I’m rereading this one in hard copy. These days it is odd to read a real book rather than on my kindle. It’s so annoying turning pages by hand…
I bought a sandwich in St Louis for $8. That same sandwich costs $10 in Atlanta. Win! Or not.
They just paged somebody named Carrie Leslie.
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from my Video Game post the other night. We’ve still got the Super Nintendo hooked up to the television in the front, where I teach, and today all of my students seemed to want to weigh in on it. One was delighted to see the “Gamecube” which made me feel really old…to him a Game cube is as ancient as a Super Nintendo. But it seems that all men and boys like video games, and I’m told some women even do.
I’ve also gotten a lot of questions about oatmeal. Well, just from Leslie. But I’ll address some of those in my next OATMEAL MADNESS post.
So…I had to cancel my appointment with my trainer this morning because my shoulder is still a mess. I was freaking out yesterday, about running, about the upcoming half marathon, about playing the violin. Chris said something very wise. “Calm down, and just focus on feeling better. The rest will be fine.” (He is the calm one in the relationship, fyi.)
So, today is Foodie Penpal Reveal day!
I received goodies from Kelly at Laughter, Strength, and Food. Thanks Kelly!
I’m going to be honest. I have only had the chocolate. I’m suffering from serious sugar problems.
And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals. In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
If you’re interested in participating for April, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by April 4th as pairings will be emailed on April 5th!
I was going to wait another day to post this, but I figured, why wait. Besides tomorrow is supposed to be the foodie pen pals reveal.
I’m introducing a new feature on my blog: OATMEAL MADNESS. Not like March Madness. No brackets, no upsets, just lots of pictures of delicious oatmeal.
For the past month I’ve been on a no-cereal diet. According to Mike (my trainer), cereal is the root of all evils in the world (paraphrasing) due to the processed sugars and whatnot in the ingredients. I argued that I’d been eating cereal my whole life and surely it couldn’t be the most awful of all foods, but he started ranting about bloating and xanthum gum and gesturing wildly at his (very flat) stomach (that’s where the bloating might occur, I guess?) and turning red, steam coming out of his ears (mild exaggeration, but he was definitely on a soapbox) so I promised I’d try to give it up.
This led to another problem though. I don’t mind cooking. That is, I don’t mind cooking after I’m awake. And to be awake, well, that takes a cup of coffee (or two). I’ll cook for lunch, dinner, afternoon snack, late night, whatever. Just not in the morning. Mike says, oh, make a couple of eggs, it only takes five minutes. Make oatmeal, it only takes five to ten minutes. NO. TOO EARLY. (Regardless of time, it’s too early.) But…what about that phenomena that is so famous across the blog world…
OVERNIGHT OATS.
So I tried it. Oats. Water or milk or yogurt. Protein powder. In a container, overnight. Then in the morning, stir, and add fruit. (Or “nut butter”).
This, I realized, was something I could get on board with. It’s sort of like cereal, but less crunchy. And less processed, so Mike is happy.
Which brings us to where we are today. Pictures of my oatmeal. My blog friend Rose suggested it, and I will do anything she suggests since she is an amazing athlete and blogger. (I’m totally sucking up to her, another thing real bloggers do.)
I hate that I embraced a blogger trend. (See here for the last time I embraced a blogger trend…oh and linking to old unrelated posts is also an excellent blogger trend, you’re welcome!) But I’m told it is an old thing to do. Overnight oats are actually known as Mueslix in other countries, like in Europe. And nothing is cooler than Europe. Yes, I’m aware Europe isn’t a country. *correction, my sister texted me to say that MUESLI is what I meant, not mueslix, mueslix being an evil cereal from Kellogg’s*
You can also put them in a jar of “nut butter”. People call these Overnight Oats in a Jar, or OOIAJ. I find this to be fairly tasty but I invariably end up spilling on myself. It’s probably more “nut butter” than one needs.
You can also try steel cut oats, but those just don’t get as soft overnight. I tried, because someone compared them to Grapenuts, which I like. I tried soaking them for 48 hours and it still wasn’t enough for me.
Oh, and I don’t have a microwave, so don’t tell me to microwave anything. Plus, that will kill you, the radiation. (Says the girl who is always on the phone.)
So, I am not as good of a blogger as some people, and I believe it took 8 days to get 6 pictures of oatmeal. I forgot one morning (blogger FAIL) and then yesterday I ended up just doing a smoothie, so I didn’t photograph it. Also I do not have super creative bowls and utensils and placemats. Oh well!
Here we go! ARE YOU READY TO BE INSPIRED TO BE HEALTHY AND AWESOME LIKE I AM??????
*drum roll*
*disclaimer, I did not take these pictures outside in my backyard, nor did I use any sort of light box. just my normal pink, point and shoot camera.*
Oh, yeah, OVERNIGHT OATS IN A JAR. Steel cut overnight (two days actually) with protein powder, milk, and some blackberries. CHEWY.
Steel cut that I cooked before, left overnight, added blueberries.
Same batch of steel cut cooked. Blueberries, blackberries, dollop of peanut butter (hiding under there!).
Still the same steel cut. Texture not as good with these, you can see after a couple days they are a bit more liquidy. With strawberries.
Rolled oats, greek yogurt, a bit of “nut butter” and blackberries. This was insanely delicious. For oats. Not actually delicious, mind you, because there is so much food out there that is more delicious than oatmeal.
Same base, but with chocolate peanut butter (super healthy, right?) and banana. Lesson learned: be sure to fully mix your protein powder before adding fruit. Dry protein powder does not taste good. Some of this actually came back up. And a banana, could be healthier. Bananas: the most fattening of all fruits.
