May 9th

Is there anything more delicious than dessert for breakfast? It just kind of starts the day off right. This morning Dom and I didn't exactly have dessert for breakfast, but it was good enough to be eaten for dessert! We made brownie waffles with chopped almonds, topped with berries and maple syrup. So delciously chocolately but not sickeningly sweet. Dom set the table this morning - didn't he do a fantastic job? It looks so beautiful! The recipe came from the book Veganomicon, which is kind of like the textbook of vegan recipes. Anything you can possibly imagine is in here, veganized. Not always the healthiest, but always delicious and always healthier than the animal versions of it. (I'll be posting about the vegan cookbooks I own soon, incase anyone is interested.) We ate outside, soaking in the beautiful sunshine that has been eluding us for the past 2 weeks. We could even hear the donkey and goats from the neighbouring farm. So very peaceful. I know it may seem like I eat crazy-decadent breakfasts every day, what with waffles and french toast and all that syrup, but I'm really just as happy with fruit smoothies or oatmeal or toast, especially toast and mustard. Sounds gross, but my Grams taught me the mustard-on-toast trick and it's so very yummy.

It was so beautiful today that we just needed to spend the day outside. We went to the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa and walked around the Rideau Canal. The festival just started this past weekend and runs for 2 more weekends so not all the tulips are out yet but it's just so enjoyable that we usually head back a couple more times throughout the festival's run. The festival is one of my favourites in Ottawa: it celebrates both nature and culture and is pretty groovy - just watch those psychedelic commericals for it on television! They even had a solar-powered food truck that sells some vegan food like soups, salads and cookies. It's called Stone Soup Foodworks so keep an eye out for it in Ottawa. Even their non-vegan food is pretty healthy and all organic and seasonal. I didn't get to try it because I wasn't hungry when we were there, but I'd like to. Here's the festival's website incase you're thinking of checking out any of the festivities:

http://www.tulipfestival.ca/

Tonight's food was mostly a mixture of leftovers: pizza, asparagus, potatoes and carrots, pasta salad, black bean burgers. Whatever we had in the fridge so it didn't get wasted. Nothing terribly exciting, nothing you haven't heard before...except for the kale! I'm really excited about this kale! We used what was left of the bunch of kale and sauteed it with garlic and sundried tomato and the sunflower oil that the tomato is preserved in and it was soooo good. For a thrown together dish, it tasted amazing! Forget about the kale chips; if you're going to eat kale and have never tried it before, prepare it like this!

Melly's Sundried Tomatoey Garlicky Kale:

1 bunch kale, chopped, tough stems discarded (hopefully composted!)

Sundried tomato, cut into strips, however much you like

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

1-2 tbsp Sunflower oil from the jar of sundried tomato, or whichever oil you prefer.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the kale and cook for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato. Cook until kale is tender, about 5-7 more minutes. Serve hot!

The oil lends such wonderful flavour to the kale and the garlic gets all sweet and fried. I could eat that garlic like candy it's so good. Looking forward to dessert tonight: leftover waffles from breakfast!

ps. Extra points for the person who noticed the bowl of pasta salad in the picture...if you saw Tubby Custard written around the edge, you win! I think the Teletubbies might like vegan food...they were so in tune with nature after all!