MoRoCo - Chocolate

A few years ago, I (again) was in Toronto and had visited a restaurant called MoRoCo. Not only do they serve great food, but they specialize in chocolate desserts. I am definitely one of those people who is a sucker for chocolate. This past trip that I visited the city, I came across this little place in Yorkville again. The second I saw their sign that pointed towards a cute little pathway, I was practically drooling.

MoRoCo serves all kinds of desserts and drinks that surround the name of chocolate. They serve any kind of chocolate that you can think of. The atmosphere of the place is really calm and collected. It's busy, but not the kind of busy that you have to yell over one another. This posh restaurant has so many different options that I'm determined to try them all. On my recent trip there, I shared a delicious dark chocolate fondu that came with homemade marshmallows, macarons, grapes, strawberries, banana and pretzels. It was everything. My parents and I demolished the dish, and funny enough to say, my dad licked the chocolate bowl... We couldn't stop laughing when he did that, but we were lucky enough that it was somewhat dark enough with the dimmed lighting that no one noticed...

The list of things on their menu were endless and sounded heavenly. They even had a dessert in which they bring an open flame to your table to cook your own luxury s'mores! It was the coolest thing I've ever seen for that kind of atmosphere.

Yorkville is definitely a great place to explore in downtown Toronto, but if you come across this restaurant, definitely take the time to pop in! You can even purchase chocolates to go (so you REALLY have no excuse).

Here are a few photos that I took on my last visit!

Delicious.... No need for any more explanation!

I was thrilled to be back!
What I'm wearing:
Blazer - Bedo
Playsuit - Aritzia

This was in the little boutique area where you can purchase things to go!

This would give great gift ideas to those who have friends who are expecting! Nothing that relates to me, but its adorable!

If you'd like, you can check out more of the restaurant here on their website! It even has the menu so that you can decide a little bit faster when you go there!

Hope you are all having a great day!

Much love,
JessicaLynn

Healthy Breakfast Idea

The past little while I've been ill with a cold and have been restricting absolutely everything I eat. So now that I'm feeling almost 100%, I can finally eat normal again and get back to routine. This morning, I was going to make some porridge, but I thought that I should switch it up a little bit and try something new. Having been inspired by a whole bunch of different health food bloggers, I toasted rye bread and topped it with a mashed avocado and a poached egg. I added a little bit of ground black pepper as a little extra spice, but it was simple as that! It was bursting with flavour and it is so simple to make! It doesn't take very long to prepare or cook, and it's very healthy to eat. Avocado is a healthy fat that your body needs, eggs provide great protein and the rye bread is a lot more filling than other breads and there's nothing wrong with eating a few carbohydrates while choosing a healthy lifestyle! It's all in moderation!

Anyhow, I hope this quick, little, spontaneous post will give you an idea of what to try in the future!

Much love,
JessicaLynn

Dineen Coffee Co.

It's been far too long since I've last blogged, and it's time to get back on track. I was first distracted with exams, and then after that, I got stuck in a big rut with nothing to talk about - no new product reviews or anything of that matter.. I had done nothing but school; then I got a little bit lazy with it all to be honest, but I am no longer giving myself any excuses! Roughly two weeks ago, I went on a little trip to my dream city. It's nothing special, but it is my absolute favourite place to be; Toronto!

Dineen Coffee Co.

My love for coffee has grown so much in the past few years. I've tried quite a few different brands, and I think I found my most favourite place to be: Dineen Coffee Co. It's a cute little coffee shop on near Yonge and Queen and has the best atmosphere ever. Everything is homemade, they have the cutest little breakfast foods and treats and the most delicious freshly squeezed juices! My favourite would have to be the kale one. It was so refreshing and tasted delicious. I went there only twice because I discovered the place on the last two days that I was visiting the city. Both days I had the Vanilla Latte with almond milk, then I switched up the little treats I ate. I tried both the blueberry muffin and the Almond Croissant which were literally the best things ever. I've never had a croissant before, but it was so light and tasty and the muffin was amazing as well. Anyhow, here are a few photos that I took while I was there. I highly recommend this coffee shop if you're in the area, or are ever planning to visit the city!

