Happy Thanksgiving

I know I am a day late on a Thanksgiving post, but oh well.

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving day filled with friends, love, and lots of food. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Christmas seems comercial to me, don't even get me started about Valentines Day, Easter is also commerical, and does Halloween even count as a holiday?

I simply love Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday when family and friends gather together to enjoy a huge meal with the only expectation of being thankful. (Or at least I guess that is the ideal...)

This year there are so many things that I am thankful for: my family, my incredibly friends, the amazing future I have ahead of me, the ability to travel the world, the chance to be healthy and happy, and so much more!

And, I am thankful for each and everyone of you who reads my blog posts. It makes me happy to know that even if I can't talk to y'all on a regular basis I can tell you a little of what is going on in my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!
M


**p.s. when I get home Chris and I are going to go all out and make our own Thanksgiving dinner because I also LOVE Thanksgiving food! So, be excited because you will definitely see pictures and hear stories about me cooking my first turkey ever!!

Food Friday 1

At home, I'm a great cook. I love cooking and can make almost anything (except Indian food, you don't even know my frustrations). The majority of things I made for Chris and I were fish, south western inspired meals, Mediterranean, and always lots of veggies. However, I do make a killer chicken pot pie!

Now that I'm staying in a series of hostels the cooking supplies and budgets are extremely limited. But, I'm still determined to eat healthy meals, try to get my daily servings of fruits and veggies, and stay under budget by cooking regularly.

Each Friday I'll update you with what a girl with 7 frying pans can create from 10 American dollars, hostel kitchens, and a lot of creativity.

I forgot to start taking pictures, but I will this next week!!

Tuesday:
breakfast- muffin on the plane
lunch- out at a Middle Eastern counter. Order the lamb shawarma and have left overs for dinner. cost: £3
dinner- combine leftover lamb with pre-marinated squash, bell peppers, red onions, cherry tomatoes. cost: £2.05 and a definite success

Wednesday:
breakfast (8 am)- hostel provided cornflakes and jam sandwich
lunch (11 am)- Ham sandwich made from hostel breakfast bread, half an orange cost: £1.29 with leftovers remaining
snack (3 pm)- half of orange, rice with veggies and tomatoes from Sainsbury mixed with ham, 1 plum cost: £3 with leftover plums
Dinner (8pm)- pasta with zucchini, spinach, bell peppers cost: £2.20

Thursday:
breakfast (9 am)- hostel provided cornflakes and jam sandwich and terrible instant coffee and leftover plums
lunch (11 am)- Chicken sandwich using hostel breakfast bread with plums cost: .69£ with leftover chicken
snack (3 pm)- cup of coffee with semi skim milk and evidently lots of sweaty palm inducing caffeine cost: £1.80 and the ability to blink for several hours
dinner (8pm)- inspired by one of my mom's favorite dinners of asparagus and Parmesan shavings I made a full bunch of asparagus topped with tomatoes, blue cheese, and cut up chicken deli meat cos and plums: £3 with left over tomatoes and blue cheese

I'm only three days in and so far i think I'm getting enough fruits and veggies. See the plum trend starting on day 2? I do realize that on day 2 I ate 4 meals, but I walked 10+ miles!

I'll be keeping good records for the next Food Friday!