treats and eats in quebec city!

i am so grateful i had places to go to in quebec city that had organic and/or vegan treats and eats! i was there for just under 3 weeks to learn french language and culture!
the grocery store, or l'epicerie,  (provigo) closest to the campus i was staying at actually had a number of organic things which was amazing (as organic doesn't seem to be all that in demand out there!) and i would buy the president's choice brand of organic quinoa and brown rice pasta (and as mentioned before, their frozen fruit mix) and then was able to get the following produce organic: avocados, bananas, arugula, mixed greens, romaine, apples, carrots and mushrooms.

there was also the health food store le crac/le carotte joyeuse... on rue st-jean (the home of the oldest north american grocery store and a chocolate museum and other fun shops) which i called "le carotte joyeuse" or "le gros carotte" as that's how my new friends referred to it! (gros = large in french)
each time i went to this store, i tried a new snack.

le maison moisan (epicerie fine) - possibly the oldest grocery store in north america!

look at how big this fennel is! (at la carotte)

just some of the non-dairy mylks at la carotte! wow, blurry photo. wish i had taken another! i didn't use any but i'm really curious about the quinoa mylk! i love quinoa everything!

despite my chocolate sensitivity, i was keen on the sweets from the earth peppermint nanaimo bars and chocolate pecan caramel bars. hehe.

these chocolate treats really helped as i was mad craving chocadel's salted raw chocolate but it's on sale back home so it was hard for me to justify buying out there. before i had discovered it at "le carotte", i emailed the company in my broken french to mention how much i loved their fleur de sel bar and to ask where their chocolate retailed in quebec city. my reply? "merci beaucoup". hehe.

and what was super fun was discovering some raw food treats made in quebec!

 (i ended up leaving the crubec cookies as i think some of them had cashews and, well, i'm on a budget!)

 (these raw "chocolate chip cookies" from rawsome, which is also a quebec company, were so good i ate the whole package in one night!)

 (i'm not one for flavoured water but this lemongrass mint vanilla from ayala's seemed pretty legit and organic and it was on sale and less than $1.50! it was super soft and refreshing water. i loved crubec's sesame/maple/chia snacks and i definitely plan to try making my own!)

 (i got more of crubec's sesame snaps and tried bio-sphere's spiru-lyn(?) crackers that were super green but crunchy and satisfying!)

(more of the ayala's water and some rawsome italien herb crackers! they were super tasty! a bit soft perhaps because they are thicker than i'm used to with organic lives veg crackers but also perhaps because of the humidity in quebec!)

now in terms of eating out in quebec city, i made sure to go to the vegetarian buffet, le commensal (a quebec chain/manufacturer with a toronto location), a couple times. it's on the same street (rue st-jean) as la carotte joyeuse! loved that street for all of its food glory!

le commensal is not the best buffet i've been to (loving hut achasan, anyone?), but i loved that they label their dishes so it's easy to eat vegan and i was able to TRY to avoid gluten though i wasn't as picky as i'd be at home (and i brought a papaya digestive enzyme to help with eating gluten). i still have never tried greens & gourmet (a veg buffet in vancouver) so i really should get there some time! it's hard, though, with all these new vegan and raw-friendly places opening up in vancouver! (like the new fine dining veg place, the acorn!)

anyways, check out this veg bounty:



i went to a chain, le cochon dingue, with my roommates one night. we had gone there as a whole group (of 50 or so?) at the end of one of our activities earlier that week and i was impressed with how accommodating and friendly the staff were and i was able to have a bean salad the first time there and i ordered pasta there this time! pasta that isn't quinoa or brown rice-based for me is a real odd thing but i guess since i'm not celiac, i can afford some discomfort sometimes to eat "regular-people" pasta. and i craved it several times in quebec! i think because i was doing hours of walking every day - up and down giant hills and walls?

dinner at a "sugar shack" or "la cabane à sucre". i took a picture of the vegan pea soup i had to start but for some reason neglected to take a photo of the MASSIVE dish of roasted root vegetables on couscous they had prepared for me while the non-veg heads had meats and such. i must have been distracted by the pouring of maple syrup on everything! 

after dinner, check out this delight! i went back for seconds and thirds... hehe. maple syrup on ice!

yum!

