How I Study

Date: September 7, 2017

Author: astottler

Hello, hello! I’m taking a study break to share some of my food as of late!

Also…my body hurts. I don’t know what it was, but Crossfit hit me hard this week! I’m not sure what it is, maybe the programming, but I’ve spent a lot of time very, very sore. Someone had a shirt on yesterday that said “Everything hurts and I’m dying.” That’s sort of how I feel right about now.

I have been wimping out on my deadlifts lately (as in….the last year. whoops.) and did them with a partner the other day…so I was pushed to go a little heavier for sets of 5. I didn’t realize how sore I was until the next day, I reached down to pick up a horse’s foot and OW. And then it just keeps building. Yesterday was a spicy little couplet of 65# snatches and thrusters. I was expecting the thrusters to be trivial (for some reason…). Nope. The snatches felt much better. Oh, and here’s a new one: I bruised my hand doing pull ups (over 50 of them, to be fair). So that’s cool. But other than everything hurts and I’m dying, vet school life around here is going well! I’m actually fairly caught up on studying everything, which is a great feeling, and one that I’m not entirely familiar with. I completely changed my study habits when I got here, and honestly it takes away a ton of stress. This apparently is how I study:

On the lap

2. On the iPad.

3. On the chair.

And then this was last night. Apparently Rina knows I’m a grandma and meowed at me to come to bed at 9pm, so I brought my studying to bed.

And while we’re on the topic of pets, guess who’s coming in just over a week??

I believe I promised you some food (and not just animals, but let’s be real here), so let’s dive in!

Breakfasts

Watermelon, a GF pumpkin spice waffle, and plain greek yogurt with honey and cocoa powder.

Smoothie as I ran out the door after Crossfit: frozen banana, 1/2 school of chocolate Quest protein, milk, and cocoa powder. The classic.

Yogurt bowl with raspberry jam and sunbutter. This was supposed to be with passionfruit, but the very expensive passionfruit I got was pretty awful (and basically empty.)

Yogurt bowl with cinnamon granola and sunbutter, plus a farmer’s market plum.

Lunches

Basically all packed salads. The treat was picking up a rotisserie chicken breast this week!

Salad with grapes, shaved parmesan, and rotisserie chicken. Tossed in light balsamic, served with rice cakes.

Fig, goat cheese, and chicken salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinners

Beet, carrot, apple juice at the farmer’s market.

Zucchini and corn tamale from the farmer’s market, plus a kale salad with nutritional yeast.

More zucchini soup with grilled cheese.

When I picked up the rotisserie chicken, it was perfectly warm. Dinner was chicken with ketchup and a side salad with ginger dressing.

This meal was a Quick and Easy FTW. I wasn’t sure what to make this week, so before going to the store I scrolled through to see what looked good and decided on this salad. Balsamic kale with roasted butternut squash, dried cranberries, and parmesan. Chicken on the side.

Another farmer’s market tamale. Can you tell I’m a little obsessed? This was chicken and vegetable. Ginger salad on the side.

That’s all I have—it’s dinner time!

My Sister Got Married!

Date: September 4, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, my sister’s wedding weekend came and went! I wanted to hop on here and share pictures (that I took) from that now, to do the event justice.

Friday, I had class. I stayed at school a while after to study and get ahead for the weekend, and because I didn’t want to brave the 111 degree heat. This heat wave is insane. It’s been over 100 in San Francisco which is unheard of!

Saturday morning, I woke up at 4am to catch an early flight to Seattle for the wedding. My sister got an AirBnB for the wedding party, and it was incredible. It was giant, and right on the water with an amazing view. Since everyone seemed to be running around/gone, I was able to sneak in a couple of hours of productive studying in a place far more beautiful and temperate than my kitchen table!

My entire family knows that my favorite GF cookies ever are from a place inside SFO, so my parents brought me some. When you wake up at 4am, it’s totally acceptable to eat cookies at 9am right?

The day before the wedding, we had a couple of crises to deal with, as was expected. The fire I had to put out was the lavender syrup. My sister DIYed a lot of this wedding, and it had a ton of personal touches. She made lavender syrup for lavender lemonade at the wedding, and blackberry lavender mojitos at the reception. Unfortunately, we discovered mold in the syrup. I volunteered to make fresh lavender simple syrup. 8 liters worth.

Finally, the ingredients, and lunch in the form of a Panera salad, arrived.

Then we got to work boiling down the syrup. For anyone interested, bring 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of lavender to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat, and that’s it!

The complication was getting the massive amount syrup cool enough to bottle it!

