Free Bread!

Sorry about my lack of post last night; it was a busy day and I was sleepy!  So here’s a quick recap.  The more exciting stuff is further down 🙂

Yesterday’s Eats:

I was super-hungry all day, and I’m not quite sure why…

Granola, berries, and peach Chobani

AB & Preserves on a Sandwich Thins (smushed = unpictured)

 

Carrots & Hummus

Chin’s (SWE Meeting)

Plus, more Tomato Basil Bread from Panera than I care to admit, and Pita Chips & Hummus.

Yesterday’s Workouts:

Push-ups, upper body strength training, and some “back to basics” Pilates. I don’t know why I don’t do strength training more; I feel so strong and happy afterwards!

I tried to do a few squats and lunges, but my IT band wasn’t having any of it!

Today’s Eats:

Green Monster

Pear

Pumpkin Oats topped with Apple Crisp.

Free Bread!

The SWE Blood Drive was yesterday.  I’m not eligible to donate for awhile because of my trip to the Dominican Republic in March.

It also doesn’t help that I’ve passed out at little blood tests.

It also doesn’t help that hearing people talk about the blood donation process makes me feel woozy.

All that aside, I can help get rid of our extra post-donation snacks leftovers.

Welcome to my home, Tomato Basil bread and Sourdough bread bowls from Panera.

And congratulations Kristine, for holding a Blood Drive so successful, we actually had to turn people away.

Check back later today for a chowder recipe and my BSI submission!

 

SWE Fall Ball and Saturday Morning

Today has been a super-busy day, so this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down and blog!

Fall Ball!

The dance last night was so much fun, and Wendy did a great job planning it.  We held it at the Overture Center this year, which was a much better location than the hotel ballroom we’ve used for the past 4 or 5 years.

The “bouncers” with Sally and Jenny D.  Wendy, Jenny G, Kelley and I are the four furthest to the right in the picture; don’t we look like the most threatening bouncers ever? 😉

Actually, security turned out to be a pretty easy job.  We didn’t have anyone who needed to be escorted out, so we pretty much signed people in and gave them their raffle tickets.  People-watching at an engineering formal dance is pretty entertaining!

Part of our Big Sib-Little Sib family!  Don’t we all look cute?

The Hoyt Street girls, with me once again serving as “substitute roommate.”  Somehow, whenever I hang out with these ladies, just one of the four roommates is missing.  Since I spend quite a bit of time with them, I’m considered the “substitute roommate.”  🙂

I wasn’t that hungry when we left for the dance.  I had a quick Almond Butter, Pumpkin Butter, Apple Sandwich on my way out the door.  My assumption that it would hold me over until I got home was wrong.  Lucky for me, Katie was generous enough to share her Uno’s leftovers with Jenny and I, so we enjoyed some White Wine Pasta.

Giving in to Cravings

Want to know what I recently learned?  If you have a craving, it is best to give in to it.  You’ll stop trying to replace what you’re craving with something less-satisfying.

For the past few days, I’ve been craving Greenbush Donuts.  I don’t like donuts really.  Except for Greenbush.  They are the exception to the rule.  Baked fresh every day, they are perfectly sweet and flaky, without being overly so.  I only crave them about 3 times a year.  Including this past week.

On the way home from the dance, I convinced Kelley and Jenny to stop at Greenbush.  Craving satisfied. 🙂

Today

I had a quick bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch with Vanilla Soymilk before the Farmer’s Market this morning.  And by “quick,” I mean, “I had so little time for breakfast that I couldn’t even take pictures of it.”  I’m sure you’re all imaginative enough to picture my breakfast. 🙂

I bought a HALF BUSHEL of Hungarian Wax peppers, some of which will be featured in dinner tonight.  And throughout the week.  Actually, throughout the winter.  I’ll be freezing whatever we don’t eat this week for use in warm winter-y dishes, like soups and casseroles.  Yum!

I’ll be back later with details about the Madison Food and Wine Show, where Dan and I spent the afternoon.  It was so much fun!  And we may or may not have come home with 7 bottles of wine… 😉

Weekend Plans

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So Much Pumpkin!

After making pumpkin scones yesterday, I have a ton of leftover pumpkin puree to use up.  Tragic, I know.  😉

With that in mind, I decided to start the day with some Pumpkin Breakfast Quinoa:

I replaced a bit of the milk and water with about a tablespoon of pumpkin puree, and topped with a tablespoon of chocolate chips.  If you still haven’t tried quinoa for breakfast, go try it soon!  To learn how to make it, go here.

