Weekend fun with boats, borders, and Trader Joe’s!

On Saturday morning I was on a boat.  A BC Ferry to Vancouver to be specific.

Then I was with Catriona and Sarah as we waited over an hour to cross the border into the US of A.

Where we immediately bee-lined for outlet stores and grocery mecca.  Hello Bellingham Trader Joe’s.  Nice to meet you!

Yep, I go out of my way to cross a border just to return with two new bras and two heaping bags of non-essential groceries.

As sustenance we required deliciously squishy beefy burgers and soda from a magic techie fountain.

And then we waited over 90 minutes to make our way back into Canada.  I’m not a fan of border patrol’s organization.  Nope.

But the copious amounts of red wine and girl talk took my mind off things (later that evening, not at the border!).

Sunday morning obviously required brunch.  As seen on TV brunch of course.  Nothing like a trek through East Vancouver to track down yummy bacon and eggs.

I highly recommend a vanilla milkshake alongside your scrambled eggs and coffee. 

And then I was back on a boat! 

And a city bus.  With two heaping bags of groceries.  Win!

Camp Food

Obviously I didn’t want to spend my mini-vacay taking pictures of everything we ate but I managed to catch most of our dinners and breakfasts.

For our first night we decided to let the supermarket deli feed us.

No marshmallow roasting took place but I made sure they made it into our hot chocolate with Irish Cream.

We tried to keep breakfasts and snacks pretty healthy.

And dinners a little more campout style.  :)

But we still managed to get our veggies in.

On Labour Day the Yacht Club held a fundraiser pancake breakfast.  2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 pancakes, coffee and OJ for $5.  Who can say no to that?

What do you eat when you go camping?

Pack o’ Peppers

Hello fresh berries.  Thank you for finally fitting my grocery budget.  Please stay cheapy cheap for the rest of the Summer. K? Thanks.

Hummus + tomato + avocado.  Do it.

Loooookie here… That’s the big silver bowl.  Yes it is!

Homemade iced coffee.  Mama just saved $3 today!

Grapes were also on sale.  Pretty much perfect grapes.  What are the chances they’ll be there again next week?  hmmmm?

In keeping with the fresh, healthy, homemade theme I had going for today I whipped up a turkey burger with fresh green beans.

Since I’m lacking in the barbecue department I broke out my trusty, awesome Griddler to do the work.  Green beans tossed with olive oil and coarse salt happily grilled up right next to the burgers.

Yesterday’s grocery trip included this good deal on a pack of peppers so I decided to work them into my favourite turkey burger recipe.  Last minute I realized I had no horseradish on hand so subbed in Dijon instead.

So today’s recipe ended up being:

• 1 pound extra lean ground turkey
• 2 green onions
• 1/4 orange pepper
• handful Montreal Steak Spice
• 1 tbsp Dijon
• 1.5 ounces old white cheddar
• fresh basil

Makes 4 patties.  (Don’t cook on an open grill…you’ll lose all of the cheeesey goodness!)

Evening snackypoo.

Sweet tooth calling.

Workout: 5 minutes rowing machine, 15 minutes upper body strength exercises, 5 minutes easiest ab exercises ever, C25K Day 1 on treadmill.

Yep, workout.  I went to the gym for the first time…other than 1 hot yoga class…in 6 weeks.  And I didn’t die.  If my old lady back isn’t screaming at me in the morning I’m gonna go back again.  Riiiight! ;)

Rainbows and BBQs, oh my.

Do not adjust your monitors.  That is indeed a crazy upside down rainbow!  Strange things are afoot in rural Victoria.

As if the shrimp boil on Saturday wasn’t enough I also attended a delicious BBQ on Sunday. :)  Feeeeed meeeeee!!  My friend Matt needed an excuse to use his new real coal barbecue.  It was the perfect opportunity for me to play around with my friend Rose’s turkey burger recipe. 

There is a whole lotta lovin’ in these here burgers. 

When I asked Rose what she put in her burgers she emailed me a list as long as my arm and said “just chop it all up really small and mix”.  Super duper rocket science going on here, folks.

I used her email as a guide and came up with my own recipe for this burger adventure.  All measurements are approximate…just wing it!

Kitchen Sink Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 pound extra lean ground turkey
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (I toasted a piece of Mack’s Flax, then pulverized it in the food processor)
• 1 egg
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 1 rib celery, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp yellow pepper, finely chopped
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1/3 cup broccoli (florets), pulverized in food processor
• 1/3 cup cauliflower, pulverized in food processor
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• Seasoning of choice, to taste (Montreal Steak Spice – 1 tbsp)
• Fresh herbs of choice, minced (fresh basil – 1 tbsp)
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, grated

You could put all of the ingredients (except turkey and egg) in the food processor to save some work, but I liked having different textures.

Directions:

1. Mix everything together by hand.  Add more bread crumbs if necessary.
2. Form into balls, then patties.  I got six good sized burgers.
3. Grill 3-4 minutes each side.  (We used a greased pizza pan on the BBQ, but a grill pan or indoor griddle would work perfectly as well).

Served on whole wheat kaisers with Dijon, mayo, fancy lettuce, tomato slices and sundried tomato Havarti cheese.

Matt made his now famous deeeelicious ribs.  Black bean & orange glaze….oh yes!  I bet it’s been 10 years since I had ribs.

Accompaniments to the meat:  pasta salad with fresh berries, mangoes, feta, and a lime vinaigrette…tomato salad with cukes, avocadoes, and balsamic dressing….and an incredible dish of braised leeks.  So good.

Crisp pear cider to sip on the deck while enjoying their bajillion dollar view.  How would you like waking up to that sight every morning?  Rough stuff, eh?

Miss Chibani had a lovely day visiting with her old family…you should have the seen the excitement.  You can’t tell by this photo but these two were pretty damn happy to see each other!  Puppy love.

Before I waddled on home there was pie.  Homemade pie.  Homemade blackberry pie.  Homemade rhubarb pie.  Home made by a truly wonderful pastry chef (and loving Xolo Mama!).

It’s a good thing other people wanted in on the pie because I had trouble tearing myself away from it.  Thankfully there was an upside down rainbow stealing the show and saving me from the pastry goodness.  Thanks Mother Nature, my waistline loves you.