Rice And Anything

Ever have one of those days you don’t feel particularly productive but in the end you realize that you actually have gotten a lot done and you’ve had some great conversations along the way?  Yea, today was one of those days.  It started out with a 6am plyometric cardio circuit courtesy of Insanity.  Day 10 done!  Felt good.  Very sweaty, but good.  I am cautiously optimistic that I am getting better.  I don’t know for sure though so we’ll see as the workouts progress.  To refuel after my shower I had a breakfast cake.  Chocolate base with walnut butter, syrup, chia, and flax on top.

I was hungry by 10 afterwards though, which is the downside to doing an intense workout in the morning.  I’m hungry wayyy before lunchtime.  Kelsey, a co-worker of mine, and I were over in the clinical building so we couldn’t just run to the break room for a snack.  We stuck it out instead, filling our time with discussions of Mr. Grey and the books.  We just can’t get enough of the story.  We sound like school girls talking about it, not mid-twenty-year-olds.  It’s hilarious.  By the time lunch rolled around we practically sprinted over to our lab for food.  I had a bowl of black truffle & cheese ravioli topped with rehydrated TVP, steamed spinach, and light alfredo sauce.  It was awesome and thankfully filling.

My afternoon was spent doing patient prep.  I got a hold of one family which was great and all but they were the less complicated of the two patients I’m seeing on Friday.  I didn’t need to speak to them nearly as much as I needed to speak to the other one.  But hey, I’ll take what I can get.  I read up on Treacher Collins syndrome as I have never seen an individual with TCS before.  I love adding to my list of syndromes I've encountered!  =D  By the time I had finished prepping everything it was delightfully only 3:30 so I stuck around the student room for a bit and did some other work but then realized that I didn’t have a lot there to keep my busy so I ducked out to catch the 4pm shuttle and I read my book.  Mmmm, awesomeness.

At home I started getting a tad hungry so I made myself a sensible snack of yogurt and fruit in a coffee mug (the dishes may all still be in the dishwasher…at least they’re clean).  Strawbs and bloobs were the stars.  I wish blueberries weren’t so expensive all the time.  I really do love them.  Fruit always makes a nice snack probably mostly because you can have a lot of it without feeling bad about it.  Plus it’s refreshing.

After my snack I read a little more and then started making some Scotch Shortbread from The Joy of Cooking.  I sprinkled the top of it with turbinado sugar for crunch and boy did it turn out well.  It was my first time making shortbread and I’m not usually a huge fan (I mean, let’s face it, it doesn’t have chocolate anywhere) but this was great.  Smelled wonderful too.  I then made some salted chocolate chocolate chip cookies too.  Why the baking, you ask?  Phillip, a co-worker, is in the baking/giving mood and he’s whipping up homemade chicken pot pies for tomorrow’s lunch.  I figured the least I could do in return is dessert.  My specialty, his specialty.  Perfection.

Once the cookies were done baking I headed to the car and to Havana Café for Supper Club this month.  We all met at a little hole in the wall for some chow straight from Honduras.  On my plate: Imperial Rice (yellow rice with chicken, cheese, and olives), black beans and rice, veggie lasagna, mojito pork with onions, braised beef and peppers, plantains (HOLY YUM!), and a piece of yucca.  So basically rice and anything else of the plate was every bite I had!

I wasn’t a fan of the yucca as it was incredibly plain flavored so I didn’t eat it but I went back for seconds on basically everything.  The plantains really made my night though.  I fell in love with them when I went to Costa Rica back in 2007 and I haven’t been able to have them a whole bunch since so when I do, I really cherish it.  I may have had six pieces…

Now, after a wonderful day, I’m off to bed to read my way to sleep.  This second book is intense and I’m loving every minute.  I’m debating doing Insanity at 6am or letting myself sleep in.  I would do the workout later in the day, like 4p, so it wouldn’t be like I would skip.  It’s recovery day so not as intense and I think I could use the extra sleep.  Hmmm, we shall see.  It might honestly depend on how late I read!

Questions: Have you ever had plantains?
What’s the nicest thing a co-worker has ever done for you?

Thai Taste

Tonight was a Thai food night, supper club style!

But I had to make it through a whole day before I got to sample my way through tons of courses of home-cooked food.  I started my day with a green monster carrot cake smoothie with a touch of walnut butter.  I consider the fact that my drink had both spinach AND carrots my extra cup of veggies for this WIAW.

