Happy Sunday! I have received so many questions about how Zoey is adjusting to her new brother Benji. I’ll write a more in-depth post later about Benji’s integration into our family but for now I thought I’d show you a photo progression of Zoey’s adjustment.

DAYS 1-2

Indifferent. Stand-offish. Pouting. Taking my space…but also interested.

DAYS 3-4

I will be close to you but I will not play with you.

DAYS 5-7

Okay, let’s play.

CURRENTLY

Full-on face smush mode. Let’s share one ball between both of our mouths.

I just gave them a lot of space to figure it out for themselves and didn’t push them to be close or play until they were ready. I knew Zoey would get there because she’s a social girl and has always loved playing with Sullie, Stella and Bear in the past. Zoey is a less anxious and more settled dog with another dog around, and one of the primary requirements that Beji’s foster mom had for the adopting family was that they had an older dog because it also calms Benji. So these two are a match made in heaven. 🙂

More Benji updates to come! Here are a few recent eats and then I’m off to enjoy my Sunday.

BREAKFAST

Peanut butter, honey and banana on sourdough toast with cottage cheese scrambled eggs.

Smoothie bowl with Peanut Butter Puffins. This smoothie bowl had frozen spinach, frozen cauliflower rice, frozen blueberries, frozen banana, frozen raspberries, frozen strawberries, one medjool date, plain full-fat greek yogurt, peanut butter and almond milk.

LUNCH

A really yummy Indian lentil soup from Whole Foods, buttered sourdough toast and apple slices.

Bringing back and old favorite. Avocado toast with sauerkraut and scrambled eggs. I ate this ALL.THE.TIME. a few years ago!

Keeping it real. Sometimes lunch looks like a bar or chips and dip. This day it was half an avocado sliced into an almost empty cottage cheese container. I dipped pita chips into it. Side note: this batch of pita chips from Trader Joe’s was extra brown and toasty and I love that!

DINNER

I haven’t eaten many salads this winter (especially for dinner) but this one was really good! Baby spinach with shredded cheddar, carrots, celery, avocado, cashews and Trader Joe’s breaded gluten-free chicken nuggets. Topped with an organic ranch from ALDI that is one of my new favorite ranch dressings.

White chicken chili that I made in the slow cooker and topped with plain greek yogurt, cilantro, shredded white cheddar and avocado.

Steamed basmati rice with roasted brussels sprouts and butternut squash. Topped with feta, tzatziki and hummus.

A frozen barbecue chicken pizza from Whole Foods with a side salad.

Buddha inspired bowl with white rice, roasted broccoli, roasted mushrooms, roasted butternut squash, feta, hummus and Trader Joe’s almond butter turmeric dressing.

ETC

This is my favorite Haagen-Dazs ice cream flavor but this weekend I’ve been eating plain strawberry and it ranks up there too. What I really love is both together in one bowl!

I actually love strawberry desserts of all kinds. This was a slice of strawberry shortcake cheesecake from Villani’s. I had a day last week that was a day and my mom told me “you need to stop and get yourself a treat.” That’s advice from my mom that I’m always happy to take. A slice of cheesecake in bed always lifts the spirits!

QUESTIONS

Do you eat dinner salads often? 

What’s your favorite “flavor” of dessert? Are you more fruity or chocolate? 

If you have introduced a second dog into the family, how did the transition go?