Surprise Day Off!

The past couple of days has been full of really good surprises.  I'm excited about all the positive energy that's happening right now and hope it continues.  Thanks to Lindsay, Shannon, Heather, Cook Maine, and a mention in the Etsy finds newsletter, surprises keep coming into my inbox.  I feel so lucky!

I usually have Fridays off, but was supposed to work this Friday due to a switch-a-roo that happened earlier in the week.  But, it turns out that I got the whole day off!  I love the work that I am doing -- I work with a homeschooled student as a guide of sorts -- but having a free day is always welcome.  I started the day off bright and early, since Andrew was working the morning shift.  After dropping him off at work, I went straight to the gym and had a relaxing cardio workout.  Going to the gym is such a wonderful way for me to feel focused and energized for the rest of the day.  It's sort of ironic how sweating and burning energy can fuel me for the rest of the day, but it works!

Since I saw today as an opportunity for rejuvenation, a smoothie felt necessary for breakfast.  This morning's smoothie consisted of:

• 4 leaves of kale
• 3/4 sliced cucumber
• 1 sliced locally grown carrot 
• 1 sliced locally grown apple
• 1 tablespoonful of almond butter
• half a handful of almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoonfulls of garbanzo bean hummus that I had made a couple days ago
• 1 healthy slice of ginger root

Okay.  I know you're thinking I've gone too far with the hummus in this smoothie. But it added more protein and tasted fantastic.  Sometimes I put a little almond butter in my hummus, so this morning it made perfect sense.

I was also happy about the local ingredients I was able to include in my smoothie.  I've been thinking a lot about how my food options will expand in the summer with the abundance of food that farmers will be selling at the Farmers' Market here in Portland, and it feels right to have another all local summer.  Three summers ago, Andrew and I ate a strictly local diet.  It was a fantastic experience -- I learned so much about what was available to me and met a lot of great farmers.  It felt so great to support a local economy, eat organicly, and to have food be so incredibly fresh.  So, with a foot of snow piled up outside my door and more snow storms on the way, I'm looking forward to the abundance of June.

Another exciting thing about today is that Andrew and I are celebrating the anniversary of our first date!  We went to The Green Elephant, a vegetarian bistro downtown.  I wore some rad puffy pink snow boots, and we talked until the place was cleared out.  We were lucky enough to get a gift certificate there from a friend for the holidays, and I'm excited about what we'll order off the menu.  This time it will be a bit more challenging, since neither of us can have soy or wheat, but I feel like they'll be accommodating.  I'm thinking I might have to recreate one of the dishes we get to share with you.