April Foodie Pen Pal reveal!

April showers bring… foodie pen pal boxes? Okay, that’s not exactly how it works but March was positively balmy and April was frigid but this special delivery was a highlight!

Despite Mother nature being confused the postman knew exactly where to go with my April foodie pen pal box ‘o goodies care of Char from Char Eats Greens.

Hmm, I spy with my little eye something that is…

yummy! Obviously.

(from left to right)

Steaz – First, now I know you can mail a can and not have it explode. Second, and most importantly, this reminded me how much I loved Steaz! They’re a green tea based iced tea and oh so delicious. Love! I haven’t had one in over a year but I enjoyed it so much I picked up a few more this weekend.

Giddy Yoyo LOCAL raw chocolate – I love love love that Char included a local product almost as much as I loved the chocolate bar, it was quality.

PUR Gum – Thumbs up! I particularly enjoy trying out products other people enjoy and this is one I’ve seen around for years and never tried so I’m glad Char hooked me up. The flavour doesn’t last too long but I love that there are less chemicals. Thumbs up.

White Macadamia Luna bar – I ate this before a lunchtime zumba class, it was nice to have a new bar to try!

Lipton Superfruit tea – a welcome addition to my tea drawer at work. Thanks for enabling my addiction!

Boulder Canyon Hickory BBQ Chiptos – Yum! Another brand I’ve seen around but never tried, I loved how crunchy the chips were, sort of like Miss Vickies.

Stevia Extract drink flavour – I drink A LOT of water and sometimes you need to shake it up a little (literally and figuratively). While I wouldn’t pick up the more commercial versions these guys have a good ingredient list and I it was a nice treat to have on hand at the office!

Thank you Char, I loved this months goodies

Curious what I sent my pen pal this month? Go visit Erin at Running Tall. Do it! Lots of delicious ‘go-to’ snacks I love are in there.

And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

If you’re interested in participating for May, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by May 4th as pairings will be emailed on May 5th!
*If you’re from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send me an email and I’ll see if we get enough interest this month!

Cupcake Battle: Washington DC and Alexandria Virginia

The Winners:

1. Georgetown Cupcakes

They weren’t originally on my must try cupcakes list because I didn’t want to wait in a long line for possibly average cupcakes. Luckily friends convinced me I had to visit and try the lava flow.

Luckily the line was very short and the cupcakes were very good. We tried red velvet (it’s tradition), lava flow (gluten free, they didn’t have regular), lemon, cookies and cream, mint chocolate.

YUM! The flavours were spot on. I loved the airy consistency and just-right sweetness of the cake and icing.

In particular, I judge cupcake places on the quality of their RV and Vanilla cakes and Georgetown Cupcakes gets full marks for both. Bonus points for the gluten free lava flow. I usually think of GF as dry and crumbly but not here, I would never have guessed the lava flow was GF without being told.

Georgetown Cupcakes is a ‘must try’. Don’t miss the lava flow or red velvet.

Oh and we didn’t see the girls or the film crew, they were in NYC filming at their new store.

2. Lavender Moon Cupcakery

Tucked away on a cute side street of Old Town, Alexandria, you’ll find my second favourite cupcake shop in the DC/VA area.

The density of the cupcakes here will impress traditional cake lovers but were also a hit for me – the light and fluffy cupcake lover. Made with a focus on natural ingredients the flavoured icing was tasty without being sacharine or fake tasting. Two thumbs up!

My only regret is that we didn’t get to sample the salted caramel, they bake off-site in the morning and it hadn’t been brought in yet, but the Blood Orange Creamsicle and PB Chocolate were great choices.

The Losers:

3. Alexandria Cupcake

Located on the main road (King st) in Alexandria I’d hear good things about Alexandria Cupcake and that they often sell out in the course of the day. With high hopes we selected the lemon and raspberry and…

Unfortunately I thought the cupcakes lacked flavour and tasted like a boxed mix. I wouldn’t go back.

4. Sweet Lobby

We were drawn to Sweet Lobby, in part, because they featured cupcakes AND macarons but also because they were a Food Network Cupcake Wars winner. Their tiny store in Eastern Market, a few steps from the Metro, had to be something special!