Finally, the syrup was made and we headed off the the rehearsal. They got married at Gasworks Park, which I had only seen by duck boat before on a previous Seattle trip. The site was on top of kite hill, with a 360 degree view overlooking the lake and Seattle.

Afterwards, our big group headed to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner.

^Gotta get a picture with the bride!

After dinner, we migrated to ice cream, Kurt’s Farm Stand. It was really good. Their plain vanilla (Jersey Cream) was the best plain flavor of ice cream I’ve had. I was in the mood for chocolate, but the rose I tried was amazing too.

Afterwards, we spent a good 20ish minutes walking circles of varying sizes around our car trying to find it. Whoops.

On wedding morning, I started with a 3 mile run and soaked in the cool, non-smoky air. The views weren’t bad either!

Then, it was time for everyone to get ready! I broke out the orange-peach-mango mimosas.

We had hair and makeup people come.

^Isn’t she stunning??

And with the dress:

I ended up being last for hair and makeup, which ended up being kind of a disaster when we were running late, and I was rushing around with maid of honor duties (including getting the dress on). I was undecided on hair. I NEVER have my hair curly, and it doesn’t like to hold a curl at all. I haven’t had my hair curly since prom in high school. After everyone else’s curls looked so pretty, I decided to go for it. I was hoping for just curls near the end, and I think I needed to have expressed that better….on top of that, after makeup and getting the bride’s dress on, my curls were already falling out so they touched them up, but I think that just made it look super messy/slopping. I had literally one minute to look in the mirror and put my dress on before we had to rush out the door, and I honestly did not like my look at all, and didn’t recognize myself…I was able to alter my makeup a little bit, but it was not the best situation, given these pictures are going to be there forever!

Somehow despite a crazy hectic couple of hours, we made it to the venue for pictures right on schedule.

Look how pretty the bouquets are!

Right before pictures, we ran into the most adorable pup. That cheered me right up!

The ceremony was beautiful, and went off without any major hitches! It was perfectly them, and had some great personal and unique touches. I also loved that there were geese wandering around in the background at the top of the hill.

Here’s the happy couple!

The reception was about a half hour drive from the park, at a beautiful rustic barn with an adorably sweet dog.

The wedding was hot air balloon themed, because they got engaged on a hot air balloon. My sister MADE all the hot air balloon decorations!

Blackberry lavender mojito (I might have to have a party just to make this).

Pup hanging out at dinner getting all the love:

Dinner (they had a special GF plate for me <3 ):

Cake+cake cutting. They had a caramel apple spice layer, a chocolate buttercream layer, and a blackberry buttermilk layer.

Then, it was time for toasts! I thought everyone did a great job. I had the last one, and I think I was the person everyone least expected to do a sappy toast, but I had to bring it in.

I did try some of the cake because in the scheme of things of gluten and worth it, amazing wedding cake is definitely worth it. They also had a pretty mango sorbet for me.

Then, it was time to get the party started!

The big surprise getting set up:

^What happens when vet students go to weddings….

First dance:

Father-daughter dance:

Groom-brother sword fight:

More dancing:

Hot air balloon rides! Yes, they had a hot air balloon for guests to go up in! And yes, I did go up!

Make your own s’mores. My sister got super fancy s’mores from a high quality chocolate place, and let guest make their own with a blowtorch.

Nerf gun war:

And before we knew it, it was time to send off the newly weds. We sent them off with a nerd gun salute, and off they went, into the night!

It was a great day, and went off relatively free of disaster! I wasn’t the one planning the wedding for 2 years, and I feel the post wedding blues a little bit!

I got to take home some of the party favors, homemade chocolate. The groom loves making chocolate, like the entire process, starting with roasting his own beans. So it’s legit. And look how cute!

And now it’s back to reality. We’re easing in though, with lots of snuggles:

I hope you all had a great long weekend! I know I did 😉

New Uses of Zucchini+Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone

Date: August 28, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Random Monday night blog post because I am TIRED. I was going to get ahead on some work, but my brain isn’t quite where it needs to be in terms of functioning. Since it’s not too late, I figured I’d pop in here and share some adventures.

I think we left off on Friday.

I had a BBQ after class (black bean burger), and afterwards all I wanted to do was drink lots of water, eat a chocolate chip cookie, and hang out on the couch. And that’s exactly what I did.

I went to Nugget market that evening, which was the local competitor that drove Whole Foods out of business here. It looks identical to Whole Foods inside.

Saturday, I did a high ropes course. So, so not my thing but we all know I’m all about character building. I did some things, and certainly not other. I scaled a tree and jumped off a very high ledge (with a harness) which I did not enjoy at all, but I”m glad I did.

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After the redwoods, this is what I came home to:

Hah. If only I knew what was to come.

