Healthful Bites

After a whirlwind weekend donning my gown, flipping my tassel to the right and walking across the stage, I’m going to let pictures do most of the talking on this post! I had a wonderful time celebrating my graduation, Mother’s Day and the next step in my life with family. I’m so lucky to have such a supportive and loving group of people alongside me and inspiring me!

Including my beautiful and accomplished sisters…

And my generous-beyond-words parents…

And all of my other great supporters. You know who you are!

We had wonderful conversation and lots of delicious food—since this is a “good for you eats” post. I took my Mom and aunt on their first Jason’s Deli trip, dined on whole wheat “Herbivore” pizza at Great Plains and celebrated with family at Lucullan’s after all of the festivities. My parents called it a “done paying tuition party” since I am the youngest of their three daughters and finally am going to be off their payroll ( :) for them, : { for me ).  Anyways, our crew noshed on fresh and tasty Italian fare family style.

As you can tell, we thought the salad was terrible. Just kidding! 

Among other traditional Italian dishes (pizza, chicken parmesan), we ordered lasagna…

And my favorite: a vegan dish the restaurant calls roasted vegetable pasta! 

Here’s my plate, plus I had a salad and a piece of bread. The roasted vegetables (zucchini, garlic, tomatoes, squash) were seasoned to perfection and not overly oily, so I was sure to scoop us a good-sized portion! There may have been a dish mysteriously left with almost all plain noodles after I had a go at it :D On the top portion of my plate is linguine with marinara from the chicken parmesan dish. Also lycopene-packed and quite tasty.

So there you have it! I am no longer a “student” for the first time in 18 years. It’s a very strange feeling, but I’m looking ahead to bigger and better things. I’ll be sure to keep eating, studying, video taping and writing my way through the real world! Caps off to all the other graduates out there.

P.S.: Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing Moms out there—especially mine!

Well folks, I’m taking today off from the regular “Good for you news” post, as I am going to soon be en route to school to get my diploma! How strange is that? College seemed to fly by in retrospect.

 (Image from Campus Solutions, Inc.)

I’m excited yet nervous, happy yet a tiny bit hesitant. I feel very fortunate to have a job that begins in early June (not to mention it’s my dream job…) so that’s very positive news! But moving halfway across the country and starting life as a “grown up” is a bit scary.

Did you know that new college graduates occasionally struggle with depression-like symptoms? Hopefully I can sidestep those with a good amount of physical activity and plenty of fun and relaxation time!

Wishing you all a great few days. I’ll be back on Sunday for the regularly scheduled “Good for you eats” post!