Lay recently released their new Poppables chips in 3 flavours – Sea Salt, White Cheddar and Honey BBQ. As there was a sale at the grocery store, I decided to buy them all just to try.

What is unique about these is that the shape and texture is completely different than regular chips. It is very airy, light and is very crispy. Music to my ears and I love it.

Honey BBQ

When I shared this with my coworkers, this was the favourite flavour of the three. It is a bit sweet from the honey and the spices to replicated the BBQ flavour really wowed everyone. I personally didn’t like it because of the subtle sweetness.

Sea Salt

Sea Salt is the most simple of the three flavours. This was my favourite of the three as it wasn’t too salty and the potato taste of the chip really paired well.

White Cheddar

White cheddar is sprinkled on the exterior of the chip and has a savoury cheesy taste. It reminds me of SmartFood Popcorn and it isn’t too salty compared to the other 2 flavours.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Lay’s Poppables are very addictive. With the 3 flavours, you’ll find one that you like. The texture is what makes these chips so damn good. I’ve gotten a few friends hooked on these, so I have a good feeling that you might like it too.

Website:
https://www.lays.ca/product-categories/lays%C2%AE-poppables

Sugarfina and Pressed Juicery have collaborated to bring their 7 day gummy bear cleanse to life. Sugarfina first announced “Green Juice” Gummy Bears as an April Fool’s prank back in 2016, but when customers began calling in droves to purchase the bears, the luxury candy boutique got to work bringing the idea to life.

The gummies are fat free, non-GMO, gluten free, contain no artificial colours or flavours AND provide 20% of your daily vitamins A and C per serving.

The collection comes in four sizes including a 7 Day ‘Cleanse‘ ($29.95), Large Bottles ($17.95), Half Bottles ($8.95) and Shot Size ($3.50).

The particular one pictured in this article is the 7 Day ‘Cleanse‘ for $29.95.

Each bottle is the exact same, so you can eat it all for yourself or share it among friends. Makes for a very fun gift too for gummy bear lovers.

The gummies have a predominant flavour of spinach, apple, and lemon flavours. They are teeny tiny and super cute. The gummies are a bit hard to get out of the little bottles and they tend to stick to one another. If you just wriggle your finger in there, you’ll be able to get them all.

Overall, if you are going to consume the gummies yourself, you might as well get a bigger bottle to yourself. The 7 Day Gummy Bear Cleanse is more meant for gifts with the cute presentation and box.

Website: https://www.sugarfina.com/ca/collection/pressed-juicery

Summer is here, so BBQs, picnics, and pool parties will be happening every weekend until fall comes around. As there are so few weekends to soak up the sun, we really need to take advantage of it as much as we can. I just got a BBQ last year, so trust me, I’ll be out in the backyard a lot this summer and many more summers to come.

Some people think dining outdoors is hard work, but the PC Insiders Collection for this Summer will take the guesswork out of creating dishes for the table. Unplanned and spontaneous meal can happen on the patio without much planning. My friends and I decided to have a dinner out on the patio as the sun finally made an appearance after a few days of sprinkling rain. I went to my closest Loblaws City Market to pick up a few items to complete the meal.

Check out the behind the scenes of how I make my patio dinner super simple with the help of President’s Choice and their innovative products.

Kick it Up a Notch with Infused Water

A fun idea instead of canned drinks is fruit-infused water or a sangria. It helps cut down on waste and there are a lot of great fruit/veggie combination for the pitchers. My personal favourites are:

• Strawberry + Mint + Lime
• Lemon + Lime + Orange
• Cucumber +Mint +Lime

PC has an Infusion Pitcher where it has a built-in strainer and removable ice tube to make things easier. It adds a very nice touch to have fancy infused waters to bring up you outdoor dining up a notch on a short notice.

You Can Make Friends with Salad

My friends all know I make killer salads and all you really need to do is wash and chop up the ingredients. This particular salad is made with cucumbers, spring mix, PC Axiany Cherry Tomatoes, basil and PC Crumbled Herb & Garlic Goat Cheese. The PC Axiany Cherry Tomatoes were a delight as they were so sweet and flavourful. Choosing ingredients that are in season is key to having fresh and crisp tasting salads. All you need is a drizzle of balsamic to top off the salad.

Finger Foods

Having finger food when people arrive is great to get the party started. Fresh fruits like strawberries are always great since it’s in season right now so they are big, juicy and sweet.

Sandwiches are also easy to prepare. I made some quick sandwiches with hummus, cucumbers, and PC Natural Choice Asian Spiced Roast Beef in between whole wheat bread. The roast beef smells amazing as it is made with a blend of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, black pepper and fennel. Pair that with hummus and it’s a flavour explosion.

