Cheese Boutique

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone is having a great long weekend. 

After seeing a segment on the Cheese Boutique on a tv show I had always wanted to go and finally went with my mom! It was so great, everyone was so friendly and the food was all delicious. Even when we were shopping around someone handed us espressos with a biscotti. Here is what I got at the Cheese Boutique: 

I had this for my lunch, you can't go wrong with a great kale salad. 

Gluten Free, Vegan, Buckwheat Noodles with Yam. So yummy!

This Sweet Butternut Squash Ravioli is hands down my all time favourite.

Took a little bit of everything and made a little platter. Starting from the top and going clockwise I have Rainforest Multigrain Crackers, Artichoke Dip, Figaro Cheese, Riopelle Cheese, Organic Blue Tortilla Chips, Water Crackers and in the centre Mixed Berry Chutney. 

Five Things - September 6th 2014

Water
Kind of simple, but between the heat, exercising and the headaches from staring at my computer screen far too long, my water intake has gone through the roof! Hoping to keep this habit up.

The Body Shop Shea Butter Duo
Back in December The Body Shop had a great promotion where you received a free item every week! 2 of those weeks landed me the Shea Shower Cream and Shea Whip Body Lotion. Originally I was going to give it away as a gift but recently I thought I would give it a try and I'm in love. I love the smell, the thickness and how moisturizing it is. I've been using the duo almost every single day.

Harry Potter
I watched The Philosopher's Stone when it first came out and was terrified. (Come on, the unicorn blood was creepy) It wasn't until now that I decided to revisit the series! I'm about the start The Goblet of Fire and can't wait. They're such great movies, I've also started reading the books and I am in obsessed!

Moccasins
My Aunt actually gave these Moccasins from Manitobah Mukluks to me because they were to big for her (luckily, they fit me like a glove!) Super comfy and easy just to throw on. Plus the rubber soles are very practical.

Amazing Race Canada
I've never seen an Amazing Race show in any shape or form before this season, but I really like it! I like the lack of drama and how the contestants travel all over the country with some international adventures as well! I'm currently rooting for either Natalie and Meaghan or Mikey and Pete.

School Series: DIY Agenda

Instead of buying an agenda for the school year, I made one! Perks to doing this Agenda DIY are that it is cheaper and 100% customizable. Find out how I made mine:

I went to the Dollar Store and bought a 100 page lined coil notebook. ($1.25) I like this one because it's hardcover and comes with an elastic to hold the pages.

I separated the book into 3 parts. The first part is the monthly calender section.

So for the months September to June I printed out a half page free online printable calendar and glued it on the left side. I kept the right side blank to write any important info for that month.

Here is where I got the calenders from. I printed the Single Half Size for 2014 (September to December) and 2015 (January to June).

The second part is each specific day.  I wrote the month at the top of each page and split each page in half 1 half page per day.

If it was a weekend I drew a little box around it.

Finally,  any pages left over at the end I used for extra notes! 

Did you make an Agenda? Comment down below!

Raw Guacamole Recipe

The first time I tried Guacamole was last month at a friends house. I've stayed far far away from it because I never liked avocado but after trying the guac I couldn't resist! And ever since I've been making it at least once a week for snacking. 

Since I'm not a huge avocado fan, I like to make my guacamole with lots and lots of fillings and you can do the same or if you'd like, cut all of the fillings smaller and add less of them.

This recipe is raw, vegan and amazing for you! 

First, open and de-pit two avocados.

Empty into a bowl and mash with a fork. You can either mash until smooth (almost whipped) or leave some avocado chunks, which is my preference. 

 Once mashed, add about a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. The lemon juice will also help keep the avocado fresh. You can also use lime juice.

Add about a handful of coarsely chopped red onions. 

Add about a handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered. 

Add a clove or two of diced garlic

 And there you have it! Delicious, healthy, raw food avocado recipe. Eat within 1-2 days and store in the fridge. All that you need now is Easy Tortilla Chips. 

Enjoy!!

