Long Time No Read

I went from posting multiple times daily, to daily posts, to every few days, and now it has been a whole week!  Most of you know how busy  I am, but in case you are wondering why its taken me a week to post – here it is:

Body:
Saturday: Gym! Elliptical 50 minutes and Strength training for Back , Biceps and Quads.
Sunday: 6.5 mile run ( the lake loop+. Each 1/4 mile is marked, so I usually go around twice but extra)
Monday: Stretch & Strength- Yoga 40 minutes,
Tuesday: Strength: Chest ( push ups), Shoulders (dumbells), Triceps (presses) and Hamstrings (deadlifts with dumbells).
Wednesday: 3.2 mile neighborhood run.
Thursday: Rest!
Friday: I am going to run, run, run, run!

Mind:
This week for Graduate School, I had a case study on American Indians/Alaska Natives and a 5 page case study on Greece (both) due Thursday.  Also due on Thursday was an article abstract as well as a presentation for both the article and those case studies. That work was only for half of my courses! The other two courses I have didn’t have assignments but obviously required lots of time too! On top of this, it is near decision time for my thesis/practicum.  I also had to work this saturday, sunday and tuesday- which means I had little time as it was for all the assignments due thursday.

Soul:
Yoga! I did yoga every day this week but did not put that in the body section because my intention was to keep my stress levels down.  I am posting it under “Soul” since I found myself doing a few minutes in the morning and again in the evening to release tension and get harmonized!

I missed blogging! As crazy as my week was, I honestly missed keeping updated with all of my readers and all the blogs I read as well. Blogging definitely gives me a much bigger reward than money, it just makes me feel centered, grounded, balanced, and helps me reflect on all of things that I am doing each week, as well as all of the things I want to do.

My grandparents visited my parents this weekend and with work, meetings, and school work, there was no way I could go out to visit them! That was a huge bummer because I haven’t seen them in so long. I am trying to think of the positive-  this means we must go visit them!

Eats:

Oats, Apple Slices and Peanut butter in the Peanut Butter Jar!

Stonyfield Farms Cream Top Organic Yogurt
It really did have a cream top! The texture was thick, creamy, and not overly sweet.

Other Breakfast this Week:

Warmed Fruit with Kashi Cereal, PB, Yogurt and Cottage Cheese…

A Few Lunches This Week:
Whole Foods Salad Bar

I was so busy and on campus nearly all week so when Jeff’s parents got me a Whole Food’s gift card for my birthday, I was more than excited to use it for lunch there. I had a piece of Mushroom Lasagna, A piece of Pecan Crusted Sole, Artichokes and a little pasta salad with chicken on top of greens, and veggies.

GT’s Kombucha Botanic No. 7

This one was much better than the last one I tired (the green something or other)!

Dates and Banana stuffed with Peanut Butter

I had these with leftover salad from the day before..
A Packed Lunch:

Yogurt, Medjool Dates, and a half sammy with roast beef and tomato slices.

Lunch at Home, while working on case studies:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with a Sweet Potato topped with Ricotta (skim) for protein!
 
Dinners This Week:
Gluten Free Angel Hair Pasta with Kale

I replicated the Kale recipe from our lab last week, recipe HERE.
This angel hair was so delicious! It had the best texture for gluten free pasta that I have had so far ( I think it helps to not overcook gluten-free pasta!).  For the sauce, I used a can of crushed organic tomatoes with basil and a can of organic Italian stewed tomatoes.

Lilly’s Red Rooster Salad

Jeff grabbed Lilly’s for dinner and my favorite thing from there ( although there pizza is awesome too) is this salad, which has made blog appearances before, check them out HERE. ( I did discard most of the cheese, it was too spicy and the chicken adds plenty of flavor!)

Quick Coq Au Von and Nutty Green Beans with Cous Cous

I replicated the Nutty Green Bean Recipe we tried in lab last week, recipe HERE. Since our lab team had to  braise chicken this week, I decided to sear chicken breasts, then braise them in shallots, riesling, and thyme. I had looked up a recipe for Coq Au Von , so I tried to use the same ideas for two breasts.  It seems so much more complicated that it was- this all took less than a half an hour!

Spinach, Ricotta and Bacon Scramble

Okay, so it didn’t quite make it to the omelet state that I had planned for and ended up scrambling everything together. It worked out just perfect and it was delicious! ( on the side was a slice of whole wheat toast).

Ending with the Sweetest Part of The Week…..Desserts!

Chocolate! Jeff and I shared one or two of these guys nearly every night this past week. It was such good quality cocoa and it was such fun to see what each one had inside! Two of my favorites were…

a Chocolate Turtle with caramel and walnuts…

and one of many truffles, so delicious!

One of the biggest things I realized this week is that a little planning goes a long way! I had grabbed kale, frozen spinach, dates, bacon, and green beans at the store on the weekend after planning a few meals that I could make with those. I also wrote down on my weekly note pad on my fridge the dishes that I could make this week, which seems to have worked really well!

What plans do you have for this weekend? My best friend in college is trying on wedding dresses!! I wish I could be there …