Love Week In Review

Hey group.  We have a lot to talk about!  I’m sorry I’ve been MIA but this was my first week at a new rotation clinic site and it was a bit hectic.  I really didn’t get home until after six almost every day.

Also, we have a midterm coming up on Wednesday so I’ve been studying, studying, studying.

Anyways, let’s review the week of love (aka Valentine’s Day week) shall we?  And GO!

Last weekend Jack came to visit and we have our Valentine’s Day stuff early.  We were low-key this year honestly, and that was okay, especially since we have our three year anniversary coming up in less than a month.  We had a packed weekend together though, filled with social things.  This was both good and bad we decided later.  By the time Sunday night rolled around we both were exhausted from the weekend and didn’t feel ready to tackle the week.  Saturday consisted of seeing a woman I haven’t hugged in person for almost three or four years.  We went to college together but she got married, had two babies, and moved around the country since we left.  She and her family are on the way to Las Vegas due to her husband’s military job.  They were having a going away party and it was the perfect time to get back in touch.

Joshua was there too.  We used to be quite the freshman threesome back in the day.  Nice reunion though short.  Jack, Joshua, and I headed out and went for dinner in the city because Joshua had driven in and we figured we should milk the time for as long as we could.  We picked out a new place to try and ended up being the only people around.  That was okay though.  They brought the bread basket in no time and we dug into these awesomely seedy rolls.

I had mine with some of the whipped butter they dropped off tableside too.

It was so great.  There is just something to be said about hearty carbs.  Oh man.  Speaking of, our appetizer was pretty carbtastic and epic as well.  Gravy fries anyone?  Thick cut fries topped with gravy, pot roast, and melted cheese curds.

Holy yum.

I mean just look at that cheese landslide!  They were incredible.  I honestly could have had the whole plate to myself and been a very happy camper.  Though it was probably good that we split it three ways because we had dinner coming.  Joshua got the cedar planked salmon with fingerling potatoes and Jack got the mushroom ravioli.

I ended up choosing the mahi mahi sandwich with grilled pineapple and a chili aioli.  This thing was massive.  Like taller than my iPhone massive.

It tasted alright after I cut it into quarters.  I think it would have been better, really, if they had taken out the thick middle piece of toast.  The bread kind of dominated all the other tastes.  I liked the pineapple though.  A bit later we decided on dessert for the three of us: German chocolate cake and cappuccino crème brulee. 

Both offerings were delicious.  I loved the icing on the cake and the sugar crust on the crème brulee.  Great way to end the night…but it actually wasn’t the end.  We stayed at the table for close to three hours afterwards.  We talked about all sorts of things from genetics to bioinformatics to physics and such.  Finally around 11p we all headed home.  The following day was filled with another social engagement: ice skating!  We met up with a bunch of friends from swing dancing for a few hours on the ice.

I used to ice skate competitively before high school and I still fit into my custom made skates.  Jack rented his.  He is actually pretty good on the ice.  Makes it nice to skate around together because we don’t have to hug the boards the whole time.  It ended up being a nice two hours though my legs have certainly forgotten all the muscles it takes to properly skate.  My ankles aren’t quite as strong as they used to be.

We decided that after we left the rink, we weren’t ready to be done with the day.  Instead of going home we headed to Starbucks for drinks and went across the street to a toy store to poke around.

Some gems we found included an awesome genetics & DNA experiment kit…

…a puzzle game…

…crazy mirrors…

…and a cute magnetic “easel” of sorts.

After coming back home we cooked up the dinner we bought at the corner grocery store.  Chinese anyone?

With some red wine too, for good measure.

We played some two player games like trivia challenge and air hockey after dinner.  It was a cute experience. Made me think about what people did before smart phones with games on demand!

Then the week began.  With a loving mood in mind, one of our professors bought us all Girl Scout cookies.  He distributed them all as fairly as possible.  We each drew a letter and got the box that matched.

I ended up with one that I had never tried before: Savannah Smiles. They have a nice lemon kick and a great crunch. Yum!  A few girls didn’t want to take their temptations home so they opened them up in the student room.  I’m fairly sure we had close to seven different boxes open at one time.  I snagged a peanut butter pattie (or tag-a-long depending on which Girl Scout generation you’re from) after lunch one day.

Just as yummy as I remember but smaller…or maybe I just grew up.  Other baked goods showed up on Thursday for Valentine’s Day.  I made cookies and one of the first years made mini chocolate chip cheesecakes.

Then there was puppy chow.  I made myself some based on a lower calorie version I found somewhere on the internet or Pinterest.  I can’t remember now.

This followed my solo Valentine’s Day dinner of a strawberry and blue cheese salad with red wine.

