The Most Photo-Worthy Places in Chattanooga, TN

Do it for the ‘gram.

A little while back, Mattie (one of my best frandss) and I decided to take a road trip. I, being the easily excitable little chipmunk that I am, instantly started spamming her with suggestions of cool places that we could visit. She finally texted back, “What about Chattanooga?” just as I texted her “Wow, hi, hey, Chattanooga!! T’would be cool.” and boom chicka wow wowww we had a location.

Because I’m extremely extra, I immediately began compiling a Google Doc with potential places to visit. Just a couple of days later, we were on our way to Chattanooga, TN! Andddd after an hour and half of screaming Taylor Swift songs at the top of our lungs, we arrived and began our adventure!

I’ve included 7 of my favorite places that we visited below! (Also brb, I’m gonna move to Chattanooga.)

• The Dwell Hotel
  • Wow, okay, so I can’t gush enough about this place! While we didn’t stay here (the minimum check-in age was 21 rip), we visited the restaurant in it (Solarium), and enjoyed the Instagrammable decor and delicious food. Don’t believe me? Just check out this pic. Yeah. ‘Nuff said.
    
• Bluff View Art View District
  • Imagine a cute little village full of unique restaurants, inventive art, relaxing gardens, with a great view of the Tennessee River. What more could a girl ask for?
  • PS: I highly recommend Rembrandt’s Coffee House. They have amazing coffee and the most mouth-watering pastries!
• Walnut Street Bridge
  • Okay, so I know this is a pretty basic location, but I loved walking across the bridge and dramatically gazing out at a great view of the Tennessee River. (Plus, there was a street performer singing “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, so you better believe I was working my dramatic walk.)
  • An added plus? The bridge is just a short 3 minute walk from the Bluff View Art District, so you could definitely pair the 2 together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• “Awakenings” Mural
  • This mural, located on the side of H*Art on East Main Street, is not only a whimsical backdrop for a picture, but it also stands for hope. Created by teens who are struggling with drug addiction, this mural is not only a symbol, but also a testament to never give up on your own battles.

• The Polka Dot Wall
  • A polka dot lover’s dream location, and a great “spot” for a cute pic! This wall is right on the side of Very, a software company in Chattanooga and it’s just across the street from the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel.
• Milk and Honey
  • Okay, so I know that this cafe actually has multiple locations across a couple of states, but also, their avocado toast was so delicious, I’ve literally had dreams about it. Yeah. I know. It’s that good. Imagine 2 pieces of delicious bread smothered with caramelized onions, and topped with oh so many pieces of avocado. I felt like crying when I couldn’t finish it because it was just that good. 12/10 would recommend. GO TRY IT, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE and take a pic with it while you’re at it to make all your friends drool.
  • Also they have DELICIOUS ice cream that you and your bestie can casually post with.
• Julie Darling Donuts
  • One of my friends actually recommended this place to us on our last day in Chattanooga and my oh my we did not regret stopping by! We were greeted with the mouth-watering aroma of sweet doughnuts as soon as we walked in, and we immediately ran over to the display cases of picture perfect doughnuts. I would 100% recommend the Apple Pie doughnut (I’m drooling right now just thinking about it again).
  • Another plus? They have a pretty great light pink wall on the side of their building that is perfect for you to pose in front of with your yummy yummy doughnuts.

Andddd that’s all we had time to visit during our trip! We wanted to stay forever, but we only had a day and a half there. But we will definitely be going back for a second visit in the very near future, because there is just so much more to explore in ‘nooga.

 

Daydreaming about Chattanooga instead of writing her Organic Chemistry lab report,

Emily

PS- WOOOO!!! I’m back! School has been kicking my butt so I haven’t had the time to blog recently, but I’m back at it again.

PPS- I ran into a pole yesterday. It hurt.

PPPS- I want avocado toast.

puffy cheeks for dayz

It was a dark and stormy day…

Okay not really, but it was in my mind. It was the day of my wisdom tooth removal, and I was terrified.

