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Monday, May 27, 2013

Hi everyone! I've started a new blog, so you can now find me at Chelsea's Healthy Kitchen. I will no longer be updating One Healthy Munchkin, so make sure to update your links and blog readers!

Friday favourites

Saturday, May 25, 2013

I. Pumpkin and coconut muffins: I made these muffins using this recipe because I needed to use up some leftover coconut milk. They turned out a bit crumbly (I'll try using another egg next time to fix that), but their flavour is awesome!


II. My birthday cake: three layers of spiced carrot cake slathered with mascarpone cream cheese frosting. Enough said.


III. Chobani Bites: I picked these up when I was in the US and they are really good! Raspberry and dark chocolate is such a great flavour combination.


IV. Ben and Jerry's frozen Greek yogurt: Another find from the US. Why don't we get this stuff in Canada?! The strawberry shortcake flavour is so good and I love that it has actual chunks of shortcake in it!


V. Whole Foods lunch dates with friends: On Thursday I met my friend Molly for lunch at WF - it was great to see her because it's been probably a year and a half since I last saw her! We had tons to catch up on over our salad bar lunch. Mine had a base of spinach and kale with Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad, Florentine chickpea salad, sesame broccoli salad, roasted sweet potatoes (buried underneath), beet slaw, Greek quinoa salad, teriyaki tofu and hummus. So good!


What are you loving this week?

What's the last thing you baked?

Birthday dinner at Kindfood

Thursday, May 23, 2013

It is my birthday in two days. I am turning 24 in two days. I am almost 25, and therefore almost 30, in two days. Ahhh!

But I'm not going to think about that. Instead I'm choosing to surround myself with delicious food, family, and friends throughout my birthday week. It started over the weekend with my family birthday celebrations involving the most glorious cake I've ever feasted on.

Then yesterday I met up with one of my best friends Lauren for a birthday dinner at Kindfood.  I ordered my favourite dish - their Buddha bowl. It has so many good flavours in it (Sweet potato, avocado, cilantro... How can you go wrong?) and always tastes so fresh. It never disappoints!


It was a gorgeous evening, so we ended up sitting out on the patio and chatting for hours. Shortly before they closed our sweet tooths demanded dessert, so we split a vegan brownie and proceeded to shovel it into our faces in record time. It was one of the best brownies I've ever had.


Thanks Kindfood for another great meal and wonderful customer service. Something tells me I'll be back very soon for another one of those brownies!

Have you ever freaked out about turning a certain age?

Best brownie you've ever eaten?

My rice bowl phase

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

I tend to go through serious phases with food. Not just fleeting obsessions that last for a week, but long phases that can stretch on for years.

When I was a kid, it was potatoes. I begged my dad to make his leek and potato soup all the time, and if I couldn't have that, I wanted baked potatoes. My parents always joked that I must have a lot of Irish in me.


When I was a teenager, it was sandwiches. Without fail, I packed a turkey sandwich for lunch every day. And when we went to eat out at restaurants, you can bet I got a sandwich. I still remember my favourite: it was the Mediterranean chicken focaccia sandwich with goat cheese, spinach, and aioli from Jack Astor's. I must have ordered that sandwich at least 10 times.


These days, it's rice bowls. I have come to believe that everything tastes better over rice: stir fries, tacos filling, sushi filling, you name it. Even if you just take your average dinner with chicken, rice and broccoli and throw it in a bowl together with sauce, I think it tastes so much better than if it were eaten on a plate!

These are three of my current rice bowl obsessions:

1.The burrito bowl


The layers:

a. Brown rice
b. Black beans simmered with onions, cumin and chili powder
c. Chopped tomato
d. Shredded romaine lettuce
e. Sour cream or 2% Greek yogurt
f. Guacamole

2.  The stir fry


The layers:

a. Brown rice
b. Vegetables (onion, broccoli, carrots, sweet peppers, kale) stir fried in canola oil
c. Tempeh marinated in sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar then pan fried
d. Sunbutter sauce

3. The Buddha bowl


Recipe here.

This post is part of the What I Ate Wednesday link up on Peas and Crayons' blog. Go check it out!


Do you go through food phases?

What's your favourite kind of rice bowl? 

Chelsea lately

Monday, May 20, 2013

Hi everyone! I've spent so many posts recapping my road trip that I haven't had a chance to post about anything else lately. But some exciting stuff has been happening ever since I got back:

I. A few weeks ago when I asked mom what she wanted to do for Mother's Day, she responded "Clean the house". She wasn't joking. So we spent the day sorting through our closets and getting rid of old junk, but for dinner we all sat down to a crab legs feast (my mom's favourite).


II. My parents surprised me with a brand new 2013 Honda Civic for a graduation present!!! For the past 4 years I've been driving a 1992 Dodge Shadow from my grandma, and although I love that car, it was on its last legs. The paint was coming off, there was a dent in the side, and the passenger mirror was dangling off. I swear I'm a good driver... I've just had a few unfortunate encounters with the metal poles in my old apartment's parking garage!


