As you may or may not know, Saturday was my birthday! To be honest, birthdays have seemed like a less big deal lately but it was still a great one!

Celebrations (in my mind at least) started Friday night at 11 when one of our RAs sent out an email about free Cream (which are super fancy/tasty ice cream sandwiches). My friend and I sprinted over, and I snagged an M and M with vanilla ice cream! SO good!

I ended up staying up until midnight on a stakeout for assassins. Sadly, I was killed in plain sight while on said stakeout. Which is fine-the people still left standing are insanely into the game!

On the morning I my birthday, I went to Crossfit to complete the Filthy 50. it was hard-but for some reason my lower calves have been INSANELY sore the past 2 days-like much sorer than they should be!

After Crossfit, I cleaned myself up and headed out to work at a food festival my sorority was putting on for charity. Of course, I had some food.

Thai Food:

And chocolate cake!

Then, that evening, I went out to dinner with one of my best friends from high school. Foodwise, we split some sweet potato fries, and I had a quinoa veggie bowl. Picturewise, we forgot to take many pictures besides via snapchat.

After dinner, we walked over to little diner-type of restaurant for dessert. We shared a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream, and a slice of blueberry pie.

I love this caption:

She also got me this fantastic pillow:

The rest of the evening was spent at a sorority event!

Sunday, I went for a 15ish mile bike ride. It was super windy, but I never had to get off my bike to walk up the giant hills so that was a good thing! When I was going down a very steep hill though, I was very aware of how my brake has recently been failing…so that added a little extra adrenaline!

That evening, I celebrated my birthday with my family. We went to a local Tapas restaurant and enjoyed lots of delicious food!

The tapas:

Guac-always guac.

And the main course: wild mushroom paella.

With full bellies, it was off to my sister’s apartment for cake!

The cake was homemade Devil’s Food with vanilla buttercream!

I got a lot of food for my birthday! My mom gave me FOUR jars of my favorite sun butter, which I can’t find anywhere! I also got meals for this week, which I’m pretty excited about!

The best sight ever:

And today’s lunch:

Overall, it was a fabulous birthday! The present my sister gave me is especially epic-if you follow me on twitter or instagram you may have seen it, but if not I will wait until tomorrow to post about it-until it is in its full glory!

I hope you all had Marvelous weekends as well!

I definitely had a fabulous day. First thing in the morning, I prettied myself up and drove home for an Easter Brunch with my family.   

After a few obligatory pictures, we were off to a fancy hotel for a snazzy Easter feast! I really tried to pace myself this year. My family takes buffets really seriously, and I think I committed a foul by filling up on cookies the previous day and having reduced stomach space today. And yes, we even had a conversation about how you can “win” a buffet. Ohh my crazy family.

First course-I guess I’ll call it the appetizers? Blueberry bread, fancy cheeses, watermelon, a cauliflower salad, and the star-a cheese blintz.

Course 2: real food. Mahi mahi, jasmine rice, a whole wheat roll, and bread pudding part 1. It was a sampler, ya know?

Course 3 was real dessert. My mom and I got some things to share (although you better believe that the bread pudding was all for me.) Super rich chocolate cake, berry rhubarb pie, baby chocolate eclair, a petit 4, and of course, bread pudding. My family certainly has a thing for bread pudding. We have an amazing family recipe (which I should totally post if we make it again. I could even try a healthier version?), and normally I don’t go for other types. But this, my friends, was amazing. It was made with croissants. CROISSANTS! What a revolutionary idea! Seriously, SO good. So buttery and custardy, with a deliciously creamy custard sauce. This definitely stole the show today! After waddling away from brunch, it was time to search for Easter baskets and then embark on the annual Easter egg hunt!

We found them all this year! Nothing like finding little plastic eggs in July…

After some Easter candy and a subsequent food coma, I headed over to my neighbors house for a conversation in Spanish. I had to record it for a class, but it was a lot of fun! Sadly, my understanding of Spanish is far superior to my speaking ability-but that’s just something to work on! Another Easter tradition happened as well-dying of eggs! We didn’t do anything too crazy this year, but I think they turned out quite well!

So now I basically have a million colorful eggs to eat! There are certainly worse problems to have! Somehow I ended up taking them ALL back with me. So expect nothing but eggs on here for the next week. But actually… I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday! What are your Easter traditions?

Marvelous is..

Oatmeal! x2. Banana oats topped with strawberries, sun butter, and a dollop of plain yogurt.

