Five Festive Favourites

In no particular order of preference here are five of my favourite seasonal vegan products that I thought I'd share. I did a review of the Divine vegan festive range for Can I Eat It? and they were all great products. There's chocolate coins, after dinner mints, after dinner ginger thins, a pear and ginger bar and my favourite which is these dark chocolate stars that make fab cake decorations as well as for munching on.



I'm a longtime fan of Elizabeth Shaw mint and orange crisps which are vegan friendly and can often be picked up in discount stores. If you see any of these seasonal edition gingerbread crisps grab them! They are amazing and highly addictive.


I must we haven't tried these yet as we've only just picked them up from Morrisons. I also have to admit that bacon frazzle type crisps always give me heartburn but I'm prepared to risk it as these sound ace even if I do ending up devouring them with a gaviscon chaser!


I have tried these though and they are fab. Turkey and stuffing style tortilla chips from Tesco. We served them as part of my birthday buffet tea but I want to give them a try as part of a chilli platter with guacomole, salsa, cheezy sauce, chilli and rice. My local Tesco was out of stock the other day as they are obviously proving popular. Hopefully they will return.


I've also been lucky to try the VBites Vegideli Festive Range for Can I Eat It? The big new addition to the range this year is the Festive Pizza which is pretty good as a convenience product but my heart lies with the Festive Pasties which were part of last years range and thankfully have returned again this year. They are basically Christmas dinner in a pasty form which is best served with roast dinner trimmings and lots of gravy.


Other honourable mentions must go to the Inspiral Raw Christmas Cake dessert pots and the Foods Of Athenry Gluten Free and Vegan Mince pies. At over £4 for both products they are on the pricier side of treats but the quality of the products and ingredients used is excellent.

What are your favourite festive vegan treats?

Comments

  1. Siobhan Watts19 December 2014 at 18:19

    Booja Booja chocolates all the way! I've just bought my Mum a fancy box of them, and I'm secretly hoping I get some as a gift too :) x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tea and Sympatico19 December 2014 at 21:27

      Ooh yes, Booja Booja are amazing. Love their ice creams too.

      Delete
  2. All Consuming19 December 2014 at 21:53

    I bought hubby a large Stollen cake from Aldi today that was vegan. I'm not a fan of it but he loves the stuff. Highly recommended apparently :D X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tea and Sympatico22 December 2014 at 17:39

      Ooh yes, we had a few of those from Aldi last year. They were really good.

      Delete
  3. vegan.in.brighton20 December 2014 at 12:36

    I haven't been able to find those festive pasties anywhere this year which is especially ridiculous as I live right by VBtes! I did buy the pack of mini pasties though & I can't wait to break them out on Christmas Eve. I think I might need to try the Divine pear and ginger chocolate too, it sounds amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tea and Sympatico22 December 2014 at 17:40

      We've got the mini pasties in the freezer. I'm thinking maybe Boxing Day buffet!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cola de Mono

Image
Colo de Mono (Tail of the Monkey) is a Chilean concoction traditionally drunk ice cold at Christmastime. Obviously their winters are a lot warmer than ours so in the UK it's more suited to this time of year. The Chileans use aguadiente an overproof cane spirit. I use Cachaca 51 which I have in for Mojitos and Caipirinhas. Traditionally made with cows milk, here is my vegan version. Colo De Mono Makes 1 pint Serves 4 2 cups of vanilla soy milk 1/3 cup of caster sugar 1/3 teaspoon of cinammon 3 teaspoons of instant coffee 1/2 cup of spirit* Bring the milk, sugar and cinnamon to a low boil in a pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Leave to cool. Once cool add the spirit and chill in the fridge. It will keep for 2 weeks. Serve over ice or straight up but make it cold. * Spirit - I use Cachaca but have heard that people use tequila too.
Read more

Interview With Lisa Goddard of Lily and Dilly

Image
If you've eaten vegan cake in Manchester City Centre in the last few years then chances are you'll have eaten cake baked by Lisa Goddard of bakery Lily and Dilly . We caught up with Lisa to find out what set her on the vegan baking path! So, Lily and Dilly? What made you set up as an independent bakery and where does the name come from? Having worked as a stop frame animator for 12 years, I was getting rather fed up with short term contracts, so the last time I was made redundant, I decided not to chase work round the country, and if that meant a career change, then so be it. A friend of mine had just set up The Cocoa Emporium as an independent Chocolatier, so I gave her a hand whilst navigating through the benefits system, mostly to get me out of bed on a morning! Doing baking for her farmers market was fun, as it was one of my main hobbies, so when she asked if I fancied getting a little shop  with her, it seemed a nice chance to start something new. We got the shop...
Read more

Growing your own, bargains and a breakfast recipe

Image
I've started sprouting again! In my old flat I used to do sprouting all the time. The flat was in an old 1930's building and had radiators run from a central boiler room and it was always nice and warm. The constant warm temp made sprouting pretty fail safe. Now I'm in a Derbyshire stone house where it's not as warm the results haven't been as great and I gave up trying  but with this very hot summer we are having I thought I would give it another go and I'm glad I have done. As I already have the seeds it kind of feels like free food too! I'm using these sprouts  from A Vogel. This week I've grown alfalfa but pictured is my first attempt from the week before which was a mix of radish, lentil and rocket which grew into lovely peppery tasting sprouts that we used to garnish our bowl meals for the week. These took 4 days to grow and I nearly gave up on day 2 because I could see mold. Luckily I googled and found out that it wasn't mold at all but r...
Read more