My Highlights of Vegan Food & Drink Festival 2017

Hi everyone!!

As the warm summer days are coming to an end and it is now officially September. I can’t believe how fast our summer went by this year!! Can you?? I took advantage of the last week of August to relax and enjoy the summer days outside when possible with day trips to the beach and more. How did you enjoy your last week of summer??

While summer isn’t quite over yet despite the cooler weather already and feeling like Fall weather. Even though Fall is one of my fave seasons coming up & excited for. One of my fave activities in the summer is attending food festivals. This summer already been to a few food festivals and love sampling new foods to share with you, my readers. As I usually go quite a few food festivals, I will share with you my fave ones (food festivals) and you can always check out my Instagram account @SweetBFoodie24 to see my stories and photos for all the food festivals that I attend. Trying to post a bit more on my Instagram stories when I can. Hope you guys enjoy them!

I love attending food festivals and discovering new foods and learning from vendors!! If you have a suggestion of a food festival that I haven’t attend yet, please let me know. You can leave your comments below! Thanks, I always appreciate any comments and suggestions from you guys!

On Saturday, August 19, 2017 – I attended my 2^nd Vegan festival of the summer and this is also my 2^nd time attending the Vegan Food & Drink Festival with my sis who is also my foodie partner going to food festivals together. I love sharing my food festival experiences and especially with my sis is a great person who I also call my best friend that I’m so happy that we get to share these experiences together. It is becoming a tradition for us now going to this particular food festival sharing our love for vegan foods! As you know or if you didn’t know, I have lactose intolerance so I enjoy non-dairy products now. Almost a year in a few months where I discovered I am lactose, I am still learning and discovering new dairy-free products and vegan lifestyle. This is a great Vegan festival to discover new vegan foods or re-discover your fave vegan foods!!

If you haven’t been to the Vegan Food & Drink Festival before, here are some basic information about it:

• This is the 3^rd Annual Vegan Food & Drink Festival
• Date: Saturday, August 19, 2017 (One Day Festival)
• This event is also hosted in Chicago (June 10, 2017) and New York (October 1, 2017)
• Time: 11am – 7pm
• Location: Fort York Garrison Commons (same as last year)
• What Does the Festival Offer: vegan comfort food, cold drinks, and live entertainment
• Cost: $10 (Early Bird Price) & $20 (At the Door) -> I bought mines in advance during the Early Bird Pricing
  
• Vendors: From local & visiting vendors including some USA vendors this year

I was excited to attend my 2^nd time at this large Vegan Food & Drink Festival this summer with lots of different vendors to choose from. This year, we got lucky with the weather and it ended up being a warm great summer day for a food festival unlike last year where it rained majority of the day. It was a lot easier to enjoy delicious vegan foods without your umbrella lol!

If you haven’t been to this large Vegan Food & Drink Festival before, I suggest planning ahead and checking out the vendors online and research them before going and get an idea which ones you like to visit. For me, it was still tough to choose and narrow down certain vendors to try. I love the large selection of vendors though to choose from just makes it hard to decide lol! I ended up sampling majority of the vendors I wanted to and some I didn’t and hopefully next time I could. 😊

I felt that this year the layout of the festival was better in terms of flow where the vendors were located and making use of the large Fort York Garrison Commons. There was a bit more seating areas this year. I love the signages that they had around the festival grounds this year a bit more than last year and it created a great addition to the festival. Check out below their famous “Vegan” sign that I took with my sister. I been noticing that most events and festivals are doing the huge word signage ever since the Toronto sign at City Hall started it. I love them though!! 😀

Overall, a great summer day sampling and discovering lots of new vegan foods along with some shopping in between eating lol!!  

At the Vegan Food & Drink Festival, besides all the delicious vegan foods, there are also clothing and accessory vendors. One of the vendors, The Imperative is Toronto’s 1^st 100% all-vegan shop and the creators of the Vegan Food & Drink Festival itself. It was great to see their merchandise at the festival as I haven’t been to the retail store myself. I ended up getting a cute tee and a button (photo below).

Their retail store offer vegan and cruelty-free products and there were quite a few items at the festival showcasing their products from the store. At their retail store, they offer from t-shirts to beauty products to housewares and more. I’m looking forward to checking out their retail shop one day to see myself what they have to offer!

For more information on The Imperative, you can visit their Facebook page @VeganImperative and Instagram @theveganimperative. Their retail store is located on 1332 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario.

One of my fave jewelry vendors was there back at the Vegan Food & Drink Festival, Jewels by SJB. If you haven’t checked out Jewels by SJB, you definitely should as I love her unique and beautiful handmade jewelry. Sue is from Toronto, ON and has a collection of hand forged, cruelty free jewels and creating beautiful detailed pieces. She uses genuine gemstones that includes .925 sterling silver and 14K gold fill metal. She is also a vegan who shares her message through her jewelry.

Of course, I couldn’t resist getting one of her beautiful unique pieces and ended up getting a beautiful necklace – her Gem Drop Necklace with the Purple Amethyst.

For more information on Jewels by SJB, you can visit her website at www.jewelsbysjb.com. You can also follow her on Facebook @jewelsbysjb and Instagram @jewelsbysjb.

Finally what my fave foods were at the festival, I know you guys have been waiting for this. Go check out my faves & delicious photos. 😊

My Fave Savoury foods from the Vegan Food & Drink Festival are:

1 – Boon Burger

I was excited to see Boon Burger as one of the vendors at this festival as I discovered Boon Burger a few weeks ago and visited their Burlington location and loved it! Of course, I had to sample one of their delicious vegan burgers as there are no locations in Toronto. If you haven’t heard of Boon Burger, it is Canada’s First All Vegan Burger Café. Boon Burger offers “100% cruelty free food, that tasted delicious and that was ultimately a better choice for our health as well as the environment.” They are opening a new location in the Fall 2017 in Hamilton. Hoping one day for a Toronto location, but for now I can always venture over to Burlington for the best vegan burgers.

I had their Festival Burger made with black bean patty at the festival with their sweet Peach Chutney sauce. It was delicious!! As I’m not a full vegan, you can’t tell that the patty is made from black bean and I love that this is a healthier version of an actual meat burger. I love their vegan burgers!! After trying their burgers a few weeks ago, I’m still impressed with Boon Burger and their high quality food along with their friendly customer service at the booth. I highly recommend checking out Boon Burger if you have a chance in Burlington or Hamilton (opening Fall 2017). You can check their website for other locations (Barrie, Guelph).

For more information on Boon Burger, you can visit their website at www.boonburger.ca.

You can follow them on their social media networks on Facebook Burlington one @BoonBurgerBurlington, Twitter Manitoba location one @BoonBurger and Instagram Burlington one @BoonBurgerBurlington. Check their website for the location social media you are looking for they have different ones.

2 – Champs Diner

My 2^nd fave savoury dish from Champs Diner who is one of the US vendors that came to Toronto. Champs Diner is from Brooklyn, New York serving New York’s fave all-vegan diner with American’s comfort food for about 5 years now. I was excited to also try some of their foods as I heard good review about them.

I had their Tofu Benedict Waffle Fries only as I was getting full by the time I reached their booth and I’m hoping next time I get to try their vegan burger too. But I simply love their Tofu Benedict Waffle Fries with fried tofu, fried ham, cherry tomatoes and homemade Hollandaise sauce. I’m not a fan of Hollandaise sauce too much, but it was light and not overpowering the dish, which I loved about it.

