WIAW: Like a Teenager Again

Hi from Ohio all and Happy What I Ate Wednesday. For those of you that just pop over on Wednesday, welcome. I'm feeling very 10 years ago this week, both in diet and in schedule.

Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting.

I'm here visiting my sister for the week and it's been quite the lazy few days. I had some work to do still for this rotation - reading/reflecting and the like - so it's been a little work here and a lot of TV there.

I have these puppies to keep me company while my sister's at work, and there's not actually that much snow, just a touch yesterday.

Mostly it's nice.

Here's my little work nest. Papers, laptop, precariously placed mug of coffee.

Sometimes my work get interrupted with these cute little eyes.

The weirdest part is that I've completely reverted to the preferred schedule of my young teenage years. I'm staying up super late (at least midnight) and sleeping in until 10 or 11 AM.

You're doing that math right, I'm sleeping like 10+ hours a night. Although this was a less strenuous rotation, I feel like overall I'm trying to catch up on 8 months of lost sleep this past year since the start of residency.

The other fallout is that I don't get up until practically lunch time and I've been sort of grazing, so my daily eats are less than fascinating.

I did want to share this meal though:

Brunch: Butter Cafe Pancakes, Tofu Scramble Combo. Shannon and I went out to my favorite vegan-friendly breakfast spot, Butter Cafe. I ordered the Vegan Pancakes and she ordered the Tofu Scramble which comes with vegan sausage, toast and potatoes. We split both plates (see below) and it was a perfect mix. Shannon eats vegan as well and it's SO nice to have someone to split dishes with.

Pancakes - also with bananas cooked in.

1 pancake each and half of the tofu scramble plate. All the breakfast flavors I crave.

We also picked up these vegan blondies.

Blondies! Truly though these were just okay. I liked the chocolate chips they used but they were a bit dense and dry.

Dinner: Homemade Pizza. We used storebought flatbreads and pizza sauce and toppings include tomato, Daiya mozzarella, peppers, onions, pineapple, olives, Linkett slices. Bake for 20 mins at 400 degrees. This is a favorite for John and I as well. 

There was also some unpictured cereal, an english muffin with peanut butter, and some Trader Joe's Soy Creamy Vanilla ice cream, which also makes me feel like my 16 year old self. I have it on good authority that dessert on vacation is a requirement. 

Happy What I Ate Wednesday, I hope you're having a great week.

Think back a couple years ago, is your diet different or the same?

Travel Essentials

I'm spending this week in Ohio visiting Shannon.

On Friday night I started packing, but stalled out with clothes all over the room, so I finished packing in the morning since my flight wasn't until 10:30.

My trip here took me most of yesterday. The first leg of my flight was smooth, but then I got delayed in Baltimore for about 3 hours.

The full day of travel had my thinking about what makes travel more tolerable, so I thought I'd share a few things that are usual for a travel day.

Travel Essentials

1. The Bag: This Cynthia Rowley handbag is big, pretty, but fits under the airplane seat. It was a present from my roommates for interview season in 2012. I love it because it's soft, fairly lightweight on its own and makes a great carryon.

2. The Outfit. I like to be comfortable but not look like I'm in pajamas. I typically wear leggings and a soft dress. For shoes I like some real ones with warm socks because my feet always get freezing on planes. I usually wear something that would otherwise take up space in the suitcase. I also always have a jacket or wrap.

Boots: DSW. Leggings: Forever 21. Hairs on leggings: Luna.

Jacket: Anthropologie.

3. Food. On a typical travel day I usually try to bring a snack if I have a long leg, but will also occasionally buy a meal at the airport if I know I have a layover. I had overnight oats at home before I left, but still thought I was going to be pretty hungry on the plane. 

I got a Guava smoothie and finished it before my first leg took off.

After we landed in Baltimore, I got the Veggie Guacamole (no cheese) from Quiznos. It was really good. I also had some unpictured Nutter Butters, which, like Oreos, are vegan if you (like me) are not super strict about the process-based questions as opposed to the ingredients.

4. Entertainment. Flying involves a lot of sitting around. Rushing through the airport ends at sitting at the gate for ages. Usually if I have some magazines at the house I'll save them to read if I have an upcoming trip. I also try to bring a book, and always my ipad. 

I brought this one from home.

Mindy, my iPad mini. I have Settlers of Catan (thanks to John) that I can play without the internet, so that helps me pass some time. The headphones that are sort of snaking through the bottom of this photo are also vital.

I didn't take a picture of my own, but I was also reading Wicked. 

Don't forget something educational. Here's a pile of articles I'm reading for my Advocacy rotation.

