Please bear with me… just one more week!

- Ellie Krieger’s breakfast cookies (recipes here) are awesome. Make them!

- I was hungry after lunch but really tried to stick to my 3-2-1 rule (3 meals, 2 snacks, 1 dessert). I had a pickle (high sodium, I know but low cals – that takes priority at the moment). A little while later when I wanted more food, I had an early dessert but healthified – a brownie zbar.

- Iced decaf coffee with a splash of organic soy milk has become another hunger curbing trick. I’ve had one every work day for the past week. Today was no exception.

- TJ’s Thai red curry sauce tastes like the real goods from a restaurant. Dinner tonight took 10 minutes (I did do a lot of prep work, including pressing and pan frying tofu and making brown rice) and it tasted like a cheat meal.

- I want to eat all the time, even if I’m full. This is why rules are important.

- Today’s desire to hit up Paradise Bakery for a few cookies was stopped by thinking about this post. I wanted to do better, for myself and for you. I’d like to be an inspiration on some level even when I’m not the best of role models.

- Today the gym didn’t happen. I kept it in mind all day (still wearing gym clothes right now) but flood related stuff and work got in the way.

- I went back for seconds at dinner and had an unplanned peach thereafter. I’m okay with that.

And that’s today in a nutshell. Now onto something a little more exciting – food pictures!

Today got away from me already. See you tomorrow night (hopefully).

This was risky for sure, but it seemed to make sense. Neither one of us met anyone to-date that tried tart frozen yogurt from the likes of Pinkberry, Berryline and Red Mango and didn’t completely fall in love. In fact as the days were starting to warm up, our own experience showed that trips to froyo shops were becoming more and more frequent… and Northampton (in fact Western Mass in our knowledge) did not have one single froyo shop! Molly and Alex wanted to do it the right way too – use local ingredients as much as possible. Northampton has a really strong local culture so we both agreed this would not have been lost on their customers. After long hours at the tasting facility and a trip to Northampton where they found the perfect spot for their shop, they were off. Just like that.

Fast-forward to yesterday, when on our trip back from our little getaway at the Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough in Massachusetts (which was overall a very disappointing experience – I’d rather just move on instead of talking about it here. The food was the only thing that was good. Let’s leave it at that.) we stopped by Amherst and Northampton. We drove around our old UMass campus. It was actually quite timely because Adam and I met there. We drove by our first dorm, then our sophomore year one and reminisced about the old times. It was somewhat incidental, though, that the trip there fell on our wedding anniversary (July 5th) because you probably guessed by now what the main destination was – Molly and Alex’s 7-week old froyo shop in Northampton – Go Berry. Seeing it was surreal and I nearly hopped inside after seeing the gorgeous, clean store front.

Let’s take a peak inside…

It was a lot larger and more spacious than I imagined. I loved the giant windows and all the natural light they allowed. (M&A agree that the space is larger than they currently need but this was an old Cold Stone location that they couldn’t pass up, and hopefully if they expand into a few other offerings, like waffles, the space will be utilized).

We hugged, got a quick tour of the back area, where one of the workers was chopping fresh strawberries for toppings, and then got to tasting. Original, strawberry and coconut were flavors of the day. Each was amazing – creamy and delicious just like froyo we all learned to love. Molly mentioned that many shops add water to their recipe to bulk it up – at Go Berry they only use skim milk, fat free yogurt, sugar and natural emulsifiers. No water = creamier texture. Adam and I agreed – this was perfect (I’d compare it to Berryline – our favorite froyo in Boston)! Now that we confirmed that the yogurt was good, we moved on to the toppings – there were so many of them, and some I’ve never seen before. I love froyo!!

Adam always gets the same thing: small original with strawberries and oreos. He was a happy customer.

I almost always get a small original (or half with nutella or coconut – if available) with mango and pecans. This time there were so many toppings I couldn’t wait to try that I went all out. Here is my beast (the girl needed to use a medium cup to fit all my toppings in )

Half original/half coconut frozen yogurt with fresh mango, walnuts, toffee and toasted coconut (the 2 last ones were toppings I haven’t seen before and I loved them both – they really made this taste like an even more special treat)

See, there is some fruit over there

I ate every single delicious bite and could keep eating if we didn’t have dinner plans later on. You know that natural fat-free froyo can be a meal, right?

