Hot Walk and Cool Treats

After a leisurely morning of late sleeping, good coffee, and introducing Michael to overnight oats (he’s not a fan…boooo) I leashed up Chibi and Timmy and hit the streets of Fairfield for the Moss Street Paint In.

The art was amazing, the weather was lovely, and my hairless dog was the talk of the party.  :)  I’ll share my photos tomorrow.

1. Coffee with milk and water.

2. Overnight oats topped with pan-fried plantain.

3. Wannawafel!

4. Starbucks tall cool lime refresher.

5. Rye & caraway Triscuits and salami.

6. Watermelon.

7. Appetizer: lemon-herb oysters (I ate 2).

8. Grilled basa filet, steamed fresh rainbow chard, salad.

9. Blueberry-Yogurt Freezer Pie.

Bonus:  Hot Tubbin’ with a few sips of King Heffy. :)

The best part about making the trip across town for the Paint In was that I finally had the chance to wander the Moss Street Market as well.  I was too late for cherry tomatoes, but I did walk out with gorgeous rainbow chard and a bunch of perfect beets. 

Just a beautiful day for me and my entourage. 

Santa Saturday

All week I was planning ahead for Saturday. Big plans were in the works and I knew I wanted to start my day out on the right foot.

Since I didn’t really feel much like breakfast I grabbed a Larabar on my way out the door.  A couple of new flavours have finally crossed the border to Canada and the lovely Larabar people were nice enough to send me a festive box of samples.  Obviously I had to try the Chocolate Chocolate Chip first!

It was as good as it sounds! Definitely the most dessert-y Larabar flavour I’ve had yet.  Now if only those Carrot Cake bars would appear!

Along with the bar I definitely needed a good caffeine kick so it was time to head over to Fernwood Coffee for a fabulous latte to go.

I sipped my latte while perusing the Moss Street Market Christmas Fair.

You know you are a foodie at a craft fair when you come home with a jar of Wicked Dilly Beans in your purse. :)

It was then time to start getting ready for my festive evening out.  Knowing I had a long night with a few cocktails ahead of me I made sure to eat a bigass salad before heading out.

And then we were off to play Santa for the evening!  (Tiff always knows all the secret fun parties!)

We were sopping wet (thanks Mother Nature) and my feet still hurt but I highly recommend dressing up and bringing Christmas cheer with a couple of hundred of your newest friends. Tis the season!

Moss Street Market

One of the best parts of returning to Victoria after a couple of years is actually the feeling that I'm kind of a tourist in my own home town again.

For a couple of weeks now I've wanted to get to the awesome Moss Street Market...and yesterday I managed to do it.

It is one of the area's largest farmer's markets and it was a perfect day for a visit!  So gorgeous and sunny.  I went equipped with my reusable grocery bag, a few bucks in cash, and a snack in my pocket.

Although...next time I will plan to eat there because there are a wide variety of meal options...Indian, Mexican, sausages...not to mention the amount of fresh fruit you can indulge in.

The main reason for my trip to Moss Street was to meet up with my friend Jen...she lives in the area and I knew an invite to the market would get her out for a coffee.  :)

Can't beat a cup of organic coffee enjoyed in the sun with friends and catching up...especially when surrounded by food and festivities.  :)  Next time I'll take James Dean and get some real shots of the actual market!

I kept my loot a little restrained this week.  The essential fresh cinnamon-sugared mini donuts, multicoloured cherry tomatoes, shelling peas, and Thai basil for the curry I'm putting together tonight.

Since coffee and donuts aren't a very balanced breakfast I set my sights on a proper fresh lunch.  After not getting to Red Fish Blue Fish last week due to the insane heat, I decided to give it another go.

My friend Mikey met up with me and we wandered down to the pier to get in line.  There's always a line.  That doesn't deter us!  I will say though that it usually moves WAY faster...we were in line so long Mikey actually had to leave because he had somewhere to be.  I'm thinking I was probably in line the better part of 45 minutes.

I had nowhere to be and wasn't going to leave after 20 minutes or more, so just waited my turn.  Once I ordered my food, it was only about 7-8 minutes before I received it and was on my way.

I did have to take my meal to go though because my parking meter time was far overdue.  I pretty much ran back to my car then decided I might as well drive somewhere and sit by the water to eat.  I ate in the air conditioned joy of my car.  :)

This is the Chipotle Shrimp Tacones with Million Island dressing + pea shoots + lemon pickled onions.  There's some RBFB slaw in there too.

It was really good but actually a little boring compared to the other menu items I've had in the past.  I would definitely go back to one of the fish tacones...this was a bit too much like shrimp salad I can make at home.

Their fries are awesome though!  So crispy, and they season using salt AND pepper...which I love.  Their tartar sauce is super yum too.

I watched so many people in front of me order an Aranciata that by the time I got to order I HAD to have one.  Fizzy nom nom.

This meal totally made up for my basically non-existent breakfast.  I was full all afternoon and on into the evening.  Of course, not eating until 3:45 probably had something to do with that!

Saturday Shout Out:  to Canadian Tire.  A couple of weeks ago I bought a fancy dancy airbed to use as my spare bed for guests....I thought I got a good deal because it was on sale for about $25 off.  Well, this week the flyer came out and it was on for almost $55 off!!  I went in with my receipt and they honoured the sale price for me...and refunded me the extra $30.  Score!! 

Nuttin Butter

As mentioned last night, I took a little trip to the farmer's market located just two blocks from my place at Mayfair Mall. 

This week's mission was to find the fellow I saw selling nut butter the last time I wandered through.  Fresh made nut butter?  Yes freaking please!!

I found the lovely man selling his wife's creations at his "Nuttin Butter" booth and was pleasantly surprised to see quite a fun selection!  I asked him what the most popular flavour is and he suggested people have really taken a shine to the Maple Walnut.

Walnuts, salt, real Canadian Maple Syrup.  Um, yum!

I also couldn't pass up something labelled as Pumpkin Pie.  This one doesn't have the sweet edge but that is easily resolved with a swirl of honey.

 

Barney Butter eat your heart out.  :)

After my nutty buddy toast I enjoyed a perfectly ripe Red Haven peach.  First of the season and oh so juicy.

 

Of course there was coffee.

Lunch was going to be a salad but I kept thinking about of all those lovely berries I have...so decided a Triple Berry Smoothie was in order.

In the KA today: ice, 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, 1/4 cup fresh raspberries, 1/4 cup fresh blackberries, 1/2 cup Organic vanilla yogurt, 1/2 packet of Vega Smoothie Infusion for added protein, and a healthy sploosh of light vanilla soy milk to get the whole thing moving.

  

Deeeelish.  But blackberry seeds are tres annoying in a drink. ;)

Before heading off for group training with Tia I cleaned out the crack hummus with a celery stick and some Tostitos.

Tonight's workout was a challenge!!  Tia's neighbours were having a BBQ so rather than workout with an audience she took our little group for a short field trip. She found us a nice cul-de-sac on a hill...perfect for cardio...ahhhhhhhhhh!

Lower body day consisted of lunges, squats, and multiple trips up and down that hill.  I had a good sweat going on that's for sure!  So far my piriformis doesn't hate me any more than usual.

This post is getting crazy long so I think I'll save dinner for tomorrow's post...trust me, it's worth the wait.  Sometimes I even impress myself. ha!

Dessert is more glorious BC fruit...this time cherries.  With a side of Lemon Liberte and a spoon...my evening is complete.

 

Question:  I keep meaning to get back to two shorter posts per day instead of one gargantuan one.  What would you all prefer?