I think this is my easiest week thus far this school year. I actually watched tv this evening! I know that I really should have been working, but at least for this week it’s not the end of the world that I didn’t.
I was starving this morning and ended up eating all of my breakfast and my lunch within the first ten minutes of class. Müller Passion Fruit Peach Früt Up Yogurt.
A Clif Grape Fruit Rope (FNCE sample).
And a Jalopeño Popper Burger on a Sandwich Thin with pumpkin spice cream cheese.
This was such a good sandwich combination.
I had a long morning of classes and then a doctor’s appointment – with a super long wait – in the afternoon. Thankfully my appointment took me near Gin Gin, the restaurant with bubble tea that a customer raved about at work last weekend.
It was worth raving about! The used two kinds of boba, regular and popping!
The bubbles were in a red bean milk tea, and that was delicious too. I’m glad I took a chance on something different.
I came home with food too.
Hot and sour soup,
and Mongolian chicken (with carrots, cabbage, and a spicy sauce) with white rice.
I ate about half of each and then Adam ate the rest.
Plus ice cream (about a serving) straight from the pint.
With a side of “Private Practice,” “Castle,” and “Royal Pains.” ‘Twas a good night!
I know that this recipe has been on my blog for a while, but it is so flipping good that I had to highlight it again. Just look at the text Adam sent me after he tasted the burgers the other day –
The main thing that sucks about having a tiny, unknown blog is that people don’t see/make all of the recipes that I think are amazing. I promise, I’m a much better recipe creator than I am writer and photographer! So this post is my plea to you – try these jalopeño popper burgers for yourself. They are meaty and cheesy and just a little spicy.
My favorite way to eat them is on a bun with a little bit of Miracle Whip to cut the heat.
Jalopeño Popper Burgers, serves 6
P.S. Another burger plea; I entered a contest that I’m not going to win. If you could like and repin my Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burger recipe on Pinterest it would mean the world to me.
I have got to stop falling asleep without blogging! Some days (many days) are crazy and boring and I skip posting. Other days are crazy and delicious and make me want to blog. But two crazy and delicious days in a row makes for one loooooong recap!
Breakfast was all about the FNCE samples. Gross was the Strawberry Del Monte Squeezable fruit.
There was a flavor there that I just didn’t care for. Almost savory?!
Great was the Jamba Juice Fruit-i-licious Probiotic Trail Mix (I ate the whole bag, or 2 servings).
It had tons of fruit and nuts and just enough chocolate to be fun.
I planned on making dinner before I went to work so I made a quick trip to the store on my way home from school. Coffee with skim milk to warm me up when I got home.
Archer Farms’ Cinnamon Vanilla Nut is the best flavor I’ve ever gotten from Target.
My lunch snack was a sweet tasting plate.
A sliced banana with crunchy honey pb,
and half of a Theo Bread and Chocolate Bar.
I love this bar! Normally 70% would be a little dark for me but the saltiness of the bread really brings out the sweet in the chocolate.
I also ate a 100-calorie bag of kettle corn.
I managed to get dinner made, but not with much time to spare; I ate on the walk to work!
Roasted green beans,
and a turkey burger on a bun with sharp cheddar and Miracle Whip.
I’m going to stay cryptic and just say “burger” because this recipe was so tasty that it warrants its own separate post tomorrow. I know most people scan these long recaps and I do NOT want this burger recipe to get lost!
After work, I ate a slice of turkey while I packed Adam’s lunch.
And that was it. It was quite lucky that I ate dinner for lunch because otherwise I would have gone to bed hungry.
I got my flu shot Sunday morning. PSA – Flu shots save lives. Even if you aren’t worried about the flu, you should get the shot because it helps protect the people around you. That said, I am having a major adverse reaction to my flu shot!
I couldn’t get a picture that really shows anything (it is surprisingly tricky to photograph your upper arm), but imagine a giant, raised, red area around my injection site. It itches like crazy and is making me insane. Adam didn’t see my reaction until Monday night but as soon as he did he fed me an allergy med and put me in bed.
When I say that Adam “put me in bed” on Monday night, it is worth mentioning that he let me pass out teeth unbrushed, jeans still on, and alarm clock unset! I managed to make it to school on time but I was very confused this morning!
There wasn’t much time for breakfast so I grabbed a Chocolate Zico Coconut Water,
and an Odwalla Chocolate Almond Coconut Chewy Nut Bar (a FNCE sample).
Dee-lish-us! The bar immediately moved to my “top five bars” list (now that Balance Bars aren’t good there is a major hole to fill!). It tasted like real food, really tasty real food.
We were on campus today so I also got to cash in a free coffee card at the book store.
