Just a few updates

The eats as of late: 

Salad with a side of fruit. Salad made up of kale blend, avocado, strawberries, crumbled pecans (cold-I like to store mine in the freezer), dried cranberries, and my favorite raspberry vinaigrette.  

 Speaking of salad dressing, I just read this interesting article about the healthiest dressings that are out there from Self Magazine. Check it out! 

Obviously been having a salad craving lately. Along with the salad was a side of raspberries and carrots (+hummus unpictured) 

My favorite brand of hummus is tribe because it's always readily available in my local grocery store, and I like the consistency. Also, the "40 spices" flavor is my favorite--careful, it's got some kick! 

Here's another article I found interesting about the best tasting/most nutritional hummus brands on the market. Read more here! 

Or you could just make your own hummus! It's really easy-follow the recipe I posted a while back. 

My snack that I brought to a Phi Mu meeting. Can you tell I love peanut butter? I sliced up a ton of celery and apples and dipped them in Peanut Butter and Co.'s "The Bee's Knees" peanut butter. Its the perfect snack!

Breakfast this morning was surprisingly not a smoothie. Instead I opted for a quick bowl of berries and an Ezekial whole-grain english muffin. Let me tell you, those english muffins are really great for a quick on the go breakfast. A lot of days when I'm in a hurry, I'll just throw one in the toaster while I'm getting ready and then when I'm ready to go, I just wrap it in a paper towel and head out! They're also really good with a little almond butter spread on top for an extra punch of morning protein. 

Workouts:

This may have been one of the longest runs I've done in a while. Lately I've been sticking in the 3-4 mile range. For whatever reason, I was feeling extra motivated yesterday and decided to knock out 5.25 miles and then have a quick cool down, followed by a nice long stretch. 

Recently Katie and I have been taking to the woods and running through trails a few mornings a week. It's so nice and relaxing, not to mention a great change of scenery from the stuffy air and taupe walls of the gym that I'm used to. 

Ps- Katie and I may be running a half marathon together in early August! But more on that later :) 

No other updates for you today! I'll be back later with a couple of recipes to share! 

XOXO 

A few of my favorite things

Hello!! It has been a surprisingly great week for me for a number of reasons...

1. I can't express how happy it makes me that it's finally beginning to feel like spring here in Baltimore. This winter was a rough one (at least in my opinion) so I was definitely ready for some warmer weather.

With warmer weather comes running outside! This week I made the big leap from my seasonal treadmill run, to the much more enjoyable outdoor runs! I ventured out in the heat for one 5 miler and one 4 miler with my good friend Katie. It was such a welcomed change of pace to just have a casual run outside enjoying the fresh air and good conversation with a friend, instead of the indoor treadmill runs that can become repetitive and boring. I also went for a solo outdoor run on Wednesday when the temperature was in the 90s! My body was definitely not ready for a work out in that kind of heat so I kept the pace pretty slow and steady...let's be honest...I just didn't want to pass out. 

2. GOOD FOOD! All week I had been looking forward to going to Whole Foods for my big monthly shopping trip. Some of the things on my grocery list: 

apples, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, clementines

avocados

carrots, celery 

corn cakes 

soup 

almond milk 

yogurt*

almond butter

Vans GF flax waffles 

VegaOne protein mix

Kombucha 

popcorn kernels 

coconut water 

hummus 

*I bought a different kind of yogurt this trip just to change things up a bit. It was recommended to me by a good friend whose taste buds I trust, so I decided to give it a try and it was a great choice! Siggi's is a brand of Icelandic style yogurt that has only 100 calories per cup while still containing a big protein punch, but minimal carbs. Icelandic has a similar taste to greek yogurt, but is a bit smoother in texture. These cups are great for breakfast on the go, to thicken up a smoothie, or just as a snack, and will be sure to keep you full for a while. So far I've tried the pomegranate passion fruit flavor and the peach and loved them both. Definitely worth trying if you haven't already! 

                                              Other random food happenings from the week: 

Dinner at One World Cafe-you've heard me talk about this place before. It's one of my favorite restaurants around campus because they specialize in vegan and vegetarian friendly food. It's always a treat when I get a chance to go there, and this time was no exception.

fresh pressed juice!

Hummus+veggie wrap 

Possibly one of the best late night snacks ever invented...popcorn!! It's low in calories, high in fiber content, and easy to make fresh--trust me, once you make homemade popcorn, you will never go back to those processed butter bags again (no offense to those companies who make those)

Tips for making the best air-popped popcorn (trust me, I've had a lot of practice with this): 

1.  Buy the kernels plain from your local supermarket 
2. Pour the kernels into the bottom of a pot with just enough olive oil (or any type of oil that you want really) to coat all of the kernels, then place the lid on the pot
3. Turn the heat on your stove up to about a 5/6 
4. Let the oil heat the kernels for about 6 minutes (or whenever you start to hear the kernels start to pop) and then take the handle of the pot and kind of stir up the kernels a few times to ensure that the ones closest to the bottom don't get burned (DO NOT take off the lid because then you will have popcorn kernels flying all over your kitchen and probably burning you..just FYI...I have personally experienced this) 
5. Once you hear the popping start to slow down (approximately 2 pops per second) then pour the popcorn into a large bowl 
6. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and Bon Appetit! 

