Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

I spent part of my day enjoying the smoothie creations made wonderful and tasty and healthy by the great bounty I picked up over the weekend.  And there’s the hour of the school day that we spent out on the football field because of a gas leak across the street that was sharing the odorous joy with our building and brought some headaches and nausea before the evacuation.  Fresh air and fresh produce…not too bad if we forget about the headache that was brewing earlier.

Did I mention that there is a lot of new produce in my kitchen?  Between three productive stops (Pete’s Fruit Market, Trader Joe’s in Brookfield – my first visit to the newer store in the area, and Woodman’s) we picked up quite the haul of produce for this week’s smoothie-palooza creations.  I’ve already included a few new greens in the mix and am finding that I really like collard greens in a smoothie.  The dandelion greens are good too, with enough sweet fruit. 

I also cooked up a fresh batch of chickpeas and threw those into the food processor with toasted sesame seeds, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and a pile of roasted red peppers.  Yep, there’s homemade hummus in the house!!!  For now!

At Woodman’s, I got my hands on a few different varieties of DoctorKrackers Crispbreads.  I’m excited to give them a taste with the hummus.  Trader Joe’s had a really yummy Vegetable and Flax Seed tortilla chip – good with the hummus! – and seeded bread twists. 

I’ve been improvising with the smoothies the past few days, going with what’s catching my fancy or some of Dave’s ideas.  After Saturday night’s shopping and fruit and veggie cleaning, I started experimenting with the new greens and the mangoes.  Everything’s been really good so far!

Today, a student asked if I’d bring him one.  I had an extra in my office.  I don’t think he was very fond of it, but his friends offered him a few bucks to chug it.  Ha!!!  He then told me he needed more fruit and less greens.  Hmm…business deal???

A colleague asked me to bring in a sample, I’m hoping to remember that when I’m in smoothie mode tonight.  OR, I could wait until tomorrow when I will be making Wednesday’s smoothies in my new VITAMIX!!!!  Yes, I bit the bullet.  Or kicked the Ninja, I suppose.  Amazon made me an offer I couldn’t say no to and I jumped at it.

Alrighty, time to grab my bottles from the dish rack in the office, pack my bags and head out for a few errands.  I’m hoping the sunshine stays for the night, as I’d like to take in some more fresh air and get a walk in tonight.

Have a fabulous Monday!