3 shots of espresso with tons of vanilla sugar and skim milk. And then I twitched wildly for the rest of the day…
Instead of clinical practice at the hospital, today we had an intensive lecture on enteral and parenteral nutrition – i.e. feeding through a tube into the GI tract or through a vein. It is insanely complicated but at least I think the calculations are a ton of fun. I’m certainly not the smartest person in our program (not by a long shot!) but when we do any sort of math I’m usually the first person in the room to finish. Who knew as I struggled through 9th grade pre-calculus that I’d grow up to get all tingly over formulas?!
Another fun part of the day? A rep from Nestle came in and showed us some different products. We got to taste thickened water and thickened diet pepsi (honey consistency) –
Their commercial thickener is just xantham gum – like I used to use in my smoothies! – plus a few preservatives.
Also fun was the longer lunch period that let my friends and me go to Wegman’s.
I hadn’t packed food so this was very serendipitous.
Buffalo chicken chowder,
and a green veggie brown rice sushi roll with spicy mayo on the side for dipping.
Between buffalo sauce soup, spicy mayo dipping, and the wasabi that I slathered on top of my sushi, this lunch left me sweating!
I stole a fun sized candy bar from my friend for dessert.
Ignore my sandals, and note that I bundled up today for Fall.
Fall is here exhibit b – tea with skim milk and cinnamon sugar.
Fall is here exhibit c – the apple crumble candle I burned while I studied.
Fall is here exhibit isn’t she done with this gag yet?! – an apple crumble yogurt bowl.
This is another dish I plan on making often. A 0% Plain Greek yogurt topped with cooked apple (a chopped Sweet Tango microwaved for 2 minutes with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tsp agave) and crumble (KIND Oats and Honey Clusters granola, a FNCE sample).
The rest of dinner was a random assortment of snacks while I studied. A chocolate chip cookie dough mini Larabar (FNCE sample).
A mini tortilla with 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey Maple Turkey and melted sharp cheddar.
Cold, leftover green beans for veggie needs.
And a 100-calorie bag of kettle corn.
As I said, looooong! Like hot-dog-dog long.
Have you ever had an adverse reaction to the flu shot?
It’s Pumpkin Month! But you already knew that. I really wanted to make pumpkin squares, so I did some Googling. I got lots of results, but most of them were for pumpkin chocolate chip squares. I wanted butterscotch. So I made my own!
These bars have just a bit more chew than a pumpkin loaf. They pack a lot of spice, but it’s nicely tempered by the butterscotch and toffee.
Pumpkin Butterscotch Bars; yields 16 small squares (base ingredients inspired by 20 recipes from the internets)
P.S. Did anyone notice that when I first published this post I had three different recipe names between the post, the title, and the picture?! I’m not feeling very well!
My “three-day weekend” only refers to blogging. I still went to school on Friday. And work. And volunteering and work on Saturday. And school and work on Sunday. I guess it actually wasn’t a very relaxing weekend! I did take pictures, but recapping every single thing I ate sounds pretty tedious. Instead, let’s focus just on things that were fun and sweet!
An apple, cereal, cinnamon bowl that quickly became one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Certainly the best bowl of cereal that’s ever passed my lips!
1 serving each of Vanilla Almond Special K and All Bran Bran Buds, topped with 2 Tbsp Skippy Natural Super Chunk with Honey pb and lots of cinnamon. I microwaved the bowl for 30 seconds to get everything warm then poured on skim milk. Ridiculous! Expect to see many repeats of this.
White chocolate candy corn M&M’s.
These were delicious and I have no idea why they aren’t listed on the website or available at more stores. I found my bag at 7-11 and snatched it up. The chocolate isn’t sickly sweet like some white chocolate can be and the candies really do taste like candy corn!
Pumpkin Butterscotch Bars.
Exactly what they sound like. I made a batch on a whim and I’ll be sharing the recipe tomorrow afternoon.
Red velvet hot cakes from Nelson’s Ridge Diner.
“Red velvet hot cakes served with a cream cheese icing, powdered sugar, and whipped cream.” Adam and I shared a plate and neither of us could stop swooning! In addition to being amazing, these were the best pancakes I’ve ever had. We were also pretty intrigued by these….
What was sweet about your weekend?
I’m blogging a two-day recap from a blanket nest with a killer migraine, so please excuse any typos. I was hoping to be back on a “normal” blog schedule by now, but I’m not sure that’ll ever happen this semester!
Going back to yesterday… Wonder of wonders, I made it to the gym! 20 minutes on the elliptical; random level 6. The machine was out of water so I drank a fruit punch g2 while I worked.
It was embarrassing to have so much fuel for such a short workout but I ended up being very thankful that I had it. I guzzled most of it during my workout, then refilled the bottle with water and drank all of that on the drive home. I guess I came back from Philly a little dehydrated.