My day began at 1 am. I was refusing to pack to go home for Spring Break because I didn’t want to leave all of my friends for an ENTIRE WEEK. I was also obsessively hugging my Brita water pitcher and frantically gulping down water because you’re not allowed to drink or eat anything 6 hours before your surgery (and ya girl LOVES her water). After 30 minutes of pacing, complaining to my friends, and crying about my future dehydration, I finally accepted my fate and went to pack.

I haphazardly threw all of my clean clothes into my duffel bag and my dirty clothes into my laundry hamper (I was planning to beg my parents to do my laundry for me while I was “in great pain from my surgery” and “unable to do it”). I managed to finish packing everything in a solid 30 minutes, and I soon returned to my previous state of moping and obsessively drinking water (tbh I was was more nervous about not drinking water for 6 hours than the actual surgery). I eventually drifted to sleep clutching my empty water cup at 3 am.

I bolted up at the sound of my 6 am alarm and made a beeline to get water. After I had completed my second to last water trip, I drifted back to sleep, dreaming of my 6:30 am water trip. Unfortunately, I somehow slept through my 6:30 alarms and the next thing I knew, it was 8 am and time to prepare for my drive back to Huntsville. Repressing the need to cry (I needed to conserve my water at this point), I quickly packed up the last of my food in the refrigerator, and enlisted the help of several trusty friends to help me carry my stuff out to my car.

Luckily, my drive back wasn’t very eventful, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in my oral surgeon’s chair, preparing to receive my anesthetic. After a couple of breaths of some pretty cool gas and a not so fun pinch in my arm, I blacked out. After my nice lil’ nap (this was handy because I legit slept like 3.5 hours the night before), I woke up, snorted, and realized I was wisdom-toothless.

Now comes the fun part.

Apparently when I was semi-conscious, I told my oral surgeon my life story, aka how I was just a lil’  lowly goatherd who raised unicorns (like I get the unicorn part but where the heck did the lowly goatherd part come from?!). In addition to all that craziness, I also kept on calling my surgeon Stacy, which made no sense at all, because he was very clearly a dude, whose name was definitely not Stacy. Andddd then I went on a rant about how stupid it is that glitter is bad for the environment (tbh still mad about this ahhh how can something so pretty be so bad 😥 ).

Anywhooo, that’s all over now and I’m on the road to recovery. It hasn’t been too bad (I only had one wisdom tooth), minus all the blood on the first day (mouthfuls and mouthfuls ahhhh I grossed myself out), the throbbing pain, and my oh so swollen cheek. Nevertheless, each day has been better than the one before, and I’m now hyping myself up to try and eat pasta.

So, that’s my wisdom tooth removal story. Nothing too crazy, but definitely an experience. My advice for any of you that have to go through this? Don’t grow any wisdom teeth. Just kidding (kind of). Drink lots of water and smoothies, and eat lots of mashed potatoes, applesauce, and icecream. Just make sure you avoid straws, because dry socket is terrifying!

 

Trying to quickly heal her gums so that she can eat crunchy foods again,

Emily

PS- Sorry I’ve been gone for a little bit, but I’m back and better than ever! I’ll try and get back to posting again!

PPS- Wish me luck, I’m about to try and eat pasta.

PPPS- If I got my one wisdom tooth removed, does this mean my wisdom is decreased? Because I seriously need all the wisdom I can get.

PPPPS- I miss eating chips and Brussels sprouts and chicken tenders gosh oh gee I miss solid food

food squad takes on Birmingham, AL

The 3 most directionally challenged people that I know took a road trip together.

A couple of days ago, my friends and I took a road trip to Birmingham (we call ourselves the food squad because all we do is eat). I was excited to show off all the cool restaurants and areas around Birmingham, and they were excited to eat (of course). The only catch was that I was the one driving.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m not the best driver (okay actually, I sugar-coated it. I’m horrible at driving: stay away from me!!). I tend to be easily distracted and I’m not great at changing lanes, or parking, or driving in a straight line, or just driving in general. And don’t even get me started on directions. If you tell me to turn left, I will most definitely turn right (because I can’t exactly check my left hand for the “L” that my pointer finger and thumb make). Add in 2 more friends who are only slightly better at directions than me, and you’ve got the food squad. But, on the bright side, we’re all really good at eating 🙂 .

