Category Archives: food

Directionally Challenged?

Posted on October 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

AIESEC conference this past weekend! What does this mean? Learn a lot. Meet a lot of people. Have a lot of fun. (What’s AIESEC? Click here)

Rowdies West Regional Conference Fall 2011

But first you have to get there. This conference was in Milwaukee- supposedly an hour and a half drive from Madison. I was supposed to drive 6 people in one of my friend’s minivans, and while I was a little nervous about driving (us college kids walk/bike/bus/run… we are a little rusty when it comes to operating motor vehicles)– I felt like I was prepared. I had directions printed off, and I knew who was supposed to be in my car.

Our Car. (Photo by Logan)

You’d think it would have all gone smoothly, but about 20 minutes into driving to the express way, I get a call. “Hi umm Katie where are you guys? I’m at the Memorial Union!” Shit. I forgot someone. So I turned around the van, and picked up the person I left behind.

On the road again. We decided to go a different way than the directions said to get to the freeway because we though it was faster. Little did we know, the route we took put us going the WRONG DIRECTION on I-94. When one of the passangers first observed that we were headed the wrong direction, the rest of us were in denial for a good minute or two until someone pulled up the map on their smartphone (thank god for technology).

Luckily- the fact that we went about an hour out of our way happened to be a blessing in disguise. I am pretty sure I acted like I had just won an Olympic gold medal or something because there– at the end of the exit ramp– was CULVERS.

Culvers

True Love.

Yes, I do claim to be a healthy eater… and yes I ususally avoid fast food and gorging myself on crap. But all self-control left me as I went into auto-pilot and sped quickly into the Culver’s parking lot. I stood their drooling (literally– a waterfall of saliva pooring from my mouth) as I ordered. “Can I please have a chicken tender value basket with a chocolate shake?” (Yes, I got a shake too. You read that correctly.)

We then all piled back into the minivan, and happily chowed down on our Culver’s as we turned the correct way onto the freeway. After quite the adventure (and nearly a 3 hour car ride) we made it to the hotel in Milwaukee where we would spend the weekend.

My sister Sarah was there, and it was great to see her (yes, she joined the AIESEC cult bahahha). I was also lucky enough to be taken out for my birthday dinner by the rest of my family!

Nerdy Sisters

The conference was awesome. Very tiring, but awesome. It’s weird how AIESEC conferences really inspire you to do work, but also are super fun. I would go into details, but I think that AIESEC conferences are something you “had to be there” to understand…

After a dream-like weekend (it sort of felt like I had entered into some alternate reality… hard to explain), we were on the road back to Madison. This time- we made it without forgetting anyone… and didn’t have to turn around at all!

Our Local Committee (Photo from Logan)

I had two exams this week, which are now finally complete– and I feel like I can finally breathe again! This semester is going great, and I think I am finally starting to find balance between things that are important to me.

<3 Katie

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Posted in aiesec, college, food, fun, happiness, humor, memories

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A Nation of Fatties

Posted on September 18, 2011 | 2 comments

We are a nation of fatties. Next time you are walking down the street, look around, it’s true. Most of the people you see walking down the street may not be gigantic- but most of them will be overweight. I mean yeah, it is kind of funny that we are fat… it may not be attractive… it may make us feel a little insecure… but let’s be honest- it’s way bigger than that (no pun intended).

The obesity epidemic that we hear about is killing people and costing us a lot of money. As diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, liver disease, depression, infertility…etc. skyrocket, healthcare costs rise, too. According to the CDC, in 2008, medical costs related to obesity were estimated around $147,000,000,000. That figure has only been on the rise since then.

So what’s the solution then? We’ve all thought it at some point in time, “Why don’t those fat people just eat less? They are making the choice to be big and unhealthy.” Much of our policy with food revolves around the concept that adults have the choice to eat what they put in their mouth.

