Hi! My name is Stephanie and I'm a dietetic intern at Cal Poly, SLO. I'm an endurance athlete, wino, foodie, musician, and lover of all things aviator. I hope you enjoy my daily ramblings, “healthified” recipes, running rampages and all the other things that seem of importance to me! Thanks for stopping by!
I should take a typing test right now, because I am a SPEED DEMON!
ZOOMIN’.
Three day weekends allow for things like 7 cups of coffee.
{Which I don’t feel bad about after drinking this article. I am pro- anything that allows me to incorporate more of my vices into my everyday life.}
And three day weekends is what I will be getting up until January! WOOHOO!
No more Monday classes = 1 of the few perks of being an intern.
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Let’s rewind to my weekend baking extravaganza with Rotaract.
First, for those unfamiliar with what Rotaract is {because I had never heard of it until about 2 weeks ago either}:
“Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30. Rotaract clubs are either community or university based, and they’re sponsored by a local Rotary club. This makes them true “partners in service” and key members of the family of Rotary.”
It’s like the young professional version of Rotary. Cool, huh?
And there are clubs are all over the U.S. {even in little ole’ Wenatchee!}
So far, this rotation has been a mix of awesome-incredible-wonderful and loathsome-contemptible-dreadful.
Let’s break it down, shall we?
Day 1 :: Tour of the main kitchen/central office facilities, as well as the elementary school I will working at. I met the staff and volunteered to play a game/give a presentation during lunch time, which was promptly set up for the next day (!).
The rest of my day was filled with hours of reading school food guidelines. I am pretty much an expert now.
Day 2 :: The day began with peeling and chopping an entire case of sweet potatoes to serve to the kids during my presentation.
I made the mistake of my telling my preceptor that I wouldn’t consider myself a chef and that I don’t do a ton of cooking, which I think he took as I don’t know how to cook. He was trying to tell me how to hold and use a knife…
PG-rated commentary.
Pro-Tip :: Don’t try and be modest, and down-play your strengths. Be confident in your skills, or else deal with the exasperating consequences.
Side Note :: Have you ever had raw sweet potatoes, sliced into chip size, drizzled with honey? Me either until Wednesday, but damn it’s good! Try it!
Then I headed over to the elementary school to play my Fruit and Veggies of the Rainbow game!
The kids are freaking adorable. There were 3 lunches, so I got to play 3 different times.
Lemme tell you, there is nothing more fun and smile-inducing than making a cafeteria full of first and second graders scream the names of fruits and vegetables at the tops of their lungs.
And who would have thought it, but the kids GOBBLED up the sweet potatoes! #sweetsuccess
Then I came back to the office and brainstormed ideas to get kids to eat more fruits and veggies.
I liked my Eat a Rainbow Sticker Chart idea, so I went a little further with that…
And then created a survey to figure out which fruits and veggies the kids like most.
All in all, a fairly decent start to the rotation.
Day 3 :: I got in to work at 8 am and immediately started to do food prep once again. My first job was to chop up an entire case of zucchinis that needed to be used before they went bad.
Okay, so not that bad. Long, boring, time consuming. But I finished that. And then went back to my preceptor for more direction. “Oh, while you are at it, why don’t you chop up this case of cucumbers.”
My response:
Are you freaking kidding me.
But being the good little intern that I am, I of course completed my task with a smile on my face.
Ever wonder what 20lbs of chopped cucumber looks like?
Not. Fun. And now I have a freaking blister.
Chopping vegetables for 3 and 1/2 hours is not my idea of beneficial future RD training.
Needless to say, I was more than ready to get out of there and talk with kiddos more about their produce preferences. Such a breath of fresh air.
Day 4 :: Remember when I was complaining about having to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn? Well Friday was my day to be there at 6am to get an idea of how the tray-line worked.
I scooped food on to trays to be sent all over the district, washed their dishes, cleaned up, and just as my preceptor was about to assign me to more chopping, I pulled him aside to chat about my objectives for this rotation.
I explained to him that I am here to get an idea of how he does his job, and that I have payed my dues as a dishwasher {coincidentally, my very first job}, line-worker, and in food prep. I showed him the list of competencies I need to achieve before the rotation end {food costing, menu planning, budgeting, purchasing, attending meetings}.
I let him know that I completely appreciate the importance of understanding your staff’s responsibilities, and when necessary, stepping in to help out, but that I need to know the ins and outs of running the school food service business as future RD.
He was very receptive, and to my delight, we dug in on the business-side of food service. Which I l.o.v.e.
