Healthy Lunch- Salad and Sandwich

Hello All,
 I've been starting lots of posts lately, and not finishing them. I would really love to take an afternoon and finish a bunch. Perhaps this afternoon if I don't get stuck working on things at school.

My quest to eat healthier continues. I've been doing pretty well at avoiding processed things. My strategy for that has been reading labels, and only eating things with ingredients I recognize. In addition to this I've been eating oodles more veggies. Its been great going to the farmer's market and getting fresh salad mix every week!

Today I thought I'd share the lunch I packed. I try to pack lunch every day that I've got to be on campus for a good deal of time. Today I'm just going in for a few meetings (until class tonight) but as they're all around lunch time, and I ate a late breakfast (so eating an early lunch before I leave home is not the best idea) so I packed a light lunch.

StayFit Lunch Box

I've got many bento boxes. My mom makes fun of me, because every time I go to a store like TJ Maxx I agonize about all the boxes they have and how I want to buy another one. This one has its pros and cons, you can't fit a huge amount of food in it, but I like it's simple compartment style.

The cookies and fork kind of make a confused face...

For this lunch I packed a salad (farmers market ftw) topped with carrots and left over chicken and balsamic vinaigrette on the side. Normally I don't eat much meat. The texture kind of grosses me out and it is often too heavy for me. I was vegetarian for 5 years, but do like to try meat once and a while, so I'm just a person who doesn't eat much meat now. Last night though, my roommate made a whole chicken, and I certainly enjoyed a tasty breast. I chopped up some left over bits to top my salad.

You'll also notice on the side I've got half a sandwich. It is just a leftover bun from Gardenburgers with cheese and mustard. 

Also, cookies. As I mentioned before, I like my deserts. 

I realized while looking through my posts lately, its all about food! I guess you can tell whats been on my mind the past few weeks. 

Loves,

La Mer.

A tasty breakfast.

Today is the first day of Spring Term, however my first class of the morning was canceled, so I have only one class this afternoon.

I was figuring I'd get up early anyways and putter about the house, but gave myself permission to sleep in if I so desired. But I was up at 7, I lied around reading blogs for an hour before I finally got up to hunt for coffee and make some breakfast. And make breakfast I did. I came up with this beautiful creation.

That would be the homemade bread from yesterday, topped with goat cheese and apple, with a caramel latte-coffee-type-thing on the side. 

1/2 espresso, 1/2 warm milk, and a splash of caramel simple syrup.

What did you have for breakfast?

La Mer.

Tasty and Cozy

Today was not a bad day. I worked in the morning, and thought quite a bit about how when I got home I wanted to be productive. I wanted to clean up the house, and cook some tasty things. But I knew there was quite a danger of my getting home, being exhausted and flopping down to watch tv all night (like I did yesterday.)

But no! I was determined for that not to happen!

What did I do instead?

I made tasty things! and then celebrated by watching a movie I'd had a sudden craving for. But after the movie finishes, I'll start into cleaning.


First, I made some bread. I've been seeing recipes on Pinterest for simple, easy to make bread, but most required a baking container with a lid, like a cast iron pan. I've got the pan, but no lid, so I hadn't made any yet. But then I found this recipe on Alexandra's Kitchen. It only needs an oven proof bowl!

Mine turned out a little lumpy, I think because I used a bowl that was too big.

The other tasty thing I made today was some caramel simple syrup. I've been wanting to make it for a while, and just a few days ago made a basic caramel sauce to start the process. I used this recipe from Crunchy Creamy Sweet. I don't think I cooked it quite long enough, so it was kind of grainy, but still pretty tasty.

To turn it into a simple syrup to put in coffee, I loosely followed A Beautiful Mess's recipe for Caramel Coffee Syrup.


And to top it all off, I am now cozied up on the couch with a tumbler of iced caramel coffee and watching Spirited Away.

la mer.

Smoooothies

Remember that post about eating healthy and drinking lots of water? Well I've been back and forth about it. I've been trying to eat better. Less dessert and crappy stuff like soda and poptarts. Somedays I'm super motivated, some days I'm lazy. It isn't a huge deal to me, just a cool idea.

One thing I have been pretty consistant about is drinking smoothies! I've been having a smoothie probably every other day. I'd have them every day, but I like taking them as my "second breakfast" as I walk to school, which isn't that practical for days I work. On said days, I usually take a fruit salad and yogurt instead.

Today I really wanted a smoothie, even though I worked, so I'm having one after work with my lunch!

Yum yum.

I don't have any offical recipe for smoothies. Its just whatever fruits/veggies/juice/yogurt I've got in my fridge.

Today's includes...

