GYST - 4. Work

This is part of my 2014 non-resolution-resolution to Get Your (my) Shit Together. 

I think I should probably call it my "Life Plan," but the 12-months of 2014 

seems more manageable than say, oh, the next 50 years.

Today I got a job.



I thought about making that the entire post but that seems like it's cheating. Is it cheating? Do you actually care to know more? It's relatively boring, trust me.

The details are...I quit working last July when all the information we were getting about nursing school basically said "don't plan on werkin' because you'll be twerkin.'" jk, y'all. It did say "don't plan on working" and I took that to mean AT ALL and I up and quit my job and said goodbye to my clients and took up permanent [i.e. weekends too] residence in the great city of Indianapolis.

Then when we started school, all these school people were like "where do you work?" Uh. What? Did I misinterpret what I read before when I was reading all the things you were sending because I'm pretty sure I accidentally got into nursing school and I want to make sure I'm familiar with the kicking-out success policy.

Truth.

All in all, I wanted a nursing job. A variety of student jobs are available at hospitals around this city, but do you know how difficult it is to land said job? Freakin' hard. I want that nursing job. Oh, Ego, how you tease and torment me! Except I haven't/didn't get any of those, so it's basically time to have some income.

I reminded myself why I went to massage school in the first place [granted, my reasons and the benefits of massage grew and expanded in ways I didn't even fathom when I started, so this reason became less of a reason in my non-student life] which was: To have a part-time job that will pay a significant enough hourly wage that I don't have to work a bajillion [or forty] hours a week if I went back to school.

So I sucked it up, applied for a job, got a call, went in for an interview, was told I was hired, filled out paperwork, and I start on Saturday. *edit: It's a job doing massage at a studio in Indy for those of you wanting deets. (-: 

The end.

ten things

1. I'm totally listening to Jon McLaughlin and coloring my hair.
2. The clock on my computer says it's 12:31 AM, but it's only 11:31 PM in Kansas.
3. Today I got a massage and realized my massage pet peeve: when people don't listen to the client. PET PEEVE.
4. I was on Facetime for about an hour and forty-five minutes today with 10 women I love. It was so good to see their faces, but also sad because I wasn't there and we were saying goodbye to our regular time together.
5. Speaking of sad, I'm about to rip my heart out by finishing The Fault in Our Stars. Please check back later to see how it went.
6. Spring break should be spent in warm places and I am not in a warm place. Boo.
7. I so needed this week though, warm or cold.
8. I have 21 (TWENTY-ONE) started drafts of random posts. Some are the same thing I wrote twice and didn't actually like either time, but I'm not ready to give up on the content. I should take care of some of that.
9. I took a quiz on Buzzfeed and I'm Abegnation. I always want to be something badass and tough, but let's be real. I'm a gentle spirit. Are you totally excited about Divergent? [I am.]
10. I've recently been sucked into the YouTube abyss. I don't watch TV, but I can spent many minutes [hours?] watching video after video after video after video on YouTube. Who're some of your favorite YouTubers? is that a thing...youtubers?

Goodnight, friends. My new haircolor will be on IG.

xoxo

Zucchini & Mushroom Gnocchi

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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Have you had gnocchi [pronounced nnn-yoh-key, all the "n's" are important so you can place it in your hard palate right behind your front teeth] before? The lovely little potato pasta pillows from heaven?

The first time I had gnocchi was in San Gimignano, Italy on choir tour spring 2005. It was love at first bite.

So if you haven't tried them, and you love carbs [I do!] you should go to the store and pick up a package. They're usually in the "International Food" aisle with the fancy direct-from-Italy pastas. You know the ones.

I think you traditionally eat gnocchi with pesto or a thin light sauce that will just coat and enhance the pillows of goodness, but I'm all about doing what I want in my kitchen.


I pulled five ingredients out of my fridge and cupboard:

gnocchi,
garlic,
pasta sauce [on sale for $1 a jar at Kroger last week! If you're a sauce snob and want to make your own--more power to you, feel free to send me some],
a small zucchini and
mushrooms [on the verge of going bad].




Before you do anything else get a pot of water going, don't forget to salt your water! I'm a fan of using a heavily salted water for my pasta. It just tastes good.

Grate the zucchini and throw it in a pan with a little olive oil.

I wanted to get a little of the moisture out of my zucchini before adding in my chopped mushrooms and garlic. I also added a little salt, onion powder [you could sauté some onions with the zucchini, but I didn't have any onions] and dried basil here.

