Food for the… #3

I had big plans for today’s post. I was going to pour out my heart and sole to you guys. Share my deepest darkest secrets.

Okay, not really, but I seriously did have plans for a greater ratio of words to links. However, my friend and I spent the last hour and a half looking at apartments online and e-mailing prospective landlords. Do you know how hard it is to find furnished, cat-friendly, two bedroom apartments?

Let me rephrase that. Do you know how hard it is to find furnished, cat-friendly, two bedroom apartments that don’t cost a lot AND don’t look like they haven’t been updated since the 60’s? Incredibly hard I’ll tell you.

We did manage to find a few that didn’t sound too bad and fit my roommate’s price constraints. To me the money isn’t that big of an issue since whatever we choose will be cheaper than staying in our dorm. Would you like to guess how much it costs per month to stay in a dorm at my college? $770. And that doesn’t even include a kitchen or a decent parking space! It makes the apartments that we’re looking at with $400 a month look like a steal. We’re aiming for in the high 200s to low 300s though per person, which while that seems difficult, is totally feasible.

But that’s probably more than you would have liked to hear about my “oh look I’m pretending to be an adult” rants about finding a cheap apartment. Shoot, most of you own HOUSES! My argument pales in comparison I’m sure.

So let’s move on to my Friday link-love of all of the posts/pictures/videos that I found interesting throughout the week. As per tradition I have divided them into four separate categories. MIND (posts to get you thinking!), BELLY (recipes to get you hungry), EYES (videos or pictures to make you laugh/cry/contemplate the meaning of your existence), and SOUL (articles that speak to the heart) . This week I have decided to add a fifth category: BODY, which, as the name hints at, will be a collection of exercise articles and workouts.

FOOD FOR THE MIND

Oreo’s New Cookie Dough Flavor is Real — from Buzzfeed

Senior Citizens Amazingly Re-Create Famous Movie Scenes — from Buzzfeed

Changes to FDA Food Label — from Yahoo! Food

16 Signs You Are a Little (Or a Lot) Type A — from The Huffington Post

Paleo on a Budget — from Pencils and Pancakes

Is Butter Secretly Ruining Your Health? — from Food Babe

Nutrition in the NBA — from CBSports

The Disney Side of Life — from Running with Spoons

Nutrition Notes: Canned Soup — from Kath Eats

FOOD FOR THE BELLY

Chocolate Brownies that Blew Me Away — from Eat Drink Paleo

Nutty Bread — from Treats With a Twist

Frozen Sunbutter Fudge — from The Spunky Coconut

Gluten-Free Baked Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips — from The Healthy Apple

Easy Oat Flatbread — from Sprint 2 the Table

Homemade Ketchup — from Skinny Taste

Chunky Monkey Fudge — from Nut Butter Runner

Sweet Potato Maple Vegan Beer Bread — from Averie Cooks

Tuna Cakes with Greek Yogurt Dill Sauce — from Minou Girl

FOOD FOR THE EYES

I Guess This Dog Just Likes to Party — from Facebook

Amazing Kid – Future MMA Star — from YouTube

Dancing in the Sky — from Dani and Lizzy

Brothers Do Amazing Job Recreating Childhood Photos for Mum — from Yahoo! Shine

Doritos Superbowl Commercial Finalists — from Doritos

Sam Woolf American Idol Audition — from YouTube

Right Before Dying From A Rare Lifelong Disease, Sam Revealed His Three Secrets To Happiness — from Upworthy

“The World’s Ugliest Girl” and Her Response — from Shockable

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Trailer — from Movie Clips

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

When Compliments Feel Like Lies, and What to Do About It — from Sensual Appeal Blog

Emotional Eating — from Peachy Palate

The Story Telling Edition — from Clean Eats Fast Feets

Surround Yourself — from Purely Twins

When You Think You’re Falling, It’s Time to REFOCUS — from Cotter Crunch

Running and Food Allergies — from Mile-Posts

It’s Not Easy for Everyone — from The Lean Green Bean

How Blogging Enhanced My Eating Disorder (Guest Post) — from Fueled by LOLZ

It’s Not All Rainbows and Smiles — from Anna the Apple

FOOD FOR THE BODY

What Does “Fit” Mean to You? — The Healthy Maven

Hips, Butt and Thighs — from Blogilates

Three Tips for Running Newbies — from The Little Honey Bee (Guest Post)

Core on Fire Workout — from The Fitnessista

Yoga for Detox and Digestion — from Sarah Beth Yoga

Weight, Wait, Weight Again — from Back on Pointe

Fifty Rep Workout: Part Two — from Peanut Butter Fingers

5 Tips for Starting an Exercise Program — from Carla “MizFit”

1 Minute Fitness Challenge: Seal Jack — from Fit Sugar

You can check out my first two “Food For the…” posts here and here!

