ellwood thompson’s Local Organic Market

Where has the time gone? We only have 7 more days until Christmas! Too bad I have yet to finish my Christmas shopping. Every moment of the free time seems to be taken up with some event here or some task there. It’s been a bit chaotic to say the least. Although, I must admit that I am enjoying the rush of the holidays. Tis the season, no?

So what have I been eating? Let’s see, breakfast has needed to be quick because I’ve been rising early to hit up the gym (oh yea!!) For the past two days I’ve treated myself to bowls of the new Kashi Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon with banana slices and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Having always loved cinnamon flavored cereals I figured I’d probably like this one. I’m not a huge fan of the plain heart to heart cereal, at least I wasn’t when I tried it about 5 years ago, but perhaps the recipe has changed or perhaps the cinnamon kicked it up a notch, because I found this to flavor to be really tasty!

I went to the Zumba last night (so fun!), then did a little Christmas shopping. I was headed home to cook dinner when I had the grand idea to stop by Ellwood Thompsons for the after 8:30PM reduced price hot/salad bar.

Only spent $1.70 for this delicious and nutritious meal. Take that dollar menu!

I’ve also been busy uncooking some macaroons in the dehydrator.

These are so tasty. It’s basically indescribable. I’m not going to give anything away, but I will say that my secret santa has some macaroons on the way!

Some are regular while the others I added 1/2 cup of Raw Cacao Powder. The recipe I followed is in Matt Kenney’s Everyday Raw Cookbook but I must give a big thanks to Miss Gina, the Fitnessista for the initiating my macaroon love!!

For lunch today I ended up walking to Ellwood Thompsons AGAIN… Is is apparent that I like this place yet?

I got a cup of tomato and eggplant soup and had it with crackers and a sample of a vegan oatmeal raisin cookie for dessert.

Do you spy the Gingerberry Kombucha? I think it’s official- I’m hooked!! A couple readers were interested to know if I liked the the Gingerberry flavor and I have to say that I really like it. It’s one of my favorites out of the all the ones I have tried thus far!!

And last but not least, the gift giving has begun. Since Isaac and his family celebrate Hanukkah I’ve gotten some presents from them over the past couple nights. There are two in particular, both from Isaac’s mom, that I think you all might enjoy.

The first:

A Progressive International Avocado Slicer. I love avocados and can’t wait to try this slicer out. I think it will be very helpful when making sandwiches and salads. I haven’t used it yet, but I will report back on it’s functionality once I get myself an avocado to slice.

The second is the coolest little kitchen gadget I’ve seen in a long time:

Chef’n Garlic Zoom AKA the garlic robot! (because for some reason it reminds me of Wall-E) This one I have already used and can say that I love it!! You simply pop the garlic in, roll it back and forth on the counter (like you would a matchbox car) and ta-da the garlic is minced- no stinky and sticky fingers, plus it’s fun.
Last but not least, I also received a lovely holiday package from Musselman’s!!

The kind folks at Musselman’s sent me lots of fruity goodies. I can’t wait to get my spoon into them!

TGIF my friends! I’ve got a packed weekend- a wedding on Saturday and a holiday party on Sunday AND it’s suppose to snow 3-6 inches sometime over the next few days- I’m hoping for all 6. I love snow!

What about you- any big plans?

- Brittany

PS- Ever wondered what I do at work? Check out my guest post over at On a Lobster Placemat.

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The week is over and I am relaxing at home on a Saturday. I love the weekends!!!

Friday morning I used my can of Organic Pumpkin (the one I have been using for THE SHRED) to make some delicious oats. I now need to find another partner for my Manwich!

