Why Saturday is my favorite day of the week [33, 34]

 Saturdays involve dance parties to Adele, brunch with friends, snowball fights on the way home, lining up all of our black boots in the entryway, hours of Glee-watching and tea-drinking. Some Saturdays we throw Austin dinner parties. Somehow it's the perfect mix of homey-ness and community. Unless you feel at home you can't reach out to others and support them. But without a supportive community around you, you will never feel at home and comfortable. So here's to homey-ness and friends, changing the world one Saturday at a time. 

Jennifer #2 was hiding on purpose.

6 cans of chickpeas= lots of chickpea tacos

But I guess not enough for seven chickpea taco lovers.

Fail

Shuffling might help

The Jennifers doing the dishes :)

I. Am. In. Miiisery

Cheater 5 ingredients or less: super food [32]

Is it any surprise that I have yet another blog post about food? Somewhere in the last couple of weeks I missed a 5 ingredients or less post, so you're getting it randomly on a Saturday. Going vegan, being an herbivore, consuming a plant-based diet (however you want to say it) brings up many comments and questions from the non-herbie/vegan/plant-based peanut gallery. Do we get enough protein? How much iron and fiber do we get? What about vitamin B12? And how do you get omega-3 fatty acids without fish? I won't go into lecture mode but I will take some time to present to you one of my absolute favorite super foods: walnuts (hence why it's a "cheater" 5 ingredients post). 

This ready-made snack food is up there on the list of best foods for me, along with blueberries, sweet potatoes, kale, pancakes (only my dad's), and pie (homemade, hands down, is of course the best). That might be why I have a 2+ lb. bag in my pantry that I've been munching on since the beginning of the semester (it was 3 lbs when I bought it). But even better than how they taste is how healthy they are. It turns out that walnuts also qualify as a super food, having quite a laundry list of healthful benefits. If you want to see all the facts in chart form, go here, but just to give you an idea of the basics, walnuts contain protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B6, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and omega-3 and -6 fatty acids. And you thought you could only get omega-3 fatty acids from fish. Surprise! It turns out that there are three different types of omega-3 fatty acids. The first two, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are the ones found in fatty fish, but the third type, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), is found in some vegetable oils, some green vegetables including kale and brussels sprouts, and in walnuts. There is some debate about how beneficial each of these types is, with the fishy omega-3s potentially being more beneficial, but our bodies are cool enough to partially convert ALA to EPA and DHA, so either way, plant-based omega-3s are good enough for me. If you don't believe me, see what the Harvard smarties have to say: here.

Are you a fan of strawberry jam? [31]

Because I sure am. Aaaand, that's enough with the rhyming. I can go through a small jam jar in the span of about two days, just give me a loaf of bread and a working toaster, or even just a frying pan and stove. Toast and I are besties. It's what I eat when I'm hungry, when I'm in a munchy mood, when I need an afternoon snack, when I want something sweet but light before bed. When I lived in Ireland I would buy one of those extra-long loaves (they look like two of the flabby sliced loaves that Americans call bread put together, no offense I'm just a picky European) and live off of it for the next week. My toast-eating has always been held in check because of the amount of jam I had in the house. Those jars are just never ever big enough for me. But Costco had an exciting surprise for me when I went there over winter break: massive jars of jam that only have four ingredients (and get this, NO high fructose corn syrup. I swear Smucker's and high fructose corn syrup are as much besties as toast and I am). So, I will be enjoying quite a few slices of toast in the next couple of weeks, with my 5 ingredients or less jam, and will most definitely be returning to Costco for a second round of giant jars during my spring break.

Number Thirty

”Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person” –unknown

”If not you, then who? If not now, when?” –Hillel

“Wo ein Wille ist, ist ein Weg”

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” –Dumbledore

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~Albus Dumbledore

“The mind that will not admit it has something more to learn tomorrow is in danger of stagnating” –Masterharper Robinton, Dragonrider Anne McCaffery

“Someday I must read this scholar Everyone... He seems to have written so much- all of it wrong.” –Daine, The Immortals Series, Tamora Pierce

“Who wills, can. Who tries, does. Who loves, lives.” Anne McCaffery Dragonflight

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts.” –Thoreau, Walden

"Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. 
Where there is doubt, faith.” –Saint Francis of Assisi

“Politeness and consideration for others is like investing
pennies and getting dollars back.” –Thomas Sowell

“When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they’ll remember 
and be kind to someone else. And it’ll become like a wildfire.” –Whoopi Goldberg

”Only morality in our actions can
give beauty and dignity to our lives.” –Enstein

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” –Mother Teresa

 “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” –Mother Teresa

“Es ist schön, mit den kleinen Dingen glücklich zu sein.” Sibel Kekilli

 "When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” ~Ingrid Newkirk

 
“The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?” –Jeremy Bentham

 

  

“Wie weit kann man gehen? Auf jeden Fall immer nach vorn.” 

