Photofest! Halloween goes on... Pt. 1

Jalene and I went to a Halloween party at her uncle's house night. It was so much fun! The costumes were awesome, and the treats were so creative.


This was by far my favorite costume. I had no idea this can happen to male runners! (You can probably guess what the back of his legs looked like...)


Naughty chef- his apron says "Where's the beef?"



Spooky treats:




Chocolate mousies! How cute are these?



Bloody fingers and artichoke dip ( I had 3-4 chipfulls of this)




Deviled eyes! I had 2.

Printing Difficulties

Before I start a mini rant, here's a pretty picture of the changing leaves:



Sooo after working with Sarah for most of the afternoon, I came home to do a much-needed room clean. The last step in my organizing was to install my printer (albeit about 6 months late). I got everything all set until I realized that I couldn't connect the printer to the computer because the company failed to enclose a USB cable in the box. Now, being the modern girl I am, I have about 400 different USB cables, but of course, none of them are quite what the printer needs. And the toll-free number doesn't provide customer service on the weekends. Everyone needs a couple days off, but I'm frustrated! I HATE installations, which is precisely why it has taken me so long to do this. I really should have taken my dad up on his offer to install it when he was here a few weeks ago. Oh well!


I had a dee-lish-ous "dirty hippie" at Brewberry's that Luke made: 2 shots of espresso, Oregon chai, skim milk, pumpkin spice, a little whipped cream and caramel syrup. YUM.


I tried flavor of Clif I've never had before: Peanut Toffee Buzz.


I love peanut and toffee, and it has caffeine! However, I really did not like this bar. It tasted very "protein-y" and had a horrible aftertaste. I only had about 1/3 of this, and couldn't pass it off to either Sarah or Luke.


Sarah made me a "fruit scooter"- tropical frozen fruit (zapped for 45 seconds), nonfat vanilla yogurt, and a sprinkling of granola. The fruit chunks were still a bit frozen, and the consistency was a lot like ice cream. Nothing like tricking yourself into eating a fruit "dessert"! I'll have to remember this next time I go to the grocery store.




I came home and had an actual lunch. I toasted a honey wheat fiber English muffin, made an egg over medium, and heated up a Morningstar Farms sausage patty. Add a little swiss cheese and ketchup, and presto!



I'm gnoshing on some gummy body parts right now... as long as I don't look at them, they don't gross me out. I have kind of a busy night, and am scrambling to get everything done. Tomorrow will also be a busy day.... Why do the weekends go by so fast?

Rare moment of harmony #3

This was actually sort of a trick; Jalene had the laser pointer between them so they were kind of enthralled by it. Right now, however, Betty Ford is stalking Blue around the house. Not nice!


I had one of my favorite breakfasts this morning: Kashi waffles with yogurt, bananas and walnuts and a little honey. Perfect for a Saturday. Delish!



I'm going off to Brewberry's now to be a good and productive student. Have a lovely day!

No show and a splurge

Sooo the trick-or-treaters were kind of a bust.... No one came at all!! Well, some boys from a neighboring university came collecting canned goods, but not ONE KID. Sad. Oh well... Here's the candy I ended up eating (my tongue is going to hate me in the morning):



I didn't finish the Mounds; it wasn't as good as I remembered it being. So sweet! However, I do wish I didn't know how tasty the Crunch Crisp bars are (really good).


Dinner at least was healthy and delicious. Baked tofu is becoming one of my favorite foods. I curried some and popped it in the broiler, and in less than 10 minutes, it had a lovely golden crust. The rub was really easy; I eyeballed out about 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper. I made a sweet potato in the microwave (6-7 minutes on high) and put a little Brummel & Brown on it:



Hippie spinach (white wine vinegar and sesame seeds):



I made some curried nayonnaise for the tofu; I tried it with some sweet potato and it wasn't bad, but I think I preferred it plain. I also had a glass of the apple wine I got when I went apple picking last week.


Crême brulée rice pudding for dessert:


Jalene thinks I'm crazy: I'm thinking about locking most of the candy in my car so I won't eat it all. I know it's weird, but I don't trust myself with it in the house! We just watched Hocus Pocus, which is definitely one of my all-time favorite Halloween movies. We split a bowl of 94% fat free popcorn with some grated parmesan cheese.



