Ok so, a few weeks ago I heard that Peter Murphy was doing a show at the Paradise in Boston. Despite the fact that Bauhaus is my favorite band uh of all time and has been forever (well, besides Elliott Smith I guess, but he’s not really a band), I wasn’t going to go, because I didn’t know anyone else who was going.

Then for some reason I decided to look at the ticket prices anyways. As I was glancing around the ticketmaster page, I first noticed that he was performing only Bauhaus material. I didn’t get to see Bauhaus during their last reunion tour, so I was already feeling like I HAD to go once I saw that. But THEN, realized there were “VIP” tickets for sale, and that they were only $40- or 50 something dollars (I forget). I thought that was, for once, a reasonable price (usually VIP tickets are in the $200-300 range so I never even consider the possibility of buying them) so I was all like, “what’s included with the price of the VIP ticket?”

When I saw that the VIP ticket included a meet and greet with Peter Murphy after the show , I almost didn’t believe. I’d dreamed for years and years about meeting him. I knew then that there was no way I couldn’t go.

I knew it was going to be a magical evening as soon as I pulled up to the Paradise Rock Club, because 1) I got lost on the way there and the GPS app on my phone saved me (the app is called Waze, it’s free!), and 2) I found a perfect parking spot on the corner of a street that didn’t even require parallel parking skills to secure! If you’ve parked anywhere in Boston you KNOW how incredible that is.

I hadn’t been to the Paradise Rock Club since I saw Silverchair there in 2007. Although I didn’t get anything to drink, the bar was the perfect place to hang out while I was waiting for the opening acts to be finished.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, he came on stage with his band. He started off with “King Volcano” and then followed that with “Kingdom’s Coming”. I don’t really remember that part of the show because I was too busy freaking out. But BUT after that, the bassline for Double Dare started and I LOVE that song so the rest of the room disappeared from that point on. In my opinion, this was the best part of the whole show. He sounded incredible, the band was great too.

He followed that up with “In the Flat Field” and “God in an Alcove” – two more of my favorites. One thing I really loved was how he moved on stage. He was dancing and getting into the groove and it was awesome and inspirational.

His band then played “Boys”, “Silent Hedges”, and “Kick in the Eye” (all fantastic). For “The Three Shadows” part 1 and 2, Peter got an acoustic guitar and accompanied himself and sounded totally beautiful. After that, he and his band played “She’s In Parties”, which also melted my face off. I freaking love that song, and the video is great too if you haven’t already seen it. They closed with “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” and a Dead Can Dance cover.

There were two encores – the best part was during the first one when they played “Dark Entries” and “Ziggy Stardust”. I realize this is a controversial statement, but I always preferred the Bauhaus version of Ziggy Stardust over the original. In fact, our family’s dog is named Ziggy in honor of that song.

Ziggy

I was slightly disappointed I didn’t get to hear my favorite Bauhaus song, “Hollow Hills”, but its kind of slow and dirge-y so I wasn’t surprised they didn’t play it.

After some puttering around, I found where the meet and greet was and got in line. Peter’s lovely assistant Wendy came out first to brief us all on meeting him. She said we’d get a photo and he’d sign 2 things. She also told us “don’t ask if you can sit on his lap” (lol). Luckily I was near the front of the line, so I didn’t have to wait long to see him.

So finally he came out and the meet and greet process began. When I met him, the first thing he said was “Hello, beautiful”, which of course rendered me basically speechless for the remainder of our meeting. That was fine, though, because he eloquently, beautifully, did all the talking. He asked me where I was from, and I said “Boston” (der), then he said he meant what was my ethnic background and I told him and we talked about his band for a minute and he signed the poster and also this bootleg Bauhaus tote bag I got off of eBay a zillion years ago.

After that, I told him I loved him (yeah seriously) and he said “I love you too”.

Then I went to the merch booth and got a free Tshirt. As an added bonus, my car did not get towed!

It sounds silly, but years and years ago I used to daydream about what it would be like to meet Peter Murphy, and I always just assumed it was impossible, like he was some far away inaccessible person. After Bauhaus called it quits (again), I thought I had missed my last chance to hear their music live. I never ever would have guessed that I’d be seeing him perform their music live AND get to meet him after the show. It’s nice to be reminded that dreams do come true.

With love and light,
adorpheus

Briefly, a bit of background for those of you who haven’t read my blog before: I cannot eat refined sugar. Well, I can eat it, it just makes me feel terrible so I choose not to. Generally, I can tell when something has sugar in it because when I eat sugar, it feels kind of like someone’s stabbing the inside of my mouth with a million tiny pin pricks. I’m not sure if I’m allergic or intolerant, but so much as one tablespoon of jam is enough to make my tongue itch. Even if sugar weren’t an issue for me, though, as someone trying to get fit, eating regular ice cream is out of the question most of the time because of the amount of empty calories in it. Although ice cream was my favorite food as a kid, the process of becoming vegan, ditching sugar because I realized it was making me sick, and trying to get in shape has pretty much meant I’ve had to give up ice cream entirely. I can think of a handful of times that I’ve eaten it in the past 10 years.