I forgot a picture, but I also bought this month's Runner's World. It's been a while since I've been able to run regularly, but I really enjoyed reading it and it made me inspired and excited to set some goals.

5. A mostly empty plane. Okay this isn't technically essential, but on my leg from Baltimore to Ohio, there were only 30 people on the 150 person plane and I had a row (multiple rows) to myself. It was really nice. 

And with that, I arrived!

Stay tuned for more updates this week from Ohio.

How old does Shannon look in this picture?

Breakfast Hash and Advocacy

I've had this meal for breakfast for the past 2 days:

Flying Star Breakfast Hash. It has 2 types of potatoes, quinoa, veggies.

Make it vegan: Substitute tofu for the egg and oil for butter.

This meal also appeared in my New Year's Day post. It's my favorite if we're going out to Flying Star.

As for the reason:

As part of this rotation we have a few meetings with people and organizations that are central to advocacy for children in New Mexico, which is what led me to the same place 2 days in a row.

It's been very interesting, New Mexico is ranked as the worst state for children out of all 50, so there's lots of work to be done here. It's inspiring but can also be a bit overwhelming when confronted with the number of issues to be tackled.

However, with the conclusion of this morning's meeting my face to face obligations are complete for the week and I'm about to hop on a plane to Ohio. 

Vacation! I hear it's cold up there. It's going to be quite the strategic packing.

See you soon.

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Today is my sister Shannon's birthday. I get to visit her for a whole week in just 2 days!

In honor of her birthday, here's a video I found in the depths of my computer from Sept 2012 when I was doing an away rotation in Dayton.

Growing up she was the sister I fought with the most, I'm pretty sure at some point I even punched her in the face. Sorry. 

Now that we're grownups we get along great. Can't wait to see you, happy birthday!

                                             

WIAW: Carbs!

It feels like this week is going by slowly.

And by that I mean thank goodness because I have lots to get done and this month so far has just flown.

If you intentionally and diligently avoid popular music you may not have heard this song, otherwise I anticipate that you're familiar.

I just wanted to share it again, because I've heard some negative thoughts about it from other people and here's my take: Step back. Enjoy the beat. This. Song. Is. Hilarious.

So, happy What I Ate Wednesday.

Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting.

This week I'm still sick and that's no fun. We are now on Day 12 of illness. I anticipate 21 total days at the outside, but I am improved.

Breakfast: Oatmeal made with soymilk, banana, peanut butter. 4 oz. Naked Juice Green Machine. 

Lunch: Vegan Quesadilla. I like whole wheat Flat Out wrap, a bit of mozzarella Daiya, pinto or black beans, sometimes other veggies like peppers or onion, and topped with salsa and cilantro. The thickness of these wraps is really nice, a bit thicker than a usual tortilla. 

Snack: Apple, Orange. Forgot a photo. 

Dinner: Balsamic Farmer's Market Veggie Sub at Old Town Pizza. We have a weekly bible study that meets there, and this is what I get. It's not on the menu, but they make it for me anyway. It's all the veggies on the Farmer's Market pizza, sauteed and put on a sandwich with balsamic reduction and tomato. I usually order a side salad but forgot to specify so I had a nice little grade school throwback with these chips.

Overall, a pretty carb-heavy day, especially dinner, but I really enjoyed it. I will be trying to get more protein in tomorrow.

In other news I cleaned up my fish tank recently: Victoria Dragonslayer has never looked better. We raised her from a baby betta and now she's all pretty and long-finned and blue. I'm pretty sure that actually means she's a guy, but I'm not going to change her name now. 

Luna got to go to the dog park yesterday, and a nice long walk this morning, but it's never enough. This is her favorite spot right now so she can just stare wistfully at the outdoors.

Happy WIAW!

Do you have a fish? When was the last time you cleaned the tank?

Vegan Shamrock Shake (No Mint Extract Required)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of the holiday (and my roots - not very much descent roots, just hair roots) I freshened up my hair color. 

The light changed a lot between these, so my skin looks different too, but I didn't dye that. Much. I did miss a bit and I do have some spots of dye on my skin I had to exfoliate off.

Now on to the recipe. 

There are a million of these recipes here on the internet. I like to keep it very simple, but there are tons of possible variations.

This one doesn't require mint extract, instead we'll be using tea. If you have mint extract, of course feel free to use it. Or any other extract - it doesn't have to taste minty just because it's green.

Vegan Shamrock Shake

Ingredients

1-2 Frozen bananas, depending on desired size

Handful of spinach

Mint tea bag

1 oz. hot water

1/4 to 1/2 cup (2-4 oz.) Non-dairy milk

Trader Joe's Candy Cane

Small amount of hot water.