Let it all cook down and get soft and squishy then add a bit of pasta sauce. Not too much, just a little. We're not soaking our gnocchi with sauce.

Once your water starts boiling add the gnocchi. I used about half a package and put the leftover in the freezer. It takes a few minutes to cook the gnocchi all the way through, when they start to float I give them about 1-2 more minutes and then I take them out of the water.

Throw everything together and toss. If your sauce gets too thick add a little water--the pasta water is great for this!

Start to finish? About 20 minutes. Bada-bing, bada-boom! You're cookin'! Taste it to check your seasonings and add some salt and/or pepper if you need it.

Top with cheese and some fresh basil if you'd like.
I always like to.

Corn Salad

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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This is from Summer 2012.

I'm home in Kansas and we've had corn out the wazoo this week! Therefore, I made a salad.

While I was cooking this was happening. Have you seen the sunset [and sunrise] in Kansas? BEST SKIES EVER. I view it as Kansas' claim to fame.
Not basketball.
Not wheat.
Not sunflowers.
Not tornados.
SKY.

I've been kind of into salads this summer and I could get into grilled corn, except I don't have a grill, so I'll grill when I can.

This is one that's been on my mind since last summer when Sarah made it for a barbecue months and month ago. Seriously. Except I don't remember any of the details she just said: corn, avocado, cilantro and lime.

I said, "Tomato would be good in that."

My mouth said, "Yes!"

So I did it.

Sarah found the original recipe in Martha Stewart Magazine, but I couldn't find it on the interwebs so I made it up and wrote it down. Now, I will share it with you.

Dressing: LIME a touch of oil and spices. It's all about the lime though.

Corn Salad

• 5-6 ears of corn
• 2 small tomatoes
• 2 avocados
• 2 limes
• cilantro
• oil of choice [Olive or a mild vegetable oil]
• salt-n-pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• hot sauce of choice [Frank's has my heart]

Clean your ears of corn and grill it until slightly charred. Let cool and cut the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife. Chop your avocados [spritz with half a lime so they don't get brown], dice those tomatoes, and snip that cilantro. Combine with the corn and put in a bowl. In a small jar, juice the remaining 1 1/2 limes, add 2 Tbsp oil, 1 tsp salt, pepper to taste, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and around 10 shakes [more or less] of your favorite hot sauce. Shake and pour over the corn mixture. Toss gently.

I prefer this salad at room temperature, but it will keep for 24 hours in the fridge if you can't finish it off in one sitting. (-:

ENJOY!

#nursingschoolprobs

The last two weeks have been...rough.

My homework has piled up, exams kicked my butt, my eyes just kept leaking fluids for hours on end, I don't even know what I missed.

Because I definitely missed something since I was feeling sorry for myself.

If you're thinking about being a nurse and you think it's going to be easy, let me take this moment to say: You need a reality check. I'm not even completely sure that I've gotten to the hard part yet, and it's flippin' hard.

And then I Debbie Downer'd all over this post.

In an attempt to have non-school news, I shall now show you random crap from my phone.

My nails looked like this last week:

You may notice my church-league volleyball injury. I'm hardcore.

I went for a run/walk [wooo!] and my hair looked like this:

It's disgustingly dirty bedhead.

I'm in the process for ranking photos from several printing places, so I'm asking people I see for opinions [that's your hint that I may ask you to participate in the world's worst party game]:

The results will be blogged about. (-:

I also debated whether or not I could wear these leggings as pants:

Do two layers of leggings make it better? My shirt didn't cover my bum, so I went with no I was not wearing pants.
You're welcome, world.

Here's to a good week! 

xo

Beets, Blue Cheese, and Chickpea Salad

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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I don't know if I was extra hungry for lunch today [by "today" I mean sometime in March 2012] or if this was just THE BEST SALAD EVER, but you need to make this salad. ASAP.

Methinks, tomorrow sounds like a good time.
(-:

Also, I want "methinks" to be revived. Mostly because methinks, "methinks" is so funny. Who says that?!?!

Generally, I'm pretty sure that salads I make at home are crappy. Why are they crappy? Because I like to put too much on them. There's so much going on I can't distinguish anything in my mouth. No bueno. I need to plan more frequently because when I have a plan I can exercise some topping-control.

This salad is basically three toppings, dressing and your lettuce. KISS it: Keep It Simple Stupid. I learned that at basketball camp in 6th grade.

