GUYS IT'S ALMOST EASTER. I am so SO excited (in case you couldn't tell). Easter is always a wonderful time in our house, full of reflection, family get-togethers and of course the all important chocolate. Having an Irish family has major benefits at this time - who needs an Easter egg from one Aunt when you have seven? SO. MUCH. CHOCOLATE.
Anywho, moving on from the chocolate hype (ha, as if!), I actually gave chocolate up for March and it has been torturous. You can have a peek at my fundraising dechox page here and please please sponsor me to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation. This meant that when I filmed the video all about my vegan chocolate haul I was pretty much salivating, and looking at these goodies is making me feel the same.
As well as being vegan, the goodies I'll be sharing with you are all nut free. Living with a partner with a nut allergy makes it really hard for me to find vegan treats sometimes, so I've been extra excited about all of these!
Here's a quick roundup of what I picked up and why:
I've sacrificed this to go to the boyfriend's mum as an Easter present because she avoids soya and dairy, and chocolate that does this is basically impossible to find. I was SO excited about this and may have to pick up a cheeky replacement in the post Easter weekend Easter egg sales aka *it's the most wonderful time of the yeaaaar*.
This is my absolute FAVOURITE vegan/dairy free chocolate bar of all time. In my video I bang on about things actually tasting like normal chocolate because this was the first milk vegan chocolate I had tried that actually did!
I'm anticipating this tasting something like a thin guilt-free Crunchie, plus it has a bunny on the front, so I mean, who can be disappointed with that?!
I have a confession to make: After Eights are my guilty pleasure and I have been known to consume an entire box in a *cough* slightly less than average space of time. I genuinely cannot wait to try this dark chocolate minty bar out and see if it will rid me of these cravings for naughty minty treats.
Any of my fellow HP fans out there loving the idea of a vegan chocolate frog? I know I am. Seriously though, I'm so ready to see if this can take on the holy grail that is a Terry's chocolate orange!
I bought these around Christmas time (here's a post dedicated to Cocoa Libre all about parts of their range) and couldn't help but repurchase this suitably Spring-y treat because um sheep are pretty awesome ... and tasty.
I cracked one of these open when I filmed my vegan chocolate haul video and oh my god the centre is amazing. Ever wanted a vegan creme egg? This is the closest I have come on my journey to finding one.
Finally, here's my Youtube film of the haul, featuring me making a mess of myself and explaining about the goodies in a bit more detail!
I hope you enjoyed hearing all about my vegan chocolate haul - here's to a week of scoffing my face (in moderation of course, mwahahahaha).
I'm pretty much the Queen of the sweet tooth (and my dentist sadly knows this, whoops). As someone who tries to limit her dairy intake, with a partner with nut allergies, I know how frustrating it can be to make yummy food, especially when baking, that fits with your needs. But Delicious Alchemy* answered my prayers, providing me with eons of reasons to procrastibake and fill my kitchen with the scent of warm baked goods. Delicious Alchemy sell products that are not only gluten free, but also dairy AND nut free, which is something I've rarely encountered in the past. I'm forever scouring the 'free from' section in my local supermarket in a vain attempt to find something that fits into all of these categories AND doesn't look like cardboard, but honestly, I've always been out of luck in that department.
Despite considering myself a bit of a baking Queen, sometimes my produce ends up a bit ... haphazard (to say the least!). So thankfully Delicious Alchemy's baking packs are super easy to use, and you can whip up a miracle in no time. When I was a kid I used to spend ages ogling the cupcake making kits in stores, pleading for that little extra bit of sugar, and I'm so excited to see *slightly* healthier versions of all the things I wanted to give a go on the shelves!
Delicious Alchemy were kind enough to send me a whole variety of goodies to give a go, so i got cracking straight away and created havoc all over my kitchen (the mess is part of the fun, right?). The chocolate brownies* were my firm favourite of all the things I received. Although the recipe for this wasn't vegan, you can swap the eggs for flax seed eggs to make it so. I had a favourite brownie recipe that I used to make all the time a couple of years ago, which I lost one day and have spent hours scouring the internet to find ever since with no luck. These brownies taste exactly like them but without the post-dairy eating bloating! I wasn't the only one who fell in love with these either - my housemates had wolfed the whole lot down by time I came home from work that day!
Next on the favourites list was definitely the gluten free porridge*, which has become my staple on a cold morning - topped with some blueberries and honey of course! If you've read my vegan pear and raspberry oatmeal recipe, you'll know how much I've been loving porridge oats recently. They're really great for providing you with slow release energy throughout the day, plus there's just something inherently comforting about them.
I also got to give their oaty cookie mix* a whirl. These were a little too dry for my taste, but they were a lot of fun to make and the raw mixture was absolutely heavenly (I mean, I totally don't try before I bake, psssht). I found once they hardened after baking they were a little too crisp for me and became stale quite quickly. I guess that mostly means all the more reason to snap them up quick!
What are your go-to gluten free brands?
*Although this was a sponsored post, all opinions are my own.
Chocolate is in my top ten true loves. And my lactose intolerance, plus the masses of sugar contained within it means that it's something I really shouldn't eat. So I was overjoyed to be able to secure the opportunity to work with Cocoa Libre as they produce totally dairy, gluten and nut free chocolate which still tastes delicious. As my partner is allergic to nuts I find it really hard to find chocolate which will adhere to both of our allergies, as a lot of dairy free chocolate is choc-a-block (get the pun?) with a variety of nuts to make up for the loss of flavour.
These chocolates are uber cute as well! I'm a bit of a sucker for anything that's animal shaped, or that a producer has gone to some effort to make aesthetically appealing, so I loved these! The penguins were solid dark mint chocolate and tasted almost exactly like an After Eight, but less creamy and without the guilt (aka perfection). They were my favourite of the three, followed by the milk chocolate sheeps and milk chocolate orange bar. All in all, these products were fab for anyone who's thinking of going vegan or dairy free but is concerned about losing their favourite food like me!