Their menu is fabulously creative, making our decision tough, but the Champagne Strawberry and seasonal Cherry Blossom (when in Rome) intrigued us most.

Sadly both cupcakes tasted like muffins with poor tasting, heavy, icing on top. I had no desire to finish either cupcake, talk about disappointment.

Luckily we’d saved the Macarons for a tasty finish. Our selections included salted caramel hazelnut-praline, pistachio, passion fruit and PB&J.

The good news is the salted caramel was great, unfortunately the rest lacked flavour and were too chewy.   To say we were disappointed is an understatement. Sweet Lobby had amazing packaging and creative flavours but sadly came up short in their execution.

Our cupcakes experience in the DC area was a mixed bag but make sure you give the ‘winners’ a try!

District of Columns–Day 2

When in Washington for the first time one goes to the White House, no?

My thoughts were, huh, that’s a lot smaller than I expected. I then spent the next 3 days trying to find a building smaller than the white house (there isn’t one).

Thoroughly underwhelmed, we walked past blocks of massive buildings to to pick up (free) timed tickets for the Holocaust Museum (go early, they go fast).

Mission accomplished we went north, not to Canada but to the Washington National Cathedral which is the highest point in DC. After a beautiful bus ride through “Embassy Row” we arrived at the beautiful stone church.

The cathedral is fairly new, finished in 1990 – 83 years after Teddy Roosevelt laid the first stone, and is the sixth largest in the world.

Every inch of this space is gorgeous! The church may be off the subway line but the beautiful scenery of the ride over and the church itself is worth the trek.

By this point it was mid-afternoon and we’d worked up quite an appetite. Conveniently 2Amy’s Pizza was just down the street and would complete our DC Pizza Battle.

I ordered mine with proscuitto and mushrooms and OMG the quality of the toppings was A+++ and we both finished every last bite of our pizza’s.

My ideal DC pizza would be the crust from Pizza Paradiso and the toppings from 2Amy’s.

Back in the vicinity of The Mall we toured the Holocaust museum. I was impressed with how comprehensive and informative it was and would recommend it to others, just note that it’s a large (long) exhibit. After taking a break to decompress on the Mall we walked across Pennsylvania Ave, passing the Justice building and National Archives before taking the Metro to U-street to meet up with a couple of Jules’ high school friends.

Sam and Jeff treated us to a delicious dinner and great conversation at Café Saint-Ex on 14^th street, a hipster paradise filled with vintage shops, restaurants, bars and jazz clubs.

Ironically many of the eateries in the area, including Café Saint-Ex, are classified as Canadian on yelp. As a Canuck I found this amusing because Canadian fare is almost exclusively Beaver Tails and Poutine. In any case, I’ll take this as a compliment and claim this café bar because it was rad!

Sitting in the café bar I felt like I was finally experiencing the real DC. I also ate my first fried green tomato sandwich, which came highly recommended, with a side of lightly dressed greens and a fantastic Sir Perry pear cider.

Sadly there are no photos because it was dark and I didn’t want to be a weirdo flashing the bar before midnight using my camera flash in a bar but the meal was delish. The fried green tomatoes weren’t heavy or greasy and were complimented with applewood smoked bacon.  And the pear cider? Ohhh the pear cider, I am now obsessed.

In our fatigued state, I was pretty much a zombie, we decided against a night on the town and caught a ride back to Old Town with Sam and Jeff, who coincidentally live 5 blocks from our accommodations. At their house we bundled up to sit in their backyard sipping Prosecco and telling ghost stories.  #fab /day 2

Putting the C in DC–Day 1

Hey friends! My goal for this week is to actually post about my recent trip to DC and NYC.  I wrote the recap right after I got home but adding pictures and actually posting has taken me a few weeks. Lets blame it on an insane schedule and being sick, sick enough that I missed Easter. Whatever the reason I have some time now so lets get to it!

DC Day 1 – 2:45am wake-up call. Flew into Baltimore, after a short MARC train ride into DC we took the Metro to our accommodations for the trip, a house in Old Town Alexandria Virginia.

