Restaurant: A Thing for Chocolate

I have a thing for A Thing for Chocolate. That's right, I've been there many times and I won't stop! There's buzz going on about this hidden gem in the Hintonburg neighbourhood of Ottawa. They even received a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor! The French-themed restaurant has an extensive menu of sweet and savory crepes, coffee and mocha drinks. 

The owner, Omar, has developped a seperate vegan crepe menu and keeps

Favourite Cookbooks for Gift-Giving

It seems like every year I consistently have cookbooks on my wish list. Even with all the new ones coming out, there's always the handful that you keep going back to. I've rounded up a few of my favorites that are perfect for gift-giving.

This year's shopping list will be so easy!

For the Italian (at heart): Comforting recipes for the creamy pasta lovers.
Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli

VegFoodFest 2014: Part 3 - Sunday

For my third day in Toronto, I needed to get myself some breakfast since VegFoodFest started a little later. We went to Fresh Restaurant for a lovely breakfast of vegan pancakes, tofu scramble, tempeh bacon and a side of onion rings. Their almond milk latte is also amazing! I also loved the funky paint colors and chandeliers, it made for a fun atmosphere. 

Once at the Harbourfront where the festival is held, I attended Big Bald Mike's first ever public speaking event.

VegFoodFest 2014: Part 2 - Saturday

Saturday was a beautiful morning in Toronto heading to Day 2 of VegFoodFest hosted by the Toronto Vegetarian Association. If you haven't seen the previous post, here it is.

My breakfast consisted of Cookies & Cream Marshmallows and a Sticky Bun from Apiecalypse Now Bakery. Because who doesn't love an overload of sugar first thing in the morning!

The Matcha Series: The Green Banana (2-in-1 Recipe)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Kiss Me Organics to try their wonderful organic matcha powder. For those of you who don't know, matcha is simply green tea leaves that are ground down to a fine powder. Instead of steeping and straining the tea leaves, you mix it with water or other liquids and drink it. This gives you much more nutritional value and antioxidant benefits than the steeping method.

Because there are SO many ways to use matcha, I wanted to share multiple recipes to use it in. For the first recipe in this series, I give you a very simple and easy smoothie recipe which can also be tweaked into an ice-cream recipe.

Fried Bananas

Sushi is one of those things that you either love it or hate it. For me, it's an incredible love that sometimes turns abusive (all-you-can-eat is dangerous). One of the highlights of a sushi outing is the fried bananas for dessert, so I set out to re-create them in the simplest way possible.

Repost: There's Bacon in my Cupcake!

As some of you may know, I have recently teamed up with some fabulous ladies to form a blog called The Mindful Mavens. It was started as a way to share various vegan lifestyle options available in Ottawa, including food, businesses, events, etc. Click here to learn more about who we are. I recently wrote this post, which is about cupcakes. Look how gorgeous they are!

The two ladies at The Compassionate Rabbit know how to make a good vegan cupcake. Inspired by their pet rabbits, they aim to share love and compassion through delicious vegan treats. Willing to take on a new challenge, they went to their Facebook fans to decide on a new flavor. It just so happens that they chose mine! What was this winning flavor? Well, Maple Bacon of course.

Not only did they succeed on the flavor notes and a great coconut bacon recipe, but they went above