Healthy Appetizers for your Nomming Pleasure!

Today was an excellent day!  Slept in until 10, attended a laparoscopic surgery skills workshop (starting to get more and more interested in surgery!), taught some high schoolers about how the heart works while walking them through a dissection of a sheep heart, and caught up on the lectures that I missed this morning!  I'm still trying to figure out my groove, but this seemed to work out well.  Sleeping in is always a plus!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I would post about my Thanksgiving recipes.  2/3 of the things I made came from recipes I found on Pinterest!  (of course!)

Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the stuffing (what were we thinking?! we always document!) but I made a basic, but delicious, sourdough stuffing that my sister had previously made.  You can find the recipe here.  We left out the mushrooms (and the 2 tbsp of butter that would have been used to cook them) because my brother is allergic to mushrooms.  But with my sister's mushroom gravy on top, it was perfection!  One serving made just enough for 7 adults and 2 kiddos.

Now on to what we DID document, because recipes aren't complete without drool-worthy pictures!

Low-Fat Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Everyone loves spinach-artichoke dip, right?  Too bad that restaurants make it with so much oil and cream and cheese (and cream cheese) that the nutrition info is downright scary!  This recipe uses fat-free Greek yogurt, low-fat cream cheese, and very little Parmesan cheese, but tastes every bit as good as the restaurant stuff!  

 Original recipe here.  I tweaked it just a bit.

Ingredients:
Olive oil or regular cooking spray (PAM)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic (or more if you like garlic)
9 oz fresh or frozen spinach
12 oz artichoke hearts
8 oz low-fat cream cheese
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
3 tbsp low-fat Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp chives
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12" round bread loaf

Dice onion and mince garlic.  Spray cooking spray on a nonstick or cast iron pan and add onion.  Saute onion until translucent and add garlic.  Saute mixture for about a minute, then add spinach.  If using frozen spinach, be sure to squeeze out any excess liquid before adding it to the pan and cooking for about 2 minutes.  If using fresh spinach, cook until it is just wilted.  Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

If you're going to be serving the dip right away, preheat the oven to 350F.  If you have a food processer, use that for the following steps.  We just had a small mini-prep processer so we had to do a couple batches.  Put the artichoke hearts and the cooled spinach-onion-garlic mixture into the food processor and chop until you reach desired consistency (some people like chunky dip!).  Add the cream cheese and Greek yogurt, and whirl together.  This can also just be done in a bowl.  Add the cheese, chives, and pepper, and mix.

Hollow out your bread and spoon the mixture in.  Don't throw away the bread innards!  Chop them up and place them on a baking sheet along with the bread bowl and bake for 20 minutes.  The mixture can also be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you're ready to add it to the bread and bake.  Time to enjoy!

Roasted Honey-Lime Shrimp...or not?

I love shrimp!  It's probably my favorite seafood, and it's always delicious.  I found this recipe and just had to try it!  Except technically, I haven't actually tried it, because...I forgot to add the honey to the marinade.  I realized it the second we were taking them out of the oven.  The upside is that they still tasted amazing!  So I guess there are two recipes in this...leave out the honey for some tangy Lime Shrimp!

Original recipe here.  The recipe serves 2 people with 1/2 pound of large shrimp.  We had 7 adults and 2 kids, so we quadrupled the shrimp and used more garlic, but kept everything else pretty much the same.  There was no need to quadruple the olive oil or lime juice - there was plenty of marinade to go around, and the shrimp was definitely not lacking in lime flavor!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp honey (apparently optional!)

juice of one small lime

zest of one small lime

2 cloves garlic (or more!)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Combine the marinade in a large plastic bag.  Add the shrimp and let it marinate in the fridge for 30-60 minutes (don't do much longer, because the acid in the lime will start to cook the shrimp).  You can cook them in a pan, but it would have taken forever to do that with 2 lbs of shrimp, so we roasted them and it was super quick and easy (and easy cleanup!).  Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a pan with foil and spread the shrimp out in one layer.  Roast for about 8-10 minutes, watching them closely near the end to see when they turn pink.  Serve and enjoy!

