Yesterday, a long-awaited package arrived – a new protein powder I bought! 

I usually buy the same few protein powders over and over again, but this time I was feeling crazy and decided to try a new kind.  Butter Cream Toffee sounded delicious!

I wanted to make use of it with breakfast – so I made protein oatmeal. 

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 scoop protein powder
• 1 cup soy milk

I didn’t add a lot of extras because I really wanted to taste the new protein powder.  It was…. ok.  Not bad, but not amazing like I expected.  I prefer my All the Whey cake batter protein powder.  But I’m hoping this will grow on me as I try it in new things and get used to it. 

That actually happens to me a lot with protein powders – I am iffy about them at first, but then they grow on me.

Has anybody else had this type of protein powder before?  Any suggestions for good recipes or things to try it in?

All morning long I enjoyed having my sliding door open so I could look out onto the patio and see these:

I returned from Pittsburgh to find my whole patio abloom!  My roses bushes are absolutely gorgeous.  I am really appreciative of the flowers and their heartiness, because I’m not exactly a green thumb.  In fact, since I have moved in I have seriously neglected this garden and my rose bushes.  But they just keep on coming back and blooming season after season. 

Flowers make me HAPPY!!! 

S and I made a Trader Joes run to stock up the kitchen again – it was completely empty of anything perishable when I left for (and thus when I returned from) Pittsburgh.  Do you know that S ate ONE MEAL at home while I was gone?  And that one meal was a frozen pizza that he made for himself in the toaster oven.  He ate all his other meals out  for a week and two days.  Unbelievable.  He probably ate more take-out in the past two weeks than I have eaten in the past year!

I used my new Trader Joes goodies to make up a huge salad for lunch.

• romaine
• carrots
• egg
• garbanzo beans
• mozzarella cheese
• turkey bacon
• olive oil/vinegar

Turkey bacon is so good!  It’s not an every day kind of thing, but it sure adds some great taste and flavor.  And it smells so good when cooking it!

For a snack, I pulled my last Figgy Date Protein Bar out of the freezer.  I love how well baked goods freeze and easily reheat.

For dinner, I was just too tired to cook.  So it was a subway kind of night!  Which is the best kind of night.

With some colored peppers and pistachios on the side.

Got all my food groups in there! 

And for dessert…. soft serve frozen yogurt!  Razzyfresh.  Soooo good.  I got half cookies ‘n cream, half pistachio frozen yogurt.

Topped with kiwis, strawberries, sprinkles and some fruity pebbles!

The fruit was really good, the sprinkles gave it some extra sweetness, and the cereal gave it extra crunch.  It was perfect! 

S and I are really interested in starting our own business of some kind, although we haven’t really decided what kind.  We have a million ideas!  But one thing we were discussing was the smart business plan behind all of the soft serve places popping up all over the place.  Think about it:  You have to pay some initial startup costs for the soft serve machines, the supplies, cash register… the basics.  Then you have a few ongoing costs like rent or property purchase for your store.  And then the ongoing supplier costs for the yogurt, the toppings, etc.  However… that’s about it!  These places have very little overhead – some of them are tiny little rooms that just have one or two employees working at any given time.  People serve themselves, and then just have to get it weighed and pay for it at the cash register.  There is significantly less cost for a business owner then there would be for some other sort of ice cream store, restaurant, or other type of business.  Plus, business is booming!  In California, there is always line for these soft serve joints.  It’s the perfect treat!

So… maybe a soft serve business is somewhere in our future?  I sure wouldn’t mind!!!

Have you ever thought about starting your own business?  What would you do?