Whole Foods Market // Greenway // Tigard, OR

May 20, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 8 Comments

Who loves Whole Foods? I know I do. I love the shopping experience, the store layout, the friendly staff and the quality of food. When we lived across the street from Whole Foods you could easily find me there a few days per week and now even 9 months after moving to a new home the rare time I visit our former local Whole Foods I have staff members who remember me (that’s how often I was there).

Of course when I was invited to a media sneak peek of the new Whole Foods opening in Tigard, OR I had to go and check it out. The store is opening up tomorrow (May 21st) and let me tell you this store is pretty awesome. While it has some of the same features as your standard Whole Foods it also has some different things you won’t find at every Whole Foods or at least at the ones here in the Portland area.

Can we talk about how beautiful these signs are? Seriously!

They are also hand drawn/colored local artists.

Check out the awesome bulk area.

Plus they have their own nut butter grinding station.

With the most amazing chocolate hazelnut nut butter.

Seriously you have to come to this store just for this one item alone. We were lucky to sample it and Edith may have sneaked an extra sample or two.The wine and beer section was pretty impressive and had me longing for a nice glass of red or crisp white (I am counting down the weeks -10 more if you’re keeping track).

Another awesome feature is beer on draft and you can buy growlers! There are going to be four local beers on tap ready for you take home. For the wine lovers there will be growler fills for a few different wines as well!Check out the sandwich options. For my vegan friends doesn’t that reuben sound insane? Neil and I are already making plans to stop in and try one out when the store officially opens.
For my coffee, smoothie and/or juice lovers there is a bar just for you at this Whole Foods. Also something I learned (probably old news) but non-dairy milks DO NOT cost extra for coffee drinks!!Okay I saved the best for last. Check out this insane outdoor seating area. Seriously so beautiful! I have never seen anything like this before and if I lived just a little bit closer you can bet I would be here regularly to work and/or relax. I didn’t get a good interior shot but the inside sitting area is pretty awesome as well and has as really communal feel which is great for larger parties.Okay so that is my sneak peek for you of the new Whole Foods Greenway in Tigard. I am hoping to head out tomorrow for the grand opening which is at 9am and take advantage of all the grand opening deals. Who’s with me?

Whole Foods Market- Greenway

12220 SW Scholls Ferry Road

Tigard, OR 97223

Native Foods Clackamas Town Center // Plus a Giveaway

May 19, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 10 Comments

Disclaimer: My family was provided with VIP passes for dinner last week. All opinions are my own as always!

Prior to moving out to Portland I had heard about Native Foods but since there are currently none the East Coast (there are however two opening in D.C. soon) we had never been. We were thrilled to first try Native Foods at their Bridgeport location last year but since we don’t make it down to Bridgeport Village very often we haven’t been back. Needless to say I was thrilled to see that they had a new location at the Clackamas Town Center which is close to where we live in SE Portland.

Now the Clackamas Town Center Native Foods doesn’t officially open until May 21st but they have been doing VIP events since last week to give people a sneak peek of their new restaurant and the food. We received VIP passes for last Wednesday night and we were able to sample a variety of items.

Starters:

Butternut Polenta BitesSaigon Roll

Entrees:

Twister Wrap with Side Salad

Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger with Seasoned FriesKids Mac and Cheese with Broccoli

Drinks:

Lavender Lemonade & Watermelon Fresca

Dessert:

Peanut Butter Parfait

Thoughts on the Food:

We really liked both of the starters that we ordered and I would definitely get the Saigon Rolls again. I was actually a little surprised I liked them so much but they were really good. As for the entrees neither of us enjoyed the Twister Wrap it was a little boring and by the time I ate my half (we were sharing) mine was super soggy and I ended up eating two bites before removing the “chicken” and eating that on it’s own. The side salad that came with our Twister Wrap was good though!

I really liked the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger despite it not being what I think of when I want a vegan burger. It isn’t so much of a burger but rather a sliced seitan sandwich, either way I thought it was tasty and I was glad we ordered it because I don’t think I would have had we not been at the VIP event (aka it was free). The side of fries that came with the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger where meh. They were super salty and just not great fries. Edith enjoyed her mac and cheese and Neil and I both had a bite and thought it tasted good.

Lastly dessert and drinks. Neil chose the lavender lemonade which was SO good I made him go get more because while Edith enjoyed her kids size watermelon fresca I just didn’t love it. As for dessert we all loved the Peanut Butter Parfait and some little munchin decided to devour it before we even got more than two bites. We also got a sticky toffee cake that we took home with us and shared after Edith went to bed. It was so good!