UPDATE:  I've made this shrimp two more times, both times with the honey, and it's really good!

And just to close it out, here's a pic of our turkey.  Nom!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been up to a lot since my last post!  I should really write more often...

A couple weeks ago, I went bowling with my FAST group and another FAST group.  For those of you  not in the know, FAST stands for "Faculty and Students Together."  The name is cheesy, I admit!  Each group consists of a faculty advisor, two MS2's, and five MS1's.  I'm pretty sure I have the best group!  We ditched our genetics syllabus for a few hours and enjoyed pizza at the other group's advisor's house and then a couple rounds of bowling at a cute little alley in Squirrel Hill.  While I didn't do horribly, let's just say bowling is not my calling...I'll stick to med school!

I don't think we have enough bowling balls...

My acapella group had another performance, this time in the Heinz Chapel, a gorgeous Gothic-style chapel in which my mom SWEARS I'll be getting married sometime in the future... :P  The acoustics were amazing.  I don't even think we needed the microphones.  Even our warmups sounded great!

I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, it was taken on my phone!

So after all that fun stuff, we took our genetics final.  But the second that thing was over, I was on my way home for Thanksgiving!!! I was very much looking forward to seeing my family, meeting my brand new nephew, snuggling with my puppy, and, of course, eating some delicious food!!

Here is my "puppy" (aka a lovable 6 y/o 100lb black lab/MOOSE) impatiently waiting for his chance to lick my empty yogurt cup clean.  He is so cute!!!

Are you done yet? Are you done yet?  Huh? huh? Are you done now?  My turn?  *drools*

Thanksgiving was great!  I had no academic obligations (well I did, I just chose to ignore them) so it was nice to take a break for a few days and just relax with family.  My brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew came up from Alabama for the holiday, and of course my sister, brother-in-law and 2 nephews in the north came down for dinner as well.  It was a full house!!  Next year will be crazy with 4 kiddos running around!  This year I was very excited because I finally got to cook something!  I made the stuffing, and I also made two appetizers - a healthy spinach artichoke dip and honey lime shrimp (funny story behind that...).  I'll make a separate post about those!

Not much has happened after break.  We started a new course, "Cellular and Pathological Basis of Disease," aka Cell Bio, and it's pretty interesting so far.  I have to do some major practicing for our physical exam class, as we're expected to be able to do a full physical exam in just a couple weeks!  Eek!  Where does time go???

Tonight I volunteered at a soup kitchen in the basement of a gorgeous church in East Liberty.  Every night, a different group of people comes in to cook a meal for about 40 men who eat and then sleep there overnight.  I went with a group of students from the med school, who go once a month, but this was my first time.  We try to serve a healthy, well-balanced meal to encourage healthy eating.  The meal tonight was chicken and baked potatoes with cooked broccoli, mushrooms, and onions.  I helped to butterfly the chicken breasts into two thin pieces and then helped to season them.  Everything smelled so good!  After dinner, we got to chat with some of the men and practiced taking their blood pressure.  It was my first time taking a BP on someone who was not a classmate or family member, and I did pretty well!  It was very fulfilling to step away from school for a night and help to provide fresh, healthy food to people in a nearby community.  I can't wait to go again!

That's some well-seasoned chicken!

It smelled amazing!!!

Stay tuned for some cooking posts!

Study break munchies

Original Recipe: Baked Spiced Chickpeas

I have a minor obsession with Pinterest, mainly the food & drink category.  My board of "Recipes I Want to Try" is nearing 50 pins, so I should probably start working on actually trying them instead of just drooling over their pictures!

I chose to make the baked spiced chickpeas because I've been looking for a healthy, nutritious snack food to satisfy the munchies I get when I study.  I NEED something crunchy (I think I get that from my mom and her need for something crunchy on long car rides!)  Carrots and apples only go so far, and I usually crave something salty/savory anyway.  These take very little time to make, and not only do they taste great, they have a lot of protein and fiber!

