Happy Saturday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you :) I know tomorrow is officially St. Patty's Day, but most of Pittsburgh is out celebrating (or maybe tired out from all the day partying by now).

Today, I worked a PRN (part time, as needed hourly) shift at a local skilled nursing facility (SNF) first thing this morning, and I was there throughout breakfast and lunchtime for the wonderful residents on SLP caseload there.  My caseload consisted of some really sweet people, but a lot of them were kind of bummed out in particular today- I think because today was such a gloomy day.  Rainy, chilly, and just plain 'ick' out.

At the end of the day though, I saw a few smiles, just from solving simple problems such as lack of heating (or turning it up!), oral-care, getting a favorite juice for them, etc.  Especially with our work in the skilled nursing facilities, SLP isn't JUST about what "treat" and what we "don't treat".  I especially try to live by the Golden Rule: "treat others how you want to be treated".  You never know when you'll find yourself in a position where you have to rely on others.  That's my soapbox about SNF's for the day :)

Anyway, I had a great day working there, and afterwards I had to get my "long" run in for the week.  My long run was 6.1 miles today, and I tried out some new shoes I found at a local running store.  I can't believe I'm half-way through training for May!  I have to start breaking in my shoes for the half marathon already...Wow!

After that long run, my body was in need of some serious healthy-food loving, so after I ran to Market District and grabbed a fresh peach-nectarine-whey smoothie (my new favorite, yum!)...then my fiance and I decided to whip up a healthy version of P.F. Chang's chicken lettuce wraps (without the sodium-packed 'special sauce').

Here's what you need:

• 1 lb. (or more) of finely chopped chicken breast (uncooked)
• 1 small onion (we didn't use the whole thing because we don't love onion), minced
• 1/2 container of mushrooms, chopped finely
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 can of sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped finely
• lite soy sauce, for flavoring
• 1 head of iceberg or bibb lettuce
• Cooking oil spray (we used Spectrum's new coconut oil spray- I was so excited to try this out!)
• Optional* Green scallions (we did not use them)
• Also optional* Mung bean thread noodles AKA cellophane noodles and canola oil for frying

 To do:

1. Cook chicken in a wok or skillet that has been lightly sprayed with cooking oil, until no longer pink and no juice remains
2. Heat about 2" of canola oil -make sure you have enough in your pan! we didn't and I almost burned down the kitchen!- and throw the mung bean thread noodles in carefully until they pop and become fluffy white- you will know when they are done, they look like those "packing peanuts" when done.  Watch them carefully, and when they are done, carefully remove with tongs or slotted metal spoon and place on a paper towel to drain.
3. To the cooked chicken, add chopped/minced mushroom, onion, garlic, and water chestnuts until cooked through (I like to test a piece of water chestnut as they take the longest to cook).  At this point, add your soy sauce to your liking.
4. While waiting for your chicken mixture to finish cooking, cut iceberg lettuce into quarters (if large) or half (if small) to make it easy to "peel" the cups off of the head of lettuce
5. Clean lettuce cups by rinsing under cold water and draining on a paper towel
6. Plate the noodles on a large platter, and add your chicken mixture to the top!
7. Scoop noodle and chicken mixture into lettuce cups and enjoy!  Add additional soy sauce if you need more! We used soy sauce sparingly, so ours was slightly less moist than the traditional version.  Add as much as you'd like.

Thanks for stopping by! :) I hope you like the recipe!

Sleepin' In

Well, we had a 2-hour delay today!  That meant sleeping in... and home-made breakfast crepes! And enjoying my coffee at home...ah what? :)

So, I took a basic crepe recipe and modified it to try to make it a tad healthier and tastier- or so I think :)

My recipe is NOT exact by any means.  So I'm very sorry if you're truly interested in exact measurements.  Don't be scared though, crepes are pretty easy going as long as you make them thin enough! Give them a try... if you do, please tell me how yours turned out!

The Speechie's Whole Wheat Crepes:

• 2 eggs
• A little less than 1 cup whole wheat flour
• About a tablespoon of milled flax seed, I just added this to the flour cup
• 1/2 cup almond milk (use any, mine was vanilla) with another splash (probably a tbsp. more) to thin it out
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil (it comes in a thickened state, you need to use warm water in a bowl to liquify it)

(The original recipe calls for eggs, regular flour, milk, water, and butter- I made substitutions as I saw "fit") :)

1. First, whisk the eggs with the milk and water, add in the coconut oil.  Slowly whisk in the flour & flax.
2. Pour batter using a 1/4 cup measure into a skillet or on a griddle that has been "greased" with coconut oil (use sparingly! I only had to add about a tsp. one time and it kept my pan nice and stick-free for the whole round of crepes!)  Use about a little less-than-medium heat.
3. Tilt and turn pan clockwise until you have a nice even layer of crepe batter (this is why I use a skillet not a griddle, easier to pick up and swirl!)
4. Flip with a nice flexible spatula once you see that the underside has cooked through.  You will be able to tell because the edges turn nice and solid and are a give away that it's ready to flip!
5. Sprinkle finished crepes with cinnamon if you wish!