When I visit New York next time, now I know where to go for delicious and comfort American all-vegan diner food. I can’t wait to visit their actual diner!! If you are one of my readers in the USA, then I highly recommend you go visit their diner and try their delicious and homemade vegan foods.

For more information on Champs Diner, you can visit their website www.champsdiner.com.

You can follow them on Instagram @ChampsDiner.

My Fave Desserts from the Vegan Food & Drink Festival are:

1 – Chimp Treats

I love my ice cream, but now that I’m dairy free it’s a bit harder to find dairy free ice cream. I discovered Chimp Treats at the festival and they have their Nice Cream frozen dessert that are 100% made from fruits. I love their booth too – very colourful and cute designs! It is a creamy frozen dessert made entirely from bananas. They have their three flavours: classic Banana, Mango Banana and Strawberry Banana. It is fat free, low calorie and no sugar added.

I tried their Mango Banana sample at the festival and loved it!! It is soft and creamy with the right amount of sugar and I can taste the mango in there. I definitely loved it!! I highly recommend you try it too. I can’t wait to get my own pint of Nice Cream at a grocery store! Will be checking out where they sell them.

For more information on Chimp Treats, you can visit their website at www.chimptreats.com.

You can follow them on their social media networks through Facebook @ChimpTreats, Twitter @ChimpTreats and Instagram @ChimpTreats.

2 – Glory Hole Doughnuts

One of my fave pastry dessert at the show is definitely Glory Hole Doughnuts. Their doughnuts are hand-made and fresh everyday with real and local ingredients! They make 3 different types of doughnuts – yeast, cake and vegan. They rotate their flavours seasonally.

I was lucky enough to sample their Vegan Hibiscus Berry Glazed doughnut – it had a hint of rose tea infused flavour in it and loved how moist, soft and the right amount of sugar in the doughnut. It wasn’t too sweet!!

If you are looking for delicious and fresh Vegan doughnuts, I definitely recommend you guys check out Glory Hole Doughnuts at their bakeshop in Parkdale area of Toronto downtown.

For more information on Glory Hole Doughnuts, you can visit their website at www.gloryholedoughnuts.com.

You can follow them on their Social Media on Facebook @GloryHoleDoughnuts, Twitter @GHoleDoughnuts and Instagram @GHDoughnuts.

Another refreshing and fresh frozen dessert that I didn’t mention is Happy Pops. They are all natural ice pops made from real fruit and low calorie. They are also vegan and dairy free ice pops. I also sampled one of their ice pops, I got the Mango flavour one not surprised since I love anything mango…😊 I loved it! You can taste the actual flavour of the fruit of mango and love how fresh it was with low calorie of sugar. I also recommend Happy Pops as well to try it yourself!

For more information on Happy Pops, you can visit their website at www.happypops.ca.

You can follow them on their Social Media by Facebook @HappyPopsTO, Twitter @HappyPopsTO and Instagram @EatHappyPops.

It has been another successful and delicious vegan summer festival that I attended with my sister. With summer coming to an end, I had enjoyed this summer attending to several foodie festivals by sampling new foods, interacting with vendors, learning about new food products and the outdoor atmosphere.

It will be a busy next few months before end of the year and I’m excited for next month Food Bloggers of Canada food conference in Ottawa where this will be my 3^rd year attending. I’m looking forward to sharing with you my readers my experience at the conference. Also working on something new for 2018 so stay tuned!!

Don’t forget to stay connected with me for the latest updates, next blog post, and my foodie adventures through Twitter @SweetBFoodie 24 and Instagram @SweetBFoodie24

(if you have noticed, I been posting a bit more on my IG stories so go check that out esp when I’m at a food event..😉 )

For now, let’s get ready for Fall weather with delicious warm desserts and beautiful colourful leaves scenery while still enjoying the sunny warm Fall days. In this summery festival blog, remembering what hot summer days are like enjoying delicious vegan foods. Back on my hunt to discover new bakeries or restaurants and new travel ideas to share with you guys!

Until next time….

-Sweet B.

For more information on Vegandale Food & Drink Festival (formally known as Vegan Food & Drink), please see below:

Website: Vegandale Food & Drink Festival Main Site -> click here

Social Media: You can follow Vegandale Food & Drink Festival along with their other festival locations, next year festival & updates through

Facebook @VegandaleFestival and Instagram @Vegandalefestival.

**Note – Updated on Sept 14, 2019 – updated info & name of the Food Festival & links as they changed it in 2018 to a new Festival name**

My Honey Sweet Summer Dairy Free SkinnyPop Popcorn Recipe

Hi everyone,

It is officially summer now and I’m ready for beach days, more food festivals, summer day trips and of course summer foods or for me, summer desserts or snacks. What are you looking forward to this summer?? Is there a summer food you enjoy most at this time of year? Love to hear what you guys enjoy for the summer so please feel free to leave a comment below.

As some of you know, I enjoy dairy free products because of my food sensitivities as I still learn and discover new foods that are dairy free as I always love to share them with my readers. I thought that I always share new vegan bakeries or restaurants that I also share with you new food products.

Now that summer is finally here, I thought what better light fluffy summer food to enjoy than popcorn, right? I recently discovered a dairy free popcorn that is perfect for me that I didn’t know before until now called: SkinnyPop Popcorn. SkinnyPop Popcorn is a premium popcorn kernel that has no GMOs (genetically modified organism), no artificial ingredients, gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, no artificial flavours, zero trans fat, and preservative free. Their motto is using simple ingredients such as whole grain popcorn, natural sunflower oil and perfect amount of salt combine together to give you a “delicious snack that you can feel great about eating everyday” – SkinnyPop Popcorn website.

SkinnyPop Popcorn comes in Popped Popcorn (already popped), Popcorn cakes and mini cakes and their new product is their microwave popcorn. SkinnyPop Popcorn also comes in different flavours from Sea Salt & Pepper to Naturally Sweet to Jalapeño to White Cheddar (Dairy Free).

I recently picked up their Popped Popcorn in the original flavour and I thought it be great to add a healthy and summer twist to it the popcorn. After searching for ideas as I’m not much of a cook or baker, I thought of a simple and easy recipe that I would love to share with you. It’s an easy recipe for the summer and perfect for the upcoming Canada’s Day celebration to share with your family and friends.

My new simple & easy recipe is called: Dairy Free Sweet Honey Popcorn with Dried Fruits. When you think of summer, you think of light and sweet so I thought with a healthy twist to put in dry fruits and with this recipe using dried strawberries and apples as strawberries are known for summer fruits. A great combination with strawberries are apples, but you can also substitute it with other dried fruits that you prefer or have just the dried strawberries on it’s own, which still works out perfectly.

The ingredients for this recipe includes: SkinnyPop Popcorn, dried strawberries & apples, brown sugar, honey, and coconut oil. I’m using coconut oil in this recipe instead of butter as it’s the dairy free alternative to butter. An interesting tip is that I found out that coconut oil is tasteless so if you were worried about making the popcorn tasting like coconut, don’t be as it doesn’t from making this recipe myself.