And expect a post soon about why quinoa is my favorite grain. 🙂

To get some fruit in, I paired my quinoa with a peach:

Readers be warned: a lot more pumpkin will be showing up on the blog in the next few days.  Who am I kidding?  Pumpkin always shows up on the blog.  But now I have a lot of it that needs to be used up soon!

Lesson Learned

I learned a very important lesson after my long run last night:  You will be tired after a long run.  This is no excuse to not fully stretch afterwards.  If you don’t stretch, you will be in a lot of pain a few hours later.  Now my lower back hurts.  A lot.  Today is definitely a rest day!

Here’s hoping my back feels better by Sunday morning for my 15K!

Weekend Plans

I’m pretty pumped about this weekend.  Want to know what’s on the agenda?

Friday evening:  SWE Fall Ball. Kelley, Jenny, Wendy and I are going to be the security/registration people/DDs (designated drivers) all night, which I’m actually kind of excited about.  It means we get to see everyone who comes to the dance and talk to everyone.  It doesn’t hurt that the location this year is awesome:  the beautiful theatre on State Street.  Which, by the way, just happens to be attached to the museum where our wedding is going to be!

Saturday morning:  Farmer’s Market. I haven’t gone in 2 weeks, due to being in California.  I miss it!

Saturday afternoon: Madison Food & Wine Show. Hopefully.  🙂

Sunday morning:  My first 15K!

Sunday afternoon/evening: Cooking party! Several of my friends have been asking me to teach them to cook, so we’re getting together on Sunday to make some simple, healthy dishes!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Catch Up

I was up late last night doing homework, so I didn’t get to my dinner post…whoops!

Dinner included:

Split pea soup. It is not photogenic, but it is delicious.  And easy.  So, so easy to make.  Check back later for the recipe.

Food Should Taste Good Everything Chips

Carrots with Hummus.

And lots of some SunChips and Frosted Animal Crackers.  I don’t know what it is about SWE study nights.  Lately, I turn down the overly-processed junk food at almost all of our other SWE meetings.  Until I go to SWE study night.

My plan for the next one?  Pack yummy, healthy, irresistable snacks to munch on, instead of the provided snacks.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

As for yesterday’s workout:

• Pilates

Stomach Series

Roll-Ups

The Hundred

• Strength Training

Overhead tricep extensions

Overhead presses

Bicep curls

Side raises

Squats

Plie squats

Side lunges

Today

A bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch with Vanilla Soy and

a Warm Peach with Cinnamon made up my quick, on-the-go breakfast.

Lunch today includes some tried and true favorites.  I missed these while I was gone.

A sandwich thins with almond butter, pumpkin butter, and apple slices.

A strawberry Chobani with frozen raspberries and granola.

Check back later for the split pea soup recipe!

We Won!

Our flight has been delayed by an hour and a half, so I have three (-plus) hours at LAX.  So, I splurged on the $8 Internet day-pass so I could update all of you on my weekend. 🙂

Guest Posts!

First things first, check out my guest post on MegaNerd’s blog, all about meals to eat on-the-go!

Also, check out the guest post that Jessica of How Sweet It Is did for SavvyEats yesterday!

Yesterday’s Eats!

I could not drag myself out of bed yesterday morning for some reason, and there were no workshops I was particularly interested in.  So instead, Wendy, Holly and I went out to breakfast.

There was a cute cafe just a few blocks from our hotel that we wanted to check out.  The service was so terrible, however, that we left.  I hate to do it, but the waitress was very rude, and we would have been there all day. 😦

Turns out, though, that it may have been the best decision of the day, because breakfast was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip!

We went to a little place called Creme de la Crepe, a cute little French place (obviously!)  The waiter, waitress, and hostess were all talking French to each other.  (Which, by the way, reminded me of how much I miss French class.)  I ordered a crepe with nutella and fresh strawberries, along with a fruit bowl.  It all came with real whipped cream.

Heaven.  To die for.  Best breakfast ever.  *Drool.*

The only downside was that lunch was only a half hour after breakfast, so we didn’t eat much of our free lunch.  It worked out well, though, because lunch was only okay.

I ate about 2/3 of the salad, half the roll, all of the veggies, and about 1/3 of the veggie lasagna.  The veggies were good, but I was, once again, not impressed by the rest.  Bummer.  I was impressed, though, that the meal was entirely vegetarian!

Breakfast/lunch was so filling that I never had my afternoon snack.

And then something sad happened.

I was super pumped to go for a quick run between lunch and my next workshop, and was about to pull on my running shoes when I remembered that I had homework due.  I showered with intentions of doing my homework while my hair dried, then logged in to find out that the homework was due last weekend, and could no longer be submitted.