But is this true? Is it really this simple? Do adults really get to choose what they eat? Let’s look at some of the influences on food consumption in adults:

  1. Childhood. Everyone was a kid at some point! This is where you learn how to eat, how to cook, what role food plays in your life. According to the CDC, 17% of children ages 2-19yrs are obese. Even more alarming, 1 in 7 low-income PRESCHOOLERS are obese. If you were obese from the time you were 4 years old, can you even imagine how much you would have to learn about healthy eating and how much effort you would have to put forth to lose weight later in life?
  2. Wealth. It is a pretty well-known fact that eating healthy costs more money. In fact, according to a study done by the University of New Hampshire, many people in America can’t even afford the USDA’s new “MyPlate” food recommendations. Additionally, lower income individuals are less likely to have a reliable car to grocery shop with, likely to have grocery stores located further (on average) from  their residence, and are less-likely to be well-educated about healthy eating.
  3. Marketing. Billions of dollars each year are spent each year on trying to make unhealthy food appear healthy. For casual consumers trying to make healthy decisions, choices can easily be swayed by such tactics. Let’s take the organic food market as an example. Since organic foods appear healthier to the average consumer, people will often pay a surplus for goods labeled as organic, even if they aren’t actually healthier. There is organic mac-n-cheese, goldfish knock-offs, cookies… pretty much all the junk food you can imagine in “organic form” to appear healthier.
Obviously there are many other factors which affect eating habits, but those are some indirect influences that are easily overlooked when considering how people become overweight. What I don’t understand is why more isn’t being done to improve eating habits in America.
A few things that could make a big impact include:
  1. Tighter restrictions on food and beverage marketing and sales. Why do we even allow crappy food to make it to the shelves? It’s literally a toxin that pushes our people towards an earlier death and less fulfilling lives. It would be one thing if it were just adults feeding themselves, but we are letting parents feed their kids frozen pizza, McDonalds, chips… etc.. for dinner every night. Those kids who have been overweight since younger ages not only are likely to continue those habits later, but are also more likely to develop chronic diseases later in life.
  2. Health education in schools. Remember health class? Yeah, that class you have for a year during high school where you learn about sex, drugs, and that you should exercise? These classes should be better utilized to inform our youth about healthy eating and the impacts of unhealthy eating. In an ideal world, schools would combine foods class, gym class, and health class to create a well-rounded approach to encouraging health lifestyles.
  3. Healthier hot lunches (good tasting ones!). If we are feeding our children chicken tenders, fries, and flavored milk for lunch… how can we expect them to make healthier choices outside of school? Many schools who have tried to feed kids healthier food end up giving their kids gross canned peas or “mystery meat.”  If we teach our nation from a young age that eating healthy food can be good tasting and fun, there would be less of a stigma on healthy eating later in life.
I guess those are just a few things that I think need to be done to help improve our nation’s obesity epidemic. I guess another solution would be to just stop making clothing above a certain size… but that might be a little too extreme…
That’s it for today! I probably should start doing homework…

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Posted in education, food, growing up, happiness, health, marketing, news, obesity, school

Let’s Kayak to Beijing!!!

Posted on August 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

I took the day off of work today to give my foot a break (pun? haha) from walking around. It was, unfortunately, the last day of work so I never really got the chance to say goodbye to my coworkers! I’m a sentimental gal so I totally dig that kind of stuff (Yes, I was always that girl who cried on the way home from summer camp…).

The day at home was relaxing, but probably one of the most boring things I’ve been through in a while– literally laying in my bed the ENTIRE day. This foot better be better soon cuz imma get a little more fat if I keep this up.

Either way- some things worth sharing (ish) have happened in the past week, so here is a quick summary:

Went to Irish Fest. I love Irish Fest. I also love that my mom and grandma were matching! :)
Irish Fest

Vacationed in Door County. We ate at the pancake place with goats on the roof! We also kayaked (turns out it’s harder than it looks), went to a drive-in movie (Cowboys Vs. Aliens– really??), and walked around. Overall, a good time.
Door County

Found “Where in the World” Waldo is. Turns out he’s right down my street…Waldo

Figured out how to get to Beijing, China from Madison, USA. Pretty easy, as long as you can KAYAK across the Pacific Ocean… Sorry, Kyle, I will not be doing that any time soon.Kayak to Beijing

Made FONDUE! Katie came to visit, so we all decided to have a little get-together with some good food and box wine from Trader Joes which ended up being really good (and cheap)!
Fondue

Learned that Pyrex can SHATTER. Yeah, no joke, my roommate went to get her burrito out of the oven today when she realized that the pan had actually exploded in the oven. That seems safe…Broken Pyrex

That’s pretty much everything interesting that happened in the past week (other than all of the really awesomely cool things I chose not to include so you weren’t jealous, of course).

