I’m ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!

More to come later, but…

I’m officially OFF the market!  Talk about the best day of my life :)

XOXO

I'm going back to Cali, Cali, Cali

LL Cool J anyone? 

For the second time in 2 weeks, I’m back on the west coast.  I still dreaded the long flight (I just hate flying in general), but this time Kyle was with me, so it was ok.  Plus, now the whole trip is gonna be one million times better :)

We are starting in Nor Cal…then heading to So Cal for my cousin’s wedding AND to visit with college friends (we both went to UCLA). 

Plane snacks at the ass crack of dawn.

 

The apple was solid, the True Delights bar, not so much…I gave it to Kyle after eyeing the entire side loaded with bombitters almonds.  His “official” review was favorable, but he also hates real oatmeal and granola (so keep that in mind).  He thought it had a nice texture (pretty much as chewy as other Quaker bars) with the right amount of chocolate, but he wasn’t overly thrilled by the raspberry flavor.  He’d still prefer these basic Chewy bars that we all remember from our youth.

Are there any bars/snacks that you remember with fondness from your younger years?

I was so jealous of my friends’ lunches with gushers and/or fruit roll-ups because my mom NEVER gave me those goodies.  She was way ahead of the FDA, because HFCS products were as foreign to me as boys.  My mom packed the healthiest lunches (the extra 10 cents to get chocolate milk was the BIGGEST treat). 

I looked forward to the last day of school mostly because then we got our (unused) earthquake packs back (that weren’t used throughout the school year).  This concept may be lost on non-Californians, but at the start of every school year each parent would pack their kid a massive freezer bag of goodies an emergency survival stash in case of an earthquake.  So my amazing mom (who did everything better than any other mom) went ALL OUT because she figured if I had to use it, I deserved an extra special treat…meaning there were goodies she’d never be caught dead feeding me otherwise.  Oh man…the things that were in that pack…when I was 9 years old that was heaven as far as I was concerned.

Sorry for the tangent.  Sometimes random stories just come to me…

the ER floodgates

..were open today, and I mean WIDE open (that’s what she said). 

As a result, my unit was a mad house.

Cardiac surgery is at a bit of a standstill lately (economy, where are you?), so in order to keep the money coming in, we had to make our beds available to non-ICU patients…waaaaaaaahhhhh (that’s me wailing like a baby due to my insane patient load.  I was ALL over the MAP today with diagnoses.  I mean everything from a “failure to thrive” 92 year old, to a 9 month pregnant woman with contractions every 10 minutes, EEK!  For the record, I’m a cardiac ICU nurse, I have NO clue what to do when a head is crowning from a female’s hot-pocket!!!!

Needless to say I think I burned 1,000,000 kcals at work.  No gym needed with stress filled days like today!

Maybe I should get off my soap box and stop my preaching about heart healthy diets so we can get some more open heart surgery patients (just kidding?)…kinda.

AM coffee from the bucks.

Odwalla bar + an apple for my snackety snack.

Lunch (which I barely snuck away for in the late PM) was a salad with brocc slaw, brocc, cauli, carrots, seitan, and SABRA hummus

 

and a sammie of leftovers (“eggs” and Tribe red pepper hummus)….which may seem weird and random (no argument there), but was actually really good.  As if ANYthing with hummus wouldn’t be!

I hit a HUGE wall around 6 pm, and barely made it through the last few hours of work.  Today was a 4 cup coffee day.  Yeah, I know.

Look what came in the mail!

How did the POM fairy know I just finished my latest read…perfect timing!  Entertainment for long flights never goes out of style, and since I am headed off to Ca (again) tomorrow, this will be at the top of my list.

Talk about cleaning out the depths of the fridge…dinner was more of the same (lunch repeat with a twist).  Seitan with an “egg” scramble.

 

Food porn for all y’all…

Tea and an apple for dessert.

And guess what else I FINALLY got around to doing?  Calcium/Vitamin D chews.  It’s about damn time, right?

If you know me, you know I rock my porcelain white skin like a champ, but since I live in the hospital or under a coat of SPF 500, it’s hard to get in the Vitamin D I KNOW I need.  Especially being an athletically active, white female (osteoporosis risk, check, check, check), calcium and Vitamin D should go hand in hand.  Let’s just say this is long overdue…

Anyone else take supplements? 

As for dessert?  Go big or go home, right?

Carob covered raisin love, AND a couple of coconut date rolls.

I couldn’t resist them! 

Mr. Mrsa

Love my contact precaution patients.  Having a patient with a MRSA infection is a blessing in disguise.  Why you ask?  Because most of the other patients on the unit are high risk for infection in their fragile post-op state, so I can’t get a patient assignment with a fresh heart while I have my infected patient on contact isolation…score! I only had one patient today!  Granted he has a PEG with continuous tube feeds, tracheostomy requiring frequent suctioning, and IVs going around the clock…but still.  One parient = smooth sailing.

I started work with a soy latte from the ‘bucks. Duh.

The rest of the days eats were packed up the night before.  See?

This was my first time trying the apricot Clif Bar and it was just as YUM as I suspected it would be…why, oh why, are the best flavors the hardest to find??  Every since my Blueberry Crunch experience, I’ve been on the look-out to NO avail.  If you’re out there Mr. Clif, I’m desperate…can you hear me?!?  As with the blueberry, the apricot had a healthy crunch, with subtle nutty flavors, but no overwhelming in-your-face chunks.  Perfect :)  Like a cobbler for all seasons. 

The odwalla bar is a no-brainer for me at this point.  I’ve been a fan for ages, and I’m glad the rest of the blogging community is finally jumping on the band-wagon (clearly when I toot my own horn, I’m not subtle).

