A New Yummy Recipe

It's been a little while since my last post. Not too much is new, I started my new job this week and Mike is busy with school. It's great to be back at work and not sitting around studying! It's a little scary being a new nurse, but I'm still in classroom training and there is plenty more class to come among my 40 shifts of orientation.

Anyways, the whole reason I wanted to post was that I tried a great recipe tonight. I found it on the Cooking Light website. I absolutely love this website. They have so many delicious recipes that don't taste lightened up at all. Not all of the recipes are super low calorie but they are definitely better than doing it the "Non-Cooking Light" way. This recipe is called Chicken Tamale Casserole and it's so delish! If you love cornbread and enchiladas, you'll love this one!

Chicken Tamale Casserole
Serves 8

• 1 cup shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup fat-free milk (I used 1%)
  
• 1/4 cup egg beaters
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix (I used the Jiffy Brand)
• 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• Cooking spray
• 1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce (I used Old El Paso brand, mild)
  
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream (I used light sour cream because I think it tastes better and has a better texture)

Preheat oven to 400. Start by putting 1/4 cup of your cheese in a bowl. Add the milk, Egg Beaters, cumin, red pepper, cream corn, muffin mix, and green chiles. Mix until combined and moist. It is important not to over mix cornbread because it can get tough. Spray a 9x13 inch glass pan with cooking spray and pour in the corn bread mixture. Spread evenly in the pan. Bake this in the oven for about 15 minutes or until it is set. Remove the cornbread from the oven and pierce the bread liberally with a fork. Pour over the enchilada sauce and spread evenly. Top with shredded chicken and the remaining 3/4 cup of cheese. Put back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. Cut it into 8 pieces and serve with a dollop of the sour cream.

For Weight Watchers points, 1 serving is 8 points. (357 calories, 14.1 grams of fat)

This was such a warm plate of comfort food! Not really filling, but serve it up with a side salad and some steamed veggies and you've got yourself a pretty good meal.

The Boards!

So it's been a while since my last post. But, I have a good reason...I was studying like a mad-woman for my state nursing boards. I took a review class and did over 4,500 questions to prepare for the dreaded day. I've been a nervous wreck for the past month and so worried I wouldn't pass. I was scheduled to take them yesterday, February 5 at 8:00am. My mom took the day off work and drove me up to Bloomington. I got there about 7:15 am. They told us to be there 1/2 hour early. I waited and waited. There were 2 other girls from my program taking it there too. It was terrifying! To top it all off, they were having technical problems and we had to wait until shortly after 8:00 to get started. For those of you who don't know about the NCLEX-RN test, it is a computerized test and a passing standard is set. You can be tested on ANYTHING! I had diseases and medications on my test I had never heard of. The questions throughout the test get easier or more difficult based on if you answered the previous question right or wrong. The minimum number of questions is 75 and the maximum is 265. The computer turns off when it is 95% sure whether you are at, above, or below the passing standard. So, if you take 75 questions and pass you either did really great or you did really poorly. You have a total of 6 hours to take the test. So, I get in there and sit down and say a pray...I actually think I prayed about every 3 questions or so. I was going really fast. But, I'm never one to sit and dwell on questions that I don't know. The whole point of the test is to critically think through the questions. It felt like every question I didn't know the answer to. My computer turned off at 75 questions after only about 50 minutes of testing. When I saw I was on question 75, I answered it and clicked the "Next" button and winced waiting to see if it would turn off...and it did. I was the first person done in the room. And then I bawled at my computer. When it is over, the computer just turns off. There is no "Thank you for taking the test" or "You are now done" message, it just turns off and then about 2 minutes later a short survey pops up. I just cried and cried because I thought for sure I had failed since I didn't know any of the answers. When the computer turned off, I just wanted to shake it and yell, "NO! I need more time! I know I can do this!! Just give me a few more questions!" It is such an empty feeling afterwards. No feelings of accomplishment at all. I raised my hand and the test administrator came and escorted me out and checked me out of the testing center. Then, I had to spend the whole day waiting for my test results. My mom and I went shopping and then met my dad at Taste of Scandinavia for some good food and even better cake. Believe me, I needed a piece of cake. I slept horribly last night, I woke up about every 45 minutes to look at the clock and see how much longer I had to wait to get my results at 8:00am this morning. Then I sat at my computer from 7:30 until 8:00 this morning waiting to be able to check my results. That was the scariest part...but I PASSED!! I'm so excited. It feels so wonderful to be done and it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. All that hard work of nursing school and studying has paid off. I am now Andrea Moldstad, RN, BSN! What a great feeling! I owe it all to the Lord who granted me the patience, wisdom, and stamina to keep studying and preparing and to not lose my sanity waiting for results. It is so wonderful...I am a Registered Nurse!

