Crock pot time

My groceries looked so pretty that I actually took a picture of them at the store

Over the weekend, I made crock pot stew. I love my crock pot! I got it from a white elephant exchange a couple Christmas's ago, but I use it way to little considering how easy it is to use. It's is literally the laziest form of cooking. You put ingredients in the pot and then turn it on. Oh yeah, don't forget to plug it in. Anyway, two things sparked this quest for feeding my body better things: 1) I felt horrible about myself after eating what I had been eating over spring break and 2) I had a Fred Meyer's gift card and found beef chunks for stew on manager's special there.

To me, eating better means focusing on whole foods. I try to stick to the outer edges of the grocery store (where the produce, dairy, meats and breads usually are) when I do my grocery shopping, but as a student, I definitely understand the convenience of pop tarts or individualized bags of chips. It's a struggle, but if I can step away from it at the grocery store, then it's not there for me to eat at home! I don't consider low fat or fat free necessarily healthy, and I don't think healthy eating is about cutting carbs (How I would miss loaves of bread from the bakery! And fruit!!! and desserts!!!!!!). Animal welfare is also a consideration in my food choices, so I try not to eat chicken (I know most animals raised for food are treated horribly, but chickens have it the worst I swear). I buy cage free eggs, though I know that doesn't necessarily mean they live much better lives than caged chickens, but I can't afford certified humane eggs at this point in my life. Anyway, that's my schpeel on what I eat.

Anyway, I threw sliced tomatoes, diced onions, potatoes, celery, and beef that I had browned on the stove in the crock pot, filled it half way with water and seasoned it with a some salt and lemon pepper and left it on low for 4.5 hours. I've been eating it with baguette, over brown rice, or even on it's own. Leaves me full, happy, and proud of myself. 

Seriously- those tomatoes. They smelled SOO good. I even put them in my roommate's face at the store so she could smell them. One of my old roomies who traveled abroad in Rome to study food recommended buying tomatoes on the vine because they're fresher- I think she's right!

Isn't my owl crock pot just the cutest??! I told you it was.

And Voila! The result of my impulsive free style cooking.

Red River Gorge

Yesterday, John and I hiked the Auxier Ridge trail at Red River Gorge. It was beautiful, freezing, and a side of Kentucky I hadn't seen before! Apparently this place is crackin' in the summer time when things are more alive and there isn't snow, but we had fun anyway.

In the background you can see a little cave!

I think it is more green and less gray in the summer time

The wind was perfect, so I started modeling

Anyway, I'm home now. Bye Kentucky forever! (hopefully)

About Kentucky

Kentucky!

Someday long from now, I will look back on all the time I spent in Kentucky fondly, sigh and think, "Wow, what a lovely chapter of my life". For now, my feelings on Kentucky are very different. Who wants to to spend all her supposed-to-be wild college breaks going to Kentucky!! Maybe someone who rides horses or really likes bourbon. When I first started visiting, we did touristy stuff, but now that John is not a tourist and he actually lives here, our schedule here has gotten pretty routine. I think the time I am spending in Lexington is slowly winding down (fingers crossed!) so I wanted to summarize what I do here when I come visit.

1) Eat. John and I eat so much when I come visit. I think it's either because there's nothing to do here or because there's so many places we want to try. I find my self thinking "What I do I get to eat next?" immediately after a meal, and planning what I am going to eat the next couple of days for dinner. I'm pretty sure we've tried most of the Lexington cheap eats on Urban Spoon. A few of our favorites are Bourbon n' Toulouse (a creole joint with spice, rice and giant portions), Sahara Mediterranean Cuisine (see image in this post), and Pho BC when we're missing our Vietnamese food. They're all hole-in-the-wall type places, but that's how we like it, informal and quick! The first time we went to Pho BC, we noticed 2 things: 1) no one there was Vietnamese, and 2) they had set the table with metal soup spoons. Like metal spoons that people eat chicken noodle soup with. *John shakes his head disappointingly*

Every Tuesday, John goes to Penn Station with Lucas and Company (this is how John refers to his friend, Lucas, and Lucas' friends) for BOGO subs. When I come visit, I'm invited to this super exclusive boy's club and enjoy witty conversations about nerdy things over subs. They are really nice funny people who have been best friends forever and the subs are better than Jimmy Johns.