Don’t Skimp on the Shrimp

Preparing seafood for the grill can be a bit tricky, but the PC Garlic & Herb Grilling Raw Butterflied Shrimp makes it so easy to prepare. There are at least 12 plump white Pacific shrimp with a garlic and herb seasoning with a zesty hint of lime.

All you need to do is throw them on the grill and that’s it. No cleaning or marinating is needed. It’s all done inside the package. My friends were all very surprised at how delicious they tasted. I’ve never heard so many people said “oh wow” almost at the same time. The char of the grill really accentuated its flavour.

More Than Just Hot Dogs

Up your hot dog game with a few different varieties of smokies from PC. One featured flavour is their Cheddar Jalapeño Smokies. They are all-pork smoked sausages made with real cheddar cheese and jalapeño pieces. Each pack comes with 10 plump and juicy pieces.

A quick grill on each side and the smokies are ready. Whether you eat it in a bun with different condiments or eat them straight up, you’ll love the burst of cheddar cheese as you bite into it. The jalapeño has a little bit of a kick, so it’s nice if you like that.

Convenient Chicken Thighs

PC Hardwood Smoked Chicken Thighs is another product that surprised us when we were BBQing. It comes frozen and fully cooked for convenience, so you just need to throw it on the grill. It is flavoured with a blend of smoke from untreated hardwoods. The dark meat is so succulent. After grilling them with the added grill lines, these look and taste so damn good.

Don’t Forget Dessert

Dessert is a must and it’s a good way to cool down from the hot sun. All you need to do it take them out of the freezer and serve to your friends and family. The hard decision will be choosing which one to have first.

I picked up the PC Superfruit Skyr Bar, which is made with a blend of blackberry, blueberry and dark sweet cherry purées. They are deliciously smooth, creamy and lactose-free. Even if you aren’t lactose intolerant, you’ll love it.

For those wanting to be more indulgent, I also like the PC Rocky Road Ice Cream Bars. It has velvety chocolate ice cream inside with a marshmallow swirl is covered in a milk chocolatey coating with roasted almonds. The best part is that they are mini-sized so you won’t feel guilty eating a whole bar. Just enough ice cream to satisfy that sweet tooth of yours.

Final Thoughts

That’s just a few ways of making my patio dinner a lot easier and quicker to put together without too much planning. Very little prep work is needed and everyone has a good time especially the host since there is less time running around to gather last minute items or waiting for something else to be done cooking. You can find the PC products mentioned in this article at Loblaw City Market or any stores that carry the PC branded items.

I hope you’re inspired to spend as much time dining outdoors this Summer and create fantastic feasts that will impress your friends, family, and even yourself.  Time to get into the Summer state of mind.

This blog post was sponsored by President’s Choice but the opinions are all my own.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Miniatures with Pieces has just been launched. Back in 2016, king-sized peanut butter cup stuffed with Reese’s Pieces launched in Canada and now the big cup has gone smaller. It’s not a bad thing as some people prefer just a small taste of chocolate.

Each mini Reese’s cup in individually wrapped, so its easy to share. It can go into your lunch bag as a small treat or fill up a big bowl in your living room for guests.

Once unwrapped, the Reese’s cup is so cute. You can eat this in one bite or two if you want to savour it.

Inside, you will find about 2 tiny Reese’s pieces that fit on the bottom of the cut, the peanut mixture on top and enrobed in milk chocolate. I really like this as the texture of the Reese’s pieces give a nice crunch as you bite down.

If you want to grab a bag, you can find this at most major grocery stores across Canada.

Website: https://www.hersheycanada.com/en/reese/

Snickers Almond has been one of the newer candy bars on store shelves in Canada.

In the United States, Mars Bar was discontinued in 2000 and relaunched with the Snickers Almond Bar. For Canadians, the same change did not happen, so there are Mars Bars and Snickers Almonds up north.

Inside the bar is nougat, caramel, almonds covered in a rich milk chocolate. It was a good change to the original Snickers but I wished they had more almonds inside as it is one of my favourite nuts. There is a lot of caramel inside, so be prepared for it to stick on your teeth.

Website: https://www.snickers.com/Product/Almond 

Suntory released their line of Premium Morning Tea in Japan and has gotten a lot of people wondering how they were able to turn milk tea and lemon tea clear.

I found these at Konbinya, a Japanese grocery store in Vancouver. These bottles did not have any English translation for the ingredients, so I had a few friends translate so we weren’t just ingesting chemicals. It seems to have a lot of different types of sugar.

Milk Black Tea

As our mind were messing with us, we decided to close our eyes to get a better sense of how this tastes. Upon the first few sips, it really strangely did taste like milk tea. The aroma of the assam tea leaves used in this drink was subtle as it was overpowered by the taste of sugar. It was like sugar water. I tested this with a few people in the office and no one liked it.

