My wonderful readers and friends!

I am still here, I just needed a huge break from blogging my dear friends :) I felt a little burnt out on ideas, recipes, etc... I was starting to feel like I wasn't having as much fun blogging as I had in the past, less inspired and motivated. After a nice break I am feeling so much better and I'm actually going to be putting my efforts towards this blog and another! Here is my other blog, which is dedicated to my fitness goals. At the moment I'm trying out Jillian Michael's 90 day Body revolution. I'm on day 6, so feel free to follow me as I work my butt off to try to get into better shape :) Even though I lost 44-50lbs eating clean, whole foods I still have a bit of weight I want to lose to get into a healthy, happy range. I really like structured workouts, where I know I have to set aside 30mins-1 hour to workout a day :)




We went to Saltspring Island recently where we met some wonderful organic farmers, and veggie lovers at the farmer's market. The market had only been open for it's 2nd Saturday and it was packed! For such a small island they really give local markets a run for their money! The talent, the products, the food and entertainers are amazing!!!


See for yourself, thought I'd share a few photos :)

Awesome entertainer! He did a lot of balancing with spinning bowls, at one point I think he had 8 of them going and he was hanging on to each of them. He balanced one on a tip of an umbrella! Very cool entertainer :)

Here are some sprouted peanuts that I bought from a lovely young couple. They also sold mushrooms, sprouts and rice paper sprout wraps. Their products were amazing and decently priced. The peanuts were such a different texture to regular store bought nuts that we are all used too. Moist, soft, yet crunchy with a much milder flavour. We shared this with friends :)

MMMM my lunch and goodies to take home. I had that really yummy rice paper sprout wrap with a fresh squeezed orange dip vinegrette :) My spicy sprouts are also shown in this pic! I gobbled those up when I got home mostly on salads :)

*sighs* Isn't the harbor gorgeous...loved eating lunch there. Live music playing in the background, the sun's warmth on my skin and the ocean...beautiful day!

Farmer's Market Clearance Section

I'm an avid shopper in the clearance section of the Farmer's Markets. I can usually find throw away tomatoes, onions, cantaloupe, bananas, peppers, apples..geez you name it they clearance it. I try to check on it a few times a week, some days I end up leaving with nothing and other days I have huge bags full. Yesterday I found some gems, two 10-lb bags of tomatoes 1.99/each, 2 cauliflowers .99/each, 2 cantaloupes 1.49 for the pair, 10-lb bag of green beans/1.49...yum! Nothing was damaged just needing to sold before being over ripe.

Today I sliced some chunks of cantaloupe some for the fridge and some for the freezer.We pulled these out of the freezer and snacked on them after being outside in the heat. These were great because they were only slightly frozen from only being in the freezer for an hour.

Speaking of freezers I seriously need to consider buying a deep freeze. With all the vegetables and fruits we are growing in our garden, picking at the local farms and buying at the farmer's market we won't be able to keep up with it all. Need to freeze!

As for the tomatoes..well I decided it was probably best we made a tomato sauce with spaghetti squash noodles. My son's favorite dish! I decided that this time around I would try to make sauce the proper way, which meant removing the skin, seed and core. I typically would just remove the core and throw it all into a pot to cook, but then you get skins and seeds in your sauce. I don't really mind, but I wanted to give the "correct" way a try. I discovered very quickly the easiest way to remove the peel...
Score the bottom of the tomato with a paring knife
After you remove core, let them soak in hot water in the sink.
After 10 minutes soaking you can start peeling the skin, opening the tomato and removing the seeds.
Then put in a blender or food processor
You end up with a smooth, delicious puree!
With this puree you could create dishes other than tomato sauce. Think cold or hot soups, salsas, thick tomato juice, dips, the list is endless..tomatoes are used in so many recipes! As for using it as a sauce I may have to add some store bought tomato paste because we like our sauce a bit thicker. I have the sauce cooking on low in my slow cooker to see if it will thicken. It tastes amazing though with fresh oregano, basil, sauteed onions and garlic! Oh yum, dinner is going to be good!

