A Vegan Obsession

New Grains Gluten Free Vegan Bread - Review & Giveaway

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new grains hamburger bun

Gluten Free Vegan Bread - Review and Giveaway

Being gluten free is so much easier today than it was even 5 years ago. Products are improving all the time and more and more you get to feel like you are really not missing out on anything. Many restaurants are offering gluten free breads and buns so you can still enjoy their sandwiches and burgers. Still not enough though. Just because we are gluten intolerant doesn’t mean we do not want to get a cheeky slice of vegan pizza or a hearty vegan burger of a night! But things are changing and progress is steady. Bread has been one thing I’ve missed over the years. I’ve made my own with varying degrees of success but I am always keeping an eye out for a good gluten free vegan bread I can buy.

I’ve been digging around on the internet to back up my constant scouting of super markets to find a bread that will list itself as vegan and gf. Few exist. One I tried recently was New Grains Bakery They are primarily an online operation but they do have a few stores in various states.

They are a family owned company. A passionate, late diagnosed celiac dad, Tim Lawson, discovered five of his seven (!) children were celiac and he wanted more for them than the grainy, tasteless products that were available to the gluten free population at that time. He and his wife Nicole set to work in their making all the family favourites, but making them gluten free. A company grew out of it as they began to sell their produce.

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Like the majority of gluten free breads available in the USA it is not feather light. But it is lighter than most and vegan. When I was sampling it I found over a few days is in the fridge the less light it seems. At this point though it is great toasted. The hamburger buns were delicious teamed with beet and mushrooms burgers that I made. Also a winner with the 11 year old I tested them on. The cinnamon bread is spicy and perfectly sweet and I loved accompanying it with a spread of coconut oil and fruit-sweetened strawberry jam. Or honestly, just by itself. I imagine you could roll up slices and put them in a baking dish and cover with maple icing and they’d be like cinnamon rolls.The English muffins were all devoured by my gluten eating husband. He slathered with peanut butter and topped with ripe banana slices. I think that demonstrates his verdict.

New Grains are not a vegan company but perhaps they may think about using Hampton Creek’s Beyond Egg - egg substitute to make more of their products vegan in the future?!

Among their ever expanding (10 at present) vegan gluten free, 100% organic, non-gmo product range are;

Cinnamon Bread

Sandwich Bread

English Muffins

Hamburger Buns

Tortillas

Cookies

We’ve teamed up with New Grains to spread the word. They have a sample box to giveaway to one lucky winner.

Gluten Free Vegan Bread - Review and Giveaway. A sample box of muffins, burger buns and your choice of sandwich or cinnamon bread. Enter below for your chance to win.

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Epic Protein Powder Review & GIVEAWAY

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Epic protein

Epic Protein Powder Review. A Giveaway from Sprout Living.

Vegan, gluten free and processed sugar free protein powders. Truly healthy. No wolves in sheep’s clothing here!

