Category Archives: Food & Drink

My Disneyland Guide 2019 || Tips, Tricks & All That Park Magic #Disneyland

I just want to start this off with the biggest THANK YOU to Disney Parks & Resorts Canada for hosting and partnering with my blog. If you follow along on Instagram, you may have noticed earlier this month I had the absolute pleasure to visit Disneyland, California Adventure and stay at the Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. It was an unreal experience to say the least! I traveled with my little guy and my parents! Incorporating multiple generations into one trip really helped with some travel perceptive for sure. I’m so excited to share some tips, tricks and info on all the magic from this press trip. This wasn’t our first time by any means, some of you may already know although we are Canadians, Disney vacations have been our trip of choice for the past few years. So many of my tips and tricks have been garnered over time in an attempt to save you time, money and help you create the MOST magically Disney experience.

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I asked on this Instagram post if you had any burning questions you wanted answered in my trip recap blog post. The response was overwhelming! So I’ve decided to break up my posts to make them far more concise and helpful. I’ll follow up with a Q&A with very specific information requests later this week. And I’ll also do a favourites list of restaurants, photo spots, rides and attractions in the near future. Just hit the “TRAVEL” tab on the right side of this page to look for more travel posts.

Here are my top 4 Disneyland Tips and Tricks to help you and your family have an ideal Disneyland Park experience in 2019:

1) Before buying your park passes please check out the “offers” page on the Disneyland website. As an example, currently the “Canadian Resident Ticket Offer” is giving us a pretty great discount on passes. This offer ends April 11th 2019, you can take advantage of it by visiting  www.Disneyland.com/CanadaTicket or calling (866) 285-1422. If you book after that date I strongly encourage you to check the Special Offers page on their website for all available offers and discounts. It always feels great to save a bit of money when planning a trip.D0E5C8FF-FA23-441E-A277-D9D0D67C1A25

2) A common misconception of many first timers to Disneyland is that the “Fast Pass” line costs money. It is free! Anyone can access the quicker line up and it only costs money to have it conveniently located on your phone. My biggest piece of advice, work that Fast Pass System hard!  I’m not only saying that only coming from a mother with a little person that can’t wait in lines too long. As an adult, time is time and if you get great at working this feature you can experience far more attractions in your day. If you are new to Disney, there will be two lines at the front: Standby and Fast Pass holders. You can book fast passes on the app for $15 a day per person in the group by getting a Disney MAXpass. BUT you can still get fast passes without that $15 fee! They are located at “fast pass distributors” at each attraction that has a fast pass line. Basically in short, you can pay a fee to conveniently book them on your phone throughout the day or you can walk to each attraction to manually obtain one. Please note, some rides are more popular compared to others. And there are only a certain amount of fast passes available each day. I find unless you get a fast pass before noon for many of the “popular rides,” there will not be any more fast passes available that day for that attraction and you would have to line up in the standby line. Some of my must have fast passes include: California Adventure: Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Break Out, Toy Story Mania and Radiator Springs Racer. Disneyland:  It’s a Small World, Madahorn, Star Tours, Big Thunder Mountain Railway and the Haunted Mansion.

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Recipe || Mason Jar “Steak & Greek Greens” #sponsored #thinkbeef

C659147B-77FA-4CD1-9FE8-6E40BF0AF711Over the last few months I’ve partnered with ThinkBeef.ca. One of the concepts I learned was how important the role of meat plays in the health of the Canadian population along with other foundational foods like fish, grains, legumes, dairy, fruits and vegetables. I was astonished to find on average, over half the women in Canada and boys ages 14 to 18 years, don’t eat the recommended servings of meat and alternative servings daily. I had mentioned on my Instagram, after taking the quiz on Thinkbeef.ca I learned just how nutrient dense beef really is. It contains much more iron, B12 and zinc than chicken at a comparable fat and calorie content. Compared to chicken, you would need to eat 7 servings of chicken (75 g cooked) to get the same amount of B12 as provided by 75 g of lean beef. With that said, beef truly inspired this easy Mason Jar recipe my whole family enjoys.

Serving Size: 4

 Ingredients: 8-10 oz steak (rib eye is my preference), crumbled feta cheese, container of small tomatoes, 1 purple onion, 1 large cucumber, olive oil, 2 lemons, greek seasoning of choice, pepper, and sea salt.

Add salt and pepper liberally to both sides of your steak, grill to desired internal temperature (for this recipe I do medium).

While the steak is cooking half three cups of tomatoes, slice one large cucumber, and dice 1/2 cup of purple onion.

In a small bowl, squeeze both lemons and add approximately 1/3 a cup of olive oil. Stir in 2 tablespoons of greek seasoning (I love souvlaki). Salt and pepper to taste.

