Long time no talk!

Hi blog readers!
It's moi moi moi Alba! I am sure you have forgotten about me due to the extended absence! Do I need to reintroduce myslef? Remember me? From the first blog post? The cat? Sugar? Well, I promise to be more involved if you promise to not forget about me so easily ;)
Also, I would like to take the time to congratulate (formally shake hands with) my love, Dilek aka Dailek (sh sh sh she hates when i call her that name). Anyways, Dilek has done a wonderful job of keeping our blog alive, while I have tried to keep myself alive from school.
Here is how we try to take the mind off of school.

Starting from top to bottom: Asian Salad with tuna chunks/slices which was absolutely delicious. French fries with a blob of ketchup creeping at the side. A panini which contained tomatoes (my favorite food!), basil, turkey and some other ingredients that I can't remember (oops). And last but not least Dilek creeping, more like enjoying  the ambient of the restaurant. The restaurant was called the News Room (notice the newspaper on the wall) and we are planning on going back there, because we loved the food and kept talking about it !
Ok, that's all I have got for now, since it is 12:30 AM and I still have a lab report to write! Calm down guys! It's ok.  I still have all day tomorrow because I have only one class in the AM and the lab report is due at 5:00 PM.  That my friends is how I usually lead myself to procrastination.
 I wanna keep talking, I mean writing! There is so much to say, but I will do it on my next blog! Right? Because I promised to be back! ;)
Have a good night!
~alba

A New Camera and a Sick Dilek?

Hello's and Hi's to everybody!

I would like to start off by saying that I just got a new camera. No. Actually, I would like to start off by saying that I am sick! I hope everyone is feeling bad for me. I really like to complain and be spoiled when I'm sick. Ugh, I'm so sick!!

Ok now I would like to say that I just got a new camera. Before, I used to take the pictures of my goodies from my macbook. Now, I won't have to worry about spilling soup on my keyboard. Hooray!

Today, I took my daddy to our local co-op grocery store and this other mediterranean food store that is right next to it to pick up some num numies. So here's a little grocery haul for ya'll...I love grocery hauls!!

        

    Larabars, Cliffbars, and dark chocolate!

Yes, I made this picture x-large so you could see the flavors of the Cliff bars. 

Alfalfa sprouts, fresh mints, quince, cucumbers, these little green plum like fruits that I don't know the name of. They're the little green balls in the front in the middle. Anybody know what they're called?

 CARBOHYDRATES! Whole wheat pita bread and a yam. 

 Sausages...one meatful and one meatless.

Pasta sauce... 

Now, on to the dinner. Tonight my mother made some stuffed peppers and potatoes. 

Heres a closer look, aka my share aka half of the whole thing:

Thanks mama! 

Now, I will hit the sheets because I. am. SO. sick. Just to exaggerate. ;)

Ta-ta for now! 

-Dilek

The Royal Wedding

Does anybody else think that people are nuts for pulling an all-nighter to watch Will and Kate's royal wedding?

source

Blagh

Hi guys! It's me, Dilek. I'm reporting live from the coffee shop across the street from school. I got an espresso and I am digging into my chemistry book like nobodies business. I have my last test before finals on Thursday and I am not ready! On top of all the misery, the weather is very...blagh. No clouds, dark and rainy. Very blagh. 

This was my first time drinking espresso. I thought I could handle it like easy peasy lemon squeezy since I am used to drinking Turkish coffee which is pretty strong and is very comparable to espresso. I could not drink it without sugar but after one sip I was like blagh! So I went back to dump in some milk and tons of brown sugar! Also, I whipped out some Turkish dark chocolate from my backpack to have on the side. :)

There you have it guys. The miserable life of a procrastinator. 

Have a loveeeelllyyy day! 

Love love love,

Dilek 

Studying vs Shopping

Having my school be in downtown makes it so hard to just sit my butt down and study and not just leave everything to go shopping! Especially in this nice weather, its 60 degrees out and Dilek is writing lab reports! I could not stay in the library so I walked to the coffee shop across the street from campus to make myself a bit happier. :)

I should have definitely taken a picture before finishing my vanilla polar ice cap drink. At least now I won't have readers drooling on they keyboard. :)

Here are some of my eats from the past couple of days...

A rose shaped cookie with a pearl on it!! Please excuse my poor appearance, I was talking on the phone with Alba and just had to take a picture of the beauty before gobbling it down. I was totally unprepared for the picture. Heheh. 

A bowl of salad with sweet potato chunks on top. It was Alba's suggestion to put the sweet potato as a topping. Although it was very delish, I would much rather eat the sweet potato on the side with peanut butter.

 Two pita bread pizzas sandwiched together. Again, please excuse my poor appearance hahah. Don't ask why my eyes are closed. 

My favorite breakfast! I think it even beats oatmeal. A chocolate croissant with some sort of a tea. I think it was apricot tea that day. :) I have to get to the coffee shop early in the morning in order to get one of these babies because they get sold out pretty quickly. 

