Because All Soon-To-Be Professional Engineers Need Good Luck

...and a full belly of turkey meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, and sauteed kale/spinach!

Good luck, Michael!

Hocus Pocus

So, clearly school has consumed my life.  There is just so much to do and so little time.  As an assignment for my Computers in Nutrition Education class, I have been working on designing a website about healthy eating and grocery shopping. Let me tell you--when there are outdated instructions on making the website, a list of very specific things to include in your website, and it is not something you are doing by choice, it isn't very fun. In fact, it's been quite a headache.

I also got another one of my internship placements this week.  I was placed in one of my first choices--a public school district pretty close by.  I think I will be working at both the middle school and the high school.  I will be doing an 18 hour orientation at the facility starting in November, and then next year, I will spend 7 weeks interning there.

Anyways, what else has been going on in my life?  I had a nice weekend.  I did some work, ate some pumpkin oatmeal, babysat for my favorite fur niece, Pixie, went to a nice 1.5 anniversary dinner, and picked some delicious apples. Not too shabby!

This weekend, Mike and I are headed to a wedding in CT. The wedding circuit never seems to stop for us.  I was just emailing with one of my friends today and she mentioned that she and her husband don't have any weddings to go to yet for next year. This made me realize that we already have 3 to go to next year! Crazy!

Tonight I made a sort of random but yummy dinner.  I had a baked sweet potato with pesto tofu pasta.  I'm pretty sure anything covered in pesto is delicious.

Okay, time to get some more work done and then probably watch Hocus Pocus! I love that movie.  It brings me back to my youth!

Life is a Whirlwind

Being super busy is definitely making these weeks fly by!  My weeks are jam-packed with school, work, homework, and internships.  I feel like every moment of every day is scheduled...and it has to be that way for me to accomplish anything for school and still work to make the dollas dollas.

This week started off with my killer long Monday (on campus from 10:30am-9:30pm).  Tuesday, I had an exam in Foodservice, then my Intro to Nutrition Practice class.  I really like Intro.  I really wish that I had more time outside of class to spend on it! Yesterday and today I worked all the live long day. And now, I'm working on my study guide for Nutritional Biochem.  It is currently 17 pages and I still have 4 topics to cover. Joy. Tomorrow starts my first mini internship and then I have my Intro class.  The internship involves shadowing an RD and then doing some nutritional interviewing myself.  I'm looking forward to it! As for this weekend, study study study.  Two big exams next week! Oy vey.

Here are some pictures from the past week or so:

Salmon, roasted broccoli, and roasted rosemary potatoes.

Fall table!

Tilapia parmigiana, brown rice, steamed garlicky kale.

Fall flowers. Mike brought these home the other night along with mini chocolate tarts, vanilla ice cream, and blueberry almond granola. I had a little "mishap" that involved accidentally deleting a huge document filled with my Nutritonal Biochem notes. He knows all the things that make me happy.

Oh yeah, and Greys is on in just over an hour! Must.finish.study.guide. Night!

The Weekend in Pictures

Fun times with mirrors at Bond Friday night.

We conducted a very serious maple syrup taste test.

Banana blueberry chocolate chip pancakes a la Michael.

With cinnamon apples and eggies.

The taste test in action. Very official.

A new camera! It has awesome settings (including a food picture setting!) and high def!

Lisa (Mike's sister) came to visit!

Just call us the king and queen of beer pong.

Lastly, a project that took up quite a bit of time this weekend (between bloopers, re-do's, etc).  We had to conduct a nutrition counseling session and videotape it for one of my classes.  This is how NOT to treat a client...haha. He made me laugh. I couldn't help it!

Fall Fare + Life Lessons

Okay, so there's really no way to take a non-phallic picture of butternut squash.  Trust me, I tried.  Anyways, here is a simple, healthy, fall-themed recipe for you to try!


