Foodservice: Half-way through

It’s Saturday night and I’m writing a blog post, why? What are you up to?

To clear up any confusion, I’m recovering from a crazy week of internship. This past Thursday was my Cafeteria Lunch Special: All Around The World. We had to create a menu around a theme of our choosing, and I wanted one I could find lots of recipes from. Mine looked like this:
English breakfast scone,
African Yam and Peanut Stew (<—Amazing by the way)
Quinoa Tabbouleh
Butter chicken
Thai Tofu Coconut Curry
Chicken Fajitas
Maple Sugar Pie

I really wanted to have some pictures of my menu items, but would you believe my camera decided to not work?! I know! It was tragic.

But overall it went well, a few glitches were to be had but mostly it was a success. The cook may have mixed up the curry pastes, so I had an emergency Save-On run in the morning and the tofu for the Thai curry (a green curry) was dyed pink, but c’est la vie!

It was an interesting experience, but now it’s past, my paper on it is mostly written (first draft anyway) and I’m on to the next project.

I’ve still been finding time for cooking. I made some roasted garlic hummus last weekend:

For Thanksgiving dinner I tried Angela’s Chocolate Torte.

Delicious! I mean, I could tell it was made from avocado, but honestly everyone else said if I hadn’t said “it’s vegan and has avocados” they wouldn’t have known. My one friend did, apparently because “her mom tried sneaking vegetables into desserts all the time.”

Now that I’m not so consumed by this project I hope to get back to a more regular blogging experience. So fingers crossed it will happen.

Happy weekend!

A Tuesday Evening

Today was a long day. It started with my phone’s alarm going off at 5:40am, and that was not an accident. My intern partner and I had to be at Royal Inland Hospital by 6:30am so we could hit the road with our preceptor to head to Kelowna. In Kelowna we would be attending a group ordering session with our preceptor, and many other foodservice managers from across the Interior Health Authority.

It was a long day, both interesting and dull. Seeing how a health authority goes about ordering their food through one source for multiple different health service areas (IHA stretches across a large part of BC) is interesting. A meeting that lasts all day and talks about stuff you don’t know all the details about? Not interesting.

It was a day that needed an evening worth getting to. In my head while sitting in the meeting and trying not to nod off, I pictured a bag of fresh carrots I knew we had in our fridge. I knew what I wanted for supper.

Is there anything like ginger? Yum.

I chopped up some onions, garlic, ginger and carrots.

Threw them all in the pot and let them boil away. 

My brother was helpful and made a salad to go along with the soup.

Looks like a delicious meal, no? It was, oh it was.

I’ve also spent a great deal of time in the kitchen at the hospital testing out the recipes for my cafeteria special. Man is it intimidating cooking in a facility like that! Very scary. But sort of exciting too.

How has your week been going?

2 Weeks

I’m officially two weeks into my internship, and boy has it been keeping me busy. It feels more like a month really. Time wise, not so much in terms of the amount I’ve learned.

The biggest difference so far for me personally is how self directed it is. I’m used to having something to measure my accomplishes against, and while we do have some assignments that will be “graded” at the same time it’s up to us to know what we should be learning. What will make me competent in foodservice? What should I be thinking about, and what do I need to be paying attention to as I follow my preceptor?

So far so good, I’m on my way to learning all sorts of interesting administrative stuff, and about all the different areas in the foodservice at Royal Inland Hospital.

I’ve been spending lots of time in my kitchen as well, one of the projects we have involves creating a “cafeteria special”. I didn’t want to use recipes I’ve never tried, so I made sure I tested them out on my parents, not that they mind.

Speaking of recipes, I owe you one don’t I?

Grandmi’s Fudgies:

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine or butter
4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
4 eggs
2 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
Dash Salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*.
Grease two 8×8 or one 8×15 size pan.