OK, the chickpeas (aka garbanzos) are spicy, salty, crunchy texture on this salad and they take about 30 minutes of cooking time.

I loosely followed the directions from Steamy Kitchen's Crispy Roasted Chickpeas. The "loosely" means I didn't read through everything and I salted and seasoned my chickpeas before I baked them, and I didn't bake them quite long enough because I was impatient. As Steamy Kitchen recommends, use whatever seasoning you like, I had a jar of Italian Dressing Base which was my seasoning choice (and a very good choice!) when I roasted my garbanzos.

These are so yummy and nutty when they're crunchy (or even slightly crunchy). If you don't love chickpeas straight from the can, I would recommend trying this, it totally changes them.

How do you feel about beets? It seems to me that they're a love-'em/hate-'em kind of thing. I am the former. BIG TIME. I LOVE BEETS. Oh, how I love them. The color! The texture! The flavor! I should write a song about it, if I wrote songs. Which I don't.

These are beets my grandma pickled from last summer. Prizes for helping watch her dog while she and my grandpa were in Florida. I will always take fresh, canned or frozen vegetables for payment. Would anyone like to barter?

The dressing:

It's all about proportions. Just mix the amount of each ingredient (mustard, brown sugar, spices, a pinch of salt, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil) you like in a jar and shake it up.

I do prefer a mustard that looks like this rather than one that's bright yellow:

I used the same seasoning mix as I used for the roasted chickpeas because I didn't want the flavors to compete. I also made this right after I stuck the chickpeas in the oven so it would have time to dissolve the sugar and salt and rehydrate some of the herbs.

Assemble the salad in a bowl. Butter lettuce is my preference. I like equal parts chickpeas and beets and as much blue cheese as I can get in there. A light drizzle of dressing and BAM! It's eating time.

For me this is an entree salad, but if you're a meat lover some grilled steak would be delicious on this or next to it. Blue cheese and beets just beg for a beef accompaniment. Unless you don't eat beef, then they need nothing.

Fish Foil Packs

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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It's about 8pm**. I'm hungry. Because I'm hungry, I'm also grouchy. I also haven't been to the grocery store in at least a week. Because I'm lazy.

I'm lazy because I don't want to go to Aldi or Kroger. I don't want to go to Aldi or Kroger because I don't want to have to make decisions. I don't want to make decisions because deciding is hard. (-:

WHAT AM I GOING TO MAKE? A freezer meal. No, not that kind of frozen dinner, but a meal I'm going to put together from things in my freezer and pantry.

These kinds of frozen things: fish and asparagus.

The lemon was on it's last day of being acceptable for eating in my fridge. Preparation at it's best. [I'm being sarcastic, in case you didn't know.]

Everything is getting thrown into a foil pack. I started eating foil packs as a kid when we went camping. We took a hamburger patty, sliced potatoes, carrots, onions and s&p and wrapped it in foil, wrote our names on the side with a sharpie and threw those babies on the coals of the fire.

I don't have a fire.
I don't want any hamburger.
I'm not worried about not getting my sharpie-labeled pack.

I'm making my version of the foil pack, wrapping my goodies with two sheets of foil, baking at 350 for about 30 minutes and feeling less grouchy at the end of that time when the food is in my belly.

If you don't have lemons, try limes. No limes? maybe a little vinegar? If you don't have fish, try a boneless-chicken breast. If you don't have frozen asparagus, try broccoli.

WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU HERE IS THAT YOU CAN'T SCREW THIS UP. The foil is going to trap all the goodness inside and give you some moist, delicious meat and veggies no matter what. Cooking in my life is all about putting food you love [and keep on hand] together to make a meal. I like fish, I like asparagus, I like them both with a little lemon goodness and I happened to have all three of those items in my little apartment. That makes me think I can make this quickly and easily.

Hank approves. I miss that kitty.

My Freezer Fish Foil Packs

• One fish fillet
• Frozen asparagus
• Olive oil
• Seasonings
• Lemon, sliced thinly

Pull out two sheets of foil and place on a flat surface. In the center of the foil place the asparagus, season lightly with salt and one layer of lemon [approximately 2-3 slices], place your fish on top of the asparagus. On the fish give a light splash of olive oil and season with your favorite fish seasonings, salt and pepper. Top everything with another layer of lemons, wrap it all up tightly making sure you pull the ends up so there's not too much leaking. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.



**Technically I didn't cook this at 8pm because I wanted to cook it when I had good light for pictures. I don't want you to look at my pictures and think "that amy SITS ON A THRONE OF LIES!" I would make this [and have] at 8pm when I am hungry and grouchy and lazy and tired.

