Friday Faves: 12/12/14

1. Things My Sisters Say

I started this series just a couple weeks ago: basically I like to share with you all a snippet of the wisdom I get from my sisters on a daily basis.

This week's offering is some simple nutrition advice for your life courtesy of Emma and Shannon:

2. Music

Breath of Heaven is one of my favorite perhaps less classic Christmas songs. And this saxophone version is the best.

Hey only a couple weeks left and maybe I'll post songs that aren't for holidays. Maybe

3. Snack or Meal

This week we're going with a whole group. As I mentioned in my What I Ate Wednesday post, I'm sick this week, so I've been a big fan of soup.

Here we have from left to right: Amy's Vegetable Barley, Pacific Thai Sweet Potato and Whole Foods hot bar Moroccan lentil soup.

4. Style and Beauty

Remember in my December goals when I said I wanted to put a little more effort into my nails for the holidays?

Well my cuticles are still disastrous but look at my wintery polish!

3 coats N.Y.C. polish in 124A, followed by a coat of Pure Ice in Spit Fire.

It's holding up pretty well: I did this on Monday and took this picture this morning, Friday. No chips yet. 

5. Recipe

When my throat feels sore sometimes I just want ice cream, but also breakfast. Therefore:

Mango Banana "Ice Cream" Smoothie

Combine the following in a blender:

2-ish frozen bananas

1 ripe banana (It's okay to use a different ratio of frozen to unfrozen bananas, it will just affect whether you have a more ice cream or more smoothie-like consistency)

Several cubes of frozen mango

Approx 1/8-1/4 cup of your favorite non-dairy milk

To make this raw: add about a 1/4 cup coconut water or regular water instead of non-dairy milk to help blend. 

You could also blend without liquid: it will be very creamy but you may have to stir more often. If you have to eat it with a spoon, you're doing it right.

And that's the Friday Faves.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

WIAW: Sick Edition (#2!)

What I Ate Wednesday!

Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting.

I was titling this post and got the weirdest sense of deja vu, and then I looked back and found this post: WIAW: Sick Edition from March last year.

So it turns out I'm sick a fair amount in the winter. I had a good stretch for a couple years after I started eating vegan without getting sick, but after I started residency I think the sheer volume of virus exposure is just a little too much. I caught about 3 colds last winter, and this is #1 for this year.

One of those precious little ones I've made a career of seeing definitely coughed in my face. What can you do?

Anyway, I started feeling sick towards the end of my second night shift this weekend and at least now I don't feel feverish anymore.

So what do I eat when I'm sick?

Breakfast: Mango Banana Smoothie and Coffee.

It was so good, just the ice cream-like soothing my throat needed. Have to get in that vitamin C. More that's about the scurvy I talked about last week than the cold. If you're vitamin C deficient, it will help with your cold, but those mega-doses that people take, well, let's just say they work if you think they do.

I do think there's a certain advantage to a nice cold remedy tea when I'm sick, but I'm also painfully addicted to caffeine, so the coffee train doesn't stop just because I'm running a snot factory.

I'll include the recipe for this smoothie in this week's Friday Faves.

Lunch: Moroccan Lentil Soup from Whole Foods.

I was on my way home from morning clinic and Whole Foods was on the way. I really wanted something hot and a little spicy for my sinuses so this was perfect. It's from the hot bar. I think it needs a little salt, but after I added that it was the perfect sick day soup.

Dinner: Balsamic Farmer's Market Sub

We went to our bible study at a local pizza place. This is a recycled picture - I got salad on the side instead this time.

I also brought with me a full size box of kleenex, because I am a classy lady.

I finished the evening with some tea and the Victoria Secret Fashion show.

I'm hoping for a quick recovery - work doesn't slow down.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

Friday Faves 12/5/14

1. Sisterly Interaction.

As I introduced a couple weeks ago, my sisters and I have a group text. Here's this week's highlight: it features my mother as well. She broke her ankle and foot this week and therefore should get to have cake every day - I think.

2. Music

Maybe one week before Christmas I'll share a song that isn't a Christmas song. Chances are not great though.

The video I picked got taken off youtube - apparently it was not a licensed video.

So you can look for yourself but really all of Mannheim Steamroller and also Trans-Siberian Orchestra make my Christmas, so I recommend them in general.

3. Snack or Meal

Veggie sandwich on Olive bread with Kale & Barley salad from The Grove.

John and I went out for Small Business Saturday to support some local places. We've been to The Grove [location of that Breaking Bad finale scene with the Stevia packet] for breakfast a few times, but never for lunch. This meal was amazing.

John got a BLT.

Happy face.

4. Style

A couple weeks ago there were great Veteran's day sales and I got a little crazy. Here though is an inexpensive necklace from Forever 21 I've worn a couple times. I wear a lot of navy and black, so the occasional colored accessory in my wardrobe is a good idea. The sweater is from Gap, but from a while ago.  