Cinnamon-Infused Stuffed Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 can black beans
• Cinnamon to taste

Directions:

1) Bake squash with cut sides facing down in a small amount of water at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

2) Cook brown rice according to directions and set aside.

3) Drain and rinse the black beans and simmer in a little bit of water and cinnamon until softened and warm.

4) Combine the rice and black beans and sprinkle with more cinnamon.

5) Remove some of the squash flesh from each half and mix with the rice and bean mixture.

6) Add the mixture to the hollowed-out areas of the squash and serve.

Today was my first time seeing a new client for work and she was the cutest little old lady.  She was telling me stories about her childhood and about how she met her husband.  Apparently, she had plans to go to a dance with her current boyfriend and he ended up also bringing his friend who had just gotten out of the service.  Her current boyfriend left early because he didn't feel well, which apparently was a big mistake.  She ended up with his friend!  I love hearing stories about how people met because everyone's story is unique and it's fun to hear about how everything started.

What I learned today from little old ladies:

• It doesn't matter if your house is a little messy--life happens.
• It is incredibly hard to lose the people that mean the most to you.
• Appreciate your parents while you still have them here.

Mmmkay, I'm off to do some school work. Night!

A Dose of Home

This weekend, Jennifer, Bill, Mike and I, headed back home to celebrate my brother, Jared's birthday and to visit with my parents.  In case you are wondering about who the above peeps are: my sister, sister's boyfriend, and my boyfriend.  We arrived home to upstate NY on Friday night and enjoyed some pumpkin beers while catching up with my Mom.  It's always nice to have everyone together in the same room.  Without fail, the conversation flows from one topic to the next and we always end up laughing and sharing fun stories.

We woke up on Saturday, had a leisurely breakfast, hung around, and then headed over to my Dad's house.  We spent a couple of hours over there catching up (and playing catch with his doggy), before leaving so Jared could head to a friend's BBQ.  For his birthday dinner, we went to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (hmm, I guess that was a lot of bbq'ing for Jared).  

Dinosaur was a really cool place.  We were surprised to learn that it is a big biker bar.  Leather chaps and tattoos everywhere!  When we got seated, we decided that wings were in order.  We got one order of honey bbq and one order of wango tango.

 We hated them.

I would have been perfectly satisfied with my Blue Moon and wings, but alas, when you're at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, it only seems right to eat bbq like a dinosaur.  I ended up ordering the 1/4 rack of ribs with pulled pork.  For my two sides, I got the maple whipped sweet potatoes and simmered greens.

Deliciousness.  The sweet potatoes tasted like pumpkin pie.  They were easily my favorite part.  The pulled pork was really tasty too, and the ribs were so tender that they practically fell off the bone.  Plus, they gave you cornbread.  I heart cornbread.  We had a great time celebrating Jared's birthday and eating delicious food!

This morning, my Mom made a lovely brunch for everyone.  The spread included a veggie frittata, a ginormous fruit salad, bacon, and an assortment of breads (pumpkin, banana, and blueberry).  Mmm mmm good!

I had a great weekend at home.  Lots of good company and yummy food!  I just wish that the weekends were longer...

 Oh, and who could forget the fun times on the ride home:

Sunday Funday?

I wish.

Something tells me I am going to become quite familiar with this view.  My dining room table (aka my workstation) is getting a lot of love this weekend.   All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not a die-hard football fan.  I don't know how I would get anything done on Sundays.

Now that I'm back in school full-time, working part-time, and will soon be going to internships as well, I have been thinking about meals that I can start preparing when I have some extra time on the weekends.  I decided that meatballs seemed like a good idea for today.  Meatballs are great because you can make them ahead of time and either refrigerate them or freeze them until you're ready to use them.  Plus, I know a certain boyfriend of mine that likes spaghetti and meatballs.


Meatballs


Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/4-1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients.  

3) Shape mixture into balls and place on a baking sheet about one inch apart.

4) Bake for 22 minutes.

Now, back to the books.