It's the inaugural YEG Coffee Week, or what I am now calling the week where Edmonton gets buzzed on caffeine! From March 7-15th, 27 different cafes across the city are hosting different events and letting the quality of locally-roasted coffee beans speak for themselves.

Leva - 11053 86 Avenue - Edmonton AB

Throughout my university years I was never a real coffee drinker. Sure, I had a little caffeine here and there to get me through classes and writing those papers into the early morning, but I never really loved it. Fast forward to this new career where I work 12 hour days and nights, and coffee is slowly becoming my new best friend.


Lemon Meringue Tart
To kick off coffee week my boyfriend and I stopped by Leva for coffee and breakfast. What I particularly love about Leva is that it isn't on any major roads, making it a quiet place to visit during the day. It's tucked away in the heart of Garneau and really is a great spot to grab a bite to eat and get some work done!

The breakfast menu at Leva has a variety of offerings ranging from yogurt and fruit salads to heavier items like breakfast sandwiches and pizzas. There's a little something for every appetite, and it's definitely a challenge to resist the tempting display case full of freshly baked pastries.

My boyfriend opted for the Smashed Avocado Open Faced Sandwich ($13.25) served with a potato hash. Avocado is mashed and spread over artisanal toast and topped with cherry tomatoes, maple bacon, and an over easy egg. The crisp bacon was the perfect combination of salty and sweet, and the runny yolk brought every ingredient together. The potatoes were soft with a crisp golden exterior, and with a bit more seasoning they would have been perfect.

Gluttony began early in the day for me as I chose to go with the Breakfast Prosciutto Cotto Pizza ($15). This was actually a margherita pizza topped with prosciutto, finished with an over easy egg and fresh basil. If there's an egg, it's breakfast! The crust on my pizza was nice and thin, whereas the underside was crisp and browned and the cornicone (outer ring of the pizza crust!) was crunchy and airy. Due to the heavy nature of the garlicky tomato sauce, prosciutto, and cheese, the crust itself didn't hold together well enough to be picked up, so I enjoyed my pizza with a fork and knife. It was a massive portion for breakfast, but I worked my way through it since it was so tasty.


Chocolate Croissant
All meals have to end with something sweet, and when you're at a cafe with freshly baked pastries the rule definitely applies. I would have loved to try one of each item behind the display case but ultimately went with the beautiful lemon meringue tart and chocolate croissant. Leva's lemon tart is delightfully tangy, giving your lips a bit of a pucker, but is balanced out with just the right amount of sugar. The cream is velvety smooth and the tart crust is soft and flaky. If you're a citrus fan you definitely have to give the tart a try. Now if you're more of a chocolate lover, the chocolate croissant will do you no wrong. Layers of flaky, buttery croissant dough are wrapped around a stick of semisweet chocolate and baked to a point where the crust has the right crunch and airy texture. It is so, so good.

Great coffee, in-house pastries, a seasonal menu, and the use of local ingredients are just some of the things that make Leva one of the great cafes in Edmonton. With 27 different cafes participating in YEG Coffee Week, I urge you to go check out at least one you've never been to before. And even if you don't like coffee, YEG coffee week is meant to use coffee as a means of connecting with others and building community. Get yourself to a great cafe, meet up with a friend and enjoy your favourite non-coffee beverage!

For more info on YEG Coffee Week, visit the website here.

Growing up, my mom used Aveeno products on my skin exclusively. She swore by it. I never had any common childhood skin conditions like rashes or eczema, and she attributes it to the daily use of Aveeno's oatmeal based product line.

Throughout my elementary years, I remember using Aveeno on the daily, slathering it over my cheeks, hands and arms after every shower and bath. I always wanted to try out my mom's 'cool' products with beautiful packaging (she used Shesheido for herself), and after denying me multiple times, she took one of her gold & white Shesheido containers and put the Aveeno moisturizer in there for me to use. I was a happy camper with my so-called 'grown up' cream.

Junior high was a time in makeup experimentation and my parents allowing me to go to the mall independently. I said goodbye to Aveeno and started trying out higher-end makeup and skincare products, and to this day I haven't turned back. So when I was asked to give the new Aveeno Fresh Essentials product line a try, it was a nostalgic trip down memory lane for me.


Aveeno Fresh Essentials Daily Exfoliating Scrub
The line of Fresh Essential products boasts to replenish moisture to stressed skin by using Southernwood extract and vitamins A, C and E. There are many causes of stress in our lives, from poor diets and sun exposure, to a lack of sleep and a busy lifestyle. These tiny stressors definitely build up and cause damage to your beautiful skin, making it look dehydrated and dull. This is what Aveeno's products are designed to combat.

