Author: Lindsay Ingalls

Friday Date Night: Dunio Duende

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Neil and I have decided to make Friday nights our date night in each week. Our plan is to enjoy a nice meal after we put E to bed and then watch a movie or catch up on shows together sans computers and cellphones. This week we decided to use on of our Localvore Today coupons for take out at Duino Duende.

To go with our meal we shared this rooibos beer that we picked up on our trip to Montreal.  It was my first time trying a tea beer and it was really tasty and the perfect pairing with our meal.

We ordered three different dishes to share which included fried shisito peppers, the hummus plate and the falafel (our favorite). Seriously some of the best falafel I have ever had in my life and the tahini sauce is delicious and the pickled veggies make it even more delicious.

After dinner we watched Criminal Minds and enjoyed a nice big plate of apple nachos with a chocolate almond butter drizzle, shredded coconut, almonds and currants.

Next week Neil is going to see Henry Rollins so I will be having a date night with E instead. Speaking of E she turned 3 months recently and I finally posted her 3 month update over at Naturally Family.

Oh and I want to send my congratulations and best wishes

to Nicole and Dan on the arrival of their baby Olivia

and Katy and Lucas on the arrival of their baby girl Audrey

Je t’aime Montreal Day 3

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Day 1 and Day 2 Recaps

Our final day in Montreal started out with a cranky baby who wanted to eat and eat and eat so it took longer to get the day started than we had hoped but what can you do? Finally by around 11:15am we were able to get E in the Boba carrier and head out for a little walking and window shopping.

After about an 30 minutes E had finally fallen asleep so we walked around for a bit longer and then decided to head to Aux Vivres for one last lunch.  It was so nice to actually go to the restaurant to eat since the last two times we ate Aux Vivres we had take out.

We started out our meal with a yummy VÉGÉ-DÉLICE juice (tomato carrot, beet, cucumber and spices) and an order of chapati with their famous veggie butter. I really want to try and recreate this veggie butter at home- does anyone know whats in it?

For our meals Neil and I debated over the amazing sandwiches, the yummy Kosmos plate we had ordered Saturday and the bowls.  In the end we both decided to go with bowls; Thai bowl for him and Bouddha bowl for me.  I apologize for iPhone photos for some reason we didn’t really take the camera out all weekend- huge fail on our part.

Thai Bowl: steamed bok choy, pickled carrot & daikon, peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, shredded carrot, coriander with Thai peanut sauce and grilled tempeh

Bouddha Bowl: steamed organic broccoli, steamed spinach, toasted sesame seeds, shredded carrot, grilled pumpkin seeds, wafu dressing & grilled tempeh

After lunch we headed back to the car to start making our way home.  We made one pit stop at the beer store to pick up a variety of Quebec beers that we can find at home including a pumpkin beer for our pumpkin beer tasting party next week.

The trip home was fairly easy with only two stops to nurse and the border was fast and easy. The only trouble we have had has been transitioning back to our normal routine.  I love vacations, small and large, but I hate coming home especially during the work week; I find it a challenge to get back into the groove and by the time I do it’s the weekend again!

Je t’aime Montreal Day 2

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Je t’aime Montreal Day 1

Sunday morning we woke up early (per baby’s routine) and made some early morning breakfast and coffee.  Edie ate a few times and took a brief nap before heading out for brunch.

Once E woke we bundled her up and headed out for a walk while we debated between Aux Vivres and Crudessence for brunch.  We ended up deciding on Crudessence because it has been on our Montreal bucket list for year but in the past it has either not been open or we have run out of time.

We started with some beverages a shot of cold pressed espresso for Neil and the best kombucha I have ever tried for me.

As you can see E didn’t want to feel left out so she decided she needed to eat as well.

