3 Sweet Potatoes (Small) diced into a very small dice (1/4 inch-1/2 inch)
1 shallot
1 bunch of kale, chopped finely
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
Ground pepper to taste
1/4-1/2 tsp Spanish Smoked hot paprika
Dash of garlic powder
Cooking oil (I use an olive oil blend)
Squirt bottle of water
Eggs
Drizzle a skillet with oil and heat on medium-high heat. Once hot, add shallots, sautee for about 30 seconds and add in your sweet potatoes. Stir to cover with oil, then cover immediately. Stay closeby! You want to leave the lid on and leave the potatoes on direct heat long enough for them to start to get a little brown on the bottom, but not so long that they burn. This will take a few minutes (maybe 3-4?). Once you have reached this critical point, stir the potatoes around and squirt the pan with a bit of water to keep the potatoes from sticking. Use as much water as necessary added a little bit at a time- it will cook off. Add an extra bit of water and then quickly cover the potatoes again, steaming them until they are done. You may need to stir and squirt more water in again. Once the potatoes are soft, add in the kale with a bit more water, and "sautee" the kale with the water until it is cooked through. Season with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Set aside, covered, to keep warm.
In another pan, "fry" the eggs. Crack the egg into the skillet, let the whites cook on the bottom, flip it once (or don't), cook the whites, and leave the yolk will still be runny.
If you don't like fried eggs, you could always scramble it too!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Salsa!
Mad an awesome salsa this week.
1 32 oz can whole tomatoes, mostly drained (save the liquid)
1 Serrano
1 jalapeño
1 poblano
3 cloves garlic
1/2 a small-Medium onion
About a 1/3-1/2 c packed cilantro
Juice of 2 limes
Salt and pepper to taste
Toss in food pro, blend to desired consistency. Let sit at least overnight.
It's not as tomatoey as many salsas, which I like, as it turns out.
It has been amazing on my eggs in the morning...
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Dal Nirvana
Made a delicious Dal! Want to keep the recipe somewhere safe! I based the recipe off of several I googled.
Makes a bunch of servings (Probably 8 GOOD size servings)
1-1lb bag lentils (I used the cheap green/brown ones)
1-15 oz can tomato sauce
1-15ish oz can diced tomatoes (I used roasted, but I don't think it actually made a difference)
1 sm can of tomato paste (the small size can)
2 T grated ginger (could probably have done more!
4-6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Salt, Black Pepper, and Cayenne Pepper to taste
Garam Masala (about 1/2-1 tsp? I did to taste)
Several cups of water, to be poured in as needed
4T butter
1/2 c heavy/whipping cream
Cilantro to garnish (it does taste good in there too!
Brown Basmati Rice for serving
1. Wash/pick through lentils. Place in pot and cover with water by 2 inches. Boil the lentils until they're mostly soft- 10-15 min (or more).
2. Drain lentils. Add butter, tomato sauce, tomatoes (NOT drained, unless you're watching salt), garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and garam masala. Taste it and adjust as needed.
3. Add water until it's fairly thin. About 1 cup to start, though I probably added a total of over 2 cups.
4. Mash up some of the lentils- I used an immersion blender and pulsed it around a few times until it was the right consistency
5. Watch it and continue to add water as needed. Stir it so the lentils don't get stuck to the bottom. It will get pretty thick- taste it as you go.
6. It's done cooking when the lentils are completely soft and the flavors are amazing. And when it's the right texture for you.
7. Add cream and mix through, and garnish with the cilantro (I mixed some in).
Serve with Brown Rice, or Naan if you like.
Makes a bunch of servings (Probably 8 GOOD size servings)
1-1lb bag lentils (I used the cheap green/brown ones)
1-15 oz can tomato sauce
1-15ish oz can diced tomatoes (I used roasted, but I don't think it actually made a difference)
1 sm can of tomato paste (the small size can)
2 T grated ginger (could probably have done more!
4-6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Salt, Black Pepper, and Cayenne Pepper to taste
Garam Masala (about 1/2-1 tsp? I did to taste)
Several cups of water, to be poured in as needed
4T butter
1/2 c heavy/whipping cream
Cilantro to garnish (it does taste good in there too!
Brown Basmati Rice for serving
1. Wash/pick through lentils. Place in pot and cover with water by 2 inches. Boil the lentils until they're mostly soft- 10-15 min (or more).
2. Drain lentils. Add butter, tomato sauce, tomatoes (NOT drained, unless you're watching salt), garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and garam masala. Taste it and adjust as needed.
