Fall Reads

I wish I was able to write reviews on all of these instead of posting them as a reading list, but I haven't had the time to read them yet so this is where we are instead. If you've read any post a comment and let me know what you think! 

1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? 

This is our book club pick this month, and book club is in two days, so I'll probably start this tonight for a few hours haha! I hope it brings me laughs and I hope it's a quick read as she promised in the first chapter. Some loved it and some hated it, can't wait to find out which group I belong in.

For more click here.

2. The Girls 

I started this book three months ago and loved it but when I started reading my last bookclub pick (What She Left Behind - EXCELLENT book btw) I never finished. I'm dying to find out what makes this book deserving of weeks on the NYT best seller list and I am dying to know what become of this girl after she joins the Charles Manson-like cult. (That's what the book is based on).  

For more click here.

3. In a Dark, Dark Wood

Okay, I've had this on my past reading list but never got to it. Reese Witherspoon led me to this book, in addition to the many instagram posts I saw raving about Ruth Ware's other book "The Woman in Cabin 10." Apparently she's the latest fun psychological thriller author, so this is right up my alley. I need to get this one crossed of my list, asap. 

For more click here.

4. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Ugh, I bought this book the morning that it came out at Barnes and Noble and my pediatric shelf exam prevented me from starting it. I am ashamed to say I haven't read it yet (Jake finished it in a few hours the first day). I also am reluctant to start it because I'm kind of sad, I cried after the last Harry Potter book, and I kind of like the idea of having something to look forward to reading. It's on my nightstand collecting dust.

For more click here.

What are your fall reads? 

Fall Scents

This may seem silly, but I walked into a friend's apartment last month and was immediately comforted based on the scent of the place. I asked her their secret and she said they had Bath and Body Works wallflowers in every room. 

As fate would have it, Bath and Body Works had a sale of $2.50 for all wallflowers and all refills the next weekend so I picked up enough refills to last me three months. Oh , and they just happened to have half off their 3 wick candles....(BTW their candles are still 1/2 off if you are tempted)

Here are some of my favorite Bath and Body Works scents for fall.

1. Leaves

Last year I didn't love this scent but this year I really feel like they made it stronger smelling and I loved it. It's strong scented with apple and spice and you could probably call it apple crisp instead. We have this in our living room wallflower also. I bought two of these and have burned one of them down in a week almost. (That's the bad thing about Bath and Body Works Candles...even if you follow the 2-3hr light rule they still burn way to fast)

2. Mahogany Teakwood

This is my all-year-round favorite scent from Bath and Body Works. It's a strong cologne scent with mahogany, oak, and lavender. It's the perfect cologne scent and it's a "mandle". I have it in the wallflowers too. It's Jake's preferred scent for our place, it's warm, relaxing, strong, and just smells clean. It also fills the room with scent more than the others (especially in the wallflower form!). 

3. Flannel

Another "mandle", this scent smells more like a soap cologne scent. It's more muted than the Mahogany Teakwood, but I like it a lot. I bought it in the wallflower and plugged it in the bathroom and bedroom. The scents listed on the packaging say "mahogany and musk." 

4. Autumn

This is less spicy than you might expect. The scents listed say "Apple, Fig, Eucalyptus, and Fir." I haven't lit it yet, but in the jar it smells great. I like it better than sweater weather, more outdoorsy.

5. Sweater Weather

We bought this as a wallflower and put it in our entryway/hallway. To me it's the classic air freshener scent but it's very strong! I like it, because our hallway smells nasty, and walking into our apartment is now extremely pleasant from the opening of the door.  Supposedly it's "Sage, juniper, and woods." it's certainly a great fresh scent for a air freshener, but it's strong.

(haven't used sweet cinnamon pumpkin yet, just received that one in the mail!)

As far as wallflowers go, I don't like to mix a bunch of the scents so I have "fall scents" in the living room and entry way areas and then the mahogany teakwood or flannel scents in the bathroom/bedroom areas. The 2-packs were over 50% off so I picked up some pine for December. The rest of the scents I picked up are already plugged in!  

Life updates

I haven't posted in such a long time (I know) but if I told you surgery rotation hours weren't exactly the most friendly for extra curricular activities, I'm sure you could understand (you've seen Grey's anatomy right - do they even leave the hospital??) .

