Holidays with Friends

Date: December 23, 2015

Author: astottler

These past few days, I was able to visit with some friends for the first time this break!

First, on Sunday, I drove to my roommate’s hometown in the country to visit her!

…and her persimmons. She has tons and tons of trees in her yard, and she is my source of mass quantities of persimmons this time of year, which I always look forward to so much! I was able to try one straight off the tree, and then as we walked through the trees we found a ripe hachiya. Hachiya persimmons are the pointed kind that have to be eaten when they’re soft—anything less than soft will make your tongue curl up! What I’ve been eating are the Fuyu variety and those can be eaten hard!

Anyways, the point is that I was forced to double fist persimmons. Rough life.

I also got to meet her sweet pets! The dog and the kitties were adorable together!

We went to lunch downtown where I had delicious tomato basil soup, and we shared sweet potato fries. I think tomato soup is so underrated.

While out, I went to Sprouts for the first time and picked up some new granola bar flavors as well as individual packets of flavored sun butter. Then, we stopped by a softball field. Why? Many years before we met, I used to come to her hometown a lot to play softball, so we thought we’d stop by and say hi!

It was weird being back after so many years, but it made me reflect on how much softball shaped my life and who I am today. If I hadn’t played at the field many years ago, I wouldn’t have learned my work ethic and determination, and I wouldn’t have gotten into the college I’m at now. So I would never have met my awesome roommate, so I would never have gone to see her and then returned to that field. Crazy how life works.

We made an elaborate dinner. Well, sort of. She mostly made it and I mostly watched and offered insightful commentary. She claimed it was a lazy dinner, but it involved multiple dishes and baking chicken in the oven for an hour. That’s certainly elaborate for me! We (she) made chicken thighs, sautéed broccoli, and gluten free butternut squash ravioli that we picked up at Sprouts.

The next morning, I went to San Francisco with my high school friends to go shopping.

This is something we’ve done every year at Christmas time since before we could drive. We usually don’t end up buying much, but it’s fun to look around and see the festive decor!

We actually spent much longer there than in previous years so we had dinner at a restaurant at the mall.

It was a tap house so we each tried different beers.

For my meal, I ordered butternut squash soup which was SO good! It had sherry soaked grapes at the bottom and pumpkin seed oil drizzled on top which made this way more fun!

We got back from the city around 10 and then it was time to start our annual cookie baking! We’ve been making the same sugar cookies since our freshman year of high school!

Here are some of this year’s cookies. Sadly the picture quality is not great. Every year I like to make lots of turkeys for some reason or another!

As usual, we stayed up far too late catching up and going through old yearbooks. Totally worth it! We’ve continued this tradition through high school, and I really hope we can keep it going when we graduate and enter the real world!

What are your favorite Christmas cookies?

So I Guess I Should Blog…

Date: November 18, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Ugh, I am so ready for Thanksgiving. We get a whole week off, which is basically the best thing ever. I’m still teaching my Monday spin class that week, and you better believe it’s going to be Thanksgiving themed! I spent my entire run this morning brainstorming and I think I have a solid idea! I’ll be sure to share it next week!

Speaking of sharing…I haven’t blogged much lately. I’ll almost certainly blog more over the holidays, but I honestly feel like not that much has happened, or at least not much Internet worthy. Just typical college stuff.

My high school friend visited, which was super fun! We both wanted to go shopping, so that was enough of a reason! Over the course of 2 days, I basically bought every long sleeved shirt in existence. I <3 long sleeves. The goal of shopping was actually to find lion colored clothes-more on that soon.

We also went to my friend’s Wind Ensemble Concert:

My friend is also crazy enough to want to track down a spotlight with me. There had been a HUGE spotlight in the air all week, and it was driving me crazy not knowing where it was coming from! We took to the streets and tracked it down. Success.

The course? HP. Typical. Gotta love Silicon Valley. We then proceeded to videochat our other high school friend for 3 hours…much needed!

I was met that weekend with quite the delivery-my roommate went home and brought persimmons! The obsession continues.

The following night consisted of dinner with my parents, an awesome prank, and a friend’s birthday party.

I brought a giant cake.

