Tag Archives: dessert

Monday’s Munchies: Birthday Eatings

Remember my claim that I would start eating healthy? Well, at that time, I forgot that it was Nouman’s birthday the coming week. So yes, I flew off the bandwagon even before I really had a chance to start.

Nouman and I both had Thursday off (US Thanksgiving) so we took off Friday and Monday aswell – yeay to extra long weekends! On Tuesday, we finalized our plans to head off to Niagara falls and on Thursday, we were off on our adventure! I like to pre-plan ages in advance, but we both decided to be spontaneous and to go with the flow – I can’t believe how good it felt. On Thursday, we (by we I mean mainly Nouman) did a little bit of shopping on the Canadian side of Niagara falls (ate at Burger King), checked into our hotel in the evening and then vegged out in our room for a few hours. Did you guys know that I LOVE hotel rooms? Especially when they have a king sized bed and a jacuzzi? After resting for a few hours, we went out for dinner to a Halal Middle-Eastern restaurant called Casablanca. Casablanca has all the Arabian delights – shawarma, falafel, shish tawouk, etc – and also an area that has sheesha, fresh juices/shakes and a wood-oven pizza’s!

Service: Attentive. The owner was hands-on and everyone jived together. We had no complaints. It took around 15 minutes for our food to be ready
Taste: Pretty good. The falafel was average – nothing spectacular but definitely better than Villa Madina. Nouman liked his chicken shawarma too
Portion Size: Huge. Comparable to Paramount
Price: On the pricier side – Chicken Shawarma plate was $15.99 and the falafel sandwich was $7.99. The pizza’s (12 inch) ranged from $7.99 to $11.99

Nouman got the chicken shawarma plate and I had the falafel sandwich

After dinner, we had fun at Clifton Hill (my sisters and I call it “Fun Street”) and looked around the casino at our hotel before finally returning to our suite around 1:30am. I had wanted to surprise Nouman with breakfast at the Fallsview Restaurant at our hotel (it has amazing views of the falls) but we were both too tired to get up early in the morning. After checking out, we headed to Denny’s for brunch.

We ordered the vegetarian omelet with fries and rye toast and a custom order of 2 eggs (sunnyside up), 2 English Muffins, hashbrowns and 2 buttermilk pancakes. We took this picture after we had halved our meals

After our yummy brunch, we walked around the falls, checked out the second casino (Casino Niagara) and then randomly decided to cross the border to eat at the Cheesecake Factory! We had thought that the border would be packed because of Black Friday, but we had been viewing the border from out hotel and it was completely deserted.

Mine: Nachos
Nouman: Shrimp Jambalaya
… and free bread, ofcourse!

Oreo Cheesecake

Did I tell you that I completely overpacked the snacks for our trip? A list of all the food/drink items I took:

Ruffles: Sour Cream & Onion (brought it back unopened)
Ruffles: All Dressed (we ate almost the entire bag)
A container full of assorted nuts – cashews, almonds, salted and limed almonds, walnuts, etc
Honey roasted peanuts
Bag of sour and sweet twizzlers (I finished this off pretty much on my own)
Swedish berries (we had half of the bag)
Dairy milk chocolate bar (untouched)
Twix – pack of 4 (unopened)
Celebration cookies (again, untouched)
4 diet coke cans (I had one)
2 coke cans (Nouman had 1)
1 ginger ale
Handful of water bottles (useful)
A chocolate cupcake that I surprised Nouman with to kick off his birthday celebrations (we had this the morning after we got back home)

On Saturday, we went to Pizza Hut where we had pizza and a yummy cake! Thankfully, I was able to control myself at Pizza Hut and stopped at 3 slices – after all the overeating, I could resist pizza… a first for me!

I was hoping to eat clean on Sunday but I went over to my parents place and indulged in delicious sushi and spinach pie. FYI, I haven’t had sushi in a LONG time – it was delicious and I definitely overate.

And today, Nouman and I both took the day off and are going to indulge in something again. I think I might just go for a salad if we go out somewhere – totally don’t feel like eating anything greasy or fried! Although Birthday Burgers are a tradition, I don’t know if I feel like having it – maybe we’ll share one for old times sake

Monday’s Munchies: Amica’s Cake (Vendor Review)

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I have gotten ALOT of emails on our wedding vendors so here is a detailed review on our cake person!

