nestled in it's box

Open the box and it hits you: that exciting, sugary Easter Egg scent from childhood. I don’t know why chocolate should smell different when formed into an egg shape, but it does.  Dark chocolate eggs are of course gorgeous, but altogether more grown up. This is the one for children and those who don’t like high cocoa content chocolate. The moo free egg is sweet and mild and could easily be mistaken for a milk chocolate product.

in the frost and sunshine

It’s a good 100g size and the bunny, butterfly and flower packaging is a nice change from dark eggs which are usually aimed at very mature people…

of course, once opened, it didn't last long in this house

Available from Goodness Direct and larger Waitrose stores. Moo Free Chocolates have full details of all stockists on their website

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brownies all in a row

But first to the crisps: completely guilt free, dried raw squares of tastiness. The three flavours are Beetroot, Spicy Thai and Red Pepper and they’re all very good…

beetroot crisps nestled in their bag

…but the absolute winner for us was the red pepper. Reminiscent of pizza, these would be very nice little crackers too. Topped with a small slice of tomato, a basil leaf and maybe half an olive… but before these musings could be made real and captured on camera they were all scoffed by other people.

red pepper crisps

The brownies are satisfyingly sticky, soft and rich, remarkably like a cooked cake but you still feel great after eating them. No sugar rush/up/down thing going on at all.

that's my favourite, the cacao cocobanana one

It’s deliciously coconutty and sweet. And just look at this cacao mint brownie coming towards you:

you want it don't you? well you should, it's good!

Excuse the food porn Other varieties are cacoa cashew which is pleasantly cinnamony, carob hazelnut and carob orange. The carob ones are nice, they got gobbled down fast, but chocolate is always preferred here.

All these delicious, healthy products are raw, organic, vegan and free from wheat and gluten You can read more about them and purchase on  Gourmet Raw’s website Use code GR003 for a 10% discount.

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title proved by gorse flowers

No matter how cold it gets there’s always one somewhere

Seasonal bits:

Frugal Christmas and Vegan Yule have been updated and weeded free of dead links and outdated information. Lebkuchen from Lidl now contain butter

Drawing attention to Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Christmas just now (see last years blog review of it) as it is currently still available for 1p from marketplace sellers on Amazon. That will change nearer Christmas.

A new inhabitant of the wood shed, he joins the toads for winter, they will probably not be kissing…

newt

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beautiful chocolate

Moo Free Chocolates sent us some goodies to try. A sweet, mild chocolate very reminiscent of milk chocolate, went down well with our teens, I think younger children would love it too. I do like the sparkly blue foil It’s vegan (well, duh), organic and uses fairtrade cocoa. There is also going to be an Easter Egg and Advent Calendar

cute packaging

Now the chocolate is very nice but the pralines… wow… posh chocolates, absolutely gorgeous, hazelnutty, smooth… mmm…

chocolate box

here from Ethical Superstore

so wonderfully photogenic too

Advent calendar now available here and don’t miss the chocolate Santa’s!

moo free organic advent calendar

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are these for me? no...

I was a very lucky girl recently on twitter and won a retweeting competition from Notorious Kitsch! My chosen goodies are above (and no, Willow will not be having her dinner off them ), they have lots of other gorgeous retro things including clocks, phones, aprons, bags, cards etc. It was hard to pick

sew and save mug

Roadhouse Cafe Plates:

the Red Hen Grill

The Starving Turtle

Vespa Mugs

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Alpro soya milks and puddings

Have been sent some Alpro goodies to try We do like their soya milk. The only one I didn’t know about was the ‘milk alternative’ suitable from 1 year old. Lots of extra vitamins and iron in it (and surprisingly nice in nocaf!). The chocolate puddings are lush lush lush…

Blackcurrant smoothies, there have been a few more – here’s a before pic Layered up are borage flowers, gooseberries, blackcurrants, leaf beet, parsley, linseeds (flax), brazil nuts, bananas and apple juice.

smoothie to be

sweet red onion from garden - very pleased with these

blackcurrant cake - currants cooked in batter and raw squished into icing too

 also made some banana muffins with lots of redcurrants in – no pic but very good

Charlotte's strawberry jam bubbling on cooker - taking 'sweet' to new levels!!

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Tetley for Soya

I was most intrigued during the week to be offered the above product samples for review on the site. It didn’t seem likely that a major company was producing something so accommodating to vegans and non-dairy drinkers. I googled to make sure it was true… and it was: Tetley for Soya

I don’t usually drink black tea now – I’ve had two cups this year. Once when out with a friend in a cafe and then again when visiting another friend after a long day out. I sampled this however and it is rather pleasant – it looked a bit pale after brewing and soya milk poured into it and I expected it to be mild tasting, even bland. But it has a strong flavour without being bitter. Basically I think it’s rather a better quality tea than standard Tetley. Davie is a more regular tea drinker and declared it “affa fine” (English transaltion: very good/nice) Currently available in selected Tesco stores, all of them in England, going by the Tetley website!

no delicate floral teacups here

While on the subject of tea and dairy alternatives we were sent another great product a couple of weeks ago: Good Hemp Dairy Free Alternative to Milk (from the makers of Good Oil that we use all the time), which I imagine would be nice in the above tea too. I tried it in Nocaf, Dan on cereal and we both really liked it, more nutty than soya milk. According to the booklet sent with it, it’s in Waitrose and health food shops from Monday.

Good Hemp Milk

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iris by pond, cleavers among

 a very mellow listen: Deltadream - based on the ancient lost Solfeggio frequency “Ut”, a tone linked with releasing guilt and fear, the shorter track there is a free download.  

mellow and cooling eat: minted noodle soup

books weve been mellowing out to in the sun: Named of the Dragon, a gentle mystery, writers, Arthurian and Tudor themes; The Other Half Lives, from Sophie Hannah, the best of her psychological thrillers I’ve read so far and Ask Mother Nature, another nature spirity book responsible for me feeling happy about all the chickweed growing in with the lettuce now

chickweed helps retain water in the soil and is a nice inclusion in salads

bridge over totally calm waters

 Had a nice time with some more pilgrims to the house, this time the grandson of the man who built it. We all learned much from each other – apparently the roof used to be covered in solar panels, was the first house up here to have them…  no trace of them now… hopefully one day we’ll have them again

borage buds, soon time for blue stars and berries in the smoothies

fully open

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mouse on peanuts - what a beautiful tail

off he goes

peanut acquired

 We bought some Relax Kids CDs at Findhorn years ago and they have been used to great effect for relaxation and self esteem boosting ever since. They now have many new titles for children and teens and a wonderful website where you can listen to excerpts

Nature meditations being our most used

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There were swans on the loch yesterday

Had a lovely day with friends morphing into a very balletic afternoon which was great fun. It’s been wonderful rediscovering ballet being for enjoyment, rather than an eternal striving (not to mention starving) for perfection. Looked out the old class music etc. I have but it’s all on cassettes – technology moved on a bit fast for me there

Watched Fast Food Nation (quite good trailer there on amazon), fictional film based on the non-fiction book – strong stuff, a round of exploitation to go with the fries… good cast, making it very watchable though gradually more horrifying.

 

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