The Scoop on Almond Dream!

Excitement levels are high with ice cream fans in the UK this week because Almond Dream is finally here! For some reason when UK based companies make ice cream they go with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry almost every time. I can't lie chocolate is right up there with my favourite ice cream flavours but I already have a favourite chocolate ice cream (Booja Booja) and I don't feel the need to try every other brands version. This on the other hand, this is exciting. Almond Dream, which is now being sold at Waitrose stores all over the UK (Check hannahbananabakery's Instagram for the full list), make Mint Choc Chip, Salted Caramel and Praline Crunch alongside their Velvety Vanilla.

I found out about this thrilling development whilst I was on some serious sedatives in hospital (I'm fine!) and the first thing I did was call my local Waitrose to see if they had it. I figured Nick was driving me home from hospital anyway so obviously if there was ice cream to be had we should go home via Waitrose despite my body still feeling like it was made of cotton wool - they gave me the good stuff! Sadly my local Waitrose told me they didn't have it and didn't know if they were getting it. The sadness! The upset! But then, a new twist! The next day still blurry from the drugs they gave me (I was beginning to understand why I wasn't to be left alone!) I saw pictures of people in Brighton buying and eating the ice cream!! Waitrose lied! Okay, they probably didn't lie they just messed up but that sounds more dramatic! But now we had no car and Nick was (unsurprisingly) not up for hiring another one just to go to Waitrose so I waited. And waited. And felt jealous of everyone all over my Instagram eating their amazing ice cream. Yesterday, finally able to walk places alone, I set my alarm and got to Waitrose bright and early to get my paws on the good stuff. I wasn't gonna wait a second longer than necessary, I knew that the Twitter and Instagram storm surrounding this product was going to be making it fly off the shelves! I knew people would be all over this stuff! I picked up both the Mint Choc Chip (one of my all time favourite ice cream flavours) and the Praline Crunch. I would have got Salted Caramel too but my little cool bag only had space for two tubs. Decisions had to be made.

Knowing that Nick was as excited about the frozen fun as I was instead of tearing into the tubs as soon as I got home I waited (and waited!) for him to get home from work at 7:30. We even waited a little longer and ate a proper dinner first (summer rolls, so yum!) but then we settled down on the sofa, popped New Girl on the telly box and dug into the tubs with gusto. And spoons.

It's been years (years!) since I chilled on the sofa with a whole tub of ice cream and this stuff didn't disappoint. The Mint Choc Chip was decent but almost too minty, a little toothpastey, and there were nowhere near enough chocolate chips for my liking. I think this'll be great covered in chocolate sauce (I think Tate & Lyle make a vegan one) or some homemade magic shell but as is it wasn't quite hitting the spot. The Praline Crunch on the other hand? OMG! This is seriously one of the best ice creams I've ever eaten! Sweet but not overwhelming and with the perfect amount of praline pieces scattered throughout. There's also something about the familiar tub size reminiscent of the Häagen Dazs binges of my teenage years that was just perfect. The price point of £3.74 also makes these ice creams a somewhat realistic weekly treat, as I said before I love Booja Booja's Hunky Punky Chocolate but at around £7 a tub I can't justify it too often - don't get me wrong I don't think that's too expensive for what it is. The raw ingredients that go into it are pricy and Booja Booja are a small company who need to make some money from their product, but the price makes it an irregular treat. Sadly for Brighton peeps where Almond Dream is concerned Waitrose (as of around 7pm last night) is down to vanilla only. If you live here and you want to see it back in stock asap call them! The more enquiries they get the more likely they are to get loads in stock next time and then we can all have our ice cream and eat it whenever we desire.

Check out my package(s)!

If you know me at all you'll know that I loooove to get post, everything that comes through my letterbox from birthday cards to the free local paper puts a smile on my face. You can only imagine the levels of excitement when I get a package! Honestly sometimes I order stuff online just so that I can get fun post. I was over the moon when the people from Nutribox got in touch with me to see if I'd like to review their Vegan Nutribox Mini and I said a very enthusiastic hell yeah! Because I was travelling when they sent out June's boxes they actually had to make me up my own special box but it's very similar product wise to the box the To Happy Vegans bloggers received and reviewed.

