Free Lunch - an inspiration

I get inspiration from a lot of places. This week it's Sheri, who feeds her kids amazing meals, and who found organic raspberries at $1/ box and bought 14 boxes. Then got her kids busy freezing them on trays for smoothies for the winter. Because this week, I had a lot of leftovers from my party. I'm actually tired of them. The rest just went into the freezer or got composted.

While filling my fridge with leftovers, the strawberries (organic, local, fresh, delicious) got pushed to the top shelf. Which normally wouldn't be a problem. Except a month ago, my spouse cleaned the coils on the fridge. I pulled the berries out last night and they were frozen solid.

Inspired by Sheri, I sliced off the green tops and put them in the freezer. And today I had smoothies.

I also get inspiration from coworkers. I have a new coworker named Mark, whom I haven't spoken to much. But rumor has it he lives on a ranch and sells goat cheese and chicken eggs and chickens.

I have a coworker named Kelly. And she is my inspiration of the free lunch. Or almost free lunch.

Yesterday, her lunch was the epitome of frugal, healthy, and simple. I realize that not everyone has our luck, but here goes Kelly's lunch:

Steamed chard (in microwave): I'm not sure where she got the chard. Her garden? My CSA from last week? the farmer's market?
sliced zucchini: our accountant has a pretty big garden and the zukes have found there way into work (snagged one myself)
a diced avocado: have I mentioned the amazing boss? With the avocado orchard? Who every two weeks brings a large postal box full of them?
a drizzle of organic yogurt
sriracha: public sriracha (I bought a huge bottle and brought it to work, to replace the one the boss brought a couple months ago. I can't tell you how many people I see just slicing open an avo and putting on sriracha for lunch or a snack)
a grapefruit (the boss again)

I didn't take a picture (didn't have a camera and wouldn't have wanted to freak her out!!)

So, the trifecta:
frugal (the cost of a drizzle of yogurt, and maybe the chard)
healthy (look at those veggies! and healthy fat!)
simple (what is simpler than just steamed or raw veggies and fruits?)

Today we both got actual free lunch at work (birthday lunch!) Yum. Hers looked better than mine. I was hungry again by 3 pm.