A few more photos from the morning…

So…these vegan overnight oats were completely amazing. Angela puts chocolate Amazing Grass in them which made it taste like cookie dough.

The cherry banana soft serve was out of control delicious.

The cacao nibs + cherry on top were perfect! I will definitely be replicating these at home. It was nice to have breakfast that didn’t make me sweat, like my hot oats + coffee :)

After breakfast + chatting we went on a hike at a nearby park. It was a gorgeous day outside and the temperature in the low 70’s and breezy. You can check out Angela’s post for a recap of our hike :) It’s easy to get lost when you’re talking and not really paying attention…we weren’t really lost…but did take one wrong turn where the path got really narrow and I ate about 10 cobwebs…mmmm

We quickly navigated back and ended up doing about 2+ miles. Love hiking!

We came back STARVING. I tore into my FIRST ever Glo Bar tasting!!! A fabulous aroma of coffee came wafting out of the bag. This bar had an awesome chewy texture with a great crunch. I loved the rice crisp texture and all of the oats + seeds. The flavor was perfect and not too sweet.

total.winner.

We may have talked about granola bars A LOT [since I had my business going for awhile last summer]

…and food + life + photography + blogging + etc. We have a million things in common…WHY do we live cross country?

Angela found THEE cutest vegetarian/vegan/gluten free friendly restaurant pretty close to where she lives. It was her first time there and we had high expectations. Their website is great and the decor fabulous. It was in a town called Burlington and the name of the cafe/bakery/store was called Kind Food.

There was a small natural food store inside and they also have a bakery.

The baked goods didn’t look very appealing and there wasn’t much of a selection. Nothing was like “whoa, I have to have that now.”

Angela started with a crazy beet juice. I had a sip. I’m not sold on fresh juices, which I’m still surprised about since I love green monsters/amazing grass/wheat grass/etc.

Chris + I LOVE these!

Photogenic, eh? ;) SO pretty!!!

Looked great from the outside…we were SO excited!!

It was really nice to just sit + relax!

We both ordered the Happy Buddha Bowl. Contents were:

Steamed brown rice, roasted sweet potato, chopped onion, tomato, almonds, sunflower seeds, cilantro, basil, olive oil, sprouts and tamari.

Sounds great, right?

I had them go light on the cilantro, since I’m not a fan. At first glance it looked fabulous.

But then we both realized it was about 1/2c of fresh veggies and 2-3c of rice coated in olive oil. There were 2 small slices of avocado, 4 thin slices of sweet tater, about 5 almonds, 1-2tsp sunflower seeds, about 2T tomato and a little red onion AND it cost $10.75 [in Canadian $]. The flavor was a bit lacking as well and there was a lot of oil on the rice. There should have been 3x the amount of veggies and less than 1/2 the rice.

I don’t mind paying for good quality ingredients, especially when out a restaurant, but this just didn’t add up. Between this meal and the lack luster looking bakery items, my conclusion is: great business idea, poor execution. We really wanted to give rave reviews, but were disappointed. Boo!

Something that wasn’t lacking however…..my goodie basket from Angela. She loaded me up with tea and a green tea bath salt ball.

I can’t wait to try all of these. So far the Glo Balls + Dark Chocolate Roasted Coffee bar exceeded my expectations.

More tea, chocolate, bath samples, orangemint water…YUM

We had a nice afternoon snack:

1 HUGE Doctor Kracker loaded with 1/2 salt kissed cashew butter + 1/2 maple cinnamon almond butter
pile of carrots + hummus

And tea! LOVE this Bodum tea brewing device [kettle? pot? eh?]

Angela decided she wanted to try kale chips for the first time. I’m not quite sure how it’s possible she’s never had them. Kale chips are so super easy to make!

preheat oven to 350
wash kale
tear from stems + throw on a baking sheet
toss with a little olive oil + salt + pepper [or whatever seasonings you want]
bake for ~25min until nice and crispy, tossing a few times during baking

pre-baking

We chilled on a few brews.

I creeped around in their backyard while Eric was busy BBQ’ing our dinner!

