Burrito Week
My quest for easy to make, lasting, and healthy lunches continues this week with burritos. On Monday I added corn, spinach and bell peppers to a can of Amy’s low sodium chili and cooked it in a saute pan for 20 minutes. I made some brown rice to go along.
Now when I leave for school, I just assemble! Tortilla, brown rice, filling, CHEESE, and salsa. I bring it in a tupperware container and heat it up in the gross microwave in the cafeteria.
I really love burrito week.
Fried Eggs, Wild Rice & Kale
Remember me? One time frequent blogger who’s been sucked into the Columbia postbac pre-med program, swallowed by terrifying Physics tests and crippling amounts of work?
I’m alive! I’m eating all the things! Today I added some kale to leftover wild rice and poured a glug of soy sauce and a squirt of sricacha in the pan. Once the kale was wilted, I set the rice and greens aside and fried up two eggs. A hearty lunch is necessary to make it through my classes today, which end at 10:30pm.
Please accept this photo of Emily Dickinson acting like Emily Dickinson as an apology for my absence.
(or How I Stopped Having Free-Time and Started Loving the Library)
1. I have a giant zit on my forehead likely from several face-palms during my Calculus homework.
2. Working, volunteering, and taking 4 classes does not leave much time for doing the actual work.
3. There is a LOT of actual work. There are problems, chapters, homework, recitations and the mounting stress of fitting everything in.
4. Columbia has about 5 million libraries and I’m working on finding my favorite. Currently I enjoy the science library, at a table near the window overlooking Broadway. My least favorite is the Math library because it is called the Math library.
5. Peanut butter and jelly travels well in a back pack. Bananas do not.
6. When do I exercise?
7. You can figure out who the post-bacs are in any lecture because we’re the students sitting in the first two rows who showed up 30 minutes early to class.
8. If two trains are traveling at a speed of 30 km/h and a bird is flying at 60 km/h between the trains, how long will it take for your head to explode? Answer: 5 minutes.
9. Did I mention I’m moving out of my apartment this weekend? At some point it might be a good idea to start packing. Moving in NYC is the WORST. It’s the worst. But UWS, here I come!
10. I would love to be blogging about 5x more than I currently am, but it’s just not happening. I don’t think I realized how much work I would actually have and the amount of time I would be devoting to my classes. It’s a lot. So right now the plan is to find a balance.
I just wish this zit would go away.
As many of you know, I left my documentary production career in May to pursue a new career path: nutrition. I began my journey towards becoming a Registered Dietitian by catching up on some prerequisite classes that I missed out on at film school. Over the summer and this fall I completed:
I was terrified about taking science & math classes, since I never had a knack for those subjects in high school.
6 months have passed and an unbelievable amount of changes have occurred. I left a fantastic job, I went back to school, I began working part time, I received great marks IN MATH AND SCIENCE, I broadened my reading and research on all types of medical subjects….
….and then I quietly decided that nutrition wasn’t the path for me. I wanted to go further with my career and study medicine in an all-encompassing way. Long story short, I decided to start the long journey towards become a doctor.
I’ll leave the horrible details of the last couple months of applications and waiting for acceptances. I’m starting a post-bac premed program at Columbia University in January and I’m scared out of my mind and unbelievably excited. The path will not be easy. I need to:
But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’ve never been the type of person to make a lot of changes, and the last 6 months have been nothing but change. If anything, I’ve learned the importance of taking things one step at a time and not dwelling on undecided future events.
Half of those I’ve told have said, in so many words, that this is a bad idea. The other half think this is an excellent idea. Maybe I’ve lost my mind…. or maybe I’ve finally figured it all out?
I’m 26 years young and there’s no better time than now to start making things happen.
This lovely Thursday is brought to you by:
Good morning, and have a beautiful day!
My blogging frequency has taken a nose dive and this is NOT okay. It’s not okay when you’re blogging so little that your mother calls to make sure you’re still alive and not being eaten alive by your cat. Nope, I’m still alive. I’m just BUSY.
I haven’t been posting new recipes as often because I’m not making any new recipes. I’m not posting about running, because I’m not training for anything.. I’m simply running whenever I get a free 30 minutes. I’m boring, you guys.
So, for the lack of anything new and exciting, I’ll just give you a typical day in the life of Michelle:
EXCITING STUFF. Really though, things are good and classes are going well. Moving forward I’ll probably start posting more about life as a student (yes? should I?), but I’ll definitely continue to post new things I’ve made in the kitchen when they happen. Or, send me a recipe and tell me to make it.. and I’ll post the results!
So that’s the update. Just trying to live up to the “honest” part of The Honest Palate.
Oh, hello banana phone.
What’s that? I’m talking to a banana when I should be getting to work on my 20 page statistics report?
Hmm, interesting. I think I’d rather just talk to this banana phone. Statistics is really hard. Like a bazillion times harder than Chemistry.
I don’t appreciate your attitude.
IT’S REALLY HARD, OKAY? THERE ARE GRAPHS AND MATH PROBLEMS AND CORRELATIONS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS AND OTHER SCARY THINGS.
