Eat Your Eggs

Hey ya’ll! Hope everyone had a good Friday night. I tried to go to bed early, but no someone wanted to ruin my good night of sleep by throwing a loud party next door, screaming bloody murder about things I could not even understand, and talking loud on the phone or computer (not really sure which one). Enough with complaining because that won’t do anything for the situation. It has been a productive morning though. I have gotten through most of my ten page anatomy and physiology review, so I’m in a good mood again. Plus UT women’s volleyball won last night in an extremely close match against Kentucky in their home stadium. Oh yeaaah. Tonight we play UCLA and I’m super nervous already because they sweeped Penn State (an enemy of UT).

Today I’m bring something new to my blog. I’m going to start focusing on more food, health, and nutrition related stuff because when I started this blog that was pretty much the purpose, but my funniness and goofiness sort of took over. Each week, usually on Fridays, but because I got that award I’m doing it on Saturday this week, I will do a post totally focused on some important nutrition fact. Today I’m focusing on breakfast. My favorite time of the day. Ya’ll know why. OATMEAL, but there is more to breakfast than just oats.

In my mind, breakfast is probably the most important meal of the day. Due to the gap between our last meal from the night before and the next morning, our brain and muscles need a source of energy to function. Without a real meal, you will still be able to get through the day, but having a hearty meal allows you to concentrate better, be more productive, and feel less lethargic. Besides providing general body function, eating breakfast has shown to actually help you lose weight instead of gain. Most people assume the opposite, but by not eating breakfast people tend to eat more later on in the day not realizing that calories add up quickly. Metabolism is key in this because by eating breakfast it allows your body to keep your metabolism running instead of slowing it down, which is key in weight loss.

“I don’t like breakfast foods”, “I don’t have time to eat breakfast”, or “I don’t get full from breakfast” are some of the common things we hear when it comes to morning meal discussion, but don’t worry I have some healthy choices for you to eat.

Blackberry Cheesecake Oats (Gluten Free)
1/3 c. Gluten Free Oats
1 1/3 c. water
1/2 c. low fat cottage cheese
3/4 c. blackberries
1 packet of truvia
1 tsp of vanilla extract
2 tbsp of PB2

1. Make the oats either the day of or the night before by microwaving oats and water for 2:55, letting sit in microwave for 5 minutes, then placing in the fridge.
2. Place cottage cheese, truvia, and vanilla extract in oats and mix well.
3. Microwave half of the blackberries for about one minute or until warm and there is blackberry juice present.
4. Pour microwaved blackberries in oatmeal and mix well.
5. Top with remaining blackberries and 2 tbsp of PB2

Of course I’m going to say oatmeal is a good option for breakfast, but it is not just because I love it. Oatmeal is a good source of fiber, protein, and it is low fat. Due to its fiber and protein content, it allows you to stay full longer than a sugary cereal or granola bar would. Besides having just a good nutrient composition, oatmeal can also be considered a functional food because oats have shown to lower cholesterol, blood pressure, blood triglycerides, increases insulin sensitivity, and lowers the risk of coronary heart disease. Sign me up please. Besides the oats, adding fruit increases the fiber content even more and blackberries are also a functional food. The cottage cheese is a source of dairy, and the peanut butter is a healthy fat. Now that is a meal that packs a healthy punch, will keep you full for hours, is easy to make if you are in a hurry, and you can create a bowl of oatmeal to your liking.

Finally I make a perfect omelet and the picture comes out blurry. Just my luck. Anyways, eggs are always a good option for breakfast. Personally I use egg whites instead of whole eggs because the yolk in eggs contains high cholesterol and fat, and when you switch to egg whites you are still getting a ton of nutritional benefits. Most of an egg’s protein is actually from the egg white or albumin, so by consuming egg whites only you are not missing out on benefits. The protein will help keep you full until your mid day snack or next meal. Egg whites are low in calories, so you can increase your nutrient intake and add more food items to bulk it up with flavor and calories. I usually fill my omelet with a minimum of two vegetables (but usually more) and another source of protein. In this omelet, I have mushrooms, onions, green peppers, slices of ham, and low fat shredded cheese. The vegetables provide fiber, the ham increases the protein amount, and the cheese is a good source of healthy dairy. This is pretty easy to cook, the eggs coagulate pretty quickly, and yet again you can customize an omelet to your liking. I choose to make this breakfast before I go to the gym and head to class after I work out, and it tends to keep me full until after my class. Pretty successful, don’t you think?

