Inside Oso Negro, learning to have patience, and weekend eats

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? I had a lovely time with lots of sunshine..I even see my skin is slightly darker!Yay! I also had a little issue with my knees that I'll get to that later on. I also enjoyed a couple dandilion latte's ....I'm officially addicted! I have talked a lot about chilling at my fav coffee shop, Oso Negro, but I haven't shown you any picts. Today, I'm going to change that! The building is actually a house that they converted into a coffee shop so that in itself gives it this homey feeling.

I love all the beams and the sunken in area in the middle. They also feature local art which is always changing so it's like going to a gallery every weekend..you never know what is going to be featured.


Sweet patio hey? Its so spacious and the wood benches are gorgeous and surprisingly comfortable. As this is a very wood-loving town, it only made sense that they honored that and used the beautiful oak for the benches.

Check out this cool piece of art..something to do with the world and at axis.




Ry with the "world in his hand"...lol!

This beautiful Magnolia (I think that is what it's called) brought amazing color to the patio.

Ta Da!!! The infamous dandelion latte with rice milk..yuumm!

The hubby with his delish dark roast. Check out the curved bench:)

I love this place and for what they stand for. They brew organic coffee and roast their coffee beans in Nelson. They feature locally made treats, most of them are vegan and some are gluten-free, all look amazing. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the goodie case. If you ever pass through Nelson in your travels, you need to stop there. Really, its a must:) And...check out my new shades....

Pink aviators!!! Oh, ya! I'm pretty bad with my sunglasses. I lose at least one pair every summer by either sitting on them or leaving them at a counter somewhere.
So, I don't buy expensive shades but I love these and I'll try extra hard to hold onto them.

As I said on Friday, I was going to go on run #2 as the weather was too good to ignore. I actually wore shorts for the first time..isn't that the best?

I was really excited to get to wear these as I've owned them for a couple of years and they never fit. You know one of those "oh these are on sale and cute" buys..lol. But a Whole foods diet does a body good:)

Besides the cute polka dots, I really love that these don't have a zipper or buttons, they just have the criss-cross tie-up on the side! I like clothing that's unique:)

The run went well and with all the vacant benches, I was able to do 3 sets of 10 push-ups on the back side of the benches along the run. It was so nice to have the sun on my face and to listen to some bumpin' music on my ipod. Yet, the next morning my right knee was super tight and somewhat swollen. I had to limp most of the day and took the day off from the gym. I was really frustrated and thought that maybe my knees were back to their old, injured self. I push myself hard, I want to do as much as I can for my body, yet, sometimes its too much. I was confused too because I felt great after my first run. If it was the running you'd think the knees would swell every time. So, I re-traced my actions of the day and remembered that I had hit my shoe very hard on a raised part of concrete the day before. So, the running must have just egged it on, so to speak. I woke up Sunday morning and it felt better and I was prepared to go to the gym but I need to learn to give my body time. It knows what to do and I wish it could relay that information onto my selfish mind would learn to lay low when needed. I decided to take another day, just to be safe. Just because I want to complete my weeks work of TT workouts, doesn't mean that my body is up to it. I'm learning (slowly) to listen to my body, but I'm no expert. I know that I did a good thing by not lifting or doing intervals this weekend, yet I feel like I failed my program. I want to overcome this mentality because in essence I won because now I won't have a major injury to deal with which could put me out weeks. Do you have patience with your body? Do you allow things to heal fully before getting back into the game?


Now onto some good eats! Friday was a pantry dinner that was lentils with onions, carrots, and cabbage with pasta sauce..kind of like sloppy joes without the bread. Delish and filling!

I love this dish as it takes so little time to make. Cooking the lentils is the only limiting factor. The rest of the dish takes 5 minutes. So, 35 minutes total = perfect!


I ate a lot of salads with an abundance of sprouts. This salad had clover, daikon radish, and broccoli sprouts. I covered the veggies with some delish tahini-miso-ginger dressing.

Oh yum! I could literally lick the bowl this stuff is so good!

I love fried onions..its my one cooked food that still makes its presence often. I also love it mixed with quinoa and then...a little ketchup. You might think that its not appetizing at all. That's fine.. It's one of those foodie things for me..and possibly me only..lol!

I made some of Averie's High Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. This time I decided to put half of the chocolate chips into the food processor with the other ingredients rather than leave them whole. The result was an even more convincing cookie dough..yum!

Check out the little chocolate chunks..mmmm. You need to try these!

I also made some of Meghan's Superfood Bon Bons...

Ya..these rawk and the ingredients are all super dooper for you! This reminds me, her 5 Days Healing with Everyday Superfoods tutorial is on now. I'll be making some of her recipes this week and they sound amazing. If you want to get more amazing superfood recipes, grab her tutorial!

I made this recipe again that is off of Carmella's blog. It was posted by Mosaica on the Raw Freedom Community. The Indian Carrot Curry Soap is so good and I love the spice combo. We ate it like a curry on a bed of quinoa with some daikon sprouts for some added crunch. It makes a lot which is awesome because you will want seconds! You may even be lucky enough to attend one of her classes, like Bitt!

This week is chalk full of fun stuff going on, with Meghan's tutorial, green smoothie cleanse (more about this later), and its EARTH WEEK! It's time to give Mother Nature a break this week so change something in your life to a "greener" option whether it be bringing your own coffee mug to the cafe in the morning, walking to work, eating a veggie meal, or starting a compost. I'm going to be taking part in Lori and Katie's Green Week Challenge.Wahoo! It's going to be fun!





Have a great Earth Week and do something green!