In summary, not only did I miss out on a run in the California sunshine, I also failed to do one of my homework assignments.  Sad day.  Not to mention the fact that I’m disappointed in myself for misreading the deadline earlier.

The day did start to look up, though, when we got all dressed up for the banquet and went to our final session: “The Brand Called You.”  There were some good ideas brought up, but it wasn’t my favorite session.

To kill some time between the session and CelebrateSWE!, we ventured across the street to Border’s, where I bought 3 clearance cookbooks for the price of 2!  My plan is to use them for inspiration, and “healthify” the meals. I’ll post to my Recipes page when I successfully do so. 🙂

CelebrateSWE!

CelebrateSWE! was long, but fun.  We started with dinner while watching skits from each SWE regional section (Go Region H-the “heartland” region!) :

The only parts I didn’t eat were the chicken and a 1/3 of the cake.

Oh, and can’t forget the white zin:

Do you like the cute flippy thing the humidity did to my bangs? And our classy cups the wine was served in? 😉

We also ended up sitting with Nora Lin, SWE National President!

Next up, the awards.  We won:

• Outstanding Collegiate Section, Silver
• 
  
• Best Website, Third (Okay, I have no idea how this happened.  Our website was never, ever updated last year, due to some issues with the only officer who knew how to do the coding.  Our section does so many great things, and they choose to reward one of our weak points?  Weird.)
• 
• Boeing Team Tech, Third Place!! Remember Holly’s presentation on Friday? Out of 7 teams, we got third place!  Which also includes a cash prize… 🙂

Go UW-Madison SWE! 🙂

Airport…

We had a cute old man as our shuttle driver this morning, and he told us stories the whole way here.

Breakfast included an Awake Tea Latte, oatmeal, and a pluot. And water.  Lots and lots of water.  I know, I know, I wasn’t going to go to Starbucks again for awhile, but they were the ones with oatmeal, which sounded so good!

Here’s hoping our flight isn’t delayed even further!

How was your weekend?

Impressive Breakfast, Unimpressive Lunch….

Reminder: Follow Me on Twitter!

Before I go into today’s post, I just wanted to remind you to follow me on Twitter!

SWE Conference, continued

This morning was our big presentation for the Team Tech competition.  We worked on finding a “green” use for the charcoal and berries left over from vodka and gin production, respectively.  Holly did a great job at the presentation, and we find out tomorrow night how we did!

Way to go team! (the part we could afford to bring!)

No, we didn’t plan to all match.  It just happened!

Impressive Cafe

We stopped at a little place called “La Caffia” on our way to the presentations for breakfast.  I was kind of impressed by their healthy and natural options!  They had the typical goodies, like muffins and bagels, but they also had:

Odwalla smoothies — I chose Chocolate Protein Monster and

Heart Thrive Vegan Energy Bars — I chose Chocolate Chip.

I liked both of my breakfast items.  The Odwalla reminded me of something I can’t quite place my finger on, but it provided me with lots of delicious, filling protein!  I think I would rather make my own smoothies, but when you’re traveling, that’s not really an option. 🙂

I really liked the Heart Thrive hearts.  I ate one of the two (expect to see #2 in tomorrow’s breakfast!).  It was perfectly chewy and just a tiny bit sweet, and didn’t have the typical protein bar “chalky” feel.  The chocolate chips added a nice crunch, too.  Yum!

Unimpressive Lunch

Traditionally, the Friday lunch at the career fair has been highly unimpressive.  Last year, in fact, I didn’t eat any of it, since I didn’t think I could eat gluten. That was probably a good thing…

Here is my veggie sandwich on slightly-dry “wheat” bread.  The sandwich contained tomatoes, sprouts, and lettuce, and nothing else.  I only ate about half of it.  Unfortunately, that left me with the chips to eat.  Bummer.

Yummy Snack

Luckily, I had a good snack waiting for me back at the hotel.  A pluot (unpictured) and a new bar:

An Oskri Turkish Delight bar, which we got for free at the bike ride a few weeks back. It was good, and reminded me of BumbleBars, but I don’t know that I would pay for it.

An Island Dinner

We met the rest of the Wisconsin SWE  conference attendees for dinner at a restaurant called Island’s.  I decided to splurge a little and get the Kilauea burger.  From the menu:

“Jalapeno & black pepper crusted burger w/ pepper jack cheese, chipotle aioli, lettuce, tomato & seasoned red onion strings.”