Anywaysss, after we managed to swerve our way to Birmingham (We only almost died once when I had to change lanes), we headed on our merry way around Birmingham, and ate ALL THE FOODS.

Soooo, below is the Official Emily Deng Food Recommendation List for Birmingham, AL (because I am 115% a food expert and good at eating food and I obviously know EVERYTHING about Birmingham).

MELT

• MAC AND CHEESE GRILLED CHEESE *drops mic*
  • Added bonus: they have angel wings outside their restaurant for cute pictures
• http://www.meltbham.com/

Post Office Pies

• They have really really good pizza baked in wood fire ovens and they’re really highly recommended also pizza is my true love so I basically live here.
• https://postofficepies.com/menu

Pizitz Food Hall

• Okay so this place is really cool because it has a bunch of different restaurants and food stalls. They have Israeli food (yummy kebabs and falafels), Ethiopian, Ramen, Poke bowls, Chicken and waffles, Vietnamese, and a whole bunch more! There’s a list of the restaurants and food stalls on the website and boy oh boy do I feel cool eating here.
• http://www.thepizitz.com/food-hall/

Wasabi Juan’s

• This place is a fusion restaurant with Mexican food and sushi! THEY HAVE A SUSHI BURRITO. ‘Nuff said.
• http://wasabijuan.com/

Babalu Tacos and Tapas

• TAPAS, TACOS, AND OMG SUCH GOOD GUACAMOLE
• https://birmingham.eatbabalu.com/

Giuseppe’s Cafe

• So Giuseppe’s is known as Birmingham’s best kept secret. They have DELICIOUS Italian food and they give you a TON of it too. This restaurant 100% got the Food Squad’s approval.
• http://www.giuseppescafe.com/

Real and Rosemary

• They’re known for being a healthy restaurant that serves farm to table and actually has yummy food! Their roasted carrots are really really good aka I ate mine and my friend’s and I still wanted more omg I’m so healthy.
• http://www.realandrosemary.com/ourstory/

Sketchy Taco Truck

• Okay so this one is kinda sketchy bc it’s a random taco truck on the side of a gas station but they have THE BEST tacos EVER. We always go here for late night snacks and after adventures. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the truck, but I’ve included their address.
• 2651 Green Springs Hwy Birmingham, AL 35209

Heavenly Donuts

• So so yummy and Alton Brown approved and also who doesn’t like donuts?
• http://theheavenlydonutco.com/

 

We were so full, our stomachs almost exploded (ahaha look at me ending with a bang). Birmingham’s food scene is really growing, and you can be sure that my stomach will also be growing along with it.

 

In love with food,

Emily

PS- y’all, come down to Birmingham, AL we gots the food

diy cooking: homemade poptarts

My dad high-fived me for not burning down the house.

Since I’ve been home for the holidays, I’ve been taking advantage of all the fancy kitchen tools that we have here by making super easy recipes that don’t require them (aka I was banned from using the food processor, blender, bread machine, and pressure cooker bc I’m “easily hurt” and “good at breaking things”)

However, I was missing all the processed junk food that I normally stuff into my body, so I was desperate to make something unhealthy (My parents are on a diet so we have no unhealthy foods in our house #sendhelp). The food I was especially craving? PopTarts.

Thus, I buckled down and scoured our fridge to see if there was anything that I could somehow make PopTarts out of. After two shelves of disappointment (aka vegetables), I managed to stumble upon a box of refrigerated pie crust and some strawberry jam (#jackpot).

After doing a quick little search on the Internet, I found out that many people actually make homemade PopTarts out of pie crusts and jam (not gonna lie I did a mini victory dance when I saw this). I quickly jotted down the oven temperature that the recipe specified and then ran to begin constructing my PopTarts. In hindsight, I probably should’ve just followed the recipe I found but my brain wasn’t working (it’s off duty until college starts again), so I went with my gut and managed to come out with some AMAZING homemade PopTarts. And yes, I will say it, they were better than actual PopTarts.

