This weekend went to the dogs. Literally. 

He's a pretty cool dog. Welcome to the family, Alex!

I will say that my parents usually adopt mixed breeds from shelters, but they also love goldens. Plus, this dog would have gone to a shelter if someone didn't take him.

Good food is also one of my favorite parts of going home. As I previously mentioned, my dad makes a homemade pizza every Friday night (except for the base, which is a Boboli whole wheat pizza crust). This weekend, he made a pesto sauce from scratch and added shiitake mushrooms. He layered it with onions, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Fresh arugula was the final touch after it came out of the oven. 

We went to Mambo Italiano in Mundelein for dinner on Saturday. It's one of my parents' go-to restaurants. I ordered eggplant parmesan with whole wheat angel hair pasta on the side. As you can see, the portion was enormous! The leftovers that I took home made a good Sunday morning breakfast. 

I also had the chance to admire the renovation on my parents' basement. They've been in the house for 11 years now, and they've slowing been making changes to the house. I think the basement ties with the screen room for my favorite redo. I don't have Before and After photos, but the After is a big improvement. This new basement includes a half wall that separates the exercise equipment, new cabinetry and larger closets, a shower for the bathroom, and a walk-in wine cellar. 

For my mom and dad, who thoroughly enjoy exercise and wine, this is their perfect basement. Also, the dogs like the open area for playtime. Sam (and now Alex) usually follow us downstairs and hang out while we work out. On Saturday, Sam supervised me while I stretched. 

Sam also waved me goodbye when I went on my run. 

Speaking of running, I'm signed up for the  Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon this summer. Despite having a blog that has the word "jogger" in the title, my running has been pretty weak for the past few years. I had multiple setbacks with my injured sartorius muscle (when I lived in Australia) and since then have had achy feet and a very bad lower back. I'll get more into the lower back story one day, but I've a few instances over the past couple of years where I pulled my lower back so badly that I couldn't walk. I've been through chirotherapy, massages, and personal training sessions that focus on my form, increasing my hip mobility, and strengthening my back.

For the first time in months, the sharp pain in my back is diminishing. I give most of the credit to the personal training sessions for teaching me about stretching, using a foam roller and a lacrosse ball on multiple muscle groups, and honing in on my form when lifting objects, doing squats and lunges, and more. I'm still avoiding the high-intensity group exercise classes, but I'm able to hit the treadmill or pavement and run a couple of miles pain-free. If I keep up with my therapy, I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to run 13.1 miles in July.

This weekend, I did four. Hell yes. Running in the suburbs was relaxing. I wasn't dodging walkers or dogs, waiting for lights to change, or enduring temporary deafness by the wailing of a passing siren. It was a much welcomed change of scenery. 

As for my training schedule, I'm planning to run at least two times per week (one shorter run, one longer run) and slowly increase my mileage. I logged my longest run yet at eight miles last fall by doing just that. There will be many more exciting runs to come. 

Have a great week!

 Even though I've enjoyed loved buffalo chicken for many years, I've never taken the initiative to make it myself. Until I researched recipes and different sauces, I thought that all buffalo sauces were full of junk and could never be healthy. The truth is that you can make buffalo chicken in your crock pot with only three ingredients and very minimal labor. 

All you need is Frank's Red Hot Sauce (no weird ingredients), chicken breast, and butter. That's it. Add the chicken breasts to the crock pot, pour the bottle of hot sauce over it, and cook it. When it's done, the meat will fall apart. 

It will shred apart easily with a fork. 

Once the chicken is shredded, add everything back to the crock pot, add your butter, and mix. 

Pulled chicken is popular in between two pieces of bread, but I chose to make a salad and tacos. The picture below doesn't look very appetizing (it really tasted good!), but I made a great salad on my first night. I put the chicken on a bed of mixed greens and added fresh cubed mozzarella cheese, grape tomatoes (halved), and half of an avocado. No dressing needed. 