 

There's also southern food, but I think we've eaten those things so much that I refuse to eat anymore fried chicken unless the alternative is death. However, if you are looking for one good Lexington meal, it's got to be at Ramsey's. They're a local Lexington restaurant with 3 chains throughout the city. If you have to have southern chicken and waffles like John's friends did when they visited last year, then Saul Good. They're a bit more chain-y and they have zebra print awnings with purple accents that make their restaurant look a bit like an adult store. Then Graeter's ice cream for dessert. They're based in Ohio and it is definitely worth the stomach ache. I actually realized they sold pint-size containers of Graeter's at QFC in Seattle so if I am ever really missing Lexington in the future, I'll go buy some, eat it and think fondly of all the stomach aches I got in Lexington after eating Graeter's (FYI: I don't think it is Graeter's specifically that gave me a stomach ache, just ice cream in general).

Since we have tried most of the restaurants that could be moderately healthy, we have extended our appetite to less than ideal restaurants. The other day, we were on the computer at 11 pm and looking at Taco Bell's new breakfast menu that launches tomorrow morning at 7 am and made plans to eat there Thursday morning. That same evening, we watched a documentary about McDonald's and then the next day went to McDonalds for lunch to get their Fillet-O-Fish which is on promotion 2 for $4. We have had 3 versions of Oreo and vanilla ice cream from Dairy Queen (Blizzard), McDonald's (McFlurry), and Sonic (Blast), and have deemed the Oreo Blast from Sonic the winner for it's abundant helpings of oreo crumbs and it's thick, non-melting vanilla ice cream. I hardly eat this much fast food at home, but fast food is so plentiful around here and there's something about John that just makes me want to eat fast food...

Red Mango recently opened in Lexington and it is a SELF-SERVE location!! I love Red Mango. It is possibly my favorite frozen yogurt joint, but in Seattle, it's not self serve and I like being in control of my yogurt. John doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so I felt bad dragging him to the store, but then he tried their Nutty Potion flavor (it's chocolate and hazelnut, so essentially, Nutella), and he fell in love. We've been there twice this trip and I've already planned that we're going after he gets off work today.

2) Shop. The other thing we do around here is shop. Again, I think this is a result of having nothing else to do here. Every time I fly home, I always fly home with more clothes, so I've learned since to under-pack. Sale clothes is really cheap here, as are bananas ($.59/lb) and gas (currently $3.54/gal). We usually go to Target, TJ Maxx, Marshalls and the Fayette Mall, the largest in Kentucky, which is sad because it is a pretty sad mall. All stores here are flooded with UK gear, which I considered sporting for a while, but I realized I have no allegiance to them.


3) Look at pets. John and I frequent pet shops like PetSmart and Pet Supermarket to look at adoptable cats and dogs. Even though there is not a chance John would adopt an animal in Lexington, he fulfills his need for furry loving on these excursions. I actually don't really enjoy these trips because I feel really sad after about 1 minute in the room with the dogs and 3 minutes in the room with the cats, but it is legitimately the highlight of John's day so I let him pet the animals in there as long as he wants while I walk around the rest of the store.

4) Wear Seattle stuff. The last thing we do is wear a ton of Seahawks and UW stuff. This isn't really an activity, just something we do because I think we'd both rather be in Seattle (for me it's consciously and for John it's subconsciously). The other day we were at the store and an employee saw us and did a double take. After asking us if we needed any help, she asked if we were from Seattle, and then told us that she was from Redmond. She got super excited and then went back to putting away clothes. John and I looked at each other, thinking 'how did she know' for half a second, then saw what each other were wearing. John had a Seahawks NFC championship shirt on and and Seahawks lanyard hanging from his neck, and I had on a Seahawks beanie.

So there is my summary of my trips to Lexington! Eat, shop, look at pets and wear Seattle stuff. As much as I am bored in Lexington, it is equal to how much I enjoy spending time with John, which is why I'd trade a hot party spring break trip for a week with John. I know he feels guilty sometimes because we are not in [insert hot vacation spot here], but I don't care! Who else can say they experienced a snow storm during spring break (see above selfie- there is SNOW on my coat)??!??! I win. I can't wait for him to get off work so we can eat some more.

52 hours of not school

It has been 52 hours since I finished my second quarter of nursing school and it feels good! In those 52 hours, I have had exactly 2 alcoholic drinks, been in three states, listened to Tina Fey's entire audio book reading of Bossypants, secretly and obsessively checking online to see if any grades have been posted, and spent a full day sheating (shopping + eating) with John. It feels so good to be so free! One day, someday, I will not come home to home-work, and I will have so much time I won't know what to do with myself, but for now, this week will suffice.