Annndddd what type of blogger would I be if I didn’t include my recipe? (I also included a hastily taken picture of one of my beautiful PopTarts. I would’ve taken pictures of the steps and a better picture of my finished product, but I was too junk food deprived and I immediately began stuffing PopTarts into my mouth after I took this pic :)) )

Homemade PopTarts

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) box of refrigerated pie crust
• 1/3 cup of strawberry jam
• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• Sprinkles or food coloring for decorating (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place one of the pie crusts on a lightly floured surface. After you unroll the pie crust, use a rolling pin to make the crust into a rectangle.
3. Take a clean ruler and a pizza cutter, and divide the crust into 8 equally sized rectangles. (A sharp knife could also be used to cut the crust.)
4. Place half a spoon of jam on 4 of the rectangles and spread it into an even layer, leaving a small border around the edge empty (a little bit smaller than two fingers side by side).
5. Wet the edges of the crust with a little bit of water. (This will help the two pieces of crust stick together.)
6. Top all of the pieces of crust with jam with a piece of crust without jam, and crimp the two pieces together with a fork to seal the pastry.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 with with the other pie crust.
8. Transfer the pastries to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 7 minutes, or until the pastries have turned a light golden brown.
9. Remove the pastries from the oven and move them to a cooling rack after 10 minutes.
10. Mix the powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of milk to make the frosting. Allow the pastries to cool completely before spreading the frosting on them. Feel free to add in drops of food coloring to the frosting to make pretty colors to decorate with!
11. Add SPRINKLES!!!

I’m not gonna lie, I totally dumped the jam into the KitchenAid stand mixer and mixed it around for no reason just because it was the only appliance I wasn’t banned from using. Did it enhance the final product in any way? Eh probably not, but boy oh boy I felt so adult and put together when I was using it.

Also, HOW COOL WOULD IT BE IF YOU SWITCHED OUT THE JAM WITH NUTELLA??? I’m so sad I didn’t think of this sooner, but I’m also making these tomorrow (I’m addicted), so I’ll definitely be trying that out!

Currently stuffing her face with homemade PopTarts,

Emily

PS- Juhee’s out of the country right now, and I’m in BFF withdrawal

PSS- although tbh it’s not as bad as I thought it would be bc she can still use groupme and I don’t sleep at a decent time so the timezone isn’t a problem for us

PSSS- BUT ALSO I MISS MY COLLEGE FRIENDS AND I WISH I COULD MAKE THESE POPTARTS FOR THEM

christmas eve 2017

I can’t feel my legs.

Just imagine: a twinkling Christmas tree, shiny presents, good food, happy faces, and the sound of reindeer and sleigh bells outside your house. Perfect, right?

I began my explosion of Christmas cheer by setting up the tree and building a gingerbread house (THIS WAS ACTUALLY HARD BECAUSE ICING GETS EVERYWHERE AND I SOMEHOW ICED MY FINGERS TOGETHER). After I managed to defrost my hands (ahaha get it? bc frosting = icing), I prepared myself for the barrage of Christmas parties headed my way.

As a non-social extrovert, I gave myself a couple of pep talks, put on my face (aka makeup), mentally prepared myself for social interaction, and then headed out to the first party with my family. By the time we had gotten back from the third party, I was a little bit Christmassed out (and this is huge bc I’m literally the most Christmas person EVER). However, the grind don’t stop, so I watched Elf for the 23rd time (yes I keep a tally) to boost my Christmas cheer and rushed to the next party. That’s when the real fun began.

Everyone at the party was walking up to me and asking me about college (#triggered). Because I didn’t want to think about the super stressful semester that I had just survived, I began stuffing my face with Christmas cookies so that I wouldn’t have to talk. And boy oh boy it was lit. People stopped trying to talk to me (since I had a mouthful of cookie) and would just say hello, hug me, and drop a “Merry Christmas!” and head on their merry way. Am I a genius? Heck to the yeah.

