And here we are, at the second-to-last Wednesday—aka What I Ate Wednesday—in August. Is it just me or did that go obscenely fast? As always, thanks to Jenn for hosting the weekly link party. To see more WIAW from other bloggers, visit Peas & Crayons.
…and it’s back to the grind. My stay cation was really nice. I could have used another week off (naturally), but at least I felt fairly rejuvenated when I was back to screening up on the floor come 8 a.m. Monday morning. I’d been up a fair amount of the night thanks to the achey stitches from some pre-cancerous business I had cut out of my chest the other day (sorry, TMI?) and weird dreams, but I did pretty well, considering. I swear, seeing patients, being on my feet and talking, keeps me awake even when I’m going on next to no sleep.
I did have to second-guess myself, though, when a patient whose medical record stated they were deceased told me to come back because they were “on the toilet.” I wouldn’t normally stop by to ask a dead person how they’re eating, but given other things documented in the medical record, I suspected a typographical error. Fortunately, I was right. I got a good laugh over that.
When it comes to staying awake and energized, good food never hurts, either. Here’s what I ate on Monday…
Breakfast: Made-ahead steel-cut oats topped w/ peanut butter 
Lunch: Cafeteria salad; homemade chocolate pumpkin zucchini muffin
no way to really dress this mess up
Snack: Plain yogurt w/ berries & cereal
pre-laundry-and-errand fuel
Dinner: Yet another veggie-egg-white scramble; toast w/ avocado (I promise I’ll stop posting these soon) 
Snack: Microwave chocolate cake based on this recipe, topped with barely-sweet nonfat ricotta & frozen berries 
The photo of the cake does not do it justice at all. Aside from being gooey, delicious and satisfying (the cliche about PMS and chocolate is cliched for a reason), it was done in 3 minutes and boasts pretty decent nutrition stats. I was making do with what I had on hand, so I used:
- 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp peanut flour
- 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
- 3 tbsp skim milk
Then it went in the microwave for about a minute-and-a-half. I added ricotta instead of, like, frosting, because I’ve been trying to sneak a little extra protein into my diet recently, and I’ve found nonfat ricotta to be quite versatile in this respect. The tiniest bit of sweetener mixed in made for the perfect cake-topping.
Someone asked me recently about why I almost always seem to have a pretty substantial snack before bed—it’s because I like to work out in the morning, and eating something in the evening gives me something to go on when I jump out of bed. Otherwise, I wake up freaking ravenous, not to mention useless.
Do you need a snack before bed? What’s your favorite time of day to work out? Any favorite microwave cake recipes?