Photo time with the owners. Say cheese

Nope. One more time…

Ok, got it!

It was amazing to catch up with Molly and Alex and see their dream come to fruition. The shop is gorgeous, the yogurt is amazingly tasty and they seem to continue having a blast together despite the hard work that owning a small business obviously is (oh and their wedding is just 2 months away!).

If you are in Western Mass area, definitely swing by Northampton and give Go Berry a try. I am obviously biased but I give you my word – it’s good!!

What’s your favorite froyo flavor? What’s your favorite topping?

PS – Molly reads my blog, so if you have any questions for her, I bet she’ll be able to answer them soon.

I did a pretty thorough photo recap last year of the whole wedding. I love looking at all those pictures and remembering little details that we may have forgotten about. Here are some links to the posts if you’re interested.

Pre-ceremony pics, reception decor details and dessert! (pictures here)

Recap part II – the ceremony + a few formal pictures (here)

Wedding recap finale – reception (here)

My favorite picture of all. I think you can see the honest happiness in our eyes.

I love love.

Also, happy birthday dad!!!!

See you all on Tuesday

BREAKFAST

FFL english muffin with crunchy Barney Butter and fresh local strawberries + coffee (of course)

Mmm, these guys were so sweet! Produce really is so much better during peak season. I’m eating as many strawberries as I can these days because in a few weeks there won’t be much of these berries at the farmers market. PS – english muffin + almond butter + any fruit is a great combo… and I mean ANY. Try it!

WORKOUT

Abs + spin classes. My abs were on fire (and somehow I did more today – I don’t learn! ). I had 2 almond stuffed medjool dates before my workout. Dates are a great pre-workout fuel!

LUNCH

Leftover pasta with roasted tomatoes, garlic and white beans. It was a bit better the next day, I guess the flavors developed.

Since it was July 3rd and our office was looking pretty dead, I left around 3 to hit up the farmers market and do other grocery shopping before the long weekend. Eventually hunger hit…

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

TJ’s Tuscan Pane with Samira’s Homemade baba ganoush and roasted beets

You know all about my obsession with all of the above ingredients so I won’t bore you.

DINNER!

This was my favorite meal of the day. I just love having a grill and the best part about it is that I still get to cook something special. We don’t just throw premade patties on the grill and call it a day.

On the menu for this Friday night, we had a “man meal” as per Adam’s request. I interpret it as pizza, steak & cheese subs or burgers. Last night it wasn’t just any burger though – we made spicy poblano burgers with chipotle cream (recipe here, I didn’t make the pickled onions for obvious reasons ).

I made the patties, Adam did the grilling. The burgers were expertly grilled. He’s becoming good

Instead of pickled onions, I topped my burger with sauerkraut.

Wow, this was one good burger! A little spicy from the roasted poblano peppers, nice and moist from the addition of soft bread and smoky and hot from the chipotle cream. The chipotle cream is $$$, I tell ya.

Corn on the cob, just simply grilled. For some things, simple is best.

Dinner all together. This was an awesome man meal that can be enjoyed by a lady like myself.

After dinner our friends came over for a few drinks on our patio. The weather was gorgeous! I had 2 glasses of the Perducci sustainable white.

This is a great general white – pretty smooth and not very sweet. I’m a fan.

Lastly, no day can be complete without dessert. Tiffany requested chocolate mint ice cream which I attempted to lighten up by using 2% milk and half-and-half instead of whole milk and heavy cream, but for some reason it wouldn’t harden. Does anyone know why? Instead, we had chocolate mint milkshakes with oreo cookie pieces. And yes, we spiked them up with a bit of Bailey’s mint.

It was one good night.

All right, the boys are getting rowdy in the pool so before this post costs me my laptop, I’m going to sigh off. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Future Chefs uses a youth development model in which youth participate in planning, leading and evaluating the program. Students earn scholarships and apprenticeships for post secondary training. Young participants develop a career plan and receive coaching through caring and supportive relationships with educators, staff and industry mentors.

Every year, as a result of the Taste of Beacon Hill event, 2 students get full scholarships. We were actually able to chat with one of the winners from last year (left). She was extremely grateful for this program and although she’s close to graduating from culinary school at this point, Future Chefs continues to provide her support and mentoring. What a great way to directly change someone’s life and ensure they have a bright future ahead of them!

I was able to score 2 press tickets for Adam and me but it looks like they did quite well this year. There were a lot of guests in attendance and everyone seemed to have a good time. Hopefully that means the tradition will continue on with its 11-year!

As mentioned, the event took place at the Liberty Hotel. I’ve talked about the hotel before but last time I didn’t get a chance to snap photos of the gorgeous space. How crazy amazing is this? The chandeliers are sick.

Floors 4 and 5 were dedicated to Taste of Beacon Hill. There were tables everywhere, with over 25 Beacon Hill restaurants and shops sharing little samples of their fare.

Here are the highlights in photos. BHBB, Lala Rokh, Bin 26, Panificio were my favorites of the night. Fig’s chocolate mousse cupcake and Whole Foods (yes Whole Foods) cheesecakes were amazing as well. What a night!

Savenor’s Market

Sangria from Upper Crust pizza

Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro (BHHB) – my absolute favorite of the night!!!

The Seventh Ale House – Adam had this and enjoyed it

Bin 26 Enoteca

Roasted red peppers with anchovy dipping sauce (awesome!)

Marinaded anchovies – see a theme here? It was Healthy and Sane approved.

Lala Rokh (Persian)

Spinach in yogurt – I was surprised that it was cold but man, was it creamy and flavorful!

The eggplant, tomato and garlic dish (bottom left) was another winner. I’ve never had Persian food before and now I realize that a trip to Lala Rokh needs to happen asap.

Harvard Gardens

Moo – they always serve grass-fed beef. We love Moo in our household!

Hampshire House

Risotto with roasted red peppers – pretty yummy

Hi Adam!

At some point I purchased a glass of cabernet (it was a cash bar – my only negative comment about the event. If I spent $75/ticket, I’d want booze to be included. Just sayin’ )

A little rest for the feet and the belly

No. 9 Park

I hate oysters but No. 9 Park actually did it right. They were awesome!

Panificio

Heirloom tomatoes and mozzarella on garlic toast. Simplicity at its best. The tomatoes were bursting with flavor. Definitely one of the best bites of the night!

Zen Sushi

Scampo

I am a huge Scampo fan after tasting their pizzas at the Healthworks Blogger Bash event and meeting Lydia Shire (the chef) made me like the place even better. She was quite the character! The line for Scampo was always long because she took here time with the dish (there were so many components!!) and chatted everyone up.

So many flavors and textures. I enjoyed the one bite that I took but I didn’t have time to ask Lydia about their lamb source so I let Adam do most of the eating on this one. He was stuffed by this point but still licked the plate clean.

Scampo dessert – chocolate mousse with Kahlua – meh (tasted like supermarket Jello brand stuff)

Sangria #2

Fig’s (cupcake shop to come)

Whole Foods

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Chocolate cheesecake

Not bad, eh? I love blogging! Adam and I had a really good time. I love tasting events – this one gave us the opportunity to try so many Beacon Hill favorites in just a few hours! I hope they raised a lot of money for the Future Chefs program. Those kids deserve it.

And now a question for you – have you ever had Persian food? This is the one that blew me away last night. I’ve been missing out all these years!

So here we go, nice and simple today. Work is crazy but I still found time to take a minute and mindfully enjoy some very delicious foods.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast started with a little help from this weekend’s trip to the City Market in Burlington, VT. This is a community-owned grocery store, which means that many products from small local producers were available (for a few pictures of what it’s like inside the market, check out my previous post – you can click on the pictures to enlarge). I came in to find Liz Lovely cookies, which I discovered just days prior to our trip to Vermont through the Foodzie blog (which is very dangerous by the way, I’m a sucker for all the cute stories of small producers) and ended up clearing out their dessert bar. Ok, this may be a slight exaggeration but you better believe that the only thing that stopped me from doing exactly that is the expiration dates on the products. They were freshly baked and clearly should be consumed asap. One of the products that I just could not resist was this package of Butterfly Bakery raspberry apricot breakfast scones.

I absolutely adore apricots and these plump cookie-like scones (looks-wise) were a love at first sight. The first bite sealed the deal for me. Soft and buttery, with real raspberry and apricot chunks – this is the best scone I’ve ever tasted and I don’t think any future scone can stand a chance. These are perfect! I think I may freeze one and see how it preserves, because I’d love to stock up on a future trip to Burlington. And there will be a future trip. I’m obsessed.

I enjoyed the scone with coffee and an oikos (this batch is the best for some reason – so fluffy!). I didn’t end up eating the strawberries until dinner time. This was one good breakfast!

LUNCH

Lunch was pretty special too. I had a lunch date with Lauren and Shannon. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Lauren and I’m so glad that Shannon keeps popping in during lunch to my neck of the woods because that means we can see each other more often. Caffe Jaffa was our meeting place.

Look who I spotted already at the table… hi, Lauren! (hehe, I was trying to be sneaky but she noticed me)

Caffe Jaffa features American and Middle Eastern fare. I wanted nothing more than hummus. So that’s pretty much what I ordered – a hummus plate that came with a Greek side salad.

The lettuce was fresh, the feta and dressing (which I had on the side and just dipped my fork into) were both delicious. A great simple starter!

Mmm, hummus! Standard stuff (maybe even a tad too grainy for my liking). I ate about half with a warm pita.

The girls both ordered the hummus/baba ganoush/falafel platters (which is SO the way to go!) and I snuck a taste of Lauren’s baba ganoush and had one of Shannon’s falafel balls. Both were outstanding! The baba ganoush was very creamy, the falafel was flavorful and not at all greasy (although of course, it is still deep fried so one should enjoy such things in moderation).

This lunch was so fun! We chatted for a while, only stopping to take bites of our food. It was hard to go back to work, I’m not going to lie.

SNACKS

Before heading back to the office, Shannon and I did stop by the Copley farmers market. I bought more shelling peas. I think I have a problem (good thing they’re just nutritious peas).

Snack of champions!

DINNER

Since we’ve been out all weekend, there was not much in the fridge for groceries (I bought beets and greens at the farmers market – these would take too long to cook for a weeknight). I’m still impressed with how I pulled dinner off. And it was a good one, let me tell you!

About 3 weeks ago, Jen posted this recipe for salmon with strawberry and tomato salsa that I’ve been dreaming of ever since. The only problem is – wild salmon is expensive. I was waiting for it to go on sale but the day never came. Strawberries are only going to be in season for a few weeks and I happened to have some amazingly sweet ones from Quebec on hand. We also had half a container of grape tomatoes in the veggie drawer in the fridge and wild salmon burgers in the freezer. Hey, how about a salmon burger with strawberry and tomato salsa? Oh yeah!

The strawberry tomato salsa is the prefect balance of sweet and savory with balsamic vinegar’s acidity balanced out by the smooth and creamy laughing cow cheese I topped the ww burger buns with and of course by the incredibly juicy wild salmon burger (the burgers were from Whole Foods by the way – I highly recommend them!). Adam and I couldn’t get enough of this – so unique and fresh. Summer fare with a twist. This recipe is definitely going on the favorites list!! Thank you, Jen, for the inspiration!

Dessert was another City Market purchase.

Think 7-layer bar but better. I ate 1/2 of the package and it took a lot of will power not to go back to the kitchen and finish the rest. The white and semi-sweet chocolate chunks worked beautifully with walnuts, almost short bread-like crust, and of course the toasted coconut. I’m stopping now because the kitchen is not that far away.

The little pleasures in life. I don’t hate this.

Have a great day! And say hello if you have a second to spare. I was feeling a bit abandoned earlier but something tells me these yummies will bring you back.

With all these stops, our drive flew by. Vermont has so much to offer – I can’t wait to go back! Burlington is especially beautiful – such an awesome vibe there!! Also, I learned something very important on the Ben & Jerry’s tour. Did you know that they have scoop shop only flavors? I didn’t and I need to make my way to a shop asap because I hear the 7-layer bar flavor is offered for a limited time, and I’m pretty sure I can’t continue without it in my life (or belly, hehe).

Happy Tuesday. I’ll be back tonight with a “regular post” now that I’m all caught up on my weekend getaway.

I did a lot of research before going and found out that information is quite choppy on the subject. There are plenty of vegetarian (even vegan) restaurants in a big city like Montreal but I have a carnivore husband that is not as meticulous about knowing the source of his meat… and there has to be meat at nearly ever meal! Restaurants with local (and better yet, organic) meats were hard to find. I had a few charcuteries on the list that were completely inconvenient to get to since we stayed in downtown (read: large restaurants serving to the masses). So even with a good amount of planning we were left on our own, “winging it” for breakfast.

BREAKFAST

I was hoping the helpful concierge at our hotel would tell us all about a local hole-in-the-wall spot where we could find some local breakfast delicacies. Instead, she suggested eggspecatation.

This is a small chain restaurants with a few locations around the city (and as I see on their website, around the continent). It was a pretty funky space, clean and energetic yet a little gimmicky with their egg motif.

My date <3

I browsed a very large menu, and went with my plan B – ordered the vegetarian option. It’s actually quite easy for me, especially for breakfast.

Bagel Dore – two bagel halves dipped in egg batter, cooked on the grill, topped with bananas and strawberries; served with yogurt and honey

Plan B still looked pretty beautiful, don’t you agree?

The yogurt + honey was the best part. Fresh strawberries were everywhere in Montreal (they are in season!) so it is very possible that these were local. They were extremely fresh and I ate every piece. The bagels were actually the worst part of the meal – they were tasteless and had a weird mouth-feel. I picked at them but chose to save stomach space for something more worthy.

Overall: I give my breakfast a B- on a sustainability scale. It was not organic, doubtfully local but it was vegetarian. I wish this place was more locavore friendly but I believe in making the best choices given the circumstances and I certainly did that.

Next up: a trip to a marche (a farmers market) – it doesn’t get much local than that!

We walked a long way to the old Montreal. I couldn’t help but snap millions of photos. I got a whole lot of the “common’ we’ll never get there if you keep stopping every 2 seconds” looks.

… but how could I NOT stop every 2 seconds?

We finally got to the marche. The little stand with all sorts of (local) maple products got me super excited. Oh, this was going to be gooooood!

Metres d’ART? Say what?

Here we were… at an ART marche.

It was beautiful inside but we were starting to worry that a FOOD marche was going to close if we weren’t going to move it. So we continued on our journey to a marche that was actually on my list (I swear, I did prepare for this trip!). And completely by accident (Adam was the one with the map), I ended up bumping into a place from my list – Serafim cafe bistro – serving 100% organic food.

The place was a little less “cute” than I was expecting. To be honest, it looked more like cafeteria style food.

And it was dead.

We still were not hungry for lunch. I considered grabbing a dessert to-go but the cheesecake that spoke to me did not look transportation friendly. So we continued on our journey, dedicated to locate a real food marche with local farmers and produce as far as the eye could see.

Oh and did we find it… may I introduce you to Marche Jean-Talon (only a short Metro ride away)? You’re going to like it, I promise.

There were strawberries… so many strawberries (and so cheap!)

And asparagus

Cherries

Tomatoes

… and so much more! My head was spinning. I could hardly contain the excitement!

Everything was so beautifully presented, and there were so many samples! Let’s call these “lunch part I”

Local and organic lunch part I. A++

We bought some local strawberries… and a few plums that were possibly the best plums I’ve had in my life (those samples work!).

Wait, product of what?

Ok, so we made mistakes. I still maintain these were possibly the juicies, sweetest plums ever. I think this post would write itself if we went to San Francisco. I did pick up some definitely locally produced chocolates Privilege – Maison du Chocolat.

… and we were off once again to find the best poutine in town (according to Adam’s research on yelp). We were in Montreal after all. This was very much needed… and we were getting hungry!

Another ride on the Metro, without getting lost at all (or did we?), we finally spotted La Banquise.

… and 30 seconds later were seating at this cute little patio. Oh, life is sweet.

La Banquise is a family owned business that just recently celebrated its 40-year anniversary. The restaurant originally was founded as an ice cream shop, converted into snack bar specializing in hot-dogs and fries and eventually featured poutine. Two flavor combinations turned into 25+ over the years. This was definitely poutine-galore (I couldn’t fit the whole list in that first picture!!).

Everything on the menu is local, including local craft beers. I went for the Cidre Mystique – it was so crisp and refreshing!

Adam chose the Boreale Rousse. I tried it and thought it was nice and smooth (kind of like his Amber beer from the night before).

The waitress mentioned that everything was local but to be honest, I was still not convinced about their meat source. So once again, we went the vegetarian route. We split the regular size of the poutine Mexicaine – hot peppers, tomatoes and black olives (with 100% vegetarian sauce – extra)

The regular was plenty!

This was pretty indulgent. Adam and I were starving by this point so we pretty much polished this plate off. A little disgusting if you ask me but I think this was in order. I definitely loved the veggies (hot peppers were my favorite!) and the pieces with less gravy were my favorite – just give me cheese (fresh mozzarella?) and veggies and I’ll be a happy girl.

I enjoyed my two chocolates from before for dessert.

We saw a few cool sustainable spots on our way back to our hotel. This coffee shop serving fair-trade coffee

A natural grocer with the most organic products I’ve seen on our entire trip (and my picture of the outside did not come out ) – it was on Rue Rachel. I bought a few local goodies to take home (you’ll see them in future posts). This adorable patisserie could not escape me either. I believe that supporting local artisan chocolatiers is very much part of the local/sustainable equation.

This boule au rhum was so unique. I nibbled on it throughout the afternoon.

And if you can believe it, eventually dinner time came. This was the most special meal of all.

DINNER

Although I am sure in a large city like Montreal there are many restaurants that serve some locally sourced produce, finding a truly sustainable restaurant for dinner was definitely a tough task. Luckily, my friends at twitter, helped me find this gem: DNA. The coolest, most out-of-the-box restaurant I have ever been to. And yes, it is sustainable. Let’s take a quick look at the super modern decor…

From their webiste: Situated near the port of Old Montreal, DNA is the complicity between Derek and Alex and their passion for Canadian products. DNA’s menu honours old world traditions including house-cured charcuterie, regional pastas, local meats and seafood and a commitment to sustainably grown and harvested produce. DNA’s award winning wine program offers the most diverse Canadian wine list in the country.

Meals at DNA begin with complimentary sparkling or still water. We filter, chill and carbonate it in-house to uphold our respect for the environment.

Adam and I went with the complimentary in-house carbonated water. It’s such an easy thing for restaurants to do yet just makes the meal just slightly more special (and of course the in-house carbonation is significantly more environmentally friendly than the bottled variety).

I also ordered the rhubarb mojito (special of the night) – it was fantastic – not very sweet, nice and minty. I could drink these all night long.

Before we even made our order, amuse bouche appeared on our table. This was some kind of pate with mustard and some kind of spread (I think it was described in French to us). It was phenomenal. The menu looked a little scary (read: tripe parmigian, veal heart tartare, lamb carpaccio) but if this was how it was all going to taste, we were in for a treat!

I actually chickened out and ordered the safest appetizer on the menu – squid sicilian style with almonds, capers, currants and tomato (hey, that’s what sounded best to me!)

It was so flavorful – slightly spicy with lots of fresh tomato flavors and a nice crunch from the almonds. I LOVED my appetizer. Adam ordered the lamb carpaccio – the actual meat was so mild, it was almost tasteless, but the rest of the sauces and veggies it came with I really loved (from the bite he gave me).

Our waiter forget to bring us the bread so I asked for it. We got to choose from a few varieties which were freshly baked in-house that morning. I picked the olive bread and Adam got the white. Instead of the typical EVOO, DNA serves their bread with locally produced sunflower seed oil. It was very mild in flavor compared to the more strong-tasting olive bread. I enjoyed about half of this piece.

I also ordered a glass of a Syrah from Naramata Bench in Canada (apparently forgetting to snap a photo). This meal was going well, very well.

