Tag Archives: vegetables

Romance and Chili

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And now, for a slight departure from my usual blog posts…the most romantic story I ever saw in medical school.

I was on a consult month at the time, and every day we would round on a particularly sick patient in the ICU (intensive care unit). He was a relatively healthy middle-aged man until a few months before, and then all of a sudden he got more and more sick until he was eventually having muscle spasms so bad that he actually fractured some of his vertebrae into his spinal cord (you need to have REALLY strong spasms in order for this to occur). To protect his body (and skeleton) from any further damage and possibly permanent paralysis, the man was intubated, sedated, and medically paralyzed.

By the time I finally met this patient, he had already been sedated and paralyzed for a few weeks. They had tried lifting the paralytic drugs once, only to have him quickly begin spasming again with concerns for additional fractures.

Through it all, his wife was by his side. She was a shorter woman, hair pulled back in a ponytail, who sat in his ICU room in a chair wearing his big hunting t-shirts and the exhausted look of a family member with a sick loved one. To be honest, she was the sort of woman who blended into the surroundings, the woman you’d sit next to on the bus or plane and not remember any real features.

Towards the end of the month, we again decided to lift the man’s medication to see if he could wake up and not spasm. The process starts the night before, with the hopes of enough of the drugs to be out of someone’s system by the next morning to see if they’re okay, and if not the medication can quickly be restarted (which had already happened before).

That morning, I was getting a cup of coffee before rounds when I had a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and a beautiful woman was standing there. I had no idea who it was until she began speaking.

It was our patient’s wife. “I just wanted to thank you for all of your help. I hope he’s able to wake up today. Just in case, I wanted to look pretty just for him. Even if he only sees me for just a second, I hope he’ll have something to see in his dreams.”

Our patient woke up that day. While he couldn’t move much since some of the paralytics were still preventing that, he was able to do one thing.

Right after he opened his eyes, he saw his wife and kissed her.

There was not a dry eye in his ICU room, especially not mine.

Worth Waiting For Turkey Chili

true love…in food form

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lean ground turkey (I’ve also done this with chorizo with excellent results)
  • 1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
  • 1 small can (14 oz) diced tomatoes with jalapenos
  • 1 can hot chili beans
  • 1 can red beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 medium green peppers, diced
  • 1 tbsp garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp cayenne pepper (feel free to use less if you don’t want yours as spicy)
  • Low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
  • Fat free sour cream

How-to

  1. In a large saute pan, brown the ground turkey and drain the fat.
  2. Get out a large crock pot while the turkey is browning. Add the tomatoes, hot chili beans (use all of the sauce!), red beans, onion, green pepper, garlic, and cayenne.
  3. Add in the ground turkey after draining.
  4. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. The chili is done with the onions and green peppers are tender and the tomatoes have mostly broken down.
  5. Top with cheddar cheese and sour cream, or whatever other chili toppings you prefer.

This recipe easily doubles if you’re feeding a crowd with a gigantic crock pot- normally then I’ll use 1 lb lean ground turkey and 1 lb chorizo. It also freezes great in individual portions!

Snowcows and Steakhouse Leftovers

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Sometimes nicknames get lost in translation.

I went to a teeny-tiny engineering school in the middle of Lake Superior for college. While the area is known for its magnificent fall colors, hiking, boating, and winter sports, it’s also known for the sheer lack of females.

In particular, my college class had a ratio of 8 guys to 1 girl.  The overall college was 3 guys: 1 girl at the time (it’s since improved). And still, the odds were not always in your favor. “The odds are good, but the good are odd” is a phrase that could definitely be applied to some of my male counterparts.

The ratio was also misleading…

  • If you subtracted the guys still dating their high school girlfriends, the ratio was 4 guys:1 girl
  • If you subtracted the computer engineers/science majors who thought that girls only existed in anime and had never spoken to a female in real life, except through a video game, the ratio was 2 guys: 1 girl
  • If you subtracted the man whores that you were sure were sources of an STD epidemic, the ratio was 1 guy: 2 girls
  • However, if you subtracted the female counterparts of the first and third lines, the ratio was still maybe 1:1.

There also was an unfortunate nickname for the girls that were less than desirable but would sleep with anyone…

Snowcows.