But you know what, this entry’s not going to be me whining about what I can’t eat, it’s going to be about WINK!

Wink Frozen Dessert is a vegan, soy free, sugar free, fat free, gluten free, nut-free, non-GMO frozen confection. It is basically ice cream, though there’s no cream in it. At a mere 25 calories per serving, it’s a fitness freak’s dream, as you can eat an entire container of it and still only consume 100 calories.

I found Wink Frozen Desserts after they followed me on Tumblr. I post a lot in the vegan and sugarfree tags unsurprisingly, since my Instagram photos get cross posted to Tumblr and 98% of the stuff I post is food related. I took one look at their website and realized I needed to try their products ASAP.

As of this posting, their products are only sold in the NY and Philly areas, so as I mentioned in my previous post, when I traveled to Philly from Massachusetts a couple weeks ago to attend DS9 Con, I made it a mission to acquire some.

Currently, Wink offers four flavors: Iced Latte, Cocoa Dough, Cinnamon Bun, and Cake Batter. The shop we found in Philly only had three of the four flavors (they were missing Cake Batter, no doubt because they were sold out of it). Luckily, Wink was able to send me 2 pints of Cake Batter so I could review it too.

When we were in Philly, I wanted to make sure no one else in our hotel room accidentally (or “accidentally” ) ate my ice cream so I put my name on it:

I had similar feelings about the pints of cake batter I got in the mail:

Ok ok hold on a sec. Before you start…

One thing I will suggest about eating this ice cream (and all vegan ice cream, for that matter): let it get just a little bit soft and melty before you dig in. I realize this is extremely difficult because it requires restraint, and vegan sugar free ice cream is JUST SO EXCITING that you want to eat it straight out the freezer, but it tastes a lot better when it’s given a chance to defrost a tiny bit. I believe this is something you should do for ALL ice cream (that’s why soft serve exists, right?), but it’s especially true for Wink. This is partially due to how cold affects the taste receptors on your tongue, but it also might be because of the sugar free nature of Wink.

Now that I’ve explained that, allow me to break it down flavor by flavor.

Cocoa Dough: I started with this flavor, because growing up, cookie dough was always my favorite. Though it lacks the chunks of cookie that so enthralled me as a child (which I admit disappointed me at first, but it’s probably for the best), it is still delicious. At first, I found this flavor to be a little “ice-y”, but after sampling it a few more times, I think I was stuffing my face with it too fast. Like I said above, this flavor definitely tastes better if you let it defrost for a couple minutes. Then your tongue can taste the cocoa a little more and it’s just so so so good.

Iced Latte: This is a coffee flavor, as the name suggests. When I had my first lick of this, I’m pretty sure I was instantly transported back to my childhood, where my mom was ordering a coffee ice cream for me at a local park on my Birthday and I was trying it for the first time ever (Salem Willows is the park, if you know it). I’m being serious. It’s been a VERY long time since I’ve had coffee ice cream, and that’s immediately what I thought of. I really missed this flavor! I felt the exact same excitement now as I did when I was a kid, like, “holy cow this is freaking delicious”.

Cinnamon Bun: There must be some kind of voodoo magic in this flavor, because it tastes exactly as the name suggests. And I should know, I am an expert on Cinnamon Buns (remember my pumpkin cinnamon bun recipe)? I’ve personally never seen a Cinnamon Bun ice cream before, so sorry if this is not news to you, but it is to me. This flavor rules. It’s really hard for me to choose a favorite, but this might be it. It was the most popular with my DS9 Con friends as well (though, to be fair, they didn’t get to try the next one).

Cake Batter: Eating this was my first foray into the world of Cake Batter ice cream, because I’m pretty sure it didn’t exist when I was a kid. I can see why Palm Tree Gourmet was sold out of this – it might be the best one. I dunno, though, I really like Cinnamon Bun too… and Cocoa Dough… Anyways! The texture of the cake batter is slightly creamier than the other flavors, closer to traditional ice cream. It tastes just like the yellow cake of birthday party fame. It doesn’t have sprinkles in it like most cake batter ice cream apparently does (I base this knowledge solely on pictures I’ve seen, having never eaten it before), but I don’t care. It is so good!

How does it compare to traditional ice cream? I can’t say for sure, as I haven’t eaten “real” ice cream in forever. Is it the same as regular ice cream? Obviously not. Eating a pint of it doesn’t fill you up quite the same way eating regular ice cream does, due to the lack of fat and sugar which might normally be sitting in your stomach like a brick. I don’t consider this a bad thing. I personally think Wink is better than regular ice cream, because I can eat it without feeling miserable afterwards. You may not agree.