Instructions:

Once you have all your ingredients, have a large mixing bowl to put the popcorn, dried strawberries and apples ready to mix it with the honey sauce (mixture). To make the honey sauce (mixture), in a medium pot or saucepan – add the brown sugar, coconut oil and honey. Cook it on medium high heat until the mixture is bubbling and well combined. Once it is done, pour the honey mixture over the popcorn & dried fruits in the large mixing bowl that you had prepared. You can pour as little or as much as you want in the bowl. Then mix until the popcorn and dried fruits are covered with the honey sauce (mixture).  You can see below the photos of each step.

So now you are ready to taste and enjoy this sweet and healthy vegan dairy free popcorn treat with a summer twist to it. Yum!! It’s the perfect sweet summer treat to share with your family and friends or a sweet bowl for yourself.

Hope you give my new sweet, summer and healthy SkinnyPop Popcorn recipe a try and let me know what you think of it. Feel free to leave me your comments below as I would love to hear what you think of my recipe.

Don’t forget to stay connected with me on the latest updates on my next blog post or my foodie adventures, please follow me on Twitter @SweetBFoodie24 and Instagram @SweetBFoodie24.

As summer has just started, I’m excited for what the rest of the summer will bring for me including going to more food festivals and my mini summer getaway later in late July!! So I leave you for now with this sweet yet healthy dairy free popcorn treat and continue my search on my next sweet vegan bakery or restaurant hunt. Cheers to a yummy and sweet summer! 🍦 🍧 🍓 🍹 🌞

-Sweet B.

For more information on SkinnyPop Popcorn, please see below:

SkinnyPop Popcorn – website -> click here

You can follow SkinnyPop Popcorn on Facebook @SkinnyPopPopcorn, Twitter @theskinnypop and Instagram @theskinnypop.

My Printable Recipe

Dairy Free Sweet Honey Popcorn with Dried Fruits

• Servings: 3-4 people
• Time: 10 mins
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

A sweet honey popcorn with summer dried fruits perfect for the summer.

Ingredients

• 2-3 cups SkinnyPop Popcorn
• ½ cup Brown Sugar
• ½ cup Coconut Oil (you may put less if preferred)
• ¼ Honey
• ½ cup Dried Strawberries
• ½ cup Dried Apples

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, pour in the SkinnyPop popcorn, put in the dried strawberries and apples. In my case, I sliced the dried apples in smaller pieces as they were in rings to make it easier to eat. If you have other dried fruits, you can prepare them now.
2. For the honey mixture – in a medium pot or saucepan, add the brown sugar, coconut oil and honey. Cook over medium high heat until mixture is bubbling and well combined by mixing it.
3. Then pour honey mixture over the popcorn mixing bowl that you prepared before, you can pour in the amount desired or until all popcorn and dried fruits have been covered. In between pouring the honey mixture, use a wooden spoon or spoon to mix in between as it will get sticky to get an even coat of honey mixture with the popcorn.
4. You can wait 5 – 10 mins before enjoying as letting the honey mixture soak in the popcorn before enjoy the sweetness.

My Highlights of Niagara Vegfest 2017

Hi everyone,

It’s officially the month of June and with the start of the official summer this week, the weather has gone from cold to very humid and hot fast here in Toronto!! Thou I am not enjoying the humidity too much, but loving the warmer and sunnier weather now to enjoy esp the outdoors. Maybe less humid lol!!

With sunny and hot days upon us, this means one thing that festival season is officially here and what a great way to cool down and enjoy delicious foods outdoors. I am excited and love attending food festivals especially during the summer days sampling and discovering new foods to share with you all my readers. I already have a few food festivals planned that I would like to attend from June – September so I’m looking forward to it. If you have any suggestions for a food festival you think I should try out, please don’t hesitate to let me know as I always love attending new food festivals that I haven’t been to. I’m looking out for new food festivals for the Fall too. Feel free to comment below or you can reach me by e-mail at blooi24@hotmail.com

RECAP:

A quick recap since my last blog entry, since leaving my previous work, been busy with a few projects and prepping for the summer months for my blog of course. Enjoyed my mini getaway to London, Ontario where enjoyed lots and lots of delicious foods including some vegan desserts and looking forward to sharing with you all in another blog post next month. If you were following me on Twitter and Instagram, then you would have seen my foodie London getaway..:)  I’m still learning how to use Instagram stories so please bare with me lol…😉

My 1^st food festival for this pre-summer season that I attended was 2 weeks ago during the first weekend of June was to Niagara Vegfest. It was my 1^st time attending the Niagara Vegfest as I always love visiting Niagara Falls so I thought it would be great to also attend this food festival to see, discover and sample the Niagara Region culinary vegan foods. I had the most amazing and fun foodie day as someone of you may already seen from my Instagram and Twitter posts. I’m happy that the weather ended up being sunny and warm as it was supposed to rain and I got lucky and it only rained in the morning. I arrived in St.Catherines by bus that day with a beautiful sunny day and enjoyed every minute of Niagara Vegfest.

If you haven’t been to Niagara Vegfest before, here are some quick information about it:

• Niagara Vegfest is a 2 day multi-venue event – Day 1 (June 3, 2017) is the Niagara Vegfest in the Vineyard and Day 2 (June 4, 2017) is the Vegan Festival Main Event
• 6^th Annual Niagara Vegfest
• Location: Market Square, downtown St. Catherines (91 King Street)
• Admission: Free / donation of $2 or canned foods
• It includes 80+ vendors and exhibitors, guest speakers, kids zone and TD Niagara Jazz Festival Music Stage
• “A celebration the many benefits of a healthy, compassionate, plant-based lifestyle, and showcases exhibitors, vendors, and speakers from the Niagara region and beyond” -Niagara Vegfest

Overall, I had an amazing and very foodie day at Niagara Vegfest. I loved the atmosphere at the Market Square in St.Catherines as this festival was some vendors indoors and some outdoors, which to me is good because I liked the flow of the traffic it gives for attendees when they attended this event. It also gives options for weather if it rained or if it was sunny to have the indoors and outdoors available. I loved that they had the TD Niagara Jazz Festival Music Stage outside where I was able to enjoy the beautiful jazz music whether I was inside or outside. It brought a different element to the festival by adding music and creating a fun atmosphere to the Niagara Vegfest. Though I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed with so many vendors to check out, but at the same time it was great to have a variety of vendors and exhibitors to offer to people. I spent half the day at the Niagara Vegfest as there were so many delicious and yummy foods to sample along with checked out a few non-food vendors.

My Top 4 Fave Foods at Niagara Vegfest are:

1) Pizza Rolls by Rise Above Restaurant

• Best pizza sausage roll I ever had, yum, it was crispy the pastry part and the most tastiest sausage inside, loved it!! As someone who is now dairy free, it’s hard to find places with vegan pizzas so happy to have stopped and had the most yummiest is that a word lol…pizza rolls by Rise Above Restaurant.
• Quick information about Rise Above Restaurant – is the Niagara’s 1^st 100% vegan restaurant and bakery. They are located downtown in St. Catherines. They specialize in comfort foods, healthy choices, and fresh baked desserts. Only wish they would open another location in Toronto, I look forward to stopping by the actual restaurant one day.

