The move is complete. I finally unpacked the boxes and our place is an already looking very lived in. We’ve moved to basically my dream small town in the mountains. Maybe not forever and ever dream, but it’s definitely living up to the dream for now town. I don’t quite have a cabin in the woods yet, but I love our little flat, and most importantly is has a cute kitchen with the most amazing natural light coming through (very important for food photo taking purposes).
The town is a picture perfect idyllic little town nestled between the river and the mountains. Everyone has a little vegetable garden currently dripping with raspberries and zucchini and almost no one has a fence. Because why would you need a fence. It’s got all the hipster cafes with instagrammable food you need, mountain hikes right on your doorstep and swimable lakes with beaches to lounge on not too far away. I’m still pinching myself to see if it’s all really true.
And the best thing currently about this town is it has a mountain coaster!!! So of course we had to go our very first weekend here. A mountain coaster is basically the summer/child’s version of a bobsleigh where you go in a cart on a track down the mountain. You go up the gondola to get there, so you get some pretty awesome views from the top. It was sooo much fun. I honestly thought I would be breaking the whole way down, the roller coaster loving child came out of me and I barely pulled it at all.
This is my first summer in Canada and I’m in love with all the fresh produce on the shelves at the moment. We do have fresh summer berries back in england, but not like this. Here the shelves are overflowing with the sweetest, juiciest berries you can find, and they are so much cheaper too. So my current diet is becoming about 90% berries. Well more like 70% berries, 20% peaches. So this is a salad for those of you who also want to live off berries (why wouldn’t you).
Strawberry and Avocado Salad
Serves 2
gluten free, dairy free*, vegan*
1 cup strawberries
1 avocado
1/4 cucumber
large handful lettuce leaves
1/3 cup almonds, roasted
1/3 cup feta
dressing
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
quinoa
1 cup
2 cups water
Quinoa: Bring to boil with the water. Lower to a simmer and leave for 20mins until the quinoa has soaked up all the liquid.
Almonds: If you almonds are not roasted, you can quickly pan roast them. Heat the almonds on medium heat in a small pan with a little oil for about 5mins until they turn a deep brown. Stir often and keep an eye on them to prevent burning.
Salad: Slice the strawberries, avocado and cucumber. Tear up the lettuce. Roughly chop the almonds. Mix the dressing ingredients together. Add all to a bowl and mix well. Crumble the feta over the top and serve with the quinoa.
*for dairy free and vegan, leave out the feta.
