Workouts, Fall Food, and a New Family Member

Date: October 3, 2018

Author: astottler

If you’re wondering what’s new around here, it would be my little foster fail, Marie!

I met her when she was 7 weeks old, and fell in love with her. When she needed a new foster a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the opportunity. I foster failed within a week. Jackson has been the most amazing older brother and they became instant BFFs. He didn’t hiss when he met her, just trotted up and wanted to play. It took about 5 minutes for them to start playing, and they literally played ALL NIGHT that first night.

Also new is that this has been my first week teaching spin for fall quarter! I taught a class the last two weeks, but this is the beginning of normal fall classes and I have 3 a week! It’s been fun but I need to adjust my sleep schedule for the 6ams because they have been wiping me out.

That all said, it’s fall so you know I’m enjoying seasonal foods. And zucchini. Always zucchini.

This is my new favorite dish. All the flavors of fall despite the summer veggies! Zucchini noodles with apple sautéed in, white cheddar laughing cow, and Trader Joe’s chicken apple sausage which is super mapley.

I felt like such a real adult peeling and cutting and roasting carrots. I served them with cheesy zucchini noodles and a salmon burger.

I love this breakfast for fall. Cottage cheese with sunbutter and pumpkin butter.

I finally got my first Jamba Juice Pumpkin Smash of the season! This is actually one of my favorite fall foods, and I never know when to get it because a smoothie is always seems awkward to have between meals. I went after teaching my first 6am spin and had this for breakfast. It’s basically ice cream for breakfast, but all this teaching is burning up my metabolism. Today I taught spin and then went to Crossfit, and instead of eating a banana for a snack like I was going to, I had some frozen donut pieces and it was amazing.

Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi with zucchini slices and trader joe’s butternut squash pasta sauce.

Dessert of pumpkin pie filling and chocolate chips.

And finally, pumpkin pie filling and sunbutter with cottage cheese.

I haven’t posted in a while but I did want to share some of the workouts I did when my wrist was much worse than it is now. It’s not healed, but it’s so much better and there’s a lot I can do.

Workout 1:

4×5 barbell squats

4×8 single leg squats supersetted with pistols (to a bench for me)

20 minute (or 15) AMRAP: 30 sit ups, 20 lunges, 10 box jumps

Workout 2: No Barbell Workout (perfect for busy gym times)

4×6 heavy single leg RDLs

4×8 single leg squats supersetted with pistols

3 Rounds of tabata for conditioning (20 seconds working, 10 seconds of rest for 4 minutes—one tabata for each set of movements)

Squat jumps/ speed skaters
Air squats/ lunge jumps
In and outs with a twist at the top

Workout 3:

Heavy backsquats

Hip flexor exercises—3×20 (fire hydrants, etc)

MetCon: 5 min AMRAP of kettle bell swings and box jumps 3-6-9….

That’s all i have today! Enjoy the fall season!

It’s the Last Week of School!

Date: May 21, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I can’t believe it’s the last week of my first year of vet school. Things are pretty crazy for me right now between studying for finals and getting ready for all kinds of travel. 2 hours after my final, I will be on a plane to DC for a wedding, and a week later I head to Nashville for the summer! I’m definitely a little worried about traveling with my little one.

He’s great in the car, but he gets scared of new people and new places.

I also just discovered he still has some residual baby teeth on his back molars and I need to have them taken out. I’m trying to figure out when and where I can get that taken care of.

For now, I thought I’d share a super fast full day of eating from today before I get back to studying!

Breakfast:

I got this super amazing apricot jam at a farmer’s market back home. It’s basically all apricot with minimal sugar. I’m trying to finish it up this week so it doesn’t go to waste! It’s super delicious with sunbutter and yogurt. Mango on the side.

Lunch:

Salad with grilled chicken, blueberries, honey goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. GF cheddar crackers on the side. Plus a little something sweet.

I ended up doing my workout on my own this afternoon, since the Crossfit workout called for deadlifts and I’m not quite ready for that yet with my back. I figured I might as well share what I did!

5×5 back squat working up to 165ish# I say “ish” because I’m pretty sure I had a 2.5 plate on one side and a 5 on the other and kept feeling off balance. That explains it…

8 minute AMRAP: push ups and box jumps I like this little couplet and do it a lot because I work on my strict push ups from my toes, and the (padded) box is higher.

8 minutes: 20 seconds max effort on the assault bike/40 seconds rest

2×25 hip strength exercises My hips are still a little jacked up from squatting but they’re a lot better. I figure some focused strength + stretching couldn’t hurt.