Soft Polenta with Mushrooms and Spinach

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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I'm on a mushroom kick right now.

A mushroom walks into a bar.
The bartender says, "We don't serve mushrooms."
The mushroom says "But I'm a fun guy!"
buh-dum-dum

I love those little fun-guys with all my heart. (-:

This is another easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy recipe. Freals. [Yes, I'm trying to make "freals" happen.]

The ingredients:

Polenta: I could only find instant, so that's what I used. It's a 4:1::water:polenta ratio. If you understand that, you are my people. If you've never had polenta, think of cornbread without the bread or grits with an Italian name. The latter is probably more accurate, at least according to Mario Batali on The Chew. Hank and I watch The Chew every day from 1:00-1:30. Yes, we only watch half so I can get to work in time. (-:

Besides the polenta, you'll need spinach, mushrooms, garlic, onion and feta. Not pictured: olive oil. You should just let this sit by your stove because you can't go wrong with olive oil.

Prep, prep, prep: my 'shrooms came pre-washed/pre-sliced; I diced my onion; I took the stems off my spinach because I'm picky like that [remember your spinach will shrink dramatically, so load up!]; and then I got to cooking.

This is a two pan meal. Follow the directions on your package of polenta. They're usually the same in my experience. First grab a pot to boil water in, I made one [large] serving of polenta. Put one cup of water in your pot and bring to a boil. Once the water boils: remove from the heat, add salt to taste and then while you're constantly whisking add 1/4 cup of polenta slowly. Keep stirring! It will thicken. You must stir so it doesn't get lumpy!

[not pictured: boiling pot of water, you can visualize this]

While you're water's heating up...

In a small skillet heat your olive oil. Add the onions [I will admit to cooking my onions to death because I only like them COMPLETELY COOKED], once the onions are soft add the garlic and the mushrooms. Cook until your mushrooms are as cooked as you like them, for me it's a little wilty but still with some texture. Last add your spinach and season with a little salt and pepper.

If you're feeling frisky, you can put a splash [1-2 tablespoons] of sherry or balsamic vinegar once the spinach is almost done.

Once all of the spinach ingredients are in the pan, I turn off the heat and finish the polenta. The residual heat will finish the spinach.

Put the polenta in a bowl, add the spinach and mushrooms and top with a [hearty] sprinkle of feta. If you need some red color in there, I think a small layer of marinara [straight from the jar in my neck of the woods] under the spinach and mushrooms would be divine.

Soft Polenta with Mushrooms and Spinach
based on a recipe from Real Simple that I'm remembering from a few years ago

-Polenta
Follow the directions on the package for preparation, with mine I used 1 cup of water to 1/4 cup polenta.

-1 small Onion, diced
-1 clove Garlic, minced
-1 cup Mushrooms, sliced
-1-2 cups raw Spinach, stems removed
-Feta
In a small skillet [or a large skillet for more servings], saute your onion in olive oil. Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are browned slightly. Place the spinach in your pan and stir. The spinach will wilt quickly, remove the pan from heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Place the polenta in your bowl, top with mushrooms and spinach and feta.

Enjoy!

survey [the last two columns]

OK, my reply to all the "Amy, I know that you're going to do what you want, but if I had my way I want to know more about..." and "Additional comments/anecdotes/links:" from the survey. I took everyone's name out, I know some of you don't care, some of you do care, and some of this is COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS. Luckily, I can guess who some of you are *eyebrow wag* and I'm going to do my best to use your initials and the state you're from. [if I'm wrong, I apologize over and over and over and over and over again.]

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I just want to know if I was the first one to finish the survey. Also, I don't call myself Capt. Awesome, but I couldn't leave it blank :) Love you! -Love you too, MV from KS! You were the second one to finish, right near the front! (-;

Miss you and hope you're doing well! -Thanks, B(A)D from MI, I miss singing with you!