After we freshened up we took the Metro to Arlington National Cemetery.

There were two surprises here, the first being how vast the property was and the next how beautiful the landscaping was. While the reason for the cemetery is obviously somber and serious it’s also a beautiful tribute with so many people passing though to pay their respects.

The hill in front of the Kennedy resting place offers a beautiful view of Washington.

At the amphitheater we observed the changing of the guard around the tomb of the unknown, the area was beautiful.

We passed through the cemetery to see the massive Iwo Gima memorial, a must see for Jules who is a fan of all war memorials. This guy was massive!

After touring Arlington we needed to do something more uplifting and crossed over into Georgetown. First destination: Georgetown cupcakes.

Georgetown is charming and the bus let us off one block from the shop which only had a short line… so short we could have used more time to study the menu.

Our picks, red velvet (it’s tradition), lava flow (gluten free, they didn’t have regular), lemon, cookies and cream, mint chocolate. No, we didn’t eat these all in one sitting and yes, we instituted cupcakes table so we could all try a bite of each flavour.

The verdict? 4 delicious stars, these tasty treats lived up to the hype!

We turned back toward the road to go uptown for lunch at 2Amys Pizza when we spotted a PINKBERRY beside a Pizza Paradiso (on our list to try). Lunch and Dessert, donezo.

Pizza Paradiso was on my ‘must try’ list for this trip because it came highly recommended by a friend who used to live in Old Town (hey Er!), she knows I love a good pizza – particularly if it’s thin crust and made in a wood fire oven. Check and check.

Unfortunately my first pizza came out wrong, missing the most important part (prosciutto) and with sliced tomatoes (not for me please). They were nice enough to make me a new one that I tried not to inhale in one bite.

Om nom nom nom, oh the crust, nom nom nom. Read the full Pizza Paradiso review here.

After lunch we burned off approximately one bite of cupcake by walking Georgetown’s main street (LOVE) until it started to rain and we sought refuge in Pinkberry.

Their special flavor, Peach, was delectable but even better was the surprise that they were swirling SALTED CARAMEL. SC and I go way back to my first Pinkberry in NYC, it was love at first taste. ‘Twas the perfect anytime afternoon snack.

If you’re not aware Washington has a few monuments and they were our next destination.

The Lincoln Memorial can be defined in one word, majestic.

It’s my favourite monument in all of DC.

Washington from Linc’s house, minus water in the (empty) reflecting pool :/ It’s not like anyone was in town for the Cherry Blossoms or anything…

The Washington Monument doesn’t have anything on Linc.

Korean War Memorial – so unique.

The Martin Luther King memorial – Finished a few months ago, with some controversy, I loved the concept and feel of walking through this area.

The cherry blossoms bloomed very early this year and thanks to a rain storm we missed seeing the tidal basin full of blossoms (and millions of people, thank you baby jesus) but it was still beautiful and made the random trees still bursting with blossoms even more special.

Senior portrait time!

FDR’s memorial was spacious. In this space we had a fun wheelchair race, pondered life, listened to the radio and went back in time.

 

 

Just before sunset we visited TJ’s house. The sunlight spilling through the columns was gorgeous, the sound of a million tweenagers echoing under the domed ceiling not so much.

With aching feet we caught a Metro to meet our house mates at Murphy’s in Old town for a few hours of fun fuelled by hard ciders, live music and ½ a smoked salmon plate before calling it a night.

***All photos with the date in the corner are from Jules’s camera.

Pizza Battle–Washington DC

Pizza Paradiso was the first stop on our pizza tour of DC.

With locations in Washington, Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria Pizza Paradiso is home to tasty, wood fired pizza. 

The small pizza is a perfect portion for one person, I ordered mine with mushrooms, kalamata olives and prosciutto.

I wasn’t expecting, nor do I like, the chunky tomato sauce/pieces and was a little jealous that my friend Jules’ pizza was chunk free.

Tomato’s aside, I appreciated that the prosciutto was sliced, making it possible to eat without utensils but I wouldn’t have minded a little more .

