Vanillary

                                                 

My favourite perfume of the minute is this beautifully subtle scent from Lush, the Vanillary solid perfume stick. 

pic taken form Lush website

They use real vanilla and jasmine, which gives this perfume a lovely subtle warming creamy smell instead of that harsh chemically vanilla smell we are all so use to.
I love the packaging because you can just throw it in your bag and not worry about it breaking, making this great for travelling and now has become one of my festival essentials!
As its a stick perfume all you need to do is push the bottom and the product rises out of its tube but dont push it out further than you need to. I have found that if I apply the perfume onto my neck first and finish on my wrist I can use my wrist to push the product back in and apply at the same time!
Lush have a large selection of solid perfumes, which come in spray from too. I highly recommend you give them a try.
                                                    

                                                       

Raw Chocolate

Goji and Pumpkin Seed Pie, me little treat with my coffee! It is a vegan chocolate bar alternative with heaps of added goodness! sugar free, dairy free, gluten free and made using raw chocolate which is believed to have natural prozac properties! These chocolate bars, which are available in a selection of flavours, are made using all organic and fairtrade ingrediants. This bar which I enjoyed is rich in taste, moist, soft and crumbly, and the pumpkin seeds were nice and crunchy. Overall it reminded me of Christmas pudding and it was lovely and more-ish. Looking forward to trying the other flavours.

Where can you find them? Eighth Day, Oxford Road and on their website;

www.sproutingseeds.co.uk

My Vegan Nut and Basil Pesto

This is my own recipe for a lovely nutty basil pesto which I stirred into cooked and chilled bow pasta for a very yummy salad for our Jubilee Celebration Lunch.

2 handfuls of pine nuts

1 handful of cashews, roughly chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped
2 handfuls of basil
olive oil
salt and pepper


In a frying pan add garlic, spring onions, cashews and pine nuts and a splash of oil, fry on low so the onions slightly soften and the pine nuts toast lightly.
In a food processor blend basil leaves and pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper until basil is roughly chopped.
Then add the nut and onion mix, blend until nearly smooth.
Add olive oil, a bit at a time to get your preferred pesto consistency .
I then stirred this through 1/2 - 3/4 of a bag of bow pasta.
Enjoy

Meat Free in Manchester!

First off, happy veggie week!

Last Saturday, 19th May, St. Alberts Square, Manchester played host to The Vegetarian Society's Meat Free in Manchester event. We went there armed with our Vegebee tote bags, as seen in this photo!
The day consisted of cooking demonstrations, tombola, banger racing, sausage rating! freebees and a tent full of info on being a veggie! there was also two food stalls, serving falafel options and the other served vegan burgers, cakes and pastries. The latter were all prepared by volunteers and all profits went to animal rights organisations.

Keeping everyone fed when they weren't at one of the stalls, there was so much to choose from! We spent a fair amount of time learning how to improve our cooking skills in the demonstration tent - we both agreed that a highlight was Wendy Swetnam, who is head chef at 1847, the veggie bistro just off Mosley Street in the city centre. Her menu featured purple potato rosti with aspargus, poached egg and homemade hollandaise. It was followed by the most wonderful Gin and Tonic vegan cake, which we were very lucky to grab a sample of, and required the recipe! With the theme being breakfast this year, other talks featured an eye-catching traffic light smoothie and a breakfast tofu and omelette wrap, as well as fish cakes and other dishes. There was definitely lots to take in and get inspired by!

The banger bonanza was a taste testing of 4 different brands of veggie sausages to decide Manchester fave sausage! We both chose different ones! Scott opted for Redwoods because it took him back to family sunday night dinners, where as Laura went for Quorn new Best of British, which reminded her of BBQs and sunny days! By the end of the day though, votes were pretty close between all 4 sausages, so it'll be interesting to see what came out top!

The cooking demos made us rather peckish (bit of an understatement probably...!), so we tried out both stalls. Scott had the falafel wrap with all the trimmings, and we both shared a portion of spiced potatoes. Then Laura tried the cheezy burger from the vegan stall - the burger was really tasty, although Laura was less convinced by the vegan cheese and we're still on the lookout for a tasty vegan cheese alternative!

Scott was quite excited by the 'pedal ur own smoothie!' so before we left he got on his bike and pedaled like mad to make his very own fruit smoothie...so proud! There were loads of flavour options and combinations, but he went for a berry blend, with banana and apple juice. It was super tasty!

All in all it was a very good day, Manchester was kind in holding back the rain - although a wee bit more sun wouldn't have gone amiss! Already looking forward to next year...!

Alpro milk alternatives

photo taken from Alpro website

i've never been a big fan of milk, and as much as i love soya milk, sometimes it can be a bit samey. so, when i heard of alpro new milk alternative drinks (including soya alternative!), i really wanted to try them. there's an almond and hazelnut flavour - both were lovely but the almond one just tasted like sweetened milk to me, which i was disappointed with because i love almonds. the hazelnut one though was brilliant - it still tastes sweet, but i loved the creamy flavours of the hazelnuts. it also goes surprisingly well with cereal, and it sounds strange but it makes a bloody good cuppa tea!

both cartons are priced at around £1.50-£1.70 for a litre, although i've found it in tesco's (on market street in manchester, not sure about other stores) for £1, and for that price you really can't afford to not try it!

glogg

the lovely people at lush gave us a surprise goodie bag at work the other week, and i ended up with a bath bomb (which is incredible after a long day working or essaying) and a bottle of shower gel. all i've used from lush before are their shampoo bars which a friend brought to uganda because they're completely natural and better to use, especially in the cold shower at 7am! and their face cream because my skin can get pretty oily really easily. so this is the first gel i've used from them, but i was impressed: 'glogg' has a lovely cinnamon scent a warm mulled wine aroma (and it even has some red wine in the ingredients list!) and my skin feels soft and pampered afterwards. i was sceptical at first because when it comes to shower gel i'm a big fan of the original source range - love their mint shower gel, really wakes me up in the morning with a refreshing zing! but you can definitely tell the difference with lush and their use of natural ingredients. definitely worth a try. (and while you're at it i strongly recommend the shampoo bars, too!)

Fuel for breakie

Pooh Bear with Soya

We escaped Manchester city centre on a saturday morning and grabbed a bus to Withington to visit Fuel for breakfast. Fuel is a vegetarian cafe/bar which caters well for vegans too. The decor is funky alternative and there is an eclectic collection of art work, furniture and nic nacs.
The girl who was serving us was really lovely and friendly, there is also a wonderful laid back atmosphere and the breakfast portions are BIG!
I started with the very yummy Pooh Bear with soya, which is cinnamon infused steamed milk with honey- and my bf had a banana and strawberry smoothie - which are made to order. He ate the Veggie Full Breakfast and I had the Breakfast Beast - this was veggie sausages, mushrooms, hash browns, beans and with or with out cheese all wrapped in a tortilla! - its was epic! - both breakfast were very good.
After we had digested our food we then also shared a vegan carrot cake! which we both agreed was the best carrot cake we had EVA had...vegan or otherwise....delicious.
Fuel is a great place to go for breakfast and brunch to escape from the city and just chill out!

where is it? 448 Wilmslow Road Manchester M20 3BW