I had the same salad for leftovers the next day and then made tacos for dinner. I used corn tortillas (the El Milagro brand with no preservatives) and topped with the buffalo chicken, black beans, corn, mixed greens, and shredded pepper jack cheese. 

I put it in the microwave for 90 seconds and then topped them with half of an avocado, plain Greek yogurt (sour cream works too), and a slight sprinkling of chili powder. 

In true form, I had the tacos again for lunch. It turns out that three chicken breasts can get you a lot of buffalo chicken. I recommend trying this recipe and getting creative with your lunches and dinners!

Crock Pot Spicy Buffalo Chicken (serves 6+)

Ingredients:

• 3 large chicken breasts, boneless, skinless (or 4 small)
• 1 12-oz bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• 1-2 T butter

Directions:

1. Trim excess fat from chicken breasts and place into crock pot.
2. Pour entire bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce over chicken.
3. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours
4. When done, remove chicken breasts from crock pot and place on cutting board. Pull chicken apart using fork and knife until all of the chicken breasts are shredded. Put shredded chicken back into crock pot, into the sauce. 
5. Add 1-2 T butter and mix well. 
6. The chicken is done! Make sandwiches, salads, tacos, pizza, or whatever else seems like a good idea to you!

Happy Monday! I hope everybody had a great weekend. Friday, February 19th marked exactly one year since I became a registered dietitian. The last time that I was active on my blog, I was nutrition student and about one month away from starting my internship, or supervised practice. Today, I will talk in more detail about that. For this post to make sense, I'll have to tell you a bit more about my nutrition program and the process for becoming a registered dietitian. 

The RD process: 
To become an RD, you must do the following: 

1. ​Obtain a bachelor's degree including a specific set of nutrition coursework that is set by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2. Complete the Dietetic Internship.
3. Pass the RD Exam. 

One of the perks of my nutrition program was that it included all of the core nutrition coursework, my masters classes, and my internship. For many dietitians-in-training, these three (or two, if you don't get your masters degree) components are separate. Having my internship included in my program saved me from the stress of having to find one on my own, since there is about a 50% match rate with dietetic internships. It also meant that my classes and internship overlapped and made me a very busy bee at times. 

The Dietetic Internship is designed to make us apply our classroom knowledge to the real world. It exposes us to a variety of settings and teaches us how to be a dietitian once we  pass our exam. With the exception a few of our  rotations, we stayed at each location for four weeks at at time. There were required rotations (standards for ACEND or the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics), and then we had elective rotations where we could choose where we wanted to go.

During my third semester in February of 2014, while I was taking classes full-time, I started my 10-month internship. The rest of this post will discuss each of my rotations in more detail, starting with my community rotation. (I'm sorry there aren't more photos in here, but I did make chevron dividers!)

My community rotation was the first part of my internship. This portion of our internship went for 11 weeks, but we only went two times per week since we were taking our classes full-time. I was assigned to a homeless shelter in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. This organization that I interned for included two homeless shelters (one male; one female), a food pantry, a preschool, and many other services. I often helped in the food pantry as a personal shopper. Each shopper was paired with a volunteer who walked around with them, often held their food for them, and talked to them while they were shopping. We also kept track of their "points" while they were shopping (each person gets "points" depending on how many members there are in their family) and made sure they didn't go over their allotment. I, of course, encouraged shoppers to stock up on produce, especially since most of the produce was zero points! I also helped in the kitchen by prepping food and serving lunch to the men and taught a few classes. One of my favorite experiences was teaching the preschoolers about healthy snacks. I remember bringing humus for them. All in all, it was a very rewarding experience. I developed bonds with members of the community, especially since the majority of volunteers were from the neighborhood.The organization has flourished in the past couple of years, and I am so happy for them. 

My second rotation, clinical, started about two weeks after I finished my classes. At this point, we started going to our rotation five days per week, eight hours per day. The only exception was holidays and attending class every other Monday for seminars. I was finished with all of my coursework except for one masters class, so I took my final class online for eight weeks. I was incredibly fortunate to score my clinical assignment about two blocks away from where I lived. Since our clinical rotation lasted 11 weeks, I was lucky to have a tiny commute. 