The Fresh Essentials product lineup includes a nourishing moisturizer with SPF 30, a hydrating night cream and an exfoliating scrub. I tested out the products for a month and generally enjoyed the results, so lets take some time to talk about each one.


Aveeno Fresh Essentials Nourishing Moisturizer SPF 30
The Daily Exfoliating Scrub (photo above) promises to reveal fresher-looking, smoother skin with each use. Luffa and coconut pulp are two natural ingredients that make up the scrub, and it really feels like a micro-exfoliant when used on the face. The tiny particles lightly polish away at the skin to make it feel incredibly smooth afterwards. I'm not a daily exfoliating type of person, so I used this twice a week and found my skin to be less prone to dry spots.

Aveeno recommends using the Nourishing Moisturizer with SPF 30 to follow your daily facial scrub. The formula is quite lightweight and quickly absorbs into the skin, giving a soft, smooth result. The product didn't make my skin overly oily, and I love that the product wasn't heavy given the higher SPF rating.

The last product in this range is the Hydrating Night Cream. This cream is designed to restore moisture to the skin while you're sleeping so that you wake up with skin that is refreshed and renewed. I actually quite enjoyed this night cream because like the daytime moisturizer, it was moisturizing without being heavy. I found that it was easy to spread, making a small amount of product go a long way.

The Aveeno Fresh Essentials product line worked really well for me, but the one thing I am not keen about is the scent. The scent is a mix between florals and fresh laundry. While I didn't mind it, I find the scent is very strong and overpowering. With each application of the moisturizer and cream, I found the scent tended to linger and took quite some time to dissipate from my skin. Given that I work in a scent-free environment, I couldn't continue using the products before heading to work. It is a pleasant scent, but if you're adverse to anything strong smells you may want to stay away from this product line. It's really unfortunate since the products work really well! Otherwise if you're still interested, the Aveeno Fresh Essentials line can be found at your local drugstore.

*These products was sent for consideration of a review

If you know me, you know that I love noodle soups. There's no denying it. But once in a while I like to change things up, and I can get pretty strong cravings for a good sandwich. A new sandwich shop opened up in Edmonton last week and my taste buds were itching to check it out!

Sandwich & Sons - 13119 156 Street - Edmonton AB

Sandwich & Sons is located just north of the Yellowhead on 156 Street in an industrial part of Edmonton. It's a new deli-style concept opened by Chef Alex Sneazwell (formerly of The Manor, Von's, El Cortez) offering soups and sandwiches during the day from Monday to Friday.

The menu itself is simple and is written in chalk on the wall. Classic sandwich combinations are put together with an emphasis on using local ingredients and housemade fixins. Each sandwich includes a side of housemade chips and a pickle, and the price is inclusive of tax. Daily soup and drinks are available for $3 each, and the housemade mustard and pickles are also available for purchase to take home.

I stopped by for a quick lunch today with my boyfriend, and of all the choices on the menu the top contender for us was the Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich ($12). Shaved brisket, house mustard and sauerkraut are piled high between the two warm slices of rye, there's no shortage of meat here! The brisket comes from local producer Sangudo Meats, and this meat is fantastic. The brisket is sous vide for 24 hours then smoked with pecan wood. The resulting brisket is tender, flavourful, and not overly smoky. Grainy mustard is one of my favourite things in sandwiches, and everything combined with lightly pickled sauerkraut made this sandwich a hit.

Our other top choice was the Spicy Italian sandwich ($10). Hot salami, mortadella, artichoke spread, pickled peppers and havarti are placed inside of a roll and squished inside a panini press. The resulting sandwich is crispy, has a kick of heat and is oozing with melted cheese. The sandwich doesn't have the grandeur of the Smoked Meat, but it's a pretty solid sandwich on its own. I did find it to be a bit greasy, but that's just the nature of the ingredients used. Other than the sandwiches, the chips on the side weren't too greasy and just lightly salted for a bit of flavour. I was a little sad that Sandwich & Sons didn't make dill pickles to accompany their sandwiches, but the tangy pickles still had a bit of bite that I enjoyed.

In conversation with Chef Sneazwell, he mentioned that the smoked brisket, turkey, bologna and bacon are all supplied by Sangudo Meats. It's great to see a small sandwich shop supporting local in the ways that they can! From social media it looks like Foie Friday is going to be a thing, so you foie gras fans should flock there to celebrate the end of this week with a foie gras banh mi. Sandwich & Sons is open Monday-Friday, and catering is available too. Stop by and give them a try if you're in the area - the sandwiches are solid.