Luchtime Daily Chi!

Good afternoon!

Here's a quick collage of Tango last night when he was waiting, impatiently, for his dinner.

Tango is on a special diet of low fat food to keep his pancreas happy. In about September of last year he had a really bad pancreatitis attack that led to an emergency vet trip and subcutaneous fluids. After that he was on basically a pancreatic reset diet for a month. When I tried weaning him back on to normal dog foods, he would get sick all over again. It has been a long time coming but we finally have his pancreas all leveled out again with this diet and he's a happy little dude!

He's a little on the skinny side still so Tango gets three meals a day and he loves every single one of them! Most dogs don't do tricks and get super excited about plain old kibble but Tango is all about his Primal raw food! His other favorite is the scrambled egg we use to supplement his diet with healthy fat and protein.

As you can see, he does tricks for his meals! I'm working on a standing spin with him right now and he's offering it pretty regularly as a trick so we're making good progress! Roll over was probably the hardest trick I've taught him so far but he's definitely a trainable little dude :)

Putting the Chi in Chia Seeds

Good morning!

Today's smoothie recipe is a variation on one I did Monday morning. Monday's did not turn out so great so I'm glad I made a few adjustments for today's! You'll notice there's also a cup of chia pudding there; this was my second attempt at chia pudding and it came out great so I'll also share that recipe!

Smoothie:

• 1 banana
• 1 apple (peeled and cored)
• 1 handful fresh kale
• 8 oz coconut milk
• 8 oz water
• 1 tbs chia seeds*
• 2 tbs protein powder*
• 2 tsp flax seeds*
• 2 tsp Very Green*

* Supplements aren't required, the smoothie tastes just fine without them. Substitute your favorites!

The trick with this smoothie that made it better than monday's is that I used coconut milk instead of coconut water, I doubled the liquid by adding 8 oz of plain water, and I prepared the fruits and froze them earlier in the week. Overall, the frozen fruit blended better and the extra liquid made for a much smoother texture. 

Another alternative is instead using 8 oz coconut water and 5 oz greek yogurt, which is what I ended up adding to Monday's to make the texture smooth out and loosen up.

Chia Pudding:

• 1 tbs chia seeds
• 3 oz Lactaid (or any milk substitute)
• 5 oz coconut water
• 1 tbs honey
• Combine ingredients in a sealable container, mix well, let sit overnight in the refrigerator for a quick breakfast pick-me-up!

I tried the first batch with coconut milk and it didn't come out as creamy. When I used the Lactaid (Full fat!), it came out perfectly. Now, this recipe could also work with low fat yogurt instead of milk and coconut water if you don't like to use milk and want a creamier texture. Overall, the honey definitely made the whole dish. 

The thing that made me want to try out chia pudding was the fact that these little seeds puff up in liquid and look like frog eggs. I grew up in the country for the early half of my childhood and one of the coolest school trips was always going down to a pond to catch tadpoles and find squishy frog eggs. This would make a great Halloween snack project for a classroom snack day!

Keep an eye out for today's dose of Tango to see his stages of begging for dinner!

Daily Chi

Tango is a photogenic little dude so I think a Daily Chi picture of him will show all of his glory. This one is from yesterday and I call it the Princess and the Pea.

He's got so many layers under him but I bet he could probably still feel a kibble between the pillows!

Hi!

Hello world!

My name is Jennifer, I've been a blogger before over at Lacquer Ninja when I was super in to nail polish. Over the last year or so, I've started having less time for the hobby and have moved to a completely new place in my life. Now, I'm  living in Tyson's Corner, drinking smoothies daily in an attempt to get fitter and spending lots of time with my little dude Tango.

Tango is a three legged chihuahua that I rescued back in 2012. He's now 3.5 years old and a total character. He's my little furry soulmate and we're basically the same being in different bodies. We can cuddle for hours or go hiking around the National Mall  to look at Cherry Blossoms.

Most days, I'm working from home while the corporate office is getting built out so Tango and I spend the whole day together. He used to accompany me to work at my last job too so we're pretty used to being together all the time! I definitely miss him when I'm out of town but I have a good group of people around that I trust to take care of him. Tango can be shy and reactive around strange people but it's something I keep working on in hopes that he'll be a happy little dog that likes attention as much as people like him. The little dude has a fan club because he's so awesome!

In the mornings, I've been using my Magic Bullet blender to make healthy smoothies for my boyfriend and I before we head to work (me to my home office and him to Falls Church). I've been instagramming our smoothies with the recipes I've found or made up and thought it would be fun to do a blog about them and Tango. Thus the birth of Smooth-Chi!

This is today's smoothie and all the additives I added. The Recipe is listed below for those who'd like to try it out! I'll probably post smoothie recipes daily or every other day as people show interest. Enjoy!

Wednesday's smoothie is nice and sweet. This was my first time using chia seeds since I found them at TJ Maxx yesterday. I've always thought they looked neat suspended in drinks at places like Whole Foods. The soaked chia seeds definitely looked like Frog eggs this morning!

• 1 banana
• 1 c frozen berries
• 1 handful fresh kale
• 8 oz coconut milk
• 4 oz water
• 1 tbs chia seeds (soaked in 3 tbs coconut water overnight)
• 2 tbs protein
• 2 tsp Very Green