Cheers for the Freakin' Weekend; and the end of School!

Oh my. I have one day left of high school. One day! ahhh I'm so happy and relieved. We get our yearbooks tomorrow so I hope that I can get everyone to sign it (I know right, you would think we would get them earlier, especially since we are seniors and this is our last one...) Anyways. I thought I would keep this post short, and stick with my top five favorites from this weekend, because I'll have to do a full post on it's own for my Warrior Dash adventure(:

1. My NikeID shoes came in!!! So colorful and comfy (so far, I'll keep you updated because I have yet to run in them, haha, even though that's what I got them for, hey! I've been taking a little break from running since my insane 3.8 mud run(:

2. Having time to try all of Ashley's recipes! I love this girl's blog, in fact I may have to name it as my favorite(: Sorry guys! This Sunday it was half of her Savory Zucchini Bread and half of the Cinnamon Zucchini Bread; I just couldn't decide! Both were delish, and I only have one picture because I forgot haha. but I have tons more in the freezer for future meals, so I am sure you will be seeing the results soon.

I used the savory flatbread to make a mini pizza with marinara, this black bean salsa my mom made with corn, tomatoes and cilantro and daiya cheese. It was also good with a schmear of sunflower seed butter!

The only changes I made were with the cinnamon one, which I used millet flour instead of oat flour (because that's what it called for in the savory bread and I was making one of each) and I used one tablespoon of applesauce and one tablespoon of coconut oil instead of two tablespoons of oil (only because I wanted to see if that worked, because it worked for the savory version too). And like I said they turned out great! I can't wait to experiment with more of her recipes now that school is pretty much out and I will have more time in the kitchen(: yay for summer! haha I love how I am looking forward to cooking in the summer, when most look forward to the pool, hanging out with friends and just chilling (and don't get me wrong I will be doing all the above too) but it just shows how much I love cooking compared to most kids my age who can only make cereal.

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3. This music cover of Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up," I love the original so much, but this kid actually went to my school last year (he's now in college at UNCC) and he is soooo good! I love this video and have been literally watching it on repeat; go check it out!!

4. Peanut Butter Cheerios! I know this isn't your first time hearing about them because they are all over the blog world, but lately they have been making appearances on smoothies [in a bowl; cause that's how the cool kids do it!], on oatmeal and my frozen yogurt messes.

On top of a green monster! 

5. These compression socks (scratch that, I just looked it up and they call them leg sleeves haha) I got at Omega Sports (not sure if that is a national chain or just a local place) with giftcards I won when my dad, my sister and I won a duathalon (it was a relay with me running a 5K, my dad biking a 21K and then my sister running a 5K) Anyways.. he is a biker, like hard-core, I'm talking 50-100 miles on a Saturday ride, and he swears by these compression socks. Apparently they prevent muscle soreness/fatigue. Of course his aren't hot pink ti-dyed and cool like mine, but hey, not everyone can pull of this shade of pink(: In case you were wondering I got this brand and they were about forty dollars (so I hope they work!)

Okay, so I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, and hopefully you are as lucky as I am in being out of school real soon to start summer!!!

Question: Do you like long posts every once in a while (or do you not really read them all and just scroll to the pics like I sometimes do, hehe) or would you rather a few short posts every couple of days? Just wondering(:

To skip or not to skip?

Well it's been a week, and I definitely give props to those of you who post during the school week! So now that testing is over I've been mostly watching movies and reviewing in class (for finals I don't have to take(: Yay for placing out!).

On Wednesday, my friends and I may or may not have had a senior skip(: it was so fun! Definitely the best day all year, we saw Avengers (this movie is awesome, you should go see it!), got froyo at yoforia and I got my graduation dress. It's green, for Tulane! I really want to get some cute heels to go with, I'll prob look at zappos dot com cause they some awesome shoes for a great price, wow I sound so cheesy. Anyways as for the fro yo, I tried a new flavor, Taro, sounds tropical or something, it was purply in color and tasted ah-mazing! Before I tried it I asked the guy working there what it tasted like and I think he summed it up perfectly, "The milk leftover in the bowl after eating fruity pebbles," so fruity, but not too sweet. Go try it! Run don't walk! you will love it. I wonder what it tastes like raw, hmmm..

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That's what the Taro looks like

my froyo bucket (they are huge!)

There's my graduation dress!

Last night I babysat for my neighbors, something I actually enjoy as the kids are sweet and they pay well, so it's a win-win. I even got to make dinner for the little boy last night. I love cooking for kids because I always try to get them to try new things, like he said that he had never heard of cheese in scrambled eggs (how that is possible I don't know, but anyways) so I mixed some shredded cheese in his eggs and he ate them all up(: As for the other little girl, my cooking didn't lend me a helping hand, as I mistakenly made her a peanut butter dip with chocolate chips as a little snack directly before she went to bed, yeah big mistake. She was full of energy (I thought that was all talk and only in the movies! haha). Note to self; no sugar for her next time.
I have a little recipe for you, a pineapple avocado dressing that I use on my chopped salad I had while babysitting. This recipe will follow, but I used it to top off romaine, sautéed mushrooms, cucumber, green beans (from their fridge haha), turkey muffins, tomatoes, celery and a little of Heather's crack. I wish I could have found their pizza cutter so that I could be all cool and chop it up like I saw Courtney do it over at her blog.