By the time I got to my 5th cookie, all the sugar I had consumed finally hit me and I metamorphosed from my shy lil’ caterpillar self into a social butterfly. I caught up with some old friends, did a handstand (ahaha I had no idea I could even do one), and came up with the GREATEST IDEA OF ALL TIME.

The idea? Run around outside with my sleigh bell anklets and tap shoes. Genius, right? Don’t worry I didn’t actually do it. Until 2 am. (I should be banned from consuming sugar and doing anything after 12 am).

I was goofing around and watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians with one of my friends, when he suddenly sat up and paused the show. After he managed to get me to  stop fighting him (he paused the show right before Kanye proposed to Kim), he excitedly brought up the idea, and I immediately went and grabbed my anklets and tap shoes.

The actual event wasn’t too exciting because I hate running and I got sick of it about halfway around the cul-de-sac. BUT WOWZA I felt alive (probably because I was running in the cold, cold weather in shorts but oh well). My legs were numb for a good 15 minutes after.

Luckily (for my neighbors), my tapping wasn’t loud enough for any of them to hear, and they managed to sleep soundly through the night (as in my sister’s room is near the street and she was somehow awake when I was tapping and jingling away and she didn’t hear anything). I, on the other hand, was disappointed in my tapping skillz (but also glad I didn’t wake up the entire neighborhood).

Anywhooo, I’m off to go celebrate Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a Merry (day after) Christmas! (rip I forgot to publish this on Christmas)

Emily

 

Christmas in the Dorms Part 1

Follow every single thing you read below if you want to have the Classiest Christmas Party in the entire universe.

My roommates and I decided to plan out a classy Christmas party this year. Suffice to say, it ended up being more kL@$$y than classy. BUT, it’s the thought that counts right?

We started out by badgering all of our friends into buying matching pajamas. This was harder than expected (aka the guys thought matching pajamas were stupid) but we eventually managed to force everyone into buying the pajamas. One guy (let’s call him Tom) would only wear the pajamas if his roommate (we’ll call him Jerry) wore them too. Our secret weapon? My roommate. She and Jerry were “talking” (aka they both liked each other, but they were too scared to officially talk about their feelings). So, we obviously took advantage of that whole situation and got her to talk to Jerry about wearing the pajamas. Long story short, Jerry wore the pajamas, so Tom had to wear them too. *Dabs* We’re freaking geniuses.

We continued our planning by making a very adult-ish Google Doc. In theory, everyone would put down their name and what he or she was bringing. There were only a couple of little problems with these ideas: we forgot we were inviting the boys down the hall, and that we’re all still very immature college kids. The Google doc soon became the new home of a link to an interpretive dance video depicting reproduction, pictures of narwhals, and a list of sloth jerky, “brownies”, and Jack Daniels. Starting it off classy, right? #not

I had signed up to bring edible pine-cones that were made out of pretzel sticks, Nutella, peanut butter, and chocolate Chex (http://www.handmadecharlotte.com/recipe-snowy-pinecone-snacks/) . Unfortunately, I’m 10 times lazier than Sandra (who created the recipe), and I lack artsy skillz. So what did I do? I made 3 pine-cones, gave up, and crushed a bunch of chocolate Chex into the peanut butter, Nutella, and powdered sugar mixture. I mixed the crushed Chex in a lil’ and then rolled it into little balls. What did I call them? Christmas poop aka reindeer turds. We even had two types: normal, and a bit diarrhea-y. (aka covered in chocolate ganache). We just get classier and classier. #sendhelp

^^^just call me Chef Emily

Anywhoo, more to come on our Classy/ kL@$$y Christmas next week (aka I’m too lazy to type up the rest of the story rn). Stay tuned 🙂

Sending classy Christmas wishes,

Emily

common cold, pneumonia, cancer?!

Wow that escalated quickly.

Living in a dorm is all sorts of fun. Getting to live with your best friends, staying up late, having midnight feasts, and throwing parties for every single holiday you can think of, life couldn’t get much better. Except when it’s 70 degrees outside and the heating system in the dorms is on.