5. Recipe: Vegan Hot Chocolate

This isn't really a recipe, but more of a vegan beginner's tip and recommendation.

I love hot chocolate and I was surprised when I stopped eating dairy how hard it was to find a hot chocolate mix that didn't contain milk.

The Ghirardelli chocolate powder is dairy free and meant to be made with milk, so you can pick your own non-dairy base.

I definitely recommend using a little less than it says on the side of the can (like 1/4-1/2 the amount) because it's really sweet. I also usually use unsweetened milk if I have it because there's plenty of sugar in the mix. In the above picture is an old version, but the "Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa" is available on the Ghirardelli website. There are also individual packets of the above powder.

The white chocolate version however, I wouldn't buy - it does contain powdered milk and a much longer ingredient list.

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

WIAW: Beige Foods and Scurvy

What I Ate Wednesday!

Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting.

So I was gathering up meals for What I Ate Wednesday and I realized its a lot of beige and very few fruits and vegetables. 

I personally haven't seen scurvy in my patients, but one of my fellow residents has seen it in kids who just ate fast food for every meal - if you don't eat fruits and vegetables you get scurvy. That's the one where you're vitamin C deficient and you get weak, anemic and bleed easily. Its not great. Eat fruits and vegetables.

For a quasi-healthy living/medical/food blog I sure am setting a good example.

Breakfast: Yukon Gold Potatoes

Breakfast potatoes are supposed to be cut up and roasted or whatever, but I just rubbed some oil on these, poked some holes in them and put these in the microwave for 5 minutes. Sort of like breakfast potatoes but different.

Lunch: Leftover Pumpkin Baked Pasta

This looks like a small portion, but I had 3 bowls this size. I'm not kidding. Also leftover coffee because I still had a mug's-worth sitting in the pot from this morning. 

Dinner: Tempeh Pot Pie Stew

It's been a slow cooker-heavy past couple days here, thanks to John who has been trying to get some vegetables into me while I've been sort of overwhelmed by work. This recipe started as actual pot pie but then we mixed everything together so we made it as stew. I can't decide if its the least appetizing picture I've ever taken or just in the running. Maybe sometime I'll write an ugly food post - I have a lot of material.

I'm telling you - beige and scurvy.

So eat your fruits and vegetables everyone and here's hoping I'll see you next week for a more colorful WIAW.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

December Goals: Christmas Edition

The last time I wrote a goals post was April.

If we apply my goal-setting skills to my goal-achieving record they're pretty similar.

Of course I still want to drink more water, be more active, have more quiet time, read more etc. etc.

But it's CHRISTMAS!

So this month I'm setting goals for the season.

Goal 1: Decorate the house.

Just kidding its already done. See above. Like 2 weeks ago. Yeah, before Thanksgiving.

But any list maker knows, it's important to the soul to write down the productive things you have already done, thus starting the mood off right with a satisfying check mark.

Goal 2: Have presents purchased and wrapped before Christmas Eve.

I'm not saying it has to be well in advance. In fact it can happen on the 23rd, but I just want to be done before Christmas Eve.

Goal 3: Drink an absolute ton of tea. 

This Christmas mug was a gift and when I opened our Christmas boxes a couple weeks ago I was so excited to put them in the cupboard.

Although technically tea is great even when it's not Christmas, its even better when it is. This is sort of like a healthy hydration goal, but really its just about the atmosphere.

Goal 4: Try some holiday nails.

I mentioned in my Things I'm Bad At post that I'm really bad at nail polish, but I want to at least try some themed nail art this year. I work in pediatrics after all, it doesn't have to be all beige.

I like them right now.

So these are sort of like goals and sort of like fun things I hope I do this month. Goals should have that tone sometimes. 

What are your hopes for December?

Thanks for reading, see you soon. 

Things I'm Bad At.

At Thanksgiving this past week we were talking about how patients lie - well, one of my friend's brothers who is a psychiatry resident was talking about how he's pretty sure all his patients lie. And he is likely right.

And my thought was that we all edit our narrative to reflect how we would like to be perceived.

And now a couple days later I was thinking about how blogging is just an extension of that - I get to publish only what I'm okay with the world seeing.

For example, I was home watching TV almost the entire day on Thanksgiving. It was great, and then we went to dinner in the evening and it everyone was welcoming and it was really nice.

But if I were to pick a photo to share from the day I would probably pick these:

From the walk we took on the Bosque in the afternoon. Instead of the one on the couch.

Because I would rather make it look like I'm an active productive person as opposed to a borderline agoraphobic TV-addicted resident with a penchant for marathoning Gilmore Girls and lying still whenever possible.

So I decided to write this post about things that I do poorly because I want to be at least a smidge real over here.

So here we go.

I end sentences with prepositions. And start them with "and."

I'm not kidding I really do. And sometimes I do it on purpose like I mean to. I do.