I ordered it with a veggie patty instead of the beef.  It was AMAZING!

I paired it with a glass of Pinot Grigio. It was so good, but went straight to my head; I’m a major light-weight!

After dinner, we were all stuffed, so we decided to walk along the pier for a bit.  It was such a gorgeous night!

I am so tired, so I am off to bed.  Come back in the morning for a guest post!

Do YOU Have Stress?

Yesterday, a group of us went to a workshop called “Trendy Stress?!” at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) National Conference.  Here are some of the useful tips and ideas from the session, with a few of my own thrown in:

1.  Change Your Phrasing.

Instead of saying “I am Stressed,” say “I have stress.” By phrasing it in this way, you are saying that you have control over your stress, rather than your stress having control over you.

Stop saying “I should,” and instead say “I choose.”  Remember, you always have a choice!

2.  Prioritize in the way that works best for you.

There are many ways to manage your time and priorities.  Here are a few:

• Create a pie chart showing what percent of your time and energy you want to devote to each priority.  Post it by your desk to keep you on track.
• Create a urgent-important matrix, and plot out your “to-do’s” on it, a la The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
• Number your to-do list based on how urgent and important the items are.
• Post a list of your short-term and long-term goals by your desk.

3.  Create a “To NOT Do” list, in addition to your “To Do” list.

This goes back to the idea that you always have a choice.  We all know about to-do lists, but what about not-to-do lists?  It will help you stay on track and remain focused.

4.  Find what stress relievers work for you.

Just because yoga or meditation calms your friend, doesn’t mean that it will help you relieve stress.  Maybe you need to workout, or read a book, or take a bath.  Find what works for you, and set aside some “me time” for you each day.

My top stress relievers?

• Cuddling with Dan
• Calling my mom
• Pilates
• Reading a book for fun
• Blogging
• Cooking

5.  Figure out if your stress is “trendy.”

Do you really need to be doing everything that you currently have on your plate?  Or do you feel like you aren’t “contributing” if you aren’t constantly busy, and therefore, stressed?  Have we reached a point where it is “cool” to be stressed?

Here’s my list of priorities, from my September 30 post, with notes as to how necessary they are:

• Finishing my degree.  I’ve made it through 4 years, I better finish the 5th and final year!
• Wedding planning. Yes, this needs to be done by May 30, 2010!  I need to start delegating tasks more, though, as we start getting into the detailed work!
• Half-marathon training. I’m already registered and paid, but I’ll be making myself a training plan structured around the rest of my schedule.
• Finding a full-time job. Ideally, I will have something lined up before we move to Ithaca.  But, if I don’t find something until I get there in the summer, that’s okay too.
  
• Being involved in Society of Women Engineers. –I’m the VP of Internal Relations, and I love SWE.  Oftentimes, going to SWE is the highlight of my day.  I don’t want to give this up.  However, I am learning that it is okay to say “no” to events that I don’t have time for or am not super excited about.
  
• Helping teach the freshman engineering course.— This doesn’t take a whole lot of time, and I need to finish it up this semester.  But, I don’t think I’ll do it again next semester (see, I’m learning to say “no” !)
  
• Interning for MixMyGranola. — I’m really enjoying the internship, and I think I would enjoy something like this as a full-time job.  So, I’m not going to give this up.  In fact, I’m hoping to have more time for it…
• Spending time with Dan. — Duh.  A definite priority.  Spending time with the Future Husband = important!!
  
• Spending time with friends. — Again, duh.  Family and friends are important!  Again, though, sometimes I need to say “no.”
  
• Calling my mom regularly.— Family is important, and calling my mom is one of my stress relievers.  So, this is a definite priority.
  
• Meal planning & cooking.— I’ve been doing some meal planning, but I think I’m going to do it in a more structured way from now on.  That way, I will still have time to cook, which I love.  Plus, my body and mind feel better when I make and eat home-cooked meals, so this one has to stay!
  
• Blogging. — Seriously, if I had a way to make blogging my full-time job, I would do it.  This one stays.

Okay, so I’m busy.  And there are very few things I want to give up.  So I don’t think I would call my stress “trendy,” because I’m cutting back where I can, and trying to find more efficient ways to fit everything in.

6.  Know when your stress hurts you, and when it helps you.

There is bad stress (distress), which we all know about, but did you know about eustress? This is the stress that is actually helpful, rather than detrimental to your health.  Which kind of stress do you have?

Do YOU have stress?  How do you manage it?

It’s Official: We’re Moving!!

