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Eating Clean: Fuss free meals and meal planning with Rooted Nutrition

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Recipes

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Andrea Potter, black bean burgers, Camelina oil, cooking demonstrations, cooking handbook, cooking in bulk, Easy fuss free meals, education, fermented drink, food stories, healthy cooking class, healthy cooking oil, healthy diet, healthy living, healthy treats, holistic nutritionist, how to make kombucha, Kitsilano, Kombucha, living sustainably, nutrition, Quit sugar, Raw Sweetness, Roasted squash and apple soup, roasted yam and sour cherry quinoa with candid nuts, Rooted Nutrition, smoky parpika, spelt flour, Sushi, Vancouver, weight loss, whole foods cooking

Black Bean Burger Rooted NutritionRoasted Veg and coconut oil I guess you could say that the moment you try on your usual dress size on in the shop and realise that you’ve cut yourself because you’ve caught part of your love handle in the zip, it might be a good time to lay back on the donuts. Well this is the predicament I found myself in last week when I couldn’t get the dress past my hip! Turns out I can no longer eat whatever I want and not worry about putting on weight but rather all those muffins and late night snacks have started catching up with me and I’m noticing it’s taking a lot longer to lose the weight than put it on. I suppose a lot of this is down to the fact that since being here I haven’t really been following a particular routine with meals or in fact preparing meals properly at all. I’ll wake up, have my standard whole grain porridge with milk and honey and then rather than packing a lunch or making dinner I find I’m picking up a wrap or some sushi or a muffin for lunch, then snacking on something else throughout the day and then picking up something light for dinner and then snacking throughout the night. I am not making substantial meals to keep me going throughout the day but relying on bits here and there and not clocking the amount of sugar I am taking into my body each day. I’ve also noticed if I opt for a cold meal for dinner, something like sushi or a wrap I’m immediately craving something sweet or something else to fill the gap that a good warm curry or even rice dish with meat and vegetables would achieve. Continue reading →

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Discounts and some handy things to know about Vancouver

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Travel

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Arrow, Bento box, Cafe Deux Soleils, cheap Sushi, cheap things to do in Vancouver, cheap travel, climb the Vancouver lookout, Creative BC, Discounts in Vancouver, film sets, filming in Vancouver, free things to do in Vancouver, Happy hour in Vancouver, Harbour Centre, Hollywood North, list of attractions in Vancouver, Once Upon a time, Open Mic Nights Vancouver, pay by donation, Poetry slam, productions filming in Vancouver, stair exercise, Supernatural, Sushi, The Flash, tips when in vancouver, top places to eat sushi in Vancouver, travel cap, Umeda Jampanese Cusine, Urban Grind, Vancouver art Gallery, Vancouver Lookout, Vegan Cafe Vancouver, working on set, Youth poetry slam

So I’ve been  here for a month now and through word of mouth and general exploring I’ve learnt a few helpful tips about things to do in Vancouver. Here’s a few of them:

Vancouver Art Gallery – Go on a Tuesday

Vancouver Art Gallery_

If you don’t fancy spending $20 admission for Vancouver Art gallery then you don’t have to. Rather just wait until Tuesday at 5pm and you can go the gallery for ‘donation only’. They advise you to donate $10 but you can get a way with 5 and if you’re lucky you might even be able to see an exhibition or a talk too.

Urban Grind

Urban-Grind-jpg

Throughout March you can climb the 593 steps of the Harbor Centre for the wonderful price of $5. However it gets even better because you get a free beer at the top and the $5 entrance fee actually goes towards a food voucher at the food court. Not only do you get your exercise in for the day but you can get your dinner too! Next Tuesday is the last day you can do this so head on down and climb the stairs to get a gorgeous view of VanCity.  You can do this any time between 4pm to 6.30pm at the Harbour Centre which is located at West Hastings Street. Continue reading →

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When it rains it pours but you can still get by in Whistler

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Travel

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Amazing Granola, best ski resort, Blackcomb Mountain, Buffalo Bills, Cows Whistler, dog walking, Fireside Lodge, function junction, Gondola Whistler, Greyhound, Hi Whistler, highest cable car, Ingrid's Village Cafe, Mark Richard's Gallery, Marketplace, mountain biking, mountains, Peak to Peak Whistler, Purebread, Riverside Trail, Sam Cooke, Skiiing in Whistler, Stand by Me, suspension bridge, train wreck, Train Wreck Whistler, Valley Trail, Whistler

Whistler MountainValley TrailMountain Whistler

For those who have heard of Whistler the name conjures up images of beauty, of snow and mountains and the peak to peak gondola which this year was awarded with two world records for “highest cable car above ground” and “longest unsupported span between two cable car towers“. For me I went in the hope of seeing all this but unfortunately I didn’t check the weather forecast and somehow arrived in Whistler on the foggiest, wettest day of the year! Not to fear Whistler still had plenty of things for me to do, I just had to go in search of it and change my plans slightly.
Whistler is known as one of the best ski resorts in the world. Usually every year in October hundreds of people, mostly students, head to Whistler in the hope of working for the season. When you step off the bus and rock up in Whistler it does feel like stepping back into a mini University town filled with snow and a few kids thrown in for good jest. I went to university in Canterbury so am used to small towns but Whistler is its own little village in itself. Sports and ski rental shops populate the town as well as clubs, pubs, restaurants and some beautiful mini art galleries too. I stumbled into one that was simply beautiful called Mark Richard’s Gallery. His paintings are ones you completely lose yourself in and for myself I definitely would hang a few up in my future house.

