Monday 17 December 2018

Tesco festive five vegetable offer 2018

Hello! Every year Supermarkets such as Tesco, Aldi and Lidl put an offer on an alliterative number of vegetables over Christmas (festive five, seasonal seven etc). Tesco have announced their 5 veg, which are only 29p a bag until 28th December (so perfect to be fresh from Christmas day!).

This year is:
a whole cauliflower
1kg bag of carrots
500g bag of parsnips
500g bag of sprouts
2.5kg bag of potatoes

This feels like a nice, useful mix of veg! If you're using my Christmas dinner guide (here: Christmas dinner) then the prices will differ now for the better! I'll look out to see if other supermarkets have announced their yet!


















Hope this helps!

Tuesday 4 December 2018

Tesco toiletries marked vegan!

Hello!

Yesterday I posted about Tesco now marking their toiletries if they're vegan (rejoice!) Well now I have a couple of pics to show what to look out for, plus info on their fixed cut off date for animal testing!












The 15p soap I mentioned looks like this:






































And I have a couple of bath products too, which I believe were about 70/80p each.























Do share if you find any of their other products newly labelled!

Hope this helps!

Sunday 7 October 2018

Halloween treat ideas! (and maybe the odd trick...)

Hello! So Halloween is coming around and I thought you may like some little vegan treat tips!

Here's just a few sweet ideas which don't break the bank!

Love hearts: you can get mini packs of love hearts, such as here on amazon! 50 wrapped portions for £3.75 with free delivery LOVE HEARTS

Fizzers: Similarly, you can get 50 packs of 'fizzers' form the same place on Amazon for just £3 FIZZERS

Parma violets: Also available of Amazon for £3.09 for 50 PARMA VIOLETS

If these don't quite suit your plans, other ideas include:

Raspberry ruffles, available in places such as poundland or Asda, you can get a bag where each chocolate is individually wrapped! Here's the link for Asda, just £1 here too: RUFFLES

Or Tesco do a range of their own sweets, lots of which are vegan, 3 for £1 such as these Fizzy belts, strawberry lances and flying saucers. Just double check they're marked vegetarian and check for things such as beeswax (usually used if not fizzy).

Toffee apples: I get confused if these are for Halloween or Bonfire Night, so here's a recipe if you fancy making your own: TOFFEE APPLE RECIPE or if you buy them, Tesco have vegan ones for £1 or 2 for £1.50 TESCO TOFFEE APPLE.

Chocolate apples: Usually out the same time as toffee apples, chocolate apples are pretty popular! However not usually vegan in shops (boo!) so it might be fun if you want to make your own! Just melt your favourite vegan chocolate, stick a skewer in your apple, cover your apple in chocolate and whilst still melty, add toppings you like such as vegan mallows!


Trick: Ok, so I did say maybe the odd trick. I'm not suggesting you do this...I'm just putting it out there. If you're having a little party where tricks are being...tricked...maybe you could cover an onion in chocolate instead ;-)

Other nibbles:

Asda have released crumpets for just £1 for either 6 ghosts, or 6 pumpkins (they're just round with the brown bits cleverly placed, but for a pound I'm not complaining!). I love them!



Having a dress up where you need liquid latex for your look (for 'cuts and wounds' usually!) Revolution Pro have a vegan liquid latex for £2, also available at Superdrug! I believe casein is often used in this, which is why a vegan one can be hard to find! LIQUID LATEX. They also have FAKE BLOOD which they categorise as vegan.

Pumpkins:

It seems you can get a small pumpkin from about 75p this year. Some ideas of what to do (as well as carve it!) include toasting the pumpkin seeds/use them how you may choose to use raw seeds. You shouldn't eat the pumpkins you carve, however they are compostable and I'm sure animals would love them left out after Halloween has been and gone!


Have a spooky day! Hope this helps!


Saturday 1 September 2018

Wilko's Eco Range!

Hello! It seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment that shops are releasing own brand Eco cleaning ranges (a trend I am very happy with!) with Wilko being the latest!

The prices of this new range seem pretty good though, with things like washing up liquid and cleaning sprays at £1 and 1.5L fabric detergents and conditioners for £3 (and more)! The range proudly states that it is vegan friendly, as well as non-harmful to aquatic life. The bottles are also 50% recycled materials, being 100% recyclable themselves.

See the full range here: Wilko Eco















Hope this helps!

Sunday 26 August 2018

Plant milks!

Hello! Sorry it's been a while since I've written a proper blog post, but I'm back! Well, I've had a good idea for one! I was in Asda and noticed a 'new' own brand oat milk. So it got me thinking, where are the cheapest plant milks?! Well, hopefully this blog will answer it, and maybe a bit more. I'll be comparing the 4 main supermarkets of Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons and Asda, looking at soya, oat, almond, rice and coconut milk (plus some notable mentions). Tiny disclaimer in bold: I have not tried all the milks I'm suggesting. If there is vitamin D in the milk, I have done my best to check it is from vegan sources. Let's get to business!