A busy Christmas & A flat tire

Christmas has just flown by! I can't believe it's already over. Since I have had to work the past 2 Christmases, I soaked this one up big time! We started by heading out to my parents on the 23rd. We stayed in New Prague until Christmas Day. I had such a great time. It was great finally getting to spend a good chunk of time with my family. Our car was packed full when we left which made it interesting traveling with Oscar. It was perhaps even more packed when we headed back to Mankato.

On the 23rd we just hung out with my parents. We played a game of Taboo and sat around and visited. Both my parents were off on Christmas Eve. We spent the day baking and making goodies for Christmas Day and finishing up some last minute gift wrapping and shopping. Then, that evening we went to church. I love going to church at Faith. It is so great to be back at my home church. On Christmas Day we got up and went to church then came home and Miked filmed the beginning of a movie. After that we started to get dinner ready and opened gifts. Oscar had 5 gifts under the tree! He's a pretty special little kitty I guess. For dinner we had ham, Christmas salad, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. For dessert, Hilary made chocolate mousse. Yum! After dinner we played another game of Taboo. Shortly after that it was time to get going. We were planning on staying until the 26th but we had heard the weather was suppose to be icky so decided to head back to Mankato early. It was probably a good thing we left early, because we were able to swing in to see Mike's parents before they left to go up to the Fick's cabin for Christmas on Friday. Mike and I were bummed we couldn't go up with them but it was my extended family's turn for Christmas this year.

Friday we were exhausted and I was fighting off an icky cold, so we spent the day vegging around the house watching movies. It was great and relaxing...except our house was a disaster! On Saturday we headed down to my extended family Christmas. First stop was in Luverne to see Grandma and Grandpa Bush. My uncle Dale and aunt Lisa were there as well. We had a good time visiting and of course snacking on Christmas goodies. Both sides of my family were celebrating Christmas at the same time on the same day so we missed the Bush side's meal with the rest of my cousins and uncle Steve. Around 2:30 we headed off to Sioux Falls to go to my Aunt Debbie's house for Swenson family Christmas. We had a great time there as well. We played a card game and opened gifts. This year we decided not to exchange gifts, but we all get things for Grandma and Grandpa Swenson and they always bakes us a bucket of cookies and gets us a little something. Before we ate, Mike gave the family prayer. I'm always so proud of him. He does such a nice job. For dinner we had BBQ beef sandwiches. Delicious! And, there was graduation cake because 3 of us graduated from college this December. Mike and I had to take off shortly after dinner. We had to try to get home at a reasonable hour because Mike had to preach at Heritage Lutheran Church in Apple Valley at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.

So we were on our way back and we had just passed Luverne (making us about 1 1/2 -2 hours away from Mankato) when our tire burst. It was horrible! We had to pull over onto the side of the road and change the tire. Not only were we tired, but it was dark and about 8 degrees outside. Plus, there was wind. Yuck Yuck Yuck!! We had to take several breaks to get back in the car and warm up. Luckily, my parents were about 30-40 minutes behind us. After we got back on the road, they caught up to us and followed us back up to Mankato. We picked up Oscar, packed our bags and piled into mom and dad's car with Hilary and Steve for the ride to New Prague. We would have to use one of their cars to get up to Apple Valley in the morning. This was quite the change in our plans. We were just planning on driving up from Mankato on Sunday morning at around 6 am. It was a crammed car ride with 6 of us plus Oscar in the car, and when we got to New Prague, we were all exhausted.

Mike did well preaching on Sunday. He did 2 services plus a Bible Study. His voice was tired and sore after almost 3 hours of straight talking. Yesterday, we took the car in to get new tires. That $160 bill hurt but it is amazing how the Lord provides. We happened to get almost half of the money needed for the tires from Christmas gifts from family and graduation gifts, plus a monetary gift in the mail from someone at Bethany in Luverne who has adopted us as the seminary student. That made the sticker shock of new tires not quite so bad. Thank you Lord! Now we are back safe and sound in Mankato all cozy in our little house recovering from a very busy but fun week. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a safe, healthy and blessed New Year!

A Delicious Recipe!

Not a whole lot new with us. I've been trying hard to study everyday for my boards. I have major anxiety about it and devote as much time as I can handle every single day to studying for it. The more I study the better I feel about it and the more confident I am in myself. So, maybe if I keep studying really hard, I'll be able to go in and take it without any worries. Pray that I can keep up the studying and that whenever I end up taking it, I pass.