Clinicals were, in a nutshell, awesome. This rotation was our nutrition classes in the flesh. I was assigned to an RD every day, who I followed around like a puppy dog for the first week. I observed them and started working while they observed me, and then, by the end, I was all on my own. I had my own floors and my own patients. I relied on my preceptors for guidance and to sign my notes, but besides that, I was essentially working as a dietitian. Now, in 2016, I am working in the same hospital and am teaching interns. It's pretty great.

I will probably write a post one day about what clinical dietitians do. In short, we screen for patients who need nutritional intervention (underweight, tube feeders, gastrointestinal cancer, etc), we collect information on them (weight, medical history, medications, etc), we assess them (visit them in their room, talk to doctors, talk to nurses), and then we make our plan (write the tube feeding recommendations, order supplements, discuss further interventions needed with doctors, etc). We also give bedside diet educations, and, in this hospital, we see outpatients. We are also involved with food service, which I'll discuss in my next section. 

To my delight, I was able to spend an additional four weeks at the same local hospital for my food service rotation. By this time, I was finished with all of my academic classes was able to focus 100% on my internship.

​My food service rotation had the largest syllabus from my program, because there were so many assignments to do. I wrote papers on the department's budget, worked with my preceptor to develop a project on the plate/pellet rotation in the kitchen, did a cost analysis,  performed inservices with the staff in the kitchen (talked to them about topics such as organization in the pantries, etc), did multiple test trays (took tray temperatures and tasted the food), created a bulletin board with food safety notices on it, developed a hypothetical patient menu for Labor Day, and made labels to organize the cooler. Each assignment required some kind of a paper to turn in to my program coordinators (as did each rotation, but again, this rotation had the highest paper yield by far). I grew very accustomed to using the laminator and label machine. On top of that, I made outstanding connections at this hospital. I'm very lucky that I'm working here almost two years later!

Towards the end of our school  year, we gave our program coordinators a list of our interests and electives that we wanted to do. There are so many different career paths for dietitians, and the Dietetic Internship is a great way to experiment. I chose Public Relations. Others chose pediatrics, oncology, weight loss counseling, CPS (Chicago Public Schools), and community outreach, to name a few. 

My PR internship took place in a fancy office in a downtown skyscraper where I worked in a sunny cubicle with unlimited access to cereal, soy milk, and coffee from an expensive machine. Every Friday afternoon, a woman wheeled a beer cart past my cubicle and told me to pick whatever brew I wanted. My preceptor kept me busy with assignments, mostly given to me via e-mail. Instead of walking to work, I stuffed my laptop into my over-sized purse every morning and crammed myself onto the crowded Red Line. I spent the whole day in my cubicle except when I was meeting with my preceptor, looking for cereal, or going to lunch.  It was so different from my previous work environment that I didn't know what to do with myself for the first week (except write, of course).

While I liked the busy, upscale work environment, I left my final day knowing that I was unlikely to choose PR for my career. I love to write, of course, but I like to write what I believe. I would find it hard to support food brands that I don't actually like. My favorite part of the internship was weeks later when I went to FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo) in Atlanta. My preceptor was very active with putting research together for a presentation there. She gave me assignments that were related to that, and I saw some of my ideas reflected in that presentation in Atlanta. I had a very good relationship with my preceptor, and it was her enthusiasm for PR that made me second-guess, even after I decided it wasn't right for me, whether I should pursue it. For those who enjoy writing and want to make very good money, this is a good way to specialize in dietetics. Could I consider doing something like this one day? Maybe. But for now, I want to work with patients and write what I want. 

October came before I knew it, and I only had two rotations to go. My next rotation was an outpatient diabetes rotation, and it was also my favorite. I've never mentioned this before, but I've wanted to specialize in diabetes ever since I took biochemistry while talking my prerequisites. I was fascinated about how insulin works and the differences between the types of diabetes. I told my program coordinators that I was interested in this, and they rewarded me with an outstanding placement.