Marvelous is…

An iced chai! I had every intention of spending the day working at a coffeeshop so I got a big chai tea! The only problem was that I for somer reason woke up much too early that morning and could barely keep my eyes open so I left for a nap…whoops. There went my productivity!

Marvelous is…

Trying a different dining hall for lunch! It was actually really good! They had about 9 types of cream cheese, which looked homemade. I tried the cinnamon raisin, triple berry, basil and olive, and chive and onion.

Marvelous is…

A dessert party! My sorority had a Valentine’s themed party on Saturday, so I got to dress up and eat delicious things. Fun fact-there are 3 girls in my sorority who seriously want to go to culinary school-let’s just say that we eat well!

Marvelous is…

A kick butt run! There’s no question I’ve gotten in better shape and faster in the last few months. I did the same run I’ve done a couple of times before-it’s one of my absolutely favorite places to run because it’s SO pretty! There’s a fairly big hill in the middle-the last time I was proud I kept my pace until 11:00 for the hill. I ended up powering up the hill around a 9:00 pace! And it wasn’t death!

Marvelous is…

A reunion with my best friends from high school! We actually went the same place the same weekend last year! (Sadly, it was the last day before I was sick for 2 months…)

Last year:

This year:

(Excuse my sweaty-just ran self)

But more importantly-the delicious food! We couldn’t decide between sweet or salty, so we got pancakes for the table to share. 

Marvelous is…

Relaxing at home! I spent the day lounging around with these guys and watching the Olympics.

Things are going to get crazy starting tomorrow because I have loads of studying to do and a crazy amount of stuff to do this week!

Marvelous is..

Homemade chocolate for my family! And heyyy I finally took down the recipe for those interested!

Ingredients:

2 T coconut oil

2.5 T maple syrup

1 t vanilla extract

2 T half and half

1/2 c cocoa powder or cacao powder

1. Melt the coconut oil and maple syrup in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds and blend well. Then stir in vanilla.

2. Stir in cocoa powder and half and half (if the half and half is very cold, you may need to heat the mix up a bit).

3. Chill in the fridge on wax paper, or grab a spoon and enjoy!

Marvelous is…

Visiting my home Crossfit tomorrow morning! Yay!

What did you do this weekend?

Today, I’m linking up with Katie for Marvelous in My Monday!

Over the weekend, I went to Lake Tahoe with my dorm for our ski trip. I use the term “ski trip” a bit liberally-not many people skied-there’s hardly any snow right now! We are officially in a drought. It meant the weather was nice though!

Friday before we left, I got in a great workout-I did my treadmill workout, followed by some weights-back lunges, single leg RDLs, and abs. Basically all my favorites! My knee is still not fabulous, so it limits what I can do a little bit. On the plus side, this means I’ve been running more, which I really should do anyway since I claim I’m trying to PR a 5k soon. 

We left school in the afternoon, and hit horrible traffic. We stopped for dinner-and there was a Safeway nearby! Not just fast-food!

Whole wheat pita, chicken, veggies, and hummus.

Kombucha.

I also got some 86% chocolate for the bus ride. 

I have to warn you guys-not a lot of food pictures from this trip. Or a lot of good food. The food they provided us was basically carbs and sugar. And lots and lots of potato chips. Mmmm and blueberry muffins-definitely a weakness of mine!

The most Marvelous part of my weekend was probably Saturday’s run. Not skiing meant I basically had all day to hang out and do whatever. I was excited to run in a new and beautiful place! I bundled up (sort of) and got going on my first snow run!

It was definitely not as cold as I was expecting, especially given there was some snow on the ground. I’ve had much colder runs at home!

I ran through the little ski village, taking a comfortable pace. I wore my Garmin just so I would have some idea of how far I had gone (so I wouldn’t get too lost) ad just listened to the sound of my breathing and my footsteps. I didn’t really have any destination in mind. I ended up in another state, which was cool.

I somehow ended up finding a trail that took me through a forest/wildlife preserve area. I stopped a bunch for pictures, and to read some of the signs-there were a bunch that talked about casinos that were supposed to be built there (definitely not in CA anymore), but how the space was preserved instead.

One of the best moments of my run was finding a pond that was completely frozen over.

I have a strange obsession with finding frozen puddles (maybe because I never see them) so this was pretty exciting!

