Vegan Tuck Box

So after a couple of months of eyeing up this subscription box, this was the month that I decided to give it a go and make the purchase.  Although it did take a little longer than I had hoped to arrive in the post, when it did finally get here it made me really excited to find all of the goodies inside!

Tyrell's Sweet Chilli & Red Pepper Crisps 

These are AMAZING!  They taste just like the Sweet Chilli Sensations, but these are gluten free!  My only problem is that the bag was half full, not cool when you open up a bag of half air.  Despite this, I'll definitely buy these again because they are super good and make a change from my normal ready salted.  

Body Me Organic Protein Bar

First of all, I want to say that I love, love, love the packaging of all things – it’s super cute, looks pretty and states all the facts about the snack very clearly on the front, which I really like!  I had actually come across this brand on Twitter about a week before I received my vegan snack box, so was quite excited to get to try this one out!  I also love chocolate orange too, so that was an added bonus too.  I’m not really one for protein bars though, however as this one is organic and packed with plant protein, I decided it would make a good snack for when I’m feeling hungry but trying to be good.  The protein bar itself was really nice, not too overpowering with chocolate orange but just enough flavour to keep you going back for more!  It was a really weird texture, but again one that I actually quite enjoyed.  It almost feels powdery in your mouth as you’re chewing which might be a little off putting to some but I really liked it.  It was also a funky shape too, kind of shaped like an oval which make it easy to eat from the packet!  I really liked this one, and would pick up again for sure if I ever decide to quick myself into gear and get back into the gym life!

Loving Earth Chocolate

I was really excited to receive such a large bar of chocolate, as it’s been a while since I had a decent piece of choccy!  It was only after that I had started tucking into this that I realised that it was made from cashew nuts – however it is really, really nice!  I’ve not indulged in this in the one sitting, instead I’ve been enjoying this square by square – which obviously means that it has lasted me a lot longer – as well as allowing me to actually enjoy the flavours!  The chocolate melts in your mouth slowly in your mouth, and doesn’t leave a bitter or unpleasant taste afterwards either.  I would love to be able to purchase this again, however there are no stockists within a 50km radius that I know of yet!

Chocolate and Coconut Flapjacks

My mum had actually received these in one of her The Vegan Kind boxes that myself and my boyfriend had purchased for her for her birthday.  She offered me one a few times to try when she had them, but I politely declined seeing as these were her treats!  It made me super happy when they arrived in my Vegan Tuck Box, as they’re gluten free too and I could finally try them.  They reminded me of the breakfast bars that I used to eat when I was little at primary school, they’re very nice but also a little sickly.  I couldn’t sit and eat them one after the other for sure – and they’re pretty small bars so that’s saying something!  They make a lovely wee treat with a lovely cuppa – day or night.

I loved having the chance to try out a lot of different bits and bobs that I probably wouldn't have picked up if I saw them in the shop.  Although this definitely won't be something that I purchase myself every month, it will be one of my go to treats in the future.

What's your favourite subscription box right now?

Until the next one,

Bakedin Gluten Free Brownie Mug

At the end of July I came across a fab brand called Bakedin – they create the perfect mixes for all sorts of baked goodies and send them out to you in the post for you to make at home.  I added them to my August lust list after discovering that they had gluten free mixes that can easily adapted to be made dairy free too.  I was just about to place my order on their website, when I received my Vegan Tuck Box (post to come soon) which featured one of these brownie mug mixes!  As you can imagine I was pretty excited, so I decided to leave my actual order until I had tried this one out.

Now mug mixes are easy, they don’t take much time or effort and they usually turn out pretty good.  Bakedin mug cakes are AMAZING – they take legit two minutes in total to put together and cook, and they taste FANTASTIC!  It really is so super easy, you simply melt the butter for 10 seconds, throw in the powdered mix and the splash of milk (I used plant based alternatives for both) mix together and put it in the microwave for one minute.  That’s it!  Leave to cool for a few minutes and tada – you’ve got yourself a pretty damn good dessert ready to tuck in to.

No big messes needed with Bakediin like one!