Generally, I think that if you have spoiled taste buds from eating sugar and junk all the time, Wink may not taste that good to you, nor would most other healthy food. If, like me, you’re definitely NOT a sugar junkie, or you only eat it every once in a while, it is 100 calories of pure heaven. Who knows, though – the friends who I ate it with at DS9 con all eat sugar and they liked it too!

How does it compare to other sugar free ice cream? Most sugar free frozen desserts contain artificial sweeteners and aren’t vegan, so I’ve never tried any of them. The closest thing that I’ve seen (other than inSpiral’s raw vegan ice cream that I got when I lived in London and no longer have access to for obvious reasons) is the So Delicious brand of no sugar added coconut milk based ice cream. While the So Delicious stuff is good, it is still quite high in calories and is obviously not low fat, being made of coconut (which a lot of people are allergic to). It also has a coconut flavor that underscores the actual flavor of the ice cream, which not everyone is crazy about, though it doesn’t bother me. It also only comes in chocolate and vanilla, plus a mint chip one (supposedly they make two other flavors, but I’ve never seen them anywhere). The variety of flavors that Wink sells is a real treat in comparison. Like I said about Iced Latte above, being able to eat coffee flavored ice cream after ten+ years of not having it was fantastic. This, combined with the simpler ingredients in Wink, and the lack of fat, make me prefer Wink over So Delicious.

Price: Wink costs $8 a pint right now. Some people may say this is a lot, I think it’s pretty par for the course for specialty ice cream. Furthermore, I’ve said this millions of times but I’m gonna say it again – it is worth it to spend more on food that is better for you!

My only criticism of it is that it’s not organic (though the cocoa powder they use is) – however, it is Non-GMO which is the most important thing.

Actually, I have one other criticism – it’s not sold in the Boston area yet!! Wink have suggested on Facebook that expansion into my home state is happening soon, but for me, it can’t happen soon enough!

The only thing that might make Wink Frozen Desserts even better was if I could enjoy it out of a sugar free, vegan cone. Maybe someday. In the mean time, I’ve enjoyed it on waffles…

And in a “root beer float” (featuring ginger root Zevia):

Next up I wanna try making a banana split with it! I’ve never had one before, so I’ll let you know how it goes!

In conclusion, my feelings about Wink Frozen Desserts can be summed up in the following tweets:

I predict that Wink Frozen Desserts is going to be very popular. I can’t wait to see what else they come up with. My BFF Kate (Ell of The Farthest Star) said that the Wink mascot being a bean shaped scoop of ice cream made them wish Wink mochi ice cream existed – how awesome would that be?!? In the meantime, I’m just so grateful I can enjoy ice cream again.

Follow Wink Frozen Desserts on Twitter

Like Wink on Facebook

Circle Wink on Google+

Follow Wink on Tumblr

Follow Wink’s Boards on Pinterest

Love and light -

Xxxxxxx

adorpheus
]]> http://www.adorpheus.com/2013/05/this-is-why-i-wink-a-review-for-wink-frozen-desserts/feed/ 2 http://www.adorpheus.com/2013/05/a-weekend-of-star-trek-and-vegan-food-two-of-my-favorite-things/ http://www.adorpheus.com/2013/05/a-weekend-of-star-trek-and-vegan-food-two-of-my-favorite-things/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 21:12:43 +0000 Adrienne http://www.adorpheus.com/?p=1015 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } If you follow me on uh any social network at all, you may know I’m a huge Trekkie. Despite the fact that I’ve gone to probably hundreds of other (sci fi/fantasy/anime) conventions, I had never gone to a Star Trek con before. Of course this had to be remedied, so when my BFFs Kate and [...]]]>

If you follow me on uh any social network at all, you may know I’m a huge Trekkie. Despite the fact that I’ve gone to probably hundreds of other (sci fi/fantasy/anime) conventions, I had never gone to a Star Trek con before. Of course this had to be remedied, so when my BFFs Kate and Robyn (perhaps better known as Ell and Vynni of The Farthest Star) invited me to go to Creation’s official Star Trek con in Cherry Hill, NJ, obviously I said yes!

This con was mostly a DS9 event, since it was the 20th anniversary of DS9. Because of this, we referred to the event as “DS9con”. Previously, I hadn’t watched all of DS9 so I’ve spent the last 6 months or so watching it from the beginning. I’m so so SO happy I did, because its become my favorite Star Trek yet, and I am a hardcore TNG fan!

