Tag: kale

Day 17 of 28 Day Refocus

Happy hump day! Is that still a thing? If I had to choose a hump day on the road, it would be Friday. We’re typically settled in the city by that point and hitting the groove before a weekend of shows. They’ll be plenty of time for that madness soon enough, but around here, it’s still summer vacation. Codee’s path to fitness is not quite as quick as one might like, but he is showing significant improvements in his overall energy as we continue to drop the daily dose of prednisone. He’ll always be my food dude, though.

I was reminded that I have to work on his manners when people come and go from the condo in a big way this morning. I had a contractor come to give me an estimate for some renovations and he gets worked up now when people come to the door. He calms down fairly quickly, but the whole process starts again if they leave and then re-enter his line of sight. He wasn’t protective before and he’s not in the least bit aggressive, but he is loud and it stresses him out a bit. On the other hand, it stresses me out a lot, but I remind myself that adding to his nervous energy is the exact opposite of helpful and take a deep breath. It’s a delicate line because, as I am sure you can imagine, I do, kind of, like that he responds, but we’re going to work on fine tuning it.

In The Garden:

From ginormous flowers to tiny trees to naturally hideous kale plants, it’s a weird in between time in northeast Florida. I think the tallest of these guys has given it everything he has, though! I wonder if the massive amounts of rain that we have had recently just soaked the whole thing. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers, but when they get droopy, I feel like it’s sad for everyone to keep them around. Like, I should let the poor plant keep some dignity and go out with no one watching… Also, I am afraid that it’s going to come down during a thunderstorm unexpectedly. I don’t want any complaints from the neighbors about a 9’ sunflower blocking the driveway. I wonder if I’ll need my tiny hacksaw. Tune in tomorrow to see how I fold it into the Rogue.

I think if I can keep these guys alive through the heat, they might make it through the fall. The big pepper plants still have peppers on them, but the kale is in pretty rough condition, however, it is still growing new leaves and in my garden, that means hope. I think it’s growing back from the last big harvest in a really unique way. None of the other plants in the garden have side offshoots. I hope she makes it.

Sweating It Out:

On The Plates:

If it ain’t broke…the green drink brunch continues, but in some shocking news…today, I mixed it up and added some bonus cucumber. A co-worker of mine called it “crunchy water” one time and I think that it’s a much better name for them. I like to be fancy and buy the English cucumbers when they aren’t too soft. It often feels like I am the only one who eats veggies as a snack…I mean, I also love a pickle, but maybe it’s that the fresh cucumbers always seem so refreshing. Maybe, I don’t drink enough water. Does anyone else love to eat salted slices of cucumber?
At the end of the day, I thawed some plums from a farmers market a few weeks ago that I had tucked in the freezer and I added cashews back into my life for the first time in four weeks. I missed them so much. Nuts are definitely my binge weakness though, especially since it’s really easy to lose count of how many I have had. I’m going to keep measuring, tracking, and for sure posting because that accountability really helps me make better choices. Thanks for that. 🙂

On to dinner. I had a Hot Chicken Arugula Salad with Chickpea Leek Squash Fritters. It sounds super complicated, but it’s not. I mean, it could be but it wasn’t. I added some Seite hot sauce to a cooked, shredded chicken breast that I had in the fridge. Then, I used what was left of my over cooked spaghetti squash and mixed it up really well with some chickpea flour, sautéed leeks, garlic, sea salt, and black pepper and tucked that back in the fridge alongside the mason jar of marinating chicken…is it still marinating if it’s already cooked?… hmmm… Anyway, they both joined the already roasted cauliflower that I cut into bite sized pieces. When it was time for dinner, I cooked the fritters in some avocado oil on the stovetop, chopped some celery, put the arugula on the plate, and piled on the chicken. I cheated and filled in a fake sauce because I thought it would look better and because most people have a ranch or blue cheese dressing that they like. I wasn’t in the mood for a dressing, but you should use one of those if you are.

Cronometer:

Garmin Says:

Stay safe and moving, y’all!