My Real Live Job

Hi guys!

So end my first full working day as a pastry chef!!! And let me tell you, it’s exhausting! I think I sort of misjudged just how tiring it really is to be on your feet running around for 8 hours….lifting heavy appliances, cleaning industrial sized mixers, carrying incredibly heavy sheet trays full of fresh baked bread, racing from oven to oven…... Good thing it’s a lot of fun too!

To start off though, let’s do a recap!

This morning I woke up around 5:45 because I just woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Gah. I started my morning with a protein packed breakfast that would keep me going for the next four hours or so! I had a toasted 100% Whole Wheat Thomas Bagel spread with a half cup of whipped cottage cheese and some blackberry preserves. I also had a banana and a massive cup of coffee (with stevia) once I got to work.

This breakfast packed in about 22 grams of protein + healthy complex carbs. I ate it at 6:15 and wasn’t hungry again until 9:30, when my body KNEW it was snacktime!

As for my lunch, I packed my favorite—a hummus and cheese sammie on whole wheat. I used pepperjack cheese and it was sooooo good with Sabra’s Roasted Garlic hummus (I used 1/4 cup).

I heart this bread big time:

I also packed some snackies: almonds (which I didn’t eat), grapes, carrots, a new Pure Protein bar! and an apple.

And then I threw in a yogurt as well!

At 9:30 I snacked on the grapes and the blueberry yogurt…it got me until noon when I took my lunchbox outside and sat for the first time in five hours to eat a quick lunch! I had the carrots and apple with my sandwich and it was great and filling. It felt SO good to sit down!

And then I ate the protein bar around 3:15, after I got off work and on my way to the gym. I didn’t do too much at the gym today…mainly because I’m exhausted from work but also because tomorrow is my day off and I have a free personal training appointment in the morning then will be going for a run in the evening. I went today though because I need to get my body used to working and then exercising, as tiring as it may be. When I work from 7-3 I will be running after work and its really just an adjustment to get my body used to it. Today I just did the arc trainer (cybex) for 20 minutes, stretched and did 100 crunches on the ball.

Okay…..get ready for TONS of pictures!!!!

When I got to work I immediately set out on making up, panning and proofing all the bread doughs I had made yesterday and left to “retard” in the fridge overnight. The first was the walnut cranberry challah bread.

Now this was quite unfortunate! IT DIDN’T TURN OUT!!! It wasn’t my fault though (thank God)! Adam was trying out a new recipe and the mixture just didn’t form right. It looked great, smelled great, but was a bust. You always take a risk trying out a new recipe but no biggie—we are making the loaves into bread pudding instead!

And then I baked off the soft pumpernickel rolls (dusted with sea salt and caraway seeds and drizzled with melted butter). I had a bite of one fresh from the oven and it was divine!

I also baked tons of cookies—-

As well as almond macaroons that I sandwiched together with globs of chocolate ganache!

And lemon ricotta cookies that were sooo soft and cakelike that they were like air.

I also made some pastry cream to fill the fruit tarts Adam was working on as well as cranberry walnut orange quick breads (9 loaves) so we could redeem ourselves from the morning challah disaster. No picture because the clock struck 3 and I went home before they came out from the oven.

So thus will go my days for the next few weeks. From 7am-11 am I’ll be baking bread for lunch production that starts at 11:30 and from 11 am on I’ll be making cookies, quick breads, muffins and other bread products for the club. It’s a real live job! Haha 🙂

Tonight I was on my own for dinner since Betty was out with friends. I was so tired though that I just made a bowl of cereal! Who am I?!

It was pretty good though and just what the doctor prescribed. I combined a fage with a cup of H2H, a banana and……………..my secret weapon!

I’m SO proud of myself because I’ve been hoarding this unopened jar for weeks! I bought it at Whole Foods about three weeks ago and hid it from myself so I could have it in Vero. It was very well received tonight!

This “dinner” was actually incredibly filling and I didn’t even finish it. I felt stuffed and left two huge bites of H2H with almond butter. Oh well. Now I’m sipping on some raspberry tea and reading….it’ll be an early night!

Tomorrow is my day off!! I’m going to the gym for my 9:00 personal training appt and then getting my hair done (splurge!) at noon by my FAVORITE girl that always did my hair in high school. Am I the only one that actually gets attached to hair dressers??! She was amazing and highlighted my hair for years and I haven’t seen her in about 5 years now…she doesn’t know its me tomorrow so it’ll be a fun surprise!

Alrighty kiddies—I’m off to watch good ol’ Brian Williams and catch up on the news! See you in the morning!

Edited to add: It’s 7:45 and I just treated myself to half of a chocolate chip cookie I brought home from work today….Adam told me it was fine to bring home a cookie or two along with the ones that sort of got spread out and poopy looking in the oven. My “host parents” were very pleased with this! Just because a cookie might not look the prettiest sure doesn’t mean it tastes that way!

These cookies are like behemoths. I don’t think I could finish a whole one unless I was very very VERY hungry and needed sugar asap. We use a 3 ounce scoop for the dough! They are HUGE!