What I’ve Been Up To (MIMM)

Catchy title, no? A lot of blogging experts say that the best title is concise and straight to the point. You can’t get much more accurate than that.

Thanks to Katie at Healthy Diva Eats for hosting the fun, weekly Marvelous in My Monday blog party where I am going to share what I’ve been up to for the past few days.

The Iron Daughter

A modern fantasy novel about faeries, love, and adventure (sequel).

How Too Much Omega-6 and Not Enough Omega-3 is Making Us Sick

An interesting read for those health conscious individuals who consume nuts and oils on a daily basis.

The Honesty Dilemma

This post really made me stop and think about what it means to tell the truth.

I Never Got to Say

Alex wrote a really touching reflection post about how her friends helped her in the toughest of times.

I’m Not Lying

I think everyone needs to keep this in mind whether no matter the situation.

The Glades

“Sunny with a chance of homicide.” What more do I need to say?

Rookie Blue

*Sigh* This is one of my favorite shows of all time. Andy + Sam forever.

Camp Rock 2

Sometimes you just need a movie that’s light and cuss-free. My brother and I watched this last night.

Goosebumps

I sat through maybe 5 minutes of this show before going to bed. I tried but I still am not a fan of the creep factor.

Camp Rock

Much less creepy. Apparently I fell asleep while watching it though and my brother said I was “out like a log” with my headphones still on.

• Going to a baseball game with my brother
• Spending time with my family
• Buying/watching a new movie
• Seeing the local sights
• Learning about history
• (more about these later on in a recap!)

A cinnamony, grain and dairy-free bread with vegan and nut-free substitution options.

(I’ll be sharing the recipe on Wednesday. It’s a good one 🙂 ).

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

I want to know- What have you been…

• Reading?
• Watching?
• Doing?
• Making?

Fun Facts Friday: I’m McQuirky

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Fun Facts Friday post so I decided to bring it back for today! In this edition I’ve gathered together seven odd (but fun) facts about me. The title is also referencing Grey’s Anatomy, which if any of you have watched it then you’d know that two of the main characters were nicknamed McDreamy and McSteamy in season one. This post has nothing to do with television or hot guys… But adding “mc” to quirky just seemed like more fun 🙂

Let’s get started!

1. I have the strange habit in the morning of never buttoning/unbuttoning my pants to put them on. I just pull them right on up. (What a way to start a post, right? Now you will forever think of me as the girl who doesn’t know how to properly dress herself).

(source)

2. Sometimes in my spare time I will go find unhealthy recipes in cookbooks or on the web, copy and paste them into a word document, and then create a brand new version that’s lower in sugar, grain-free, paleo, vegan, etc. Only a small percentage of the time do I actually end up making them, I just enjoy recipes in general. I’ve been known to even take a cookbook to bed with me and read it like a novel.

(source)

3. In high school whenever I have a rough day I would go to my bookshelf and pull out one of my favorite novels to read. Usually a J.K. Rowling, Sarah Dessen, Ally Carter, Rachel Meade or Cassandra Clare. If it was a particularly stressful days sometime’s I’d even settle down to my favorite childhood books like Nancy Drew 🙂

(source)

4. Speaking of some of my favorite authors, the first blogs that I ever read actually weren’t food or healthy living blogs but author blogs. Meg Cabot was probably the first, followed by Sarah Dessen and Ally Carter. I still follow them all and read every single one of their posts.

(source)

5. I know a lot of people dislike watching movies pr tv episodes more than once, or  having to read the same book twice… But I’m the complete opposite. Given the chance to watch a new movie or an old favorite (like Harry Potter, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Sweet Home Alabama, Star Wars, etc.) I would be more likely to choose the old movie. See, when you’ve already read/watched something you whether it’s good or not. If you haven’t read/watched it yet there’s a chance that you’ll end up wasting hours of your life on something awful. Why not stick with the familiar?

(source)

6. The other day Alex actually mentioned something odd that I do too. I can’t stand sleeping the normal way under sheets and a bedspread. No matter where I’m at- home, apartment, hotel (especially at hotels!) I always sleep on top of the bedspread with another blanket on top. I’ve done this for a pretty long time much to the annoyance of my parents.

(source)

7. I love search engines. That may seem really random (which it is) but I genuinely like to just pull up yahoo! or google and look things up. It’s like a challenge to me to see what’s available online to learn about. Imdb and wikipedia are probably the two most visited websites in my internet history (besides bloglovin and wordpress that is!).

(source)

And that wraps up another Friday post. After clicking Publish I’m going to get my food prep done for tomorrow, get ready for bed (minus the pajamas which I already put on when I got home today 😉 ) and read a few chapters of a new book that I got at a thrift store last week.

Tomorrow I’m pretty excited because my family is driving up to stay the weekend with me. My brother and I are going to a baseball game Friday night with free tickets that I got through work, and on Saturday/Sunday we are going to explore the city a bit and try to find something fun to do. Maybe watch a movie.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Questions for you:

What makes you McQuirky?

Do you sleep on top or under your bed sheets?

Are you someone who likes to reread or rewatch things?

Holy Buckets of Rain Water Batman (WIR)

As you can tell from the title of my post, it rained quite a bit today! Thankfully I was in my car for most of the heavy downpour but when I had to make a quick stop into Whole Foods after work I got absolutely soaked.

