Somebody’s Watching Me

Good morning!

Well, I slept in again. I was trying to get in the habit of waking up at 7 before school starts, but I woke up at 10 AM. I guess I should just enjoy sleeping in while I have the chance. Whatever, I’m just glad I’ve been sleeping period. You see, our house is on the “historic” side, which I equate with “haunted.” Maybe it was Paranormal Activity or the excessive X-Files watching in my youth, but my house scares me at night. I even had a dream that a ghost walked into my room. Further, I think they filmed Saw in our basement. I need to grow up.

The only thing that finally got me out of bed was the promise of coffee. I also helped myself to a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and pecans.

I have a busy day planned, because I’ve been so lazy lately. Whatever. Anyway, I am going to clean and finish the unpacking. Then, I’m heading to the local coffee shop to get some homework done before Monday. Ew, homework. Well, actually…I’m excited about homework. I don’t know what to do with myself when I don’t have reading to do. The day will be work, but tonight Lars and I have a date. We are checking out a new organic restaurant in town and going to see a movie.

Okay, my rambling is obviously a form of procrastination. I must work.

Do you like scary movies?

For the first time evvvvverrr

I have two woah-worthy things to point out: (1) it is Monday, and (2) it is the end of July. What the hell world? I woke up this morning upset about all the things I did not accomplish this summer. I start school in three weeks. With an alarm set at 7:15, I woke up at 6:30 and rolled around in distress. Then I had this ah-ha moment. Essentially, Oprah came to me (and Gale was there too) and said, “Girl! Stop being so emo!” And then Kathy Griffin came in and said, “For the first time evvvverrrr (in her best Oprah voice) this summer, Ashley will get off her emo ass.” So, I rode my bike and did some thinking. My bike-thinking led to this new concept “Yeah you wasted most of your summer, but you can stop this suck fest now.”

Hold the phone. Did anyone see Salt? It was surprisingly good. If you have a Angelina Jolie running-around-in-a-tight-outfit-and-kicking-ass fetish, like I do, go see it. If I were Brad Pitt, I would have her dress up in leather and run around the house kicking shit. I think I should be thanking her for my intense get-yo-shit-together attitude this morning.

Back to me. Right now I am sitting at Starbucks drinking an iced coffee and eating a Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal (with nuts and brown sugar) and an apple I brought from home. Okay, hold the phone again. I like the Perfect Oatmeal and I get it a lot, but they need to go easy on how much water they add. I always end up draining it into the trashcan. Don’t even get me started on their posters that promote colonialism and oppression. Focus Ashley!

This week is huge: Lars and I move into our new apartment. My week is stressful, but what is most stressful is that this week’s plan could totally change.

Monday-Tuesday: I have to pack my entire apartment. I haven’t even started. I am the best packer, though. You know hoarders? I’m like the anti-hoarder. I will not hesitate to throw things away before a move. I hate moving, so I try to make it the smallest amount possible. I also have to say good bye to everyone. It will be a bittersweet couple of days.

Wednesday: My parents come to Ohio to help me buy a a kitchen cart from IKEA and move out.

Thursday-Friday: A bunch of PhD/teaching/life planning.

Saturday: I help Lars move his apartment into a moving van.

Sunday: We move in.

We know we get to move in August 1st, but we may be able to move in earlier (which would make our lives easier). But, the guys who currently live there will not text the landlord back with their move out date. They don’t even live there, really. Further, one of them started changing his pants right in front of me when I was touring the house. Double further, the only food they had was 5 boxes of instant mashed potatoes and un-refrigerated, yet open jars of pickles and jam. Obviously, they are single.

Okay, I have to catch up on some blogs and give Duke Energy a call. I hate phone calls, don’t you?

What kind of random thoughts are you having this morning.

Eye of the Tiger

Check out my first blog post on frugal eating at thriftshoppin.com!

So, I’ve been putting off my thesis revisions. I wake up today ready to take it on.  I do the boxer’s dance and throw air punches. I am so ready! I eat a healthy and filling lunch. I poached two eggs and put them on buttered halves of whole wheat English muffins. I also have a side spinach salad mixed with sliced almonds and Annie’s Gingerly Vinaigrette.

I headed to the local coffee shop equipped with apples slices and two oatmeal cookies. I am expecting maybe 3 hours worth of work, if I am lucky. I order an iced green tea, set up shop, and open the document with my professor’s revisions. She basically says, “looks good.” Further, she deleted some things (I ramble), but she didn’t think I had to really do anything else. So, it took me 15 painless minutes. So I am sitting here at the coffee shop, done. I guess I will blog. I still have to do some formatting things with the Graduate School, but school is closed today. So, I blog. I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on! That is one task I love doing.