Because my dorm was built such a long time ago, only heating or cooling can be turned on at once. There is one control for the entire building, and once it started getting cooler outside, maintenance turned off the air conditioning and turns on the heating. BUT, because Alabama weather is so crazy, it’ll be 40 degrees one week and 70 degrees the next. You can see the problem with this, right?

add in that they arent gonna switch the AC back til the spring

It got so stuffy in our room that I felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore. Just imagine, it’s 73 degrees outside with the heat blowing in your face. Delightful isn’t it? Luckily, we have windows that can open in our dorm, so we kept our windows open all day, everyday. Here’s where the problem came in: it might have been warm outside during the day, but the temperature drops big time at night. So sleeping with the window open? Not such a great idea.

But, being the smart, responsible adult that I am, I slept with my window open. Thus, I woke up from my really cold dreams of turning into Elsa (from Frozen) with a chest-wracking cough and a headache. I thought I was actually going to die. However, being the smart and sort of health-conscientious, I quickly typed all of my symptoms into Google to see what life-threatening disease I had.

The first diagnosis that popped up? Cancer. After staring at the screen in shock, Before my brain spiraled out of control, I took a couple of deep breaths and calmed myself. I mean, everyone knows that the internet will diagnose anything and everything with cancer. So, using my smartness, I moved on to the next diagnosis: pneumonia. And that is when I fell down the rabbit hole.

Pneumonia is basically an infection of the lungs (take notes, pre-meds). And according to trusty old Google, it can stem from food that you get into your lungs. In case you were wondering, I swallowed an entire piece of gnocchi down the wrong pipe a couple of weeks ago. Coincidence? I think not. Moving on: raspy cough, chest pain, and feeling tired. My coughs were 100% raspy (#nastyraspy), I had chest pain when I coughed, and I was always tired. Now that I was thoroughly convinced that I had pneumonia and that I was going to die, I phoned my trusty sister who’s in med school. After hearing my hysteric rant, she quickly said, “Emily, calm down, I’ll listen to your lungs.” I breathed deeply, in and out, as she listened.

The verdict? I don’t have pneumonia, I have the common cold. Turns out the raspy cough and chest pain were from my cold, and I wasn’t exactly getting my 6.5 hours of sleep, thus the tiredness. I’M NOT DYING. Don’t get me wrong, it still sucks. But hey, at least it’s not pneumonia. Or cancer.

Currently coughing my lungs up,

Emily

my black friday story

Ahhhh Black Friday. With all the deals and steals, how could one not love it? As an avid shopper and a very competitive person, I usually fight my way into stores and make a run for objects on my *totally* carefully planned out list. However, this year was 100% crazier than usual.

I started by doing some stretches. I had just eaten a ginormous Thanksgiving dinner and I had to make some room in my stomach so that I could waddle around comfortably. Boots and sweaters from Belk, makeup from Sephora, and a nice lil’ visit to Altar D’ State were all on my list, and I was now ready. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!! (catch my Tswift reference).

After we arrived to the mall, I sprang out of the car and into action. Action, as in I hit my head on the roof of the car, but action nonetheless. As we made our way into Belk, I mentally gave myself a pep talk, got pumped, and ran my way over to the boots section. After I quickly snagged my boots, I speed-waddled my way over to the sweater section and grabbed a couple in my size. Feeling extremely accomplished, I caught sight of my mom at the cash register and I quickly wiggled my way through the crowd to her. I quickly heaved all my items onto the counter and breathed a sigh of relief as I turned to her and said, “Mom, I’m done. Can you buy these?” PLOT TWIST: SHE WASN’T MY MOM. I’m just apparently blind (which is eye-ronic because I want to be an optometrist ahaha rip me).