Service:

The service was great! Super friendly, super efficient and helpful!

Overall:

Overall we had a good experience at Native Foods. I have to say we would probably get a meal of lemonade, starters and desserts because those were our overall favorites but there are so many things on the menu to try like the Chicken Run Ranch <–regretting not getting this after hearing other people rave about it. Also umm have you see the colossal nachos? I think we need to try those too!

Giveaway:

Since many of you guys out there don’t have a Native Foods near you they have agreed to send out one of their cookbooks to one lucky reader!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fit Pregnancy | Latourell Falls Hike

March 25, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 5 Comments

We have really been trying to get out and take advantage of the beautiful weekend weather here in Oregon. Two weekends ago we hiked up to Wahclella Falls and had a great time so this past weekend we decided to hike Latourell Falls.While I knew that this hike was going to be more challenging I didn’t expect it to be quite as much of a challenge as it was for me.

When choosing a hike I was looking for something that was had an elevation gain no more than 550ft and was between 2-3 miles round trip. Well, Latourell Falls hike has an elevation gain for 540ft and is 2.4 miles round trip. I thought this would be the perfect hike! Well it was a great hike but shortly into it (I’m talking about a half mile in) it really started to kick my ass. Who knew a 540ft elevation gain was really a lot more than I thought? To top it off the hike begins at a higher elevation than the Wahclella Falls Hike and add in that I’m a week further along in this pregnancy which also makes hikes more challenging.

Anyways I brought my hiking polls with me just in case I decided that I might need a little extra support and when we reached the half mile point and I realized we still had to go up and up and up before we started to go down (a little more up) and then down, down, down I decided that it was time to take them out. Looking back at things I should have started with them from the beginning because it this hike started with a pretty steep incline right from the start, at least there are lots of switch backs; if we had been in VT doing this hike we would have been going straight up!

By the time we reached the half way point I was slowly treking along behind Neil who was wearing Edith. Feeling proud that at nearly 22 weeks pregnant I was out there hiking but also feeling a little embarrassed at just how slow I was going and remembering back to the 10-15 mile hikes that Neil and I used to do back in VT where to be quite honest the trails were considerably harder in comparison.

We completed the hike and it felt great but let me tell you that all future hikes will be ones in the easy category with a 400ft or less elevation gain because while I managed to do this hike I know that as my pregnancy progresses that hikes categorized as ‘easy’ are a better option for me!

Q: What are you favorite types of hikes? Have you hiked in Oregon?

P.S. This is the link to the hike we did around Latourell Falls.

PDX Sites: Hiking Forest Park

August 3, 2013 by Lindsay Ingalls 1 Comment

The following post is sponsored by Fitfluential LLC on behalf of Polar. As always all opinions are my own.

Can you believe I have lived in Portland for seven months now and I had yet to take advantage of the great hiking trails until today? I know I think it’s pretty crazy too. Actually not only had I not been hiking in Portland yet but I hadn’t been hiking since the summer before getting pregnant. Yeah count’em that was was TWO years ago!! Crazy right?

I actually haven’t always been all that into hiking and I honestly wouldn’t say that I’m all that into it now but I do enjoy getting out once in awhile. Neil is the real lover of hiking and most of the time I go because he wants to. I tend to go out a little begrudgingly but always end up having an amazing time – hmm maybe I should take a mental note of that.

Anyways a few weeks ago Neil got out for his first hike in Portland with Edith while I stayed home and cleaned the house (wahoo for cleaning…umm not.) So this weekend we decided to get out together and hit up the same trail but in the opposite direction which led us from the Audubon Society up to Pittock Mansion.Let me tell you this hike wasn’t really that challenging but when you haven’t worked out consistently for a few weeks…err months… it was a bit more challenging than it should have been. To add to my challenge I decided to be the one to carry Edith on my back and holy sweaty mess was I by the time we got to the top.I have to say it was worth it though; I mean check out that view!!So now I have one hike in the books and I’m back on track to keep up on my weekly workouts. I have to say that it’s also a little more motivating when you take the time to track your workouts like I did with my new Polar RC3 GPS watch. I loved that I could track the elevation gain, the distance, my heart rate and how many calories I burned. Now I’m ready to conquer all 70 miles of Forest Park trails!

