For the Love of Pockets and Kale

I have been learning to enjoy lazy Sundays. It’s hard for me to NOT be doing something. I know. I’m crazy. The Husband tells me all the time.

He’s a relaxer through and through and has no problem just lounging around all day, in and out of naps, watching random things on television.

I can not. No, really. I’m like, BAD at it. I find it hard to relax if there are things that need to get done, and there is always something that needs to be done!

But I’m learning to chill a bit.

I usually trail run Sunday mornings, but I’m letting my muscle sprain heal for one more week. I’m almost pain-free! And the physical therapist gave me some exercises to do, which are helping immensely.

So, since I had nowhere to go this morning, I lounged with The Husband and slept in. We were out late last night at a fundraising event for my college. Usually I’m not into these events, but they asked me to speak!

It was fun but also stressful. Nothing in my closet fit, I had no makeup, and I hadn’t been to a formal event in years. Honestly, I have a hard enough time throwing on a pair of jeans to teach. I would live barefoot in my workout clothes if I could.

On a wing and a prayer, I ordered this dress that came the day before the event.

And holy shit it worked out!

This dress is super cute, comfy, flattering, and IT HAS POCKETS!

The material isn’t the nicest, but hey, for a $30 dress, I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. Multiple people complimented me on it during the event and my response to every single one was, “And it has pockets!”.

Overall, the event was fun. It was nice to dress up and wear a little makeup. The Husband enjoyed it too. Even though it doesn’t look like it in this pic…

That’s my man! 😍 Our 21st wedding anniversary is this month. Our marriage can legally drink, so we planned a fun weekend away—more on that in a future post.

Okay, back to my lazy Sunday. My stomach is what got me out of bed. So I made breakfast for everyone and decided to meal prep as well.

For the past six weeks or so, I’ve been making a giant kale and cabbage salad for my work lunches. The kale and cabbage hold up really well to being premade. I make a fun dressing and add some chicken. Every week it’s a little different, but I decided to capture how I made it today to share.

I always use a bag of kale and a bag of coleslaw mix (cabbage and carrots), but the rest is usually whatever I happen to have in the fridge. Today it was a red bell pepper, three baby cucumbers, celery, and a couple of scallions.

Everything get’s chopped. Isn’t it beautiful?

I set the veggies aside and pound some chicken breast thin to grill for my protein.

While the chicken cooks, I make a dressing out of a whole lemon, flax oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, a few peppercorns, and a healthy pinch of salt.

Everything goes in the blender…

and viola!

I then mix in some poppy seeds and pour it over the salad.

By this time, the chicken is done. So I slice it up.

I toss the salad and separate it into servings. I always eat one for lunch when I make it, of course!

With salad’s prepped we showered, ran a few errands, and then, well…

As I said, I am learning to enjoy Sundays! Post-nap we made dinner, cleaned up, and played Super Mario Cart with the boys. It was a glorious end to the weekend.

oh! You may be wondering who took that photo. It was The 11-Year-Old. He told me he had to capture it because the cat and dog were with us and it was so cute. He’s a lot like me.

Okay, I’m off and watching Julia on HBO and absolutely loving it.