And that's it! Yum.

Though, I have to admit, they are a little plainer than I was hoping... I was hoping for some more coconut/almond-y flavor... but it's nice that you can add whatever toppings you'd like and it won't clash! I used lite syrup to top mine, but you could totally try them dry or add fruit or whatever!

Other than that, the Speechie's day was cut a little short by the delay.  But I am loving my new organizational system for my loose papers... it's called a Fold 'N File (by Thirty One of course) and I love this chevron stripe pattern. It makes me so happy, and happy to stay organized.  I have coordinating colored file folders (of course,... Hello OCD!) to organize my papers into what needs to go to "where".  I keep Post-its, "Please Sign and Return" stickers, pen, and highlighter handy in the front pockets, and of course, the ever-present bottle of Vanilla Bean Noel- my favorite!

My folders:

• Office
• Copy
• To File
• Rosters (yes, plural. I have K-12 I need multiple class rosters!)
• Sub Information
• Emergency Information
• Read Later

And my Speechie kids got a kick out of using Look Who's Listening for multiple "kinds" of therapy today!  This game is super versatile and can be used as the board alone with the smiley's for reinforcement, or used with the cards that come with it for therapy.

Notice we used our large dice, too :)
The cards included are:
Auditory Discrimination (minimal pairs, word parts, sounds in words)
Auditory Memory (numbers, words, sentences, facts/details in a paragraph)
Auditory Integration (interpretation of directions, listening for key words, following multi-level commands)

Very, very useful and the kiddos love rolling the dice to see how many smiley's go on the board!

So all in all, it's been a good week!  As always, keep checking back for more fun :)

Weekend!

Happy Weekend!

This weekend has been productive *I think* so far!  I love sleeping in and taking my good old time getting up, because the week can be so hectic.  Plus in a few weeks I will be helping part-time to cover a maternity leave for 12 weeks (yes, in addition to my full time job) so I am taking alllll the extra minutes I can get.

I can foresee March-April-May being the busiest months of my life in 2013.  In those 12 weeks that I will be covering the leave as part of PRN (as needed hourly) staff, I will also be training for the half-marathon in Pittsburgh, as well as getting ready for our wedding in July!

The weekends usually leave me with a little bit of extra time, so I'll doodle some clipart, think up activities/therapy ideas, look on Pinterest and Etsy, run some wedding errands, work out, etc.

And this weekend was no different.  My Nutribullet led me to try something I wanted to make for a long time... "the green monster detox smoothie".  I had my doubts because I have had many Pinterest successes, but just about as many Pinterest "fails".  You know, the things you try out as easy as the DIY instructions sound, but they just don't come out right.  Anyway, the "green monster" came out AWESOME.  With a few tweaks.  the original pin can be found here.

Here's my picture of my smoothie.  I know it doesn't look fantastic.  But it tastes really good.  I promise.

In "Speech" news, looking back to Friday, we had some fun!  Some of my students worked on my new Activity Pack that I created for my Sam: The Dog Who Likes Carrots story and the results were great.  I used my story and the Pack for 1/2/3rd grade therapy as well as with an older student whose goals include writing.  Of course I only used the parts that were applicable to each student and his/her therapy/goals, but it was nice to have the pack as a resource.

Here's a pic of one of my students working at the SmartBoard:

 And our St. Patrick's Day themed door is finally done, too! Here's what it looks like!

I hope you enjoyed looking around :)
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Still working at it!

So... I'm still working on my LoveBirds clip art- I'm trying to really perfect this people- and really... creating your own clip art takes up a lot of time! Especially when my all-in-one scanner is being a royal pain. Hmm.

Aside from that, I'm sure I can use my less-busy summer to grow my hand-drawn clip art collection! With other things to do (especially with our wedding on the way) my creations have taken a back-burner already! 

I know one day I'll have a TpT store full of great goodies to share, but for now I am stuck with 5 active products and about a million ideas in my head "in the works".

On a completely different note... the Mr. and I picked out our wedding bands! And made an awesome dinner... Spaghetti Squash Chicken Parm "Boats". They were delicious!  Very simple too.  Do it, you will not regret it!

•  Cut up about a 1lb. of chicken into small cubes, and saute in a pan or wok until thoroughly cooked.
• Meanwhile, microwave a whole spaghetti squash for 7 minutes (it might depend on your microwave you may need more or less) & make sure you poke some holes in it to let out steam! 
• Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise, then place on a lightly greased baking sheet cut side down.  Bake @ 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
• Once it's done, flip the squash over, and use a fork to scrape the insides of the squash until it looks fluffy and stringy.  Then fill with your favorite sauce and top with cheese (I used mozzarella).
• Bake for 10 more minutes.  When it's done, top with the cooked chicken, and voila! You are done! This recipe is so so easy... the hard part was waiting because we were so busy I barely ate today!

Enjoy your Spaghetti Squash Chicken Parm Boats especially because you are saving some calories/carbs on the noodles and you can enjoy dessert or something :)

Happy Saturday friends!