Tuesday Night Dinner: Coconut Shrimp

I have lucked out (knock on wood) in the last little while. I filled out a survey that someone at work had e-mailed out about one of my favourite local fair trade (and co-op) chocolate places... And I won!

I walked over to the La Siembra office (their office is about 3 blocks from mine) and picked up my basket: Chocolate, coffee,  sugar, coconut and more chocolate! Yum.  I promised them I would send over my recipes and pictures of the delicious food I made using their products.

First up: Coconut Shrimp

All you need: egg, flour, coconut, shrimp, oil for frying 

 sizzle. sizzle. sizzle.

A quick, yet perfectly delicious, dinner.

It takes about 10 minutes to do this: Peel the shrimp and throw it into a bowl with a little flour. Dip the flour coated shrimp into a bowl with beaten egg whites. Take them out and roll in fair trade coconut. Pop them into a frying pan with a little oil. Keep an eye on them as they burn quick! Serve on lettuce, or rice. A nice addition would be sweet chili dipping sauce, but I love them just as they are.

So, will you be over for the next round?

☮ & love.

A collection of images on my desktop that I can now file into the inspiration folder.

 Hand painted leopard nails. Best. Room mate. Ever.

Barbie shoes. Just because. 

Super tempted to grab a paint brush at this moment...

Truth. 

Volia!  

Long weekend fun: Montreal

Saturday was a fabulous day of shopping, eating, seeing the gorgeous tulips around Parliament and drinking wine on a rooftop patio. J, F & I spent the afternoon lounging and enjoying the weather (seriously, the first day of sunshine in what felt like forever) and discussing our weekend plans. We decided to take the opportunity and drive to Montreal. I haven't been since I was young and none of us had any Sunday plans. The weather was supposed to be so/so (not too hot, not too cold, maybe a little rain). Plans we're made, drinks were had.

Turns out that Sunday was actually a perfect day. We arrived around 11am, parked and took the metro into the heart of the city. We got off at a top near the art gallery (which I'm sure would have been the first stop had it started to rain) and had fun playing on the musical swings. First 2 minutes and I remembered how much I loved this city. 

Musical swings.

Having way too much fun on the swings

Exploring Old Montreal.

The view from our dinner dining spot 

Oh yes, we rent Bixi bikes and rode around the city for hours! 

I made them take breaks for picture opportunities. They made me bike up steep hills.  

It was a very impromptu day. We decided we were either going to end up in NYC or Montreal (8 hours vs. 1 1/2 hours) but ended up deciding that crossing the boarder in a car that didn't belong to either of us probably wasn't the best idea. I have a feeling that NYC will happen soon, though.  So it was a great day. A bit of shopping (why has no one told me about Simons before?), lots of walking and oh so much time spent biking in and around the city. A perfect long weekend day.

I need to buy a bicycle.

And maybe live here. 

Tulip Festival

I love May 2-4. It's sort of like the official start to summer and the beginning of (hopefully) amazing hot weather. It's been raining for the past week and finally(!) let up on Saturday. So much, in fact, I (the one that rarely tans and barely had any colour from a year in Australia) got a tan. Well, perhaps more of a burn-tan, but close enough for my liking. 

So, Saturday I ended up spending the day getting food at my new favourite lunch stop (made on the spot, Italian sandwiches) and stopping by the Tulip Fesitval with J & F. I had told *Shopgirl that I would do a post on my favourite summer dress for her blog, so I seized the opportunity and had a mini photoshoot in the park with the guys.

Of course, the man with children walked into my favourite photo. 

Animal bits. Perhaps of the water-bear kind?

Being sills. 

The shoes which, for some reason, I did not get an outdoor picture of...

Alley way full of the most wonderful shops.

I'm not sold on this city in the winter. It's cold, bland and no one leaves their houses (err, me, anyway). But in the summer, it becomes this picture perfect place where everyone go outside and walks around and it's just really nice most of the time. I can deal with the summer here, for sure. 

Summer, please never end.

From the Inspiration Files

Step one: get my own loft apartment

Step two: purchase large chandelier 

Step three: Buy white things and accessorize with pink accents. 

A girl can dream, right?

Things To Remember

My thoughts exactly.

found here.