Lentil spinach soup and home made whole wheat bread. This bowl of deliciousness inspired by the recipe from Two Peas in Their Pods . :) The only parts that were altered was that I used water instead of vegetable broth as well as different herbs and spices. It was one of the most delicious soups I have ever had! So thank you Two Peas and Their Pods! :)

Slice of chocolate cake! I have been having a slice of this cake almost every night this past week.

And now I'm off to decide whether to go shopping or study! I am so bad heheh. :)

xoxo,

Dilek 

Till The World Ends

"Keep on dancing till the world ends..." I noticed that since 2012 is getting close, Britney Spears and her fans have decided to dance. I am trying to envision many years from now, say if the world doesn’t end on 2012, will Britney’s song be all what people know about the year 2012? Hehe my brain is thinking wonders! 

Lets rewind to Alba and I's study session at the library last night. We didn't get much studying done, sshhh. But we did get eating done. ;)

24 chocolate covered espresso beans. Poor Alba couldn't get a little taste of heaven because she can't handle the caffeine. 

Baggie of hazelnuts, almonds, and pecans. Which went well with this...

BAM! brownie chocolate pudding parfait. :)

Strawberry croissant.

An apple.

Today being Friday I had my weekly volunteering shift at the ER. As usual, I rushed out of the house and failed to take my camera so I could take pictures of my lunch there. I never knew that hospital cafeteria food was so tasty! Even though I don't have pictures to show you, I ate a slice of a thin crusted, gluten-free, veggie pizza. To the side, I made a salad from the salad bar filling my plate with lettuce, spinach, carrot shreds, cherry tomatoes, beets, cottage cheese, soy nuts, flax, sunflower seeds and got it wet with a splash of olive oil and raspberry vinegar! Nom nom. It was delish but I put a bit too much vinegar so it was a teeny weeny too acidic for my tummy. 

This week was volunteer week. And the volunteer coordinators had set up a very cute table at the volunteer office filled with snacks and I think strawberry lemonade punch. I wish I had my camera to take pictures of the table because it was decorated so nicely! I stopped by and grabbed this chocolate cupcake with a BUTTERFLY on top after my shift. Look at how cute it is!!! 

After getting done with volunteering at 1 p.m., I rushed home to quickly take a shower and headed to school to study for math with my friend. I got to school at 3 and we studied until about 6. After I got home, I found that my mom baked some Turkish style biscuits filled with feta cheese. I ate about three of those with black olives as a pre-dinner snack around 7 o'clock. :)

 

As 10 p.m. rolled around, it was time for Dilek to have her usual late dinner, which she needs to cut it out and have dinner at a normal time like a normal person. :/ I had my favorite soup in the whole wide world with a slice of home made whole wheat bread. :) I don't have time to write the recipe right now but I eat it so often that it will be up verrryyy soon! :)

And there you go friends, my eats for the day. You can go dance till the world ends now. Hehehe.

Love love love,

Dilek

Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to know?

Well hello there dear blog of mine! This is Dilek reporting live from her kitchen. Some serious manti (I guess you could call it a Turkish version of ravioli) boiling is going on. Although the link has a recipe that calls for some cooking from scratch, I decided to go with a ready version of it that I got from a Greek grocery store. It's 11:40 p.m. for crying out loud! Do you really expect me to prepare dough and ground beef at this time? Didn't think so. ;)

So, I know that neither Alba nor I have been blogging properly. And we really have no excuse because even though life may get busy, it's not like it gets so busy that we don't have time to blog every once in a while. I guess it's just that it's not a habit for us yet, we're not used to it. :) But we really do get excited about blogging and don't fail to read other people's blogs everryyyydayyy.

This morning I woke up at 10 a.m. and barely caught the bus at 12:22 p.m. to make it to my 1:25 p.m. class. I grabbed a ziplock full of cornflakes cereal and rushed out of the door. Math only class on Wednesdays and lasts only 50 minutes. It's totally not worth a 55 minute commute, but life is hard and you can say that again. Life is hard. After class, I read a little for chemistry and then headed for Panera Bread! I was originally going to make a panini and bring a lunch from home but I took too long in the shower and didn't have time! But you know, I'm not complaining. I could eat an almond napa sandwich everyday for the rest of my life. So, I don't mind running out of time. I really, really, really don't! :D heheh.

Half of a Napa Almond Chicken sandwich, a bowl of Garden Vegetable with pesto soup. All that and a bag of chips! 