Not a great picture.

Cleaning-Inspired Cooking

I was so out of it today, again. Then I realized I have been out of it this entire summer, because I haven’t been drinking my morning coffee. Hm, good to know.

For lunch I kept it simple. I sautéed one sliced chicken sausage link in olive oil. It was a delicious Spinach, Fontina, and Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe’s. I ate it alongside the Mediterranean CousCous from the Schwann’s man. It was a light, yet filling lunch.

After being all emo for half the day, I finally had coffee. I made half a package of the Starbucks Via Iced. I got a new cup! Well, Carrie from TV and Dinners bought it first, but I loved it too much. I spotted it at Target! Carrie has great cup-taste!

I am moving in early August and I have the daunting task of using all the food in my fridge and cabinets before then. I have a lot of flour and oats, so I made some delicious oatmeal cookies!

I used a great recipe from Whole Grain Gourmet for Healthy Oatmeal Cookies. The recipe uses honey instead of sugar, and molasses. If you like molasses, you will love these. They are darker than the average oatmeal cookie because of the molasses. She also recommended (and I didn’t notice until later) adding more oats. It is your call. I added 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. They are not overpoweringly sweet. I like them!

Oh, and she had a great tip. Spray the measuring cup before you pour the honey, so that the honey pours out of it more easily.

For dinner, I climbed around the cupboards again.

I found a huge 28 oz can of whole tomatoes. Among the many things Andy Warhol and I have in common, the biggest thing is our love for tomato soup. I’ve always bought canned soup, but never again. After researching recipes online and seeing how easy it was, I decided to just make-up my own recipe. I was mostly inspired by Cooking Light. The soup was very good for the first time. I will play around with it more to perfect it.

Tomato and Basil Soup

• 1 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup of organic free range chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh copped basil
• a sprinkling of dry basil (I was worried I wouldn’t have enough basil)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp olive oil

I opened the can and stabbed the crap out of the tomatoes and put it aside. I sautéed the minced garlic in the olive oil for about 30 seconds on medium heat. I then added the tomatoes, broth, salt, pepper, and dried basil and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes. Then I mixed in the fresh basil. I put the mixture into the blinder and pureed it until smooth. Then it was ready.

I served it with an adaptation of my mother’s easy bread stick recipe.

Whole Wheat Breads Sticks

• 1/2 package of Trader Joe’s Refrigerated Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
• butter
• garlic powder or salt
• grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 425. I rolled out the dough into a circle (as if I was about to make pizza) after I let it do it’s rising/whatever thing (while I worked on the soup).  I baked it for 10 minutes. I immediately but the baked dough on a baking rack. I microwaved some butter for about 30 seconds, and then stirred in some garlic powder. I brushed it onto the dough (while it was still hot). I then immediately sprinkled the grated Parmesan on to the bread. After it cooled, I sliced it into strips.

Yum, yum. What a day of kitchen adventures. I’m actually having fun cleaning out my kitchen before the move. It is surprisingly inpsiring!

I have a date with the Lifetime movie My Stepson, My Lover starring Rachel Ward. You don’t know who Rachel Ward is? Um, The Thorn Birds: only the best mini-series ever!

Do you have any entertainment-related (music, movies, tv, etc.) guilty pleasures?

Has anyone been watching Top Chef?

1. I hate that one girl that tried to get school children drunk. She has a face I’d like to punch.

2. Stop complaining Top Chef contestants! My Top Chef would know how to make a damn pie! The punch-face girl (see #1) was like “I hope it is okay for not being a pastry chef” and the guest judge said “So what? My grandma isn’t a pastry chef and she knows how to make a pie.” Snap!

Bad Habits

Gooooood Morning! Last night things got crazy. Well, I drank 1 too many glasses of wine. It is always that one glass! I was still sober, because I am a classy lady, but I woke up with a slight headache (which is now gone). I did have fun though and did not go overboard with alcohol or food. I did, though, serenade Lars in the car with Real McCoy’s “Another Night,” Shakira’s “She Wolf,” and The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.”

Let’ travel back, shall we?

It is undergrad and I like to consume an alcoholic beverage 0nce in a good while. The alcohol was not the issue, though. The problem was the food I consumed after a night out at the bars with my friends. I’m talking cheesy bread, calzones, and Insomnia cookies (they deliver milk and cookies until 2 in the morning). That is why I gained so much weight in undergrad. Well, the pastry at each Strabucks visit didn’t help either.

