Want to win some greek yogurt???

Yep, it’s time friends…

CHOBANI GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

As you may remember, Chobani sent me some of their nonfat greek yogurt to sample last week. It was a pretty joyous day. 🙂

No nasty fake sweeteners here! Here’s my reviews, in order of favorites:

#1: Plain greek yogurt. I just love the endless topping options! Granola, fresh fruit, honey… whatever! Chobani’s plain 0% greek yogurt is great, nice and thick and creamy.

#2: Pomegranate (wasn’t in the package, but I love it) & Pineapple. Both are freaking amazing. Seriously. I’d never tried the pineapple until now!

#3: Blueberry, Peach, & Strawberry… I especially enjoyed the blueberry, as it’s always been one of my favorite yogurt flavors!

#4: Vanilla – Also tasty, I just missed the pieces of fruit 🙂

So, want to win some for yourself? Here’s the deal:

To enter, check out Chobani’s website, pick out a flavor you’d most like to try (or one which you already know is a favorite), and leave a comment below about it!

I’ll be randomly picking a winner on Monday morning. The winner will receive a box of Chobani of their very own!

Feel free to tweet or write about the giveaway on your own blog 🙂

(And I’m sorry to my international friends, but this contest is only open to U.S. residents.)

Good luck!!

Sidewalk: 1. Anne: 0.

Okay so this is going to be a totally random post. Get ready 😉

1) I went out for a run today at 10 a.m. Yes, 10 a.m. One of my favorite things about working from home and being in school is being able to run in the late morning. The sun is shining, it’s warmer, and it’s just generally awesome.

So today I went out for a run in my hilly neighborhood. I went without my headphones or anything and it was great to just listen to the sounds of nature (and trucks… whatever) and I was thinking about how lovely it was outside, brilliant sunshine, cold but crisp, the kind of day I dreamed about while I was living in Prague last winter (it’s really gray there in the winter). When all of a sudden… the sidewalk came up to attack me. Vicious sidewalk. What did I do to you? And then…

BAM!!!!!!!

I fall flat on my face. Yep, the whole, hands out in front, skidding on knees type of fall you used to have all the time when you were little. You know what my thoughts were? First – “Thank goodness I’m wearing my Road ID!” Then – “Crap, this better not have messed up my favorite Lululemon running pants!!” And then, finally “Ouch.”It was actually pretty funny. I landed (skidded) in a huge pile of leaves, and was totally covered with them after. LEAF MONSTER!!

Here’s the damage:

Damn you, sidewalk. You have won this round. But I’ll be back!!

You can’t tell in the picture, but the right knee is mega puffy. Sexy. I also picked some gravel out of my hands. I think the 12 year old in me is proud 😉

But you know I didn’t let it ruin my run 😉 I got up, brushed myself off, and once I decided my legs felt fine besides being scraped up I continued on my way!

Oh, and since you were wondering, my Lululemon pants are fine. 😉

2) My prize for winning Caitlin’s BSI pancake mix contest with my Special Ingredient Falafel arrived yesterday!!

She sent a fun package that included some milled flaxseed (yay I’m almost out of mine!), OhSheGlows Glo-nola, and some Vega drink mix! Thanks, Caitlin!

3) I’ll be conducting my Chobani yogurt giveaway TOMORROW! I’ll also provide reviews for the rest of the yogurt flavors I tried. Get pumped!

I’m off to relax – it’s chilly and cloudy here now in DC, and I have already put on sweatpants and have plans to make my Veggie-tastic Minestrone Soup again for dinner!

What’s your best falling down/wipeout story?? I was always terrified of falling in the cafeteria at college, but thankfully I never did.

Yayyyyy!

Omg, the designer jeans/wine party was SO MUCH FUN!! I wish you all could have been here, we had such a blast!!

Backtracking to earlier, I got home around 5 p.m. from Chem class. It was like Christmas because I had an awesome package waiting for me!!!

The lovely people at Chobani sent me a bunch of their flavored yogurts to sample!! I’m super excited because I LOVE Chobani and have never tried any of these flavors before. I immediately busted open the peach, which was great.

Usually I go for the plain Greek yogurt and mix in fresh fruit, but now that a lot of the juicy fruits are going out of season (peaches, berries, etc.), it’s not as fun. So I’m excited to be trying these flavored ones. This peach one was very tasty – sweet but not too sweet, and with a yummy amount of chopped peaches involved. Thick and creamy, too. Yay!

Stay tuned because I’ll be doing a giveaway soon for one lucky reader to win a case of Chobani to try for themselves!

So after I ate the yogurt, I was like… OH CRAP!!!!!!!! The house was not exactly tidy, and I had zero food prepared and a zillion friends coming over in 2.5 hours. Gah!!

I started to freak out, but then a fun song came on the radio so I danced instead. 🙂

Yeah, you know.

And then I got to baking!!

I made three amazing appetizers and they were all completely destroyed by the end of the night.

Here are a bunch of us among the awesome jeans (missing a few people… I’m in the chair!):

Do you like my new jeans??? They’re Rock & Republic 🙂

You can’t tell in the picture, but the back pockets are fun and sparkly rhinestones in person 🙂 Shiny things = awesome.

Okay… I must get some sleep. Stay tuned tomorrow to see the recipes for my fun appetizers! Let’s just say there was a lot of pumpkin involved 😉

Nighty night!

North Carolina or Bust!

Good afternoon!