The Nutribox Mini fitted perfectly through my smaller than average letterbox and I got home to find it waiting on my doormat.

I opened it up as soon as I got in the door and I was excited to see a great mix of products I already knew I loved and some that I'd never seen before.

This selection of bars was excellent, I'd only tried the Nakd bar before. The Trek flapjack, Braw Apple & Pear bar and Rude Health Beetroot bar were new to me and I enjoyed them all.

The Braw bar was my favourite and I hope that they become available outside of Scotland soon. You can currently buy them online but only in boxes of 30 which is a little much for me but I am pretty tempted.

I wasn't as excited about these next two snacks, I don't dislike nuts and seeds but I can buy them anywhere and I'd prefer the entire box to be full of new and exciting products. The tropical mix was actually not vegan, a mistake that Nutribox tell me has never happened before and was due to me having a strange mid-month mix of products.

It was nice to see a savoury option in the box, these spicy seeds weren't for me though - too spicy - so I popped them into my UK Vegan Swap package as an extra treat for my swap partner.

I was excited by both of these products, I'd actually never tried a Bounce energy ball despite seeing them every time I pop into Infinity Foods but now I'd definitely grab another. I already knew that I liked these raw chocolate mulberries, they're super dark so I can only ever eat a few at a time meaning that this little bag will last a while.

I would definitely recommend the Nutribox Mini, especially to someone who doesn't live within close proximity to a health food store stuffed full of new and exciting products. 

This is a fun, healthy, vegan (and gluten free) snack box and if you'd like to sign up for a Nutribox you can use the code VEGAN35 to get 35% of of your first box meaning that you can try it out for just £8.41.

Another great way for UK dwellers to get a package in the post every month is to sign up to the UK Vegan Food Swap. I opted out for the last few months because I knew that I'd never be able to pull together a great parcel of goodies and send it out to my partner in the midst of all of the travelling I've been doing. I'm back with a vengeance this month though and I put together a fun package of goodies from my travels for the lovely Ms Cupcake herself. I was even able to hand deliver it because I spent the day in London on Tuesday!

I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a box sent by Lucy from the blog Lucy the Vegan.

Alongside a lovely note I was excited to find a great mix of sweet and savoury snacks and most of the contents were totally new to me. I'd never noticed the Salt & Vinegar Chiplets in M&S before, they were super yummy and I'll be keeping an eye out for them in future. I'd also never tried Jelly Tots despite knowing that they were vegan and I munched on them last night whilst catching up on Neighbours! The M&S After Dinner Mints are one of Nick's favourite snacks so I'll be sharing those which means that I wont feel too guilty about keeping one of my favourite treats, the adorably named Moo Free Bunnycomb Bar, all to myself.

I love the UK vegan food swap, it's such a fun thing to take part in and I get excited about every part of the process; from exchanging emails with my partner and shopping for treats to opening up the box itself. If you'd like to get in on the monthly vegan swap action you just need to click here and sign up, perhaps we'll be swap buddies in August!

Manchester: Shopping

Whilst in Manchester I ate out a lot but I also fitted in a few trips to food stores. I love looking around food stores, from supermarkets in new countries to health food stores in every city I pass through, I love them all. I almost always find something new and exciting and the stores on this trip were no exception. The first place on my list was Unicorn Grocery.

Unicorn is a workers co-op and it's entirely vegan, no label reading needed! Rad! As I was travelling on a budget I couldn't buy every new and exciting vegan product I laid my eyes upon but I took pictures.

I love to make my own seitan but it would be super convenient if you could get ready prepared seitan from shops down here. It would certainly up my laziness a little though. The sausages looked great too.

I was very tempted by these little tempeh & tofu salad tubs. They'd be perfect for turning a mini baguette into a meal whilst travelling.

I also spotted the new Melty Sheese! I tried them at a vegan fair about two years ago and I haven't seen them since. I assumed they'd sold the melty formula to Tesco for their free from range (which I was a little angry about!) but it seems that the melty just hasn't made it's way down south yet.

As well as being entirely vegan Unicorn is also refined sugar free. I was super apprehensive about this but as you can see I found some good stuff and the store certainly doesn't shy away from products containing oil, phew!

These Garlic sticks from the savoury snack section were amazing, super crunchy and very heavy on the garlic. I loved that they came in a ziplock baggie so that I could re-seal them to enjoy another day.

Unicorn also have a little deli where you can pick up all sorts of savory pies, pasties and pastries. I wasn't super impressed with this tofu and broccoli parcel, despite containing three of my favourite things it was a little bland.

On the other hand the Ganmodoki Tofu & Veg balls were perfect. These little fried balls are stuffed full of carrot, onion, hijiki seaweed, sesame seeds, garlic and herbs and they only cost 79p!

I really, really wished that I'd bought more than one.

The next store I checked out was Eighth Day, this veggie store is right opposite the university library and the Eighth Day cafe is underneath it. I didn't get a chance to eat there but it looked like they served cheapish canteen style food. I just grabbed a piece of the vegan lemon, almond and poppy cake from the deli counter.

Everything in this section is vegan!

It was the first sunny day of the year so I took my cake across to the lawns in front of the university library.

This piece of cake was the perfect spring day treat, the light and fluffy almond filled and lemon infused sponge was topped with a lemon sugar glaze and decorated with poppyseeds. It was super delicious, I never really make lemon cake but I should because it's pretty much my favourite.

Lastly on my stores-of-Manchester expedition I popped to Wing Fat in Chinatown. I picked up some preserved beans (anyone have any recipe suggestions for these?), noodles for 50p and some Peanut Butter Mochi.

Nick and I have plans to visit Japan in the not too distant future and I am determined to make myself like Mochi (and tea) before we go. This is the closest I've gotten to enjoying mochi! Peanut butter was always going to be the best possible filling for my tastes and I definitely prefer the kind coated in coconut over the cornstarch covered kind. I would say that the mochi love is coming to me faster than a love for tea. I just hate it all. I've never discovered a tea that I can even deal with drinking let alone actually enjoy but I have hope, a few years ago I also hated hot chocolate and coffee so ya never know!

My next blog post is going to be about the wonderful Ms Cupcake's upcoming cookbook, it includes a giveaway so stay tuned...

Manchester: Breakfasts

I'm a firm believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Without breakfast I'm a grumpy, lightheaded mess and nobody wants to hang out with that version of me!

Before my trip to Manchester I did a little research and scoped out where the best breakfasts were at. I didn't manage to eat them all but I did fit in three proper brekkies.

The first was on Sunday morning when we had a PPK meet up at Bistro 1847 in Chorlton. We all ordered the Full Breakfast and we managed not to start a riot when they told us that they were out of both avocado and soya milk!

This breakfast consists of two homemade sausages, tofu scramble, spinach, mushrooms, homemade spicy beans and toast. It comes with a side of vegan margarine.

This breakfast was mostly good, especially the sausages, which were lovely and crisp on the outside. I also loved the crispy French bread toast. The tofu scramble tasted a whole lot better than it looked, it was the first time I've had a scramble with neither nutritional yeast nor turmeric in the ingredients but it was still very flavourful. The only part I disliked was the beans, I am a firm believer that a breakfast bean should be a proper baked bean and not just any kind of tomato & bean combo - I have friends who think the total opposite of me on this point though and everyone else enjoyed them so it's just a personal preference thing!

My next breakfast adventure was at Odd Bar in the Northern Quarter. They don't start serving breakfast until 11am so as you can imagine I was pretty hungry by the time my meal arrived. Their vegan breakfast includes toast, baked beans, mushroom, tomato, a sausage, a hash brown, a spicy three bean patty and tofu scramble. As you can see there's no tofu scramble in this picture - they were out of tofu but I got an extra sausage and an extra mushroom instead.

I really enjoyed the falafel sausages which make a fun change from the often store-bought sausages I see in breakfasts down south and I was happy to see my favourite Heinz beans making an appearance. I also appreciated the inclusion of the hash brown as there aren't enough UK breakfast places including a potato product in their full English. The herby tomato made a nice change from the usual pepper covered tom' but due to the spice factor I wasn't the biggest fan of the bean patty.

I would definitely re-visit Odd and order this breakfast again but they really need to get some margarine! When I asked the guy working there for it he said "someone asked for it yesterday and I had to disappoint them too", they also disappointed the two people ordering after me who were both vegan too. Given that this place is a stones throw from a health food store I would have thought that the tofu / margarine issues could have been resolved quite easily.