Snack:

Bar+freeze dried grapes and then some real grapes.

Dinner:

Leftover cauliflower crust pizza and a kale salad massaged with poppyseed dressing and topped with parmesan.

Dessert:

I’m in the “eat things up” phase and I realized I had a mostly full box of this vanilla cereal left. I decided it would be good with chocolate chips, and then kicked it up a notch by heating up some gourmet marshmallows (seriously the best I’ve ever had) and making an impromptu rice crispie treat type of deal.

Snack #2:

Mid studying I had a brown rice cake with whipped chive cream cheese.

Back to it my friends. We’re almost at the finish line!

Easy Butternut Squash Salad and Butternut Squash Hack

Date: January 27, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello my friends! It has been less long this time, so I consider that a win! I had a test yesterday (and I have one Monday), so naturally I’m here to blog!

Today, I’m going to share a ridiculously easy salad recipe, a fast way to make delicious butternut squash, and then do some food updates.

First, Jackson update! He’s now just over 6 pounds and is in a growth spurt. He’s eating a ton, and gained nearly a pound in the last week! He’s still a lean little guy though! He’s also currently right at my side, thinking about pouncing on the keyboard. He and my roommate’s dog have started playing together, which is adorable! He loves her toys, and she likes his as well! I think the majority of his baby teeth are gone; all his baby fangs came out. I actually found one of them embedded in the arm of my sweatshirt, because in this face he likes to grab onto my arm. (His 2 favorite ‘toys’ are my arm and my iPad, which is clearly very conducive to studying.) He also LOVES human food, and regularly gets his tongue in whatever I’m making the second I turn around. It’s a work in progress…

OKAY. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about the salad!

It’s super simple. Are you ready?

kale/lettuce
“roasted” butternut squash
aged cheddar
egg over easy
balsamic vinaigrette

So how do I cook the squash? We all know I’m a tad lazy and impatient in the kitchen. If I can’t have it on the table in 20 minutes, I’m probably not doing it. My butternut squash hack is to microwave it (with a little bit of water) until it’s soft; this works for whole squashes, or pre-cut cubes. When it’s soft, sauté it up in a pan with a little oil, until it’s brown and crispy. Basically all of the deliciousness of roasted butternut squash in a fraction of the time! I’ve been doing that meal quite a bit!

What else have I been eating?

On nights I’ve had more time, I’ve roasted sweet potatoes. Side salad of kale rubbed in olive oil spray and balsamic vinegar, with parmesan and dried cranberries. Plus and egg.

Rosemary apple grilled cheese in Santa Cruz.

Another amazing eat from Santa Cruz: Penny’s Ice Cream. My college roommate literally talked this place up for YEARS, and we never made it over there. Finally, I went with my vet school friends and it was delicious! I got dark chocolate sorbet with toasted marshmallow fluff on top!

This is another meal I’ve had a couple of times. Butternut squash (cooked as described above) with Mexican cheese stirred in. Plus a side salad with AMAZING aged balsamic vinegar, a spray of olive oil, salt and pepper, goat cheese, and dried cranberries.

Same salad but with a sweet potato.

Salad with grilled chicken, bear, and goat cheese.

The above dessert was one of the better ideas I’ve had in a while! I was craving something fruity for dessert, so I tossed fresh blackberries with some honey, and then topped them with Flapjacked Oatmeal Cookie mix (which is the one cookie mix I haven’t used much because it doesn’t have chocolate), and then microwaved it!

Salad with goat cheese and blueberries.

Chocolate Halo Top with salted caramel sauce.

And now I have to run off to a spin class! Have a great weekend!

Let’s Catch Up: Meet Jackson!

Date: December 20, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s been a minute since I blogged. I even missed my Blogiversary! But things have been absolutely wild over here between vet school finals, Christmas festivities, and most importantly, the newest addition to our family! I’m going to do a couple of recap posts, but because this is the most important by far, let’s start with the newest addition!

Meet Jackson!

I made it through an entire semester of vet school without adopting any animals…and then went to the shelter right after finishing my finals and driving home. I honestly didn’t expect to come home with a kitten, but he was just too perfect! While initially shy, he’s turning into quite the talkative and playful boy. The shyness did not last long at all!

He’s 4 months old and is dark gray and white. He looks completely different from one side to the other because one side has spots and the other is totally white!

Interestingly, the kitten interfered with blogging about the kitten. Everything is a toy (including my laptop charger) to a kitten, and nothing is more fun than walking across a keyboard.