Happy Friday everyone!

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Tell me… What is your weekly Food for the… Mind, Belly, Eyes, and Soul?

Snapshots When I Was Sick (WIR)

Stock photos make me cringe. This is the #1 reason why I have not looked back on my last post since it was published. The #2 reason being that I can’t believe that I forced all of you to read what was probably 1000 words on my swollen sinuses and wacked out dreams (oh ya, if you missed Wednesday’s post it was a really doozy).

Going back to problem #1, the reason that I had to use photos that I just found around the internet was because my computer decided that my phone didn’t exist when I tried to plug it in and import my photos. Usually a little box pops up identifying it as a flash drive or something to that effect. Now nothing happens. Zip. Nada.

On Tuesday night when I was feeling sick I didn’t really have any desire to manually e-mail myself each and every photo that I wanted to use and then go edit them on PicMonkey. So instead I resorted to stock photos instead of leaving my whole post pictureless. So really you should be thanking me for not making you read a post with 2689 words (I just checked).

I was not however under the weather enough to choose this one… Until now. Again, you’re welcome for the mental image that has now been burned into your mind for the rest of the day.

Today when I finally do have the desire to take the extra effort to post those photos I had to decide whether to go back and edit my old post or just show them off on this one. I chose this one.

So, here are my photos from the past weekend, in all of their strange and blurry glory. I think an experiment should be created where you give 6 professional photographers a camera and ask them to take pictures at the park. As one little amendment though I think that each photographer should be in a different frame of mind. As in: just woke up, ready to fall asleep, hyped up on caffeine, starving, and sick. Oh, and the sixth would just be wide awake, caffeine-free, healthy as a horse (another little history tidbit for you on that one) and not hungry in the slightest.

In the end, I bet it would be hilarious to compare the photos and would be quite easy to pick out what pictures were taken by which person.

Here is quite possibly what the pictures may have resembled of the sick person:

Me after my awards ceremony on Friday afternoon… Look how blissfully unaware I was of what was to come!

This is just a quick picture that I took at the wedding reception. I have no idea who any of those people are, except for that’s my brother’s arm in the bottom right corner 😉

And this would be one of many plates that my dad got from the appetizer table. So much fruit. It all looked so good, and there was even little tiny metal forks to stab them with!

The retained earnings column that I texted a girl from my class when we were going over our take home quiz answers together.

Peppermint tea = lifesaver.

Such a classy mug. The poor lighting is due to the unholy hour that I was up at on Sunday morning (pun intended).

I was extremely fascinated by the quickly melting ice cubes in my tea. Time lapse- 60 seconds.

Here is Lilly checking up on me when I was trying to take a nap while my parents and brother were gone for church.

Here is the bread that I made. It looks on the outside, right?

 

The inside… not so much. This slice was about perfect after baking for about an hour longer. Ha!

3 lbs of fish! Getting the pieces is such a good deal because they are super fresh and the least expensive in the whole market because everyone wants fancy WHOLE fish.

My trash can stuffed with tissues. It just keeps piling up man.

I will be linking up these snapshots to Meghan’s Week in Review next Monday. I better see all of you there because the party is fun, fantastic, and just what you need to start the week off right.

Have a fantabulous day and an even better weekend! I know I will… Sleep is already on my mind and in my dreams (did I mention that I think my dreams have not been as funky since I’m starting to feel better?!)

Oh, and shout out to my dad even though he isn’t allowed to read my blog. I hope you feel better!

I think I may have gotten him sick too 😉

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Which of the six photographers would you be? I think I’d be both sleepy and sick.

What’s your favorite snapshot from the week?

Are you going to be linking up to WIR on Monday? You should start on your post now so that you don’t forget!