After I managed to keep breathing through the awkwardly awkward silence, I apologized and took my items off the counter as I went on a journey to find my actual mom. When I finally found her, I showed her my items and she commented on the amount of sweaters that I had grabbed. I then loudly laughed and said, “I got one for each and every one of my split personalities!” Unfortunately for me, the store somehow got extremely quiet when I said that and everyone turned and stared at me (the store clerk was making an announcement about an item on sale). Trying to diffuse the situation, I quickly said, “Guys, it’s okay. I’M A GEMINI!” Now feeling extremely awkward, I turned to my mom for a hug of acceptance but she quickly turned to the crowd and said, “I don’t know this kid,” disowning her youngest child.

Realizing that my mom was actually going to pretend like she didn’t know me, I left my stuff with her and went and found my dad. Basking in the warmth and acceptance of my dad’s embrace, my ego quickly recovered and we headed out to the next store on my list. HOWEVER, due to my extreme gracefulness, I managed to trip and fall twice on the way out of Belk: once in front of a store clerk (he laughed at me) and another time in front of an elderly gentleman with a walker (my dad visibly sighed and rolled his eyes at this one). In my defense, the floors were really slippery (aka my  walking skillz suck).

Battered and bruised, I finally made it out of the store, and I went to go wait in line at Sephora. Luckily, shopping at Sephora and Altar D’State went off without a hitch and I managed to grab everything on my list at those stores.

Sooooo, that’s my Black Friday experience. It was awkward and semi-painful, but also #worthit because I got some great deals. Will I go Black Friday shopping next year? Yes. Always.

Still shopping even though it’s not Black Friday,

Emily

 

breakfast

Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day. With all the waffles, cinnamon rolls, sugary cereals, crunchy bacon, buttery eggs, and crispy potatoes, how could someone not love breakfast? Don’t even get me started on my deep love for breakfast tacos.

The one downside to breakfast? It’s in the morning. Being the extremely lazy and exhausted pigeon that I am, I’m rarely able to muster up the energy to wake up early enough to make and eat food. Heck, I’m barely able to muster up the energy to crawl out of bed and look semi-decent for the day.

My go-to solution was to just skip breakfast. But this didn’t work, because my stomach would be angrily making dying whale sounds aka stomach growlies by 10 am. My next solution was just to grab Pop-tarts and granola bars. This worked for a while, but I wasn’t too keen on eating a ginormous amount of processed foods. BUT THEN, I DISCOVERED IT.

Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it….OVERNIGHT OATS AKA THE BEST THINGS IN THE WORLD. Okay, yeah, so I know I’m extremely late onto this bandwagon. In my defense, I’m a super picky eater and I hate oatmeal with a passion. I even managed to convince myself and my mom that eating oatmeal is akin to eating slugs (because oatmeal = slimy and slugs = slimy so by the transitive property of equality, oatmeal = slugs). My mom was really happy with me #not.

For some reason though, overnight oats never had that effect on me. I took one bite of them, and I was hooked. I’ve seriously been making overnight oats every single day, and I still can’t get enough of their cool, creamy goodness. An added bonus to overnight oats? You’ll get to look real hipster and on trend eating food out of a mason jar.

I’ve included my recipe and a beautiful picture taken by yours truly below!

 

Overnight Oats

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/3 cup of Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/2 ish cup of milk (I use soy or almond bc #lactoseintolerance)
• 1 teaspoon of chia seeds
• 1 dollop of almond butter
• 1 dash of cinnamon
• A handful of fruit (I usually use mixed berries or strawberries)
• Honey (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS (hopefully helpful) 

1. Mix together the oats, chia seeds, and milk in a 1-pint mason jar. I put a 1/2 ish cup of milk in the ingredients list because it really depends on you for how much you want to put in! If you put in 1/2 cup of milk, you’ll get a creamier consistency. On the flip side,  if you put in around 2/3 of a cup, you’ll get a thinner, more liquidy consistency. I usually just put in 1/2 cup of milk and let a little bit of extra milk spill into my jar.
2. Add in a dash of cinnamon and mix that in! I wasn’t really sure how much cinnamon to put on the recipe, but I usually just shake my cinnamon container once over my mason jar (the cinnamon container has the little circles on top to prevent too much from coming out).
3. Add and mix in the almond butter. I’ll usually take a butter knife, scoop out a good amount, and directly mix the almond butter into the oat mixture with the knife.
4. Top your oats with fruit and a drizzle of honey! I’ll normally either use frozen mixed berries (I’d say maybe 1/2 cup ish), or 5 fresh, sliced strawberries if I’m feeling feisty. This part is completely up to you! Also, it doesn’t really matter if the fruit is frozen or fresh, because the frozen fruit will defrost overnight!
5. Stick your finished concoction into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (yes, I tried this) and it’ll be ready to eat!

