Crampton's Market in Winnipeg! Plus a delicious salad with a creamy avocado dressing!

So I have visited Crampton's Market several times since being here in Winnipeg. Crampton's Market is located on Waverley and is a great place to snag local, organic produce as well as a variety of freshly baked vegan bread and buns! What I love so much other than the produce of course, is that Crampton's has a great reward incentive. Every time you buy $30 worth of groceries you get a stamp and after you have received 5 stamps, you get $10 off your grocery bill! That's great!

Since I have shopped at Crampton's I have found local strawberries, raspberries, garlic, spinach, a variety of lettuces, asparagus, peas, beets, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and so much more! I also treated myself to some vegan coconut-lime cupcakes which were HEAVENLY!!! I also really enjoy their vegan hamburger buns and flax bread which is made their and tastes so fresh and delicious!

It's so great to find and support local businesses! You feel so great buying from the local farmers and the food tastes so much better!

This morning I made this DELICIOUS salad that just gave me an abundance of energy that lasted for HOURS! I woke up feeling like I really wanted to fuel my body with a power-breakfast so I steamed some flowering kale and asparagus. While that was steaming I cooked some quinoa and grated a beet and carrot. I sliced some cucumber and then threw everything on a plate and sprinkled some pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds over top! The dressing I made was inspired by Dan's cousin Beth whom we had lunch with the other day. She is an amazingly healthy individual and Ally, Dan, Noah and I went over to her place for lunch! We made a delicious salad and Beth drizzled this creamy avocado (plus an abundance of other tasty ingredients as well), dressing over top. Anyways, I wanted to re-create this dressing but didn't really know everything that was involved. So I started by mashing 1/3 of an avocado in a bowl. I added 1/2 a spoonful of whole grain mustard, a few drops of maple syrup and 2 tsp. of apple cider vinegar. I mixed everything together and drizzled it over my salad! VOILA! It wasn't the same taste (I forgot to add garlic), but it was incredible!!! I had so much energy afterwards that I took full advantage of the beautiful sunshine!

I walked Maggie and Alfie for 1/2 an hour and then Dan and I went for over an hour bike ride through the neighbourhood and around Fort Whyte which is a local nature sanctuary here in Winnipeg. There were so many ponds and lakes to cycle around and a spot that looks over bison at the reserve. It was so beautiful. I love nature sanctuary's so much! They fill me happiness but I have to say that I can't help but feel disappointed that Fort Whyte also has a cafe called the Bison Cafe which serves and sells bison burgers/meat. I asked a really nice lady who works there and she assured me that the bison were from a DIFFERENT farm and that the bison here are "for the most part" able to live a cruelty-free life...I wasn't sure what 'for the most-part' meant and I wasn't sure why they needed to sell meat at all! I mean, couldn't they just serve light refreshments that don't include selling any bison or other animals?!