The best part of Pizza Paradiso is the crust, it’s a perfect balance of light and fluffy with a thin crisp on the outside. Fantastico!

Overall I liked the pizza here and would go again, the crust really is amazing. I want to know their secret!!

The other contestant in Pizza Battle – DC was 2Amys Pizza.

This charming restaurant is located off “Embassy row”, a block from the National Cathedral and a quick bus ride from Dupont Circle.

Pizza’s here come in one size, unsliced. I ordered mine with prosciutto and mushrooms.

Staff were attentive to drink refills and our pizza’s came out pretty quickly.

The best part was the high quality ingredients. The toppings on both our pizza’s were really high quality and tasted amazing, we were both really impressed.

Overall I liked the pizza here, staff were attentive to drink refills, our pizza’s came out quickly and the toppings are to die for. My only criticism is that the crust was so thin it was almost soggy in the middle. And while I loved that there was prosciutto in every bite the two long slices meant I had to cut each bite with utensils. Minor complaint and not a deal breaker but worth mentioning.

The verdict of Pizza Battle – DC? It’s a tie! Each place has a different strength and something a little different to offer but they’re both delicious.

March Foodie Penpals!

I’m currently touring some obscure D.C. sights, like The Mall, Whitehouse and one or two war memorials but I wanted to take some time to fill you in on my second Foodie Pen Pal experience. I had so much fun participating in the February Foodie Penpal exchange  that I signed up to participate again. This time I was matched with Miranda who sent me an awesome package.

Miranda and I have similar taste so she put together a delicious package based on what we’d snack on if we were hanging out. Judging by the food alone I think we’d have a great time!

PopCorners, gourmet nuts and dried fruit (which I affectionately call astronaut food).

Popcorners were new to me and really tasty. Ironically I also sent my pen pal Sahale nuts but hadn’t treated myself to any in a long time, I totally ripped the bag open 2 seconds later. Yum! I was also excited to see Cherry Berry Sensible Foods, they’re a great healthy snack that can be hard to find.

Vega Vanilla Almondilla and Gold Rush from David’s Tea.

I love trying other people’s favourite foods and Miranda’s fave vega powder was delicious blended with cherries and almond milk. I’m also excited to try the tea but I’m saving it for a day when I can really savour it.

Organic coconut chocolate, fruit leather and dark chocolate squares rounded out the package. So delicious!

Miranda, thank you for the amazing package. If I didn’t know better I’d think we were old friends based on the treats you chose. Everything was delicious, thank you!!

To check out what I sent my foodie pen pal check out Lisa’s blog.

* * *

Finally, if you think this sounds like fun here’s  are the Foodie Penpals details:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send  an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address (if applicable, readers can participate as well)
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. – this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

***PLEASE NOTE: if you send an email, you WILL GET A RESPONSE within 48 hours. If you don”t….please re-send your email or contact Lindsay via Twitter (@LeanGrnBeanBlog).

Eating In

Things I’m loving today: not waking up to an alarm, chopping off all my hair and scrumptious lunches.

Jules prepared an epic veggies feast while I was having my hair chopped. It was so nice not to have leftovers for lunch, not to mention how awesome it was that J made lunch for us! Thank boo!

We had roasted brussel  sprouts with a garlic aoli based on this pinspired recipe (J also added greek spice to the sprouts) which was delish! After I finished the sprouts I couldn’t let the aoli go to waste so I finished it up with some baby carrots.

The other half of lunch was also super yum, quinoa with cucumber, feta and Annie’s greens dressing.

Om nom nom, such a great lunch. As soon as this digests it’s Greek yog. time. If you’re keeping track, yesterday’s Blood Orange Chobani  flavour was amazing and claims third place over all (behind cherry and pom).

Hope you’re all having a similarly delicious day, cheers!

Ain’t no party like a Mad Men party!

Did y’all watch the Mad Men premier last night? Jules and I had a little Mad men party fuelled by super smooth Pink Moscato, which paired quite nicely with Don Draper hotness. Now all Mad Men episodes just need to be 2 hours long and all will be right with the world.

Not that I’m complaining since I’m checking in from ‘not an office building’ and my day started with fresh baked breakfast cookies.

