Comfort foods and new job!

Hello everyone!  I'm sure that everyone is just as happy that it's Friday as I am!  This has been a crazy couple of weeks for me.  Besides my normal school and field placement work, I've also been dealing with the new puppy and a new job (more on that later).

I've been cooking a lot of comfort food this week!  I didn't even realize that I had planned all of them out like that until G said something about it.  Weird.  Guess it's the weather.  A couple of nights ago I made RR's Philly Cheesesteak Mac and Cheese.

We weren't crazy about this, but I also didn't follow the recipe to the t.  I forgot to get provolone cheese, so I used a mixture of cheeses that probably didn't hold up as well as they could have.  Eh oh well.  I still like RR :)

Tonight I made burgers with ground chicken and some oven baked onion rings.

I have felt pretty unhealthy lately.  Probably a large part of that is because we've been watching the puppy so much and can't really take him out too much yet.  He hasn't had all of his vaccinations.  But how can you say no to this face?

So, I just finished training for my new job.  I'm going to be an on-call family crisis worker.  Basically, the hospital has a program for victims of domestic violence and every patient is screened for those type of problems.  If someone is screened positive and it is after business hours, then the nurses would call the on-call person (me!).  I work with the women (or men) on screening them for physical/emotional/sexual abuse, talk with them about the dynamics of abuse, and then provide resources and do safety planning with them.

I really like this work.  I think it's common for people to have an idea in their minds about what kinds of women go through abuse, but it can seriously happen to any person no matter their age, race, sexual preference, gender, religion, ethnicity- you name it.  The fact that I am able to plant the seeds in these women's minds about getting themselves into better situations.  So we'll see how it goes!!

I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, even though I REALLY need to get some work done!  Hope you have a relaxing one, too!!

Yummy fall foods!

Yesterday was an awesome day for cooking!  One of the big perks to living with the BF is I can cook things that I had always wanted to, but I knew that I couldn't finish by myself.  Case in point: Chicken Pot Pie!

This recipe was awesome.  One of those things that you can't wait to eat for lunch the next day.  I left the peas out and I actually used turkey breast.

I also remade this!

This is seriously one of my favorite desserts right now.  It has such an amazing blend of flavors and it's really good for fall.

And of course, a puppy update video of our baby, Ollie.  He's starting to get really wild!!

Tomorrow is hump day!  Yay!

Meet Ollie!

Meet Ollie, our 8-week old Labradoodle!

Update.

Hi y'all.  I figured it might be a good idea to write a little bit of an update post.  I stopped posting back in May because I got too busy with work.  I also deleted a lot of entries because of a privacy issue that I had, so I figured I could try to fill in some of the blanks :)

• I graduated from UMD in May with my BA in Psychology.
• I spent the summer working at the same restaurant at home in Ocean City that I've worked at for five years.
• I saw Paul McCartney in concert!
  
• In August, G and I moved to an apartment in downtown Baltimore.
• I am currently in my first year of UMB's Master's program in Social Work.
• My field placement (internship) is at a hospital.  I work on the pediatrics, PICU, and pediatric hematology/oncology.  I am there on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• I am getting a new puppy tomorrow!  He is a labradoodle and we are naming him Ollie.

That's all I can think of right now!  I hope this catches anyone up who was interested.

Prepping for puppy.

I just had a really great weekend with my parents!  It was the first time that they've been up to see our new apartment since we moved.  The weekend pretty much consisted of eating and shopping-- two of my favorite things :)

They had never been to Lexington Market so we went down there to check it out.  We picked up some sandwiches from Krause's.  I got a Thanksgiving sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

No time like the present to get into the Thanksgiving spirit!  This turkey is really good-- moist and good flavor.  And big!

We also did a lot of puppy shopping this weekend.  My parents were amazing enough to help out the poor graduate students with the puppy supplies.  Check out puppy's new home!

For dinner tonight I made shrimp pot pie.  It was a shrimp, broccoli, and onion base with puff pastry.

It was alright, but I definitely still had room for Berger cake and milk.

I have a human behavior midterm tomorrow and I'm really not into it.  Getting ready for a new puppy is WAY more exciting :)

New family member?

A lot has been going on this week.  Here's a quick clue about an exciting new addition to our home:

My parents are on their way to visit for the weekend!  So much excitement!

Sloppy and spicy.

Ugh.  I used to really like my human behavior class, but it has become a major borefest.  I was so happy to get out of there and home!  I worked out today and it's been a while.  My neck has been acting funny and the workout made it feel really weird.  Not sure what that's about.

Dinner was another one of those meals that I have been making over and over again for the boyfriend.  I based this off of Rachael Ray's recipe in The Big Orange Book, Sloppy Buffalo Joes.  Here's the original recipe.  I modified it so that it I only put in onions, Frank's Red Hot, diced tomatoes, and chicken broth to the ground meat (I used turkey tonight).

I like putting the chopped up pickles and blue cheese crumbles on top.  Yummy.  I served it with some tater tots with Old Bay, my love.  I also had a few crackers with cheese after my workout.

I'm so used to getting a lot of replies right away when I post, and it's been really slow.  I know this is only my second day back, but I'm trying not to get discouraged.  I want my community back!

I have to be at the hospital in the morning for my internship.  I'll really need to get around to updating everything and everyone with all of my life changes since May!