Gluten Free Peach Cobbler Recipe

Over the past two years I have noticed a decline in my lung capacity. My running just hasn't been the same since I had a bout with chronic bronchitis back in late 2011. Despite the many rounds of antibiotics, steroids inhaled and in pill form... nothing has seemed to work and till this day I still have this obnoxious wheeze at the end of my cough. I am slower than ever and my inhaler is my best friend whenever allergy season is here. 

All that to say... my doctor recently told me to go gluten-free thinking maybe it was a gluten or a wheat allergy that was the culprit of my debilitated lungs. I have now been gluten free for a few months and I'm not sure if I'm truly noticing a difference. However, Chris does indeed have a gluten allergy... I have yet to be tested. So, we might as well go down the rabbit hole together and thus the new gluten-free kick.

This week I was really craving a cobbler of some sorts... and lets be honest... who doesn't love a good cobbler? Well, since I came across the most wonderfully ripe and brightly colored peaches I couldn't help myself but to buy up 3 pounds worth in hopes of making a gluten free recipe work. I looked up a few gluten-free cobbler recipes and decided I didn't like any of those... so I made my own.

You could also probably very easily make this recipe work with regular flour if you didn't want to make it gluten free. I used sorghum flour because it is on the sweet side and works well with desserts. 

Gluten Free Peach Cobbler

6 ripe yellow or white peaches ( I used a mixture of both)

1/3 cup sorghum flour (could also substitute with all purpose gluten free flour or regular flour)

1/3 cup gluten free oats 

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1/3 cup butter 

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Slice up the peaches in relatively thin slices and line the bottom of your Pyrex or ceramic baking dish. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the white sugar onto the peaches along with the vanilla and almond extract. 

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl except 1 tablespoon of the white sugar that is already on the peaches. Cut small tabs of the butter into the dry ingredients and mix together with a fork .

You want it to get crumbly in the bowl so it has that cobbler consistency when you layer it on top of the peaches. 

I cooked the cobbler with the lid of my dish on top. It kept the flour moist but it also made the cobbler pretty runny. If you left it uncovered it might be better but you just have to be careful because many gluten free flours brown very easily. 

Let the dish cook at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check periodically to make sure the top is not burning. 

When you see the juice from the peaches bubbling up, you know it is done. Serve with a side of your favorite vanilla ice cream and voila! Beautiful gluten-free cobbler for dessert. 

Enjoy!

Note to Self: His mercies are new every morning...

Right now I am supposed to be reading “Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber” and every time I switch my browser to my school's page I just can't seem to get up the mental fortitude to go there. I keep thinking about the week that I had... four very long twelve hour shifts in a row. Lots of homework and lectures and tests and papers in between. Death. I am tired.

I have been a nurse in the ICU for four years now come this July. I still remember when I started this blog as  a new grad about three years ago. It doesn't feel like it has been that long but the weariness in me reminds that it has. 

I thought yesterday was going to be a good night. It has been a really rough week and my stress levels have been physically impacting me and I feel at my wits end. I needed it to be a good night. It started off with a perfectly wonderful conversation with my patient's family members about the perils of quitting smoking. We laughed over the crazy things we would all do during our peak addiction days just to get a cigarette. Laughing over things only an ex-smoker would be able to laugh about. It was nice to connect with the family, you could see that despite the severity of the situation... there was an ease. A trust that they felt things were moving in the right direction and knowing that their loved one was in very good hands. It was nice and despite my exhaustion I was thankful. 

Then not an hour into the shift I hear his wife yell out, "He's bleeding!" and immediately the flood gates open. Ruptured esophageal varices that eventually found its way out of his mouth and nose with force. The next four hours were a furry of attempting to get the bleeding under control with massive transfusions of blood products and a procedure to clip the bleed in his GI tract. His poor family was ushered out to the waiting room and I felt horrible. 