3. Bake Sale

The Sirens held a bacon bake sale this past week. Even though I personally don't eat bacon, many people are obsessed with it so we took advantage of this and incorporated the crispy goodness into our baked goods. 

Baking away! Paulina made chocolate covered bacon, cinnamon rolls sprinkled with bacon, and marshmallow s'more bacon bites. 

Sami made the donut holes with maple glaze and bacon sprinkled on top. I made the chocolate devils food cake bites with sprinkles (for the vegetarian customers). 

We had such a great turn out-everyone really loved our clever idea. Success! 

4. Spring fair weekend! 

Possibly one of the best weekends at Hopkins all year is Spring Fair. It's always ton of fun and this year was no exception. Here are a few of the highlights: 

Kickoff with fireworks!

Fair food complete with funnel cakes, chicken on a stick, fried oreos, corn dogs, smoothies, and so much more. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to sample any of it this year, but I heard it was all amazing. I have no doubts. 

Lots of time spent with friends!

Saturday afternoon brunch with my Phi Mu Phamily :) 

Fun in the sun! 

That's all I have for tonight, but I'll be back later in the week with more food pictures (as always) and a few workouts to try! See y'all then! Have a good Monday  

And She's Back!

Wow, it's really been a while. Just before spring break, I decided I needed a little break from blogging. I really do love blogging and usually find that it is a great mental release. I love writing up a (hopefully) informative and fun post and then hitting that "publish" button. But there are times when a girl just needs a break...especially when that girl is going through a round of midterms and a few other stressful scenarios surrounding extra curriculars on top of that. So I decided to take a bit of a mental break from the ol' blog and just focus on the things going on here at school that I needed to devote my full attention to. With that being said, I'm officially BACK!! So let's jump right back into things!

Packed lunch for the day. On days where I leave my room at 8:45 and won't be coming back until 5, I like to throw some snacks into a bag to have throughout the day. In this 'lunch bag' was 2 apples, carrots, a homemade almond butter bar, and raspberries. 

Lunch to go! On the right is a chocolate protein smoothie, and then there's a spinach salad with strawberries, cranberries, walnuts, and avocado. Carrots on the side! 

Fruit has been of major importance lately as I've been craving smoothies daily. As the weather gets warmer and warmer, nothing is as refreshing as a fresh berry smoothie! As usual, my smoothies consist of whatever fruit I have in the fridge (usually raspberries, strawberries, and a banana), VegaOne Protein Powder (usually vanilla chai flavor), and the Green Machine green powder or a handful of spinach.

Spring Break is the next update I have for you! My parents and I went to Orlando and brought Joey along with us! It was a great few days full of sun, relaxing, amazing food, and riding rides at Disney World and Universal Studios. Not to mention that we go to go to Harry Potter World, which is really the coolest thing ever.

Every morning the hotel had an amazing buffet set up for breakfast and I took full advantage of it. Each morning I had a giant bowl of fresh fruit, greek yogurt parfait, and a mini bran muffin. I was most definitely in heaven. I know I say it all the time, but breakfast is by far my favorit meal and this buffet was right up my ally. 

Orzo greek salad with grilled salmon!

 Then it was time to come home for a few days in Charlotte before getting back to school. I spent my days cooking with my mom (exciting news about that coming soon!), food shopping, going to the gym, and more relaxing.

Obligatory trip to Charlotte's new Whole Foods. If you're from Charlotte and haven't been yet...GO NOW! It's incredible.

When spring break ended, it was back to Hop for the race to the end of the semester. It really has been flying by and I can't decide how I feel about that. 

Secret Week shenanigans began upon returning from spring break and included a lot a lot of baking. Lord knows I did plenty of taste testing of the sweets I made for my Phi Mu "little". 

Cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallow brownies, brownie cake pops

SO MANY SWEETS

NOM

So now things have really settled down and I'm enjoying a pretty low key week before things get crazy again at the end of the semester. The past few days it's been so nice outside that running outside was just too appealing to pass up. I nice slow 5 mile run (about 9:30 pace) was my workout the past two days, but before that (when it was still freezing cold out) I was inside doing my normal cardio routine. 

With the exception of the past couple of days, I really have been trying to cut back on my cardio a bit in favor of adding more strength training into my daily workout routine. I say this from time to time, but I do feel as though my workout habits are getting boring; every once in a while I just need a change of pace. 

For example, I have done this workout several times over the past couple of weeks: 

HIIT Workout: 

30 seconds of each exercise, doing as many reps as possible; 10 seconds rest between each exercise. Repeat the cycle 3 times with a 2 minute break between each cycle. 

Jump squats

Tricep dips 

Mountain climbers

Pushups 

Sumo squats

Right leg lunges

Forward arm circles

Left leg lunges

Backward arm circles

High knees

Ice skaters 

Sit ups 

* I did this cycle 3 times through with 10 minutes of cardio in between each cycle. In total, it took me about 45 minutes. Not too bad! 

*Warning--this will make you sore so be sure to stretch afterward. 

That's all I have for now, but I promise it will by no means be a whole month before I post next so look out for more coming your way! 

Have a great week :)