Other eats of the week included perfectly hard-baked eggs with curry spice blend sprinkles, spinach salads dressed with extra virgin olive oil, spinach dip-sundried tomato dip-blue cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs with salsa and sour cream, and sweet potatoes with sunbutter (aka the “crack snack”).

The week ended with a small social date with two of my first years on Friday night.  We were the last people out of the student room around 7p and our tummies weren’t lettting us get far.  Noodles & Company was just around the corner so we drove there quickly for food.  I ordered the Japanese pan noodles with shrimp and a side of tomato-cucumber salad.

It was nice to not have to cook or reheat anything plus I was seriously craving some social time.  I feel like I’ve been a super shut up recently.  I hope that doesn’t last forever!  However it didn’t get better this weekend… I stayed in my apartment and studied though my eats were great.  For lunch I had a spinach, blue cheese, olive oil, and lemon pepper salad with apples and lettuce wraps with egg salad.  Dinner was had just after the cable guy left.  I nuked a sweet potato and topped it with some sloppy joes made with TVP.  Sour cream too!  I made some tweaks to this recipe so mine didn’t come out as saucy but still yummy.  I didn’t have tomato paste so I used ketchup and some BBQ sauce.  I also used a bunch of onion, green pepper, and carrots instead of just TVP.  Nomnom.

Then I did my population genetic practice test to see how I would fair on Wednesday’s midterm.  I didn’t do as great as I wanted but the more I looked over my work, the more I realize I made some silly mistakes.  The way I see it, I made them all now in practice and won’t make them on the test.  We used to say in ice skating that if you had a bad practice ice you were going to have a stellar competition ice.  Here’s to hoping that same logic works with class!!

And to finish everything off, I treated myself to some great chocolate frozen yogurt topped with chocolate syrup, marshmallows, puppy chow, and dark chocolate chips.  Perfect way to end the week of love and start the first week of actual counseling at my new rotation site.  Tomorrow I have a baking appointment followed by more population studying.  Bring on the week!

Questions: How was your Valentine’s Day week?
How much do you love puppy chow?

Chocolate Zucchini Protein Bars

As promised, I wanted to share with you all the greatness of my recent chocolate zucchini protein bars.  They are really great afternoon snacks and much less expensive than store bought bars.  I actually took the time to do the cost analysis this time, as opposed to my first batch, and they came out to be only $0.38 a piece.  How’s that for super cool?

Chocolate Zucchini Protein Bars
Modified from this recipe.

Super yummy homemade protein bars that sort of taste like zucchini bread.  Makes one 8x8 pan, 10 or 12 bars depending on how knife happy you get!  With my ingredients they are 100 calories a piece, 8g of protein per bar for 10 pieces in the recipe.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
3/4 cup mashed banana
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chocolate protein powder
1/4 cup ground or milled flax seed
4 tbsp cup-for-cup Stevia
2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
2 tsp maca powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp gluten-free baking soda (double if using this product)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup finely grated zucchini, as dried as possible with towels

How to:
1. Preheat the oven to 375*.
2. Mix the first three ingredients (the wet ones) together.
3. Sift the dry ingredients together (minus the zucchini).
4. Add dry to wet and mix well.  Fold in zucchini and let sit for 2 minutes.
5. Prepare an 8x8 brownie pan with foil and cooking spray.  Fill with batter and gently spread evenly.
6. Bake for 25 minutes. Mine were slightly moist still so I added another two minutes.  Keep in mind that zucchini typically carries a lot of moisture so it will continue to give wetness to the batter even after you take out the bars.
7. Let cool for 10 minutes then portion the bars.  I wrapped mine in foil so they are grab and go-able from the fridge.

I hope you enjoy this homemade alternative to store bought bars.  I know that ever since I’ve gotten to making my own I really enjoy them.  I admit I’d like to figure out how to get a nice crispy texture but I’m not quite sure how to do that.  These guys have a bit of a cake-y or bread-like texture but they’re still perfectly delicious and filling.

Questions: What flavor protein bars would you like to try?
What do think about putting veggies in protein bars?

Homemade Protein Bars

Tonight I was on a mission to make my own protein bars.  I typically use things like this for afternoon snacks.  I have always bought them in the past so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try making them myself and saving a bit of dough.  (I admit it would be cool to have a price breakdown for you but I didn’t think about it earlier enough to do so.  Sorry folks!)  So when I came across this recipe for carrot cake protein bars, I was all over it.  I modified the recipe a bit because I didn’t have any coconut flour which was supposed to help the whole recipe achieve “dough” status.  In light of this, I only used 3/4 cup mashed banana, 3T maple syrup, no milk, and whole wheat flour. Also, I didn’t have cloves per say so I subbed in allspice instead.  I made sure to let the mixture sit for as long as possible but nothing was setting up well so I bailed on the idea of forming individual bars and I baked the whole thing in an 8X8 pan and then sliced them up later.