As much as I wish I were somewhere hot and spring break-y like Cabo or Florida or something like that, I am broke and honestly, an old grandma who doesn't go out.  Who in college can afford to do that anyway? Maybe next year (which will actually be my last official spring break), I'll plan something better and John won't live so far away so I won't feel so sad leaving him at home!

Happy Spring break!

A celebratory bloody mary after our last final!

Bubbles

First day of spring calls for bubbles. That's all.

Not over yet

I have 2 tests down with 1 to go, and I feel so out of it. I took my pharmacology final on Tuesday and we just got our grades. I feel like now that that's over, I don't care! I worked my butt off in that class and it paid off, but now I'm like, so what? It doesn't really matter what grade I got because we're all going to get jobs after we graduate anyway. I am very laid back compared to my classmates about tests and grades, and I hope it doesn't come off as unmotivated, but this driving desire to get a 4.0 is a self-inflicted stress! Even after you get it, so what...? Life continues and no one sends you a cake or flowers.

I should really be studying and preparing for my last final, but at this point, it feels like there is little use. It'll be about nursing interventions which is very important, but this basically sums up that test that I'll be taking tomorrow and the gerontology test I took yesterday:

Is the answer A? A and C? A, B, and D? or none of the above? Or wait, all of the above?

Also, I just spent 30 minutes on Pinterest reading Ryan Gosling's Hey Girl memes, silently shake-laughing to myself. You know that kind of laugh where all you hear is the person trying to breath in air, and they're kind of shaking? Yes, that kind. I think this one was made for me.

Thanks Ryan

Happy Thursday. Spring break, you're so close...

Almost theree

It's the beginning of finals week so that means I am compulsively browsing the web for things to buy. I get to a point at the end of every quarter where I'm like, lets just take these tests already because I'm so stressed out about being stressed out that my productivity is super low and all my classmates are learning so much more than me as the time continues to go by! I'm contemplating how much better my life would be with these:

The shirt on the right sums up arguments I start with John. [from here]

But am I? [From here]

Umm... This entire Oh Joy line for target?! I have been following her blog for over a year now and I got so excited when I saw she was doing something with Target! I love Target. Target has been getting really hip in the past couple years bringing in new designers to do different home and clothes collections. I got Nate Berkus sheets the other day that make me feel like a safari princess. Slowly I'm moving away from my all-floral bedding..

Okay, I won't actually buy anything dumb. What I actually need is a compost bin because our food yard waste bag in the kitchen currently lines a Purina water filter pitcher and looking at old food scraps while you cook is not cute. 

Happy Monday! May we all have bright and successful weeks!

studying

Finals are in a week which means studying studying studying. I've been trying to go to different places to get a change of scenery so I don't get bored of studying and it has been so fun! Yesterday I went to Vivace which is a hip little coffee shop in Capitol Hill that's been there for more than 20 years. The one problem for me about going to all these coffee shops is that I don't drink coffee! How unSeattle of me. So I'll get a tea, but I can't have more than 2 cups and they can't be after 3 pm, because then I get restless at night and can't fall asleep at all! Anyway, I got their minty green tea and it was so yummy smelling and tasting. It's brewed in this little glass orb thing that is so pretty and looks like a terrarium.

Anyway, time to study in during this BEAUTIFUL sunny Seattle week. If you need a break, I came across this video yesterday during one of my frequent web-browsing study breaks. The best part is their daughter in the back not noticing anything unusual. Also, if you haven't seen Frozen, go see it! Happy studying everyone!

sunshine + makers mark

Today we had beautiful sunshine! It was crazy wonderful and truly a sign that spring is well on its way! I got to spend my day with my favorite little girl, E, and umm... when did she become not a toddler anymore?! I am still surprised looking at this picture how old she looks in this picture. Anyway, we played outside and ate cupcakes which means today was a good day.

