Winter Break

This semester was very hard and induced a lot of stress, so I felt a little rest and relaxation was deserved. While I've been home I have watched movies, hung out with my parents and friends as well as start making new recipes! Just wanted to share with you what I've come up with....


Semi-homemade Tomato Bisque:

Ingredients: One Tomato, Celery, Carrots, One 12 oz. can of Chicken Stock, a can of Tomato soup,
tablespoon of butter (unsalted), and whatever seasoning you like best I just used italian.
reduced fat sour cream (to your liking)

Directions:

-Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the celery and carrots that have been chopped pretty
small.
-Cook the vegetables for 8-10 minutes until soft and then add the chicken stock and the                  
 tomato chopped into pieces.
 -Add the tomato soup and just heat all together for a 3 minutes until the soup is hot
 -If you have a hand blender use that to blend the soup, but I just used a blender. Make
 sure you let the soup cool and don't fill about half of the blender.
 -blend in the desired amount of sour cream or plain greek yogurt, season and Enjoy!

This tomato bisque pairs perfectly with a perfect Grilled Cheese! yummy

If you want another healthy version of this which I just tweaked for what I had SkinnyTaste.com has a Tomato Bisque recipe as well. http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/08/tomato-bisque.html

Finals Week

In the spirit of the season it is that all wonderful week we all dread...Finals week! I have been semi-lucky in my years here and have not had too bad of a finals schedule, but we can't all be lucky. The important thing when it comes to Finals is to plan out a study schedule. No matter what you will need more time than you think. Even when I have a pretty easy final I will start studying and with in three hours I'll realize I may have underestimated how much there was to study. Make sure you leave enough time to study for each final fully. Try to find the best place to study, it is different for everyone! If you know your distracted easily don't study at home. If you like to have a busy environment, coffeehouses are always a good choice. When it comes down to it, most people can benefit from the library, it's not the most fun place to be, but it is efficient. Don't forget to have snacks and water wherever you study, if you're not thinking about food you won't have to leave to grab a bite. It's hard, but just try to knock it out and then get as much sleep as possible. Not having classes feels like it would be less exhausting, but it is easy to lose time and sleep during Finals week. Some good tips for this week include:
1. Sleep!! ZZzz
2. Eat healthy food, McDonalds is delicious and fast, but your brain wants good food
3. Make a study schedule for the week
4. Schedule some time to relax
5. Find the perfect place to study
6. Try not to stress too much, just do the best you can!

Being Healthy in College

It is a difficult task to stay healthy in an environment such as a college campus. There is already the difficulty of eating healthy, but with college there are many added hurdles! These can include: no time, no kitchen facility (dorms), increase of fast food and unhealthy restaurants, lack of funds (because in college its okay to be broke). Due to these obstacles eating and staying healthy is unbelievably hard. Here are 10 tips that can help get you by:

1. Eat some sort of fresh fruit or vegetable every day

2. Get to know what snacks are healthy, having little healthy snacks around or in your backpack will help you resist the urge to grab a scone from Starbucks.

3. Plan ahead, if you have a long day on campus pack a sandwich and an apple or whatever sounds good to get you through the day. 

4. Start experimenting with cooking. If you have a kitchen start trying to learn recipes that sound good and eventually start coming up with your own. 

5. Drink less soda! This is a really hard one for me because I LOVE sprite and root beer, but it is so bad for you and just empty calories.

6. Give yourself a break. I can't stress this enough, College is a stressful, fun, up and down kind of life and to expect to eat perfectly is insane. Do the best you can, but don't make it the top priority. If you really want to order pizza, chinese, or whatever strikes your fancy...Do It! 

7. Try to make weekly goals, if you tell yourself on Sunday "I will not eat fries at all this week"you are more likely to remember it and feel it is important. 

8. Get your friends involved, my roommates and I made a goal sheet and we like to cook for each other and workout together. Even something as simple as playing Kinect just to get the blood flowing. 

9. Walk to class!! I live in Indiana and it gets so cold and gross, but walking to class is the easiest way to stay healthy and in shape without feeling like your getting exercise. (Unless it's raining, yuck I just take the bus)

10. Tell yourself every day, "I am beautiful" don't ever let being healthy turn into wanting to look better. If you don't think you are beautiful no one else will be able to see it either. Stay positive no matter what!

Keep looking for posts of recipes and work out routines as well! 

Definitely check out my two favorite sites right now:

 - blogilates.com    (free workout videos) 

 - skinnytaste.com    (amazingly delicious, easy, healthy recipes)