PS: Update on the foot– feeling sort of better (woot!) but still can’t really walk on it. Excellent.

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Posted in food, fun, happiness, humor, injury, memories

Someone is out to get me.

Posted on August 29, 2011 | 2 comments

… or I’m just klutzy.

This morning started off very normal: me running around the house showering, throwing on clothing, cracking eggs, slapping bacon on the skillet, shoveling coffee grounds in the coffee maker, forking food into my mouth, stuffing food into lunch containers, and finally running out of the door to unlock my bike so that I could make it to work on time. Everything was working out perfectly (well, as perfectly as having 30 minutes to get ready can work out anyway) until I was biking up the big hill next to my house.

Unlike most mornings- I had a 30 lb duffle bag slung across my shoulder that I was going to drop off at the gym after work. Little did I know, the bag’s handle was stuck around the bike seat and as I tried to shift the bag behind me as I peddled up the big hill… I got stuck on the seat, and fell off my bike. And while it didn’t hurt immediately, my stupid foot decided to get worse throughout the day at work causing my walk home from work to take AN HOUR AND A HALF. That means AN HOUR AND A HALF worth of me awkwardly limping, crying(ish), and avoiding awkward eye contact with passers by on State Street… cute, Katie.

The worst part is that the foot doesn’t even look swollen or bruised!! I mean I guess that means it’s probably not broken… but it still hurts!! Why can’t it be like gushing blood or have bones sticking out the side?? At least then people might feel bad for me…

Foot

My way too normal looking foot.

Oh. And I forgot to mention. When I finally came rushing into the door at work this morning (about 7 minutes late), it turns out that I didn’t have to be there for another 45 minutes. So basically, I rushed out of the house with my stupid duffle bag unnecessarily and could have avoided the whole situation by just double checking what time I needed to be there… akwehr;aiweh;avbkajldkfaeb. Stupid.

I guess I could at least make up some cool story, because the current response I have been getting is something along the lines of, “Oh, that sucks…” Maybe if something cooler had happened, I could turn this injury into a way to make more friends.

Friend: Why are you limping?

Me: Oh, I was down at the park last night when I saw a little kid drowning in the lake so I decided to dive in and save her when a shark came and bit off half of my left foot. That wasn’t even the worst part though because when I tried to get out of the water, I saw an innocent homeless guy being swung at with a flail by a masked attacker so even though my foot hurt really bad, I ran over there and saved the homeless guy with my (professional) kickboxing skills. It turns out the attacker had on a vest of nails and barbed wire though, so when I kicked him, what was left of my foot was punctured by his vest. No big deal though, I just walked it off.

Friend: Wow, you are amazing and cool. We should hang out a lot. You are seriously my hero. Can I have your autograph?

That would be a little bit better than “oh… I fell off my bike…”  I mean sure, I did make a blog post out of it, but imagine how much more interesting this would have been if my made up story about the shark and attacker had actually happened… Exactly…

Other than that, the past week has been really really awesome (maybe this is some force of nature trying to get back at me for having a good time…). Either way, I will blog about that sometime soon. For now though- good night. And thank you for listening to my foot rant.

Comfort Food

Comfort food.

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Posted in annoyed, boxing, conversations, food, humor, injury, memories, mood

Hippie Christmas

Posted on August 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

This past weekend was what we call in Madison, “Hippie Christmas.” It is the weekend of move-out/move-in during which a good portion of the city becomes homeless for a night or two. Many people who are moving on to bigger, better things also dump large possessions on the side of the street (such as beds, dressers, and tables) which they don’t want to move with them to wherever they are going.

Basically- Madison transforms from a nice-looking college town to looking like an actual landfill in a matter of hours. People (college students, homeless people, and randos from around the city) then dig through the piles for hidden treasures. Thus- the nickname “Hippie Christmas.”

 

The thing is, “Hippie Christmas” for me consisted of many of the things a “Normal Christmas” consists of… I cleaned for hours on end, ate unhealthy food (and a lot of it), spent a lot of money, and got some free stuff!

We moved a bunch of my stuff into my new place on Friday afternoon, which I was super excited for. My new house/apartment thing is AWESOME. A great view of the lake, my own room, windows, a lot of cabinet space in the kitchen… pretty awesome overall. Well, so I thought anyway, until I talked to the previous tenant (who hadn’t moved all of his stuff out). It turns out that my beautiful new dwelling is shared by RODENTS and COCKROACHES. Oh- and it was a former crackhouse. Hmm- interesting… nothing much I could do except move my stuff in and hope for the best… oh, and buy as much roach spray as we could find at Walgreens.

