I don't know about you all, but I had a supra-long weekend! I took Thursday and Friday off, so I've been in Guelph since Wednesday night.
It was such lovely weather this past week that I tried to get out as much as possible. One of our coworkers sent us a link about a flowering agave plant at Allan Gardens in Toronto, so I thought I would run over there on one of my lunch hours.
http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/06/21/beanstalk_breakthrough_at_torontos_allan_gardens.html
Apparently agave plants can take up to a century to bloom, and they only do so once before dying. They estimate that this one is 75 years old and has been in Allan Gardens for about 50 years, never doing much. I guess it realized that it's biological clock was ticking though and shot up so high and fast that the staff cut a hole in the roof of the greenhouse to accomodate it. They say it will flower for a few weeks and then die. If you are in Toronto, it's worth checking out (and Allan Gardens is totally free, so walkthrough the greenhouse while you're at it!).
You know what else happened last week?
THIS!----------------------------------------------------->
Hard to believe that after more than two decades the Nowell family is actually moving. Where will we be moving to? I don't know, you will have to stay tuned. Will we even be staying in Canada?! I know, so suspenseful.
For those of you who have sold your homes before, I now feel your pain of house showings. What do you mean I can't leave my underwear on the floor? I think it gives a house that "lived in" feel. No? Okay, I'll just throw it in the closet with half of the other things in my room (there was no more space under the bed).
Vicki, isn't this supposed to be a food blog? You're right. Here's a picture of a blueberry scone.
In other news, doesn't it make you so mad when people without handicap (handicapped?) parking stickers park in the handicapped spots? This happens all the time at the Whitby Public Library and I feel like I should start carrying window markers in my car so I can leave them messages. You know, the washable ones they use at car dealerships? Who's with me?! Nothing terribly rude. Maybe a picture of a trashcan with the saying "You stink, don't park here!" I don't know, I'm still working on it. And if it's you that's doing this... stop it right now! It's the worst!
Okay, but back to the food part. I got my delicious scone-for-the-road at Cup of Tea Bakery in Whitby where they bake a lot of gluten-free and vegan treats. You can get scones, cookies, cupcakes. They do GF bread every day too. My absolute favourite are the chocolate krinkle cookies though, check them out!
What's the difference between a regular sweet potato and a Caribbean sweet potato? Perhaps the Caribbean sweet potatoes will give me a bikini body? BAZINGA! (I want you all to know that I take these random photos with my phone throughout the week because I see things and think "hey that's fun." But they don't all go coherently together. Just go with it).
I ate some other fun things this week (aside from some regular sweet potatoes, which were cheaper than the fancy tropical ones). I made some lazy salads (meaning: "hey, what's in my refrigerator? Sure, that could go in a salad"). I used my Blendtec to make a vegan tahini dressing, and then I ended up mixing it with some mustard, which made it look sort of gross... but I swear it tasted delicious. Have you ever tried putting mustard on your salads? It's the bomb. And fat free. And sugar free. And gluten-free. So try it. Also, throw some olives on there because I think that's got to be better than olive oil, right?
I also started making some parfait inspired breakfasts, without the yogurt though because dairy is on my no-no list. I've been using berries, walnuts, dried dates or figs, sunflower seeds and shredded coconut. Sometimes I even throw a little honey or agave on there (and by "sometimes" I mean "everytime." Maybe next week I will go back on a sugar free detox... but that's next week).
I brought one of these to Khalid Wednesday night and he totally loved it. Wait for Bulk Barn to post their $3-off coupons online every 2 weeks or so and load up on all your favourite fixings.
Random insertion, Dear Future Shop: this does nothing to inspire my confidence in your products. (Khalid and I had a good laugh at this).
So this weekend I picked up a book from the library called "The New Persian Kitchen" and decided to try out their version of Pilau (a rice dish that Khalid's parents make on special occasions). Because I'm a noob I only took photos of the ingredients and not the finished product, but maybe the next time I make it I will remember.
Other than the rice, you add carrots, almonds (I used walnuts) and onions fried in some oil with cinnamon and turmeric. Then you add in your pistachios, orange zest and honey before mixing it all in with the basmati rice. There are definitely some things I would change next time (like not accidentally using parboiled rice... sorry about that, Khalid!), but overall it turned out really tasty. The orange zest was the best part.
On Saturday we had some beautiful weather, which means... BBQ with the famjam! We got to christen the brand new grill that Khalid built with some veggie and lamb kebabs (I know, how badly do you want to barbeque with us?!). We also had some more veggies and my very favourite rice, which has lots of cooked mung beans (maybe I'll post a recipe next time Madar Jan makes it?). Then we had dried dates and tea for dessert while I smoked Khalid at cards ;)
On Saturday night my friend Ashley had a Housewarming/Birthday party. There was lots of great food and as usual everyone went out of their way to make delicious treats for me! Ashley made lots of great appetizers and Marilyn brought some excellent brown rice pasta. Of course, I think everyone would say that the highlight was the Bonfire (or the Telestrations game? It's a toss-up), which included SMORE KITS (Khalid's very first ever smore!). We didn't bring any safe graham crackers so I just had a few roasted marshmallows... and by a few, I mean 16. Did you know that marshmallows are gluten-free and dairy-free? (of course they are, Vicki, they're made entirely of spun sugar. Hush! Next week, next week I swear!). So if you happened by my facebook wall the next day and saw that I climbed 500 floors on the Stairmaster... and if you happened to think to yourself "wow, what dedication!"... now you know that I was climbing 30 floors for every marshmallow, lol. Eating half a package of marshmallows turns out to be excellent motivation for CN Tower training!
I almost drove back to Whitby on the Sunday night, but then Khalid reminded me that we had a bunch of rented horror movies from the library still to watch. How can you resist that? Especially when he makes you delicious spiced potatoes for dinner too!
I clearly had a great long weekend, what about you? Oh! And by the way, the next public climb for the CN Tower is on Saturday, October 19th. That means you have 2 and a half months to get cracking on those stairs! I will be there, I might even be there on the Thursday as well for the Corporate Climb. Don't forget that it's a fundraising event for United Way, so not only is it great for your heart, it's great for the world too! (and no, there is no time limit, you can go as slow or as fast as you want :) There are snacks, water breaks and paramedics every few floors, so there's nothing to worry about. Hey, you even get a free T-shirt!).
Without you, there would be no way... up 1776 steps, GO GO GO!
It was such lovely weather this past week that I tried to get out as much as possible. One of our coworkers sent us a link about a flowering agave plant at Allan Gardens in Toronto, so I thought I would run over there on one of my lunch hours.
http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/06/21/beanstalk_breakthrough_at_torontos_allan_gardens.html
Apparently agave plants can take up to a century to bloom, and they only do so once before dying. They estimate that this one is 75 years old and has been in Allan Gardens for about 50 years, never doing much. I guess it realized that it's biological clock was ticking though and shot up so high and fast that the staff cut a hole in the roof of the greenhouse to accomodate it. They say it will flower for a few weeks and then die. If you are in Toronto, it's worth checking out (and Allan Gardens is totally free, so walkthrough the greenhouse while you're at it!).
You know what else happened last week?
Hard to believe that after more than two decades the Nowell family is actually moving. Where will we be moving to? I don't know, you will have to stay tuned. Will we even be staying in Canada?! I know, so suspenseful.
For those of you who have sold your homes before, I now feel your pain of house showings. What do you mean I can't leave my underwear on the floor? I think it gives a house that "lived in" feel. No? Okay, I'll just throw it in the closet with half of the other things in my room (there was no more space under the bed).
Vicki, isn't this supposed to be a food blog? You're right. Here's a picture of a blueberry scone.
Okay, but back to the food part. I got my delicious scone-for-the-road at Cup of Tea Bakery in Whitby where they bake a lot of gluten-free and vegan treats. You can get scones, cookies, cupcakes. They do GF bread every day too. My absolute favourite are the chocolate krinkle cookies though, check them out!