after a few late night ice cream stops at glacier aberdeen (just off of cartier, the cutest street near the college) for carlos, i noticed on the price board "tofu aux fruits" and decided to be brave and order it. the young girls working there were super sweet (and let me practice my french) and blended up one of the packaged frozen tofus with some frozen fruit i chose. and bam! frozen non-dairy yogurt type thing!

i met up with my roommates at DAVIDsTEA(a montreal company) one day as my friend is super keen on their tea. i love the label design and paul had texted me the day before to show me his most excellent iced soy matcha from one of the stores in toronto. anyways... before even having any tea, i fell in love with this tea carafe. i have smashed 2 glass ones within 5 months this year but i still prefer drinking out of glass! i love this one with the wood lid! i hope to get it someday! ^_^

anyways, this is my iced soy green tea latte. i'm not sure how the one paul got in toronto was $2 cheaper than mine (did i order wrong?) but it still was fabulous. look at that foam! on a cold drink!
*update: i now know that ordering the green tea with soy as a latte is what cued the $2 extra charge for frothing*

speaking of green tea lattes and the like... i ended up having a cold green tea latte (with soy, minus ice cream! glad i checked on that one) at le musée national des beaux-arts du québec. the funny thing was my friend patrick being offered the extra of my drink in the blender which was the same size as mine. so we basically got 2 for 1. always looking for deals, you know. 

my last night in quebec city and at the end of our last day of classes, we went on a boat cruise of the st. lawrence river which was super nice. there was a buffet dinner, which i managed to find some things to eat from, but there was also a vegan hot dish prepared! how sweet!

and beautiful fruit for dessert...

and, thus concludes my mega post about food finds in quebec city! i was disappointed in the lack of organic foods but grateful and encouraged by the helpfulness and friendliness of all clerks and servers i met! 

merci beaucoup, quebec!

dorm life smoothies.

so i've just returned home after almost 3 weeks living in a dorm in quebec city on my quest to learn french.

i brought paul's magic bullet with me which was WONDERFUL for morning smoothies. it even blended better than i remembered it blending before (i thought i had to cut up everything for it to do anything but i managed not having to pre-cut much at all! yay!).

ha, my first smoothie in quebec city. i forgot to take a picture before drinking it!
romaine lettuce, apple, water and ground chia.

before i realized i didn't have to chop up my frozen banana.
just adding extra work for myself, is all!
(i brought this thin plastic chop board too and a knife
 to make sure i wouldn't be without smoothies this trip!)

i found a frozen "melange aux fruits biologique" at the nearby epicerie.
so this smoothie is frozen banana with frozen black cherry, blueberry and blackberry! 

so fresh and so green!

this morning's smoothie is my first since arriving back from quebec city. soooo great to be using the vitamix again!

this one is: a parsley bunch, some frozen banana, avocado and bosc pear. 

yum!

"le réfrigérateur toute" smoothie

today's smoothie is not mostly greens, but is mostly green.
it is creamy, ever-so-slightly-sweet and filling!

this smoothie is 1/3 a bunch of parsley, a few sprigs of mint, a couple celery stalks, one carrot, one avocado, one pear, one avocado, two dates (i was worried it would taste like salad), and one cup of filtered water. i have enough for 2 smoothie glasses and well, since paul isn't here and it's basically lunch time, they're mine!

p.s. i went to leanne and liam's super busy potluck last night! at any given point, with all the comers and goers, there'd be at LEAST 30 people there! so, lots of vegan treats to try! i at first was avoiding my allergy list foods (gluten, wheat, cashews, peanuts, etc.) which is super tricky at a potluck (with dishes that don't have listed ingredients and way too many people around to try track down who made what) but i soon figured i might as well see what happens. if i ballooned out into a 8 month's pregnant lady like the last time i had green pepper, i would just go home! anyways... i felt fine! and relieved. my naturopath encouraged me during my last appointment, saying i should not worry about having some of these things during my upcoming quebec trip as for one, eating vegan in QC will be hard enough, but also if i am relaxed about it and relaxed in general, food sensitivities shouldn't flare up too harshly. i think after my next liver cleanse, i want to get my allergies tested again. i'm confident that my "avoids" list is going to keep getting smaller!

oh, but back to L+L's... they have these cool plants that don't have roots or soil or a pot? and they are green! what are these things? are they these tillandsia plants?

i can vitamix again!!!