1. Melt the chocolate and margarine in a double boiler or microwave. Once a smooth mixture, remove from the double boiler and allow to cool while you perform step 2.
2. Mean while beat the eggs with the sugar until light in colour and fluffy, add vanilla and salt.
3. Add in the chocolate and margarine mixture slowly to egg and sugar, stir as you pour.
4. Next add in flour and salt.
5. Transfer to the two pans, and put in the oven. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes. And this is the secret key: do not over cook. Test them a little before you think they’ll be done, and stick a toothpick or knife in the middle. If it comes out just barely clean it’s perfect. (in kamloops I cooked them for 25minutes exactly).

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this post, what can I say? This post was a little spontaneous!

Adios, hope your weekend is going well!

On getting the goal

Hello internet blog world, my, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?

I’m happy to say that for me, the worst of the term is past. I’m not necessarily closer to being done (couple exams, a few summer courses, and you know an internship) but hey I’m getting there, and I feel a lot lighter today.

The worst part is that I’ve been dying to write. Not literally, but it seems like the one week in my life when I know I don’t have time to blog is when I come up with the most ideas. How does that work anyway?

This post was inspired by  Caitlin recent posts on life/work balance, and how it really just a way for us ladies to guilt trip ourselves. (Love her friend’s response by the way)

(I love this picture, it’s from a project this year, and it just reminds me of holistic health) 

I was reading the response sent by Caitlin’s bff, and one quote stuck out for me:

Generally though, I’m ok with my hectic work schedule because I have secret desires of world domination and I am constantly considering the "long term.”  I think people get into trouble when they have those "What is it all for??!" moments, but you really just need to keep things in perspective.  Remember why you are doing what you do in work and life, and if you’re creative enough you’ll figure out a way to rule the world and and still have your sanity.

I have always been a very goal oriented person, and long term goals, short term goals, any kind of goals really, usually drive me. Something I’ve noticed is that upon hitting that goal, I get a little lost for a while. Somehow when I achieve a goal, I get confused. What do I do now? This is as far as I’d thought.

And this happened when I finally got into dietetics. I’d been driving myself through five years of university to get to dietetics. Then I got in, and I got lost. I asked myself What is it all for? What am I doing here? 

For some reason this year I’ve been avoiding making goals. There have been a lot of barriers, but the thing is, those barriers have been almost entirely in my head. 

The honest biggest mental block I’ve had is not knowing what exactly I want. Sure it’s okay to waver here and there, to be flexible, but I’ve always been someone who wants to (and usually does) know where I’m going, even if the route to getting there is a little bit scenic and off the beaten path.

I know some time off is fine, but there’s a difference between resting and becoming stagnant. And stagnant is definitely what I’ve been feeling lately. I just need to motivation to make the changes I’ve been thinking about.

But I feel like I’m slowly getting back to being my old self, but I was definitely looking for some thoughts on goals and life/work balance.

How do you get back on track after reaching a goal?

Do you usually have an idea of goals for when you reach goals?

How do you deal with loss of motivation? Do you force yourself to get back at it, or give yourself some time (on that note, how much is too much time?)

Prepared

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. I went out to enjoy the sunshine.

I also picked up some of this.

Yep I decided to go with Almond milk for the vegan for a week challenge. In fact I’m having some right now in my oatmeal. Verdict? Surprisingly sweet.

Some notes on going vegan next week:

I have a class that involves eating a variety of foods cooked in the class. This food lab is not entirely vegan friendly, and because I think it’s important I participate fully I will not be following the vegan plan that night…

But other than that I should be fully vegan.

Also my coffee and sugar free February is going awesome. I’m drinking black or green tea mostly, I’m now down to one cup a day from two. It’s been going well.

On another note I had a delicious lunch yesterday:

It was a salad of thinly slice cucumber (I used a peeler), grated carrots, raisins, with a Tofu Caesar dressing (Would be vegan except for the anchovy paste) and sprinkled with sesame seeds. I think it could be easily veganized though, by replacing the anchovy paste with something else sort of salty and umame in taste.

Well I have such a busy day ahead of me, I have to get going on it! But I promise many a post on my vegan week ahead.

That Time of Year

It’s that time of year.

Where there’s ribbons and bows, and candles.

