Peanut Butter & Jelly and “Mochas”

Ok, are you ready, this will be my first post in a while that is all encompassing: twins, Brush Ranch, and residency. You’re welcome.

In case anyone was wondering, I’m still pumping (refer to this if you don’t know what I’m talking about). I’ve stopped actually breastfeeding (don’t worry, this is not a whole post about breastfeeding). Neither kiddo ever latched all that well and then they started biting. Game over. I am still keeping up with the babies as far as volume goes, so that’s good, and I’m on a pretty good schedule that allows me to pump 3 times a day, and two of those times while the babies are sleeping. I did a rough calculation the other day and based on how many calories each ounce of breastmilk contains, I expelled approximately 1,100 calories in one day last week!!! Here’s where the peanut butter & jelly comes in.

I cannot get enough food. I’m starving all the time. I gained 40 pounds during my pregnancy (and 6 before that to be at a healthy pre-pregnancy weight) and I’m down below all of that now. I eat breakfast twice. I have a mid morning snack. I have lunch and then I snack all afternoon before dinner, then dinner, then a snack before bed. And about a gallon of water (if I’m on top of my game) and I’m still hungry most nights.

My go-to snack has been peanut butter and jelly on a tortilla. I eat over a dozen tortillas a week. Yikes…that’s a lot! I’m pretty lazy and don’t bother to heat anything up or add anything fancy. When Patrick makes us PB&J, he heats up the tortilla with a little butter, and sometimes adds banana. Yes, folks, we are living a life of luxury.

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Oh, look…someone barfed on a tortilla on a plate…just kidding…it’s apricot jam. Yum. (food pics, not my forte)

Every time I eat a PB&J I am reminded of my days at Brush Ranch and how eating camp food all day, every day for 21 summers is a lot. It’s no wonder there were entire weeks of my life in the summer when all I would eat was PB&J, I mean, a girl can only eat meatloaf turned taco meat turned sloppy joe so many times in her life.

In the dining hall at camp there was always a table set up with PB&J fixings. We didn’t want anybody starving and most kids would eat that if they wouldn’t eat the mystery beef (this was before the days when every kid ever had a peanut allergy). At the end of each meal it was a sight to be seen. Jelly and honey everywhere! The floor was sticky, the wall was sticky. The empty plastic bags from the bread were stuck together with bits of peanut butter and honey. Yum. But…this was always one of my favorite things. I freaking love peanut butter and jelly, even into my 30s.

In thinking about my adventures with PB&J during my camp days, I remembered another little gem that kept me going on those early mornings. (A meeting at 7:30 every day is too much.) Of course, there’s no Starbuck’s in the Pecos Canyon, and there certainly wasn’t a barista in sight at Brush Ranch, so, we had to get creative. Also, Sysco brand coffee is pretty nasty. Every morning I’d grab my coffee mug and put a little non-dairy cream in the bottom (did you know that stuff is super flammable and is really fun to throw on a campfire?!), then add a half packet of hot chocolate, and then fill the cup with coffee and stir. Voila! Mocha!

Over the last few months, one of my favorite activities is walking to coffee shops with the babies, enjoying some fancy drink, and then walking home. Not good for the bank account. Not good at all. In case you didn’t already know, being a resident is not like being a doctor when it comes to the paycheck. Not at all. We really can’t afford for me to be buying a $4 drink 5 days a week. And so, last week, I made us “mochas.” Patrick only drank half of his. Maybe it’s an acquired taste. I think I’ll go make one for myself now. I’m really going to have to improvise though because I have no non-diary creamer, and no hot chocolate mix…soy milk, sugar, and cocoa powder, here I come!

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If you make the coffee in a French press, it’s almost fancy, right?

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