I Just Remembered… (MIMM + WIR)

I just remembered that I have about one bazillion plus one pictures that I haven’t shared on here from my summer and back-to-school antics. Among these are the rest of my weekend trip in Michigan with my family, some pictures from a recent shopping excursion with my mom and her friend, as well as just some random these-don’t-belong-anywhere-else photos that I have no where else to put.

(Source)

Notice that none of these lay mention to my dorm room. That time will come eventually. I just need to clear out my computers from my internship and that will give me a ton of extra space.

Right, about that… It turns out that my school requires a username/password to access their internet, and the phone that I run through the internet is not setup to require a password. Ergo, I can’t do the internship any longer.

(Source)

I have two main thoughts on this:

1. Oh my gosh. Money!! I really needed that money. Like A LOT.**
2. This will free up a lot of time for studying and just doing whatever I please. Already in the two weeks since school starts without taking any calls (what I did for my internship for those that don’t know) I haven’t once felt like I had too much time on my hands. I also never feel rushed. So maybe it really is for the better.

** So that’s just me being melodramatic. I have enough money to cover my school bills in my bank account as of right now, and it won’t kill me to take out a loan. I know that there are people out there with actual money concerns and mine are not even near as dramatic as theirs.

Overall I think I am also a lot less stressed without the addition of work, but that’s both good and bad. Yes, I don’t want to be OVER-stressed; however it was good practice for the real world outside of college and having that constant commitment kept me on my toes.

I’m going to be taking back my computer and phone equipment in the next few weeks and hopefully get to chat and say goodbye to my intern coordinator. She was such a nice lady and always responded to all of my questions (which were quite numerous as you can imagine). This trip will also lend itself to a trip to Whole Foods and/or Trader Joes so if that happens there will definitely be more Pictorial Deposits in the near future 😉

That’s all in the future though. Let’s wrap up the past and get crack a’ lackin!

I’m linking up today with Katie at Healthy Diva Eats for MIMM and Meghan at Clean Eats Fast Feets for Week in Review.

I took a lot of self portraits at work.

Obviously.

But instead of being obnoxious and posting one every day… I decided to bombard you with them all at once.

It’s proof that I did not wear a t-shirt/jeans/shorts every single day. My parents will be so proud (if they read my blog 😉 ).

It seems that I have an affinity for long sleeves, stripes and plaid. Hmm. Go figure- I actually have a “style.”

Before I get too retrospective and lose everyone’s respect let’s move on. After all, this blog is not about fashion!

(Source)

Now here is Part 2 of my weekend with my family up in Michigan this past summer (sorry in advance for the inordinate amount of photos).

After going to Greenfield Village at the beginning of the day, we took a short break recouping during lunch and messing around on our respective technological devices. Then my dad got it in his head that it would be fun to walk around a nearby college campus. You can just imagine my brother’s groans in protest and my mother’s dubious looks (I probably complained too but must have just blocked that part out… 😉 ). Upon explaining that the campus was well-known for looking like the grounds of HOGWARTS though we were all on board!

Instead of driving I pulled the directions up on Map Quest and suggested that we walk since it was only about a mile away.

Once we got closer I became increasingly more excited because it really DID look like Hogwarts.

The weather was absolutely perfect!

I felt like I was a student at Hogwarts… Just waiting for Harry Potter to walk around the corner.

Way far in the distance you may be able to spot a person in a light-colored shirt. There were actually two kids getting there senior pictures taken that day on the campus grounds. I bet they turned out amazing!

My mom.

Thing #1

Thing #2 (I’m guessing they were supposed to be monks?)

Me in front of a “passageway.”

Whomping Willow anyone?!

There was a lot of construction going on while we were there, which I tried to avoid in all of my pictures because it just kind of ruined the mood.

Madison Street!

I’d highly recommend for all of you Harry Potter fans out there to visit the campus whenever you’re in town. It didn’t take very long to walk around but I would love to go back there some time and have a picnic, take some more pictures, and if classes were in session maybe even take a look inside!

Alright…. Now let’s skip forward a few weeks to first of the September when I went shopping with my mom and her friend.

As I’ve mentioned before, coming from a small town we don’t have many specialty stores around to shop at. That limits the variety of things that we can buy as far as clothes, food, etc. More importantly, for my mom at least, it really puts a damper on the school supplies that she can buy for her classroom. We used to have a really great teacher store around us but that closed over five years ago so now we have to trek over an hour away to get to the nearest one.

