Chinatown Field Trip

Each and every Saturday morning, my friend Cassie and I visit our local Farmer's Market at the nearby Kapiolani Community College. We load up on veggies, fruit, and freshly baked bread. This ritual is one we cherish and we leave the market feeling productive, inspired to cook with our fresh ingredients, and highly caffeinated! Some weeks that inspiration holds strong and our kitchens are bare by the next Saturday, others leave plenty of grub still remaining the following Saturday. This was one of those plenty-of-leftovers weeks so we decided to try something new and visit Chinatown's markets on our Saturday morning, rather than the FM.

I'd perused the Maunakea Marketplace before, although typically just to kill time on my lunch hour when I worked downtown and not for actual shopping. Poor Cassie had never been before and I think she may have been a little traumatized by the experience!

Our first couple stops were the tiny little stores on the edge of Chinatown that sold a small variety of fruits, veggies, snacks, canned and dried foods.

Pesto Chicken

Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. I'm always mentally planning my next trip, the international one we'll take much later on with vacation time that hasn't yet been accrued, and scheming ways to squeeze in additional stops to Pittsburgh and Disneyland. Travel is one of life's greatest pleasures, although returning to your own home can be, too! My own bed, pillow, shower, pet, and kitchen are all things I find myself missing after just a few days away.

After our vacation to California [which I still owe you several posts from] Bryce and I needed to get back in the habit of eating just 3 meals a day - ha! - and return to a real food eating plan. After a Saturday morning trip to my favorite Farmer's Market, a $200 haul at Sam's Club, and one more stop at a "regular" store, we were enjoying a home made meal in the comfort of our own apartment.

This pesto chicken was made with basil and parsley that I actually planted, grew, and kept alive for a short period of time! The tomatoes are from the Farmer's Market, the spinach is surprisingly organic and from Sam's Club (which you can't say about many things), and the pasta is whole wheat.