Frank Dale Foods launched a bunch of new vegan frozen products including quiches. Click through to the post to see how their quiches looked when cooked.
Sweet Yourself Vegan send gorgeous vegan pick n mix boxes out from their super sweet headquarters and I was a fortunate participant. Get over to their Instagram account to see more.
OmniPork is finally making waves in the UK after creating a lot of hype around the world. The plant-based pork alternative arrived very welcome to my kitchen.
Thanks for stopping by to check out my recent haul. Follow me on Instagram to see what else I’ve been consuming.
One of my favourite things to happen during Veganuary 2021 was being asked by Oumph! to take part in their Plant It Forward campaign.
Being sponsored to cook with (and eat) food you love is the dream, right?!
If you don’t know, Oumph! is an award-winning business making delicious meat alternatives that are helping people go vegan and stay vegan.
The product range from Oumph! includes seasoned and unseasoned meat alternatives, making them versatile and suited for every occasion. If you are looking to make a gourmet meal, pack a quick snack, or fore up a BBQ, Oumph! has got a product for you.
Check out two of my recent Oumph! creations below.
The Pulled Oumph! worked perfectly in this warm potato salad.
You can ignore the cheeky lettuce in the first image. I’m really not sure what I was thinking, but I swapped it out for parsley in the final dish.
The creaminess of the potatoes and vegan mayo was the perfect accompaniment for the tangy Oumph!.
The Smoky Bits made from wheat are what you need for a solid pasta dish.
I upgraded some penne with broccolini, tomato, mushroom, and Oumph! Smoky Bits. I would eat this meal every single day.
Big thanks to Oumph! for getting me involved in this campaign for Veganuary. My tastebuds had a great time.
You can see the full Oumph! UK range on their website and follow them on Instagram.
I’ve been a HUGE fan of Califia Farms products ever since I first tried them during my trips to the USA. I’ve been consuming even more of them in Mexico over the past few years, so I was thrilled when they offered up a sponsorship opportunity to showcase them and shout out about their products being in the UK.
Califia Farms asked me to try two of their drinks available in the UK and spread the good word to you all. They said I was free to come up with my own approach and this is what I wanted to show.
Being vegan is not a compromise. Everything you love as a non-vegan, you can love as a vegan. Plant based is not second best. If you care about animals, the environment, or yourself, cutting dairy out of your life is something you have probably considered. I know most people reading this have already taken the leap, but some of you are still considering.
This blog post is my way of showing you how simple, accessible, AND NORMAL life is when you use a brand such as Califia Farms instead of dairy milk.
Every day I have a bowl of granola with fresh fruit and nuts. It is my one constant in life and I swing between fresh bananas and berries as my fruit of choice, but walnuts are always in there and pumpkin seeds from time to time. The Califia Farms Unsweetened Almond was the perfect topper. I was so impressed by this plant based drink, I wanted to see if I could use it in a cake recipe and… well, take a look. It worked a treat.
The Unsweetened Almond also was flawless in my 3-ingredient bechamel sauce served with vegan bacon, steamed broccoli, pan seared mushrooms, and gnocchi. I added black pepper and sweet paprika to take it up a notch.
Finally, I really wanted to show how plant-based milk alternatives such as Califia Farms can be part of celebration eating. I used their Chocolate Coconut Almond Blend to craft my dream shake topped with vegan whipped cream and cake sprinkles.
If you are looking to make the world a better place for animals and people, I suggest you ditch the dairy and stock up on vegan alternatives such as Califia Farms.
Click here to explore the full Califia Farms range online. Follow Califia Farms UK on Facebook and Instagram.
Legendary vegan food company Fry’s Family Food Co have just launched a new burger and they asked me to be one of the first to try it!
It’s easy to forget sometimes how influential the Fry family has been when it comes to getting people to go vegan and stay vegan.
Supermarkets are overrun with meat alternatives in 2021, but it is Fry’s that vegans like me have depended on over the past two decades. The family-owned and run brand showed me that veganism didn’t mean taste compromise.
If I wanted to eat something, Fry’s made sure it could happen.
As a long time fan of the brand, I was thrilled when Fry’s offered to sponsor me to showcase the new addition to their plant-based range. The Big Fry Burger is a coarsely ground plant protein patty (I love alliteration!) that is seasoned with the signature Fry’s blend of BBQ seasonings that you’ll know and love if you are an admirer like me.
Meat free burgers certainly aren’t in short supply in the UK but it is exciting to see one of the best plant-based brands on the planet join the fight with this thick, juicy patty.
See below to view the irresistible burger I made in my kitchen using The Big Fry Burger and be sure to follow Fry’s Family on Instagram.
You can currently buy The Big Fry Burger in the freezer section of Sainsbury’s stores across the UK.
In the massive vegan food revolution of the past few years, there have been parts of London that have been left feeling a little high and dry.
If you live in South Ealing or adjoining suburbs, you will understand what I’m talking about.
While Hackney and Shoreditch couldn’t move for vegan restaurants, South Ealing and Ealing Broadway peeps (which included me on and off) were left with vegan options from chain restaurants.
But all that is changing as a new vegan pizza place is set to open in the West London suburb.
Santa Maria is a non-vegan pizza restaurant with a bit of a cult following in South Ealing and they have always been rather accomodating to vegans.
They have become even more accomodating to vegans by opening a 100% vegan version of what they do!
Vergine Maria is set to open very soon just a few moments walk from Ealing Broadway. Details are a bit thin on the ground at the moment but I will keep you updated with whatever I can find out.
In the meantime you can follow the new Vergine Maria on Instagram to be the first to see the pizzas coming out of their ovens.
Somehow, 2020 felt like a blur I completely missed AND a gruelling marathon that never wanted to end at the same time.
