Tea and Sympatico

Hello! I am back blogging after an absence of over a month! I'm afraid I've been laid low with back to back viruses. The first one caused acute sinusitis and the second a throat infection. Having the chronic cough condition and a type of bronchitis anyway means that getting anything on top of those is pretty bad. For the first week and a half I struggled to watch telly or read and even get out of bed. It really wiped me out but I'm feeling a lot better this week. It's a bit of a sparse round up for a whole month but here's some vegan finds we've been enjoying. First up is Grassmere Gingerbread . I started first feeling unwell on the weekend of a wedding of some dear friends of ours but luckily the full lurgy held off til the Monday and I was able to attend the wedding celebrations on the Friday and Saturday. They got married in a really beautiful place on the edge of Lake Windermere. As a lifelong fan of Grassmere gingerbread we stopped off on the way home ...

Recently Natural Balance Foods sent me a mixed box of Trek protein bars  to try. Whilst their sister product Nak'd Bars are a staple part of my diet (and always to be found in my desk drawer) I wasn't familiar with Trek bars at all. I think the reason I've shied away from them in the past is that they are protein bars which I tend to associate with people who spend a lot of time in the gym which isn't me at all! However, Trek's are definitely going to be on my shopping list now too. I loved the taste of these bars. I've found with some protein bars I've tried in the past that they can have a bit of a chalky aftertaste but there was none of that going on here. It's hard to believe that these bars are only sweetened with fruit as they are super sweet. The Berry Burst ones actually reminded me of the taste of fruit chews! The Banana Blast ones also have a big hit of sweetness from a fruit cocktail of dates, bananas, apples, pears and raisins. I thi...