Finding a Balance

It's that time of year again! Yes, can't you hear all of Canada rejoicing? It's Roll Uuuup the Rim! I am a little ashamed of this, but I can say that I do get caught up in it all - I've already had two, and lost both.. I'm sure the lineups at Western U Tim Horton's are going to be extra long when reading week is over - and I'll probably be standing among the madness!

Tim Horton's Roll Up the Rim! One of my 'loser' cups

Other than having Tim Horton's on the brain (lol just kidding) I haven't been doing much! Which is starting to stress me out.. I need to start doing some homework on this reading week but it's just too hard when I want to spend time with family and friends and just relax! It's such a hard thing to balance school work and home life - I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed. In the upcoming month I have 4 midterms to study for, 2 novels to read, and an 8 page essay to write, and I'm starting to freak out. I just need to take a few deep breathes and start somewhere I guess..

Reading week has been good to me so far (except for the stress level rising daily). Yesterday I went to go see the movie "This Means War" staring Reese Witherspoon - who I love! It was a good movie, a little unrealistic, but that's why it's a movie! I went with my sister, Rachel, and Katie. It's so nice to be home to see everyone again! I also have been having my fair share of overnight oats! I've tried a few different flavours so far (including the pumpkin from the earlier post). Today I had peanut butter banana oats and the morning before that I had applesauce oats! The base for the applesauce oats was fat free vanilla yogurt and unsweetened applesauce, plus some cinnamon. In the morning I added an apple and a little more cinnamon (I'm a little crazy with my use of cinnamon!). For the peanut butter and banana oats I used the same fat free vanilla yogurt and some almond milk. In the morning I added half a banana and melted some peanut butter so I could mix it through! Both were delicious and I would definitely make them again! I still have a few more mornings at home so I think I'll try another flavour before I have to go back to school - any suggestions?!    

Applesauce Oats

Peanut Butter Banana Oats

I also got to workout again today, which felt great after having a rest day yesterday! I didn't get to workout as long as I would have liked, but it's reading week so I'm not gonna be too upset about it. I'm also getting excited to start swimming when I get back to Western U - I went out to find a bathing suit today with no luck, but I'm determined to find one so I can try out the pool next week (hopefully I have time). That's another thing about all this school work - hardly anytime to workout, but I have to set my priorities straight I guess.  

I think that's the key to all of this stress, I just need to find balance with everything. I hope I can discover it soon before everything is due all at once! This post is getting long so I'll sign off and leave you with this picture of the squash I decided to make the other night! Half of an acorn squash filled with grilled mushrooms and red/green peppers, spaghetti sauce, and sprinkled with some crackers for some crunch!

Experimenting with Acorn Squash 

AliwS

Swimming!

This is a super random post, but I've been sitting here looking up information about swimming for exercise. I love to workout (sometimes) but I am getting so sick of my same routine - treadmill, weights, spin class, treadmill, treadmill.. blah! I want something different and since our rec centre has a massive swimming pool I'm thinking that I'll give it a go! I'm just worried about how to start - will I get a good enough workout in, what strokes do I use, is there a certain routine I can get into, does swimming really count as a good workout?! So you see my dilemma. I think I'll have to do a bit more research about this and let you know what I find. I think this could be a good thing to add to my weekly workout schedule, there are just a lot of things to consider! Plus an extra bonus of this would be the less strain on my muscles (which are super weak and pull often). I think I'm gonna go for it - I just need to figure out where to begin! Let me know if you have some advice!

AliwS

Baking Adventures and Puppies!

So yesterday was a day full of baking fun! My parents were having company over so I told them that I would make the dessert - since I had a couple of recipes from Pinterest that I wanted to test out. This recipe was a modified apple pie, with the apple being used as an individual shell. It was rather easy to make - once you got past the initial hollowing of the inside. There has to be a better way of doing it because we couldn't use any of the apple that was scrapped out, so all of that just went to waste - if I make this again we need to look into something to de-core them so we don't have to throw out so much apple! Another little mistake we made was the crust. As you can see from the picture we had to make something up because we didn't have actual pie crust to cut into strips - but all in all they turned out nicely and everyone reported that they tasted delicious, so I'll count it as a success!