For brunch Neil and I decided to share two different items:

Öm Burger: A mixture of mushroom, sun dried tomato, flaxseed and mixed vegetables, served on chapati and garnished with fresh tomato, red onion, lettuce, homemade mustard, ketchup and our famous caper aïoli sauce with a side of salads which included greens, sauerkraut and carrot salad.

Breakfast Burrito: Sun dried tomato and corn tortilla filled with our “egg” paté, aubergine bacon, tomato, lettuce and sprouts. Garnished with avocado, crème fraîche and local microgreens

Both were good but the Breakfast Burrito was exceptional.  The “egg” paté was incredible and I really want to recreate it at home. The burger is one of the most popular items but I thought it was good but not great.  The carrot salad was wonderful and Neil loved the sauerkraut.

Neil and I had saved enough room for dessert but Miss E was getting a little fussy so we decided to grab a package of green tea spirulina macaroons to go even though we wanted the blueberry faux cheesecake. The macaroons were incredible though so we were happy.

We packed E up in the Boba carrier and took the Metro to Jean-Talon Market.

We spent a few hours wondering around the market sampling the produce, admiring the turkish sweets (a few of which we enjoyed) and sipping a wonderful coffee all while the baby slept.

We picked up a few items from the market for our dinner and headed back to the apartment to relax and cook up dinner. We spent the remainder of the rainy night eating a yummy pasta dinner and watching Netflix.

Stay tuned for part three!

Five Things: Moms Who Blog

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This week is dedicated to five moms who blog that I am loving these women are wonderful to connect with about becoming a new parent and are inspirational.

Making Good Choices | Nicole is at the hospital right now awaiting the arrival of her first child and it is so exciting. Update Nicole is now the mom of Olivia! I am wishing her the best of luck! I have loved following her pregnancy journey and talking about babies with her.  She has been such an inspiration running and staying active her entire pregnancy. You can check our her guest post about running while pregnant here.

Healthy Heddleston | Katie is the mom to the 7-month old cutie Xander.  She is gearing up to run the Army 10-miler this weekend and has been an inspiring me to get back to running. She is also really amazing and was able to donate 1,019 ounces of breast milk (amazing right) to WakeMed Mother’s Milk Bank which will help so many families in need.

Kath Eats Real Food |Kath mom to Mazen has real been wonderful to follow because I can relate to so many things.  It is wonderful to read her daily posts because E and M are so close in age and many of the posts discuss products that interest me as a mom or similar challenges that I have faced or are facing.

Chasing Hallie | Hallie is mom to Molly and I first came across her blog when I was googling other parents dealing with a colicky baby.  I felt a sigh of relief when I read her posts “We Survived Colic One Bounce At A Time“.  At the time we were going through the exact same thing and it was so reassuring to read about another mom who had already faced the same situation.

Run Pretty | Presley is mom to Maddux who is only 11 days older than E. Since they are so close in age it has been wonderful reading similar posts and Presley has also been an inspiration to get back to running especially considering she is a busy mom, teacher and wife.  She also write the most entertaining posts and is wonderful to chat back and forth with at 2 in the morning on twitter.

Je t’aime Montreal

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I always find that after any sort of vacation, short or long, it takes me a few days to get back into our routine at home. To top it all off this mini-vacation ended with the passing of our dear fur companion Boo so it’s been even more of a challenge this week.

So lets talk about Montreal! Neil and I went up a few weeks ago for his half marathon but we spent most of our time traveling there, at the race expo or at the race so we were unable to explore the city.  This fall was our first trip since October of 2010 due to immigration (Neil getting his greencard) and pregnancy.  Fact: Neil and I ran off to Montreal after only 3 days of dating (hmm..maybe I’ll share our crazy love story someday). Crazy, I know but it just felt right and here we are 6 years later happily married with a beautiful baby girl.

Neil and me in Montreal circa Sept 2006

Anyways we decided to find a place to rent in Montreal on airbnb.com (our new love since having a baby, my second -formally first love- is hotwire). We found a nice little place that one of Neil’s co-workers had actually stayed at in the Plateau area of Montreal.  It was the perfect location because it was 5 blocks from our favorite restaurant Aux Vivres and only a few blocks from two metro stops.

