In the Bean Thyme: It's all About the Fruit!

You know it's a good day when all of your meals include fruit. Mine was one of those days :) I started off the day with a delicious breaky of warm oats and tea! I decided on a mix of oatbran and rolled oats, which I added cinnamon, a banana, raisins, 1/2 tsp of organic unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter and cacao nibs to. FYI, I use organic ingredients whenever possible (which is the majority of the time) but I don't always state that.

Accompanied by a big cuppa Read My Lips tea (chocolate mint) from Davids Tea! I love my mug from the Art Gallery. It was made by a local artisan and friend of the Art Gallery's. She does beautiful work.

Look at all that lovely steam.

The loose leaf tea from Davids Tea. Can you spot the little red lips? How cute are they? Such a sweet touch. The people at Davids Tea are so nice and extremely helpful, so if you haven't been there yet I really urge you to check it out! They have such a great selection (new location on Government St.).

For lunch today I really wanted a sandwich, so I decided to try to make a tofu salad sandwich. I've never made one like this before so it was quite an experiment.

Ingredients:

*1/4 package of firm tofu cut into small cubes

*1/4 cup chopped celery

*2 tbsp chopped green onion

*1 tsp vegan mayonaise (regular mayo is fine as well)

*1 tbsp umeboshi plum vinegar

*1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Put all ingredients together, mix until combined.

I put the salad on the last two pieces of whole grain bread we had in our freezer. Didn't taste great, but it worked out okay. I put dijon mustard, lettuce, avocado and tomato on it as well.

Some carrots on the side, which I didn't end up eating (they were a little soft).

I had a crunchy nectarine instead. I don't know why, but I've always loved unripe fruit just as much as ripe fruit. Maybe that's because I don't have the patience to wait for them to ripen? Or I'm just weird...either way, I love it! Overall, I really liked this recipe and will make it again. Next time I will add a few more ingredients. The original recipe called for capers, olives and pickles, which I didn't have, but would have been amazing. That would have bulked it up and soaked up some of the moisture. I'll make sure I use those ingredients next time.

After lunch, Francis and I went to pick up my watch that was waiting for me at UPS.

Thank you Jean-Louis and Johanne (Francis' parents) for the awesome graduation gift!

After we picked up the watch we took a quick trip to Qoola to get some frozen yogurt. Francis made an interesting concoction of chocolate and vanilla frozen yogurt with almost every topping you could think of including fruit loops, which we shared. It was actually pretty damn delicious.

They are opening another Qoola at a new location on Yates Street! I think it's going to do amazing downtown, especially with all the tourists in the summertime.

After a quick trip to the mall to get my watch sized, we made our way back to our apartment to relax. I did some prep for dinner and then we both headed out for some exercise. I dropped Francis off at hockey and I went to Elk Lake for another run (I went yesterday with my friend, Loring as well). It was gorgeous yet again. What a great run.

When we got home we were both starving so while Francis was chowing down on chips (I snuck a few ;)) I put together a very easy and scrumptious dinner.

Fresh Fruity Lentils

Makes 2 large servings or 4 side servings

*1 cup french lentils

*1/2 cup chopped strawberries or berry of choice

*1/2 cup chopped walnuts

*1/8 cup chopped parsley

*1/8 cup chopped basil

*1/2 cup orange juice (I used freshly squeezed)

*1 tsp berry jam (I used fruit sweetened Crofters blackberry)

1. Boil 2 cups of water with lentils, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender.

2. Combine berries, walnuts, parsley and basil.

3. Drain lentils, add to berry mixture, mix until combined.

4. Add orange juice and jam, mix until combined.

5. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

I served the lentils with a salad with a basil vinaigrette. SO GOOD. I also had a fresca on the side.

For dessert I made strawberry frozen yogurt.

Ingredients

*2 cups plain yogurt

*1 cup strawberries

1. Add yogurt and strawberries to food processor.

2. Pulse 3 or 4 times. Make sure the strawberries are still chunky.

3. Put in glass or plastic container and put in the freezer.

4. Freeze for about 2 hours.

5. Take out of freezer and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

6. Scoop out like ice cream.

You can add anything into the mixture you'd like. It's quite tart because of the plain yogurt so you might want to add a sweetener to the mix. I personally really like the tartness :)

I drizzled a little honey on top of mine, which was the perfect touch. I think it'd be awesome with chocolate chunks or graham crackers or even chocolate cookie crumbs in it. So many possibilities. I can't wait to make a different batch and experiment a little bit.