One Restaurant (Yorkville)

I love to share and recognize restaurants that are accomodating of vegetarians, vegans and others with various dietary restrictions. My most recent discovery is One Restaurant, a Mark McEwan restaurant on Yorkville Avenue. Yes, it's beautiful and has great service, but what really impressed me was its vegan-friendliness. Vegans generally have a difficult time with fine dining, but One was amazingly accomodating. For starters, there were several vegan (or veganizable) options on the breakfast menu. I had a generous serving of oatmeal, raisins and brown sugar. More importantly, however, was the fact that they had soymilk. I usually have pretty good "soydar" but One was so off my radar I didn't even think to ask about soymilk, until of my colleagues kindly piped up on my behalf. I also have to share that One has gluten-free bread. In addition, they informed us that if you call ahead they can accomodate all kinds of requests. So kudos to One Restaurant!

Vegetarian Passover

Over the years I have struggled with how to keep Passover as both a vegan and an Ashkenazi Jew. Most of my protein sources, such as beans, lentils, and tofu, are off limits during Passover (but quinoa seems to be ok!). To make matters worse, when I first went vegan Passover usually overlapped with my final exams, which made it that much more difficult. Rather than risking feeling weak and tired while studying, I opted to follow the Sephardic tradition during Passover, which meant the protein-based kitniot was back on the table (literally). I have found that this is the right balance for me. How do you keep Passover as a vegetarian or vegan?

Organic Oven

Over the last couple of years, gluten-free menu items have been popping up all over the place. But for people who are extremely sensitive, the risk of cross-contamination means that even gluten-free items might not be safe to eat. Enter: Organic Oven. Organic Oven is an entirely gluten-free bakery and cafe, with tons of vegan items. I went there for breakfast for the first time on Good Friday and was overwhelmed by the options. I settled on a vegan berry muffin and soy berry smoothie; my husband had a chicken sandwich. I admit the muffin had a distinctively gluten-free taste, but if I were gluten-intolerant or celiac and also vegan I would be thrilled that there is safe place to find both vegan and gluten-free items. Organic Oven sells beautiful looking cakes, some that are gluten-free and some that are both gluten-free and vegan. They also sell some gluten-free grocery items. There are about 5 or 6 small tables in the cafe at the Yonge and Lawrence location. We followed breakfast by a walk around Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens, which made for a beautiful morning.

Vegan Protein Powder

Although there are tons of vegan brands available in Toronto, I've struggled with finding a good vegan protein powder.  I used to enjoy Hemp Shake by Nutiva but haven't seen it around for a while, and I'm hesitant to spend 30 bucks on a powder that might not be very good. Well, I was recently in Chicago and decided to check out Trader Joe's and see if they had any protein powder and sure enough they did - and it's great! It's called Trader Joe's Organic Hemp Protein Powder (chocolate flavored dietary supplement). It blends well and does not leave chalky powder on the side of the blender. I also love how it's so simple -- the only ingredients are organic hemp protein powder, organic palm sugar and cocoa powder. And although it is only sold in the US (as far as I'm aware), it is a product of Canada!

Almond on the go

I cannot walk buy a new vegan product and not try it.. hence, I just had my first sip of earth's own Almond on the go! As far as I'm aware it is the first almond milk in 250 mL juicebox form in the GTA. I have one rule when it comes to trying new non-dairy milks: always try the chocolate flavour first to give the product the fairest chance. I can happily say that the chocolate flavour was delicious; in fact, it tasted just like chocolate soymilk. It has a very similar nutritional profile to soymilk boxes but has fewer calories. I bought my Almond on the go from a Loblaw Superstore.

Bounce spirulina energy ball

Today I tried a new energy ball from Bounce. I had the spirulina flavour and unfortunately was not wowed, although I think that is because the ball looked like chocolate and when I took a bite it tasted nothing like chocolate (my fault - there was no indication there would be chocolate but it's hard to compete with the anticipation of chocolate!). I am looking forward to trying some of the other flavours, especially fudgie walnut!

http://www.bouncefoods.com/uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=5&category_id=1&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1

The Bean Ladies

Today I went to Toronto's One of a Kind Show and stumbled upon a business called The Bean Ladies, run by twin sisters out of the GTA (http://www.beanladies.com/index.html). They make soybean snacks and other bean-based products. I sampled about a dozen soybean flavours, including Apples N' Cinnamon, Chai Latte and Dill Pickle. I was impressed by how much flavour these soybeans had and the huge variety of flavours they offered. The Bean Ladies' products are carried across the province, including at Pusateri's.