Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, All!

I hope that Easter was full of joy, happiness, and chocolate! Because what's Easter without a little bit of chocolate? : )

My parents sent me an awesome Easter care package filled with goodies--most of which was a great stash of chocolate! They also sent me a bouquet of pink roses for the holiday!

Aren't they the BEST? I love them so much!

My breakfasts have been pretty boring lately (well I love them, but not a lot of variety). I'm trying to use up my breakfast items in the kitchen in preparation of moving out of my dorm in 3 weeks. So cereal it's been!

I love having bananas in my cereal with blueberries, but I also really love having it on the side with some sunflower seed butter. I'm seriously obsessed with sunflower seed butter these days...it may be my new favorite nut butter! It's soooo delicious!

Sunflower Seed Butter!

Back to homework and chocolate consumption! Enjoy the rest of your Easter and have a great week!

Stress

I've recently been struggling with stress.  I can't seem to escape it and I can't seem to find a way to control it. But today, I came across something that Caitlin said over at Healthy Tipping Point; "The stress will not control me." It's something that her husband often tells her. Well that phrase really struck me and I'm feeling a whole lot better already--I will conquer this stress! I am in control!

Plus, isn't this the cutest kitten you've ever seen? I can't be upset when I look at this little one!

Source: http://edgeoftheplank.blogspot.com/2010/04/cute-animals-kittens.html

Have a great day everyone! Conquer your stress!

Brownies, Cinnabons, and Cheesy Biscuits!

Back again!

Last night I went to a friend's dorm for a chill night--well that's what I thought it was going to be! It ended up being quite the dance party (no complaints here though!) For the party, I made guilt-free brownies!

The key to guilt free brownies is replacing the butter/oil with apple sauce! I actually think they're so much better this way because they come out super dense, moist, and chewy!

I also helped make cinnabons while at the party! They were ginormous..

Don't those look amazing? They seemed to be a hit--they didn't last more than 20 minutes.

Some other eats at the party included cheesy biscuits, mini hot dogs, bags of pretzels, yogurt covered pretzels, and chips galore.

This morning I went to brunch with some friends and had so many a few desserts...unfortunately those went un-photographed.

But I'll be back with my breakfast tomorrow...it's going to be warm tomorrow in NYC so I'm thinking a nice cold bowl of cereal is in order.

Have a great Sunday night!

Breakfast Refresh!

Hello All!

I've had some pretty great eats this week, but I need to remember to start carrying my camera with me! I always forget! I will learn, I promise! ;)

I did manage to remember to capture some pictures of my breakfasts the last couple of days! I finished off an entire bag of BobMill's 5 Grain Hot Cereal in no time! I loved it! Just five ingredients! And it was perfect for making overnight oats--which happens to be my new favorite breakfast : )

For my overnight oats, I usually use:
1/2 cup 5 Grain oats
1/2 cup skim milk
1 whole banana
Lots o' cinnamon (I LOVE this stuff!)

And let it soak overnight in the fridge. Then I take it out in the morning and heat it up in the microwave for about two minutes, until it's nice and steam hot! Then I drizzle a nut butter on top. I've been loving sunflower seed butter these days, so that's been my nut butter of choice.

Close up of ma' oats!

 These may not be the best looking pictures of my overnight oats, but let me tell you, this is a breakfast of champions! Most mornings, it can get me through 4 hours until I need a snack!

I love my overnight oats, but I definitely love Vans waffles with peanut butter and bananas! I've been slowly cleaning out the freezer for when I move out of the dorm in 3 weeks, so I've been having waffles for breakfast quite a bit this week. (I'm not complaining though)

A little burnt--I don't have a toaster oven so I use a pan to toast them...which I clearly haven't mastered yet.

Sandwich style!

You may have noticed a banana peanut butter sandwich (well actually that's sunflower seed butter!) I've been noticing these pop up on a couple of blogs that I read and I had to try it. This is such a great way to eat a banana with peanut butter! Usually I just drizzle a banana with peanut butter and that gets all messy; this is a good way to keep the nut butter from getting all over your fingers.

And alas, the return of my cereal combos! I haven't had cereal in a while because I decided not to buy any breakfast food until I started to clean out what I had--which meant no milk :( However, since I've made a significant dent in my stash, I decided to reward myself with some milk to finish off my cereal box.

Nature's Path Cereal (a mix of three actually) with bananas, cinnamon, and milk

Nature's Path is the BEST cereal ever! LOVE! I like to add bananas, blueberries, strawberries, basically any fruit! And of course, I always top it off with a lot some cinnamon. (The left over cinnamon milk tastes like cinnamon toast crunch!)

I'm promise to get better about capturing my other daily eats--I don't want to bore you!

Tonight I'm headed to a chill-hang-out party with my classmates to reward ourselves for a hard week of school--we just finished our first draft of a 25 page paper! You can bet we're going to have some good eats (and I'm going to photograph every single one of them!)

Until then, stay dry if it's raining where you are! Have a great Saturday night!

Semi-Formal Fun!

I'm back!

So I'm still getting the hang of blogging--it hasn't quite become a part of my day-to-day routine, but I'm working on it!

Last night I went to a Semi-Formal for my program at school and I had a blast! The formal was held at the Manhattan Penthouse on 5th Avenue, needless to say, it was beautiful! The evening started with a few appetizers,

Mini empanadas

Mini spinach quiches

After about an hour of mingling and photo taking,

Left: Ali, Right: Me!

Me with a picture of the Empire State Building; isn't New York beautiful?

we were shown into a larger room for a buffet dinner! I got the broiled sea bass, caesar salad, and roasted potatoes. Everything was absolutely delicious!

Of course, the night ended with a molten lava chocolate cake, however, I'm confident that I could have made it much better ;)

Today I spent the day working for the admissions office for Accepted Students Weekend on our campus. It was a busy morning! I've also been working on a 25 page paper...slowly but surely. My goal is to have 10 pages done by tonight!


I'm headed out again tonight with a few friends--should be fun! The weather in New York is beautiful right now.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back soon!