That’s about where I am right now.

I also feel like I’m in such a rut.

I have massive sleep debt from the end of school, plus eating different things on a different schedule has me feeling really BLAH. It’s honestly hard for me to function as a human being when I’m not eating normally. I feel like I have had no motivation to do anything lately. Including blogging.

I do, however, have some food to share, so let’s jump to that, shall we?

This was actually the best simple lunch. I had leftover chicken with ketchup (because ketchup is bomb), GF avocado toast, and super delicious sautéed grated zucchini. I just threw it in a pan with some olive oil, garlic powder, truffle salt, and pepper. Also key: squeeze out some of the excess water.

I made some of my healthy double chocolate banana bread for my college roommate. Her family had a graduation party, and graciously invited me to come. I made the 2 hour drive on Saturday afternoon, and had a fantastic time meeting her sweet family. We spent one last night together as well, before I drove up the next morning for father’s day festivities (more in a minute).

While baking that up, I made something for myself too. In the theme of trying tons of Pinterest recipes, I tried Healthy Pumpkin Zucchini Chocolate Chip bread. I was instantly drawn to this recipe thanks to the low sugar content-only 1/3 of a cup! I used GF flour, and subbed canned sweet potato for the pumpkin, since I had some on hand and thought it would make it a bit more summer-y.

I decided to leave out the chocolate chips, because I made this bread to eat pre-workout early in the morning. As you can see, however, the smell of double chocolate chip banana bread baking had me craving melty chocolate, so I threw in a few chocolate chunks on one end, halfway through baking.

This bread was delicious! It was so moist and fluffy, and I loved sneaking in some extra veggies!

This was YET ANOTHER Pinterest win. Chicken avocado soup. Because you can’t go wrong with fresh CA avocado, can you? On the side was Cooking Light Parmesan Corn Muffins. The muffins had parmesan and chives, and were delightful with a pat of butter.

My mom also made plum crisp, using our favorite blueberry crisp recipe. We were gifted mass quantities of plums, and this pretty much finished them off. It was quite tart, but delicious with a little frozen yogurt.

This dinner was a total wing job. I wanted something lighter than originally planned, so I used some things we had in the fridge to whip up miso soup and sautéed zucchini (made the same way as before). We had some extra miso paste that needed to be used, so I sautéed some mushrooms with garlic, and then added broth, miso paste, and spinach. Once that was ready to go, I tossed 3 beaten eggs in for some protein (egg drop soup style). It ended up being delicious!

Now-Father’s Day

First of all, I want to thank my dad for supporting me every step of the way. Through catching for my pitching in every location possible (dark gyms, Hawaiian vacations, paring garages, and most notably, Belgian schoolyards), flying across the country and waking up at 2am CA time to spectate my race in 30 degree weather, reading every blog post, and trying every random baking concoction I come up with. I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far, or be who I am today without you.

On Sunday morning, I drove home from visiting my friend. I left early and made CRAZY good time. It was supposed to be a warm one, so around 9:30am we headed out to the bay for a dog walk. My parents walked the dog, and I went for a bike ride.

In sunburn news, I tried really hard to even out my terrible tan line, but I don’t think it did much.

Literally every time I wear shorts, I get comments wherever I go.

Then, my sister and her fiancé arrived and we all went to the county fair.

First order of business: taro boba.

Then: food! I had roasted corn and a giant turkey leg.

My family also shared a giant brick of curly fries. The rest of them shared a cinnamon roll and funnel cake. the strawberry funnel cake looked and smelled SO good. I had some of the strawberry jam and whipped cream off the top and it was fabulous.

Next up: PIG RACING! If you’ve never witnessed baby pigs running around a track, you’re missing out. The Alaskan racing pigs come to the fair every year, and the crowd cheers them on while being treated to a plethora of pig-related puns from the emcee.

Then: ruminants!

I could honestly sit and watch cows for hours. They are such majestic creatures.

For our final fit of fair festivities, I wanted to “throw things and win things,” aka play fair games. We tried quite a few, and I won a little pig stuffed animal. Victory!

At this point, we started to feel the heat a bit and relaxed with a TV show before the Warriors game. Sadly, the game didn’t go as we had hoped.

In the middle of the game, we ordered Door Dash delivery for a restaurant of my dad’s choice. I had a teriyaki chicken bowl, with half brown rice, half greens. I requested it without teriyaki, and whipped up a quick GF version with tamari, honey, rice vinegar, garlic powder, and sesame oil.

It came out really well!

We drowned our sorrows of the game result in more Netflix. I hope my dad had a good day despite the outcome though!

How did you celebrate father’s day?

I had to start my Friday off on the right foot pre-midterm. An amazing Fuji apple from the farmer’s market with cottage cheese and sun butter. My midterm was a time crunch. I walked out with my brain fried, and grateful that I planned a track workout right afterwards! 4x400m-nothing too crazy, but homework for my exercise physiology class! I spent the afternoon running errands-including a flu shot, new running shoes, and some study time in Peet’s. That evening I went to Crossfit for some squats and a lighter workout that involved lots of push ups-my shoulder is getting stronger!

My evening plans involved friends and a nice bottle of wine.

I still cannot believe I will be leaving these people in less than a year!

Saturday morning I had planned on going for a fall run, but my legs were not feeling it. They had been feeling a little rough between my race, spin classes, and sprint workouts, so I went for a leisurely morning bike ride. I did a beautiful 15ish mile loop, and the good news is I felt much stronger than the last time I did it a year ago-those spin classes must be doing something!

Post ride meal scavenged from the fridge:

Sautéed garlic spinach, rice, and leftover chicken (served with ketchup of course!).

That evening was our Homecoming football game. My Crossfit actually arranged a tailgate prior to the game, so I enjoyed some time outside of the gym with my workout buddies. Everyone looked so different not in workout clothes!

At game time, I met up with some friends.

Our mascot is a tree, and each year, it is quite the honor to be the tree. The trees are crazy-they usually have to do some sort of insane stunt to get the position, although many of these are kept under wraps. The tree makes its own costume each year, with many different interpretations, including a palm tree, the traditional pine, and this year a willow. A fun part of Homecoming is seeing the tree reunion!

I left at halftime (we were up by 2 touchdowns already ) to head over to a Wine and Cheese night hosted by my sister. She had an extensive cheese selection, and pumpkin creme brûlée made before our eyes with a hand held blow torch. (How cool is it that she has that??) It was also fun to see her friends and discuss the wedding!

Sunday morning I was up bright an dearly to sub a spin class at my off-campus gym. It was a good class, and I left energized!

The main event for the weekend though?

PUMPKIN PATCH. There’s a historic farm across the bay (that has baby animals in the spring) with all kinds of ruminants, plus a full on pumpkin patch. I made my friends commit to going weeks in advance because I didn’t want anyone to miss out!

First up was the goats. I’m pretty sure these goats are the babies of the pregnant mothers I saw in the spring!

The most exciting thing? I got to see my cow! I saw this cow when it was young (maybe teenaged?) my freshman year of college, and when I returned last spring, it had grown so much! This year? I got quite the wonderful surprise when I saw that it had a young calf! My cow is all grown up!

After exploring the cornfields, it was time for the pumpkin patch! I was on the search for the perfect pumpkin.

After an extensive search, I found the one!

On the way back to campus, we stopped for pumpkin froyo. Because basic. And because fall. I got pumpkin froyo and salted caramel froyo. SO amazing.

I love fall!