Sunday, January 8, 2012

Did you know supermarkets have dietitians?

It’s been a while. I wanted to write up about my week long rotation before but once I was home I really didn’t have much time. 

The last week of my internship during 2011 I got to spend some time working with Shari Steinbach, the lead dietitian for Meijer (a supermarket chain based out of Michigan but is also present in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky).  One of the very first experiences: a TV spot for a local news program!  Now I didn’t get to actually go on TV but that would have been cool.  I did however get to be behind the scenes and watch them film it.  It was quite a lot of work for 4 minutes of air time!  Shari was doing a segment on quick and healthy holiday meal ideas.  For the appetizer, I actually made a cheese and cracker wreath

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cute right?  Shari had made salmon with broccoli and wild/brown rice the night before to showcase.  She also did some on-air prep of the salmon.  For dessert she made a healthier apple strudel.  Everything was delicious! Yes we ate the strudel at 10 AM hehehe Smile

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And here’s Shari with the host 30 seconds before air time. Oh and it was LIVE!

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The dietitians who work for Meijer do a lot of TV time.  Between the 5 of them, they do about 110 TV spots per quarter!  The job also involves a lot of writing, specifically for the consumer so it is both factual but also creative so that it is not a bore to read.  Shari and I also made a healthy dinner for a local Gilda’s Club.  If you don’t know what Gilda’s Club is, it’s an organization that provides support for those dealing with cancer.

I had an amazing week at Meijer and absolutely loved the job.  I’m really hoping that I can find a job in DC like that. *fingers crossed*  I’m also hoping to be able to spend another week with them towards the end of my rotation since it was so fun. Open-mouthed smile

After that rotation I actually got to go home! I flew home Christmas Eve morning and boy was the airport busy.  My week went by super fast but I loved it.  I spent time with family, had a great Christmas, worked a little bit, and flew back to Michigan New Year’s morning. So yeah New Years Eve wasn’t too crazy for me LOL.

My week was filled with Christmas cookies and other goodies but the only pictures I have are a couple from Christmas brunch.  My handy dandy work from Pinterest – the Christmas Fruit Tree

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My nephew Charlie really enjoyed the fruit tree. He kept popping off the fruit before I could even take a picture!  On my tree was cantaloupe, kiwi, blueberries, strawberries, green grapes, and dried cranberries.

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I also made an absolutely delicious frittata.  I got the recipe from Eating Well: Baked Asparagus and Cheese Frittata. Except I added a little bit of sausage.  I was planning on using turkey sausage but forgot to buy it so I used regular pork sausage instead.  Not too much, just enough for a little bit of extra flavor.  The boys in the family were being a bit pessimistic about my frittata but afterwards I got the seal of approval from my Dad. That’s good enough for me Smile I also forgot to get a picture before it got dug into….. But you get the idea.

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Now I’m back in MI and I started my clinical rotation last week.  More on that later since this is long enough!