In Good Health: December 2013

I write to you now while sitting in the Barnes and Nobles Starbucks listening to 2000's Pop Radio station (The BEST station on Pandora if you grew up loving Britney Spears, early Justin Timberlake, and maybe even a little Avril Lavigne) and sipping on a skinny gingerbread latté...pretty good morning for me I'd say!

...except for after this post I have to start studying for the exam I have Tuesday :/ The semester is coming to an end, but with that comes the craziness of finals period. At least there's Christmas break to look forward to. If that's not a light at the end of the tunnel, then I don't know what is...

Ok I have tons of foodie pictures to show you guys so I'll jump right in with those first! They're in somewhat of a chronological order.

Carma's for dinner last week--> farmhouse salad with vegan bacon and a cup of pumpkin black bean soup (vegan). Carma's hits the spot every time, without fail

Banana brown sugar oatmeal for breakfast

Quick breakfast before running out the door to class...banana and berries, Vans gf waffle with almond butter to go!

Lunch...all of my lunches have looked like these strange concoctions of whatever I had left in the pantry. I was running quite low on supplies before Thanksgiving break. Luckily I did my monthly trip to Whole Foods yesterday to stock up! But more on that later...

Dinner picked up from Belvedere Market and shared with Joey--sautéd veggies, baked sweet potato, and spelt bread with fresh goat cheese spread on top. Joey also had honey barbecue wings, but I did not partake in those.

Belvedere Market was just introduced to me recently and after one trip I was in love. They have sooo much delicious and fresh food there; it's heaven for a foodie. If you live in the Baltimore area and haven't been there, make it a priority to go! You will NOT regret it!!

The oatmeal just keeps coming....

aaaand another strangle lunch plate...

Sisterhood Thanksgiving with the sorority sistas! Everyone brought something and we have some seriously amazing chefs and bakers in our chapter so needless to say, we had a pretty impressive spread. 7 long rectangular tables were full of everything from 2 whole roasted turkeys, to stuffins (stuffing made in muffin tins), to vegan sweet potatoes, to green beans, to roasted squash, 5 different kinds of salad, pumpkin scones with honey butter, pumpkin pie, cranberry apple ginger pie, pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing, and the list goes on and on and on.

Food coma doesn't even begin to describe the aftermath of this dinner...

But we still were able to pose for a christmas card <3

Yes the flannel was planned....

Then after two days of school that seemed to drag on ever so slowly, it was time to go home to the Queen City for break!!

Breakfast was not oatmeal for once! --> Siggi's blueberry yogurt with berries and my mom's homemade granola

Mama Shelley's Pinterest inspired cocktail: champagne + apple cider with apple slices and pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. My taste buds were very happy with this drink.

Dinner out with friends who came over before for appetizers. Mama put out a spread of veggies with hummus, crab dip, and a cheese plate that the cheese expert (that's me) approved of :)

Dinner at Aria Tuscan Grill! It's a favorite place of ours so I was happy I got to go while home. I had the "Scottish Salmon alla Plancha- with Brown Butter Potatoes, Warm Butternut Squash & Haricot Vert Salad, Pomegranate Vinaigrette" ...yeah...it was as amazing as it sounds

Thanksgiving meal! My aunt made me a few dishes that didn't have any meat in them so I had no trouble filling my plate despite avoiding the turkey. Quinoa with veggies and a honey dressing, salad with squash, goat cheese and balsamic dressing, little sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin soup! Obviously I went back for seconds...and also shared a plate of one of each of the desserts with my Dad.

More oatmeal....

I'm sorry.

After a really nice and relaxing few days at home, it was time to come back to Baltimore and get ready for the next few weeks of craziness. Sirens concert, 2 year anniversary, winter formal, Christmas party, papers, finals, prep for an intersession class I'm TA-ing....should be a bit hectic, but you'll get plenty of updates along the way!

Considering so much will be going on, I wanted to get to the store yesterday so my pantry and fridge be fully stocked for the next 2 weeks.

Some notable items that I left Whole Foods with:

Siggi's Yogurt

Light Havarti and Jarlesburg Cheese
Goat Gouda cheese
MaraNatha No Stir Almond Butter
Real Food Corn Thins

Ezekial Sprouted 7 Grain bread (gf)

Nature's Path Buckwheat waffles (gf)
Quia- Chia, Buckwheat & Hemp cereal (I like to mix this in with my oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast)
Apple, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
Carrots and celery
Whole Foods brand Original Hummus

Frozen shelled edamame

Frozen chopped spinach

Light Agave Nectar

Two cans of low sodium black beans
1 can of low sodium garbanzo beans
Natura Foods Apple Delight Jam

That's all I can recall for now but you get the idea!

Onto the workout part of the last couple of weeks!

It seems like right after I hit publish on my last post about the great running weather we had been experiencing in Baltimore, the weather gods got confused and thought Baltimore was the arctic. It got so cold here so fast. I'm a baby when it comes to cold weather so I wasn't pleased. Most of my runs have migrated to the treadmill as a result...

A longer run

But then I got to go home to Charlotte and the weather was a bit more bearable so I decided to brave the outdoors for a run with the pup..

She was pretty tired after our little jog

I hit the gym earlier on Thanksgiving day so I could get in a quick workout before the day's festivities.

No one was at the gym and it was a little odd to have the whole place to myself. At least I didn't have to worry about looking creepy when taking this picture.

Believe it or not, people usually do NOT like to be photographed by a strange girl while they're busy breaking a sweat.

Here's another workout to try this week!