Pages

Saturday, March 31, 2012

It's Official!!

As of Thursday, I've heard from all the colleges I applied to! I didn't get any rejection letters [just deferred to spring semester at UC Berkeley] which made me really happy because it was like a validation of all my hard work these past four years. But, before I even heard from the last two schools on Thursday I knew where I was going.


I'm officially a UCLA Bruin!!!! To say I'm excited is seriously an understatement. I know I'm going to love college, and being at a gorgeous campus with a college town and amazing weather just makes it that much better.

To celebrate, last night my family was going to go out to dinner - but then I had the brilliant idea of hitting up Whole Foods for dinner instead! I was definitely one happy camper.


I loaded up my salad with a few new goodies and it was delicious.

  • romaine lettuce
  • spinach
  • carrots
  • onions
  • chickpeas
  • a TON of mushrooms <3
  • cucumbers
  • shredded cheese
  • basil pesto tofu [top right]
  • feta & walnut kale salad [bottom right]
  • hummus

We also stopped at Target for a little fun food shopping [that's my idea of a fun Friday night - I'm such a weirdo! ;) ]

some of the loot (from both Target and WF):

both smooth and crunchy barney butter (i think i died and went to heaven!!). i also picked up a packet of amazing grass to try & my usual protein powder. 

thin mint ice cream!!

bendy straws (love them!!), pop chips, peanut butter cheerios, vanilla chobani, Luna protein bars, and dry roasted almonds

and as a treat i got 2 sobe life waters and 2 vitamin waters! 

Then we came home, ate Thin Mint ice cream (this. is. amazing. don't care that it's unnatural, it's soooo good! and we were celebrating!) and watched Cupcake Wars. It was an awesome night! 




This morning I woke up and had breakfast [tortilla with barney butter and strawberries] and proceeded to get straight to work on my anatomy lab paper. 



Someone got quite excited about my paper and wanted to be a part of it! Then, she realized it was pretty boring and decided her time was better spent getting some beauty sleep. 



After I finished my paper, I headed to the gym for the new release of BodyCombat 51. Can I just say that this release is a doozy! It was SO much fun, though - I left sweaty and exhausted, but happy!



Lunch today was seriously ugly. As most of my ugly creations go, though, it was yummy! I just scrambled some eggs and chopped spinach, heated up some of my favorite refried beans from TJs with laughing cow, and topped it all with a scoop of salsa. 



To satisfy my sweet tooth I had a graham cracker with the crunchy barney butter and MAN the crunchy version so good! I've never actually bought a jar of crunchy nut butter since I'm a smooth lovin' gal, but this jar may have just changed my mind. 



Now I'm catching up on blogs and getting a little homework done before my long shift at work tonight. 
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, guys! 
nut butter: crunchy or creamy? 
favorite thing to do on a friday night?

Friday, March 30, 2012

My First Foodie Penpals: March

It's finally time for the Foodie Penpals reveal! This month was my first month participating and it was so much fun - I definitely am glad that I decided to participate! Lindsay ran everything so smoothly and I loved putting together a package to send out to the penpal I was assigned (both the package I sent and received were from non-bloggers, which is why I'm not linking to a post about what goodies I sent out!). 


If you've never heard of or participated in Foodie Penpals, click here to view how it works and the conditions for participation. 

Onto my package! Jessica sent me an AMAZING box full of goodies that I loved! I could tell that she took the time to put together a box that she knew I would enjoy because boy oh boy she hit it spot on. 


One of the things that we're supposed to include in the box is something handwritten - I loved the cute card Jessica sent me! I also liked how she wrote what she included and why she included it - it made it clear that she put a lot of effort into the box. 



First up: freeze dried fruit! I absolutely LOVE freeze dried fruit, but I'd never had any of the combos that she sent me (peaches, pineapples, and strawberry banana) and all of them were phenomenal. I think the freeze dried peaches were my favorite.


 black bean soup! you guys know I love me some black bean soup and this was delicious! 


justin's nut butter!! i love any and all nut butters and i'd never had the honey almond version before (it was fantastic!)