This tided me over through Psychosocial class in which we watched GATTACA.  What a great way to spend an hour and forty minutes of my life.  I love that movie and it was nice to not have to talk in class today, just sit and veg out.  After class we got our eats on real quick before heading over to hear Bekah’s thesis presentation in front of the whole department.  I had a cheesy hummus and pickle sandwich with tomatoes on the side.

At the seminar Bekah did such a great job.  She was a natural.  Right afterwards I headed to work and not an hour into relabeling tubes I was ravenous so Phillip and I took an apple break.

So much better, we continued relabeling and finished up around four.  I caught the 4:30p shuttle home and eventually did a workout after killing time on the internet.  I wasn’t as productive as I should have been but after my 30 minutes on the elliptical I felt a bit better.  I chomped down some string cheese for rebuilding protein and then showered before heading to Supper Club for Thai food!

When I arrived there were little toasted coconut, lime, red onion, and peanut leaf wrap appetizers on each table.  The lime really made the dish.  I had two because I liked the clean flavors so much.

The next courses all came rapid fire.  First was a papaya salad with sticky rice on the side.  Last time I had a papaya salad it wasn’t spicy at all; it was cool and refreshing.  Sadly, this time, that was not the case.  By the time I had shoveled all the goodness into my mouth, it was on FIRE!

Still good but just wayyyy spicer than I was expecting.  Next up was a beef and cilantro dish with red onion.  It was not as spicy and had a bright green flavor.

The spicy sausage with lemongrass came soon after.  It was as spicy as the papaya salad but I couldn’t stop eating it.  It had a flavor unlike any sausage I had ever had.

If you like pork rinds, you would have loved the fourth main dish: seared pork bits with a sweet and sour glaze.  They were crunchy, chewy, and delicious all at the same time.  Yum.

There was also a whole entire fish (with scary bones and all!) and fermented bamboo.  The bamboo was not too spicy and had a nice subtle salty flavor that really worked well.

Next came two soups: a broth based seafood and mushroom soup and a green curry.  I had seconds and thirds of the green curry because it has the most incredible pumpkin in it I have ever tasted.  I also took some home with me.  Awesome!

The last main course were these super duper salty eggs.  I had one tiny bite and got the shivers.  Yuck.

Thankfully, we got our sweet on with coconut, jackfruit, and corn ice cream.  It sounds a little weird but I can assure you it was incredible.  I wanted more but honestly it was probably best to only have a small scoop.

Another greatness of tonight, aside from the sweet food, was the awesome table of people I had.  I met some wonderful people, two of which were from Brazil, that I will hopefully be hanging out with soon.  I think we’re going to do lunch sometime.  Not only was being around them easy but we laughed and smiled and got on really well.  Also, they ate like me: second, thirds, fourths and all.  =D

Questions: What is your favorite Thai food?
Have you ever had a whole fish before?

Mexican Brain Food

Just a few more hours until this next midterm and I’ll be almost free for spring break!  This whole studying thing has been such a drag, seriously.  I feel so drained and my fingers might as well be bleeding for how much I’ve been typing in my study guide.  I ended up with 19, 1/2 inch margin pages of 11 point font notes.  Holy moly…

Just can’t wait to be done, cannot wait.  My studying was accompanied by some pretty awesome brain food though.  Food worthy of a What I Ate Wednesday for sure.

Breakfast was one of the best green monster smoothies ever in honor of WIAW Goes Green this month.  I mixed up chocolate protein powder, almond milk, 2 tsp chia seeds, stevia, and some decaf coffee granules the night before and then combined that mixture with frozen banana, handfuls of spinach, and a heaping dollop of peanut butter.

Vera mixed this baby up really well and Lord was it super smooth and creamy.  I really enjoyed every single sip.  I was proud of myself for using real peanut butter instead of peanut flour.  It’s hard sometimes, after realizing just how many calories are in that one scoop of delicious nut butter, but I think it’s worth it to try.

Lunch was after a long class talking about Alzheimer’s disease/Huntington’s disease/frontotemporal dementia which was rather depressing.  The kinds of decisions that caretakers of those patients have to make are incredibly hard.  I can’t imagine having to make them ever.  Anyways, lunch, right… I had a refried bean sandwich with swiss and mustard along with orange slices and sweet tomatoes.

I spent the whole rest of the afternoon studying/typing/complaining and snacking on an apple once I got hungry and actually had a moment to breathe.

I ended up staying late and walked home in the sunshine and light heavy breeze.  By the time I got home I was ravenous and I had a second food-related victory of the day, I didn’t eat the whole kitchen, I instead snacked on some blueberries and [massive] strawberries to hold me over while I did a session on the elliptical (again while studying).

When I got back to the apartment I showered real quick and downed some cheese to give my muscles protein and to get me to the restaurant without chewing my arm off.