The best part about this recipe? It’s super versatile! Don’t like fruit? Change out the almond butter with 2 dollops of Nutella and add half a handful of chocolate chips! Feeling a bit shmexy? Add in some toasted coconut with a splash of vanilla extract (around 1 tsp)! Feeling extra fancy? Add in a couple of spoonfuls of greek yogurt (1/3 cup) and top it with figs and honey!

I hope you enjoyed the recipe and have fun feeling like a put-together, hipster-ish person (because 1. you’re eating breakfast and 2. you’re eating food out of a mason jar)! I apologize if this wasn’t the most helpful or straightforward recipe you’ve ever read, but hey it’s the thought that counts, right?

 

Wishing you happy times with yummy overnight oats,

Emily

PS- I low key had a dream about overnight oats the other night. Yes, I am that obsessed. It was glorious.

15 random facts about me

Hello hello it’s me again! I recently received a response to my blog that mentioned that he would like to know a little bit more about me. He said that my “voice shone through clearly in my writing,” but that he would like to get to know me a bit more because my biography was a bit vague. Since I’m much too lazy to update my biography to address this problem, I’m just going to dedicate a post to random facts about myself. Enjoy!

1. I love glitter. Anything shiny, sparkly, glitzy, reflective, I’m all for it. I would happily bedazzle the entire world if possible.
2. Ice cream is my favorite food, but I’m also lactose intolerant so rip me and my bowels.
3. I live for Disney movies. I’m basically a 3 year old child stuck in a 19 year old’s body.
4. I can trip over nothing. Literally. It’s a talent.
5. I’m really great at sleeping. I can fall asleep anywhere: in my cozy bed, on the couch, at the gym, in Genetics class…ahaha definitely not specific examples.
6. I’m fluent in Chinese. I can read, write, and speak it. Wow, are you impressed yet? (Don’t be. I grew up speaking it and was forced into learning how to read and write it)
7. I like eyeballs! I’m currently majoring in psychology and on the pre-optometry track!
8. I get a country accent when I get scared. Just imagine: an Asian girl screaming her head off with a very Southern accent. Yeah, I get a lot of stares but it’s okay because I like attention *flips hair*
9. I’m a good driver. Ahaha jk I lied. I’m a great driver! Ahahaha jk I lied again. I can kind of drive in a straight line. You can see where this is going.
10. My spirit animal is a unicorn. They’re sparkly, I’m sparkly. They’re magical, I’m magical. They poop cupcakes and rainbows, I eat cupcakes and admire rainbows. Wow, that just got gross. I am one with nature!!!
11. I celebrate Christmas 11 months a year. As Buddy the Elf so eloquently stated, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” It’s lit. Rip my friends.
12. I can sing loudly! For example, my neighbors in the dorm get a nice variety of High School Musical songs each night. Yes, they have reviewed my singing. They’re not exactly fans of High School Musical. Or my singing.
13. My favorite color is… SPARKLES!! For the haters out there who say that isn’t a color, my second favorite color is a light, dusty, pinkish, pastel color. You know the one.
14. I was on a competitive swim team for 10 years. I basically always smelled like chlorine.
15. Electrical outlets are out to get me. I’ve now blown a fuse, destroyed a necklace, and burned a towel all by accident. Send help, I have no idea how this stuff keeps on happening #sparkskeepflying.

 

And that’s all for today! Now that I’ve overloaded y’all with way too much very important information, I’ll say my goodbye and gracefully bow out without tripping over anything.

 

Dropping the mic,

Emily