2) Peach Fritter doughnut by Beechwood Doughnuts

• I was so full from all the delicious vegan foods that I had to still get a doughnut from Beechwood Doughnuts as I heard they had the best vegan doughnuts. So I bought one to bring home to eat and chose the Peach Fritter (peaches are one of my fave fruits) and so glad I did lol…Beechwood Doughnuts hands down the best vegan doughnut I ever had!! Wow, I don’t usually eat doughnuts too often, but I would if it is for the sweetest and soft doughnuts that Beechwood Doughnuts make. The Peach Fritter the best lol!! If you haven’t tried, Beechwood Doughnuts, you are definitely missing out!! I would definitely travel for these doughnuts!!
• Quick information about Beechwood Doughnuts – Niagara’s first and only 100% vegan doughnut shop. Located in the heart of Downtown St. Catharines. They opened in January 2015 and become popular and have a reputation for quality in the Niagara Region and beyond. They also won 3 awards in 2015 at the Toronto Vegetarian Association Veg Awards – best vegan bakery, best vegan doughnut and best vegan dessert.

3) Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake by Dolled Up Desserts

• One of my fave regulars is definitely Dolled Up Desserts who I always enjoy visiting at any vegan food festivals and always love seeing what Katarina (Dolled Up Dessert owner) new delicious desserts she has for that day. She comes up with the most delicious vegan and creative desserts, I love it!! She also has the most beautiful display for her booth I love how creative she is! This time I tried her delicious & sweet Strawberry Lemonade mini cupcake. Loved it!!
• Quick information about Dolled Up Desserts – Her main shop is based in Hamilton, Ontario. Dolled Up Desserts creates and share high quality desserts that are gluten free and vegan, and are made with 25-50% less sugar, ingredients that are organic, locally sourced.

4) Banana Split Cupcake by Fairly Frosted Bakery

• I love cupcakes so it was hard to resist when I saw the delicious vegan cupcakes display at Fairly Frosted Bakery. One of my friends also recommended them so was excited to try them and they had an assortment of different baked goods to choose from. It was hard to choose besides the cupcakes. I ended up choosing their Banana Split Cupcake and it was delicious minus the chocolate topping as some of you might know I don’t eat chocolate I know it’s a shock lol!! The frosting wasn’t too sweet either so it was perfect.
• Quick information about Fairly Frosted Bakery  – A bakery from Guelph, Ontario founded in 2011. Fairly Frosted Bakery serves vegan, gluten free and nut free baked goods.

One of my fave vegan ice cream is food truck – Sweet Teeth, which is not mentioned above, but they always been my fave regulars at any vegan festivals. So it goes without saying that I always visit their food truck of ice cream and waffles, yum and this time is no difference. I got their OG waffle, which consists of fresh strawberries, strawberry sauce and of course the ice cream. If you haven’t tried Sweet Teeth food truck, I highly recommend it!! This year they also added shakes to their menu and love their new flavours added to the menu. They always come up with new flavours, which is great to see.

One of my fave vegan jeweler is Jewels by SJB, I discovered Sue’s beautiful jewelry last year at one of the vegan food festivals and instantly loved her unique and beautiful handmade jewelry. Sue is from Toronto, ON and has a collection of hand forged, cruelty free jewels and creating beautiful detailed pieces. She uses genuine gemstones that includes .925 sterling silver and 14K gold fill metal. She is also a vegan who shares her message through her jewelry.

I was excited to visit Jewels by SJB booth and see what new pieces she had this time. I always love seeing what new pieces that she brings to each festival as she makes the most beautiful unique pieces. I ended up purchasing a beautiful purple amethyst gemstone to go with my Vegan necklace as well bought a new rose/light pink bracelet with the letter “v” on it. The new bracelet matches my other bracelet (purple amethyst one) I bought from her last year to make a stacking bracelet. I am happy with my new jewelry!! It is always great to see Sue again, she is always so kind and amazing to me especially if I needed any customizing to her jewelry. I love how she can custom to each customer needs. I look forward to seeing what new pieces she has in the next festival!!

My collection of bracelets and pendant necklace from Jewels by SJB

What an amazing 1^st visit to Niagara Vegfest filled with delicious vegan foods, desserts, shopping local & unique items, and enjoying amazing jazz music!! If you didn’t have a chance to check out Niagara Vegfest, I highly recommend to see what delicious vegan foods & to experience this festival yourself at Niagara Vegfest next year. Look out for details on their website (information below)! I look forward to joining them again next year after this fun foodie day!! I can’t wait to see what next year they have planned out!

If you managed to read most of this blog post as I know it was a bit long, thank you!! I appreciate you taking your time to read my foodie adventure!! Summer is just around the corner and I’m looking forward to my next foodie summer festival as some of you might already know (from my Twitter and Instagram posts) I have attended my 2^nd one just this past weekend! With the busy summer months ahead, I look forward to not just food summer festivals, but also to my mini getaway in July. Don’t worry I still be posting shortly after I’m back. But this summer along the way, I am still searching for my next sweet vegan dessert place!! Stay tuned!!

As always, for the latest updates or to keep up with me on my foodie adventures, please follow me on Twitter @SweetBFoodie24 or Instagram @SweetBFoodie24.

Until next time, let’s get ready for summer filled with hot weather for foodie summer festivals, cool desserts, travelling and beaches & more!!

-Sweet B.

For more information on Niagara Vegfest and any of the vendors I mentioned, please see below:

Niagara Vegfest – Website -> click here

You can follow them on Facebook @NiagaraVegFest, Twitter @NiagaraVegFest and Instagram @NiagaraVegFest.

Rise Above Restaurant – Website -> click here

You can follow them on Facebook @RiseAboveRestaurant, Twitter @RiseAboveFoods and Instagram @RiseAboveRestaurant.

Beechwood Doughnuts – Website -> click here

You can follow them on Facebook @BeechwoodDoughnuts, Twitter @BeechwoodInfo and Instagram @BeechwoodDoughnuts.

Dolled Up Desserts – Website -> click here

You can follow her on Facebook @DolledUpDessertsBaking, Twitter @DolledUpBaking and Instagram @DolledUpDessertsBaking.

Fairly Frosted Bakery – Website -> click here

You can follow them on Facebook @FairlyFrosted, Twitter @FairlyFrosted and Instagram @FairlyFrosted.

Sweet Teeth Food Truck – Website -> click here

You can follow them on Facebook @SweetTeethVegan, Twitter @SweetTeethVegan and Instagram @SweetTeethVegan.

Jewels by SJB – Website -> click here

You can follow her on Facebook @JewelsbySJB and Instagram @JewelsbySJB.

 

 

 

My New & Healthy Fave Vietnamese Place – Pho Vistro

Hi everyone!!

This is my 1st official blog post for 2017 (not including My Year in Review for 2016) and it’s already the month of February 2017, which means winter is half over…:) With Chinese New Year’s 2 weeks ago, this is technically the start of my New Year’s and the start of the Year of the Rooster, which I was born in. I’m excited that it is MY year, the Year of the Roosters & looking forward to what this exciting year will bring me!! Most of all, I look forward to discovering new foodie & healthy bakeries & sharing my sweet adventures with my readers.

Starting off this Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rooster, I thought in honor of this special occasion to share my love for pho and a Vietnamese type of cuisine, which is also part of the Asian cuisine/culture. I thought it would be perfect to match this type of food with Chinese New Year as noodles in the Chinese culture represent happiness and longevity.