We celebrate with friends, classmates, and co-workers; Happy Holidays! Another year comes to an end.

Where frost is on the ground, and leaves have fallen down.

It’s that time of year where procrastination becomes an art.

Be it baking, photography, or internet surfing.

It’s that time of year that I’d much rather be outside walking around.

Then cooped up in here, hovering over my textbook.

But if I want to pass, I guess I should get to work.

So goodnight blog world, I’ll see you again tomorrow!

PS The Ginger cookies are a vegan recipe I’m working on, it’s not quite ready, when it is, I’ll let you know.

It’s been Awhile…

Since I posted.

Well I’m not quite out of the dark yet. I’ve finished 4 of 5 exam (three of them in just over twenty-four hours on Thursday/Friday) and the last one really isn’t too worrisome.

I do have a dietetics interview to prepare for as well, I’m a little nervous since last year it was the interview portion that I bombed. But hopefully I’ll be more prepared this time around?

It’s making me quite lazy right now. I’m trying to motivate myself to do some spring cleaning, but all I’ve managed to do today is take out the garbage/recycling. :p

I’ve been reading blogs…

like From French Fries to Flaxseeds, which has an awesome give away by the way.

Or old stands like KERF, Healthy Tipping Point, Oh She Glows.

And other fantastic Canadian blogs, Life After Bagels, Why Deprive?

My butt has been glued to seats quite frequently this past week and my back and shoulders have totally felt it. But rolling it out with a foam roller every night totally helped.

So now my stress levels are lower and instead of school I’m thinking about summer. I basically have one thing I need to get doing:

JOB HUNTING. Anyone hiring? Other then that I have no summer plans, except chill out, relax and use my brain less.

Oh and I’m really looking forward to this:

(only add in a 1/2 before that marathon will you.)

And once I finished that I need to think of some other fun sports goal. Might involve this:

 

Hmmm.

What are your summer plans?

I promise to be back (sooner rather then later) with better pictures.

Focusing

Hello All,

I’m apologizing for being so MIA lately. But honestly I’ve been busy. It’s that time of year when us students have to crack down and start hunching over oodles of crazy notes to make sure we pass some exams…

And considering my exam schedule I’m going to be super busy for the next two- three weeks, so I’m making no promises about making posts.

Want to see some more Campus Correspondent fun?

April’s issues out and we’re talking exam stress:

http://sh101.ca/ubc.html

So while I’ll continue reading all your wonderful blogs, mine will probably remain fairly unused.

Till then!

I spoil myself…

For those of you foodies, you know how expensive a trip to Whole Foods, or Capers might be. Well this week I was out job hunting and I found myself outside Capers, and I knew I would go in…

And I did. Look at some of the loot I picked up!

 

Some raw cocoa nibs, nutritional yeast, and greek yogurt. Yum.

Of course I had a snack of one today:

Look at how thick it is!

Of course I did eat it from a bowl! And I topped it with some peanut butter, cocoa powder and some agave. And something interesting happened…

I wanted to melt the peanut butter a bit, make it more pliable for mixing… And I burnt it!

Did you know you could burn peanut butter? In a microwave? I didn’t! Lol. Oh well, it worked fine.

Today I did a little “real” shopping and spoiled myself with new shoes, a sports bra, jacket and bikini! I didn’t mean to buy so much, but it sort of happened. *blush*

What has everyone else been up to this weekend? Anything exciting?

PS Storm the wall is tomorrow, hopefully I can get some photos and recap the race for you!

Breathing

Wow. It’s been crazy for me here, and not in a good way. Tough to fit it all in sort of crazy. I’ve been having trouble finding the time.
But today, was a good day, and I found the time to just breathe.

It started with a blogger favorite: Oats in A Jar.

And ended with this:

 

Free late Harvest Wine from chile anyone? I was lucky and won a draw in my Wine Science class. Yummy. I’ll have to wait for a good occasion to open this baby.

Hmmm, it’s been a good day. And my blogging will continue to be rather sporadic unfortunately. It’s just that time of year in the student life.