Nouman and I had a clear vision of what we wanted for our cake: bling, chic, and ultra modern. I had a list of cake people (yeah, I call them cake people) that I wanted us to meet but cake wasn’t at the top of our priority list. Our venues, makeup artist, photographer, videographer and a decorator were our main focus; so we decided to leave the cake until closer to the wedding.

When we finally decided to figure out our cake, we were both too tired and exhausted to shop around. We have been to 3 weddings where Amica’s Cakes was the cake provider so we decided to go meet with her. If she could give us what we wanted and it tasted good, we could save ourselves time by not meeting other people.

Amica is a sweet lady – she’s soft-spoken and easy to talk to. Once we met her, we described what we wanted and she said we could have a look at her dummy cakes. Although she had many pretty cakes, no one cake was calling out to me. Amica assured us that she could make changes to any of her existing cakes or create a complete custom cake. After having read numerous reviews on Amica, I preferred asking her to replicate one of her existing designs rather than create a custom cake. Finally, tucked away in a corner was the cake we both wanted – it was black and white, had a quilted pattern, lots of bling and it was SO us. The cake was hexagon-shaped; neither one of us had seen that shape before and totally loved it! We decided to make some changes: we added purple satin ribbons to match my dress and added crystal monograms for out initials.

Amica also let us do a cake testing that day from some leftover cake she had. We had a slice of chocolate mousse cake and strawberry shortcake. While I liked the latter cake, I thought the chocolate was too sweet. I asked Amica to change our cake to a dark chocolate cake with a hazelnut filling and chocolate ganache.

Overall, my thoughts based on our cake:

Reliability: I met Amica twice and both times she was ready for us and gave us copies of our contract. She also delivered our cake on time
Taste: While the cake tasted good, Amica did make a slight mistake. I had asked for a dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache but we got a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse. I did have a feeling that she would not be able to deliver the flavour I had asked for when I met her the second time. I mentioned a few flavours to Amica (i.e. salted caramel), but she said she wouldn’t be able to provide those flavours. I finally decided to go for a simple dark chocolate cake but Amica’s version of dark chocolate was not dark enough for me. I told her I wanted it to be darker and she said she would do that. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to give me what I wanted but I didn’t care too much. It wasn’t a big deal to either of us so I wouldn’t hold it against her.
Design: I loved everything she did – it was exactly what we had asked for and not a single thing looked different. One of the buckles did slide off our cake right before the reception started and was fixed by our sister-in-law. Luckily, it managed to hold through for the rest of the night.
Price: Very reasonable for what we asked for

*All the above images are via Big Al Studios*

Based on our experience, I would recommend Amica. My only words of advice would be not to expect unique flavours from her – she has standard flavours that she cannot customize. After reading other reviews, I would also suggest selecting a design that she already has. We did love our cake – it was so purrttyy!

Monday’s Munchies: Chocolate Croissant at Marche

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Those of you celebrating Eid, I hope you had a great weekend celebrating with your family and friends. I had a jam-packed weekend that was full of fun and lots of junk food (ofcourse).

Today, I’m going to share one of my favourite chocolatey indulgences when I’m on the go. If you’ve never had it – you definitely need to try it. This yummy treat is a Chocolate Croissant from Marche – that’s right, a simple croissant. It’s fluffy, light, buttery and has just the right amount of chocolatey goodness.

And the best part? After 4:30pm (or 5pm), this delish munchie is 50% off at most Marche locations in the PATH.

Monday’s Munchies: Mrs. Fields Icecream Sandwich

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I don’t know about you but I had a busy weekend. We went to a dawat on Friday, Wonderland on Saturday and a baby shower on Sunday. Best of all though, we got our wedding pictures!! I have been so excited to see them that I contemplated staying up all night to go through the pictures over and over again – unfortunately, Nouman isn’t feeling well so I couldn’t do that. I can’t wait to go through all the pictures and then share them with all of you! Hang in there as I wrap up a busy week and a half.

Back to today’s post – FOOD.

