Goodness Me!

A couple of weeks ago, I went with my friend Michelle to Hamilton. She was taking a course at McMaster and had to pick up some papers.

Since the parking charges at the university are horrendous, she parks at a friend's place and has about a 10-15 minute walk to the campus. The day was gorgeous! Clear sky, cool temperatures - and some flowers had bloomed!

You know spring has arrived when you see the daffodils.

Tulips were even showing themselves. This is getting even better.



This is one of the best pictures I've taken in a long time. This tree was at the side of an old, old church. The flowers were such a bright pink I couldn't help but notice them from the sidewalk.

Once we finished at the university, we walked back to Michelle's car and drove to Goodness Me! Natural Food Market. There is a location in Burlington, but I was looking for something specific for a recipe test I'm doing for Dreena and the Burlington store only had large packages that were quite expensive. The sales clerk told me the main Hamilton store had it available in bulk so I could just scoop as much as I needed. Michelle was game to go, so off we went.

This store was amazing!! They did have what I was looking for and in addition to a cart half full of things I got the following:

I just can't wait for strawberry season, so I bought some of these. They were big berries and very red .













Usually the big ones are not very juicy or flavourful, but these ones were quite good. They got eaten within a day.






I found this in the cooler. I've never seen it or tried it but it looked and sounded interesting, so I bought it. There were different flavours, but I decided on Black Bean.












This will be good for a quick meal, or to top some leftover rice for a workday lunch.
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My most exciting find of the day....

I saw these at the checkout and shrieked with delight - I was so excited! Michelle came running to see what I'd found. The first time I had Primal Strips was when Kleo was in Toronto for her nephew's wedding. We met up and hung out for a day and she brought me goodies from California. (She's such a sweetheart!) Once I tried them, I was hooked. They are so FREAKIN' GOOD! I have never seen them anywhere around here and figured they were only available in the USA. But here they were - right in Hamilton! Michelle and I were digging through the different flavours and throwing them into the cart. The checkout girl was quite amused by all of this. The Burlington location of Goodness Me! is about a 5 minute walk from the LCBO, so I'm going over there to see if have Primal Strips. (Oh please, oh please.....I would be so happy). Since I had raved & raved about these, I opened one in the car and Michelle and I ate it on the drive home. Now she's hooked.

This store also had a bakery counter featuring Dufflet cakes and pastries. They looked too good to pass up, so I got a couple of small ones for Jim & I to share at dessert.

This one is Key Lime. It had a creamy lime mousse in a chocolate shell. Sounded wonderful. The mousse and the shell seperately tasted good, but together - not so much so. I was a little dissapointed with this one.

I also bought a mini bundt. I couldn't pass this up. Ever see My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Jim thought the part with the bundt cake and the flowers in the middle was funny and we always say it like they did in the movie. Buunnndddttt.
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The cake was orange-cranberry and very delicious. I would buy this one again.

Stay tuned for my post on the recipe test I'm doing. I'm very excited to try it. I'm confident that it will be da bomb because it's a Dreena creation.