This practice was on the southwest side of the city and had a large Medicare/Medicaid population. We saw Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes patients. My preceptor was also filling in at the bariatric (obesity) clinic once a week, so I got to help her with counseling and she let me teach a class for bariatric surgery patients. This was the first time in my life that I got to do counseling, and I fell in love with it. My preceptor was extremely helpful in critiquing me and prepared me so well for the outpatients that I see now. In addition to the counseling practice, I used a glucometer for a long weekend (a device that reads your blood glucose levels after you prick your finger), gave myself a saline insulin shot on the side of my abdominal area, and wore an insulin pump (filled with saline) for 24 hours. I learned an immense amount of information from these four weeks, and I can say with full confidence that I want to continue to learn about diabetes and specialize in it. Once I am an RD for two years and get enough hours working with diabetics, I'll be able to sit for another exam and become a Certified Diabetes Educator. I can't wait for that day to come! 

 Our final rotation was six weeks, and we also got to choose where we wanted to go. This was our professional rotation. Examples of my friends' placements include clinical rotations with specific focus (e.g. renal), food service for schools, and working with media dietitians in Chicago.  I was interested in corporate wellness, and I got lucky again with a great experience.

I was placed in a large hospital system with hundreds of employees who wanted to lose weight. Once a week, my preceptor and I met with the participants in person. We weighed them, gave them nutritional advice, and handed them recipes to try for the next week. Each participant was expected to hand in a food log and list how many times they ate out or ate processed food. I didn't get to help with those logs or recipes since they were already done by the time that I started, but I was able to help with the program for January 2015. We brainstormed weekly challenges (e.g. make bone broth, avoid added sugar for a week, etc). It was a fun, creative internship. When I wasn't weighing or counseling patients, I was working on the 2015 program, helping my preceptor with data entry, or doing e-mail counseling. My preceptor was very influential over the way I eat now. I no longer count my calories but try to eat real foods and avoid processed foods as much as I can. You'll see a lot of that reflected in my recipes! 

I remember working from home in my pajamas on the last day of my internship. At the end of the day, I sent my last assignment to my preceptor and completed the final paper of my internship to submit to my program coordinator. I was done, and it felt weird. My program met one final time as a class to fill out paperwork stating that we had finished our internship. About two weeks later, we received an email from the Commission on Dietetic Registration that gave us permission to  register for the RD exam. But that is where I will end this post. The RD exam will be for another day. I'll conclude with this: 

After our last day of filling out paperwork at class, one of our classmates threw a giant party. We ate, drank, and were merry. I'm still happy to call these girls my friends! 

Thanks to Lexx for this wonderful photo collage!

Happy Thursday! While I was making my shopping list over the weekend, I was brainstorming vegetable side dishes to go with chicken breast. I'm used to making broccoli, sauteed spinach, brussels sprouts, a simple salad, or many varieties of potato,  but this vegetable doesn't usually come to mind: mushrooms. I almost always buy mushrooms to cook them in something, but I can't remember the last time I cooked them as a side dish. 

 Mushrooms are extremely easy to cook. I just threw them on a hot pan (Al bought them chopped already) with some butter and spices. Within ten minutes, they had softened, shrunken in size, and absorbed everything else in the pan. They already have a strong, umami flavor that doesn't require much tampering with to taste delicious. 

Here's a fun fact about mushrooms: did you know that they're one of the few plant foods that contain vitamin D? If they are irradiated, or exposed to ultraviolet light, they have even more. Apparently, cooked mushrooms also contain more of the vitamin than eating them raw. If you eat one serving of an irradiated and grilled portabella mushroom, for example, you could be getting more than half of  the vitamin D that you need in one day! Regardless, I wouldn't recommend depending entirely on mushrooms for your vitamin D needs (even if it is tasty!). It's best to get them from a variety of foods. 

