Tepla Sustainable Jewellery Giveaway

Tepla are a Sussex based jewellery company who work with vegan, sustainable, and ethically made materials. Their beautiful pieces are made using components, processes, and tools that are non toxic, and 100% animal cruelty and animal product free.

Tepla's founder Sandra started the business because she wanted to bring together her mixed media art jewellery background and her personal ethics which is something that really resonated with me. I'm always looking to work in fields where my passions and skills mesh well with my ethics. Tepla source their materials with the impact on both the environment and human health and wellbeing at the forefront of their minds and I love their commitment to using recycled silver.

Loving Earth Review & Giveaway

Whilst it was the gorgeous packaging that first drew me towards the Loving Earth stall at the Just V show earlier this year I was further sucked in by their ridiculously delicious chocolate bars - raw food has no business being this good! Their flavours range from the super dark 85% Dark bar all the way through to the Creamy bar which is made from 47% cacao and 23% coconut.

My veganism has always been driven by my love for animals first but my love for the environment comes in a close second. I know, I know, I fly a lot but I also pay to recycle all of the plastics, try to buy products in recycled packaging or, even better, with no packaging, I travel by train or bus whenever time allows, and I've never owned a car. What I'm saying is that whilst I was originally sucked in by the taste of these coconuty chocolate treats I've become a loyal customer because it turns out that Loving Earth really do love the earth.

Their whole philosophy is based upon respect for the environment and sustainability plays a big part in that. Loving Earth's bars come in 80g and 30g packs and all of their packaging is sustainable, the 80g boxes are made from post-consumer fibres and printed with vegetable inks and the 30g packs are compostable and made from cellulose from sustainably managed trees. Even the clear film the chocolate itself is wrapped in is made from a 100% renewable and compostable vegetable source.

The Taco Cleanse Review and Giveaway

I'm hungry! I'm often hungry, at least three or four times a day, and when I'm not hungry I could always eat. I'm munching on onigiri as I write this. When everyone's rolling around clutching their bellies after a big lunch and talking about how there's no way they'll have room for dinner I know that an afternoon snack is probably in my future. In our fucked up society this is something that, as a woman, I'm meant to feel ashamed of and it's bullshit. Diets, cleanses, detoxing and clean eating are shoved in our faces at every turn especially at this time of year and more and more of my peers seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. It makes me sad. Why are we made to feel guilty for needing, no, wanting, to eat? Why are we made to feel like we need to "cleanse" ourselves after a food based celebration? Why is eating associated with guilt and "being naughty"? I'll tell you why, it's because as women we're meant to make ourselves as small as possible, to take up the least space and to conform to societal beauty ideals so that we don't offend anyone with our fat or body hair or perceived ugliness. I don't want to see food as "a treat", as something to reward myself for "being good all week" or because it's my god damned birthday and I don't want to try to diet & exercise my body down to a certain size or weight because that's what society deems acceptable. I've been there and done that and I don't want to do it again. Food is a necessity damnit! We need to eat at least three times a day if not more and I want that food to be filled with nourishing and tasty carbs, proteins, fats and sugars and I want it to be delicious. I'm not suggesting that health is unimportant, I try to get my 10,000 steps in most days whilst I'm exploring the world and I actually enjoy going to the gym but that's because these things are good for my mental health as well as my physical health. The way most people seem to be approaching cleanses, detoxing and "new year new you" diets seem far from okay from a mental health perspective.

That's why I decided to embark upon a New Year Taco Cleanse! I think that regular me is pretty rad, belly fat and all, but life can always be improved by more tacos. I want to show people that cleansing can be about fun rather than about restricting fun.

Vegan in Croatia: Split and Dubrovnik + Vegan Travel Guide Giveaway

This is my final post from this summer's European road trip adventure and to make it that little bit more exciting I'm combining it with my spot on the blog tour for Caitlin from The Vegan Word's super helpful and informative book The Essential Vegan Travel Guide. I'd feel guilty for not writing about Split and Dubrovnik sooner (how has almost 4 months passed so fast?) but they're not going anywhere and life happens y'know. As I mentioned in my post about Pula and Plitviče, Croatia was one of the countries that inspired my European road trip and Split had been at the top of the Croatia list for some time. It just seemed like the kind of city that'd be right up my street and it was all I'd imagined and more. Nick and I stayed a little way out of town, as is often the way with camping, at a spot called Camping Stobreč. The reason we chose that particular campsite was because there's a bus stop right outside with regular busses taking campers and locals alike into the city centre. Perfect.