Soya

Cheapest I've found: Tesco unsweetened Everyday Value longlife at 59p
                                Asda smartprice unsweetened longlife at 59p

Others to note: Morrisons do a sweetened and unsweetened longlife for 60p each.

Oat

Cheapest I've found: Asda's new own brand longlife oat milk at £1

Others to note: Alpro frequently have offers on oat milk, for example, when I made this post, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco had Alpro longlife oat milk for £1.

Almond

Cheapest I've found: Sainsburys longlife (both sweetened and unsweetened) at £1 permanently.
                                Asda have a variety of fresh and longlife, sweetened and unsweetened own brand                                        almond milk for £1
Others to note: Alpro is again often on offer, with Tesco selling the Alpro roasted almond longlife milk for £1 as I type this!

Rice

Cheapest I've found: There appears to surprisingly be no 'cheap' rice milk. However as I type this, Rice Dream is on offer for £1 in Morrisons and Alpro is £3 for 3 there too.

Coconut

Cheapest I've found: Asda chilled free from coconut milk at 97p

Others to note: Tesco currently have Alpro longlife coconut milk for £1, (as do Sainsburys and Morrisons) and Koko dairy free chilled at £2 for 2. Morrisons also have Coconut dream for £1 and appear to sell fresh Alpro coconut milk for £1 all the time (not an offer price!).

Hope this helps a little. If anyone chooses to say 'veganism is so expensive!' feel free to point this blog at them, tapping the 59p soya milk, then staple a print out to their forehead. No don't. Please don't. ;-) 

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Oumph! on offer at Tesco!

Hello! The popular brand Oumph! which recently launched in Tesco is on offer! Until 25th June you can get the Kebab style, the chunk and the pulled for £2 instead of £3.49. This is both in store and online.

For online, just head here: Oumph!

Nice and simple. These might be good to stock up on ready for Summer, such as the pulled being added to a BBQ, or kebab being used for, well, kebabs!

Hope this helps!

Monday 28 May 2018

Feed a family of 4 for under £5 - Mexican bean pie!

Hello! As part of my money saving ideas, here's a meal! I recommend making this the day after fajitas as any fajita mix left can go in the pie, as well as any left over wraps and dips being used! However, I've written this as if you haven't made fajitas last night!

Mexican bean pie ingredients (including the sides)

3 medium sweet potatoes - 35p each, so recommend buying a bag of them at £1 and having some for another meal.
Kidney beans in chilli sauce tin - 65p
Taco beans in tomato sauce - 65p     - These beans sometimes come up on offer at Tesco of 2 for £1.
Fajita spice mix (packet powder) - 60p (around 20p used in this meal) (not needed if you have fajita veg)
4 potatoes for chips - 33p each, so best buy a bag for £1.15. Or if you prefer, buy a bag of oven chips.
Tortilla chips - 46p for value which I like, they just are slightly more broken. Otherwise, around £1.

£4.11! (£4.65 with more expensive tortilla chips).

Peel, chop and boil the sweet potatoes. Whilst they're cooking, add the beans together in a dish you can add a top to, as well as about 1/3 of the spice mix. Mix these all together in the bowl. If you have left over fajita veg, add this to the beans instead of fajita mix. Once the potatoes are soft, mash them. Add the mash to the top of the beans to make a pie. Cook in the oven for around 20 minutes so it's all hot and bubbly. Whilst the pie is cooking. Cook your chips.

Once the pie is cooked, serve with chips and nachos. If you have left over wraps, I like to deep fry them in triangles for dipping in the pie. Otherwise the wraps can also be stuffed with the pie and chips.

Optional extras - I've had it with and without dips. The pie is saucy on it's own so whilst dips are nice, I don't think they are an absolute must.

Salsa - 80p
Oatly creamy oat fraiche (works well as a sour cream!) - £1.55

Here's a pic of the outcome (with dips) using deep fried wraps as I had fajitas yesterday! Sorry the photo is quite close!















Hope this helps!



Tuesday 22 May 2018

Vegan sandwich fillings!

Hello! It's British sandwich week, or something, and since it saves money to make your own, I thought I'd make a blog with lots of yummy fillings in case you get stuck for ideas! This may just end up looking like a list, but I'm hoping it may help someone who is sick of the same sandwich everyday to feel inspired! Pretty much all of these can go in bread, pittas or wraps. Another little tip, if you usually buy your sandwiches every day, each time you make your own, put the money you saved in a pot and soon you'll be motivated as you see how much your pot is growing!

