Shrimp and Feta Stuffed Zucchini and Avocado-Chocolate Mousse

I'm in no way wanting to start a food blog - God knows I barely have time to write a regular blog - but this food adventure was just too much fun not to share. My mom was in town and so I had some extra support (and hands) to help out!

The recipe was fairly accurate as far as time - 1 hr 15 min prep - and was easy to follow. Basically you make the filling of veggies and shrimp, put it in the zucchini boats, and then bake! Last step is to top with the feta cheese.

The only change I would make is to add less crushed red pepper. Just made it a tad to spicy for my tastes. We served it with some asparagus, as shown, but if we were planning more would've served it with some cous-cous or similar light grain. I think brown rice might be too heavy with this dish.

On to dessert! I got this idea from this blog, and it was pretty amazing! I must've added too much almond extract, but otherwise was wonderful on graham crackers. Yum! Enjoy!

Change

I'm going to start blogging more, and I thought July would be a great chance to do so since I'll be attached to an IV every Thursday for 4-5 hours this month. :)

Last December during one of my small group meetings, we went around the room and shared what we thought the Lord had for us in the next year. I shared that I had an overwhelming sense of "newness," that I felt there was going to be a lot of new things in 2011. I can tell you midway through the year that there have definitely been some new things so far: healing from past emotional wounds, new understanding of God's love, experiencing medical treatment for a flare-up of my autoimmune disease, and on and on. What I didn't think about was that in order for something to be new, there must be a change, and sometimes that means letting go.

I've written about my approach to change before, but in short I like change and like to see where it will take me. In general, that is my approach. There is a lot of change that has happened, aside from the above short list, and with it, new circumstances. I've found myself a little more apprehensive than usual, but its not troubling. It's that good, something-great-could-happen kind of feeling. There are changes with staffing at work, come August, that will be fairly significant. There may be changes in my schedule this fall - maybe taking on more responsibilities and/or opportunities. And there may be changes in my social environment. For once, though, the change feels like a good direction and I'm excited to see what happens.

TERD

So today was a long day. After leaving work I felt like I had worked a whole week and it was Friday afternoon. Clinic was crazy, and then all this last-minute stuff kept happening. In addition, I was coming off of a weekend where I slept all but 4-5 hours of it and ate about 500 calories total. For now, I'll blame it on the infusion. But today was just ridiculous.

We get into work at about 6:45 AM. By 3:00 PM, we were delusional. There was a lot to do and as the pile was mounting, I told myself I'd leave at 4:30. At about 4:15 I decided to put in the patient's charges for the day, and when we do so the ordering physician's monogram comes up. The way the computer orders it is the first 3 letters of the last name and the first letter of the first name. So, I would be "MAYR." As I was going down the list, there was a patient under a Dr. David Terryson. His monogram is TERD. Yup, that's right, TERD. I immediately busted out laughing, mostly because it's almost inappropriate at my age to do so, and then my co-worker came in to see and that set her off. But I couldn't stop! I was so tired, and so worn out and burdened from the day, that all I could do was laugh.

And then I left work and felt so much better. :)