For dinner, I had a simple veggie burger, kale and nutritional yeast salad, and microwaved sweet potato with cheese.

After pushing myself and exhausting my adrenaline stores, plus spending all day outside, ice cream was necessary. I’m currently loving the chocolate Halo Top+sunbutter combo.

The fun part about Saturday was we were dog sitting an Aussie. We all know I have a soft spot for Aussies. It’s crazy how similar their mannerisms are!

Sunday morning, my friend from back home visited me with her pup. She came early, because of the projected scorching temperature. He got so big!

We went out to brunch and coffee, and then walked around downtown before it got too hot. For my meal, I had a delicious spinach frittata with swiss cheese and avocado.

After she left, I planted myself inside as the temperature was climbing well over 100. I decided to try out a new use of zucchini. Have you ever made those 2 ingredient cookies, with a mashed banana and oats? Well, I had an idea. I’ve had GF maple brown sugar oatmeal for a while, and I rarely eat oatmeal. I thought I would try that in cookies.

I mixed together one mashed ripe banana, one grated zucchini, and 2 packets of the oatmeal. I formed them into cookies, and baked for 12 minutes at 350.

The final result was delicious, and actually a really good texture! I packed some for a school snack today.

In the early evening, I headed to the gym for a short workout. I want to keep up with my squatting. I took a break from my squat program, but I’ve been doing some other squat-based strength building since. I’m planning on starting it again soon, with the goal of maintaining strength. When I left for the gym, this was the situation:

I warmed up with slow descending back squats, then did 8 minutes of 2 squats every 30 seconds. I used a moderate weight. Enough that the volume made it difficult, but I still got good depth. Then I did a few sets of single leg squats and pistols, and finished with some abs. In and out in 40ish minutes!

I stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way home and picked up a citrus chicken salad for dinner, plus some cheese puffs. I try to limit impulse buys to one item per trip, and I have sure been enjoying these since!

Right as I was finishing dinner, things started to go south.

We lost power, along with the entire neighborhood. It quickly started getting hot and dark, with no end to the outage in sight. When I attempted to go to bed (it was SUPER warm), the projected time the power was supposed to return was the next morning at 10am!

THANKFULLY, it came on just before midnight and the cool air was restored. Also thankfully, I did all my classwork ahead of time before I lost power and therefore wifi!

Monday morning, I went for an early run and then ate a yogurt bowl with blackberries, honey, and sunbutter. I’m trying to eat more fruit (plus hydration), so I had some pineapple on the side.

As hot as yesterday was, today was worse.

You know how when you get into your car when it’s hot out and it feels like an oven? That’s what the air felt like. Just for fun, when I turned my car on at first, this is what it showed:

Obviously the car has been baking, but even so, I’ve never seen a temperature like that! And then this is what it was when it normalized:

Honestly not so much better.

Finally, I want to share my dinner with you guys because it was surprisingly amazing! I made zucchini soup. And yes, I realize I made soup in 111 degree weather.

For the soup, I sautéed 2 chopped zucchinis with garlic and butter. After those softened a bit, I threw in some riced cauliflower, fresh sage, fresh chives, herb blend, salt and pepper, and onion powder. ( I accidentally bought 2 onion powders so I add it to pretty much everything.) I sautéed that up, and then wilted a few handfuls of spinach on top. Then, I pureed all that in a blender with some vegetable stock, and had a delicious, herby, fresh veggie summer soup!

…which I served with cheese puffs. And salad. I accidentally bought an extra bag of lettuce, so I need to eat salad at every meal for a while. I made my healthy thousand island with greek yogurt and ketchup.

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning, doing laundry, and setting up my new iPad! Apple actually owns my life now. I’m currently surrounded my 2 laptops, my iPhone, and iPad. I’m excited to try it out for notes! I’m probably going to do handwritten notes on the iPad for some classes, and typed notes for others. I’ve never done electronic notes in my life, so this is definitely new!

That’s all for now; my sister’s wedding is THIS WEEKEND, so I’ll probably check in after that!

Vet School Snapshots

Date: August 25, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I have survived week 2! I want to share a few snapshots, focusing on food, fitness, and vet school stuff.

We haven’t started our technical material yet, but I’ve already learned a few things about surviving. First, you HAVE to be organized. I downloaded a checklist app and I’m obsessed with it. It’s called Wunderlist, and it syncs across multiple devices. I have a million little things to do, and this app is literally holding my life together.

I’ve also learned that I need to be flexible with my study habits. I’m 100% a pen and paper person, and I CANNOT type my notes. I was planning on printing out all the slides, but instead I realized that wasn’t reasonable and ordered an iPad to write notes on. So we’ll see how that goes.

