t small! (Although the small blender still worked like a charm!)

Rosemary Zucchini Soup

Note that the quantities are approximate; I just threw everything together!

Ingredients:

3 large zucchinis

1 cup riced cauliflower

1 T minced garlic

2 T fresh rosemary

3 handfuls of spinach

salt and pepper to taste

broth to desired consistency

Sautee the zucchini, cauliflower, and rosemary with salt, pepper, and a little water. I covered it as well to soften. Cook until both are soft. Then, wilt the spinach on top of that mixture. Add garlic, and blend to desired consistency with broth. That’s it! It’s SO perfect for spring. You can also use any herb you want! I’ve made this before with sage because it was the only herb at the store that day, and it was good (rosemary is better). This would also be awesome with fresh dill, and then a touch of fresh lemon!

As for the rest of my weekend, I spent it mostly outdoors! Friday night I skyped some college friends before going to an outdoor brewery. Saturday was really the main day. I had the Sacramento Giant Race bright and early, and the weather could not have been more perfect!

I decided to try and maintain about an 8:20 pace. It seemed about right since I’m finally running regularly (as in once a week) again post-ankle bone bruise thing. I definitely lost some speed after not running for so long, and the couple of races I did (without running for months prior) during the course of the injury felt pretty awful and definitely were slower. I felt pretty good out there! More importantly, my ankle felt good too! The weather was beautiful, and the course was really nice. It went along the river, through some neighborhoods, and finished on the field!

It was a fun one, and so nice for my speed to be coming back! Again, the weather was amazing. It feels like summer! After some debate, I did go for the post-race beer because they had a non-IPA option, although I didn’t drink that much of it!

Next up was Picnic Day! It’s a huge deal here in Davis, and I can’t very well describe it. People come in from all over, and it’s basically a day of celebrating UC Davis. There’s a parade with floats (the vet school always wins), and basically every club and group on campus has some sort of booth. There’s lots of food and lots of people!

Here’s the one parade photo I got:

As I was getting ready to meet up with friends, I sipped on a green juice cocktail. Seriously, don’t knock it ’til you try it!

I spent the day walking around enjoying the weather and festivities with my friends.

Including the kittens from a vet school club…

Sunday involved Crossfit in the morning, which was mostly outside because it involved 3000m of running, some studying with an iced latte in a coffee shop, and a softball game. And ice cream. I’m currently loving the new Yasso frozen yogurt chocolate-vanilla swirl. I put GF mini soft chocolate chip cookies in it.

Besides the weather and fun things happening, I also really love what we’re doing in class right now. The gastrointestinal system is by far my favorite body system. I have lots of fun things coming up as well—I’m going home next weekend to go to some Giant’s games!

I’ll leave you with Jackson:

Day in the Life: Vet School Spring Year 1

Date: April 19, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

6:15am: Wake up. I usually get up at this time to workout, but I decided to try to get some extra sleep this morning because I’ve been tired so I try to force myself back to sleep. Jackson isn’t having it though.

6:45: I stayed in bed as long as I could, including getting up twice to try and kick Jackson out of my room.

6:45-7: Weight Jackson and snuggle. And take my (gummy) vitamins. He’s officially 10 pounds! Which means he’s tripled in size since I got him <3

Then I get dressed and eat breakfast.

A cracker, the rest of my blackberries, and a double chocolate protein muffin.

Pack my lunch. I pretty much always pack the same salad, but the fruit varies depending on the season. We’re not at peach season quite yet. Pear, goat cheese, chicken, with some GF basically cheezits.

7:45: Not really sure what to do since I’m awake an hour earlier than I needed to be, so I start this post and watch a youtube video, and then get ready for the day!

8:40: Leave for class.

9:00: First lecture is on imaging of the abdomen.

10:00: Lecture on anti-emetic drugs and gastroprotectants. We learn that long term omeprazole use can decrease calcium absorption. A couple of years ago when I was really sick with stomach issues, I was on omeprazole for probably a year, and broke my foot at the end of that time so I wonder if that contributed? I was training for a 10 mile race and doing a lot of other stuff, but I had also run like 6 half marathons while healthy without ever having bone issues so maybe!

11:00: Lecture on pathology of the stomach and esophagus, which I purposefully did not take much of a picture of because we looked at a lot of real images of the organs.

12-12:40: Lunch! I sit outside because it’s a beautiful day!

12:40: Change into scrubs and a lab coat for anatomy lab.

1-2:40: Anatomy lab. Today’s lab involved dissecting into the abdomen and seeing all the organs we’ve been talking about!

3:00: Return home to my little sidekick greeting me at the door.

Eat a snack while relaxing with a short TV episode, followed by Jackson cuddles.

3:30: Continue on this blog post.

3:45: Make some notes on today’s lab. Grab a handful of Cheerios before heading to Crossfit because I’m starving.

4:25: Leave for Crossfit.

I haven’t worn my ankle brace in a looong time but I wear it today because while my ankle is much, much better, I’ve already exceeded my use of it for the week and we have double unders. Usually my ankle is totally fine running once a week, and after that it gets sketchy. I ran 3 miles on Sunday and had soccer on Tuesday, so it’s sore. Which is an issue since I have a 5k on Saturday, so I’m babying it!

4:45: Crossfit. The 4:45 class is a 45 minute class but we still do the same stuff as the normal classes. Today is a longer workout so it’s a mad dash.

Part 1:

5 rounds:

30s assault bike MAX EFFORT (ouch)

90s rest

30s burpees to a target

90s rest

This was TOUGH because we were really encouraged to go all out on the bike! We didn’t have much time before heading right into the WOD, which was a fun one.

9 min AMRAP:

9 push jerk at 75#

15 sit ups

21 double unders

I finished 5 rounds plus 9 push jerks.

5:45: Return home and cook dinner while sipping on a lavender kombucha. Nothing unusual today. Zucchini noodles with pasta sauce and lots of cheese: regular and fresh mozzarella.

Dessert:

Enjoy life soft baked chocolate cookies in a new brand of vanilla cake “healthy” ice cream. I ended up really not liking the ice cream. I almost didn’t finish the bowl, and ended up just tossing the rest of the pint.

Then I go to ice my ankle while turning on the Giants game.

Watch the game a little longer before starting class work. This is his preferred position…

7:45: Snack on a bowl of Berry Cheerios.

And then this is the set-up:

Baseball (on mute), iPad with lectures, and then my notes.

8:30: Jackson wants to lay on my iPad…and play. So I do some clicker training with him. He’s been really bad about biting—play biting, not aggressive, but still a problem especially at night. I’m trying to teach him to “attack” this toy so I can try and redirect his behavior. I don’t appreciate dealing with teeth every night around 3am…

It’s about 9 now. I have another lecture I want to get through but it should be quick! I’m usually in bed with the lights out around 10:30.

And that’s a more or less typical day of GI in vet school!