#538 a charming day

Have you ever had one of those days when you just felt, well, charmed? As I was walking Osi through the neighborhood tonight, enjoying the mild temperature and the beautiful sunset, watching the kids riding their bikes up and down the street, greeting my neighbors as they mowed the lawn/washed their car/enjoyed the evening, I thought about my day and how lovely and sort of charming it was.

It started when I woke up a little earlier than I have been and my knee felt good (ahhh...cortisone!) so I decided to do some yoga. It was just a 20 minute A.M. yoga dvd. It felt good to stretch and twist and gently come into the day.

Then I picked out a cute outfit. I put on my favorite top that I purchased for vacation. It's sleeveless, white and black, with little diagonal ruffles on it. I paired it with an A-line black skirt and black sandals. I wore pretty silver dangle-y earrings. It was simple and I liked it. I felt good in it.

Work was busy this morning. I had a couple of meetings, but they weren't stressful and I felt good about what was going on. For lunch, a few of us went to a soup and sandwich place downtown called Zupas. We ate on the patio because the weather was so wonderful. We sat in the shade and enjoyed our meal, took care of a spot of business, and listened to a crazy woman yell at us until one of the restaurant people told her to move along. With the SLC skyline in the background, it felt just like being in a real city! :-)

Back in the office in the afternoon, I got a bunch of stuff done, and again, I didn't feel stressed or rushed. I just felt happy to check things off my to-do list.

When I got home, MT wasn't here yet, so I took my Nook outside on the deck and read for about half an hour until he came home. I tried a new recipe tonight. It was simple and tasty. It was grilled chicken with a goat cheese vinaigrette. I'll tell you how to make it.

I took two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and sliced them lengthwise so I had four pieces of chicken. I seasoned both sides of each piece of chicken with a bit of garam masala, salt and pepper. I sprayed my grill pan with non-stick spray, heated the pan a bit, then put the chicken in the pan.

While the chicken was cooking, I mixed about 1/3 cup of olive oil, about a palmful of red pepper flakes and some chopped parsley in a bowl. Then I added about two ounces of goat cheese to the mixture.

In the meantime, I cooked some orzo in another pot.

When the chicken and the pasta were done, I placed a piece of chicken on the plate along with a reasonable serving of the orzo. Then I topped both the goat cheese vinaigrette. The goat cheese began to melt on the hot pasta and chicken, and it was dang tasty. It was light and good and creamy. It pleased me. MT said it was fine. I think I was a little heavy on the parsley, and the vinaigrette could have used some salt and pepper, but overall, I liked it a lot. There was leftovers, so I cut up the chicken into bite-size pieces and mixed the pasta and the chicken bites with the leftover vinaigrette. I think it will be a yummy light lunch. I bet it would even be ok cold.

After dinner, like I said, I took Osi for a quick walk around the neighborhood. It was just a nice mellow day.

Sheesh! I must be getting old if this is all it takes to make me so happy!