No, this is not a good night. Not for me... and definitely not for them. What is so difficult sometimes is knowing that despite how hard you work and all that we do to save lives... sometimes it fails.
Sometimes people die of lung cancer, probably from the 40 years of smoking a pack a day.

Sometimes people die from a GI bleed from years of binge drinking and a failing liver as a result. 

Sometimes death is peaceful and wonderfully fitting.... and sometimes it is not.

This week it was not. 

So for now, I just don't have it in me to read "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber" or anything else that talks about death and sadness. Right now, I will stop and say a prayer for that family and I will spend some time here and I might also need to give these girls a call... their smiling faces and silly laughs always make the world a little better. 

Maybe tomorrow will be brighter and the world will feel a little less heavy and burdened...

Dickies Scrub Top Review and Coupon Code to Uniformed Scrubs!

A while back I was contacted by a rep at UniformedScrubs.com about testing out one of the Dickies scrub tops for their new spring line. I love Dickies so I had no problem with that. :) They sent me a brown, scoop neck top that had some interesting little details to it. Most of the time I tend not to pay too much attention to my scrub tops. I figure as long as they don't make me look huge or like I work in a quilt shop I'm okay. I will admit though that this top was of really good quality (no surprise with Dickies) and it felt nice to wear a soft, comfy material that actually had some tailoring in the design. Everyone at work noticed it and was like "Oh, Andi you're actually looking girly and cute today!" haha 

Don't mind the pictures. I wore the shirt twice just to get a good feel for it and I remembered on the way out the door to work the second time that I should probably snap a few photos to post on here. To make it easy I'll do my pro con list (which I do for almost every decision of my life) ...

Pros:                                

Super Soft Material

Tailored to not look like a box (unlike most scrub tops)

Quality make that feels like it will last 

Huge front pockets that fit a ton of stuff

Cute details that people actually notice

Cons:

Scoop neck is wide enough that a sports bra will show through (see above photo)

Capped sleeves feel constricting (see photo below) and a little too girly for my taste

  

All in all any Dickies Scrub Top is a solid investment for any nurse. I have always loved their brand and this was no exception. My only issues are related to the style of the top and that would be more in my control if I was the one doing the shopping... which I might have to do because Uniformed Scrubs gave  me a coupon code to hand out to all of my wonderful blog readers!

A couponer like me gets way too excited about such things...

If you are looking for some new medical scrubs head over to uniformed scrubs and check out their Dickies line... 

at checkout enter in "trueblue" which is 15% off until July 31st 2013.

Happy Shopping Friends!

Dreaming of...

I have only three classes left before I officially earn my BSN and I cannot stop dreaming about life on the other side of school...

 Days in the country far away from the bustle of daily life

 Summer clouds and rays of sunshine

 Road trips down Highway 5 with golden hills for miles

 Grandma's deck where the sun kisses your cheeks and the flowers remind you to smile

Aqua water and cool mornings on the California coast

What are you dreaming about?

Something good...

 This week... this week has just been too heavy. There has been this weight resting on my chest. Like a vice slowly closing in on my lungs. Each breath feeling tighter and tighter. I feel paralyzed by it sometimes. A hollow shell of exhaustion.

This week I helped try to resuscitate a code blue patient for nearly 6 hours. Blood products, intubation, lines.. the works. And then watched as his family stumbled into a room with trash strewn everywhere and every known machine in the unit packed into the room... and blood... so much blood streaming from this mans mouth and nose and all over the sheets... so much that 15 units of blood products didn't save him. His belly taut and distended, full of god knows what. I watched as the resident told them that their loved one was dying... and that we have nothing left to do. I watched as they sobbed and shook their heads in shock and disbelief.

I remember my first death in the ICU... it was peaceful and uneventful compared to the usual in my unit. A simple transition into another world. I went home after that death and I cried and cried and cried. I couldn't grasp that this person who was loved and cherished and had memories and a life... that this person was just now gone and I had somehow witnessed this sacred passage. 