Now, even after a glass of wine I get food cravings. So, I went out last night fearful of what food I would consume. This is also why I ate a salad for dinner; it was effort to save up for future, unwanted calories. But, I behaved. I had a sliver of the luscious lemon (store-bought, but delicious) cake, since it was an important celebration. I also, had a piece of toast when I got home to absorb any unwanted alcohol in the body. Then, I went to bed. This is a huge step for me, y’all. I didn’t have Lars drive me to Five Guys for a burger. I didn’t eat the entire lemon cake. I just danced, which is exercise and fun.

So, I woke up and made Lars and I oatmeal.

Oatmeal Cookie Oatmeal

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 of  a Kashi Dark Chocolate Oatmeal cookie (squeezed into crumbles)
• 2 spoonfuls of brown sugar (because I’m too cool for actual measurements)

Yum! the oatmeal was good for after a late night! The dark chocolate chips melted into awesomeness.

Thanks for sharing your reality show favorites last night. I thought I’d share my favorites. In no particular order:

1. Kathy Griffin: Life on the D-List
2. The Hills/Laguna Beach/The City (I mean is all the same show really)
3. Tori and Dean (I just want their son Liam)
4. Real Housewives of New York (but, I also love New Jersey)
5. A&E’s Intervention
6. The Bachelor/The Bachelorette
7. Top Chef (I hate Hosea so much, anyone feeling me?)
8. Flipping Out
9. MTV’s True Life
10. Millionaire Matchmaker

In closing, I wanted to share this interesting interview about The Salad Bar in Every School campaign in the Huffington Post.

I’m sure some of you watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC, so I’d thought I would pass this along. This all got me thinking about my poor eating habits in the school cafeteria. I remember eating chocolate muffins, dipping bagels in cups of cheddar cheese, and so much breadsticks! I was a soccer player and I had a decent metabolism, so I thought because I was skinny…I was healthy.

I’m glad I have grown up.

This post seems to be about bad habits, so I thought I would continue the discussion. What are some eating habits you are working on or that you are glad to have gotten rid of? (feel free to talk more generally if you want, not just about the cafeteria).

Soup and Sandwich Afternoon

I was feeling lightheaded and tired today, so I grabbed a chocolate delight to hold me over.

Lars and I took a trip to the grocery store for lunch/party food. I had to get a coffee before I toppled over in the produce aisle.

The best part of the grocery trip was when I found Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal! Did anyone have this as a kid? Basically, the oatmeal has these dinosaur gummies covered with oats in a way that makes it look like eggs. Then, when you heat it, the oats melt away and dinosaurs (gummies) are born. This blew my mind as a five year old. I didn’t buy this, but I wanted to share this childhood memory.

I decided to keep lunch simple because I wasn’t feeling well. I think I am still exhausted from the past two months of reading/writing. Hopefully I regain my energy. I decide to have turkey on wheat bread with some yellow mustard. I also had it with a bowl of my favorite soup: basil tomato.

I bought some light reading for the rest the afternoon, which I will also be spending in front of the television.

What was your favorite childhood food? I also enjoyed Rice Krispie Treats Cereal and Golden Grahams Cereal. I just really loved cereal, and still do!

Hitting the books…and at times throwing them across the room

Hello all.

Today will surely be a wild one. I take my Master’s oral exam and defend my thesis tomorrow morning. I have already written a 60-page thesis and read an entire book list, and now I am locked in a room for two hours with three professors. This determines if I get my Master’s. It is an urban legend in our program that only one person failed, but it is hard to be calm about this. So my food choices will be carb-heavy for energy, like back in the days when I played soccer.

One of the toughest decisions today is deciding where the studying will go down. I have been glued to my chair of my apartment and I think my roommate wants me to leave so she can “live” in her own living room. The one big problem I have with this college campus is that we have only two coffee shops, one of which is a Starbucks with 1.5 tables and a very sassy crew. Anytime I order anything iced (I do it sometimes because  I don’t drink the hot drinks fast enough) in the winter–when I plan to stay in the Starbucks–they always say “In the winter…what?!?” Speaking of coffee…

I of course needed to start with some coffee. I got this stuff from the organic section of my grocery store. Surprisingly, this coffee was cheaper then the regular stuff. It is good. So, there is a helpful tip of sorts. Since I need a bunch of energy today I had some oatmeal with strawberries, walnuts, and brown sugar. I feel like a food blog cliche here, but people love this stuff.

Here is a closer shot. I have a Canon PowerShot and this little thing can do some pretty amazing things.

Oh, look what this camera did in the 30th row of Lady Gaga. Alright, back to reading…