The mix turns into a delicious sponge – it’s so good that you couldn’t even tell that it was diary or gluten free.  There are no clumpy bits throughout like there normally tends to be in your regular mug cakes – just tasty spongey goodness.  The mix creates the perfect sized cake, just enough to satisfy your sweet tooth but not enough to make you feel sick afterwards or feel the need to leave any.  Every mouthful is as yum as the last one, and you find little chocolate chunks throughout the sponge which adds to the indulgence of the cake.  It’s honestly so good that it’s hard to believe that this was a quick mix fix.

I am absolutely delighted that I got to try this in my Vegan Tuck box this month, I am so in love with the gluten free brownie mug cake – and can’t wait till pay day to place my order for a pack!   I think I’m going to treat myself to one of the gluten free brownie mixes too, just because I’ve got the feeling that it’s going to be equally as good.

Have you tried out any of the Bakedin mug cakes yet?

Until the next one,

Summer Berries at Tesco

This month The Orchard at Tesco invited me to be a part of their Summer Berries programme, which I was super pleased about because its strawberry season!  They kindly sent me a £3 voucher to pick myself up a punnet of berries of my choosing, and in return would like to know my honest thoughts about the product I chose.  I grabbed myself the largest and nicest looking punnet of strawberries from my local Tesco, with a dessert in mind that I found from my nutritionists website here.  I’ve been dying to try out coconut cream for a while now, so thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a go!

The strawberries are the most gorgeous shade of red ever – they look really healthy and fresh in the punnet, as if I have just picked them off a farm myself there and then!  As I washed them under the tap, the sweet aroma of the strawberries filled the kitchen, which is one of my all-time favourite smells ever.  There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh strawberries.  I picked myself a decent sized portion from the punnet, and cut them into halves to enjoy with my coconut cream.  The smell grew stronger as I did this, and the juices spilled onto the chopping board – proving that I had a really delicious and fresh bunch too! 

To make your coconut cream, you simply need to purchase yourself a tin of full fat coconut milk.  Pop in the fridge overnight, and the next day your milk will have turned into a really thick cream – which is absolutely delightful with strawberries, might I add!   I added a tiny amount of agave nectar to my bowl for a little extra sweetness, however this really was not necessary because the strawberries tasted as good as they smelt!  Sometimes when I buy strawberries, I find them to look really appealing but taste rather bland or simply like water as I make my way through the punnet.  Tesco did not disappoint with these ones though, every strawberry tastes as good as the last one – and unfortunately for me, my family seem to think so too!  I went to bed with a near half full punnet last night, only to discover this morning that I’ll be needing to make another purchase sooner rather than later! 

I’m really, really pleased with these strawberries from Tesco, and super chuffed that I got to try them for free, thanks to The Orchard programme!

What’s your favourite summer berry?

Until the next one,

August Lust List

So July was a pretty busy and rather expensive month.  Hulk needed a vet check that ended up costing a small fortune, it was brought to my attention that I was driving around with an illegal tyre – goodbye fitty dollars – and then I had three birthdays to fund.  That being said, I decided that my vegan subscription box could wait till this month (I can’t wait for it to come now though!) and decided to skip the Nakd delivery too.  It’s hard to believe that we are now in August – where had this year gone?” – and now that most of the birthdays are done for the year (there is still two to go for me) it’s time to start thinking about Christmas as I’ve lots of people to get for.  This month I have a few bits that I’ve had my eyes on for a while now, which I’ll hopefully be able to pick up throughout the month.

Beauty Box

I’ve been fancying treating myself to a beauty box for quite some time now, however over these last few months I’ve noticed lot a beauty bloggers posting about how they’ve not been overly impressed by some of the more popular boxes.  After doing my own research, I discovered You Beauty and Love Me Beauty – both reasonably priced boxed with a difference – if you’re quick enough, you get to choose what items you receive in your boxes.  Since going cruelty free though, it’s been a tough one trying to find a month when the boxes contain a good selection of suitable brands.  August looks like it could be the one though for both – so now I’ve just the decision to decide on what one I want.  Watch this space…