There you have it. 6 days of oatmeal.
I have lost 4 pounds since giving up cereal. Is it related? I don’t know.
I hope you enjoy my new feature OATMEAL MADNESS! Please comment on how brilliant and amazing I am in the comments. Also if anybody can design a logo (the more crudely drawn the better, SARAH) for this feature I would be delighted and repay you in kind by offering you various overnight oats recipes.
Leslie and I are the stars of Presbyterian College’s website right now!
I’d probably feel a little better about the upcoming performance if my shoulder weren’t a disaster right now. Anybody reading my blog is probably better able to observe the train wreck of injuries I’ve been bringing upon myself (or not, I’m just a take responsibility type of person) but this is not good. I’ll make it through the Bach, no problem, because I can power through. I’m just a little worried. It was hurting a bit during the long run on Sunday, and then yesterday at the gym something happened—I don’t even know what—and all of a sudden it hurt again. Then it was fine unless I was teaching last night. I was reaching towards a student’s music with my right arm, and suddenly I gasped in pain.
And from that point on the pain stayed with me. And is still about the same. I’m icing it, and hoping for the best. I really need to practice, but I’m thinking that is just not going to happen today. Or running.
At least I’m playing second violin.
This week seems to be going just about as well as last week. Bright side, I have lost 3 or 4 pounds this month!
Yesterday Chris bought a Super Nintendo and Final Fantasy 2. He had had a bad day, and needed a pick me up. (We both did.) Since he had recently played the Music of Final Fantasy with the Symphony, it was on his mind. He’s been playing it all night, and then got up several hours before me and has been playing. Should I tell you people that? I think it’s hilarious. SUPER NINTENDO. We own a Nintendo, a Nintendo 64 and now a Super Nintendo. And that’s it. We do not have any more recent game systems. (We had a Wii but it got stolen last year.)
I was out with a group of friends (and Chris) last night—all guys who grew up in the late 70’s/80’s and they got into an intense discussion involving the history of video games and video game systems. It was a bit much for me, but hilarious. They referenced systems I’d never heard of, not that I’m a video game expert. (Chris IS a video game expert.) They sang the title themes, and looked up games on the internet.
I guess what I’m trying to say, it was another case of “Men are different.”
I was reading a friend’s blog this morning (food, sweat, and beers) and learned that there is an ad campaign from DeBeers encouraging women to get diamond rings for themselves for their right hand.
So, what if you play the violin and wear your "I love you" ring on your right hand? Does that mean that he loves me and I love me too? I’m so confused…advertisers and diamond companies, please help!
I have a new adult student, who is married, wears her rings on her left hand like "normal" people. The other day I kept hearing weird plucking noises (the e-string) from her. I asked, what is that noise? She says, oh sorry, my ring keeps turning.
And that, my friends, is definitively why I wear my rings on my ring hand. Can’t have weird noises coming from the violin.
My sister Leslie and I, both amazing violinists. Note also her short nails.
For the layperson: One of the funniest things about being an instrumental musician is when you are clothes shopping and you find something neat. And then you or your friend says, but can you play in it? And you start waving your arms around, or maybe feeling the left shoulder to see if it bumps or does something that will be annoying. Plus then there’s the problem of earrings, and necklaces, bracelets and watches are a no, short skirts can be a huge problem, long skirts too…even the shoes you wear must be taken into account. Every instrument has its own limitations.
Did I say funniest things? I meant most annoying.
So the fact that I wear my rings on my right hand really says, first, I love the violin.
The title really says it all. And I shouldn’t publish this yet, but I’m going to ANYWAY, so if you are reading this and going to the same barbeque (barbecue) (oddly windows live writer doesn’t have a problem with barbeque but I LOST a spelling bee on that word so I know it’s barbecue) (or bbq) (squiggly red underline) then the surprise is spoiled. If you are going to the same barbecue likely you’ve had regular cake batter blondies before, since I like to make those on occasion.
This morning Jen and I were going to run 11 miles, that’s two loops around the Park. I did a lot of things right—I ate well the night before, I got plenty of sleep, and I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. Allergies…I hope (I really don’t want to be sick right now)…and it killed the run. After about 7 miles I was in serious trouble (I am such a lousy running partner, I’m sorry Jen!) and Jen pointed out I had been breathing really loudly the whole way, and she was pretty concerned about my ability to finish the run. So we made an executive decision to turn around. 8.6 miles rather than 11, with some walking…even when walking I was having a lot of trouble breathing. Ugh. 3 weeks until the half, this does not bode well for a PR.
So I came home and decided to bake. I didn’t want to go to the store though, unless I had to, so I had to mix up my recipe a bit. I had lemon cake on hand…and I thought lemon cake would be amazing. It is.
Lemon Cake Batter Blondies (adapted from Girl Meets Life)
1 box lemon cake mix
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk (start with less, then add more if needed)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Mix together, add to greased pan, bake for 30 minutes at 350. Try not to eat them all at once.
Yeah, that’s it. Delicious! I’ve eaten just one or two, depending on how you want to count it. Might be three soon, but then I promise I will bring them over to my friend’s house. Nobody wants to write "entire pan of blondies" into a food diary, not even me.
I also spent over an hour on my taxes, something I’d been dreading. It wasn’t so bad—I’ve got all my research done and now I’m ready to input into the program. I’ll do that another day (tomorrow…?). I also did laundry and I’ve been chugging water and G2 like there’s no tomorrow (the way my throat/head feels there might not be). Technically now it should be practice time but I may just need another day off from the violin. I leave for SC in one week, but showing up injured isn’t going to help me play better.
Now I’m going to go back and insert random pictures into the post. Keep that in mind.
Random.