For the main star of my dinner on Tuesday, I got my inspiration from a Hasselback chicken recipe on Proper Tasty. (If you don't already follow these Tasty pages on Facebook, I recommend it. You will sit there and drool.) My chicken breasts ended up being too thin to make deep slits. I was only able to make about two slits and had to cut down and then horizontally to be able to fit anything inside of it. It may have not looked like the Tasty video, but it tasted fantastic! The mushrooms also complimented the chicken perfectly.  

Spinach and Feta Hasselback Chicken (inspired by Proper Tasty's Hasselback Chicken)

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup baby spinach, rinsed
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 T butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Melt butter on stove on  medium heat. 
3. Add baby spinach. Cook, mixing around in butter, until wilted. 
4. Add feta cheese and mix immediately with spatula (it will melt instantly). Quickly pour mixture onto plate and put aside. 
5. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper. 
6. Using a sharp knife, make 3-4 deep slits (short-wise; not long-wise) across the chicken breast. (Don't cut all the way through the chicken; cut about 3/4 of the way through.) Evenly distribute spinach-cheese mixture into slits. 
7. Evenly distribute shredded mozzarella cheese across the top of each chicken breast.
8. Put in oven for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through. 

Easy Sauteed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1 package baby bella mushrooms, sliced (if not pre-sliced, prep mushrooms by wiping off  dirt with paper towel, remove stems, and slice lengthwise).
• 1-2 T butter or olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Melt butter/heat oil in pan on stove.
2. Add mushrooms and spices.
3. Cook about 10-15 minutes, gradually moving around with spatula.  If mushrooms appear dry, they may need more butter or oil. 
4. All done!

Happy Valentine's Day of 2016! It's hard to believe that it's been over TWO YEARS since I've written a blog post. I'm back, I'm registered,  and I'm ready to play.  I'll update you on what I've been doing during my absence, but for now, let's start with a light topic: breakfast!

I wrote about the 2-ingredient pancake two years ago. I wish I could say that I engineered this recipe myself, but this has been popular for some time among healthy-living bloggers. This is gluten-free and can potentially be dairy-free depending on your choice of toppings or if you avoid butter. 

I love this breakfast. While it's a sweet and filling creation for the morning, you can also enjoy this for lunch or dinner. 

With only two core ingredients, this pancake is very easy to make. All I do is mash my banana well with a fork (if you're using a frozen banana, microwave it in a microwave-safe bowl for 10-20 seconds, drain the excess fluid, then mash), add two eggs, and whisk/mix well. 

I like to add cinnamon as an extra ingredient. I mix it in with my banana/egg mixture. I heat butter or coconut oil over medium heat and pour the mixture onto the pan to create one gigantic pancake. You can make multiple small pancakes, too!

Wait at least five minutes before flipping the pancake. If you flip too early, it falls apart. If you wait too long, it burns. If you try to flip and you can tell it's going to fall apart, wait 1-2 more minutes. 

Once you flip, your pancake should be done in about 3-4 minutes. Put it on a plate and add whatever toppings you like. Toppings that I almost always use (as pictured above) include:

• 1 big spoonful of natural peanut butter
• A drizzle of pure maple syrup
• 1 big spoonful of plain yogurt
• A final dusting of cinnamon 

Recipe: 2-Ingredient Pancake

​Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil or butter
• Toppings of your choice (see above)
  

Directions:

1. Mash banana  well with fork in bowl. Add eggs and whisk/mix well with banana.
2. Add cinnamon and mix well (optional).
3. Heat oil or butter over medium heat. 
4. Pour mixture into pan. Let mixture sit for 5-7 minutes, occasionally using spatula to lift up edges of pancake. 
   
5. Once mixture sets at the bottom, carefully flip pancake using spatula. 
   
6. Let pancake cook on other side for 3-4 minutes or until lightly brown/cooked through. 
   
7. Put pancake on plate, add toppings, and enjoy! 

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