There are not that many places north of Lawrence that we can eat at it seems, but my mom, sister my brother and I had the privilege of stopping by Organic Oven on Yonge Street to try out their desserts (because we had already eaten lunch). They seriously bake for everyone. They have nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, sugar-free, full vegan, gluten-free, and it’s all done in many different combinations. They needed to explain a lot, for us to figure out what to get!
I decided upon an apple cinnamon muffin (dairy-free, but had organic eggs in it) which was great and actually tasted like I was eating an apple with cinnamon on it. It was a little dry, but the flavour made up for it. My sister ordered a chocolate chip, banana muffin (full vegan), and she loved it and thought the chocolate chips tasted like coffee (where she knows what coffee tastes like is a mystery – unless it’s from our family favourite, Coconut Bliss cappuccino ice cream!). My little brother got a package of 3 gingerbread men (vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free – just coconut sugar). Now, this was absolutely outstanding, fresh baked goodness and I think the fact that they used coconut sugar in them made them just melt away in our mouths (he only shared very little, so next time, I might have to get my own). He also ate my mother’s raspberry icing cupcake which looked good but I don’t like raspberries….it’s a texture thing.
My mom hadn’t had lunch, so she got a vegan chili (she was thrilled that it didn’t have any soy in it and included tomatoes, butternut squash and beans, all perfect on a rainy day). It was great, even though squash isn’t my thing, and I ate the toasted gluten-free bread off her plate (thanks, Mom). This made me hungry again, so I ordered a vegan, gluten-free grilled cheese sandwich (seriously!!!) with Daiya and avocado – it was my second lunch of the day. It was absolutely stupendous – this will get me to go back, it was so good and just hit the spot.
We even bought a brown rice gluten-free pizza crust and some gluten-free poppy seed bagels, which we have really enjoyed at home. Please note that gluten-free stuff really needs to be toasted to taste good, otherwise it will be way too crumbly.
I highly recommend going to Organic Oven, so you can open treasure chests of taste and flavour that I got to. No matter what your diet or allergies are, or even if you are just a picky eater, they have something sweet and/or savoury for you.
