Some we love... Image Heavy!

I have been incredibly busy living life! Lots of pictures of things to fit into this post. Mostly food, since now I actually have more time to eat some of it. Warning: with the arrival of the summer months this blog will become MUCH more image heavy. And craftsy. And beach-y. Beware.

In typical list-obsessed fashion, I made a list of things I want to accomplish this summer (not including the adult things like pay my rent, pass summer classes, and get a job). I thought I would share some of the things on my list with you. Just so y'all know, they aren't in any particular order.

1. Get to the library more... (already been preforming this quite well. I have been at least 8 times since school got out)
2. Eat even MORE dark greens
3. Make my own sourdough bread
4. Organize my iTunes (a daunting task with 76 GB of music...)
5. Sew a dress
6. Fold my shirts
7. Brush my hair at least once a day (I am bad at this)
8. Go to the beach with Boyfriend. A LOT.
9. Visit with my friends. Yeah, Nick, that means you too.
10. Find every fun thing to do in Portland with my family and DO IT.

Those are just a few of them. Trust me, there is an endless list made of post-its on my wall that keeps being added to. Even on vacation, I still manage to drown myself in lists.

Time for pictures! I haven't been big on drinking soda lately. I was never a serious soda drinker to begin with, but lately I kind of feel like I've been a little bit sensitive to the chemical taste in my diet drinks. This led to my tasting this weird 'hi-ball' natural drink that is in the natural section of the supermarket. It came in a cool bottle, and I am a sucker for marketing.

Tasted nice, only I realized once I tasted it that I could replicate this flavor with seltzer and raspberry green tea. 

 Like....THIS:

Reading snack... To Kill a Mockingbird has always been my favorite book. Sometimes when I can't sleep I pick it up and head to the kitchen for some applesauce.

 
Now that I have found the perfect fizzy drink to satisfy my carbonation cravings, I was able to cross that off my earlier summer-list post it. Only thing is, I tried putting this concoction into my snapple bottle but I lost a good amount of the carbonation by the time I was settled in the library. Guess it doesn't travel too well; that's why we have water.

The other night I got so carried away at the library I came home with 4 new movies (including Charlie Wilson's War, which I shall be holding out to watch with my dad when I go home to visit), the first volume of The Walking Dead (graphic novel), a beading book, the Planet Earth soundtrack, and this awesome book about anthrozoology (the relationship between humans and animals). It's called Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat. It is very interesting and funny at the same time, especially when reading about specific case studies of people like Nicole Richie giving her dog hair extensions made from her own hair (weird much?) and the author's snake trying to ingest his son's hand. What a life, huh?

Anyways, the library closed at nine, so I got home around nine forty five. I hadn't eaten dinner and it was very hot. This led to one of those lazy dinners. You know, the ones where you don't want to be standing over a hot stove (Read: eating ANYTHING hot).

I grabbed a bag of frozen edamame and one of frozen strawberries out of the freezer and threw the strawberries in a blender with some water to make a strawberry slushy-thing while I ran the edamame under some water to thaw them. Tossed them with some dressing and voila! Paired with a refrigerated sweet potato it was perfection: cooling AND tasty.

 
I have much more to say. I didn't realize how much I run off at the mouth until I saw how long this post was. Crazy! Anyhow, This is going to be a two-part post. The second portion shall come tomorrow when I get back from Cape Cod (helping Boyfriend move more things back to his home). Look forward to some crazy Cape adventures! For now I shall leave you with a picture of this berry flavored Oreo the two of us (Boyfriend and I) found in his rather unassuming package of Oreos.

It was INSIDE out! Hah! Look at it! The surprisingly dairy-free filling has been branded by its own cookie!

Friends don't let friends attempt higher education.

Dear College,

BBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Finals Week!

Okay, folks. We are one final down, three to go. By six o'clock tomorrow evening I should be feeling like a whole new person...or maybe Wednesday morning after I have gotten some sleep. I needed a break from studying, so I thought I would share some recent photos and a brief update of this weekend.

Would like to begin this post by making sure you all know that vegans can eat "normal" food...or whatever that means. This includes plain potato chips. Do you know why? Because they are made of potatoes, salt, and oil. Not particularly healthy, but that's really the gist of it. I attended a family reunion of sorts (my cousin got married) in Gloucester on Saturday. This was very exciting for me, as it gave me a break from cramming my brain full of archaeological terms and also gave me an opportunity to see my family!

