Day in the Life {Second Semester Junior} 

I’ve attempted to write a day in the life post for this semester maybe three times already.

I’ll start taking photos of everything and making mental notes about what I’m doing throughout the day, but then it hits about 7pm, and I give up, either because I realize I have too much work to do or because I forgot to take pictures after breakfast.

I kicked those two gross anatomy exams to the curb on Tuesday, and now I feel like I can do anything with my life.

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shoutout to Janice for being the best study buddy ’til the wee hours in the morning

Duty still calls, but I at least I have a little more time to type up this day in the life!

Wednesday

7:00 AM — Alarm goes off. I immediately know I’m going to need a nap later in the day.

7:08 AM — Roll out of bed, go to the bathroom, brush teeth.

7:15 AM — Crawl back into my bed to do some reading for my “Religion, Health and Medicine” class (the reason I had to wake up earlier than I usually would on a Wednesday).

7:30 AM — Roll back out bed to pray and eat breakfast. I continue reading while eating this zesty jar of overnight oats.

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1/2 c. oats, 1 tsp. chia seeds, 1/4 c. greek yogurt, 1/2 c. milk, half banana, 1/3 of a champagne mango(!), pinch of salt, lime zest ➔ topped with salted cashews in the morning

8:00 AM — Go back into my warm bed to finish reading. Eventually decide that lying in bed is not conducive to reading something analytically/staying awake, so I drag my butt to my desk.

8:50 AM — Cut it close to start getting ready for dance.

9:05 AM — Leave for dance class in Cambridge. It’s snowing and I’m not lovin’ it (but it’s not icy, which is the important part).

9:35 AM — Arrive slightly late to dance, but class usually starts a little late, so I’m right on time! (Unfortunately, life doesn’t often work that way.)

11:10 AM — Dance class ends (my last one of this semester! ☹️). It was a great one! Walk back to my apartment.

11:40 AM — Arrive back at the crib and eat loads of kettle corn and a random piece of chicken. Check my email.

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needed some umami

12:10 PM — Walk to my religion and medicine class.

12:20 PM — In class today, we discuss how social context cannot be separated from mental diseases such as depression and anxiety. Mental illnesses may have specific biochemical bases, but that does not mean that we should treat them one specific way cross-culturally (via antidepressants, for example). Rather, sociocultural factors hold a great weight in the presentation of mental illness, so they should be considered and incorporated when treating patients.

INTERESTING.

1:35 PM — Class ends and I walk back to the apartment for lunch! Part 1 is the last of this tasty massaged kale salad I made on Monday.

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red kale with olive oil, lime juice, honey, salt, pepper

Part 2 was the classic avocado egg toast with sriracha. ♥︎

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(Interruption for avocado appreciation photo)

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what a beauty

Part 3 was a clementine.

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do clementines come from Connecticut?

Part 5 was a couple handfuls of pita chips to fill the tank.

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I read some blogs as I ate.

2:40 PM — Oof, I indulged in a nice long lunch hour. Clean up and get to some studying.

3:50 PM — Remember when I woke up and knew I would need a nap? That hour had come. I nap like a rock for 35 minutes.

4:25 PM — Alarm goes off and I don’t want to move. Lay in bed for a while, checking messages and probably Facebook.

4:50 PM — Get myself together and rush to Mass at the Catholic Center.

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But stop to take this photo. It looks gorgeous out, and it was, but it was also FREAKING COLD. The wind hurt.

5:02 PM — Sneak into Mass a little bit late, but very happy I made it.

5:25 PM — Chat with a few people in the Catholic Center. Eat a banana, some cashews, and a few honey wheat pretzels (the BEST pretzels!).

5:35 PM — Leave to catch the T to Cambridge (again), this time for a workout with InnerCity Weightlifting! Start typing this post on my phone on the commute.

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Christina (@foodietunes, Fit U ambassador, dietetics major, personal trainer, overall wonderful human) organized the event with ICW. Read her super cool post about ICW here.

