Living Life In Canada

December in Ottawa has so many vegan food events and this past weekend was really Epic. It is hard to get to everything during the weekend. The first event on Friday night was a plant based soirée at Le Cordon Blue Ottawa.  The first cohort of the plant based program was close to graduating. The next event was Little Jo Berry’s that just recently opened for indoor dining after being takeout only for the last few years. After that to the Christmas market and some takeout for later from HotPotatoCo. The final event of the weekend while was I writing this was Franberry baking last vegan brunch pop up for the year. It’s a week since I wrote this and it wasn’t the last event. There was another trip to the Christmas market and more food from HotPotatoCo. Now it’s over month and a whole new year since I started drafting this post. Ottawa keeps me busy.  When I saw that Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa was going to have this event I bought the tickets right away. I knew they would sell out quick...

I was in Vancouver for a week in mid June 2023. All I did was meet people and eat vegan food. I got a chance to visit a lot of the new vegan places. If you are new to my blog I used to live in Vancouver for almost my whole life and I moved to Ottawa a year ago. Ottawa has a lot of vegan businesses and if not fully vegan almost every place will have at least one vegan option. I find Vancouver is different in that there aren’t a lot of vegan businesses and many places don't have vegan options so when one opens  everyone commutes to try it.    I Landed in YVR on Saturday evening and on the way out before baggage claim there is an Upmeals vending machine. I filtered it to Vegan to take the pictures. I didn’t buy anything because I still needed to get my luggage and I was planning to get the vegan breakfast sandwich from 7-11. I have yet to find the machine when I leave the airport would be great to get something for the plane ride. Last time I was in Vancouver I was lucky eno...

Update June 2025 : It’s been over a year since I wrote this post and I finally tried the Kraft Notco Mac and Cheese. Vegan cheese is very expensive now so I really bought this so I could have some cheeze sauce with nachos. It was $2.99 for the box at superstore. I believe Walmart might have it a little bit cheaper. I didn’t follow the measurements to make the package. I added some vegan butter and some plant milk and the cheese powder to a sauce pan. I thought it was good but really salty so I added some nutritional yeast and black pepper. After I took some sauce out for nachos  I added the pasta.l to the pan.  This is a decent boxed mac and cheese. It’s similar to the shells I have reviewed below. The ingredients are pretty good and it’s high protein so that’s nice. I don’t think this will be my main cheeze sauce substitute but it is a nice cheap easy cheese dish.  Update May 2024: I tried the new Daiya cheddar Mac and cheese. Daiya has come a really long way in the last...

 I often go to a&w for a beyond burger combo. I always have coupons and my store even told me they accept expired coupons. The beyond burger combo is $7.99 with the coupon it includes a beyond burger, fries, and drink. The burger by itself is $7.75 so the coupon essentially gives free fries and drink.  I asked if the coupon was valid on the jalapeño lime beyond burger they tried but it was not. I am assuming because it is a limited flavour.  The question becomes is it worth paying a few dollars more for a different flavour of beyond burger.  Today it was okay because McDonald’s had free fries and I’m fine with drinking water. I bought the burger by itself. It was nice to not have to customize anything. I usually have to ask for no mayo, no cheese in my beyond burger but the staff at aw are so good it’s never an issue. I always go home and add vegan mayo and sometimes vegan cheese. This has not been an issue for the past few years as I’m always getting takeout and...