Menu plan

Yesterday Ross was sick and I was exhausted, so it was, as my mom likes to call it, "Fend for yourself night."

Tuesday: chicken salad sandwiches (Marilyn Rempel's Five Ingredient Chicken Salad, which is: shredded chicken, halved grapes, sliced almonds, light mayo, and salt in whatever proportion seems right) and spinach salad

Wednesday: roasted red pepper and avocado bites with sweet potato fries (both from the Healthy College Cookbook, which I got at my favorite indie book and coffee shop and really like) and spinach salad

Thursday: mango sausages, corn on the cob, and either roasted zucchini or spinach salad

Friday: pizza night!

Saturday: dhal ...and probably spinach salad.

In case you wonder how we manage to eat so much spinach salad, the answer is that we put crushed walnuts and delicious dressings on it. Ross and I like low-fat or fat-free raspberry dressings, and Jess eats his with honey mustard spritz dressing.

I have secured employment!

The short story:
Today I was offered, and accepted, a job as a clinic assistant at a family practice doctor's office. My job duties will primarily be receptionist work and paperwork, but I'll be trained to cover for medical assistants (CMAs) also -- which means things like taking vitals, giving shots, and drawing blood. I think it'll be a great opportunity to learn how a doctor's office runs and to gain some clinical skills. Also, I interviewed with four different staff members at the office on Friday and they all seemed like they will be good people to work with.

I guess I need to find some business casual clothing.

The long story, which is actually kind of interesting:
A few weeks ago, a single dad interviewed me to nanny for his three sons. We scheduled a time for me to babysit the boys to see how it would go. They seemed like a nice family, but I realized that the schedule they needed didn't really fit what I was looking for -- short-term employment until I could find a job in the health care or biomedical research field. Then I got my nannying job for the twins, so I called the dad back last Tuesday to tell him it wasn't going to work.

He wasn't that worried about it. He asked me again what field I was looking into. I told him, and then asked if he was in one of those fields. Yes, he was a physician, and his office had just started looking to add another clinic assistant, and would that be something I'm interested in and I should send my resume over. I did. On Wednesday, I was invited for an interview on Friday.

The interview went wonderfully. I left at 1 p.m., and two hours later the HR rep called me to say that the staff (I interviewed with four people) all really liked me and they would offer me the job as long as my references came through and I passed a drug test.

This morning I got a call from the HR rep. My references had both said positive things about me and he assumed I would pass the drug test (I did; not a surprise) and so they were formally offering me the job. Obviously I accepted.

This week's meal plan

It's Thursday, not Monday. I didn't even come up with a meal plan until Tuesday. We were overwhelmed by leftovers on Monday and so we ate those.

This is what we're eating this week:

Tuesday: Southwestern chowder with chips and homemade guacamole (that's a great recipe, by the way). 'Tis the season for fresh avocados. Mmm. A delicious season.
Wednesday: Caribbean rice and beans; wanted to do fried plantains but there weren't any at the grocery store so we did salad instead.
Thursday: Chicken curry with salad.
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Potato-black bean cakes; spinach salad with homemade tropical dressing.
Sunday: Leftovers.

Nannying

This week I started nannying part-time, short-term (to fill the employment gap a little). My charges are two-year-old twins. I will call them Ian and Phoebe. (To protect their privacy, I won't use their real names, but I find it confusing when bloggers protect identities with just initials, so I chose names I think fit their personalities. What can I say? I'm a name nerd.)

Let me start by saying I love two-year-olds. They're one of my favorite ages to take care of. Yes, they can be obstinate. Yes, they throw tantrums. Yes, it is uncanny how frequently they are drawn to things they should not be touching/eating/throwing/coloring. But in high school I worked at a daycare in the two-year-old classroom for two years, and I grew quite fond of that age of child. They retain their babyish adorableness, but they are so much more expressive than babies. They can verbally explain what they want or what they are thinking about. They have imaginations. They can be reasoned with (sometimes). They also sometimes say hilarious things.

At the park on Tuesday, I was pushing Ian and Phoebe on the swings, and out of the blue, Phoebe says, "Michael Jackson died."

What?

This child is two years old. Her parents do not allow her to watch TV. I have no idea how she knows that. I asked if her parents are Michael Jackson fans. She said they listen to Michael Jackson in the car. Then the conversation moved on...

Until this morning. I was reading a children's book to Ian and sort of to Phoebe, but she wasn't paying that much attention. So she says,
"Michael Jackson lives in Arizona."
Me: "I think he lived in California."
Phoebe: "Michael Jackson died."
Me: "I know."
Phoebe then points to a picture of a white woman with shoulder-length black hair on the cover of a book. "That's Michael Jackson."
I can hardly contain my laughter.
Me: "That's not Michael Jackson, but that woman does look a lot like Michael Jackson, doesn't she?"
Phoebe sings and dances: "Beat it! Beat it! Beat it! Beat it!"

This Michael Jackson thing is hilarious. I think Phoebe might know more about Michael Jackson than I do.

Menu Plan Monday

For about a month now, Ross and I have been doing weekly meal plans. Once a week, we sit down and decide what we want for dinner for the coming week or so. It has several benefits -- fewer trips to the grocery store, less food that goes to waste, and my favorite benefit: not having to make a decision every day about what to have for dinner. My friend Kristin has been doing this for a while (and inspired me to) and I thought I might as well post what we're having for dinner this week.

This blog post is "hosted" by OrgJunkie.com, where lots of other people post their weekly meal plans.






So here's what's for dinner this week!

Monday: Peanut butter noodles with stir-fried veggies
Tuesday: BBQ beef cups and spinach salad
Wednesday: Pakistani Kima with rice
Thursday: Shrimp scampi with spinach salad
Friday: Homemade pizza

The peanut butter noodles, BBQ beef cups, and shrimp scampi are all recipes that come from a cookbook that friends Cilla and Nance gave us as a wedding gift. Cilla is a wonderful cook, and she and Nance put together a cookbook of their favorite recipes for us. We've made several already and love it. Pakistani Kima is from the More With Less cookbook. We also have continued my family's tradition of pizza on Friday nights, but we're making our own instead of buying or baking a frozen pizza. We also eat a lot of spinach salad -- we buy big packages of spinach (on manager's special if possible) and eat it at least 3 times a week to finish it off.