Good morning, friends!
Life is getting busier and busier over here – I only have 7 more weeks of classes left in my grad program! Can you guys believe it?! I feel like just yesterday I was announcing my decision to attend UNC. It’s going to be an insane end though – here’s what’s going on:
- April 13 – Comprehensive Exams for my graduate program. This is a 4 hour, 3 question exam covering public health, medical nutrition therapy, and biochem – and if you don’t pass, you don’t graduate. No pressure. Gahhh
- Regular final exams (the weeks of April 23 and 30th depending on the class) – mostly take home/assignments, but we do have a real biochem cumulative final.
- May 6 – Our lease in Chapel Hill ends.
- May 6 – Move back to DC, place so far still TBD. Get settled and start preparing myself for work in the hospital (reviewing worksheets, doing some prep work they give me, etc.)
- May 18 – Reach the Beach Relay up in Massachusetts!
- May 21 – Clinical internship starts at a hospital in DC.
Also thrown in there is two weddings up in DC in April (April 1 and April 14), the Tarheel 10 Miler on April 21, and about a million assignments/group projects/presentations as we wind down the semester. Oh, and wedding planning.
One day at a time, right? Whew. Feeling sliiiightly overwhelmed.
But just because I’m busy doesn’t mean I can’t take 5 minutes to pack myself a healthy lunch for school. 
I had a long day at school yesterday so I packed lunch and various snacks to fuel me through the day.
First up – leftover Vegan Mexican Quinoa Salad!
Plus a salad with mixed greens, canned beets, and feta cheese:
I threw together a 2 second homemade dressing in a ziplock since we’re out of dressing – this was just olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and salt/pepper – no measurements, just eyeballed it:
And for snacks, I packed some strawberries and almonds:
And a Stonyfield blueberry Oikos – my favorite of their flavored Greek yogurts (usually I just buy plain and add my own fruit, but it’s nice to have these on hand for portable quick snacks):
It was super hot here in Chapel Hill yesterday – 85 degrees?! So I was in the mood for something fresh and cold for dinner. I whipped up a variation of my Mediterranean Pasta Salad (click for recipe):
So. Good. I love that recipe because it’s so customizable – just throw in all sorts of veggies, based on what you have on hand! I added green peppers, cherry tomatoes, some wilted spinach, artichoke hearts, and lightly steamed zucchini. Plus, some unpictured white beans that I added at the last minute – great flavor addition plus some added protein and fiber! Matt gave the pasta salad two thumbs up.
Time to get down to some serious work. I will leave you all with this hilarity I saw on Facebook the other day. Sooo true. 
Happy Friday!
How do you keep your sanity when life gets even more crazy than usual? Sticking with healthy eating and my normal exercise schedule always helps me – even if I feel like I “don’t have time” to exercise I still make time. I always come back clearer and more focused after exercising, so I find it actually ends up helping, not hurting, productivity! Plus it does wonders for stress levels. So do walking breaks! And the occasional glass of wine.