Toronto's Vegetarian Food Fair 2014 - My Top Picks

Since my first glimpse into veganism back in 2009, Toronto's Vegetarian Food Fair has been the standard way I spend the first weekend in September after Labour Day. I am sad to be missing the Food Fair this year as I will be heading to Ottawa for the weekend, but if you're in the city here are the things you should definitely see, do and EAT this weekend to celebrate the Fair's 30th anniversary!!

Learn a thing

There are some amazing speakers joining the lineup this year including Bryant Terry, Ricki Heller, Terry Hope Romero and my sweet friend, Meghan Telpner. There will be lots to learn from the politics of veganism, how to ferment things and previews of all sorts of yummy recipes. Be sure to pop inside or check out one of the stages to see what's happening.

See one of my favourite local bakers in action

It's no secret that I love Bunners, so I think it's awesome that Ashley Wittig will be sharing some baking secrets in her demo. (Also maybe, samples?!) And if you miss that, check out their cookbook - I'm slowly working my way through it and LOVING it!! Can't wait to post my review very soon!

Eat tasty treats

While I've noted the lack of vegetables in previous years at the Food Fair, I enjoyed a great dinner from Green Zebra last year (with kale!!) and there is certain to be no shortage of delicious treats for you to enjoy! Be sure to check out Sweets from the Earth, Bloomers and APiecalypseNow.

Cross something off your bucket list

While you're in Toronto, you might as well check out the rest of the city and some of the incredible vegan offerings our city has. My lovely friend Lisa has put together a sweet list of Toronto's Best Vegan Restaurant Dishes to help get you started! I've only tried 28 out of the 100 so far, but was stoked to cross Boreal Gelato's Vegan Salted Caramel gelato off the list last week. Holy yum!!

The Food Fair begins tonight and runs until Sunday evening at the Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queen's Quay West. Happy Food Fair-ing!!!

Treats and Taste Tests at the Vegetarian Food Fair

Last month, the 29th Annual Vegetarian Food Fair came to the Harborfront Centre and I was stoked to be attending for my fifth year in a row! (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 posts) It was also the first year that I wasn't actually working at the show, but solely attending as a guest. With a snazzy media badge.

The TVA did an awesome job of organizing an agenda of great speakers and events throughout the weekend. Sadly, the rain on Saturday put a damper on some of the outdoor events, but that did not stop thousands of people from visiting everything else the festival had to offer over the course of the weekend! There were speakers on all kinds of topics relating to vegetarianism, delectable food demos and interesting panels covering a wide variety of perspectives.

I've previously expressed my frustration in lack of options for vegetables and healthier food choices at the Food Fair. One would think that an event of this nature, I would be surrounded by an abundance of Ashley-friendly options, but this has not always been the case. However much I enjoyed all the sweets and special treats, I just think there's more to vegan / vegetarian cuisine than what is often depicted by the food vendors that are represented. We have so many AMAZING vegan-friendly restaurants in the city and I'd love to see them better represented at the Fair. That being said, it seems that the options are getting a bit better and I was super stoked to see that Green Zebra was back with lots of gluten free, vegan eats. I opted for the mac and cheese with a side of kale salad.


It was pretty delicious and I was certainly pleased to be having some kale at the Food Fair. It provided me with some great nourishment before sampling quite a few desserts. There certainly were a lot of treats!! I got to sample a new gluten free vegan cupcake from my friends at Sweets from the Earth. I didn't manage to snap a photo before it went into my mouth. Super chocolately and pretty delicious, Ilana continues to do great things with gluten free and vegan baking. I also enjoyed some treats from Bunner's (always so brilliant) and picked up some salted caramel (!!) marshmallows from APieCalypse Now to take home.


One of my favourite moments of the night came whilst wandering around the various booths. Corbin and I happened upon the awesome folks at Peanut Butter & Co. and a hilarious blind taste test ensued, all in the name of science.

We declared Mighty Maple the ultimate winner, but really it was us who won, making new friends in the people at the booth (and those around us who saw the whole thing) and buying enough peanut butter to pretty much start our own pb sandwich shop. So good.