Loving the country feel of where they live. Very peaceful. It’s nice to have a large wooded backyard!

CRUNCH.

Grilled veg burgers topped with:

tomato
avocado
salsa
peppers
on DEElicious Ezekiel bread

This simple dinner hit the spot!

Photo-pro in action! I gave Ange a tutorial in Lightroom today. She was SO excited but she’ll probably kill me in a week because it ends up making the posting process take much longer.

Next time Chris needs to come too…he + Eric have a LOT in common…like their crazy blogging wives :)

Meeting Abby the other day and now meeting Angela has been pretty amazing. It’s so fun to make the blog friendships come full circle and meet in person. It’s definitely going to be sad to leave but at least we’ll be seeing each other in August at the Healthy Living Summit!

Off to chillax + then bed! I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon to head back for the rest of my trip in Cleveland. It was a short but awesome visit up in Canada!

Night!

Ashley

So what was in this TOP 5 best ever bowl of oats?

I’ll tell you…

Blueberry POP Scottish Oats

1/4c scottish oats
1 1/4c water
1/3c hemp milk [Pacific brand…the best I’ve had!]
1/2 thin sliced banana
1T chia seeds
1t cinnamon

Toppings

~1/2c blueberries, stirred in riiight at the end
1 crumbled homemade graham cracker
maple cinnamon almond butter sauce [1T AB + 1T milk..heated..stirred]
splash of hemp milk

Why was this so delicious? I’ll tell you that too!

amazing creamy maple cinnamony almond butter…so so good on oats
blueberries!!! they were slightly warm but still had a nice POP…I hate warm mushy fruit..this was perrrrfect!
graham cracker crunch…they get a little soft but have awesome flavor and texture mixed with the oats and AB
creamy splash of hemp milk…so so delish

Gah! SO GOOD!

In a jiffy lunch! Sweet taters for lunch seem to be all the blog rage lately. I made this Thursday night for dinner and had to repeat it for lunch on Friday. It’s better than it looks, trust me.

Poke and slice the sweet tater and microwave for about 5min depending on how big. You want it almost all the way cooked through.
Add sliced mushrooms and cook 1 more minute.
Add cheese and cook another 30sec.

I typically try not to use the microwave too often, especially to cook a whole meal. However, sometimes when you’re in a hurry and still want real food, it’s a good option.

AND then top with a sunny side up egg!!! So so good. I promise you! The egg provides a nice sauce that tastes delicious with the shrooms, cheese, and tater. YUM!

Afternoon fruity snack.

3min later…

PEA mail!!!

This cherry almond granola is fantastic. The flavors are SPOT on. It is sweet, but not overly and is also kissed with salt. The contrast is awesome. Also each little oat is perfectly crisped. Love the chew of the cherries as well. You should definitely check out the recipe! Couldn’t be easier!

I love green sencha tea!! An infusion of orange sounds delightful.

And then the bread…ohhhh the bread! And how cute is the bow?

Whole Wheat Flax [vegan] bread!

I even got artwork to display on the fridge!! So adorable :)

The husband + I both approve!

The texture is perfect. 1/4 of the loaf has already been consumed.

I really need to work on my bread making skills!!!

Back to the weeds!!! Check it out…not even 24hrs later and these suckers are dying!

Compare: unsprayed weeds

sprayed weeds – Dead! Or, dying at least.

Thursday, these stems were green. Pretty impressive.

It definitely worked well on the smaller weeds. It probably wasn’t fair to spray them on our tree-trunk size weeds ;)

Not bad! Compare to Thursday.

For dinner, I chilled out with the the green tea that Mama Pea sent. Deeelish!

And half a baby watermelon. Love these!!

Salad, bread, and cherry almond granola were also consumed. I loved the addition of broccoli on this!! I steamed the broc for about 5-6 minutes until sliiightly tender. Then I ran cold water over it for about 30 seconds. The texture on the salad was perfect. I like eating raw broccoli but usually just when I’m dipping it in something. :) I topped it with a hemp oil/balsamic/apple cider vin dressing that took about 20sec to make.