Interrupting Regular Blog Posting…

for a deal!!

In case you haven’t seen it, LivingSocial has an awesome deal up for grabs today: $10 for $20 worth of goodies at Whole Foods!

I’m going to be really rude and just say it. It would be so dumb if you didn’t buy this. Click here to get yours now!!

Seriously.

I would buy 29875982 if it wasn’t limited to 1 per person.

These Are My Confessions

Don’t get too excited; I’m only posting some of my weird habits.

1. Other than my team meeting last week and when I was on vacation in Destin and NYC, I have been eating the same breakfast since January.
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The first couple months, I ate this with bananas,
then briefly switched to bluebs..
Since the beginning of April, I’ve been eating this cereal with strawbs.
The few times that I deviated from my breakfast of choice, I felt extremely thrown off. Obsessive, much?

2. I am the only person I know that can chew gum and drink beer at the same time.
And speaking of gum, has anyone ever chewed gum while in the shower? It’s pretty weird.

3. I just told Mariah that despite it’s God-awful list of ingredients, I’m having an obnoxiously strong craving for pistachio pudding:

Do not be alarmed if you see it on my blog this week. I have the most intense cravings for such random foods, that I am fearful of the day I’m actually pregnant. It is going to be really bad.

4. I bring “bar snacks” in my purse when I go out sometimes. I’d rather be prepared when hunger strikes!! I’ve found more than a few of these wrappers in my purse on Saturday mornings:

5. I like grocery shopping 2097529867298672676726 times more than clothes shopping. But no, I can’t count that high. My heart belongs here: here: and as of July 29th, here:

I’m really flipping excited for the Mt. Pleasant location to open and if I didn’t have to work, I’d probably camp out for its grand opening.

6. I think Food & Wine magazine is stupid. Really stupid. The recipes call for ingredients I’ve never heard of or ones that are only sold in ethnic markets in NYC. Come on!

7. Last Thursday, Matt and I went to the bar at Husk for some drinkies. I think my hands are too big for cocktails.
Or these glasses are stupid. Or I should paint my nails.

8. Saturday night, Margaret and I went to a friend’s house for a Mexican fiesta. As we were shooting tequila and watching a Tupac video, I told her “My life cannot get any better.”
She said “Ummm…I could think of lots of ways it could.” And then Snoop Dogg and his double braids came on on stage.

9. I’m excited for Chick-fil-A to start serving multi-grain oatmeal on July 25th. I might have to switch up my breakfast routine!
I promise not to put ketchup on it.

10. I just found this rotten tomato in my cabinet at work.

Capital D-sgusting.

Sometimes I Just Want To Be Random

Like in this post!

When I got home from work today, Lucy asked me if I was going to the gym. I (too) quickly responded, “NOPE! I’m skipping it!” I said it in the voice of a 15-year-old who would rather go shopping than to class. I love the feeling that exercise gives me, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was spend some time with Lucy! She has been such a wonderful friend to me and we’ve gotten so close over the past few months. She decided to skip the gym with me and we discussed what we wanted to do for dinner.

We thought. And thought. And thought. Nothing sounded good…except frozen yogurt! Yep, not only did we skip the gym, but we jumped in her Bug with the top down and cruised straight to Menchie’s.

Unfortunately once we got there, there weren’t a ton of flavors that excited me. I got a pathetic portion of peanut butter, thin mint chocolate, and country vanilla fro yo topped with heath bar bits.

Lucy got raspberry sorbet topped with blueberry and mochi.

After our treat, we went to Whole Foods for wine. Check out this Australian bottle I found:

Now that sounds like a party in a bottle. Woop woop! Am I the only one who still says that? Probably.

I also saw a very exciting new Ben & Jerry’s flavor:

I almost peed my pants with excitement until I saw the calories per serving. Seeing as I just had froyo, I restrained myself from buying this and eating it in the parking lot. Trust me, I would have.

A couple hours later I found myself hungry for a real meal. I figured that the frozen yogurt wouldn’t actually fill me up, so I ended up swapping my dessert and dinner times. Dinner consisted of Tandoori flavored rotisserie chicken (purchased from WF), black beans, and some zucchini and squash from Tuesday’s CSA box.

