Marvelous is One Week Left

As per my title, I am one week down with one week left to go until my internship! This week I’ll be cleaning up all of my stuff from college while simultaneously packing in preparation to move into my new apartment.

Here’s how I spent last week, courtesy of Week in Review with Meghan:

I wrote a total of four posts in the last week- Marvelous is my First Week Off, WIAW: Simple Homemade Ranch Dressing, Books, Blogs, and Baking, and There’s Nothing Like a Mother.

On my Monday post I shared a recipe for Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash,

And for WIAW I shared a very simple and clean homemade ranch dressing recipe.

The weather was so beautiful and warm all week long. Even though I didn’t make it into town much, I made sure to go outside everyday and soak up the sunshine. Some days I went out on our deck to read the two books that I mentioned on Friday (I am actually half way through another book that I’ll share about soon!).

On Thursday I finally ventured out into the real world to get a much-needed haircut. Here’s a before and after for comparison. Even with a nice trim though, my hair is still quite frizzy from all the heat. (Any tips to combat the humidity that doesn’t involve a full bucket of hair product? 😉 )

Friday morning I got ready earlier than usual to to attend my brother’s National Honors Society induction ceremony at 8:00 AM.

Then after I had lunch on Friday I drove into town to hang out with my friends at Taco Bell. We chatted for a little while and I headed to my old high school to help out with a track meet. Unfortunately it was raining so not many people came out for it, but fortunately for me that meant they had plenty of people in the concession stand and didn’t need my assistance!

I could definitely feel the effects of being cooped up all week in the house so come Saturday when my mom was home we went shopping!… Okay, so it was mostly grocery shopping, but it was still a bunch of fun. Here are a few things that I found at Meijer that I got quite the kick out of:

Later Saturday we also went looking for Mother’s Day presents for my grandma and aunt at the local nursery. I picked out the bottom purple/white hanging basket and my mom found the top basket full of red/pink/white flowers.

With my brother gone to a friends house and my dad asleep on the couch, my mom and I were free to pick whatever we wanted to watch on TV. We pulled up our instant cue on Netflix and found a pretty good movie to watch: My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend. Overall it was cute. Nothing spectacular. Just an overall feel-good film (shout out to Alyssa Milano from Charmed— one of my favorite tv shows in Middle School!).

Come Sunday morning I whipped up a new batch of pancakes for Mother’s Day (my dad got some too 😉 ). They’re really versatile and are great with pretty much any type of fruit!

Grain-Free Coconut Banana Pancakes

Grain/Gluten/Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, High Fiber, No Sugar Added, Paleo, GAPS-Friendly

Makes Two Servings (4-6 small pancakes each)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• dash of salt
• dash of cinnamon
• 5 tbsp coconut flour
• Optional fruit: blueberries, bananas or apples

Directions:

1. Separate the eggs placing the egg whites into a food processor and the yolks into a small bowl.
2. Whip the egg whites until they are white and stiff. Then add the remaining ingredients (including the yolks) until smooth.
3. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Coat in ghee or coconut oil to prevent sticking.
4. Using a 1/4 c. measuring cup pour out the batter into the skillet. Cook for approximately 2 minutes until the uncooked side is bubbly. If you want to add blueberries put them on the pancakes now.
5. Flip the pancake and cook for an addition 1-2 minutes or until done.
6. Repeat with the remaining batter and top with pan-seared apple slices, fresh banana chunks, and/or a drizzle of honey! Enjoy.

Shared on Fat Tuesday

After breakfast my dad, mom, brother and I got ready and met up with about 15 other family members to celebrate Mother’s Day at a Chinese buffet again. Then the four of us watched Iron Man 3! If you haven’t seen it, you should. It wasn’t as good as the first Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man, but it was way better than the sequel. Plus, Gwenyth Paltrow’s role as Pepper Pots takes a pretty interesting turn in the movie! (No Spoilers here 🙂 ).

Now it’s Sunday night and I’m about to hit “Publish.” Tomorrow my plans include some more unpacking and watching The Great Gatsby with some other friends at a matinee.

*Edited to add (because it was late and I forgot…):

I also wasted many (try six) hours this week watching The Voice and American Idol with my fan-girl mother. Here are a few of my thoughts in bullet form:

• Nikki Minaj just needs to go.

• Keith Urban is so cool with his Aussie accent.

• The Voice beats out American Idol 10 to 1. No question.
• Mariah Carey– what kind of music video was that? I didn’t even realize until half way through that she hadn’t even sung a note until my dad commented on it. And then she just flung up her skirt and sang a few lines for the rest of the time. No words.

• Now I remember why I stopped watching these shows.
• Please don’t ever bring back Christina or Cee Lo. It’s so refreshing to have genuinely nice people (Usher and Shakira).

• Why is Nikki Minaj still here?

Also, we had a momentary freak out when my dog ate a coffee bean last night when as my brother was trying to glue some down to his poster about Brazil for Spanish. A quick search confirmed that yes- coffee beans are toxic to dogs, but alas our puppy is still alive and kicking. All good here 🙂

Have a Marvelous Monday! 🙂

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1. What was one highlight from your week/weekend?

2. Have you seen any of the movies that I listed. What did you think?

3. How did your Mother’s Day go?