health craze

I'm on a little bit of a health kick at the moment. I've been trying to buy healthy groceries lately and work on eating better foods. I take a women's multi-vitamin every morning and try my best to eat breakfast. :-) There's a store called "green life" that is similar to trader joes or whole foods and they have locally grown veggies and just really great, healthy, organic food. I've been a few times with my old roommate Courtney. It's delicious and I'm thinking about going there tonight to stock up on groceries.

Fruits are easy for me to eat but veggies on the other hand aren't something I'm too crazy about. I've been eating edamame lately about every day and I just was reading some online articles about how horrible soy is for you when you eat too much. It's good in moderation but apparently I'm eating too much. So I'm going to stop eating that for now! haha They said it can result in infertility and things because it messes with your hormones. Seems a little dangerous to me. But I do like snap peas, peppers, and mushrooms and I've been trying to add those to anything I eat. I made stir fry a few weeks ago and put water chestnuts, baby corn, cilantro, green and red peppers, chicken, broccoli, etc. And then I put it on top of some white rice. It was delicious. :-)

Then recently, I made a wrap for myself with brown rice, chicken, black beans, corn, cilantro, salsa and avocado. YUM! I had it for lunch the next day too. So I'm really trying my best to make good meals for myself that will keep me healthy and energetic. I have found that I don't really eat meat all that much now. Not because I don't want it but because #1) it's expensive #2) it doesn't keep for that long so I can't really buy too much ahead which is a pain #3) it's too long of a trip down the mountain just to get meat when I need it. So that's something I should probably work on....including meat in my meals more often. Another thing I realized is how expensive pine nuts are. Man alive, I love pine nuts but my goodness! A small little container at WalMart is $7. Although to me it's worth it because they're so delicious, it's probably not a wise financial decision to blow half of my grocery budget on pine nuts. hehe

There's this salad though, that Dewey's in St. Louis makes with goat cheese, pine nuts, dried cranberries, and creamy balsamic dressing. It's absolutely delicious and I've tried to recreate that when I have pine nuts in my cabinet. Also, there's a pasta that I started making for myself that my roommate and old roommate LOVE. I just kind of threw together what sounded good one night and it was really really really good. I used bowtie pasta and then added toasted pine nuts, small pieces of bacon, cherry tomatoes sliced in half, and some spinach leaves thrown in there. For the sauce I used a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and then added some creamy balsamic salad dressing. Put it all together in a big pot and topped it with some feta cheese. We had slices of sourdough bread toasted on the side and ahhh it was one of the best meals I've had in a long long time. Feel free to steal the recipe! I just call it my form of Mediterranean pasta.

Alright well I'm going to get back to work. I have class tonight from 4:30-5:45 and then I'm making myself dinner :-) Hope everyone has a great evening!

birthday wish list

(I'm really making this more for myself...if I see things I like, it makes me feel better if I write it down somewhere) haha

kim- i know you like lists, so this should help!

1) http://www.forever21.com/product.asp?catalog_name=FOREVER21&category_name=footwr_casual&footwr_style=&footwr_size=&footwr_color=&footwr_price=&product_id=1077960257&Page=all 
--love those!!

2) http://www.forever21.com/product.asp?catalog_name=FOREVER21&category_name=footwr_dressy&footwr_style=&footwr_size=&footwr_color=&footwr_price=&product_id=2000012198&Page=1#
-- OBSESSED!!!! (brown)

3)http://www.jcrew.com/womens_factory_category/Exclusives/PRDOVR~10807/99102246270/ENE~1+2+3+22+4294967294+20~~~205+17+4294966535~15~~~~~~~/10807.jsp
--I really need black shorts and have needed them for about 3 years now...haha FINALLY found what I was looking for. The regular J.crew website didn't even have them in black, had to resort to the outlet.

4) http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/rubbish-mixed-knit-infinity-scarf/3128441?origin=category&resultback=2003
--can't ever go wrong with scarves. I literally wear one every single day. Funny thing is that I don't have just a plain, ivory one (this happens to work for winter & summer...perfect).

5) http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/h-i-p-pinch-front-tee-juniors/3150795?origin=category&resultback=4306
--loving this style of top right now and this print is super cute. <3

6) http://store.americanapparel.net/mt497w.html?cid=211
(CAUTION: this website is very "natural", "indie", "alternative" and does have models without bras and such...just as a warning...it can be offensive for all you old geezers reading this. hehe) -size XS in peppered grey :-)

7) http://www.fossil.com/en_US/shop/women/wallets/checkbook_wallets/key_per_zip_clutch-sl2700p.html?departmentCategoryId=30000&N=0&Va=69&Ns=p_wsc3|0||p_weight|0&rec=9&pn=c&imagePath=SL2700757
--LOVE THIS! perfect summer wallet...i like "retro" or "khaki multi"


...I'm sure I'll find more things to add :-P

I'M IN LOVE

http://lstn.urbanoutfitters.com/

just found this website and I'm absolutely obsessed. I just downloaded almost 40 free songs...and every one of them are songs that I would listen to. It's great to get new music that I've never heard before!! :-) It's great music for studying too. SO EXCITED!