Hi everyone! How are yoooouu?? (Slowly drawled in a Clark Howard voice.)
I knew I would be getting back from clinical late today, and I so wanted to enjoy this gosh darned nice weather, so I decided to take an early morning run. After sitting on my bottom in my car for 2.5 hours per day the last two days, I knew I needed to get the muscles going.
You know, the only aspect of daylight savings that I don’t like (besides, you know, the lost sleep and disruption of my groove and such) is the fact that it’s so DARK in the morning. If I had been running outside at 6:45 am last week, it would have been sunny. Even so, there’s something nice about moving around when the rest of the world is still asleep. The lake next to the bike path rested serenely under a drifting mist. No pic, of course.
Breakfast!
Enjoyed while perusing … the competencies for my dietetics program? Not sure why that was there.
Today, my clinical group started our rotation at a new hospital. This hospital is TINY! I know it’s good to get experience at as many different hospitals as I can, but I do miss the electronic health records at the previous hospital :( I’m not very good at interpreting chicken scratch. Overall, our first day at the new site went well – mentally exhausting, but I think I’m getting the hang of clinical.
Isn’t it nice that we have daylight until nearly 7 pm? I’ll gladly trade my early morning light for enough afternoon light to take a long walk with the doggies. Which we did upon my return from the hospital :)
I almost forgot to show you! Remember these sprouts?
Well, after returning from Utah on Sunday, this sight met our eyes:
It’s a jungle in there! Needless to say, we’ve been having a lot of salad all week. I don’t think I’ll grow lettuce in the Aerogarden again. Organic lettuce is $1.99 a head at Stop & Shop, and since I grew two head of lettuce, I saved … $3.98. I think next time I’ll devote Aerogarden space to a veggie more worthwhile, like organic red peppers – those things are PRICE-SAY in the supermarket. Once day, Nicole, I’ll have a garden just like yours! :)
Dinner was leftovers from this day, plus a couple of lamb chops Peter cooked sous-vide on Monday (I didn’t post that day). I’ll post about them at some point, because Peter set up the sous-vide himself and it’s impressive!
A little PB dipping action:
Plus a side of Stop & Shop organic lettuce with Annie’s Goddess:
For dessert, I had a mini version of today’s breakfast:
With my hand for scale so that you can see you small but very satisfying portion:
A little quiz for you guys! Can you come up with a caption for this picture?
What is Maddie thinking? I’d love to hear what you think! Here’s one:
“What? Oh, no, I don’t know her …” :)
I’ll share any captions you guys send in in my next post. Maybe I’ll turn it into a contest – I haven’t decided yet ;)
I don’t usually celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, as neither Peter and I have a drop of Irish blood in our bodies (well, certainly not I). I do like to make a loaf of Irish soda bread on occasion, and Peter has made corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day before. Note: When I say that Peter MADE the corned beef, I don’t mean he picked it up from the store, I mean he corned/brined the brisket himself. The beef sat in a bucket in our fridge for a week. I’m not joking.
This morning, I decided to try a slight variation on the usual:
That’s Saratoga PB, Crofter’s raspberry jam, and pineapple that, again, may or may not have come from the fruit and veggie lesson we gave yesterday, on top of oatmeal. Eaten while studying for today’s Food Service exam.
Peanut butter and pineapple is a combination not to be underestimated! Sweet, tart, salty, and creamy, all at the same time. Try it. I dare you.
Speaking of exams, I already received a grade for the Medical Nutrition Therapy test I took on Monday and I did really well! What a relief to see the grade before taking the Food Service test today – I went into it with confidence (it ended up being pretty easy). Before I went into the test, however, I felt like I did on this day. How is it possible that a school with so much land has so little parking?? I did a lot of creeping this morning.
I had to work late today so no Irish soda bread, but Peter did have a fun soup up his sleeve. (As an aside: A few of you have asked if we actually cook gourmet meals every day. I admit that we probably cook more fancy dishes than the average couple in their mid-twenties, but Peter will have to claim all the credit for that – he has more time and imagination. :) We DO cook a lot – but we also have leftovers about half the week. We add new side veggies to make the dishes fresh and interesting.)
On the menu was a Malaysian noodle soup from this book. Peter started the soup base (a laksa paste) a few days ago because, well, he had time. The paste contained shallots, almonds, ginger, coriander (the seeds, of course), lime, fish sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil, and coconut milk. Let me tell you, the delicious smells wafting out of the kitchen while Peter cooks …
Today, he prepped the rest of the ingredients before I arrived home.
Tossing the squash in the coconut milk, chicken broth, and laksa paste soup base:
Serving the soup and squash on a bed of zucchini, scallions, chicken, noodles, and bean sprouts:
Served with milk, omega-3, and vitamin D:
Can you see the sweet potato forest through the cilantro trees?
Filling and fabulous! The broth was rich and creamy, but not at all heavy. We’ve cooked a lot of recipes in this cookbook and they’ve all been great, so I encourage you to check it out.
I finished with a dollop of Peter “deconstructed” cheesecake (i.e. it fell apart because I begged Peter to let me have some before it was completely cool. Oops.).
The cheesecake was guava-flavored, made with guava paste, but the guava taste wasn’t very strong. Does anyone have any suggestions for making fruit-flavored cheesecakes with plenty of flavor?
As a parting note: my sister C sent me this video yesterday, of a “trailer” for the soon-to-be-released prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (yes, you read that correctly). BEFORE YOU WATCH, a warning: the trailer has a lot of (fake) blood, so you may want to skip if you’re feeling a bit faint.
Sure makes you appreciate the classics of literature, doesn’t it?
Q: Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Do you cook/bake anything special?
Disclaimer: The information presented on this website is for education purposes only. Please consult your doctor and/or registered dietitian for your health and nutrition needs.
