{California Recap}

Hello cupcakes!

It's finally starting to get nice here in Indiana. I know this is a little delayed, but I wanted to share my California pictures with you! This summer is going to be pretty crazy, so hang in there with me. After June 17th I will have more free time to start blogging again. 

When I first arrived in Cali, my boyfriend took me to Coronado Beach. The sand had little gold sparkles in it. I was so amazed. We took the Frisbee with us. We weren't there very long before I realized how hungry I was, so Cory took me to get some food.

More pictures of Coronado Beach...

One place Cory took me was called Roberto's and let me tell you what, this place has my heart! This was a chicken taco. I only got one taco and it was $3.50. It filled me up. It was a corn tortilla with chicken breast pieces, homemade guac, & homemade pico. I think I am still having dreams about this taco. 

When Cory lived in Charlotte, I bought us a doughnut pan. I didn't really get a whole lot of use out of it, so this in Cali it was my goal to make a bomb protein doughnut. I think I finally succeeded. These were amazing and boyfriend approved. 

One of the days, after Cory got off work, we went hiking. This place was beautiful. I can't wait to hike more mountains out there. 

There was a reservoir and dam off in the distance. 

Here was up close to the reservoir. This was half way into our hike (well I should say the half way point meaning we made it to the top). 

I think I had a fingerprint on my phone camera because these two pictures turned out a little blurry. I also did not bring my actual camera to California this time because I will be living out there soon enough... yay!!!

If you follow me on snap chat or Instagram, you know I am on a huge salad kick. One night I made homemade Chiptole Bowls. They turned out amazing. I used lettuce, corn, salsa verde, chicken breast, homemade guac, and sauteed peppers and onions. 

I also made some chicken, sweet potato fries, and vegetables for another dinner on a different night.

One thing I was sooooo excited for... trying out my future gym. This is called Worlds Gym and it's by the same people as Golds Gym. I love how it looks industrial. There is something about a new gym that gets me so motivated. 

I also recently bought a nice waffle maker and had it shipped to Cory in California. I made so many protein waffles while I was visiting. If you want to follow my instagram it is: @toriswholelife . This waffle combo was 1/2  a waffle, protein dip, and 1 T of almond butter. The recipe is posted on my Instagram. 

Here was a salad I made: lean ground turkey, salsa verde, cucumbers, snap peas, crushed up rice cake, lettuce, and Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing. 

I spent a few hours at the pool every other day to get a little tan and relax. 

Friday night for dinner we went to Oceanside Beach and ate at Hello Betty's. I got the Mahi Mahi tacos. 

My breakfast before the zoo was a breakfast casserole I made, a protein doughnut, strawberries, and a few slices of bacon. 

Now here are my zoo pictures from the San Diego Zoo...

Look at his tongue haha!

Cory and I were so confused while looking at this thing...

We took Quest Bars to snack on while we walked around the zoo. 

We spent about 4 hours walking around the whole zoo! It was a blast. I am so glad we went. If you visit San Diego and want something to do, go check out the zoo! After the zoo we were both pretty hungry. We went to Carnitas Snack Shack. Let me tell you what, they have some bomb dot com food. I got the carnitas tacos. 

That wraps up my Cali pictures, but here are some pictures from the past week. 

I am a little obsessed with Artic Zero right now. For anyone that has a lactose intolerance or wants a healthier version of ice cream, check this stuff out. I like to microwave mine for about 30 seconds so that it gets softer and creamier. 

I grilled up some turkey burgers and asparagus to eat this weekend. 

I also snacked on some cucumbers. I love how light and fresh they are in the summer. 

I hope you enjoyed my never ending recap. I can't wait to blog again.

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away." 

{Long Recap Post}

Good morning Cupcakes!

WOW! It has been awhile since I've had time to write a blog post. Today's post is going to be a long recap post of things going on in my life recently. 

A couple weekends ago, I was able to go home to my parents' house. Both of my sisters were home that weekend, so we had some much needed family time.

I also was able to go to my boyfriend's grandma's birthday party. Here are two of the little cousins. I love little kiddos and babies :) 

One snack I love for traveling or on the go: Epic Bars. I bought this one from the Vitamin Shoppe.

Here is one of my half eaten breakfasts. It was 2 slices of low sodium ezekiel bread with 1 egg white muffin cup which had spinach and green onions. 

The next weekend I was able to travel to my undergraduate campus... PURDUE! I miss this place! It was so nice to be back and walk around campus. I have so many wonderful memories from this place. I took my sister's dog for a long walk on campus while she studied and took a test. My fitbit told me I walked 8 miles that day!

These are just some pictures from campus

We ate at Chipotle and I got a salad with chicken, fajita veggies, green salsa, and a side of brown rice. 

Another find from Vitamin Shoppe: D's Naturals Fluffbutter. It was bomb!

I am on a salad kick right now...

I was able to be home at my parents' house during Cinco De Mayo and we ordered mexican food from a local mexican restaurant. I ordered chicken fajitas (light on the oil). I eat the fajitas without the tortillas. 

