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  • Tag: Ice Cream

    • Seattle Staycation

      Posted at 5:00 AM by Brittany, on January 9, 2017

      Anytime I find myself in Seattle for an extended period of time I consider it a mini stay-cation. It’s not quite a vacation because I’m only hopping, skipping, and jumping across a small body of water, but it’s time away from my home making it an adventure nonetheless.

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      I spent the last eight days house sitting in Seattle, and my days looked something like this: work (three of the days), eat (all of the days), and explore (most of the days.) Despite the fact that I do get paid for these house sitting gigs, I typically end up spending more than half of what I make on food. I consider it bonus cash. 🙂

      I spent a lot of time at Whole Foods hot bar spending my life savings on all things vegetables. 

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      I’ve made a conscious effort to use Whole Foods for here bowls instead of putting my meal into a to go box. Let’s be honest, I eat it all while I’m in store anyway, might as well save a bit of the planet while I’m at it.

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      I had a few more bowls from different days, I just couldn’t deny the convenience of this Whole Foods being so close to Green Lake, another place I spent a few hours of my time. Here I found my soul mate in bird form, all black body (like my soul) with giant odd looking feet. I was also a witness to a love triangle. Female ducks know how to work their bodies despite being less flashy looking than the males.

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      We can all take a note from the female Mallard. Confidence on point. 

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      I gave my first unborn child to eat an acai bowl, little did they know I don’t plan to have kids. So expensive, but so good. I’m excited to be reunited with my blender. Perhaps next time I just bring it with me. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

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      I kept my sugar beast in check most of the days despite being surrounded by copious amounts of amazing vegan treats, except for one solid choice. A new ice cream shop opened in November showcasing plant based goodness with a base of raw sprouted cashews and coconut milk (no fillers or gums), somewhat sweetened by dates and maple syrup, and with amazingly unique flavor profiles.

      The cone is made from maple syrup and oats. Das it.

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      Be still my plant based heart. Top scoop is salty caramel ash infused with activated charcoal, bottom is California cabin infused with pine needles, black pepper, cardamom, and smoked sea salt. If you’re ever planning to visit Seattle, Frankie and Jo’s is a must. Did I mention pine needles? So much yes

      I tend to enjoy eating ice cream mostly in the winter months, I’m not sure why. I don’t really eat a lot of ice cream and in the summer with the heat it makes me feel heavy. I happily ate these scoops despite the frozen tundra that hit Seattle last week. So cold it froze parts of the lake.

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      I spent a solid five hours with a friend from work over the weekend. It was nice to chat with a like minded individual, those are hard for me to find these days. She’s the bee’s knees.

      The only other honorable mention from my week in the city was the sleeping cat I found at the park by the gym I went to. What I want to know is WHERE these statues were when I was a child? Kids these days have it so good.

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      I’d have climbed on his back like he were Falcor from The Neverending Story. Or maybe the dragon would have been better suited for that, although his spikes look painful.

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      Back home, and back to school today. I had a glorious month long break making it equal parts hard and easy to go back. This will be my last full semester, with a partial semester over the summer to finish things off. I.Am.So.Ready. 

      Q: What kind of entertainment did you have in the parks as a child? I was early teens when I first saw a t-rex dino you could ride forward and back. It was purple, and it was the coolest.

      brittany

      | 46 Comments Tagged Explore, Green Lake, Ice Cream, Seattle, Vegan, Whole Foods
    • As We Go on

      Posted at 5:00 AM by Brittany, on May 31, 2016

      I’ve been out of high school for nearly ten years. Looking back I would say I was neutral about my high school experience, but back then leaving those walls gave me similar feelings to having my chest stomped on by a 2 ton black bear.

      Hearing the song “graduation” by Vitamin C made me cry like a big ol’ baby when I was 18. Ohh to be young. I’m not even sure why I was sad, perhaps because the idea of “being a grown up” was frightening, but as I’ve learned in my 27 years on this earth we never really grow up. We just evolve and hopefully become better people.

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      My beautiful younger sister Renae just graduated from high school, and I was fortunate enough to fly down to Arizona and attend the party. As with any trip to Arizona there are a handful of highlights I’d like to share.
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      I left the lush green trees of Washington and attempted to trail run at 12pm during Arizona spring time. Not nearly as bad as Arizona summer time, but I made it a whopping 3.5 miles in the 90 degree weather before calling for back up.

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      DAAADD save me, I’m covered in tiny spiky balls.

      The remainder of my runs were done before 8 am. I didn’t dare repeat this rookie mistake and melt to the side of a cactus. In fact every type of physical activity was done before 8 am. This included a handful of 7 am runs, a 5:45 am kayak adventure, and a 6:30 am hike.