Look at the pretty puppy my sister and I played with at the wedding reception! It was the cutest, though it was named after 'Twilight'...so....yeah. *cough*

My sister, Shannon, is the pretty blonde.  

I am the brunette being swallowed by my grandmother's parka.

I miss them always.

Anyway, I have a thirty nine year old cousin who was quite insistent that potato chips cannot be vegan. To that, good sir, I say 'shaddup'. No, vegans don't only consume kale chips, though they are delicious.

My daddy took me to Whole Foods after the wedding reception, and there I got many delicious things. One of the exciting purchases was a block of vegan mozzarella by Follow Your Heart. I proceeded to make a pizza with this for dinner, lunch the next day, and there will still be some for dinner tonight. It was large. I topped it with some mushrooms and crushed red pepper!

If you are thinking it looks 'fuckawesome', that's because it was.

I was and still am very happy with the result. Aside from testing the frozen Tofurky pizzas (which were luscious), I haven't really had any in months. I'm also a product of my mother's cooking, and we had FRESH pizza every Friday night. Not to brag, but it was pretty sweet. Nobody beats Momster's pizza, but this definitely hit the spot. It also helped to have a comfort food around after having to say goodbye to my family. My favorite parts of the whole day were the car rides to and from Gloucester with my parents, sister, and brother. Too fun.

It was a good thing my dad was amenable to some grocery shopping after the day's events, because I was definitely out of food. As you can see from my breakfast picture way back from Wednesday, I was at the very end pieces of my wheat sourdough loaf and scraping the bottom of my raspberry jam. Will take a picture of the new goodies once finals are over, though some of them have already been enthusiastically consumed.

Welp, that has to be it for now, folks. Time to get back to studying for the next onslaught of finals. Hope I don't get crushed under my huge pile of books!

The LONG Delayed Post!

I know. Awful...SHAMEFUL, even. There is really no excuse for my not updating in over two weeks except for me to say that I have been incredibly busy. It has been absolute craziness with school and I couldn't be happier that there is an end in sight.

There is also quite a lot that has gone on in the last two weeks. For one, I have a new phone. My old phone was stolen straight out of my pocket on the subway, and while that was sad it has also paved the way for a newer and far more fuckawesome phone (excuse the language, but if you have even touched a motorola droid you will completely understand). It blows my mind how far technology has come. I still have memories of my first cell phone when I was in eighth grade. My brother and I had twin phones; they were these chunky Nextel phones and I remember thinking it was so cool that I had a phone I didn't even care what it looked like. I have since become more picky (read: spoiled).

Now I am having a relationship with my droid. It comes everywhere with me and I make sure I take it out to play a few times a day. The last few days it has made me realize that one of my favorite parts about having a smart phone is that I can take pictures with astoundingly good quality without having to carry around my huge camera. Perhaps now there will be more photos of Boston and other adventures on this blog now...

In the last two weeks I have finally begun to see the signs that spring is back. This is thrilling, because I have really had quite enough of winter for the next few months. This has led to the return of jean shorts and cowboy boots, sandals, bare feet, and short sleeved shirts. I am in heaven. The leaves are coming back on the trees (my favorite part) and I get to sleep with my window open!

The blossoms are in full swing! This is right outside my apartment...

This is the fountain next to the Prudential center in Boston. Over the winter it is depressingly empty, but they filled it back up this weekend! Doesn't it look beautiful with the trees?

Food has still been delicious, but definitely more haphazardly thrown together with my lack of time. I've found myself eating spring mix out of the bag and more canned beans than dried lately. It has been a little bit odd, but I was super proud of myself last night for managing to sautee some vegetables with some buckwheat soba noodles. 

In case you had any doubts, it was delicious.

I am a little sad to admit my posts will still be a bit sporadic until May 18th. By then I will have finished the last leg of this semester and will have a nice break until my summer classes start. Be excited, because I definitely am.

As a parting gift, I shall leave you all with a photo of the smoothie I had for dinner the other night. I was feeling a bit ill, definitely wasn't up to cooking, and was craving something sweet. It has frozen peaches, mixed berries, strawberries, almond milk, vanilla, spinach, and some cinnamon. Rocked my world, I'm telling you.

Until next time!