As for the rest of my lunch, I made a sammie on an Arnold’s thin with my home-made hummus and baked tofu (with some Country Bob’s sauce).  This sandwich was surprisingly excellent.  I was kinda just throwing together the random odds and ends in my fridge, so I wasn’t really expecting such a fantastic flavor.  But I totally caught myself off guard with this one.  Apparently home-made hummus really does go with everything! (I seriously shouldn’t be shocked by this).

And wait! There’s more!!

I made an effort to pack an extra large lunch today because I wanted to hit up the gym after work (I’ve been slacking as of late and I have a less-than-forgiving dress to wear next week)…by keeping my tummy satisfied, I figured I’d have less of an excuse to skip the gym after work.  I’m usually too starving to focus on anything but breaking the Olympic record for speed cooking once I leave work.  So today I made a salad with fancy lettuce, brocc, cauli, thai seitan and Tribe red pepper hummus.

It was delish!  I ate it around 6, an hour before I got off work, and it hit the spot (giving me the oomph I needed while not filling me too much).  Basically, mission accomplished.

I went to the gym for a 30 minute mega sweat sesh.  Whenever I’m doing quick workouts, I pump up the intensity, so I was on the elliptical at level 15 resistance for a solid half hour and it felt great.  It’s so rare for me to work out on days I work, so this felt extra special.  Hopefully I won’t be regretting it tomorrow.

 

For dinner I had an Arnold’s thin toasted with my old lover, my true blue, Sabra and a Boca vegan burger.

 

It’s amore.

And since that bit of hummus only piqued my interest, I had a little bit more…

…on some ‘fu (again baked with Country Bob’s all purpose sauce).

I switched it up for dessert (gasp) and tried something I bought last week.  Since my home-girl Erin has never led me astray, I figured I should try out some wasabi peas…

NOM!

Add in some raisins or dried cranz, and BAM…(sorry about channeling the obnoxious NeNe, but if the shoe fits…)

Ok, time for bed.  Or maybe I’ll stay up and catch up on blogs…

empty containers

I couldn’t decide on a title for this post.

The real title should have been “how much chocolate and dessert food can you consume in 48 hours”…but that doesn’t really roll off the tongue.

So, instead I decided to post photos of all the containers I’ve managed to polish off (as if wasting food in our move is my biggest concern).

More death by chocolate (vegan) cake…aka the BEST slice of heaven on Earth.  Yuuuummmmmy!! 

And this was only half way through (the original slice was about the size of a brick).

And for those East Coast-ers who know a good thing when they see the box, here’s Kyle’s birthday cheesecake from Junior’s.

Try not to drool on your keyboards.  I doubt your warranty covers saliva induced malfunctioning.  Mine didn’t.

WF’s vegan pudding…my weakness (well, one of them)!

I had to!!  Dried fruit and chocolate are meant to be together.

Scraped clean (obviously we all saw this picture coming).

And the trend continued…at the WF hot bar.

Included in this packed-to-the-brim container: roasted sweet potatoes, baked tofu, “chik’n” salad, TONS of grains (quinoa, millet, bulgar, and barley), steamed brocc, and a fresh slaw salad.

I pounded it like a champ (reference point: freshman year beer bong).

 

More dessert vanishing acts.  This time with (vegan) blueberry vanilla “cheesecake.”

 

English muffin + pounds of Earth Balance (it’s healthy, right Andrea?)

Maybe I go through these too fast…any thoughts?

This is no joke.  Cleaning out the fridge is such a fun job.

 

More dessert: cookies with soymilk.

Oats with soynut butter…going, going…

Gone!

Empty PB jar :(

Ok, you get the point…I’ve been a fat ass chocoholic finishing everything I managed to get my hands on. 

Good for the mouth.  Bad for the tummy.  Somehow the fact that I have to fit into a little dress for my cousin’s wedding this weekend has escaped me.

I think I should get my butt to the gym, stat!

PS  Wanna win some yummies?  I DO!  Head over to Erinbee's site

An ode to K

Inspired by my girl K’s creamy smooth hummus, I decided to take a second stab at making my own hummus.  I have tried this before, and the result was too healthy tasting.  So this time I decided to up the fat.  That’s the ticket!!!

Into the blender:

• 1 can of chickpeas (the big one)
• 3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk
• 5 shakes of sesame seeds and salt (to taste)

OMG.  The creamy texture was SO good.  If I could have licked the inside of the blender, I would have…I didn’t wanna waste any hummus!

I cut up 4 ww tortillas to dip in the hummus.  Kyle and I devoured these…he was QUITE impressed. 

It was more creamy than store-bought hummus, which was my goal when I was making it (K inspired, naturally). 

Later for dinner I wanted MORE hummus (not surprisingly), but after a day of dipping every carb in the apartment into it, I decided I should prob add some green into the day’s eats.  What goes better with hummus than veggies!  While rummaging through our nearly empty apartment, I came across the above TJs bag in the pits of the freezer.  I don’t even remember when I bought this, but grilled eggplant and zucchini with Italian seasoning sounds good enough.  Plus, let’s be real, all I really wanted was something to put hummus on some fiber. 

This picture is AFTER I patted the veggies down with a paper towel. It was THAT oily.  Normally I wouldn’t be a fan of frozen vegetables with that much oil, but they smelled amazing, so I sucked it up.  Literally.  It was soooo tasty, especially with my home-made hummus added on top, I had to hold back to not inhale it.

P.S. A special shout out to Courtney, you are so sweet, and your comment made my day.  Thanks for reading!!