Vege was one of our first stops in town as we were starving when we first arrived and we knew that this place served solid fast food. It was a little challenging to find as the Happy Cow map I'd taken a screenshot of was a little off the mark leading me to the main road next to the market that Vege is located in. After a little wandering and asking for directions we ascertained that Vege was in the market, if we'd approached from the port or anywhere on that side of town we'd have easily spotted it because there's a huge sign pointing you in the right direction!

Hello England! Time for a giveaway...

I landed back in the UK yesterday evening after a fun journey home - BA gave Nick and I a free upgrade to business class! Hell yeah! That made flying pretty fun as I got to cosy on down in a flat bed, watch a movie and catch some zzz's. Bliss. Last night we stayed with Nick's sister in Thames Ditton and bright and early this morning I clocked a communal jigsaw at the station. They were also playing some nice classical music and it all felt very English all of a sudden. Our onward journey via train through fields and farmland was almost too easy - I'm not used to being somewhere where I understand everything and know how it all works anymore and it kinda feels a little too familiar. After the ridiculous excesses of Texas with it's gigantic gas stations, conenuts (yep... that's an ice cream / doughnut hybrid... more about that soon) and enormous burgers it definitely feels a little weird to be back.

We're at Nick's dad's place now and we all spent the afternoon cleaning out the van and getting it all ready to be loaded up with our stuff on Saturday morning and then early next week we'll be heading for Eastern Europe via Berlin and either The Netherlands or Belgium depending on which route we choose. We definitely have some serious planning and organising to do but this is the van that we'll be calling home for the next three and a half months.

Isn't it cute?! I am SO freaking excited! I'll be blogging about the van, what we're taking with us and what we'll be cooking in there all summer and I'll make a video tour for YouTube as soon as we get some of our stuff in there. If you wanna make sure you don't miss that visit my channel here and click subscribe.

If you read my previous post you saw that I was at Vida Vegan Con a couple of weeks ago and if you've been paying attention you probably spotted that I recently made a YouTube channel. One of my first videos was of my little shopping spree at Rabbit Food Grocery and I didn't just pick stuff up for myself I also grabbed some things for y'all as they say in Texas. There were also a couple of great things in the VVC swag bag of wonder that I thought were too good for my European friends to miss out on so I figured it was giveaway time!

The winner will win everything pictured above which includes:

• A super cute Rabbit Food Grocery tote bag
• Earth Balance White Cheddar Mac & Cheese
• Dandies mini mallows in both regular and the new pumpkin flavour
• A squeeze pack of Love Bean chocolate coconut spread
• Earth Balance coconut peanut butter
• Stickers from Rabbit Food Grocery and Herbivore (both of the US stockists of my zine)
• Eyeliner from Earthlab Cosmetics
• A sample of Attitude body lotion
• Two sample size pouches of Nacheez

Entrants must live in Europe and they cannot have attended Vida Vegan Con. To enter you just need to leave a comment below letting me know which US product you most wish you could get easily where you live. The competition closes midnight Sunday because I need to post this out to you on Monday so you need to be checking your e-mail / social media / whatever contact info you leave me on Monday morning. Posting about the giveaway on social media isn't a requirement (that's actually illegal y'know) but if you're feeling nice and want to spread the word that'd be lovely of you & I'd totally appreciate it. Good luck! This giveaway is now closed.

Freedom Mallows

If you've spent much time with me (either online or in real life) then you probably already know how much I love marshmallows. When I was a teenager I used to stick them on the end of a nail file and toast them over a candle whilst obsessively re-watching Clueless and wishing I had Cher's life. I'm different now, classier, I have skewers. I'm also switched on to what gelatine actually is these days so vegan mallows are the only way to go.

Freedom Mallows have been a favourite of mine since they first appeared in stores and I was stoked when they agreed to send me their new repackaged and rebranded marshmallows to try and review. 

I've always been a bit of a mallow purist picking up the white Vanilla Mallows every time. When something's this good it's hard to break away from it. These are perfectly sweet and pillowy and I love them. They aren't as puffy as Dandies, which aren't available in the UK yet, and they remind me a little of flumps, remember those? I loved those.

Next I tried the yellow coloured Vanilla Mallows which, if I'm totally honest I don't quite understand. I've always been unsure about purchasing these in the past assuming they must taste strange but they taste exactly the same as the white version. Do people have childhood memories of yellow marshmallows that I've missed? I have puffy pink mallow memories but nothing's ringing a bell with yellow. Do the people at Freedom Mallows just think yellow's a fun colour? I don't know, I do know that it didn't stop me eating them.

The Strawberry Mallows turned out to be a total revelation. Whilst I had fond teenage memories of eating pink marshmallows I had no recollection of them tasting like strawberry. In fact I found the idea a little odd at first but after my first taste I realised I'd been so, so wrong. I ate the whole bag in one go, they're so freaking good.