III. Last week I made my friend these coconut lime cupcakes with coconut lime cream cheese frosting for her birthday. I'm not usually a fan of citrus flavours in cakes (I'm a chocolate girl all the way), but these were so good.


IV. My mom and sister have gotten me hooked on Game of Thrones. I'm still on the first book, but I'm loving it so far. And I'm excited to be getting into a good series - the last good series I read was Lord of the Rings back in high school.


V. I've gotten back into making my own hummus instead of paying $3.99 for a tiny tub at the grocery store. 4 cups of smooth, garlicky hummus that's ready in 10 minutes and costs less than $1.50? Heck yes!


VI. Even though my birthday isn't until next weekend (May 25 baby!) I celebrated my birthday with my extended family on Sunday. You might remember that my mom and sister decorated my cake to look like sushi last year. This year they planned something crazy again and made me this stove-shaped cake - with three layers of delicious carrot cake and mascarpone cream cheese frosting underneath the fondant!


What are your favourite kind of cupcakes?

What are you reading right now? 

Road trip '13: Day 7

Friday, May 17, 2013

Day 7 was our last day! It had a rough start though because I had a pretty bad sleep - it was so stinking hot in our hotel room overnight. So we skipped working out again in favour of having a slow start to our morning.

After breakfast we said goodbye to Syracuse and headed to Rochester, where our first stop was Trader Joe's. Since we don't have these stores in Canada, I'm always excited to check them out when I'm in the US.


Just like my last visit though, I was a bit disappointed by how many of their products say "May contain nuts" on their labels. But I still managed to pick up a pretty good nut-free haul.


Mac & cheese, coconut cream, cookie butter, sunflower seed butter, sweet Thai chili sauce, coconut chips, dried banana, and plantain chips.

After TJ's we went to The Owl House for lunch, which is a cute restaurant we found through Urbanspoon. It was in a renovated house and we actually ate in the backyard on the patio - I felt like I was eating at someone's home!



They had really delicious iced Earl Grey tea - it made me want to start making my own iced teas at home more often!


We also split an order of their Moroccan smoked beef "jerky". It wasn't really jerky-like, but it was still really good.


And then I had the salad of my dreams: shaved Brussels sprouts, kale, lemon, olive oil, and romano aioli. This was amazing! I plan on trying to recreate it, but I doubt I could do it justice - the flavours were just so perfect.


My sister and I also split a panini with brie cheese, apple, red onion, baby arugula and Dijon mustard on sourdough bread with housemade kettle chips on the side. This was seriously good too! It was an all around good meal.


After lunch we drove to Buffalo for our last few stops at Target (for bathing suits and Champion workout wear) and Wegmans (for more food). We even bought a cooler so that we could get some refrigerated and frozen items - and by that I mostly just mean Greek yogurt. 


I decided to try out the Wegman's brand of Greek yogurt, Chobani Bites, honey Fage, vanilla coconut Oikos, and a few Chobani flavours I've never tried before. So far I'm not a big fan of the Wegman's kind, but I love the Chobani Bites!

With our car packed to the brim with groceries, our shopping loot, suitcases, pillows, gifts for dad, gum wrappers all over the floor, etc, we headed back home.


So that's the end of my recaps! But I already have plans to visit some great restaurants in the area this summer, so you'll definitely be seeing more of my foodie adventures soon. ;)

What are your favourite Trader Joe's products?

What are your favourite Greek yogurt brands? 

i came up short...and late


so i'm a little late to the party.
think anyone will notice?
nah.
i like to call it fashionably late.
and i am bound and determined to get these 10 on 10 photos sealed into history.
ready? ready.

let's just start off by saying that there is nothing fashionable about the first photo below.
me. in the garage. grinding coffee.
so i can have peace longer while the boys sleep.
also, i'm wondering why it's called beauty sleep?
because i don't wake up more beautiful.
i deteriorate at night.  it's true.


making necklaces and photographing them for the shoppe is my fave.


my happy little family(insert creepy music).
it's too bad they have no idea what's coming to them.  it's sad, really.
the caption below this photo on IG was, "shhhhh....don't tell them their mother is a murderer."
and if you read a few posts back, there's proof.
that might even make it premeditated.


this is my very first attempt at my new iphone app, OVER.
it made me ridiculously happy.
my honey got me an iphone for mothers day and i love it.
he got one too.  so that's for...fathers day?
*wink*
you know i love you, dear.
:)



hey!  we went to the thrift and i found a vintage dress for a dollar and these wooden beads.
wooden beads+mary=true love.
especially when they're only a $1.50!


i have turned into a crazy cat lady and i have no idea how.
this guy has me wrapped around his declawed paw and gets away with spilling way too much water.
i hate walking in wetness.  hate.


