Friday Favorites V

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It’s finally Friday!!! My post would have been up earlier but I honestly had no time to write it until now! I had my two classes then drove straight to my hometown because I have to work here in the morning. After I arrived home, I decided to visit my grandma for a couple hours and catch up. J

Notice I changed the name from “Things I’m Loving Friday” to “Friday Favorites”? I’m playing with the names – let me know what you guys think in the comment section!

Friday Favorites

  • Overnight Oats


I literally made my first ever batch of overnight oats last night so I can eat it for breakfast this morning. I’ve read about bloggers raving over overnight oats, but I was never a fan of oatmeal. I decided to venture and try the healthy breakfast for myself and it was so good! I made up my own recipe which included peanut butter, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips – and it literally tasted like a no-bake cookie!


How fun are these leggings?! I recently discovered White Plum from Julie from pbfingers and I love all their leggings. I ended up buying two pairs of leggings and two long shirts to match. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found myself surfing their website more often. J

  • My Cat Steven


Yes, my cat’s name is Steven. And yes, Steven has a bow tie collar. If that doesn’t make him a cool cat (haha), then I don’t know what does.

  • Driving in PA


This is a picture from my drive home today. I absolutely love looking at the beautiful PA mountains and trees. And not to mention, the sun hasn’t been out in quite a while so it was necessary to take a picture of the lovely day! I can’t wait till the leaves start to grow back on the trees because it gets even more beautiful.

Well, now I am just waiting for my dad to come home and we are going to get some frozen yogurt! Enjoy your weekend. J

Previous “Things I’m Loving Friday” or “Friday Favorites”:

Question of the day:

  • What is one thing you’re loving today?

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Strawberry Pancakes

Posted in Recipes by

This week has gone incredibly slow for me! The fact that Friday is tomorrow seems like a miracle. Because of my lack of busyness this week, I came up with a great idea! Every Thursday is officially pancake Thursday. I will be posting a new healthy (mostly) pancake recipe each Thursday, whether I made it that day or earlier in the week. Anyone who’s followed me over the last month has probably gathered my love for a delicious pancake.

Starting the wonderful pancake Thursday, I bring you…

Strawberry Pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 c flour
  • 4 tbsp rolled oats
  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup (or other sweetener)
  • ¾ c milk (I used buttermilk)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2-4 strawberries, chopped

The Process:

Preheat griddle to 375 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Then, add your sweetener, milk, vanilla extract, and chopped strawberries.


Spray your griddle with oil or butter, adding about ¼ c batter per pancake.


Flip each pancake until they are done.

I’m a sucker for chocolate chips, and almost always add chocolate chips on top of my pancakes. It’s a habit I just can’t seem to kick. J

*note: this recipe was adapted from this source

The rest of my day involves some lunch then clinical at the hospital. Enjoy the rest of your day-before-Friday(woohoo)!

Question of the day:

  • Do you like the idea of pancake Thursday?

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Strawberry Juice

Posted in Recipes by

Today is a strawberry kinda day! My day started off with delicious strawberry pancakes.

pancakes

Tuesday’s are always nice because I get to sleep in a little. I don’t have any classes or work in the morning, so I am free until about 2 pm when I leave for the hospital. This frees up my whole morning/afternoon to do things like make pancakes and juice. ;-)

Anyway, in the midst of all my excitement dealing with strawberries, I went to the gym. Today was leg day and I followed the same exercises I did here.

Juicing

So I’ve had my magic bullet for about a year now, and it has the ability to juice but I never used it. I’ve been meaning to for a while but never got around to it. Today I decided to be healthy and make my own juice. :-)

Strawberry Juice

  • 4-6 large strawberries
  • 2 apples
  • 1/2 lime

That’s all you need! Just chop your fruit up a bit and stick it in your juicer to do its ‘thang. I’m not gonna lie, I was fascinated by the whole process. It was so cool. ;-)

lime

Picture of my lime because it looked picture-perfect. :-)

The juice was definitely sweet. I’m pretty sure I had a sugar high all afternoon.

Now I’m off to whip myself up some lunch before I’m off to the hospital. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Question of the day:

  • Have you ever tried juicing?
  • What is your favorite juicing recipe?

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Some Weekend Pics

Posted in Everyday Life by

How was everyone’s weekend? I definitely have the Sunday blues after a fun weekend that went by too fast.

Here’s some pics from this weekend:

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Josh and I went back to Brickhouse Coffee since we both loved it so much last time we went. I got a hot chocolate with macadamia nut syrup and it was delicious! I plan on getting a different flavor of syrup each time until I try them all. :-)

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Josh got an Irish coffee, because he’s classy like that.

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Literally the hugest mug of hot chocolate I’ve ever seen! Not complaining.

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gym outfit

Before the gym selfie. :-) My outfit of choice for the gym usually includes leggings and a tank top! Nothin’ gets me more pumped than a cute gym outfit.

Question of the day:

  • Did you do anything fun this weekend?

 

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Things I’m Loving Friday IV

Posted in Things I'm Loving by

It’s Fridayyy! AKA the best day of the week. AKA pure happiness. Now that my two morning classes are over, I can officially call it the weekend and chillax for the next few days. Okay, along with keeping up with homework and cleaning.