While I’m not an advocate of quick breakfasts, sometimes you are in a real rush and you don’t have time to whip up an omelet or a bowl of oats, so frozen products can be a healthy alternative depending on what you are choosing. Obviously you shouldn’t be eating toaster pastries, but by choosing products that have flaxseed and more nutritional ingredients you are saving yourself from the harms of high fat foods. These are Vans Gluten Free Blueberry Waffles with sliced strawberries and sugar free syrup on top of them. In order to make a quick product more filling, add things such as fruit to increase the amount of filling fiber in a meal. Another alternative you can do with waffles is make a sandwich with an egg, a couple slices of meat, veggies, and cheese. This way you are eating a more filling meal that will help you get through the long hours in a day.

Some of my random breakfast advice:
1. Drink a glass of water while preparing your breakfast, and then another while you eat. This will help you make sure you get all of your daily water intake.
2. Do not eat bars for a meal. They will not fill you up, they do not provide an adequate amount of nutrients, and you will end up consuming more. If you do this at least make sure you pair it with some fruit and other small items like a greek yogurt.
3. Just don’t skip breakfast!

Hope everyone has a lovely Saturday! I will hopefully be attending the UT mens basketball game, but if not I’m going home to my mom’s for a couple of days to do some last minute things before Israel and to get some peaceful sleep before my two biggest finals.

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
What is your best advice to others in regards to breakfast?

Top Ten Tuesday

Hey ya’ll! Hope everyone is having an amazing Tuesday because I sure know that I am. I haven’t done a top ten list in FOREVER. What is wrong with me? Usually I black out. Probably hitting the booze too hard. Just kidding. I usually fall asleep early then forget about doing a post on tuesday night. However, this tuesday I’m going to rock your world. Yes, rock. I’m in a super hyper mode because the men’s basketball team just won in a super close and important game, and I won a prize! I seriously never win anything, so I’m super happy. What will today’s topic be? Hmmm. After thinking long and hard. Haha. For ten seconds. I’m going to write about the top then things that I’m excited for. Hopefully this will bring a sunshine to everyone’s rainy cloud of finals over his or her head (yeah mostly hers because I know chicks dig my blog). Lets do this thing.

Top Ten Things That I’m Super Excited For (in no particular order because seriously that would be unfair to judge):

10. I’m going to start a food organization on campus with one of my super good friends. It’s gonna be so legit. The focus will be on special diets/healthy eating since I eat Gluten Free and she is a Vegan. With our combined power of awesomeness, we will take over campus and be THE group to join. I have a lot of creative ideas brewing in my head that involve delicious dinners, trips to the farmers market, and volunteering at a local produce or organic farm. Who wouldn’t want to join a group like that? Talking about food and eating are pretty much my life hobbies.

9. SEWING. I’m not sure if I told you or not, but I took a three week sewing class for beginners. We learned how to make a pillow, a bag, and a skirt. It was epic. Now I’m going to be on Project Runway and win. Lets not get ahead of ourselves because I still need to do some more practice on garment sewing, but that is what I plan to do over break once I get back from my super sweet trip. I also plan on buying fabulous fabric while in NYC because I want only the best for the best (me…duh).
Yes, my pillow is super cute. Plus it is food related. It seems that I can’t get away from food in my life. I guess that is a good thing since I’m a nutrition major. Also cherries are one of my favorite fruits. Especially because studies have shown that they help reduce inflammation and aid with arthritis. That is an awesome side effect of eating a delicious fruit if I do say so myself!

8. Hannukah. I’m celebrating the beloved holiday in the Holy Land, Israel. I hope people go nuts because I will. I’ll wear a tacky Hannukah sweater…I don’t think they make those, so I’ll have to make my own. Then I’ll go to all the bars in Jerusalem or wherever we are at the time, bust a move, and convince all the sexy Israeli men that I am the one for them. Hopefully there won’t be too many fights over me. A couple are okay, but damn boys you need to slow your roll.

7. New Pans! My mom got my an early present by buying me some much needed pans. My old ones were apparently super cheap and were turning black. They also burned everything, and when I cooked anything, even on low temp, I would hit the smoke point and in 5 seconds my apartment would be entirely filled with a smokey haze. It was disgusting. Now I have these nice kitchenaid pans. Great for anything. Love sauteing veggies in them.

6. Money, money, money. MONEY. Really? Are ya’ll even surprised? The Jew in me. Happens everytime. First off, my friend that I helped out with a paper or two decided to repay me through the lovely surprise of giftcards and wine. Heck I’ll just take the wine, I need it, but if you want to give me money too I’m not going to complain. One giftcard was to bath and bodyworks. THANK YOU. The other was to Specs, which is an alcoholics heaven. A warehouse of alcohol. Not that I drink or anything. They also have a deli and food products too. I haven’t used that one, but bath and body works. Oh yes. I bought me some wall plugs, so now while I’m writing this post in my room I’m surrounded by the sweet smell of oatmeal raisin cookies. I love life. Oh and I won a $25 giftcard to HEB. I’m seriously winning in life right now. Too bad I literally just got groceries.

