Maple butter is a dangerously delicious ingredient. I first had it this past summer when I visited Angela in Canada. It doesn’t actually contain butter, or any dairy for that matter. Does anyone know how it’s made? I’m thinking it’s whipped until it turns into creamy goodness, but I really have no clue.

My bro-in-law + sis-in-law just got back from a trip to Vancouver, where they brought this jar back for me. I’m going to savor, or should I say “savour,” it as long as possible. So, hopefully at least until next week.

I made a bowl of Bob’s Red Mill high fiber breakfast cereal. I noticed it in the bulk section at Whole Foods, so I bought about 2 cups worth. It’s basically ground oats, wheat germ, flax, and a few other grains. I liked it okay, but probably won’t buy it again. However, it does pack 10g of fiber per 1/3c serving and 8g of protein. Pretty impressive!

I stirred in pumpkin at the end and plopped it into my new mini-pie dish, that 99% of the time, will be used as a bowl. :) Love Grown Foods granola, almonds, almond butter + drippy maple butter on top. I don’t have to tell you how good this was.

Yesterday, I was telling you about the 58* weather and today I will tell you that it was 16 degrees with snow all around. I was SO excited when I looked outside this morning. We only got about 3” of snow all in all.

The dogs were more excited than I was this morning!

Ohhh the simple minds of dogs, chasing snowballs and never finding them…

Happppppppy Birthday to Kenna Beans!! She just turned TWO the other day! She still has a lot of maturing to do.

I had a lot of cooked chickpeas leftover from the other day’s Chana Masala. These delicious beans were seasoned + broiled to crispy perfection!

Nothing fancy here…

Turn your oven on to broil.
In a single layer spread your chickpeas on a baking sheet.
Season to your liking. I sprinkled garlic powder, salt, pepper, + smoked paprika on top.
Stir with 1T of olive oil [per 3/4c chickpeas].
Broil for 5-10min, depending on desired crispiness.

I got the idea to roast chickpeas from Mama Pea. Broiling them worked really well, especially if you’re starving, like I was. It’s always hard to tell, but this salad was huge.

contents:

5 large handfuls mixed greens
1c broccoli
cucumber + carrots
1/2 avocado
3/4c broiled chickpeas
~2T walnut oil + red wine vinegar

yum.yum.

Chris + I were sick of sitting indoors, so we went out to run some fun errands downtown. Of course, we stopped at my favorite coffee shop, The Bean Cycle.

Shifty eyes.

Lattes all around!

Perfectly delicious on this frigid day.

Also inside is a new + used bookstore, that is also a non-profit book publishing company. Pretty freaking sweet!

Just a few years ago, you couldn’t pay me to read for fun. Okay, maybe you could pay me, but you would never find me reading books for pleasure. That is a completely different story now. I think that stemmed from hating being forced to read certain books throughout every single year of schooling.

After gallivanting around town, we finally decided to check out the vegan restaurant, Tasty Harmony. It didn’t disappoint! I wasn’t in the mood to whip out the camera, and the lighting was dark anyways. We took dessert to go + it was definitely wroth photographing.

Meet the best, BEST, cookie ever.

It’s hard to tell, but it was 1” thick and about 4” wide. It was oatmeal chocolate chip, with the perfect amount of coconut + walnuts hiding inside. I’m not a huge nuts in my cookies person, but this was outstanding. It was SO CHEWY and just melted in your mouth. It tasted extremely buttery, but contained no butter at all. It was definitely vegan.

This MUST be recreated!