Multipurpose Balm

You’ve heard me whine and whine again about my dry lips and sore skin around my mouth – so this month I’m determined to find something that is going to solve the problem once and for all!  It popped up on my Facebook ads that Dr Pawpaw were on special offer in Superdrug, so naturally this is one I’m considering as I’ve heard great things about this cruelty free balm.  It’s also been suggested to me several times that I give the Lush Ultrbalm a go, as again they say it works wonders on dry skin, sore lips and simply just tired skin.  This is another strong contender as let’s face it, I do enjoy a Lush trip.  The final one I’ve seen throughout this last month was actually one featured in the Love Me Beauty Box, is the Dr Lipp balm.  Although I’ve not heard so much about this particular one, the website suggests that it does exactly what I’m looking for.  Stay tuned, as I’m going to make sure that this is the month that my lips stop hurting once and for all!

Bakedin

After one of my favourite bloggers posted online several weeks back that they had received a lovely selection of mug cakes from a company called Bakedin, I was very much interested to see what it was all about.  I thought it would make a lovely and quirky present for a couple of people, but didn’t have much hope in finding anything that would be gluten and dairy free.  I was pleasantly surprised though when I came across a gluten free brownie cake mix and mug cakes!  After an email questioning if the recipes could be adapted to dairy free alternatives – they got back to me very promptly confirming that it should work with no real problems.  I think I’m going to try out the mug cakes first, so fingers crossed everything turns out fabulously!

What are you treating yourself too this month?

Until the next one,

Chocolate Brownies

A few weeks ago now, when I still had the baking bug, I whipped together a batch of chocolate brownie cupcakes!  I used a recipe I found on the BBC Good Food website that I’ve listed below for you to refer to.  I made some changes when following the recipe, which I found to work pretty well – but you guys might feel better following the pros.  Either way, let me know how you get on below, mine turned out pretty good!

·         185g unsalted butter

·         185g best dark chocolate

·         85g plain flour

·         40g cocoa powder

·         50g white chocolate

·         50g milk chocolate

·         3 large egg

·         275g golden caster sugar

First, I preheated the oven to 180C.  I then mashed up the butter into randomly cut blocks in a large bowl and chucked in the dark chocolate that I had broken up into squares.  I then put the bowl into the microwave for around 3 three minutes – taking it out every thirty seconds to check and stir.  Once full melted, I put it to the side and left it to cool.

Next, I weighed out the flour and cocoa powder and put the two into a medium sized bowl.  The online recipe said to sieve the two before mixing them together, but when my mum pointed out that she never sieves anything (and her baking is amazing) – I decided to skip this step.  I’d probably just make a mess anyways.

The next step was to break up the chocolate bars – which I found to be a hell of a lot easier than what the online method made out to be.  I pretty much just broke the bars up into the squares, and then broke the squares up further into random chunks and mixed it all together.  This resulted in a lot of random sized chunks, which I wasn’t super fussy about because let’s be honest – who doesn’t like big chunks of chocolate in their brownies?

This next part was messy, thankfully though my mum has an electric hand mixer and so it didn’t take nearly as long as I had anticipated.  I cracked the eggs into another large bowl, and tipped the caster sugar in with it.  I then used the mixer on the highest speed for around about three minutes, until it turned to a nice thick and creamy mixture.  This probably doubled in size and the colour became a lot paler – like the online method stated. 

It was then time to pour the chocolate and butter mix in with the egg and caster sugar, which didn’t take very long at all.  I used a wooden spoon to mix it all together, and added in the flour and cocoa powder to the mix.  I added this in little by little, folding it through so that the mixture came to a thick and sticky consistency.  When this was ready, I then chucked in the bowl of chocolate chunks and gave it another stir.

The brownie mix was then ready to pop into the oven – and so I poured a little bit of the mixture into each cupcake case, leaving enough room for them to raise a little.  Around about 25 cases later, the brownie cupcakes were ready to pop into the oven and to be left for 20-30 minutes until they became nice and spongey.  When ready, take them out of the oven and leave for about 10 minutes until cool!  And voila – you’ve got some super tasty brownie cupcakes ready to be munched on!

Does anyone else make their brownies into cupcakes?

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1223/bestever-brownies - in case you prefer to follow the pros.

Until the next one,

Lauren x