I believe that this is a great way to start the New Year with delicious & simple food that represents happiness and a healthy long life. I recently discovered a new healthy, simple and delicious Vietnamese pho restaurant called: Pho Vistro on Queen Street West. They are not like any other pho place, their focused is on all-natural, organic and old-fashioned Vietnamese cuisine with zero MSG and their traditional broth is slow-cooked with intense flavoured broth that takes over 10 hours of cooking process with fresh herbs/spices. They offer an assortment of Vegan menu options along with gluten free, which is rare for a pho place and believe that this is a great option to add.

They consider their pho soup to be a healthy alternative to other soups to help your immune system. I believe that this is a great concept to have in this type of food as it is rare and I love the option of having vegan options.

Last weekend, it was my first time trying this cozy & warm new pho place, Pho Vistro and when you walk in the door, the first thing I noticed was their beautiful interior design and loved the modern yet home feeling to this medium size restaurant. You can smell the aroma of their freshly made broth as well when you come in. I thought that the size of the restaurant was a good fit as it wasn’t too big or too small. I came just after the lunch rush as I was having a late lunch. It was still relatively busy and more customers arrived after I sat down so I would consider this a good sign that people really enjoy the pho here.

I ordered the Fried Chicken Spring Rolls to start and ordered the Pho Classic with beef, they also had options with chicken and vegan as well. They also have smoothies with option for vegan/sugar-free as well, which is great to know next time I would love to order one since I only drink dairy-free now.

The pho itself I really liked it, I can tell the broth was freshly made and can tell there was definitely no MSG in it, I felt the cleanse / clear of the broth thou this broth had less flavor than other broths I usually eat and I believe that has to do with no MSG in it as it is more healthier. I added a bit of hoisin sauce on my beef for a bit of more flavor. I loved the noodles itself as I can tell it was made fresh and it is the thicker noodles than other pho places have thinner noodles. They have excellent customer service at Pho Vistro, very friendly and efficient servers and the owner who I saw is very friendly as well engaging with customers and assisting with staff if they required help.

The Back of their Menu

Overall, I would definitely come back for a hot bowl of pho especially on these colder winter days we are now having. I been to many Vietnamese (pho) restaurants before and I definitely think this is one I would recommend people to come and try for yourself as Pho Vistro stands out to me more particularly with their concept and healthier version of pho soup. I look forward to coming back and enjoying some delicious & healthy bowl of pho this winter and anytime during the year as I enjoy my pho all year round.

I hope that you all give Pho Vistro a try and see for yourself why I love this pho place so much! Please let me know what you think of it by leaving your comments below.

Stay Connected With Me

Don’t forget to stay connected with me for all updates, when my next blog post is and follow my yummy foodie photo adventures, you can follow me on my Social Media Networks,

Twitter @SweetBFoodie24 and Instagram @SweetBFoodie24.

Until next time, in my search for my next sweet & healthy adventure!!

-Sweet B.

For more information on Pho Vistro, please see below:

Website – Pho Vistro -> click here

You can also follow them on Twitter @phovistro, Facebook @phovistro and Instagram @phovistro.

My Highlights of 2016 Food Bloggers of Canada Conference

Hi everyone,

Is it getting chilly here or warm here in Toronto for this Fall weather, lol, it seems like the weather can’t make up it’s mind lol….I think I have to say that it is officially feels like Fallish weather!!! It’s been a busy few weeks for me with my Full time Admin job being busy and then of course two events that happened in one week so I been trying to do catch up. I hope that everyone have been enjoying the warm Fall early this October before the cold weather has hit as it is now November.

Quick Update

With my busy work schedule, I have decided that I will be doing monthly blog posts so at least one blog post per month until things have settled down with me in regards to my Full time Admin job. I still love working on this blog and still passionate for it especially after attending the FBC conference has inspired me more. I been working on the last few months to have this has my main focus and I haven’t quite gotten there yet. Hope you all will be patient with me and enjoy my monthly sweet blog posts! My special project is still coming end of November is the date of the launch. Look out for it soon!!

You can always check my daily updates and my food adventures through Twitter @SweetBFoodie24 and Instagram @SweetBFoodie24.

Without further delay, here are my highlights of this year Food Bloggers of Canada 2016 held in Toronto, warning it might be a bit long and filled with yummy food photos that might leave you a bit hungry after reading this blog post…:)

My Highlights of Food Bloggers of Canada 2016

This year Food Bloggers of Canada celebrated their 5^th Year Anniversary in Toronto, where my hometown city is. They held their 4^th Annual Food Bloggers of Canada Conference FBC2016 from October 21-23, 2016 at the Delta Toronto located in the heart of downtown’s bustling Entertainment District.

Saturday, October 22, 2016 – Day Before My Sunday Session

With this year FBC2016 being held in my city in Toronto, I decided for convenience and for a city getaway to stay overnight at Residence Inn Marriott Toronto Downtown for Saturday night. This year I was attending only the Sunday Session and with the early start for the session, I thought it was more convenient for me to stay closer to the conference hotel as I don’t live near downtown. I always love mini getaways and why not even in my own city as I still discover new places and restaurants in my own city of Toronto.

I arrived to Residence Inn Marriott Toronto Downtown late afternoon on Saturday, October 22, 2016. I chose this particular hotel as ever since I stayed at this brand of Marriott hotels with their spacious rooms including a kitchenette with a fridge, I really enjoyed it as they are known for Extended stays and it feels like you are in a bachelor apartment for a few days as some hotels have small rooms. I guess I just enjoy the more spacious rooms. This hotel wasn’t too far away from the conference hotel – Delta Toronto about 10 minutes walk to it so it was a convenient.

Residence Inn Marriott Toronto Downtown is located in the heart of the Entertainment District and steps to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Rogers Centre, Ripley’s Aquarium, Mirvish Theatre, CN Tower and the TIFF Bell Lightbox. All within 3 blocks distance to the hotel. Staying at the Residence Inn Marriott Toronto Downtown you can experience the fine dining, night life and theatres that are offered within. If you are taking the subway like I did, it wasn’t far walk from St.Andrew’s subway station to the hotel about less than 10 minutes walk.

My City View from my room

I had an amazing stay at the Resident Inn Marriott Toronto Downtown hotel and enjoyed what the hotel had to offer for me, though unfortunately didn’t have time to take a swim in their beautiful pool. Hopefully next time. I loved my corner suite with a king bed and sofa, which I loved the sofa as it was very comfy and the style I wanted in my own home one day. The service at this hotel was exceptional and friendly as I was greeted right away when I walked in to check-in the hotel and had no problems checking out. Amazing staff at this hotel with friendly & helpful front desk staff & doorman. I highly recommend this hotel if you are looking for a place to stay in Toronto!

After a busy work week, I spent my Saturday evening taking it easy starting off after I checked in the hotel – went shopping at the Eaton Centre and then a delicious dinner at Pickle Barrel trying their new addition to their menu – Local Harvest. Enjoyed their freshly made – Honey Apple Chicken topped with Ontario apples & cranberry chutney with local seasonal vegetables and fries. It was simply delicious!!! Definitely would come back to try their other new Local Harvest items on the menu. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the hotel since it was an early morning session for Sunday. For those who don’t know, I’m not a morning person lol…so it was a bit hard to get up lol…but for the delicious breakfast, it was all worth it…:)

Me relaxing at the hotel

Sunday, October 23, 2016 – Sunday General Sessions

On Sunday, October 23, 2016, it was Food Bloggers of Canada general sessions and on Saturday, October 24, 2016, this year was a bit different that they did workshops sessions, which I was unable to get tickets for that day too as it was sold out quickly. I’m hoping that I will be able to attend the full conference next year.