For my entree I actually ordered one of the pasta specials. The waiter brought this basket of mushrooms to the table when he described it to us, and just seeing the morels and a few other varietals made my mouth water. I typically order a meat entree when eating at “safe” (sustainably speaking) restaurants like DNA, but my love for mushrooms supersedes such logic.

This was amazing. Giant mushroom chunks, simple oil oil drizzle, homemade pasta and parmesan cheese. Simple and amazing. I ate every morsel.

And yes, because I have a separate stomach for dessert, there was that too. Adam and I “split” the sea salt & hazelnut tart with ginger gelato and olive oil (read: he ate 1 bite exactly, and I ate the rest of it)

The ginger ice cream threw me off at first but I really enjoyed it after my taste buds learned what to expect. I could probably do without the EVOO drizzle (extra calories, no additional taste).

A few brownie bites came with the check. These were actually not very good so we took tiny bites and left the rest.

Did you notice the little paper under the amuse bouch, by the way? These are old menus. How sustainable is that? Bathrooms also have real towels (which can be re-washed)…

… and you can even purchase some of the local products and homemade products from the restaurant to take home with you. Love it!

This was definitely a unique dinner. I truly enjoyed it (Adam’s dishes were a bit more daring and after all – perhaps a little too far out of the box for his liking). If we lived in Montreal, we’d definitely be back to this restaurant. DNA’s sustainable practices get many “brownie points” in my book.

And that’s how you do it – eating mostly sustainably while traveling. As you can see from this post, we were unable to eat 100% organic and local produce but I believe that it does not need to be an all or nothing mentality. Every little bit does help! It is my mission to make educated choices that fall within my own ethical and personal guidelines (that honor our future and the future of the Earth), regardless of whether I am in my own city or traveling abroad. I hope that this post showed you that it is in fact doable… more than that, that through this challenge, you may come across places and taste foods you never would have otherwise.

Where would you suggest I go if I visited your city with the same mission?

BREAKFAST

Banana “hot dog” ala Kath. She made this breakfast a few years back (I can’t find it now on her blog but I figured I should still give her credit).

The hot dog consisted of 1/2 banana, almond butter “gravy” (1T almond butter + a splash of skim milk, microwaved) and cherry ketchup preserves on a ww bun

Speaking of almond butter sauce – have you tried it before? I’ve seen it on a few blogs and thought it was a great idea but mine just pretty much burnt. I still ate it of course but something tells me it wasn’t right. Any tips?

SNACKS

LUNCH

I met Shannon for lunch at the Copley farmers market. She just got back from a trip to Italy and I couldn’t wait to hear all about it. What better way to spend time than by browsing through gorgeous local produce and enjoying some of those goodies?

I couldn’t get over how gorgeous these tomatoes from Atlas Farm were….

I ended up purchasing everything from Sofra.

Chicken & rice with feta, chickpeas, raisins and herbs

This was so incredibly fresh and flavorful. I really want to go to the actual bakery. Their menu is so inspired and everything is local (most things are grown on their farm!). Yum!

I also ended up getting a strawberry tart, which Shannon hand modeled for me.

Hi, Shannon!

… and a little over 1/2 lb of snow peas which I nearly polished off at work later in the afternoon when I “discovered” the bag in my purse. This is what’s left of it.

And yes, I ate one more of these babies (since I opened it for you to see). So addictive!

DINNER

Keeping it simple (Adam was out playing poker).

Mixed greens, shredded carrots, grape tomatoes, grilled zucchini, pine nuts (<– this mix was leftover from Sunday’s dinner) + chickpeas, strawberries, fresh mozzarella, and feta

Fruit in savory salads is heaven. I give credit to all the blogs out there for finally convincing me to give it a try. Now I can’t get enough of it. Definitely a fantastic combo!! Have you had fruit in salads?

While planning our trip to Montreal this weekend, I also snacked on some pecans, froyo and a few cheese slices… just to keep myself accountable here.

Two more days until our mini-vacation! Do you have any restaurant or activity recommendations in Montreal? I was going for a sustainable angle but I’m having difficulty finding the perfect dinner spot.