• 1/4 cup bok choy
• 1 cup mixed lettuce
• 1/4 of a cucumber
• 1/2 of an apple
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup hibiscus cooler
• 2/3 cup frozen berries
• 1 tbs chia seeds

It is a pretty tasty concoction. I usually only do one veggie, but I was short on fruits, and feeling uber healthy, so I added some extra. I usually put a banana in as well, we've got none. We go through them super fast here.

Btw. To make this a more lunch worthy thing, I also made a grilled cheese sammich. :)

What do you like to put in your smoothies?

~La Mer.

Five (more) Facts on a Friday.

I've become terribly boring and only post on Friday's, haven't I. When I get set on the new schedule of life and whatnots I'll be more interesting. I promise!

I'm going to try a different format this time though...

1. Ashland has been positively lovely the past few days. Maybe even weeks... It has warmed up to sweatshirt status instead of big old winter coat, and has been mostly sunny with just a smidgen of rain. Today after work the roommates and I went on a wonderful walk along the railroad tracks and this was our view.

2. Last week was the birthday of one of my most favorite people. I made her a tasty cake with a bee on it, because bees are her favorite. This is however, not the cake, it is my test run of the bee stencil, on the cutting board.

3. I'm going home for a few day over spring break and I get to see my best friend from high school! I'm quite excited. :) She is a wonderful thing who I miss quite a bit.

4. I also get to see these lovely faces! Top Left: Rosy, Top Right: Sidonie, Bottom Left: Dexter, Bottom Left: Pongee. Rosy, Sido and Pongee are my parent's dogs, and Dex is my brother's, who spends many a day over to visit.

5. Did I tell you about this beautiful vase of flowers I found on my doorstep? One day, the most wonderful boy in the world asked me "What time will you be at home on your birthday?" I said probably round 5. I rush home a tad after 5 to find these, complete with beautiful heart necklace, waiting at the door.

And that's that!

La Mer.

Five Fact Friday (mostly new job related)

I'm running a little late today, but its still friday!

1. My hunt for good housekeeping clothes goes on! So far the things added to my wardrobe for this job are...

• White long sleeve shirt. I bought it for the first day because they said wear white, and I wanted to cover my tattoo with long sleeves until I knew if tattoos were okay or not. Now I know they're okay and will probably never wear this shirt again. I"m tempted to cut the sleeves off into a tank top or 3/4 sleeve.
• Grey tennis shoes. Something with a little more support than the Merrell shoes I was wearing before, and less smell attracting. (Those shoes get seriously stinky) 
• White sleeveless shirt with some cute buttons and details. When its not 9:30 with no light to be seen, I'll take a picture for ya. :)
• Black capris. Right now they're kind of an awkward length where they could be full length pants on someone short, or capris on someone tall, but on me they're like top of shoe height. I think I'll wear them cuffed and probably hem them eventually.

2. Black Books may impart much wisdom on us, but there is one quote I don't always agree with.

Bernard: Old wine... is good wine...
Manny: Yes... but expensive wine is good wine also
Bernard: But the older the wine... the gooder it is
Manny: Yes... but by the same token, the more expensive the wine... the gooder it is also

Mostly because I'm currently drinking cheap as hell wine, and it is damn tasty.

3. Try as I might, I lost my voice this week. It wasn't terrible, and I never fully lost the ability to speak (though it was nice to have a break from talking during ASL class). I was scared though because last time I lost my voice (over the summer) I had a few days where I could absolutely not speak. Luckily I was living alone at the time and called in sick to work and just sat around alone all day.

4. Oh goodness its good to be employed again. I forgot how nice it is to be able to buy lunch if I don't have time to pack one, or not feel terrible for getting a cup of coffee while I'm out doing errands.

5. Two favorite skills I've learned from my new job thus far: How to do hospital corners on a bed, and how to clean a bathroom super fast!

Swich

Yup. I'm making the swich from Google Reader to Bloglovin.

How about you?!

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A lovely scarf.

I got a lovely package in the mail the other day from my mummy. One of the things in it was this scarf!

I wore it with one of my favorite yet frustrating sweatshirts. It has a big collar and a belt that holds it all together. Its pretty awesome, except the belt slips and slides all over the place and the collar will never lie correctly. 

See, all wonky.

 I also wore some boots I've had for years. I think I got these in 10th grade or there about. They're pretty worn in, and were like $10 from Ross to start with. The color goes so wonderfully with the sweatshirt though, so I almost always wear them together.

The color really does go together, I just over edited. oops. 

There ya have it.

-La Mer. 

Giveaway Winner!

{x}

Congratulations Joann McDonald! 

I've sent you an email regarding the prize from me. Enjoy the bobby pins! 

