It's that time of the semester! Final papers/projects/tests that were so safely in the distant future for the first few months of the year suddenly have very real, very quickly approaching due dates. It always seems to happen so suddenly. It's a whirlwind of work and stress and freaking out feeling like I'll never get it all done and then, abruptly, it's all over and I have the whole summer ahead of me. I'm not quite at that part yet but I am very close.
So yeah, my presence here on this blog has been limited because of that and probably will continue to be for at least the next week as I finish things up. I had a 5 page paper due this past Monday, another one yesterday, an assignment due this evening, and a couple little short papers to do this weekend... then a quick presentation next wednesday, and then 2 finals and one more 5 page paper between May 6th-8th. Shouldn't be too horrible, but enough keep me busy and remind me that it's not summer, not yet.
There's a lot to look forward to when the semester finally is over, though! My 22nd birthday is on May 10th, and although I'll actually be working and doing pretty much nothing interesting on that day, Colton and I are going to leave the next day for a vacation in honor of my birthday. There's nothing in particular that I really want, so a trip instead of presents is my kind of birthday celebration. We'll be spending some time in Prescott for Mother's Day and my dad's birthday, which is the day after mine, and then heading to LA to go to Disneyland and California Adventure! After that we are spending a couple days in San Diego where we'll hit up the beach, maybe go to a baseball game, and just relax. Should be a lot of fun :) It will be the best way to end the school year and kick off the summer!
Speaking of summer, I'm planning on doing a little weekly feature here on my blog for about 15 weeks through my summer vacation. It's going to be called "homemade summer"- every week I'm going to try to cook and blog about something that one would typically just buy already made at the store. A blog I read called Macheesmo does something like this that he calls the homemade trials, where he tries to deduce whether it's better to buy something premade versus making it yourself at home based on cost, time, taste, and nutrition. I'm not going to be trying to figure out if/convince you that making something at home is better, I'm just going to be doing it to a. see if I can, b. have fun, and c. appreciate the differences!
Here are a few things I'm thinking of trying to make: Ricotta, mozzarella, marshmallows, pickles, corned beef, butter, bagels, yogurt, chocolate, nutella, mustard, and many other things. If you have any ideas for things that are possible to make at home but that most people just buy at the store, let me know!
Alright, I'm off to work on a couple assignments before I go to work tonight. Have a nice weekend!
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
26 April 2013
06 March 2013
Healthy and Delicious Vegetable Soup
So, this past weekend I went up to Prescott and then Flagstaff to spend some time with my parents and to go skiing with my Dad. I hadn't gone skiing since I was very little so it was definitely interesting... I got up at 6 am (which is SO early for me... closer to my usual bedtime than the time I usually wake up!) and we got to the Flagstaff Snowbowl around 8. I was pretty unsure of my abilities and was basically downright terrified for the first bit. I could only go across the slope in an ever-so-slight decline (as opposed to going vertically down the slope) at a snail pace... and I was on the bunny hill (which toddlers were learning on!). BUT, we took a two hour lesson from 10-12 and it helped so much! I fell a few times, but after a couple tries I was able to stop myself, turn, speed up and slow down, and actually go down the slope in the direction intended. After the lesson, I was able to go down the entirety of the hill easily and even rode the ski lift to one of the higher starting points and managed to ski from there as well!
Unfortunately during the first half of the day I stupidly forgot to put on sunscreen... even though it was just a few morning hours, my face got SCORCHED! Having never really skied before I didn't know snow sunburn was such a serious thing. Basically you get double sunburn from the sun reflecting off the bright white snow. Anyways, by the next day my face was bright pink (aside from a few attractive pale sections from my hat... ugh) and blistered! The blisters turned to scabs and now for the past couple days my face has been dry, tight, flaky, and still bright red. I can't WAIT for it to heal and for my face to go back to normal. Working the counter at Brooklyn on Sunday and Monday was NOT fun.
That was really the only low of my weekend... the rest of the (short) time was spent with my aunt and uncle in Flagstaff and my parents in Prescott. I don't have the opportunity to come home all that often, but it's nice when I do because it's kind of like being a teenager again. I can sleep in my old (pink) room with all my old things, sit on an actual couch (not a futon!) and watch an actual tv (not a laptop!), and eat from a fridge full of food I didn't have to pay for (or cook!). The last thing is particularly nice because my parents eat very healthfully... and they have the money and skillz to do it right and make it super delicious! I try to be very health conscious down here in Tucson, but it's expensive.. and between cooking from scratch every day (on top of school, work, and everything else), researching recipes, and meticulously calculating, counting, and recording calories... it is work. When I can open a fridge and have a ton of fresh, healthy stuff already there ready to eat, it makes me happy.