I was ridiculously excited to try the mini mallows but I wanted to hold out for an occasion, mini mallows aren't just for shoving into your mouth in handfuls y'know... Okay, okay, I totally did that but only with half of them.

I took the mini vanilla marshmallows along to my favourite local hot chocolate spot, Chocaffinitea. They do spanish style single origin hot chocolate which is always hot, always vegan and always and ready to go. It's pretty great as is but the marshmallows make it extra special. I kept adding more and more.

I had something special in mind for the mini pink & white vanilla marshmallows too, Krispie Cakes. I hadn't made Krispie Cakes for a long time, probably ever since Kellogs screwed up all of the vitamin D in their cereals and made them non-vegan, and I'd never had them with mallows. Randi and Sal were coming to sleep over so I veganised this recipe but with added mallows and chocolate krispies so I think I've changed it enough to feature it below.

Double Chocolate Marshmallow Krispie Cakes

• 90g Doves Farm Cocoa Rice Cereal
• 100g Dark Chocolate (try to find something hovering around the 50% cocoa mark)
• 60g Margarine cut into small pieces
• 3TBS Golden Syrup
• 1/2 bag Freedom Mallows (divided)

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie stirring constantly to avoid burning. Add the margarine and stir until melted. Add the golden syrup and stir in. Gently fold in the cocoa rice cereal and just under half of the bag of mini marshmallows. Spoon into 12 cupcake cases and top with the remaining marshmallows. Leave in the fridge to cool for around an hour and then eat. 

The finished product! Nick, Sal, Randi and I devoured these pretty fast. They were most excellent.

Freedom Mallows are available from Infinity Foods in Brighton, The Health Store in Nottingham and Edinburgh's Real Foods as well as UK wide at Holland and Barrett, Whole Foods UK locations and many other independent retailers. Online stockists include Vegan Store and the Viva! Shop and if you're in Aus you're in luck because Freedom Mallows can be purchased online from both Vegan Perfection and Green Edge. Freedom Mallows have recently made it to Sweden too, you can pick up a bag from Astrid Och Aporna or some ICA and Coop supermarkets, hopefully the rest of Europe won't be far behind. 

If all of this marshmallow talk has your craving a s'more or yearning to whip up a batch of my marshmallow krispie cakes then I have good news for you. I'm giving three people the chance to win two bags of mallows (white and strawberry) and a promotional Cedric the Sloth shopping bag. Yay!

To enter just leave a comment telling me what you'd do with your marshmallows. Winners will be picked at random. The giveaway closes on December 19th at 12pm GMT. This competition is open to residents of the UK and Sweden only. Please be sure to leave your contact details, e-mail, Twitter, Instagram, or your blog profile work for me! 

The giveaway  is now closed, congrat's Imogen & Loz.

MoFo '14 Day 15 - Earth Balance Mac & Cheese Review and Giveaway

Hey hey hey! It's my favourite day of the week again, Mac & Cheese Monday!

I pretty much bought every new Earth Balance product I could find when I was in Austin. I already reviewed the Cheddar Squares and the Cheddar Kettle Chips. I mentioned the Mac and Cheese yesterday in my ridiculous sandwich post and today I have a proper review. 

I was pretty excited about this product, mac and cheese is one of my favourite foods and anything that's this easy to throw together will always appeal to me. Not because of my super busy life, nope! Because I'm a- pretty lazy and b- because I don't always remember to make food until I'm really, really hungry...or should I say hangry? I'm not sure there's a difference for me!

I read every review I could find online before my trip to Austin and people seemed to be enjoying the Cheddar, aka the orange box, better. All you need to do is boil the pasta, drain and then add the cheese sachet and 2TBS of both buttery spread and soya milk.

Sal and I were mainly making this to put in a mac & cheese toastie (yes, they were amazing!) but we managed to taste test a few spoonfuls of it first and surprise surprise it was delicious. This is no gourmet mac and cheese but it's super saucy and cheesy and just touch on the sweet side.

We made it with Vitalite spread as you can't get Earth Balance spread here. Vitalite isn't anywhere near as salty as EB, I thought this had the right level of salt but I have quite a low salt tolerance and don't put a tonne of it on my food. The other thing to note is that the two TBS's of soya milk you use need, like, really need to be unsweetened. As I said this is a little sweet already and it'd be a total disaster with sweetened soya milk. Apparently it's similar to Kraft mac and cheese but that's not something we have here so I've never tried it and I can't tell you how closely it compares. John from Laziest Vegans can though so check out his review for an American opinion!

