Peanutty Noodles

I'm looking forward to this week because I get to have this for lunch!  You remember last week that I bought boyfriend NHL 2012?  Well, my plan worked!  I had a whole hour to mess around in the kitchen yesterday and make something to eat for the week.  I even made some quick and dirty ice cream, which I'll share with you all later in the week.

While boyfriend was happily playing Xbox hockey I was in the kitchen throwing together this pasta dish.  It literally took me ten minutes to take this dish from fridge to Gladware.  All you have to do to prepare this dish is boil some water!  I have had this cookbook for a few years now and haven't cooked nearly enough of the recipes.  This weekend I made two of the recipes in thirty minutes!  I think that I'll be making a few more of Nigellas dishes because I sometimes want a really quick dinner when I get home from work.

Sunday was a good day for all in the Wilde household.  Boyfriend beat some kid over Xbox live and I got to make lunch for work.  Happy people all around!

Peanut Butter Nougat Bars

It's Friday, Friday, Friday...  I'm sorry to those of you who now have that song in your head.  Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about should head to YouTube and search "Friday."  Go ahead, I'll wait... 

There we go, now everyone is in a good mood, thinking about which seat they'll choose and how they want a bowl of cereol.  I know, the song is super annoying, but it puts me in a good mood!  Fridays have taken on such a new meaning since I've started my new life in the real world.

Fridays are the last day of the week that I have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning.  Fridays are usually devoid of meetings at work and everyone heads out the door by 4:30.  Friday evenings are for relaxing with boyfriend, eating pizza, Chinese food or sandwiches.  Friday is payday too!  Woot, payday!  Friday also means that the weekend is upon us and I get to spend some time in the kitchen.

This weekend I expect to get lots of baking and cooking done.  You know why?  It's because I'm an awesome girlfriend.  While at lunch yesterday I stopped by the video game store and got boyfriend NHL 2012.  Something that he has been suggesting that I buy him for at least three months.  It was just released on Tuesday and he's very excited about it.  When I gave it to him last night he was all jazzed, then he told me I had to learn how to play...  Hmmm, that wasn't part of my distraction plan...

Baked Pears & Salad

This whole, Working in the real world, thing is taking some getting used to!  Between the corporate and academic worlds there seems to be an inverse relationship between working hours and meetings.  That relationship has been very apparent this week and it's only Tuesday.  Let me explain.

While I was working in academia I spent the majority of my hours in the lab.  I have friends who worked for professors with set work hours of 9am - 11pm, with an hour break for dinner of course!  Yet, when it came to meetings, they were almost non-existant.  We had once-weekly group meetings for an hour or two every Monday.  During the summer we didn't have any meetings!  Summer was the time to get lots of work done in the lab, not time to sit in the conference room!

Working in the corporate world, my hours have been cut in half.  Sadly, my time in the lab has been reduced by at least 60% too.  I like working in the lab, I like making stuff.  With this decrease in working hours has come an increase in meetings.  In the 16 work hours so far this week, I've spent half of them in meetings.  My butt has been falling asleep a lot, I need to bring my office chair with me to these five hour meetings.

I've been told to get used to all the meetings, because my schedule is only going to get more full as I've worked there longer.  At least I'm learning lots of new and exciting things at these meetings!  Sounds like my working hours are going to increase a little more as I get a fuller schedule, luckily I was given a laptop at my new job!