i have been watching my fedex tracking and knew that my vitamix arrived in ontario for repair last friday. well, i was so overjoyed to get a canada post parcel notice today after work... and super surprised when it was my vitamix! one week after it arriving for repair, it is back with me!
what service!!! (thank you, vitamix!!!)
and the best part is that IT WORKS!
i can't wait to have daily green smoothies again! forever! i'm going to take such good care of my newly restored vitamix!

this one was parsley, frozen banana, some spatone liquid iron, some camu camu, apple juice and water.

i'm excited to do a 2 day green smoothie challenge i just read about in rawbc's emailout. it is monday and tuesday, july 23 + 24th, and you only drink green smoothies those days. sounds like heaven! if you participate, you are encouraged to let the green smoothie people know at info@rawbc.org with your name and city/town. they suggest 60% (organic, of course) fruit, 40% dark leafy greens and 2 cups of water in your blender. and the challenge is 2 days/month. sounds like a great idea to me!

black bean brownies

sounds gross but these are awesome! not raw or particularly healthy, but... top allergens-free and bean-heavy! hehe.
i tried these for the first time at a potluck where my new friend jen claimed they were super easy and she had just veganized a simple recipe from her mom or something. and she sent me what she did. and now, i am going to post what i did last night!
i have now made these twice and they have been super simple and super delicious both times ^_^ trying them again this morning makes me really aware of how chewy these brownies are! it's crazy! the ground chia is incredible!

brownies and coconut milk ice cream! hurrah!

ingredients:
1 - 15 oz can black beans (rinsed! of course!)
4 "egg whites" (i use 2 bowls, each with 2 tablespoons ground chia, or flax, with 6 tablespoons of water - to clarify: you'll 4 tablespoons ground chia or flax and 12 tablespoons of water in total)
12 tbsp cocoa (i use raw cacao which is funny as i bake these!)
2 tbsp earth balance (last night i used coconut oil which was great)
1 cup "sugar" (last night i used sucanut - not sure yet what to do about this high amount of sugar which i'm sure isn't so necessary - i will keep experimenting!)
3 tbsp gluten-free flour (i have used rice flour and last night i used namaste's perfect flour blend)

directions:
1. heat oven to 350 degrees, use a 9x13 pan. (i greased my pan with coconut oil just in case, though i don't know if it's necessary. also, i find 9x13 a bit big as i like a thicker, fudgier brownie so last night i used an 8x8 glass dish)
2. blend beans and 2 "egg whites" in blender. (since my blender is getting fixed right now, i blended half of the beans/"eggs" in my mini food processor and then added the rest. it all fit and it all blended just fine. hurrah!)
3. combine the bean mix with the sugar and flour and remaining "egg" mix.
4. mix cocoa and "butter" (melted) in a bowl and then add to main mix and mix thoroughly.
5. pour into pan.
6. bake 30-35 minutes or so! i took mine out last night at about 35 minutes and a toothpick still was showing a chocolate stain. but i love my thick, slightly gooey brownies! when i made them in the larger pan, they seemed they would be a bit dry but the next day, they had softened and moistened up. and all reports back have been very happy ^_^

i feel like this is the perfect recipe for staff treat days and kid events as they look "normal" and i think they taste normal (you would never guess that these are made of beans!) and i think most people can eat them! (ie no dairy/nuts/gluten/oats/eggs, etc.)

enjoy!

a sad vitamix story... hopefully soon with a happy ending!

on april 18th, i was so excited as i got my delivery of vitamix replacement parts. i put everything together. my vitamix still did not work.
i finally called them on the 21st to ask and i was told i would be sent the stuff to be able to send my whole vitamix base to them to look at and make sure to fix. i am still waiting!
i hope i can talk to someone about it tomorrow. i hate that my broken vitamix isn't even on its way to being fixed right now! and i'm sure that waiting part is going to take awhile!!!
sigh!
*may 17th update: called and apparently they didn't have my apartment suite number! so i never got the FedEx slip. they emailed me the slip instead so my vitamix is finally on its way for servicing. fingers crossed i get it back in june!*
well, at least we have a magic bullet here. it's a bit more work but i can still get some yummy smoothies happening in it.

this smoothie is DELICIOUS. it's frozen banana, almond milk, some supergreens powder, fresh mint and lucuma powder. it tastes like how ice cream should taste! ^_^

p.s. in the last couple days, i have had 2 friends excitedly tell me they have bought their first vitamix! i hope i can visit them soon to get my extra smooth smoothie fix! ^_^ hehe