Are you a hiker or wannabe hiker? Where is your favorite spot to hike?

If you’d like to buy this great running GPS click ::here:: and use code: “fitfluential” during checkout for a 25% discount! This discount is valid only on the RC3 GPS and will expire on 8/10

PDX Sites & Eats: The Cheese Plate

May 28, 2013 by Lindsay Ingalls 2 Comments

I really thought when we moved to Portland that we would spend all of our time trying the various vegan friendly food carts but honestly we have only been to a handful. While we are trying to make a better effort to diversify our food cart experiences we seem to keep coming back to The Cheese Plate.

Yes you read that correctly, The Cheese Plate.

It doesn’t seem like it would be a very vegan friendly place and at first I was skeptical of it as well but they actually have a lot of vegan options on their menu including an amazing cheese plate. This plate has a selection of their housemade crackers, housemade cashew cheese, Heidi Ho’s feta, housemade pickles and Missionary Chocolates.

I mean how could you not want to eat all of that? Plus they make two super delicious vegan grilled cheeses.

On top of that they are right next to our favorite Portland brewery Captured By Porches and if you aren’t into cheese there is an Indian cart (also vegan friendly) next door as well as a retro food cart.

Bonus on (at least) Friday nights and Sunday afternoons there are local musicians who come out to play in this little food pod area. We also love how baby/child friendly the area is so of course we will keep returning.

Although we love The Cheese Plate I guess we should try some new places as well, although we did buy two Living Socials’ for The Cheese Plate that we will be using. What are your favorite vegan friendly Portland food carts?

Active Vacations: Cape Disappointment & Ecola State Park

April 4, 2013 by Lindsay Ingalls 1 Comment

Neil and I used to like to do a lot of city vacations before we had Edith and as much as we love those types of trips we have become more attracted to active outdoorsy vacations. This past weekend we took a spur of the moment trip to the Oregon Coast (who says you can’t take spur of the moment trips with a baby?). We really didn’t have anything on the agenda except to get outside and enjoy the beautiful warm weather.

Saturday we wandered around Astoria and then found ourselves hoping into the car and heading overthe bridge to Washington. We weren’t really sure what to do so we followed the signs to Cape Disappointment, a Washington State Park. We found a parking area and took a short hike out to a viewing area and lighthouse. We didn’t do much hiking on Saturday but definitely found a spot we’d like to return to.

Sunday we headed south to Cannon Beach were we visited Ecola State Park. We arrived just as the fog started to lift and the sun came out. We headed first to the viewing area where we saw some of the most beautiful postcard-worthy sites. After we took in the view we changed into our hiking shoes and headed out on the path to the beach. The path was described as a gradual assent and a steep descent so we weren’t sure what to expect but we headed out anyways. I strapped Edith on my back and we hiked in about a mile before hitting some trees that were down making it too much of a challenge to even attempt to get under them (there was no going over) with a baby in tow. So be grudgingly we headed back to the car where we promptly devoured half a container of hummus and carrots before heading home.

I’m looking forward to doing a lot more hiking this summer and hopefully at least one more trip to the coast.

What are your favorite types of vacations?

Active Vacations: Running in Astoria

April 3, 2013 by Lindsay Ingalls Leave a Comment

Have I ever told you how much I love to run on vacation? I really do, especially when there is an amazing running route right outside our hotel*.

This past Saturday, while in Astoria, Neil and I woke up and the first thing we did was go out for our runs. We both have races coming up so even though we were on a mini-vacation there was no way we could skip our training runs. I packed Edith up in the BOB and headed out a little before Neil since my run was a total of 60 minutes and his would be closer to 45 or so.

We lucked out that the weather was amazing, sunny but not hot and not too cold for a nice morning run. After stretching I started out with a 5 minute walking warm-up and then did 50 minutes of walk/run intervals and met up with Neil to finish off with a 5 minute cool down. In all I did 4.13 miles in 60 minutes and finished the 5k in 43:18 (my goal was 45 minutes). I have to say I felt amazing after my run because I beat my 5k time goal while running the first 30 minutes with a wicked headwind and pushing the BOB, oh yeah and because my entire run was along the water (!!).

Do you like to run on vacation? Where is the best place you have ever ran?

*We stayed at the Best Western in Astoria (we got it on Hotwire) which is right on the river walk. It is a great location on the water only a few miles from downtown and there is even a trolly that you can take for $2/day that drops you off/picks you up right by the hotel.

Naturally Lindsay

Oregon