From my trip to the gym, I came back short on time. Thank goodness Adam had the day off yesterday; he drove me to school and packed my breakfast. FNCE expo samples were heavily featured. An iced coffee with skim milk.
A mini apple pie Larabar.
An apple it its true form.
And a serving of Cheddar Cheese Beanitos.
I was a big fan of the (pinto bean and flax-seed) chips. They were nice and crunchy with just a touch of spice.
I’m also a big fan of things working out in the lab. Look at what I made in Microbiology – spread plates and pour plates!
Adam’s undergrad degree was in Microbiology Immunology and sometimes it is downright embarrassing to show him my class-work!
I had several to-do’s after lab, but I made it home in time to make dinner before work. My mid-day meal was pretty lame. 2 small corn tortillas microwaved with ~1/4 cup shredded cheese.
Plus a 2% Fage with Peach.
And the last two Buttered Rum Raisin Cookies from the batch I brought my friend.
We are getting in all of our Christmas stock now and work was more like a workout; I carried boxes up and down the stairs for my most my shift. I was very glad to have dinner already finished when I got home.
Green Tuna Enchiladas; serves 4-6
Dinner did not fill me up like I was hoping. I ate a huge spoonful of Skippy Natural Super Chunk with Honey; aka the very best peanut butter ever.
And I had dessert. I am working on a hot chocolate recipe so I’m not going to share the ingredients now, but I will tell you that this batch included a serving of Caramel Apple Milky Ways for funsies.
It was ridiculous good. Ridiculous.
Moving on to Tuesday… Today had a productive start but has steadily gone downhill. I had a difficult time getting out of my warm bed and ended up eating breakfast on the walk from my car to the hospital. A Sweet Tango apple,
and a Full Moon Brownie Z-Bar, which I actually hated.
I couldn’t put my finger on what the problem was specifically, but the taste of the bar was not good to me.
Today was my busiest day at clinic yet. I had a patient on my own in the morning, then worked on another in a group later in the afternoon. We had our first practice with tube-feeds today and it was both fascinating and frustrating. We’ve learned a lot in school but it’s all been in isolation; in the real world conditions overlap. For example*, you might have a patient in End Stage Renal Disease that has increased protein needs for wound healing and is also a Diabetic. *just an example, this wasn’t a specific patient that we worked with today
Also, my friend Janessa and I offered to turn-key some of what we learned at FNCE, so we did a short presentation on ketogenic diets for epilepsy. The group had to stay late so that we could present and I love them all for still being interested in what we had to say.
I ate a late lunch during my afternoon errands. Vegan pecan cornbread stuffing from the co-op.
Buffalo peeps – run to the co-op to get some of this stuffing, it had the perfect blend of flavors and textures.
Then hot bar at Wegman’s while I ran through my notes before shopping.
I did three types of vegetable stir-fry.
I am glad that I got in veggies and time studying, because both were in short supply when I got home. Minutes after walking in the door, I got an immense migraine. It came on much more quickly than they usually do and made me unbelievably nauseous.
Adam brought home pizza for dinner and I ate a big plate once I was able to get out of bed.
Now I have to go try to study for tomorrow’s giant exam. <– so screwed
What is your favorite store-bought peanut butter?
I’m home! If you didn’t know, I spent the past five days in Philadelphia attending the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ (AND) Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE); alphabet soup, much?!
I went with two fabulous friends and we had a great time. Our days were packed (I need a vacation from this vacation!) and I am very glad I made the decision in advance not to blog. In fact, I’m barely going to do a recap.
I would love to talk about the sessions I attended, and all of the things that I learned, but I have homework to catch up on, a shift at work this evening, and a huge test on Friday, so I doubt it’s going to happen.
I do have a few shots of some of the fun food though.
Amazing (2nd only to my favorite place in Brooklyn) eggplant pizza that we had the first night when we stayed with one of my friends from high school.
Taro milk bubble tea.
Hot, spiked, apple cider from a street fair. We also had pumpkin beer and apple pie shots; we were drinking seasonally this trip.
The expo –
My swag –
It was amazing/ridiculous and my friends and I ended up offering a bag of food to a man I saw digging in a trash can as we were walking from the conference to our car.
Pumpkin pie frozen yogurt.
The best espresso I’ve ever had.
Sidenote – I drank my coffee holding back tears. We went to eat a vegan cheese-steak on our last day in town and found out that the place was out of seitan!
The Chobani bar at the expo was hands-down the best part.
This Strawberry FrozFruit was a very close second. My favorite thing in high school was the coconut version.
And a final treat at home – tiny chocolate hamburgers that I brought back for the husband.
Who’s hungry?!
Eating Chalk 