This time we decided to head up on Saturday morning rather than Friday evening and Neil took Monday off so we had three wonderful days to enjoy the city. We started off Saturday with a stop at the Atwater Market to check out the stalls and get a bite to eat. Neil and I ended up picking up some beautiful Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and garlic to use over the weekend and we shared a yummy tofu satay sandwich.

Edie hung out all bundled up in my poncho.

After shopping E had some lunch of her own and then we headed to the apartment.  Unfortunately it took us 35 minutes to drive 4 miles due to some horrible traffic and E let us know she wasn’t a fan of the traffic either.

Once we arrived and unpacked at the apartment we headed out for a walk.  We stopped at a few stores and hoped to stop for a beer at Dieu Du Ciel but when we arrived there it was packed and baby + pack brew pub = no go.  So instead we headed back to the apartment where I fed E and Neil headed out to the beer store to pick up a few Quebec brews for us to try.

Once E was in bed and Neil was back from the store we ordered take out from Aux Vivres.  Unfortunately by the time it arrived we were both too hungry to bother taking photos.  We ordered the Kosmos plate and the cold plate and they were both new to us and absolutely delicious.

After dinner we shared a beer and played a few rounds of cribbage before heading to bed.

Stay tuned for part two!

RnR Montreal Recap

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Where did the time go? I had planned to write this recap but now almost three weeks have past and I’m finally getting to it- that’s what happens when you have a busy husband and a baby. Anyways first you can read about our Montreal stay and the RnR Montreal Expo Recap.

When we first planned to head up to Montreal for the race the plan was for all of us to go to the starting line with Neil and then we would take the Metro up to the finish line.  Well once we arrived there we decided that it would be better for Neil to just head to the start by himself and in the end that was the best idea since the Metro was filled to the brim with runners.

At around 9:30 Edith, my parents and I walked up to Mont Royal Metro to meet up with my friend Allie who planned to watch the race with us.  Once we located each other we headed over to the finish line to wait for Neil and watch the race.  I lucked out the E slept in the Ergo for the first hour and then she wanted out but for the second hour she just hung out in my arms mesmerized by the runners.  Unfortunately due to the large number of runners it took Neil forever to finally get across the start line and by the time he reached us (we were at around kilometer 19) E was ready to eat so I didn’t really get to see Neil run and E didn’t get the chance to cheer on her daddy.

I was really impressed with how many people came out to watch the race and cheer everyone on.  This was a new experience for me since the only races that I have been to have been local 5 and 10k’s which is pretty much just runners and a few family members and the VCM which had some people watching/cheering but it was nothing like this race.

Since I didn’t actually run the race I can’t give you a recap of how the race went but you can read Neil’s two part recap here and here.

{Review} Coco-Roons

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Before becoming pregnant I never really had a sweet tooth. I mean I loved dark chocolate and the occasional cupcake or bowl of coconut ice cream but it was never something I really craved. Then I became pregnant and all I wanted was fruit and coconut milk ice cream, seriously addicted. It seems that this craving has carried over past pregnancy and I have now developed a sweet tooth.

I make a good effort to limit my sweets and stick to goodies made with natural sugars rather than processed ones as well as items that are low in sugar. I recently was sent a bunch of coconut macaroons aka Coco-Roons from Wonderfully Raw and my sweet tooth has been on cloud 9.

I love that these are low in sugar and made with maple syrup. They are all super tasty but Neil and I both agree that the brownie and the lemon pie ones are our favorites.

What is your favorite sweet treat? Have you tried raw vegan macaroons? If yes, what is your favorite flavor?

Disclaimer: Wonderfully Raw provided me with their product at no cost. I was under no obligation to review them if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a giveaway. All opinions are my own.