It sure if fun giving this a try, but you won’t be grabbing for a second bottle.

Lemon Tea

Suntory launched the clear milk tea first. As they were developing the product, they worked to address concerns from customers who felt the appearance of flavoured water looked like juice and seemed too child-like as it sat on their desk. Thus, this clear lemon tea was born.

I preferred this taste over the milk tea as the acidity of the citrus taste paired better with the sugar. It is made with Lipton tea leaves.

Overall, it was fun to try, but no one would repurchase these to drink.

Website: 
https://www.suntory.com/

Dairy has been a staple in our household since I was a child. Every morning before school, my mom would make sure my sisters and I woke up on time, brushed our teeth, combed our hair, packed our bags and ate. Since we were lazy kids, waking up was the hardest part of this routine. In order to speed up the process, she made sure to heat up a glass of warm milk ahead of time so it would be ready. She also made sure we finished every last drop so we wouldn’t get hungry before recess break.

A lot has changed since then and as we are getting older, understanding where our food comes from is a top priority. With so many options in grocery store shelves, how do we know where our money is being spent?

Agropur

Agropur is a Canadian Dairy Cooperative owned by 3,290 farmers and brings in more than 6 billion dollars in sales based off the unique cooperative business model of sharing wealth between its members. As the members pool their resources together, they are able to generate and share wealth to help keep their farm sustainable for years to come. As there are increasingly more competition among the worldwide dairy industry, there is definitely strength in numbers to stay competitive in the industry.

There are a lot of Canadian companies use the cooperative model – MEC, The Co-operators, and Home Hardware to name a few. I personally work for a financial cooperative and have seen first hand how money is reinvested back into the community.

Natrel, iögo, and OKA

Agropur uses the milk to create the wide range of dairy products and the strong brands that many Canadians love, such as Natrel, iögo, and OKA. You can find these products at most grocery stores across Canada. Dairy is so versatile that there are so many ways to use it. If you are lactose intolerant, Natrel makes lactose-free milk, butter and ice cream too.

Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese is every kids dream of ooey gooey cheese sandwiched between delicious toasted pieces of bread. I sliced up some OKA cheese and put in deli meats in the centre for a nice bite. I put some mustard on the side for an added tang.

Yogurt Bowls

Yogurt bowls are easy to put together. You pour ïogo yogurt into the bowl and top with your favourite items. I like to add berries, granola, pumpkin seeds and chia seeds for extra texture.

Charcuterie plates

Be the best dinner host by putting together a charcuterie board with cheese, meats, fruits, crisps and pickled items. I used OKA cheese to pair with the salty deli meats. Looks really fancy, but is a breeze to assemble.

How can you help?

Next time when you are browsing the grocery store aisles, take a look at the packaging and see who makes these dairy products. If you see the Agropur logo on items such as Natrel, iögo, and OKA, you will know the purchase of that particular items goes back into the Canadian economy to help our farmers across Canada.

Website: http://www.agropurpride.com/pride/

This blog post was sponsored by Agropur but the opinions are all my own.

M&M’s released three new limited edition flavours – Crunchy Espresso, Crunchy Raspberry and Crunchy Mint.  The best part is you get to vote for your favourite flavour once a day until May 25th. They launched this in the US, but now Canadians get to be part of the fun too.

Each new flavour is made with dark chocolate and wrapped in the signature colourful crispy shell with a unique chocolatey crunch in every bite. The Crunchy Raspberry variety has a regular rice crisp centre, and the Crunchy Espresso and Crunchy Mint varieties has a cocoa rice crisp centre.

Crunchy Raspberry

Inside the package are 3 different colours – red, brown and cream colour but essentially all have the same raspberry flavour. The raspberry flavour pairs well with the chocolate.

Crunchy Mint

In the package is brown, light green and a vibrant green colour. These reminded me of thin mints from the Girl Guides. I could definitely eat a bowl of these.

Crunchy Espresso

The last flavour comes in dark brown, light brown and cream. Espresso goes well with dark chocolate and you can’t go wrong with this combination.

Vote for your favourite flavour

All three flavours compliment the crisp centre and dark chocolate. I have my favourite and perhaps you do too.

You can vote by uploading or taking a selfie at flavourvote.mms.com, adding stickers to the photo representing your favourite flavour, and submitting to their website. If you are camera shy, you can simply select your favourite flavour on the website. You can also share your thoughts on social media like Twitter and Instagram with #VoteCrunchyEspresso, #VoteCrunchyRaspberry or #VoteCrunchyMint.

The flavour with the most votes will be announced in August 2018 and will become part of their regular M&M’s line up, available at stores nationwide for 18 months.

Can’t wait to see which one will be the winner.

