City Farmer

After the workout, I met up with Becki for lunch at Gordon Biersch and had one of my favorite salads in the world.  Modified, of course. I got the hummus and goat cheese salad:

• Hold the pita bread
• Hold the dressing
• Add extra salad greens
• Omit half the hummus
• Add grilled chicken
• Balsamic vinegar on the side

I know how this sounds.  I even cringe at myself sometimes when I order.  But I've learned along the way that asking for substitutions on a dish in order for me to meet my goals is essential.  I rarely have a server or a chef complain about my requests.  I may get an occasional eye roll from the people I'm dining with but I've also learned not to let that get under my skin.

It was so nice to catch up with Becki!

After lunch I headed to City Farmer which I had heard so much about from Stephanie and Jolee.  I needed to stock up on supplies for my weekend of finally planting my garden.  They had a whole wall of seeds by Seeds of Change.  The staff helped me avert disaster by picking vegetables in the right growing season and ones also that would work in my small space.   It was a lot to take in for a first time gardener!

No garden store is complete without the sleeping dog...

I had planned to wait until Sunday to start planting but could not contain myself.  I planted the zucchini, some of the bell pepper and tomato plants, the eggplant, strawberries and the hot peppers.

Tomorrow, I'll start on planting the seeds!

Our plans for tonight got a little turned around.  We had hoped to go to Del Mar to help a friend celebrate his Dirty 30 and unfortunately had to cancel (which I absolutely hate doing!).  Since we had planned to be out, I did not prepare anything for dinner so after Michael got home, we went to Sammy's Woodfired Pizza.

Sammy's has a partnership with healthydiningfinder.com which gives diners a handful of menu items lower in calories and with full nutrition content listed.

While the options are pretty limited it is nice to be able to see what you are ordering.

I had the Pesto Chicken Wrap and substituted the wrap for lettuce leaves.

Tomorrow I get ready for the week and will post some of my strategies in making sure there are a lot of fresh, healthy foods at our fingertips.

Question, what vegetable would you plant if you had a garden?  If you do have a garden, what is your favorite vegetable to grow?