So it's that time of the month again, vegan box time. Another interesting selection of vegan choices, some I was more excited about than others.
As usual there is the information sheet with information about the products in the box, details about the guest blogger, Hannah Victoria, who has produced this month's recipe and information about the charity they are supporting. This time it's the Hessilhead Rescue Centre which cares for Scotland's sick, injured and orphaned wildlife.
The recipe this time was Hanna Victoria's 3 Ingredients Peanut Butter Cups. This seems a really quick and simple recipe that would be delicious and help with the unhealthy chocolate cravings. I'm not usually a fan of peanut butter, but with the bitter chocolate I think these will actually be quite nice. I am adding the ingredients to next week's shopping list.
As for last month's Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta, I absolutely loved this, but my partner wasn't so keen. I am going to make it again though, just with a little less avocado as this was the part he didn't like.
The first product I grabbed were these Goody Good Stuff Cola Breeze Sweets and I have to say that I was ridiculously excited about these. I haven't had cola bottles since I'd became vegetarian almost ten years ago and, I'm not going to lie, I missed them a little bit. These tasted exactly how I remember them tasting with the sharp, face scrunching initial flavour and everything. It almost felt wrong eating them, but it's just as well its such a small bag as I would have even all of them regardless of the size.
I really liked the look of these Oloves Chilli and Garlic Black Olives as I love olives and you don't normally get them in such an easy to carry packaging. I couldn't actually really taste the chilli and garlic, just the black olives. But this was fine by me as I love olives in just the flavour they have. If I'm out somewhere and need a snack I'll definitely be looking out for these.
The Conscious Chocolate Goji and Coconut Mini Bar is clearly the little pocket sibling to the Conscious Chocolate with peppermint essential oil from the May box. I do like the bitter flavour of Conscious Chocolate, but wasn't hugely keen on the flavour or texture of this one. I do prefer this size though, much better for those of us who have a habit of eating the whole bar. I will keep looking out for other flavours of this bar though as I like the concept.
I've already tried, and am a fan of, the Yushoi Snapea rice sticks in Slightly Salted. I had never tried this flavour as I'm not a salt and vinegar fan, but as it was in this bag I thought I would give it a go. The flavours are much milder than the usual salt and vinegar crisps, but still still not my thing. However, if you like salt and vinegar you'll love these. I do like the snack size of these as I can normally only find the larger bags and that's really dangerous. I also like the coupon for 50p off that came in the box - thank you very much.
This I'm actually drinking right now. The Virtue Ice Tea in Lemon. I can't quite decide how I feel about it. I love that it has B vitamins in it and it does taste nice for the most part, but there is a slight flavour that goes through it that I'm not too keen on. I think it might be the sweetener as I just don't like the taste of these no matter what they're in and I think I'm prefer this without, even if it meant it was a little bit more bitter. However, this could be something that I could get used to and I might see if I can find this again, maybe in other flavours, to see. It is a quite refreshing and, lets face it, it has tea in it.
I was actually quite excited about the Angelic Gluten Free Chocolate Coconut & Oat Cake Slices. For one, it took up half the box and it had three things I love - chocolate, coconut and oats. Unfortunately, I didn't really like these. The texture was fine but there was something about the flavour that I just couldn't get around. I think it was the dates, for which I have a love/ hate relationship with. However I did like the other flavours coming through so I think I'll definitely try other products by this company when I come across them, and I would definitely try them if you are ok with dates.
One of the non-food items was the Fry's Family Foods Plants of Fire BBQ Recipe Book. This book does, of course, contain recipes for their own products, but looks like it can be adapted to fit items that you normally use. I'm always happy to get new ideas to keep out meals interesting and, despite loving the internet for recipes, I find using hard copies of recipes easier to use in the kitchen and I can be less protective of them (I'm not a tidy cooker). I am interested in their products though. I have been using Quorn for many years and it's been really helpful in helping my partner and me find a happy medium of eating vegetarian for me but still keeping the same textures and types that he is used to as a meat eater. However, not all their products are vegan and Fry's Family Food are.
The last item is the Harpers Bizarre The Raspberry Kind candle. This smells lovely, and very strong, when you open the tin and the scent also lingers even if you leave the lid off. It burns really well and evenly, and the scent does fill the room easily and is pretty true to how actual raspberries smell. Once burning the scent isn't hugely strong, but reaches a nice level. They also support the Jerry Green Dog Rescue. This is definitely one I'm looking out for and may actually order online.
