I woke up Sunday morning after a late night at work with one thing on my mind.  Food.  

To be more specific I was craving a giant peach and some peanut butter oat bars(thank you Angela for this recipe!)  I set to work in the kitchen and made a big batch, licking the bowl clean and devouring the final product gleefully.

My boyfriend and I then took off to check out the Kitsilano farmers market.  Summer fruit is finally in season and it was great to see buckets of cherries and strawberries.

I got a kick out of a few of the stands, including Bad Girl Chocolates and the vendor at Bean Boy, who gave me high fives when I told him how much I loved chipotle, cayenne and black beans, the major ingredients in his delicious dips.

We spent the rest of the afternoon by the water, before making it home in time to do some beautiful spicy chicken on the barbeque.  Stay tuned for an instructional video on how to barbeque like a pro!

Spicy black bean dip, see recipe here.

• 1 can of black beans
• 1/4 cup white beans
• 1/2 cup corn niblets
• 1 lime
• 3 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chili (I used a variety of chili powders)
• 1 tsp chipotle pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp cayenne (if you like a kick!)

Serve with tortilla chips, crackers, vegetables, spicy chicken or stuffed into a superb burrito!

I threw names into a hat for the granola contest and the winner is…Magda!  Magda’s idea for a new granola flavor was peach, caramel, and maybe some peanut butter thrown in.  I’m loving the sounds of that and will definitely be throwing some peanut butter in.

Thanks to everyone for your great ideas, I have a long list of new kinds of granola I’m going to try making now!  

These include:

• chocolate (maybe with some peanut butter??)
• cranberry and caramel 
• apple pie (this could be heaven for me…)
• cranberry, apricot and almond
• carrot cake
• ginger chai with apples

Keep reading over the next couple of weeks to see how they turn out!

The skies have been grey lately.  The work shifts a little tiresome.  But I have been getting by with a little help from the people who make me feel alive.

Like my mother, who returned from France, radiant as ever.

And my boyfriend, who had the great idea of hitting up one of the funky restaurants along Commercial drive the other night.

Then getting serious with some glow in the dark bowling.

I am more and more at ease at my internship, getting creative with my research and seeing how things work.

I had the opportunity to meet up with Don Genova at Caffe Artigiano.  Don is a food journalist who writes and does podcasts.  He is also a leader in the slow food movement in British Columbia.  I met him years ago in France through his wife, Ramona, who was tied with the writing workshop held in our house.  He has done so many things I want to do and it was great to shoot ideas back and forth with him.

I even ran into Todd from 12B  who I met back in October.  Turns out he lives near my internship, and after trying to make plans to see him for weeks, I ran into him in the street.   I made my way up to his kitchen where I got to try some of his new bison meet, some chipotle yams, oven roasted candied tomatoes and a killer espresso from his vintage machine.

He also showed me his heirloom tomatoes, the most beautiful I have seen all year.

And I finally met up with some of my beautiful friends over some beautiful Japanese food.  

Meanwhile I have signed up for a ballet class in July, am making travel plans for September and thinking of some mini escapes to take in the remaining months of summer.

Life is sweet, but not perfect.  Our house, that has been on the market for a very long time, keeps coming close to selling and then the deal doesn’t go through.  More than anything I am sad for my parents who have put so much into trying to sell the house.  It is the house I was born into, a great place to grow up and a wonderful place to grow old in.  But my parents need to move to France, my dad needs to retire, and life needs to move on.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for them.

I wanted to make my dad something special for Father’s Day that I knew he would enjoy.

My dad usually starts his morning with a big bowl of plain yogurt, tons of fruit and granola. Take notes, because this man has aged very well over the years.

I am a huge fan of making my own granola and have been brainstorming different flavors that I would eventually like to branch out and share with others. I decided making my dad a little variety pack would be the perfect gift.

So I hit up my local organic grocery store, stocked up on beautiful dried fruits and nuts, and picked up some plain little take-out boxes from a cooking store. I had been admiring these for a while and thought they would be great for baked goods and gifts!

I made summer berry granola with dried cranberries, cherries, pistachios, cashews and maple flax seed. I made tropical granola with dried bananas, papaya and toasted coconut.

I also made peanut butter and banana granola with all-natural peanut butter, dried banana and maple flax seed. And I made a nut protein power granola to get my dad through long days at work. This one is packed with hemp seed, flax, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds and a whole lotta love.

My boyfriend and I taste tested all of the granolas after they were made, and we were both blown away by the peanut butter n’ banana! It’s the perfect sandwich, so why not the perfect granola?

I love giving gifts I know will be used and enjoyed. Homemade edible gifts are perfect for that. It made me happy knowing I was giving my dad something he would not only enjoy, but something that is all natural and good for him as well.

What kind of granola flavors would you like to see me try making? Let me know and get a chance to win a sample of the granola of your choice! Entries open until Wednesday night 11PM PT!

I will always admire my father.

I admire him for his strength of character, his calm nature, his curiosity and his endless youth.