Sad you didn't win them? Hop on over to...

... And get yourself a pair!

Five Fact Friday

Egads, how did it get to be friday again? I guess after being grumpy and sick the beginning of the week, the end came pretty quickly.

1. I'm getting mixed feelings about my new job. On one hand its awesome to be employed and making money, plus I really needed something to do outside of school and my house. Now that the weather is getting nicer I'm excited to start going on walks more with a bit of hiking thrown in. But for now a job is a good thing to keep me occupied. On the other hand I'm exhausted all the time and never feel motivated to clean my own house. I'm hoping after this weekend my body will catch up and it won't be too tiring anymore.

2. I just remembered its my roommate's birthday in a week and I'm excited. Ginger, we will have all the most excellent adventures.

3. I cleaned off my desk today for the first time in months! Its beautiful. I guess I should clean off the dining room table next, which I've kind of taken over as my desk space.

4. I presented something in my sign language class today as a quiz. I'd been absent the class before and had been worried about presenting it right. Of course I went first, so I didn't know if I was doing the correct format or not. I wasn't too nervous, but everyone else in the class seemed to be freaking out! The prof ended up throwing out the quiz because he felt he hadn't prepared us enough for it.

5. I'm so glad the weather is getting slightly warmer because I can make smoothies again! They're a favorite breakfast of mine, but when its cold out I have no desire for them. I've had a few this week and they are oh so tasty. Also, fruit salad. Its never something I think to make, but its pretty damn good.

{x}

Currently

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Drinking: A tasty smoothie thrown together with random fridge contents. Pineapple, frozen berries, vanilla yogurt, spinach, apple, pear and a citrus blend juice.

Watching: The beautiful blue sky and fluffy white clouds drifting past my window.

Listening: Pandora. Bright Eyes just came on and is setting the mood quite nicely.

Wanting: To not have to do ASL homework, and putter about in the nice weather instead.

March Challenge

Alrighty, for the month of March I'm giving myself a challenge. Well, two challenges actually.

I just crossed the "Get a job" task off my check list, but in the past few weeks between getting said job, finishing a show and getting set on a new schedule, I've been eating not so well.

I normally eat pretty well. I roughly follow the 80-20 rule (I just figured out it was a thing. I'd been doing it naturally for years though. Thanks parents for teaching me good habits) where you eat 80% organic, natural, healthy things and 20% not so good stuff. I'm a fan of ice cream, Juanita's tortilla chips are my weakness and I do drink soda every or every other day. I try to listen to myself about when I need a treat. I like to put a chocolate or cookie in my lunch so I've got something to cheer me up in the afternoons when I'm dragging. But when one chocolate turned into two, and then two chocolates and a cookie, I knew it was time to start paying more attention to the big picture.

I'm not making any huge changes to get my diet back in order. I'll still have a my treats, but I'm going back to a treat a day, not two, three or five.
The other change I'm making is drinking more water! I go through water phases. Sometimes I get really into my water bottle and carry it everywhere, or I remember to keep a tumbler filled and just carry it around to sip. With this new job, I've been taking my water bottle, because vacuuming a sun room can get quite tiring. Today I took that one step further and have been carrying a tumbler of water around with me. I added a few slices of lemon to jazz it up a bit too. :)

The internet has led me to believe not everyone calls these the same thing. 

I call em a tumbler. Not to be confused with a tumblr.

The other goal? Get my drivers licence! Licencelessness runs in my family. My brother doesn't have one either, but we're both working on it. Last I was home, it looks like we're both more or less ready to take the test, but just haven't yet. A wonderful friend of mine has been driving with me over the past few months, but busyness with school put it off. The new goal is before spring break. I may just call and make the driving test appointment, so I'm obligated to practice.

Wish me luck!
~La Mer.

A ramble about dressing for jobs (mostly awesome dress up day photos)

I started writing about how I got a new job, and it was tiring but spiffy. Then I was interested to start writing about the challenge I'm going to take on about dressing for work and not getting too bored. Then I wanted to write about past jobs and my wardrobe challenges/wonderful awesomnesses. So here is something like that.

My biggest real job of the past was working at a summer day camp. I was a camper there, went through their whole teenage leadership camp thing and then became a counselor/instructor. Total I think I was there 12 summers. I know, right. This camp was a big part of my life.

Can you spot the pink hair?

We wore our staff T shirts every day, with athletic pants/shorts or khaki pants/shorts on bottom. It was rather uninspiring. But what made up for it?

FRIDAY DRESS UP DAYS
Sorry.. They were really fun. Every Friday had a different theme, and we could wear anything and everything but our staff shirts.