My final stop for breakfast was Oklahoma, again in the Northern Quarter. The vegan breakfast options at Oklahoma are all toast based and you can add beans, jam, PB, marmalade or Marmite. You can also order sandwiches or baked sweet potatoes right from when they open at 10 if you fancy a more out-there breakfast. Unsurprisingly I went for my favourite start to the day - baked beans on toast.

These beans were close enough to Heinz that I loved them but they had a slightly different and more interesting depth of flavour. I should really have asked what brand they were or if they were homemade because they were super delicious. I also loved the granary bread which was toasted until beautifully golden and slathered in margarine. What a perfectly delicious end to my trip.

Two other places rumoured to have good breakfast options in Manchester are Eighth Day who apparently do a sausage sarnie and start serving food much earlier than anywhere else in the city and Mod's Cafe at The Thirsty Scholar which sometimes has a full English which includes veggie bacon. You can rest assured that I'll be checking them both out next time.

Meat Free Monday at The Lass O'Gowrie.

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending Manchester's weekly Meat Free Monday event at the Lass O'Gowrie pub. Vegan organisational whirlwind Lynnmarie from the Manchester Vegan Society and her husband Mod of Mod's Cafe fame put together this awesome vegan outreach event. Last night's was a busy one with food selling out fast.

Food at the event is a huge plate of food for a fiver and it's usually rice 'n' three - something I'd never even heard of until this trip up north. Basically it's as it sounds, you get a plate with rice and a choice of three sides. The food has an international flair with a choice of six dishes usually including some kind of curry and something with a Jamaican influence. Mod had been tipped off by the lovely Caroline that I can't do chilli and he put together a plate of not-too-spicy food for me! What a legend!

My £5 got me a soy and ginger seitan dish with carrots and chunks of soy based chorizo, garlic mushrooms, sausage and beans, a lightly spiced portion of veggie curry and a side salad. It was such a great, filling meal. I especially loved the seitan dish, which only had a touch of spice from the chorizo, and the sausage and beans which has always been a solid favourite of mine.

Lynnmarie's skills don't just lie in her organisational prowess though, she's also a whiz in the kitchen. She bakes cakes for charity just like I do and sells them at events like this one for 50p, for that price (and because it was for a good cause!) I had to try both. This week she'd made a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and a chocolate chip banana cake.

The vanilla cake / chocolate frosting combo is a favourite of mine and one that I hardly ever make myself so this was a real treat. Regular readers of my blog will also know that banana bread is one of the only ways I'll tolerate banana and I always put chocolate chips in mine too. Lynnmarie put chocolate chunks in her perfectly gooey banana bread and I have to say that it was wonderful - if they hadn't have sold out I'd have gotten another piece for my bus journey home.

If you're in Manchester on a Monday night I would definitely suggest that you eat here. As well as a tasty and filling feed for five quid there's a wonderful community atmosphere. Everyone I met was super friendly and happy to chat to an almost-stranger! If you aren't around on a Monday Mod also cooks at Mod's Cafe at The Thirsty Scholar Mon - Fri 12 & 4 and Sat & Sun 1-5.

V Revolution.

V Revolution is pretty damn high up on the list of my favourite thing about Manchester. I originally stumbled upon the store when I took a breather from the crazily busy Northern Vegan Festival on Saturday and I ended up back there again yesterday.

V Revolution sell plenty of frozen and refrigerated vegan staples as well as records and a great selection of drinks, sweets, biscuits and chocolates.

As well as the store area itself they have a large seating area which was consistently busy with people who'd popped in for a tea, coffee or quick bite to eat. As an additional bonus very single person who works there is lovely - super friendly and really knowledgeable about Manchester's vegan scene.

I was excited to spot both new kinds of Goody Good Stuff sour gummies and they have wi-fi. Perfect for a travelling vegan trying to blog from the road.  

Above all else I love V Revoloution's commitment to ridiculously delicious fast food! They've recently gotten a grill / panini press thing for behind their counter and they're now slinging out hot sandwiches and burgers at the weekends. Yesterday I sampled their Towering Inferno Burger!

