slightly less education and a lot more food

Blogging this week has been hard, since the teaching artist for this camp is far less collaborative than my teaching artist last week, so I find myself doing significantly less in the room with the kids and significantly more intern-y things, like sharpening pencils and making copies. He has a very specific vision that has created a very intense room, but the camp is audition based, so I think (well, I hope) that it's what the kids wanted. They are all doing a fantastic job, despite their often unfocused energy and some casting-related disappointments, but as far as I'm concerned, all that is to be expected with pre-teens in a relatively competitive, intense environment. Our bullying problem seems to have stopped, though, or at least calmed down to the point where no one has run out of the room crying since our last incident. 

I explored Dinkytown (take a second to laugh at that name before continuing) on Friday after CTC and it turns out it fits the description of the classic college town to a tee: tons of fast food restaurants, sandwich shops, and bars crammed into a four block radius. There was only one coffee shop that I found, where I sat for a couple hours to finish The Dud Avocado (read it if you have a chance - it really doesn't disappoint). I then moved on to the Book House, a stunning, independently owned, two-story used bookstore with floor to ceiling shelves of thousands of really quality used books. As far as I'm concerned, it was hands down the best thing Dinkytown had to offer. I bought another book to keep myself occupied, and headed back over the bridge to Seward just as the sun was setting. 

The view from the bridge at sunset Friday night

This weekend has been a great food weekend for me, hence the title of this post. Saturday started out with another trip to the charmingly grungy, collectively owned Seward Cafe for coffee and some delicious blackberry buckwheat pancakes. I then made my way over to the Mill City Farmers Market and bought myself some really beautiful, fresh produce. I found some incredible organic arugula, my favorite summertime green, and a huge bunch of organic kale. I also picked up some snow peas, strawberries, and blue cheese (made from sheep!). I biked home and immediately made myself this summery salad, which was exactly what I needed after those heavy pancakes.

Arugula, strawberries, almonds, and blue (sheep) cheese

I then biked the thirty minutes to Uptown, an area of Minneapolis that everyone I meet seems to love (though I have to say I don't really get it). This is the second time I've made my way over there, and the biggest draw for me is still Tao Natural Foods (I obviously stopped to get some juice - this time it was a Lean Mean Green Machine: cucumber, kale, celery, and parsley). The rest of Uptown is very shopping heavy, but is mostly stores like Urban Outfitters or American Apparel, which, though I love both dearly, are nothing all that exciting, and certainly not worth the thirty minute bike ride. It was still nice to get out of the apartment, and I'm glad I gave Uptown another chance, even though it once again failed to live up to the hype. 

I came home for an adventure with kale chips which proved to be incredibly successful. I mostly followed this simple recipe, but added a little lemon garlic powder. I've been munching on them all day today, and they make a fantastic, flaky, guilt-free snack. 

I started my morning out today with a yoga class. I intended on going to one of the advanced classes, but accidentally set my mat down in the beginner class' studio, and didn't realize until it was too late to switch. Though it certainly wasn't as demanding as an advanced class, the gentler flow was a really nice way to start out my day. I'm still having a lot of trouble with my balance, which I'm attributing to my sore thighs from all this biking. The balances will come, though, and I'm working on not getting as frustrated when they don't. 

I came home and tried out Happy Herbivore's quick black bean burger recipe, which was indeed quick and easy, and really pretty good. And yes, Mom, you should give this one a try - as long as you're careful when flipping them over, they won't fall apart. I topped mine with some of my farmers market arugula and some ketchup and it made a lovely lunch. 

It's back to the Junie B. Jones grind tomorrow. I'll try to be better about blogging this week.