T.G.I.Thursday

Thursday is my favorite day of the week, and here's why:
2nd period free and TRIPLE LUNCH, not to mention the fact that it's almost Friday! At our school everybody has the period after lunch free (7th) on Thursdays, but I have 8th period free on a regular basis, and last period is art, which is the ONLY AFTERNOON CLASS I HAVE! Can't wait till I'm a senior and have even more frees.
Anyways, a lot of people go out to lunch on Thursdays, but in the past I've found that what I can pack is much cheaper and often better than the options around our school. Here are some possibilities, and literally, these are ALL OF THEM. Remember that this is Hyde Park, and I suppose now that Obama's president, more people know about it (There's actually a hilarious video my dad sent me where two Republicans are discussing Hyde Park. One of them lives there, and the other one is asking him questions, like if it's true that they have communes and Maoist flags everywhere. This is not a joke! Click here to see it.):
Noodles Etc.-- your typical pan-Asian joint, which makes me almost embarrassed to be Asian. I try to pronounce dishes in a normal way, but they stress everything to sound even more American, despite the fact that they are Asian : "YOU WANT THE PAD WOON SEN? (PAAAAAHD WOOOHN SIIN)
Medici and Medici bakery-- these are much more signature Hyde Park, and have great shakes, burgers, pizzas, and all that sinful stuff. The bakery has great pastries and coffee, and they now have shirts that say "Obama eats here" on the back.
Edwardo's-- really gross deep-dish pizza
Subway-- need I say more?
University Market (the UM)-- is basically a convenience store (they have gum, cigarettes, etc, as well as a cold prepared foods section that I've always been kind of afraid to touch), but it happens to have a Boar's Head Deli in the very back of the store. If I were to buy lunch, I would probably come here, since everyone swears by their fresh tomato-mozzarella sandwiches.
The Graduate School of Business (GSB)-- basically, a really good food court. My friend Page eats breakfast and/or lunch there on a daily basis: in the morning they have made-to-order omelets, oatmeal, etc, and at lunch it varies-- sometimes a stirfry bar, panini press, salad bar, burritos, etc. The problem is that it is REALLY expensive, although tasty.
Anyways, you see my point: these are all the restaurants nearby, unless you want to walk far or drive somewhere else.
On to the day:
Breakfast-- I decided to try adding more protein to keep me full (it worked for a while, but I still ended up needing a snack) by using all soy milk instead of half water in my oats. The soy milk was getting old, so it was also economical.
Sorry guys! My breakfast was just not all that attractive today!
By the way, that bowl you see was painted by me in lower school. It has a haiku on it-- an ode to my old favorite food:
Golden shapes on a plate
Flecked with gold and crimson
French fries and ketchup.

Oats: 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup soy milk, 1/2 banana, a bunch of cut up strawberries (also using those up), a drizzle of honey, pecans and walnuts, and finally, a sprinkle of Grapenuts.
On the side: I was inspired by last night's quince and cottage cheese combo, so I had warm cinnamon pears with cottage cheese, which was pretty delicious.
During Art History I had one of the Chewy bars I took from Panera when I got to meet Kath and Jenna! However, I realize that Chewy bars aren't actually "healthy"-- they have refined sugar, HFCS, and even some hydrogenated oils! Of course, they have that stupid little "Smart choices made healthy" check on them. The thing is, for some reason I really wanted to try one, and I realized that one little chewy bar wouldn't kill me. I had the peanut butter flavor and it was good, but obviously extremely sweet.
Lunch: I really liked the sandwich I made earlier in the week, so i duplicated it-- avocado, hummus, laughing cow, and lettuce.
On the side: more of those damn root vegetables and brussel sprouts. My mom made a bucket of these last weekend and we're STILL not through with them!
An apple (my bio teacher told us today that all Red Delicious apples actually came from the same tree, since the branches were grafted on to other trees! Isn't that crazy? I don't even know if I believe it... but I hate Red Delicious anyway).
Some honey graham sticks and dried apricots.
Check out my friend Yoko's ravioli-- they're HUMUNGOUS!
Luckily, this lunch kept me full enough that I didn't need a pre-practice snack! This was also good because practice was EXTREMELY low-key. We did sprint sets, but that was pretty much it. We were definitely out of the water a good 40% of the time, which is such a huge contrast to the days where we're swimming for 2 hours straight with only water breaks.
It's also great because I'm not about to die of exhaustion! Yay!
And for dinner we're having something I've been really looking forward to, from the Flexitarian Table: Pumpkin and lentils over couscous.