Crazy Hair and Wacky Wear

Fictional Character (Draco Malfoy)

Cowboys

Sports day (Quidditch FTW)

Pajama Day

Ok, enough of that.

I've ranted in the past about my battle with carpentry clothes. HERE and HERE.

And the new challenge? White shirt on top, plain ish, pants (preferably jeans or black) on bottom, black apron on top. All very comfy with shoes that can stand being on foot for 5 hours. Yup. Housekeeper getup. 

Even less attractive than this.

I've got a fair amount of white shirts. They're kind of my favorite thing in summer. So hopefully I won't be too bored, plus I'm totally down to get more of them. I have the feeling new shoes will be in order though. 

I was going to show you what I wore today. But its pretty damn bring, so I'll skip it. Maybe another day.

Anywho. 

La mer.

New Hair

Did you notice yesterday I'd changed my hair? People around here have been noticing, its kind of odd. I change my hair so much I forget that people see it as a big deal. (they've actually been asking if my hair is longer...)

Tada!

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'd bleached it a few months ago for a New Years party. 

It was an "Undead" Party so I went as Spike, from Buffy.

It grew out surprisingly well. It was looking pretty good. But as I'm in the process of trying to get a job, I figured something a bit more normal was in order. 

I went to the hair dye box, to see if I had any light blond dye. I tend to use half of the dye bottle at a time, cause you know, my hair is short. I had two half used bottles. One was unlabeled as to what color it was. Some sort of blond presumably. Probably a really light blond. The other was labeled "Light copper blond". 

Now why I didn't just use the other one I thought was probably light blond, I don't know. So here I am with light copper blond hair. 

Oh well, it looks fine, just not what I wanted. Also I've been wearing it down and parted the past week, instead of the usual messy fluffle. I prefer the fluffle. Down makes me look a bit meek I think. Something I've definitely fought. No quiet meekness for me please.

I guess I just need to wait until its a bit longer and go back to this!

Clearly, pink gives me attitude. 

Loves, 

La Mer.

Five Fact Friday

I remembered this week to do a Five Fact Friday! (mostly because its Wednesday, and I'm writing this to be scheduled.)

Anyways!

 1. I've been eating everything under the sun lately. I think its cause I'm bored with having less classes and no show work to do right now. I get home, plop in front of the computer and snack, snack, snack. It doesn't help that I figured out how to make microwave popcorn with out the icky stuff. Thank you Pinterest.

2. I may be getting a job! (finally) I applied to be a housekeeper at a nearby B and B, had a fantastic interview and was asked back to do a trial day. The trial will be this friday. :)

3. My parents visited last weekend and it was quite fun. They saw the play I've been working on, we went Geocaching and ate some tasty food. We went to this cemetery (to find a geocache) and found some really old graves. The oldest I think was like 1805. Egads! Mostly it was late 1800's, which is still impressive.

4. The children I nanny for gave me carrot cake cupcakes for my birthday. They were damn tasty. They kept trying to convince me to share the cupcakes with them. I would have, but their mother assured me they had eaten plenty while making them. Also, I remembered that carrot cake usually has raisins in it. I dislike raisins.

5. Currently my nail polish matches my sweater. Its the same color. I swear, it just looks gold.



p.s. Don't forget to enter the Lovely Little Giveaway for a chance to win some button bobby pins along with so many other amazing things!

Giveaway time!

Hey everyone, 

I'm participating in my first giveaway! Tabetha over at The Closet Intellectual set up the whole thing for us, thanks Tabetha! 

For my contribution, I'm giving away a pair of my button bobby pins. If you want to check out more of them, head on over to my Etsy. I've got lots of colors listed and can also do custom colors! 

Check out all those awesome things! Below you'll find the Rafflecopter link where you can do a few things to get a few entrys. Good luck everyone! 

Loves,

La Mer.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A style, of late.

I'm quite good at disappearing, have you noticed? I know I still owe you some more awesome set building information and pictures of the real set. But I don't have em yet. So for now...

I wanted to mention that I think the 50's were pretty nifty. Primarily the fashion. I've always loved long wool skirts and cardigans. Lately I've actually been wearing some of the skirts and cardigans I've got, rather than just admiring them from time to time. Since I have been working on a show, I mostly wear shop clothes. But with the show open I've got a bit more freedom in my attire.  Recently I was at a clothing exchange party and picked up a few new skirts too.

Valentine's Day

Yesterday for a day of errands.

These were the two new skirts I got at the clothing exchange. They're pretty spifftastic. 

I also wore an awesome outfit on my birthday. No vintage skirt but I did wear a sweater that was my grandmother's in the 50's. It was passed down to my mother and then to me. 

This was the inspiration for my birthday outfit.

I think I came pretty close.

La Mer.