TGIF!

Greetings y’all!

Sorry I’ve been so bad about posting this week. It’s been a busy week – Sheff and I have both been sick, and going to be real early. I wish I could blog at work, when I’m sitting there with nothing to do!

So glad the weekend is here! I had planned to have the weekend to myself, unfortunately spending it with a lot of deep-cleaning, as the relatives begin pouring in Sunday for Thanksgiving. But after a long craigslist ordeal buying a $500 electronic drum set for The Boy, he’s up here now for the weekend (to see the drums more so than me… haha).

We had a nice dinner at The Tomato Head followed by ice cream at Sonic. He really wants to go see a movie, but I’m just not up for staying up until midnight (which is still early by his account!). So for now, I’m on the couch, blogging and listening to Christmas music on Pandora, while he assembles the electronic drum set. Have I mentioned that he’s taking lessons now and will soon be a professional drummer in The Music City?? :D

At least now I have a helper for all my weekend cleaning now… haha

Weekend in Nashville!

Sheff and I took a road trip to Nashville for the weekend, celebrating The Boy and I’s 6 month anniversary.

It was absolutely beautiful weather all weekend – mid 70s in mid November!?!?! I remember this time last year it was already down into the 30s and 40s. We were so lucky!

I was really hoping to have Friday dinner at the new Chuy’s restaurant – the first outside of Texas, might I add. Like any good Texan, I love love love me some Chuy’s. It’s always a treat to go there. In fact, when I was in the hospital a few years back with my mysterious viral illness, that was my first restaurant meal post-discharge.

But… sad to say we didn’t get to eat any Chuy’s. By the time we got there (6pm… I felt it was early enough), we were worried by the men directing traffic, cars parked along every nearby street, and a kajillion people milling inside and outside the restaurant. Yeah… a 2 hour wait!? No thanks. So we left Cool Springs, headed back up to Green Hills and went to Kalamata’s. I’ve been begging The Boy to eat there; afterall I haven’t had falafel since the day I passed by RD exam, and I was having serious withdrawals! It was delicious as always!! I was tempted by their seasonal pumpkin cheesecake, but had no room at all.

But… I did get some pumpkin cheesecake Saturday night at….. Germantown Cafe! We had a reservation there as our nice anniversary dinner. I chose the place and had communicated with the general manager about vegetarian options. It was a great choice – lovely restaurant, great view of the Nashville skyline (and not downtown with the horrendous weekend traffic that almost caused The Boy to lose his cool), and of course wonderful food.

I know, I know, where are the pictures? I brought my camera to Nashville…. and took zero pictures. Terrible! And too bad… because we were looking quite smart. I even bought a dress for the occasion! haha

We started with appetizers: clam chowder (him) and squash fritters (moi). The squash fritters were delightful… imagine balls of squash casserole, battered and fried, served with a buttermilk cream. yum!

My main dish was their pasta of the day: fettucine with a parmesan mushroom sauce, with side salad. It was excellent. Of course, by the time I made it through my fried squash, salad, and bread, I was pretty full and couldn’t get too much of the rich pasta dish in my belly.

Oh… the bread. If anyone knows about Germantown Cafe’s bread secret… do tell! The Boy proclaimed it was “the best bread I’ve ever had”. They were small muffin size bread balls…. and somehow reminded you of a funnel cake. Surely the bread wasn’t fried!?? Whatever it was, it was amazingly good.

So… if I could hardly eat my pasta dish, how did I manage the pumpkin cheesecake? Well when we heard it was on their dessert menu (and my jaw fell open), The Boy suggested we order it and take it home for later. Brilliant idea.

Oh.. how I miss Nashville and it’s many restaurants. :(

Perfect Weather Weekend

What happens when 5 dietitian friends get together for the weekend?

“Eat bowls of leaves” was The Boy’s idea. This, of course, is related to the fact that we enjoy our leafy green vegetables, and prefer them in salads to the nutritional-weakling that is iceberg lettuce.

But no, salads were not the mainstay of this weekend.

Friday Night:

Sheff and I spent the afternoon getting the house all nice and clean, ready for our guests. Steph was the first to roll in around 6, having the easiest drive from Nashville. We met at the nearby Kroger and picked up ingredients for an easy tortellini soup.

• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 3 cans seasoned stewed tomatoes
• 1-2 cans cannellini beans
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 package frozen, chopped spinach
• 1-2 packs cheese tortellini
• parmesan cheese and toast to serve with

Elena, coming up from Mississippi, made it here around 9:30, as did Laura – who won the prize for finding the farm in the dark by herself! I had met Elena and Steph 10 miles out, and then let them follow me back, because the dark country roads are very difficult to navigate. Laura also brought her 2 little dogs, who enjoyed Sheff and our big backyard. Kathy finally made it by 11:30pm. Most of the evening was spent catching up over soup and baked goods (Laura brought some decadent brownies and baklava. Nothing low-fat or nutritionally advised! So yummy….)

Saturday:

Those of us on Eastern Time Zone, and/or owners of dogs, found ourselves fully awake and drinking coffee by 8am. The other 2 were awakened by 10:30am. The agreed upon plan was to hit up the outlets at Pigeon Forge, a free round of Mini Golf (thanks to the millions of extra tickets I have), dinner at The Tomato Head, and then a fire at home with s’mores and hot apple cider. ‘Twas a great day!

I will note that the Pigeon Forge outlets were absolutely crazy packed, like it was the week before Christmas. We had to fight for a parking space, stand in long lines in stores, and dig through piles of clothes strewn all over the place. By the end of the afternoon, we had many bags to carry back and our feet were sore.

But not sore enough for Mini Golf! And somehow, after 18 holes, I manage to win, coming in 5 under par! haha. My prize?

Delicious dinner at The Tomato Head. I had the Kepner Melt again: a toasted sandwich of baked tofu, monterrey jack cheese, walnut pesto, spinach, herbed tomatoes, pineapple and red onion. Amazing! We also scored a free large cheese pizza, after our order (half cheese, half mushroom) confused the kitchen staff.

The fire, smores, and cider were all wonderful. We had The Dark Knight playing in the background, which I tried to ignore and enjoy the conversation with my friends instead. I can’t see that Joker face right before I go to bed!!

Sunday:

Again, the Eastern Time Zoners were up by 8 for coffee, and enjoyed cold pizza for breakfast. The others were up by 10 with no problem. It’s been so nice to catch up and see each other face to face after all this time. I feel like we’re much more grown up than we were just this time last year, now out in the working world, with a lot of learning experience under our belt.

We had wanted to get a hike in this weekend, since the weather was beautiful and in the 70s both days, but the girls needed to hit the road by lunchtime to get back to their respective cities.

After everyone left and I got the kitchen cleaned up, Sheff and I headed out to Knoxville’s Ijam’s Nature Center for some hiking and outdoors time. It was an easy 30 minute drive, and we had the company of many many other families and dog owners. I’m always a little skeptical of hiking or trail-walking by myself, but it was a gorgeous day, and I didn’t feel alone out there on the trails. We enjoyed a couple miles, then returned to the car for water and almond butter sandwich / milkbone, and drove back.

Now we’re out on the back porch, soaking up the last of today’s sun, before it’s time to start the next week.

Next Week:

• Get the garage door fixed
• Clean up / wash sheets from weekend visitors
• Prepare, pack and plan for Nashville weekend road trip!

Domestic Thursday

I’ve done lots of house cleaning today after work… getting ready for the intern reunion this weekend at the farm!! 5 former interns, now RDs, are meeting up for a weekend of fun and catching up!

Went gymming after work for some interval training on the treadmill and a few weights. I try to jump on the weight machines as soon as I get there (although I know it’s better to let your muscles warm up first with some cardio) before that part of the gym gets packed with intimidating strong people :)

While treadmill-ing and moving along to Coldplay, I saw all the Fort Hood news on the TV screens. As soon as I left the gym, I called my sister – who’s a student at UT-Austin, to see if anything was happening in Austin about it. Of course, she had no idea what I was talking about. But it looks like they caught the guy (well, killed him more like it) so no one else is at risk. And then to hear that he’s a medical doctor who works in mental health?! Brilliant. Maybe that’s what happens when you work with these crazy patients for too long – they rub off on you! Lord I hope not! Get me out of the psych hospital before that happens!

Today I had my first true eating disorder patients – scared me to death because I have no idea how to handle them. Well, really it’s the patients who are scared to death. A had a 13 year old anorexic girl who is determined to get to 85 pounds and will not be happy until she does. She eats 300-350 calories on a good day and beats herself up if she eats more than 500. Good lord! I had her in tears with the suggestion of drinking the 2% milk that is served to her. It’ll be a long journey….. I just feel so helpless working with this population, because they have these messed up beliefs so ingrained in them, what could I possibly do?!