Also, after hunting and tracking these down for over a month, I finally got these Seahawks dipped Maker's Mark bottles. I don't really care that much, but John just had to have one, so he put our names and his brother's on a wait list  after the Super Bowl and the store finally got some in. He did most of the hunting, tracking, and calling- I was just the one who went to the store. John said he plans to never drink his, but the day he does, either something really good happened or something really bad happened. I'm thinking I can sell mine to some crazy Seahawk fan.  They only made 4200 bottles so people are going crazy. There are even internet forums about how to get them and where to find them! I just checked on craigslist and they're going for $100, $300, even $1000- for a bottle that will sit on a shelf and collect dust!! Wtf, people are crazy.

Looking cute for spring time

Yesterday we sprung forward one hour for spring which means spring is well on it's way! Thank goodness. I was getting tired of dusk at 5 pm and wearing a ton of layers because it is cold outside. This quarter in school, I had lab or clinical every school day, which meant I wore scrubs every day while all my pretty clothes rotted in my closet... Then on off days, I'd wear leggings because it was an off day! What a vicious cycle of not being cute.

Next quarter, I'm only confined to scrubs 2 days, so I have 2 school days to wear cute clothes and 3 day weekends (who knows if those will be cute days)! I am excited. You may think this is totally silly, but I'll take my tiny wins where ever I can get them. I think I'll be starting Style Monday posts to start inspiring me to be cuter... starting with this! I made a cute outfit with pieces that look like things I own. Definitely something I would wear and definitely something cute!

via Polyvore

Lil Jon

Uh, we were too hungry to take before pictures of our food, so I only got after photos.

Lil Jon (not to get confused with this Lil Jon) is a little breakfast place in Bellevue that has been there who knows how long. They have a giant Lil Jon sign outside like those diners along the highway that try to attract commercial truck drivers, which is odd because Lil Jons is right in the middle of suburbia. As a kid, I saw the sign all the time, but hadn't ever actually eaten there. It was just a part of the scenery on our way to Michael's. Anyway, I think Lil Jon caught on fire a little while ago and they had to rebuild the whole thing. When they reopened in January, it was a big deal among the Factoria-lites and I finally got to go today!

It was alright. Maybe a step up from Denny's, but honestly I don't know what all the hype is about.

Napping before noon

trapped in this room for 4 hours while it looked like that outside

Something has been really off about this week. After my big test last Friday and an abnormally larger number of assignments due this week, I am relieved that it's all over, yet at the same time, worried that I'm not doing anything very productive... I've spent a lot of time playing PvZ online and rewatching the first season of Arrested Development. Half of my days I am still in my pajamas until at least noon. I didn't have class today and woke up at 7:30 am only to go take a nap at 10:30! Not sure if that's a win or lose, but pretty sure this is the calm before the finals storm. Can we please just fast forward to spring break and spring weather?!

The weekend is over. Again.

Why do these weekends keep passing by so quickly? I make a big long list of things I have to do by Sunday evening, and here I am starting at the top of my list right now! Actually, I will start after this blog post because this blog post isn't on the my list at all, but I feel sad not posting at least once every three days.

The most horrible thing about this weekend is that I am getting sick. I have been so good this quarter at not getting sick, but its finally caught up to me. I've had a headache all day and my throat is dry. I'm pretty sure it's because I've been stressed the past week and a half for that test and now my immune system is like, 'yay! lets relax!" which means I get sick. The good thing is that clinical is over so I don't have to miss any days and make them up later (one of my fears).

There were two great parts about this weekend. The first is that John found us the perfect long distance past time: Plants v Zombies Garden Warfare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's basically Modern Warfare, but Plants vs Zombies themed! It's the best of both worlds: shooting and killing stuff for John, and cute cartoon plants and zombies for me. At the beginning of this weekend I was really bad and I felt like 8 year old me again who was never able to pass the third world (Hercules) in Kingdom Hearts on PS2. But now I can actually keep up with some of the other players online! Let's be honest, those players are probably 8 year old kids whose moms won't let them get actual Modern Warfare, but it's okay because they don't know that I'm a procrastinating college student in her twenties.

The second awesome part about my weekend was that I got to see my beautiful friends from high school! They are the definition of homies- friends from my home. I was so excited to see them that I was convinced to go to Aston Manor as soon as one of them said, "Why aren't you coming?". That usually happens. I left early though because I wasn't really feeling it. It was too loud, dark and crowded. I couldn't even talk to the person next to me and everyone was shoulder to shoulder. I don't think that was really my scene because I am an old grandma and I should be wrapped in a blanket knitting sweaters for all 8 of my cats. 

Anyway, time to start on that list. Have a good week everyone.