This year it will be my 2^nd time attending this amazing & fun intimate conference for 150 food bloggers along with brands and speakers. If you haven’t been to this conference, then you are definitely missing out on a very foodie and networking event. Though this year, I felt like I wasn’t able to give my full attention to the conference for personal reasons and I felt like I couldn’t enjoy it as much! I tried to take in as much as I could and hoping I will be able to take away some information to focus on after the conference.

This year theme is: “Do the Work”. Food Bloggers of Canada put together this year their lineup of people who have done the work whether they have found success on their terms by doing what they love and by putting hours into it. Here are just some of the speakers that I heard that day including: Noelle Chorney, Claire Tansey, Dana Harrison & Joel MacCharles, Dennis Prescott, and more.

Starting Sunday Session with a wonderful and a selection of delectable variety of breakfast foods hosted by Breville Canada. Despite not being a morning person, it was hard to resist all the yummy and delicious foods, which I decided to have a light breakfast and sample a few of everything! My fave breakfast item was the pork breakfast slider, just the perfect little bite!! I also really enjoyed the Spinach, Green Apple, and Banana smoothie – the non-diary version. I loved the idea that all the breakfast foods was made using Breville Canada kitchen equipment and I simply love the very modern toaster to make my toast..:)  Only recently for who don’t know, I have a mild lactose intolerance and I thought that it was great to see how Food Bloggers of Canada accommodate with the food allergies.

The amazing modern toaster by Breville Canada

1^st session – Defining Your Own Success with speakers – Noelle Chorney & Claire Tansey

Website – Noelle Chorney – here, Follow her on Twitter @KitchenAmazon

Website – Claire Tansey – here, Follow her on Twitter @tanseyclaire, Facebook @clairesrecipes, and Instagram @tanseyclaire.

• It was very inspiring to hear both speakers talk about their success and how each worked on where they are now. A few key notes I took away from these speakers are – to be happy & successful (which I really took to heart as I want to be at that place to where I am happy and I feel I haven’t gotten there just yet with my Full Time job, so I guess a bit insight for my readers, I’m still trying to find my happy place), being able to say no & yes and the question is “What do you love about it?” Some great key notes to think about and make goals for next year in 2017.

For Coffee Break, we had some delicious Fall-like treats sponsored by Crosbys Molasses. We had Gingersnaps with cream in the middle and I enjoyed the vegan version of it! Love how they can accommodate us like me who eat dairy-free foods!

The amazing view of the CN Tower and Rogers Centre from the conference hallway

2^nd session – Food Photography with Dennis Prescott

Website – Dennis Prescott –here, Follow him on Facebook @dennistheprescott, Instagram @dennistheprescott, and Twitter @dennisfprescott.

• It was great hearing Dennis speak from a photographer point of view and learn how he got into food photography. Key Notes I took away from Dennis – how to tell your story through a photo, the human element in a photo and take photos other than foods.

Dana Harrison & Joel MacCharles

3^rd session – Stepping Outside Your Blog To Take It to the Next Level – Dana Harrison & Joel MacCharles

Website – Dana Harrison & Joel MacCharles – here, Follow them on Twitter @WellPreserved, Facebook @wearewellpreserved and Instagram @WellPreserved.

• It was interesting and insightful to hear from the authors of “Batch” and their approach and how they got to be successful. Key Notes I took away are they mentioned: “Find Your North Star”, basically that means why are you doing this?, which I thought it’s such a simple question yet not quite an easy answer and Know your audience. As well, I thought it was a good idea that they mentioned that these days everything is electronic and they mentioned about having something physical for you to visual like for example if you did 30 blog posts have 30 pieces of pages in a binder and you can physically see it. I agree that sometimes you need something physical to see how things are in prospective.

Finishing off FBC2016 with a delicious & healthy lunch courtesy of Half Your Plate. Enjoyed the variety of veggies, fruits & meats that are available for everyone. My fave item for lunch was the beef and pork skewers, it was very tasty and grilled perfectly, I always love skewer foods lol!! Of course, we can’t forget desserts and they saved the best for last as they used Breville Canada’s mixer to make the most delicious Virtural Ice cream!! I was quite excited to see how they made it as they made it to you right in front of you and I was even more excited when they were making my fave flavor – mango..:)  I enjoyed the dairy-free version of the mango ice cream with fresh raspberries and candies on top!! A great way to end the conference.

My delicious & healthy lunch filled half my plate with veggies & fruits

There were also one-on-one blogger/brand networking during the lunch. As most of the timeslots to speak with certain brands I was interested in was taken, I did end up speaking to Nature Path’s and enjoyed introducing myself and getting to know the brand a bit more. I’m looking to connect with other brands in the next conference and I guess one of my goals for 2017 is to connect and network with other brands.

Special thanks to Melissa and Ethan of course who put together this amazing conference every year for us food bloggers to get together, network, learn and grow in one united community!!! I can’t thank you guys enough, it has been another fantastic conference filled with these amazing speakers and sponsors!!! Every year it seems to grow and become a great conference making it annually something I always look forward to going to. It was great seeing a few familiar faces again and making new connections along the way again.

Some of the amazing sponsors at this year FBC2016 to name a few are: Breville Canada (love their tea maker, definitely need one), Half Your Plate, DeltaFaucet, Canadian Turkey, Lentils, Diary Farmers of Canada, Farm & Food Care Canada, Mushrooms Canada, Cookina, Ontario Apple Growers, Nature’s Path, Egg Farmers of Canada and more!! You can their links and connect with them from Food Bloggers of Canada website (will be listed below).

Of course, every year we get these amazing Swag bags, check out below some of the goodies I got this year! If there’s one way of tempting you to come this conference are these foodie filled swag bags!

Next year the FBC2017 conference, will be held in Ottawa in celebration of Canada’s 150^th birthday and it will be Food Bloggers of Canada 5^th Anniversary!! How exciting can this be?? Right now, Food Bloggers of Canada have an early bird ticket sale if you are interested in going!! Can’t wait to get my ticket soon!

I’m hoping that I will be able to attend the full conference next year!! See you guys next year in Ottawa!!

If you manage to read most of what I wrote, thank you. Probably my longest blog post, I hope that you enjoyed reading it and checking out some of my delicious and fun photos!!

After this inspiring and delicious foodie filled conference, I am in search for my next sweet vegan dessert place….:)

Until next time…

-Sweet B.

For more information on Food Bloggers of Canada community & conference & links to the sponsors,

Website – Food Bloggers of Canada -> click here

You can also follow FBC on Facebook @FoodBloggersofCanada, Twitter @foodbloggersCA and Instagram @foodbloggersca

 

My Highlights of Veg Food Fest 2016

Hi everyone,

Can you believe that summer is already over? It’s been a busy summer with my full time job as an Admin, but it’s been filled with delicious foodie events, watching the Rogers Cup tennis and going to one baseball game at least! I hope that everyone enjoyed their summer and this very humid summer weather in T.O.

It is officially Fall now and I’m excited for the cooler weather, the beautiful colourful leaves and if you didn’t know, Fall is one of my fave season and with Fall comes sweet delicious apple desserts, warm yummy desserts and Thanksgiving of course!

