All-in-1 Friday!

Good afternoon!

Today's post will be the smoothie and the Daily Chi. There's also a quick collage of my colorful lunch salad as well.

• 1 large handful spinach
• 1 banana
• 1/2 c blueberries
• 1/2 c raspberries
• 2 tbs almond butter
• 8oz almond milk
• 8 oz water
• 2 tbs protein
• 2 tsp Very Green
• 1 tbs chia seeds

This one is another PB&J type smoothie and it was great. I've always loved raspberry jam so this was right up my alley.

Today after I finished my leg workout in the afternoon, I figured I'd get a little quiet meditation in. Tango decided he was going to join me and I couldn't pass up the photo op!

And finally, here's my colorful lunch salad! I've been having salad for lunch about 3-4 days of the week to keep my diet on track. No sense having daily smoothies if you're going to eat junk for the rest of the day! The ingredients are:

• arugula
• butter lettuce mix
• cherry tomatoes
• pickled beets
• herbed goat cheese

I topped this with about 1 tablespoon each of balsamic and olive oil then tossed for a great lunch!

Daily Chi "The Look"

Good afternoon,

Tango is being a little snarky today but also very cuddly. He has a look that he gives me when he thinks I'm being silly and I managed to capture it twice today! I also caught a neat picture of Jade hanging out on the window sil next to my desk.

Daily Chi, Play with Me!

Good afternoon,

Here's a handful of pictures of Tango trying to get Jade to play with him. I do have to say, the full body picture is my favorite because he looks muscular.

Oh, I see a cat!

Play with meeeee!

Mom! She won't come play!

Silly Daily Chi

Good afternoon!

Tango, being the well-love little guy he is, has a variety of dog beds. The one in my office is the one he spends most of his afternoon hours in. It's a neat little bed that can either be a comfy dog pod or an open topped bed.

I've seen both Tango and Jade use this bed but Tango is the only one I've seen actually collapse or expand the bed. It's neat to see how his mind works to open the bed up or squish it down! Anyways, today he was being silly and somehow closed the pod behind him. I coaxed him out with one of his favorite toys but he just retreated right back into the pod. He looks like a little turtle!

Daily Chi Quickie

Good afternoon!

Sorry I missed yesterday's Daily Chi. Work is super busy right now with the invoicing for July. Here's a quick video of Tango being silly with a towel. Whenever I take a shower, he always waits for me to give him my towel after I dry my hair so he can roll in it. I guess he likes the smell of my shampoo!

Daily Chi Dances for Dinner

Good afternoon!

Tango may have 3 legs to work with but he tends to prefer walking on 2 when he's excited about eating. Last night he had a large dinner because we missed lunch and he was exceptionally excited about his egg/raw kibble combo.

This morning he also walked for his breakfast though he was pretty talkative about it. I'm trying not to encourage his vocalizations during these times because I don't want him barking/yipping and expecting to be rewarded for it. I wait until he's mostly quiet before rewarding him with his meals.

Daily Chi: Cats and Dogs Living together!

Hello hello!

Today's collage is a collection of Tango relaxing and showing off his attitude. As 6 lbs of pure sass, Tango makes some wonderful faces when I take pictures. However, one of his favorite pastimes is taking a nap.

Tango is not an only "fur-child", he shares his home with Jade, my rescue cat. She's a huge cat, at least 12 lbs at any given time and probably part Maine Coon. At double Tango's weight, Jade definitely likes to pick on the little guy. They will chase each other around in spurts and Jade likes to ninja-pounce on Tango around corners. They're like siblings that always rough-house but still love each other. Whenever one or the other is gone for an extended time, the first thing they check when we get home is each other.

Tango is using Jade's dish because I need to microwave his food, she doesn't mind!

Jello Daily Chi!

Good afternoon,

My nickname since high school has been Jelly after a jet-lag fueled musing about plants in a Japanese bio lab. Since then, I've loved jellyfish and anything that looks similar to them like octopuses. My boyfriend got me a little octopus stuffy for my birthday last month and I named her Jelly. Fast forward to earlier this week and I picked up a octopus dog toy for Tango. We, of course, named him Jello to go with Jelly.

Here's Tango and Jello!

Tango is very gentle with his toys. He doesn't tear them up or take the stuffing out. Actually, he treats most of his toys like little puppies he has to take care of an groom. Jello is no different and has been enjoying getting carried around and cuddles or groomed by Tango.

I snapped this next picture of him earlier today when he decided the only place he could be was my lap. I guess he wanted to be a lap warmer while I worked in my office! Here's Tango "helping" me work.

I'm not sure if I'll be posting over the weekend for this blog yet so if I don't, have a great weekend and eat healthy!

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 :)

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