3. Add water until it's fairly thin. About 1 cup to start, though I probably added a total of over 2 cups.
4. Mash up some of the lentils- I used an immersion blender and pulsed it around a few times until it was the right consistency
5. Watch it and continue to add water as needed. Stir it so the lentils don't get stuck to the bottom. It will get pretty thick- taste it as you go.
6. It's done cooking when the lentils are completely soft and the flavors are amazing. And when it's the right texture for you.
7. Add cream and mix through, and garnish with the cilantro (I mixed some in).
Serve with Brown Rice, or Naan if you like.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
I'll miss you, Dr. A
Lots of people influence us in our lives. Surely each of you has one person in mind who inspired you, ecouraged you, and helped bring out your best.
I had several amazing science teachers in high school who surely helped foster my passion for science. Admittedly, I've been a science nerd scince I was very young. My mom reminded me that I was impossible to potty train- not because I couldn't, but because I wouldn't. When I started getting "too old" to not be potty trained, my dad bribed me. With science videos. Literally, a set of 6 video tapes that were about science related topics. I watched Mr. Wizard on TV when I was in pre-school and loved it. I grew up on Beakman's world and Bill Nye the Science Guy. I was heartbroken when Bill Nye's show stopped airing. My Uncle sent me books on medicine and the body, and I would read through them over, and over, and over.
In Elementary and middle school, I was talented in math. I just "got" it without much work. Science was a little harder- I had to work harder at it, but that didn't mean that I didn't love it. I still spent my time outside of class reading about medicine and other science-related stuff.
In High school, though, I think is where I really began to grasp science, and also why exactly it is that I love science. And I had three amazing instructors who taught me more than I learned in any other class, even in college. It certainly helped that the classes were small, but the passion for teaching and science that these three had was incredible. Mrs. H was my biology teacher, Mr. C was my physics teacher, and Dr. A was my chemistry teacher. I took the introductory class and I also took the AP class from each of these teachers (exept Mrs. H- I made the mistake of NOT entering the honor's science classes as a freshman, and didn't benefit from 2 years with Mrs. H!).
Anyway, these teachers were incredible. When I got to chemistry as a sophomore, I fell in love. It was this amazing combination of math, science, and "why"- I finally got to understand more about the world around me and use the knowledge I had to really understand the answers to the questions I was asking about life and the body, and why things worked the way they did. Dr. A spent countless hours with me during lunches, during off-periods, after school answering my questions and helping me get a better understanding of the material in chemistry. He encouraged us to expand our own education through reading (well, he bribed us with extra credit points for each book we read, and most of us "needed" it- perhaps it was just a ploy to get us to read!). I will say that I read a number of books outside of class for that extra credit, but learned an amazing amount. The books were all science-related, but were often more focused on art in science, ethics, or some other big-picture concept.
As a junior, I had the opportunity to pick a class to take. I took AP Chemistry. Most of the juniors who opted to take an AP science class took biology. It was supposedly easier. But I took AP Chem. I loved the material, and I loved the instructor. He sparked my interest in science. Even though I ended up in biology as a major, my first science class that I really LOVED was chemistry.
A few weeks ago, I was teaching my own students about pH, acid-base balance, and buffer systems in the body. And as I was talking about Henderson and Hasselbach, I heard his voice in the back of my head,"pH is the negative log of the concentration of hydrogen ions." When I took the MCAT a month ago, I heard, "M, delta T, C sub P" for the heat transfer equation. Dr. A's deep voice is literaly burned into my brain.
I'm rambling. That tends to happen when I'm emotional.
Dr. A went into cardiac arrest while teaching a class yesterday morning (yeah, on a saturday morning). He was transported and pronounced at a local hospital.
So what Im trying to say is that an amazing teacher who inspired me to really dig deep into science died yesterday. I'm sad, and bummed, that he's gone. He wasn't just an inspiration to me, he was an inspiration to many.
RIP Dr. A. I won't stop teaching and living what you taught me. Thanks for everything
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Keeping Up to Date with Medicine- Easy Methods for the Prehospital Provider
I've heard someone say before that medical textbooks are out of date by the time they're published.
I don't know if that's really true or not, I mean giving aspirin to chest pain patients hasn't changed since about 1980, best I can tell. BUT, even a drug with such a long history as ASA has brand-spankin' new applications EVEN THIS WEEK (Yes, this week a study was published suggesting benefit from aspirin in preeclampsia). That's kinda cool.
