Fa...Fa...Fa-REEZING!

Spring semester has began and so has a true Minnesotan winter. Today I put leggings under my jeans and a long sleeve under my sweater. I snuggled my feet into two pairs of thick socks and shoved them into boots. I put on my warmest hat and wrapped a scarf tightly around my neck, lifting it to cover my nose (sure prevent that Rudolf red nose experience). I put on my new, long, puffy and blue jacket (Thanks to The Dad) and lifted the hood over my head. My teeny little hands slid into monstrous gloves. And then, I walked to class. It was a great feat. But, today, I beat the cold.

But seriously, it is really freaking cold out. I walked to class in -10 degree weather. WHY DID I EVER CHOSE TO GO TO SCHOOL IN MINNESOTA? (just kidding, I really do love it here). It is just so cold! Thankfully, its forecast-ed to get warmer at the end of the week. It could even snow. I am not the biggest fan of snow, but I'll take it over these freezing temperatures any day. 

ALSO. I have started a new workout routine. I (hopefully) am having a less intensely busy semester, so I decided to put a work out schedule into affect. I figured if I made it a part of my schedule it would keep me from getting bored and wasting my time on..lets say...Pinterest. If all stays simple (HAHA), I plan on sticking to it (at least roughly. I am OK with skipping some workouts, I just want to not skip a week of workouts. That's the idea anyway). Already feeling a bit sore today. Woo! Getting fit!

So Busy! AH!

I realized I haven't blogged in a few days, or maybe even in the last month. And I realized it was about time for a veggie-update. I haven't done any amazing awesome baking/cooking lately. A few weeks ago I repeated the banana bread recipe but with chocolate cake mix in place of vanilla. It was delish! The frozen bananas worked out fine, the only thing that was a little disturbing was how dark the peel of the banana was. It was a very dark brown and I was a bit nervous the bananas would be gross as well. Thankfully the bananas were kept perfectly over-ripe in the freezer.
Also, I went on an advegture to the Mill City Farmers Market  this past Saturday with Goombah and one of our fab. friends, G.R. It was a GREAT DAY. First off, on our walk to the market, we merged with the Big Gay Race. The race was part of the Minnesotans United for All Familes and the VOTE NO campaign for Minnesota gov. ban on same-sex marriages. We joined in the fun and cheered on the runners, giving high-five's to those who passed by (side note: No one actually physically high-fived me because they kept missing my hand. True story. So sad). When we made out way out of the 6,000 people crowd, we headed to the farmers market. Goombah and friend got breakfast, which I tasted, except for G.R.'s because it was a meaty breakfast sandwhich. I got some absolutely divine sunflower seed multi-grain bread, a bag of honeycrisp apples, and a few green peppers. Honestly one of the best day's I have had in a long, long while. It was scrumptious, I am devouring the bread, and apples. And will be using the peppers in my 6-months-of-veggieness feast this Thursday. Don't worry, I will make a solid effort to blog about my meal, because I plan on it being a veggielicious event.
ON a vegetarian related note, I am really digging being a vegetarian, and I am thinking about sticking with it beyond this year. ALSO, my goals for October include being optimistic about life and not eating cookies. (I may or may not have had at least 30 cookies last week. I wish that was an over-exaggeration, but it's not. I have a problem. It will be solved this month. NO COOKIES FOR ME.) Hopefully I accomplish these goals. I have faith in myself! WOOT!
ALSO! My main reason for not blogging has been that for one of my classes I am doing a blog about the news, so blogging has become homework, so finding the time to do this blog has been a struggle. I will find time readers, I will find time! If you are interested in looking at my other blog, look HERE. I am not 100% sure you can see it if you aren't a UMN student. But, I hope you can! :) SHINE ON!

