I Got 40!

I have had a busy day of work, took a quick spin on the Peloton and then took another trash picking up walk with Judy!  It has been a full day! 

I still need to do the dishes tonight, so this is going to be quick update.  We left off yesterday at 33 different plants for the week.

For breakfast today I had one of those lawnmower breakfast tacos Bob couldn't look at before noon.  It had potatoes, onions, poblano peppers, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes scrambled up with some Just Egg (vegan egg replacement made of mung beans and some other mess). Several repeat vegetables, but I added potatoes, poblano peppers and mung beans as new plant varieties to my list for the week.  At 36 different plants after breakfast.    

For lunch I had a Beyond Meat Bratwurst that was great!  Big fan of the Beyond Meat products. I cooked up some onions and jalapeños to put on top of the Brat and then shaved some carrots bits to give it some added crunch!  A little bit of mustard and it was delightful.  Added Pea Protein and jalapeño to my list for the week...up to 38! 

I snacked on a banana at some point in the day.  That makes 39!  I also had half of a Reese Take Five candy bar. There were no plants to count in that candy bar, but plenty of calories.  But I am not counting calories, because I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING! 

Dinner was a pretty traditional veggie plate. It included arugula, tomatoes, red onion, avocado, sweet potato and asparagus.  It looked all pretty on the plate and then I smushed it all together and put some magical Mission Fig balsamic vinegar over it (Thanks Sandy!!!) and gobbled it up! 

Sweet potato and avocado are new for the week and I am 41 different plants!  Woo Hoo!  41 plants in three days!  I still have four more days to go on the plant list for this week so hoping I can get to fifty!  

Isn't this a fun little competition to have with yourself?  No.  Maybe I am just a weirdo, but I love it!  Really makes me think and try to get some variety in my life!  Variety is great for your gut biome and when your gut biome is good, lots of other things work better in your body!  Immune system.  Pooping is so great! Also, whatever I have been doing for the last several months has been great for inflammation and aches and pains.  I do still get sore when I go hard on the Peloton, but not the same aches and pains I was having just getting out of bed in the morning. That is nice. I have lost about six or seven pounds and got into some smaller pants and that feels nice. Otherwise, it just gives me a good disposition to be doing something so good for myself. 

Even if you don't feel inspired to get into the plant counting game with me, I hope you don't mind me blabbing on and on about it.  I am sure my fascination will die down at some point.  I will tell you that Lana is so dang happy to have something to read from me!  Not sure she is looking for Bratwurst stories, but it is what we have Mom. 

Have a great night!  

Garbage Girls

Day three.  I think we have a little something going here. Let's not jinx it.

Before I jump straight into eating all the plants, let me tell you about our dog walk adventure last night.  As I mentioned recently, most evenings me and my neighbor Judy walk our dogs around the hood. Our neighborhood is close to a medical complex and tons of medical buildings, retirement homes, etc.  We generally walk over that way, because there is less traffic, bigger sidewalks and no cats.  No cats is important because Cooper feels inclined to chase cats.  No idea what would happen if he ever caught one, but I don't want to find out. I can barely hold on to his 100 pound self when he sees a cat. Lord help me, if he sees them before me because I do not get a chance to brace myself. Anyway, enough about the cats already....where I am going with this story is that on our walks through the medical areas we see lots of litter.  Lots of medical masks, gloves, bottles, just garbage left behind by people. We often say out loud, we should bring something to pick up litter as we walk. 

Last night was the night.  Judy brought her grabber and a plastic bag and we were on the hunt for trash. You have never seen two adult women laugh harder or have more damn fun picking up litter. It was great! Here are a couple pictures of the best litter picker upper in the world. 

In this picture she has Blue's retractable leash between her legs and the bag is through her belt at her waist.  Her grabber was so long and she was fighting with the bag to get it open while not losing the leash between her legs while her dog was walking away.  I was howling with laughter.  I couldn't hardly take the picture.  

In this picture, you can see that Blue is interested in moving along on the walk and Judy just wants to reach one more piece of trash. She is persistent. We finally worked out a better system and I held the bag and she held the grabber.  The poor dogs were very confused the whole night, but we had a blast. Our little bag was overflowing with trash in no time. 

Successful night and we felt great about it!  We talked about some nights not taking the dogs and just picking up litter.  The Garbage Girls. Might be our new thing! 

Enough about garbage...let's get to the food!  Yesterday, we left off with 18 plant varieties on my list for the week. This morning I made a bowl of oatmeal and topped it with all kinds of goodness. Toasted coconut, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and chia seeds.  I also sprinkled in some cinnamon - but in all transparency, I first accidentally added chili powder!  I thought I had the cinnamon bottle in my hand, but while I was shaking it out I smelled chili powder and said "oooopps".  I just added a bigger dash of cinnamon on top of the chili powder and everything was fine.  If I count the oats and all the toppings, that is 9 more plants!  Good breakfast.  I love the crispy nuts and coconut with the creamy oatmeal.  Filling and yummy!

For lunch, I had leftover soup from last night.  I topped it with a ton of fresh parsley and a squeeze of lime and it was even better on day two. Because I had already eaten all of these plants I didn't get to add anything to the plant list for my lunch meal.

Dinner was a big old salad with all kinds of mess.  I roasted a can of chick peas using my niece Megan's method.  Drain the chick peas - dry them - toss in oil, salt, pepper and whatever seasoning you want.  I wanted curry, cayenne pepper and garlic powder.  Roasted those babies on 425 for about 20ish minutes.  I also threw some cauliflower on the cookie sheet to roast at the same time.  Same spices.  This may not look like much...but flavor galore!  Those crispy bits and almost burnt parts are magic. 

My salad was made with a base of romaine lettuce, arugula, spinach and parsley.  See what I did there....four different green things instead of just plain romaine or arugula or spinach. Mix it up so you can get some variety in your life. I topped it with red bell pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, the roasted chick peas and cauliflower and sprinkled on some sunflower seeds. It was a thing of beauty.  I made a quick little dressing out of oil, vinegar, dash of balsamic, chopped fresh garlic, salt and pepper. I already had several of these plants earlier, but I did get to add 6 more plants to the list from this meal! 

In summary, I had 18 plants yesterday....today I had 15, already up to 33 plants for the week.  It isn't that hard!  The tricky part is eating the plants you have on hand before they start getting yucky - but adding in some varieties so you can up your plant count.  No idea what I will be eating tomorrow, but hope to add at least seven new plants so I can get to 40 plants in just three days!  

Let's wrap this post up with a picture Harry sent me from his "office".  He was up on the catwalk yesterday and took this amazing picture.  Of course, I texted him right back and said "GET DOWN FROM THERE!"  World Series starts tonight!  Both teams seem to have some young, fun players!  I think the series ought to be a good one! 

Have a great evening!