Last night Nick and I whipped up a box of the White Cheddar, aka the blue box. We decided to add some Smart Dogs, another thing we brought back from the US, because honestly I don't think this box makes enough mac for two hungry people despite EB's claim that it's 2.5 portions. 

The blue box mac is definitely a touch saltier and a little less sweet than the orange box which I think makes it my favourite. Only just though! I really wish I'd brought back even more boxes of this stuff, I think it'll become a lazy day staple in our house fo' sure!

Now for the fun part, the giveaway!

I have one orange box and one blue box to give away to a lucky UK based winner. To enter you need to leave a comment below telling me when you'd eat them. Would you share them with your vegan bff? Would you huff the whole box in one sitting alone whilst watching your favourite show? Would it be the perfect emergency food after a busy day running around after your kiddo's? Whatever, lemme know! There are no wrong answers. Don't forget to leave me your contact details (e-mail address, Twitter handle or your blog) so that I can get in touch if you win. The competition closes at 9pm on Friday 19th. No extra entries for sharing on social media but feel free to anyway if you wanna spread the vegan love!

Vegan Finger Foods Review & Giveaway

Vegan Finger Foods by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes is the third book by this experienced cookbook writing duo, their other co-writes include Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day which I adore, my buddy Sal made the chicken seitan last time I went to her house and I'd go as far as to say that it's a game changer, and Whole Grain Vegan Baking which I don't have yet.

Vegan Finger Foods is full of recipes that are perfect for entertaining, snacking on, sharing with friends or scaling up to make a full meal.

The first recipe that caught my eye was the Corn Fritters with Tomato-Thyme Gravy. Whilst the gravy sounded great I preferred the sound of their other serving suggestion, spiked vegan mayo.

I didn't have straight up hot sauce so I used a mild chilli and garlic sauce which was perfect. These really lived up to the Quick and Easy logo at the top of the page, I was amazed at how swiftly they came together and they were super flavourful thanks to the combo of chives, cumin, thyme and paprika. Nick and I polished off the whole lot for lunch one day, we love corn and we love frying things so this was the perfect recipe to start off with. We'll be making these again.

Next up, the Green Snackers. This recipe wasn't quite as easy as the previous one but aside from some fresh spinach it uses pantry staples so I couldn't resist. Here they are pre and post oven.

I served them alongside one of my favourite dips, the Crock Cheez from The Uncheese Cookbook.

I may have rolled the crackers a little thin and therefor overcooked them a touch but they were nicley crispy and I enjoyed the flavour the wholewheat flour imparted. I would make them again but I did have to add a little under a 1/4 cup of extra flour to form a dough that would roll out so keep that in mind if it's getting a little sticky!

Lastly I made the Spinach Swirls, these are like little savoury cinnamon rolls and they were super good. I made the Marinara Sauce from Appetite for Reduction to accompany them which was a good call.

I've actually never worked with a rolled and sliced dough before but the instructions were easy to follow. I did wonder if UK wholewheat flour is a little different from the kind found in the US as these turned out looking a lot more wholewheaty than those in the picture in the book but that didn't affect my enjoyment of them. These were wonderful dipped in the marinara and if I was holding a fancy party with finger foods these would definitely be on the to-make list.

There are plenty of other eye catching recipes in this fun new cookbook and the Fig and Nut Canapes, Pad Thai Summer Rolls and Chocolate Stout Truffles are all on my to-make list.

Would you like to win a copy of Vegan Finger Foods? Well it's your lucky day! I'm giving away two copies and all you need to do to enter is leave a comment below telling me what your favourite finger food is. Make sure you leave me some way to contact you if you win, e-mail, Twitter or your blog works, and the competition closes at midnight on Sunday 27th July. This giveaway is UK only, sorry far away friends.

Veg Fest London Announcement and Ticket Giveaway.

When one giveaway closes another begins, or at least that's how it seems to be going on my blog right now! I'll get to that part in a minute though because I want to tell you why I'm getting really excited about London Veg Fest right now. There are two reasons... 

One, I missed it last year! I got back from California a couple of days after Veg Fest weekend, worst planning ever, but I just had to take advantage of a cheap flight deal! I'm excited about Considerit Chocolate, Lost and Found Caramels and Kizzy's Cookies, catering from Rupert's Street and Happy Maki and hitting up the sample tables of brands like Sheese, Vegusto and VBites. Yup, that all counts as one reason - food!

Two is that I'm going to be speaking there this year! At 4pm on Saturday in the Workshops Room I'm going to be discussing all things vegan travel related in A Vegan Abroad; a talk on everything from how to avoid arriving at your destination starving, hangry and light headed to tips on how to seek out the vegan specialities in the countries you're planning to visit. 