Mike and I are getting all ready for Christmas. We got all of our shopping done. I'm just waiting on one more package in the mail. This year we are spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my side of the family. Each year we try to alternate whose family gets dibs for the extended family Christmas and this year it is my family's turn. We also realized that my family has been getting the short end of the stick since I worked the past two Christmases and with Thanksgiving too since I've worked those. My mom hasn't had a holiday on the actual holiday for probably 2 or 3 years. So, this year we are letting them have the whole shabang! I'm excited to get to go up to my parents for a whole 3 day stretch and then spend part of the weekend with them too. We will celebrate with Mike's family when Johnny and Amanda are in town from Florida. They'll still do their traditional Christmas Eve celebration but we'll miss out on that this year.

Mike finished up his semester at seminary and is home for a few weeks. DQ closed and so he is just doing stuff around the house. It is great because he has been doing all the cleaning and laundry so I can focus on studying. I think he is relieved to have some time off too.

Well, now to the title of this post. I made the best Sloppy Joes the other day. I'm not joking...they were AMAZING! These are definitely going on our list of regular meals. In fact, this recipe may be making a weekly appearance. It's not too bad for you either if you use nice lean beef and whole grain buns. Since I count Weight Watchers Points, I figured out how many points these have and for 1/3 c it is only 3 points. Not too bad, pair that with a 2 point bun and it is pretty reasonable. So for these mind-blowing Sloppy Joes you'll need:

-1 lb. lean ground beef (7% fat or leaner)
-1 cup ketchup
-4 tablespoons of water
-2 teaspoons Worchestersire Sauce
-1 to 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard (I used one teaspoon but the recipe calls for 2)
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon onion powder (we used chopped up onion instead)
-1/2 teaspoon salt

Brown up you ground beef (and onions if using) in a non-stick pan and drain off fat. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes covered.
And that's it! This made 2 1/2 cups for us which was enough for 6 servings equalling 1/3 cup each. And they were delicious!

I can't believe it's finally here!

Well, after 5 1/2 years of long hard work I'm finally graduating! Tomorrow I get my nursing pin and on Saturday I graduate. Pinning ceremony is a pretty big deal for nursing majors; however, for me it is not that big of a deal. Up until about a year ago, I didn't really know what it was. Plus, I don't think it signifies that much because getting "pinned" doesn't make you a nurse. Passing your boards makes you a nurse. That being said, I'm really excited about commencement. To me that is what truly signifies my accomplishment. Also, I'm graduating Summa Cum Laude! I'm so happy because I've worked so hard ever since freshman year to graduate with highest honors.

Mike has been pretty busy lately. He's been studying hard for the finals he needs to take early to come to graduation on Saturday. He's got big plans to make another movie over Christmas break. And, he'll be done with DQ in a couple of weeks for about a month while it closes.

We've gotten just about all of our Christmas shopping done. We once again aren't going to be sending out Christmas cards. I really want to start doing this, but we are scrimping and saving this year to pay for my review class and boards and decided to put it off for another year.

Well, that's about all that is new right now.

Finals

Update...I took my Leadership and Management final. It was awful. But only one more test of my college career. Can you believe it?!?

Super Busy

So Mike and I have been super busy lately. Mike preached this past weekend up at Hope Lutheran Church in Farmington, MN. It is a pretty small mission church but everyone there was so nice and welcoming. We had a great time and as usual, Mike did a wonderful job. Afterwards, we ran a couple of errand since we were up in the cities, and my favorite part was that it snowed on the way home! I love snow and winter so I was really excited. I'm especially excited this year because Mike and I are hoping to make a couple trips to Mount Kato and go downhill skiing this year.

I've been keeping busy with school. I have tons of studying to do since I take my finals this Thursday and this coming Monday. I can't believe I am actually going to be done with school. It's so hard to believe and I'm really ready to be done. After these finals, I'm hoping it will be smooth sailing. I'll still have my synthesis to do which is 120 hours of clinical experience and a bunch of papers and journaling, but from here on out it is pass/fail and no more tests! I'll be starting with my nurse mentor in Same Day Care at ISJ Hospital on Wednesday November 5. Mike and I have been so blessed that I have a close synthesis site and one with great hours so I can still work.

Mike is busy with his school work as usual. He is also working at DQ still and now helping a friend of mine from work finish remodeling his house. Mike doesn't know too much about this stuff but Dustin is willing to teach him and show him the ropes. It's a good experience for Mike to learn how to be a "handy man" and I'm thrilled that he'll be learning how to do more around the house.

Oscar is his crazy kitty self as usual. We took him out a couple of times in the snow on Sunday. Needless to say it was not one of his favorite things to do. He is on a grain free diet now because the vet said he needed to lose a few pounds. Since cutting him off from grains, I've discovered he is a carbaholic...just like me. He is always begging for bites of our bread or rice now.

Mike and I both set goals to eat healthier. So I'm trying all kinds of new healthy recipes and I'll post some good ones on here. We'll try them and pass on whether they are good or not. Maybe I'll even take pictures of them so there can be some eye appeal.