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      I made a friend in the mountains, I called him Frank.

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      No. not him. He looked more like a Bill. 

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      FRANK THE TANK!

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      For our kayak adventure we used inflatable kayaks and practiced in the pool first. Heaven forbid we sink like the Titanic if one had a hole in it.

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      I searched high and lo (aka Googled) for places that served nitrogen infused cold brew iced coffee, and I found one place close to where we hiked. Got some goodness at Songbird Coffee and Tea house in Phoenix.

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      I fulfilled my dream of wearing a hair net once again by volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, an Arizona tradition.
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      Visited a vegan restaurant per my dads suggestion. Those words he uttered were like glitter covered unicorns, I think I’ll keep him. We ate at Green Vegetarian Restaurant in Phoenix and gave a universal verdict of: OHMYGAHYESYESYES.

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      Chili fries, fried brussels sprouts, and “buffalo wings”

      Best part of this meal: the owners also own a dessert shop called Nami just a hop, skip, OR, a jump away. Literally 10 ft from each other.

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      I ordered a vanilla soft serve “tsoynami” with pretzels, chocolate, marshmallow fluff, and coco cereal. I then proceeded to understand the meaning of life. So.Good.

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      Just in case anyone was curious where I get my dashing good looks from… 

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      Time with family is always a great recharge for me. I came home full of love, and with eighteen mosquito bites – a good prep for summers in the mountains.

      Q: What were your final days of high school like?

      atterned-n

      | 67 Comments Tagged Arizona, Coffee, Hike, Ice Cream, Run, Vacation, Vegan
    • Bubble Jaw

      Posted at 9:10 AM by Brittany, on December 21, 2015

      Well my friends, the deed has been done. I am on day four of recovery after having oral surgery last week and things are looking up.

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      The surgeon described the cyst in my jaw as looking like a bubble, hence the title of this post. For those of you that are just tuning in I had a mandibular cyst that was noticed back in March and has continued to grow. Naturally I got all kinds of curious about these things and decided to watch a YouTube video at 1am after my surgery.

      If you can handle guts and gore, and are as intrigued as I am LOOK AT THIS.

      OH. MY. GOSH.

      Soft food diet - oatmeal and ice cream at midnight.

      Soft food diet – oatmeal and ice cream at midnight.

      I’ll keep my words short, I had a video to share that chronicled my day, but I no longer have the footage. Basically it’s showing how whiny I get without food (I went 28 hours without as much as a crumb) and how swollen my face looked. Oh and my mom recorded me after the surgery. That was fun.

      In order to fully go to Infinity and Beyond while under anesthesia I wore the appropriate attire. I’m now thinking about turning this into a fashion blog.

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      #ootd

      My only complaint aside from feeling like I was dying because I couldn’t eat (dramatic much?) was the pain…IN MY HAND. I had minimal pain in my mouth and didn’t even fill my prescription for pain meds, but my hand hurt like hell. I had an IV stabbed delicately placed into my vein.

      It’s still bruised.

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      OK I’m done whining, the procedure went well, everyone did great, and I’m just nursing the remaining swelling. Life is good.

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      Or maybe I’m hoarding chestnuts for the winter. One will never know.

      Q:  What’s the longest you’ve gone without food? Clearly I’m still dwelling on this…

      b

      | 73 Comments Tagged Ice Cream, Surgery
    • Annette Lake

      Posted at 6:58 AM by Brittany, on July 2, 2015

      To beat the heat this past weekend I broke out of my comfort zone and embarked on a new solo hike. I hadn’t been to an alpine lake in nearly a year, and with temps in the 90’s I figured there would be a few other hikers there.

      No other hikers makes me nervous for animal encounters.

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      I headed to Annette Lake, and the trail was more popular than I anticipated. Thankfully I arrived early enough to snag a parking spot and beat the latecomers.


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      I only had to pass people a few times, leaving me alone with my thoughts the majority of the 7.5 mile round trip adventure. I adore solo hikes.

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      Once I reached the lake I noticed a handful of campers. As I sat and ate my food I daydreamt about overnight hiking and waking up with the sun.

      Sipping my coffee with a view like this needs to happen soon.

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      This trail has a great canopy cover making for a comfortable hike despite the heat. The elevation gain was a mere 1400 ft, but I definitely got sweaty. One of these times I will jump into a lake, I’ll be doing plenty more lake hikes this summer.

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      My fuel of choice during the hike was a scone and some berries, and post hike I wolfed down some potatoes and veggies courtesy of Whole Foods. I haven’t been craving sweets much lately, and I think it’s because I’ve upped my protein intake (naturopath’s orders), but then I stumbled across something I couldn’t pass by.

