YOGURT and This Week in Photos

Date: March 31, 2013

Author: astottler

I’m a bit behind on my postings, but here’s the gist of my week: I’m completely and totally obsessed with yogurt. And sunflower seed butter. And yogurt WITH sunflower seed butter. But seriously though, I’ve been having yogurt like 3x a day. And I just stocked up for school!

Ok, so since I’m a bit behind, let’s do a picture post for the week!

Wednesday night dinner: turkey burgers, salad, green beans, and seasoned butternut squash.

Yes, I had 2 consecutive yogurt meals. This is topped with a 2 ingredient pancake, from Tina‘s blog.

Bubble milk tea with the high school friends. Mango green tea.

Read to go out/shopping. Since you never see pictures of me! Great selfie, I know.

Japanese dinner with the friends, chicken teriyaki. Followed by a movie…Spring Breakers. It was…strange. I wish I had seen a preview/knew what it was about before seeing it. Anybody seen it? Obviously that’s what my spring break is like.

I topped my yogurt with leftover sweet potato and leftover pancake.

The San Mateo Bridge on a beautiful day. I visited one of my friends who is home for break, and we went for a walk along the bay. Supposedly there are feral cats living around there, but we didn’t see any. 🙁 However, I’ve been dying to run on the trail here, so I will definitely be coming back when I’m training for my half marathon. The path apparently connects up to another nice trail to run on, which I’ve run on before, and it is all along the bay. Perfect for a hot summer day! After our walk, we went to her house so her mom could make me some home cooked Indian food. It was delicious! Sorry, no pictures! I got sunburned on the walk though. It was supposed to rain that day, so I was not prepared for the sun!

Greek salad.

Frozen banana blended with cocoa powder topped with chocolate sauce and sunflower butter.

Not gonna lie, I had to make a 7 am yogurt run after spin for this one!

Lunch at a bakery in Half Boon Bay (beach area, but cold and foggy!) with homemade bread. We ate at tables outside the bakery where feral cats lived!

I swear this one could have been Lilly’s sister! She was really sweet and let us pet her. To say that cats are feral is a bit of an overstatement. They lived there and were fed regularly.

Chicks at a farm store in Half Moon Bay.

Ducklings and baby geese! They were adorable! I watched a little duckling fall asleep standing up and it was the cutest thing. If I had gotten a video it would have been a youtube sensation for sure!

Dinner was cheesy garlic herb brussels sprouts with sausage, courtesy of Carrots n Cake. I used chicken apple sausage from Trader Joe’s. It was delicious. On the side? A purple sweet potato! I LOVE these! My best friend brought me one when I saw her on Thursday, and I was so excited! Funny story, I got a strange reputation last year when I would roast up whole yams and eat them like bananas, skin and all, after school before softball practice. I miss that!

Giant’s preseason game! And they won! YAY! Can’t wait for the season to start!

Best ballpark for the best team!

And of course no ballpark experience is complete without a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae. We know how to celebrate baseball here in San Francisco! Seriously, these are the best.

Thai salad and cornbread.

Apple crisp! I found apple crisp topping at the grocery; it is a mixture of brown sugar, oats, etc that you cut butter into and then top apples with. Yum! Frozen yogurt on the side of course.

I had some artistic friends over tonight to help dye eggs! I think they turned out pretty well. 🙂 How cool is the tye dye one? I’ve gotten dye packs before with things like that, but I never read the directions on how it works before, and I’ve glad I did! It’s super cool! There are these plastic sleeves with the print that you put the egg in. Then, you dip the whole egg with the sleeve into boiling water, and the sleeve shrinks to fit the egg perfectly! How cool is that?? It might be hard to crack the egg open though. Do you guys eat your Easter eggs? One of my friends doesn’t and was shocked by the idea, because it had never occurred to her. On that note, any good hard boiled egg recipes?

An artsy shot, because I’m so artsy.

Aaaand Lilly watched us chat late into the night.

I also got some good workouts it, that I thought I’d discuss really quickly. Wednesday I lifted weights for the first time. It was a short and fairly light workout, but I was still sore so I’ll take it. Gotta get back slowly! Thursday was morning yoga, and a long walk with my friend. I can tell how much stronger I’ve gotten since just last week. I have to say, I had a particularly bad case of mono, but I recovered remarkably quickly, especially given all the other things I came down with as well.

