I’m a fan of smoothies, they’re like having dessert for breakfast with none of the the nutritional downfalls.  I’ve always used yogurt in them though, the few smoothies I’ve had made with ice just didn’t have the flavor I like.  Of course since I decided that I haven’t tried all that many different recipes using ice so it’s not exactly a fair assessment.
Anyways, I decided to forgo the yogurt AND the ice and see if I could find a vegan recipe that I like.  This simple recipe is so good I may not go back to using yogurt in my smoothies!  🙂

Strawberry Banana Green Smoothie

• 1 c vanilla almond milk
• 1 c packed kale
• 1 cup frozen sliced strawberries
• 1 frozen banana

I just put them in the Ninja in the order listed and blended.  I did break the banana in half so it would fit. Easy, delicious and vegan, what else could I ask for?  It is unfortunate that they look kind of brown… but even my youngest son was singing it’s praise, definitely try this one.

I made several and froze enough in mason jars to bring with me for breakfast the rest of the week.  That way I know I’ll have a quick and healthy breakfast every day this week!

I’ve been in the mood for salads lately so that’s just what I’m doing for lunches this week.  I cut up, washed and spun a head of green leaf and I’ll bring that with some cucumbers, tomatoes and radishes every day. I just pulled the first radishes of the season form the garden this morning, I”m going to throw the leaves in the salads too.  Waste not want not and all.

I’ve recently seen that you can fry or roast radishes, I may try that soon just for fun.  Anyone every try cooked radishes?

I like running.  I do!  Not every run, but for the most part. I also like writing, or I never would have started writing here. So why haven’t I been writing much lately? Because somewhere along the line I must have subconsciously decided that I could only write about running here.

And, I have a slight problem with an odd cross between the squirrel syndrome and being obsessive. That combination can be better than it sounds, except for when it’s worst than it sounds.

Last year my squirrel was gardening.  One minute I was thinking about how my mom used to grow lettuce in the side yard, the next thing I know I had bought 2 raised gardens and was finding out more than I needed to know about what a too-rainy season in Florida could do to a garden.  Also, I now know what an assassin bug is.  Just as cool yet not at all cool as they sound.   I even started a new blog with my niece to keep track of the garden.  Here is where I started, take a look if you are feeling bad about how your yard looks and would like to realize just how great it really is.

Then everything died except the basil plant, then my dogs ate the basil plant, then gardening season was over.  On to the next adventure.

Until a few weeks ago when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed reading about all of the GMO veggies in the local grocers and remembered I already had a fence up, why not start another garden?  So I bought a bunch of non-gmo seeds from SeedsNow.com and Clear Creek Seeds. And of course since nothing other than radishes, a few cucumbers and the basil lived last year I decided to start bigger.

The 2 square shaped beds are the ones I bought at Sam’s club last year, and I built the L shaped bed in the back a few weeks ago using these directions.

Of course I had to fill the beds and I originally intended to partly use dirt from the yard mixed with other stuff.  Then came the next squirrel. The dirt in my yard was full of disgusting things that I found (thanks Google) out are slugs.  They live under ground and eat roots and kill all your plants.  Even vegetable plants.  And did I mention they’re gross?  It was a little bit like finding out evil little aliens lived out there.

So I spent the better part of the day Googling how to get rid of them.  Guess what?  Basically the entire internet laughed and said too bad, all you can do is HAND PICK THEM and drop them in soapy water.  Now I swear I’m not a total wimp but no.

As I continued to (desperately) read I found a single ray of hope.  My new squirrel.  Yep, and I’ll tell you all about them later. That’s right slugs, take THAT!

How about you, do you ever take an idea and start running with it before you know exactly where it is you’re running too?  If not I have to say, I highly recommend it.  🙂