My favourite- Breakfast sandwich. Inspired by my old McDonalds order, vegan sausage (cooked), seitan sliced as bacon, hash browns, a little houmous (I tried this once and love it, gives an eggy kind of texture to the sandwich), vegan cheese slice, ketchup. Cook it all and assemble without the top on, melting the vegan cheese on top to keep it all together. Let it cool before adding the houmous on the other slice of bread. This is delicious hot too without houmous, or you can eat it cold at work and have people question if it's vegan multiple times (can you tell what happened to me??)

Kebab sandwich We're lucky now to have an endless supply of mock kebab foods and they can make a delicious sandwich! you can use Oumph, Vivera, or just slice up some seitan, then I like to add red cabbage, spinach, onion, vegan mayo and a little hot sauce - I use the vegan Siriacha mayo that is becoming increasingly available in supermarkets (pic below). Also good with some fried mushrooms.

Image result for sriracha mayo

Houmous sandwich plus! I say plus because whilst houmous is the primary ingredient, I add lots to it. This consists of houmous, mayo, sliced tomato, spinach, olives (I use a mix of black and green), a little sliced onion and sweet chilli dipping sauce. Can also add falafel.

Chilli wraps This is a way to use up leftovers. Make a chilli to dinner one night and any left (including the rice if you have it and dips etc) and all just go in a wrap for lunch. I tuck in both ends and make more of a burrito shape if I'm taking it to work to try and reduce spillage.

Avocado, olive and toms pret style One of my favourite sandwiches to buy is Pret's avo, olives and toms. But it's expensive. So you can also make it at home! Slice some avocado and tomato, adding olives (I just use black for this) rocket (if you use rocket) and spinach, vegan mayo. Can go in a sandwich or if you want to full Pret experience, put it in a wholemeal roll.

This goes for most store bought sandwiches. If there is one you love and often buy, it's always worth having a go at making your own version at home if you have the time. This should save you money in the long run as you'll get far more ingredients for the cost of the £3+ sandwich!

Basic sausage and bean Again more to use up leftover beans. Cook some sausages and allow the beans and sausages to go cold as they stay in the sandwich better. put together and add your preferred sauce (I add BBQ to this). can also go in a wrap if you have any left from a meal.

Veggie burger I came to a revelation once that just because a burger is round doesn't mean I can't break it apart and make a sandwich, then I wondered why I was so slow to realise this. So anyway, just cook up you favourite veggie burger (I'm thinking vegetable based not mock meat, but either works). Add to spinach, onion, tomato and sauce (I use mayo...I use a lot of mayo).

Lasagne filling If you make lasagnes, it's worth saving a spoon or two of the filling for a sandwich for lunch the next day (as well as the cheese sauce). just add it to the bread and drizzle the cheesy sauce over it. Yummm.

Mexican bean This for me is more of a left over sandwich again. One meal I make it mexican bean pie, whereby I just by cans of taco beans and kidney beans in chilli sauce, add them together to a bowl and top with sweet potato mash, then cook. Any of this left over makes for an awesome sandwich the next day (especially if you add salsa!).

Mac and cheese sandwich Oh my! If you make your own mac and cheese and love some carbs, I love my mac and cheese either cold in a sandwich or hot in a toasted sandwich, with ketchup.

Bacon sandwich A basic one but something you might miss so I've added it for you to try. I use Love Seitan seitan cut into slices and fried until a little crispy. It's not bacony, but it sure is satisfying! Add your preferred sauce.

Pudding sandwich Yup. My version of this is Biscoff spread and banana, could also add a little grated chocolate Good on toast too if you want it warm and melty.

Hope this helps!




Sunday 6 May 2018

Chinese fakeaway!

Hello! Recently I put up a pic of my chinese 'fakeaway', which I worked out cost me under £10 for a family of 4. I asked if anyone wanted a blog to make it, you did! Here it is! Now I hate it when chefs say something costs 6p when you can't buy that portion, so the under £10 is for the meal, but I will put the price for the whole ingredient as well as the amount used.

Chinese fakeaway

My meal consisted of a stir fry, garlic fried rice, chips, curry sauce and spring rolls. I won't put a recipe for chips, but I factored in a cost of £1.20 for them as I make my own and fry them, if you have frozen oven chips, this could be cheaper! I cook a lot of this at once, so whilst it looks like it'll take a long time, it's not so bad!

Stir fry - £3.87

In mine I use:

Broccoli (60p per broccoli, 30p used)
2 red onions (21p each, 42p used)
2 large mushrooms (£1 for 4, 50p used)
3 cloves of garlic, crushed (50p per garlic, around 20p used.)
1 carrot (6p a carrot, available loose...this makes me laugh since I used 6p in my tiny rant above!)
Noodles (I use these which are on the Tesco vegan list. They were in my store last time I went. I think they're around £1.50)
1 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce (I use blue dragon dipping sauce. £2 a bottle. 20p used)
5 Tbsp soy sauce (I buy this one as it works out cheapest per 100ml, £6.90. 69p used)

Cook the broccoli as you would usually, either steam or boil. Fry the onions, crushed garlic, mushrooms and carrot until soft. For the carrot I use my peeler to make thin strands to suit the stir fry and cook nicely. Once soft (and the broccoli cooked), add the noodles and broccoli (both mini packs within the pack). these will need seperating in the pan, so I use two forks to pull them apart. Mix in with the veg. Add around 5 Tbsp of soy sauce and 1 Tbsp of sweet chilli, mix and allow to cook. Yumyumyum!

