It's Over

Phew! What a week! From the Young Life banquet on Monday night, a 7am midterm Tuesday morning, 7am office hours Thursday morning, four papers and assignments due throughout the course of the week, and teaching my first lesson in the middle school, it was a whirlwind. I was certainly not sad to say good-bye to this week, and aside from the last week of class, I shouldn't have another week like this. At least I have two months to prepare myself for this madness again. I got a bit less sleep than I usually would have, but I made up for it last night by not setting an alarm and just letting my body wake itself up this morning. I made some pumpkin-banana-peanut butter pancakes for breakfast, did a bit of cleaning and not very much homework, and headed to do the gym where I set out to complete seven miles, but I ended up calling it quits after 5.2.

My legs were getting tired and I was getting kind of hungry, so I called it quits and moseyed on home to the clubhouse to continue to watch Texas take a beating. I think my mom said it best with her text that read: "I think Texas drowned in the Red River. :(" It's true, we did not make the best showing in our huge rivalry game, but let's look at the positives, we get to return to Austin and they have to go back to Norman. That's all I'm sayin'. That, and I still love my horns, despite the poor performance we showed today.

Anyway, let's just go over some of the highlights of this crazy week before I get back to my regular blog posts this next week.

I had a few good eats this week that I would love to share with y'all. The first is a fun little concoction that I threw together in a moment of inspiration. I don't really know what to call it besides a sausage and veggie bowl, because that's pretty much what it is. I bought these veggie sausages on a whim at HEB a couple weeks ago and since this past week called for quick and easy meals, I decided to put it to the taste test. 

I simply poured a little olive oil in a pan, put the soave on medium-high heat, and cooked the sausage for about seven minutes, turning every so often to avoid overcooking on any one side. Before that, though, I sliced up some squash and zucchini, spread some olive oil and lemon pepper on them, and slid them into the oven, preheated to 425 degrees, for approximately eight minutes. For probably the first time ever, I was able to coordinate the timing so that both things finished at the same time. How's that for time management! I put the veggies in a bowl, cut up the sausage, threw in some tomatoes and mixed it all together with some salsa and I had myself an absolutely delicious meal. Quick, easy, healthy, and delicious just can't be beat in my eyes.

On Wednesday, one of my roommates cooked up a baked potato, and that reminded me of the baked potatoes I had stored in the back of the pantry, so I put a little twist on the normal baked potato. I cut up the potato into fry-sized slices and put them in a mixing bowl. I added a touch of olive oil, enough to coat all of the fries evenly, and mixed them all up. I sprinkled some lemon pepper as well as some oregano leaves atop the slices and lined them up on a foil-lined cookie sheet before sliding them into the oven heated to 425 degrees. I let them cook for 35 minutes before taking them out, impatiently letting them cool, and chowing down. They were delicious and I made them again today for lunch. Winner! The hardest part about making these is not getting too hungry before these healthy fries are ready!

And last but not least, Friday was a very crazy day for me. I taught my first lesson, more on that to come soon, in the morning, rushed home to finish a paper that was due at 5pm that day, headed over to Northwest Austin to lead campaigners for my eighth graders, went for an evening swim at Gregory, and rounded out the evening with some Southwest Chicken Chili from Jason's Deli and the first episode of Friday Night Lights. Y'all, I can already tell that I am going to be way too emotionally invested in this show. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Texas forever!

Enjoy your Saturday evening! I am using this time to try and complete all of my homework for this weekend, as the majority of tomorrow will be spent at Austin City Limits, a three-day, eight stage music festival taking place in my very city. I have usually never heard of enough of the bands to justify spending money on a ticket, but there are about five bands that I am planning on seeing tomorrow. I figure I had to go at least once before I graduated, right? I will be sure to fill you guys in on my ACL experience come Monday - it's sure to be a fun one!

Here they are - Sunday passes!