InnerCity Weightlifting is a Boston organization that takes high-risk individuals – those who have been shot, done significant jail time, and/or grown up on a family income under $10k per year – and teaches them how to be personal trainers. They develop their students’ physical training skills as well as the social, academic, and networking support needed, which college students like us take for granted. In doing so, InnerCity Weightlifting makes a huge impact in the community they work with by decreasing street violence and creating a social change. In keeping their gym location a secret, they are able to provide a safe space for their students who have certain conflicts with others. – Christina for gofitu.com

How rad is that!? The trainers are ex-cons, which might seem sketchy, but it’s totally not. The guys who trained us are awesome dudes.

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6:32 PM — Arrive slightly late (theme of the day/my life), but they hadn’t started yet. Christina takes me to the fridge filled with Hint water and tells me to grab one. Don’t have to tell me twice!

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6:40 PM — We start with a dynamic warmup and then get into the workout. Our trainers took us through three circuits, three rounds each:

  • KB reverse lunges
  • pushups/negative pushups (← the negatives!!! holding at high plank, mid pushup, and chaturanga for 3-4 seconds each, repeat. HELLO.)
  • deadbugs (holding a resistance band on stretch, which made my arms shake, especially after the pushups)
  • KB deadlifts
  • single arm KB rows each arm
  • bear crawls (super slow, super controlled, with little sliders on our backs to prove our stability)
  • med ball slams
  • battle rope slams

The weighted parts were actually the easiest, because the weight and reps were relatively low, but all the bodyweight stuff was killer! Such a fun workout though!

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I wear those socks to dance to help with sliding on the floor, but I forgot to change into normal socks later, so this is what had to happen.

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thank you for this photo, Christina!

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7:30 PM — The workout ends, we learn more about ICW, they give us more Hint waters and KIND bars, and I walk back to the T station to head home. Type some more of this post.

8:15 PM — Arrive back home and cook up some veggies for dinner. I sauté some onions and lacinto kale (I have a lot of kale right now because it was on sale at Whole Foods) in mustard, maple syrup, salt and pepper (← fave way to cook kale!).

8:35 PM — I had the veggies alongside leftover quinoa and chicken thighs with this Stubb’s rub.

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During dinner I read a couple more blogs, check Facebook, upload the day’s photos, and keep typing this post.

9:15 PM — Decide that I want a sweet snack, so I have some Greek yogurt with cinnamon and raisins. Some of my friends are baby barfing at this right now (#hatersgonnahate on raisins).

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10:25 PM — Somehow still typing this post? Wash up dishes, shower (I reeeeek), and do some more studying.

12:00 AM — Pray and hit the hay!

Hope you all have a fantastic Thursday!

ALSO fun news — my dear friend Emily from Beauty in Christ graciously invited me to be on her awesome podcast last week, so that episode is up now on her blog! Click here to check it out. And just read Emily’s blog/listen to her podcast in general. She is a breath of the freshest air.

So tell me:

One thing you are proud to have accomplished this week!

One thing you did and one thing you ate yesterday.

How do you like to cook kale (if you like kale)?

Do you like to take naps?

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I Don’t Just Want To Be Fed Information

My legs are so ready for this tropical vacation coming up.

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Julianna shared a photo of her burpee knees the day before on Snapchat

At least the chlorine from pool therapy is keeping my legs smooth. The chemicals are basically burning off the [already minimal amount of] leg hair that I have.

This week has been hectic, a little weird, but really great overall.

  • Hectic because of work and domestic duties (miss you, Madre).
  • Weird because of earlier wake-ups and seeing a severed squirrel on the ground one day.
  • Really great because of the little laughs/blessings that all add up. Also, SUNSHINE!

Food scenes from the week:

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nectarine banana overnight oats in a peanut butter jar

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classic ♥︎ 

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roasted green beans (olive oil, salt, pepper, and lots of garlic @400F for 25-30 min)

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overnight oat smoothie with greens added in the morning before blending

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a gigantic bag of kale cooked down into four servings (sautéed in olive oil with onions + tossed in spicy mustard, maple syrup, salt, and pepper — my favorite kale recipe!)

