It’s almost finals!

I promise I didn’t forget to finish my challenge. I have pictures and everything. However, I am painfully behind in school with finals quickly approaching next week. Therefore I am kicking my ass into gear and going into hibernation mode for the next couple of days, at least until I finish this ridiculous marketing paper and my java programming project.

Day 4: Oops…

No picture of food tonight guys. I’m sorry. I ended up going to campus to meet with my group about our international marketing project right after work, so I broke down and had a McDouble and a small french fry. Life, you keep getting in the way of everything!

To make up for it, I’m going to try my best to not pig out tomorrow. My menu is already planned, and some dishes are already prepared.

July 4th Cookout Menu

• Quinoa salad with black beans and mango
• Watermelon, feta, and arugala salad
• Portobello burgers marinated in soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and garlic (and maybe with grilled halloumi if I get lucky); grilled chicken for those who want meat
• Grapefruit basil martinis

I made the quinoa salad tonight, and it passed the taste test of a true Colombian, so I’m excited about that one tomorrow. The watermelon salad shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes to throw together tomorrow, and the portobellos will marinate tomorrow morning. I’m really hoping our Whole Foods carries halloumi. I would love to through this on a burger!

Do you have anything special planned for tomorrow? I’m dying to hear about some great summer recipes!

This is probably too long for twitter

I’m really happy that I don’t have a scale at home right now. This morning I looked in the mirror and I was happy with how much progress I’ve made with Pure Barre and eating better. Not having a scale means I’m not worrying about hitting that next goal. I’m just doing what feels healthy and right. My endocrinologist won’t be happy when I come in over 200 pounds again, but he also won’t see how much stomach fat I’ve lost and how much muscle I’ve gained back in my arms, butt, and legs.

I’m so happy with how I look, and I’m so happy that scale isn’t around to ruin it.

Day 3: Rogan Josh & Chickpeas

I’m back to cooking tonight, and I was in the mood for one-pan Indian food. The original plan was to put the chickpeas and sauce into pita pockets, but I decided to add pearled couscous instead, making this a two-dish night.

Day 2: Not as Healthy

Pizza isn’t the healthiest, but I made it through the most brutal Pure Barre class in a while and can barely stand. Therefore, pizza it is. At least it’s only one slice of mushroom and sriracha…

Day 1: Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Thanks to ‘Murica’s birthday, I have no classes and a four day weekend coming up this week. That means it’s challenge time! This week’s challenge? Cook healthy meals for six days (the Fourth is exempt because, well, it is).

Tonight’s healthy meal is stuffed poblano peppers. I actually got the idea from one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Her recipe stuffs the peppers with coriander seeds and cremini mushrooms and is absolutely amazing. However, I live with a boyfriend who is the furthest thing from a vegetarian, so I’ve adapted the recipe to Johnny’s tastes.

June (in Instagrams)

If you didn’t know me, you’d think my life was super interesting through these.

Standing in the endzone for an arena football game.

Johnny likes to hug his laptop while napping.

Maybe I’ve reached my limit with school

I am terrible at posting regularly this semester! I think the only way I’ll ever remember is to schedule blogging time in my iCal regularly, especially now that I’ve finally joined the 21st century and have my very own iPhone.

We’re on week 7 of this 10 week semester, and I cannot wait to be done. I think I’m just disenchanted with the idea of academia right now. I’ve always been into school, but now I’m  starting to develop real hobbies that I want to focus on.

• I’ve been exercising as much as I can and I’m feeling much more energized and happy. I’ve also been losing weight. However, when things get crazy with school, it’s hard to justify 30 minutes on the treadmill or an hour in yoga.
• I dusted off some old vegan cookbooks and have been experimenting with fun food. This weekend I put off a java programming set to make spicy black bean burgers from scratch. It’s been fun experimenting with different food instead of eating the same chicken and rice every night.
  
• I love my programming class, but I want to program my own ish now instead of focusing on problem sets.

I’m also finding better ways to spend that $800 a month I save for tuition. I would love to move to a better part of town. I would love to fly up to Lansing to see family and the USF/MSU game for my birthday. I would love to quit my job after a while and start my own business. But as long as I have to save $800 a month to finish these crazy degrees, I can’t really do any of those.

I keep telling myself that I can make it through the last three semesters I have left, but I think I’m finally reaching my limit with academia. Has anyone else felt this way so close to finishing? How did you power through that final year?

I’m sorry I disappeared

I’m only a little bit sorry though. Life was awesome between semesters, but then it got rough again, which sucks. I’m in three classes this summer, which seems to be a lot more work than the three I took last summer. I’m dealing with it though, and I’m being more creative with finding time for reading (like at work when the system is going really slow and I have nothing else to work on).

Speaking of work, I was offered a new job yesterday, which is slightly terrifying. Now I find myself going between “Hell yeah I’m taking the new one” and “But I’m kind of comfortable where I’m at.” I find that the older I get the harder it is to make a decision, but that may be because the decisions get more important as you grow up. This job is also $15,000 more than what I make now, so that may be making this decision even bigger.

I’m not going to lie, I was hoping that the only big decision I had to make this summer was deciding which elective to take in the fall.

March & April & May in Pictures

I finally bought batteries for my camera! It only took a graduation to get to buy them. 

My brother graduated college on Friday. Now our parents have two college graduates in the family.

We had to put our dog to sleep earlier this week. I found some of the last pictures I took of him. This was either at my brother’s birthday gathering or Easter.

I watched an accident occur outside my window at work sometime in March.

This is a real truck somewhere in the Tampa area.

I’ve been enjoying my small break from my normal insanity. Classes start again in a week, though, which means the barrage of syllabi will be coming soon. I have a few more days to enjoy being a real person, but I’m also excited to start a new semester.