I linked to the original recipe at the top of the post, but I made a slight alteration in the recipe by leaving out the cayenne pepper and using less sugar and oil.  I also only used 1 can of beans, because I've only used my oven twice and I wanted a backup can in case I burned these!

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp spice mix

Spice mix:
1 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Drying the chickpeas

Ready to be baked to a crisp!!

Looking toasty and delicious!

Rinse the chickpeas and lay them out on a towel to dry, and make the spice mix while they are drying.  Set the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and non-stick spray.  In a small bowl, mix the chickpeas, olive oil, and 3 tsp of the spice mix (save the rest of the mix for use later - it smells amazing!!).  Put them in the oven for 40-60 minutes, or until they are firm and crunchy!  I set a timer for 20 minute intervals and mixed them around a bit each time.  It took 40 minutes in my oven, but different ovens may vary!  I used the skins turning black as my cue to take them out.  They will get crunchier as they cool.

Enjoy!

A Very Parisian Birthday!

My parents came to town this weekend to celebrate my 23rd birthday, albeit a few weeks late, but my actual birthday fell on an exam week and then my nephew was born the following week!  Needless to say, October was a very eventful month - we finished anatomy with a 3-hour final that was worth 50% of our grade (eek!), we took a full biochemistry course in 2 weeks and had a final in THAT (double eek!!), I turned 23, my adorable nephew was born, and we had some amazing fall weather (as well as a hurricane...)

Their visit just happened to coincide with my acapella group's concert, so I was really happy that they were able to come and see us perform!  The group is made up of students in graduate school and health professional schools; it's mostly medical students, but we do have some other professions represented as well.  I thought we sounded AMAZING, and it was really fun.  A lot of my friends from my class came to support us and enjoy the show, so I was really excited to show them what we've been working on since school started!

After the concert, we had reservations at Paris 66, a cute French bistro in East Liberty.  I am a HUGE FAN!  I went to Paris while on a trip to Europe back in high school and fell in love with the city and everything French.  I have Eiffel Towers all over my room, and I really like French design.  We enjoyed a pound of mussels (moules) and french fries (frites) for appetizers, and then I had the Crevettes Provencales: shrimp, vegetables, and linguini in a white wine sauce.  Yum!!!  For dessert, it was an apple tart with homemade caramel sauce, and a sea salt caramel macaron (on the house, because it was my b-day!).  I had never had a macaron before, but I am a big fan!!

1 pound of mussels (cooked in white wine, butter, garlic, onions) and pommes frites

Cheesy goodness!!!!

Birthday macarons!  Mine was the sea salt caramel on the bottom, my dad had the raspberry and pistachio

Massive, delicious apple tart with homemade salty caramel sauce! Delicious!!

I am a huge fan of this place!!

 For brunch this morning, we decided to continue with the French theme and went to Crepes Parisiennes, a creperie in Oakland.  I got my usual nutella and banana crepe, and we shared a chocolate croissant.  So much decadence!!

Nutella-y goodness!

I had a really fun weekend, but unfortunately now I have to get back to studying :(  Only a few more weeks until Thanksgiving, where I get to cuddle with my puppy and see my 3 nephews and niece!  Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I have a recipe I want to try out during a study break today, so I'll post pictures of that later. :)

Morning yoga

Over the summer and into early fall, there is a free yoga class held every Saturday at 10am in Oakland. I went today for my first class in a very long time, and even though it kicked my butt, it was enjoyable! It was a gorgeous morning, about 70 degrees, and this was my view for the hour-long class:

Can't beat that!  Hopefully we get good weather on Saturday mornings from here on out, because I need to get back into yoga!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

I like to sleep.  I'm one of those people who rolls out of bed with JUST enough time to get ready and run out the door.  It was great last year when it took me a whopping 5 minutes to walk to my first class, but now that I have to walk a couple blocks and wait for the bus to take me to school, so I find myself having to wake up over an hour before class starts (I know, I know...the horror!!).  Since I try to maximize on sleep, I would always just grab a breakfast bar and run out the door, only to be starving an hour later.  I needed a filling meal that I could grab and go!

