barrymore'd.

so yesterday i got my hair done. it was much needed. my last haircut, besides the DIYs i've been giving myself for the last, oh, six months? was in august. my poor strands! do you notice something a wee bit different? it's dark... well, the top 8 inches at least. i was going for some ombre.... you know, drew barrymore hair? i promise it is there, unfortunately i am an awful self-portrait taker. the fourteen year old i used to be who would change her msn messenger picture twice daily would be super disappointed.

guess what else i did this weekend? BOUGHT FOURTEEN POUNDS OF APPLES FOR 12 DOLLARS!  do you know what kind of a steal that is? i love bountiful baskets. i've already eaten five apples since yesterday morning. life is good. 

you know what else is good? the oscars... and the fact that i haven't seen half the movies. i tried to get all educated on the movies this weekend, IE i just really wanted to see the artist, but it isn't playing anywhere in utah county. boo. i'm rooting for midnight in paris and the lady from the help. obviously my "educating" did a lot of good :) happy sunday.

indian food extravaganza.

britni is my life twin. when i think of our relationship, i liken it to this graph.

funny and true, right? but in all actuality, we really do like a lot of the same stuff.... indian food being one of them.
today we planned to go on a hike. we went a good 1/4 mile before we decided it was too cold and decided that eating in a heated restaurant would be much more fun. plus eating at new restaurants is one of my goals of 20 before i'm 20. win win! we went to bombay house. in fact, we were the first people there, basically standing at the front door waiting for them to open at 4 pm. yes, we're old ladies. yes, we're fine with it.

i'm the kind of person that looks at menus before going to the actual restaurant. i like to scope out my options so i don't go into menu hyperventilation mode once i get to the actual restaurant. too many options paired with a hangry attitude is never a winning combination. i was stoked upon looking at the menu because there was a whole section labelled "vegetarian/vegan" beat still, my heart. i ordered the tofu vindaloo, which is tofu cooked with tomatoes, potatoes, onions, ginger, spices... good stuff right there. britni got the chicken tikka masala. we piled it all on top of jasmine rice and sopped up all the sauce with naan bread. for fifteen minutes of eating all was right in the world. the fact that our waiter brought us our food and proclaimed it "ready for the beautiful ladies", a lively bout of bollywood music playing over the speakers, and the legit turban another server wore just made it an all around good time.
i foresee more trips to eat more indian in the near future. i also see my kitchen smelling like garam masala and being "that roommate". it's fine!
see you soon, curry.

grab a snack, watch this video.

i play on my computer every day while i'm eating. it's just a thing. breakfast wouldn't be complete without a little worldly connection... nor would my computer be complete without a little banana smeared into the keys. it's fine.

this morning i stumbled upon this, and it was great. this rando girl i don't know goes to bolivia with her family to have her brother's wedding and i loved it. all 20 minutes of it! grab a snack and sit down.

Bolivia Adventures 10.2011 from Hailey Haugen on Vimeo.
i've been doing a lot of sitting the past two days. on friday my friend, corey, and i went night skiing, then when we were too cold that we couldn'f feel the snot dribbing out of our noses we went for a little midnight rock climb at the quarry. oh my aching body. that is all i have to say about both situations. you know when it hurts to turn the steering wheel you'd pushed it a wee  bit too far.


saturday we hung out with our married friend, jordan. she made us cookies and pizza, while we played the wii and watched a movie. we concluded that visiting your married friends is like going to your grandma's. (we love you, jordan)


today is president's day. HAPPY PREZ DAY. i feel like i should eat some cherries to honor washington or tell the truth to honor linc. hmm. i'll probably just do homework. they'd like that, too. 


it snowed, winter is never going to end.
and i'm almost late for spin... the only form of exercise that doesn't completely kill my body. 

saturday and my quest for a donut pan.

okay guys, remember how i said i was going to take a picture every day of 2012? fail. the topics got suuuuper lame... like "button" and "sun". no thanks. too much work. oh, and over half of my pictures from my phone got deleted. boo! i don't even know where they went, but it cut me deep. anyways, i'm sorry to all my picture a day fans out there... but not really. i could probably count you on one hand.