Oh goodness. Now I’m heating up a Gardenburger Chik’n Patty, to be served on a Trader Joes Naan with Laughing Cow Cheese. It’s kinda a cheater dinner tonight; I wasn’t in the mood to cook after getting all that cleaning done.

But yay for tomorrow being Friday, and for the beautiful weekend weather ahead!

Enjoy your Thursday night – don’t forget to watch The Office!!

Happy

Some things to be happy about today:

• The sun was out while I got ready for work! Made it much easier to enjoy cooking breakfast (fried egg on pesto toasted sandwich thin…) before work
• Being recognized by one of the hospital’s nurse practitioners on the floors today. Yay for not being invisible, and my new diet order project being acknowledged!
• Getting a free redbox to watch tonight! Finally getting to see The Proposal
• Using coupons while grocery shopping
• Testing out the new CoffeeMate Peppermint Mocha coffee creamer. Yes, it may be just oil and sugar with artificial flavoring, but it’s guaranteed to be cheaper and better for me than getting this same drink at Starbucks!
• Buying a bag of leftover Halloween candy super cheap at CVS. I scored a bag of individually wrapped Take5 for $1.75. Now, being the good dietitian, they will all go into the freezer, where I can pull one piece out at a time to savor and enjoy
• Blogging out on the back porch and staring out into the mountains (trying to ignore the sounds of gunshots and hoping all animals and wildlife are OK)
• Dinner tonight: veggie burger with roasted broccoli and sweet potato fries!

Well, I better get a move on. I need to finish putting away the groceries and doing a quick DVD workout with Leslie Sansone before dinner and movie tonight. Hope you all have a great night!

Welcome November!

Can y’all believe that it’s already November?!?

I had a great weekend with my college roommate / best friend. It was a great weekend, and so much better than sitting here by myself for Halloween!

Friday night was seriously spooky. Felt like Halloween had come early. The weather had been pretty windy all afternoon, and it only picked up during the night. After catching up over coffee, we didn’t head to bed until after 1am. The wind was so loud that our 8 pairs of windchimes on the back porch sounded like a high-pitched symphony. My poor puppy, Sheff, had been anxious and scared all evening (ever since the wind caused a door to slam shut at 4:30pm) and had been hiding in the closet or bathroom. When we finally went to bed, he still couldn’t settle down. He kept shaking and crying, and I couldn’t get him to fall asleep. At 3:30am I searched the house for benedryl, but was unable to find anything. I thought allowing him up on the bed with us would soothe him, but he decided to sit on Mandi instead (luckily she was fast asleep by this point). I didn’t fall asleep until 5am, with the wind howling in the background. When I awoke at 9ish, everything was peaceful outside, and Sheff was fast asleep.

So, not an incredibly restful night, but a fun day. Mandi and I fried up some eggs for breakfast, and then headed to the Market Square area of Knoxville. We perused some fun gift shops (and got ideas for future Christmas gifts!) and then relived our paris-trip at The French Market. A seriously cute little creperie, I had a wonderfully filling mushroom and cheese crepe with a cafe au lait. yum yum!

The afternoon/evening was filled with the following: college football (cannot believe how terrible my dawgs were), movie (The Holiday!), and starting a fire. After many failed attempts, we were finally able to create a long-lasting fire with the help of StarterStix. Who knew making a fire was so hard? But the results paid off :)

Saturday night was a much more enjoyable sleep, although I was awoken at 8am (excuse me, 7am after the ending of daylight savings) by Sheff trying to squeeze under the bedside table in fear. Apparently the smoke alarm in the kitchen was beeping to alert us to its low battery status, which completely freaks out / terrifies my boy. After taking care of that situation, and persuading Sheff that the house was safe, I went back to bed for another hour. Gotta love the extra hour we got today!

We headed to Gatlinburg today, via Pigeon Forge and all its tackiness. It was really a beautiful fall day, and we had fun looking in the little shops in Gatlinburg, counting mini golf places and pancake houses, and finding fellow Georgia fans in the crowds. We ending up scoring lunch at the famed Pancake Pantry with no line or wait! Amazing! I had the wonderful Sweet Potato Pancakes, Mandi had the French Toast, and we were stuffed to the gills upon leaving. Oh, and we also stopped at the Donut Fryer before hand. We were carb loading :)

After Mandi left this afternoon (super excited about returning to law school classes tomorrow!), I did some yard work, house work and coupon clipping. Mandi told me that it’s sad when the sunday paper is my favorite part of my weekend. haha. It’s definitely in the top 3! Dinner was an easy tortilla soup recipe from Jill, one of my fellow Vanderbilt interns who is now married and working in Omaha, Nebraska. She also has a great blog to follow!