I was tentatively planning on running 4-5 miles. I wanted to get a glimpse of the lake, so around the halfway point, I decided to go a little bit further to try and get a picture. That was a good decision-I turned a corner and BOOM. I was on the beach!

That was one of my favorite runs in a long time! I didn’t really feel the high altitude either!

I spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring the little village.

Like I said, food was not the best quality on this trip, and I definitely ate so much junk! This was actually one of my healthier things (and I felt the need to document it!)

Graham crackers with melty banana and 86% chocolate. 

For dinner, we had frozen pizzas to cook up (we were staying in suites with a small kitchen)-this was an interesting task, as the pizzas had thawed a bit and were floppy, and there were no trays or anything. One of the pizzas ended up as a calzone because there was no other way to get it into the oven!

Sunday morning we were up fairly early to head home-we left early enough to get back in time for the 49ers game!

Lunch stop along the way-Starbucks salad. (Bonus-it had kale!)

Upon arriving at school, I packed my things up super fast to head home in time for the game. It was disappointing, to say the least. And I’m kind of embarrassed I go to the same school as Sherman did…

Dinner was Greek salads with grilled chicken-we grilled up a ton extra for food this week-enough that some will have to go in the freezer!

And of course being reunited with this guy was kind of Marvelous too. 

And now, I’m finishing up meal prep. I’ll do a post on this as well as other “project” food later tonight! Before I head back to school, I’m going to get a Crossfit style track workout in-I can’t do the Crossfit workout today thanks to my knee-squats are still a no go!

What did you do this weekend? Do you have today off!

I have a lot to tell you guys about! But first-who’s enjoying the holidays?? I know I am! 

Saturday morning began with a nice long run. I did 10 miles- I can’t remember the last time I did a long run! It was nice to run back by the bay.

It was surprising to see the hill I run by that was brown all summer be green!

The first half of the run was much faster than the second-at the halfway point, my achilles tendon starting hurting quite a bit. Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve done any long distance running! I also tried salted caramel gu for the first time! It was so good! I would definitely recommend it-but it was not great for me personally-I’m not sure if it’s because my allergies have been bad lately, but I absolutely could not eat it without a coughing fit. I think I have issues with thinner goos-my normal chocolate is pretty thick and maybe not so sugary? 

Another issue I had with my run was getting too hungry. I had a slightly smaller than usual pre-run breakfast, plus I didn’t get out of the house as quickly as I had hoped, so I totally ran out of gas by the end of the run.

My post run meal was a beautiful salad with avocado and whole wheat macaroni and cheese.

Later that evening, my best friends from high school came over for our annual cookie decorating tradition.

I made a basic sugar cookie recipe, but this time I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for while flour. The flavor was a tiny bit different but I didn’t mind, and I definitely felt less gross after eating them.

I think we did an especially nice job decorating this year-maybe because I spent so long on my annual #1 turkey, and my friends are much more artistic than me.

One thing I want to touch on is balance. I know I’ve talked about it so much already, but I want to go a little more in depth. First of all, despite posting pictures of tons of delicious desserts, I promise I’m still eating my veggies! They just never seem to make it to the blog this time of year! Second-if you want to eat mass quantities of cookies and still feel great, long runs are awesome-my body just burned through those cookies and I woke up feeling great the next morning!

There are so many articles constantly in your face about “avoiding the holiday weight gain” and “stay healthy over the holidays.” As someone who normally gains a ton of weight between Christmas and New Year’s, I have my own set of tips for you, because for me, this year has been different. Want to avoid the holiday fluff? The best way is to just not worry about it! Don’t deprive yourself, and eat what you want to. That’s what I’m doing this year, and I haven’t gained an ounce. Why? Because if you constantly are worried about gaining weight, food will carry so much stress. I will freely admit I had a couple of sugar induced meltdowns last year-and I could barely enjoy the season! But now that I’m not trying to restrain myself from sweets? I’m finding myself eating fewer, getting more enjoyment out of them, and feeling awesome.

And you know what? When you stop trying so hard-you put less weight on your food choices. At least for me-I’ve been able to enjoy the holidays much more. I ate a ton of cookies with my friends. But I didn’t feel bad. I enjoyed the cookies and had a great times with amazing people-I wasn’t blindly eating them out of some built up craving. I enjoyed every single bite. 

And while you’re at it, try to focus on the most important things-family, cats, friends, traditions. I think many people would be surprised to find that food gets a lot less significant.

