My penultimate night of work always sucks balls and tonight was no exception. Not only was I tired and exhausted because it’s my sixth night shift in a row, but it’s normally extra stressful and busy. Tonight was no exception. To make matters worse, right at the end of the shift, there was an unexpected IT outage that took out the main server for all of the hospital’s drug vending machines. Trust me, this is total badness.
Okay, enough bitching and complaining – here’s what I ate to power me through the night. At “lunch,” I ate a couple of slices of broccoli and bacon frittata that I chased down with a large handful of macadamia nuts.
The frittata tastes great straight from the fridge or reheated so it’s a smart item to bring for people who can’t leave their desk at meal time (like me!). I’d forgotten how a dollop of Greek yogurt can improve the consistency of this dish. With a little dab of dairy, the frittata gets an almost souffle-like, fluffy texture that I like a lot.
My snack consisted of a container of plain coconut milk. Yep, I like it straight up, unadorned and unsweetened right outta the fridge. (Okay, I’ll admit it. I didn’t have enough time to wash and cut some berries because I was rushing out of the house, but it does taste good plain.)
I was just about to heat up my “dinner” when the Code Green (IT Downtime) occurred. As a result, my co-workers and I were running around at breakneck speed trying to fill missing orders for the last two hours of the shift. It’s not fun having your cortisol levels shoot through the roof.
I returned home, drained and frazzled, but I immediately perked up when my kids dashed to the door to welcome me with squeals of joy and hugs. We walked over to drop off Big-O at kindergarten and when I came home I finally ate my “dinner" which was a box of leftover sous vide pork chops, roasted broccoli and bacon, and braised Savoy cabbage.
Even though I desperately wanted to get some zzz’s, I had to wander back to Big-O’s school to volunteer for 45 minutes at his weekly library day. When I got home (for the 3rd time), I dropped off to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I overslept this evening (understandably) so I started dinner preparations almost an hour later than usual. Sleeping in didn’t throw a monkey wrench into my cooking plans because I was just going to reheat some leftover beef brisket and whip up some of my standard vegetable side dishes to go along with it.
45 minutes after I first started puttering in the kitchen, I served up some roasted parsnips and carrots (tossed with avocado oil, salt, and pepper)…
…sautéed spinach and bacon bits with a dash of Banyuls vinegar…
…garlic cauliflower mashed “potatoes”…
…and the last of my sister’s fantastic braised brisket.
Here’s my dinner plate:
After dinner, I packed my stuff for work for the last time this week (yay!), learned how to do some awkward looking cleans, and left for work. No matter how crappy tonight’s shift will be, it won’t matter because I’ll be off for a week!
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