Despite being late in taking out my yard waste cart to the curb, I realized while walking to my parking strip that I could cut off pieces of fresh Swiss chard from my garden and pick ripened strawberries, all to put in my morning smoothie. Granted realizing this didn’t mean I did it right then, but I did use my home-grown strawberries in a smoothie last night. The realization alone that I had fresh produce that I planted and grew in my own parking strip garden made me really happy in a deeply contented way. Cultivating something with your own hands and love and then reaping the benefits is rewarding on such an innate level that I find the sensation difficult to describe. I’ve been striving to find personal rituals that make my life richer, and picking my daily smoothie ingredients sounds like a perfect addition. I’ll have the chance to survey my garden daily, maybe pull some weeds. I’ll know when to replant or notice if any pests are eating my greens. I’ll remember to water everything instead of my usual forgetfulness. Just getting me out of the house first thing to enjoy my surroundings instead of rushing to my car and then to work is benefit enough.

I made food from mostly scratch yesterday, which hasn’t happened a lot lately. Granted I made tuna salad and also a quiche, which aren’t the hardest things to make (especially with a frozen store-bought gluten-free crust)… but the point is that I made the effort. I even soaked some cashews to make cashew ricotta today. I’m very excited about having ricotta in the house again, as I haven’t made this recipe since my gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin and chicken Christmas lasagna. The ricotta turned out wonderfully then and was really very dairy like. I had non-believers begging for seconds of the lasagna as testament. I’m making a large batch of ricotta this time and plan to freeze portions for future consumption.

Later last night Hank weeded the parking strip garden (yay!) and picked strawberries before we walked the dogs. When we got home, I made a strawberry peach smoothie that cooled me down and was really tart and yogurty tasting, which was nice because dairy-free yogurt is NEVER tart but always too sweet. I really should look into making my own coconut yogurt or kefir. To round out the night, I started working on a puzzle (read: almost finished). I completed a puzzle on a staycation vacation night last week and decided I’d just do a little of the next puzzle last night and then keep working on it over time. Unfortunately cutting myself off is really hard. I may have to set an extraction timer in the future, otherwise I’m going to wind up owning too many puzzles!

Definitely some excellent positives yesterday =) Reflecting on yesterday is rubbing off some positivity on me today too; what a nice side benefit. And to remind myself in case I’m interested in my yogurty flavored smoothie, the recipe was: 1 c refrigerated coconut milk, 2 T frozen canned coconut milk, 6 fresh strawberries, 3 frozen peach slices, and 2-3 T finely shredded unsweetened coconut. Yum!