Last Taste of Summer

As I prepare to leave my hometown, Waukesha, and my home state of Wisconsin, I have had a few last minute wonderful summer adventures. They began this past Friday.
To preface the first adventure, I'll have to explain one of my duties as a CA in a residential hall at UMN. I have to make door decs. If you have recently spent any time in a residential hall, you would see the names of the residents decoratively placed upon their room doors. One of my duties is to create the decorative door flourishes for the residents I will be looking after in the next year-a total of 75 people. I also have to make another 19 door decorations for my fellow staff members. If you do the math-or if your math handicapped like me and used a calculator-that is a grand total of 84 door decs. Thinking of a way to display the names of the 84 co-ed residents was fairly challenging. I was searching for ideas on what to do when the lovely Goombah said, "Why don't you just write their names on paint samples?"
 At first I was a bit against this idea, but the more she suggested it, the more I liked the idea. I finally decided the enhanced paint samples would be the perfect door dec for my floor. Wonderful. "But wait," I said to Goombah, "I leave for school in four days. What are we going to do, go to Home Depot and casually grab 84 door decs." And this, my friends, is where the adventure begins.
We began at a Home Depot on one side of town. As we entered we found it difficult to look like we actually belonged there. Lets be honest, what the heck can two college students actually afford at Home Depot? A bunch of free paint samples, maybe a pack of gum. That is just about it. I could tell the Home Depot employees were on to us.
 "Goombah, maybe we should, I don't know, look around a bit?" We started walking casually through the power tools isle. Great idea, right? Of all isles to walk down, this is the one where we look the least bit suspicious.
We slowly meandered back to the paint supplies area, and found ourselves in front of a wall of samples. "If we both grab about ten or eleven, then if we go to four different places we will have enough!" Goombah suggested.
We divided the wall in half, as to not grab the same colors, and began our paint sample snatching. Once we had collected our goal amount, we nodded in approval of our paint sample seizing abilities. As we turned I saw them. Two ten-year-old(ish) girls with their mother. "There on to us." I whispered to Goombah. The Mother laughed as she realized we knew that she knew, and Goombah and I ducked out of the paint area and out the Home Depot doors.
The same routine continued until we got to Menards, our fourth and final paint sample destination. Menards paint samples were not as out in the open as the previous places. As we began grabbing samples I refrained from counting how many I had grabbed, suddenly I had a large handful of paint samples. A whopping 43. I had exceeded the goal amount. "Uhm, in case I make a mistake?" Goombah and I laughed and headed out Menards' doors.
On a less adventurous, but more advegturous note, The Fam and I went out to dinner on Saturday night for The Rents 27th wedding anniversary. (Congrats to The Mom&Dad!) We went down the street from The Dads work, a grand little place called The Packing House. The Dad had looked up the menu in advance and saw that there were two vegetarian options, not a grand selection, but a selection none-the-less. We started with an appetizer. A sampling of fried eggplant, mozzarella sticks, fried onion strings, and bacon wrapped water chestnuts (which I obviously did not eat.) But the fried eggplant was surprisingly the best part of the meal! It was splendid. It was so good that I would honestly recommend going there just to get them. I then got a plate of vegetable alfredo. Although it was delicious, I found myself disappointed because the waitress had stated that asparagus would be part of the dish, but my plate was asparagus-less. And it would've been just that much greater with a few spears of asparagus. What a shame! Overall though, it was a great dinner and a fantastic final Wisconsin restaurant meal!

Wisco-Veggie-Fair

Yesterday was the opening day of the Wisconsin State Fair, and I was there! It had been years since I took the adventure to the State Fair. When I was younger The Fam lived in West Allis and The Mom used to drag me along in a red wagon the few blocks down to the State Fair Grounds. I traveled to the fair again this year with The Mom but not only to attend the fair, but also to help Hunger Task Force collect non-perishable food items for reduced admission to the fair. Although we received a lot of donated items for the local food pantries, the head-haunchos said it was a significantly smaller amount than previous years. Unfortunately, because of the teen riots from 2011, it seemed people were fearful to come to the fair, and those under 18 were not allowed to enter without an adult after 5. It is such a shame that a few hooligans had to ruin it for so many people! Still, it was great to give a helping hand and donate our time to a good cause!

After we volunteered, we wandered into the fair searching for a vegetarian friendly dinner. We were on a mission for a non-deep friend veggie meal. It was near impossible. We got side tracked a bit, and got some roasted mixed nuts. Which are always delicious and somewhat nutritious, they have some protein in them! We then found the A Wok Around the Park stand which had a eclectic mix of Asian choices. I had the Spicy Veggie Singapore Noodles, and The Mom had Tikiayki Bourbon Chicken. My meal had a bit of a curry flavor, and a few peppers mixed in with Indian style noodles. Both The Mom found our meals a little underwhelming, but it still quietened our rumbling stomachs. We ventured through the fair a bit more, and got ice cream cones from Cedar Crest. I devoured Elephant Tracks, and The Mom got some rendition of a coffee/toffee ice cream. Overall it was a great day at the State Fair, but I wouldn't recommend going there looking for a somewhat healthy vegetarian meal.

Nature Walk -Veggie Style

The view from the tower

Goombah and I went on another adventure! We went to Lapham Peak and discovered the fantastic natural beauty that is just next door to where we live. It was unbelievably hot- 95 degrees!- but luckily the park has plenty of shady areas to hide from the heat. Before we begun, we climbed on top of the park's tower, it was such a beautiful site. We could see the entire park and beyond, so much green, leafy, nature! Goombah & I always joke that we are modern-day hippies because we love being one with nature and exploring the outdoors in every way possible! We discussed how much fun it would be to go back-packing through Europe, and/or to camp and hike by the Grand Canyon. Our traveling dreams sometimes outreach our financial capabilities, (We are the definition of broke college students) but I do hope one day we will be able to go on such splendid vacations. As for being an advegture, I packed myself a fo-turkey sandwich with cranberry wasabi sauce.And Goombah enjoyed a pb&j, so we both had a vegetarian meal! We stopped at a bench in the shade to enjoy our veggie-licious meal! It was such a great day!