1. Combine the tea bag and small volume (1 oz. ish) hot water and let sit. A general rule is that if you let it sit until it's cool, it'll be strong enough. If you don't have that kind of time, let it sit hot for at least 5 minutes, then cool the liquid in the freezer. The longer you can wait, the stronger the minty flavor. Strictly speaking you could get away with blending it in hot, but it'll take some of the nice frozen creaminess away from your banana. 

My bananas are really brown - they were super ripe.

2. Blend all the ingredients, including the mint tea concentrate, together until smooth. 

3. Pour into your preferred receptacle and enjoy. 

Happy sipping! 

I should also mention that the spinach is not technically essential to this combination either - though then it won't be green - it adds nutrition but doesn't change the flavor. 

Besides this I didn't do much this St. Patrick's Day, just worked a bit, took a trip to Costco, you know ... wild.

Did you eat anything green today?

What's in My Work Bag

Happy Sunday!

Despite being on a rotation that has limited set appointments, I am feeling the sting of a new work week and it's not even here yet, there's so much to get done.

So, to build some clarity in my mind I cleaned out my work bag and I thought I'd share the contents. This is the full build up of everything that ended up in there, with probably 6 weeks since the last thorough cleanout.

Here's the overview, let's take a closer look. 

This is my bag. It's from Target. It's held up really well for a bag that was only about $30. 

Plenty of pockets on each side and enough room to carry lunch, thermos, scrubs etc. on days when I need to.

I didn't bother to document all the trash, but there were 3 empty orbit packs, a US Airways boarding pass from my Hawaii trip, a massive pile of receipts and plenty of other this and thats.

My iPad. Her name is Mindy. Like iPad Mini.

John asked me the other day where all our spoons were. I found them. In my bag there were 4 spoons and a fork.

Academic articles. I pretty much always have something in my bag that I'm supposed to be reading.

Clipboard. I carry clinical papers on here during the work day. The patient list, notes etc.

Pager. Curse of a resident.

Sunglass case. Keeps those shadies safe. 

Here's a picture of the actual sunglasses. Warby Parker is a brand that donates a pair of corrective lenses  to someone in need for every pair of sunglasses or regular glasses sold. John and I are both on our second pair, we love them.

Wallet. I just got this one on clearance at Icing. Made me feel like I'm 15 again.

Full of cards!

I found all these lip products floating around in there. The left 2 are Revlon Colorstay Stain, which I love. The next is a Revlon Colorstay Gloss, which has a little less staying power than the stain but is also really nice. The Rose Salve is from Bath & Body Works. I use it on my lips and my cuticles. And then 3 chapsticks. If I don't keep a layer on at all times here, my lips will be cracked and bleeding after just a day - it's SO dry. 

WHAT?! I always feel like I can't find a pen. I have no explanation.

Real tools: stethoscope, with my Timex Weekender watch on it to use for pulses, respiratory rates etc.

Stamps! Mail! yay!

A pen light. For blinding children.

Tea.

My hairstyle typically takes 2-4 bobby pins a day, but I hardly ever take it out away from the house, so I can't explain why I have so many pins.

I was very disappointed by the paucity of cash, but then again I almost never pay for anything with cash, so no surprise.

2 deodorants. I always have one, not sure why I'm carrying 2 at this particular time but I assume I at some point did not realize I already had one in there. Of the two I really like the Degree.

My med kit. It's a little Snapware. There's ibuprofen, tylenol, daytime cold meds, and usually bandaids though I'm currently out.

Toothpaste and hand sanitizer. At the moment my toothbrush is missing from my bag, but usually I have both, especially for night shifts.

A gum pack with some gum still in it. We buy them in sets of 18 packs from Costco.

My Jawbone bluetooth headset. This was a gift from my parents a few years ago and I love it. It's easy to use, super light, and most importantly makes it safer if I need to answer a phone call while driving.

Badge. I ordered the panda holder from Amazon. Kids love it. I keep my badge with my card of useful phone numbers and PALS (Pedatric Advanced Life Saving) cards - references for pediatric emergencies.

A mostly empty bag of cough drops.

Water flask.

Salt packet. Hey, you never know when you'll need to salt something.

I also found a bunch of loose cards from coffee to insurance. And random passport photos from 5 years ago.

There were a couple things missing that were already out, typically I have a thermos, some container from my food that day, maybe some scrubs. 

And with that, we've cleaned out my bag. I pared down the lippies, the pens, the cards, the silverware and the articles and felt much less weighed down, both literally and figuratively. 

So I hope you have a great Sunday and if you're feeling burdened, maybe it's time to clean out that bag.

What's in your work bag?