3rd Time Not Always a Charm

Hey bloggies!

I went for yet another allergy appoint today to get deeper testing and came out knowing that I'm allergic to a great number of things, yeah! I'm pretty sure the best cure would be to move away from the city, but that's not really an option at the moment so the mold free diet will continue along with sinus rinses and likely weekly allergy injections.

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow afternoon and hope that the marks on my arms go down further, I don't want to look like I have chick pox!

Arm 1:

Arm 2:

My orange food for the day came in the form of a winter squash smoothie, which was AMAZING.

I cut this little squash in half and microwaved for 12 minutes this morning and allowed to cool. When I came home this evening I scooped out the insides, added a frozen banana, 2 ice cubes, and a drop of honey to sweeten it up.

Blend, blend, blend...

Drink, drink, drink...so good!

I also had a few tortilla chips and humus for chewing action.

Have a great night,

Nicole

Pumpkin Pancakes

Heya!

Can't believe it's already midweek, don't know where the time goes, and can't believe I'll be heading to Texas in a week!!

This morning I woke up crazy early despite not going to bed until after 12, but I went with it and took the opportunity to make a more elaborate breakfast. Not to mention I was craving something with a either a crunch, but am out of granola and cereal, or something smothered with nut butter, but am our of tortilla shells. Thus, I opened up Vegan with a Vengeance and made the vegan pancakes, adding pumpkin as a variation (I told you I'm trying to turn orange ;)).

I also roasted up a bunch of vegetables from my CSA share for lunch. Aren't they so pretty and colorful! The mix includes beets, carrots, potatoes, and acorn squash.

Backing up to earlier in the week both Monday and Tuesday night I shared conversation and dinner with friends.

Monday a friend treated me to a fajita night at Cilatros, which was such a nice surprise. She is visiting New York from Germany and invited me out for dinner before she returns this afternoon and she ended up treating me as a thank you for finding her housing during her stay. I hope to make it back to Europe and to Germany to visit her in the near future.

Tuesday I met up with my friend Anna, who I was dying to catch up with, for dinner at Candle Cafe. Candle cafe is probably one of my favorite restaurants in the city and given that everything is vegan and organic it takes me a while to decide on a dish. I'm used to being able to order anything off the menu and completely forgot about the no yeasty bread rule and ordered the cajun seitan sandwich. Halfway through I remembered and ended up eating only the remainder of the insides. Ah, but the sandwich was so good!

This morning I work up with my stomach a little bloated which I haven't really experienced since limiting/eliminating bread, sauces, etc from my diet and I'm wondering if my body really does react to these products. It doesn't help that I ended up breaking down several wet boxes at yesterdays CSA, boxes which I'm sure were growing all kinds of mold spores.

I also tried a bit of Anna's sweet potato, black bean, and millet casserole. It was delightful, I want to try and recreate the dish in the near future.

Off to dress and lab, have a good one.

Nicole

Around Town

Morning,

I think I'm having a case of the Mondays. Usually they don't get to me, but I'm sad such an amazing weekend came to an end and I'm not excited to be met with rain this morning. Not to mention that I overslept my alarm and missed my AM workout.

But let's look at the positives for this morning-

1. I was able to get about 8 hours of sleep since I couldn't fall asleep last night and missed the alarm this morning (still work up at 7)

2. I will get into lab at a decent time which means I should be able to fit in gym time before dinner

3. I get to have dinner with friends tonight

4. I'm listening to the Wicked soundtrack and my roommate and I decided to see it for the second time (I haven't been since 2004 with the cast including Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, and Joey Mcintyre, but have been itching to see it again, such a good musical!!)

5. I had a great weekend so let's recap

As for food my eating was pretty random with the bachelorette party mixed in so I didn't end up taking many pictures, I'll get back to my daily eats on the Mold Free Diet tomorrow; however, before heading out on errands on Saturday I snacked on these pumpkin tortilla chips, which were AMAZING! I think I'm determined to turn orange by the end of the week, let's see how many pumpkin products I can consume!!

Since we were having such gorgeous weather this weekend I did quite a bit of walking, plus walking is by far my favorite mode of transportation. In walking on Saturday I came across this sign at a bar, and I love seeing my name in writing anywhere, so I took a picture. Is this Nicole famous and I'm just oblivious? I figured it could be a college football thing and I've never really known the college football atmosphere...

I also came along a street fair of some kind...

I love the little girl dancing in the above.

There were lots of mini performances going on but not sure where from/why...not that there needs to be a reason in New York to dance.

Then I made it to the New Museum. Saturday was Museum Day, an annual event sponsored by the Smithsonian Magazine in which participating museums across the country open up their door for anyone presenting the following coupon:

I had been wanting to visit the New Museum and Saturday provided a great opportunity:

Unfortunately several of the floors were in between exhibits and thus closed. But I loved this exhibit from Rivance Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other-"I Wish Your Wish"

Where several ribbons are available for museum goers to take. Each ribbon has a wish printed on it from previous visitors responses. You select a ribbon, tie it on your wrist, and when the ribbon naturally falls off your wish comes true. Lets see how long until my ribbon falls off!

Views from the sun deck:

After the craziness of Saturday to Sunday's bachelorette party is was great to reflect upon the week with an evening church service followed by my small group meeting with these beautiful ladies.

Ok, out into the rain for lab.

Have a great one,

Nicole

Ena's Bachelorette

Hey Bloggies-

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend! It's been exciting on my end, and like most weekends went by entirely too fast! This post is going to be quick because I am ready to pass out into a deep sleep.

Last night I helped one of my good friends celebrate her last few nights as a free woman. We had a blast and I'm sure it was a night that Ena will remember for years!