Myself and my friends at The Vegan Society will be opening up the floor for a Q&A session at the end, partly because I want to be as helpful as possible by answering your questions, and partly because I love to chat about travel! I'd love to hear about your favourite places to travel as a vegan too. I am beyond excited about this and I can't wait for September! It's going to be so fun!

To celebrate I'm giving away one pair of weekend tickets to the fest'. To enter you just need to leave a comment below telling me which product, company or talk you're most excited about checking out at Veg Fest (saying mine does not increase your chances of winning!). Please leave me some way to contact you, your blog, e-mail address or Twitter account, and make sure that you're free to attend Veg Fest on the weekend of the 27th and 28th of September. Sharing this competition on social media is not necessary but it would be nice of you if you're into that sort of thing! The competition closes at midnight on Monday July 21st.

VDelicious & the Allergy and Free From Show.

Yesterday I decided to pop up to London to have a look around the VDelicious and Allergy and Free From shows at London Olympia. As I was in California when Veg Fest London was on last year it was the first time I'd ever visited Olympia and I was amazed at how huge it was, I'm even more excited about this year's London Veg Fest now! I was also excited about how easy it was to get there from Brighton, you just need to change to the overground at Clapham Junction and you're there in 10 minutes. Olympia is literally right outside the station and you don't have to deal with the tube at all which on a busy Saturday in summer is definitely a bonus!

After swinging by to say hi to my buddies at the Ms Cupcake stall and checking out Mell's amazing new hat my first stop was Ruby's of London. I'd heard a lot about their delicious sweet treats but I hadn't managed to make it over to Greenwich Market to try them.

Everything looked super delicious but I'm trying to save for tattoos and travel right now (as always right?!) so I just picked one thing, a Chocolate Rainbow Sprinkle doughnut and brought it home to share with Nick. It was super tasty, I haven't had a baked doughnut quite like this one since Mighty O in Seattle and that's some high praise!

I was lucky enough to have the stall next to this next company when I was working on my Operation Icing stall at Veg Fest Brighton. Smooze are a godsend when you're working hard or exploring a hot venue! Their super refreshing coconut based frut ices are my fave' despite having never been the biggest coconut fan. Their Coconut and Pink Guava flavour are the best in my opinion and I snapped up a box of 10 for £4.

Whilst we're on the subject of coconut I was amazed by this next company, as well as being dubious about coconut I hate pretty much all yoghurt! I know, ridiculous right but I was drawn in by The Coconut Collaborative's packaging and I'm always on the look out for a yoghurt that I'll love so I braved my fear and went in for a sample.

I was totally blown away! To say that I loved it would be an understatement. The natural yoghurt itself is unsweetened making it the perfect vessel for fruit toppings at breakfast or alongside savoury foods and they have fruity options for those looking for a more sugary fix. You can find The Coconut Collaborative in selected Waitrose stores and at Itsu, we're getting a Brighton branch soon peep's!

The Allergy & Free From Show section of the show is a minefield for vegans, for example I really wanted to sample Tesco's dairy free cheeses but they were all on bread or accompanied by breadsticks containing egg! Luckily there are many hidden gems including Amy's Kitchen. I knew they'd hook me up and they didn't disappoint, I sampled their new breakfast sandwich which'll be hitting stores in the not too distant future.

They'll be sold in individual packs and are gluten free as well as vegan.

I also tried a sample of their new cashew cream noodle ready meal and I cannot wait to get my hands on a box when they come out, yum!!

The pink carpeted VDelicious area wasn't just all about the food and free samples though there were also stalls from charities and I stumbled across Better Living Books who I was excited to see had Terry's latest book, Salad Samurai, in stock already.

I'll definitely be checking these guys out next time a cookbook I need to get my paws on is being released especially if they can make their website a little more user friendly.

I was super excited to spot this next stall, Dee's Wholefoods are a new vegan company selling quinoa pots, vegetable pots and, the things I was most focussed on, sausages and burgers. 

Dee was great and we chatted about when these products would be hitting the shelves in Brighton. (Hint, it's now. Go to Waitrose!) and she let me take these products for review purposes. Obviously I haven't had a chance to try them yet but I see a fry up with Infinity Foods bread, baked beans, Dee's traditional sausages and mushrooms coming up in the not too distant future. 

Another company generous enough to give me some free products to try were Ten Acre Crisps who furnished me with a huge mixed bag of crisps. 

Ten Acre are the people behind the vegan cheese and onion crisps I'm sure you've all been hearing about as well as my favourite flavour so far, sweet and sour. Ten Acre are hoping to get into Infinity Foods soon and I totally want to help them make that happen! I think Brighton vegans will go crazy for cheese and onion crisps and I'll be reviewing the other flavours soon so stay tuned!

