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.

J'adore du fromage

Non, vraiment. (No, really).

 I love cheese.

I went grocery shopping today because I have next to nothing in my apartment to eat except cereal and the brownies my mom sent me that arrived today. I mean, that stuff is delicious but not sustaining. Well I got a little of this, a little of that, and as I headed to the check out line I started to laugh because I realized I had a ton of cheese in my cart.

Cottage cheese (one of my all-time favorite snacks, and yes it's the 4% milk fat; the low/no-cal ones taste disgusting to me), cream cheese (for cucumber sandwiches; absolutely delightful in hot weather and dedicated to my darling friend Jess who introduced me to this delicious sandwich our freshman year at BYU); mozzarella (my favorite, and not the sliced stuff!), Swiss (a staple in my diet), sharp cheddar (for grilled cheese sandwiches; which I could easily live off of), and the newest member of my favorite cheeses: goat cheese (for spinach, strawberry, vinaigrette salads inspired by my trip to Rathbun's in Atlanta). All that's missing is sharp Havarti. *sigh* It was no where to be found. Not that I really shopped around for it but I do know for a fact it's difficult to find, and difficult to find reasonably priced. 

Oh well, I'm confident this "stash" of fromage will satisfy. 

Today was my day off. I had great plans of getting up at a reasonable time, like 7:30am, as I'm trying to go to bed and get up at the same time every day. It's not really working but I'm getting better. Baby steps. I woke up at 8am, rolled over and fell asleep until....10:30. Ok, ok, holdonasec! In my defense, the night before I had gotten a whoppin' 4 hours of sleep and no Sunday nap so I needed the extra shut-eye. It felt divine. 


Then I went to the library because the book I have been eagerly waiting for finally arrived: "The Shoemaker's Wife" by Adriana Trigiani!!!!!!!! I've talked about her before but she is my absolutely favorite author right now (and has held that spot for years). Her books are brilliantly written, vivid, real, indulgent, and mesmerizing. I get lost in her books and feel a little empty when I finish them. And they take place in Italy, which of course I'm smitten with. I've been to Tuscany, Roma, and all over NYC both in the present time, and the 19th and 20th centuries with her delightful characters. I love her books. I'm delighted that this one takes me to a few Italian villages near the Swiss Alps and then to NYC. I immediately started reading this book but I have to pace myself. I don't want to gorge myself on it because then...it will be over. 

I was surprised when the librarian brought me two books because I had forgotten I requested "Sarah's Key," which I also started today to see if it was worth the read. Obviously the summary got me and I'm intrigued and excited about this book too. It takes place in Paris (*enamored sigh*) both in the 1940s during the WW2 era and in the present day. Of note here, I am fascinated with the WW2/Holocaust era. This book is about the Velodrome d'Hiver (literally, Operation Spring Breeze), abbreviated as Vel' d'Hiv', which I've never heard of before, but apparently it's not something the French like to speak of. I can understand why. The Vel d'Hiv' was a collaboration of the French with the Nazis where the Gestapo asked the French police to deliver a certain number (roughly estimated to be about 80,000) of Jews between 16-50 years of age. From my understanding, a brunt of those delivered were 2-12 year old children sent to death camps, and only a couple thousand survived, few of them children. Anyway, the book tells the story of Sarah, a 10-year old girl during the Vel' d'Hiv' in 1942 and then Julia, a journalist in Paris in 2002 who is assigned to cover the anniversary. I've made it page 59 and I don't want to put it down!! I have in my possession 2 books I can't put down??? This is excellent!!!! 

I was going to make homemade gnocchi tonight but I woke up with a horrid headache that will not go away, so I'm not up to it. I forwent yoga and running today because I feel so lousy. Bummer. So I suspect I'll make it tomorrow, or most definitely this week so stay tuned!!!! 

Pic from here

Curiosity satiated. At least temporarily.

I rushed home as fast as I could and much to my dismay there was another sticky note on my door from the UPS man. BUT it was delivered next door!!!! Package delivered. THANK GOODNESS. 