It has been tough for every single person I know and excruciating for some.
The financial downturn caused by the pandemic meant that I had to relocate from Mexico to the UK in search of work. I am now in Sheffield, working and waiting out the pandemic.
I have given up trying to predict the future, so I wanted to take some time out of my day to look back on the most popular posts of mine from Instagram in 2020.
Most of them are happy and carefree, but a few are more serious.
Join me in taking a break from our collective unpredictable monotony by looking back.
They might be a tad difficult to see in that grid, so let me give you a closer look at my top nine Instagram posts of 2020 below.
The Vegan Society included a same-sex wedding on the cover of their magazine and when I posted a photo on my Instagram feed, it garnered more than 1,700 likes!
The fifth most-popular post from Instagram feed during 2020 was another supermarket haul share.
This time it was all about ten products I bought from Waitrose in Sheffield. You can click through all the photos in the post to make sure you don’t miss out on this popular post.
One of my favourite vegan brands on the planet made it to the number four spot on this list.
I shared news of a Vegenaise sighting in Tesco and I had a few lovely things to say about the groundbreaking product. It also attracted almost 100 comments!
Will’s Vegan Shoes sent me a pair of their WV Freedom Trainers and I am completely thrilled with them. Super comfy shoes! Will’s also have just launched a range of vegan-friendly suits and of course they have their wonderful grocery lines for online food shopping.
It is turning into a real one stop vegan shop. Visit their website.
I’m not a coffee drinker so I took this gift box into work to share with all the caffeine heads… and the bottles went down a storm.
Little’s sent me six of their instant coffees with flavours ranging from Havana Rum to French Vanilla. I heard nothing but rave reviews from my colleagues.
Made in Hackney is hosting a West African Plant Based Cuisine 6 week online cookery course taught by amazing vegan chef, TV & radio personality and author, Nena Ubani, aka Duchess Nena.
How exciting!
This incredible course will run each Saturday for 6 weeks from Saturday 9th January to Saturday 13th February 2021, 10.30am-1.00pm and will include:
An introduction to African cooking techniques for preparing authentic dishes and exciting flavours
Learn to make authentic plant based versions of a variety of West African dishes, including fufu, Mushroom Suya, fermented Attieke, Jollof rice and Okra stew
How to make West African sides including Ogi, Kelewele and Yam oven chips
Learn to make Zobo, a very popular Nigerian drink
Health benefits of each dish
Learn traditional cookery techniques using just your hands
How to plate, style and eat with your hands
Knife skills – how to peel, chop and slice like a professional
Opportunity to ask Nena questions
Recipe handouts
All funds raised go towards the Made in Hackney community meal service providing free nutritious, tasty meals to households who need them during these challenging times.
For more information and to book your place see the Made in Hackney website. Hurry to take advantage of the discounted early bird rate which ends on 24th December.
How about buying gorgeous chocolate hampers AND supporting an independent vegan buisness.
You will do both these things by shopping with Copperhouse Chocolate, a 100% vegan chocolate shop and cafe based in London.
There are three fabulous hampers from which to choose, meaning there is something for that special someone in your life… and there are no rules saying that special person can’t be you!
Choose from the following hampers:
Copperhouse Chocolate gift box £36
Assorted peanut butter cups & caramels
Fudge
Drinking chocolate variety pack, including 3 different flavours to try
2 single origin chocolate bars from our favourite bean-to-bar makers
Milc chocolate gift box £32
Chocolate box: cashew milk chocolates, filled with cashew butter or tahini filling
Madagascar cashew milc chocolate
Solkiki Hazelnut white chocolate
Ombar coconut chocolate buttons
Colombia 55% drinking chocolate
Fudge
Peanut lovers gift box £32
Peanut butter cups
Peanutty bar (our own take on a well known chocolate bar!)
What The Pitta, recently voted the UK’s number one kebab at the British Takeaway Awards, will open its first site in the North as it brings its vegan kebabs to the residents of Manchester.
The site is set to open on January 8, 2021, with delivery, takeaway and eat-in offerings available subject to local COVID-19 restrictions. The menu will be full of all the bestsellers also available at the London and Brighton locations, making sure to stick to classic, much-loved recipes.
The brand has had its sights set on Manchester, aiming to integrate with the city’s vibrant food scene which already has many popular options available for vegans. In the expansion, What The Pitta have also developed new branding with Manchester-based graphic designer Woody Woods, which will be used throughout the new store.
Cem Yildiz, co-founder of What The Pitta, says of the opening: “Manchester feels like a huge step forward for What The Pitta. The site will be our biggest brick and mortar site yet, and to finally open during what we hope is the tail end of this pandemic fills us with optimism for the future for not just us but hospitality as a whole. Manchester is my favourite city outside of London, with such an incredible food scene and we can’t wait to be a part of that and hope the city welcomes us with open arms ready for their vegan kebabs!”
The entirely vegan Turkish-inspired menu first launched in Shoreditch in 2016, the brainchild of Cem Yildiz and Rojdan Gul. The concept came about after Cem decided to go plant-based and was introduced to Roj’s uncle’s vegan kebab recipe. The two saw the value of the recipe and the gap in the market and set up shop at in a small green shed out of Shoreditch, East London.
The food became immediately popular on Instagram and this is where they attribute their cult following to. Their aim is to reclaim the image of the kebab as a greasy 2am meal, bringing a playful spin on a British classic with an ethical twist.
To be the first to hear details of their soft launch offering text WTPMANC to 82228 or sign up to their newsletter online.
You can see the exact location of What The Pitta Manchester thanks to Google Maps.
Opening Hours for the venue in the Northern Quarter will be 11:30am-10:00pm Sunday to Thursday and 11:30am-11:00pm Friday and Saturday.