My next spot was the green koala covered beacon that is the Goody Good Stuff Stall, I wanted to see what the deal was with their flavours all becoming vegan and it's totally happening! The koala gummy bears should be appearing in stores now. Sour's my thang when it comes to gummies though so I stocked up on this huge party bag for £5.

It's choc full of mini portion sized bags of sour cherries, cola bottles, summer peaches and gummy bears. This'll last me a while!

I was getting hot and thirsty by this point so I had a little sit down in the coolest place I could find, by the freezers, and it was a good thing I did because I spotted a guy from Mozzarisella emerging from a giant fridge with his arms full of dairy free cheese. Mozzarisela weren't listed in the official show guide because they were sharing a stand with Venice Bakery, purveyors of gluten, egg and dairy free pizza bases. I followed him home as it were and grabbed myself a pizza the action for five pounds.

Now I'm no gluten free grrl, if I had to pick one carb to be my bff for lyfe it would most probably be bread, delicious gluten full bread, but I'll eat anything if it has vegan cheese and this was a decent pizza. Mozzarisella's wheat, soy and palm oil free cheeses melt beautifully and whilst they're not my favourite vegan cheese to eat on a cracker (holler at Vegusto) it's downright delicious on pizza. A fiver was a total bargain for a whole pizza too and aside from samples and Vegusto's cheese sandwiches there weren't a tonne of vegan savoury options at the show. I enjoyed eating this sitting on the floor with some lovely Vegan Society volunteers, such a fun lunch!

I was excited to see London restaurant Itadaki Zen tucked away near the back of VDelicious' pink carpeted area. I've only visited once and it was years ago but I'm dying to go back.

They had bento boxes, sushi and huge deep fried spring rolls which I tried a sample of and it was delicious. A great reminder to get over to that part of London sooner rather than later.

I had a little time left before the Vegan Society's tea party so I had one more wander around the VDelicious area and I was so glad I did because the first time around I'd missed Sweet Virtues, a new company making superfood truffles. Now usually this wouldn't be my thing, I often find mentions of super foods a little off putting, but there were samples and I was totally won over. I'm a big fan of fancy chocolates, Booja Booja and Montezuma's make some of my current favourites, and Sweet Virtues easily slides into the top spot with them.

Chia Seeds and Lime was my favourite flavour and a bought a little box of two home with me, I wish I could have justified buying a bigger bag or a mix & match of flavours but I'm still rich in birthday chocolate and at £2.20 for two these are on the pricier side.

The Vegan Society tea party was lovely but I was too excited chatting to new friends and sampling some delicious bakewell tart that I didn't snap a single decent photograph! I'm sure there are some on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages though so you can check out the fun there if you'd like to.

On my way out of the door I was distracted by pesto and couldn't resist having a quick peek at the Free From Italy stand.

They had an amazing deal going on, three for £3 and I picked up two pestos and a veggie filled marinara. Such a bargain!

Between shopping, products I'd picked up to review, and the Vegan Society's tea party goody bag I came home with one of the most ridiculous show hauls ever! Obviously that means it's time for a giveaway so that you too can share in the joy.

If you enter you'll win everything in the picture above;

A bumper pack of Goody Good Stuff's Cola Breeze sweets

A bar of Cornish Sea Salt Chocolate by Seed & Bean

A Sweet Freedom Choc Shot 

A bar of Lovechock's 100% raw Pineapple and Inca Berry chocolate 

Green People SPF 15 sun lotion

The competition is open to anyone in the UK, sorry far away friends but I have to keep the postage low with this one. To enter you just need to leave a comment below telling me which product in this blog post you're most excited about. If you're feeling extra kind please share this competition far and wide via social media but it's not a requirement of entry so you totally don't have to! The competition closes on Sunday July 13th at midnight and please make sure to leave some details, Twitter, e-mail, a link to your blog, so that I can contact you if you win. Good luck! The Competition is now closed.

Amy's Kitchen Product Review & Giveaway

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (no Facebook here!) you'll know that one of my favourite go-to easy peasy lunches is Amy's vegan rice mac & cheese so when the people representing Amy's Kitchen got in touch to see if I'd like to try and review two of their products free of charge I couldn't resist picking up a box of the yellow stuff.

This creamy delicious mac is made with Daiya cheese, something I know a lot of UK vegans are eager to get their paws on, and because it's sold at Infinity Foods I eat it pretty regularly. I'm also partial to the new Amy's Vegetable Lasagne on occasion. 