Pumpkin oat ingredients:

1/4 cup each oat bran and oatmeal
1/2 cup each water and USAM
Dash of cinnamon
1 egg white
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 tbsp. ground flax
1 tbsp. better n PB

My oatmeal method: After cooking the first 3 ingredients (I also ususally add 1/2 of a banana, but I’m all out) on the stove top for about 3 minutes I add the egg white and stir it in, then I turn down the heat and stir in the pumpkin. I cook the oats for about 2 more minutes on the lower heat. Lastly, I turn off the heat and stir in the ground flax and serve in a bowl with Better n’ PB atop the pile o’ oats. YUM!

Work on Friday was crrazzy. I was just super busy and had a project that HAD to complete before the end of the day. For lunch I was suppose to meet up with my cousin who was babysitting nearby but ended up trekking it over to a Ellwood Thompson’s for a quick lunch. They’ve just renovated the place and it’s much roomier now to sit down and eat. Plus I’ve noticed that since the renovations things are actually cheaper. The produce is now the same price as other grocery stores, which is awesome because before they were WAY overpriced. I might even consider buying groceries there now, whereas before I wanted to support the local organic shop and the local farmers, but I simply couldn’t afford it.

I grabbed a container of fruit:

And half of the Goddess Tofu Wrap. I so want to be able to recreate this wrap at home. It’s simply delicious!

They were giving away free samples of Vegan banana bread with chocolate chips. I had 3 small pieces

Don’t mind my wrinkly hand. Or Isaac’s hairy arm below:

We went to Cafe Caturra to meet some friends for a glass of wine. The place was so cute. I loved the decor! Isaac got beer and I got a glass of white wine. The beer above was called the Lion Stout- it smelled of licorice and bittersweet chocolate and tasted like molasses, chocolate, licorice, coffee. I usually don’t go for dark beers, but I took a sip of Isaac’s and it was delicious.

I woke up this morning planning to go to spin, but I was extremely sore. I think it’s from doing ab leg lifts. They are killer. That being said I decided just to streach and take Olive for a walk. Once I was home I decided it was oat time and whipped up another bowl of pumpkin oats but this time I left out the egg white and substituted it with sugar. Probably not the smartest idea, but I wanted something sweet. And actually the sugar I used was actually dehydrated cane juice.

I put the cane juice crystals directly on top so I could have the extra sweetness in in each bite. I have only ever used the cane juice in recipes so I was surprised to realize it tasted more like molasses than normal brown sugar does. But it was still good. After searching online I found this info:

Sucanant
Sucanant is simply dehydrated, freshly squeezed sugar cane that is simmered into rich syrup and dried into granules. Sucanant retains its rich molasses flavor and contains iron, calcium, potassium, chromium and B-vitamins.
Usage: Use in place of refined brown sugar 1 to 1 in your favorite recipes. Sucanant is great for baking or on top of hot cereal. It’s also great in BBQ sauces, chocolate brownies and hot cocoa.

Brown sugar is processed white sugar with a bit of fancy molasses to give texture and color.

Today’s lunch was Tasty with a capital T. Last night I bought way too stuff much at Bj’s Wholesale (a store v. similar to Costco), but one of the products I was really excited to try. Joseph’s Middle East Bakery’s Flax, Oat bran & Whole Flour Lavash Roll Ups. The nutritional facts for this wrap caught my eye. 1 huge wrap has 100 calories, 4g of fat, 14 Carbs, 6g fiber, and 10g protein. So I decided to give old Joesph a try –> GREAT IDEA. The wrap is soft and chewy, just how I like it. The wrap is also hearty and doesn’t break apart when you try to fold it (don’t you hate it when that happens!) And the wraps are huge, you could definitely use half and save the other half for later. What more could a girl ask for?

Example A: I spread a laughing cow cheese wedge on my LAVASH wrap and filled it with sauteed onion and mushroom, 1/4 cup of kidney beans, spring mix, and hot banana peppers. What a great combo!

All wrapped up:

Whew that was a long post so I am going to wrap things up. Isaac’s out of town of tonight I’m hanging out with a friend and going to a little party.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.

P.S. I think the combo of running and doing The Shred has made my knees sore so I am taking off a few days from Jill