Before we get into this blog post, a quick update is I am working on a special project that will be revealed soon, I’m excited about it, but it’s been taking a lot of my time so that is why there hasn’t been another sweet blog post until now and a lot of exciting events & trips such as the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference that I will be attending in October are happening the next few months so please be patient with me. So stay tuned this Fall for some exciting sweet warm posts & my special project!!

To end the summer, what better way than attending an outdoor foodie event, the weekend of September 10-11, 2016, I attended my 2^nd Vegan festival, but my 1^st time attending this particular one – Veg Food Fest 2016, which was held at the Harbourfront Centre. I was so excited to go after my 1^st vegan one despite the rainy day (you can read it my review on Vegan Food & Drink Festival 2016 -> here), I enjoyed it so much that I thought that I go to another one to see what this one has to offer. This festival was run over the weekend of 3 days from September 9-11, 2016.

I went on the Sunday on a beautiful warm sunny day and what a perfect day to be by the waterfront. I was very impressed with the Veg Food Fest 2016 run by Toronto Vegetarian Association – a non-profit from Toronto – in partnership with Harbourfront Centre. I really enjoyed this event with the beautiful waterfront views, variety of vendors, workshops, samples from vendors, demonstrations, live music, and the atmosphere itself. I also enjoyed interacting with vendors and learning more about the vegan lifestyle as I’m still new to it as some of you might know (on a diary-free diet with a mild tolerance for milk as I still do eat meat). I attended this event with of course my sis who also loves attending these events, my 2^nd foodie partner besides my mom…:)

Beautiful view of the waterfront at Harbourfront for the event

As this is my 1^st time attending the Veg Food Fest 2016, I didn’t get a chance to do everything at the event such as watching cooking demos or attending the workshops or speakers seminars as there were a lot to see and sample. So I’m hoping next year I will try to attend one of them as I was excited to find out MasterChef Canada: Mary Berg was there this year and missed it.

Here are some more detailed information about Veg Food Fest 2016:

• When: September 9-11, 2016
• Location: Harbourfront Centre
• Host: Toronto Vegetarian Association
• How long has this festival been running for: This is their 32^nd Veg Food Fest
• What’s New This Year: Expanded their location to East side of Harbourfront Centre, 1^st ever Veg Out relaxing zone, World Café will feature King’s Café, Green Zebra, Boon Burter and more.
• Activities: workshops, lectures, fitness classes, music, panel discussions, cooking demos
• Mission: “Inspiring people to choose a healthier, greener, more compassionate lifestyle through plant-based eating.” –Veg Food Fest Official Website

My Top Fave Desserts at Veg Food Fest 2016:

• Nanashake – their delicious Nanapops of course, tried their delicious healthy yet yummy Mango & Strawberry mixed flavour one and loved it!! Who wouldn’t? I love anything mango!! As for those who don’t know, I always visit Nanashake shop before so it is no doubt that I love their yummy frozen desserts and always love seeing what new products that they come up with. If you haven’t been to their shop before, I highly recommend it, it’s definitely worth a trip to enjoy a delicious and healthy treat with a warm friendly welcome from their amazing staff.
• Sweet Teeth Vegan Food Truck – 1^st time finally trying Sweet Teeth Vegan as I been waiting to try it from the other festival but didn’t have a chance. Unfortunately this time there was no vegan ice cream left, but I still tried it anyways and got the OG, which was their Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries, strawberry sauce and instead of ice cream got whipped cream instead. Despite no ice cream, it was delicious the waffle, loved it was freshly made and soft and the strawberries was the best part to top it off!! Definitely coming back next time with the ice cream..:)
• Sweets From the Earth – Tried their delicious vegan mini Strawberry Cupcake, which was absolutely delicious with the cake part of the cupcake was moist and soft and loved the frosting as it wasn’t too sweet! I also bought some Oatmeal Raisin cookies to bring home and enjoyed it while I was at home. Loved the cookies, you can’t even tell it was a vegan cookie, simply delicious. This is my 1^st time discovering Sweets From the Earth and would love to try their other vegan products. They are a family-owned business and maintains two production facilities. Both are egg-free, dairy-free, and kosher. One is dedicated peanut- and nut-free and the other is dedicated wheat and gluten free. Products are available in stores across Canada, with new retailers being added all the time. (Info from their website). That’s a quick information about Sweets From the Earth if you are interested. You can check out their website link below after my blog entry.

I also got to visit Tori’s Bakeshop booth, but unfortunately they were out of my Vanilla cupcakes sadly I don’t eat chocolate (another fact if you didn’t know about me, shocker I know who doesn’t love chocolate and desserts go as a pair, that’s me a bit strange one here lol!). They had beautiful cupcakes display that I had to admit look delicious, check out my photo below. I’m hoping to stop by their bakeshop one day. Can’t wait to!

There were some booths that were giving out some free samples and who doesn’t love samples? I got a sample of Veggemo: 1^st non-dairy beverage to originate from veggies. I got the original flavour as there were two other ones giving out as well as unsweetened and vanilla. I never tried Veggemo non-dairy beverage before so I thought it would be great to try it out and see if I like it so I can use it as part of my food dietary. Veggemo uses pea protein, tapioca, and potato to create this delicious non-dairy beverage. I’m looking forward to trying it!! You can find out where you can buy one yourself or more information on Veggemo at their website here -> Veggemo.

It was a fun foodie day filled with yummy & delicious sweet treats and desserts and who could have guess it was dairy-free, healthy and plant-based yet it tastes so delicious still. As I’m still learning my new dietary living dairy-free, part vegan that I’m enjoying and happy to see there are other options for people who can’t eat dairy or choose to be vegan, that I can still enjoy my love for desserts still without having dairy in it. I love attending these events who open my mind and see what products are out there that I didn’t know before. So if you didn’t attend, Veg Food Fest 2016 this year, I highly recommend coming to check out this event, come & sample some delicious foods and maybe you might discover some new products that you didn’t know before? Always a plus is the event is free.

I look forward to attending next year Veg Food Fest 2017!!!

Me & my sis, Cindy at the Veg Food Fest 2016

I hope that you enjoyed my yummy review on Veg Food Fest 2016!! If you have been following along on my Twitter and Instagram, I had an amazing foodie & relaxing Fall getaway to Kingston, Ontario last weekend. Don’t forget to come back later in October to check out about my trip and see what places you should eat & see. There are more exciting Fall blog posts coming up.

For the latest updates, please follow my foodie adventures on Twitter @SweetBFoodie24 and on Instagram @SweetBFoodie24.

For now, I leave you with sweet & yummy vegan desserts to crave for while I’m in search of my next scrumptious foodie adventure!

Until next time…

Xoxo,

-Sweet B.

For more information on Veg Food Fest and the other vendors, please use the links below:

Veg Food Fest – Official Website

You can follow them on Facebook @VegFoodFest, Twitter @VegFoodFest and Instagram @VegFoodFest.

Toronto Vegetarian Association – Website

Other Vendors/Bakery/Dessert Places

NanaShake – Website

Address: 4750 Yonge Street, Unit 134 (Yonge/Sheppard area)

You can follow them on Facebook @nanashake, Twitter @thenanashake and Instagram @thenanashake.