5. My future roomie. She is probably one of the best people I have met since moving back to Texas. I would not survive without her. We are actually pretty much the same person, I’m just ridiciously vulgar and inappropriate and she puts up with it. She is the one I’m doing the food group with. Just so you know how awesome we are, our theme song is All I do is Win by DJ Khaled. Anyways, she is so amazing that I don’t even live with her yet and she already cooks for me. Hello and welcome to Top Chef apartment, the healthy version.
It is a wee bit blurry. Blame it on the Iphone. I didn’t have my camera on me, but she made me tofu in this peanut sauce mixed with broccoli and rice. It was seriously bangin. Spicy and sweet. My favorite combination. She even loves me so much that when I busted out my phone to take a picture she didn’t say a word. Yes for roomie understanding. I seriously can’t wait for next year. It is going to be epic.

4. Texas fight! One of my true loves in life is Texas Volleyball and right now we are ranked number 1 in the NCAA Volleyball Championship tournament. I got to go to the first two games, and we owned. I’m so excited, yet nervous, for this weekend because I want them to win, win, win. Sometimes they have rough days, plus one of their best players is out, so each game is like a new day, but I have faith in them. Just worried about the Penn state game because we have history.

3. Winter. Finally cold weather has hit Texas. Seriously, where have you been for the past month while I’ve been sweating to death? Most people think I’m crazy. Mainly because people in Texas can’t handle the cold since they didn’t live in crazy blizzard land Boston. I would much rather be cold than hot for many reasons. Sweating is just not sexy. Seriously. Plus it makes you smell bad, especially for those that aren’t wearing deodorant (you would be surprised, I know). In the cold, you can have a snuggle buddy and not want to push them off the bed for making too much body heat. Yummy beverages. Really we can stop there because those two reasons are good enough.

2. New York. I am jumping for joy. I can’t wait to explore the gluten free bakeries like babycakes, and even enjoy some non-gluten foods like dim sum (even if I will have nasty side effects – I’m in New York, so who really cares). Shopping. I have been saving up all my money to hit up the wonderful stores there. Forever21 in Times Square. Yes, I am talking to you. I will destroy you, I’m just hoping other people haven’t destroyed it because that is my one complaint about Forever21′s they are so gross. Plus I will be wearing this amazing coat while there, so nothing can ruin my trip.
It is sort of hard to see since I just realized two of my lightbulbs have burned out, but it is a BCBG grey peacoat with black accents and black bows. Super cute.

And the number 1 thing that I’m excited about is….

1. My trip to Israel. Um duh. Like you didn’t see that one coming. We just got the itenrary like a day ago, and it made me pee my pants with excitement (okay not really, but you get the picture). We are going camel riding, floating in the Dead Sea, hiking up Masada, exploring the largest open air food market in Israel, visit a winery, and umm going out at night. Let me be honest with you. I’m mainly excited to search for my Jewish husband. Maybe I’ll find one, but if not I always have my eyes open. The most interesting part of the trip will probably be sleeping in a tent in the desert. Yes, desert. Where will we go pee? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to those adventures.

Hope everyone is having a great week (hard for most people since everyone is probably studying for finals and what not), but heck join the happy party and celebrate something.

What are you excited for?
Are you going on any fun trips for winterbreak?

A Little Too Late (WIAW#2)

Hey Ya’ll. I’M ALIVE. I feel so bad that I have neglected my audience and my blog, but I have been crazy busy. I survived my green tea research paper. Really I told it who was boss. Okay, I should stop lying to myself to make me feel better, but I think I did better than most people in my class, so it’s all good in the hood. I don’t have a lot of school work for the next few weeks, so ya’ll are stuck with me. I know, exciting right? I’m coming a little too late, as JoJo would say, to the What I ate Wednesday Party hosted by the lovely Jenn, but hell its WIAW I start the party when I want to. So here were my eats and what my day was like today:

Why are you eating oats out of tupperware? Umm I'm a cheap Jew remember...

6:20: Wake up call. Every morning I wake up to Jay-Z. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world until I realize that I’m not Beyonce and I’m actually white. Story of my life.

6:25-40: Hope in the shower. Have a small American Idol sesh. Obviously I am the winner. I am the best diva out there. Rachel Berry can eat her heart out because I’d kick her butt in a diva off. I think I may still be in the dream state at this time…

6:50: Make interesting food in Tupperware. What is that? It was the most amazing creation EVER inspired by Angela. Now she is amazing. If I didn’t have to go to school and actually live a life, I would seriously just live in the kitchen making all of her recipes.

It's a bird, it's a plane....it's chocolate covered cherry oats.