      IMG_2287IMG_2274This old school VW travels around Seattle selling vegan ice cream sandwiches with unique flavor combinations. I’d heard about it, I’d seen photos of it, but just like a mystical unicorn I had never actually seen it myself.

      Then I drove by it and knew I had to stop.

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      My heart was set on the snicker doodle cookie with coffee ice cream sandwich, but I was too late and there was only one option left. This would never have been my first choice, but trying something new was fun and it was delicious.

      It was a successful Saturday indeed.

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      Q: What’s your favorite solo adventure?

      atterned-n

      | 62 Comments Tagged Annette Lake, Hike, Ice Cream, PNW, Solo Hike, Vegan
    • Certified Dough Digger

      Posted at 4:05 AM by Brittany, on February 3, 2014

      Lately I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts that contain waffles. A lot of waffles. This leaves me craving a crispy, crunchy, waffle almost more than a cupcake. Almost. I love waffles, but I don’t usually eat them in the morning, I like them more..decadent.

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      This may just be my new favorite dessert. The crispy texture of the warm waffle, with the cold melting sweetness of the (coconut milk) ice cream was delectable.

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      I must confess, I am a digger..an ice cream digger. This cookie dough ice cream didn’t stand a chance against me and my spoon. I dig, and I dig, and I dig..until all that’s left is a mushy mess of milk and chocolate. Let’s be honest though, no one buys chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for the chocolate chunks..it’s all about the dough!

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      I know I’m not the only one that does this though, in fact it’s more common than you would think. I guarantee at least 2/3 of the comments I get on this post will admit to being a dough digger. No shame in our game! This cookie dough ice cream was the perfect balance to the waffle, but other great combos would be classic vanilla or chocolate, and fancier combos like chocolate brownie, or mocha almond fudge. MMMMM…mocha.

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      Just like that..I have another post dedicated entirely to one tasty treat. When the treats are that good, they deserve their own post!! I’m also trying to figure out my camera on my own (I still haven’t opened my manual book.) I’m discovering what works best as far as locations, lighting, backdrops (for example: This light colored backdrop doesn’t work for the top half of this photo, and a darker color would have been better for the ice cream.)

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      Needless to say, I’m having a ton of fun playing photographer despite my amateur shots. What a great hobby to develop.

      Q(s):

      • Have you tried the ice cream/waffle combo?
      • What flavor would YOU put on top?
      • Are you an ice cream digger?

      b

      | 55 Comments Tagged Dessert, Ice Cream, Vegan, Waffles
    • Good People

      Posted at 7:30 AM by Brittany, on July 6, 2013

      Last weekend I spent some time with old/new friends. I say old/new because while they are new to me friends..I have met them before because we all went to high school together. A mutual friend recently came into town and brought us all together. Since the three of us have no friends we decided to make a trip to Seattle together.

      The original plan was to go to a couple farmers markets, but we only made it to one and were only there for about 8 min. Enough time to snap some pictures & drink some juice.

      Fruit wine!

      Fruit wine!

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      Raspberry Tetris

      Raspberry Tetris

      The remainder of the day was spent figuring out public transportation (I have never ridden so many city buses in my life, and it was a blast of an adventure), eating good food, and spending time looking at thrift shops, bakery’s, and coffee shops.

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      While this bakery had an adorable picture worthy sign, they did not have anything worth purchasing inside. So I did what any Seattle lover would do, and I walked across the street to Starbucks. I got some weird looks for getting a drip coffee while it was 80F outside.

      This is how I double fist. Water and coffee!

      This is how I double fist. Water and coffee!

      It’s no secret that I love to walk, however the temperatures were getting higher and higher throughout the day, and it was hard to walk at times. You know you’re with good people when despite the heat you still go out of your way to walk for some sugar.

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      This homemade ice cream shop has one vegan ice cream option, which was delicious, but reminded my why I don’t like ice cream on hot days. Call me crazy, but I feel so sick and weighed down with the heaviness of frozen cream on a hot day. Nonetheless this coconut milk chocolate chunk ice cream was SO good. Must remember for a COOLER day.

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      I really liked that my ice cream was the same price as all the “normal” ice creams. Usually I find that I am paying more for a vegan option (which is lammmeee) but this place charges by the scoop regardless of the flavor! That’s the way to do it! All in all it was a fun and exhausting day with new friends.

      Q: What foods do you stay away from on a hot day? Ice cream, fatty foods, HOT meals, anything heavy. 

      b

      | 47 Comments Tagged Adventure, Ice Cream, Seattle, Starbucks, Vegan
    • BRITTANY- Self proclaimed minimalistic nomad striving to maintain a balanced, healthy life with good food, long bike rides, deep connections, exploration, and lots of cucumbers.
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