All jokes aside, I really do love my surgery rotation. I'm on my last week in transplant surgery ("A day in the life" post will follow) and I'm sad to be leaving that rotation. I haven't had a lot of time to study for my surgery shelf exam so I will need to make that a priority in the upcoming few weeks but I have learned so much in the last month (even if it's not directly tested on my Shelf Exam), I know it has been an incredible and once in a lifetime experience.  I've had the opportunity to hold a beating heart, assist in surgeries, develop relationships with patients recovering from surgeries, and learn about the risks vs benefits of surgery in general. 

It's been an amazing privilege to be with people before, during, and after their operations or transplants. The most incredible thing I've experienced and witnessed first hand is the impact an organ donor can make on multiple lives. I can't put into words what it's like after an unfortunate death of an individual who then donates their heart, liver, kidneys, small bowel, or lungs and helps multiple people live years longer and have so much more time with their families that they otherwise wouldn't have. The surgeons in this specialty work crazy hours for others, are extremely selfless, and incredibly talented. I don't know if I'll ever experience anything like this again, but I'm so grateful I had the privilege to meet and learn from all of the individuals working to help these patients.

I've been filling other parts of my time with Jake testing out new dinner recipes, finishing up episodes of How I Met Your Mother (before our fall shows start up), finding success at finally getting our apartment to smell nice, working on my fall reading list, and studying for my surgery shelf exam. 

Working on some more blog posts tonight, stay tuned.

Our Favorites at Trader Joes

People have always told me that Trader Joe's as some great priced, tasty products. I never really thought much of it but I started to see some other people's favorites on snapchat (whatsgabycooking) and Jake and I wanted to give some of these things a try. We been a few times now, here are the things we things we've repurchased and recommend checking out. Most of these are snacks or frozen foods for when you are lazy, but I wanted to point out products you can't get at normal stores (so I didn't list chicken breast, rice, fruits, and vegetables - which we did buy for the record haha)

I put servings in parenthesis (not what the Nutrition Facts calls servings, what I call servings).

1. Mandarin Orange Chicken $4.99 (3 adult servings)

If you go to TJ's you have to get this. It's their number one selling product for a reason. It taste just like Chinese takeout. Since I can't eat at Chinese restaurants safely because of a nut and sesame allergy, this bag of food is all that I have. I was very skeptical that "frozen chicken" would be good, but it's not the processed style chicken you first think of, it's exactly like the dark chicken they give you in Chinese restaurants. I can't say it enough, it tastes exactly the same as a restaurant's takeout. 

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 2. TJ's Kettle Corn $1.95

When I open this bag, Jake and I eat an entire bag at one time usually. It's extremely addicting and has the perfect amount of sweet and salty. I picked up three bags the last time I was there.

3. Spinach Tortellini $1.99 (2-3 adult servings)
This is just a good quality at a good price. That's all I have to say.

4. Burrata, prosciutto, and Arugula flatbread (Also the Margherita flatbread!!!)

Ignore the burritos in the photo above, we didn't like those very much. But behind the burritos is the flatbread and it was very tasty and full of flavor. The Margherita flatbread (not pictured) has really great quality of cheeses and the tomato sauce tasted so fresh, I was shocked. With both of the flatbreads I felt like I was in Italy. It's nice to have restaurant quality food in your freezer. Pull out the Chandon and it's a date night!

5. Cheeses

We like to snack on cheese, and TJ's has flavorful cheeses at a way cheaper price than Hy-Vee. So for your next cheese tray, head there. We've tried more then just the two shown in the picture below and we've been satisfied.

6.  Joe's Diner Mac 'n Cheese $2.99
Speaking of cheese, their frozen Mac n' Cheese is a BIG win. I only bought it because it was one of their top sellers and I wondered why. I was not disappointed. I will rebuy this every time I go into the store. The gouda, swiss, sharp cheddar, and Havarti make it taste so cheesy and rich. If you buy anything go get this. It's nothing like any other packaged or even homemade mac 'n cheese.

7. Apriums

Apricots + Plums = apriums. Jake likes apricots okay, but he loves apriums. We've repurchased these a couple times. I haven't tried them.