Here's an example of one of his paintings

Here’s an example of one of his paintings

Continue reading →

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24 hour Movie Marathon!

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Film, Food, Thoughts, Travel

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24 hour cinema marathon, 24 hours of cinema, 24 hr cinema marathon 2015, Alfred Hitchcock, all night movie night, anime, Army of Darkness, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Billy Zane young, Bruce Campbell, Canadian whiskey bacon donut, Cartems Donuterie, Cinematheque Vancouver, earl grey donut, French Sci Fi, Groundhog Day, High Noon, James Stewart, La Jette, Mamoru Hosoda, Memento, orlando, Peggy Sue Got Married, Primer, Rope, Run Lola Run, The Girl who Leapt through time, theme of time in cinema, Tilda Swinton, Vancouver's Best Donuts, Watch La Jette Online, Western

Cinematheque VancouverIt’s been over a week since I took part in this delightful event put on by the Cinematheque and I can easily say it took me a good few days to catch up on sleep! Introduced two years ago this is only the second time they have put on this event so I felt it was good timing I happened to be here and was meant to be! Once I heard about it I thought I just have to do it. With a line up of 15 films, that of which you are not told, the event kicked off at 10am and would run for a full 24 hrs with a few breaks in between. I had only bought my ticket the night before and didn’t realise it started at 9.30 with a talk so arrived pretty much smack on 10 and the film was already in its opening credits. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the day, just that there was a theme (again not disclosed) and we would discover this theme as we watched the films.

24 hour Movie Marathon timetable Cinematheque

My crumpled timetable

The opening film was Groundhog Day, which although I have seen countless number of times, still works its magic. I’m used to watching this film around Christmas time so felt quite strange watching it in a dark room on a sunny morning in March but what the heck I still enjoyed it! The second film of the day was a little gem, Chris Marker’s La Jette, a film which many Sci Fi films have since been based on. Only 28 minutes long the film is made up entirely of black and white still photographs with voiceover and tells the story of Scientists who decide to send a man into the past to try to prevent the nuclear war that has almost destroyed the earth and threatens to annihilate the human race. This was the only non feature  length film of the night and definitely left an impression on many people. Third up it was the wonderful Hitchcock film Rope which was probably one of my favourites of the day. Again I had seen this before back in A level Media Studies however it still felt so fresh and new and has one of my favourite actors in, James Stewart who as always was fantastic. I loved that the camera never pauses and follows the action of the whole event as if you are in the theatre watching a play. Some shots were executed wonderfully such as the shot of the door swinging open and dropping the rope into the drawer. His films are completely timeless. Continue reading →

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The journey of getting to Vancouver and exploring Downtown

21 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Thoughts, Travel

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Air Transat, breakfast burrito, Burrad Street, David Morin, food trucks, Giraffe Restaurant, Granville Street, holiday safe, hs backpacker plus, immigration Canada, moving to vancouver, our canadian adventure, Pancake day, post office travelling card, Rudderless, rude health porridge, Samesun Backpackers, travel insurance, travel journal, working holiday visa

Downtown VancouverLove Eat LiveWell it’s been a long time getting here and now I finally am it still doesn’t quite seem real! It’s all quite daunting moving to a new place by yourself but it’s still early days yet so I’ll see how I feel in a couple of days time! The last few days since leaving work went far too quickly, it dawned on me that I had a lot to do and not as much time as I thought to do it in! The weekend was spent with loved ones. I was treated extremely special on Saturday with a full blown 3 course meal by Craig and he also gave me a beautiful travel journal to take with me. Continue reading →

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Pistachio and Olive Oil Cake

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Recipes

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ask, cake club, clandestine cake club, ditch the sugar, ground pistachios, naturally ella, pistachio and olive oil cake, pistachio flour, savoury cakes, savoury desserts, sugar free cakes, the franco irish kitchen

pistachio and olive oil  cake pistachio & olive oil cake

The theme for this month’s Cake Club was savouries due to the idea of everyone trying to be good in January after an indulgent Christmas. I joined cake club this time last year and there were some delicious savoury cakes as well as a few sweetish ones such as courgette cake. I do like my savoury but have a huge sweet tooth and therefore wanted to think about a sweet cake that could fit in with a savoury theme which hadn’t been done before.
It just so happened that the week before Cake Club I went for dinner at Ask and they had a new dessert option which was Pistachio and Olive Oil Cake. A huge lover of pistachios, especially pistachio ice cream, I was straight away curious to see what it would be like. Turns out I didn’t actually end up getting Pistachio Cake but at least I now had a cake to find a recipe for for Cake Club!

