Advent

I get to open the first box in my moo free advent calendar tomorrow!!!!

It has been sitting there taunting me for days!

I'm so excited!

I know it's far too late to make recommendations for anyone who hasn't got their calendars yet but here's what other vegan advent calendars I could have been nomming had I been greedy enough to want more than one:

Montezuma's Organic Dark Chocolate

Hotel Chocolat's Outrageously Priced £18 Advent Calendar (image not representative of real size)

Not this year, but in the past Divine have made one- looks yummy!!

I still think I chose the best one!!

I think I should have made this a chocolate blog, I'm really on a roll here, chocs have been mentioned three posts in a row :) I will probably do one more post on the theme of vegan christmas chocolates and then move on to some other kind of bean, the cocoa bean can only bear so much praising!!!

All because the lady loves...

No, not any kind of tray, milk or otherwise!

What this lady loves right now is MooFree!!! Mmmmmmm moofree. I've just ordered my MooFree advent calendar and I'm SO EXCITED!!! I admit I may be a bit hyper right now as I just ate half a bar of Organica White Chocolate.

I LOVE CHOCOLATE!

It's a misconception that vegans have to give up chocolate. Many even assume that cocoa butter involves some kind of cow lactation in its production. This is because many forget one simple fact. Like most good things (coffee, tofu, soy sauce, Jack's beanstalk) chocolate is made from beans. I'm not going to go into how exactly chocolate is made from these beans because a google search will tell you straight away, but I am going to list and rate some of the best vegan chocolates (whether dark or milk style) and dream of the day I'm given the best job in the world- vegan chocolate taster. Yum.

MOO FREE

Starting with my fave, the AMAZING Moo Free.

Many vegan chocolates have the problem of being too sweet (the rice milk varieties) too rich (the dark varieties) or have a funny aftertaste (the soya milk varieties). Well, Moo Free is a rice milk variety which strikes the balance perfectly. Not too sweet, not too rich, it just tastes like great quality milk chocolate, and as it says on the packet, they're setting the cows free! And the wee hamster is cuuuute! Even my mum who is much more discerning than I on the matter of chocolate was impressed. They do seasonal moo free products like advent calendars and easter eggs and also do chocolate drops and truffles. Anyone who wants to buy me the truffles for christmas, would make me a happy girl indeed. Kthnx :)

KINNERTON

Already previously mentioned for their awesome High School Musical lollipops (Sharpe and Chad were munched but I just can't bring myself to unwrap Troy) Kinnerton also do bars of chocolate which, although they are dark chocolate, are sweet enough and not too strongly flavoutred to satisfy even children I'd think. Not very excitingly packaged though, but easy to get from supermarkets which is a bonus.

PLAMIL

I want to like plamil chocolate, I really do. I love the Plamil choc spread I get from the Health Food store, which I eat by the gallon, and I have a tub of plamil mayo that I've yet to try. But having sunk my teeth into both their regular and sugar free varieties, I have to say that I get bored eating it and can't finish the bars. I'm excited to try their rum and raisin variety though, which sounds more up my street!

ORGANICA

I've yet to try Organica's milk style chocolate, but I know I find their white-style chocolate a bit on the oversweet side- it's like eating sweetened fat. I'm guessing that's cause it's mainly cocoa butter (fat) mixed with sugar. But I never liked white chocolate much anyway. My boyfriend on the other hand said it tastes like regular white chocolate, which must be a good thing, because white chocolate is his favourite.

DIVINE

Divine is fairtrade chocolate that's fairly well known and they produce a dark chocolate that is vegan. It's a little strong tasting for me (probably because it's 75%) but I like that it's an easy to find chocolate when I'm in a pinch.

HUMDINGER

Humdinger Dairy Free chocolates are in most supermarket's free from section and use soya flour, which I tend to find leaves a funny aftertaste. I have a bar of their chocolate and two or three packets of buttons on my bedside table for emergencies though, and because it's reasonably priced and easy to find it's my go-to milk-style chocolate for baking with.

BOOJA BOOJA

I can't believe I nearly made a post about chocolate which didn't mention BOOJA BOOJA. That's mostly because this post was meant to be about bars and booja booja make truffles. But boy are they good truffles. My lovely boyfriend sent me some booja booja champagne truffles when I was in France and they were amazing! Can't eat too many of them though (don't look at the nutritional guide on the back it'll give you a heart attack!) I like the banana ones too and the hazelnut are the best. Coffee ones are too strong though!!

Well now after all that you're probably wondering where to buy all these lovely choccies for my Christmas. This list isn't exhaustive, there are many other vegan chocolates out there, and so for the above choccies and many others here are some websites:

http://www.alotofchocolate.co.uk/menu/dairy-free-chocolates/all-dairy-free-chocolates

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/category/groceries-and-everyday/chocolate/chocolate-bars/vegan.htm

http://www.animalaidshop.org.uk/chocolate.htm

Happy chocolate eating!

Vegan Halloween

Well, November is world vegan month- how exciting! And I just had my first vegan halloween! My brother and dad carved up some pumpkins, we went to my aunts party (I cooked bloody toes (sosages n ketchup), worms in guts (spag bol), toxic slime (jelly) and pumpkin pasties!) and handed out bags of sweets last Sunday to the various small zombies, witches and ghosts who came to the door!

Of course, one of the big questions on the run up to all hallows eve was what sweets and chocs can I get that are vegan? Here's a run up of the top ten:


1. JELLY TOTS
Easy to get anywhere, this sugar coated fruit sweetie is cheap, yummy and accessible. It may not win in the health stakes, but who's trying to be healthy at halloween?

2. WHIZZERS CHOCOLATE BEANS
Available at Holland and Barrett or online, these smarties without the dairy or enumbers are yummy, but quite expensive to buy.
3. KINNERTON CHOCOLATE LOLLIPOPS
These are my favourite because there are so many designs!! Thomas the Tank Engine or Ben Ten for the lads and Hannah Montana or High School Musical for the lassies!! I currently have Sharpe, Chad and Troy on my bedside table (I must have accidentally given Gabriella to one of the kids, oops!) Available at most supermarkets.4. STRAWBERRY LACES
A classic, from any supermarket, and you can always say that they're worms ;)


5. CHUPPA CHUPS
Lollipop, lollipop o lolly lolly lolly lollipop lollipop o lolly lolly lolly LOLLIPOP. Lollitastic!


6. VEGEBEARS
These say Christmas to me, because I always get a box in my stocking, but they are great for halloween too. And no boiled up skin or bones in sight!



7. DAIRY FREE BUTTONS
Available in Sainsburys and Tescos. Not my favourite dairy free chocolate, but with milk choc and white choc alternatives they're a good quick fix and great on top of muffins!!


8. FIZZY COLA LANCES
Again the supermarket favourite, with a bit of fizz to give you some halloween fireworks in your mouth.


9. SHERBET
Can even do this homemade, and stick it in coke if you want to make a yukky non alcoholic halloween cocktail.


10. FOX'S GLACIER FRUITS
The big bags they come in made them super handy for the kids trick or treat bags.



I love halloween, and I love chocolate!!! This list is missing some of my fave vegan choccies so I'll have to do a Vegan Chocolate Top Ten soon!