Do you ever have dessert for dinner and then find yourself eating dinner anyway?

To end this post, I thought I’d share a Bits of Truth quotes that made me happy today:

Live more! Smile more! Laugh more! We are surrounded by beautiful things. Embrace them. Be kind to everyone.

Eat your damn fro yo.

XO!

Grimy Wednesday!

This morning I woke up on a mission to make cookies. I made Peanut Butter Banana Oat with a peanut butter honey drizzle. Most people mash bananas with the back of a fork or potato masher, but I was feeling ferocious and used a meat pounder. And then I licked it.

I had a very typical Xtina moment with the icing. I got distracted by the oven timer and dripped it all over the counter. Oopsies!
The cookies came out wonderfully but the icing really made them. Amanda stopped by for a a couple during her study break and then I sent her home with 6. : ) I hope they help her get an A+ on her test!

I brought a bunch to the gym for my guinea pigs/gym boyfriends to test. Justin P, Mike, Phillip and Ashley loved them…

but NY Justin, Noah, and Dave didn’t love the texture. And I quote, “They need to be harder.” I kept my mouth shut, but thought, “TWSS.”

After about an hour of working out but mostly socializing, NY Justin, Mike, and I went to “Grimy Wednesday” spin class. “Grimy Wednesday” = spinning to dirty rap. I almost lost it when “Doe Boy Fresh” by Three 6 Mafia came on. If you haven’t heard that song, click here. GHETTO.

An hour of dirty dancing on a bike really worked up an appetite, so Justin and I went to Whole Foods for pizza. I called in a cheese pizza for Xtina. They took me seriously. I’ll forgive them for the unnecessary hyphen.
  They also had BEETZA!
This was our pizza. Large and in charge.
Justin folds his pizza to eat it. I eat mine crust first. How do YOU eat it?

This pizza was a celebration pizza!! More details to come

What I’m Wondering Wednesday

1. WHAT is in this soup? Lucy and I are obsessed with this soup we found at Whole Foods. It went on sale and we stocked up like mad women. Take a gander at Lucy’s stockpile:I told her that we should try to make this at home before we go broke and are unable to pay our rent. Looking at the list, it seemed easy enough to make:  filtered water, organic carrots, organic onions, organic tapioca starch, organic almond butter, sea salt, organic expeller pressed canola oil and/or organic safflower oil and/or organic sunflower oil, natural flavors with yeast extract, organic spices, carrageenan.


Easy enough, right? But what about these “organic spices?” I need to know what they are! Have any of yall had this soup? Go get some and help me figure it out….!


2. HOW do you feel about unsolicited advice at the gym? This has been a major issue for Ashley and me this week. Coincidentally, tonight, both of us were approached by the same individual (a trainer) who felt the need to advise us. I was standing in the mirror next to Ashley probably listening to Ace of Base when this convo occurred:

Trainer man: Hey, can I show you something?
Me: What? Am I doing something wrong?
Trainer: You’re trying to work your tris right?
Me: Yeah…(thinking: tris for the guys, yeahhhhhhh.)
Trainer: Do it like this. [shows me a different way]
Me: So what I was doing before was a waste of my life?
Trainer: Ha, no, but this way you’ll work your lats too.
Me: Awesome, I love lats. Thanks.

Sooooo my first thought was: Awesome, I’m on the highway to bufftown when I was clearly on the back roads before. My second thought was: Wait a freaking second, you’re not Julius! Who are you acting like you’re King Eco!!

THIS IS KING ECO!!

I really think Julius, my old trainer, is the only one who should be giving me unsolicited advice. Or Ashley. Or my Grammy, bc she knows a thing or two about pumping iron. Just kidding. How do you guys feel about this? Would you care if someone approached you like that? I mean maybe it is his job to help people get buff or he’s trying to gain clientele. Either way, I want your opinions.

Don’t forget to send me your Chick-fil-A pics!

Later gators!

What IS All This Crap?

First, I loved your responses to yesterday’s dialect vlog. You guys from the North think I definitely have an accent, but yall  from the South don’t think I have one. Figures! I’m going to agree with Gabriela, who said I have “a baby Southern accent.” I’m also glad I posted that because now Nuha wants to hug me and I want to hug her back!!