So if you know me in real life, you’ll know that “_____- or bust” is pretty much my favorite phrase. Get prepared to see this on the blog a lot 😉

Anyway, this evening after class I’m driving down to UNC-Chapel Hill! They have an open house tomorrow for their MPH program, which is what their Nutrition stuff comes under. I hope it’s worth the drive! I’ll be staying with my friend Amy from high school and her husband. We were on varsity tennis together, although she was way better than me 😉

Lunch today was awesome and veggie-tastic. Veggies or bust?? 😉

One of my favorite combos is hummus and cracked pepper, spread on a wrap or pita (this was the Trader Joes brown rice wraps again)…

… with some fresh sliced tomatoes…

… and then topped off with some Massaged Kale Salad. I learned this tasty recipe awhile ago from Meghann’s blog and have been loving it ever since! Basically, you take some kale (washed and trimmed… or bought in a bag where they’ve already done that for you), drizzle some olive oil on it, add some fresh lemon juice (I used juice from 1/2 a lemon for this portion), add some fresh cracked pepper, and “massage” it all together with your hands! Delish. And makes your hands soft 🙂

Nom, nom nom! The word nom makes me giggle.

Had it with another lovely Goat Cheese and Beet Salad, except that this was actually feta this time, so I’m kind of lying. 🙂

Annnnnnd with some homemade iced tea mixed with a little bit of POM Wonderful (3 parts tea, 1 part POM) Yummy!!!

And an unpictured pear a little bit later 🙂

Off I go! Time to run some errands, head to class, come back, frantically over-pack (duh), eat a quick early din din (leftover Sweet Potato Lentil Chili (topped with marinara sauce and cilantro – so good) and toast?), and then hit the road! I’m packing a billion snacks for the drives and for the info session tomorrow, obviously. No one likes to be around a hungry Anne 😉

I’ll be back either late Friday night or Saturday morning, so stay tuned for a UNC recap! Have a lovely day 🙂

Just Beet It!

He he… come on. That pun was just too good to pass up!

So when I was little, I remember my grandmother feeding me freshly boiled beets (in addition to cookies, of course) from their garden when me, my parents, and my brother went to their house. They were so good. But after that, I forgot about my love for beets, and was too lazy to make them on my own. So one day this summer when I was at Whole Foods, and I came across this:

for a mere buck or two, you know I had to give it a try. I’m generally a total “I don’t eat vegetables from a can” snob, but I had to make an exception for this.

I’m so glad I did! These things are amazing. If you don’t think you like beets but have never tried them, please buy this. I may or may not eat them straight out of the can sometimes. Whatever.

So, in honor of the warmer temperatures and sunshine today, today’s lunch featured said beets (and an awesome leftover sandwich), all lovely and cooked and sliced for me and all I had to do was open a can!

Doesn’t that look yummy?? Goat cheese + beets = heaven.

Goat Cheese and Beet Salad

Ingredients:

• Mixed greens
• Baby spinach
• Sliced cucumber
• Sliced beets
• Goat cheese
• Chopped fresh basil (optional)
• Cracked pepper
• Balsamic Vinaigrette

Easy and awesome. Just throw it all on a plate, top with some balsamic vinaigrette, and enjoy!

What’s your favorite beet recipe?

I had a busy day today full of Bio class and Bio lab. Did I tell you guys I got a 91.5 on my Bio midterm?? Woohooo!!! Especially awesome since the class average was 65?!?

My mom and I are off to have dinner so I must go. Have a lovely evening everyone! 🙂

I love me some fall!

Brrrrrrr. There’s a chill in the air today as I sit looking out the window and writing my first blog post. Can anyone believe that it’s already October? I celebrated by doing some clearing out of my closet. How is it possible that anyone could have so much STUFF? I always forget until I’m actually moving it all around. I went and sold some of it at the awesome thrift store in MD yesterday. Of course I came out with a couple new things as well… oh well, I tried 🙂

Fall is one of my favorite seasons. Cozy sweaters, warm soups, cute boots, and jeans are brought out of retirement after a long, hot summer, and the weather is perfect for running.

And, of course, there’s the return of hot tea! I thought I’d dedicate my first post to the most awesome thing I’ve bought in awhile: the Aladdin Tea Infuser Mug!

Seeing as I have a total addiction to Starbucks, when I saw this little gem at Target the other day I thought I might have finally found the solutions to throwing away hundreds of dollars a month. Before, my excuse was always, “I want tea… but I’m about to run out the door.” Or, “Even if I bring thing mug of tea with me, I’ll have nowhere to put the tea bag and then it will get bitter and gross.” etc, etc.

Enter my new mug! If only I were smart enough to invent something like this. 😉 I don’t have a kettle, but the mug is microwave safe (and BPA free!), so I can heat my water right in the mug! Then, when you are ready to add your tea, it has a built in retractable mesh tea holder, which you can put loose leaf or bagged tea into. Once you’ve filled the mesh holder up with tea, put the lid on and extend the tea down into the hot water using a lever on the side of the mug, let it brew for a few minutes, and then retract it back up into the lid when you’re done brewing! No bitterness, no mess. What will they think of next??! My favorite kind of tea is Earl Grey, with a splash of milk. Mmmm… tastes like Europe 🙂 What’s your favorite kind of tea?

Have a lovely day, friends! I’m off to try a short run. I’ve been training all summer for the Army Ten Miler, which is on Sunday, and of course about two weeks ago my right knee started hating me. I ran in a 10k last weekend, and it’s been really sore and angry this whole week. I’m praying it will be okay for the race on Sunday after all my hard work!