Your cookie recipes. I love your blog. :) -This is a guess, but I think this is LF or KH from KS. Maybe? gaaaaaah, so hard to guess! I need to bake more!

movie/book reviews! complaints.
i think you should start online dating and blog about new dates every month!
I love you! - I don't know if I'm organized enough to do any movie or book reviews, if something comes up [besides a boring textbook] I'll try to write about it! I will complain as much as I can, but I'm gonna need a nice balance of positivity as well. (-:
Online dating is awkward, and I would love to read a blog that someone writes about the dates she/he goes on [especially the online dates because we all know there are some weird ones], but there's no way that's coming from these fingertips. I don't think it's fair to go into a date knowing I might blog about it. Unless it's something totally crazy then I'll post a quick story on the fb wall, deal? I love you too, EM from CA!

everything! I loved your "Birth" post on January 22. Talking about babies and vaginas and such with blatant openness and honesty is an excellent way to be. And you do it wonderfully!
I would also love to know how to fly through crazy long homework assignments without it -actually- taking forever and me wanting to chug a bottle of wine afterward. Yeah. - Thank you! I love birth too, I am incredibly honored to feel led to that field AND that women would want me with them. I'm sure I'll be talking a lot more about vaginas, cervixes, sex, and testicles as I'm newly fixated on testicular cancer self-screening. I would love to learn how to fly through all the homework without needing a nightly brownie [those are my coping goods of choice].  Good luck to us, right? I'm pretty sure this is SJ or EW from IN, but I'm not 100%, so sorry if it's not. (-:

I love you and miss you! -I think this is JS from KS! Love you too, can't wait to hear how your story keeps unfolding with C! Or maybe it's L(W)K from KS? shoot, I had such high thoughts of myself before I started guessing...

Catheters, cooking, music, and musical theater -I love all those things, so I'm sure you'll get to hear more about them! I still haven't gotten to put a catheter in, but I did get to do my first removals this semester! [Removal is much less intimidating than insertion.] I'm sorry, my super sleuthing skills aren't working and I have no idea who wrote this, but thanks for reading! (-:

The goings on in med class. Kansas photos. Which book you're reading. How to get rid of hangnails. When are you cooking again.
Is there a Sassy Ms. Lassy column in your future? -I will write about and photograph all those things! The only books I've been reading are textbooks, they're not a lot of fun. I've been posting lots of old cooking posts from the other blog and I have a couple new ones in mind. It's harder to cook and set up the whole photo spread when I'm not in my personal space. BUT, I'm still more grateful to have a place to live than I am frustrated at not being able to set up pictures!
If anyone is hiring a sassy-pants [or a smartass], I'll be the first to apply! (-:  I think this might be LB from IN[soon to be CA!], miss you!

I like the "little bit of everything/whatever strikes your fancy" approach you use!!! You're the bees-knees!!! -You're the bees-knees, mystery person from IL! Sometimes I feel a leeeeetle chaotic, but it's nice to know it's at least entertaining! haha!

Nail designs, recipes and crafts -We are speaking the same language, person from IN! I wish I had more weeks where I was allowed to have nail polish on!

I don't know if you ever get my comments I try to leave on your blog. I hit 'post' or whatever the go button is and then my comment disappears. So frustrating! -Oh, that makes me sad! I've been there before on the writing end and it is so frustrating. Well, with the fb page maybe you can comment there? I think this is HH from IN, but I'm not sure. xo

Anything you want to babble about
I miss working with you -Oh, you all have no idea the can of worms you're opening up by encouraging me to babble! ha! I think this might be RH from IN, but I'm not 100%. Gosh, this is harder than I thought to identify people! 

Hank and his new farm life. >^.^< (meow.) -Oh my, are you my first stranger-reader? If yes, I.AM.SO.HONORED. [not even joking] I just learned to make the cat emoticon thing too, and I have a slight problem with overuse. Hank's story makes me sad. )': He ran away from the farm, I'm trying not to blame my parents since they feel really bad. I haven't really talked about it because I'm still hopeful for a Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey kind of ending. Wow. I really haven't thought about it lately, I'm a little verklempt.

Nursing school! -Hi Secret Silent Lurker! I'm going to post a response to all the nursing school requests at the end since lots of people have asked! (-;

what you;re doing in school! tell me all the gross things you see.
i can't believe you're still blogging. -Nursing school at the very end! I can't believe it either, MG from NC! I've lived here on the internet longer than I've physically lived anywhere since I turned 18! HOLY COW! 