I feel pretty confident that none of the prankees will ever find my blog, so I’ll go ahead and fess up to it here. We got a walkie talkie (they’re pretty cheap off of Amazon these days) and hid it in our friends’ room. The next morning, after 2 hours of sleep I sat outside in 40 something degree weather blasting various things through it-notably the music from both Jaws and Psycho. Nailed. It. More pranks to come.

Other college things. The reason for lion colored clothing?

We had a big themed dinner/party at my dorm. The theme was “Who Run the World? Girls!” So vaguely Beyonce, vaguely vague. Since I sure as heck cannot pull off Beyonce, I was planning on dressing up as the lion from the music video. It actually didn’t end up working out due to a failed effort at coordinating another costume, so I ended up vaguely Beyonce, meaning I wore the one sparkly thing I own, paired with a pencil skirt and heels. Well, briefly heels. I think it’s actually been a year since I’ve worn heels so they definitely did not last the whole night. I think there’s a full outfit picture of me floating around on someone’s phone, but here’s a selfie.

Also noteworthy-hiking the Dish trail with my mom. It was the perfect day for it!

And a visit from the (kind of) pups.

I also went to a football game, which was a crazy and frustrating one ending in a close loss. Unfortunately, I only stayed for half the game because I had a retreat for my sorority.

So that’s college. I realize that is not remotely food/fitness related, so stay tuned for lots of talk of that. Spoiler: I did my final trial for my class project of improving on a fitness endeavor!

Who’s excited for Thanksgiving?

Things Change

Date: August 30, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I am officially done with work for the summer! I will still be working the same place about once a week once school starts in a couple of weeks, but I’m taking some time to catch up (plus go to Hawaii with my family!)

I still have a 6 mile run to do today. I really should have done it early this morning but I’ve been moping around all morning.

I’m excited to go back to school, but I’m also not ready for this to be my last year. I don’t do well with endings or goodbyes, and I’m already worrying about how to stay in touch with everyone, especially if I move away right away.

Mid-mornign today I had a pumpkin mug cake to drown my sorrows (because I firmly believe it is never too soon).

I just threw some things together in a bowl, and it turned out great! Egg, butter, pumpkin, spices, maple syrup, vanilla, and some gluten free flour.

Also-this is about my life right now. To keep the puppy busy, we dumped out every toy she owns. Having a puppy is hard!

It looks like we have just about every holiday represented up there, including Earth Day!

Since I’m feeling sort of nostalgic and not ready for things to change, I thought I’d share some snapshots of college memories through the years.

21st birthday party with all of my friends! Such a great day.

Visiting my best friend in Berkeley for her birthday.

Dorm trip to Disneyland.

Random nights hanging out with my roommate and doing ridiculous things for no reason at all. #fashionicon

Visiting my friend in Berkeley during our rival football game, decked out in Stanford gear.

Halloween party+the popcorn ball making fiasco beforehand.

Practicing a spin class on my friends before my first audition, and then heading to froyo plus the the pumpkin patch afterwards.

Color run!

Bay to Breakers.

Tortilla chip sombrero for my birthday, a la Despicable Me.

Rock n Roll SF Half Marathon.

Embarking on “The Project” with my roomie, our big healthy eating overhaul.

Tea party with the ladies of my hall.

Yoga by the bay with a high school yoga buddy.

Keeping my plant baby alive and well.

Becoming obsessed with my roommate’s persimmons.

Enjoying the perks of being in a sorority sophomore fall.

First half marathon!

Joining a sorority freshman year.

Throwing a guac party freshman year.

Celebrating Valentine’s Day with the crew team at the beach.

Ski trip with my freshman dorm.

Early morning wakeups+freezer breakfasts for rowing.

Watching Stanford win the Rose Bowl.

Rowing training camp at the Olympic Training facilities in San Diego.

Meeting our friendly campus cat, who sadly passed away my sophomore year.

Just a typical morning freshman year.

Following the Giant’s World Series run on my phone between classes freshman year.

A lot has happened, and I can’t wait to make more memories!