Once I got back to campus, I decided to make myself a little happy before studying some more with a brownie and 12 chocolate covered espresso beans from the coffee shop across the street from campus. :)

Here's a close up of the brownie. Guys, let me just say that looks can really be deceiving. As yummy and nummy and delicious and nutritious this brownie may seem, it might just be the most disgusting brownie I have ever encountered. First of all, homegirl smelled like eggs when it's supposed to smell like chocolate! Second of all, it was just too sweet and flowery and way too soft. I like my brownies hard, thick, dense but chewy. ;) The chocolate covered espresso beans please me each and every time I get them. They wake me up and please my mouth and throat. :)

And there is the super, obnoxiously late dinner called Manti. Actually it is spelled Manti without a dot on the i, pronounced mahn-tuh. Really relevant, huh? It is now 12:22 a.m. and I am just done eating. So Manti, as I mentioned before, does come from the Turkish cuisine. Usually the little doughs are filled with ground beef, parsley and other herbs. Since the one I am eating is a ready one, it is not stuffed with meat but with soy meat. Time for a tiny bit of studying until I get this bad boy digested and then I'll hit the sheets!

xoxo, Gossip Girl
haha no it's me again, Dilek.
Have a wonderful time lovelies! :)

Overdue

Helloooo! I'm Dilek and I have been meaning to write this post since since the beginning of the week! It is not 3:49 a.m. and I am writing it just now. Talk about major disorganization...oops hehe :)
 Let's rewind to Friday. On Fridays, I have no class so usually I'd be home being sleeping in until noon and then wake up and have a lazy day. However, I started to volunteer at the ER of a local hospital. Friday was my training day and it was awesome! I had a great time although my to do list is full of cleaning. :( I guess you gotta start somewhere! Wanna know what the best part is? The cafeteria food was delicious and nutritious. I wanted to take my camera there and take pictures of the food but since it was my first day I wasn't sure if I could bring a camera there. But it shouldn't be a problem so please do watch out for very interesting food pics next Friday. :) I didn't know how lunch would be like...I didn't know if I would even get a break or like the cafeteria food. Thus, I packed my own lunch.

Feta cheese, baby spinach, and black beans (I picked them out from the left over black bean soup my mom made for an extra protein boost :p), on lavash bread. I wrapped this bad boy up and foiled it! WHATTTTT.  

A chocolate coconut larabar. I decided to have fun with a larabar photoshoot. Hehe.

 Overview: wrap, larabar, bag of almonds, and an un-pictured bottle of water that I got from my dads car on the way to the hospital. He has random bottles of water laying around the car. How random.

Hey, guess what? I also couldn't resist to eat an un-pictured bowl of chicken noodle soup and a slice of delish warm bread from the hospitals cafeteria. 

From the cafeteria, I also got this bag of goodies to take home...which I snacked on while studying later on in the day. :) 

For dinner, I had a huge bowl of Turkish style potato salad.

Fasting forward to today, we have a bowl of oatmeal from the morning! Nummy nummy in my tummy. Oatmeal with banana slices, almonds, a couple dark chocolate chips here and there, and a blob of peanut butter!!!! Oh it was so moist and delish. I love oatmeal for breakfast, it's so refreshing...just what I need to get rid of the bad morning taste in my mouth when I wake up. Usually, akin to most of the mediterranean countries breakfasts, the traditional Turkish breakfast consists of bread, olives, feta cheese,   sometimes omlet, tomatoes, cucumbers, jelly, honey, and more. I just can not eat this in the morning anymore. It is too dry for my mouth in the mornings. Besides, you know what they say, once you go oatmeal, you never go back. ;)

For lunch, I had a salad. Green bell peppers and tomatoes on a bed of baby spinach and romaine lettuce with feta cheese on top. Salad, water, and chemistry book. YUM, perfect meal! :'(

 Oh dear lord of mine...I had a delish dinner. It was spinach soup. But guess what? I took a picture of it but the battery ran out before I could get it on my computer. And since i'm in bed now, it's basically impossible to get me out. :/ How about I put the picture up tomorrow? Fair enoughhh?

O0o0o0o...freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and Dilek. 

Also, I ate some flax seed vegetable chips from Trader Joe's, a handful of organic dark chocolate circles, and a handful of pecans. 

Yayyyyy, mission accomplished. I finally got to write my first post ever! This was so much fun to write and also a stress reliever. I forget about everything and just think about food, food and more food, heheh.  Anyways, I think I should sleep before I collapse! 

xoxo, Gossip Girl...just kidding. It's just me, Dilek! :)

It's almost 1:00 AM

Hi guys! It's moi, Alba.

I was determined to write this blog post so it doesn't matter that it is almost 1:00 AM and I am not done with my Spanish homework yet and I have class at 8:00 tomorrow morning. So much for trying to be healthy huh?

So here are some of my eats today!

This is so exciting!

 My dinner and my Sugar (my cat!).  That is a salad that Sugar finds interesting.

My breakfast as I was running out the door because I was late for class.
Oh, and you will hear that a lot. I hate being late, but I am always late. I guess I don't hate it enough because then I would change. One day I will though! :)
You know you have to be optimistic!
Good night! My homework is calling my name!

Snacking while studying

A first short and sweet post! We are both studying and do not have much time to write a fabulous first post!   But it was so tempting that we couldn't help it. A chocolate chip cookie dough larabar and raisins. Also, a box of chocolate that Alba got from someone as a birthday present! Happy 21st birthday Alba and happy 1st birthday to our blog! :)

-A & D