Suzie's spelt and flaxseed puffed crackers. Ironically I'd almost bought a package in the store a few days prior to receiving the package, so I was quite excited to see these in the box! I loved putting nut butter on them- the texture reminded me of a crunchier rice cake. 


sunflower basil crackers. these were SOOO good!!! I demolished the box all on my own - my favorite way to eat them was dipped in almond butter, but they were delicious plain as well. 


cinnamon toast pretzel crisps. ohmygoodness these are my new favorite snack! i've never seen this version in stores nearby but i am definitely on the hunt to find some more. these were gone in under 24 hours of opening my package - that definitely says something! 


chocolate and peanut butter granola thins. you can't go wrong with the combo of dark chocolate and pb!


pria bars - these were new to me and i loved them! they're the perfect size for a small snack (whereas most other bars are better sized for a small meal) and both flavors were yummy.


fruit strips! i seriously have no idea how jessica managed to nail every. single. item in this box. i LOVE fruit leather and haven't had some in a longgg time. these babies were gone in two seconds flat! 


Jessica also sent me some goodies from a recent trip of hers to Boston! this was so thoughtful, & i'd never tried any of these foods before. first up was stonewall kitchen blueberry jam - man this stuff is good! it was especially good stirred into plain greek yogurt or smeared on toast. 


cranberry bog frogs! [cranberries & cashews in caramel and milk chocolate] SOOO delicious. 


boston english breakfast tea! i actually haven't tried this yet but i'm sure i will love it. 


I LOVED everything in my box - everything was perfect for me! Jessica really put a lot of thought into it (healthy portable snacks, new-to-me treats, and just all around deliciousness!) so THANK YOU, Jessica!! 

If you haven't done Foodie Penpals I definitely think you should give it a go. Both bloggers and non-bloggers can participate and it's open to U.S. and Canadian residents (people in the US are paired with other US residents, and same with Canada). It's a lot of fun to make and receive the boxes, the program is very well organized, and it's just all around fun! 

did you participate in foodie pen pals this month? if you did, what was the best item you received?

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

WIAW: Important Updates!

happy WIAW! before we get to some of my latest eats, I wanted to give you guys a few updates :)

the most important update of all: i was accepted to my #1 college, UCLA!!! i got in last Friday and i am SO EXCITED. thank you all for your congratulations - especially my twitter friends! i definitely worked my butt off for that acceptance and sacrificed a lot for a shot at getting in.. and it was worth it! i am SO pumped for college!!!


trust me, i was 50000000x more excited than i look in this pic! tiredness will do that to a girl :) 
update #2: i saw the Hunger Games last weekend and since i'm sure you're sick of reading about it, let's just say it was awesome. totally lived up to the book!

update #3: i got to go to a NASCAR race last weekend (i've been watching races since i was a little girl, even though i still don't know a lot about racing!) and it was so much fun!


jeff gordon's CAR! AHHH!

it was definitely a super fun whirlwind trip and quite the experience!!

finally onto the eats! while we were traveling i did the best i could but i still wasn't able to eat my normal, healthier food. the problem with that is once i start eating less nutritious food, it's hard to stop eating the junk! the past few days have not been too great nutrition-wise and i know i just need to get back into my normal routine.

all the recent eats [mostly from before & after the trip!]:

savory oatmeal (recipe coming soon!) with eggs, cheese, and ketchup 

packed lunch: veggie salad, pink lady apple, turkey & laughing cow wrap, pria bar

puffed millet + crunchy maple sunrise

tortilla with barney butter x 100

starbucks unsweetened passionfruit tea

new-to-me luna protein bar- the verdict? delicious! the texture and taste were spot on.


coffee. lots and lots of coffee. 

a tortilla with pb + a dr. praeger's veggie burger scrambled with eggs and drizzled with ketchup 

pretzel sticks + barney butter

honey crisp apple with pb2 


another dr. praegers burger on a tortilla with laughing cow (we were out of bread!)

almond butter + apple butter sammie

after a recent workout (1.5 mile warmup, 2 miles fast, 1.5 mile cool down) in the pouring rain! 

crazy hair! :)

aand lastly a recent outfit! (lovin' my heeled boots!)


whew that was a marathon post :)) i hope you all have an amazing rest of the week!!
how do you get back to healthy eating after a few days of junk?
favorite thing about college? (if you haven't been, what are you most looking forward to?)