Garlic fried rice - 79p

Rice (£1.60 depending on the brand you use, 60p used)
1 clove of garlic (same one as above, so 5p used)
1 tbsp soy sauce (from the bottle above, 14p)

Cook the rice (can go with the broccoli above!). Fry the garlic in a pan. Add the rice to the garlic, add the soy sauce, mix and allow to cook a little once mixed.

Curry sauce - 68p

When I went vegan I was keen to find a curry sauce that matched a take out. After trying most brands suitable, I found one (well, Mum did, credit where it's due and all that). I use Goldfish Chinese curry sauce, available from most supermarkets. This brand states that it is suitable from vegetarians and that it's NOT made in a factory with fish or meat - nice! This is very easy to make, the instructions given are accurate. You use around 1/4 of a tub (100g) and add 300g of boiling water. mix this so make it as smooth as possible (don't worry if it's still a little lumpy these will melt when cooked). Then put on the hob until it thickens, stirring often. £2.75 a tub, 68p a portion.

Image result for goldfish curry sauce

Spring rolls - £3

Another item I searched for were good spring rolls. My favourite are Morrison's vegetable spring rolls. £1.50 a pack, so for 4 people I'd say £3.00 if you want 2 each. Be sure to check you pick up the vegetable ones, the chicken ones look similar.

Morrisons Vegetable Spring Rolls
Total: £9.54 and I reckon if you shopped around this could be even cheaper (eg different spring rolls, a cheaper rice brand etc). Considering a family of 4 takeaway of the same foods may be around £15-£20 if not more, I think this is pretty good!

Little disclaimer note thing

I tried to cut them out, but they were still a little bit visible. I am lucky enough to have access to a Loving Hut that sells vegan 'crispy clouds' (fake prawn crackers) and they now sell them uncooked in a bag so I can fry them at home. They're £2.50 ish a bag and you get 50-60. If this interests you, it may be worth talking to your local Loving Hut!


Friday 4 May 2018

BBQ ideas for Summer!

Hello! This weekend is set to have delightful weather so I thought I'd write a BBQ post of all my ideas for a budget (but banging!...sorry) BBQ! Here I'll discuss where to find good meat replacements, vegetable versions (as in not soya based) and other yummy ideas...including pudding! This is more for ideas as well as saving money as I've seen a few questions starting to appear about what people have with bbqs. This post includes:

Vegan BBQ meats
Vegetable based BBQ shapes of joy!
Other ideas for you BBQ
Pudding!

Vegan BBQ meats

This is where vegan food can get expensive. Some of the companies are still quite small and so prices can get hefty. But that doesn't have to be the case! Often brands such as Linda McCartney are offer in one of the big supermarkets. For example, Morrisons currently have their sausages for £1 for 6. It's always worth having a quick google about to check prices. I like to use www.mysupermarket.co.uk as this allows you to see all the prices of a product on one screen, very nice!

Also, if you have a Farm Foods near you (here's the store locator: Farm Foods stores) you can get packs of 8 burgers and sausages (as well as mince and meatballs) 3 for £5.

Also, don't forget to check out Ocado, who often have offer on Frys products, as well a coupons that can be added to make very reasonable prices! (I will always do my best to post these offers!)

Vegetable based BBQ shapes of joy!

Sorry, I didn't know how to collectively phrase this separate to the 'meaty' types. As the rise of veganism continues, more and more of these are becoming available. The burgers I would like to draw your attention to most though are Tesco 'vegan vegetable patties' you get 6 for £1 and they are delicious and full of lovely chunky veg (as well as being especially good topped with vegan cheese and mayo covered lettuce, tomato and onion. A delicious burger experience!) See them here

Tesco also currently have an offer of 3 for £4 until the 14th May on burgers including veggie quarter pounders, spicy bean burgers and peanut and avocado burgers, as well as their sweet potato falafel and aubergine croquettes. You can see the range in the offer here (I've filtered it to vegan).

As well as Tesco Asda also have a new range of vegetable based burgers and sausages for £1.50 a pack. These include butternut squash, sweet potato and red pepper sausages and mushroom and kale sausages. See them all here.

Other ideas for your BBQ

Some of these may be obvious, but I've put them just in case you haven't thought of them yet!