 1. Cook oats the normal method I have always been using
2. Add into the oats fat free cocoa, GF chocolate chips, and frozen cherries (dethawed/microwaved in oats)
3. Mix a 1/2 cup or more of frozen cherries and a frozen banana in the blender.
4. Pour half of oats in a bowl, then layer soft serve, then more oats and more chocolate chips.

7:30: Trudge to class. Oh god I should be honest, I’m so lazy that I walk to class. I have Food Science on MW from 8-920 am. I do trudge, but just from my car to the classroom. I’m a morning person, but I really just don’t like going to class.

8-920: Oh Food Science. What would I do without you? Hmmm probably sleep late. We have quizzes every day, but they are pretty easy. I mean it is NBD when you are as intelligent as I am. There she goes again being her conceited self…HEY! I do have the right to brag every once and a while, esp since I’ve gotten above 95s on all my exams. Anyways, Food Science is the best class ever. I really get to think about things…like when the boy I like will finally realize that I’m the one for him or what craft project I’m going to do next. It’s some real prime A thinking time.

925: Today was special. I got to go home. I know exciting right? Oh, but not really. I had an emergency appointment with my rheumatologist because my arthritis had a really bad flare up over the weekend. I hopped in my car after class, turned on the radio, Super Bass came on, and I busted out a celebratory dance move.

950: My mom plays on a team at a bowling alley, so I went over to meet with her. I chatted up a storm. People are probably like why doesn’t this girl ever shut up, we come here to bowl, not to listen to some dramatic white girl go on about how tough life is. My mom even bought me a glass of iced tea, so I would have something to occupy my mouth with and be quiet.

1140: We needed a quick lunch before my doctors appointment, so I went to pick up Vietnamese from our favorite place in the world: TAM’S DELI! Yeah I really do go there like once a week. It is gluten free friendly and the food is so legit, plus the owner loves us. I had shrimp spring rolls and a vermicelli bowl. So good. I’m re-using a picture from last week:

Sorry I'm lazy and didn't take a photo, but the owner is so perfect that everytime it looks the exact same.

1230: Catch up on Glee. OMG. WTF. I love this show. The third season is turning out to be amazing, at least in my opinion. Britney S. Pearce. I mean come on, how can you go wrong with having a unicorn for class president. Plus Santana, DAMN I love her. This season is filled with so many twists, it is mind blowing. Obsessed.

1:30: The dreaded doctors appointment. This weekend I woke up and could not move my wrists at all. Seriously, I was in so much pain that it took me 10 minutes to put my clothes on. I was an 85 year old in a 21 yr olds body. Is this real life? Oh yeah, the joys of being me. My doctor took one look at my wrists and saddle joint in my thumb, and just was like yeah it is bad. Like I couldn’t tell? Anyways, she has increased my medicine (I’ll go into detail about my arthritis in tomorrows post).

5:00: FINALLY. That was the longest appointment of my life. Did they not get the notice that I wanted to go to DSW? Girl over here need her some shoes like now. What did the world do before DSW? I seriously have no idea because it is heaven to the shoe addicted girl. I’m like a fat kid going into a candy store, I have an explosion inside from the excitement and then I run around like a chicken with my head cut off. It is a great site to see. Usually the workers just let me be because I’m insane. It wouldn’t let me upload a photo, but I want these in PINK.

6:00: Eat some din din with mi madre. Salmon with raspberry glaze. Can it get any better? Yes, we could have actually gone to a seafood place, but that would have meant that we would need to spend money. Def pulled the Jew card out on that one.

6:30: BTW Did I mention that because I’m crippled and had to go to an emergency infusion treatment that I got to skip my other two classes of the day? Oh yeah, I did. It was awesome. I love nutrition, but I hate sitting around stupid people. Anyways, I went to the UT volleyball game. I love volleyball. I love the Longhorns. I love Texas. End of story. The team is amazing. It was packed because it was a rivalry game against Texas A&M. Oh those aggies…(my older brother was one), but they think they can compete in sports. I think they live in their own candyland. Whatever floats their boat.

This is from my iPhone, so kind of crap quality.

After the game, I went back to my apartment and here I am. Writing this semi-lame post. I need my mojo back. Maybe they sell some special berries at HEB to help revive your soul after it was destroyed by writing and research. I should look into that or maybe I’ll just invent some type of food myself. I’m exhausted, so I’m out. Hope ya’ll had a fab WIAW and that I didn’t bore you to death because I think I just bored myself to sleep. Lies. I’m an old grandma and it is waaaaaay past my bedtime.

What were ya’lls day like?
Did you have any special event to go to today?

God I’m so exhausted that I forgot I was going to add a little fashion to the post to give it some pizzazz.

BCBG dress: 29, Tights: 4, Necklace: free at F21, Boots: 30 at DSW