Does it get much better?

The answer is yes, when this Greek dip is your lunch.

Oh my gosh, this was so tasty and fresh. Perfect for a sunny day, it would also  make a good party dip.

Dessert will be one of these, as soon as I can figure out which one to try first. #firstworldproblems. 

While I’m in the US I’m determined to try all the flavours we don’t have in Canada. I’ve heard Blood Orange and Apple Cin are fab and I just discovered Cho also makes a Lemon! It’s going to be a busy week, I better get started stat.

So in love

This week has been a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively. The weather has been AMAZING and work hasn’t been OMGSOCRAZYBUSY for the first time since, probably, last year! Whew, I thrive on crazy busy but  I’ve definitely appreciated this weeks ‘normal’ busy level.

Back to the weather. It’s been nothing but sun, heat, capri’s and lounging in the sun lately and I’m so in love. 

There’s nothing like a warm patio, cold drink and good friend…

Though, I have to say, a delivery of Chobani comes pretty close.

Even though I’ve been working a lot I (somehow) managed not to skip a workout or fall back on too much take-out. I realize this isn’t rocket science but it’s the little victories, right?!

Weekly workouts have included zumba, spin, yogilates, walks with my mom and free weights. All those activities are fun and that’s what turns a “workout” into play time. Who doesn’t like play time?!

Meals have been pretty tasty too!

I’m currently doing a JJ Virgin diet challenge, through work, and I’m shocked at how good I feel with a few simple changes.

I’m eating the same calorically and mostly the same food-wise but a few tweaks has me eating even cleaner than I was. The book on the diet is currently being published, I’ll post a link when it’s available.

Fit For Life brown rice tortilla’s are my new favourite food find. They crisp up so well when cooked. I love eating them with daiya cheese and shrimp as a quesadilla or pita pizza.

This post brought to you by the colour orange.

Hope you’re all enjoying this glorious weather as much as I am!

xo
C

So good I made it twice!

Holy geez this weekend flew by! The highlight was definitely seeing a new version of The National Ballet’s La Fille Mal Garde.

I’ve seen a few versions of La Fille over the years and while I don’t generally love classical ballet re-vamps this one blew me and my mom away. Wow! Every detail, note and dancer was superb. In particular, Sonia and Piotr as the leads, Matjash as Simone and Robert Stephen as Allain were fantastic.  Too bad I saw it on the last day and can’t go see it again!

Ballet aside, the real reason for this post is my new favourite recipe, Shrimp Fried Quinoa. I love it so much I’ve made it two weeks in a row. It’s that good, go make it.

The recipe below is adapted from A Healthy Slice of Life.

Shrimp Fried Quinoa

2 TBSP Oil divided
1/2 cup dry quinoa
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch carrots (approx. 6)
1 red pepper
1 bunch asparagus
8-9oz shrimp
1 TSP Red Chili Flakes (optional)

Sauce
2 TBSP garlic powder divided
2 TSP Cayenne divided
1 TBSP Hoisin Sauce
1 TBSP Rice Wine Vinegar

Serves 3-4

Before you begin:
- Marinate shrimp in 1 TBSP oil, 1TBSP garlic powder, 1 TSP cayenne & red peppers flakes
- Cook quinoa according to package
- Combine sauce in small bowl
- Prep all veggies

Red pepper, asparagus, green onion, carrots. Chop.

Add 1 TBSP oil, carrots and 1/2 the green onions to a hot wok. Stir.

Add peppers. Keep Stirring. Add sauce (see above) and stir more, 2-3 minutes.

Make a well in the center of the veggies, add the shrimp. Combine with the veggies when both sides start to turn pink

Make another well, crack in and stirfry 2 eggs. Combine them with the veg when they turn from clear to white.

Add asparagus, quinoa, remaining green onions and soy sauce. Keep stirring for 3-4 minutes.

Plate and happily devour.

Call dibs on the leftovers.

The second time I made this I added broccoli to the mix but you can customize the veggies however you like! Just remember to start with veggies that take the longest to cook ie. carrots, broccoli etc.

Nom Nom Nom!