Vegan Eats in Ottawa

Two weeks ago, Corbin and I took a little road trip to Ottawa! I really wanted to visit because my best friend Mel is moving across the world this week, and I wanted to give her a hug before she left. Some sweet friends of Corbin's also just moved to Ottawa, so the whole thing seemed like a great excuse for an adventure!

We spent a lot of time visiting and catching up with our friends, and planned a couple fun meals out to enjoy some highly recommended vegan restaurants. On the Saturday night we headed to Zen Kitchen with my friend Laura for dinner.

Zen Kitchen is a gourmet vegan restaurant that recently reopened after undergoing a change in owners. I started drooling over their vegan and gluten free friendly menu for about 24 hours before we actually arrived - everything sounded so good!

We decided on the black bean cakes and crispy mushroom appetizer to start.

The black bean cakes had good flavor, but were a bit dry. They came with a really tasty side of corn chips, salsa, guacamole and cashew sour cream which we really enjoyed. The crispy mushrooms were a hit! The dipping sauces made them even better. I wish I could eat these all the time.

For our mains, Laura had the Caesar salad (complete with polenta croutons and tofu), Corbin had the Royal Zen Burger and I got the lemon scented gnocchi. While everyone's meals looked, smelled and tasted delicious, I won the dinner round. The gnocchi was sublime. From the well cooked veggies, to the mushroom-leek cream sauce, I was in heaven. I loved every bite, especially since gnocchi isn't something I get to eat very often!

The dessert menu looked awesome, but the peanut butter and chocolate pie had caught my eye when I was perusing the menu on the drive up to Ottawa. All 3 of us decided to get it and we were not disappointed. It was absolutely delicious!! Unlike many peanut butter and chocolate desserts, this one was more peanut butter than chocolate, which I really liked. It had a great gluten free crust and was topped with coconut cream. I want to go back just so I can eat this pie again!



Overall it was a really lovely meal. The service was great and they were very diligent about my gluten intolerance, which I really appreciated! Definitely a fancier dinner out that we would normally do, but certainly nice as a treat with amazing company.

We had plans for brunch with Mel and her partner on Sunday morning and she suggested we go to Cafe My House.



I understand that they recently moved to a new location on Wellington Street West and I loved everything about the decor. It was so cute inside! Since it was a nice weekend, we scored a sweet table on the back patio for our brunch.

This was another menu I had been checking out in advance, though I still found it difficult to choose because everything sounded amazing! I started with the Cacao Latte, which was really good, though a little sweet for me.


I decided on the Chipotle BLT mostly because it had a waffle bun. Holy wow.

It was AWESOME. Also, gigantic. But so good. I loved every bite.



Everyone else enjoyed their meals and I would certainly love to go back there to try the dinner menu sometime.

Over dinner the night before, Laura had mentioned a vegan bakery where she had enjoyed the most amazing cupcake and we decided to check it out! Auntie Loo's Treats is Ottawa's first 100% vegan bakery. They have an amazing selection of cupcakes, donuts, squares and buns with a small selection of gluten free items. We had a great visit to the shop and scored some treats for the ride home.

We spent the afternoon in the sunshine at a Provincial Park and I got to give Mel all sorts of hugs. It's been awhile since we've lived in the same city, but this move is going to be a HUGE change and because she's my best friend I want the best for her. I'm so glad we were able to sneak in a visit and have some lovely time together before she left. Love that girl!

The vegan scene in Ottawa is up and coming and it's neat to try out some new places each time I visit. It was an incredible weekend with some wonderful people and some really delicious food!

The Belleville Roadtrip

Remember that time I went to Ottawa for a bachelorette? This past weekend it was time for Laura to take the walk down the aisle to say "I do" in her hometown of Belleville, Ontario. And what does that mean for those of us who don't live in Belleville?

ROAD TRIP!

