Books and Bowls

I stopped by the local library’s quarterly “Friends of the Library” sale last Friday and came home with some goodies.

First up, from the diet/fitness section. Always a good area to check because there are LOTS of new books, and as a dietitian I like to keep current with what new fad books are out there. I’ve gotten a couple good reference books from this section in the past, including the infamous “Intuitive Eating” and “Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss” (which is a really good visual aide to illustrate caloric density with patients).

The latest book?

Haha, I know. I’ve always heard of the book, and so I flipped through to see if it was crap / waste of money. But his premise actually appealed. Spending a couple minutes in the morning to do just 2 strength training moves – that’s easy enough to do! Now, I don’t necessarily believe that that alone will help you lose 2 pounds a week (the testimonials are from people who were also walking 5 miles a day and eating smaller portions) but I think it’s a good start. Strength training is certainly something that is often overlooked, by me as well!

And so, I started Day 1 today at 6am(it’s just a 28 day program). The dogs weren’t too curious of my new moves, and before I knew it I was done and into the shower. I think I might even have to buy heavier dumbbells (I currently have a 3#, 5# and 8# set.. probably should grow up and move into the double digit world.. haha)

Next up… the textbook section.

I don’t normally peruse this section at library/book sales too much because they’re out of date. As a child I definitely bought my fair share of textbooks (I know, major dork). I remember having spare French textbooks in my room. Not sure why. I hated French. Maybe it was just for when I “taught” my imaginary class.

These days I like to see if there’s any nutrition textbooks (although really.. why?! I don’t have enough??). But today this caught my eye:

I know, looks exciting, right? I’ve noticed that when we have nursing students in the building, they’re all carrying around a similar textbook and furiously taking notes about their patients of the day. I’ve often wondered what words of wisdom the textbook contains, and now for $1 I can find out :)

It’s actually a pretty helpful book. 21 chapters outlining basic mental health information, drugs, disorders, and basic patient care information. Definitely helpful for anyone who works in the field, nursing or not. And so, I began Day 1 of the 21 Day program (haha), reading a chapter a day. Seriously :)

Yes, the title of this post was Books and Bowls. So where are the bowls?

Here:

Ah, the beginning of my vintage pyrex collection. This is the Autumn Harvest pattern, released in 1982. I purchase the two smaller bowls from a garage sale last weekend, and received the larger, cinnamon bowl in the mailbox this afternoon (thank you mother for bidding on it on eBay!). Don’t they look lovely?

I may have become obsessed, memorizing all the patterns available, scouring craigslist on a multi-daily basis for bargains (and I check craiglook.com for the whole COUNTRY!). I may have just made a deal with a women in East Texas, buying a set of eight pieces, so I can pick them up at the crack of dawn as I drive back from Houston. Yes, I coordinate vintage pyrex finds into my travels :)

But aren’t they fun?

 

From the social chair

I successfully hosted an Easter Brunch at my place today after church for the interns. I was so proud – got my place all cleaned up, food prepped the night before, easter decorations in place, and ready for fun! We had a great turn out, I think 12 of the 16 interns showed up, which is a rare treat. 

Foodwise, anytime you have a bunch of nutrition people in the room, you know there’s a lot of good food. Let’s see…. banana bread, quiche, fruit salad, potato casserole, chicken salad, ham, french toast with homemade syrup, and Easter Candy (dove’s dark chocolate eggs… and peanut butter M&Ms). 

I hard boiled a lot of eggs for us to decorate, after failing at all attempts to “blow” eggs. Yeah, not happening. But it’s just as well, I think if we’d only had shelled eggs to work it, there would have been a lot of breakage. 

My quiches turned out well. I used the leek and mushroom quiche recipe from Smitten Kitchen, as well as making a batch of spinach mini quiches that my sister is famous for (although she uses bacon instead of spinach… can you tell who the dietitian is?!).  The mini quiches went fast … I prob should’ve made a double batch instead of making the big quiche… the individual ones just work better as party food. But nonetheless, I have leftovers now for me!

After all the guests left, a few of us went to our first Nashville open house for an adorable house around the corner from me. Not that we are really in a position to buy a house… but we love it, and are trying to find a place we can all live together in after the internship. I wonder what the realtor thought of us. It was such a great house, probably bigger than we need (and obviously way too much money than we’ll ever have) but it was fun dreaming. 

Now… time to rest and recuperate. I hear the storms coming outside, the wind is really picking up. And my foot is killing me (12 miles yesterday!) so perhaps this afternoon is best spent on the couch with my copy of Chocolat. I went to the park yesterday, late afternoon, and had a great time reading and people watching. Lying on my blanket, here was my view: