The Strawberry Blonde smoothie: it was smooth, the perfect thickness and filled with goodness of strawberries, bananas, and coconut milk... Just to die for!

Top: sinfully healthy fruit crepe; and bottom: the heavenly cinnamon toast

I cannot wait to return for more amazing, healthy, heavenly food from Organic Lives. You simply must go, that’s all I have to say.

After my breakfast, I experienced a chocolate cooking class instructed by the awesome Adam Hart (@PowerofFood). We basically ate chocolate for two hours  and I’ve never felt more healthy or energized in my life. I learned all about the benefits of raw cocoa and now I’m equipped with some smart snacking chocolate recipes to satisfy my frequent chocolate-sweet cravings.  We even made natural chocolate bars:

Adam Hart's homemade healthy chocolate brittle

In September, I attended Adam Heart’s Achieving Vibrant Health workshop and have been following him ever since, via his website and cookbook. He is an inspiration for, literally, achieving vibrant health. I recommend everything his website, events, cookbook, and all of his recipes.

FREE PASS GIVEAWAY: So that you can experience what I am talking about, I have an extra pass that I would like to giveaway (for you plus one) to attend one of Adam’s upcoming workshops. Simply tell me about your Organic Lives cafe experience by commenting on this post; then I will draw one winner (on Nov 20th) to send a pass to Adam’s next Achieving Vibrant Health workshop on December 4, 2011, in downtown Vancouver.

Healthy eating!

Famous for her Raincoast Crisps, which you’ve likely tried several times: perhaps at a brunch, or as part of a cheese plate, where you returns for seconds and even thirds! Her crisps sell for around $7 a box, but I am still a fan!

I recently tried her new cookie line, and have to say, they don’t quite measure up to the crisp. But they were decent. I think its the texture for me, when I am looking for a cookie I prefer the crunchy-chewy, over a more chewy-cakey cookie – which is how these tasted to me.

Two of Lesley Stowe's new Raincoast cookie flavours: (L) dark chocolate, tart cherry and pecan (R) Apricot, ginger and slivered almond

The cookies come in three varieties and certainly are better than your average grocery cookie product. Let me breakdown the pros and cons for you:

I always look at the ingredients list when trying a new treat. Raincoast Cookies’ ingredients are natural and simple, which is nice to see. They are baked in small batches and Lesley says they “are made with the finest ingredients,” which is true to her product line in general.

The packaging is a bit excessive really considering it is a single cookie packaged to-go. I couldn’t help think of the English Bay cookie packaging, you see in vending machines, or on BC Ferries; I would likely opt for a Raincoast Cookie because they are a healthier selection.

Each of the three flavour combinations are paired well: dark chocolate, tart cherry and pecan; apricot, ginger and slivered almond;  or dried cranberry and toasted hazelnut.  The latter is my preferred of the three flavours.

Raincoast Cookie packaging

When you tear open the package, the cookie feels a bit sticky to touch and is more on the chewy, than crunchy. They cookies are higher in fibre and protein, and thus a bit better for you than other cookie options you might find in the same fine food retailers around B.C. – where you can find the new Raincoast Cookies. When I shared them with some colleagues and friends, most said they liked them: two of the eight people I shared them with were not fans.  I recommend at least trying the Raincoast Cookies for yourself though.

While this new cookie line is exciting for Lesley, I think I’ll stick to the infamous Raincoast crisps – tried, tested, and true.

Raincoast Cookie texture

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I religiously read the Vancouver Sun’s Food section every wednesday. And every wednesday it is a different feature of fun recipes, food trends, tricks and tips. Check it out sometime, if you haven’t recently.

So, on a recent wednesday Karen Barnaby featured the Triple Threat: Flour, Milk, and Eggs and included this awesome recipe for a sensational-single-serving breakfast… to die for: The I want to be alone banana chocolate pancake!

As I have shared previously, I love breakfast at all hours of the day and sometimes I do enjoy a pancake here but i’m not a fan of having to make a large batch of them and deal with a bunch of leftovers. I just want to enjoy a pancake here and there, and now that I’ve found this awesome recipe it’s possible.

Karen describes, “This large, single serving pancake is not gender-specific. Breakfast, dinner or dessert. Maybe even lunch.”

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup (80 mL) flour
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) rolled oats, any type
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) baking soda pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 6 tablespoons (90 mL) plain yogurt or buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) thinly sliced banana
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vegetable oil
• The rest of the banana

Whisk the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Beat the egg, yogurt and butter together. Mix into the dry ingredients only until blended. The batter will be thick. Fold in the chocolate chips and banana slices. Heat the oil in a medium, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Pour in the pancake batter and spread it out to around 8 inches (20 cm). Cook until bubbles form and pop on the surface of the pancake then flip it over. Continue cooking until golden brown on the bottom. Slice the rest of the banana and use it to garnish the pancake.

Makes 1 large (8-inch) pancake, or you could make 2 regular size pancakes for a mini-stack… MMM!

THe festival was a great family-feeling day, the sun was out and the air was crisp – a perfect fall day – fitting for this fruit du jour. For the low entry fee of $4, we were given access to top local Apple producers and fresh orchard apples.  There were tons of apples available to choose from, here is the list from their website.

Every year  44,000 lbs of apples are sold at this festival in 2 days, including more than 70 varieties, new and old, conventionally grown or organically. Amazing.

On my way out of the festival, apples and some homemade apple turnovers in hand!

We had the most amazing pocket-pies, sold by a Squamish baker in the middle of the apple market. They were to die for, flaky but dense pastry, filled with the perfect ratio of fresh apple filling to pie crust. I will return next year just to have another apple-pocket.  I went for the classic apple, but there was also rasberry-apple, and blackberry-apple combos, among others.

Apple Festival pies and pastries

My yummy apple pocket pie...

The whole festival was like being at a giant farmer’s market, but the only thing people had to sell were apples. They did have the popular Ambrosia apple – did you know that this particular apple was hybridized in Cawston, British Columbia? Pretty cool!

Ambrosia facts

I ended up choosing three apple types: the Ambrosia, Gloster and Topaz. All of them are great in different ways. Ambrosia I knew would be wonderful because I’ve had them before. Topaz and Gloster are also good, Topaz being more tart but tasty. Gloster reminded me of a red delicious a little bit, a mellow flavour. I brought the latter two to work to share with some colleagues and the Topaz won the taste test there!

The Topaz: A dessert apple, best when just picked. Tart but sweet, and crisp. Smaller in size, like a macintosh sort of (but the fruit is more dense)

The Gloster: a dessert and cooking apple, tasty but not as sweet as the Topaz.

I highly recommend this festival, and I plan to go next year for sure. MMM Apples…

I confess, I just learned about Pinkberry and how cool it is, how awesome it is, how trendy it is with celebs and on twitter, and yadda yadda yadda.

Bottom line, its just another frozen yogurt place. Do we need another frozen yogurt place in Vancouver? Really? ….well the short answer is YES, and especially if it is Pinkberry.

After my virginal Pinkberry experience the other day, I’m hooked for more. It was light, refreshing, and perfect for a hot summer day (well as hot as we’re gonna get in Vancouver… you know what I mean).

For those of you who are also Pinkberry-virgins, this is the drill: stand in line, pick your flavour of soft serve frozen yogurt (you can sample them if you like), I had Mango – it was marvelous – or there are several others including plain. The plain is reportedly tart and tasty….  I’ll have to give it a go next time.

Then you load up your toppings, apparently there is no limit! Whatever can fit in the cup! From sweets, to crunchy, to all the fruits you can imagine… You can also go topping-less if you like.

Here’s what I went with:

Premiere Pinkberry experience - I marvelled in the mango.... MMMM

Then in a matter of mango-minutes, it’s gone… I tried to savour the flavours, but it was just so good and the perfect afternoon treat!

Be sure to trek over to Park Royal, the distance is worth it from wherever you are, and then you’ll leave with an empty cup and happy stomach

What’s your flavour-fave???

You can follow them on Twitter too @Pinkberry

This decadent and designer candy apple is on display at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on Robson – I wasn’t the only one taking photos either.

What edibles have you made to support our men in blue and green?

I believe…

David Suzuki's help end food waste now guide

This weekend I was looking up some things on the David Suzuki Foundation website (which I love, its a brilliant resource for so many things) and happily stumbled upon this document called Help end Food Waste Now. I found this little education in refrigeration helpful for preventing excess kitchen waste by smartly storing my produce, and ultimately helping save a few pennies…  Naturally I wanted to share this find with you.

“Fruits and vegetables are still breathing even after they’ve been pulled out of the earth, or off the vine or tree. In general, warmth speeds up respiration and cold slows it down – that’s why refrigeration makes some foods last longer,” I think this line summarizes the guide the best. These simple guidelines of what to store together or not in your produce drawer boil down to what produce emits gas and what doesn’t.

I have never been a fan of putting my produce in plastic bags when shopping at the grocery store, and now I have some scientific reason behind it. For example, unripe bananas emit gas, and putting them in a plastic bag essentially suffocates them, and rapidly speeds up the ripening process (not always ideal).

I love food science… One of my favourite Food TV programs is Alton Brown’s Good Eats, I can never watch enough episodes!

Alton Brown's Good Eats

Hopefully this produce guide helps you all and please do share any other tips you’ve learned  —> I just eat this stuff up (pun intended, of course)!

Cream and Sugar

Here is a sweet new blog I recently discovered, called CreamandSugar.ca. They have a creative concept, not to mention a fabulous title,  where two bloggers, with two different lifestyles, from two different cities collide under one URL sharing their love of food.  One blogger is from Edmonton, who brings the sugar, and the other is from Vancouver, and brings the cream. Sweet.

I just saw the heavenly looking post titled salted white chocolate oatmeal cookies – I know what I’m baking next!

And I particularly love Cream’s “solo suppers beyond cereal” series, and Sugar’s “dinner for two and a half” series.  Brilliant posts, and their titles are catchy. The fun dual content, great photos and array of recipe ideas makes this food blogging tale of two cities worth bookmarking…

PS. These ladies Facebook and Tweet too!

If you are looking for some extra food inspiration in your mailbox every few months, then check out this magazine. I have been on their mailing list for years, so I can say with honesty that it is a good freebie – especially if you already like Kraft products.

I love it when What’s Cooking arrives in the mail each season, and although it is a fun read I dont always make the recipes. But this latest issue has some rocking salad recipes and hit the mark for me. This one I am having for lunch tomorrow: Bulgar & Beans.

Beans & Bulgar salad: I made this earlier tonight, easy-peasy on American Idol commercial breaks. Yup.

What's Cooking magazine

Beans & Bulgar salad, page 35

Here is the recipe link: click here. Note: I swapped chickpeas for extra kidney beans, which is the great thing about these recipes – their flexibility.

Let me know if you try any other recipes from this issue?!

WHET Kitchen.Bar.Patio is NOW OPEN! 1517 Anderson Road, Granville Island

WHET Kitchen patio on the right, overlooks Granville Island harbour.

A fresh new addition to the Granville Island scene: WHET Kitchen.Bar.Patio! Formerly Sammy J Pepper’s location, the owners have switched things up and shed the pepper scene to go for a more fresh locally sourced menu concept.

With one of the largest patios in Vancouver, overlooking the Granville Island harbour, this will surely be a hot spot in the sun!

WHET opened just a few days ago, and already were hopping with weekend business for their debut weekend. Our table enjoyed a variety of the menu items, and we all left full and happy. The service was friendly, the food was fresh, and that is what I will return for – especially their to-die-for seafood chowder, and these delicious dishes:

Classic fish and chips... The British guests I dined with said the fish passed with flying colours.

Flatbreads too...

Open faced fish sandwich, reportedly is amazing!