Friday I got my rear end into gear quite early for a 5:45 am spin class. Yes, I willingly rise at 5 am on spring break to work out. It was one of my favorite teachers, and it’s the last opportunity of break for me to go! It was an awesome class too, Easter themed. Well, sort of. We climbed Mary See Mountain, and Recess Peanut Butter Egg hill.

And today’s workout was great. As in, I’m going to be veeery sore. I’m already pretty sore and it’s 1 am (see what I do for you guys! It’s technically Easter!). First, I did this workout from Anne, which incorporated situps, box jumps, and kettle bell swings. It took me about 20 minutes, but I wasn’t really timing. I did step ups for some of the box jumps because my jumping is not as great as it used to be. But I really loved it. My abs were definitely worn out. I seriously wish the STUPID gym at my school had kettlebells. How can they not have them? Madness I tell you. After my mini workout, I went to a new yoga class. I ended up really liking the class, although I wasn’t a fan of the teacher’s voice. Any Friends fans out there? It reminded me of a mild version of Janice’s voice. I told my mom this and her response? “Oh. My. Gawd!” Haha! But the class was probably worth it. I think it complemented my mini workout really well. And we grouped all the standing balances to the end of class, which killed my hamstrings and ankles!

After class, guess what I did? Practiced soccer! I started soccer when I was 5, and played through my freshman year of high school. Now that I have more time, I signed up to play Intramural soccer. I’m pumped! It’s been a while though, and from being sick, I’m still terribly out of shape. My muscles are not used to kicking also, so I will most likely be sore. But regardless, I can’t wait to play again! My dad is a big soccer player; he STILL plays. So he was more than happy to help me out with some practice!

Ok, that’s enough from me today. Since it’s 1:15 am…Happy Easter!

Do you dye eggs? What do you do with your Easter eggs?

Science Experiments on Myself

Date: March 26, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How was everybody’s Monday? It’s my first official day of spring break it it was rather unexciting. Here is last night’s dinner though: citrus grilled chicken, sweet potato, asparagus, and fruit salad.

Dessert was some delicious apple pie from the farmer’s market, with some frozen yogurt.

It was EXACTLY what I had been wanting. Enough of yesterday. This morning began with an early abs class. I absolutely love the class, which is one of the things I miss while at school. But here’s the thing. As we have talked about before, after having mono and not being able to exercise, my abs are probably the weakest part of me. So I woke up sore from yesterday’s ab work. So ouch. This class hurt. As in I couldn’t reach up high to get something because it hurt. And tomorrow will most likely be worse. I had been loosely planning on a run today, but yesterday I decided I would be better off letting my legs rest a little. Yeah, still sore. I think my groins may be sore from spin but I’m not really sure, I’ve never been sore from spin before. But last Thursday at yoga, I didn’t notice any issues until I felt like my muscles were being ripped apart in happy baby pose. An interesting description….And the only thing I had done that week was spin. Oh well. Breakfast this morning was AWESOME. I have TOTALLY been obsessed with yogurt bowls lately. Even though this is only my second one, I’ve been thinking about them a lot. Plus I got some new Icelandic yogurt to try.

It was pretty similar to Greek yogurt, but my impression was that it was maybe a little smoother, or some how stickier (that’s a terrible description, but I don’t know how else to describe it). I topped it with warm pumpkin bread from the freezer and my new favorite, sunflower seed butter. That combo is amazing!

After breakfast I read a little and decided a nap was in order (what else is spring break good for, right??). Around 11:30, my mom and I decided our activity for the day would be to visit a local old farm and see the 20 newborn lambs. We decided to have an early lunch so we would have plenty of time. Since we got eggs at the farmer’s market yesterday, and I knew they’d be really fresh, I wanted to do something with eggs. I ended up doing a spinoff of the bowl from the Korean restaurant on Saturday. I sauteed mushrooms and spinach in teriyaki sauce, and heated up some instant garlic brown rice and quinoa. I topped this with an egg over easy, and dug in!

We also cut up some oranges from the farmer’s market.

