Relaxing Weekend and New Blog "Theme"

This weekend was exactly what I needed. Finals are in exactly one week, so I took this weekend to relax and prepare myself for the craziness that's about to come.

Saturday night was date night for this guy and I.

We try have one 'date' a week to keep things interesting. This week we ended up going to one of our favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings.

(source)

I know it’s not the healthiest, but my favorite meal to get there is the honey barbecue boneless wings with celery and ranch. I usually get the order of eight, but I only end up eating five or six. Miles usually finishes up  his meal plus mine, so it works out well.

Saturday night, I went to the Clinical Lab Science (CLS) department Christmas party. This year, the party was hosted by Mary, one of the CLS teachers. Her house was beautifully decorated and she prepared a few different fun games for us to play. Side note: I won this super cute mug that looks like a beaker. We are such nerds.

 She also provided a yummy holiday themed punch that had sprite, some type of fruit juice, crushed raspberries, cranberries, orange slices, and mint leaves in it. Mary also has the cutest and fluffiest long-haired cats I have ever seen. Needless to say, they stole most of my attention during the party.

Everyone was asked to bring a dish to pass to the party. I should have taken this opportunity to make a healthy dish since I knew there would be plenty of desserts there. However, I thought it would be easier (alright, maybe I really just wanted cookies) to make sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting and Christmas sprinkles. Some other highlights from the party: minipasties, scallops wrapped in bacon, queso dip with homemade tortillas, pigs in a blanket, cheesecake, and pistachio pudding pie. I'm sorry for being a bad blogger and not taking pictures of the food. Everything looked great!

As I’m sure you can tell, a lot of unhealthy eating commenced over this past weekend. Being a busy college student, I find it very hard for me to have the time to prepare healthy meals. I feel like there is never enough time to cram in studying, homework, exercising, preparing healthy meals, and still have a little down-time for myself. This leads me to my next point and the new “theme” for this blog: healthy eating for busy people. 

(source)

I hope to feature a new recipe every week, as well as healthy eating on a budget tips, tricks to squeezing in a quick workout, and easy on-the-go snacks. If you have a recipe that you would like me to post, please feel free to email me!

The first recipe I’d like to feature was inspired by Maria from M’s Wedding Blog. Maria and I have been close friends since junior high. She recently just got engaged, and her blog follows her journey through planning her wedding.

Spinach Pasta

Ingredients:**
2-3 cups of fresh spinach (I love spinach, so I use 3+ cups)
1 serving of your favorite whole wheat pasta
1 tlbs grated parmesan cheese
minced garlic
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Sautee the garlic (amount is up to you) in a little bit of olive oil. While this is browning, boil water for the pasta and cook according to instructions. Add spinach to the garlic, and steam until slightly wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over pasta, and add spinach. Top with parmesan cheese.

**This recipe can be altered for whatever you have in your fridge. This would be great with roasted asparagus or baked eggplant. It also would be good topped with toasted pinenuts.


Tonight's workout will be another attempt at this treadmill interval workout. Hopefully I'll be a little more prepared for it this time. Have a good night!