Individual Apple Pies pre-baked 

Another thing that I did yesterday was catch-up with one of my good friends from home, Kelsey. Whenever we are together we make the most amazing and different flavoured scones (one of my favourite pastries). Yesterday, as we were standing in the grocery aisle, trying to decide what combination to make, we both looked at the graham crackers and it hit us - S'more! So we bought semi-sweet chocolate chips (which I ended up munching on the entire time we were baking - so good as a sweet snack), mini marshmallows and of course graham crackers! The recipe turned out pretty good, but to modify it for next time we would add more graham crackers and a little more marshmallows because the predominant taste was the chocolate chips for sure - but still they tasted amazing!

Rolling the dough

The finished product! YUM

Today we celebrated my uncle's birthday! After church this morning we headed to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch and family time. We had tomato soup with meatballs (which my aunt makes and is one of my favourite soups), some fresh buns with assorted meat and cheese, coffee, and of course birthday cake! I skipped most the meal (except the soup) because I ate my pumpkin overnight oats before we left our house - and let me tell you it was worth it. They were soooo good! The finished oats had pumpkin puree, fat free vanilla yogurt, oats and then in the morning I added cinnamon and raisins. I will definitely be making those again this week! I think I could eat overnight oats every morning for breakfast without getting tired of it!

Pumpkin Overnight Oats 

The other half of the title of my post is explained with the adorable picture below. My cousin's dogs just had puppies a few weeks ago. This was the first time that I have seen them with their eyes open. They are so cute! In total they had 10 puppies, which is a lot for a first litter! The mix is cavapoo (a king charles cavalier and a poodle). They have 3 adult dogs in their house so it's a little crazy right now with the puppies - making it a total of 13 dogs under one roof! It's gonna be interesting when they're big enough to run around!

"Lucy" one of the girl puppies that isn't sold yet (and that my Rah wants to take home)

That pretty much sums up the past 2 days! I'm still a little full from all of the goodies I had this afternoon so I think I'll wait to have my dinner until a little later - I'm planning on cooking up some sort of squash - acorn or spaghetti I haven't decided yet. Squash is one of my favourite dinner's, I'm just not sure what I feel like flavouring it with - I think I'll have to browse the internet a bit to come up with something. The rest of the night will probably just be more relaxing before I have to snap back to reality a little bit and start some homework tomorrow - as well as a good workout, and some healthy eats! 

AliwS

The Past Week..

Things have been CRAZY for the past few weeks! There are so many assignments to tackle, as well as piles of readings and not to mention the four midterms I have after reading week. I'm trying to keep calm but things are definitely starting to stress me out! I'm hoping that this next week off will relax me a little, although my reading week is literally going to consist of reading all day long! But enough of complaining about my workload - I am in university, I should know better - back to the past week! Since this is the first post of this blog I thought I'd just share what kinds of things I've been up to.

For one thing I'm obsessed with overnight oats, if you haven't heard of them you need to look them up asap - they will change your life lol. I currently have some chilling in the fridge and can't wait to try them in the morning! They are pumpkin flavoured - made with canned pumpkin puree, vanilla yogurt, and rolled oats. In the morning I'm going to add raisins and cinnamon - YUM! I'll let you know how they turned out and maybe even post a picture! 

Another exciting thing that I did this week, as a little Valentine's Day present to myself, was getting my nails done with my friend Caileigh! She was going because she wanted bright and fun nails for her trip to Cuba (so jealous), and I decided to tag along! We decided on shellac nail polish because it literally lasts for almost 3 weeks, which is awesome! After our nails were finished we headed to Starbucks to attempt to finish our essay's (Caileigh and I are in 3 classes together) and 5 hours, a grande skinny cinnamon dolce latte, and a tall new blonde roast later I was finally finished!  

Here's a little snap shot of the finished product 

Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte and Shellac Nails 

Other than my trip to the nail salon and the Starbucks marathon the rest of the week was readings, assignments etc. nothing to exciting! As for what next week brings I'm hoping for lunch dates, some good workouts, and recipes that I've been dying to try! (I don't have a kitchen in my dorm room, so being at home is a treat) 

Have a great weekend,

AliwS