And yet this week, I came home and felt tired and alone. Knowing that there are very few people in this world who truly understand what it is like to do what I do. I felt like I had no words for what had just transpired and so instead I said nothing. I shed no tears. I posted a short comment online hoping it would make me feel better and it didn't. Then I turned on the news and continued to be barraged with the horror that has transpired in this awful week. 

This week has been horrible and I am tired and I don't want any more news of terror or death or fear and hatred. I want hope. I want joy. I want redemption... 

So as I drove into work last night and passed our flag at half mast. I paused for a moment and thought to myself. Today I will do something good. Despite the weight on my chest, and the pit in my stomach... I will still do what I am called to do. Because today... today is a beautiful day to save lives.

This one really hit home...

Our marathon maniacs traditional group photo at this years race

Today, I woke up around 4pm and went about my evening as usual. Jumped in the shower. Called my MIL after seeing a missed call from her on my phone. And then after I got mostly ready for my work night, I checked Facebook and instantly saw it. My entire news feed was filled with updates from my running buddies who were all either sharing their sadness about the Boston Marathon or were trying to get in touch with those that were still MIA. I frantically started searching the news to discover what had happened and my heart just sank. This deep fear and sadness overwhelmed me so much... I had so many friends who were there. I saw the finish time clock as the bomb went off and I instantly thought... "Oh no I know so many who would be finishing right around the 4 hour mark." One of the bloggers I follow was just a 1/2 mile from the finish line when the bombs went off. 

Luckily, everyone I know is okay. All of our marathon maniacs accounted for and all of my running friends are still here and safe. Still, I can't shake this sadness deep in my being today. The running world is a strange group... a tight knit family where people from all walks of life come together in support and solidarity for the love of this sport and ultimately a love for each other. I am proud to be apart of it and I am so thankful for all of the people who have been apart of my journey as a runner over the years. 

My heart goes out to those that were lost and those that are critically injured. I know for so many that their lives will never be the same. My prayers are with you all. Tonight I will run and I will pray for safety and peace and comfort for all of us impacted by the events in Boston today.

Black Hawk Down

I have been a nurse at a Veterans Hospital for almost four years now. It is hard to believe that it has been that long. I haven't hesitated to say, especially lately, that this job of mine is not an easy one. Most of the time the difficult moments seem to out weigh the rewards. Still, every time I think about leaving this place I hesitate, and there is this scared, sinking, feeling in my stomach that tells me not to go. This overwhelming sense that this is where I am supposed to be right now. 

Last night, Chris and I watched Black Hawk Down and there was this moment at the end where Eric Bana's character says,

"When I get home and people ask me,'Hey, Hoot, why do you do it, man? What are you? Some kind of war junkie? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you. And that's it. That's all it is."

That hit home for me. I have said that so many times when I talk about our vets. The patients that I take care of are often a messed up lot. They have substance abuse problems, estranged families and multiple diseases as a result of self neglect and risky behavior. Of course some don't, there are some who are amazingly healthy and well adjusted, but sadly those are rare occurrences. Especially now that we are heading into the Vietnam war era of patients. PTSD is a given and many of these guys have some horrible experiences that no one else would understand but the guy in the room next to them. 

One patient told me a while back that he didn't even know what the Vietnam war was really about until a few years ago. His job was to retrieve dead soldiers out of the brush after major battles had occurred. That same guy also had newly diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia that was so bad he later threatened me and told me I was trying to kill him by inserting poison into the air filtration system. 

That was a relatively good day on the job ...just to give you an idea of what I mean by difficult. 

My job is exhausting ...and it wears you down ...and makes you feel powerless a lot.

But when I see movies like Black Hawk Down ...and when I see the 25 year old with half of his skull removed from an IED blast ...that is when I remember why I do this job. I don't always love it but I am always proud of it ...I am proud to fight for the soldier who fought so bravely for the guy next to him. 
I sacrifice a lot of sanity and a lot of myself for this job but I wouldn't have it any other way right now. 
Right now, I am proud to be a VA nurse.