Grocery Innovations Canada (GIC) is Canada’s National Grocery Show and as always I was walking thru the aisles looking for new products. (my favourite hobby).

This show has 110,000 square feet of dedicated space focused on products, beer and wine too! I was one happy blogger.

Here’s a few items that caught my attention:

1. Burnbrae Farms introduced Flavoured Eggs2go and I was super EGGcited about these new flavours (Dill, Teriyaki, Hot Sauce and Salt & Pepper). I’m all about flavour so this concept really appealed to me.

2. Kraft introduced THICK cheese slices (that are also flavoured). Go figure that we have lasted decades with thin cheese slices and finally someone thought of this genius idea! Something tells me that my grilled cheese sandwich is going to be kicked up a notch.3. MapleFarms  introduced O’Rice that looks like rice but it was 100 percent Canadian Oats. I loved the texture and would definitely buy this. Not to mention its’ super healthy. #winnowing4. Heinz is about to introduce these three new sauces. I sampled the garlic Aioli with a french fry and was impressed. I will definitely be buying this when it hits the shelves.5. That Dam Tea is another Canadian product that caught my eye. DAM stands for Damiana which is used to relieve tension, calm anxiety and improve blood flow. Happy to support a delicious product that is created by a young entrepreneur from Peterborough.6. Astro introduced these two yogurts (a Parfait with fruit at the bottom and Whipped Greek Yogurt). I brought them home for my mom to try and she gave both of them a thumbs up!!

7. Thornloe cheese introduced grass fed cheese. Love it. FYI – Thornloe Cheese has produced a respected brand of cheese products in Northern Ontario for over 71 years!

Not only was I well fed at the show but visitors to the show had to opportunity to get their photo on a bottle of Heinz Ketchup.  #fun

Looking forward to GIC 2018!!

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Another Sunday = another opportunity to host a brunch for friends that were visiting form Ottawa. My friend graciously offered to bring bagels and cream cheese but I was eager to try to try out some new recipes that I found on Pinterest. As for the recipes I tested….I scored. They all came out perfect and of course I’m going to share the details with you.

The table looked like this. Don’t you just love the grass runner and those adorable shot glasses (which were perfect to serve mimosas?)

As for the food…. the main attraction was this Easy Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake from www.thesaltymarshmallow.com. Once again I need to thank Pinterest for helping me find this incredibly easy and tasty recipe!

This fruit salad served in kiwi cups were also an idea I found on Pinterest.

Hope this blog post encourages you to host a brunch one day soon and hope everyone is enjoying their summer too!!

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On Sunday morning, I made a perfectly good lookin’ French Toast to serve to my daughter. However I was still staring at half a loaf of challah and then said to myself: “Vicky…now is the time to try that recipe for Individual French Toast Muffins that you saw on Pinterest 3 years ago!!”.

Here’s the recipe that I used from the website: Two Peas and Their Pod

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS

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I’ve been on a no carb diet since early June, and needless to say I’m a bit bored of my breakfast options:

• Kale Smoothies
• Egg Whites
• Yogurt with berries (Iogo ….sugar free….is my brand of choice this days which has ZERO carbs. YES…ZERO)
• Almonds and a coffee

Then I received the Milk Calendar and said to myself “Vicky – you need to find a new breakfast option. It’s time”. Not to mention, I wanted to include more milk into my diet.

I discovered these Mini Crustless Quiches from a website called Smells Like Brownies. It’s exactly what I needed/wanted.

They are so so easy to make as you only need FOUR ingredients: ….eggs, milk, spinach, and grated cheese. Could life not get any simpler?

Here’s the recipe:

Crustless Mini Quiches

inspired by Laura Rees
makes 12

Ingredients:
½ head broccoli, cut into stems and florets (I didn’t have any broccoli in my fridge and the recipe came out fine)
⅔ cup spinach leaves, roughly chopped (I used frozen spinach that was thawed and drained)
⅔ cup shredded sharp cheddar
6 eggs
1½ cups milk
salt and black pepper

***my two cents: throw in some fresh thyme, or parsley. I really think this recipe needs some fresh herbs to give it more “oomph”.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a regular muffin tin with cooking spray.
Blanche the broccoli, then drain very thoroughly. Layer the broccoli, chopped spinach, and cheese into the muffin cups. Cups should be nearly full with veggies and cheese.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, and seasonings until smooth and slightly frothy. Pour over the vegetables, filling the muffin cups about ¾ full.
Bake for 25–30 minutes, until the tops are slightly puffed and golden.

Happy Breakfast!!

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Did you know that October is World Egg Month! Too get me “egg-cited”  about this event, the Egg Farmers of Ontario “cre-egg-ted” a challenge to put my own spin on making some devilled eggs. They provided me with a beautiful basket of goodies and as always I went on the internet searching for an unusual Devilled Egg recipe. Finally after a lot of clicking I found this recipe.

Naturally I didn’t follow the exact recipe (one day I will learn..LOL). To be super honest – I forgot to make the green onion oil HOWEVER I certainly enjoyed the end results. (as always).

The recipe is taken from the a website called: www.Momofukufor2.com

Green Onion Oil Devilled Egg Recipe:

Plus a few other ingredients…that didn’t make it into the photo, but you get the idea.

INGREDIENTS:

4 hard boiled eggs, peeled, chilled and cut in half

1/2 bunch of green onions, thinly sliced (about 3/4 to 1 cup)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 small shallot, minced
1 small knob of ginger, minced
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
sriracha (optional)

Make the green onion oil by heating up the canola oil in a small pot over high heat. When the oil is shimmery and hot, add the green onions, garlic, shallot, and ginger. Be careful, the water content will cause the oil to bubble. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the sesame oil. Salt to taste.

Remove the yolks from the eggs and place in a bowl. Mash with a fork until the yolks are crumbly. Add 1-2 tablespoons of the green onion oil. Stir and taste.

Mixture. (I added the Siracha sauce right into the mixture)

If you need more green onion oil in there, by all means, add it! Fill your egg halves and top with freshly ground pepper and a squirt of sriracha, if using. Enjoy!

FINAL RESULT:

Thanks to the Egg Farmers of Ontario, I’m now the proud owner of this FREAKIN” GENIUS egg storage container by Rubbermaid. Why have I not owned one of these before?

Love.This.

Happy World Egg Month!!

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I found two apps recently that I would like to share with you. One is a food app and the other is a booze app – not a bad combo.

Seriously, I think both these apps are genius. Which is why I am blogging about them.

The first app is called Get Cracking which is brought to you by the Egg Farmers of Canada. Here is what I love about this app:

-the design of the app is clean. Super clean. There is NOTHING complicated about this app.

-they have thought of everything..even an egg timer!!

-the color and the font are user friendly i.e yellow and white with an easy to read font

-its SIMPLE to use. Click on the video below and you will see what I mean.

The next app that I discovered is the LCBO app. Even though LCBO is not on twitter…I will forgive them as this app is super easy to use and makes my life that much easier when I’m trying to locate a new beer!! There has been times (in the past), where I had to go to three stores in order to find a particular bottle of beer.

I simply enter the product I’m looking for – let’s say Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale – enter my postal code – and poof – the app will tell me what LCBO in my neighborhood is carrying this product and HOW MUCH INVENTORY they have of that particular product.  How brilliant is that?

As for the design of this app: the team did a great job. It’s simple to navigate without a lot of copy. Perfect!!

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