Paradise in Cairns Part 2

The produce there was INCREDIBLE!

At RUSTYS MARKETS !! The 3-day markets that are on in the middle of town every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I absolutley LOVE this place! I literally spent 3 days there!

A short drive from Nikki's place, after we had our green smoothies and did our walk, we got out shopping bags and headed on in. Rusty's is un under-cover market selling mainly fresh local fruit and veg, but you can also find organic cheeses and yoghurts, coffees and teas, home made cakes, olives, hot food, books, clothes, even massage beds!  I was in Heaven!

Kang Kong! I had never seen it anywhere before and I LOVE it!

Organic bananas

So many beautiful apples - although I didnt buy any! I went all out on the troical fruits though :)

We wandered up and down the aisles as Nik showed me all her favourites stalls; where she usually gets her delicious bush grown local tomatoes from...
where she sometimes grabs a slice of cheese or two for some nibblies with her partner...
her favourite (and best priced) avocado guy (who lets you taste some sprinkled with a little chilli salt and a squeeze of lemon) omg...
We were tasting everything else as we walked around too coz all the growers have things cut up to taste which is AWESOME coz then you end up buying what you like the best!
But what I loved most was how Nikki was telling me about her weekly ritual when she comes down to the markets - after her initial wander to check out prices and produce, she grabs a vegie samosa with date and tamarind chutney nice and hot from the Hari Krishnas, having a short chin-wag with the beautiful woman that works there... Then she goes to Billy's (who's positioned perfectly next door) for her rice milk mocha and a laugh with him and the girls, before plonking her bum down to read the paper and watch the world go by...

So Nikki got her samosa, got her coffee, I ordered a short black from Billy, and we plonked our bums down watching the world go by...
I loved that :) I love rituals full stop! I love that they make us so happy regardless of what they are...

I know I loved my walk to the espresso bar for my quick shot and short Italian verbal exchange when I was living in Italy... I love that Thursday mornings is gym class at 6am coz it's my absolute favourite - regardless of how many others I do (or don't do), that one is my favourite... Getting down to the markets on a Sunday, followed by yoga (or post-beach when its warmer)... And for the past 2 weeks I'm really excited to say that one new ritual of mine is DAILY yoga, every morning before brekkie. That's huge for me! And I'm LOVING it!

The friendly exchange

We bought greens, fruits, vegies... chatted with local growers about their produce, whether or not they use chemicals (alot don't which is awesome!), tried and tasted their scruptious offerings, and had our thinking caps on over-drive as to what delicious creations we were going to come up with when we got home...

Cabbage and kale salad alongside one very very spicy papaya salad with lots of avo

Kang Kong salad baby!! Great Friday night movie dinner!

One of our green brekkie bowl/smoothies

Banana, coconut and brazil milk thickshake!! So good!

Fresh brekkie smoothies mmm

(We didn't make all that on Friday just so you know... these are our creations over a few days hehe)

Saturday morning instead of doing our own yoga at home we went to a class Nikki goes to each week in town. It was in a beautiful open room, the teacher was wonderful and very thorough in her instruction. After just over an hour of long held stratches, bends, and inversions, Nikki and I wafted out with a few organic passionfruits in tow... on our way to Rusty's again (I was ready for my espresso from Billy) ! I got me a BIG coconut as well (I think the coffee hurt my head a little - not surprising when you're not used to drinking it)

We bought more produce, did some more sampling (you can't resist), more smiles and laughter shared, more people-watching done, more love around... : ) It was my final full day in Cairns so for dinner we had a last minute ENTHUSIASM to do something different!

Nikki has a HUGE basil bush in her back yard... and eggplants growing... we had bought amazing local tomatoes... any ideas so far?
Well we decided in the afternoon sunshine beaming through the kitchen windows we would begin mucking about and come up with some sort of a lasagna/moussaka/layered vegie dish that would taste AMAZING!! (I've had cravings to make one for ages now - you can check out other throw-together ones I've done here and here)

Step 1 - throwing tomatoes, garlic, onion, bit of basil, splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt into the blender = napolitana sauce!


Step 2 - throw copious amounts of basil leaves from the garden into the blender along with garlic, macadamia nuts, olive oil and salt... to find nothing happens... (Nikki doesn't have a food processor)... and then move it to the mortar and pestle to grind it down with alot of loving elbow grease = pesto!

Pesto getting smooshed

Step 3 - an avocado with lemon and chilli mashed in a bowl = guac!

Step 4 - sliced garden eggplants marinated in olive oil = well, marinated eggplant!

And VOILA!

Add some sliced broccoli, kale leaves, whatever you fancy and layer it all together! Nikki whipped up a cheesy sauce using nutirtional yeast flakes, drizzled it ontop. I threw together a side salad using our kang kong and extra brocc, then we took pretty picture before adding extra cheesy sauce, extra napolitana sauce, extra basil pesto... haha THE WORKS!

And god it was good! The perfect end to a brilliant week - but not before a quick last minute dash to Rusty's Sunday morning for coffee and some more fruit to smuggle back home !!