Another thing I am loving at the moment, is freshly cooked dinners. Throughout graduate school I have meal prepped every week. This means I eat the same food all week long and sometimes it does not taste very fresh. I cannot wait to graduate and be able to cook dinners every night for my boyfriend and I. This was chicken with mushrooms and asparagus.

This is the view from my parents' front porch.

I am currently in California visiting my boyfriend. This will be my last visit before moving here. I get more and more excited every day to start my life here. When I got here on Sunday, we drove to the beach (Coronado). The sand on the beach had sparkles in it! 

 I made chicken, veggies, and sweet potato fries for dinner one night. 

We also love to go hiking. Here are some pictures from our hike yesterday. 

This morning I made waffles with my new waffle maker. I posted the recipe on my instagram if you are interested: @toriswholelife . I have a protein dip for my waffle as well!

Hopefully I will get some more awesome pictures while I am in California. I want to do a full travel recap post after this trip, so stay tuned for that. I am also going to do a BBG recap post after this trip. I will be half way through my BBG 12 week journey. 

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away."

{California Adventures}

Hello cupcakes,

All I have to say is... WOW.. California is awesome! Words cannot even do it justice. I am going to try to walk you through some of the cool things I got to do while I was there.

The first morning, my boyfriend drove us to Oceanside to get breakfast out over the ocean.

There were so many people surfing!

The beach was beautiful and the people were all so friendly. This was as we were walking on the pier towards the restaurant.

And here is the cute little restaurant. It had a cute 80's style diner feel. It was kind of weird because as the waves were coming in you could feel the restaurant sway slightly.

Here was my bomb breakfast. I got egg whites with spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms. It came with an English muffin and fresh fruit.

Next, we drove to Torrey Pines. I think this is a state park if I remember correctly. The view was amazing! It was cool because you could walk out on this cliff and it overlooked the ocean.

My foot was a little sore still from getting released from my walking boot (not even a week before my trip). We had to take it a little easy, but I cannot wait to hike around this area more!

There were little walking paths every where!

After site seeing a little bit, I had my boyfriend take me to a vegan doughnut shop called Donut Panic. Here were the donuts we got...

The guy we talked to in the shop gave us a free cake doughnut to try. The cake doughnut was my boyfriends favorite!

After getting doughnuts, we drove to some other towns. This place was a little more mountainous. Oh and we also picked out a couch!

Here was my breakfast one morning: Gluten free oats with egg whites, 1 egg, & coconut oil.

One night we met up with my friends to do a wine tasting. One of our friends took some pictures of Cory and I...

The wine tasted so good! I loved trying all the different kinds. We started with more dry wines and moved to red wines and ended with sweeter wines. All together we got to try 6 different kinds. Here is a picture of us girls!

Here was our selfie as we were driving to the wine tasting.

One night after Cory was off work we went and had Mexican food. This was hands down the best Mexican food I have ever had! We ordered table side guacamole as an appetizer and the waiter made it fresh right in front of us! Sooo good!

We also split the fajitas. It was so cool because the waiter poured tequila over the fajitas and lit it on fire right in front of us. It came with shrimp, chicken, and steak!

My last day there we drove to meet some of our friends near Manhattan Beach. Here was our car selfie for that day...

That afternoon we were all starving, so we walked to Hermosa Beach which was actually closer than Manhattan Beach for us.  We ate at a really cool place called American Junkie.

I ordered shrimp tacos and they can with chips and salsa. 

After eating lunch (at 3pm haha) we ended up going to the beach closer to where our friends were staying. We brought a football with us! We also got to watch the sunset on the beach. I will share those pictures in another post. After the sun set, it started to get colder and we were not dressed appropriately. I had on a dress. So we decided to walk back and waited for our other friends to join us. We got to catch up with all four of them & it was a blast! 

Cory and I had a little drive ahead of us, so we decided to take off around 8pm. To get an idea of where we were at, here is a map. We were at Hermosa Beach and we had to drive back to Vista. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes. We stopped at In & Out Burger for my first In & Out experience 

Since I cannot have dairy, I ordered a hamburger and shared some of Cory's fries. When I got the burger, I realized it had their sauce on it. I did not know if it contained dairy or not, so I ended up just eating one side of the bun and the burger. The tomato, lettuce, and other half of the bun had the sauce on it. Next time, I will know what to order though. I am going to order double meat, no cheese or sauce, and protein style. Protein style means instead of buns, they wrap the burgers in a huge lettuce leaf!

We ended getting back to Cory's apartment around 11pm and I had to be up at 5am to get ready for my flight back home. I was pretty sleepy!

Here was a picture from my plane ride back to Indiana. The time changed on Sunday and I had to travel east, so I ended up losing four hours. The jet lag is starting to catch up to me. 

Overall, this trip was a blast! I cannot wait to go back and visit in May & eventually move there at the end of July! 

If you have never been to California, you must go!

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away."