Week 6: University of Oklahoma

4th of July Weekend

Jenica and I spent our weekend in Dallas! My friend from PSU, Mary, has an accounting internship there working for a big company that works for Gatorade, named Pepsico. We were able to stay in her apartment in Uptown and eat good food and experience some cool bars!

Dallas was amazing, it is a very modern and upbeat city so I am extremely grateful that we had the chance to experience it! The food...simply amazing.

Al Pastor Pork Benedict: crispy arepas, 2 poached eggs, avocado, cotija---Amazing.
Restaurant: Henry's Majestic

Jersey Egg Sandwich: Ham, fried eggs, sriracha, cheddar
@ Henry's Majestic

Jenica and I shared the Greek Burger and Magic Shroom burger
@ Hopdoddy ---- best burgers I've ever, ever had.

Grilled PBJ and Banana with milk----majestic.
@ Henry's Majestic

Restaurant: Mi Cocina--Tex Mex style place--delicious enchiladas

Restaurant: Urban Taco -- quick service and tacos full of flavor

Monday, July 6th

Jenica and I worked at Healthy Hearth, a food operation inside the Stephenson Cancer Center in Oklahoma City. The center is beautiful, with lots of fountains inside the building. They designed it in a way that is very cozy for family members who are visiting.

Ali Thomas, the Director who oversees the operations at the Health Sciences Center, provided us with contact information and exact directions to the center so we knew where and who to report to when we arrived.

Ben Robinett, the manager at Healthy Hearth, actually made us a short agenda of things we would want accomplished during our time at Healthy Hearth. The employees and supervisors here at Healthy Hearth are awesome and so much fun to work with! (Abby and Lara in particular--Jenica and I think they are hysterical). In addition, we made big batches of cookie dough, made chicken noodle soup with lots of herbs, and assisted with a lot of food running.

(Jenica more-so mastered the food running part whereas I spent a lot of time with the pizza oven, which I somehow very much enjoyed lol).

Reverse roles ~ Jenica working pizza oven

Making chicken salad

Avocado Turkey with Tomato Basil soup

This center really is amazing--Jenica and I couldn't believe how each floor had a specific area of focus. Treatment here includes but is not limited to: brain tumors, gynecologic cancers, bone marrow cancers, radiation therapy, infusion and chemotherapy, GI cancers, head and neck cancers, and even more.

Tuesday, July 7

We were at Healthy Hearth again and this time we were able to come up with our own menu items, hoping to be featured next week at the facility. Some ideas included:
                       -Baked sweet potato stuffed with feta cheese, olives, and sun dried tomatoes
                       -A veggie quesadilla with zucchini, red bell peppers, red onions, squash, goat cheese, portabella mushrooms, olive oil, and pesto on whole grain tortillas
                      -A grilled cheese & apple sandwich with sriracha

Wednesday, July 8

Jenica and I met with Curtis Gregoire, who runs Wagner Dining Hall. This dining hall is located inside the Henderson Building, which is where most of the athletes at the University live. Curtis was able to give us a tour of the clean and spacious kitchen, explain the logistics behind the setup of each buffets, and the color coordinating of the food items. Each food item is coordinated with the colors red, yellow, or green. The green items indicated to the students that the item is healthy and you can indulge. Red means you should try to limit to 1 or 2 of that item or even avoid. We as nutrition majors really enjoy the food at Wagner--they have a great parfait bar as well as a fresh variety of vegetables and fruits to choose from.

Jenica and I also had the pleasure to meet the sports dietitian here at OU, Tiffany Byrd. We could tell she really enjoyed her job, as she stated that she couldn't imagine herself in any other position but that.

Thursday, July 9

Jenica and I were at Healthy Hearth, once again. We helped pack salads, chicken salad sandwiches, and fruit bowls into lunch boxes and did a lot of food running this day. We enjoy the lunch rush because time sure does fly!
In the afternoon, we were able to sit in on a "gluten free meeting." It wasn't an actual meeting, it was more of a taste tasting of treats such as cookies, cupcakes, and bagels. A new bakery wanted to introduce their gluten free products to the managers at the University and I do have to say, I was impressed with how close they were able to make their products to the standard ones.

Friday, July 10

Cranberry, almond, white chocolate cookie dough

Let me tell ya--Jenica and I have agreed that we have never made so much cookie dough in our lives. Let me also tell ya--we do not mind it!!! We made huge batches of cookie doughs varying from peanut butter cookies to sugar cookies and to your standard chocolate chip cookies. The customers go crazy for these cookies. In the afternoon, Jenica and I input menu items into USFoods and made an excel sheet that included calories, price, total fat, sodium, carbohydrates, protein, etc.