So, with all of this changing information, how can a provider keep up with the new and exciting things in medicine?
Good news- lots of easy, quick, and pre-digested and analyzed options out there for you!
E-mail Based Sources:
1. Physician's First Watch- This is a NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) e-mail list that publishes headlines and brief (4 sentence or so) summaries of the article's findings. It's broken out by topic, so I subscribe to the general list, emergency medicine, cardiology, and pediatrics. You have to sign up for an account, but you don't have to pay anything to get the summary e-mails. If you want full access to their articles (which come with physician CME), you do have to pay to subscribe. I find the headlines and summaries useful, and my medical director can often get articles for me if I don't otherwise have access to them.
2. Kevin MD- This isn't so much a journal site as it is a link to medically related blogs. I use this to help keep up with the political climate, the trending issues that are less clinically related, but nonetheless key to understanding the practice of medicine (I think). It is a list of "teasers" for each of the blog posts and clickable links that take you to the website.
That gets me 3-4 e-mails per day, and I usually end up reading 2-3 articles daily on KMD, and end up researching more on a NEJM article at least weekly.
Podcasts
I have an hour drive to and from work 3 times per week. That's 6 hours of learning time I have to make use of! This is BY FAR the easiest method for me personally to keep up with the going-ons in medicine. It also has exposed me to a number of new and exciting topics, like hyperchloremic acidosis, new methods for airway management, new drugs for critical care, and some amazing clinical leadership lectures. All of these are FREE.
1. EMCrit- Scott Weingart is my hero. Dr. Weingart is an ED intensivist who talks about everything related to critical care. Not all of it is (well, perhaps most of it isn't) entirely relevant to the prehospital environment, but every podcast has me thinking about HOW I should be taking care of my patients, regardless of topic. If you listen to ANY podcasts, this should be the one! Its 20-30 min, and averages a podcast every other week.
2. Hopkins Pod-Med- Elizabeth Tracey (of Johns Hopkins) and Rick Lange (Hopkins and UTHSCSA) provide an "educated consumer" level podcast on the weekly headlines in medicine. Topics vary widely. Around 5 or so topics from journal studies are presented each week, and include a decent discussion on the limitations of each study as well as recommendations. I've learned about everything from prostate cancer screening to various types of cancers to recommendations for cholesterol drugs. Though the actual clinical topics are perhaps more pertinent to my own health (which is something I also believe in- provider health and wellness), what I think the greatest benefit of this podcast has been for me is listening to how these two really ask questions of the journal articles and discuss the limitations of each study. For this reason, I highly recommend this 20-min, weekly podcast (it comes out on Fridays).
3. Annals of Emergency Medicine Podcast- this is a summary of the studies in the monthly AEM
publication. MANY of these are relevant to prehospital care. While it's no substitute for reading the articles on your own, it is FREE, and many of us poor EMS folks who can't afford the high cost of a journal subscription can get information this way. The podcasters are a couple (I gather that they're married, though I can't confirm this), and I also believe that they're both practicing ER docs. Also can't confirm this. Each article is discussed with a particular format that involves a discussion of limitations. This podcast is good for clinical content and, as above, for the critical analysis that happens for each of the articles. It's about an hour long every month.
4. TEDTalks- this is my feel-good podcast. It's inspirational. Though it doesn't often discuss medicine, it discusses people, ideas, and some other really cool stuff. This reminds me to have heart in medicine. It's also one that makes me think about the BIG picture- why am I here? What am I doing to make the world a better place? I listened to a podcast on here the other day that talked about how to make cancer research a self-sustaining entity via a particular investment strategy. I listened to the father of Malala Yousafzai talk about his daughter, and how he became "Malala's Father," rather than Malala being "[His] Daughter." These talks are full of emotion and inspiration. And I think this podcast does a great job of reminding me WHY I have chosen medicine (albeit prehospital at the moment, but medicine nonetheless), and WHY I need to keep working hard to make the world a better place through my own talents. I have to be careful what and when I listen, though, because I'll often have (happy) tears in my eyes when I go to work if I listen to close to when I arrive! This podcast is updated often (multiple podcasts daily from recorded TEDTalks), and are anywhere from 5-30 minutes long.
Journals:
Not too many journals are dedicated to the prehospital environment. BUT there are at least two that are pertinent! I do my best to read these when they come out.