Friday evening was spent as a last-time roommie hoorah with my old roommates and some of our mutual friends at a bonfire by picnic point (until the racooons started to attack!!). Then, after having nightmares about cockroaches and mice all of Friday night- we spent the entirety of Saturday cleaning our old apartment. Oh- and eating Rocky Rococo’s and donuts… (shut up- you would have done it too!).

Then it officially arrived- MOVE IN DAY!! Unlike many, I was able to manage being homeless for a mere 3 hours on Sunday. I don’t think I would make a very good homeless person though… during that 3 hours, I managed to eat breakfast, buy coffee, and then paint my fingernails. I suppose I could make a good rich homeless person, but I don’t think I could do the whole not having money AND not have anywhere to go type of thing. 

My things during the 3 homeless hours

I was supposed to get a bed delivered on Sunday from a guy on Craigslist. (dont judge me…!). The guy sounded super legit- he had bought the QUEEN sized bed 2 years ago, and was willing to sell it to me for $140 AND deliver it to my house. He said the bed had been used max 30 times because it had just sat in his guest room. After waiting all day for him to call or show up, he never returned any of my calls– nor did he ever show up… Asshole.

So after being totally screwed over with that bed, I ended up finding another bed from a girl who was moving in with her boyfriend– they delievered it yesterday (Tuesday) and her boyfriend was even nice enough to set it up! It looks amazing, and I slept super-well last night. It feels amazing to finally have a place to sleep.

Our kitchen is looking great… and all we have left really is to get a couch into our living room. One of my roommates’ parents are brining one up this weekend, so it will be nice to finally have everything together :).

So that is my story of Hippie Christmas in Madison… I’m glad I survived 3 hours of homelessness and 2 nights without a bed. I suppose reflecting on the weekend I have nothing to really complain about, although it seemed pretty horrible when I was living through it. Let’s be honest though- moving/cleaning and stuff is annoying and stressful. Perhaps Hippie Christmas 2012 will be a little bit more low-key?

Oh and ps- only one cockroach has been spotted (it was dead!) and no mice have been spotted as of yet. I will definitely keep you updated.

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Posted in annoyed, food, growing up, humor, memories, moving, summer

Craft Spurts and Pork-ing Lots

Posted on August 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

Per-usual, I rolled out of bed 10 minutes before I was meeting two of my friends for breakfast… and by the time I biked there I was more than ready for a cup of coffee. We met at P.J. Pipers, a new place in Cedarburg… and it was really good.

I’m seriously amazed though, how can cooks keep it straight which eggs they are cooking which way? We all ordered our eggs differently- I got mine over-medium, and my friends got theirs’ sunny-side up and over-hard. Half of the time when I try to make eggs in the morning, I forget they are cooking and they wind up a little too hard/brown. Oh well. Someday I need a class in egg-cooking… any experts out there?

Next door to the breakfast place is (or was) a scrapbooking store which is now going out of business… so I stopped in and bought some cardstock and random patterns of paper to make cards with! I then spent the rest of the afternoon with my sister Emily (Sarah was babysitting…) cutting and pasting messages on cards. I do not claim to be an artist– but I do go through spurts of craft-making. Today was “most def” one of dem days.

The cards are what Emily and I like to call “ugly-cute” — i.e. we tried, but it’s hard to make actually good cards out of paper! (Some of my friends call that my lack of artistic ability… but I like to call it being creative. Or maybe seeing things from a different angle…)

I also made a Spongebob card for my friend who likes Spongebob- I thought this one was pretty cute!

After card-making, I continued my day of being social by accompanying my mom to the grocery store (why is it always so cold in there??). This errand was then followed by dinner!

Weird story though– it’s my mom’s birthday on Sunday so she got this coupon in the mail today for this restaurant called Jerry’s Old Town Inn… which she looked at, confused, and then tossed into the garbage. Then we were driving around looking for a place to eat when she found this place that sounded interesting. We drove into the parking lot, or should I say “pork-ing lot…”

Hahaha. I got a kick out of that one… But back to the story. We thought the place looked cute, so we walked in… sat down… ordered some wine… and then we took a closer look at the logo on the menu. It turns out that that was the place she had received the coupon for this morning! I am not sure what the chances of that would be… but we thought it was pretty crazy/random/ironic.

