Recovering.

Yesterday Akhil had his hernia surgery. Everything went well and he was feeling great yesterday but today he is feeling quite yucky. He didn't have that great of a night last night. I felt bad for him and I think he felt bad for himself too. Since he couldn't sleep I think he thought I shouldn't be able to sleep either so he just kept talking to me. Of course I felt bad and so I just let him go on and on about that same stupid things (Starbucks, New York Times, fantasy football, Browns...) in his drugged up state! haha!

I guess when he got out of surgery and the anesthesia began to ware off, he asked the nurses and doctor..I want to see "Japes". (Japes is me) They were like "what?"...he said "Go get Japes...I want to see her". They were all confused as to what is Japes. They went round and round with this because the staff was so confused as to what he was saying! Ha!

So this week he is for once enjoying being the Bourgeoisie of the house and I am the little peasant that does whatever he asks!

Here he is getting ready to go into surgery.

They had the IV going to begin sedating him.

The quality of this picture sucks since I took it with my phone.

The Results are In!!!

Every year the residents fill out a survey on their teaching physicians. Akhil got really good scores – 4.89 out of 5.00! Yay for him! Some of the comments he got were the following:

1. Excellent teacher, very knowledgeable, and explains things very well. Bindra is very calm and laid back which makes it a great environment in the stressful ICU.

2. Dr Bindra is a very laid back and knowledgeable doctor and teacher. If he doesn’t know the answer to something he will always find the answer for the residents. He is a great mentor and I enjoy learning from him.

3. He has the ability to handle stressful situations in the ICU in a very calm manner. He is great a teacher and alot of fun to work with!

There were so many more comments but I won’t bore you with the same thing.

Since I have known him, he always told me “the work Akhil” is not laid back. So from reading all the comments…he is very calm at work too! I was actually very surprised. So what did Akhil get out of this??? He says he is going to be mean now to the residents! Hahaha!

Asian Noodle Salad

This salad is by far one of the best salads I have ever had! I mean it!!! The dressing is amazing and the mix of vegetables have such a great flavor. I was excited to go the farmer's market this afternoon to get all my ingredients and boy was my bag heavy! I felt like a mule walking with a heavy bag on my back. Now I know what those guys feel like! I came back to my office all hot and sweaty in this 85 degree weather! Not so great. I guess it made people happy that I turned off BOTH space heaters that I have running at all times!

I must warn you this salad makes ALOT but its soo good, it doesn't matter!

I can't wait to eat this for lunch the rest of the week! Yay!!!

Asian Noodle Salad

from Pioneer Women

1 package linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled

1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage

1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage

1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin

1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin

1 small bag bean sprouts

3 sliced scallions

3 peeled, sliced cucumbers

chopped cilantro—up to one bunch (I didn't put this in because I don't like cilantro)

1 can whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet (must have!!!)

DRESSING:
Juice of 1 lime

8 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons sesame oil

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped

2 cloves chopped garlic

2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped

chopped cilantro

Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter.

*Dressing keeps up to three days before serving without cilantro

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

The whole concept of zucchini bread was quite strange to me growing up. Why would someone put zucchini in a dessert? (I also thought the same of carrot cake as well). I learned to love zucchini bread as a young kid because that was the only baking that my mom ever did. If we wanted cookies, Rachu and I would have to bake it ourselves but we would have to ask permission first since my mom wanted to control our sugar intake! (That’s a dietitian for you!) My mom only made zucchini bread because it had vegetables in it. I am sure now there are other breads out there with vegetables in it, but back in the 80’s you only knew of recipes from cookbooks or from conversation. So I bet she never heard of any other vegetables breads / desserts back then or else it would be on our dinner table!

I decided to test this whole wheat zucchini bread recipe because my co-worker gave me two ENORMOUS zucchinis which I needed to figure what to do with them. I was a little bit nervous about this recipe because I didn’t use any white sugar. It turned out very good and very moist. I think it would have been more moist if I didn’t have to leave it out over night to cool. It finished baking around 11 pm and so I was exhausted so I just went to bed instead of waiting for it to cool down. I packed the bread in Akhil’s lunch today so we will see what he thinks of it!

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

adapted from Cooks.com

3 eggs
3/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1-4 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, unsifted
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts



Beat eggs; add oil and sugar. Beat well. Add vanilla and zucchini; mix well. Mix dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Add nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour in loaf pan. Cool in pan until bread removes easily. Cool on wire racks.

Farmers Market.

On Wednesday was the grand opening of the Cleveland Clinic’s Farmer’s Market! Since they announced this in the early spring, I have been looking forward to it. What a great idea to have a farmer’s market for your employees…I think that is just another great idea my employer has had! Akhil makes fun of me and says that Cleveland Clinic brain washes their employees…haha! (Maybe so, I did read a book on a vacation on the history of Cleveland Clinic) I don’t know about you but I like that they don’t have candy bars and potato chips in the vending machines. I never did go to the vending machines before the switch to healthy food a few years ago so it didn’t really bother me. But I have noticed all this “eating healthy” business my work advocates, simply just annoys Clevelanders that don’t work at the Clinic. I hear it all the time from new people that I meet that they think its so annoying that Cleveland Clinic doesn’t sell any foods with transfats. I find it annoying that other people get so irritated by this when they don’t work at the Clinic!

But anyways, the Farmers Market at the Clinic was a hit by me…I guess it is a good thing that my office is a good 15 minute walk from where they are holding this so I can’t buy too much. I honestly would have bought a lot more if I had more arms! (Maybe I will suggest that they have shopping carts for us to take back to our office) My coworkers were getting annoyed that I kept running back to the vendors for more delicious veggies! They were just so freshly picked and such great prices, I needed to have them!

Here are the beautiful heriloom tomatoes I bought from there