We’ve all had Mrs. Fields cookies, right? This summer, thanks to Noumans brother, I discovered that Mrs. Fields has icecream sandwiches. I know, you’re wondering what the heck is so special about an icecream sandwich that made me want to write about it. Well, if you’re a fan of icecream sandwiches and Mrs. Fields, you should already be salivating by the thought of the sandwich. At Mrs. Fields, you can choose two flavours of cookie to make your sandwich – not one but two! Can you imagine – all that variety of cookies to choose from?! They don’t have a variety of icecream flavours, just basics such as vanilla, double chocolate, chocolate mint and cookies and cream.

Our Order: Cookies and Cream icecream with a macadamia nut cookie on top and a chocolate lover cookie on the bottom.

DIVINE.

Surprisingly, the combination wasn’t too sweet – although we didn’t have one whole sandwich each. The sandwich was soft and crunchy at the same time… yum, yum, yum!

… And then I wonder why I’m getting fatter by the day. Seriously.

Monday’s Munchies: Food At CNE

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Every year, for the 18 days leading upto Labour Day, the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE or The Ex) takes place at the Exhibition place in Toronto. In simple words, it’s Canada’s largest fair. There are games, rides, international pavilions, exhibits, shows, a casino and ofcourse, food.

Oh yeah, lots and lots of food. Not just any type of food – there are unique types of food that you have only imagined, never tasted. Yup, I go to The Ex for food.

2 summers ago, deep-fried butter made its debut and the crowd went wild for it. Since then, The Ex has all sorts of deep-fried goodies: Mars, Snickers, Twinkies, Twix, Oreo Cookies, Coke, Colossal Onion and even Mac & Cheese. Last year, debuted the Krispy Kreme Burger: a meat patty and cheese sandwiched between two glazed Krispy Kreme Donuts. What. The. Heck.

In addition to more heart-attack-enducing foods, The Ex also added some variety to the mix

Thyme & Olives: a Halal Lebanese bakery selling yummy pies – spinach, cheese, cheese and zataar, meat, and turkey
Far East Tacos: A twist on traditional taco’s – you can choose from a variety of Korean inspired toppings
Vie Raw Food: For the health conscious, The Ex welcomed raw food this year

Here’s what Nouman and I tried new this time:

Steak & Cheese Factory: Nouman loves meat so he tried a sandwich from the Steak & Cheese Factory. He ordered an 8″ chicken and cheese sub but they gave him an 8″ steak and cheese sandwich instead. The line was super long but Nouman didn’t love his sub

Thyme & Olives: We heard that the Turkey and Cheese pie was really good so Nouman’s family tried that. Everyone really liked it

The Turkey pie on the right side

Deep Fried Oreos: The concept seems yummy but it wasn’t too great. I would’ve liked it better if there was still a slight crunch to the cookie but there wasn’t. The inside was surprisingly very soft. I’m not a fan of the batter either – it’s too thick and gooey for my liking. Overall, it was just meh.

3 for $5. What a ripoff

A look inside

Deep Fried Snickers: We decided to get the snickers bar with icecream and chocolate sauce on top. This was much better than the Oreo. I liked the crunchiness of the peanuts and the stickyness of the caramel. The icecream was also a good idea – the lightness of the icecream balanced the thickness of the batter.

Just Cone It: I love pizza and so I had to try this. I opted for the pizza flavour minus the pepperoni – the server even got me a new bowl and spoon since the previous ones all had pepperoni mixed in. While the concept is great, the flavour was definitely lacking.

A closer look

Swiss Waffle: Topped with soft serve vanilla icecream and fresh strawberries. We got our waffle dipped in chocolate aswell. Ofcourse. Contrary to the Belgian waffle, the Swiss waffle is crispy which makes it fun to eat.

I think next year I’ll try the Kimchi Taco from Far East Taco!

Monday’s Munchies: Rocky Mountain’s Chocolate Dipped Brownies

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The last few weeks have been food overload for me. I am absolutely guilty of gaining love weight since we’ve been married – we buy each other treats, go to dawats, and attend weddings. These days, everything in our life revolves around food. It’s so hard to avoid all the sinful goods.