We ordered ribs– which were delicious. I never used to like ribs, but I have definitely joined the fan club. There was also a lot of pig memorabilia located all around the restaurant (see the pig-chef-man above for an example). Definitely worth a drive out to Germantown though if you are ever in the area.

Overall- a good day. I have to get my teeth cleaned tomorrow morning so that is all for tonight. G’night!

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Posted in crafts, food, fun, growing up, happiness, humor, memories

Frizzy Hair, Belly Fat, and Big Noses (Part II)

Posted on August 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yeah, you’re probably thinking “really? what more of this fluffy ‘love yourself’ lecture still needs to be given? I get the point…” Well, there is a part two to this story because along with loving yourself, you also need to treat yourself like you love yourself.

Que rule el amor

Let love rule (i.e. 'que rule el amor'). Photo by Vegardig.

Here is a list of things that I think we all should be doing for our bodies. (Disclaimer: I’m not great with this stuff either, but this is what I’m working towards!)

  1. Eat real foods. Natural, fresh… something you could find in nature. I’m not sure when it became okay for much of our diet to consist of foods like chips and candy bars. Our body needs nutrients found in real vegetables, meats, nuts, fruits… so let’s give it what it wants.
  2. Sleep. I’m more than guilty of not getting enough sleep during the school year, but the more I read about lack of sleep, the more scared I get of not sleeping. By not sleeping enough, your stress levels go up, you are less able to concentrate during the daytime, and you are more likely to eat a lot. Sounds easy, but it’s so much harder to do when you have a lot on your plate!
  3. Exercise. Back in the day when we evolved as a species, we did not have chairs to sit around in, cars to get us places, and remote controls to flip channels. Heck, we didn’t even have electricity… and while that may sound horrible (I don’t think I could survive without AC, a music player, an alarm clock…), our bodies were made to be moving around a lot throughout the day. I’m making it a goal to get moving everyday. (No, that doesn’t mean I’ll be running a marathon each day, but at least going for a nice walk!)
  4. Prioritize. I have the tendency to pile a lot of obligations on to my plate at various times during the year, and I’m beginning to realize more of what my capacity is. It really sucks when you pile too much onto your plate… it all becomes overwhelming, you can’t sleep at night, you are stressed out… so in the end- some of those thing can and should be eliminated.
  5. Relax. Just breathe. Do yoga, listen to music, go for a walk, write in a journal… whatever it is that makes you relax, just do it. I do not take enough time to turn of my electronics, put away my reading material, and just be. However, each time I have done that, it’s amazing how much more centered and relaxed I feel.

Alright, so that’s it. The end of my “love yourself” lectures. I hope to be able to take some of my own advice, and I hope that you try to take some time each day to remember to take care of yourself, too!  :)

Fireworks

Sparklers!

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Posted in beauty, food, memories, mood, peace, psychology, sleep

These are a Few of my Favorite Things…

Posted on July 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

So it’s been a while since my last post, I guess I had a pretty busy week. Since it’s been a while, I thought I would just use this post to share some of my favorite things that happened this week.

—

(1)  I made dish for a couple friends called Sun-Dried Tomato and Garlic Chicken which I served with Spaghetti Squash. I love pretty much anything with garlic in it, and I have recently discovered how amazing sun-dried tomatoes taste… I could eat this pretty much any day.

Chicken and Spaghetti Squash

(2)  I wish I had a better picture, but this is the view of a big storm brewing out of our apartment window. Unfortunately I was unable to capture the 7+ spiders crawling on the window which made the view only more creepy. Thunderstorms are one of my favorite things, so too bad it missed us!

Scary Sky

(3)  Even since I was really young, I’ve always loved sunsets. This one one was on Thursday evening when I was biking to McDonald’s with one of my friends. I love when really pretty sunsets sneak up unexpectedly.

Cool Sunset

(4)  One of my favorite things to do in Madison when there is no snow on the ground is to buy fresh food from the Farmer’s Market up by the Capital Square. I love supporting locally grown food, and food that is freshly picked tastes so much more flavorful!