Other craziness? My sister’s wedding is next week! What??

Another thing I’m learning? I need to be flexible with my workouts, and they’ll get done. I went to Crossfit 5 times this week, and I went at a different time each day (5:30pm, 5:45am, 4:45pm, 9:30am, 7am). Workouts will get done if you prioritize them and fit them in where you can.

So snapshots:

Zucchini is still going strong. Really strong. I’m not buying it again when I run out this time though. I’m getting really sick of spending my life grating it, and pulling zucchini fragments out of the sink. This is a scramble with zucchini, egg whites, and garlic and herb soft cheese. On the side, I put some pasta sauce on bread and topped it with cheese.

Do I look like a vet student yet? I spent Sunday morning volunteering at a pop-up clinic and had the absolute best time. This particular organization is one I think I’m going to make a priority this year.

Post-volunteering Subway salad because I wasted something that contained zero zucchini.

Baseball! I went to a minor league game. The Giant’s AAA team is super close by, and I knew I wanted to stop by before the end of the season. For any baseball fans out there, apparently Ryan Howard is now in the Rockies organization, playing for their AAA team.

More scenes:

Food featured: black bean burger and fries, mango shave ice type of thing.

Vet school thus far has had abundant sweets, so I’ve been trying to eat healthier at home. Breakfast of a yogurt bowl with nectarine and sunbutter, plus mango.

Obligatory eclipse photos. Someone brought special glass to look through, and it was super cool! I’ve never seen an eclipse like that before.

After eating zucchini with eggs a million times, I mixed it up and made zoodles with pasta sauce, cheese, and precooked lemon chicken. Extra sautéed zucchini on the side because I had trouble spiralizing the ends.

My avocado <3

Breakfast of toast with sunbutter and banana, plus mango.

My other, less photographed, roommate. She’s a sweetie!

On Wednesday, I was eating lunch outside when I realized it actually felt pretty warm (we’re always cold inside so outside is thaw time). I went to evening Crossfit, and it was 100 degrees when I pulled up! Crossfit is most definitely not air conditioned. It was actually fine once we got moving though!

The Farmer’s Market here is quite the event. There was beer, which tells you everything you need to know.

I got what was probably the best chicken tamale I’ve had for dinner. The stand had other veggie flavors that sounded amazing, but they were out by the time I got my dinner. I also got honey lavender ice cream because it was 100 degrees.

I also FINALLY found the perfect, most beautiful figs.

^breakfast figs

^Surprise ice cream sundaes!

Still going strong with the zucchini scrambles. Plus avocado toast with everything bagel seasoning.

I am coming to love this kitty! The other night I got back late, and she was waiting for me like, “Um, excuse me, where have you been?”

That’s all for now! I have a very full weekend coming up, I hope yours is great as well!

WIAW: In Vet School!

Date: August 22, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello from vet school! Here we have a rare mid-week post. That being said, it’s going to be a quick one. So why not do a WIAW for what I ate in a day, during my second week of vet school?

My morning started EARLY. My alarm went off at 5am, and Rina didn’t look like she was any more interested in getting up than I did. Often times she’s roaming around during the early hours, but I guess this was too early for my sleepy (loud) kitty!

Before running out the door, I grabbed a handful of berry Cheerios.

I went to 5:45am Crossfit and it was a really tough one. We worked on some core strength, and then did a surprisingly difficult WOD. It was 5 rounds of a 3 minute AMRAP of power cleans, push jerks, and over the bar burpees, with a minute rest between rounds. I was DONE.

After quickly showering, I put a GF pumpkin spice waffle in the toaster, and then ate that while making the rest of my breakfast. That workout called for some serious post-workout carbs,

Part 2 was a yogurt bowl with plain Greek yogurt, a nectarine, and sunbutter. Plus TONS of fluids. It’s been warm here for sure!

For lunch, I packed a salad with nectarine, creamy goat cheese, and Trader Joe’s grilled lemon pepper chicken. Plus Quest chips, and a couple chocolates from a classmate.

Today was 8-5 of sitting in lectures all day. For mid-lecture snack, I had a bar.

As I’ve been mentioning before, I have a massive amount of zucchini. I took a couple of large zucchinis and spiralized them, and then sautéed them with garlic, salt, and pepper. I topped all that with marinara, more of the grilled chicken, and mozzarella. I munched on some snap pea crisps and dried mango while cooking.

For dessert, I had fresh mango, one honey mint (I changed my mint about the other one), and half a piece of peppermint bark bread from the freezer.

That’s probably it for food for the night. I might have kombucha later. Now I have to go do some research to prep for another full day tomorrow!