Whew, today has been a whirlwind!  I thought today was going to be a “slow” day at the SWE conference, but I’ve been gone for 10 hours!  Hence, my blog reader on Thunderbird has exploded… 🙂

SWE Conference, Day 1

I started the morning with the best pluot I have ever tasted, courtesy of the Studio City Farmer’s Market the other day!

We went to the California Pizza Kitchen for lunch (+ breakfast for most of the group):

I decided that I didn’t want a “typical” pizza flavor, so I decided to branch out.  I tried the Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza with field greens, and it was so incredibly good!

Lesson learned:  Pears on pizza = delicious!

We decided to get dessert too, since we knew we wouldn’t be eating again for awhile:

I got the chocolate souffle cake.  It was good, but I wouldn’t get it again.  The pizza, though, I would definitely order again.

Six of our group got to go to….

Behind the Scenes at Disneyland!

Unfortunately, pictures weren’t allowed once we got to the park, but we did take some on the bus.

The beginning of the tour was AWESOME.  We got to go underneath the “Soarin’ Over Califonia” ride to watch the ride from below.  Then we actually went on the ride.  It was so cool to see!

The rest of the tour was only okay, but still interesting.  We went behind the scenes of one of the rollercoasters as well, but a lot of what they told us went way over my head.  It was still fun, though.

Rock Bottom Brewery

We met up with the rest of our group for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery.  After such a big lunch, I really wasn’t very hungry and wanted something light:

Edamame

French Onion Soup. I didn’t eat all of that cheese, don’t worry. 🙂

A glass of Reisling to celebrate my and Dan’s big announcement:

We’re Moving!

Dan has signed the paperwork and is mailing it in tomorrow, so it is now official:  We are moving to Ithaca, NY after graduation.  Dan has accepted a job with IMR Test Labs as a metallurgical engineer.  I’ve started looking for a job there as well.

So, any readers in the Upstate New York area? 🙂

It is supposed to be sunny and warm tomorrow, so I’ll be able to get a run in!  Yay!

This Week: Study. Next Week: Fun!

My to-do list is CRAZY LONG this week… can we add 5 hours to the day this week, somehow?  😉

I just keep reminding myself that if I get through all of this, I won’t have to worry about schoolwork when I go to California on Friday night!  Hooray for friends and conferences!

I hosted an event for all of the engineering student organizations on campus tonight.  Due to about 60 people being present and standing around, I was unable to take pictures of my dinner.  I’m sure you can imagine what it looked like though…Papa John’s pizza and cheesesticks. And water.  Lots of water.  I think I’m still a little dehydrated from this weekend!

Question for all runners: There’s a 15K or 3 person-5K each relay that I really want to do in three weeks.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a relay team.  Am I ready for a 15K if the only races I have run are 5K’s?  Will that be enough time to train? All input and advice is welcomed!

I need some fruit or something before bed.  I also need to do some serious stretching first.  Good night everyone!

Another Busy Sunday

Rather than being a rest day, Sundays seem to have become my busiest days this month!  Today isn’t nearly as crazy as last weekend, though…

My sleep schedule was all off last night, so I’m a little sleepy.  I rolled out of bed at 3:50 am to take Dan to the airport, and I fell back into bed around 4:45 for a few more hours of sleep.  I decided that I valued the extra one hour of sleep over baking for the SWE trip to the zoo, so I brought some Fiber One granola bars to our potluck instead.

I knew that the food at our potluck would be mostly unhealthy, so I made sure to have a filling breakfast before I left:

• 1/3 c. oats
• 1/3 c. water
• 1/3 c. skim milk
• 1 T. almond butter
  
• 1 T. pumpkin butter
• Toasted granola on top

Plus this yummy pear I picked up at the Farmer’s Market yesterday:

It was a lot of fun to just hang out and walk around the zoo and chat.  This is the same zoo I ran my 5K for last weekend.  While there, I had some fruit, some couscous, a little piece of cake, and some bread and dip.

We got a little silly at the zoo.  Sally played zookeeper, Krystal was a lion, and I was the monkey. 😉

I came home for a kiwi

For the first time ever, I ate the kiwi with the skin still on.  I’ve seen lots of food bloggers doing this, so I thought I’d give it a try.

It was only okay.  The slight bitterness to the skin detracted from the sweetness of the kiwi.  I think it will be a good option when I want to take a kiwi on the go, but I’ll go to the effort to take off the peel before I eat one at home!

Okay, off to do some homework and cleaning before tonight’s soccer game!

Before I go, check out the pretty flowers Dan got me when we were at Trader Joe’s last night:

I love having fresh flowers in the apartment!

Which day of the week is your busiest?