At Whole Foods I bought some large bags of non-GMO frozen peas, organic bananas, unscented dish soap (all for me) and some packs of Applegate’s organic sausages (for my family).

For 2.00 off any Applegate product you can go to Facebook and “Stage a Weinervention.” Ha. 😉

Skipping back to the weekend before last, I took a trip to Big Lots and did a little hunting for my mom. She is the director of my church’s two week summer reading program and this year their theme is Book a Trip for a Reading Adventure. Usually I get to be in charge of snacks…

But since I’m away from home this summer I’m having to help from afar! At Big Lots I hit the aisles looking for any snacks that the kids might like that fit the theme- I took pictures of the whole aisle of international foods and photobombed my mom’s phone 🙂

Not to worry though because I totally made up for it by buying both my mom and brother some birthday presents there as well!

As I mentioned on Wednesday we weren’t able to have my brother’s birthday party last weekend because he got strep throat, but this weekend hopefully we are able to have it. I have been put in charge of making the cake. Here is my overambitious goal:

I didn’t do much cooking when home except for soup for myself and these pancakes for my dad:

I still need to work on the recipe more before posting. I tried making a peanut butter and chocolate swirl but once flipped the drizzles became more crispy than delicious…. Not exactly what I had in mind 😦

Now for an update on some of the movies and books that I’ve been watching/reading!

This past weekend I watched two new-to-me movies: The Pelican Brief and 21 and Over.

The Pelican Brief was really good and I loved Julia Roberts with Denzel Washington.

21 and Over was… interesting? Overall it was pretty funny, like The Hangover for a younger age group. The images were a little too graphic and vulgar for my taste as well as the rest of my family. The main cast of characters did an excellent job though. It had some of my favorite up and coming actors- Skylar Austin who played Jesse in Pitch Perfect, and Miles Teller who played Willard in the newest rendition of Footloose.

As far as books go, I finished The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen last week. Before that I also read a few others that are a little kiddish I admit, but still good- Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian and Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter.

I finished the audiobook version of Bossypants by Tina Fey last week as well (I listen to that on my rides to/from home as well as on my commutes to work). This week I checked out Heat Wave by Richard Castle and have been loving it so far! It took a few minutes to get used to the author’s voice reading the thoughts of Nikki Heat, but it’s really addicting.

Almost as addicting as the show itself of which I am now on episode six of the second season. In case anyone else loves Castle you should know that a lot of the episodes are on YouTube!

Speaking of Castle (how random is this post?) I want to squeeze another episode in before I go to bed so it’s time to go. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!!

*This post will be shared next week with Meghan from Clean Eats Fast Feet’s Week in Review.

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Has it been raining where you live?

What good deals have you found at Big Lots?

Have you ever watched The Pelican Brief or 21 and Over?

What books have you been reading lately?

Do you ever listen to audiobooks on long car rides?

Books, Blogs, and Baking

Usually I would post some opening about being excited that it’s Friday and I’m so glad to be done for the weekend, but since I’m on break right now that wouldn’t be very applicable to me 😉 However, I will say that I’m excited for the weekend because I will finally be around REAL PEOPLE. It gets a little lonely staying at home all day without any friends or family around. Thankfully I have my pets to keep me company, but it would be nice if they could reply back with something other than barks or meows.

The only things that have kept me sane are books, blogs and baking!

Books

I’ve read two books in the past four days: Divergent and its sequel Insurgent.

The books are part of a dystopian trilogy by Veronica Roth. Set in Chicago these books depict a fictional society that is divided into five factions, one for every type of person- Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). The main character Beatrice has reached the point in her life where she is given the choice of which faction she wants to live in. Nothing is as it seems though, and soon Beatrice is discovering that what she thought she knew about her society is wrong, and what she learns may lead to the end of life as she knew it.

The final book is coming out October 22, 2013 and I am beyond thrilled to find out what happens.

Blogs

Here are some new blogs that I’ve discovered recently, mixed in with a few of my favorite posts from blogs that I already read on a regular basis.

Road to RD’s And This is Why We Shouldn’t Compare Ourselves to Celebrities

Clean Eats Fast Feets’ One Year Blogiversary Giveaway

Jessie Loves to Run’s Thursday Thoughts

Peace Love and Oats’ You Do You

Eat Pray Tri’s Snap to It Photography Program

Baking

Here are some of the recipes that I have made in the past week. Some I came up with myself and you may see on the blog soon!

Banana Nut Bread (with pecans)– Recipe adapted from my great-grandmother’s classic banana bread to be grain-free.

Avocado Chocolate Mousse– My parents just raved about this chocolatey dessert (they said you couldn’t taste the avocado!).

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread– Roughly based on a poppy seed cake in a cookbook at home.

Homemade Applesauce– Only one ingredient and very smooth!

Coconut Flour Biscuits– I altered this recipe slightly by whipping the egg whites and removing the baking soda.

As you can see I’ve been keeping very busy 🙂 I’m hoping to respond to all of your comments sometime this weekend, but Friday morning I’m attending my brother National Honor’s Society induction ceremony at school, and I’m hanging out with some friends at the park tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great and productive weekend! 😀

————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Share something in each of the categories: Books, blogs, and baking!