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Tuesday 31 July 2012

Will Run For July Foodie Pen Pals

The Lean Green Bean

I absolutely love finding the laminated card that indicates that I have a package in my mailbox especially when I'm expecting a package from my foodie pen pal!


For this month's foodie pen pal exchange I received a package from Chelsey at Power House Fit Foodie.  If you would like to check out what I sent my foodie pen pal visit Lisa's blog.


Inside I found all kinds of healthy snacks and delicious treats. 


Box of sunshine!

Snacks to eat while digging through my package

interesting flavour

Maple syrup on a stick (ridiculously delicious)

Perfect snack

One can never have enough cinnamon

I see a tea party in my future

Perfect for a morning of running and raw
Thank you so much Chelsey for taking the time to choose many items from your local market! 



Now, don’t you wanna join in the fun?! Here are the Foodie Penpals details:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.
If you’re interested in participating for August, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by August 4th as pairings will be emailed on August 5th! You will receive a confirmation email from Lindsay within 24 hours if you sign up. IF YOU DON’T GET ONE, send her an email!

Friday 27 July 2012

Will Run For Tomato, Basil, Avocado Spaghetti Squash



I'm all about meals that require minimal amounts of effort and time.  This is one of those meals (if you don't count the time it took to plant, grow, and harvest the glorious garlic that is part of this recipe).  

Last fall Farmer weaselled me into helping her plant over 300 cloves of garlic.  I recall her saying something about it only taking an hour or two.  Lies.  Hours later I had scraped most of the skin off my knuckles (breaking apart the bulbs of garlic), had come close to losing a digit or two because it was so cold (not really but my fingers were bloody cold), and had narrowly escaped chaffing from my rubber boots thanks to my fuzzy knee socks.  She would claim that I'm being dramatic but it really was pretty awful!

Even though it was awful fresh local garlic is most definately worth it!



skin your knuckles

freeze your fingers
avoid chaffing with the proper attire


wait almost an entire year

garlic extravaganza!!!

add basil


Tomato, Basil, Avocado Spaghetti Squash
(serves 2)

Ingredients

1-2 T olive oil
1 small spaghetti squash
1 C fresh basil
3/4 C quartered cherry tomatoes
1 avocado 
2 -4 T nutritional yeast (or parmesan cheese)
1/4 tsp salt
3 large pressed cloves of local garlic

Prepare spaghetti squash (I cooked mine in the microwave over a bowl of water for approximately 10 minutes).  In a large frying pan heat 1-2 T of olive oil.  Add pressed garlic and allow to cook for approximately 1 minute.  Add basil, cherry tomatoes and avocado allowing to cook for 4-5 minutes.  Add spaghetti squash to basil mixture.  Top with nutritional yeast (or parmesan) and salt.  Return mixture to empty squash.  Enjoy!

* You can also top with pine nuts (if someone doesn't confess as you are making dinner that they ate them all weeks ago).

Sunday 22 July 2012

Will Run For East Coast Road Trip




Farmer & I are back from our East Coast road trip!  It was seven days of doing as many touristy things as possible in each of the places that we visited: Magog Quebec, Hopewell Rocks, St. Andrews, PEI, Montreal, Ottawa and a few places in between.  Truth be told there wasn't much running ( a short run in Magog and a treadmill run).

In between swimming in the ocean,digging for clams (and burying them again) holding jelly fish and treasure hunting we were lucky enough to have some really delicious food at many of the places that we visited.  We also learned the valuable lesson of asking to see the menu before being seated(not really a fan of deep fried face and mother).

Something else that I'm not usually a fan of is blog posts with pictures of delicious looking food without recipes.  It actually drives me a little crazy!  But, just incase you are in the neighbourhood or you don't really mind looking at pictures of food that you'll never get to eat I thought that I would share.


We were lucky enough to stay at La Maison de Ville in Magog Quebec.  We were walking distance from beautiful walking/rollerblading/bike paths, beaches, the creature of Magog observation station (sea monster) and the most delicious fondue restaurant.  


Summer squash & goat cheese crepes in Magog


Seared pineapple with cranberries & coconut

cheese fondue at fondissimo



Our next stop was Hopewell Rocks where we stayed at Artisan's Suite in Hopewell Cape.  Thankfully GPS (Geeps) was able to find us a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in nearby Moncton. 



Pakoras at Calactus  in Moncton


Caesar salad at Calactus in Moncton


'The Works' pizza at Calactus in Moncton


Hopewell Rocks

Before we visited the local outdoor market and nearby shops in St. Andrews we stopped for lattes, oatcakes and warm maple muffins(devoured before they could be photographed)at Honeybeans. 


Oatcakes at Honeybeans-Coffee,-Tea-and-Treats in St. Andrews

Move over Maynard's candy I just met Ganong!  While the name of the candy leaves something to be desired it definately helped with all of the map reading (GPS can't always be trusted).

'chicken bones' by ganong

We heard great things about the food at the St. John market so we made a quick stop.  Imagine all of the vegetarian samosas a girl could eat!

Samosas at the St. John market

There was more than one stop for cheese.  



