Granola Like Oh Boy! Shoot! Oh Baby Holdup.

For our last morning together in Montréal, my sister and I sat down at a local restaurant for breakfast before I had to catch the bus to the airport. In declining toast which accompanied breakfast, she told me that she would try cutting out wheat for the next coming weeks, to see if it improved anything in how she's been feeling, but also worried about the increase in the cost of choosing labelled gluten free food, especially packaged items such as cereals or cookies which really hiked up our food bill while I was staying with her. 

There are alternatives to buying the fancy packages on the shelves, and with it the feeling of regretfully walking out of the store thinking what you'll have to eliminate from this weeks budget. Simple ingredients that are naturally gluten free are much cheaper, and quick recipes are perfect! Oats, for example, are generally a cheaper item in the grocery aisles, and although finding dried fruits and nuts for cheap can be a harder task, we usually head to small specialty stores in 'Little India' or Chinatown of Vancouver, where they can often be found for less than at Whole Foods. 

For the last week or so, I've been hearing updates that there really is an improvement in how she's feeling, but mostly I've heard of new recipes she's tried. So the name of these two recipes for different types of granola came from my excitement when my sister began sending me the photos while she cooked one morning, and I replied "Oh baby holdup." and started thinking how perfect her recipe was.

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Summer Plans

I can't believe that there's less than two week until I'm off to Quebec for six weeks: four weeks in a French program where I'll be speaking French entirely, plus another week and a half spent in Montréal with my sister before coming home again. I'll be put on a plane to Quebec City, after a quick layover in Toronto (I'll definitely check out the restaurants with an iPad at each seat!), where I'll then make my way to Rivière-du-Loup by coach - among another 3,000 kids all traveling to similar programs across the eastern part of the country that day. Atleast I won't be alone!

I'm nervous, I'm excited, I'm thrilled to be travelling somewhere new (crazy that I've traveled to Europe so many times, but have never visited anywhere in Canada farther east than the Rockies!), and I'm also a little apprehensive that I might miss the final moments with my friends on Bowen, before they're off to university, and we're off in a moving van to Victoria in the fall.

With the sun shining consistantly these past few days, up before I wake up and already warming the house, and setting just as we finish dinner on the deck (rare for our usually rainy June), I'm inspired to get up from the sunny breakfast table and explore - outside, in the trees by my house, or along the beaches... or even farther... an adventure of sorts, and with it, a new experience.

I thought with plans of upcoming adventures, I'd check back to Moorea Seal's 52 List Project, and choose another to begin summer with. You can check {here} to see the last list I posted: My Greatest Comforts. Today, I wan't to write down all my goals for this summer, just before it officially begins in the calendar year this Friday (and the longest day of the year!)

It's important to me this summer that I don't miss out on special experiences, once in a lifetime

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