The Joys of Baking Easy

I love a good easy meal, by easy I mean minimal ingredients and time needed to cook and eat. I love the little joys in life and I consider myself to have a very photographic memory for the most useless details..So I've compiled short video capturing the little details we often take advantage of while baking. In this video I showcase a vegan chocolate cake, and blueberry lemon w/ almonds sugar cookies. Both were verrry easy to make because well we used Betty Crocker mix but with our own little spin to it. To suppliment eggs for the vegan chocolate cake use 3 bananas and soy milk. For the sugar cookies, what you'll need is betty crocker sugar cookie mix, roast almonds with sea salt, half a lemon with orange & lemon zest, cinnamon and of course blue berries.

Local Love: Union Social Eatery (6968 Financial Drive Mississauga)

I heard about Union Social Eatery from a friend on a Friday night.

The original plan was to go out for nachos to our local spot, and up on the last minute she suddenly brought up this exciting new place on Financial Drive where everything on the menu is less than $18. Of course I jumped on this exciting new opportunity because I love trying out new places, and in Mississauga thats pretty rare. Upon entering Union Social Eatery you get a very warm vibe about the place, it's homey but with a touch of finesse. The interior is modern with racks of wine on display , a large mural of people dancing in the back and dark wood panels as walls, so theres a sense of a relaxed movement about the place. It's fairly new having just opened in November and as expected it was a full house filled with people from all walks of life, but once we walked through the door we were quickly accomodated.

The service was by far one of the best services I've had in the city, the staff was very accomodating, kind, and didn't even need a reminder to fill our cups! We were quite lucky because we came on a $5 Friday night wine special and they have gluten free options so this place has literally everything covered. We started the evening with nachos, which was huge and meant to share with at least 4 people and was split between my friend and I, it was very delicious that we finished the entire thing ...we were already filled before our meals came.

Of course we continued our dining experience and ordered their hand crafted flat bread pizzas, I got the Margherita pizza with gluten free thin crust . It tasted like an insalata caprese on thin crust, it's ingredients include boccini and mozerella chesse, fresh basil, roma tomatoes, and the simplicity and taste filled all the right places. Our food came in a timely fashion, so you didn't wait 12139012 minutes, it was just right.

Next was the Dessert, my friend and I rarely look at the dessert menu's because were both not really sweet tooths, but because we were at this new place and already had such a filling experience, we wanted more. All the desserts on the menu is $4.95 and it's not a half ass dessert menu either, with typical cake options or a brownie. To my surprise the options were rather gourmet-esque and for the price it was definitely #winning!! I got the Lindt chocolate creme brulee and my friend opted for fresh cookies and vanilla bean ice cream. Both were not overtly sweet but with just the right amount that really tickles the sweet tooth, it was the perfect end to a great dining experience.

Breakfast

The most important meal of the day. Many including myself often forget this and rather take advantage of said meal by skipping it. With the new year I vowed to change this and although I've already broken this resolution ...the year is not over yet. Breakfast is a hit or miss for me, if time allows me I indulge! but with the morning rush one is limited to creativity for this meal and it gets rather boring. Soooo because I'm trying to change this pattern of skipping breakfast I'm going to do my best in dedicating a post every week to breakfast! with pictures of my own breakfast and some creative ways to spice up the morning. But also various ways other foodies prepare theirs from vegans, vegetarians to meat eaters!

A verrry helpful video in putting creativity into the most important meal of the day

a photo of my go-to breakfast, Special K vanilla almond cereal with fresh strawberries, and blueberries with soy milk