best brownies ever tonight

A lot of my friends that have blogs will blog about products that they like or have just found.  So, I'm joining the fad and blogging about my new favorite product.  

Tonight, with the raging social life that I lead, I stayed home to relax.  To my own defense, I have been working nights for the last 6 weeks and then had to be up at 7 am for lectures the last two days so I've been fairly exhausted.  While watching a marathon of House reruns I got a craving for brownies so I went to the pantry and found a box of NO PUDGE browine mix.  I bought this a few months ago when Bryan and Susannah had come to visit.  We saw it in the store and wanted to try it out but just didn't get around to it.  So here are a few of my favorite things about this brownie mix.

1.  Fat free!

2.  Less calories than most brownie mixes (i'll include nutrition facts at the end of the blog)

3.  VERY easy to make (you can actually cook them in the microwave)

4.  You can make a single serving at a time!!!

In order to not fall risk to eating an entire box of brownies over the weekend, I opted for the single serving directions.  It was so easy.  2 Tbsp of mix and 1 Tbsp of vanilla yogurt.  I used Stonyfield Farm Organic French Vanilla (my yogurt of choice).  Mix together and pop in the microwave for 1 minute.  I have to admit, I was really surprised.  It was great.  Gooey (I ate it with a spoon), warm, creamy, rich and chocolaty.  I don't know if I'll ever make another brownie.  

Here's the break down of NO PUDGE vs. Betty Crocker Hershey's Original Supreme (the other mix we had in the pantry) for a 32g serving of each.

NO PUDGE Betty Crocker

Calories 120 160

Total Fat 0 1.5 g

Cholesterol  0   0

Sodium     100mg      105mg

Potassium 28mg 85mg

Total Carbs 28g 26g

Fiber 1g <1g

Sugars 22g 18g

Protein 2g 1g

aside from the sugars (which there's not much difference in) the NO PUDGE beats Betty in every category.  Try them out for yourselves.  I found them in the regular grocery store!

No photographs, please!

So I usually don't post without photographs because a picture says a thousand words and usually they're really cute too.  But tonight is a little different....

I have been working in the ED for almost 6 weeks now.  I have been in the part of the ED they call "Fast Track".  For us its the first 8 beds of the ED.  We get the non-life threatening stuff...colds, cuts, back pain, etc.  And for the most part things usually go pretty smoothly.  A few times I've helped bring a patient into the main ED for a code.  3 times in 6 weeks those patients never made it out of the room.  It's been hard to deal with, sort of a reality check.  I'd never before been with someone when they died.  It's a strange, unexplainable, you have to go through it to get it, feeling.  

Tonight I worked a 12 hour shift that had been a bit crazy from the beginning.  Mostly it was routine stuff but the whole unit was full almost all day long.  I had a few weird cases but nothing too serious.  Then I had a gentleman come in with what he described as groin pain.  Honestly, after talking with him, I thought he pulled a muscle.  Truly, he did too.  I figured we'd get an x-ray just to make sure everything was okay in the hip and then give him some ibuprofen and send him home.  But the x-rays came back and everyone got concerned.  There were "spots".  The guy had metastatic bone cancer.  It was all over his legs.  This guys life just took a 180 because he thought he pulled a muscle in his groin.  

I spent the next few hours with him as everyone sort of scurried to call his doctor, get more x-rays, set up bone scans, etc.  One of the only redeeming qualities of being a student, I don't have to tell patients the bad news.  But I couldn't help but look at him differently.  Try as I may, I couldn't walk into his room with out sorrow written across my forehead.  I offered him coke and graham crackers.  Ridiculous, I know, but I figured if I couldn't cure him at least I could feed him.  

I don't think it will ever get easier.  In fact, I don't really want it to get easier.  I just want to learn to handle it better and not feel so helpless.  If I've learned anything so far it's what an amazing thing the human body is.  So fantastically resilient and yet so utterly fragile.  

Pray for this guy.  He has a long hard road ahead of him!

The Todd Girls

Lisa Marks Todd is a friend that I met years ago when I took my very first mission trip, to the Dominican Republic.  Soon after that trip Lisa got married to Philip and not long after that they had their first daughter Embre Adell, who is now 3 years old.  Annalise followed not long after and is now about 19 months old.  Last spring Annalise was diagnosed with Hyperinsulinemia (HI) which causes her blood sugars to drop dangerously low.  Since then she has been in and out of hospitals and recently they were transfered from UNC up to CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia).  I was able to visit with them last week for a bit and again this week.  I snapped a few pictures during my visit of the girls playing. 

Embre Adell and Annalise playing with straws.  They said they were "shucking" the paper off the straws.  Too cute!

Sweet Annalise.  Look at those baby blues!

Embre Adell and her pink monkey.  A girl after my own heart.  

Lisa with the girls.  They were watching a movie so it was hard to get them to pay attention long enough for the picture.  I thought this one was pretty cute.

It was so nice to get to visit with Lisa and the girls (and Lisa's mom as well).  Even though Annalise has been through so much in the last few months she has such a great spirit about her and is full of smiles.  Ember Adell cares so much for her baby sister and is quick to give her a hug or kiss when she is sad.  What a sweet pair.  

You can read more about Annalise and her journey at her caringbridge website.  Enter the name Annalisetodd and follow the instructions.  If you feel led to help out this family in any way, with prayers, donations, even just an encouraging word, let me know and I'll tell you how.

Labor Day

This Labor Day a friend of mine, Jeremy, was up in the Phily area visiting his best friend Brian (and Brian's family) and helping them move.  Fortunately they took a break for a few hours on Monday and we went to a local park to play disc golf.  Unfortunately we had really  crappy frisbee's.  It was still a fun time.  The only really decent picture of the event is of the 4 of us playing (Brian's wife took the picture) at the start of one of the holes.  I think it looks a little Monkey'ish...as in "hey hey, we're the monkey's".  

in the picture: Me, Katie (Brian's sister), Brian, Jeremy.  We played as two teams...Brian and Katie as team "White" (that's their last name) and Jeremy and I as team "whiter than you"...self explanatory!