Sweet Teeth Food Truck – Website

You can follow them on Facebook @SweetTeethVegan, Twitter @sweetteethvegan and Instagram @sweetteethvegan.

Sweets From the Earth – Website

You can follow them on Facebook @SweetsFromTheEarth, Twitter @SFTEBakery and Instagram @SFTEBakery.

Tori’s Bakeshop – Website

You can follow them on Facebook @TorisBakeshop, Twitter @torisbakeshop and Instagram @torisbakeshop.

Veggemo

You can follow them on Facebook @veggemo, Twitter @Go_Veggemo and Instagram @Go_Veggemo.

 

 

 

Highlights of My 1st Vegan Food & Drink Festival

Hi everyone!

It’s been a very humid and scorching summer in Toronto this year! How is everyone handling this humidity? Loving it or not liking it?? 😉 LOL!! Well, I was not prepared for this high humidity, trying to find ways to keep cool and still enjoy the hot days while we can as Fall is around the corner and what I love about summer days in Toronto are of course as some of you know, love attending food festivals.

With my 1^st summer foodie festival finished & done at the Taste of Toronto, been to a few smaller food festivals this summer after Taste of Toronto. Been going to food festivals that I haven’t been to before this summer experiencing them with my sis who also loves food as much as I do.

This past weekend, I went to my 1^st Vegan Food & Drink Festival with my sister who enjoys vegan food and she suggested that I come with her to check it out myself as “vegan” also includes no dairy, which is part of my new diet now as I have mentioned before that I started recently having certain products with no dairy as I have a mild lactose intolerance. I am still new and learning about the concept of “vegan” food & lifestyle as I do still eat meat but just no dairy products or limited diary products.

I thought that it was a great idea for me to go to the Vegan Food & Drink Festival to explore and learn more about vegan foods & lifestyle.

If you haven’t been to the Vegan Food & Drink Festival before, here are some basic info about it:

• This is the 2^nd Annual Vegan Food & Drink Festival
• Date: Saturday, August 13, 2016 (One Day Festival)
• Time: 11am – 7pm
• Location: Fort York Garrison Commons (double their capacity & space from last year)
• What Does the Festival Offer: vegan comfort food, cold drinks, and live entertainment
• Cost: $10 (Early Bird Price) & $15 (At the Door) & $20 (VIP Ticket)
• Vendors: From local & visiting vendors
• They also have Vegan Food & Drink Festival in Chicago as well

Despite the rainy, wet and humid weather, my sister and I still enjoyed the Vegan Food & Drink Festival exploring and discovering new vegan desserts & foods as it was interesting to see what vegan food is about and how it tastes. I really enjoyed the few samples of vegan foods that we were able to have with the rain downpour on and off. It is good to know my vegan options and that I can still enjoy vegan food despite being a meat eater still. I liked seeing there were many vendors offering different types of vegan food to explore.

In my opinion, I like how they had a larger space at Fort York Common Grounds and that they were able to have more vendors with the larger space along with seating and entertainment, but I thought it was a bit confusing where certain vendors were. They needed better signage due to the large space (no direction). But I did love their cute quote signs throughout the event. Check out a few of the signage photos I took there below. There were pros and cons at this event.

My Fave foods from the Vegan Food & Drink Festival are:

Fave Dessert – Definitely has to be Dolled Up Desserts as they had the most delicious and amazing desserts selections hands down. I wish I had more lol!! Dolled Up Desserts is a vegan & gluten-free treats offering mini cupcakes, cake-pops minis, cookies (shortbread), magic bars & more at the festival. It was so hard to choose, I wanted them all lol! I ended up enjoying the perfect mini cupcake – Strawberry Shortcake and I love Earl Grey so it was naturally I tried the Earl Grey shortbread cookie, there was a strong flavour of Earl Grey throughout the cookie, which I loved! Next time would love to try the mini cake-pops, can’t wait to try more desserts by Dolled Up Desserts.

• Fave Drink/Refreshment – Refreshing Fruit Tea with apple, rosehip, lemon pieces, & hibiscus petals by The Cold Pressery (located in Mississauga). As a tea drinker & lover, was very impressed with their Fruit Tea with the right amount of sweetness and light flavour with the fruits.

• Fave Sandwich – Portobello Sandwich by Parka Foods – Refined Comfort Food, love how a simple healthy comfort food such as a mushroom sandwich was made flavourful and filling, my sister and I had the Portobello mushroom sandwich with tomato, onion rings, arugula, guacamole with no chipotle aioli on my mines as I don’t eat spicy foods..:) Sorry I didn’t take a photo of my sandwich as it was pouring rain by the time we got to eat it!

(The Sample Sandwiches)

There were so many vegan & gluten-free desserts options, it was very hard to choose which one to go to! If you can believe it, shocker, but I couldn’t sample them all lots of sweetness happening all at once lol. Thou I was very excited to see that there is a large option for vegan/dairy-free desserts being not able to eat too much dairy products now. I also tried another dessert place called, Bunner’s: a vegan and gluten-free bake shop, which I tried their birthday cinnamon bun, loved the sweet taste of it, but thought with the humidity the cake itself was a bit thick for me to enjoy. I would love to try their other desserts next time.

Overall, I enjoyed tasting & sampling vegan foods and seeing what vegan types of food & desserts of course has to offer at the Vegan Food & Drink Festival 2016. It showed me a different side of vegan foods has to share & offer that I didn’t see before.

If you haven’t been to the Vegan Food & Drink Festival before, I definitely recommend that you come out next year to see what’s it all about it as it’s great to sample & enjoy the vegan food options along with great atmosphere outdoors esp. during the summer time.

I been enjoying my foodie festivals this summer so far – discovering new vegan desserts & new foods, can’t believe summer will be over soon! There are a few more food festivals to go to and my mini trip to Kingston this September that I will be of course sharing with everyone. So don’t forget to come back to my blog to check out what my next food festivals I will be attending if you haven’t already checked out my Twitter @SweetBFoodie24 & Instagram @sweetbfoodie24 for previews before my actual blog.

For now I leave you with these sweet summer vegan desserts to satisfy your sweet cravings or maybe give you some ideas for your next vegan dessert idea…:)

-Sweet B.

For more information on Vegandale Food & Drink Festival (formally known as Vegan Food & Drink Festival) & the other vendors mentioned above, please see below:

Vegandale Food & Drink Festival – website: click here

You can follow them on Facebook @Vegandalefestival and Instagram @vegandalefestival.

Dolled Up Desserts – website – click here

You can follow them on Facebook @dolledupdessertsbaking and Instagram @dolledupdessertsbaking.

The Cold Pressery – website – click here

Location:

4310 Sherwoodtowne Blvd #5

Mississauga, ON

You can follow them on Facebook @thecoldpressery, Twitter @TheColdPressery and Instagram @thecoldpressery.

Parka Food Co – website – click here

You can follow them on Facebook @ParkFoodco and Instagram @parkafoodco.

Bunner’s Bakeshop – website – click here

Locations:

Kensington Market: 244 Augusta Ave.

In the Junction: 3054 Dundas St. West

You can follow them on Facebook @BunnersBakeShop, Twitter @BunnersBakeShop and Instagram @bunner.

**Note – Updated on Sept 14, 2019 – Updated info & links of Vegandale Food & Drink Festival as they changed their name of the festival in 2018 formally known as Vegan Food & Drink Festival**