Good Eats: Easy Tortilla Chips Recipes

I don't often have tortilla chips in the house but I always have tortillas. 

Here is how to make tortillas into tortilla chips.. not really a recipe, but still helpful!

First, preheat the oven to 250°. 

Then cut up a tortilla into small pieces. They won't shrink in the oven so cut them 

into the size you want the actual chip to be. 

I cut this small sized tortilla into 8 pieces, it worked perfectly with the size. In the bigger size, it won't cut so perfectly, so just try and keep them triangle-like.

Line up the tortillas on a baking sheet so they're not overlapping. The green ones are Regular sized Spinach tortillas. You can see how I tried to keep them triangle(-ish).

Bake until golden brown and completely crispy. 

The green spinach tortillas were thinner and made crispier chips while the regular white tortillas were thicker. I liked having the variety. Different tortillas make different chips so experiment with your favourite.

These go well with salsa, guac, dips, anything!

Look for the Guacamole Recipe coming out soon, have a great day everyone!

Saturday August 9th 2014 - Belfountain Conservation Area

Yesterday morning I attended Yoga in the Park at the Belfountain Conservation Area. There were only 8 people in the class plus a great instructor. We were on a field right beside the waterfall - no extra calming soundtrack was needed. Because it was so early, there was still dew on the grass, and no one was around! We practiced Hatha Flow yoga, which was relaxing but I'm definitely feeling the work out today. "Yoga In The Park" was held by the Credit Valley Conservation and luckily they have a few more classes this season that I look forward to attending. 

After the class me and some family members had a picnic and went on a hike! Below are some photos that I took during the day. 

Belfountain actually translates to "Belle" meaning beautiful and "Fountaine" to mean the clear spring that flowed when the town was named.   

There is a beautiful swing bridge located near the centre of the park

Down some steep steps and under the bridge is this extremely cool cave.

Facing my fear of heights and crossing the swing bridge!

The waterfall is actually a part of the dam

We went on the Gorge Loop which was about .6 km. 

On our way back we stopped for ice cream at this shop right outside the park!

I got Coconut Island and it was delish. Perfect end to a great day.

Book Club: Catcher in the Rye

Hands down one of the best books I've read in a long time. I had to read it for English Class for literally no reason but "filling up time" and I'm so glad we did.

Short Summary

Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of yet another private school and spends 3 days bumming around New York. For 16 years old, Holden is beyond his years in maturity. Desperately looking for people to listen to him, haunted by certain things from his past and just doing whatever he can to get by. Torn between innocence and the adult world, his passive voice and jaded persona is a thin veil to hide his true emotions and feelings. Somehow from today all the way back to 1948 each reader has been able to connect themselves in one way or another to Holden Caulfield.

Thoughts

I'll start off with 2 thumbs up. Really a great book. It's one of those that you either love it or you hate it, I definitely love it. I just think that it explains to a perfection what can be so hard to say. Even though Holden seem so rough and tough, it becomes easy to empathize with him. Soon enough it becomes evident that he's just lonely.
As much as I loved this book I think it will be awhile before I read it again. It will resonate with me for a long time and it was just so meaningful that I think it would be difficult to keep rereading it.

Things To Remember While Reading

• Holden Caulfield is an unreliable narrator. He often exaggerates and can only see things a certain way, his perspective isn't very good even though he thinks it is 
• He hates receiving things and only wants to give to others Although he comes off rude and passive I think he just feels really bad when people give him things 
• What we hate in others is what we hate in ourselves. The main example of this is that Holden often accuses his hatred for people because they're phoney but as we read we discover Holden himself is the biggest phoney.
• The red hunting cap gives him confidence
• There are 2 Holdens. One is the Holden who the story is happening to and the other is the Holden telling the story, making us care.

Actually John Green does a couple great videos on Catcher in the Rye. Watch this one before you start reading, he'll help you catch all of the metaphors because trust me this book is full of them.

If You Liked This Book Check Out..

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Have you read Catcher in the Rye? What are your thoughts? Comment down below!