Tea and Sympatico

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that I'd won a garden? Well it arrived last Friday. I got home very late due to a broken down train so I'm afraid I didn't open immediately and unpack as instructed. The instructions said to do this within 24 hours though so I was up at 7am on Saturday morning and on it! The prize was one of these Window Box Gardens from Rocket Gardens and the plants arrive packed in damp straw. It was like an exciting lucky dip going through the box and discovering the different layers. The first task was to lay everything out, identify the plants and give the roots a dunk in a water bath. The beetroot, dwarf beans and herbs (chives, parsley and basil) have all gone into pots whilst the leafy greens have their own bed. There's rocket, various types of lettuces, mizuna and spinach. I posted a picture on Facebook and said how I was worried that the local cats might be tempted to use it as a litter tray like they h...

These choccies were actually from a few weeks ago but somehow got missed off a post and I've just noticed the picture on my phone. For those not from Manchester, Bonbon Chocolate Boutique is a fabulous little chocolate shop in the Northern Quarter. I've blogged about it here before. They sell lots of artisan and handmade chocolate including some made on the premises and also the best hot chocolate ever in several different flavours most of which are vegan friendly! Matt visited with a friend a few weeks ago and brought these home. They were salted caramel truffles which they had just started selling and are made by the staff at Bonbon. They were seriously stunning and I am still thinking about them now weeks later! I have been all about the chocolate in the last week. I went out and bought a bar of Seed and Bean Cornish Sea Salt after seeing this review by new blogger Hayley Loves which reminded me how much I love this bar. We also ordered a bar of this amazing soun...

This week's round up of what I've been buying and making is quite heavily snack based! This little haul was from Aldi. The big bags both contain mini bags of lime and sea salt tortilla chips and rice sticks and cost a £1 each. The Trek bars were 75p which is cheaper than the RRP. I love these protein Trek bar with their crunchie soya crispies. The Pulsin bars were amazing raw chocolate brownies and were not so cheap at £2.29 a box for 3 small bars but they were a really delicious treat and I will definitely buy them again. Here's a close up of the Snapea rice sticks. I am in love with this snack and can recommend the salt + vinegar and chilli + lemon flavours too. They are low cal and have 4g of protein per bag too so pretty much my ideal snack! On the walk back to our house from Aldi we go through some woods and I'm afraid we didn't even make it home before breaking into this little stash and having an impromptu picnic on a bench in the woods! Last week we...