Old Habits/ My Puppy is Growing Up

Date: August 5, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So I know I haven’t blogged much lately. Part of it has been business, part of it has been I feel like I don’t have that much new to contribute! Either way, despite my hiatus, I’m still in the habit of taking food pictures, so I thought I would share some of them, because why not?

These are spinach and cheese pupusas, and I’ve been sort of obsessed lately. They come frozen, and are basically spinach and cheese in a cornmeal shell.

Super simple dinner: BBQ chicken, spanish style rice, and green beans cooked in the same style as my garlic roasted broccoli.

Lunch at Le Boulange-salad with balsamic, chicken, dried cranberries, and gorgonzola.

Chicken and dumplings with a salad on the side.

I’m obsessed with this salad-I actually have it for lunch most days. Chicken, goat cheese, dates, nectarine, tossed in a champagne vinaigrette.

Funfetti pancakes with the family. For the pancakes I just did the banana+and egg trick in the blender and threw in some oats.

Cooking Light’s lemon parmesan risotto, with a salad on the side. The awesome thing is that this recipe is made entirely in the microwave, so it’s half the work on regular risotto!

Last weekend I went out to brunch with my friends. I got an egg white omelette with turkey burger, spinach, and cheddar inside (topped with avocado of course!).

That evening, I went to a Latin restaurant with friends and got delicious salmon over rice.I loved the fruit salsa on top!

Another Cooking Light gem was this lemon marinated chicken, with a side of feta rice. Super fast and simple, but so flavorful!

I’m obsessed with figs. Don’t you love summer?

Now-puppy picture overload!

Weekend Adventures

Date: June 21, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I start my summer job tomorrow, but this was a great kickoff weekend! I had some college friends stay with me, and it was an awesome time!

We started with a home-cooked meal of my guacamole salad on Thursday night.

Friday morning, we were up early to head into the city! (SF)

Despite the fact that I went to the Ferry building a week ago with another friend, that’s where we were headed!

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city.

I was actually pretty warm in my long sleeves and boots! Gotta love San Francisco.

We explored the Ferry building a bit before grabbing lunch. We are all very indecisive people, but eventually settled on a cafe. I had a beautiful rotisserie chicken, and an amazing salad with nectarines, feta, and dates. I will definitely recreate that salad for the blog!

We walked around about before grabbing ice cream to take outside.

I had olive oil ice cream with fudge sauce. I didn’t think I’d like the olive oil flavor, but it was delicious! It had a touch of orange, and the savory-ness of the olive oil had a similar effect as salted caramel does.

After enjoying the sunshine, we made the trek back to meet up with another graduated friend for dinner. It was a Mexican restaurant, and I had a delicious salad with cheese, avocado, pumpkin seeds, and chicken. Plus plenty of chips and salsa!

I also split a side of plantains.

Unfortunately, that night one of my friends had to leave, so the next morning two of us made the drive to Monterey. My friend returned from South Africa on Thursday (I picked her up at the airport), and I moved her into her summer apartment in Monterey.

On the way up, I had to offer her the true California experience by stopping at a fruit stand for cherries in Gilroy.

We rolled in around lunchtime, and hit up the Giant Artichoke for lunch. My friend had never had whole artichokes, so I showed her how to eat the leaves.

I’m so spoiled in CA.

For my main meal, I ordered an artichoke veggie sandwich and skipped the bread.

After lunch, we explored Cannery Row first by foot.

It was definitely cool out! Highs in the 60s. While walking, we saw a sign for “free chocolate tasting,” and wandered into a shop that offered chocolate tasting with a complimentary mini glass of wine for only $3!

We got to pick out which chocolates we tasted-mine were mostly caramels because I’m nut-free. The salted caramel was delicious, but I went home with the caramel apple chocolate-it tasted just like fall and was very unique!

Then, I showed my friend how to explore Monterey in style. In a surrey-a sleek 4 wheeled bike.

I had the pleasure of driving this bad boy.

It was a great way to get in some movement and take in the beautiful views of the water.

Neither of us was in the mood for a big-deal dinner, so we stopped at a little Indian cafe. I was hoping for more vegetables, but the food was good!

We were both stuffed by the end!

It was sad leaving my friend this morning, but it was such an awesome weekend full of friends and adventure!

What did you do this weekend?