Lunch Today

Insanely Easy Chicken Salad (one 5 oz. can chicken plus 1 tbsp lite southwest ranch dressing) on sandwich thins, 6 oz. baby carrots, and 1 oz. honey roasted peanuts.

 

Victory Garden Update



2 little cucumbers now!





A little green pepper!



Tomatoes are getting tall but no flowers yet...



Broccoli Salad

I bought a lot of broccoli on sale last week. I noticed yesterday that it was still sitting in the crisper drawer, staring back at me. There was too much to just steam and eat plain (obviously I am the only one in my household who eats broccoli...), so I knew I had to take drastic measures. This called for some...broccoli salad!! I made up my recipe as I went along, using ingredients I had sitting around.

Victory Garden Update



Growing a little cucumber!!



In their pots and ready to grow!



Valerie's Victory Garden

Or it might be more of a defeat (wannabe) garden...we will see how it goes. One of my coworkers has a large garden/greenhouse and she had lots of plantlings to give away. I took a few tomatoes and cucumbers and a basil plant. They look very happy now and I know they have had a happy life so far. I hope to continue that trend so they feel comfortable enough to produce some yummy veggies!

Spinach Smoothie II

One should never mess with success. My first spinach smoothie was a success, so I made another one a little different and this one a lot different. Not so good...the main problem was I got this stuff called Amazing Grass superfood powder (because it has lots of good-for-you stuff in it, so I could put it in smoothies and stuff) and it is NASTY! I thought protein powder was bad, but you can't hide this stuff! It smells like very pungent earthy lawn clippings and tastes awful. I thought a smoothie would hide it but it did not. Otherwise, I think this version of a spinach smoothie would be good. 

I used one yogurt, a banana, one scoop protein powder, frozen strawberries, and 4 cups spinach. Add water and enjoy (you won't have to plug your nose and drink it like I am...haha).

Spinach Smoothie

Want to try those green superfood spinach smoothie recipes you've been seeing online, but kinda scared to? It sounds much grosser than it tastes, really. I like spinach, and I was still leery about making a smoothie with it. But I gave it a whirl (literally) and it turned out surprisingly well! It really just tasted like the fruits I added in - the banana, orange, and blueberry.

You can't even taste the spinach at all, so it doesn't give it a weird flavor or aftertaste. You could also add protein powder if you desire, but I didn't this time. I like that you use 4 whole cups of spinach for this smoothie and you barely even notice that you're eating spinach at all (just the weird color!).