Anyway, keeping up with the Things I’m Loving tradition…

snow day

As you all may know from yesterday’s post, I had a snow day! Well, I still had to go to my 3 hour lecture in the morning. But, that 7 hour night clinical being cancelled = free time to study for my exam that I had today! Although my hatred for snow is really at its highest at this time of the year, I didn’t mind staying in my apartment drinking hot chocolate, studying, and taking breaks watching Dexter all day.

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Okay, so I have an obsession with leggings. They’re comfy AND stylish, what isn’t there to love? Plus, I can go to the gym with my leggings, tank, & tennies, and I have the perfect gym-ware. OR I can pile my leggings with boots and a long sweater, and I have the perfect going-out outfit. It’s ultimately a win-win. :-)

  • My New Blog Design

Part of my new blog design was uploaded yesterday, and I absolutely love it! It looks so much better than my attempt at a blog design. It won’t be completely finished for about a month – and to keep from boring you guys with the details, I’m switching to a different host and it will take about that long to switch over and finish up the design. Anyway, Rissa from Riss Blog Design is absolutely amazing. She asked some questions to get a feel for what I want, and sent me multiple ideas back. I got to pick what I like and didn’t like; or tell her to change it up a bit. This design is exactly what I wanted and I highly recommend her services!

  • Cheetah Tennis Shoes

Cheetah Nikes

I got these tennis shoes about a month ago from Zappos, and I’m absolutely obsessed with them. I actually saw someone wear the pink version about a year ago when I was at the hospital for clinical, and I looked for them for many months until I finally found then online through Pinterest. They’re just so beautiful. I treat all my shoes like they’re my babies – but with this pair it’s truly ridiculous. I try to be extra careful when I wear them so they don’t get too scuffed up. I know, I”m crazy.

  • The Fact That March is Near

march

I absolutely love March. It’s probably one of my favorite months. Not only does that mean I’m going away for spring break soon, but also it’s my 21st birthday month! I can’t wait to drink a glass of wine with dinner. Also, since March is tomorrow, that means spring is closer than we think (despite all the snow/ice on the ground..it will go away soon right?).

Previous Things I’m Loving Friday Posts:

Question of the day:

  • What is one thing you’re loving today?

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Abs Workout with Medicine Ball

Posted in Workouts by

Can you guys believe it’s already Thursday?! This week is flying by! As you guys may know, Thursdays are the busiest day of the week for me. I usually have a 3 hour nursing lecture followed by a 7 hour clinical so I don’t have much free time. But, today after my class, I got the news that my clinical was cancelled today! There was a 30-car pile-up because of all the snow we got, and my professor didn’t want us to get hurt. I am extremely grateful for this because I hate driving too far in the snow. Also, now I get some extra time to study for my exam tomorrow.

Thursdays are usually my off day from working out, so I decided to do a quick ab workout. To be honest, my abs are definitely worked out the least of all my muscle groups! I am going to start adding a little bit of ab exercises each day to build those up!

On to the workout…

Ab Workout with Ball

Hope you guys enjoy the workout! I know that my non-existent abs are really burning after that quick exercise.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Questions of the day:

  • Do you find using a medicine ball effective?
  • What kind of ab exercises do you like to do?
  • What do you like to do during snow days?

xoxo,

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Cauliflower Pizza

Posted in Recipes by

Welcome to Tuesday! Tuesday’s are much busier than Monday’s for me, but that’s ok because we’re one step closer to the weekend! I have a busy week of studying ahead, so the weekend seems ages away right about now.

This morning, I woke up bright and early and whipped myself up a chocolate banana smoothie with one scoop of protein powder. I’ve been using pineapple flavored protein, but I just got peach mango in the mail so I’m pretty excited to run out so I can try this new flavor! Anyway, after breakfast it was time for leg day at the gym. Luckily, I wasn’t gone too long so I got a jumpstart on my studies for the day.

Lunch was leftover cauliflower pizza that I made yesterday and decided to share with you guys! It was surprisingly delicious.

Cauliflower Pizza

If you would’ve told me one year ago I’d be making cauliflower pizza, I would have told you that you’re crazy. My lifestyle has definitely transformed since then! Now I give you…

Cauliflower Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 can spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce
  • 2 c mozzerella cheese
  • 2 c parmesan cheese

The Process:

Preheat oven 450 degrees. Place the florets from you cauliflower head into a food processor. Process until it is fine and looks like wet sand.

cauliflower

Then, microwave for 4 minutes. Yes, I used a crockpot because I couldn’t find a big microwave safe bowl!

Put your microwaved, processed cauliflower on a kitchen towel. Let sit until cool enough to touch.

This is an important step: wring out all the water you can by using the kitchen towel. If you do not remove most of the water, your crust will fall apart!

Place the cauliflower in a mixing bowl. Add the flour, garlic, salt, and egg. Mix well.

Next, form your dough into a ball.

cauliflower ball

Spray your pan or baking sheet, then spread the dough evenly.

cauliflower crust

Bake the crust about 10-12 minutes, or until golden.

Once golden, add desired toppings. I used half a jar of spaghetti sauce, and added mozzerella & parmesan cheese.

Place in oven and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes, until cheese is melted.

cauliflower pizza in oven(My pizza in the oven!)

Let cool a bit before you try to cut. You now have yourself cauliflower pizza!

The Verdict:

Surprisingly good. For not being a big cauliflower fan, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I definitely tasted the garlic in the crust which is probably the best thing. :-)

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!

Question of the day:

  • Have you ever tried cauliflower pizza?
  • Have you ever ventured out of your comfort zone and tried something new?

xoxo,

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