Helloooo! This is probably the longest I’ve gone without writing a single post. I had every intention to write and share some recipes over the last few months, but life got a little busy and well, I’ll let this post do most of the explaining.
Our Trip to Italy
At the beginning of October, Trevor and I took a trip to Italy! We had booked this trip back in the summer to try and take advantage of the cooler weather and the quieter tourist season. As luck would have it though, when we arrived in Rome it was 28*C for the first couple days and all we had packed was sweaters, jackets, and long pants. Luckily our AirBnb had air conditioning, so we didn’t melt when we were sleeping, but the first couple of days of walking around in the heat were a little uncomfortable. However, it was still a vacation for us and I made the best of the hot weather by eating gelato every single day. When in Rome, right?
A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Bria, creator and owner of Food Nook Tours, about attending one of her tours here in Toronto. Once I saw her email, my fingers couldn’t answer “yes” fast enough. Even though I’ve been living in Toronto for almost seven years, I still love exploring the city and new-to-me restaurants, bakeries and eateries. Especially when it’s an area of the city that I’m not too familiar with.
I didn’t get my act together in time for a traditional Canada Day recipe to celebrate Canada 150 (real talk: I’m still testing it), so I bring you this non-traditional recipe of Whole Wheat Flax Pancakes with Stewed Rhubarb. Thick, fluffy pancakes with ruby-red stewed rhubarb and drizzled real Canadian maple syrup, this breakfast is a great way to kick off the upcoming Canada Day long weekend. I consumed a lot of pancakes in the last two weeks to perfect this recipe and I can honestly say that without a doubt, this has become my favourite go-to recipe.
Trevor and I don’t have any real plans for celebrating Canada’s sesquicentennial, but we live in a pretty big city so I’m sure we’ll stumble onto something fun to do. Since the days have been getting longer, we’ve been making a point to get out more instead of hiding out in our air-conditioning. Earlier this month, we explored the Art Gallery of Ontario, enjoyed a free visit to the Royal Museum of Ontario, and wandered through the Taste of Little Italy Festival (complete with a pitcher of sangria and pizza on a patio). Our neighbourhood is also having monthly film screenings in the park and everywhere I turn it seems like more farmer’s markets are popping up. Have I mentioned that I love this time of year? I’m definitely getting my fill of Vitamin D with all this sunshine.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to be on my A-game in terms of meal prep. Sundays have been spent making granola and chopping fruit for breakfast, slicing carrots and cucumbers for snacking, and soaking and cooking chickpeas and beans for hummus and easy meals for the week. This prep has been helping me enormously in the mornings when it comes to packing lunches and trying to assemble some sort of healthy breakfast. I’m not exactly at my sharpest before 7 am (really, who is?), so I’ll take anything that makes the first part of the day a little bit easier.
I’m sitting here grinning like an idiot because this is the first day we’ve had both sun and warmth in Toronto for a very long time. For the past month, it’s either been one or the other. Or else pouring rain. I actually had to buy a new umbrella a couple weeks ago because my old one decided to spontaneously turn itself inside out in the wind and then refused to close properly. So yeah, I’m super pumped that it’s finally nice out for real this time. Not bad for the middle of May!
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
