Vegan Recipe of the Week- Breakfast Ideas

This week is a slightly different version of the VROTW feature. So many people ask me what vegans can eat for breakfast other than porridge or cereal with soy milk, that I thought I'd do a breakfast feature to offer some inspiration.

Monday

Start the week off with a delicious Oat Bagel served with dairy-free butter, jam and a banana.

Tuesday

Bake some delicious fruit muffins with banana, nuts or cranberries and have a muffin and coffee.

Wednesday

Grab some delicious fresh organic fruit and a Nakd bar for breakfast on the run.

Thursday

Keep it simple with fresh granary toast and baked beans with a little brown sauce.

Friday

Make some Jus-Rol Croissants and take them in for your colleagues - Friday treat time!

Saturday

Try a vegan sausage and hash brown roll or VBites Bacon and hash brown roll with a glass of chocolate almond milk.

Sunday

Make it a Sunday Brunch with a full English, vegan sausage and bacon, mushrooms, hash browns, granary toast and baked beans.

Special Days - Anniversaries, Birthdays, Valentine's Day etc.

Treat the loved one in your life to delicious iced cinnamon rolls freshly baked and served in bed with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Perfect!

What are your favourite breakfast ideas? Share in the comments below. For more recipe ideas click here.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews...Frank Bars

Have you tried Frank Bars yet? 

If not, then go grab some today, because they are delicious, chocolatey and yet surprisingly healthy. They are gluten-free, nut-free and dairy-free, vegan-friendly and packed with fruit and protein and bags of energy. All this disguised as a yummy chocolate bar! 

The lovely people at Frank Food Company sent me a selection pack to sample for you (it's a tough job!!) and I really liked them. The orange and strawberry were my favourites. They are really filling and would be great to take on a walk, run or cycle for extra energy.

They have a range of flavours including Orange, Blueberry, Strawberry, Double Chocolate and Oat.

They are a British company based in North Yorkshire and have stockists all over the UK.

You can follow them on Twitter here or Facebook here.

What are you go-to snack bars of choice? Share in the comments below.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

The Ordinary Vegan - Nakd Bars - raw vegan snack bars

This week on TOV, I'm talking all about Nakd Bars. These bars have really taken off recently and you can find them for sale almost everywhere, which is great news for vegans and raw vegans alike! I have seen them for sale at supermarkets, newsagents, department stores, health food stores, online retailers, direct online and at discount stores.

They are at all of the vegan expos and shows, and have fab taster counters where they have literally thousands of bars cut up for you to try in all of their flavours. My favourite flavour of the moment is Ginger Bread, but they have lots of different flavours including mint, mocha, banana, berry and many more.

They are made by Natural Balance Foods, which also make Nakd Protein Bars, Oatie Bars, Infused Raisins, Trek Protein Bars and Trek Protein Flapjacks.

Here's what their website has to say about Nakd Raw Bars...

Our simplest and most beloved bars. Just raw fruits and nuts smooshed together. Containing 100% natural ingredients with no added sugars or syrups,  these bars are also wheat, dairy and gluten free, and bursting with yummy goodness. With a soft, chewy texture they fill you up till your next meal and most count towards 1 of your 5 a day too. Ideal for lunchboxes, grabbing on the go and refuelling between meals!

So if you haven't tried these bars yet, go grab a couple. They are filling, tasty, healthy, vegan, gluten and wheat free, raw, made of fruit and fab! They retail for between 75-99p.

Come back tomorrow for my next Vegan Recipe of the Week!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Raw Almond Cookie Bites and Pt.2 UK Vegan Food Swap

This week's Vegan Recipe of the Week is not one of mine. This recipe was sent to me in my August UK Vegan Food Swap parcel by the lovely Chrissie, who is a raw wholefood vegan. She sent me all of the ingredients and a hand written recipe along with a raw snack bar, vanilla chai tea, some gorgeous vegan soaps and a tea towel. This was all packaged up in a nice glittery box chosen by her daughter, and a lovely note card. I felt very spoiled. I was looking forward to making the cookie bites as I have never made a raw dessert recipe before.

So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsoaked almonds

1/4 cup of unsoaked walnuts

pinch of salt

1/3 cup unsoaked pitted dates

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 cup dried cherries

1/4 almond ground almonds or almond flour

     

Method:

Put the almonds, walnuts and salt into a food processor with the s-blade and process until coarsely chopped. 

Add the dates and almond extract and continue to pulse until the mixture begins to stick together. Don't over-process.

Add the cherries and pulse again briefly then transfer to a bowl.

Roll 1 tbsp of the mixture in your hands to form a ball and roll in the ground almonds before placing on a plate. Repeat until you have used all of the mixture.

Put the plate in the fridge for at least an hour until chilled and set.

Eat and enjoy!

These Raw Almond Cookie Bites keep well in the fridge for up to a week and are delicious. So thanks to Chrissie for the recipe. I can't wait until next month's food swap! You can read about the box I sent out in Pt.1 of this blog post here.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Cofresh Snacks - getting my vegan snack on!

Cofresh Snacks are available in most supermarkets in the UK in the world foods aisle, in mini-markets and corner shops, Home Bargains, Wilkinsons, most newsagents and in Indian food shops. All of the range is vegetarian and most of the range is vegan too. For my international readers their website says they are also available in the USA, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe.

I'm not saying they are good for you or healthy but sometimes a vegan just wants to get her snack on! Settling down to watch a film or having a quick snack in my bag when I'm out shopping, or just something quick in the freezer for dinner is always useful.

What I love about them is they are good value and found in most places in the UK, which is useful if you are out and need a quick bite.

They have a range of bars - peanut, pistachio and sesame seed to name a few.

They have large sharing bags of potato or corn snacks, such as Chilli Hoops, Jalapeno, Chilli and Lemon. These are also available in small individual bags in local newsagents and Nisa Local.

They sell bags of savory snacks with nuts such as Bombay Mix, Balti Mix and Vindaloo Mix. This pack is almost finished, I couldn't wait before taking the picture!

Cofresh also do a frozen foods range which includes Vegan Burgers, Spring Rolls and Samosas.

I haven't tried everything in the range yet, but what I have had, I have enjoyed. So thanks Cofresh for bringing vegan-friendly food to the mass market.

When I am not getting my snack on, I do love cooking fresh vegan food from scratch. Check out my blog every Tuesday for a new recipe.

Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine! VVx