Also, check out their website! It has such a cool vibe, and I guarantee you that it'll convince you to take a stroll down to the Financial District in Toronto!

The Atmosphere

Dineen Coffee Co. had the neatest atmosphere and really cool vibes. The music was great, the service was great, and even the other customers were friendly. I felt like it was my calling. Everything was perfect.

Dineen Coffee Co. from a different angle..

Surprisingly, there was a lot of seating and so many neat antique looking decorations!

The booths were my favourite, though!

The Coffee and Food

Both days that I went for a latte, I got heart designs, but they also do different ones like swans and leaves... 

 

And like I said, the food was out of this world!

Almond Croissant - I highly recommend this one!

The only photo that I got of the blueberry muffin. It was homemade and delicious!

This last one, I had a lovely breakfast with my parents.. Thought it would be cute to add this!

Me

DAY 1 - I honestly couldn't have been more excited to have found this place!
What I'm wearing:
Blazer - Bedo
Dress - H&M

DAY 2 - I admit to looking a little sleepy in this one.. We stayed out late this night before and this was the morning that we had to leave, sadly! (As you may see all of our luggage!)
What I'm wearing:
Coat - H&M
Tee - Forever 21
Trousers - RW&CO

Hope you enjoyed this post and are convinced on visiting this place soon!

Much love,
JessicaLynn

Clean Egg Muffins

Inspired by the beautiful Cassey Ho from blogilates, I decided to make a version similar to her Clean Egg Muffins. Of course I didn't have the exact ingredients, and the amount of servings that the recipe made was a little bit too large for me so I went with the flow and created this delicious dish! A lot of the ingredients are almost the same, but I made them with what I had! It's great for breakfast, lunch or dinner depending when you feel like eating them!

This recipe makes roughly 9-12 egg muffins, it just depends on how much egg you put in each muffin tin! I prefer less egg to make more egg muffins and to add more flavour of all of the natural ingredients!


Ingredients:

2 roma tomatoes
1 scallion
1/2 green (or red) bell pepper
4 whole eggs, 3 egg whites
dried basil leaves (enough to sprinkle a small amount over each egg muffin)

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Firstly, cut all of your veggies and get egg-crackin!

The very first thing that you should do is to spray the pan with PAM. I STRONGLY encourage being generous with the spray, otherwise it's a pain to clean afterwards. You can also insert muffin tins into the pan and then give it a spray with the PAM. Either way will work! Then fill each muffin tin with the eggs and egg whites. Make sure the eggs have been mixed well.

 

Next, add all of your veggies. Simple as that. There is no specific order to do them, but for some reason, I prefer to add the basil last in order to give it some extra colour to the dish.

Place it in the oven for 20-30 mins, and voilà!

These egg muffins are absolutely delicious and filled with flavour. When serving, I also like to dab a bit of salsa on top. That way you can taste the extra spice to it!

I much prefer it served warm, but you can really eat it in whatever way you want! I love the fact that they are SO fast and easy to make! Hope you give them a try and feel free to let me know how it goes!

Much love,
JessicaLynn

Red Quinoa Salad and Spicy Chicken

As today was my day off work, I got to spend some time with my mom! I had a great day. And tonight I thought I should treat the family with a homemade healthy meal. For the longest time, I've really been taking care of my body by eating clean (of course treating myself to sweets occasionally) and doing the best I can to maintain that healthy lifestyle. My mom and I bought quinoa at the grocery store today so I decided to find a new recipe with that ingredient. While surfing the internet, I then found a Red Quinoa Salad and made up the chicken recipe as I went along. I wanted chicken that had a bit of a bite to it so I added some interesting spices! So here it is - the recipe to Spicy Chicken and Red Quinoa Salad.

Spicy Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken (the amount of chicken is up to you - I baked 6 pieces)
Olive Oil
Dried Chives
Chipotle Seasoning
Garlic Powder

First baste the chicken on a pan with the olive oil. Spread lightly. It's mainly just to allow the other dry ingredients to stick to the chicken!