It was great to attend the festival for another year and it makes me happy to see continuing to get bigger and better. Looking forward to what's in store for the 30th festival next year!

Friday Joy, Giveaway Winner and Veg Food Fair Anticipation

Happy Friday!

First off - congratulations to Maya who won my giveaway for Meghan's Fab Uplift Detox! If you weren't lucky enough to win a spot, registration for the program is now open and the detox goodness starts very soon! Can't wait to play along once again.

Secondly, it's Friday! This week has been crazy with excitement and change and also recovery from my NYC weekend. 

It's easy to recover with this adorable face looking up at you (though he does make it a little challenging to look at your music). Ash and I were over at Tara's for our first rehearsal for the next Ashleyx2 cabaret. We're super stoked to have Tara on board once again for this show and if the first rehearsal was any indication, it's going to be a great show. Random(ish) question - what's on your bucket list?

I'm looking forward to the 28th Annual Vegetarian Food Fair this weekend! As always, there will be a whole lot of deliciousness to be found, but I'm especially looking forward to seeing my friends at Sweets from the Earth (who are launching new things!), Apiecalypse Now!, Bunners, Bloomers, Delicious Knowledge, and so many more. There's a lot of awesome stuff happening on all the stages including a demo by my sweet friends Lisa and Nicole (who just launched a new e-book!), appearances by some of my fav vegan cookbook authors (Isa Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero!) and a vegan Cupcake battle. I will be around on Saturday and Sunday, so be sure to check out my Twitter feed and say hello!

I am hoping that all of this kale is going to help counter-balance the treats I'll be enjoying. The detox is coming. I WILL remember moderation. 

There's so much happening in Toronto this weekend, with a lot of TIFF buzz and celebrities around town. What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Veg Food Fair Fun and a Road Trip to Stratford (Biebs, Sweets and Swans Included)

For the first time since I’ve been back from New York I was genuinely excited about being in the city. (More on my trip later in the week…) I knew that I was going to be surrounded by sunshine, delicious food and special people all weekend and that seemed to make up for the fact that Toronto has been feeling strangely foreign these days.

This was my third year at the fair and I was looking forward to once again hanging out with my sweet nutritionista friend Meghan Telpner and the awesome folks at Sweets from the Earth. (You can read about the 2009 and 2010 fairs too).

On Friday night and all day Sunday, I donned a pink apron and chatted to peeps about gluten free treats, irish moss, Meghan’s amazing life loving totes and our upcoming trip to St. Lucia while enjoying treats from Bunner’s and APieCalypseNow! and relishing in what felt like vegan Christmas / one big vegan tweetup. Desserts were definitely covered, but once again there wasn’t a ton of awesome “real” food at the fair. I had something from a raw vendor that shall remain nameless on Friday which left me seriously underwhelmed and hungry.  I had a blast in the sunshine with lots of friends, new and old!

Sandwiched between two sweet days at the Fair, I enjoyed a road trip with Jessie (aka my little sister) to Stratford to see Camelot!

Way back in the spring I was invited to be a part of the Stratford Tweeter club, which gave me access to free tickets to various shows playing at the festival. Being the musical theatre geek I am, I jumped at the chance and with everything that went on this summer, Saturday was the first time we could escape the city.

A little research showed me that Stratford had one official vegetarian restaurant called Alpha Beet Soup. After our 2 hour drive to Stratford, we arrived to learn it had closed at 4pm. Being two very hungry veg girls, we scrambled to make alternate plans and found ourselves sharing salad, a tofu/veg curry and wine at Down the Street. My foodie pics didn’t turn out well due to the lighting, but the food was yummy and we were fuelled and ready to check in with King Arthur, Guenevere and the knights of the round table in Camelot.

Not before I took innumerable pictures of swans… I was yearbook editor in high school, and whenever we went to Stratford, our photographers would waste ROLLS of film on the swans. I would always be so irritated going through the photos of swans in every single pose imaginable. Apparently this weekend I turned into one of those people… Jessie finally confiscated my camera…

and off we went to the theatre.

