Game of Thrones Bean and Bacon Soup
Happy Easter Monday! Here’s an easy Bean and Bacon Soup from the official Game of Thrones cookbook (from The Wall, hence me scaling up a ladder).
While social media has been great for ideas and staying connected, it can feel like a facade of perfection. As a 100% proclaimed neurotic med student, I was starting to go crazy, comparing myself to other bloggers. From my clothes and beauty to my OCD blog to even friends/family/relationships, I felt envious of others’ perfect lives, so I needed a break badly.
So… I self-imposed a social media block during Lent. I also deleted all the phone apps, and every other day, I couldn’t go on facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc, or any blogs AT ALL.
Initially it was torture not checking my phone 10000x a day, but now that Lent is over and it’s Easter, my social media hiatus has helped give me room to breathe. Also, I was just burnt out after my medical boards. I’ve focused on simplifying life and doing things for me, rather than to keep up with everyone else.
I recently finished Family Medicine, my first taste of ambulatory medicine. The “chief complaints” are often simpler, but the rapid fire patient-after-patient appointments can still be overwhelming. My clinic was super busy – almost 60 patients a day! My feet definitely hurt from standing all day.
I enjoyed a great deal of independence and got to see a huge variety of patients – from newborns to 100 year olds, from Medicaid/uninsured immigrants to wealthy big shots, Spanish speaking, English speaking, worker’s compensation, urgent care, and even driving to high schools to do sports physicals for 800 kids (in one day!). Family medicine is like a smorgasbord of every type of medicine.
This bean and bacon soup is also huge smorgasbord. I confess my culinary efforts have taken a nosedive from laziness/decompression post boards and the lack of Pinterest these past several weeks, but it’s so easy to toss everything in this one pot soup that even I can do it.
Bean and Bacon Soup
Ingredients
2 leeks (or green onions/scallions)
1 stalk celery
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot
1/2 teaspoon, garlic
1 can fava beans, drained and rinsed (I used butter beans)
2 cups chicken stock
4-6 strips bacon
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Chop the leeks, celery, onions, and carrots and sautee in a large pot with garlic and olive oil. Add chicken broth, and simmer for about 15 min.
In the meantime, cook your bacon strips (I used my toaster oven). Chop roughly.
Add beans and bacon and simmer for an additional 15 min. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Congrats on finishing your family med rotation! This bean soup looks delicious, a very yummy smorgasbord!
I know what you mean about feeling stressed getting caught up in the compare game. I do that too, but recently I was talking to someone about it, and realized most people only post online what is really exciting in their lives. For everything exciting or compare-worthy they post, there are probably a lot of other less exciting things or downright unpleasant things that were not posted. So no need to compare ~ think of all those facebook posts not made that would have read something like "today, I wore pajamas the entire day and read First Aid. I ate frozen food for lunch, and at the end of the day I realized I was out of clean socks and it is only Wednesday" 🙂
Hahaha Sarah, yeah I really realized I needed a step back during Step studying (which you're probably in the midst of – good luck!).
And that day you describe was exactly what 7 weeks was like for me – ultra boring 😛
"hence me scaling up a ladder" cracked me up, thanks for the giggle. This soup looks great!
I recently found out about this cookbook and so want to get it. This looks super hearty. I'm glad you survived your social media hiatus. I had to go over 3 weeks without internet at home due to technical issues. I seriously thought I was going to die, but to my surprise I didn't! 🙂
3 weeks!!? Social media is ok to live without but the entire internet (omg no email)…. now that's torture – can't survive med school without google!
I def recommend the GoT cookbook – they have all sorts of crazy recipes (goats, locusts, or snakes anyone?)
These games focus on the perfect cooking method. This game is helpful to learn proper food serving methods and food decorations too. Cooking games differ as per the style.
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