We Should All Put Chili Over Noodles.

This morning I mentioned that my roasted vegetable chili from last night was a bit too spicy...problem solved. We'll get to that. First a tale of breakfast trial and error.

It's Wednesday already and it feels like this week is going by really fast.

This morning I started my day off with 75 minutes of yoga and I could not even believe how hungry I was by my normal breakfast time. When I run I never feel particularly starving, but my stomach was rumbly today. 


I realized I had an empty jar of peanut butter. Before I started reading food blogs, an empty jar of peanut butter would have meant, "Well, too bad. Good thing there's another jar in the pantry." However, the vast world of wise people who write about their food has opened my eyes to the treasure that is a mostly-empty jar of nut butter, because it means Oats in a Jar (OIAJ) - I have mentioned this before.

However, there are multiple camps in regards to Oats In a Jar. Some only like overnight oats (read: cold) in their jars, some feel that the oats do not adequately clean the jar out unless they are hot. However you make them, let me tell you something I learned from experience: that plastic nut butter jar does not magically become microwave safe just because it's mostly empty and you want to cook oats in it. (Glass ones are kind of a different story, but that's not what we had here.) 


Experience. Yes. Even if you get all the aluminum foil off the top, the jar will begin to melt in the time it takes to cook the oats, and nobody want melty plastic in their breakfast.

This was actually a mistake I made a little while back, so this morning to make my oats in a jar, I cooked them first in a (microwave-safe!) bowl, THEN poured them into my jar. This was actually a bit messy, I think perhaps I need to cook them in something with a spout next time. Anyway, I added toppings - chocolate maple again - stir stir stir and a delectable breakfast it was.

Post-breakfast my morning brought me back to Stell. I remembered my beverage warmer this time - a gift from Mom during college - so I could take hours to drink my coffee and not worry about it getting cold. I got in about 4 hours of studying today; slowly and steadily I think I'm learning things. 

During one of my gazing-around breaks I noted a tiny girl, about 3 maybe, getting pulled around on a leash by her older brother, who couldn't have been more than 5. It was great. 

And finally, lunch: Chili with noodles. I combined about 3/4 cup spicy chili with a cup of whole wheat rotini, and topped with a few shakes of nutritional yeast. This was totally perfect. It still had a good spice to it but my stomach didn't hurt. 

I have no idea if this is really how some people regularly eat chili, but I will be doing this again in the future. For now though, I put it in the freezer because tomorrow I'm off to Santa Barbara for the rest of break. 

I'm still hoping to get some studying done there, but I'll also be visiting friends and boyfriend and I'm excited to have something besides studying to be excited about. There's only so much passion I can muster for celebrating time to study, it starts to get sort of sad. 

Dinner tonight, since I'm leaving tomorrow and don't want to cook, looks like it's going to be a slightly imbalanced and likely overindulgent blend of baked goods and cereal. Sometimes you need one of those. 

And coming up next week, certain people will have received their birthday presents and I can share in more detail about these mysterious baked goods. 

This Week I Don't Despise Tuesday.

I started this post yesterday, then my computer started spontaneously hibernating. After taking out the battery,  it's tenuously functioning...so pretend you're reading this on Tuesday. 

Yesterday was a bad day, and in the past I've really hated Tuesdays, so the odds were stacked against this being the kind of day that shines. However, when my alarm went off at 5 this morning, I was awake and I just felt like maybe it was going to be a little better. It felt less bad than yesterday anyway.

Today someone reminded me that one of the times Tuesday is a good day, is when it's still towards the beginning of a vacation. He's right.

I started my day with a 6 mile run, followed by chocolate peanut butter maple oats. I love this combination.

1/2 cup oats cooked with 1/4 cup milk and 5 oz. water 

Added: 3 g flax meal, 1/2 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp maple syrup, 5 g chocolate mocha powder.

Like dessert in a bowl - but so nutritious too.

We have a lovely new roommate who doesn't have a car quite yet, so I drove her to work, then went and studied at Stell. It has a nice atmosphere for getting things done: lots of tables, a good buzz, but not too loud, and quirky mellow music. I put in about 4 hours and it made me feel better in general, though I'm not certain I could tell you anything I specifically learned.

Lunch was the final piece of Tempeh Shepherdess Pie (Veganomicon) with an enormous craisin-topped salad.

It's hard to account for my afternoon whereabouts, I did a smidge more studying, caught up on America's Next Top Model etc. 

Dinner was a new recipe - Roasted Root Vegetable Chili from Vegan Planet. I really like the texture from the crunchy outside/tender inside on the roasted veggies, but unfortunately I made it a little too spicy and my stomach acid levels were rather upset with me. I read (in Vegan Planet I think) that sometimes in the eastern U.S. they serve chili over noodles? I don't know if this is true, but it sounds like a good way to cut the spicy, so I think I have some rotini chili in my future. 

How do you eat chili? Spicy or mild?

March Goals: Week 2

Well friends, we're two weeks into March.

Winter finals start tomorrow, but I needed a little study break (as my previous post indicates, studying really wears my nerves down), so I thought I'd do a little check-in. I'm getting really frustrated with GI drugs - and all the other drugs, and the pathophys, and the pathology and jiminy Christmas is it Friday yet?

(Want to test yourself? Here's my online flashcards: GI Drugs via Quizlet.)

As you may or may not recall, I have some goals I'm working on this month: Original goals. and Week 1 Update.

1. Family: Talking to them every week.
    I talked to everyone!! yay! Even Shannon (the next sister after me). She's at the Air Force Academy and almost impossible to get a hold of. We played phone tag for like 3 days. Cheers for persistence.

2. Fitness:
   a. Keeping up with runs: I had to give my twisted foot a little break this past week, so I skipped my Wednesday 3-miler and my Friday 4-miler. But this week I'm 2/2 (11 on Saturday and 7 this morning).
   b. Trim up a bit: I'm happy to say I'm feeling really well and I've lost a couple pounds in the past 2 weeks.

3. School: pass midterms (actually winter finals)
  Ha. We'll know Friday or possibly Monday, depending on when they get scores up. Not to worry, there will be plenty of angsting about it in the next few days while I take the tests.
   
4. Boards:
   a. Practice questions: 
       I have 500 questions (down from 700 last week) left in the Qbank. It's depressing though; I score really poorly on these.
   b. Doctors in Training: Stay caught up
       Well, I was caught up as of Sunday. I'm actually planning to do the Mon-Tues-Wed set all tomorrow after tests. I don't consider myself behind until I have more than one set in my inbox, so I'm going to count this as successful. 




And now a little lunch highlight, because the most exciting thing that happened to me today was getting kicked out of the lab where I study (freshmen had tests starting this afternoon). I had to find a new spot, so I headed to Stell, a local coffee shop, and I've been here approximately 6 hours. I'm about to head back to school, now that it's afternoon and they're done testing, but while here I had a lovely lunch:

Hummus Sandwich with Avocado on Wheat and Spring Mix Salad

And now back to work. Pharmacology I WILL figure you out.