Farmer's Market

(5)  Another one of my favorite things to do in Madison during the summer is to hangout down at the Memorial Union Terrace. A combination of several of my favorite things (talking, sunsets, music, friends…) results in a generally good time every night I go down to the terrace.

Terrace

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That’s it for tonight, Goodnight!

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Posted in food, fun, happiness, memories, recipe, summer

Is World Peace Possible?

Posted on July 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

I took a walk down memory lane today because my photo-album arrived from Amazon and I spent the past hour putting pictures from the past two years in it. I was reminded of some good times (21st birthday), amazing vacations (Italy, Puerto Rico), and some old friends.

My sisters-- Florence, Italy-- Summer 2010

One of the pictures really caught my eye though. When I was in Puerto Rico last semester  for an AIESEC conference, Iberoamerican Leadership Congress, we did a really inspiring exercise where the 500 delegates from all around the world split into groups of 7-9 people. In these small groups, we were to get as many pictures as possible of our friends, family, strangers… holding white flags with the phrase “I believe world peace is possible” written on it.

We all spent the entire afternoon gathering pictures and my group alone gathered over 100 pictures. This video gives a small glimpse into the number of pictures taken that day. That day I was in competitive mode, not really thinking about whether or not I actually agreed with the statement. Now; however, reflecting on whether or not I see world peace as possible, I am beginning to lean towards thinking it’s not possible.

Just taking a glimpse at the headlines tonight on The New York Times online, one can read headlines detailing protests in Egypt turned violent, a gunman in Texas that killed himself and 5 others and massacres in the Ivory Coast. This is in addition to the attacks in Norway (one of the most peaceful countries on Earth)… bombings in the capital city Oslo AND multiple shootings at a youth camp. This is just one night’s headlines, once I start reflecting on the past few years, decades… even back to the beginning of human civilization… I realized that we are anything but a peaceful species.

Norway

Oslo, Norway

We are born as violent beings- we have to be trained not to hit/punch/bite/scratch people to get our way. Obviously to avoid self-destruction, we have some level of self-control, but overall, humans as a whole are innately violent beings. The United States alone has a military budget of over 650 billion dollars, indicating the importance of violence and intimidation to world politics.

Atomic Bomb

Nagasaki atomic bomb, 1945

Additionally, there are so many different types of beliefs and values in the world that I think it is pretty much impossible for us to all “get along.” Whether it be religious beliefs, racism, language barriers, physical divides, sexual orientation, gender… there will always be things that divide us. History has shown that humans kill each other to solve problems. As indicated by tonight’s headlines– we are no better off now than we were 200 years ago. If anything, we’re getting worse — with nuclear weapons, airplanes, missiles etc… we have the power to kill every living thing on Earth overnight.

Towers

World Trade Center Attacks 9/11/01

So all-in-all… I do not think that world peace is possible. Now despite my view that world peace is not possible, that does not mean that I don’t think we should strive for world peace. AIESEC’s mission worldwide is peace and fulfillment of humankind’s potential. While I do doubt whether this mission is actually achievable, I think it is good to set high expectations. Why not strive for world peace? To aim for anything less would be ridiculous.

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Alright, so that was a pretty meaty blog post… on a more positive note… I made homemade larabars tonight! (They are fruit and nut bars) One of my friends, Michelle, found a recipe online so I decided to give it a try. They taste amazing. I modified the recipe a little bit, so here is what I used:

  • 5-6 dates
  • 1/3 cup dried mango
  • 1 lemon: zest and juice
  • 1 cup nuts (raw almonds and walnuts)

Just throw all of the ingredients in a food processor and wrap individual bars in saran wrap! Yuuum.

Larabars

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Posted in food, memories, news, peace, recipe

Carotenemia

Posted on July 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

The answer! For about the past year I quit eating grains (more on that another time), but I also began to eat more vegetables than ever before. Around the same time, my hands began to take on more of an orange-ish yellow-ish tint (it looked more like fake tanning lotion than anything else). Nothing gross really, but it always worried me a little bit.

Last weekend when I was home, my sister Emily took it upon herself to figure out what caused my stained hands and found out that I have Carotenemia. Apparently, if you eat enough of certain foods (like spinach, carrots, and oranges), your skin will begin to turn more yellow-ish! It’s a benign condition, but now that I know what it is, I will be eating less of those foods. Who knew?

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Posted in food, weird