• can of whole kernel corn
• can of black beans
• can of refried beans
• 3/4 cup salsa
• can of stock (veggie in my case)

Deelish! Now watching Curb Your Enthusiasm in honor of The Boy, and then heading to bed. Gotta get ready for Monday!

 

Friday the 30th

Today is a day to celebrate:

1. It’s Friday!
2. My best friend from college is coming to visit this weekend!
3. 6 month anniversary with The Boy :)
4. 4 month anniversary of leaving Nashville :( and coming to the farm :)
5. 6 weeks (and 3 paychecks) at my job!
6. Beautiful fall weather!

And so… a celebratory breakfast is in order, am I right?

Ever since I entered the real-working world, I’ve been terrible about not making breakfast at home. I tend to grab something pre-packaged and eat at work. What kind of dietitian am I?! But this morning will be a delicious bowl of banana-flax-almond butter oatmeal, in our favorite celebratory cupcake bowel bowl (oops!).

Best Friend isn’t leaving good ole’ Athens GA until 5ish, so it’ll be a looong night. That’ll give me plenty of time to hit the gym after work, take in the recycles, clean up the house (vacuuming mass quantities of dog hair is in order) and bake my beloved chocolate pumpkin muffin tops!!

The Count and his Bat

Here’s a shot of our pumpkins:

Turned out really well, right?

Dinner on my own

Feels strange sitting down to dinner all by myself. I’ve certainly been spoiled the last few months having guests here!!

Tonight’s dinner: baked sweet potato, sauteed spinach, leftover stuffing, and a soy sausage patty. Yum yum!

Nothing super exciting at work today. I must say that I’m glad I don’t work weekends – apparently this past Saturday was a party at the hospital. A girl ran away, a patient beat up a nurse, and 2 guys got in a fist fight in the lunch line. Awesome :)

Tomorrow will be a nice change of scenery: I have a meeting for most of the day in the Sunsphere. Should be fun, and will let me meet some of the other dietitians in the area!

AND…. I am in love with my new water bottle that I picked up at Target last week! Something about the straw attachment makes me drink much more water throughout the day – I re-filled it twice during the day!

Sunday Night!

Well, it’s been a great weekend, but now time to get ready for bed and to start the new week!

The Boy and I had fun this weekend. We did get to go see Where the Wild Things Are Friday night. Not sure what to say about the movie – it wasn’t what I expected (although I don’t know what I was really expecting it to be).. kinda slow, kinda sad, but I did love the big wild things, adorable characters!

And, The Boy finally got his wish for go-karting this weekend. We drove up and down Pigeon Forge’s parkway, evaluating all possible go-karting locations (some promise speeds of 40mph.. however they looked sketchy), until we settled on the Nascar Speedpark.

So I have now go-karted. It wasn’t as scary as I had anticipated, and I definitely slowed down around each turn to ensure optimal safety. I was lapped numerous times by all the cars, and was convinced that my car just wasn’t as fast as the others. Until… at the very end I realized that I had been riding the break the entire time. hahahah! A funny story for the next time. :)

Saturday evening was spent watching college football: Tennessee’s game (terrible, terrible), Vanderbilt’s game (a close call, but The Boy wasn’t expecting too much from his team), Texas’s game (power to the longhorns!), etc. Dinner was stuffing (in honor of Thanksgiving approaching), salad, and grilled porkchops. I have to say, why do the instructions on the Pepperidge Farm Stuffing mix not say to include an egg?! Without the egg as a binder, the stuffing just falls apart. It definitely needed the egg……

Tonight’s dinner used the leftover stuffing along with a fried egg… deelish :)

Best of all, we got our pumpkins carved! I picked a simple and safe design (BAT), and Corey went with something a little more daring (The Count from Sesame Street). Unfortunately, I don’t have any votive candles, but as soon as I get some, I’ll post pictures of the pumpkins all lit up. They were lots of fun! The Boy wasn’t super excited about sticking his hand in the pumpkin and pulling out all the guts… me comparing it to placenta probably didn’t help either. hahahah!

And now it’s after 10, and School of Rock is on TBS. haha. The kitchen is all cleaned up, coffee maker ready to go in the morning, lunch is packed, I’m showered and PJ’d. Guess the bed is calling my name! Goodnight! :D