Our day’s plans were foiled, however, when we discovered that the farm is closed on Mondays. So what did the day turn out to hold! Spring cleaning! Of our pantry, that is. Our cabinets, fridge, and freezer never get cleaned out unless I initiate it, and we end up with food shoved everywhere and a million of one item because it is hiding in some inaccessible location. 4 cans of beans. 5 boxes of Triscuits. 4 cans of pumpkin. The list goes on. We ended up composting and donating a ton of stuff, and now the pantry and fridge are organized and reasonably empty (in a mostly good way). However there is one issue. We have a huge “sweets” basket, complete with all kinds of candy left over from Christmas. So naturally I had to check if some things were still good. And then I found the Nutella. My family doesn’t eat Nutella much, we only had it because I used it in a recipe. I much prefer Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut butter. Anyway, I figured I would just have a taste before getting rid of it. I’m not a huge fan of the stuff, but I must admit it was addicting! Especailly when I found some crackers that would go bad soon. The end result of this process? Sugar overload. Now I’ve talked before about how I have a pretty bad reaction to sugar, and I fully admit I am a sugar addict. That is why I attempted my No Sugar Challenge. A lot of times when I eat too much sugar I start to feel really hot. I’ve always wondered if this actually raised my temperature a measurable amount, so this time I figured, why not take my temperature? And guess what? 99.0. Slight, but certainly noticeable. Yes. I gave myself a sugar-induced fever. So I think it’s time to seriously cut back on the sweets again…That’s scary!

After cleaning out all our old food, we didn’t want to go to the grocery to get dinner and put more food where we had just cleaned things out, so we were forced to improvise. After several half-baked ideas, we ended up making Mexican bowls. Wow, I had lots of bowls today! My yogurt bowl, my (vaguely) Korean bowl, and my Mexican bowl! We heated up brown rice, fire roasted tomatoes (one of the many cans of tomato products we unearthed), black beans, frozen brussels sprouts, leftover citrus chicken, cheddar cheese (1 of 5 bags of shredded cheddar…) and salsa. Topped with guac from out mini avocados! On the to-do list for tonight is getting them ready to sprout!

Tonight will most likely be low-key. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to see the baby lambs (don’t worry, pictures will be posted). I’m still on the fence about whether I want to go to 6 am spin or 9 am yoga. I think yoga may be more important for my strength, but I would like to do some cardio. Maybe yoga plus a run? We shall see!

What is your idea of spring cleaning?

Getting Back into It

Date: January 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great day! My day went pretty well! I have some more interesting food things to share with you today!

I got to sleep in this morning as well, no alarm! I didn’t have class until 12:30, but I had to do a workout this morning. I woke up around 7 and decided to make myself some breakfast in my room before my workout. What did I make? Only the best Oatmeal ever! Peanut butter and banana oatmeal!

Banana Oatmeal:

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana

1 packet of plain instant oats (I used quaker)

2/3 c vanilla unsweetened almond milk, or other milk of choice ( I usually eyeball it, less dishes!)

2 egg whites (once again, this is an estimate)

Instructions:

First, mash up the banana in a microwave safe bowl.

Add other ingredients and stir.

Microwave on high for 1.5 minutes (I recommend putting the bowl on a plate and covering in case it overflows)

Stir, and microwave an additional 1.5 minutes.

Enjoy!

I always top mine with a dollop of peanut butter.

Today, I split this into 2 servings, as it is pretty filling, and I was eating fairly close to a workout. Just save the other half in the fridge and enjoy later! It’s good cold as well (or maybe that’s just me…)

For the first time as far as I can remember, I put on too much peanut butter! See?

I couldn’t even finish it! Craziness!

My workout was 60 minutes on the rowing machine, plus 20 minutes on the spin bike. Nothing spectacular. It’s interesting that after a long time on the rowing machine, I don’t exactly feel more tired, but my power output significantly decreases.

After a sweaty workout, I decided to have some post-workout fuel. I wanted something kind of refreshing, but I didn’t have many ingredients for a smoothie, and who wants to put together and then clean a blender? I’m all about saving the dishes. 😛

So what did I come up with?

Yogurt! I discovered this little creation over break, and simply could not get enough of it. It’s the absolute perfect post workout snack (I’ll get to why later), and it’s super easy and low dish intensive. Just add cocoa powder and brown rice syrup to greek yogurt to taste (I tend to like less sweet, darker chocolate things), and stir well!

