Obsessed.

I’m surprised I found time this weekend to help a friend develop a marketing strategy for her new business, go on a hike with Dave, and grocery shop and prep meals for the week considering we’ve been absolutely OBSESSED with this game:

It’s Settlers of Catan mania at our house. Just to illustrate – we played three games on Friday night with some friends, which made us stay up wayyyy past our bedtime. We enjoyed decadent snacks during this, such as baguette with brie and smoked salmon and dark chocolate covered almonds (no pics though). The others had beer, too, but I stuck to my home-brewed Kombucha with pride.

Then, yesterday, Dave discovered a version you can play with two people, which only made us more addicted. We spent our Saturday night hovered over the game board, then all of Sunday morning, and we’re about to play more.

Despite this craziness, I have some food pics to share 🙂

These are two-ingredient muffins a la hungryhungryhippie.com. It’s so genius – all it takes are four eggs and 3 cups of shredded zucchini plus a pinch of salt.

I’m excited to try these for breakfast tomorrow along with this other goodness inspired by Elise:

Aside from making the two cutest loaves of banana bread ever, this recipe is so insanely delicious that I doubled it and made two this time (I subbed maple syrup for the stevia in her recipe only because that’s what I had here). It’s so moist and flavorful and will make for the perfect start to my week. Seriously, knowing I have a delicious breakfast waiting for me will make getting up at 6 a.m. on a Monday so much easier.

The rest of my food prep was focused on lunch-making and assembling some salads for dinner, which contained a lot of left-overs, such as salmon, avocado, goat cheese, and roasted pine nuts.

I also started my second batch of kombucha. I’m making twice as much this time because the stuff is perfection and let’s be real, I want to drink it every day.

As I’m waiting for it to ferment, I will have to rely on the expensive bottled stuff, but I would rather not go without it for a week. Making twice the amount should help avoid this in the future, though.

Almond milk for organic berries and Green Superfood smoothies in the a.m., kombucha for an energy-boost in the afternoons. Bring on the new week!

Goodbye Chores, Hello Tastiness

I’ve been thinking lately about what a waste of time stress is and how worrying about mundane to-do lists can take so much joy out of my daily life. It’s scary because I’m not even prone to being anxious or to easily stress about things. I think as a child and teenager, I easily classified as the “not a worry on the mind” type, living for the moment and always happy to experience something new. I’m not saying that was always a good thing – I often lost stuff, failed math tests, and never thought about saving up for college, etc. – but having that as part of my identity makes me uncomfortable when I do feel anxious about getting stuff done now that I’m an “adult.”

Yesterday, a friend posted this quote on Facebook: “Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.” I couldn’t agree more.

So today, I decided most of the things on my weekend chore list are not that important.

Dave and I hit the gym at around 8 and then had what’s becoming our staple Saturday breakfast – sweet potato pancakes.

There is currently nothing more delicious to me than this creation. The almond butter and maple syrup on top paired with the taste of pancakes and coffee are unbeatable. I devoured my serving and regretted I didn’t make twice as many.

After reading on the balcony and drinking more coffee, I needed a smoothie made from frozen berries, coconut milk, and Amazing Grass powder to counter the caffeine overdose.

A little later, we headed out for lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant.

We sat outside because it was 65 degrees and sunny. I ordered the red curry with shrimp as usual. I have documented my obsession with this dish several times before.

Next, we went to Webster’s, a coffee shop in downtown State College, so Dave could work on end-of-semester papers and I could drink an almond milk decaf latte and read. If you have read Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), you will know what a good time I had. She’s hilarious and inspiring.

Around 5 pm. we went to Trader Joe’s to get groceries and then headed back home for a relaxed evening in.

I was still feeling a little out of it from my caffeine overdose, so I had Synergy Kombucha. It was my first bottle ever. I picked it up a few days ago to try it. It’s really good. It will take restraint not to make it a regular habit, which would be an expensive one.

Feeling refreshed, I put on The Office (inspired by Mindy) and put the groceries away before making the most random of random dinner creations I’ve ever put together.

Red Quinoa, sweet potatoes, a zucchini, and kale all in a casserole dish…

…before adding vegetable broth, salsa, cashews, pinto beans, salt, pepper, and Greek yogurt and then topping it with Daiya Cheeze.

30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees and voila

A pseudo casserole that turned out more like a warm salad. It was actually surprisingly good.It could have done with less vegetable broth and the sweet potatoes may have still been a little too crunchy for some (so 35 minutes in the oven might be a better cooking time). But other than that: really good. Bonus points for me for using zucchini because I never buy or eat zucchini. I only bought some today because I need them for a recipe later this week.

We finally have chocolate coconut milk ice cream again, so I had some of that and watched about half a season of The Office. Mission postponing weekend chores complete.

Morning Power Smoothie

I have a new morning smoothie routine. Before I make breakfast, I pour some frozen berries in the blender, so they can take some time to thaw. About an hour later, when I’m ready to leave, I pour in a cup of almond milk, one scoop of Amazing Grass chocolate powder, half a cup of oats, and a tablespoon of pure, raw, wild honey. Sometimes, I also add some coffee.

I take the smoothie out the door with me and drink it in the car.

Crappy photo, I know. I took it when I got into the car. Although I do find delight in the yellow and pink combo.

My commute lasts a little under an hour, which sounds awful, and sometimes it’s really not ideal. But it’s really beautiful, taking me through the rolling hills of Central PA. When the sun is out, the view from I-99 over State College, also called “Happy Valley,” is absolutely breathtaking. And then later, crossing the West branch of the Susquehanna River right before entering Woolrich, the view is equally pretty, especially if there is some fog sitting on the feet of the Allegheny Mountains.

Anyway, this smoothie makes my commute a little more fun. Sometimes, I carpool, but not really much recently. I like to listen to NRP or to my Spotify Playlists. During my drive home, I always talk to people on the phone. Friends now know to call at 5 p.m., so it’s like a built-in phone hour. Maybe my new challenge will be to listen to my Turkish vocab CDs on my commute.