He’s actually doing well with the other pets too! He hisses and growls at Chloe if she gets to close, but she’s been very calm with him. Lilly was interested in him right away, and when he’s loose in the house (he was mostly kept in my room), she’s almost always nearby. Charlie wasn’t too happy for the first couple of days. He was hissing at me, and hissed and growled when he saw Jackson. However, he started getting more curious in Jackson and less hissy, and last night they were both romping around the house playing together! Charlie is a pretty playful cat, and now that he’s warmed up to Jackson, I think he’s happy to have a playmate! Jackson is very easy going and took all the hissing and growling in stride.

His biggest flaws are that he doesn’t understand gravity and is constantly rolling off of things, and he is still learning how to cat! He never just sits, he always just flops and rolls over. <3

More recap posts on the end of the semester, food, and holiday festivities!

Weekend at Home + Vet Student Things

Date: October 15, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

With all the fire starting this past week, I never got to recap my weekend at home. Before I get into that, I want to share a little bit about my weekend.

One of the most heartbreaking parts about the wildfires are all the animals that are lost/injured/killed when owners have little to no warning to evacuate. Some amazing people have been doing great work to evacuate, rescue, and save countless animals. Here at the vet school, we are starting to get patients. I finally got the chance to help out, and I jumped at the opportunity. I spent Saturday morning helping out with some burn victim kitties, and I’m on call Monday night in case we get lots of patients.

The only bright spot in all this tragedy is seeing the community come together to help. The spots to help out with the fire victims at the vet schooled filled up SO fast. My classmates raised money to take donations into Sonoma Country. Many businesses and organizations are donating money and items to help the victims.

And through all the tragedy, we are starting to see traces of hope; dogs that stayed behind to protect the farm animals, and all emerged safe. People who returned to find their houses gone, but their pet, healthy, waiting for them. People doing incredible things to save lives.

That being said, the fires are still burning, so my thoughts go out to those affected.

I spent my Sunday morning volunteering at a pop-up clinic. It’s an amazing experience, because we get to work with clients in need and practice taking the lead on cases. This morning was my first opportunity to take the lead myself, without the aid of an older student! Things like this weekend make me so happy I’m going into this field.

Also this weekend: I played intramural soccer. I haven’t played soccer in 8 years, but I grew up playing it from the age of 5. WHEW. I consider myself a fairly fit person, but soccer running is a different kind of fitness. We ended up playing a shortened game, and I don’t think anyone was complaining about that!

ALSO this weekend, I tried out Davis’s newest brewery, Super Owl. I like it, but 3 Mile is still my favorite beer in this area!

Back to my weekend home. I drove Chloe back Saturday morning after a final walk around the neighborhood.

One of the first tasks was visiting the GF bakery for Saturday donuts! These are great because they’re baked, not fried.

Maple donut, orange donut, chocolate donut, and apple cake and a cinnamon roll.

That afternoon, I snuggled with kitties and then met up with a friend at Stanford who just transferred there. It reminded me of how hard undergrad was. It’s somehow easy to forget that…

On my way home, I picked up dinner to celebrate my dad’s birthday, a bit late!

I had salmon with a baked sweet potato and broccoli.

We also broke open the growler that we brought home from Kansas in January! That was a definite upside of vet school interviews! Even all these months later, it was delicious and fizzy. This was Reindeer Sweat, which was a holiday-themed stout. I believe it had notes of chocolate and cherry. This was one of the best stouts I’ve had in a while. Totally worth braving icy temperatures!

My mom made a German Chocolate Birthday cake:

My sister made Gelato and brought dulce de leche to put on top, so I had a bowl of that! Yum!

Sunday morning, I ran 4 miles at one of my favorite places ever.

I’ve mostly been running 3 miles over the past year, and it’s amazing how different it feels with that extra mile…overall it went well though!

For lunch, my dad grilled peaches and chicken (I took lots of leftover grilled chicken back to school with me…) and we made grilled chicken and peach salad.

I also brought a zucchini with me and backed another loaf of zucchini pumpkin bread.

People who let their bread cool, I understand you the least.

That afternoon, one of my friends from home (the one with the puppy!) came over for a little dog walk. They’re officially friends, which was such a good feeling after Chloe’s behavior the previous week. They were both pretty tired, so when they played, it was sort of in slow motion.

IMG_0711_2 IMG_0715_2 IMG_0718_2 IMG_0725_2 IMG_0728_2 IMG_0729_2

Then, it was time for me to return to school. When I got back, I had a text from my sister waiting, saying she has just adopted a kitten! Um, excuse me, you couldn’t have done that a few hours earlier?? Look how cute she is though:

IMG_0731_2

Ok, I’m back to studying!