So, I had my suspicions and I was RIGHT! My dear, dear, dear friend Lillian sent me a package with......

DRIED PEARS!!!!!!!!

Dried pears are soooo good. Do you know how difficult it is to find dried pears in the grocery store? Nearly impossible. I have only ever been able to find them in fancy, shmancy grocery stores like Fresh Market, Trader Joes, etc. They are definitely one of my favorite treats ever. They are right up there with chocolate. Well, let's not get crazy. They are a few notches below chocolate, but I love dried pears (and chewy, dried strawberries) more than any dried fruit so imagine my eyeballs when I saw I had not one, not two, but three pounds of dried pears!!! OH HAPPY DAY!!!! I popped them in my mouth like candy. In fact, I'm pretty sure I had about 6 (uh huh, or 8) of them. Delish. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU LILLIAN!!!! Gosh I love her. 


Next. Let's talk about shopping. I do not like shopping. I can handle 3-5 stores max, depending on their size. Three department stores and maybe 2 smaller stores on a really good day and then I'm done. My stamina and tolerance for shopping is very low. Even when I find things I like and get things for a rockin' deal, I just don't enjoy shopping. My technique is more get in, avoid eye contact with the people meeting and greeting and telling me about the deal which is advertised in HUGE, BOLD posters both in and outside the store, on flyers, and on TV, look around, and then get out and be done with it. If nothing captures my attention within the first few minutes of cruising through the store, forget it. 


It's basically the same with the grocery store except I'm actually much more susceptible because it's food we're talking here. Cereal, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, images of baking goodies playing in my head. You get the picture. Also, I have a technique for grocery shopping. Well, kind of. I prefer to go when there are as few people as possible. I had to grab a few items this evening and I decided to wait until 8pm. Beautiful. When I was at BYU, my roommate and best bud Shawna and I would go to Macey's at, oh, midnight, 1am, sometimes 2am. Macey's is, in my opinion, THE best grocery store ever. I have yet to find a grocery store that I like as much as I love Macey's and I've lived a lot of places and been to a lot of grocery stores. Oh Macey's, how I miss you, your set-up, fantastic prices, and deals. And King Kone. And fresh, perfectly baked baguettes. It was AWESOME. Anyway, I popped in, grabbed what I needed (aaaand a few things I had to have i.e. Oatmeal Square cereal, instant sugar-free chocolate pudding, and herb tea--more on this in a second) and was out. I even went to the self-check out lane. I mean business. 

Really my objective was to get some perishable groceries I had neglected to get a couple of weeks ago AND I had to get these:

That's right friends. Some friends and I are making three, read it, THREE kinds of rice crispy treats tomorrow and watching "Tangled." Have you seen that movie? If not, you must see it. Stat. It's one of my favorite animated movies. I am psyched. That's an understatement. I'm SO excited!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, let's chat about tea for a quick sec.
I went to the tea aisle. Objective: get herb tea. For the love. It took me, I kid you not, about 10 minutes to find the freakin' herb tea. I found HERB tea for every ache, pain, and situation possible and in every concoction and flavor. Then, I found GREEN tea for every ache, pain, and situation possible. Then black tea. It's a wonder I didn't find a love potion one, one to help me make a million dollars, and one to make me live for forever. Geez. Blueberry, peach zinger, tea sampler, chamoille, 5 different "sleepy time" ones, ones bursting with antioxidants, some for pain, stress. PEPPERMINT HERB TEA. That's all I wanted. I then found a sampler with it--getting warmer! And then finally behind some peach zingers I found my beloved. 

And, uh, somehow that Sleepytime Vanilla got into my cart. Well, uh, that tea is calling my name so I'm out. I'll let you know how it tastes! 

Song of the day: cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," vocals by Amanda Scott and music by The Piano Guys. I'm really tired of this song so this was a nice way to bring it back into my good listening graces. Please listen/watch HERE (youtube). OR you could watch a SWEET cover of Coldplay's "Paradise" HERE. No really. Go check either or both out. Go! Gogo!