My wonderful day did not end there! I met up with a friend from college-Lou- in Madison! We ate at Noodles&Company, which is slowly becoming my favorite vegetarian place! I don't think there is anything there that is not perfectly delicious. To prove this point, every time I go there I've had a different meal. This time I had Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine, with their organic tofu, of course! And, proving my point, it was as delicious as always. I would expect nothing less from Noods! We then adventured around State Street. I decided, and Lou agreed, that State Street is what a lovechild between Downtown Minneapolis and Dinkytown would end up being. It has a low-key feeling mixed with the high-paced city life. A great mixture, but I still am in love with Minneapolis through and through! 

Reuniting

Today marks three weeks of being a vegetarian! These three weeks have been marked with so many adventures as well as advegtures. I am discovering so much about myself as well as veggie friendly food. Its been a blast, and the advegtures have only just begun!

"An American classic-veggie-style!"

Yesterday, I had my first veggie corn dog, and today I had my first veggie hot dog. I am always shocked by how these meat-imposters taste so much like the real deal. And I thought I would miss meat! Psh! The only times I have caught myself thinking about eating some anti-veg foods have been when I was in zombie-snack mode in front of the refrigerator. We have all done it, admit it. One minute you are watching TV and the next you are blankly staring into the fridge and there is "nothing to eat." I will be stuck in a trance and think, OH! Salami! In an instance I am slamming the palm of my hand into my forehead while I remember my new found veggie-ways.

Today, I reunited with one of my close friends from my first year of college. We decided to meet in Lake Mills, WI. Its about half way in between our two towns, a perfect meeting spot. It is the cutest little lake town I have seen in a while. I arranged for us to meet at Rock Lake Park, assuming it was a beach. It wasn't. Bad research on my part! Instead of searching for an actual beach, we traveled into the adorable little town and looked for a place for lunch. We stumbled on the Water House Bistro. It had a small variety of sandwiches that sounded delicious and two veggie-options. I had the Apple & Cheese as a panini with pickles on the side. As you can probably see, the multi-grain bread was crunchy and made the sandwich delicious and filling. (From previous research I know that multi-grain bread packs in more protein than most other types of bread!) The gooey inside was cheddar and braeburn apple slices. The perfect combination. We asked where the nearest beach was, and were on our way! We then spent they day on a small beach soaking in the sun and enjoying a few refreshing breaks in the crisp and clear water. We chatted with each other, as well as this adorable older couple and a few little kiddies. It was a great day, with great company, in a great new place! I will definitely be returning to Lake Mills!

Biker Babe

So along with deciding to become a veggaholic, I pledged to myself that I would commit to being, overall, a healthier person.
 (With that being said, my next blog is going to be a cupcake recipe. I said I was trying to be healthier, one can't just let go of a good cupcake!)

Back on topic, I decided that I would not trap myself inside my house this summer! I went out (with The Dad!) and got a brand spankin' new hybrid Schwinn beautiful bike from everybody's favorite place -- TARGET! I have been so thrilled with it and have gone on many a bike-rides so far. I am turning into a true biker babe.
 My Goombah and I went to go on a ride the other day, it ended up being, for lack of a better term, a tragic fail of epic proportions. Her tires were flat, her riding skills were rusty. Lets just say one of us has a few scrapes on our knees from falling off of the bike, and its not me! We were going to go on this great trail, but it will be saved for another time!

Instead of biking, we drove to the Pewaukee Beach and soaked in the sun for a bit. I have to admit, the beach is one of my favorite parts about the summer. It is just so relaxing!
We then decided to get a Ponza Rotta from Jimmy's Grotto. If you live in south eastern Wisconsin, you should really try it out. We got a Veggie Ponza to split.(Again, so much for trying to be healthy!) Continuing on our trail of fails for the day, we walked out of Jimmy's without napkins nor silverware. We drove to Fox River Park, and embarked on eating our delicious meal with our fingers. To say this was impossible is an understatement. We took turns taking bites, until our the insides of the ponza were escaping the corners of the crust until finally the gooey veggie insides were completely out of the to-die-for shell. We continued to munch until there was nothing left but a sad pile of cheese, and wiped our hands on the make shift napkin-the picnic table we were dining at. (My hand still kind of smell like Veggie Ponza. I am not complaning.)

Evidence of the veggie explosion.

We then decided to go on a little jaunt along the Fox River, and stumbled upon one of the best things about summer in Waukesha, the Badgerland Ski Show team! They were only practicing and I could barely keep my jaw from slamming into the ground in awe. I definitely need to go to one of their shows this summer!

So maybe it wasn't the most perfect day, but it was definitely a great advegture with my Goombah.