A summer to remember!

What a summer! Last school year was tough! I took my comprehensive exams from January to March and had a revision for one of my questions that I had to work on from end of April to the beginning of June.  Comps are a wretched process! Just takes over your life, but I had a lot of people always checking in on me and pulling me through.  Pat and I moved in together the week before they were due.  He was clutch BOTH times through comps-keeping me sane, always staying positive, and making coffee runs to Dunks.  I'll find out the final outcome in a few weeks-crossing fingers!

So, as I mentioned above, we started out the summer by moving in together.  We love our new place-it is so quiet and peaceful and I love sitting out on the porch with Darce-monster.  That first weekend we were visited by my cousins, my mother, and my siblings.  Here's our birthday dessert for mom:

Pat has spent the summer perfecting his mojito recipe-the perfect mix was found the last night of the Stanley Cup when Pat's brother and sister-in-law came into town.  Bruins lost :( but we had such a fun night!  I got to see my cousins again as they came in for their daughter's surgery at Duke, which went so well! I also got to spend time with my friends' new daughter, who is super cute and so snuggly.  In addition to working at the office, I wrote my first, first-author article which I just submitted yesterday (crossing fingers that it gets accepted).  We also gave Pat's store a facelift, as well as our new bedroom.  I hung up a hummingbird feeder in the back and now we have 6+ hummingbirds that whirl around outside every day and I love it.  Darcy and the hummingbirds are very intrigued by each other.

Pat played hockey all summer long and they actually won their championship game this week!

Towards the end of the summer, I was also able to run to the beach twice which was amazing.  There's just something about getting out there that just lets the craziness of the year wash away.  The first trip was with my mother and we went down to see my brother.  We had such a wonderful time! It was so good to see them both and to get Edson for a day on the beach!

SO much fun! Our second beach trip I'll detail more in my next post... :)

Brain Food

Now, I'll be the first to admit that, as much as I love food, it is one of the things that goes to the back burner when I'm stressed out.

*Hence, why I haven't posted on here in months (I have so much to share with you!).*

So, inevitably, my take-out eating out goes up...and it's not always the sexy, relatively good for you kind of take-out either.  I've been known to hit one of a few fried places along the way--but no golden arches--not until I know their burgers are safe! I have to draw the line somewhere.

However, in these times of poor judgment, occasionally I rectify my mindset and try to "reward" myself with a little brain food. 

This morning's offering:  

Muesli.

Muesli is a breakfast food, traditionally composed of uncooked rolled oats, dried fruit, and nuts.  It takes a little getting used to if you haven't had it before, but it's just like cereal and such a cheap, easy way to make a breakfast (and use up some of that HUGE can of rolled oats that I KNOW you have in your cabinet).

All you need:

1/4 to 1/2 cup (1/4 is usually good for me) of uncooked rolled oats
2 T dried fruits of your choice
1 T of nuts of your choice
1/2 to 3/4 cup of skim milk
Suggested add on's: cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, a little bit of honey

I used apricots and ginger this morning with some walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a tiny bit of clove.

Speaking of clove, Clover got to enjoy a little bit of apricot this morning, too. 

Other things you can put in your Muesli?  Coconut, almonds, cranberries, blueberries, pumpkin (I usually do that one hot), strawberries, lemon zest.  The options are endless.


For my brain food dinner last night, I made some port soaked portobello mushrooms on some crusty bread spread with ricotta cheese and a beet salad.  Oh, and a big ol' glass of red to calm me down from the day. 

What's your brain food???