{For some one who always hated math growing up, I sure do like budgeting and food costing. Weird, I know.}
So to all you girls and guys completing internships now or in the future, don’t be afraid to speak up and push for the experience you want out of your DI. Afterall, you are not paying $12,000 to chop vegetables. You have the power to make your internship in to what you want.
I’m sure I will have more irksome tasks in my future, because, let’s face it, I am a lowly intern, BUT I now feel confident that I don’t have to take a backseat in the whole thing.
Life is good. And this rotation will be too – I can feel it!
Now I’m off to bake massive amounts of cookies for a Rotaract fundraiser and drink wine. Could volunteering get any better?!
I’ve still got work to do on the Employee Incentive Program, and as I mentioned previously, I have a new project to work on as well! I am to create an event for National Eat Healthy Day {November 7th} for the hospital cafe! I get to design a heart healthy menu to serve that day, a healthy eating exhibition, some take away recipes, plus whatever else I come up with! My ideas will be presented to the CEO and others at French. Ahhh! So cool!!
You know I’m all about eating healthy, but sometimes girlfriend just needs to satisfy a sweet tooth.
Veggies don’t always have to be savory. And I’m here to proclaim that good news.
I bring you The Dessert Salad.
Oh yes.
Dessert.
Salad.
Hallelujah!
The Dessert Salad
{vegetarian}
{gluten-free}
Prep time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 salads
Ingredients:
Salad
8 C mixed greens
4 large roasted beets, sliced
grilled asparagus
4 oz goat cheese {or feta, or blue cheese… really any cheese you like}
any other veggies {mushrooms, artichokes, beans}
Spiced Cocoa Candied Almonds
1/4 C sliced almonds
1 Tbs butter
1/2 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 Tbs cocoa powder
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 Tbs finely chopped/smashed blueberries
1 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs honey
Instructions:
In a large pan, melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Mix in cocoa, chili powder, and cinnamon. Add sliced almonds and toss well to coat for about 5 minutes.
Remove almonds from heat, spread out and let cool on a piece of tin foil.
In a small bowl, or salad dressing shaker, add all ingredients for Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette. Shake well.
Combine salad ingredients, sprinkle with candied almonds, cheese, and drizzle vinaigrette on top. Enjoy!
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I love the spicy kick to the almonds. If you are more daring, add a little extra chili powder.
Try not to eat them all before they get on your salad…
Sweet, but not too sweet.
Just right for those afternoons when you need a little treat!
I hate when people call it hump day… I don’t know why I just did that.
Anyways, today was Day 2 of my Dietetic Internship Orientation, and once again, I have nothing but good things to say about the girls. As did our speaker from WIC- she said in the 9 years that she has been coming and speaking with Cal Poly interns, we are the best group she has had! Woohoo! Go us! We are certainly an intelligent, inquisitive, and engaged group.
I won’t go into all the details, but basically, today was all about breastfeeding – 7 hours worth of information. [Well, actually a little less because we were done slightly early - my girls are wicked smaht.]
Now! More importantly…
Yes, yes, yes. I know I am super late on this, but life is busy, yo!
I received my goodie box from a lovely reader, Gina!
Shoutout to Gina – HEY GINA!
Gina and I both were moving in the month of August, so pardon the delay.
This box was in.cred.i.ble. No joke. Gina went above and beyond the call of duty. I could not believe how much stuff I received!!
Here’s what I got…
Adorable card.
Spicy seaweed – delish.
Addicting. I just was plowing through these as my after school snack. The bag had to be pryed from my hands.
Satisfied last night’s sweet tooth!
Can’t wait to put this in my morning yogurt!
Had this on my PB & Jam breakfast this morning. To die for.
LOVE Burt’s Bees.
Totally packing this for tomorrow’s snack.
I see a perfect busy-dietetic-intern-on-the-go-no-time-to-cook dinner in my future!
I’ve always wanted to try this mix. Perfect for my weekend pancake fix!
Just about to sit down to a Tortilla Pizza dinner made with these!
Amazing, right?
THANK YOU GINA!
I love foodie pen pals. And maybe you might too!
Here are the details:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions. -You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! -The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination! -You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!) -Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. -Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.
Well, time to dig into that pizza. Tonight is glow-in-the-dark ultimate frisbee with a fellow intern, Anna, and her friends! So excited to meet some people my own age! Hopefully I won’t make too much of a fool out of myself – I have no idea how to play, much less throw a frisbee. Ha! It will be fun!
We had quite the operation going on.