Um, yeah, I don't even really know what to say about this epic creation! It was one of the raddest things ever. Consisting of two chicken burgers, two hash browns, two kinds of cheese, lettuce, and, for my chili allergic self, a tactical switch out of the salsa for a thousand island style dressing and sliced tomatoes. Obviously it was delicious. You really can't go wrong with Fry's chicken burgers or hash browns! Both cheeses were perfectly melted too and I really liked the soft, lightly toasted bun.

Apparently most people deconstruct this burger or eat it with the accompanying cutlery but not me, nope, I just went for it with my hands - it would be wrong to eat this and not end up covered in sauce so that is exactly what I did.

V Revolution is a must visit destination if you're in the North of England and it's definitely worth travelling to if you're not.

Northern Vegan Festival

I've been wanting to visit Manchester for far too long and the Northern Vegan Festival seemed like the perfect time to hop on a mega bus and head up the M6!

Upon arrival I made a beeline for two stalls in particular. Cottage Cupcake Co and The Cake Liberation Front. I've known the ladies behind both of these ventures online for a long time and I was super excited to finally meet them in "real life" as it were!

Jenny from Cottage Cupcake Co baked all day on Friday to get everything together for her stall and it looked great.

Due to the crazy volume of cakes and sweet treats on offer at the festival I decided to pace myself. I had two rules - pick only one thing from each stall and no eating stuff I'd tried before. The second rule kept me away from the Fry's and Vegusto samples as well as the Ms Cupcake stall, but I already know that I love those things and I can get them down south!

From Cottage Cupcake Co I picked the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcake which was super delicious, I wish I'd had space for an Oreo brownie too!

I also picked up an apron from Caroline at the Cake Liberation Front pop-up stall.

It was so awesome to finally meet Caroline, we've been reading each others blogs for a long time and after meeting up at the fest' we ended up chatting and drinking tea together at V Revolution and hanging out at the Vegan Festival after party! Hopefully I'll be seeing her again at the Meat Free Monday event at the Lass O' Gowrie pub tomorrow.

Next I spotted a company I'd been looking out for for quite a while, Pudology.

I was lucky enough to get to sample both the Chocolate Pud and the as-yet-unreleased Lemon Pud. I skipped banoffee due to my hatred of anything banana! I really hope that these will pop up in Brighton sometime soon, I think they'd sell really well in either Infinity Foods or Waitrose who are currently selling their products in other parts of the country.

My eyes were soon drawn across the way again to the That Old Chestnut stall. Their cakes were beautifully laid out and they'd clearly paid attention to the visual merchandising aspect of the stall, everything was so beautifully presented that I broke my one thing only rule!

Their cakes made a change from the frosting heavy options you see everywhere else - don't get me wrong I love that cake, I make that cake, but it's nice to have a change and there's definitely a bit of a gap in the market where this kind of cake is concerned.

I picked up a slice of the Pistachio Cardamon cake for breakfast. I really enjoyed the light delicate flavours and the sugary pistachio covered glaze, it was so delicious that I went back and got them to put a piece of their Coffee & Walnut cake into the box.

I was super excited to spot this next stall. I've been following V Revolution on Instagram for a while and they're aways posting the most amazing looking stuff - stay tuned for a whole post about them coming tomorrow.

Their stall had ready made sandwiches which could be served hot or cold. Cold flavours included 'Cheese' Ploughman's made with Vegusto cheese, Spicy Jerk 'Beef' & Coleslaw, Buffalo 'Chicken' & Coleslaw and a classic T.L.T.

As well as a pulled pork creation V Revolution also had a Grilled Cheese which could be pressed either right there at the stall or at home.

Obvioulsy I chose to get it right there and then...

...and it was delightful. I love nothing more than any kind of cheese product sandwiched between toasted bread. The cheese used here is the Vegusto Melty that comes in the tube and, as the name suggests, it's melty - perfect for this kind of sandwich. I almost went back for a second!

Next I swung by the Cat & The Cream stall to grab a Sarah Kramer fundraising cupcake. Technically I broke one of my own rules again as I have tried a Cat & The Cream cupcake before but it was for a good cause!

These chocolate cherry boobie cupcakes were being sold to raise money to support Sarah whilst she closes her shop and recovers from surgery. Such a great idea and the cupcake was lovely, moist and full of real cherries.