The show was fantastic. I was forced to sing the Simple Joys of Maidenhood in my first year of theatre school, and was familiar with the story, but had never seen the show onstage. It was wonderful. The set, costumes and lighting were beautiful. I loved the relationship of Arthur and Guenevere. The story played out like a Disney movie for adults and the music was fantastic. Guenevere is absolutely a dream role and so is a role at the Stratford festival. We left feeling happy and giddy and silly.

Which meant a trip to Shoppers Drug Mart before we drove back to Toronto was a great idea

It was a fantastic way to end the evening and definitely fuelled our spirits for the trip back into the city. So lucky to have Jess in my life (I think I’m actually going to write a blog post about her soon…) I’m so thankful for such a fun weekend surrounded by wonderful people and so many great memories.

Did you visit the Vegetarian Food Fair? What was the highlight for you? Have you seen anything at Stratford this season?

Veggies, Leaders And No Sleep In Sight

This weekend was epic!

It was my second year of attending the Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto and this year I was even busier. On Friday I hung out with Meghan Telpner at her booth chatting up her classes, tutorials and retreats in St. Lucia. We had a lot of fun in our pink aprons and I felt right at home amongst all the flowers in her booth! It was nice to meet so many new people and share my experiences in Meghan’s classes. Our beautiful friend Nicole was there as well and together we ran off to score some goodies from the über cute guy at Vega (whose Shake & Go chocolate smoothie I’ve been really enjoying) and Living Libations, as well as find some dinner. 

Similar to last year, I was truly disappointed by the lack of yummy options for dinner. There were lots of yummy treats and samples, but many of the vendors in the food tent were serving more fried and complicated tofu dishes that really didn’t appeal to me. Cruda Cafe was originally supposed to be a part of the show, but sadly they cancelled. With all of the amazing vegetarian, vegan and raw restaurants that we have in the city, I think it would be awesome for more of them to have a presence at the Food Fair (especially since it’s touted as being North America’s largest!). All of that being said, we decided to get some Mexican food It was okay. There was rice, cactus salad and a tofu/corn/something mix. It was kind of pricey, but filling and I learned my lesson for the following day.

I sadly missed Meghan’s demo on Saturday afternoon (but you can check out all the recipes on her blog!) but showed up just in time to catch the flurry of people around 12:30.  I ended up bringing lots of food with me and definitely did not go hungry. Lots of fruit, almonds plus a great salad of romaine, peppers, onions, avocado, black beans, hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds with a little bit of salsa. It was awesome!!

I traded in my fuchsia apron for a beige one with a SFTE logo as I was at the Sweets From the Earth tent selling delightful vegan baked goods. I love their gluten free line and had the pleasure of testing a brand new gluten free vegan chocolate cake!! I forgot to take a picture of that or anything on Saturday really. I talked to so many people and sold so many cakes, cookies and squares that it was all really a blur. It was non-stop from 1 to 9 and I was just wiped by the end of the day. On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a giant Weight Watchers meeting with many of my colleagues including my two lovely Lindsays. It was great to connect with others who are passionate about their jobs and helping others lose weight!! Lindsay won an award for her meeting and our row was definitely the loudest, cheering her on and ensuring that she was commended for her team’s success. So so proud of her.

I felt like a zombie by the end of the day and after a wee nap I made myself a simple but delicious bowl for dinner. Mmmmm quinoa with swiss chard, baby portabellas and tempeh sautéed in garlic & ginger with tamari, pickled ginger and sesame seeds. It was a delightful end to the weekend!

This month is going to be insane, but I am so excited about everything that is to come! I’m back to school today and looking forward to getting back into some sort of routine whilst rehearsing for 2 shows, a big audition and doing all my usual stuff as well.  Where did the summer go?

How was your weekend? Did you get to the Vegetarian Food Fair? What were your thoughts?

Disappointed by the Lack of Vegetables at the Vegetarian Food Fair

I wish I was kidding.