You can pick this up at Infinity Foods too and whilst it isn't the prettiest (and photographing it at night against a black background hasn't helped any!) it tastes great...not as good as a carefully crafted homemade lasagne full of cashew ricotta and fresh basil obviously but it's a microwave meal! It takes four minutes! This is the kinda thing I missed when I first went vegan and it's great to have this option back in my life again.

I also often grab a can of the vegetable barley soup but I haven't yet managed to take a decent picture of it because photographing soup's hard y'all.

With my second coupon I picked up a box of the new to me Manhattan Veggie Burgers. These are gluten free and full of quinoa, nuts and veggies. I grilled one up in eight minutes and popped it on top of lettuce and tomato in a lightly toasted Infinity Foods Bakery wholewheat bun with ketchup and mustard.

Because these are ridiculously low in calories for a burger I piled up some of my favourite dill flavoured lentil chips on the side.

I'm normally a die hard mock meat person when it comes to burgers but this was excellent despite the lack of the faux suff. The nuts and quinoa give the burger a nice crunch and loads of flavour. I think they'd also be really great broken up on top of a salad or in a really topping heavy burger with plenty of melty cheese. I can't wait to work my way through the rest of the box!

Now, here's the part I know you've all been waiting for! I couldn't just take the free products without trying to offer you guys something in return so together with Amy's I give to you, drumroll, the Amy's Vegan Hamper giveaway! 

If you win you'll receive a package containing:

Amy's Split Pea Soup
Amy's Lentil Vegetable Soup
Amy's Spanish Rice & Red Bean Soup
Amy's Rice Mac & Cheese
Amy's Thai Red Curry
Amy's Vegetable Lasagne
Amy's Manhattan Veggie Burgers

To enter you just need to leave a comment below by Tuesday May 27th telling me what your favourite vegan convenience product is. You also need to live in the UK (sorry far away friends), leave a way to contact you, be it your blog profile, e-mail address or Twitter account, and be able to arrange a time to be home for the delivery with the company sending out the prize. Feel free to spread the vegan love and tweet or do whatever other social media thang you do about the giveaway but that's not a requirement and you don't get extra points for spamming your followers twenty times a day! Good Luck!

The winner is @quietloner! This competition is now closed.

Vida Vegan Con 2013

Hey y'all! I'm back in Brighton! I had an amazing time travelling around the Pacific Northwest, I was away for almost a month and whilst I was there I was lucky enough to attend Vida Vegan Con in Portland! I know! So exciting! I'd been dreaming of going to this vegan bloggers conference since I first heard about it's inception back in 2011 and it was everything I'd imagined and more.

The weekend kicked off with an Unofficial Meet & Greet at local vegan friendly bar White Owl Social Club. It was fun but kinda overwhelming to meet so many bloggers in one go hence the lack of photos, I was far to busy talking to everyone and cramming the mac 'n cheese burger into ma mouth!

Yup, the mac 'n cheese IS the burger. This carb on carb meal with a side of carbs was one of my Portland fave's but I would perhaps suggest that eating it three times in one week like I did could be a bit much. If you can eat it four times in a week I'll hand over my Carb Queen crown!

The next morning everyone was up bright and early to grab their Swag Bags...I was too excited to photograph the whole thing but it was epic, like, almost the same size as my suitcase epic! My first class of the day was Food Styling with Hannah Kaminsky where she showed us amongst other things how to turn this messy looking Whole Foods takeout Pad Thai into a beautifully plated meal. This was amazing to watch and I'll certainly be trying this next time I grab some takeout from Street Diner or Iydea.

Continuing the photography theme one of my favourite classes of the weekend was Isa's iPhone photography class. Isa is totally hilarious and the class was was super practical (we could follow along using the app's on our phones) and helpful, there were tips on everything from taking the photos to styling (swatches!) and editing.

I don't actually own a camera, I take all of my photos with an iPhone so this was the perfect class for me.

Erika from Sews Before Bros wrote some really in depth write ups of the classes she attended so follow the class name links below for the full scoop on some of my favourite classes.

One of the most enjoyable classes I attended was the Vegan MoFo Workshop with Amey, Kittee and Mo, these gals are super funny and it's no secret that MoFo is one of my favourite times of year. There were some great tips for both MoFo veterans and for newbies to the crazy month long blogging event.

I started looking forward to Restaurant Reviews with Authority with Grant Butler as soon as the agenda was announced. Grant writes restaurant reviews for both The Oregonian and MIX magazine and as a blogger who mainly writes restaurant reviews I was excited to learn some new things and to see where I'd been going right or wrong. Thankfully I haven't been making any massive faux pas and his class gave me some great tools to deal with how to write about places I don't love immediately.