Then came the good stuff: Mexican night with Supper Club!  We started off with chicken & mole tamales, corn smut quesadillas, along with homemade chips and fresh guacamole.

They also had awesome queso and a dreamy tomatillo/avocado/cilantro/spicy pureed sauce for the chips, and just about anything else we could get our hands on.

For entrees, we tried goat, baked quail, and pork carnitas.  There was also a consommé to make a stew with the goat.  All the dishes were served with refried beans and dirty rice.

All of them were good.  I think I liked the pork the best and honestly, the quail tasted like chicken.  If I hadn’t been told it was quail I probably wouldn’t have known at all.  Oh well, still tasty.  I used some of the homemade corn tortillas and made a few tacos along the way.  Seriously, it makes all the difference in the world to have handmade tortillas!

Told you I put the cheese and green sauce on everything.  Scrumptious I tell you!  As one of our last additions to the menu, we tried their homemade mole and boy was it nice and rich, all those chocolatey undertones and spice.

For dessert they scooped us cookies and cream ice cream (not very Mexican I know but tasty none-the-less) and I killed off several lime wedges.  Nomnom.

Most surprising thing of the night: the corn smut.  It was SO DELICIOUS.  I just wish they would name it something a little less provocative.  Anyways, now I think it’s time for me to head to bed.  A good night’s sleep will do me wonders.  Plus I should wake up early and continue to study.  Tomorrow’s midterm at 10am is going to be a doozy.

Questions: What is your favorite Mexican dish?
What is your go-to brain food?

Finger Foods

Welcome to my What I Ate Wednesday post for this week.  I got a bit messy, you’ll find out why in a bit.

Because it is the first Wednesday of the month, and ironically the VERY first day of February, tonight was a Supper Club night!  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Breakfast first!  I brought back the breakfast cake today with all oat bran, vanilla protein, mashed banana, and wheat germ.  I slathered it in peanut butter, sprinkled it with chia seeds, and sloshed it with maple syrup.

How delicious.  This baby kept me full for well over 5 hours!  That is incredible.  Around one in the afternoon I really figured I should eat something, keep my metabolism stable and all, so I nuked my glass jar of veggie chili and consumed it while doing patient prep.

Late afternoon consisted of listening to two breast surgeons talk about the risk-reduction benefits of and reconstructive options available after mastectomies, etc.  It was really informative though it does make me scared to some degree.  I can’t imagine having to make all these decisions with a clear mind, let alone while in the throws of a cancer diagnosis.  Geeze!

Though I was hungry during the surgeon talks I couldn’t snack because it was only the six of us.  Too close of quarters to politely eat.  So I waited until I got into the car and snacked on the apple I brought with me.

Not twenty minutes later, when I arrived at my chiropractor’s office, I was even more ravenous than before my apple so I busted out the protein bar from my purse.

Thankfully this kept me full until we got our tastes of Ethiopian food at the restaurant where Supper Club met this week.  We had a plate of injera (which is basically a very thin, spongy bread) and a large platter of a variety of dishes.

Here are the dishes I could kind of decipher: sautéed spinach/greens, red lentil mush, brown lentil mush, refried beans kind of, salad dressed in oil, pickled cabbage, mushed goat?, mushed pork?, one chicken wing, one hardboiled egg.  Deciding what we actually had was hard enough so it was good that the technique for eating it all was fairly basic, okay, very basic.  Essentially you rip a piece of injera and pinch up bits of the mush on the other plate then put your hand to your mouth and enjoy.  Alex, Wes, and I cleaned a plate ourselves in record time.  Well, in all honesty, they cleared the plate, I had made a fourth, maybe less because this sort of food really isn’t my style.  I think need something to break up the mush but as you can see below, Wes had no issues!

To finalize the meal we tried honey wine, again Wes had no shame, and they roasted coffee beans at our table for our “nightcap”.

The experience was a cool one but like I said, I’m not the biggest fan.  I can’t wait for next month because we’re doing it up Mexican style.  Nomnom!  I excused myself and came home where I chowed down on a mug or two of Coco Roos in order to satisfy myself.  I don’t like feeling unsatisfied and not really pleased with a meal but this did the trick.

Now I think I need to wash dishes, figure out what I am going to pack for food tomorrow, brush my teeth, and get some sleep.  Tomorrow is coming quick everyone!  Before I go though I thought I would grace you with the gorgeousness of today.  Seriously, this cannot be February first but if it is I’ll take it!!!

Questions: Have you ever had Ethiopian food?
Are you okay eating with your fingers?