Stuffed mushrooms: Get a large mushroom per person, fry an onion, wilted some spinach in with the onion and top the mushroom with this mix, adding extras such as tomato slices, or even vegan garlic and herb cream cheese. Then you can bake these in the oven or barbecue them (I recommend barbecuing the mushroom separately first though then topping and finishing them).

Vegetable rice: Fry all the veggies you like, cook the rice with a vegan stock cube in the water. Add rice to the veggies. This one may seem simple but I don't often see the idea of adding stock to rice water and it makes for a lovely taste!

Veggie kebabs: Skewer all the veg you like and cook on the bbq, you could add a bbq glaze (or any flavour) on them too.

Sweet corn: I did a post previously on frozen veg. If you didn't see it, you can get corn on the cobs in the freezer section which work out significantly cheaper per cob than fresh. These can be nicely barbecued and make a great addition to you plate.

There is a whole array of foods you can make to go with you meal, these are just a few ideas to get started with. Let me know if you have a favourite you'd like adding!

Pudding!

Chocolate bananas and ice cream: Bananas on a bbq is YUMMY! This can be made in  a few ways: either split the banana down the middle and stuff some chocolate in it, then wrap in foil and bake, or slice the bananas and cook on the BBQ, then sprinkle chocolate on the hot banana slices. You can also just cook the banana in the skin, peel it and top it whilst hot. Whatever way you do it, involve ice cream at the end! Yumyumyum

Grilled watermelon: As it sounds, you cook slices of watermelon on the bbq (currently £3.00 in Tesco for a whole massive watermelon). These are particularly nice when drizzled with a sweet syrup.

Fruit and ice cream: Again, may sound easy, but I've added this to remind you that you can get frozen fruit packs which work out considerable cheaper than fresh! There is usually a summer fruits/berry type which goes especially well with a lovely summery bbq.

I hope this helps!



Tuesday 1 May 2018

Love Seitan May offer!

Hello! Super yummy Love Seitan are running an offer on all of their seitan throughout May!

You can get full blocks (800g) of each flavour for £12.95 instead of £14.95, for choose the two full block offer (where you choose two flavours) for £25. Postage is free over £20, or £2 under £20.

They have also released a new flavour of fiery fajita! (Also on the offer) Yumyum!

Head here for the store: Love Seitan



















Hope this helps!

Friday 27 April 2018

VeggieStuff closing down sale

EDIT: The sale has now gone to 50% off everything! However lots is sold out, but I'd say it's still worth a look at in case a favourite is on offer.

Hello! Some sad news, the great VeggieStuff.com are closing down! They were the ones who introduced me to the wonderful Schlagfix and for that I will be eternally grateful.

As part of their closing down, they are having a sale. You can get 20% off everything (plus varying postage depending on what you buy). This is whilst stocks last. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Just head here: VeggieStuff

They sell a whole range of vegan food, including cheeses chocolates, creams, everything! This is the only branch of the brand to close, others such as VeggiePets are staying open.



Hope this helps!

Vegan Town weekend postage offer!

Hello! Super yummy provider of sweet treats Vegan Town have a great postage offer for this weekend only! For the weekend of the 27th April, postage is just £1! Yay!

Vegan Town have a great range of treats, including the new vegan smarties style chocolate, caramel Bean and Pod chocolates and Dandies marshmallows. This lovely offer allows you to try out a great variety of vegan treats without the postage making the costs rocket. Win win!

Just head here for their site: Vegan Town



Hope this helps!

Monday 2 April 2018

Oumph! at Tesco offer!

Hello! The extremely popular fake meat brand Oumph! has recently launched at Tesco with their 'chunk', 'kebab' and 'pulled' varieties. From the 3rd April to the 23rd April you can get 3 bags for £6. They're usually £3.49 so this feels like a great saving and an especially good time to try out all the types!

Just head here to see them online: Oumph! Tesco or pop to your local store. It has been launched in 400 stores so hopefully one will be near you!

I've tried Oumph! in the past at a festival and thought it was delicious! So with this offer, I recommend giving them a go if this product is your sort of food.

















Hope this helps! OUMPH!

Friday 16 March 2018

Frozen vegetable joy!

Hello! I don't know how well known this is, so I've decided to write a post about it so everyone definitely knows! If you're keen on veg and have a nice sized freezer, you could save money (and reduce potential food waste) by buying frozen veg instead! I appreciate this isn't for everyone (as this may mean more plastic for some people), and the savings may vary seasonally, but I hope it might at least help a fair few people to save some money but still eat a good, nutritious meal.

A few examples (using Tesco prices)where you can save money include:

Mini corn on the cobs: Frozen - £1.30 for 6 (roughly), Fresh - £1.50 for 4
Chopped/whole leeks: Frozen - £1.00 for 700g (1.43 per kg), Fresh - £2.00 per kg
Broccoli: Frozen florets - £1.10 (1.23 per kg), Fresh - £1.57 per kg
Mushrooms: Frozen slices - £1.00 (£2.00 per kg), Fresh whole mushrooms - £2.27 per kg of the cheapest available
Courgettes: Frozen chopped - £1.00 (£1.43 per kg), Fresh unchopped - £1.98 per kg of cheapest available
Plus of course, peas!