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impromptu baked chicken thighs (half a jar of Victoria’s tomato basil sauce, fresh basil, lots of garlic, baby carrots @ 400F for 30 min, topped with freshly grated parmesan and broiled for 5 minutes)

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leftovers for lunch

Favorite moves and grooves this week:

This Blogilates ab workout. You will be cussing her out in your head, it’s that hard. My abs don’t usually get sore, but this made my abs sore for two days. And this 16 minute workout (4 rounds, 30 seconds work, 10 seconds rest):

  • burpee tuck jump
  • up down planks
  • goblet squats
  • staggered pushups
  • burpees
  • side lunge with twist

Bonus: I got ONE strict toes to bar last night right before going to bed! It made all my muscles hurt.

The busyness and weirdness this week were dampened by the fact that my family is leaving for a tropical vacation, as mentioned above. We’re celebrating my parents’ 25th anniversary and my brother’s graduation from college. I’m obviously just along for the ride.

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[source]

I won’t have wifi, since we’ll be on a cruise in the middle of the ocean, but I’ll be sure to share the shenanigans when we return. Please pray that we have safe travels! The cruise company contacted us about the possibility of contracting the Zika virus, so *thumbs up*.

I’ll pray for you too if you have any travel plans coming up 🙂

Lastly, I have a Five Minute Friday vlog today! It’s about how I am trying to more actively stay connected with current events and worldwide issues.

link to video!

p.s. here’s one of Demi’s rant tweets:

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and happy July!! Happy 4th to all my American friends too! (I was about to say, “May the fourth be with you,” but that’s two months off.)

Goodbye for a week or so. I’ll miss you!

So tell me:

Do you find that you let information/news/opinions be fed to you, rather than read up and formulate your own opinions?

What is your favorite way to eat kale?

What are you doing this weekend?

 

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The Great and Small Things I Learned {Sophomore Semester I}

We back, we back, we BAAACCKKK.

Back home. Back to the kitchen. Back to sleep. Back to blogging more than once a week (hopefully)! For now. 🙂

Needless to say, finals were exhausting, and we all lost another half a year off our lives in the process, but it all makes winter break that much sweeter.

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not gonna lie, I’ll miss you, human physiology

I came home by train on Saturday, and since then, I’ve caught up on the 500+ blog posts that I haven’t read since Thanksgiving, cooked, watched Food Network, and {sorta} caught up on sleep.

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kitchen is where the heart is ♥︎ 

With the close of another semester of college, I think it’s only appropriate to share my third edition of “The Great and Small Things I Learned”! Some of the things might overlap with my first or second freshman semesters, but I know the Lord blesses/humbles me with many more lessons constantly. So without further ado…

the great and small

1) I am probably Boston’s #1 peanut butter consumer.

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finished a little over seven 36 oz. jars

2) The weather has a bigger impact on my mood than I thought.

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3) No matter how often I feel like there’s no time to pray: a) there is always time; b) it’s always worth it; c) prayer helps me focus and use my time more efficiently.

4) Simply logging off of social media on all my devices deters me from going on and getting majorly distracted.

5) Boston has so many hidden gem restaurants. (Thanks to this list for introducing Rachel and me to some incredible food!)

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y’all know how I feel about sandwiches…

6) I used to feel like I physiologically had to exercise if I sat for too long, even if I had already worked out and walked around that day. It was all in my head.

7) How to ask better conversational questions in order to get to know people better. People’s life stories or daily stories can be so interesting, and friendships can sprout from them.

8) How to be more attentive and compassionate. All thanks to my friends who are so attentive and compassionate towards me.

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9) I can better observe my emotions objectively. I can better understand why I feel a certain way, realize that it’s okay to feel that way, but know that I can control what I do with those feelings.

10) The ravioli in the dining hall is delicious and I need to get it more often.

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11) Friendships > romantic relationships. That sounds like I’m bitter about not being in a relationship, but this is true whether you’re in a romantic relationship or not. Friends if you have no significant other, friends if you do have a significant other, friends who become significant others, friends with your significant other… You get the point.

12) Taking yourself too seriously is stressful.

13) Your girls Rachel and Alison here love us some brussels sprouts. We can and WILL finish a whole pan in one sitting.

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14) If I am being honest with myself, I cannot effectively study while listening to music with any sort of melody. As much as I want to rock out to cool music while reading about the cardiovascular system, I just cannot focus fully. These videos were my jam (sans melody) during finals week.