But let’s get back to friends. Check out what one of my friends gave me!

Twins!

For breakfast in the morning, my mom made blueberry scones, which I paired with scrambled eggs and tea. 

We took the train up to the city, and must have all been a little tired because we missed our stop by two stops-luckily it was easy to get back on!

Either way, we all were ready for some caffeine upon arriving in San Francisco.

Visiting the shelter cats at Macy’s was a must. There were 3 that looked like Charlie!

And of course we needed a picture by the tree.

The only bad thing about running 10 miles before spending a day walking around the city and a mall? My feet hated me, and were hurting SO much. It was not good.

Lunch was a giant salad with chicken, avocado, and bleu cheese.

And a late afternoon pick me up, split between the three of us.

Since the sundae was more or less at dinner time, I only had a small serving of chili when I returned home. My mom even threw some kale in the chili-so proud of her!

In other news, the Crossfit WOD this morning was 12 days of Christmas-a different exercise for each day, and then the workout goes through as the song goes. It was brutal and much harder than I was expecting-a lot more cardio too! I didn’t end up finishing under the time cap of 32 minutes!

Then, I went straight down to my school gym to torture take my sister and her boyfriend through a weights workout. I may have mentioned this before, but my sister wants me to teach weight training to the school quidditch team in exchange for fresh green juice, so today I tested out the workout. I’m glad I tested it out because we had to make some modifications, but it was so much fun! It made me realize how knowledgable I’ve become about weight lifting. They are going to be sore tomorrow! And her boyfriend is crazy athletic-when they ran a marathon together, he wasn’t even sore the next day! So if 26.1 miles won’t do it but I can, that’s an accomplishment!

And they did deliver on their promise:

Have a great holiday everyone!

What is most important to you this time of year?

The first marvelous thing? I finished bringing my stuff home from school, including my plant. It’s a plumeria I got from Hawaii, and it’s thriving in my room. I guess the humid, warm climate that seems to mold everything is good for it? Proud plant momma right here!

Then, my mom and I shared an amazing sandwich-turkey and avocado from Ike’s, which is kind of a big deal around here (and there’s one on campus!) Yum!

Then I did some Christmas shopping. I’m really excited about some of my gifts this year, and I cannot wait to share it with you guys…after Christmas though!

Which brings us to Sunday. Sunday I did a Santa Run 5k. I did the 5k last year, which is the only 5k I’ve ever done. After finishing training for halves, I’ve been working really hard on getting faster. I had countless 6am wakeup calls for 30 degree track workouts. I really wanted to PR this race. 

For breakfast, I had something a little unusual-cottage cheese, cocoa powder, and a little honey, topped with raspberries and served with a persimmon.

Before leaving for the race that afternoon, I had super light lunch-persimmon, more banana bread, and a little spinach bread-like stuff. I was more concerned about having stomach issues than being hungry since this was such a short race, and I remember being stuffed going into it last year. 

The race is in its second year-it benefits Christmas in the Park, and Christmas display the city puts up every year, which was ranked top 10 in the world! Here are some pre-race photos-everyone dressed up as Santa, but I wanted something more comfortable to race in, plus my parents requested I wear something that didn’t blend in so much as they had trouble finding me in my last race, so I wore my Santa Run shirt from last year.

The race itself? It was tough. I was super nervous before the race, and they nervousness kind of turned to nausea as soon as I started running. I most likely definitely went out too fast; I didn’t wear my Garmin because I was worried it would freak me out, but I know my second half of the race was much slower than the first.

Lately during my races, I question why the heck I keep signing myself up for them! SO painful. At least halves are slower so you can enjoy the first half of the race or so comfortably and not be dying until the end…

I definitely did not feel as prepared as I should have been. I haven’t been out of breath in this way in a while. My endurance base? It’s great. I haven’t done much sprinting though, and that needs to happen. 

I didn’t PR this race. I realized that pretty quickly. My official time was 25:36, which is 37 seconds away from a PR. Here are some very unattractive running pictures:

I felt pretty awful right at the finish. They were handing out cookies and milk (cute, right??) which i grabbed for my dad.The thing about 5ks though? You recover pretty quickly, so it didn’t take long before I was game to try a s’mores pizza. Because why not?

It was pizza dough with nutella, dark chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers. It was delicious! And messy. Check out the aftermath.

Walking around after the race, my calf started to cramp a little. Nothing major, just felt on the verge of a cramp. After some salt, it was much better though!