Not all veg works out cheaper though, often the veg that has been prepared such as diced onions or peeled shallots come out more expensive than their fresh alternative.

This is just a few options available and doesn't include the various mixed frozen bags of which one pack can all go into a casserole for £1.10 for a kg (carrot, swede, turnip, celery and onion).

All you need to do is keep an eye on the price per kg to work out which is the better value at the time. Whilst I'm not sure I'd advise that this frozen veg can be used for meals where the vegetable is the main part of the meal (like a roast), they can certainly go in meals such as casseroles (as above), soups, risottos, pasta sauces etc. This might be a great plan for those of you who use a slow cooker! It has even been studied that frozen veg is as equally nutritious (if not more) than fresh, so long as it's frozen soon after harvest.

Hope this helps!

Love Seitan block offer!

The super duper Love Seitan have an offer on their seitan blocks! Until the end of March, you can get 2 full blocks of seitan (can you choose the flavours) for £25! This saves you £4 but also means you get free shipping.

Just head here: Love Seitan

In my experience, these seitan blocks are a nice size which last a pretty long time! I'd advise freezing in portions or chopping up in your preferred way after first opening the pack (depending on your family size) as it can go with a variety of meals.

Hope this helps!

Friday 9 March 2018

Plamil Easter Hampers!

Hello! Popular vegan company Plamil (who make chocolate, mayo and more!) have made up some lovely looking Easter hampers filled with their delicious treats. Just head here to see all of their products: Plamil Easter

They have 3 hampers on offer at £25.00 each (saving roughly £5 per hamper) with different items in each. This price means they also qualify for...wait for it...FREE SHIPPING!

Hamper 1:

12 items including 2 chocolate bars, 2 Easter eggs (no box, just wrapped in foil), a box of mini half eggs (you could wrap these in foil yourself to extra egg hunting!), 6 Easter bunnies and a bigger bag of half eggs: Hamper 1

No Added Sugar Easter Hamper



Hamper 2:

12 items also, however a simpler one designed for an Easter hunt including 6 eggs and 6 bunny bars: Hamper 2

No Added Sugar Easter Hunt Hamper



Hamper 3:

This is an organic hamper, with 9 items including 1 Easter egg, a small box of mini half eggs, chocolate spread jar, 4 different chocolate bars, a bunny bar and a larger bag of half eggs: Hamper 3

Easter Organic Hamper



They also currently have a case of 22 no added sugar bunny bars for just £5! However bear in mind that if you only buy these, you will also be charged shipping: Bunny bars


Whilst there are cheaper brands out there, these hampers provide a nice range which could be split up, particularly hamper 2, if you have a large family or wish to buy eggs for many people.

Hope this helps!

Thursday 8 March 2018

Vegan Easter Ideas!

Hello! Easter is less than a month away now and I'm seeing a lot of questions involving being vegan at Easter. So I thought I'd make a post with all my little ideas and findings ready for the occasion. I'll discuss things such as Easter eggs, traditional nibbles and Sunday lunch (including the Aldi super 6 for Easter week!).

Easter eggs and chocolate treats

Edit: Plamil have 3 vegan Easter hampers online, all £25.00 (which roughly working it out seems to save about £5) and so all qualify for free postage! I've got a post all about this (here), but to check it out, head here: Plamil Easter hampers

All the leading supermarkets have vegan eggs and chocolate this year (so far as I know!) including Morrisons selling Moo Free eggs at 3 for £10 until Easter (see my previous post on this offer!). However this may still be a little expensive, so some other alternatives include:
  • Aldi do a dark chocolate 'Lindt' style bunny - 79p (photo from The Hectic Vegan as Aldi do not sell things like this online!) Make sure you pick up the dark chocolate version as I think there is a non-vegan milk chocolate version too.

Choceur Dark Easter Bunny


  • Choices small dairy free chocolate bunny - £1 in Sainsburys, 99p in Asda

Image for Choices Dairy Free Confectionery Chocolate Milk Bunny 40g from Sainsbury's

  • Sainsburys free from small white choc egg and buttons - £2.50 (I think there is a milk chocolate vegan one too in some stores!)
Image for Sainsbury's Deliciously Free From White Chocolate Egg & Buttons 65g from Sainsbury's

  • Tesco has white and milk chocolate eggs at £2.50-£3.00










  • Tesco also have a free from bunny lolly - £1.00

Chocologic Free From Lollies 30G

  • Asda also has a cute free from Easter bunny - £3
  • Holland and Barrett have a small Plamil Easter bunny - £1.35
So Free Bunny Bar

  • Holland and Barrett also have Plamil mini egg halves - £3.25. These would be a good option to wrap in foil individually for a little egg hunt for children!
Plamil Milk Chocolate Alternative Mini Half Eggs


Or (whilst this may cost more in the first year) you could buy egg molds from places such as Lakeland or online and make your own with £1 chocolate bars from places like Sainsburys! That way you can fill them with yummy extras if you wanted to :-)

There are many many more Easter eggs and treats than what I have listed above (check out the Vegan Womble Easter page for them all!) these are just the ones I have seen for lower than the cheapest Moo Free price I've seen. 


