Goody Good Stuff Review & Giveaway

I can’t say enough good words about Goody Good Stuff! The all-natural sweet company has brought out 8 delicious sweet varieties that have the lovely gummy texture with out the nasty gelatine. Not only do they only use natural flavours and colours they are also meat, egg, fat, nut and gluten free so they are suitable for loads of different diets. You can currently buy them online and in most Holland and Barrett stores and two of the vegan varieties, Sour Fruit Salad and Summer Peaches are going to be available in Waitrose from 28th August.

Sour fruit salad:

The sour fruit salad does what its says on the tin, deliciously sour with an intense burst of fruit. You can really taste the natural flavours coming through. My favourites in the pack have to be the lemon ones, they taste like chewy lemon sherbets :) 

Summer Peaches:

These are so soft and sweet with the soft sugary coating, they are the prefect summery treat. The peachy taste really takes me back to my childhood and I have to say out of all the Goody Good Stuff range, these have to be my favourite!

You can find more info here: www.GoodyGoodStuff.com

(Vegetarian varieties: Strawberry Cream, Cheery Cherries, Tropical Fruit, Koala Gummy Bears. Vegan Varieties: Cola Breeze, Summer Peaches, Sour Mix & Match, Sour Fruit Salad)

If you’re not already convinced, Goody Good Stuff have sent me two lovely hampers to give away (one veggie, one vegan), so why not enter for the chance to to win one of them!

To enter all you need to do is subscribe to my blog by e-mail, which can be done by clicking on the link on the top right of this page. Then leave a comment underneath this post to say that you’ve done so, along with your twitter username or full name so that I can contact you if you win!

For a second chance to win, you can also like my Facebook page and leave a comment underneath this post letting me know with your twitter username or full name again!

Please also put if you’d like to enter for the vegan hamper or the vegetarian one!

The competition will end on 28^th August 2011 at midnight and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 30^th August 2011.

The winner will be chosen by random.org. It’s only open to people in the UK I’m afraid!

Good Luck :)

Read More

Blackberry and Pear Crumble

At the start of this week my dad gave me tones of pears and then today we went out blackberry picking, so I thought it would only be right to make a good old fashioned British crumble. There are so many blackberries at the moment and I swear they just pop up everywhere, so get yourself foraging! The pecans in the crumble mixture make it lovely and crunchy and with the sharp blackberries and subtle pears it makes a perfectly summery crumble! 

Makes a lot of crumble:

800g pears pealed and chopped into large chunks

1 medium cooking apple pealed and chopped into large chunks

100g caster sugar

Juice of 1/2 a lemon 

300g blackberries

125g butter

250g flour

125g light brown sugar 

85g pecans (blitzed in a food processor, or smashed with a rolling pin)

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Pop the apple and pear chunks into a pan and cover with the lemon juice and sugar, cook on a low heat for around 10 mins until the juices have been extracted.
3. Add the blackberries and bring to the boil for a few mins until everything has turned a lovely purple colour.
4. Pour the fruit in to a large dish or a few small ones.
5. Make the crumble by rubbing the butter and flour between your fingers to make a breadcrumb texture, then fold in the sugar and pecans.
6. Spread the crumble mixture over the fruit and then bake in the oven for around 20 minutes if making small ones and up to 40 minutes if you're making one large one (either way, until it's golden brown on top).
7. Serve with custard, cream or ice cream and enjoy!

To make a vegan version substitute butter with vegan margarine (such as pure) and serve with some lovely vegan custard. 

Read More

Pink Olive - Milton Keynes

So, I'm 22 years of age and obsessed with food, but would you believe that a few weeks ago was the first time I had ever eaten at a Thai resturant! I know!? As I said before Milton Keynes doesn’t exactly get your foodies juices flowing, but there are a few good restaurants out there and this week I discovered there's one about 5 minutes away from my house!

Oxley Park may not seem like the most happening place in MK, but The Pink Olive (formerly known as Papaya) seems to be doing extremely well there. We found this out when we arrived without a booking to find that it was pretty much fully booked. They still managed to fit us in though, which isn’t surprising as the staff went out of their way to make sure everything was perfect.

We started off with a plate of mixed starters and as I’m veggie, I got one to myself (hoorah), which consisted spring rolls and sweet corn fritters. With 3 plates between 5 of us the portions were very generous and the sweet corn fritters made a perfectly light (and not to mention delicious) start to the meal.

For the main I had green tofu thai green curry, which again was a very generous portion! I’m a big fan of tofu, and I love having it cooked for me because it’s always so much better than when I try myself. This was no exception, it was lovely and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside while soaking up the spicy flavours of the coconut sauce.

All in all I would recommend it to everyone, my family enjoyed the meat dishes and I was surprised to see so many vegetarian dished on the menu rather than the standard 3 or 4 (usually containing mushrooms). You can find the menu here

I loved the tofu curry so much; I’ve decided to attempt one myself tonight! The post should be up some time next week.

Read More

Chocolate Shortbread Sandwiches

As promised here’s the recipe for the chocolate shortbread sandwiches that I took to Vegan Pot Luck IV. My first attempt at making chocolate spread/hazelnut praline failed miserably! I tried roasting my own hazelnuts which came out burnt and ruined the whole thing, so on the second attempt I brought ready roasted which worked a lot better! These are great little vegan treats because the praline is so smooth and chocolately you would never know it was dairy free!

Makes 26 mini shortbread

Chocolate spread/praline:

100g chopped and roasted hazelnuts

70g icing sugar

20g cocoa powder

a few drops of vanilla essence

Chocolate shortbread:

200g flour

10g cocoa powder

150g vegan spread (I used Pure soya)

70g unrefined caster sugar

Make the chocolate spread first so it has time to set in the fridge. Put the nuts into a food processor and blend until it becomes a liquidy consistency, it does take some time but just keep going as the heat from the blades with help to melt the nut butter. When it looks spreadable (remember it will become less fluid once it cools) add the cocoa powder, icing sugar and vanilla essence and blend again until well mixed. Pour the mixture in to a tupperware container and leave in the fridge to cool.

Then make the short bread by creaming together the butter and sugar until soft, add the flour and cocoa powder and mix well to form a dough (I like to do this with my hands! It’s much easier). Roll out on to a floured surface and cut out with a mini cookie cutter or small cup and bake in the oven for 10 minutes then leave to cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled, spread the shortbread with the chocolate spread and sandwich together! Sprinkle with some more sugar and enjoy! 

Read More