I got my first exam out of the way this afternoon (I think I’ve already blocked out anything I ever knew about the rules evidence…and the exam only ended a few hours ago), and it feels great to finally have one done. I’ve been freaking out with stress, which is bad for the body and the soul, so I’m working on staying grounded and keeping things in perspective. At the end of the day, when I have my health and family and everything I need to live, I’m way too blessed to be overwhelmed by bad feelings. There’s nothing good about being stressed out…except maybe if you’re like me and you stress bake.

Yeaaahhh…this happened during some key studying time. I know. I know. But it’s honestly my natural response to busy situations. It’s ridiculous. In my defense, cupcakes are really fast to make and so that whole adventure didn’t hardly take any time away from studying. But more on the cupcakes later. For now, it’s time to show you what I ate this Wednesday while being stressed blessed!

It’s not tasty…but it’s full of all sort of vegetables, vitamins, probiotics and the like that do wonders for my body. I need it even more in busy times like these!

Real Breakfast: oats in a jar! (otherwise known as OIAJ in healthy blogland)

The concept of OIAJ is basically to capitalize on your almost completely empty jars of peanut butter (or some other food) by making oatmeal in it! You get to limit waste, re-use the jar, and enjoy your oats with a delicious serving of peanut butter. I’m not a huge overnight oats fan because I just prefer my oats piping hot, so I think I do my OIAJ a little different than most. I cook my oatmeal on the stovetop, remove it from the heat to cool slightly with the pot covered (I do that because I don’t want any plastic melting on me! yuck!), then pour the hot oats into my empty peanut butter jar. Then I close the top and let it sit a minute.

Then when I take the lid off, the peanut butter is all soft and melted in the oatmeal and DELICIOUS! Does anyone else do it this way? It’s so darn good!

Lunch: raw collard green wrap with rice, TJ’s refried black beans, and red bell pepper inside

This was my first time trying a collard wrap, I loved it!

Afternoon (mid-exam) snack: trail mix bar

Dinner: grilled chicken tacos, chips and queso at Qdoba

Dessert: Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Icing

I was going to do a post on these but 1)I had no time 2)I can’t bring myself to tell you how much butter is in that icing 3)it’s not an original recipe. I really REALLY wish I had more time to be working on fun desserts like this for the blog, especially because it’s the holidays, but it’s not happening right now! After exams, my friends, after exams.

I will tell you that the cupcake recipe is my go-to for chocolate cupcakes, and it’s from the Barefoot Contessa. The only major adjustment that I make is decreasing the sugar slightly and adding a bunch of chocolate chips to the batter.

They were delicious.

Clearly.

GET READY for the onslaught of dessert recipes that will be coming your way when these darn tests are over (T-minus 7 days).

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren