Wow what a week it has been – new frontiers for sure have been conquered. Mike had his first ever (Meniscus) surgery and everybody who ever had surgery knows how stressful the process of getting ready for surgery can be. Personally I hate nothing more than getting into that ugly gown and blue stretchy surgery cap, it feels like you leave your “normal” life behind and enter the traumatic world of surgery, left vulnerable wearing this humiliating backless outfit, often in ugly green with silly patterns. To me that adds a sense of disempowerment and its made worse by doctors looking all slick in their white or blue scrubs. But what choice do we have, I guess these gowns have their advantages too (cheap, easy to clean, easy access to your body in emergencies). Mike didn’t care about the outfit (I think..;-)) for a needle phobic person like my hubby there are bigger things to worry about than the surgery outfit – getting the IV placed into your hand is much more terrifying (and we learned very bruising), but he took it like a champ and the surgery went better than anticipated – phew one down.

I broke new frontiers on completely different grounds by saying good bye to 14 years of Microsoft and starting a new work adventure at AWS (Amazon’s cloud company). It “only” took 14 years to get a photo with the MS CEO Satya Nadella and chances are high that it won’t take me that long to get a photo with the AWS CEO, I already received a group email from Andy Jesse (the AWS CEO) within my first week :-). This is a big step into unfamiliar territory going to pretty much the most competitive company one can go after working at Microsoft. I was expecting lots of my colleagues would be avoiding me like the pest but fortunately so far that hasn’t happen and lots of my colleagues were very happy for me. The first week in the new job went by quickly, lots of new people, content and processes to learn, perfect though for an ADD person like me.

Between job changes Mike and I took a short trip to our favorite beach town – Long Beach – and celebrated our 13th anniversary! We found a new little Italian restaurant (My Covio) run by a chef from Amsterdam and had an outstanding anniversary dinner!

And just a week prior Michelle and her cousin Sharla came and visited us on their way to Bali which gave me the opportunity to make Acai bowls for breakfast. I discovered Brazilian Acai Bowls a while ago and think I finally have the recipe down. Not that it is really complicated, I think the type of blender might also play a role and the amount of liquid to frozen acai.

An Acai bowl is pretty much a smoothie in a bowl topped with fruits, granola, honey and anything else you like to add like nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips or any other favorite toppings. Ingredients: Makes 4 small or 2 medium breakfast bowls

• 3 Acai Puree Packages (I found mine at Trader Joes)
• Berries (Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries – any berries you like)
•  1/2 a cup of juice (apple, orange, guava..anything really)
• 2 Bananas
• 4 Tablespoons Granola
• 4 Teaspoons Honey
• 2 Tablespoons Shaved Coconut

Directions:

1. Combine 1 banana, the content of 3 Acai packages and a t1/4 to 1/2 a cup of juice (apple, orange, Guava, anything really works) in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Divide the Acai mixture into 2 big bowls (or 4 small ones) and top with the berries, 1/2 a sliced banana per bowl, additional topics and a tablespoon of honey per bowl.

Guten Appetit!