what's that sound?

Silence. Complete, absolute silence.

This might be the best birthday present ever - the kiddos (my niece and nephew if you're new around here) are off at the neighbor's playing, and I get to relax. Absolutely perfect.

This post is going to be short and quick, because I am going to take advantage of this afternoon and get some things done.

I had a date this morning with Kelsey - we were both supposed to make brownie batter pancakes. Mine, however, did not work out so well. They just would not set! Thanks for the birthday shot out girl!

i know, this looks gross. i may or may not have eaten half the batter before throwing it out :)

When in doubt, I go to oats! Whipped oats a la Kath to be exact. I didn't have any more almond milk, so I just used all water for the liquid. Definitely not as creamy, but delicious nonetheless.

topped with coconut, blueberries, cinnamon, flax, and pb

After this bowl, I didn't even mind that my brownie batter pancakes went bad (okay, I still did, but not as much) - you can never steer wrong with oatmeal!

My mom gave me my birthday presents this morning at, oh... 5:45 am. I cannot sleep lately. I think I'm getting super anxious about the week ahead (yay wedding!). Mom got me a few new reads:

I am so excited to read these two books. I'm going to try to save them for laying on the beach in Mexico on my honeymoon! Mommasita is also buying me my first stash of food for the house as a birthday present. What can I say? I love food - does anyone agree? Question: Do you find it odd I requested groceries for my birthday? :)

As I was cleaning today, I found this in my purse....

Yes, a zucchini.. things just keep getting weirder! Actually my FMIL gave me this yesterday and I forgot to take it out of the purse - haha!

For lunch, I whipped up some quick asparagus with olive oil and pepper:

And a huuuge salad that I really only ate about 1/3 of:

romaine, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, chickpeas, 1/2 avocado, salsa, mustard

For some reason, I really wasn't feeling the salsa/mustard combo today. I'm not sure why, but I kind of ate the "goods" out of there: the chickpeas/avocado!

To finish up lunch, I ate some more healthy fats and protein!

date shmeared with sunbutter - yum!

raisins and cashews

Tonight for dinner we are going to Cooper's Hawk. They have an excellent gluten free menu - the funny thing is whenever I go somewhere that has a gluten free sandwich, I will totally get it even if it's a super fancy shmancy place. Portabello mushroom sandwich anyone? That is what I'm getting! Do you figure out what you are getting before you go out to eat?

After dinner, we are all heading to our new house for some cake! I probably won't do a follow up post until tomorrow. Have a great day!