Anyway, it was the fall of my freshman year of college, and the grandparents and mother of the boy I was dating came to visit. During the exploration around the Upper Peninsula, we had the misfortune of stopping into a gift shop.

Now, somehow, his grandmother had heard the phrase “snowcow” (but, of course, just thought it was a cute term for any girl that went to Tech) so when she came across a cow puppet, there was logically one thing she thought of…

“Oh, here, let’s have you take a picture with this puppet! It’s two snowcows in the picture!”

I then was forced to endure a picture with said puppet, while my boyfriend at the time stood there absolutely mortified, since his grandmother had unknowingly just called me a whore.

Leftover Steakhouse Risotto

this is the only cow I’m okay being in a picture with

Ingredients

  • 4 c low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 c arborio rice
  • 1 c white wine (I use a sauvignon blanc in the $8 range)
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 2 c leftover roasted vegetables, brought to room temperature and diced into bite-size pieces
  • 1 c leftover steak, cooked rare, brought to room temperature and diced into bite-size pieces
  • 1 c grated smoked gouda (this gives it a mac-and-cheese type feel)
  • 1 tbsp steak seasoning (or more if you so desire)

How-to

  1. Bring broth to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
  2. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low to medium heat until onion is translucent (about 3-5 minutes)
  3. Add dry rice and saute for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
  4. Add 1 c wine and stir until absorbed.
  5. Once the rice has absorbed the wine, start adding the broth, two ladles at a time. Your goal is to have this at a simmer. Stir frequently (but not constantly) until absorbed. Add more broth. This does take a while (you’re looking at about 20-30 minutes of active cooking from start to finish).
  6. Continue adding the broth at 2 ladles at a time until all the broth has been added. Add the butter.
  7. Cook, stirring almost constantly, until the risotto reaches your desired consistency (maybe another 5 minutes, tops!). Add in the leftover vegetables and steak.
  8. Turn the heat to as low as possible, then stir in the smoked gouda and steak seasoning. Remove from heat and cover for 5 minutes to let the leftovers heat up, then serve.

Truckers and Meatloaf

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Fact #1: My family was a big believer in long car trips.  We were continually driving back and forth from Michigan and New Jersey, in addition to driving just about anywhere in the state of Michigan.  (You can drive over 600 miles in a straight shot just by driving from the Ohio border to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula…I know this from experience.)

Fact #2: My parents were big believers in not using air conditioning while driving and instead preferred to keep the windows down.

Those two facts were crucial to the following story.

We were stuck on I-80 across Pennsylvania in horrible traffic sometime in July.  And by stuck, I mean that we were parked for hours on what should have been a highway next to a large semi.

My younger brother at the time was unable to say the sound “tr” and instead said “f”, so a word like “trail” would become “fail.”

You can probably see where I am going with this.

My brother was seated on my mother’s lap, and she was trying to amuse him by pointing out things around us.  He then looked at the semi, and yelled, “Look mom, a trucker!  A trucker!”

Except he didn’t say trucker because he said an “f” sound instead of “tr.”

Unfortunately for my parents, the semi truck driver parked next to us also had his windows down, and thus was able to hear loud and clear what he thought my little brother was calling him.

That was the most awkward few hours in traffic ever. However, for once, we did use the air conditioning.

Trucker Friendly Vegetable Turkey Meatloaf

your momma’s meatloaf made healthier

Ingredients

  • 1 large bell pepper, diced into small pieces
  • 1 large onion, diced into small pieces
  • 1 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained very well
  • 1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 3/4 c skim milk
  • 2/3 c dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 package 93/7 ground turkey (normally 19-20 oz)

How-to

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set up racks so the top rack is in the middle of the oven and the bottom rack is at the lowest setting.
  2. Mix together everything except the ground turkey in a large bowl.
  3. Add ground turkey and mix well (you’ll probably have to use your hands).
  4. Dump mixture into a large loaf pan (you might need to pack it in so it fits).  I think glass is best but use whatever you have!  Since some juices might spill over the side, make a tray of aluminum foil and place on the bottom rack.
  5. Bake for 1 1/2 hours (place on the top rack directly over your foil tray) until top is golden brown and internal temperature is 160 degrees.  Blot off any fat with paper towels.
  6. Serve with your desired meatloaf toppings (I prefer ketchup) and mashed potatoes!