On Saturday I hit up the Vegetarian Food Fair with Meghan to assist with her demo “Doing it Veggie Style”. Meghan’s demo focused on healthy vegetarian cooking that doesn’t center itself around soy, grains, potatoes or corn.

In Meghan’s exuberant style she showed a packed crowd how to make baked falafels with cilantro pesto, quinoa salad and chocolate truffles as well as discussed the benefits of eating seaweed and demonstrated the simplicity of sprouting. It was an action packed hour and the crowd seemed to really enjoy themselves and rushed to grab some samples of the food! Everyone was excited to talk to Meghan afterwards and check out her tutorials (including the Green Smoothie Cleanse, Lunar Cycle and Five Days Vegan – which starts on Tuesday!) It was really fun to help out and get things prepped and make sure she had everything she needed to keep the demo running smoothly. We were both pooped afterward and decided to scope out the rest of the Fair in search of some lunch.

That’s when we came up empty handed.

There were tonnes of vendors at the Fair selling everything from cookware, baked goods, and slicers with a mix of people promoting their services and causes. (I picked up some amazing products from Living Libations) There were also tents with vendors selling vegetarian food where Meghan and I hoped to pick up some fuel. Everywhere we turned there was tofu in many shapes and forms: Deep fried, tofu “duck”, tofu “lamb”, tofu “chicken”, tofu “turkey”.

I want to say that I don’t have a big issue with tofu, but I do try to limit my consumption. As a vegetarian/vegan it could be very easy to consume tofu multiple times at every meal in the form of tofu, tempeh, soy milk, soy margarine, soy cheese, soy ice cream, not to mention the addition of soy hiding in other foods. We don’t need to be eating soy (or any food for that matter) that frequently! There has been a lot said about soy both negative and positive, and personally I try to stick to the basics (organic tofu or tempeh) and only eat it once in awhile.

I personally can’t understand the heavy reliance on faux meats. As a vegetarian/vegan there are so many options for foods and sources of protein, why try to replace them with fake versions of meat? A vegetarian or vegan plant-based diet can be an incredibly healthy one, but on the flip side it can be incredibly easy to choose faux meats/pasta/bread/cheese/ grains. In order to maximize the benefits of a plant based diet, one needs to be conscious of what they are putting into their body and focus their choices around the good stuff!

In addition to all the tofu there was a lot of bread and seemingly processed foods. Where were the vegetables? Rather than focusing on the benefits of a plant based diet, there seemed to be booth after booth of deep fried items, tofu and fake food. Add into that my gluten intolerance and Meghan’s black pepper allergy, we definitely had a problem. Meghan and I opted for cookies from Sweets from the Earth, bananas I had in my bag, some leftover quinoa from Marni Wasserman’s demo and thai young coconuts.

While I am sure there were other things we could have eaten (Ricki found vegan sushi) it was so packed that it made the booths challenging to navigate and asking questions just wasn’t an option. When we mentioned a couple people about the lack of vegetables more than one person pointed us in the direction of the Live Food Bar booth. The line was long and they seemed to have a lot of snack-type items rather than lunch. Many of the demos had healthier options (Marni made a quinoa salad and jae steele had some kale chips and raw granola rocking) but samples were a hot commodity!
I’m sorry if I’m coming off as so negative about the event. It really was a beautiful day with beautiful blue skies and lots of sunshine, Meghan’s demo went really well and I had a lot of fun hanging out, but the lack of emphasis on vegetarian/vegan nutrition really bummed me out. As someone who recently became vegan I really enjoy cooking and finding joy in this plant based diet without a ton of soy or processed food. As I was writing this I was talking to Joey about the foods we eat and he agreed that he has enjoyed the variety of foods we eat and said he doesn’t feel bored or deprived at all. This conversation had just taken place following our dinner of a chickpea-zucchini-tomato stir fry over quinoa – yum! There is so much more to vegetarianism than tofu and deep fried stuff and I wanted the Food Fair to share that with everyone who attended.