8. Salsa and Guacamole

The guac is not as good as our homemade kind in our opinion (recipe here) but if you are in a hurry this isn't bad at all. The salsa taste very tomato-y but very much like the kind served at Mexican restaurants. For the price, and the time you saved not making them both homemade, these are good buys because they taste homemade! 

9. Nut Free snacks

These are perfect snacks for my lunch box! The Chocolate chip cookies actually taste good and not like weird gluten free bland cookies. The soft-baked snicker doodles taste very dough-y and the fruit bars are also full of flavor. (Although I'm not sure if every box of those is nut-free 100%, I don't eat them)

10. Chile Lime Seasoning
Last but not least, is this seasoning. I heard about this from multiple bloggers and it's perfect on chicken or vegetables or anything. It's pretty simple, but makes a big impact.

TJ's also has great priced Filet Mignon's, 2 for under $8-9 and they are pretty good. They have good priced olive oil too.

I've also read their Spinach artichoke frozen dip is to die for but I can't eat it because of the chance of nuts being in it, check those out too! Friends have told me their pizza crust is delicious too, I haven't tried that yet.

august favorites

August went by so fast this year! My pediatric rotation is over and I've been on my surgery rotation for a week now. Here are some of my favorites from last month.

1.  What She Left Behind

This book was our August book club read, and unfortunately because I had to study the night before my pediatric shelf exam the next day, I missed the meeting where we actually discussed the book. I was not sure about this book at first, but wow this is the one of my favorite stories I've read in a long while. I couldn't stop reading and had to set a timer every night so I would go to bed and stop reading. The characters were well-developed and the story was very deep. Here's what the "back of the book description" is:

Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past. 

Clara Cartwright, eighteen years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no longer afford her care--and Clara is committed to the public asylum. 

Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices--with shocking and unexpected results. 

2.  Candle Burning

Burning candles with relaxing scents have always been nice to come home and study to after a long day at work. Unfortunately ($$) I've been venturing into more complex scents as this love grows. That being said, I also know many tricks and which ingredients (thanks internet)  get the most scent per dollar from each candle to make one seemingly small candle last months. (new post idea!)

3. Moleskine Notebooks 

Now that I'm kind of getting the hang of clerkship rotations for school I've found that having a little notebook in the front pocket of my white coat is necessary. I write down suggestions and/or critiques that attendings give me, drug facts I can't remember, information that I use for presenting plans for patients that I don't have time to look up, vital signs for premature infants, etc. I also write down questions I have that I want to look up or ask my attending about later. 

The larger notebooks I use for summarizing all the info I can't remember from my exam review textbooks. I'll write in them towards the end of the rotation and only write down things I can't remember and need to learn for my exam. Using fine tip pens on the bleed-proof paper works really well. I throw the larger ones in my larger pocket every day and it's a good way to always have something to study on down time. 

4. Breakfast for Lunch

I got sick of deli meat sandwiches for lunches real fast. So I bought the Jimmy Dean sandwiches and have been eating them for lunch every day the past month (well, when we have time for a lunch). I won't say it's healthy to eat sausage every day, but for now that's what I'm doing. It's a nice pick-me-up after standing without food for 5-6 hours in a morning surgery. I've also been having Eggos at 5:00 a.m. before I leave in the mornings, those are a nice motivation to get up and out of bed.

5. Adidas Superstars

I bought these in July during the Nordstrom sale, after seeing them on a blogger's instagram. I just think they are the coolest and they are always my shoe pick as long as I'm not in the operating room or whatever. When I was in grades 4-6th I had an orange pair (Go Griffins!), a red pair (Go Jeffs!), and a navy pair.  You do have to size down one to two sizes to get them to fit though. I'm a size 7.5 and I have a size 6.5. 

6. TapHouse

(photo from Matt M on yelp)

Last month Jake and I visited TapHouse at least three times . We can't resist the giant cheese curds (holy cow amazing, worth going for just those) and their burgers are loaded with a variety of ingredients and really hit the spot. My favorite is the brown sugar cheddar burger (full menu here). We started splitting one burger, an order or sweet potato fries and an order of cheese curds.