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The other day Beth blogged about the contents of her purse. It sounded like fun, as my purse is usually full of the most random junk that I need to have with me at all times. So let’s analyze…

• The purse: JPK bucket bag in Navy.
• Wallet.
• Lilly Pulitzer planner. I think I’d flip my ---- if I didn’t have this.
• Jazz apple. My favorite!
• Marc Jacobs sunglasses. Very useful in the winter, right?
• Hershey’s kisses with Macadamia nuts. YUM.
• Keys.
• Purple heart-shaped stamp ring from Lucy. Just in case I feel like marking someone’s forehead or something.
• Whole Foods receipt for pita chips, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, garlic, and 3 avocados. The essentials.
• Blackberry!!!
• Ricola Honey Lemon cough drops.
• Auburn mints.
• Ipod. Cannot run without.
• Vanilla Mint lip gloss, Apple Cider lip gloss, Menchie’s berry chapstick.
• Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif bar.
• Rubber band.

Analysis: I like to eat. I like colorful things. I like shiny lips.

What is the most random thing in your purse? Considering I just switched purses, this is actually pretty neat for me. I should repost this in a week and see what kind of trash I pull out.

How about another video!?!?

My FAVORITE form of exercise. Nothing burns more calories than THIS.

That’s a really unattractive still.

I love embarrassing Tyler almost as much as I love eating.

BYE!

Apple-Cinnamon Oat Squares. Impulsive or Spontaneous?

First, I need to clarify something from my obnoxious gym photographs post. I didn’t mean that I work out solely so that I could eat more. I absolutely love working out for fun and because of the health benefits. Being able to eat more is just an added bonus.  And I also do not go straight home and stuff my face with chocolate. I eat a protein-rich, balanced meal to refuel and indulge in my much-deserved goodies later.

Moving on. Wednesday night Lucy and I were up to the usual: internetting with the TV on some random channel. Gah, are we losers? Neither of us wanted to work out, so we started drinking white wine with dinner and perused Whole Foods’ latest issue.Do yall read these? You should. Each issue contains several recipes, weekly meal planners, nutritional information and tips. I was catching up on my google reader when this conversation occurred:

Lucy: Oooh, listen to this recipe: Apple Cinnamon Oat Squares…

Me: Let’s make it. What’s in it?

Lucy, giggling: almond milk, oats…

Me: Ok, let’s make it right now. I’m impulsive. Er, spontaneous. Idk, whatever, let’s do it.

We scanned the ingredient list, and lucky for us, we had everything…but almond milk. We needed 2 cups, and I only had 1/2 cup left in the fridge. We debated quartering the recipe, but instead of taking the chance of baking fugly bars, we drove over to Whole Foods.

Less than 30 minutes later, we were back with almond milk. Oh, and four bottles of wine. You know, for a snowy day.

Apple-Cinnamon Oat Squares

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 1/2 cups steel cut oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 (about 1 lb.) apples, cored and grated

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

Dry ingredients:Apple, shredded in my food processor!

2. Transfer mixture to a foil- or parchment paper-lined 9” square baking pan, press down and smooth out the top. Bake until firm and golden brown, about 1 hour.3. Let cool in pan; cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature.I ate mine topped with coconut flakes and drizzled with honey.

I don’t think I mentioned it before, but Lucy is vegan. Slowly but surely, I have been training her how to be a baker and she has been introducing me to vegan recipes. Tonight we joined forces and made a really easy and delicious treat. These squares can be eaten warm or even cooled for breakfast or a snack. Store them in an airtight container to be enjoyed throughout the week.

So the question of the night is…am I impulsive or spontaneous? Immediately after calling myself impulsive, I corrected myself saying I was spontaneous. I feel like the word “impulsive” has a negative connotation but I’m not sure why, so I looked up the definitions.

I don’t see much of a difference. What do you think?

Question: About what kind of things are you impulsive/spontaneous? I am with anything related to baking/cooking/eating. Once I have an idea in my head, I have to do it. Life if short…just go with it.

Before I say goodbye, check out these pics from when Auburn stole the National Championship. We were soooooooo happy! (And I’m Asian again!)

I love my bestie and am so glad she got me hooked on college football!