And that's where this vegetable soup comes in. My mom made some last week from a recipe loosely based on the 7 day diet 'wonder soup' (oh gee, another crash diet that has you eat practically no calories in order to lose 10 pounds in a week- miraculous!). This version bulks up the veggies, adds spices, vegetable broth, and tomatoes (and V8, if you like) for flavoring, and comes with no hyperbolic weight loss claims! At 60 calories a cup though, it doesn't really need to.
I ate this with a simple soup for lunch 2 of the 3 days I was out of town... it probably would have been 3 for 3 but I spent one of the days on the slopes! It is SO yummy and filling. I liked it so much that today, 3 days after being back in Tucson, I whipped up a batch for dinner tonight and lunch for the next few days. It was so easy too. If you're looking for a simple, low calorie, nutritious meal you can eat throughout the week, definitely try this one out! It's the perfect thing alongside a salad or sandwich.
I was going to take pictures while I was making this to go with the recipe... I took a picture of the veggies sauteing... and then put my camera down and forgot about it. Oops. I do have a picture of the finished product before I had it at my parents' house.
Simple Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (omit if you do not like heat)
1 box (4 cups) vegetable broth (I used Safeway O Organics brand)
1 14.5 oz can diced italian stewed tomatoes (regular Safeway brand)
1/2 head cabbage, roughly chopped
2 cups baby spinach
4 cups water (or v8, if desired)
1. Heat olive oil in large pot.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Sautee 5 minutes, or until slightly softened.
3. Add salt, pepper, spices, and garlic. Continue to cook until veggies begin to brown.
4. Add vegetable broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
5. Add cabbage. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until beginning to soften.
6. Add spinach. Stir to incorporate until spinach has fully wilted.
7. Add water and/or v8 and boil to reach desired broth:veggie ratio. Taste and adjust seasonings.
That's it!
This recipe (made with water) makes about 9.5 cups with a 1 cup serving equaling about 60 calories.
The total calories for the recipe is only 557! Crazy, right? It will be about 200 more if you use 4 cups of v8 as opposed to water... so then it would be about 80 calories a cup. Still fantastic.
The salad is a mix of spinach, arugula, and kale with cucumber, carrot, cherry tomatoes, onion, celery, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice for dressing.
Unfortunately during the first half of the day I stupidly forgot to put on sunscreen... even though it was just a few morning hours, my face got SCORCHED! Having never really skied before I didn't know snow sunburn was such a serious thing. Basically you get double sunburn from the sun reflecting off the bright white snow. Anyways, by the next day my face was bright pink (aside from a few attractive pale sections from my hat... ugh) and blistered! The blisters turned to scabs and now for the past couple days my face has been dry, tight, flaky, and still bright red. I can't WAIT for it to heal and for my face to go back to normal. Working the counter at Brooklyn on Sunday and Monday was NOT fun.
That was really the only low of my weekend... the rest of the (short) time was spent with my aunt and uncle in Flagstaff and my parents in Prescott. I don't have the opportunity to come home all that often, but it's nice when I do because it's kind of like being a teenager again. I can sleep in my old (pink) room with all my old things, sit on an actual couch (not a futon!) and watch an actual tv (not a laptop!), and eat from a fridge full of food I didn't have to pay for (or cook!). The last thing is particularly nice because my parents eat very healthfully... and they have the money and skillz to do it right and make it super delicious! I try to be very health conscious down here in Tucson, but it's expensive.. and between cooking from scratch every day (on top of school, work, and everything else), researching recipes, and meticulously calculating, counting, and recording calories... it is work. When I can open a fridge and have a ton of fresh, healthy stuff already there ready to eat, it makes me happy.
And that's where this vegetable soup comes in. My mom made some last week from a recipe loosely based on the 7 day diet 'wonder soup' (oh gee, another crash diet that has you eat practically no calories in order to lose 10 pounds in a week- miraculous!). This version bulks up the veggies, adds spices, vegetable broth, and tomatoes (and V8, if you like) for flavoring, and comes with no hyperbolic weight loss claims! At 60 calories a cup though, it doesn't really need to.
I ate this with a simple soup for lunch 2 of the 3 days I was out of town... it probably would have been 3 for 3 but I spent one of the days on the slopes! It is SO yummy and filling. I liked it so much that today, 3 days after being back in Tucson, I whipped up a batch for dinner tonight and lunch for the next few days. It was so easy too. If you're looking for a simple, low calorie, nutritious meal you can eat throughout the week, definitely try this one out! It's the perfect thing alongside a salad or sandwich.