Before heading for cocktails, appetizers, games and presents, I had a hummus and veggie wrap with yogurt on the side. The dinner and show wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm and I wasn't sure about the appetizer selection but wanted to make sure my tummy was padded for drinks.

The girls planning the party did such a good job! I mean they even named a drink after the bride to be, an "Ena-tini" too cute but I ended up sticking with vodka seltzer all night.

And then Ena arrived:

Lots of chatting, picture taking, drinking, and games ensued:

Then it was off to dinner (I'll keep the location undisclosed) and a show where I munched on a small salad and a bit of fried rice:

And off to the bar to dance the night away!

Such a fun night!!!

After sleeping in Sunday morning we met up for brunch at Danal:

I ordered the breakfast burrito sans the cheese:

Danal was also really close to the bakery Baked by Melissa which I keep hearing so much about:

They're known for selling bite size cupcakes, like 2 bites and you're done so can have one and feel guilt free, or in my case have 3 so you can try different flavors. I like the idea and they were good, but I think a bit pricey, 3 for $3. And perhaps too small, I like mini cupcakes, but these were miniscule!

Ok, bedtime, I'll post part II of my weekend in the morning.

Night,

Nicole

More Pumpkin Please!

Such a good way to start off the morning, overnight pumpkin oats in a jar. 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup of soy milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin, cinnamon, and the leftover PB in the jar. So so good!

I also ended up eating quite a bit of this pumpkin loaf from Babycakes that I was planning on saving for lunch but it also was incredibly delicious.

In other news I am sick which I need to quickly recover from because I have a friend's bachelorette party tomorrow night into Sunday. Hopefully a good night of sleep does the trick! Also the dress for the evening is formal, I have no idea what I'm going to wear, I'm sure I have something in my closet, if not maybe I can find something on sale tomorrow afternoon?

Did anyone see the office last night? I had errands but just watched it on Hulu, so funny!

The spoof in the beginning was imitating the Canadian University that did the same thing last year with the Black Eye Peas "I Gotta Feeling."

I still need to see this weeks 30 Rock and want to give the new series Outsourced a chance, has anyone watched it? If so what do you think?

Nicole

10 year anniversary concert-Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Good Morning!

First the boring, breakfast today was a bowl of cereal,

with a hard boiled egg. Will also probably have some coffee in a bit.

Now to the exciting! Last night the Yeah Yeah Yeah's gave a 10 year anniversary show at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn, where they went back to the basics "just the 3 of us and a couple hundred of you."

My friend waited in line for 4 hours yesterday to grab a ticket and it was definitely worth her time!

We jumped and danced with the sweaty crowd until we were also a sweaty mess, I have never sweated so much in my life at a concert, I think my jeans are still wet this morning!

The band also went back to basics by playing back through their catalogue of music with several of my favorites including Miles Away, Pin, Phenomena, and ended the set by serenading the crowd with Maps before rocking back out with Y Control.

While waiting for the trio to return for an encore, the crowd lit candles and sang happy birthday until Karen O took one, made a wish, and blew it out.

Such a great night! But after several nights up late now this girl is getting sick! Fingers crossed my head congestion medicine kicks in before I sneeze and contaminate my RNA samples.

Have a good one,

Nicole

Montauk Yacht Club

Hey all-

It's Nicole and I just got back last night from my school retreat and had an amazing time! The trip began on a peaceful note and ended in the same manner but there was a lot of craziness in between, but I'll keep the pictures here PG.

This year my school's retreat was in Montauk, the furthest point out on Long Island, and it's just absolutely beautiful!! The purpose of our retreats are to hear the new and fascinating science your classmates are working on and also gives the opportunity to see other students. After the first 2 years when course work comes to an end and you're simply in the lab you very rarely see other students.

The weekend was scheduled such that we arrived with a bit of free time, listen to talks for a few hours, checked into rooms, dinner, and then an evening bonfire. The second day was more of the same and the last was all free time. With that I'll leave pictures and fewer words.

Freshly caught tuna, unfortunately not on the menu for the evening :(

Setting up for first round of talks:

The hotel room was super swanky, I mean a Keurig coffee maker!

I'm still new to the restricted diet thing (I'm on a mold free diet for 2 months) and didn't pack enough safe food for myself so I ended up making a few exceptions for the weekend, more so on the second night when everything seemed to be covered with either cheese or a cream sauce.

Night 1-salmon, salad with no dressing, potatoes, a few orange slices, and a few pieces of chocolate.

The first night of the retreat the Dean always makes a brief appearance to discuss the program, the new students, new faculty, new building plans or renovations, etc.

He also usually does some kind of musical performance as well.

Then we may have got a bit silly...
Bonfire on the beach:

Party moved indoors:

I don't think I fell asleep until 4:30 and then ended up waking at 9 the next morning for a light breakfast, apple muffin and peach. Look at my plate compared to my friend on the left, she then had the nerve to ask for a piece of my muffin, I had to laugh at that one!

I wish I could eat breakfast on this porch every morning:

Future scientist of america deep in thought:

Our retreat was at the Montauk Yacht Club which was newly renovated and again just amazing. Apparently we were not the only ones to think so, there was also a Ralph Lauren Photo Shoot Monday afternoon.

Part 1:

Part 2, moved outdoors:
Bonfire night 2:



Funny story, at dinner on night 2 a classmate spotted the guy from the "Man on Wire." Well most of us got up to look and I'm pretty sure he saw us, but apparently didn't mind because he ended up joining us around the bonfire.

And like I said, the trip ended where it began, nice and relaxing along the beach.

Today it's back to the grind and a rest on my liver. I'm not a drinker and I definitely had my share the last few days, my body is screaming for a detox!