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!!

ISTJ

The other day, I received a large envelope from Pitt Med.  I was expecting information on orientation and the white coat ceremony, but all it contained was a Meyers-Briggs test that we had to complete before arriving at orientation.

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is essentially a personality test that measures how you prefer to interact with the world and make decisions.  There are 4 dichotomies represented by 8 letters, and your "type" consists of one letter from each dichotomy.  The 4 dichotomies are:

1 - Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
2 - Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
3 - Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
4 - Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

I took the self test, which consisted of 93 questions asking to choose between two opposing scenarios or words.  For example, I had to choose between the words "possibilities" and "certainties," or choosing between going by a set schedule or just going with the flow.  Each preference is correlated with a certain letter above.

My score is ISTJ, which is apparently one of the most common scores (10-14% of the population according to Wikipedia).  This is the little blurb associated with my score in the test booklet:

Quiet, serious, earn success by thoroughness and dependability.  Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible.  Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions.  Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized--their work, their home [HA!], their life.  Value traditions and loyalty.

Basically dead on except for that little part about having an organized home.  My room at home is pretty messy (ok, extremely messy) but in my defense, I know where EVERYTHING is.  So maybe that part isn't complete false?  I think my family would beg to differ.  ;-)

I always find myself wanting to learn more (sometimes I just get lost in Wikipedia learning about random things!) so while researching my score, I found this website.  ISTJ is the "duty fulfiller."  Here are some lines from the site that I think especially pertain to me:

As an ISTJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion.  Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

Organized and methodical in their approach, they can generally succeed at any task which they undertake

ISTJs have tremendous respect for facts.  They hold a tremendous store of facts within themselves, which they have gathered through their Sensing preference.

ISTJs usually have a great sense of space and function, and artistic appreciation.

ISTJs tend to believe in laws and traditions, and expect the same from others.  They're not comfortable with breaking laws or going against the rules.

The ISTJ is extremely dependable on following through with things which he or she has promised.  For this reason, they sometimes get more and more work piled on top of them.  Because the ISTJ has such a strong sense of duty, they may have a difficult time saying "no" when they are given more work than they can reasonably handle.

I could go on with more descriptions I found, but I'm thinking that others might not share my "tremendous respect for facts."  If you've never taken a Meyers-Briggs personality test before, take it now!  I'm pretty amazed at how accurate this was.  There are some free MBTI-type tests here and here.  They're not official tests and I'm not sure how accurate the results are, but it can't hurt to try!

I'm officially back in Pittsburgh, and it is HOT.  The place we're living doesn't have air conditioning, but with 2 ceiling fans and 2 other fans, it's fairly comfortable.  Time to start unpacking and go through orientation!

Door decs and triangles

In addition to music, medicine, and measuring cups (a.k.a. cooking), I also really like to craft.  Too bad I couldn't think of a crafting word that starts with "m" to add to the alliteration of my blog title, but then the title would be obscenely long!  Anyway, since I'm such a procrastinator, I rarely pursue craft projects unless I have a deadline like making a blanket or a scrapbook for a friend or family member.

For the next month, I will be a residence life counselor for a summer program for high school students interested in a career in health care.  I'll be living in a dorm with the students, so no kitchen for me, but I have recipes and pictures of some of the food I've made so far this summer that I'll post instead.

I am super excited for the program because I participated in a similar program when I was in high school, and it was one of the best summers of my life.  I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the program as a staff member and acting as a mentor to the students.  I'll also be attending my very first baseball game (Pirates), but I'm not sure yet if I should be excited or not about that...

Back to the crafting.  Before arriving at the dorm, we had to create door signs for each of the students on our floor.  I decided to do CUPCAKES!  Pink, of course, because my floor is all girls.  I do not take credit for the design of the cupcakes, but I can't find the website where I found the pattern.  I added the pink glitter and it looks like sugar!