I was going to take pictures while I was making this to go with the recipe... I took a picture of the veggies sauteing... and then put my camera down and forgot about it. Oops. I do have a picture of the finished product before I had it at my parents' house.
Simple Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (omit if you do not like heat)
1 box (4 cups) vegetable broth (I used Safeway O Organics brand)
1 14.5 oz can diced italian stewed tomatoes (regular Safeway brand)
1/2 head cabbage, roughly chopped
2 cups baby spinach
4 cups water (or v8, if desired)
1. Heat olive oil in large pot.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Sautee 5 minutes, or until slightly softened.
3. Add salt, pepper, spices, and garlic. Continue to cook until veggies begin to brown.
4. Add vegetable broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
5. Add cabbage. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until beginning to soften.
6. Add spinach. Stir to incorporate until spinach has fully wilted.
7. Add water and/or v8 and boil to reach desired broth:veggie ratio. Taste and adjust seasonings.
That's it!
This recipe (made with water) makes about 9.5 cups with a 1 cup serving equaling about 60 calories.
The total calories for the recipe is only 557! Crazy, right? It will be about 200 more if you use 4 cups of v8 as opposed to water... so then it would be about 80 calories a cup. Still fantastic.
The salad is a mix of spinach, arugula, and kale with cucumber, carrot, cherry tomatoes, onion, celery, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice for dressing.
04 August 2011
Greece, Day 8
I promised you guys I'd start posting more photos weeks ago, i know. I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and edit them all... plus I'm still processing and adjusting to this "normal" life thing again... it hasn't been easy and I really haven't been in the mood to have to deal with it all. but here you go- most of the picture posts won't be this long, but i didn't want to split up one day's worth of photos (and this was a busy day!) In this set are pictures of Plataea, where the battle of plataea took place (shocker, right?), Gla- an ancient Mycenaean ruin that was covered by a lake for a very long time, Thermopylae, where the battle shown in the movie 300 took place, and Delphi, where all kinds of cool shit from the Pythian games to the Delphic oracle of Apollo occurred.
Greece is full of gorgeous flowers. This one was in Plataea. Modern Plataea is just a teeny tiny little town, and Ancient Plataea is even smaller- just a few old very worn down ruins, mostly the bases of houses and such.
Nick got our Professor to pretend to fight him to recreate the battle of plataea- as if the prof is a persian and nick is a greek.
This is Gla- it's actually quite huge, though it's hard to really see much in this photo. the whole thing was covered by a lake for a very long time- mostly you can just see the wall that lined the perimeter of this Mycenaean town.
The boys- and one, in particular- had a habit of flexing their muscles for every picture we took. This is us girls (well three of us anyways) making fun of them :)
see what i mean with the muscle flexing?
This is Thermopylae, where the battle that is featured (and hollywood-ized, though not as much as you might think) in the movie 300 took place. Imagine the greeks coming down through those rocky, steep mountains, and the Persians approaching from the sea, which would be opposite these mountains. There's no longer a sea there, it's just farmland, but it's cool to think about.
looks kind of familiar, doesn't it?
A tribute to the Spartans, who fought to their death.
Schmules doing his reading
Statue of Leonidas, the spartan commander (Gerard Butler's character in the film)
The spartans would of course not actually fight naked, but the Greeks were obsessed with the male form and perfection, so they always sculpted their warriors to be mostly nude.
The view from the bus as we drove up the mountains to Delphi
A tholos at the lower ancient site in delphi. Most tholos' we don't know the purpose of- in later pics you'll see some tholos tombs and at the agora there was a tholos where the important people in athens would meet, but this one and most others give no clues as to what they could be used for. Tholos just basically means round building, by the way.
This is the greek version of an exit sign! weird, huh?
If you look really closely at the center of this pic, you'll see a whitish dot. it's a goat! If you zoom in a bunch you can actually make out it's shape.
Swimming pool at the ancient training area in Delphi. The pythian games- one of the four panhellenic games- took place in Delphi, but at the upper site (next set of photos). The lower site was where a lot of training took place. this swimming pool was aobut 4 or 5 feet deep now, but was surely deeper in antiquity.
some of the boys pretending to swim in the pool.
backstroke!
awesome tree at the lower site
the lower site at delphi
there are a million stray dogs and cats in Greece! In delphi in particular, there were a bunch of cats that hung out across from our balconies at the hotel.
Nicholas, one of the two "greeks" on our trip. If you couldn't tell, he basically has a bottomless stomach. That night he pretty much finished everyone's food for them.
more pics in a few days!
<3
Em
more pics in a few days!
<3
Em
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