What's the difference between a regular sweet potato and a Caribbean sweet potato? Perhaps the Caribbean sweet potatoes will give me a bikini body? BAZINGA! (I want you all to know that I take these random photos with my phone throughout the week because I see things and think "hey that's fun." But they don't all go coherently together. Just go with it).
I ate some other fun things this week (aside from some regular sweet potatoes, which were cheaper than the fancy tropical ones). I made some lazy salads (meaning: "hey, what's in my refrigerator? Sure, that could go in a salad"). I used my Blendtec to make a vegan tahini dressing, and then I ended up mixing it with some mustard, which made it look sort of gross... but I swear it tasted delicious. Have you ever tried putting mustard on your salads? It's the bomb. And fat free. And sugar free. And gluten-free. So try it. Also, throw some olives on there because I think that's got to be better than olive oil, right?
I brought one of these to Khalid Wednesday night and he totally loved it. Wait for Bulk Barn to post their $3-off coupons online every 2 weeks or so and load up on all your favourite fixings.
Random insertion, Dear Future Shop: this does nothing to inspire my confidence in your products. (Khalid and I had a good laugh at this).
So this weekend I picked up a book from the library called "The New Persian Kitchen" and decided to try out their version of Pilau (a rice dish that Khalid's parents make on special occasions). Because I'm a noob I only took photos of the ingredients and not the finished product, but maybe the next time I make it I will remember.
Other than the rice, you add carrots, almonds (I used walnuts) and onions fried in some oil with cinnamon and turmeric. Then you add in your pistachios, orange zest and honey before mixing it all in with the basmati rice. There are definitely some things I would change next time (like not accidentally using parboiled rice... sorry about that, Khalid!), but overall it turned out really tasty. The orange zest was the best part.On Saturday we had some beautiful weather, which means... BBQ with the famjam! We got to christen the brand new grill that Khalid built with some veggie and lamb kebabs (I know, how badly do you want to barbeque with us?!). We also had some more veggies and my very favourite rice, which has lots of cooked mung beans (maybe I'll post a recipe next time Madar Jan makes it?). Then we had dried dates and tea for dessert while I smoked Khalid at cards ;)
On Saturday night my friend Ashley had a Housewarming/Birthday party. There was lots of great food and as usual everyone went out of their way to make delicious treats for me! Ashley made lots of great appetizers and Marilyn brought some excellent brown rice pasta. Of course, I think everyone would say that the highlight was the Bonfire (or the Telestrations game? It's a toss-up), which included SMORE KITS (Khalid's very first ever smore!). We didn't bring any safe graham crackers so I just had a few roasted marshmallows... and by a few, I mean 16. Did you know that marshmallows are gluten-free and dairy-free? (of course they are, Vicki, they're made entirely of spun sugar. Hush! Next week, next week I swear!). So if you happened by my facebook wall the next day and saw that I climbed 500 floors on the Stairmaster... and if you happened to think to yourself "wow, what dedication!"... now you know that I was climbing 30 floors for every marshmallow, lol. Eating half a package of marshmallows turns out to be excellent motivation for CN Tower training!
I almost drove back to Whitby on the Sunday night, but then Khalid reminded me that we had a bunch of rented horror movies from the library still to watch. How can you resist that? Especially when he makes you delicious spiced potatoes for dinner too!I clearly had a great long weekend, what about you? Oh! And by the way, the next public climb for the CN Tower is on Saturday, October 19th. That means you have 2 and a half months to get cracking on those stairs! I will be there, I might even be there on the Thursday as well for the Corporate Climb. Don't forget that it's a fundraising event for United Way, so not only is it great for your heart, it's great for the world too! (and no, there is no time limit, you can go as slow or as fast as you want :) There are snacks, water breaks and paramedics every few floors, so there's nothing to worry about. Hey, you even get a free T-shirt!).
Without you, there would be no way... up 1776 steps, GO GO GO!
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