Easter nibbles
Asda have some Free From hot cross buns this year at 4 for £2 which are labelled vegan (nice and reassuring!) as well as being gluten free. 
They also have some bunny shaped crumpets for £1. This is expensive for 4 crumpets, but depending on your plans this may be a nice little extra so I'm adding them in.

Tesco have some confirmed vegan mini choc chip hot cross buns for £1. You get 8 in a pack and I'd say 2 buns makes one smallish regular sized bun (but they're also a good size individually for children!) plus they're chocolate, so that's a win!
Tesco 8 Mini Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns
Small notes: Last year M and S had some apple hot cross buns which were confirmed vegan. I haven't seen them yet this year but will keep a look out and update this post if I see them again! I think they were 2 packs of 4 for £2.50.

Co-op have ginger bread bunnies available, however I'm currently unsure of the price.

There may be more hot cross buns available but I don't want to put any up which may risk having peel with shellac on. I will update this if any more are confirmed to be 100% vegan.



Sunday roast

Similarly to my Christmas post, I've worked out a delicious, reasonably priced roast idea for Easter. This is for a family of 4, but prices may vary (for the better hopefully!) as a lot of supermarkets have weekly veg offers, this is just a rough guide for ideas.

Bag of parsnips for 59p
Bag of carrots for 47p
Bag of potatoes for £1.35
1kg of sprouts for 1.50 (or a cabbage for 69p, this could be cooked and fried with onion and veggie stock for a yummy side, even some oat cream if you can!)
A broccoli for 55p (or cauliflower for £1)
Bag of Onions for 75p
Soya milk for 59p
Gravy for 70p (Tesco own brand vegetable gravy)
Stuffing mix for 40p (Tesco sage and onion 170g)
Bread sauce packet mix 80p

A lot of this can all be roasted together whilst the rest can be steamed or boiled. Then just make up the bread sauce with some soya milk and cook the stuffing mix at the end (only takes around 10 mins usually). You can have a roast with 7 different items for £8.15 when adding up the expensive items. Not bad! Plus looking at it all I think it would go further than 4 people.

ALDI veg offer!

Aldi have put a lot of useful roast veg in their super 6 offer from Wednesday 28th March. The following are all 19p each!

Parsnips 600g
Swede (single)
Leeks 500g/ brown onions 1kg
Carrots 1kg
red or white cabbage (each)

Plus they are selling Maris Pyper potatoes 2.5kg for 29p

Additional Note!

If you're looking for any additional extras such as pies or roasts, don't forget to check your local Holland and Barrett for reduced items (I'm seeing a lot of Fry's new pies at the moment!) as a lot of these items can be frozen. 

Is there anything else you would like to see? If so, let me know!

Hope this helps!







Tuesday 6 March 2018

Noughty Haircare offer!

Hello! The lovely haircare brand Noughty are having a sale until March 31st! By using the code MARCH2018 you can save 1/3 on their website here: Noughty haircare

Noughty haircare are vegan and they are proud to say they are 97% natural, not using any silicones, parabens, sulphates or petrochemicals. They do not test on animals (this should be obvious from being vegan but since L'loreal are sneakily using the vegan word I'm just confirming this!) and any palm oil used is obtained from RSPO members.

Shipping is free on all orders over £10, or £2.95 if under £10. They have a whole heap of different products for varying hair types, so there should be something to suit most people!




















Hope this helps!

Saturday 24 February 2018

Ms Cupcake end of season sale!

Hello! The fabulously popular Ms Cupcake is having an end of season sale! This means that until the 2nd of March (this Friday), a good few products have 20% off! This includes brownies, muffins cookies, cookie sandwiches and traybakes/squares. Yum!

Just head here: Ms Cupcake online shop and click on the product you would like to buy. Then if you're on a computer you will see the flavours and reductions on the right hand side, if you're on a mobile device you can scroll to the bottom to see the reductions.

There is a great selection in the offer, including refined sugar free muffins. Don't forget to consider postage when purchasing items.

Perhaps this could make a lovely Mother's Day treat! ;-)


Hope this helps!




Monday 19 February 2018

Love Seitan Cajun Offer!