The awesome folks at Infiniti lent us a gorgeous 2013 Infiniti M37x sport to make the drive in (and spread the #infinitilove), which was pretty much all kinds of amazing. I brought Fab Detox friendly snacks, the car did lots of snazzy things, SiriusXM & Justin's iTunes provided the soundtrack and Justin took care of the driving business and we were off! 

The drive really made me realize that fall really is here. The trees along the road were definitely screaming AUTUMN. Speaking of trees, the 'forest air' setting in the car kept us incredibly comfortable over the course of our drive.

We were also really impressed with its fuel economy. The M is a pretty large car, but handled gas really well whilst rocking eco mode. 

We spent some time visiting with my Nan (grandmother), her husband, my uncle and cousins before heading off to the wedding. 

Laura was to be the third generation in her family who got married at this particular Anglican church in Belleville, which was really special. She looked STUNNING. 

I found myself getting teary as I watched her come down the aisle, thinking about how much has changed since we were 11 year olds in the 6th grade. I thought about how much my mum would have loved to know that Laura was getting married and how beautiful she looked. She and her new husband have been together for 10 years and their love is truly inspiring. I wish them nothing but happiness in this new chapter of life together!! It was such an honour to be a part of their special day. 

The reception was held at a local country club, and Justin and I had a blast with Laura and Jon's friends who we were sitting with. I think we were the loudest table and we fit right into that mix. It was also really great to see Laura's friend Kristy, who was part of the bridal party. She's so much fun too!

Thanks to the bride's taste in music, there was a lot of Backstreet Boys and Spice Girl dancing action amid the traditional wedding dances and a whole lotta country and top 40. It was a very fun evening!

On Sunday morning we spent some more time with my familia before heading back to Toronto. I managed to snap some pictures of the beautiful yellow roses that Nan has planted on her front lawn for my mum, as they were her favourite flowers. 

It was a sweet little visit to Belleville

but definitely always good to come home

I'm thrilled that we were able to be in Belleville for Laura's big day! Thanks again to the Infiniti team for lending us such a sweet ride. It made our trip that much more awesome, smooth and entertaining and I really appreciate it!! 

Sister Time in Stratford

Thanks to everyone who sent me sweet tweets, comments and messages after last week's post. I'm feeling a lot better about the whole thing, it was just a really scary day! 

After feeling not so great for a couple days, it was really nice to be able to look forward to another fun trip to Stratford with Jessie for You're a Good Man Charlie Brown! It was so awesome to be included as part of the Stratford Tweeter's Club once again and have access to ridiculously great (and free for me!) seats for the show. 

We stopped in at Down the Street for dinner once again. 

And shared a really yummy curry and salad combo on the patio. It's a great little spot and the patio is adorable! In true sister fashion, we had a little photo shoot... 

We had a bit of time to kill before the show so we decided to take a little wander around downtown Stratford and saw some ominous clouds in the distance... 

 

and then in what felt like seconds we got caught in TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. 

So we took more photos. Obviously. 

Jessie managed to score a second umbrella at the PharmaPlus so we showed up back to the theatre feeling happy and dry. 

The show was good! Some really standout performances from Ken James Stewart as Charlie Brown, Stephen Patterson as Snoopy and Kevin Yee who stole my heart as Linus. The ensemble sounded great together, the set was super cute (with fun video elements), there was some great character development of the beloved Peanuts and the show made me smile a lot. There were lots of kids in the audience, which made everything a little unpredictable at times, but definitely enhanced the whole experience. It was another super night in Stratford and I hope to get back to see some more before the season is done! I've heard some great things about Hirsch and I definitely wouldn't mind seeing some Shakespeare. 

As always, an amazing evening with Jessie, made even more fun with some great theatre, a road trip and some delicious snacks from Bulk Barn for the drive home. The whole night made me smile a lot, which is exactly what I needed after a bit of a rough week! 

Whatcha up to for the long weekend? Have you seen any outstanding theatre this summer?

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?