–Patrycia Ziolkowska

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but a few will catch your heart... pursue those.” –Michael Nolan

“Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.” –Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go

   “All who wander are not lost.” –JRR Tolkien

Thoroughly Theoretical and Thoughtful Thursdays [28, 29]

Today on the agenda we've got Valentine's Day love and 5 ingredients or less. First up, let's talk about love! The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center is putting together "bags of cheer" for their adult cancer patients and they asked for help from the public in making cards. My mom sent me the link to the website with the specifics on how to make the homemade cards a week before they needed to be sent in, so I recruited my sisters in Kappa Phi to help me make some cards during one of our service meetings. So, a very happy Valentine's Day to the cancer patients at UofM!

And now, it's time for food! I'm such a foodie! Week 3 of 5 ingredients or less should have been over a week ago, but who's paying attention to weekdays anymore? This latest addition is the super duper yummy roman raspberry sorbet (yum yum yum!) that I simply can't get enough of. Seriously, the other night I was eating this and the popcorn from the 5 ingredients post a couple weeks ago (yes, that popcorn that I just keep mentioning! It's really truly honestly that good!). It was heavenly :) But not only is it delicious, but this sorbet is made with 5 ingredients (I don't count water, that's just silly), it's vegan, gluten-free, fat-free, and earth friendly. Happiness and joy!!   














So, this is the part of the post where I should start off on a thought-provoking discussion (aka me rattling off random thoughts that pop into my head, oh fun!) but I'm sleepy (I've been up by 6:15ish every morning this week and haven't gone to bed until midnight every night, and for someone who gets kinda loopy without 7 to 8 hours of sleep... yeah) and I have another 8 am meeting tomorrow so I will say good night for now and spare you the loopy-ness. 

"Be bold, mighty forces will come to your aid." -unknown

I've been on a little hiatus from the blogging world, but never fear I will be back in next to no time! I just hit that point in the semester where everything happens at once: tests, papers, club events. It's a super exciting time. Besides all of the normal school-related stuff I'm on the psychology department's search committee to find a new professor for next year who knows something about personality, assessment, and maybe even a little bit about gender roles/effects and inter-group relations. Be amazed :) This week we have several candidates coming in for interviews and presentations so my usual system for recording my schedule in my planner has kind of been turned on its head. That red pen I use to indicate tests and due dates for big projects? It's been hijacked to note when all of the different breakfasts and meetings and presentations are this week. It all started swimming together so much that I had to circle the two tests and two papers I have due this week (seriously, my life is freakishly doubled up right now: two candidates, two papers, two tests, two bible studies, and two 8 am breakfasts per candidate, that's double doubled!).

I do have quite a few blog posts for you, my lovely readers, if I could only find the time to write them. In the meantime, I wanted to preview a few of the blog posts that are soon to be published as well as some of my ideas for future months, just so you have an idea of what's up and also to stall a little bit while I try to keep up with this week.

JUST kidding... That was this year's vegan Thanksgiving feast

So, in the next week or so I hope to tell you a little bit about (bi/tri?)weekly Austin dinners. They look a little bit like this:

Valentine's Day surprise?

I'd also like to talk a little bit about homey-ness and the simple joys of life. For example, click HERE for a moment of pure happiness and joy :) Also, in just a few short days it is Valentine's Day, or as some of us have renamed it: Singles Appreciation Day. I have some loving world-changing-ness to share for that and I've got TWO 5 ingredients or less as well.

Yummy yummy in my tummy!

Speaking of the 5 ingredients theme (and yes I know there are 6 ingredients in that picture, I've just made the executive decision that water doesn't count), I've got some themes to share with you for possibly (hopefully) the rest of the year. Wednesday has accidentally become the 5 ingredients or less day, but I've got some happy rhyme-y ideas for other days, like Thoughtful Thursdays (I know, kinda cliché/pathetic, but would Thoroughly Theoretical Thursdays be better?) and Foodie Fridays (can you tell that I love food? As in love love love love love food?). Then in March I'm kicking off a 31 Changes in 31 Days challenge that I read about in the VegNews magazine I talked about in the 1 month blog. So, get excited! Also, I want guest bloggers!! So check out my blog post about that, HERE, and let me know how cool you are.

Well, for having absolutely no time to devote to this blog this week, I've sure spent a lot of time on this filler post. Whoops... Check in later for (hopefully) more regular posts again!