Leila Pejman

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!    The summer ain’t over yet (thank goodness), and the heat is a perfect excuse to have more ice cream—not like that stops you in the winter! But when it’s hot outside, the chimes of the ice cream truck make your inner child jump for joy. Here are 5 cool treats you can make at home. 

Families today are extremely busy. Both parents usually work, and then have to fit their kids’ many extracurricular activities, such as swimming, art, tennis, soccer, hockey, and playdates, into what’s left of the day. In this hectic environment, eating dinner as a family is enough of a challenge, let alone preparing the meal with your kids. But getting them involved in making their favourite dishes is worth the effort. This might be hard at first if your kids are doing homework (or just pretending they are), playing on their phones, or sitting in front of the TV. Convincing them that cooking is cool is a good first step. Once they start, they’ll love it, and the key is to make it fun.

Teaching your kids to cook at a young age has its perks, from getting their help in the kitchen for dinner duties to knowing they will be knowledgeable to eat smart as they get older. Furthermore, it’s a perfect opportunity to bond with your children and learn about their day. You never know, by the time they become teenagers, they could be preparing dinner every night before you even get home from work or while you chill out on the couch. A parent can only dream, right?

It’s date night, and I want to stay in for a romantic evening. There are many things I can do to prepare and create an elegant nightlife vibe such as serving great tasting cocktails presented in stylish glassware. I’m a firm believer that drinks should be served in elegant glassware just to help set the mood right. With the right recipe and perfect presentation, I’ll be able to show off my ever-improving bartending skills, plus we will both have fun tasking some new delicious creations.

Summa summa summertime, it has finally arrived! This doesn’t apply to my West Coast friends, but in the East, it was a long, cold winter. The only cool thing I want to keep for the new season is a chilled, flavourful (and sometimes alcoholic) beverage, preferably sipped on a patio. Here are the drinks I’ll be serving this summer.

  Pizza is one of my favourite foods. It’s perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, as well as after a late night of drinking. I couldn’t imagine having to give it up because of celiac disease or a sensitivity to gluten or wheat. But if this applies to you, have no fear: there are ways to make non-traditional pizza crust so you can continue eating the food you love. 

  Our guest blogger this week on Shelly’s Friday Favourites is Leila Pejman. Leila comes to us from Future Shop’s Tech Blog where everyone enjoyed reading about (and cooking) her amazing recipes. From gluten free to special brunches, Leila’s covered them all. Enjoy these great chicken recipes!

It’s nice to see more gluten-free options at restaurants and grocery stores, especially for people who have celiac disease. But people who aren’t celiac are also leading a gluten—or at least a wheat—free lifestyle to lose weight or avoid bloating. I attempted to follow a gluten-free diet to dig deeper into this trend. Read on to find out what I learned: