Here we go again.

Second verse, same as the first.  A little bit louder and a little bit worse.

That’s right, folks.  We are back at it again.  And by we, I mean me.  So far I have done really well at not giving in to my normal first day panic.  Granted, my mind has mostly been somewhere else, but I am really trying to focus on the fact that I can only do what I can do, and I can only do that one day at a time.  {Let’s not discuss the mild freak-out I had earlier tonight because my family had PB&J and eggs & toast for dinner.}

The first few days, at least for me, is this weird mix of ‘what exactly should I be doing’ and ‘holy crap there are a million things I should be doing’.  Currently, I’m chipping away {albeit, slowly} at the giant list of drug cards that need to be done this semester.  I figure if I can get them done now before things really get hot and heavy, it should buy me some time later for other all the other things that I will need to do.  It may very well be an exercise in futility, but in this moment, it is helping me feel like I’ve got things under control.  {No, I don’t have control issues.  Why do you ask?}

So far it seems I have things under control, but I’m not opposed to having a stock of paper bags laying around.  After all, we are talking about me here.

Dinner on a dime and in a hot minute

Apple Juice Chicken

Ingredients

• Chicken thighs
• Unfiltered apple juice
• Frozen stir-fry veggies
• Rice
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

• Trim chicken thighs and cut into bite-size chunks
  *To make this a freezer meal, stop here and toss those bad boys in the freezer.  Defrost the chicken overnight in the refrigerator (or any other means necessary depending on your tolerance of salmonella).
• Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then cook the chicken most of the way in a deep sauté pan.
• Add in enough apple juice to cover the chicken.
• Simmer the juice and chicken until a thick sauce forms.
  *It takes a while and then it happens very quickly.  Make sure to keep an eye on the pan once the juice level goes down so you don’t burn everything and hate yourself when you are trying to clean that mess out of the pan.
• Cook the rice in whatever manner you prefer.
  *My rice cooker is one of my favorite appliances.
• Microwave your veggies & toss into the pan with the chicken and sauce.
• Top the rice with the chicken and veggies and eat until you are stuffed!

It really is one of the easiest meals I can make, it doesn’t taste like crock-pot mush, and my people LOVE it.

Enjoy!

You’re welcome.

McCormick has saved the day.  I’m serious.  They have these great sauce packets that make my life so much easier (and HELLO gluten free options.  I see you!).  See my post about fajitas and freezer meals if you don’t believe me.  They have some really great options that makes dinner prep super easy (and also something my husband can do). Add in a steam-able veggie bag and you have a relatively healthy meal in about 10 minutes.  We tried the Uncle Ben’s microwave rice packs.  Skip ’em, they taste like oily garbage.

Cook meat, add sauce, microwave veggies, done.  Chow time.

If your family is anything like mine, they will happily eat pizza three nights a week, but the natives get restless when there hasn’t been a relatively “normal” meal in a few days.

What’s food got to do with it?

A while ago, I mentioned something about prepping a ton of freezer meals.  We quickly learned that not all crockpot meals are created equal.  My husband was kind enough to point out that the reason they were less than impressive is because I have mad cooking skills, so we are a bit spoiled.  Even so, the recipes I was using resulted in dried out meats that didn’t taste fresh at all, like Pinterest promised.  Because of that, we have adapted and I have created a list of meals that are a little closer to “fresh”.  I’m going to keep adding the successful recipes as we discover them, because I care about you and I don’t want anyone eating dried out meat from a crock pot.

Chicken Fajitas

• 3 bell peppers (go colorful here)
• 1/2 sweet onion
• 2 chicken breasts (real ones, not pre-frozen)
• McCormick Gluten Free Fajita Skillet Sauce

Clean and slice the peppers to desired width.  Slice onions to desired width.  (I prefer them super thin.)  Place the peppers in a sandwich size ziplock bag and squeeze out as much air as you possibly can.

Slice the chicken breast in half long-way, through the middle.  (It ends up looking like a clamshell of sorts.)  Then cut the chicken breast (the short way) into thin strips.
*In all honesty, slice the chicken however you like it when eating fajitas.  I like everything to be about the same size because I have issues.  Put the chicken into another sandwich size ziplock bag and squeeze out as much air as you possibly can.

Grab a quart or gallon size freezer bag.  Put any and all information you need to on the bag (including the recipe if the non-cook of the house is going to prepare the meal).  Put the peppers and chicken into this larger, labeled bag and pop it in the freezer.

Defrost everything overnight/during the day so it is not frozen when dinner time rolls around.

The second part is really up to your preference.  You can either buy the toppings (sour cream, avocado, tortillas, cheese, etc.) when you know you are going to be eating the fajitas or you can buy them and freeze them with the kit.  I usually purchase it ahead of time, but you run the risk of them being consumed for something other than your freezer meal, and then you have to run to the store anyway.  Because let’s be real… that’s what happens in real life.

I’m sure someone is thinking, duh, this is totally common sense.  But for the rest of us, the concept of preparing things and then cooking it might be more than our brains could fathom.

Stay tuned for more recipes as we deem them acceptable.

We interrupt this study session

With a fun game called “when will he puke?” That’s right, my son ate so much pizza at a birthday party that his little body decided it had to go. After an hour of rubbing his back and making him sip some water, he finally let it all out.

Judging by the size of the chunks, we are going to have to have a conversation about chewing food properly.

Edited: As it turns out, it may have been a bout of food poisoning or just a good old fashioned tummy bug.  My poor boy was up almost every hour on the hour puking until there was nothing left.  He was pretty excited to have Sprite and toast for breakfast and some Gatorade for lunch.  Thankfully he was back to his old self within 24 hours AND my husband and I managed to avoid catching it.

You Win Thome, You Lose Thome

Odd title, but it will make sense, I promise.

My son has had a wiggly tooth for weeks and weeks. We finally got to the point where he isn’t really eating much because it hurts to bite anything. Even when gnawing on his food with the side of his mouth like a caveman.

Today, with the help of a hearty gummy bear bribe, I convinced him to tie some floss around his loose tooth so he can wiggle and yank at his discretion. The plan was going well until my mom accidentally got caught on the long string of floss and his tooth went flying (thankfully still tied to the floss). After the panic and bleeding stopped, he enjoyed his well-deserved popsicle and is relieved to be done with the whole process.

This ordeal made me think of two things:

Even the simplest, ordinary thing is terrifying for some.

My son is just like me – change makes us panic.

I’m hoping that I remember this when I’m working directly with patients. Even though something is mundane and ordinary to me, it doesn’t mean that it is no big deal to them.

I wonder if gummy bear bribery works in the medical field too…

Who came up with that?

“C’s earn degrees.”

One of my very least favorite things to be told or to overhear.  Maybe it’s because I’m a bit of an overachiever, maybe its because I’m now part of the “old” generation (at least to the average-aged college student), or maybe its because when I hear that and consider the fact that the person saying it is most likely entering the nursing field, I die a little inside.

See?  Their apathy is already killing people! 

Seriously though.  Are you not in the field of your choice to do your very best?  Even if you do your very best, give it your all, and study your face off only to earn a C, I applaud you!  But if you are just skating through without a care in the world, I am totally giving you ‘the look’.

It’s sad that this is a lesson that my husband and I preach to our six year old; whatever you are doing, do your very best.  That is all we ask of him.  Not straight A’s.  Not perfection.  Just for him to put forth all of his effort.  Don’t hear what I am not saying, this isn’t for us.  It isn’t so we can brag about how advanced and wonderful our child is (we do, but that’s because he really is awesome), it is to teach him not to let himself down.  So if you consider this valuable lesson, one that I recently re-read for the third time from one of my newest favorite books, Girl Wash Your Face, these kids are not just giving up on any potential patients, they are giving up on themselves.

I should clarify that while I hate that awful phrase, it bothers me even more when it is coupled with a conversation about how online classes are so much better because you don’t have to actually learn the content.  “All the answers are on quizlet.”

/record screech

I guess this is partially the momma-bear in me wanting the best for those little ducklings I call fellow students, but in all honesty I wonder what the point is if you aren’t going to actually learn the content of the course, especially when you will see it again and again in other courses and oh you know, your licensing exam.