Wednesday, July 28, 2010

High Altitude Roasting

Hola Bloggies:

I know I keep on mentioning this but it’s still sweltering up here in the Rocky Mountains. In fact it’s almost 10PM and it’s only now starting to get bearable. All I know is, I have heaps of respect for those of you that live in the South.

My guess is that although I was born in the tropics I forgot to live in crazy heat somewhere along the way! smile_regular

Monday it was over 100 degrees by the time I left work (over 40C). I couldn’t bear the thought of cooking so I went to the grocery store to buy a deli sub for dinner. That’s when one of my co-workers called wanting to know if we were still on for our standing Monday night doggy hike. Truth be told I was stunned to no end. I couldn’t imagine Daisy out in that heat. To compromise we decided to head out to one of the local lakes (a particularly gorgeous one at the base of the Rocky Mountains) for a picnic dinner and hike.

the steeples

Lovely, no?

reflections 

The lake is spring fed so it’s particularly frigid. Particularly where it gets deeper. This despite the intense Rocky Mountain sun.

puppers

Don’t believe me? Ask my soaking wet puppy!

Gatorade

Dinner featured some G2 Gatorade (I’m a big fan of Gatorade in hot weather since I tend to become easily dehydrated).

sub

More deli sandwiches made by my local Safeway.

cherries

Some wonderful British Columbia grown cherries.

les bleus

I also added one of the new Kashi granola bars (courtesy of a coupon I received for a free box).

a trio

The bars had pretty decent nutritionals.

kashi

caloric stuff

At first glance I was impressed.

aerial kashi

side-view kashi

back kashi

And as far as the taste I have to say my mouth was pretty happy. My chocolate raspberry bar was not too sweet and certainly not salty. I also enjoyed the fact that it tasted like it had a layer of raspberry jam between the chocolate and the granola bar itself. Overall I was pleased.

The Fiancé however felt something was missing. He deemed it “healthy tasting.” Which is his way of saying that his taste-buds weren’t fooled by the chocolate layer.

Our friend clearly voiced her opinion when she blurted out “Chocolate!?!? THIS is chocolate!?!?” Apparently she wasn’t fooled either.

The problem I had with the bars was when I noticed that buried at the end of the ingredient list was peanut flour. I was sad. Never before have I needed to worry about peanuts with Kashi. And here they went and made a bar with peanut flour. Given that I’m allergic to peanuts I won’t be buying these bars again.

Miraculously I didn’t get sick from the bars – which leads me to believe that the peanut flour content is negligible at best. Likely why it’s right at the end of the ingredient list. Still, I won’t be risking my health in the future.

includes

I honestly don’t understand why Kashi would stipulate on the package that the bars contained dates and raspberries and somehow neglect to mention peanuts. Fail Kashi. FAIL.

After dinner we splashed around the lake where I snapped some more pictures of the surroundings.

reflection

clouds

As the evening cooled we made our way to another lake where we went on our regular hike. It was hot. Brutally hot. And the sun was blistering.

lake two

Still, we lasted about an hour and a half before heading home. Not bad.

I had grand hopes of going for a three mile run after my hike. Ha! I ended up with heat stroke and passed out from my crazy migraine. Clearly, I should have taken my outdoor activities a little lighter, given the weather. Noted.


Question: What do you do to cool off in the midst of the summer?

8 comments:

Andrea (Off Her Cork) said...

Oh that would be so fun to go hiking and swimming after work complete with picnic dinner! :D I bet Daisy was tuckered right out.

Ingredients are listed by weight, so the first ingredient is what makes up the majority of the product. Which is why when stuff has sugar or white flour as the first few ingredients that is a bad bad sign. So with the peanut flour being at the tail end, that means it weights the least. So you're right in that it was only a trace amount. Still should have been clearly labeled though!

Jocelyn said...

Wow, all those views are amazing. Sounds like a good time to me! Bad Kashi!

Unknown said...

Beautiful pictures!! :)
That's too bad about the kashi bars... I can't have them either - booo!!

I cool off by going swimming at the lake!! Although our house is pretty cool in the summer time!

a bike rider in the big smoke said...

i cool off by going for a nice intense bike ride :-P there's a breeze! and with enough water it's usually ok.

Marathon Maritza said...

I love kashi granola/cereal/etc bars! But yeah, the peanut allergy should've been on there.

I have two words for you on how I cool off in the summers: pool. popsicles.

:)

Kelsey Ann said...

ew i totally know that 'healthy tasting chocolate' taste. haha "chocolate? this is chocolate?" hahahaha <3

at least it had major eye candy.

and yay for cherries! ;)

xoxo <3

Anonymous said...

Amazing pictures! Your picnic looks soo good. My pup would definitely enjoy splashing around in that water.

Marianne (frenchfriestoflaxseeds) said...

Remind me to never come up and visit your area in the summer. I'd melt. I hide out in my basement here when it gets up around 30 degrees C just to keep cool.

As for the Kashi labelling - aren't the allergens usually at the end of the ingredient list? It looks like it from the pictures you posted...so technically, it is on there that it contains those things. I think the dates/raspberries on the front isn't for allergies, and more to let consumers know what fruits they have used to make the topping.