Once when I was an intern a senior was editing my progress note and I ended a sentence with a preposition. This girl was a real gem: a great doctor but not so great at supervising people - rude, unkind, typically much too brusque at giving feedback, lots of interns cried etc. She was writing edits on my paper and of course recognized the preposition at the end of this sentence. It was not a glaring error but I don't deny it could have been phrased better.

So she proceeded to write "grammer" next to it. And I didn't say anything.

And so I end sentences with prepositions but I'm a great speller and I am great at recognizing irony. I carried that moment with me the whole rest of the day with every nit picking correction she gave me.

See, while we're making a list of things at which I'm bad, it's important to recognize the positive.

I'm bad at cleaning.

I'm really bad at cleaning. I'm great at picking up and at organizing, I'm awful at cleaning. I'm awful at recognizing when something needs to be cleaned. I'm awful at dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, I'm not very good at taking out the trash. I'm pretty bad at sweeping unless it's right in the moment and I've smashed glass every where - I'm pretty good with that kind of thing.

I'm terrible with directions. If I'm indoors I will get lost within 2 turns. If there are no clear landmarks I'll get lost in a city quickly. Here we have big mountains in the east which helps but I still need more than my two hands to count all the times I've turned the wrong way.

I'm bad at eyeliner. That smudged smoky look? Sure. Definitely what I was going for.

I'm bad at any sport that requires making a goal/basket/touchdown etc. If I have to handle a ball and run at the same time I'm out. That's just asking me to trip and break an ankle. Or hit you in the face with this ball.

I'm unapologetically bad at waiting for a time the rest of the world agrees is appropriate for Christmas music. Nope. October. You can't stop me.

I'm not great with plants. Oh the plant graveyards in my wake were we to gather them all up. Once I even killed a cactus. And a bamboo. And a plastic one. 

I'm bad at doing nothing. I can watch TV, surf the Internet, play stupid phone games etc. with the best of them but if you ask me to actually calm my brain or be reflective or still it's really tough. And because I'm really not intentional about this, I'm pretty sure I'm getting worse.

I'm bad at nails. The whole painting and letting dry process is mostly beyond me. No matter what I do it always smudges. That's the primary reason I wear light colors, it's not that I actually like them better, it's that they show the disaster less.

I'm bad at letting go. If I screw something up I'm bad at moving on - it will ruin my next several days. 

I'm bad at keeping in touch. I value a lot of people that I don't see regularly anymore and being super awkward at talking on the phone and not much of an email or letter writer I just kind of mostly don't keep in touch. I want you all to know I miss you though. 

Im bad at walking quietly. It does not matter if there's not a single creaky spot on the floor, I'll end up tripping and crashing into something. It's great when I go to examine patients at 7 AM when they're sleeping. I'm sure they love that.

I'm bad at eating less than the whole pint of ice cream. I do not care what the label says, that is an individually portioned container and I will eat it all in one sitting.

I'm sure there are more.

Ask my sisters. Just kidding don't.

But I hope you can relate to some of these things I'm bad at and as usual,

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

How to Make Quinoa Flakes At Home

One of my most popular posts ever was this one:

Summer Breakfast: How to Make Quinoa Flakes

However, that post is really about how to cook/serve quinoa flakes. I think many people searching for that post are actually wondering, "I don't have quinoa flakes. Can I make quinoa flakes from my regular quinoa?"

And that's what today's post is about. 

The answer is yes.

And they're good.

They're not 100% the same texture as commercial quinoa flakes, but much less expensive, and you don't have to commit to buying both quinoa and flakes. It still offers a great creamy consistency.

So what to do?

Ingredients and Tools

1. Your favorite brand of quinoa. I've only tried it with white quinoa but I suspect other types might work. This one is from Costco.

2. You'll need a fine grinder of some sort: either a coffee grinder or a spice grinder. You can definitely use your regular coffee grinder - a little coffee flavor in here would be delicious. Though there will be a little quinoa dust mixed in when you go back to grinding coffee in there.

Here's our little spice grinder.

3. For cooking you'll need milk or water. I prefer a sweet non-dairy milk, because quinoa does have a bit more bitterness compared to other breakfast grains, but it's up to you. You'll also need a pan and fruit or whatever else you would like to top your quinoa.

Method

1. Grind up your quinoa in the spice grinder. A half cup serving is 40 grams, but using a bit more will help it grind evenly, and then you can store the extra. Be patient - it'll take a little time to get all the pieces ground. Just check it and give it a stir periodically.

2. Combine your desired amount of quinoa with milk: use about 1 cup milk per half cup (40 g) serving of quinoa that you're cooking.

3. Bring to a boil and then simmer 2-5 minutes, there will be a clear change in consistency - much like oat bran. When your milk is mostly absorbed you're done. 

4. Top with fruit, nuts, agave, nut butter: whatever you prefer.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading, see you soon.