Some may have found it boring, but growing up a teacher’s daughter I’ve gotten accustomed to teacher stores, quick trips into town for last-minute supplies, and helping with back-to-school crafts (<< one of my favorite parts aside from helping her grade tests!).

I know that there a few teachers that also blog out there, so this is for you all. I guess if you really like shopping/books/stickers you’ll like all of the pictures too… 😉

You Know You are in a Teacher Store When…

There are bulletin boards in the bathroom.

There are aisles upon aisles of books.

And stickers…

I guess I should also specify that these stickers are AWESOME!

Look closer… That’s right! Scratch and sniff. Stickers scented with the best foods known to man: Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Pizza, Grape, Popcorn, Strawberry, Cola, Lemonade, Apple, Taco, Bubblegum and there was even MORE on the other side. Heaven.

I even came across these. I think it’s safe to say though that our homemade versions were just as good and much cheaper 🙂

Now to wrap up this post a little something to remember from a scientific genius who we have all learned from over the years:

Well said Einstein. Well said.

I think I will take his advice and catch up on my fairy tales with Once Upon a Time this week to prepare for the new season. Who’s with me?

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Questions for you:

Have you ever gone anywhere that has reminded you of the set of a movie?

What scent would you want your scratch and sniff stickers to be? Cookie dough or cupcake. Duh.

What shows are you excited for this Fall? Or sad to see leave from the Summer? Excited for Once Upon a Time (but I’m WAY behind on my episodes…) and sad to see Rookie Blue end.

Pictorial Deposit (Foodless WIAW)

AKA Photo dump. But pictorial deposit sounds like a lot more work was involved, doesn’t it? 🙂

Here are a bunch of pictures from a recent weekend that my family and I spent in Michigan:

And I’m linking up to WIAW just because 😉

The weekend started with my brother and I going to a Detroit Lions baseball game.

It was my first time ever at a professional baseball game and it was much more exciting than I predicted!

I got the tickets free from work along with some “Fun Money” which my brother spent on food along with some souvenirs.

Before the game was over I convinced him to take a picture of me in front of the stadium. 🙂

And of course I returned the favor 😉

The Lions ended up winning the game and after it was over they had very long and beautiful fireworks show.

We didn’t end up getting back until very late that night but nonetheless Saturday morning we all got up bright and early, made breakfast, and headed out to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

The home of the late Henry Ford.

The first part of the village had a lot of historical cars and memorabilia of the famous Ford.

Including one of his first cars pictured below!

Besides the Ford cars we also saw one of his tractors.

Along with the tractor there was also a windmill and an enclosed area that housed sheep.

There were also a lot of things about Thomas Edison who apparently acted as a sort of mentor to Ford.

We got to tour Edison’s laboratory where he performed some of his experiments and also where one of his inventions, the galvanometer, was showcased.

Then we were off to a few other famous homes including the Sarah Jordan boarding house.

The bicycle shop of the Wright Brothers.

Near the bicycle shop was their home from Kitty Hawk.

And one of the highlights of the trip for me- the home of Noah Webster, the creator of Webster’s Dictionary.

Look at all of those books!

This is only about half of the places that we visited in Greenfield Village so far. Be forewarned- many more pictures ahead!

My mom was the person who was really pushing for us to visit Greenfield Village so we had to make sure to stop by the craftworks district, which was where she wanted to visit most, and which ended up being everyone’s favorite part!

There was glassblowing.

As well as Pottery.

Tin.

And weaving.

Then came the real fun of the day- getting to watch my brother operate a printing press 🙂

Success.

The printing press was towards the end of our trip to Greenfield Village so of course before we left we had to make sure that we captured all of the necessary photo opportunities.

All in all it was a great weekend and look out for the rest of my recap on Friday!

Just in case the thought of another “pictorial deposit” doesn’t excite you, there’s also the recipe for this to look forward to:

Grain-free. Nut-free. Vegan. And oh so yummy 😀

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Questions for you:

What did you do this past weekend? I went to a bridal shower and went thrift store shopping with my mom (more on that later!).

Have you gone any trips with your family/friends recently? Yep. The entire post above 😉

What is your favorite type of vacation? I like vacations where there is a little bit of everything. Relaxation. Fun. Learning.