For our 2 month anniversary, we decided not to go out for dinner. Instead, I wanted to get Nouman a sweet treat. I decided that I would go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory since it had been a while – I am so thankful I did. I looked around for a while and then decided to get some chocolate dipped brownies; Nouman loves brownies and we both love all things dipped in chocolate (who doesn’t?!). Since it was my first time trying these, I decided to go safe: chocolate dipped brownies covered in almonds and M&M covered chocolate dipped brownies (for the kid that Nouman is).

The brownies were divinely delicious. I had thought that it might be too sweet but I’m glad I was wrong. The brownie is melt-in-your-mouth moist and the dipped chocolate adds a nice texture to the mix. The dipped chocolate has a great taste on its own – I asked Nouman to describe it and he said: amazing.

My favourite was the almond because I love anything covered in nuts. Nouman liked the M&Ms more. For Eid, we got a white chocolate drizzled chocolate dipped brownie (not pictured) for Nouman’s brother and he loved it more than the almond.

I’ve heard they have chocolate dipped cheesecake and chocolate dipped frozen bananas – I haven’t seen these at any location near me. I’d love to try them though!

Monday’s Munchies: Food in Barbados

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We forgot to take pictures of everything we ate, but here is a look into some of the yummy things we did capture. Barbados is known for its scrumptious fish! We ate fish almost everyday and loved it – so fresh and tasty.

Breakfast at Pearson

Dinner at The Carriage House – Dorada Fillet with baked potato and salad

Flying Fish with macaroni pie at Cutters Deli – a short walk from the resort

Fish with rice & peas, salad and fried plantain

Fish with salad, potato and yams

Pina Colada for him. Guava for me. The best juice I’ve ever had. EVER.

This was a local fast food chain. It was quite similar to KFC. We had potato and curry roti – it was pretty good, but not the greatest.

Pasta at a restaurant in the resort, D’Onofrios Trattoria. Nouman didn’t like this much

I ordered pizza. It was average

Enjoying a grilled cheese samwich on our balcony

Flying fish with rice & peas, salad, macaroni pie and coleslaw. This was at Oistens – it’s a street party that happens every Friday

Blue Marlin with the same sides as above. This was by far our favourite type of fish – it tastes like chicken, so Nouman loved it!

Getting coconut water on our resort

He got pineapple flavour and I got strawberry. Notice the tan? OH YEAH!

Treats after a long day at the beach. This was from a cute cafe on our resort

Room service and grilled cheese samwiches. Nouman couldn’t have more than 2 fish balls.. so naturally, I ate them all. He had juice and I had coke. Ofcourse.

We went back to Cutters Deli for our last breakfast. Eggs Benny for him

Yummy Breakfast Burrito. All mine.

Sorry if you’re fasting! It’s Monday’s Munchies, what did you expect?

Light At The End of MY Tunnel

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I can’t belive how close to the wedding we are. Alhamdulilah!

For the first time in a long time, I’m unable to express how I feel.

I have about a million thing running through my mind and yet, at times, I feel like I have no thoughts. Overall, I am so so so excited and cannot wait until THE DAY finally arrives. I have moments of anxiousness and sometimes nervousness – I’m assuming these emotion will heighten closer to the day.

As we near the day, I find myself (surprisingly) caring less and less about all the extra’s and the wedding. I’m looking forward to the marriage and the journey it entails. I just want the day here!!

Monday’s Munchies: Food Log # 3

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Since there are just a few weeks left until the wedding (InshAllah), I thought I’d update you guys on my eating patterns.

You’d think that I’d be super motivated to eat healthy so close to the wedding, but nope. I’ve been doing alright; I’ve been eating balanced meals throughout the week.

My weakness? Weekends.

I’m not sure why this happens, but every weekend (and I mean EVERY), it seems as if a prisoner has been let loose. I overeat and I overeat badly. This weekend, I had a truckload of junk: biryani (ALOT of it), chips, cake (two types!), icecream, and way too many carbs (I love bread).

My goal was never to eliminate junk food from my diet (I’m definitely not one of those girls that can stay away from sugar) – I just wanted to decrease the quantity I consume. However, with dholki’s and guests coming to our house all the time, it has been impossible to do so.