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Today Chris and I joined several others for a picnic in Central Park. We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day!

I started off the morning with a big green smoothie topped with berries and raw oats, since we’re out of granola. 

Into the blender went:

  • frozen banana
  • a few frozen peach slices
  • ~5 ice cubes
  • 1/2 c unsweetened almond milk
  • a big handful kale (de-stemmed and rinsed)
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • ~1/3 c raw oats (some soaked in the liquid, some on top)
  • a few strawberries, sliced
  • a drizzle or coconut oil
For some reason, when I have plans for lunch where I’m not sure what the food will be like, I tend to work veggies into my morning, in case pickings are slim. I have no idea when or why I started doing that, since it’s not like vegetables are at all hard to find in NYC, but hey, if it makes me want to eat smoothies that taste really good and keep me full for a long time, that can’t be a bad thing!

Since Chris was the organizer, we showed up early to spread out a blanket and let the others know where to find us. 

The plan was for everyone to bring their own lunch plus a few snacks to share. I threw together a salad of leftovers: greens, roasted figs, roasted cauliflower, experimental eggplant bacon, and goat cheese (plus vinaigrette). We also picked up some hummus from Gazala Place on our way. So good…

There was also lots of fruit, pita chips, edamame hummus, and two types of chocolate chip cookies. I ended up not photographing most of the meal because I was with a group of people who don’t really know about my blog, and I didn’t want to be the weirdo taking pictures of my food.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Sitting outside for a few hours is so good for the soul. That sounds super-corny, but it’s true! I wish I did that more often. My worst fear is that one day I’ll have a long list of all the things I wish I’d done when I lived in NYC. Luckily, I’ve managed to cross off “picnic in the park” a few times.

I got a little too much sun this afternoon and am feeling kind of drowsy, but I’m sure I’ll wake up enough to meet up with Chris’ sister and her fiance for dinner later. Maybe this won’t be the most productive Saturday ever, but that’s kind of a good thing.

Do you like picnics? What do you usually bring?