lessons.  maddie is the queen bee activity coordinator/teacher in da house.
here, she is instructing her daddy on 'old macdonald'.
he did well and was pretty happy with himself.  :)



so let's call this 7 on 10, mkay?
i have no idea what happened in between, i'm just glad i got these posted!

xoxo,
mary

ten on ten button

Road trip '13: Day 6

Thursday, May 16, 2013

On Monday morning mom and I decided to go to the gym after taking two days off. It felt so nice to move a bit after spending so much time in the car! On our way back to the hotel room we stopped at the Starbucks in the lobby where I was excited to find some Chobani. I've missed their yogurt ever since they stopped selling in Canada! I used it to make a quick breakfast bowl before heading out on the road again.


This time we were heading off to Syracuse. I've actually been wanting to go there ever since I heard Pinback's song called 'Syracuse' in the10th grade (I'm not sure if the song has any link to the city though...). When we got there we stopped at Phoebe's Cafe for lunch. It was cute inside, but really busy and noisy.


I ordered the chicken pita with white cheddar, grilled onions, and a balsamic reduction. It was just okay. I'm not a big fan of blackened chicken - it just tastes burnt to me - and I didn't realize it would come that way. My mom's chicken bruschetta wrap tasted amazing though.


After lunch our destination was Destiny USA, which is apparently the 6th biggest mall in the USA! We managed to do some damage there, followed by even more damage to our wallets at the Urban Outfitters in Armory Square.


By the time we were done shopping we were more than ready for food. We had planned to hit up Empire Brewing Company, which is a microbrewery that was featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives. I had my eyes on their farmstead chili, but my sister convinced me to split their Mediterranean platter with her. It came with falafels, hummus, couscous salad, pickled beans, olives, sun dried tomatoes, tzaziki, and herb flatbread. Everything was awesome, especially those falafels!


We both got a Greek Cobb salad as well, but what we didn't realize is that the salad had basically the exact same ingredients as the platter, except in salad form. Oops! I should have read the menu better, apparently. It was still good though.


Empire Brewing Co. on Urbanspoon 

As we were finishing up our meals, we realized that although we had tons of pictures of our food, we had barely any pictures of ourselves. So mom tried to take a picture of Hayley and I... except my eyes were closed. So she tried again, and my eyes looked drunk. Then she tried again, and I looked like I was half asleep. So after that we just got silly.


We were laughing so hard that my abs started to hurt!

After that we just headed to the hotel for our last night of the trip. I'll be back with the recap of our last day soon!

What's the biggest mall you've ever been to?

Have you ever been to a restaurant that was on Diners, Drive ins and Dives?

Road trip '13: Day 5

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

On day 5 we woke up in Quebec after a super long 10.5 hour drive the day before. When we first awoke at 6ish, we considered working out, looked at each other and said "nahhh" and then burrowed back into bed. Instead we lazed around for a bit, had breakfast in our hotel room, and then headed out for a short walk on the Plains of Abraham (the site of a famous battle between the British and the French), which was right behind our hotel.


Even though it was only 9 am, it was so much warmer in Quebec than in Halifax - we were loving it! We finished up our walk by stopping at Starbucks (iced green tea for me!) and then headed out on the road again.


Our next stop was just outside Montreal, where we met up with a family friend and her boyfriend for lunch at Cora's, a Canadian breakfast/brunch chain. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Cora's! I almost always order their bagel and lox, but this time I was craving eggs so I went for their 2 eggs, fresh fruit, and toast breakfast with an extra order of bacon.


After lunch we got back in the car and headed down south to cross the border into New York. It took foreeeeever, but we finally got through. Before we hit Albany we made a quick stop at The Fresh Market in Latham so that I could stock up on Barney Butter (the best almond butter in the world!), and ended up coming out with a whole lot more.


Our loot: Annie's Goddess dressing, Madagascar vanilla, 4 jars of Barney Butter, freekeh (I've always wanted to try it, but could never find it), Kodiak Cakes pancake mix, and Old Bay seasoning.


When we got to the hotel shortly after 6 pm, we still had no idea where we were going for dinner. So we pulled out our laptops and after a bit of internet searching, we decided on New World Bistro Bar which looked fantastic.

But as we were leaving the hotel, I thought out loud "Man, I could really go for Chipotle right now." My mom and sister looked at me, thought about it for a minute, and quickly agreed. So Hayley ran back inside, asked the concierge for the address of the closest Chipotle, and 10 minutes later we were on our way. I got the burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, mild fresh salsa, lettuce, cheese and guacamole.


Afterwards we had a good laugh about how we spent 45 minutes trying to find a restaurant for dinner, only to change our minds at the last minute and go to Chipotle. It was exactly what we were all craving though!

What do you usually order at Chipotle (or if you've never tried it, what would you order)?

Are there any products that you love that are only available in another country?