Winter Chicken Salad

Ingredients

For the Chicken

• Use the leftovers from this recipe
  

For the tasty stuff that goes in the salad

• mixed greens
  
• 4 small golden beets
• 1 small-to-medium butternut squash
• toasted almonds
• pomegranate seeds
  

For the dressing

• juice 1 lemon
• juice 1 lime
• ½ avocado
• 1-2 T vinegar (champagne or cider)
• ¼ - ½ c avocado oil (olive oil will work too)
• s&p

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF.

Peel the beets and butternut squash (+remove the seeds). Chop into small pieces, salt/pepper and oil the pieces. Roast until the squash is soft, about 20 minutes (depending on how big the pieces are).

While the veggies are roasting...

Wash and chop the lettuce. Add it, along with the rest of the "tasty" ingredients to the serving bowl. Add the squash, beets and chicken too.

For the dressing...

Combine all ingredients into a small food processor and process until smooth. Of course, you could use a whisk and bowl, in lieu -just make sure you've smashed the avocado up before adding it to the dressing.

Enjoy!

Yesterday was an adventure in the city. Three ladies, a ton of flowers, a questionable foot massage and lunch in China Town.  Brides, this is for you: if you want orchids for your wedding, the San Francisco Wholesale Flower Market is the place to go. The flowers are super cheap and absolutely beautiful. Here is the catch: the flower market is open from 2am-10am to re-sellers only, after 10am flowers start selling to the public. Unfortunately though, since most of their sales go to re-sellers in the city the vendors at the market start shutting down pretty quickly. So, my suggestion is to get to the market a bit early, say 9:00. and have a nice breakfast at the Flower Market Cafe and as soon as 10:00 hits start looking for your flowers. There are of course more than Orchids at the market, but it is the orchids that seem to have the best prices.

I get this question a lot. Working from home is both a blessing and a challenge. A blessing because my commute to work on most days consists of walking across the hall to my office. At the same time, it is a challenge. On those days when I am feeling a little more sleepy than usual it is very tempting to crawl right back into my cozy bed.  So how do I do it? Well, I try to keep to a basic routine and reward myself when I have been a good kid.

First and most importantly, get dressed. For me, it is easy to want to lounge around in pj's all day, the problem with that is you get to the end of the day and you just feel like crap. Plus, as mom says, you never know who is going to show up at the door. I would hate for a client to show up and answer the door in my pajamas. So, definitely get dressed.

Start with a blog. Blogging is a great way to get my head in the game. I usually edit an image or two and get to pour my thoughts out. The process of writing gets my creative juices flowing and keeping a regular blog makes me constantly push to find something to write about. So, even in the slower times I have something to keep me going.

Reward thyself. Oh yes. It is easy to get so wrapped up in work that you slog straight through without hardly lifting your head. The problem is that doing so is 1. it's not good for the body 2. it's not good for the head. So I take breaks. After I blog in the morning I take a break to have breakfast and a cup of tea while I have some love time with the kittens. My next break might be doing a quick clean up around the house or going for a short walk. The important thing is to just step away from the computer.

Keep a list. I have always been a list maker. Or rather, a list checker off-er. Checking things off my list just plain feels good. So every day I compile a list of the things that I must get done, and a list of things that would be good to get done. After I get through the must-do's I get to the should-do's. This is a great way to keep me on track.

Get some exercise. Every day I strive to do something active. For me it is cross-fit. This is what keeps the juices flowing and makes those longs days of editing, accounting, album design, marketing, etc etc fly right by. Plus it is a great excuse to get out of the digital darkroom and speak to (gasp) real live people.

So those are the big things for me. What about you?

Being sick on holiday is no fun at all. Fortunately being sick while riding a horse on the beach makes it a little more bearable. About half way through our trip (when I was almost recovered and Charlie was just starting to get sick) we headed to Sleepy Hollow to go for a ride at Noordhoek beach.

Charlie taking it all in as he rides along the shore...maybe I will make a rider out of him yet! The slopes of Chapman's Peak rise to the right at the end of the sand. The peak in the distance is Karbonkelberg, west of Hout Bay.

See that smile on my face? This was pretty much the highlight of my trip. It is amazing to be back on a horse again... now if only I could figure out how to pack this sweet old horse into my luggage.