Continue reading →

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Persimmon, Yoghurt & Pecan Cake

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Recipes

≈ 3 Comments

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autumnal fruit, fruit cake, fruit of the gods, fuyy, healthy icing, light cake, persimmon cake, persimmon puree, persimmon yoghurt and pecan cake, yoghurt

Persimmon Yoghurt & Pecan cake

Persimmons are fast becoming my favourite fruit as not only are they healthy but they double up as a sweet treat too. It was my mum who introduced them to me a year ago and the first time I ever heard the word persimmon used before. To a lot of people they call them sharon fruit but persimmons are slightly different.
In Greek their name means “divine food” or “fruit of the gods.” A delicious autumnal fruit, they are perfect for using in cakes as they add a sweetness to a basic sponge and keep it moist and light. Before baking this cake I had the intention of making a gooseberry cake however I left shopping too late on a Sunday and by the time I arrived all of the gooseberries were out of stock. I knew I wanted to try a different fruit to the usual I do that being raspberries & strawberries so when I saw the persimmons I thought I would experiment with them.

Persimmon & Yoghurt Cake

This cake is adapted from the raspberry layered cake I made previously and I decided to make a yoghurt icing with only a little sugar rather than a buttercream filling which makes it a healthier and lighter cake. I loved the raspberry cake last time as the texture of the cake is beautifully light and with this new recipe it worked just as well if not better, I like to think, with the persimmons and yoghurt icing. Continue reading →

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A Christmas Down Under: Brown Rice, Pine Nut & Cranberry Salad with a Lime, Soy & Ginger Dressing

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Recipes

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baileys, BBQ, bondi beach, brown rice and cranberry salad with lime soy and ginger dressing, brown rice salad, cat sitting, Christmas, christmas abroad, Christmas down under, closely beach, healthy Christmas dinner, salted caramel and chocolate tart, summer Christmas, trifle, vodka raspberry dacquiris

Happy New Year everyone! A bit of a late blog post in this case as I have been half way across the world with limited access to Internet but very easy access to food and ice cream, (not so good for the waist line!) This was my second Christmas in Sydney and a completely different experience to the first. Five years ago I spent my Christmas morning in a hostel with 2 of my best friends. We had a great morning together but I did feel homesick and it’s a very strange feeling to see Christmas decorations up in places with the sunlight beaming onto them. I never imagined I’d come back to Australia again and never thought I’d see the day where all my family would be together for Christmas on the other side of the world! Christmas Salads sweet potato salad vodka berry daquri We did Christmas a little differently this year and it was really one of the loveliest days. As we had all spent so much on flights we decided to only spend $5 on each other for a Christmas present. I received cat hand warmers from my mum (bought back home) in contrast to a summer dress (from my brother and his fiancé) which definitely came in handy. We all woke up at different times, some of us went to mass, I went out of curiosity to see if the Australians do mass any different (answer no, a slightly shorter service and more casual dress but pretty much the same!) which was followed by a beautiful walk from Clovelly beach to Bondi beach. It was a beautiful sunny day with hardly any clouds in the sky. My dad put his feet in the sea for the first time in his life and my brothers and I spent the morning diving into waves and in my case getting burnt (I never learn!) fluffy Continue reading →

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Christmas Spiced Parsnip & Maple Cake

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Fiona in Food, Recipes

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alternative christmas cake, Berlin, cake club, chocolate orange macaroons, christmas cake, clandestine cake club, home made marshmellows, mincemeat and ricotta tart, parsnip and maple cake, spiced parsnip cake, vegetable cakes

IMG_7453parsnip and maple cakemaple & parnsip cake

December 15th was the last Clandestine Cake club for year 2014 and it was definitely a merry and festive occasion. I was in two minds as to whether I was going to be able to attend it as it was taking place the day after I arrived back from Berlin, two days before I was due to set off to Australia, I was suffering from tooth ache and finally the 15th was also my Christmas Day with Craig. However somehow or another I managed to fit it in and I’m so glad I did. Continue reading →

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Fruit & Nut Christmas Tiffins

01 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Fiona in Food, Recipes

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cake and bake show, chocolate fingers, Chocolate tiffin, christmas holidays, crispy tiffin, Fruit & Nut Tiffins, qantas, tiffins, Wooloworths

Christmas TiffinsAs I’m writing this now I can’t quite believe it’s the 1st December already, honestly where has this year gone ? It feels like only a few nights ago I was sitting here writing out my new year’s resolutions for the year ahead and now there’s only one month left until we start it all over again and better yet only 24 days until Christmas! I haven’t felt in the Christmas spirit yet this year. I’m normally singing the songs by mid October but it’s slightly different this year as no Christmas decorations will be going up in our family home as we are all flying over to Australia! Even though our flights are booked I still don’t believe it’s actually happening.Fruit & Nut Tiffins Continue reading →

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About Me

Hi I’m Fiona, a twenty something foodie living in London who loves nothing more than cooking, eating, listening to stories and exploring. I created Tea and Takes as a way of bringing my two loves together: food and film.
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