15) Going to the gym once or not at all during the week is okay.

16) I still love dancing, and I hope to continue dancing for as long as I can.

17) Doing the readings for your classes is not always necessary, but it definitely makes life a heck of a lot easier when it comes down to the exams and papers.

18) How to accept days when I just don’t have the time or energy to work out, even if I haven’t worked out for a few days in a row…

19) …But any sort of movement is worth it and helps me focus for the rest of my day.

20) I hate rain boots. I’d rather wear sneakers and get my feet soaked. (Probably just need better rain boots that don’t chafe my feet.)

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21) I need to write down the order in which I want to complete my daily tasks. Otherwise, I feel like a lost duckling and end up getting distracted.

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22) I need to work on punctuality. Rachel thinks so too.

23) Good people are medicine for the mind, body, and soul.

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24) Watching my friends grow in mind, body, and spirit is one of the coolest things ever.

25) How to trust in God a little bit more.

26) My blog is transforming as I am being transformed. (Duh. But it’s interesting to observe.)

27) There is much more to learn.

I actually don’t know the next time I will check in with you all, since this week is Christmas week. Crazy pants. We’ll be driving up to Canada on Christmas day, which isn’t quite my ideal of how to spend Christmas, but a) it’s not about ME; b) I’ll be with my family; c) Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were traveling on Christmas day; d) traffic will be pretty light!

Hope you all have a joyful week ahead ♥︎

P.S. Just saw the whole Miss Universe mistake and I am feelin’ so bad for both Miss Colombia and Steve Harvey. Also kinda chuckling, but mostly feelin’ bad.

So tell me:

What is one lesson/thing about yourself you learned this fall?

Can you relate to any of the lessons I learned?

What did you have for dinner last night? I made pesto chicken with maple balsamic kale last night for Pop and myself! (+ Asian pear, pomegranate, toasted pecans, and two cornbread muffins with honey and butter as sides/snacks/dessert)

How do you go about making to-do lists? 

Fancy Food + Weekly Moves and Grooves

Thank you to everyone who recommended a bunch of podcasts on yesterday’s post! I’m looking forward to listening to all of them and perpetuating my dependence on technology to keep me from feeling lonely.

I love that podcasts can make me laugh out loud. I like laughing. 😀

Since I started my internship at 3pm yesterday, I had a little bit of extra free time in the morning to make some more “fancy” food. Fancy = takes more time.

Breakfast was Frrrreeeench tooooast (said in my pitiful, wannabe-hardy French accent). I dipped Dave’s Killer Bread in a mixture of: 1 egg, a splash of 2% milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then I plopped the battered bread into a skillet sizzling with butter.

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Served with a pool of peanut butter and bananas sautéed in a little more butter. Plus the last of a plain yogurt container with more cinnamon, nutmeg, stevia (yeah, I used it) and the sweetest of mangoes.

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For lunch, I had another English muffin sandwich with an egg, avocado, and goat cheese + salad + an unknown number of white cheddar Popcorners + a plum!

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Around 11AM I whipped out the crockpot and almost 6 lbs of boneless pork ribs, compliments of Costco. After practically sawing off the excess fat (I left plenty on, but I took off the 2 inch strips and chunks o’ fat), I seasoned the ribs with Bobby’s rib rub and then threw them into the crockpot with some garlic and onion.

8 hours later…

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Glamour shots.

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You can see my first taste of the ribs on Snapchat.

For dinner I served the ribs on microwave-steamed sweet potatoes with kale sautéed in avocado oil, salt, pepper, a little maple syrup, and spicy brown mustard (<— do this!). Plus a dollop of Greek yogurt because the ribs were kinda spicyyy.

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What a blesséd meal.

Since I haven’t shared my weekly moves and grooves in a couple weeks, I thought it was a good time to share again! Still keeping things pretty low impact/intensity and feeling great about it.

I’ve been working on gaining some flexibility and mobility back in some (all) of my tight joints with yoga and stretching. Physical therapy interning has me inspired to stay as mobile in my joints as possible!

weekly moves and grooves

  • Friday: Rest
  • Saturday: lower body barre
  • Sunday: 8 min abs
  • Monday: 60 min yoga
  • Tuesday: gymnastics warmup + handstands + lower body exercises
  • Wednesday: 3 mile walk
  • Thursday: 8 min abs + 60 min yoga

Hip hip hooray for Friday!