And of course I mixed it in a Dixie cup, right? Don’t want to use those valuable bowls! This yogurt hit the spot perfectly! So why is this the perfect post workout fuel? It’s a combination of protein and carbohydrates, which helps replace anything lost during exercise. (Keep in mind, I’m not a dietician, this just comes from the million books I’ve read plus an awesome Nutrition class last quarter). It’s more natural than a protein shake; you know exactly what you are putting in it. Plus, a lot of times, you don’t need as much protein as is in a protein shake after a workout. I learned in my class that actually, the time you need the most protein is when Your muscles are repairing themselves, which is the time when you are sore. Carbohydrates are a priority, because they are our main source of energy, so that is what gets burned in exercise, mostly. Why is chocolate milk not ideal? The carbohydrates in chocolate milk come from sugar, which is a combination of glucose and fructose, its about half and half. I will definitely get into a conversation about fructose later on, but you really don’t need to replace your fructose stores unless you’ve been running a marathon, and to get enough glucose to replace what you lost through drinking chocolate milk, you are probably getting more fructose than is healthy. Glucose is what is mainly burned in exercise. It is what the body burns for energy (the brain needs it as well), and brown rice syrup is a great source of glucose. I will definitely get into fructose and glucose at a later date (it’s one of my favorite topics EVER).

After my snack, I got ready for the day and dealt with various random things until lunchtime, which was early because I had class at 12:30 and I needed to get textbooks beforehand. Lunch:

Salad with raspberry dressing and dried cranberries, teriyaki tofu over brown rice, and some type of sauteed kale/cabbage. It was actually a really good lunch. The tofu was really good, it actually wasn’t fried like it normally is, so it was soft as opposed to weird and hard. I think lunch at my dining hall is always fairly good, definitely better than dinner, but I hardly wen tat all last quarter because I had class around lunchtime. Though I think they stepped it up midway through the year.

I also had some fruit and a little bit of pasta because I really wanted to try it.

I’m in an Animal Behavior class this quarter, and I’m super excited for it. It looks really cool, and I learned some random things just on the first day. Did you know that many human couples have similar lengths of middle fingers? How random!

Before practice, I rushed back to my room to grab a bar.

It was a little bit sweeter than what I wanted, and I wished I had made the granola bars I had been wanting to make. Practice was uneventful, which is probably good.

Dinner was a salad (garden) with grilled chicken and cornbread (which was really good, haven’t had cornbread here before).

I also had a cup of cereal (although it was sugary cereal). I’m trying to wean myself off of eating so much sugar, but it’s definitely difficult! Back at my dorm someone brought in a ton of random pies, and I tried some that I think was chocolate cream.

Tonight was also the night of my guacamole party, which was at least planned. And my guacamole party, I mean a couple of friends and I made guacamole with some avocados I brought from home, plus limes, onions, and tomatoes stolen from the dining hall salad bar. Mash together, add some salt and pepper, and we were set!

Eaten with tortilla chips of course. Afterwards, I decided to make some protein bars I’ve had my eye on for some time now. I made Peanut Butter Vanilla Protein Bars, from After the Ivy League. I was a little worried about making anything with my protein powder, as I’ve never baked with it before (although these bars are no cook, yay!), and I’m not a big fan of the taste of the kind I have, but these bars turned out well! I added a little bit less protein powder than it calls for because I got scared, but they had really good flavor, and I nibbled at the edges quite a bit. They’re in the freezer now to harden, but from what I can tell they’re a definite win!

Tomorrow, no on the water practice, and no morning workout, so I can sleep in (relatively). Even though I slept in today, I was really tired by the middle of the day. I didn’t sleep that well last night, and I couldn’t figure out why, until I remembered other nights like this, when I’m really warm and tossing and turning all night. I’m almost positive it’s from too much sugar before bed. I had this problem a lot before the holidays when I ate a lot of junk, and I remember how much better I slept when I cut out sugar for a few days. So, goal for tomorrow? No sugar! It’s going to be a little experiment. To be honest, I can already tell I’m going to have a lot of work this quarter, and not that much time, so I need to make the most of the sleep I can get!