Exhausted!

I've been so busy (with fun things!) all week that I just want to crash, but I promised myself I'd get more than one blog in this week, so here I am! Just a recap today, but I had to prepare a meeting for my lab about Mycobacterium (the bacteria family responsible for the disease Tuberculosis), so I'll give highlights from that for my science content this weekend.

In the meantime, Iowa is in alternating storms and heat waves, so mornings have been mostly liquid breakfast:

 And an unpictured 16 oz nonfat latte.

There have been many duplicates of the 'burrito bowl' this week, so for newbies, this is how you assemble a delicious burrito bowl:

Beans & Rice. Broccoli recommended, but not required. Heat up in your microwave.









Top with veggies & salsa. I like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, avocado, onion, EVERYTHING. And I prefer fruit salsa with black beans.

Peach Salsa
1 cup diced peaches, no skin
1/4 c diced onion
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1/2 c matchstick jicama or peeled tart apple
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
sweetener to taste

Saute the first three ingredients in some cooking spray, add in lemon juice and boil off the liquid. Add sweetener to taste. Cool. Add in jicama or apple. Refridgerate. Yummm!

Other meals:

Salad w/ nutritional yeast, roast beef + swiss sandwich, strawberries.

Salad topped with roasted veggies, bleu cheese, and balsamic. Butternut squash soup, and berries with almond butter sauce.

What are berries with almond butter sauce? The best snack ever! It's a little heavier, so perfect before a workout. 

1.5 cup berries
2 tbsp almond butter microwaved with 2 tbsp milk product. Then you warm up the almond butter before you eat it and pour it into the berries. Mix & enjoy!

  More salad, grapes, and mint chocolate almonds (no, I didn't eat the whole thing. It's prettier than a bag of almonds!)

As demonstrated by this picture, which features a bad of mint chocolate almonds, a roast beef & swiss sandwich, and 2 carrots with 1/2 a bell pepper.

Now, these lunches are admittedly small for me. Why? Well, I overpacked at the beginning of the week, so I had some premade 'snacks' to augment my lunches for Wed & Thur. What kind of snacks?

A missed breakfast while I was getting a pedicure (pink toes! Best calf-rub ever!Great company with my friend Missie!).

More almonds

Watermelon & cheese stick.



Finally, for the previously mentioned meeting, I prepared cupcakes and washed 2 lbs of grapes for my lab.

There are 18 people in my lab this summer. 1 dozen+ 3 red velvet with cream cheese frosting!

One dozen funfetti + vanilla frosting.












I only had to take home 2 cupcakes. Good job, labmates!

Finally, tonights dinner was a leftover masterpiece.

I was actually so hungry after the group lifting class that I ate dessert first: a leftover red velvet cupcake and 2 chocolates from the freezer.

I made taco pizza with leftover turkey taco meat from last week's tacos, tons of veggies, and a mix of cheddar jack and chipotle cheese. I roll out my own thin crust. The picture? The headline meal! 

ERA: Mon off; Tue 5 mile speedwork run, 1000m swim; Wed off; Thur 5 mile run + group lifting. 

I hope you have an excellent weekend! I'll be back with a science post and a fun weekend recap!