Your craziest adventures
I love you! Please make more surveys/quizzes! -I am DYING for an adventure! We'll have to settle for mini-adventures, like a story from when I stop at a truck stop on my way to KS for spring break. That could be interesting, right? I love you too, AK from MO soon to be LA [wooo, grad school!!] I will make more of these, this is fun! xo

I guess just learn more about you. I've only talked to you in person once, but walked away thinking you were pretty awesome. :)
By the way, this is  _____. Felt like you should know who was responding. And I wouldn't say I'm a beer expert, like I indicated in my response... but I'm also not an "Eh, it's alright" beer drinker. I'm in between. Because that's important for you to know. ;) -Hi, MM from IN! I felt the same way after we met! I know our paths are going to cross more, so I'm super excited for the future! Thanks for the beer clarification, I literally know nothing about beer [I could tell you a wheat is light and there are dark ones but I can't remember what they're called] so any knowledge you have is considered expertise in my book! (-:

Your crafty endeavors... not that you don't already share about them. -I feel like I don't share about these! The hard part sometimes is the time commitment to both doing a craft AND taking pictures of the process AND writing the tutorial...even if I could post afters I'd be happy because it would mean that I'm doing something crafty! Once again, not sure who this is, but thanks for reading! xo

I have no additional comments, but your survey made me very pleased! :) Yay, I'm so glad. It was fun for me too, church person who I should probably be able to guess who lives in NC!

Your journey. It sounds interesting, yet I feel I have only scratched the surface.
Validation is needed on a lot of your questions. Especially about Will Ferrell. I like him in most things, but he is not my cup of tea in the broad sense. It does go beyond Elf though. -You're right! I think I might be at a place personally where I'm ready to delve a little deeper, it's pretty scary business airing your laundry on the internet!
Haha, how long do you want these questions to be!? You love Will Ferrell, just say it. I won't judge you because apparently a lot people [who aren't me] like him. I'll take him in Elf and the cowbell sketch from SNL. Sorry I'm not sure who you are, but thank you for reading! (-: 

Cooking recipes, stuff you are learning in school/funny school stories -YES to all of those things. It's on like donkey kong, I think maybe MB from DC? xo

I love every post! Thank you for brightening my day. PS - I got to first assist on on a c section last week. It was very cool! -AHHH! I'm so jealous! I got to watch my first surgeries last week, but they were all man-part surgeries. Interesting, but not my thing. I'm so glad we're still friends, AD from OH! xo

To address all the nursing school story requests: With school it's hard because we have a lot of confidentiality bases to cover, so I can write about what I'm learning, silly things I've done, but nothing that could tell you where I'm working or anything specific about a patient. They're pretty serious about HIPPA and I definitely do not want to get kicked out! My plan is to write some stories which are free of identifiers, hold on to them for a few days/weeks to increase the distance between me and my stories, and then-finally-share them with you.

Oh, how I love each and every one of you! Thank you so much for reading and encouraging me and all your kind words! Blogging is something I do because I love it and I'm glad you get a little joy out of it as well! 

xoxo

survey [zee results]

Promised links: 

1. Jimmy Fallon as Sara in "Ew!" 

2. MN365 Facebook Page 

In the next post, I'll be going through all your sweet notes and suggestions! 

Sloppy 'Shroom Sammies

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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I was never a fan of sloppy-joes. Was it the name? The ground beef? The mess?

I don't know.

They were never my favorite. This version of some vegetarian sloppy 'shroom sandwich is pretty tasty if I do say so myself. (-:

Do you purchase things that are "Manager's Special"? I shop on specific days [Sunday and Monday usually] to take advantage of these babies. Typically my Kroger marks their food on special if it's about to expire in the next day or two. I love you clearance items.

I diced my portabellos and sautéed them in some olive oil and added a sprinkle of Slap Ya Mama and some balsamic vinegar. Just cook it down until the balsamic reduces a bit.

If you live closer than two hours away from Trader Joe's I'm jealous. Also, you should stop by and pick up some of this mustard. It's delicious.

Then build your sammies. I start with a toasted bun, I like it crispy to add some more texture, next the 'shrooms, some spinach, and mustard and mayo.

BOOM.

Eat. Enjoy.

Sloppy 'Shroom Sammies
serves one, multiplies easily
-one Portabello Mushroom Cap, diced
-1 Tbsp Olive Oil
-1/2-1 Tbsp Slap Ya Mama or other spicy seasoning mix, you could also use seasoned salt here
-2-3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Sauté  the diced mushroom in the olive oil until the edges of the mushroom begin to brown, add your seasoning of choice and the balsamic vinegar and cook for 2-5 minutes until the vinegar reduces by about half.

-a Roll or Sandwich bread, toasted if that's your jam
-Spinach
-Mayonaise
-Mustard
-Any other toppings that sound good, a slice of tomato? a bit of cheese?
Build your sandwich and eat it.