Vote With Your Wallet

During my internship, my organization hosted an intern lunch series where every Wednesday interns from various environmental organizations were invited to bring a brown bag lunch and listen to speakers from certain fields, most having to do with the environment. One of my favorite speakers was Florian Pfahler, who started a fast casual restaurant in 2004 called Hannah's Bretzel, with the intention to show that fast and casual dining could also be tasty and healthy. Everything that Hannah's uses is biodegradable and most of their business practices, from cleaning supplies to choosing vendors, are green and sustainable. Hannah's also uses foods that are organic, unprocessed, local family-farmed, naturally raised, sustainable and nutritious. And let me just say, it pays off!

After hearing about Hannah's Bretzel so many times from my co-worker, Tina, I asked her to go there to lunch with me today. I was so impressed with the speed of service and the overall look of the dining room that I completely forgot to take a picture of my food! I ordered half the Hannah's Club sandwich with an organic mixed salad, and I have to say that I have rarely eaten such fresh and delicious food. Poor Tina had to put up with my raving about the lettuce; that's right, LETTUCE! The salad didn't even need dressing it was so good and it was mostly mixed greens! I'll have to find out where they get their greens from... The sandwich and Bretzel bread was also to die for. It had turkey, bacon, Swiss Gruyere cheese, red onions, romaine hearts, avocado, tomato and sprouts.

One thing that Florian said while speaking to our intern lunch group was that we vote with our wallets. I thought this statement was very interesting, and very true. Yes, Hannah's Bretzel was more than I would normally spend on a lunch, but how I am supposed to expect more business to use green principles if I don't spend my money at the ones that already do? One more reason to shop at Whole Foods!

What do you think about the concept of "voting with your wallet"? Do you try to implement this idea and support what you believe in by supporting those who are taking action?

First Post! Breakfast Time.

So today was a big day. Last day as an intern and first day as a blogger! Since May, I've been working as a policy intern at a non-profit environmental organization which worked mostly with land preservation and acquisition, water quality, and community greening. Although not a conventional legal internship, it gave me a great insight into how to use my law degree in a different way. However, I am so excited to be done!!! I have two whole weeks until classes start again!

Since my boss (who works from home on Fridays) said she wouldn't be at her desk until 9, I decided to take advantage of the late start and go for an early morning run! I pulled my IT band a few months ago and haven't been able to run until this week! I've been DYING to get back into it, especially with the great weather! So when I got up I threw on my shoes and the AMAZING shirt my friend Maddie gave me and headed out for a 2 mile run, which I finished in just over 18 min.

When I got back I showered, got dressed, and packed up my bag for work. For breakfast I had a bit of a mish-mash: 6 tablespoons of egg-whites scrambled with pepper, a small bowl of Puffins Cinnamon cereal with sliced strawberries, and a little bit of cantaloupe. I hadn't decided to start my blog at this time, so no picture. But here's the cereal!

I like the cinnamon flavor, but the peanut butter that I tried at my friend Maddie's apartment in Denver was amazing!! Sadly they didn't have it at Trader Joe's this week. Cereal is probably one of my favorite foods, and I tend to hear that a lot from people! Perhaps it's the childhood memories? Maybe the ease of pouring a bowl? Or is it just that darn good??? What's you're favorite kind of cereal and why?