Being environmentally conscious isn’t just trendy, it’s necessary. I try to be environmentally friendly by reducing the waste I put into the garbage, being resourceful by re-purposing or reusing items, and by recycling. Keurig revolutionized the way people make their coffee. It’s convenient, it’s fast and it’s simple. When you’re in a rush, pop in a K-Cup pod into a Keurig, push a button, and there you have it, your single-serve coffee. This was awesome, but the plastic that the pods were made of were could not be recycled, thus causing a waste problem.

100% fully compostable coffee pods

Not to fear, OneCoffee is here with their first, 100% fully compostable coffee pods. With consumers becoming more environmentally conscious, it’s great that a coffee company has reduced its waste by making a product that will not contribute to the landfill.

OneCoffee showcased its 100% compostable single-serve coffee pods during brunch at Cafe Medina. It was a journey for OneCoffee to get its product out to market, and they had been improving on their product for years. The company started out with a 90% biodegradable pod, which moved up to being 99% biodegradable, to finally being 100% compostable. The term “compostable” refers to the capability of being broken down by bacteria and other microorganisms, and returning to the earth as nutrient soil.

I was amused by the quotes that were on the biodegradable pods. One read, “Lots of flavour, little footprint”, while another had the message, “Made of good beans & good deeds.” The little sayings were cute and friendly reminders of the good OneCoffee does, and the good you’re doing as a consumer by choosing OneCoffee’s product. No guilt here!

Guests were given three types of coffee blends to try: the Colombian Blend, the Ethiopian Blend, and the Sumatran Blend. Both the Colombian and Ethiopian Blends are a medium roast coffee, while the Sumatran Blend is a dark roast coffee. To further enhance the tasting experience, OneCoffee paired three of its coffees with dishes from Cafe Medina’a brunch menu.

Paella with Sumatran Blend

I had the Paella, which was paired with OneCoffee’s Sumatran Blend, and Roman had the Fricassée, which was also paired with the Sumatran Blend. The Sumatran Blend complimented the spicy heat of the Paella with it’s earthy, smoky and slightly fruity notes. Of the three blends, I liked the Ethiopian Blend the most because of it floral, fruity and wine-y notes.

Fricassée with Sumatran Blend

Liege-style waffles

I especially enjoyed it with the dessert: Liege-style waffles with a milk chocolate lavender mocha sauce (which was also infused with OneCoffee).

Where to buy

What if you like the taste of coffee, but don’t want the effect so caffeine? OneCoffee offers Decaf so you can still get your coffee-taste fix. There are 7 different kinds of coffee that you can try, including the Breakfast Blend, French Roast and Peruvian Blend (in addition to the ones mentioned earlier). You can find OneCoffee at Whole Foods, Marketplace IGA and Superstore (just to name a few locations).

So the next time you crave a good cup of organic, sustainable single-serve coffee, grab a box of OneCoffee. Your tastebuds (and the planet), will thank you.

Website: http://onecoffee.com/

Limited time NHL-themed Lay’s Bags are in grocery stores now in Classic, Ketchup, Dill Pickle, Sour Cream & Onion, Bar-B-Q, and Salt & Vinegar flavours.

Unleash your hockey emotions with these bags and make games more fun to watch when you’re at your own home or at your friends.

Besides the delicious chips inside the bag, you can head to showyouremotions.ca with your special code and enter for a chance to win exciting hockey prizes and get coached by Brent or Marc-Andre. Through a unique facial recognition technology, these superstars will ask fans to show their emotions and will coach them to show more so that they will be ready for game time.

Or you can also put the bag of Lay’s in front of your face like I did for fun.

President’s Choice has created their own version of pho broth inspired by one of the most popular dishes in Vietnam. If you are inclined to make pho at home, you can now at the comfort of your own kitchen.

I love eating pho and I never considered making it at home because it is quite labour intensive making your own broth. This PC pho broth has rich beef, sweet Asian spices, savoury onion, warming ginger and fish sauce. You can then top it with rice noodles, fresh herbs and vegetables for a classic pho, or use it to cook rice and infuse the grains with extra flavour. You’re not limited to it’s intended uses.

To enhance the broth, we cooked all the beef and beef ball with a bit more salt in the broth before assembling. With the addition of Thai red peppers, lime, basil and beansprouts, we really made this meal complete. You can also have a bit of sriracha sauce or hoisin sauce to dip your meet into. I really liked cracking the red chilis and adding it into my bowl of pho as it adds an extra kick of heat to balance the flavours. Not everyone likes Thai red peppers as they are very spicy.

You can find the Pho broth at most stores that carry President’s Choice items. It retails for $1.99 for 900ml. They also sell Tom Yum and Ramen broth too.

Website: https://www.presidentschoice.ca/en_CA/products/productlisting/pc-pho-broth.html