Hello! Popular (and delicious) Love Seitan have a new flavour...Cajun! What's more, they've knocked £2 off a block as a special offer until 25th February, making it £12.95 for 800g. Wahey! This is a new flavour which was very popular at Vegan Life Live.

Just head here to purchase: Love Seitan

Love Seitan provide free shipping on orders over £20, otherwise it's £2.00. So bear this in mind when purchasing.
















Hope this helps!

Friday 16 February 2018

Moo Free Egg Offers!

Hello! It's alarmingly only 6 (ish) weeks away until Easter! This means eggs are coming into stores and online thick and fast at the moment. Luckily, this also means some nice offers to get your favourite eggs at a nicer price!

Moo Free chocolate, chocolate orange and bunnycomb eggs are currently on offer in 2 places. The most easily accessible for most people is 3 for £10 in Morrisons! This offer is on offer until 1st April, taking us right up to Easter Sunday. Wahey!



















If this deal doesn't work for you, online vegan treat sellers Vegan Town also have Moo free eggs on sale, with 10% off. This offer is on over this weekend (starting 16th Feb). Don't forget to consider the postage costs with this purchase, which is £3.95. Just head here: Vegan Town













Hope this helps!

Saturday 10 February 2018

Lidl veggie week 15th Feb!

Hello! Lidl are going to be running a Veggie week again! Yay! This was very popular last time, plus the prices were pretty good! This will run from 15th February (Thursday) until the following Wednesday, however last time they sold out of most things in many stores before the week ended! Below is the spread in their in-store paper to show what will be available.

IT'S NOT ALL VEGAN!! However last time the falafel and soya protein pieces were suitable (the nuggets were not! Also the Quorn is not either) and it's all clearly marked with a vegan logo.


Thank you Emily Curcio (via the 100% Vegan Products UK Facebook group) for the use of your photo!


Hope this helps!

Friday 9 February 2018

Vegan festival tips!

EDIT: for London Vegfest here is the exhibitor list with some offers each stall is doing: https://london.vegfest.co.uk/exhibitors/

Here's a few of my tips to make the most of vegan festivals. Often stalls have particularly good offers, or they are companies which may usually be hard to purchase from, so festivals are a great place to try new products, as well as save money from offers and no postage costs! 
  • Bring backpacks, even small suitcases depending on what you want to buy. Things get heavy, especially milks/jars of mayo/too many sausages, so it's much better to pack it into a back pack of wheelable suitcase. If you choose a suitcase, it's a good idea to buy the heavy things first, then put the cases away into the cloakroom and enjoy your day bag free (plus it gets busy so it's nice for others too)!
  • Bring tupperware! This helps the planet as it means the stalls with food don't have to use their own packaging for things you want to eat. Often these are biodegradable such as using Vegware or cardboard boxes, but it's still better not to use anything single use at all. HOWEVER! The other benefit is if you see lots you want to try but you're full up, you can easily take it home for next day's meal (...or breakfast). I do this everywhere I go and no one has minded one bit, most stalls appreciate it and some even give me a little something extra!
  • Make a list of what you want before you go. Obviously you'll want to see every stall (and sample every type of chocolate and cheese going), but by making a list you can make sure you get the lovely items you want easier.
  • Check the online prices of things you want before you go. Usually everything is cheaper at a festival, but you may find there is no price difference or may even be a little more expensive. So by having an idea in your head of what's good value, you can spend more sensibly. 
  • Try and get there early! I always aim to get there for when the festivals open so that I can walk round the stalls a little easier before it gets too busy (which is also a little nicer for everyone if you do bring a suitcase). 
  • Obviously, enjoy every bit! See something you like the look of. Try it! Want to eat (another) box of mac and cheese, go for it! 
  • If you're around late on the last day (Sunday usually) often things get reduced as companies don't want to or can't take stock home, so have another look around to see if your favourites are further reduced. I've known some popular brands being given away for free at one event!

Hope this helps!

Monday 5 February 2018

Besos Valentine's offer!

Hello! Besos Food and Drink, who make a popular Baileys style drink and more, have a great Valentine's Day offer! Until 12th February, for every £21 bottle of Besos de Chocolate bought, you also get four bars of their chocolate! You get one of each of the following flavours: orange, banana, blackberry and salted caramel chocolate bars.

Just head here: Besos Food and Drink

There are postage charges of £3.90, however the bundle would be £33 separately so if this appeals to you, you can save just over £8.

Hope this helps!


Friday 2 February 2018

Sgaia vegan Mheats offer!

Hello! Due to February being a short month, Sgaia are offering 10% off their products! Just head here: Sgaia Mheats and use the code 'SHORTMONTH' for the discount!





















Offer ends 28th February. Delivery is £3.99 for orders up to 2kg, with £1 added for every kg after.

I appreciate the costs aren't exactly money saving, but I'm posting this as the brand is a very popular one, so every little helps, right?? :-)

Hope this helps!