The Making of a Zine: From Concept to Distribution with Amey, Joanna and Kittee was one of the most inspiring workshops for me.  I love zines and I have a pretty decent collection including zines written by all of the members of the panel. I've wanted to write a zine of my own for ages and this really gave me practical tips about how to get started. Amey even has a great DIY zine making how-to on her blog.

I also really loved listening to Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan from Our Hen House discussing how to expand your message to include animal rights and the Body Image Acceptance and Veganism panel actually made me cry. I loved everyones honesty and bravery in the face of such a tough topic.

The Portland Breakfast Showcase had to be the foodie highlight of the weekend for me. There were so many amazing options and I did my best to try them all! It was served on a first come first served basis so I made sure I was first in line for Sizzle Pie's brunch pizza. I went for the Drugs Benedict which is topped with a white bean & shallot spread, cheesy tofu scramble, bacon bits, hashbrowns & green onions.

I definitely made the right choice here and I even got a bonus slice for being first in line! I fully believe that pizza is the breakfast of champions (I even have a badge to prove it!) and this one even had ranch for dipping.

Obviously I couldn't only try one option at a breakfast showcase, I also tried all of these. Clockwise from the top left, the Meatloaf Benedict from A.N.D Cafe, Tempeh Bacon Quiche from Back to Eden (I have more to write about Back to Eden - it might be one of my favourite places ever), Chocolate and Lemon Doughnut halves from Cinnamon PDX, and Summer Vegetable Panissa from Portobello.

Alongside the meet & greet, the classes, and the breakfast showcase the Galarama was one of my favourite parts of the weekend. I put on a dress and make up and made a beeline for the food!

The first thing I headed towards was the So Delicious ice cream bar. I'm pretty into ice cream, especially if it's chocolate, but my main reason was that I'd heard there were brownies from Capital City Bakery in Austin - these are my favourite brownies in the whole wide world and this little sundae was perfect.

There were also two food trucks at the galarama, Tandem Treats and Taco Pedaler as well as trays of cheese made by Miyoko Schinner from Artisan Vegan Life. It was a tough decision but I couldn't resist a Tandem Treats dawg topped with sauerkraut, onions and a classic mustard / ketchup combo.

I did actually manage to take some pictures of people at this event, not many but I tried.

L-R Mandee AKA Cupcake Kitteh, Randi, Me.

L-R Paul, A Chimp, Lisa AKA PandaWithCookie.

L-R Stephanie AKA Lazy Smurf, Me.

Sunday's non-class highlight had to be the Vegan Battle Royale and Ice Cream Social. I kept score for one of the teams in the Battle Royale and I certainly made the most of the ice cream social! These almond milk based Mocha Almond Fudge mini bars from So Delicious were the best ice cream bars I've ever eaten. I really, really wish we could get them in the UK. Sort it out So Delicious!

As you can probably tell I really, really loved Vida Vegan Con. I learnt so much and I met and hung out with so many positive, inspiring and all-round awesome people, there are far too many of you to name - you know who you are! Thank you for making VVC so rad!

Whilst I was having all of the fun at Vida Vegan Con I was also thinking about my blog readers who couldn't attend. I really, really wish that everyone from the vegan blogging community could have been there! In an attempt to spread the VVC love I started collecting things for a giveaway because, let's be honest, the pictures of the Swag Bags all over Instagram and Twitter were probably making you pretty jealous! It's also my birthday really soon (less than a week, so excited!) so I bought you some presents and threw them in there too!

All you need to do to win this Peanut Butter & Co tote stuffed full of all of the goodies pictured below is to leave me a comment telling me which class on the VVC agenda you'd have been most excited to attend.

This goodie bag contains a jar of Booda Butter Organic Moisturiser, a Booda Butter lip balm, a Hurraw  almond lip balm, Amey's Unofficial VVC Cookbooklet, a Vegan Dish keychain, a Field Roast t-shirt, stickers, a bag the new of Earth Balance Pops, two Peanut Butter Cookie Luna bars, a Go Max Go Thumbs Up bar, an Eli's Earth Dream Big Bar, a Chocolove Almonds & Sea Salt bar, Tofurky jerky, sample size packs of Nacheez, Dandies, Simply Hemp Milk, Surf Sweets and a whole lotta PB sachets from PB & Co, Artisana and Earth Balance. 

The competition is open to anyone living in Europe who didn't attend Vida Vegan Con. The competition closes on Monday June 17th. Don't forget to leave me some kind of contact details and good luck!

The competition is now closed. The winner, who I picked at random, is SarahByng! Congrat's Sarah! I'll be getting in touch with ya soon.

I also wanted to mention that I'm currently up for the Best Blogger award in the UK's Veg Fest Awards! If you haven't voted yet I'd love it if you'd consider voting for me, here's a link so that you can check it out if you want to.