So tell me:

What did you eat for dinner last night?

Do you consider yourself flexible?

Egg-Celent Weekend

I had to.

I know you’re cringing at the pun “egg-celent,” but it’s quite an accurate adjective to describe my weekend. Lots of great company, delicious food (including EGGS of course), and lots of my weird antics per usual.

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‘Twas marvelous! Linking up with the fabulous Katie 🙂

Friday

I successfully did Susie’s prom makeup in the morning! It took a few tries, but she looked gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

We had our senior picnic on Thursday, and next up was our fancy shmancy senior luncheon. We ate good food and signed each other’s “Class of 2014” pennants (those flag thingies), which was fun just because you felt like a celebrity signing your autograph 100 times. There was also a chocolate fountain, so that was a hit…for the people that actually really like chocolate.

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Who uses that “inside the plate rim” rule anyway? I cleaned that plate right up.

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“Core Four”

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Chorus buds

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CHEESE!

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Stunning Sam (aka salutatorian!)

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The fountain of youth

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I wasn’t feelin’ that chocolate though. Except for the brownie.

Since my principal wanted my commencement speech draft sent to him by Saturday, I spent most of my afternoon and evening (after a nice, long nap) finishing that sucker. I grooved so hard when I practiced it and found that it was not too long and not too short. Hallelujah!

My moves were little bursts of 20 air squats, 20 pushups, 20 sit-ups, and 10 burpees (5 rounds total for the 100 challenge) every time I needed a mental break from speech-writing.

Saturday

Woke up late, moves were a ton of handstands, cleaned, went to church, and babysat all night!

I did have a killer lunch that day:

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English muffin with avocado and sunny eggs + sriracha. PARTY IN MY MOUTH!

This made me sad though:

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Not even because it got on my laptop (we already know that’s a usual occurrence), but because I wasn’t able to dip my bread in the yolky goodness since it didn’t land on my plate.

Judge me.

Oh, and when I babysat, one of the boys asked me to read this book to him twice:

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LOL.

It’s a Spanish dialect called Catalan. It’s like Latin + French + Spanish all in one. I did my best, but let’s just say it’s a good thing they were not harsh critics. I feel like I may have accidentally cursed in a different language, considering the way I was trying to pronounce some of those words.

Sunday

Father’s Day!

I woke up bright and early to make dad a special breakfast: DSC_8592

Kale, onion, mushroom, swiss frittata. More eggs!

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I sorta winged it with the frittata, using some online recipes for guidelines, but it was super tasty! I’ll probably post the recipe later.

I totally scraped off and ate all the crispy, flavorful bits from the bottom of the cast iron skillet after mom put the rest of the frittata away. She asked me: “Are your eating the charcoal?” Yes, ma, I’m eating charcoal.

Moves: Jess’ Lean Legs workout. I haven’t done this in forever, but I remembered how much I love it. Love to hate it, that is.

Apparently my quads were starving afterwards, because I housed a Hugh Jass lunch (even with a big breakfast and pre-workout snack).

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Sautéed kale, mushroom, chicken with garlic and some leftover steak+potato hash

This was only ⅔ of it. I finished the other ⅓ when my plate wasn’t so full. I think I satisfied my protein intake for the next two days with this meal.

Then I had a lovely catch-up session with my good friend, Anushka! We chatted over some vanilla ice cream 🙂

Dad decided that he wanted to go to Bareburger for dinner, so we went there for a late dinner and final Father’s Day celebration. I got a lighter meal since my lunch consisted of a whole farm.

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Walnut apple salad with applewood-smoked bacon and goat cheese (mmmm) + quinoa veggie burger

It was delicious! I also had a bite of my mom’s classic beef burger, which was awesome.

WOW that was a jam-packed weekend, now that I’m blogging about it. This was a random, long post again….sorry. Tomorrow I have a short post with a VLOG though! 😀

Have a marvelous Monday, friends!

So tell me:

What was the last thing you ate that was a party in your mouth?

What is your favorite way to eat eggs?

What did you do yesterday?