Fun, fun, fun till your landlord takes your oven away...

Wanna see what made my week EXTRA special?

Yes, that's my oven out on the street. Why you ask?

Our oven has been acting up the past few weeks and our landlord needed to replace a part. So on Sunday evening I was left without use of my oven or the burners for an undetermined amount of time. Raw food anyone?

Rice paper wraps with sunflower seed pate & veggies with spinach salad (with pecans and cranberries) with a few potatoes from the Carrot take away counter. It was good! Joey said the potatoes were his favourite part, and then felt bad when he realized I didn't make them.

Here's my lunch from the following day - spinach, orange pepper slices, cucumber slices, avocado with sunflower seed pate and some blueberries for snacking.

We ended up getting a whole new oven on Wednesday, which meant I was able to try out some recipes from my new cookbook, La Dolce Vegan. I started with black bean soup with tomato avocado salsa.

Amazing. I've made a couple of black bean soups in the past that were just okay, but this one was seriously great. Not very spicy (I like that, but Joey said he might add some Tabasco next time), really creamy and the tomato avocado salsa added a really nice touch. The soup part of the recipe makes two good sized servings, so next time I will double the recipe to have for lunches the next day. This is a keeper.

Next up, banana-pecan pancakes.

I replaced the flour in the recipe with Bob's gluten free flour mix, and added a tsp of xanthan gum for good measure. I liked these. They didn't burn like my last attempt at pancakes which was good, but they weren't particularly sweet. I think my banana was to blame (it wasn't very ripe) but I solved that with some maple syrup. Overall, this made for a really satisfying start to my day.

I finally checked out Camros Organic Eatery and it was amazing!! I love that their motto is "Taste & Health in every wholesome meal"- that is right up my alley!! I could eat nearly everything, which meant I had quite a few choices.

I went with a lentil patty, kale salad, navy bean stew and millet salad. Everything was delicious, I don't even know if I could choose my favourite dish. I was interested in trying millet, since it is a gluten free grain. It was nice in the salad. I also enjoyed the kale salad a lot! I don't eat a lot of raw kale, but after having this salad I think I need to start incorporating it. The tahini dressing was a nice touch. Everything is organic and made with lots of love and the prices are incredibly reasonable. I loved every bite and cannot wait to return.

On Friday night Joey and I headed to the Green Eggplant, which was so yummy as usual!

I opted for the grilled chicken and veggie salad sans chicken, with avocado and dressing on the side (could I be any more complicated??) First of all, it was gigantic! I feel like I ate a whole bag of lettuce. Secondly, I need to start roasting or grilling veggies for my salads, because the grilled veggies made it so exciting! My only gripe is that I wish there had been more than 2 asparagus spears. Still a great salad and a fun night with Joey.

Last week's mission in the 4 Weeks to 5 Servings Challenge was to try a new fruit or vegetable. I tried a yellow plum this morning.

First bite was gross and bitter. I persevered and every bite after that was sweet and juicy! Isn't it funny how the first bite of fruit can be so different from the others? I picked up a bunch of plums and peaches from the Farmers Market on Thursday and having one each day has been delightful. Did you try any new fruits or veggies this week? Next week's challenge is to get in at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies each day.

Tonight we had a couple friends over for a BBQ.

I enjoyed a veggie burger, a potato and a cucumber/tomato/avocado salad Lori brought over. So summery and fresh. I christened my new oven with a blueberry/strawberry crumble.

It was amazing! Our friend Jeff was upset that there was no ice cream, but made do without. I loved the blueberries in the crumble! They became very juicy and it was a great combination with the strawberries and crumble topping. I used a 1/2 tsp of ginger and nutmeg in place of the all spice. I think I will enjoy leftovers as part of my breakfast tomorrow...

We've since spent the evening out back with guitars,

bongos,

and Beatles tunes.

Joey is such a talented musician. It's so nice to hear him play guitar and sing with him when I can!

I'm looking forward to getting back to normal (aka the ability to use my stove) this week with a proper grocery trip tomorrow. I will also be posting my July activity results! If you would like me to include your results in the recap, be sure to send me an email (wwleaderashley@gmail.com)

I hope you're all having an amazing weekend so far!