1. Prehosptial Emergency Care (PEC)- This is THE US EMS journal. Published quarterly. If you can't afford your own subscription, call your medical director and ask for his old copies. Or join an organization like NAEMT and get a discount subscription. Get your organization to subscribe. But READ THIS JOURNAL. No excuses.
2. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine- If you can get access to this, read it. At least read the abstracts! It's a British journal. This one presents a much more global view of EMS (EMS in India, Uganda, etc.). Don't forget, we're not an island here in the US- there is MUCH more to EMS than just the US!!
Well, the toddler is dragging me away, and I'm about at the end of my list. I also follow many-a-resource on facebook and twitter. But angry toddler says that social media will have to be another post!
Have a safe shift.
---
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I hope to be one some day. Do not take any of the information on my page to be medical advice. It's not. Just because I read an article doesn't make me an expert, nor does it make you an expert, nor should you do anything the internet, any articles, or my blog say without first consulting your personal physician (yes, you SHOULD have a PCP). These are my opinions, solely my opinions, and are not the opinions of anyone else, anywhere I work or have worked, or my friends and relations. The odds of winning are so low that you should save your money and go elsewhere. Your mileage may vary. Now go forth and do good things.
I don't know if that's really true or not, I mean giving aspirin to chest pain patients hasn't changed since about 1980, best I can tell. BUT, even a drug with such a long history as ASA has brand-spankin' new applications EVEN THIS WEEK (Yes, this week a study was published suggesting benefit from aspirin in preeclampsia). That's kinda cool.
So, with all of this changing information, how can a provider keep up with the new and exciting things in medicine?
Good news- lots of easy, quick, and pre-digested and analyzed options out there for you!
E-mail Based Sources:
1. Physician's First Watch- This is a NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) e-mail list that publishes headlines and brief (4 sentence or so) summaries of the article's findings. It's broken out by topic, so I subscribe to the general list, emergency medicine, cardiology, and pediatrics. You have to sign up for an account, but you don't have to pay anything to get the summary e-mails. If you want full access to their articles (which come with physician CME), you do have to pay to subscribe. I find the headlines and summaries useful, and my medical director can often get articles for me if I don't otherwise have access to them.
2. Kevin MD- This isn't so much a journal site as it is a link to medically related blogs. I use this to help keep up with the political climate, the trending issues that are less clinically related, but nonetheless key to understanding the practice of medicine (I think). It is a list of "teasers" for each of the blog posts and clickable links that take you to the website.
That gets me 3-4 e-mails per day, and I usually end up reading 2-3 articles daily on KMD, and end up researching more on a NEJM article at least weekly.
Podcasts
I have an hour drive to and from work 3 times per week. That's 6 hours of learning time I have to make use of! This is BY FAR the easiest method for me personally to keep up with the going-ons in medicine. It also has exposed me to a number of new and exciting topics, like hyperchloremic acidosis, new methods for airway management, new drugs for critical care, and some amazing clinical leadership lectures. All of these are FREE.
1. EMCrit- Scott Weingart is my hero. Dr. Weingart is an ED intensivist who talks about everything related to critical care. Not all of it is (well, perhaps most of it isn't) entirely relevant to the prehospital environment, but every podcast has me thinking about HOW I should be taking care of my patients, regardless of topic. If you listen to ANY podcasts, this should be the one! Its 20-30 min, and averages a podcast every other week.
2. Hopkins Pod-Med- Elizabeth Tracey (of Johns Hopkins) and Rick Lange (Hopkins and UTHSCSA) provide an "educated consumer" level podcast on the weekly headlines in medicine. Topics vary widely. Around 5 or so topics from journal studies are presented each week, and include a decent discussion on the limitations of each study as well as recommendations. I've learned about everything from prostate cancer screening to various types of cancers to recommendations for cholesterol drugs. Though the actual clinical topics are perhaps more pertinent to my own health (which is something I also believe in- provider health and wellness), what I think the greatest benefit of this podcast has been for me is listening to how these two really ask questions of the journal articles and discuss the limitations of each study. For this reason, I highly recommend this 20-min, weekly podcast (it comes out on Fridays).
3. Annals of Emergency Medicine Podcast- this is a summary of the studies in the monthly AEM
publication. MANY of these are relevant to prehospital care. While it's no substitute for reading the articles on your own, it is FREE, and many of us poor EMS folks who can't afford the high cost of a journal subscription can get information this way. The podcasters are a couple (I gather that they're married, though I can't confirm this), and I also believe that they're both practicing ER docs. Also can't confirm this. Each article is discussed with a particular format that involves a discussion of limitations. This podcast is good for clinical content and, as above, for the critical analysis that happens for each of the articles. It's about an hour long every month.