Cheese curds from Fromages Bergeron


Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly

We found delicious pizza and salad at a local sports bar (who would have thought).


vegetarian & mediterranean pizza at Cage aux Sports Montreal


Montreal

Possibly the best way to start out the morning in Old Montreal is with some delicious crepes and dessert for breakfast.


Banana, strawberry and dulce de leche  at Creperie St. Paul


ridiculously delicious


Old Montreal

If you haven't had a Montreal style sesame bagel (or any other kind of bagel for that matter) I suggest Kettlemans bagels in Ottawa.  You can watch the whole bagel making process(if you aren't busy shovelling bagels in your mouth).


TLC (tomato, lettuce, cucumber, swiss cheese & sweet mustard)  at kettlemans bagels in Ottawa

Unfortunately, the only thing that I've been cooking since we've been home is soap.  In between soap making there have been handfuls of freshly picked peas, swiss chard and lettuce from the garden but that's about it.  








































Saturday 7 July 2012

Will Run For Maple Granola

breakfast of champions

For the past couple of years I have been happily calling an old pair of running shorts and a tank top my bathing suit.  Then I got the crazy idea that it would be fun to join a triathlon clinic and thought  that it was probably time to buy a proper bathing suit. Note to self: maybe you should make sure that you can ride a bike and swim before signing up to do either of these things for an extended period of time.  Oh, and maybe rethink activities that require you to wear small pieces of spandex.  

Buying a bathing suit was even more fun than you might imagine.  I think that Speedo has it out for me.    Who knew that their sizing had little to do with your waist or bust size.  After wedging myself into EIGHT bathing suits (that's eight larger sizes than what I thought I should wear) that made me want to run screaming (as if that was possible as various body parts were being compressed in ways that they never should be) I managed to find a suit.  It isn't pretty but I figure it's better than losing my shorts as  I swim (I might change my mind about that).

What does swimsuit shopping have to do with granola?  I figure granola is the breakfast of champions and I need something to look forward to after my first swim.

Maple Granola
(approximately 5 cups of granola)

ingredients

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried apples
1 cup raw walnuts
3 slices candied ginger (approximately 3 T)
1 T coconut oil
1 T maple syrup
1/4 C maple syrup flakes (I found these at the Bulk Barn)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cardamom

In a large bowl combine rolled oats, chopped dried apples, chopped raw walnuts, chopped candied ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cardamom.  In a saucepan or microwave melt coconut oil and add maple syrup.  Add coconut oil mixture to oat mixture.  Bake at 350 for 14 minutes stirring half way through.  Add maple flakes.  Allow to cool and then store in a sealed container (mason jars are my favourite).

share with a friend

Friday 6 July 2012

Will Run For Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

so many blueberries


My Granny is a master blueberry picker.  She has a hat, cowbells, a wooden basket and more importantly a log book where she's recorded picking conditions and the number of blueberries picked for over ten years.

Granny has weaselled many unsuspecting grandchildren into a day of blueberry picking with "we'll be gone just long enough to pick a basket".  Considering that we either ate our blueberries before they made it into our baskets or we spilt them all over the ground chasing after one another it was usually a pretty long day.

As far as I'm concerned blueberry picking should last just long enough to pick blueberries for Granny's blueberry cake or muffins(always served with brown sugar sauce).  How long could it possibly take to pick 1 cup of blueberries?

These muffins are moist and delicious just like Granny's but much to Granny's chagrin they include a few substitutions.



Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
12 small muffins

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup soy milk (+ 2 tsp of lemon juice)

Combine rolled oats and soy milk in a small bowl and set aside. 


1 flax egg (1 T flax + 3 T water let sit)
1/4 C agave nectar (honey or maple syrup works as well)
1/4 C melted earth balance (butter or margarine works as well)
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract 

Add flax egg, agave nectar, melted earth balance, grated lemon rind and extract to rolled oats and soy milk.

1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking power
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C fresh blueberries


In a separate large bowl combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and gently fold in  blueberries.  Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and add wet ingredients.  Mix until just combined.

Fill oiled muffin cups (I'm a big fan of silicone muffin cups).  Bake at 400 F for 15 min or until lightly brown.  Share with your  favourite blueberry hound or eat them while your hound sits pretty.

blueberry hound



Sunday 1 July 2012

Will Run For Chocolate Cashew Butter

chocolate cashew butter
Sometimes you need a little more chocolate in your diet.  For example, when you accidentally get a mullet (Luckily this didn't happen to me) or when you are gearing up for a Dawson's creek marathon (Don't judge. Everyone needs a little teen angst every now and then), when your groomer shaves your bouviers except for their heads....they both look surprised) or when you're celebrating your summer vacation.


3 simple ingredients

deliciousness in no time

Happy summer!

Chocolate Cashew Butter


Ingredients

1 C pitted dates
1/2 C cashew butter (or your favourite nut butter)
1/4 C ground cocoa nibs (or cocoa powder)

How To

1.  In a small saucepan cover dates with water.  Cook at medium heat until water has been absorbed and the dates can be mixed into a thick paste.

2.  In a medium bowl combine date paste, cashew butter, and cocoa nibs (if you prefer a smoother spread consider using blender).

3.  Store in a mason jar in the refrigerator.

4.  Lick spoons, bowls, etc.  Great on french toast, pancakes, waffles, or as a dip for dried or fresh fruit.