I am so sleepy! Luke is working at Brewberry's tomorrow so I'm going to try and get there in the morning to get some work done (and see the best barista in town, of course). Hope everyone had a nice Halloween!

Halloween in St. Petersberg

My dad's in Russia right now, and sent me an email telling me they do celebrate Halloween there!


As usual, I put off Halloween shopping until the last minute and JUST came back from getting some candy at Target. But first, to back up...


Since I had breakfast kind of late, I just had an apple and a Luna as a snack and got lunch after class (around 3:30).




Veggie salad with romaine, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, with apple cider vinaigrette (I didn't use all of it):



The candy haul!


I was really hungry when I got back from Target, and I knew having all this chocolate around was going to be dangerous. I tried not to buy any of my favorites, so I wouldn't want to eat all of it. I had a yogurt first, to stave off my hunger. The Halloween ghoul must have wanted me to know that I mae the wrong choice, because it splattered all over me when I took off the lid.


Then a gummy finger, so I wouldn't let out the chocolate monster in me too early. It was actually pretty good!


I hope we get some trick-or-treaters, though, because I don't trust myself to leave the candy bowl alone if it's here after tonight! I'll post the fun-size treats I have with dinner.

All Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween! This was definitely a tie with Christmas for my favorite holidays when I was little. One of my oldest friends, Ilena, and I would go trick-or-treating in this ENORMOUS apartment building in New York and get so much loot. And it always worked out perfectly, because she doesn't like peanut butter and I hate malt balls, so we'd always trade Reese's and Whoppers. I always get a little nostalgic around this time, because, up until college, we spent every Halloween together.

I was craving a smoothie this morning, but I didn't have anything to turn it orange! (Like, er, an orange. Oh! I could have used pumpkin! Maybe I'll dot that tomorrow.)




1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup skim milk
1 scoop vanilla Dessert protein powder
5 frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen cranberries
1 banana (2/3 blended, 1/3 as topping)
1 tsp flax
1 1/2 tsp PB



I had the silliest dream this morning between snoozes: I was modeling a dress in a fashion show very similar to something Felicity- the-American-Girl would wear. I was getting ready before the show in hair and makeup, and as the makeup artist was rubbing cream on my face I started to wake up... but I still felt her hand! But no... it was Betty Ford's paw. Ha ha ha. Pretty scary!

Have a spooky day!

Paper Planes

Toothy Jack and Thom Yorke:

I've had that song by M.I.A. in my head ALL DAY. I think it's because of that line "I've got more records than the KGB" and my presentation today was on the Soviet purges.... I wish I knew how to upload MP3s, and I'd put up a link to the song!

Katey and I had so much fun carving pumpkins tonight. We watched The City of Lost Children while we carved... it's a really bizarre French movie about a creepy scientist who steals kids' dreams. The main star was Ron Perlman... also known as Hellboy! His accent wasn't so great, snob than I am... sorry Ron.


Katey getting her hands dirty:




I came back around 9:30 and made a quick and easy dinner. My oatmeal held me over really well, so I wasn't famished. I had half a package of Rising Moon organic butternut squash ravioli left, so I cooked that up in the water I'd boiled spinach in a few days ago. A lot of nutrients escape vegetables when they're boiled, so I made my ravioli a little healthier by cooking it in that water. During my sophmore year, we didn't have a stove in my dorm, so I used my water boiler for EVERYTHING. I used to make this ravioli and mix it up with a little Vacherie cheese, olive oil, and a sweet potato. Delicious! We're out of sweet potatoes, so tonight I added a little spinach, a spicy black bean burger, olive oil and some herbed goat cheese to my pasta. It was pretty good, and very filling.




After I mixed it all up:


I had some WF hibiscus sorbet for dessert. I really like this flavor; it's the perfect combination of tart and sweet. This photo just makes it look like cotton candy fluff, but the picture without the flash was even blurrier than the one above.


Back to the grind. See you in the AM!