Lastly I visited The Kitchen on Great Moor Street to join the queue for an intriguing sounding Gozleme.

This Turkish bread was sprinkled with my chosen Cheezly & Parsley mixture, spread with sunflower margarine and cooked on two different hot plates until the outside was perfectly browned.

For some odd reason my phone has decided to delete the pictures of my cooked Gozleme without me asking it to - how rude. As a lover of any kind of bread product I thoroughly enjoyed this, it was warm and melty and if I'd had room I may well have broken the rule again and gone back for another!

After the festival itself there was an after party at vegan friendly pub The Thirsty Scholar. I was impressed with the vegan labelling of the beer taps, quality of the live entertainment, how busy the event was and the fact that everyone was super friendly. I was there on my own for a bit before anyone I knew arrived and because Manchester is full of lovely friendly people I made new friends in no time at all.

I'm so glad that I finally made the trip up north, there's a really great sense of community in the vegan scene in Manchester and if you haven't already you should get up here asap!

Brighton Veg Fest

It's almost Brighton Veg Fest time again! It's this weekend at Hove Town Hall. If you're a regular reader you'll know that I attend every year and then blog about it afterwards ( 2012, 2011) but this time around I'm blogging about it beforehand too. Why? Because this year's extra special! I have my first ever Operation Icing stall on Saturday.

It's not just the first ever Operation Icing stall at Veg Fest either, it's the first Operation Icing stall anywhere, ever! It's been a crazy week of crafting banners and signs, working out what I want my table to look like and finalising my to-bake list. All that's left to do now is, well, bake!

My Speculoos Caramel cupcakes will be making an appearance as will these Raspberry Doughnut cupcakes.

There will also be plenty of other flavours to choose from as well as brownies and gluten free options. Operation Icing are at stall 136 on Saturday only.

This weekend falls into the donation month for Raystede Animal Sanctuary so all profits from sales of Operation Icing's cupcakes at Veg Fest will be going straight to them. 

Incase you've never heard of Raystede they're located in Ringmer, about 30 miles outside Brighton and they rescue, rehome and provide sanctuary for more than 1500 animals each year. I really, really love it there. I always manage to visit at least twice a year either with Nick or with friends and on our last trip we got to do something extra special. We took part in an Animal Carer for a Day experience. 

We started out in the cattery helping to socialise the cats. I hadn't really thought about it properly before but cats can get sad and angry if they're not getting any human cuddle time and it really helps them to be receptive to possible adoptees if they can spend a little time socialising with humans each day.

This is Albi who is currently looking for a forever home.

The next stop was the Cavy house where we helped to muck out and stroke some guinea pigs and a couple of friendly rabbits who were lolloping about.

The next part of the day had to be the highlight for me. Weighing hedgehogs.

They can't let many people into this part of the centre because wildlife shouldn't get too accustomed to human contact but the hedgehogs need weighing every day so that the carers know when to release them and we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Next up was some pony grooming, unsurprisingly I picked this ridiculously adorable little one to groom! Holley was in charge of the fringe.

We also got to walk and play with some lovely dogs. Both mine and Nick's have since been re-homed, yay!

Our last caring duty was bathing the tortoises. I'd never held a tortoise before and it was pretty cute, you got to dry them by wrapping them in a fluffy towel!

It was such a wonderful day, this was the first time Raystede had ever done a day like this for adults and you certainly couldn't tell. They had the whole day planned out so that we could spend time caring for as many different animals as possible and it was a truly brilliant experience. Raystede currently have two more Adult Animal Carer For a Day experiences scheduled for this year and you can split the cost between three or four people if you wish.

If you love the look of what Raystede do and you'll be at Brighton Veg Fest this weekend swing by the Operation Icing stall to grab a cupcake (or four!) to help support their work.

One last exciting announcement is that this little blog has been nominated for a Best Blogger of the Year award in the Veg Fest UK awards. Wow! I would love it if you'd consider voting for me, I'm totally not expecting to win as I'm up against some pretty stiff competition but you should totally vote for me anyway so that I don't get zero votes and feel like a loser!!

Hopefully I'll see some of you over the weekend, please come & say hi at stall 136!