Epic Protein Powder : With a pea protein base, these vegan, gluten free protein powders are a quite unique. They have a complete amino acid profiled (branch-chain amino acids) and are real food so they are easy to digest. There are lots of protein powders on the market and some of the cleanest seeming ones still have ingredients in them that I think unnecessary or are not actually very healthy. What I love about Epic Protein is the inclusion of nutrient rich and quite ‘new to the market’ unique ingredients. Each flavour in the range contains different ingredients.
The Chocolate Maca - has maca, an adoptoneginic herb that provides energy and hormone balance. Ceylon Cinnamon which has been shown to regulate blood sugar levels. Chocolate of course solves all problems (a view not yet backed by the FDA, but known by millions of us..right?!).
The Original - and it is original. It delivers phyto-chemicals and pre-biotics from Jerusalem Artichoke and Cranberry Seed. Sacha Inchi a superfood (mountain peanut) from South America known for it’s high Omega oils content. I’ve eaten these whole and they are good. A mix of powdery, crunchy and nutty. These new foods are being promoted in the West now and helping bring money to rural areas where the crop is grown. Let’s hope they stay fairly traded!
Vanilla Lucuma - as with all of the other organic protein flavours from Epic Protein, each serving has at least 19 grams of protein from all-plant sources. Totally vegan. Gluten free. Sweetened here by lucuma ‘Gold of the Incas’ a naturally sweet plant packed with beta carotene. The Vanilla bean sweetens it too. Also added is Baobab. A dry powder from the inside of a fruit of a tree native to Africa. High in Vitamin C.
Green Kingdom - as described by Epic a ‘potent blend of land and sea plant life’. Spirulina (a nutritional champion) Kale..we all know about kale now..right?! and Indian Moringa. Another superfood that is gaining in popularity. It is known as the ‘clarifier Tree’ Webmb.com says, “Moringa is used for “tired blood” (anemia); arthritis and other joint pain (rheumatism); asthma; cancer; constipation; diabetes; diarrhea; epilepsy; stomach pain; stomach and intestinal ulcers; intestinal spasms; headache; heart problems; high blood pressure; kidney stones; fluid retention; thyroid disorders; and bacterial, fungal, viral, and parasitic infections”. Impressive. It is a cheap and easy plant to grow and a dense and important source of nutrients. All the ingredients are listed on the front, nice and clearly.
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Initially, I found them a little sweet for my palate at first but this is only because I do not usually eat protein powder. All contain a touch of Himalayan Pink Salt to balance out the sweet and salty elements of our taste buds. I made a couple of smoothie with both the Chocolate Maca and the Vanilla Lucuma for a friend who is not usually the smoothie type and she loved them both. The powder is slightly gritty, a characteristic of all protein powders, but I think this one is silkier then most. You can purchase them in servings of between 1 - 69 so they are fantastic to take as sachets if you are going on a road trip and have little space in your bag. Or for taking to the gym or out for a run in your water bottle.
I think you will love them too. Which is why I wanted to give you a chance to try them for free. The lovely people at Sprout Living want that too. So together we are hosting a giveaway!
The are generously giving to one winner a 16 oz Chocolate Maca and samples of the Original, Vanilla Lucuma and the Green Kingdom. Together with a Sprout Living Blender Bottle shaker. The prize is worth over $40!
Entrants in the USA only. You have 14 days to enter beginning today. Scroll down to enter below. Good luck!!

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Enter the giveaway here..

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Nut Bars Giveaway from Knowing

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Knowing Nut Bars Giveaway

I was in Lassens, Echo Park (Los Angeles) the other day and spotted out the corner of my eye a guy handing out samplings of his wares. Ever curious, and a bit of a pig, I ditched the procuring of my salad ingredients and manoeuvred my way to his table of goodies. Upon enquiring if the little morsels of crumbly cake-y things were vegan and gluten free, the man said yes. There after I had my first taste of a Knowing Nut Bar. Insert HAPPY smiling icon here. I was expecting just another raw food bar..but oh no. They are a two layered bar, a crumbly topping on a stickier base. The coconut gave a biscuit texture and the flavours were sensational..the cinnamon coconut..wow the cinnamon just sang. The chocolate coconut was richly chocolatey. Somehow the flavours within each bar each managed to have a separate moment of glory. Delicious. Moreish!
I asked the guy (whose name I had now gathered was Nicholas) to tell me the story behind the name of the bars and why they decided to put all their energy into bringing another snack bar onto to market (though these are not just another snack bar. These are really ‘stand out’ bars).
Nicholas and his brother Alex, who work out of Los Angeles, are the owners of Knowing. Nick told me that perfecting the recipes has taken a ton of effort. ‘We’ve been working on various nut bars for years, trying different combinations of nuts and preparation techniques. We finally settled on using an amazing combo of cashew and coconuts as the base for all three Knowing bars. Knowing was the result of my brother and I having worked in restaurant kitchens, farmers markets, and our Dad’s kitchen while growing up and then seeing the food being sold in grocery stores’.
But why Knowing I asked? ‘Much of the time, there is a huge lack of understanding as to what people are actually eating. The Nutrition Facts can be helpful, but can also be misleading - it’s really important to know WHERE the calories, sugars, and fats are coming from to determine their actual nutritional value’.
The brothers’ main goal is making great tasting snacks from nutritious whole organic, whole foods. They just wanted to make the ingredients front page, so people know what they are consuming. To be honest, their nut bars taste so good that I forgot all about their great nutritional value. Over the years I have become used to the fact that vegan sweet treats can be very tasty AND good for you. So it comes as no surprise to me. But these bars taste like they should be ‘naughty’.
The bars 100% organic. Soy, dairy and grain free. Gluten free. Vegan. Knowing nut bars are currently available in Lassens, local Whole Foods as a part of their Local Forager Program, EarthBars in Southern California, a handful of independent grocery stores and cafes, online farmers markets like FarmBox and GoodEggs, as well as our website.
I was excited to tell you about the bars, so is Nick. So he decided he wanted us to run a giveaway. He’s offering 1 winner a box of the 3 flavour bags. I wish I could enter to win them! I can’t, obviously, but you can, if you live in America. Each flavour pack (3 bars in each) retails at around $3.99. So the winner gets 12 bars to chomp on, and share (if they can bear to!).
Scroll down to enter.

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A pack of Knowing Bars wonderfully modelled by my handsome assistant.

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Nak’d Healthy Vegan Snack Bars - GIVEAWAY

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Healthy Vegan Energy Bars.

Life can be topsy turvy at times. I was in Ojai, Southern California recently and saw a display of Nak’d Bars in the local organic grocery store. I was excited to spot them there. I had first came across the raw, natural vegan bars at their launch in 2012 in the UK. I had been invited along for a fun evening and I met with Jamie Combs, the co-founder of Nak’d. See the video and blog post Video interview & post from the 2012 UK launch. So, why topsy turvy you wonder? Well, Jamie is American, living in the UK. I am British and my travels have just taken me to Ojai, just north of Los Angeles. And this is where Nak’d have their US head quarters. Weird? Well, ok maybe not. What can I say? I am a coincidence junky. I see that stuff out.

Anyway, Nak’d are now pushing out their reach in America. I just wanted to let you know that. They sent me a box to sample and I’ve slowly been munching my way through them. After a run, after dinner, after another bar… If you want a healthy vegan, raw, gluten free bar to pop in your bag…these are your babies. My favs are the Mocha, the Banana Crunch, Rhubarb & Custard and the elusive (some wonder if it is just a myth) Bakewell Tart. This one is bliss for me. Nak’d have captured the flavour beautifully of the English tart my mother used to make us as children for Sunday tea. A layer of crumbly shortcake pastry, a layer of tart and sweet jam, then a sponge made with almond flour. It is heaven. Vegan versions abound. I found this one..looks great. Sub out the plain flour for a gluten free flour and Bob’s your Uncle! If you find a Nak’d Bakewell Tart Bar..snatch it up, go someplace quiet and savour-every-little-bite.

New to Nak’d sampler box 13 bars for $9.99 + FREE SHIPPING. A special offer for Nak’d newbies.

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Enter as often as you like to increase your chances of getting your hands on that box! USA entrants only. 1 winner will be picked at random on 3rd April.

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Vegan Valentine Giveaway Party!

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vegan valentines giveaway

Valentines Day, celebrated as a day for lovers since the 18th century in England. Nowadays everyone is in on the act and it seems to have evolved beyond romantic love to a day to scatter love everywhere.

To celebrate with you we have gathered a bunch of lovely vegan-friendly companies to help spread a little love this Valentines Day. We have a Valentine giveaway for you. All you have to do is click on the links below to enter.