Pour dressing into the bottom of 4 small mason jars, layer in crumbed cheese, greens (tomato, cucumber, purple onion) and steak.

Shake before serving.

Eat immediately for best results or store in the fridge to eat within 24 hours

As an alternative, if you are not looking for a KETO friendly recipe adding 1/3 a cup of brown rice as the first layer on top of the dressing is a great option. Also, to be budget friendly pick up a flank steak and slow cook in water, salt, pepper and water for approximately 6 hours to make as tender as a ribeye steak.

Disclaimer: This sponsored was paid by ThinkBeef

Edo For A Week #ad #yeg #yegfood

496E5A48-8A2B-451C-9E4C-421DE0C142C1If you’ve caught my Instagram stories this week you would have probably guessed I’ve partnered with Edo Japan. By no means am I new to the franchise, I’ve been loving them for over a decade. I’m so excited to share this exciting partnership opportunity with my family while ‘Edo for a week.’ We got to ‘Edo Your Heart Out’ while eating some menu favourites and trying some new finds from the ever evolving Edo Menu.  We made three visits in one week and this is what we found:

Chop Chop Bowls. Perfectly grilled chicken, beef, or crispy tempura shrimp on top of rice, raw veggies, and Savoury Bulgogi sauce. We tried both the shrimp and beef this past week. This has been a go-to of mine since last summer. I love the fresh ingredients and size. I usually share mine with my toddler. He loves it as much as I do!

Iced Coconut Coffee: This one is unreal! It’s like a vacation in a cup. During this heatwave it was the perfect midmorning break for this mama.

Tempura Sweet Potatoe. A twist on the ever so popular tempura shrimp, this appetizer was my children’s fav of the week. They couldn’t get enough!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Edo Japan

Help Food Banks of Canada End Summer Hunger With The #SummerHungerChallenge

NS-169With close to one million Canadians in need of food banks during the summer months, while the winter holidays are the traditional season of giving, food banks also need support in the summer. Food insecurity doesn’t take a summer break. Food bank organizations across Canada are relying on the support of donors to help end summer hunger.

The Every Plate Full began on May 28 and aims to raise awareness and donations to fill this seasonal gap. Are you up for the challenge? Are you up for the challenge? Could you feed yourself on just $1.00 a day? This is something food banks can do thanks to their partnerships with sponsors across the country, and the strong purchasing power they hold.

At food banks across the country, a $1 donation provides three meals.We challenge Canadians to feed themselves on $1 a day. Need ideas? Check out www.everyplatefull.ca to get you started, and even if you can’t make it work share your story on social media. Word of mouth matters! Continue reading

#Sponsor Hello Fresh Review & Promo CODE || Meals delivered to your door

You’ve probably guessed from my weekly IG stories, the delivered meals from Hello Fresh have been going well. I’ve gotten so many questions about the service, so I thought I’d come on here and tell you the good, the bad and the delicious.

Here’s my Hello Fresh Meal Delivery Q&A:

Are you paid to talk about Hello Fresh? NO! Hello Fresh does not pay me to promote their service. They have in the past, let me try meals for free BUT I have spent my own money on the service because we loved the meals.

Why a meal delivery service? And do you like the meals? Especially in the winter months, I need help getting healthy ingredients to our house. Sometimes the weather is so bad, I can’t get out with the little guys to do a proper grocery shop. We love Hello Fresh. We, as a family have only disliked 2 meals and we have been getting 3 meals a week since November. The recipes are amazing 95% of the time and you get every single ingredient you need to make it. We order the Family Box, it gives us enough food for dinner and left overs for lunch the next day. It’s really taken the pressure off meal time prep for me.

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What don’t you like about Hello Fresh? I did have one box arrive days late, although it was an isolated incident, it was a big inconvenience for us. We had paid for meals for that week but they didn’t arrive to make use of them for our working Tuesday-Friday. And by the time the box arrived the produce wasn’t looking great. It was due to a winter storm, so I had to cut them a little slack on that one. And customer service refunded me a portion to cover the ruined produce.

Would you suggest Hello Fresh to a friend? What do you think of the competitors? I’ve paid for Chef’s Plate twice, both times my box was miss-delivered. When they finally got it to me, the box’s contents were rancid and I did not receive a refund. I was disappointed with the customer service and never actually got to try a successfully delivered meal box. However, my parents get that service and like it… so that was just my experience.

Yes, I would suggest Hello Fresh to a friend or family member! Use my promo code NORTHERNS for 40% off your first box! It’s definitely tasty and it saves you a trip to the grocery store. The recipes are creative, I keep the recipes we love for later use.

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