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Hello there! Last week, I had an opportunity to go tour the Bob’s Red Mill factory, which is just outside of Portland. The tour was very informational, and I now have so much more appreciation for Bob and Bob’s Red Mill as a company. We got a glimpse into the test kitchens and production areas,  with tidbits about the history of Bob and his family, and how he grew his product into a full business. Bob’s Red Mill is now an employee-owned business, which is pretty cool.

Whole grains (containing all 3 parts of the kernel: the bran, germ and endosperm) offer many nutritious benefits, and are full of fiber, B-vitamins, trace minerals (zinc, copper, iron, magnesium) and even protein! Bob’s Red Mill is a leader in gluten-free products, and use a whole separate building for processing these grains. I love that they have so much variety in their products.

After the tour, we headed over to the Whole Grain Store, which has a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was so cute! I ordered a buckwheat pancake with two eggs (but sadly, I ate it too quickly to snap a photo).

From doing my research about places to see while in Portland, I came across the Rose Garden in Washington Park, and decided to give it a visit. It was beautiful, with over 7,000 rose plants. You could easily spend a few hours there. While at Washington Park, I also ran up the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park, which is the running mecca for training and long runs here in Portland, offering over 80 miles of soft-surface trails.

In foodie news, I crossed another restaurant off the BLT – a highly-rated restaurant, Toro Bravo, which I very much enjoyed. I went with a group of five total, and we split a bunch of dishes. Some of the tapas we enjoyed were the radicchio salad, the salt cod fritters, the brussel sprouts in a sherry bacon sauce (amazzzzing), clam cataplana, roasted eggplant and lamb ragu (my favorite!) and the chicken catalan. Of those, my favorite was the Eggplant and Lamb Ragu (the eggplant was perfectly roasted) and the brussel sprouts, which had the perfect amount of char from the grill and salt from the bacon. The salt cod fritters were a little too salty for my liking, and the amount of fried batter overtook the fish taste. We also split lots of sangria and pino noir. All the makings of a great night out!

Do you have a bucket list with yummy restaurants?