PINEAPPLE AVOCADO DRESSING
adapted from Healthy.Happy.Life and Smart Kitchen
(I cut down on the ingredients to make a smaller batch, mostly because I only had half a small avocado haha)
-half a small avocado
-2 tablespoons OJ
-1/4 cup pineapple (I used frozen)
-2 tsp tamari
-1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
-2 tsp dried cilantro (feel free to use fresh if you have some!)
-sprinkle of salt and red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients in a food processor and blend, blend, blend until it becomes smooth. Mine thickened after a while so store in the fridge and feel free to add a little water (or OJ or apple cider vinegar if it needs more). Serve on rice, salad or use a dip for your favorite veggies!

Anyways I'm so psyched for my 5K tomorrow (I know right; two weeks in a row!) but this one is definitely going to be different from any run I've ever done before, It's a mud run(: It's called the Warrior Dash, and it's supposed to be one of the hardest mud runs there is. I've heard rumors of walls, fire and mud pits, oh my! I'm well prepared; haha I bought 7 dollar running shorts from Walmart (so i don't ruin my nike tempo shorts don't ya know(: Too bad they are kinda cute too.

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Man I need to work on making shorter posts more often, sorry any readers; that I may or may not have(:

Have you ever done a mud run? Have any tips?

Also have you ever tried Taro, or another funky froyo flavor that was good?

Water for the People 5K Recap and Eats!

So yesterday I had a 5K, the Water for the People 5K, a race to raise money for people in third world countries who don't have access to clean water. A great cause, but really all charity runs have great causes(:

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So I have a random question for any blogger out there reading, two things actually, do you have to post the source for every picture you post that isn't yours? and also do you ever like give your location? I don't know I just felt weird putting up where my 5K race was held at. Anyways, back to a mini-race recap.

I was definitely pushing it when I warmed up 15 minutes prior to the race start, oops :/ long story short, everyone at the starting line was giving me the evil eye as I was running up to the line only about 3 seconds before they were about to start the race when the realized I was a runner,,,..haha. So that was definitely an adrenaline rush! I'm not an amazing runner by any means, I've only been running since August when I tried out for my school Cross-country Team for the first time ever. But I actually did pretty good at this race, I think that I might have even PRed(: We had run the same course during our XC season like one or two times, so I'm going to check those times on Mile Split and see. I got a 25:14 time, (I told you that I wasn't the best, but that actually was an improvement from my last 5K this year, which I ran in 25:37), but I came in third for women (possibly because it was a very small race..haha). I won a mug, so I was excited(: yay for free stuff! I also got a shirt, and grabbed a bagel, (I love the free food they always have at the end). 

There's the first and second placers too, my dad took the pic, haha so it's not the best
  (We were posing for another pic)

Like my Carolina Ti-dye shorts(; ?

If anyone wants to know any details about the actual race and course, haha, it is flat except for this ginormous hill in the middle, which I actually liked because I usually run up this hill behind my house to get to the greenway path I run on. I passed this guy on the way down! I love it when I get to pass like older fit guys haha is that weird? It just seems like they should be so much faster and fitter than me I guess. Other than that the race went well, its kinda cool because it loops around the lake and then there is a straight-away where you can sprint to the finish; and boy did I have a kick for this race(: 

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Here some random eats from this weekend

Pre-race dinner (Friday Night): carrot fries and trader joe's seafood medley with étouffée sauce my mom made (anyone interested in the recipe?) on a bed of arugula, grilled asparagus, mushrooms and zucchini.

This was preceded by a big bowl of peanut butter popcorn and followed by a big bowl of my almost nightly dessert (similar to Tara's) made of cottage cheese, applesauce, silken tofu, cocoa powder, pumpkin, greek yogurt, cinnamon and vanilla topped with peanut butter cheerios and strawberries (yum; my mom got some of these at the local farmer's market and they were delish!)

Next we have my snack/dessert after dinner at Panera; popped armaranth, a chocolate chip cookie, tofu brownie, cacao nibs, freezedried fruit (raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries) and then strawberries and blueberries, plus two raspberries (I know right! who leaves two raspberries in the container,..little stinker) haha and topped with dark chocolate almond milk; yum!

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At panera I was intrigued by a poster and ordered exactly that, haha A strawberry poppyseed salad and half a turkey sandwich. The salad was okay, I probably wouldn't order again, also because I really love their fuji apple turkey/chicken salad. The sandwich was awesome, as always, you can tell they make the bread fresh!

And last my snack from today, which yeah, was bigger than my head! haha idk if you can see the spoon handle but try and use that as a relative size comparison. This bowl included cantaloupe, bloobs, yogurt, blueberry flax sprinkles, love grown granola, freeze dried bloobs and trader joe's fake kashi cereal, stirred up with a little almond milk