Summer Weekend

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful, and we soaked it up by being outside a lot.  Once we were home from camping on Friday afternoon, and we had met our adorable new nephew, we went home to make supper.  We were craving vegetables, so we threw veggie skewers on the BBQ, along with portobello mushrooms stuffed with broccoli, green onions and cheese.

Plants for supper - mmm!

On Saturday morning we got up early and went to the farmers' market.

This empanada was our breakfast:

We ran into our niece Remi (well, and her parents 😄) and visited for a few minutes, before carrying on with our shopping.

We stopped at the butcher too, and then dropped the meat and veggies off at home, before heading out again to the grocery store to grab the rest of our week's groceries.

We were home by about 1:30, and enjoying lunch in the backyard.

And that's where we stayed for the rest of the day and evening.  Our afternoon snack was a bowl of shelling peas, which we had snagged at the market that morning.

It took about 15 minutes inside in the evening for us to get prepped for dinner.  I got the potatoes ready, and Christopher made a BBQ sauce.

We cooked ribs low and slow, and sauced them up multiple times throughout their time on the grill.  The potatoes were cooked slowly too, with parsley, green onion, salt, pepper, and a generous amount of butter.

Farmers' market cukes on the side:

When I was little, someone taught me that these little cucumbers are best when first sprinkled with salt and rubbed together like so ...

I do this any time I eat these now, and it always brings back memories of childhood.  Am I the only one who does this, or is it actually a thing?

After making our banana French toast on Sunday, we were back in the yard for another day of sunshine, music and relaxing.  We ate lunch outside again:

For dinner we grilled salmon and golden beets, and had those with a couscous salad:

Have you been eating any of your meals outside?  How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Crunchies - Freeze Dried Snacks

I am a firm believer that the healthiest foods are whole foods - one-ingredient, found in nature, unadulterated foods.  When the people from Crunchies offered to send me some of their freeze-dried snacks I was excited to try them, as they contain absolutely nothing other than freeze dried fruit/ veggies.

Nature's candy!  It's obvious by the taste that the fruits and veggies were picked and dried when perfectly ripe. 

Crunchies are not like dry-heated dehydrated fruits and vegetables; they are freeze-dried, which allows them to retain most of their nutritional value, and increases their shelf life.  They are super crunchy, hence the name, and have a wonderful texture that would be a great addition to yogurt parfaits, cereal, ice-cream, oatmeal, etc., or straight-up as a complete snack.

Crunchies' product line includes freeze-dried mango, beets, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, mixed fruit, strawberry/banana mixture, pineapple, blueberries, and cinnamon apple.  They give you the satisfying crunch of junk food, without the added sugar, fat, artificial flavours, or colours.  These snacks are non-GMO, kosher and halal certified, as well as obviously gluten free, and vegan.  They are available in single-serve bags, or larger resealable pouches.

At only 40 calories per serving, they make a nice, light snack, packed full of nutrients.  They would be perfect for hungry little ones, or to throw in a picnic basket, or back-to-school lunch (although we're not ready to think of that quite yet).

My very hungry, almost-one-year-old niece, would love to get her little paws on these!

This morning I used some of the banana Crunchies to make banana French toast.  I put them in a zipped baggy, and then used a rolling pin to roll them into a powder.

After dipping the French bread in an egg/vanilla/cinnamon mixture, I gave the bread a sprinkle of the crushed banana Crunchies on both sides, and then fried them up on medium heat.

Topped with fresh slices of banana, and with bacon on the side, breakfast was complete.

Now that it's mid-day, the sun is really shining, and it is rippin' hot outside, so I whipped up some strawberry lemonade using the strawberry Crunchies.

I rolled 1/4 cup of the freeze-dried strawberries with a rolling pin, until I had a fine powder.

I then mixed in the juice of two lemons, 1/2 cup of ice, 3/4 cup of water, and 1 tsp of lemon honey that was made locally by a friend of mine (you could also use regular honey, stevia, agave, sugar etc.).

So refreshing and tart!


The powder of the Crunchies blended well into the drink as I sipped it, and it did not have a powdery taste at all.

I'm excited to come up with other ideas for using these delicious Crunchies, and am really looking forward to trying them in a yogurt parfait, which is a perfect summer breakfast.

Until then, I'll be sipping this ...

Have you ever had Crunchies?  What flavour would you reach for?  What are you sippin' on during these hot summer days?

American readers, if these sound like something you'd like, keep an eye out for Crunchies in your local grocery stores, or buy them online here.

* Crunchies were provided to me free of charge.  All opinions are my own.

Camping Part One

On Sunday morning we were up early, and taking off on the highway to Manitoba.  We drove about 4.5 hours until we arrived at Clear Lake (Riding Mountain National Park).  Since it's Canada's 150th birthday, all national parks have free entry for the year, although you still have to pay for your campsites/accommodations, obviously.

We booked an oTENTik for five nights, which is the same awesome structure we stayed in last year.

The oTENTiks are so convenient, as they eliminate the need to set up a tent or blow up an air mattress.  There are three beds inside, two of which are almost (if not definitely) king-sized, and one bunk that's almost a queen.

There is also a full-sized BBQ with propane and all the tools, a picnic table, and a fire pit.

We got to the campground in the afternoon, and pretty soon after we arrived it was hot dog time!  A plate for two:

While those cooked we soaked a cedar plank to use for dinner.  We didn't have a container large enough to soak it, but we made do!

We had an excellent dinner of maple-glazed, pepper-crusted salmon on a cedar plank, Uncle Ben's mushroom rice, and asparagus.

We had marinated the salmon in maple syrup and soy sauce on Saturday, and made sure to keep it really cold in our cooler until Sunday evening, when we crusted it with pepper and grilled it up.  The Uncle Ben's rice was super easy to make camping, as it only took water, and a bit of butter (optional).  We use stainless steel pots at home, but for camping we have a non-stick pot and pan which makes clean up pretty much effortless.

On Monday morning we made a bacon/cheese slice omelet for breakfast, with coffee to drink.

We had a nice morning walk around the town area, and stopped for some ice cream at The Boardwalk.

Our lunch was Deluxe mac and cheese:

For dinner we made pork chops, potatoes, and corn on the cob.  We reserved the fat from the bacon in the morning, and used that to cook our potatoes - mmmmm!

After dinner we played Texas-Hold'em, using pine cones as chips:

It was super fun, haha!  We played this a lot throughout our five day trip.  Christopher wasn't too familiar with the game, but he got into it right away.

And then later on Monday evening we found out that our new nephew was born!  Eeeeeeeeee!!

Welcome to the word Kingsley Joshua!  He is soooooo sweet!  We met him a few days later, once we were home, and he slept cozy and cuddly in my arms the whole time.

Our camping trip was off to an incredible start!

How was your week last week?  What are you up to this weekend?