We think that love should be for every day and not just Valentines so our give-away kicks off the day before Valentines, and the winners will all be picked out at random on 20th February. So that loving feeling will last way beyond the day of Valentine. Good luck. USA entrants only.

 

We have artisanal raw chocolate from Brooklyn based Fine & Raw

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Gluten Free, Allergy Friendly Cosmetics from Red Apple Lipstick

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Raw & Toasted coconut chips from Coconut Organics

Coconut Bacon

Wonderful organic, natural vegan skin care from The Mad Hippie

Mad Hippie

A box of natural, sexy condoms for the boudoir from Sir Richard’s

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A jar of something to add flavor to your kitchen creations.. we have Vegan Magic Bacon Grease

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Last but not least for the love of dog…. kibble from V-Dog

 

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An eclectic bunch of generous lovers from vegan companies we heart! Good luck!

Thanks for entering, and love and kisses to the generosity of all involved.

valentines giveawayHappy love-filled Valentines Day…and everyday!

x

Artisan Raw Chocolate Giveaway from Fine & Raw

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Chocolate Giveaway

Fine & Raw Valentines Chocolate Giveaway 8 pc box set. I visited the Fine & Raw factory and retail space in Brooklyn. I have been evangelistic about their chocolate ever since. My most recent acquisition was a bar of their Scotch Chunky. Happy Face!

fine and raw chocolate

For our Valentines Giveaway we have box of the 8 pc classic to giveaway to one lucky chocolate lover.

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‘FINE & RAW was started in a notorious Williamsburg, Brooklyn artist loft by Daniel Sklaar. A nonsensical obsession with chocolate inspired Daniel to begin making small chocolate batches. He shared them with friends then started delivering them on his bicycle to small local purveyors. The stock was good - the purveyors wanted more.’

What is raw chocolate? Unlike other chocolate it is not roasted and never reaches above 45 degrees. Some say that nutritionally, cacao is a superfood with more than 300 nutritients including antioxidants, flavonoids, fibre, iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium. It also contains tryptophan which helps our bodies to manufacture serotonins (known as the happiness neurotransmitter). Also, the chemicals anandamine and phenylethylamine which simulate the feeling of falling in love. Aw.

And just look at this for a list of quality ingredients..

raw cacao, virgin coconut oil, blue agave, cacao butter, himalayan sea salt. This is chocolate it is easy to feel good about!

Enter!
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Vegan Magic Bacon Grease Giveaway

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Vegan substitutions never cease to amaze me and now (oh Lordy) we have Magic Vegan Bacon Grease. Made of coconut oil, soy protein, sea salt, maple syrup, pepper, onion, garlic, torula yeast and smoke flavors, the fat can be used to fry or bake and may even be eaten straight on toast. In fact, its creators have an entire Tumblr dedicated to the grease’s many uses in recipes ranging from collard greens to cookies, basically any application that would benefit from “smoky, rich, bacony” flavor.

The makers of Vegan Magic Bacon Grease (Chris and his supportive wife) say the products was “Born of necessity and mad science after 20 years of veganism, traveling and being taunted by rich local foods in places like Mexico and the American South - thus did Magic Vegan Bacon Grease come into the world, feet first. Southern Fried Greens? Check. Biscuits? Uh huh. Fried Peppers and Onions? Yup. Polenta? Tofu Scrambler? Gravy? Perogies? Got you covered. Can you put it on toast? You don’t even want to know.” The Facebook page even has a vegan bacon chocolate recipe!