I also got a new friend.

And here are some pictures from Christmas in the park:

My sister ended up meeting us there and then inviting us to her place for macaroni and cheese. It just so happens my favorite froyo place is on the way home…

A bit of tart with fruit, salted caramel pretzel, and pumpkin pie, with toffee, brownies, and chocolate pretzels. 

And after some time in front of the TV prepping for tomorrow’s trip (more in a second), a little snack that included cheese, crackers, and these guys:

Have you guys had Jo-jos from Trader Joe’s? Get them. Now. They’re decadent and addictive. They’re basically chocolate covered oreos but in cool flavors-these are gingerbread and peppermint. 

So my thoughts on the race? While I’m a little disappointed, I’m not really surprised. Based on my training, I knew hitting my goal pace would be really hard. I have two more 5ks in the next few months; the race made me both want to never run a race again and train even harder at the same time. Races hurt. But if I’m in better shape they hurt less, right? Or I just go faster and they hurt just as much. I have a couple of ideas of what I can do to get faster. I want to do more sprints-I need to do more agility types of drills anyways because my ankles are weak. I need to do longer runs OUTSIDE at my goal pace-like without breaks in the middle. I love doing workouts with intervals, where you get to rest in the middle. But you don’t get to rest on race day, so I need to prepare myself for that as well. And I need to click with the nutrition. To be perfectly honest, being lighter means instantly faster because there isn’t so much to carry around. I’m heavier than a year ago, and while some of that is muscle, it still has to be carried 3.1 miles. For the next couple of months I may put weight lifting more on the back burner and focus hard on running. 

As for the trip-tomorrow I’m going to Solvang, a little Danish town near Santa Barbara, which should be adorable and Christmas-y. In preparation, we had to re-watch the Psych episode where they go there. I can’t wait!

What did you do this weekend?

Marvelous is…

Thanksgiving break is in 2 short weeks! Between now and then, the two big things are a Chem midterm and Spin training next weekend! Over Thanksgiving I’m going to Napa, and will visit my home friends and hopefully my home Crossfit box! 

Thanksgiving circa 2009.

Marvelous is…

Christmas music! It’s not too soon, I promise! I especially love Spanish Christmas music. Yes, it’s a thing. My favorite is “Un Nino Se Llama Jesus,” but there are also Spanish versions of English Christmas songs. Sigh-I miss taking Spanish!

Marvelous is…

Spin certification class next weekend! I’m beyond excited. Plus, I’m stopping by home for dinner on the way back (it’s 9-6), and I get to be reunited with this guy:

Marvelous is…

A clean(ish) room and a clean and well stocked fridge! I finally had an ounce of time and now everything is soo much better.

Marvelous is…

Meal plan dollars. That buy me kombucha. I still have 75 to use in the next 3 weeks of the quarter. That’s about a kombucha a day, if you’re keeping count.

Marvelous is…

Home cooking. I’m still finishing off the chili my mom brought me last week! So delicious.

Marvelous is…

A well-earned rest day. As in, I was supposed to run 60 minutes today but I can’t move and every muscle hurts so that’s not happening.Between Crossfit on Friday (deadlifts), and a make up Crossfit workout on my own yesterday (squats and lots of abs), pretty much everything hurts. 

Marvelous is…

What will almost surely be a kick butt running workout tomorrow. Tomorrow has a 30 minute tempo run on the schedule, but I also want to do a timed mile and I missed today’s long run. So I’m planning on combining them all for a timed mile (after a warm up), followed by a jog for a total of 60 minutes of running. I desperately need to do a timed mile, but I’ve been dreading it so much, and dreading doing it early in the morning because I’m way tighter then. But then it finally hit me that if I want to run fast on race day, I need to run fast! So I’m just going to bite the bullet and do it. 

Marvelous is…

New running shoes next week! My old ones have taken my through running and training for 2 halves, and now it’s time for a new pair. 

Marvelous is…

I actually made a meal plan! The last couple weeks I was so swamped with work and lack of sleep that my nutrition was really awful. No Aurora, coffee is not a food group. And 50,000 dates doesn’t count as a meal. I’m ready to get serious about getting faster, and that means sticking to a plan that will fuel my workouts and help me get stronger. 

Marvelous is…

I didn’t fail my Physics midterm! I actually did really well! Yay!

Marvelous is…

This cake for my dad’s birthday. YUM.