Lastly, there is a great contest give away happening over at Color Wheel Meals for an Ascenta Health product! Check it out!

Farmer's Market Shop and Summer

I'm proud to say that these are all local goodies that I was able to find today :) All grown at local farms near us. Cherries, tomatoes, corn, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, nugget potatoes, green onion, green & yellow zucchini, dill and cilantro were all in my local food pile.

Here is the not so local pile, friends from New Zealand, USA, Mexico and other area's of Canada were present. With all the fresh veggies and fruits in the house I'm excited to try a few new recipes I've found on your blogs! Thank you btw for sharing such inspiring recipes :)

Things have been busy the past couple weeks. We finally got a heat wave, so there has been a lot of swimming in the ocean, playtime at the water parks and lounging in the sun with good eats. I'm so exhausted today, because our weekend was filled with everything I just mentioned from morning till late at night. Mix that with heat, laughter, and running after little ones equals being tired today even after a decent sleep.

With all the busy days I've been making a lot of meals to go. I've been keeping things simple the past couple weeks. Easy peasy salads and dressings usually with a side of fruit.

I've also been exploring marinated vegetables...

Marinated Vegetable Salad

1 cup of chopped Broccoli
1 cup of chopped Cauliflower
1 cup of sliced Carrots
5 Radish bulbs (sliced)
4 ribs of chopped celery
1/2 cup of diced purple onion

Throw it all in a bowl and mix!


Marinade

2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
Fresh herbs (I used some Oregano)

Just throw the marinade into the bowl with the vegetables and mix :)

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Hope everyone is enjoying summer!
~Maggie

Lunch Time!

Late this morning we went to the farmer's market and grocery store to purchase a few veggies, fruits and nuts we were low on. Now I can make some more raw crackers and breads in my dehydrator. I've made a few different types of crackers and they all had great taste and texture. I have also made a three different types of veggie burgers, by far my favorite was by Rod Rotondi, in his book Raw Food Real People. What I loved about this burger was that it was more vegetable based rather than nut. I found the other recipes I tried although decent relied heavily on nuts and the flavor just wasn't for me...Anyways, both raw crackers and raw veggie burgers are so great to add to salads and that is just what I did today!


Today's lunch was a BIG salad! I love big salads pretty much anytime of the day. This one included:

Green Leaf Lettuce
1/2 a Tomato
1 Avocado
Broccoli Sprouts
Shredded carrots and purple cabbage
Goji Berries
Rod's veggie sun burger
To top it off I quickly put together a dressing...but that is a whole other post, long story!

Yum! Now i'm off to make some crackers!
~Maggie

Spring Mornings

Springtime is here, which means lots of veggies, fruits and nuts are becoming more readily available to us, and at a cheaper cost. If your into planting your own garden, then yummy food is just out your backdoor! I started my own veggie garden last year and was able to produce some really delicious veggies and recipes, so i can't wait to start planting again this year! This season my mom and I are hopefully combining forces to plant a larger garden than the one i had in her backyard. This way the work is shared, we will have tons of fun and eat lots of great food!

When I'm not eating out of my own garden, I definitely believe in being a localvore, and shopping as locally as I can. But lets face it I love pineapple and I have not found a pineapple farmer at our local farmer's markets, so I tend buy what I can afford locally and the rest is up to my taste buds and cravings :)

This morning I had a green juice! I almost forgot to take a pic before I drank it all :)


I've been starting my mornings off by drinking green :) It's been an amazing replacement to coffee, yes I just wrote "a replacement for coffee"... No seriously, I find I get just as much energy or "buzz" off drinking a green juice as I ever did drinking coffee sludge.

Green Juice Ingredients:

6 pieces of Romaine Lettuce
1/2 a Lemon
2 Apples
1/2 Cucumber
pinch of ginger

Juice it up!

Off to get this morning started, see you at lunch!
~Maggie