He did not hail from a food background at all, Canadian born Chris was a world traveller who thrashed out DIY punk and metal music when ever he could. A vegan for 20 years he’s witnessed the rise and rise of vegan friendly food expanding out of the small independent health food stores into ‘every-day’ supermarkets. But he felt there was one thing missing that still just didn’t exist in vegan form. Chris said ‘I travel a lot, pretty far from home. Over time I got jealous of the rich smells of foods I could almost but not quite eat, from the food carts of Tijuana to the soul food joints of the American South. I came home from tour determined to crack the case. Throw in a leaning towards mad science, and Magic Vegan Bacon Grease came to be’. He decided to put just 24 jars for sale at his friends bakery in Toronto and it flew off the shelves and word started to spread. Well, the result was a patent was filed and Chris set to to create the best version he could of his product. He says, ‘Vegan or not, it’s an oil based compound, replicating a lard like consistency which makes things rich and well, super bacony. End of story’.

We’ve got a jar for one very lucky person to try!

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Coconut Chips Giveaway from Coconut Organics

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Coconut Bacon

For those of you who have not tried coconut bacon, or crisp coconut chips doused in coconut sugar sweetened chocolate, stand to be amazed. This is healthy snacking gone wild! I cannot get enough of this stuff. Seriously, I’m sprinkling the smoky, dusty coconut bacon on everything! And the chocolate covered chips remind me of my school tuck shop treats of cornflake dipped in chocolate..but better, way, way better.

Coconut Organics coconut chips currently have three amazing flavours;

CocoBacon® vegan organic coconut bacon -
Wondering how it is made? Wonder no more. First Coconut Organics begin with thick, sweet organic coconut chips from mature coconuts then they lightly toast them. The toasted chips then get a generous dose of raw, coconut oil, to achieve the fatty satisfaction of bacon. Then, they apply a little bit of low-glycemic, coconut sugar to mirror the slight sweetness of bacon. Next they add some mineral rich Celtic Sea Salt, for the salty side of bacon. The savoury and smoky notes come from mesquite smoke flavor and their own secret spice blend. The result is the perfect, sweet, salty, smoky and crunchy, chewy thing going on!
Raw Chocolate Organic Coconut Chips
made with 100% raw cacao and diabetic friendly coconut sugar.
Toasted Organic Coconut Chips -
plain ole toasted coconut chips. Naked!

coconut bacon

Great for snacking or topping for your potatoes, salad, stir fries. Sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal, porridge or pancakes. Lovely on your vegan yogurt. Add it to your home made ice-cream, top your donuts and cupcakes with the stuff, or just eat it right out of the packet!

Of course you want to try it. Enter the giveaway! One winner will receive the trio of flavours to snack on to their heart’s desire.
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Vegan Dog Food Giveaway.

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V-Dog

V-Dog. Dog Lovers Valentines Giveaway. For those animal lovers we have food for your 4-legged friends! We reviewed V-Dog a while back Tail wagging approval - V-Dog review, and we wanted to offer it to you as a Valentines prize! Vegan dog food….? Yes, it is veterinary approved, nutritionally balanced, plant-based and dogs love it.

Show your dog some love. We have one bag of BreathBones to giveaway to one lucky pooch!
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Chemical Free All Natural Condoms Giveaway

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Chemical Free All Natural Condoms Giveaway.

So, it’s Valentines. It’s all about love. So of course we need to be wise and be safe. This giveaway will help you to enjoy Valentines to the full, should this be your desire!

Sir Richard’s™ was founded in 2009 by a group of globally minded entrepreneurs who wanted to merge their shared interest in good loving with their love of doing good. Designed with sexual wellness and reproductive health in mind, they left out a range of seriously unsexy chemicals, common ingredients in the leading brands’ products. And for every condom people purchased, the founders committed to donating a condom to communities in need. A staggering 3 million condoms have been donated since the companies inception.

Sir Richard’s condoms are made of all-natural latex and silicone (lubricant). Chemical free, all natural condoms. They do not use any fillers in their natural latex, which is a common practice in the industry. Their condoms are free of glycerin, parabens, spermicide and petrochemicals. They are Vegan-certified and PETA-approved with minimal latex odour. For more info.

The sweet people at Sir Richards have a box of 12 assorted Condoms ‘The Collection’ to giveaway to three lucky winners!

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sir richards vegan condoms

 

 

 

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