Grocery Shopping Glee

My apartment smells like peanut butter. Yum. 

Today was potentially one of the longest work days. Ever.

It was 2pm and I had seen a whoppin' 4 patients. I had 14 more to see. Gag me with a spork, please. Now before you judge my productivity, allow me to defend myself. I have an hour and half of staffing to attend to and everyone was late! Plus I had a patient who had her TPN discontinued today and is being a punk. I had to put on my No-More-Miss-Nice-Dietitian labcoat and tell her to eat or else. Little does she know I'm supplementing her with loooots of calories. I love sneaky supplements sometimes. Thank you BeneCalorie. Anyway, much to my surprise, I finished by 5pm. Score! I have a Nigerian patient who is very picky. Honestly, I've been dreading doing my follow-up because on my initial assessment she was delusional and at one point she told me she was carrying a boy on her back and he needed water and then she started yelling that her brother was in the room (he wasn't). The look on her face fah-reaked me out. So, at 4pm Gabe-the-Jokester had taken over so I busted into her room and much to my relief, we had a jolly chat. She laughed, she giggled, I ordered fish for her dinner and she almost floated off of her bed. It was so cute. Funny how something as simple as getting a patient's food order right can make their day. 

Some days I love my job. 

Then I went grocery shopping for Clary's visit. I like grocery shopping...most of the time. 

Holy catscans. 

We will be eating ridiculously healthy, and well. I cannot wait to (try to) amaze her with my (limited) cooking skills. I was cruising through the produce section and came across kale. Now the perks of being a dietitian and working with dietitians is that we talk about food pretty much all day, every day and usually this involves swapping recipes or gushing about the latest thing we've tried. 

Now remember, I'm a skeptic with trends. Kale chips are no different. One of the dietitians was raving about these and I was skeptical. But, I saw the kale on sale (love when I can rhyme) and decided to try it. I was feeling gutsy after a long day.

Voila! Kale chips!

 Honestly? They are pretty macanoid (that means delicious).

 I made one batch seasoned with olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and kosher salt. Then I made the second batch with olive oil, crushed chili peppers, and Parmesan cheese; it had a nice kick. Overall, kale chips have been Gabe-approved. I LOVE 'em. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a blood thinner from all of the kale I ate. Fun Facts coming your way!!!!

• Kale is one of the healthiest veggies on the planet
• Kale belongs to the Brassica family, which includes cabbage, collards, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
• ONE CUP contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber (helps lower cholesterol-yay!), and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C (gotta love healthy gums and no scury), and 1,020% of vitamin K (which helps your blood clot, hence my joke about needing a blood thinner). It is also a good source of copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.  
• Kale chips are wicked easy to make. Pull the leaves off of the thick stem into bite-sized pieces. Toss with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil so the leaves are shiny but not drenched. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and any other seasonings you'd like. Bake for 10 minutes at 400*F until the tips are a little brown and they are crunchy. Indulge*. Your body will thank you.

*BEWARE: If you are on Warfarin/Coumadin (blood thinner) you have to be careful with your intake of Vit K.  

Seriously, make some kale chips. They are soooo yummy. Crunchy, satisfying, and healthy. 

Then.

I decided I had to make peanut butter chocolate chips cookies, a recipe I got from my darling, fabulous, incredible, funny, stunning, beautiful, mentor/friend/sistah Amy. I admire this woman. She is absolutely wonderful. Anyone who knows her knows how blessed you are to have her as a friend. She is a burst of energy, humor, and pure delight. I just love her. I admire everything about her. She posted this recipe years ago while I was in college and one day I needed. to. have. sugar. Then I read her blog and knew what I needed to do. I made them and fell in love with them and into my recipe book they went. These cookies are AH-mazing. I have to make something good for staffing this week since I slacked and didn't make anything last week and these made the cut. Now I was planning on just making the dough tonight and baking them tomorrow but since these past couple of weeks have been crazy hectic, I decide to bake a few tonight to bring to Britney, my friend/colleague/mentor/hero/support system/fountain of nutrition wisdom. She has Thursday and Friday off so I decided I would bring her in a little treat tomorrow. 

Hence why my apartment smells like peanut butter. Yuuuum! 

 Yum. I had to taste a couple. Still as ooooohsogood as I remember.