A Super Fun Day!

I think I have shared in the past that Saturdays are the day that I really treasure. It is the only day of the week that totally belongs to me. So I keep Saturdays as my day that is totally fun. Sometimes it is my alone time, and sometimes it is my day to enjoy friends and family. Many times it is a day to play with my stitchy toys, read, garden, and take naps with Liesl.

Today, as with most Saturdays, started with our weekly trip to the dog beach in Carmel. It is a leash free beach, so Liesl gets a two mile walk where she can be free to run and play with other dogs. This tuckers her out and leads to a quiet day for both of us! Afterwards, I did my grocery shopping and headed home to give the furgirl her bath. All of this got done by 11 am so I had the rest of the day to putter.

I truly love puttering around the cozy cottage. Today, since I needed to clean out the fridge, I decided to make minestrone to use up all of the veggies that were coming close to the end of their life span. I even put the Swiss Chard from my BFF's garden into the soup. I used up pretty much all of the leftover veggies and the soup came out beautifully. Yum. I have about four quarts. I was in a cooking mood, so I also boiled eggs for the week and baked a lovely cranberry-orange bread, so I could use the frozen cranberries from the holidays.

By this time, I was out of control. I decided to make yogurt. I have never made yogurt, and I am embarrassed to admit that I have a yogurt maker that I have had for 10 years that I have never ever used. I had read an article this week about groceries for $4 a day, which talked about not buying processed foods and making a lot of the extras yourself. This included yogurt. I got all inspired. I make a lot of smoothies for breakfast. They are delicious, filling, and I have 3-4 servings of fruit first thing in the day. I have been wanting to add yogurt to them, but I have been out. It is super easy to make.

To top it off, I get these daily dog tips emailed to me from Dogster.com. I get really great tips from them. They had a recipe for doggie popsicles that included yogurt. So now I was super inspired to try making yogurt. I like making some of my own dog treats. One of the guys at work talks about the fact that we should read the labels on dog treats like we read labels on people food. He pointed out that many dog treats are high in sugar and salt, and really not good for dogs. So I like when I can have a little more control over what goes into a treat. These are pretty pure and simple!

Here is the recipe from Dogster for doggie popsicles:

2 mashed bananas

1 cup strawberries

1 cup organic apple juice

2 cups plain yogurt

Puree in blender, pour into ice cube trays and freeze for at least an hour.

Well, I am off to read my book. I washed the sheets today and I believe that clean sheets are one of the best things in the world! A perfect end of a perfect day!