Two cups to a pint, two pints to a quart…

…and four quarts to a gallon.

Keep that in mind.  It’ll come in handy later.

How’s the afternoon treating you?  Fine?

Rock on!

For the record, no arms were consumed this afternoon.  My hunger stayed appropriately at bay until about three-ish this afternoon, when it started grumbling at me, muttering things about neglect and food.

Oddly enough, I was actually craving cucumbers in my salad today.

I promptly remedied it accordingly.

I had an overwhelming craving for hummus and cucumbers today, and when my body craves vegetables, I really do try to honor it.

However, on the other hand, I also seriously wanted a salad today, as well.

I couldn’t very well make a veggie platter and serve it next to my salad, could I?

Hummus makes a fantastic salad dressing.

Nah, couldn’t do that.

(But knowing me, I would try, until I accidentally stuck my hand in the salad bowl, thinking it was my crudité plate, and get avocado bits all over my fingers.  Then I would try to eat my hand, because I didn’t have any egg whites with my breakfast and my hands now tasted like avocado.  Dangerous stuff, there.)

But I could mix it all together in a bowl.

This avocado was almost too ripe, which meant it tasted nothing short of perfect.

Lauren had suggested to me that I use hummus as salad dressing.  In the past, I shunned the idea, thinking that it would clash or just be redundant with my chickpeas.

However, when I’m wrong, I can admit that I was wrong.

And I was so very wrong.

Lauren, you have shown me the light, and the light tastes like hummus on my salad.

(Does light have a flavor?  Of course, because I ate it today, then hiccuped rainbows for the rest of the afternoon.)

A huge bowl of delish!

This salad contained an entire tomato, a huge crimini mushroom, half a large avocado, about 1/3 of a cucumber, a cup of chickpeas, 1/4 cup hummus, 1/3 bell pepper, and one a half heads of lettuce.

Hey, I was hungry, all right?

Okay, not really.  I just have a big appetite for fresh, crisp salads.

Every bite contained some form of awesomeness or another, which of course, thrilled me to no end.

Look closely and do the math.

Remember about what I said about how many quarts are in a gallon?

You guys, for my lunch, I ate a half a gallon of salad.

And I also had room for dessert, and I wouldn’t mind going foraging again, soon.

By the way, there was no way I was going to starve after breakfast.  On a whim, I ran the numbers for it, and it had about 19g of protein in it.

Yeah.

And, dessert. Very tart, but also very yummy.

Oh!  Oh!  Guess what?

I won an award!

How cool is that?

Vicky over at Down the Rabbit Hole has deemed me worthy of her Sunshine Award!

W00tness!

So, to pay it forward, I’m going to pass this award onto twelve bloggers who make me feel like I there is sunshine in my life.

Until I eat the sunshine, that is.  Then hiccup rainbows.

In no particular order, I bestow upon thee:

1) Clean Eats in the Dirty South: I love Lauren’s sense of humor and wit, and her recipes rock my socks off.  And, c’mon.  Hummus on salads?  Genius!

2) Homewarming: Tes has a wonderful blog with all sorts of delicious recipes that I ogle and drool over.  Plus she gave me my first real comment, which puts her in a special place in my blogger heart.

3) La Raina Batata: Gaby has a fun blog that documents her travels, which makes me extremely jealous of the sights she’s seen.  Plus, she and I have so much in common that it’s just eerie.  She’s too cool for words.

4) Live, Laugh, Eat: I love Allie’s sense of humor, I love her blog, and I love her appetite for life and for good food.  Fact: when searching her blog to see if she’s gotten the Sunshine Award before, I found dozens of entries with the word “sunshine” in it.  Is that not awesome?

5) Jenn’s Menu and Lifestyle Blog: Jenn’s blog has some of the most drool-worthy photos and food I have ever seen, and I love how she eats what works best for her, and doesn’t jump on the blogging trends.  And, it was the first food blog I had ever started reading, years ago.

6) The Hungry Scholar: Ashely’s blog is brilliant!  She’s so funny, and I love her recipes and writing style.  So fun to read it.  Plus, she’s so random and quirky (poached eggs at midnight just to see if she can) that you can’t help but love her blog.

7) Tummy Squiggles: I just started reading Floey’s blog, but I am so dang charmed by her!  She’s so insightful and honest, and she talks about things that others are afraid to (I saw her talk about poop once.  Is that cool or what?).

8 ) What About Summer: Katherine’s blog asks all the questions that make you look deep into yourself and find the answers.  She’s so introspective and wise.  I always leave her blog feeling a bit smarter, myself.

9) Zeke’s Adventures With Autism: Schona’s blog details what it’s like to have a son with autism, and she documents how much he’s growing and flourishing on a GFCF diet.  It’s so inspiring to read.

10) What We Need: This is another wonderful blog that shares her experience raising her son with autism.  Darcy’s so clever and sharp, but very wise, too.  A pleasure to read.

11) Spabettie: I love this blog.  I love how warm and friendly Kristina is, and her sense of humor is probably as warped and twisted as mine.  I’m also secretly in love with Basil, and I plan to run off with him and bake gluten-free brownies together.

12) Trayn Harder: There is so much I could say about Tra, but I couldn’t sum it up in a page, much less a paragraph.  I ❤ this girl.  She understands me.  She’s so sweet and kind and I totally dig her.  Definitely one of my favorite bloggers.

Thank you guys, all of you, for being awesome people and giving me something to look forward to every day!

So the lot of you twelve who received this award, you gotta choose 12 recipients, mention them and link to their blogs (as well as mine!) in a post.  Then, leave a comment on each of the blogs you pass the award onto.

Capice?

Good.

Thanks for reading!

❤ Kaz