Delicious and nutritious Saturday lunch

 

My friend Pat called mid-morning and said she was bringing lunch over. She arrived with all manner of "green, raw stuff".  I am not quite as adventurous with food as she is, but I do like a lot of what she likes.  After determining there was no "seaweed" in any of the dishes, I relaxed and set the table. 

 

We gobbled up the spinach dip with crudités, not much left to take photos of.  Here's what we had.

This is golden beets, spiral sliced into noodles, with arugula pesto, with pine nuts.  Hubby came by and asked us why we were eating worms! This was very delicious. There were a few veggies left from the spinach dip, carrots, red peppers, cauliflower, pea pods.

 

This is arugula salad, with red onions, sundried tomatoes, sunflower sprouts and toasted buckwheat sprouts. The dressing was tart and delicious, it had honey, cashews, and citrus juice.

 

There was also a loaf of sourdough bread which we toasted. So everything we ate except the bread was "Raw". We were feeling very virtuous after eating this delicious and nutritious lunch, but we weren't finished yet. 

 

I had been hearing about the new Dreyer's fruit with veggie bars, so bought some so we could try them out.  Besides Apple, these have kale, spinach, mango, pineapple, kiwi, and pumpkin.  Well.....  about the only thing I can say is they were cold and refreshing.  But not something I would try again. So my friend will have to eat them when she is over.  I talked Hubby into trying a bite, and he kind of turned his nose up.  He likes the plain old Raspberry ones, and my favorite ones are the Coconut Water with Pineapple.  I may try some of the other veggie varieties, but then again I may not.  They did have a carrot/tangerine one that sounded like it might be good.  I wonder what the theory behind these treats is...for Mothers to get veggies into their kids in yet another way except real veggies?  I can't imagine most kids liking these as they aren't very sweet.

 

I do believe we got our recommended daily allowance of vegetables, not only for today, but tomorrow as well.

 
 
 
 
 
  

Live in Austin Texas

I won't complain about the heat in this post, really I won't.  Just to tell you that it was 98 at 5 p.m. the other evening when we walked into Waterloo Records, downtown Austin.  We went to a CD release party for one of the old timer Texas artists.  Billy Joe Shaver is a legend around here, well loved by many people.  The place was packed full of folks, to capacity in fact. A very mixed crowd, young and old.  A lot of people were standing outside in front peering in through the windows.  Hard to get photos, because it was so crowded, but we got a few.

Billy and Casper before the show

 

Me, getting a hug from Billy Joe before the show. I was talking as usual, so I'm blurry.

 

 

 

Sometimes it's best to just go and not even attempt to take photos.  But, the point of this post, really is to tell you, that as much as I complain about the weather here in the summertime, this is the other side of living in Austin.  Live music every where you go, and an atmosphere that just can't be beat.  What you have heard about Austin really is true, that it is an awesome city.  The latest statistics show that 140 people move here every day. Because of that, it is losing some of its ease of getting around, but still has not lost its flavor.

August 1st in Austin Texas

We had a cool front today...Ha Ha.  It was only 72 when I got up, and I sat on the front porch with a cup of coffee.  Went out around 10:30 and it was only 82, was very nice.  Went to the stone yard with hubby, and to the garden center next door to look at plants.  Walked around for awhile.  I'm not saying it wasn't HOT...but it only got up to 91 today, the coolest August 1 since 1998.  Weather guy says we will be in the low 90's this week-end.  Likely the coolest temps we will have until October. 

I love this front porch at the stone yard..very Texas looking, it just needs an armadillo.

The garden center next door, which we drive by weekly, but have never stopped in before, has the kind of local plants you don't find at Lowe's or Home Depot.  We only bought a creeping rosemary for the side yard and one of those lovely chartreuse green sweet potato vines.  But found the Mexican Bird of Paradise, they just didn't have the ones with the yellow blooms that I want. The one with the yellow blooms is actually called Caesalpinia Mexicana and the blooms look like this. 

 We ordered these cute fountain grasses, called Little Bunny. They had already sold every one they had today.

 

They had these lovely wooden arches and a lot of statuary, but I only looked.  I cannot bring home anymore things for the yard, that will eventually have to be moved.  Hard to resist though.