...and then I made 14 more

Another part of the preparation for the program is to make the "Personal Mosaic" triangle.  It's mainly an exercise for the students, but we have to make our own triangles as well.  Everyone will get together and lay out their triangles on the floor, forming one giant mosaic by matching something in one triangle with something in an adjacent triangle.  The whole thing ends up being pretty impressive with ~120 individual mosaics.  I'll be sure to post a picture of the completed mosaic!  Each individual mosaic is split into 4 smaller triangles:

• Top triangle: "Where do you come from?"
• Center triangle: "Who are you?"
• Left triangle: "What are your affiliations, causes, aspirations, etc.?"
• Right triangle: "What inspires you?"

I dug up my triangle from when I did my program in 2007

JUST LOOK at baby Ismet!!!  He was about 6 months old when I did PGSS

And here is my triangle for 2012!  I just realized I used the same picture of a cello in pretty much the same spot.  I've obviously changed so much in 5 years...

The quote around the perimeter of the right triangle: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  ~ Mark Twain

Heading back to Pittsburgh tomorrow for a great month!

Italian dinner

Yesterday, I made dinner for Father's Day. On the menu:
Appetizer: Avocado bruschetta and kalamata olive bruschetta on toasted French baguette.
Main course: Lean turkey meatballs, portabella mushrooms, and yellow squash with homemade marinara sauce over whole wheat pasta and sauteed green beans.
My mom supplied the dessert: Raspberry, lemon, and pineapple passionfruit sorbet.

I recently stumbled across a food blog run by two 3rd year medical students called Braised Anatomy. Both the bruschetta and marinara sauce came from this blog, but I'll reproduce the recipes here with my minor alterations. Definitely check out their blog for more great recipes!

Bruschetta [Adapted from Braised Anatomy]

Avocado bruschetta and kalamata olive bruschetta

I was only making dinner for 3 people, so I had to reduce the original recipe.  We also didn't have mint, which was called for in the original.  The bruschettas are exactly the same except for the avocado or olive option.  A double of this recipe (1 of each kind of bruschetta) is enough for 3 people to have 4 pieces of bread + bruschetta each.

• 1/2 avocado, diced OR 1 cup kalamata olives, diced
• 1 cup plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Mix it all together and let it sit in the fridge for a while so everything soaks up the flavors.  Serve on toasted French baguette!

Marinara Sauce [Also adapted from Braised Anatomy]

Simple marinara sauce

This sauce is extremely simple and so delicious!  Definitely going to be using this from now on instead of stuff from a jar or just plain diced tomatoes.

• 4, 14.5-oz cans of diced tomatoes with no salt added
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 5-7 cloves of garlic, minced (we love garlic!!)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ~1/4 cup minced basil
• palmful of dried oregano
• pepper to taste

In a dutch oven or saucepan, heat the oil and saute the garlic on medium-high heat.  Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil.  Then reduce the heat to low or warm and simmer for 30+ minutes (I think we had it simmering for about 45 minutes).  Freeze any excess for later use!

Lean Turkey Meatballs

Raw meatballs ready to be browned!

These are my own recipe, and I usually just eyeball the spices and ingredients depending on what I have and who I'm cooking for.  Since I was cooking for my parents, I left out the crushed red pepper flakes that I usually add, but I really didn't miss them!  These meatballs are super healthy (much leaner than beef) and come out juicy and flavorful despite lack of fat.

• 21-oz package of the leanest possible ground turkey breast (99% fat free)
• 1 large egg
• 1 slice of bread (I used FiberOne 100% whole wheat bread, but use whatever you have on hand)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• splash of skim milk
• about a palmful of dried oregano, a palmful of fresh basil, several grates of black peppercorn, and a pinch of salt - vary these amounts or add other spices depending on your taste!

Crumble the bread and mix everything together.  If it is too sticky (probably will be), add some milk.  This recipe will make exactly 12 meatballs if you use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure them.  Bring a pan with olive oil to medium heat.  The minuscule fat content of the meatballs causes them to annoyingly stick to a stainless steel pan, so if you're not using a non-stick pan, use a lot of oil or be prepared to scrape turkey bits off the bottom.  Once the meatballs are browned on all sides, add the marinara sauce and whatever veggies you want - we did mushrooms and yellow squash.  Cover and simmer on low or warm until the meatballs are cooked (start making your pasta!).

Top it all off with some grated parmesan cheese!  My favorite!

Hope that was a good first post, here's to many more!