What’s marvelous for you?

Marvelous is…

Halloween! I’m sort of obsessed with holidays, so most of my Marvelousness is Halloween related.

Marvelous is…

Doing a costume run on Saturday! It’s basically my two favorite things-Halloween and exercise. 

Marvelous is…

A) Being the most popular roommate pair in my dorm and

B) Actually getting to buy Halloween candy even though I live in a dorm!

Marvelous is…

Pumpkin carving! We did this as a dorm last year, and this year my sorority is doing it-I can’t wait! I’m all about the holiday traditions.

Marvelous is…

Halloween decorations for our room!

And we’re already planning to go all out for Christmas. 

Marvelous is…

Biochem. No, this isn’t sarcastic. I really actually do love Biochem. I spent an awesome afternoon studying outside a coffeeshop, on a beautiful day. 

Marvelous is…

MY SPIN CERTIFICATION CLASS IS IN A WEEK. Ahhh so excited!

Have a great week!

What is Marvelous in your week?

Marvelous is…

Moving back into my dorm this week! I actually do think I’m ready for school to start. This has been a very low key summer, which is exactly what I wanted, but I’m getting a little antsy.

Marvelous is…

Jumping onto the pumpkin bandwagon early with a new recipe! Baby pumpkin pie-and it’s microwave friendly! The recipe should be up Monday night.

Marvelous is…

Fig and goat cheese salads. Can’t. Get. Enough.

Marvelous is…

Rocking my 10 mile run today. I beat my last 10 mile run time by over 4 minutes!

This is my last flat long run for a while since my race is hilly. I’m a little nervous because up until this point all my long runs have been flat. As far as today’s run? It felt pretty good. The shoe insert I carved out helped my foot feel better at least somewhat-it didn’t become an issue until the turnaround point. I’m convinced I would be soo much faster if my foot didn’t kill me every run. I’m getting custom inserts made so hopefully that fixes it. Also-I took a look at the carved inserts after my run, and since they’re foamy, they completely flattened, which is probably why the hole stopped helping. Oh well. Also, I rolled my ankle around mile 2. It wasn’t too bad so I shook it off and kept going. I think ice and compression socks may keep it from being an issue. 

Marvelous is…

Post run lunch. WIth a side of ice bucket (for my foot pain and ankle-killing 2 birds with one very, very cold stone).

Lunch was a couple of baby sweet potatoes topped with spinach and an egg with spices. I also had a smoothie-cherry, pineapple, and lots of pineapple coconut water. So refreshing!

Marvelous is…

The fact that no matter what random clothes I pull out of my closet, I always seem to be wearing the same colors.

Marvelous is…

Relaxing post run with an adorable kitty. I’m going to miss him so much when I leave! And the poor thing-he has allergies so right now his eyes are pink rimmed, runny, and itchy. 

Marvelous is…

Soaking up the last bit of summer with one more summery meal. Yes, I realize this contradicts the above statement about pumpkin.

I made Grilled Peach and Chicken salad, except I used nectarines instead of peaches.

And for dessert-some of the last summer fruit in the form of a fruit bowl. Topped with sunflower seed butter-perfection.

What is Marvelous in your Monday? Are you excited for fall or sad that summer is ending?

 Microwave Banana Chocolate Chip Custard

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana

• 1 T milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond)

• 1/4 cup liquid egg whites of 1 egg

• pinch of salt

• 1/8 t baking powder

• 2 T bittersweet chocolate chips (or any chocolate chips)

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, microwave peeled banana for 30 seconds.

2. Mash banana.

3. Add milk and stir.

4. Add all other ingredients except chocolate chips and mix well.

5. Stir in chocolate chips.

6. Microwave on high for 1:15 or until cooked through.

Note: Different bowls and microwaves may take different time, so check every 30 seconds or so just in case.

Enjoy! This is delicious, simple, and low sugar. Plus-it’s dorm room friendly! My dining halls at school always have bananas which are easy to grab for later, so this is perfect! To new college students-I also highly recommend keeping a carton of liquid egg whites (such as egg beaters) around- they make an easy protein rich meal any time,plus there’s no shell to sit in your trash can for weeks (at least if you’re me and don’t take out your trash NEARLY enough). 

If you want a silkier texture, add an extra tablespoon of milk-it might take a little longer to cook, so monitor that.

Try this! It will make your Monday a little more marvelous- I promise