Over the summer I discovered this refrigerator oatmeal (also called summer porridge, muesli) from the blog The Yummy Life.  It's AMAZING.  The author concocted recipes using different fruits, and the results are nutritious, delicious, and more than enough to get me from 8am to lunch.

The author just came out with 8 new recipes, so I went out to buy some ingredients to make the "Cherry Garcia" oatmeal.  It did not disappoint!

All the fixings for a delicious and nutritious breakfast!!

 What you need:

• 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt (the black cherry works perfectly with this one!)
• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1-1/2 tsp dried chia seed (or flax seed)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Lots of cherries, quartered
• Dark chocolate - use as much as you desire, I used half a serving of Hershey's Special Dark (about 1/6 of a big bar) and it was more than enough chocolate!

Look at all those cherries!

 Throw everything but the cherries into a mason jar or other sealable, portable container.  Mix with a spoon, then add the cherries.  I like to stuff it with fruit so it almost fills up the whole jar.

All mixed, ready for the fridge!

Once it's all mixed, put it in the fridge and let it sit at least overnight so the oatmeal and chia seeds can soften.  It will be ready by morning, and you'll be enjoying Cherry Garcia for breakfast!  Once I'm out of cherries, I'll experiment with the other recipes.  I'm looking forward to the mocha and the pineapple coconut.  Out of the old flavors, I have made the Mango, Banana Chocolate, and Raspberry Vanilla, and I recommend them all!

A note about the chia seeds - they're not a necessity (I made my first batch of oatmeal without them) but I think they add a nice texture, plus they're nutritious.  You can apparently use flax seeds as an alternative, or leave them out.  If you do leave them out, be sure to use less liquid, as the chia seeds absorb some of the liquid.

Enjoy!

Raise the Jolly Roger!

I realize I have not posted since starting my job two weeks ago as a counselor.  I am so busy during the day and so exhausted at night that writing about it is not high on my priority list.  Also, although I am busy, what I do is not blog-worthy.  I essentially go to class with the students from 9am-8pm, go to the gym during their study/free time at night, then stay up until they have to be on our floor or in their rooms, between 10:30 and midnight depending on the day of the week.  The first week was really hectic with a lot of things going on and trying to adjust to the system and adjust to handling teenagers.  This past week went much better and I think the next two weeks will be really fun!

On July 4, we took all 100+ students to a Pittsburgh Pirates game.  This involved taking them downtown on public transportation and then walking them a few blocks to the 6th street bridge, which we crossed to go to PNC Park.  It was a HOT day--the sun was beating on us all afternoon, and the temperature was close to 100 degrees.  80% of the students walked around inside or sat in the food stand areas, out of the sun, and the counselors took turns going inside and getting food.  The food was crazily overpriced, as expected, but that $6 cup of Rita's Ice sure hit the spot!

Around the 8th inning, the sun started to move behind the stadium and we were finally in the shade.  It also rained a bit, so the end of the game was fairly enjoyable.  The Pirates won (!!!) and then we were off to take the kids back to campus on the bus.

Walking across the Roberto Clemente Bridge to PNC Park

PNC Park Jumbotron!

My favorite skyline!  The view from Heinz Field is better, but I'll take it.

Pierogi race!

Play ball!

City of bridges <3

July 4 isn't complete without fireworks, but we wanted to keep it a surprise for the students.  We announced to the students a few days before that they would have a very early curfew (8:30pm) on July 4 because it would be a "liability" to let everyone go watch fireworks.  They bought it!  So at 8:30, each counselor told their floor a different lie to get them out of the dorm.  We walked them up to the highest point on campus (so. many. stairs.) and watched the fireworks over the city skyline.  Pittsburgh fireworks are amazing!!