Look at my notes! Who can even read this stuff??
Did you hang up on me, banana?
What? I only have THREE MORE statistics classes left until I’m completely done with the horror of summer classes?!
Okay, banana phone. I’ll just deal with it. And now I’m going to eat you.
Whew, it’s been a seriously busy day. I’ve been bouncing from one thing to the next and just sat down to inhale a Chipotle burrito bowl. Sometimes I feel really bad about getting take-out when I have fresh food in my fridge… but on busy days like today I think I need to let it go.
Luckily, Emily Dickinson volunteered to study for my Statistics quiz. She’s always here to help out.
I’m a big fan of memoirs and non-fiction writing. There is something about reading the (usually) true accounts and experiences of someone else’s life that I find irresistible. I can’t believe I had never thought to read Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France, because it has truly had a profound effect on me. I cannot think of a more exquisite role model than Julia Child.
Let me explain.
As you may know, I recently left a full time job in the documentary industry to go back to school for nutrition. I am starting from square one, working to complete a year or two of prerequisites before I can even enroll in a master’s program. Between having to take so many classes and attending school part time, it may take me 5 to 6 years to obtain my Registered Dietitian license and begin practicing. That would put me right around age 31.
I’ve always struggled with time (and not having enough of it) but this thought TERRIFIES me. I have thought about what my life might be look at age 31 and this was never the path I presumed I’d be following. Uncharted territory.
This brings me to Julia.
Juila Child didn’t begin writing her famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking until 1952 when she was 40 years old. It wasn’t even until she was 37 that she realized she loved cooking and decided it was exactly what she wanted to do with her life! On top of this, Mastering wasn’t published until 1961, almost TEN YEARS after she began working on the tome. This woman knows the meaning of patience and she took her time, living life and continuing to learn, and never rushing to get to where she thought she ought to “be.”
I can learn a lot from Julia Child, especially that life isn’t always about rushing around trying to make something of yourself. I am extremely lucky to have figured out what I passionate about at age 25, and now that I know, I can go after it.. slowly but surely.
As long distance runner, I should keep in mind that life is a marathon, not a sprint. And whenever I become frustrated or worried I know I’ll think to myself, “What Would Julia Do?”
Sweaty Run and Rewards
When I set out for my 9 mile run this morning, I had no idea it was so humid outside! I think I’m going to purchase a scale just so I can see how much water my body loses during runs in temperatures like these. I have spent the remainder of the day focusing on rehydrating my body.
While 9 miles is nothing to blink at, I have to remind myself that this is just the BEGINNING of my marathon training. Those 16-20 mile runs are just around the corner!
After an hour and a half of running and listening to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me podcasts I headed downtown to meet my friend Elyssa for lunch at Northern Spy Co. I’ve been there once before for brunch and I’ve really wanted to go back for another meal.
We split the pickled eggs and I got the mushroom sandwich. Everything was deeeelicious! This place knows how to make simple food well — something I wish more restaurants could figure out.
I’ve spent the rest of the studying and working on my Diet Analysis project for my nutrition class. I’ll blog more about this soon because it’s fascinating!
I did have one more indulgence today. NO CROWD could hold me back from getting some serious fro-yo! I think there may be more cookies and candy in there than ice cream… whoops. Today, I deserved it.
Today’s Lunch: Waste Not, Want Not
Even though I didn’t love those brown rice tortillas as a veggie wrap, I didn’t just want to chuck the rest of the package! I figured I’d try and adapt it to another meal I love: tortilla pizza! We talked a lot about green, leafy vegetables in class today so I was definitely craving the spinach I had in my fridge.
The best part of this pizza was hummus!
I baked this at 350 for 15 minutes. The brown rice tortilla makes for a WAY crispier crust than the whole wheat tortillas. I found their correct use! I also snacked on some carrots and cherry tomatoes on the side….. and a coffee.
There’s not much to say about Chemistry class, except that I’m trying HARD to keep an open mind and remember that I need this class for a reason. My nutrition class, however, is FANTASTIC. I’d say I already know 50% of the information, which makes me feel super confident going into this program. I did manage to learn a lot of new and thought-provoking information, some of which I’ll share with you!
I’ve always thought I wanted to become an RD to work with athletes or help with weight loss, but now I’m realizing there are so many other directions I could take, like pre-natal nutrition. It’s nice to know there are options!
And now it’s time to hit the books.
Accent theme by Handsome Code
Welcome to my blog! I’m Michelle, a 26 year old vegetarian, runner, future doctor, and healthy-living enthusiast. My life revolves around food. Cooking food, eating food, discussing the politics of food. We’re surrounded by so many false advertisements and misconceptions about nutrition, its difficult to know where the truth lies. This is my attempt to make everything a bit clearer.
Follow me while I eat delicious food, cook healthy meals, run marathons, and strive to separate the food truths from lies, while living an exciting life in the Big Apple.
Questions/Comments? Send me an email! Michelle@thehonestpalate.com
