Yard Work and Yard Snacking

So, this morning, my husband woke me early and asked me if I could make him a raw lunch and a green smoothie. I jumped right on the opportunity to provide him something nutritious. If I didn't fix him some greens to go, he'd fix his usual 650mg can of sodium soup. This morning, I made a big green shake and split it 3 ways for me, hubs, and daughter, containing:

1 banana

1 apple

3 dates

half lb spinach

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

a little bit of cabbage

2 Tb green powder (mix of wheat grass, barley grass, spirulina, msn)

2 Tb cocoa powder

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp pure peppermint extract

2 Tb almond butter

a glug of maple syrup (so they'll drink it)

water & ice

I would usually drink 2/3 of this myself for breakfast and save the rest for an afternoon snack, but I can always make more!

For lunch he got kale, arugula, carrots, cabbage, celery, tomato, butter crunch lettuce, and black & garbanso beans. I had the same later, but instead of the beans I added avocado and a raw dressing of apple cider vinegar, tahini, lemon pepper, celtic salt, kelp, and dulse. I snacked in between breakfast and lunch, as you'll see at the bottom of the page.

In exchange for my willingness to climb out of bed so early just for him, he helped me run the fencing material down to the neighbor's front yard. They usually mow it, but with the gas prices, they're more than happy to let my horses chow down. It took less than one hour to set it up. Made of lightweight nylon tape with little strands of wire running through it. It uses a solar powered battery and sends out a mild shock pulse. I really don't even need to turn it on; the horses are happy to stay put. I placed the camera on the neighbor's mailbox, set the timer, and ran out to pose with my equines. This is me and my grey arabian, Sweetie. She's 25 years old. The chestnut (rusty colored)horse is Dusty. She's Sweetie's 6 year old baby half arab, half quarterhorse.

While out doing yardwork, I brought along my camera for picture ideas, and my cell to keep up with Twitters. I had the ipod on to keep motivated. While I was setting up a gate and repairing a fence, I discovered the green briar is putting out new baby shoots. They taste a bit like green beans. I picked a bunch and ate them on the go. I also found some

summer berries that were ripe. Not really sweet, but cool and crisp. I thought about how nice they'd taste in a sweet raw cashew cream... Maybe next time.