4. TEDTalks- this is my feel-good podcast. It's inspirational. Though it doesn't often discuss medicine, it discusses people, ideas, and some other really cool stuff. This reminds me to have heart in medicine. It's also one that makes me think about the BIG picture- why am I here? What am I doing to make the world a better place? I listened to a podcast on here the other day that talked about how to make cancer research a self-sustaining entity via a particular investment strategy. I listened to the father of Malala Yousafzai talk about his daughter, and how he became "Malala's Father," rather than Malala being "[His] Daughter." These talks are full of emotion and inspiration. And I think this podcast does a great job of reminding me WHY I have chosen medicine (albeit prehospital at the moment, but medicine nonetheless), and WHY I need to keep working hard to make the world a better place through my own talents. I have to be careful what and when I listen, though, because I'll often have (happy) tears in my eyes when I go to work if I listen to close to when I arrive! This podcast is updated often (multiple podcasts daily from recorded TEDTalks), and are anywhere from 5-30 minutes long.
Journals:
Not too many journals are dedicated to the prehospital environment. BUT there are at least two that are pertinent! I do my best to read these when they come out.
1. Prehosptial Emergency Care (PEC)- This is THE US EMS journal. Published quarterly. If you can't afford your own subscription, call your medical director and ask for his old copies. Or join an organization like NAEMT and get a discount subscription. Get your organization to subscribe. But READ THIS JOURNAL. No excuses.
2. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine- If you can get access to this, read it. At least read the abstracts! It's a British journal. This one presents a much more global view of EMS (EMS in India, Uganda, etc.). Don't forget, we're not an island here in the US- there is MUCH more to EMS than just the US!!
Well, the toddler is dragging me away, and I'm about at the end of my list. I also follow many-a-resource on facebook and twitter. But angry toddler says that social media will have to be another post!
Have a safe shift.
---
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I hope to be one some day. Do not take any of the information on my page to be medical advice. It's not. Just because I read an article doesn't make me an expert, nor does it make you an expert, nor should you do anything the internet, any articles, or my blog say without first consulting your personal physician (yes, you SHOULD have a PCP). These are my opinions, solely my opinions, and are not the opinions of anyone else, anywhere I work or have worked, or my friends and relations. The odds of winning are so low that you should save your money and go elsewhere. Your mileage may vary. Now go forth and do good things.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Perfect 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
2 c warm water
1.5 T dry active yeast (appx 2 packets)
2T agave nectar, honey, or sugar
2T olive oil
2 c whole wheat flour
3 c whole white wheat flour
Salt (a few grinds from a grinder)
Pepper (ditto)
Garlic powder (a sprinkle- 1/2 tsp?)
Onion powder (ditto)
Oregano (ditto)
Basil (ditto)
Mix yeast, water, and sweet stuff. Let sit as long as it takes to change poopy diaper, clothes, and bathe child. Wash hands thoroughly. Then add in oil, herbs and spices, mix in flours. Knead with a dough hook in the kitchen aid 3-4 min. Let rise in fridge like 4 hrs, or an hr at room temp. If in fridge, let it come close to room temp before. Then I divide mine into 8ths, made it into 8-9" round crusts and bake in my cake pans. Could also use to make bigger crusts if you prefer.
Bake 7 min for a par-bake at 400. Can cool and freeze at this point. Otherwise, let cool enough to handle, top, and bake on pizza stone at 450 until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown.
Monday, December 30, 2013
My Christmas
For Christmas this year we took the kiddos to Disney. My daughter has hit the princess stage already in her little life, and loves Minnie and Mickey Mouse, and pretty much all things disney. The boy was not so old that he was bored with the shows, parades, lights, and "big kid" rides.
So for Christmas this year, I got to see the delight on my child's face as she met tinkerbell, Snow White, as well as the unforgettable shriek that came out of her when she saw "my Minnie" for the first time.
I'm good with that.
Oh, and there was no tree, no gimmies, no (major) fighting, and no hassle with decorating or lights. We enjoyed the work of others this year.
I like that we as a family have opted for the Christmas vacation. The experiences that we get are more valuable to me than anything. Besides, the kids have more junk than they need. And it's kind of fun to get to say, OK to those one or two small things they pick out at the gift shop...
Can't wait to edit my photos.
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