For someone who has worked long, stressful hours in the film industry for the majority of his life, he looks half his age and has a youthful mindset.

He has always supported my wildest dreams and didn’t skip a breath when I wanted to move to Ireland or when said I was leaving school for a year to move to Paris.

He is a genuinely good person, calm and always interesting to talk to. He has a curious mind full of ideas, and loves to go to new places, see new things and try new foods. If there’s anyone I enjoy spending a day out on the town with it’s my dad. We walk at our own pace, check out different things and eat well. We share an undying love for seafood, hot sauce, spicy mustards and anything with a spicy kick.

I am lucky to have grown up with him. His presence is calming and his quiet love is rewarding. When I am feeling like myself, restless and chaotic, a simple phone call with him can calm my mind.

To put it simply, he is an amazing man, and I’m happy just to have him in my life.

Read my next post to find out about the special homemade treats I made Mr.Young for Father’s Day!

Congratulations to Liz for winning the food for fuel giveaway!  I picked the numbers at random out of a bowl and came up with Liz’s.  Her secret to staying fueled when burning the candle at both ends:

Definitely coffee…and a quick, brisk walk or a few pushups and crunches helps too!

After a long night at the restaurant I needed a hot shower and about six more hours of sleep when I got up in the morning.

I pulled through, kissed me love goodbye, and walked down to the skytrain station with my computer in my bag. I had a nice, slow day, trying to find hotels and car rental companies in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania at my internship.

“I ain’t never heard of that town, sorry”.  

I fueled up with my energy shots, a Larabar, lots of nuts and a big bag of carob chips.

I came back to the apartment exhausted and threw together a casual dinner while my boyfriend mixed us two strong lemon martinis.

We made our way out to the balcony where the sun danced on the buildings and an opera singer’s voice swam through the air from down the road.

I had brought my journal from home and took it out to read an excerpt I thought was funny. We decided to do an exchange and my boyfriend took out his old journals. The swap began, words for words, raw, honest writing for raw, honest writing.

We both sat figuratively naked on the balcony. Stripped of any kind cover ups and nude in our personal stories and thoughts.

I read writing from some of my lowest lows. I took myself back to a time when I fought myself constantly.  A time when I finished journal entries with sentences like: ‘I just want the war with myself to be over.’

It is difficult being a young woman. It took years of disliking my own reflection, being uncomfortable in my body no matter what size it was and comparing myself to others to get where I am now.

It took writing my heart out, learning to express myself, traveling and throwing myself into new experiences to learn to love the young woman that I am.

In my journals I wrote about wanting to be a woman who enjoyed life’s simple things, who kept her life uncluttered and wasn’t afraid to do anything.

I am that woman. It took a long time to get here, but I’m everything I want to be and more. I’m still not perfect, but I finally understand that perfection is a dead end road and I’d rather walk forward.

To this day I am extremely sensitive but I am also very strong. It is something that helps me to connect with people and understand different ways of thinking. 

I’ve come a long way.  As long as I can continue to be honest, be true to myself, and love all the little things that make me who I am I’ll keep walking in the right direction.

The food for fuel giveaway ends tonight at 11pm PT!  I will announce the winner tomorrow morning!  Leave a comment in the last post if you would still like to enter!

Oh mama, I am a tired lady these days.  After  a long weekend I have hit the ground running, and am all over the place with work, doing a summer clean out of my closet and some mini projects.  On top of that my sleep has been all over the place and I’m trying to get back into a healthy schedule.

Today I was indulgent in finding ways to keep myself energized with coffee and chocolate.  Usually I try and eat healthfully when I’m feeling stressed out, but sometimes a little pleasure is key in feeling good.

It seems Happy Planet predicted the way I’d be feeling as they sent me a wonderful box of their shots this week!

I have been enjoying these little suckers, especially the Detox which I tried before, and the Energy which I shared with my exhausted dad the other day.  I love that these are all natural and have no sugar in them.  

While sometimes, like today, a little sugar is necessary, I prefer to stick to natural sugars.  I rarely buy any bottled drinks, juices or any products with grand health claims but was drawn to these at first glance.  These little bottles filled with vitamins, energizing herbs and minerals are simple and remind me of the ginseng shots I used to steal from my dad.  They taste decent and are extremely portable.

Today was Car-Free day in Vancouver and my dad and I went to check out the scene on Main Street.

The streets were closed off and lined with second hand clothing, craft stands, tofu dogs and raw vegan milkshakes, live music and colourful people.

We strolled, stopped for sushi, listened to some outstanding performers, raided a great general store and caught up with each other a bit.

It truly feels like summer when the sun is shining, reggae and soul music are filling the air and people are moving as fluidly as the clouds.

We had lunch at Zipang sushi on Main Street

Nasu no dengaku (eggplant with sweet miso sauce)

I have always wanted to do tai chi…these guys did it in unison

These young men from Quest Poetics brought everyone alive with their incredible energy and musical talent.  I was blown away and expect them to go far.

I had my eye on a few pieces by local designers I forgot to snap pictures of, but whose goodies you can check out here and here.