Dinner Inspiration - (mostly) Raw & (all) Delicious

Last week I spent a couple hours in the kitchen making some magic happen. The effort was well worth the result:

Raw zucchini pasta with lentil and quinoa meatballs with a kale caesar salad. For the salad I made a dressing of olive oil, tahini, lemon, nutritional yeast and a couple garlic cloves, which I tossed with some baby kale and homemade croutons from Dreena Burton's, Eat, Drink and Be Vegan, made with gluten free bread. 

Dessert looked spectacular, and was surprisingly very easy! I was inspired by this raw vegan chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and used her recipe for the crust and the mini peanut butter cups. I used Lori and Michelle's chocolate cream cake recipe for the filling and then melted peanut butter and a bit of agave to drizzle on top. I made the cake in a 6 inch springform pan and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours before serving, and it was absolutely divine. 

All gluten free. All vegan. Mostly raw. All delicious. 

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!