Hi blog buds!

Can you tell I’m between ‘jobs’ this week?  I’ve been posting a lot!    Gosh I miss when I could do this every day!

I went to Office Max today to pick up some “school supplies”.  Wow, I used to LOVE this time of year when I was a kid.  I was always a fan of school.  (I still believe that ALL jobs should have summer vacation, just like school did.  We’d be much happier peeps, don’t you think?)  I think it’s probably a good thing that I don’t have kids, otherwise I’d likely go WAY overboard getting them ready to go back to school in the fall.

There’s not much I like more than a brand new notepad:

Except for maybe brand new school books:

Much like Carrie Bradshaw did in the original “SATC” movie, I love to open books and sniff the binding.  LOVE IT.  I have done that with the whole stack of my new school books!

My required school shoes, however, are not very “Carrie” worthy:

No Manolo’s allowed – just the standard non-slip, non-marking, closed toe shoes.  Dansko Professional it is, then.  (Thank you to Ryan at Dardano’s for giving me what he called the “Chef’s Discount”.  I haven’t figured out if that’s for real, or if he was just poking fun.  Either way, I’ll take it because the only other shoes I’d drop this kind of cash on in the past have been Nike SHOX.)

BTW, how did I not know how awesome these shoes are before?  I would have purchased a pair for all those jobs where I was wearing heels and running my legs off.  Ugly? YES.  Super supportive and comfy? YOU BET!

I still have items on the list of materials I need to have, but the rest can be purchased after the first day of school.  Getting excited now!

***

I thought it might be time for another photo journey of some of my recent meals.

An Asian-inspired Pita Pizza (when MSP’s mom was here we were thinking of other variations for the pita pizza).  This one uses sesame oil, a little almond butter and minced ginger as the ‘sauce’ and I topped it with sauteed red cabbage, onion, broccoli, celery, and baby bok choy, and on the top sprinkled with some Chinese Five Spice.  It was a fun twist:

I’d made MSP a dish that included this Sesame Soy Dressing so I used some of it on sliced raw red cabbage and let it marinate overnight into a slaw. Then I topped it with a Salmon Cake that I had coated with ground-up Wasabi Soy Beans (in lieu of breadcrumbs) and lightly pan-fried in  a little almond oil:

A serving of Amy’s Organic Southwest Chili with Beans, that I added some Herdes Salsa to (to boost the veggie content) and topped with sliced avocado.  Truly the speediest meal you can imagine:

A snack of (ugly) baby carrots, hummus with a large flax cracker from my dehydrator and three slim slices of “naked goat” cheese (raw & unpasteurized):

And of course plenty of green smoothies :

On the subject of GREENS:  if you have pets, check out this article on the power of veggies for them.  I often feed both of my dogs green smoothies in addition to their regular dog food (as long as there aren’t things in my smoothies they can’t have, like grapes) because I feel that they can benefit from the nutrients in the veggies.   The article talks about Kale specifically, which is a gold standard of nutrient rich food for humans, so it’s no surprise that it’s helpful for dogs too.  I thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with you!

Have a TERRIFIC day!  Thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: culinary school, dogs, Green Smoothie, healthy eating, natural foods chef, salmon cakes, vegetarian pizza