I would say they turned out super well but I haven’t tasted them yet.  So I’ll let you know exactly how they did when I have a bite tomorrow afternoon amid Metabolism clinic.  But now groups, I have to go and package the bars and get lunch ready for tomorrow. Then it’s off to bed with me.  I have to lift tomorrow in accordance with my New Rules of Lifting for Women plan and 6am is coming up quick.  Sleep well blogland.

(This Tune Tuesday pick was what I was rocking out to in the grocery store tonight.  I may or may not have busted out the booty shake in the pudding aisle to this song.  Haha.  Yea, I’m that awesome.)

Questions: Ever made your own protein bars?
What is your current favorite song?

Body Hate

Why is it so easy to hate your body?

I’ve read some things that say to treat your inner self like a child.  You would never say statements like “you’re fat” or “gosh you’ve got rolls all over your tummy” to a defenseless little one, would you?  The obvious answer is no.  And for most it would be easy to concede that fact.  Most people treat children with a soft touch, only building up rather than breaking down.  (I know there is some controversy over whether that just makes children into poor losers or softies or whatever, but that’s beyond the scope of this train of thought.)  So what changes when we talk to ourselves?  Where do we get off speaking so negatively to our inner selves?

I suppose we figure we live in our bodies every day, we’re allowed to say whatever we want about them.  Kind of like how we live in our houses or apartments day in and day out so we have the right not to do the dishes, huh?  Right.  Well, what good comes from being so mean?  Do you feel better after you tear yourself down?  Or is it just easier to say something hurtful than to say something constructive?  I’ll admit, it sometimes feels much simpler to just say the same old yucky things to myself instead of taking the time to come up with something original, something nice, something positive about my body.

So, what would happen if we started talking nicely to ourselves?  Would we spend more time in front of the mirror, or less?  Would we find that the soft comments outweigh the harsh ones?  Would we find that we actually like it, that we prefer the good comments to the bad?  I venture to say we might.  How about we try it out?  The rest of this month, let’s all say at least one nice thing to ourselves for every negative one that comes to mind or crosses our lips.  I’m not saying it will be easy, and I know it will take more conscious thought, but I have high hopes that we’ll end up somewhere wonderful.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I honestly don’t know where the weekend went.  Do you?  Some of mine was spent baking some delicious treats for the family I work for.  Gluten and sugar free cinnamon rolls anyone??

Also, just take a second to check out this picture of these two batches of chocolate chip cookies.  What a difference a newer oven makes!  The ones on the left are baked in the older model in the house and they’re sadly flat but the ones on the right are not only more golden but they are plump and delish too!

Anyways, just an interesting observation I made yesterday.  Today revolved around cancer patients.  I started off the day with a bowl of cottage cheese, plain nonfat yogurt, flax seed, white-flesh nectarine, and cinnamon.  I think I threw some plum in there too.

My whole morning was spent seeing cancer cases.  The appointments all ran long so I scarfed down a plum and some cheese in-between the first and second appointments because I was hungry.  Good thing I did too because we didn’t get a chance to sit down to lunch until almost 2p.  I ate the rest of the salad I had after church on Sunday.  We had a storytelling ministry meeting at a local Potbelly’s yesterday and I ordered the chickpea veggie salad.  I wasn’t super hungry so I gave up after only 10 bites.  Thankfully it was just as good the second time around (though this picture is from the table at the restaurant).

After my third patient of the day, I spent the remainder working on more case prep for Wednesday and Friday.  It’s about to be a big week in the clinic.  I ended up staying late at the office and Mitch drove me home.  When I got back I was really hungry despite it being 5ish in the evening.  I decided to go straight for dinner though I was all sorts of confused as to what I wanted.  Goat cheese, carbs, and sour cream all sounded good.  Random right?  My solution: cheddar & broccoli rice mixed with sour cream, Old Bay, and chicken sausage.  I also had a cinnamon & raisin English muffin smeared with lots of goat cheese.

The result was perfection.  I loved every bite and it satisfied everything I wanted.  Nomnom.  I then spent the rest of the evening reading up on myotonic dystrophy type one and cleaning out my DVR.  Now, though, I’m off to bed.  6am comes way too quick to comfort.  Sleep well group.  I hope your Tuesday is lining up to be a great one.

Questions: What did you crave for dinner tonight?
What is your “best cookie” secret?