ANYWAYS. want to know how my saturday was? wonderful. thanks for asking.
i made oatmeal and discovered the best combination!! while your oats are cooking, mash half a banana into your oats, add a dash of cinnamon and a little coconut milk. eat it with sliced bananas and a dollop of peanut butter, which gets all melted in and delicious. it is wonderful

i went to spin. remember how i talked about my gem of a spin teacher, rona, the walking talking tabloid who wears fake hair pieces to class? believe it.

i grocery shopped and bought myself vday chocolate. it's my favorite past-time, lately, actually. i could sit in the chocolate aisle for days picking one out, but this one was a good choice.

i went to the bball game! byu creamed pepperdine. i took no pics because my phone was busy being dead. then hailey came to town from slc! we played around and burrito-toasted at mountain west burrito. man, that place makes a good vegan burrito. (vegan week is still going strong, my friends... but i miss eggs. and yogurtland.)

afterwards i told her about my 21 things list and she agreed to help me out. we decided on the donut activity. don't worry that we spent the next hour going to FIVE different stores looking for a donut pan. at 8:55 i called michael's crafts to see if they had one in stock... success! but they were closing in five minutes. i sped. we ran inside and they turned off the lights on me. i found the pan, though AND used my 40% off coupon. victory is sweet.

we made vegan donuts. so wonderful. i gave them away. they were appreciated.

we played bananagrams with more friends. we watched larry crowne and i fell asleep, so i naturally had to watch it again today while i painted my fingernails all festive-like.
you'll have to wait for that one, though.
listen to this in the meantime.

vegan wednesday woot woot

so remember how i'm being vegan this week? it's fun. it's kind of normal... okay it's not that normal but i like it. i figured people out there might be wondering "what the heck does vegan alyssa eat?!" 

alright, maybe you don't really care that much, but if you do, well... consider all myths dispelled.

it was an early morning. i made these pancakes that were the. bomb. probably because i finally bought real maple syrup, which is probably laced with gold, but totally worth it. it reminded me of the time i was at britni's 12th birthday party. her mom made us WHOLE WHEAT pancakes with REAL maple syrup. i wanted to barf. it was so.... natural and healthy. i wanted my golden griddle syrup. now i am just thinking, "wow, you stupid 12 year old girl!" anyways, the recipe can be found here, and i used almonds instead of walnuts.  

 lunch came and i ate this huge salad beast in my car. it looks small, but don't be fooled, people. it was in a huge popcorn bowl. in the mix? red leaf lettuce, half a head of broccoli, half an avocado, a whole cup of chickpeas (i just can't help myself), salsa, a couple almonds, and salt and pepper. it. was. awesome.

 dinner was foraged from my backyard! just kidding, i made it. joy the baker liked it, so i figured i would too... its toasted kale and coconut over farro. so good. so good! the recipe is here if you're feeling adventurous... but too bad it didn't fill me up and i had to wash it down with more chickpeas.

so there you have it. consider yourselves educated on my eating habits! throw in an apple, orange, and copious amounts of trailmix, and you know exactly what is in my stomach.

happy wednesday.

photo a day(s) 33-42

you thought i'd forgotten about photo a day, huh?! well, i was in boise this weekend, so it got put on the backburner. but it's back and ready to attack! onward.

29. inside your fridge. notice my staples: alternative milks and cinnamon swirl raisin bread. mmmmmm

30. nature. okay folks, this stuff is super natural and smells like straight up almond extract. i'm in love

31. you, again. hi- this is me pre-ski. post-ski is a scary look.

32. your view. environmental science every wednesday... three cheers for cinderblock walls!

33. words. i had some choice words for this traffic jam situation as i was trying to skip town!

34. hands.

35. a stranger. nothing like a little late night wendy's... or the token fast food fam. that baby had some serious pipes and she knew how to use them.

and there you have it! in other news, remember this? i've got just a little over two months to complete it all! this week i'm being completely vegan. it's real exciting... more on that later. i'm off to do some more home-workin! hasta pasta