Grilling, Arm Balancing and the Farmer’s Market

It was another fun, fantastic and delicious weekend. Saturday morning, Jesse and I worked out at Recreate together. It was a killer and loaded workout, but super fun. Afterward, we were both famished and ready to eat breakfast, so we headed nearby to Besaws with hopes of a short wait. We got lucky and only had to wait 5-ish minutes since there was only two of us. I love eating breakfast there and had the same thing I ordered a couple weeks back, before we went blueberry picking — jasmine green tea, two over easy eggs, honey-cured bacon, seasonal veggies and a small cup of fresh fruit. It was perfect and just what the doctor ordered.

Afterward, we headed to Lowe’s to get some supplies for our new little grill: propane tanks, grilling utensils and a canvas grill cover. We decided to christen the grill with bacon-wrapped turkey burgers, grilled zucchini and summer squash, and whole grilled walla wall onions for dinner that night. I’m so happy and excited to have this grill. A big, fat thank you to my mom and dad for buying it for us as an early Christmas gift.

To go with our burgers, I made creamy basil pesto coleslaw from Mark Sisson’s cookbook, Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals. Talk about an easy recipe and a nice twist on the standard coleslaw. Also, to see how I made the grilled walla walla onion recipe, click here. (Note: Any sweet onion will do. Also, I don’t use bouillon for the onions. Instead, I use butter, sea salt, pepper and pour a little bit of broth on top).

By the way, the bacon we used on the burgers is US Wellness Meats’s sugar free beef bacon and it is good! Nice, thick, hearty strips.

Creamy Basil Pesto Coleslaw

• 1/2 C walnuts (or pine nuts)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 C coconut milk
• 4 C loosely packed basil leaves
• 1/4 C olive oil
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• 4 C shredded cabbage (about 1/2 a head of cabbage)
• 1/4 C rice vinegar (yes, it’s allowed!)

Directions:

1. Blend walnuts, garlic and coconut milk in a food processor until smooth. Add basil leaves and pulse several times to chop up the leaves, then with the blade running, pour in the olive oil. Continue to process until the basil leaves are blended in. Add sea salt and pepper to taste.
2. Combine pesto and cabbage, stirring well. Drizzle half of the vinegar over the cabbage salad and continue to mix; add remaining vinegar to taste.
3. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Saturday afternoon I got a text from a friend saying that she was gifting me with a workshop session with Ana Forrest, a master yoga teacher with 40 years of experience. My friend had purchased the entire workshop weekend and knowing that I was really interested in doing Ana’s inversions and arm balances workshop, gifted me with that session. I had been stewing all week about whether to spend the money or not and low-and-behold it just falls into my lap.

The workshop was Sunday morning and man it was exhilarating, challenging and completely exhausting, but so awesome at the same time. It kicked my butt and I even ended up taking a nap later in the day, which I almost never do.

After I got home, Jesse and I took a quick trip up to the farmer’s market. I told him we needed to be speedy because I was hungry after the workshop, but in the meantime I drank some coconut water which helped quite a bit. At the farmer’s market, we picked up a dozen pasture eggs, fresh garlic, a sweet onion, a few pickling cucumbers and raspberries.