Next, season the chicken with each dry ingredient to your taste preference. I prefer mine to be a bit spicier, so I sprinkled a little bit more chipotle seasoning!

Bake in the oven at 375 fahrenheit and bake until fully cooked through - a.k.a ensure it's not pink!

And voilà... chicken is done!

Red Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked red quinoa
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely minced shallots
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 freshly ground black pepper
2 cups diced and seeded tomato
1 cup diced and seeded cucumber
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (or 1 1/2 tablespoons of dried mint leaves)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano (or 1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano)
1 (15 or 19-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

• 4 ounzes cumbled feta (less if you would like)
• First, cook the quinoa as directed. I usually rinse the quinoa in warm water for 3 minutes. In a pot with two cups of water, I then boil the water and put the quinoa in the pot. I let it boil with the quinoa in it for 3 minutes, and then turn down the heat as low as possible. I cover it and let it simmer for 15 minutes while stirring it occasionally.
• 
• It should look something like this afterwards. Make sure it is in a large bowl so you can easily add the other ingredients later!
• 

In the meantime, you can prepare the dressing for the salad! This is everything that you would need. First add the olive oil, then the red wine vinegar. Add the salt and pepper and then finely chop the shallots.

Now it's time to add the rest of the ingredients to your quinoa! First drain your chickpeas. Rinse them well and set them aside.

Next, dice the roma tomatoes and the cucumber as so.

Add the oregano and mint leaves to the mix, as well as the vegetables. Mix well!

Pour your dressing and add the feta. Slice your lemon wedges for the plate...

And there you have it - a delicious meal that is extremely healthy for you!

I hope you enjoyed this healthy-eating blog post! I encourage everyone to try this recipe out! It's delicious! I am definitely looking forward to doing more posts like these and sharing a healthy lifestyle + more with you all. Enjoy!

Much love,

JessicaLynn

Porridge

Mixed berries

Some call it oatmeal, I call it porridge. Porridge is definitely an odd thing to talk about. I must admit, it is one of my favourite breakfast meals to eat in the morning! I love the numerous ways that it can be made. The fastest way is in the microwave, but its also fun to make it in a pot. Although it takes a bit longer to make, it's perfect on your Saturday or Sunday morning with nothing to do but relax! The reason why I decided to write a blog post about this is because there are so many different ways to make it and so many amazing benefits! I just thought it would fun to try something new and share some of my favourite ways to eat it!

For the longest time I loved to put a bit of brown sugar and milk in my porridge. It was simple and as a kid, I loved my sweets! I then thought of a few different ways to make it! First of all, I spiced up my porridge by adding fruit to it! Fresh or frozen, it tastes amazing! After eating porridge every so often, it's easy to get tired of it. Some of the best things to add are blackberries, blueberries or raspberries. I once experimented with bananas (and a bit of sugar) but found it WAY to sweet.

I then found my holy grail of porridge-land! I found a porridge recipe from a website called Blogilates (I suggest to check it out sometime)! It gives you so many different recipes to try as well as workouts and meal plans too (some which I plan to try soon)! Believe it or not, you mash half of a banana and mix it together with the oats, slice the other half and add raisins! It's so filling and tastes amazing! It's my new favourite and I'm on the hunt for more ways to spice up my porridge-filled-life. Here's a tempting photo! I would strongly suggest to give it a go!

Banana and Raisins

So now onto the amazing benefits! I'm going to be brief because it's not my main purpose - just a great add-on to this tasty dish! First of all it helps build your immune system. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally can get sick easily if I don't keep care of myself! It's also a great filler! I find that I snack quite often and when I eat porridge, I gladly avoid any cases of the munchies! I also love that it boosts your energy. If you haven't had much sleep, it's difficult to be productive throughout the day. Porridge gives you the healthy (complex) carbs that your body needs throughout the day! And lastly, the amount of antioxidants in there is crazy! I will happily accept anything that is healthy, yet delicious at the same time!

So there you have it - a breakfast idea. Quick and easy! Feel free to send me any other ideas of what you can add to porridge!

Much love,
JessicaLynn