Since I live in Massachusetts again, we decided to drive down. Instead of staying at the convention hotel, we opted to stay at the Marriott Residence Inn which was a short drive from the con hotel. The best part of this was that we got to stay in a bi-level suite with a kitchenette! I’m all about cooking (and NOT all about going out to eat) so of course this was perfect for me. Upon arriving, I was so excited about the suite alone, I ran around and took these pictures of it:

After we settled in, our friend Cecil joined us and we tried to go see a screening of the Borg episodes of TNG (Best of Both Worlds)… but it stopped halfway through because I guess whoever was running it forgot to DVR the entire thing (seriously). On the upside, the theater gave us a refund and we briefly got to see this beautiful face in glorious high definition:

After that, we met up with some amazing new friends, Pogo and Cindy, who we were also sharing the suite with.

From this point, we were pretty hell bent on getting some food since as previously stated, I’m all about food. First off, I heard about a new brand of vegan and sugar free ice cream you can get in the New York and Philly area called Wink Frozen Desserts. Because I can’t eat sugar and I love ice cream, I made it a personal mission to obtain some as soon as humanly possible. So we went to a specific health food store (Palm Tree Gourmet) solely to get this ice cream.

My next blog post is going to be exclusively about Wink (yes, really) – all I’ll say for now is that we bought two of every flavor they had.

After I secured the ice cream, we went to a Wegman’s, which I guess is a grocery store that exists in places south of New England. To my immense pleasure, they had plenty of organic food. They also had a “British” food section which, despite being labeled “sweets”, was 90% tea. I also got this awesome reusable bag:

That night, I made us red lentil and cauliflower curry and we had drinks with mini palm trees in them.

The next morning, I made us sugar free, gluten free, vegan waffles (yes, I brought a waffle maker to the con… I also brought a blender).

They were delicious and luckily we had leftovers! I topped mine with some of the Wink ice cream.

After breakfast we headed to the con hotel to pick up our wrist bands and see the Armin Shimerman and Max Grodénchik Q&A. I just wanna say real quick, that I think Armin Shimerman is a freaking acting genius and I love Quark, so this was a real treat for me. When I say genius, well, thats an understatement. I don’t understand why he hasn’t, like, won multiple oscars and shit. I love Rom too! Aron Eisenberg (of Nog fame) also showed up halfway through which was awesome! I tried to take a few pics but there were people’s heads in my way (that, and I was having a hard time containing my excitement).

They spoke a little about DS9 being in the shadow of the other Star Trek series that were airing back then, and how, despite this feeling like a negative thing at the time, it was actually somewhat of a blessing in disguise because the writers were allowed a bit more freedom since they weren’t exactly under the same microscope as those on TNG and VOY. Because of this, the storyline of DS9 is (in our opinion) better than the other Star Trek series. I couldn’t agree more, and I think over time, people have come to appreciate DS9 more and more (including me).

We had a break after that, in which we went to a liquor store called “wine legend”. We mostly chose to go there because the name was funny. I have to say it was not that legendary, but they did have wine!

I have no photographic evidence of the following events, but after the liquor store we went to the Casey Biggs and Vaughn Armstrong Q&A. We were a little late getting there, but they played guitars and sang for half the panel which I thoroughly enjoyed. They played Star Trek oriented songs, which I can always appreciate. I haven’t watched any of Enterprise (though obviously, Vaughn Armstrong has played 9 zillion other characters so I have seen him before), but I have a bigger love for Casey Biggs from seeing him as Damar in DS9. It was so exciting to see them live.

After that was the Jeffrey Combs Q&A and omg it was AMAZING! I wasn’t sure what to expect despite the fact that Weyoun is my favorite on DS9, but I fell in love with him after seeing him live. He was so inspiring, eloquent, and nearly as charismatic on stage as he is on screen. He’s one of those actors that I can’t keep my eyes off of when he’s on screen, and he was just like that in real life. I loved everything he had to say! I wish I could have got a photo with him! Maybe next con… In the meantime, I’m going to familiarize myself with the rest of his filmography.

Later that night was an event titled “The Star Trek Rat Pack Returns” which was a rat pack style performance by Jeffrey Combs, Armin Shimerman, Casey Biggs, Vaughn Armstrong, and Max Grodenchik. We decided to dress up for this occasion, as shown by the above photo.

I REALLY wasn’t sure what to expect here, but this was seriously the highlight of the con. All of them put on brilliant performances, and wow Casey Biggs can really sing! There were lots of parody songs, some originals, lots of singing, and some guitar playing. Jeffrey Combs played guitar too! Most of all, they were all having ton of fun and it was definitely infectious. Me and my BFFs were on Cloud 9 the entire time and for the rest of the night (hell, probably for the rest of the weekend – I was still talking about how much I loved it days later!).

When we got back to the hotel, we took pics of ourselves in our rat pack finery. This one was my fav:

There are even more up on VentureCosplay!

Pogo also got a label maker which we went kind of crazy with by labeling everything in the room. I used it to put my name on my pints of Wink Frozen Dessert, and this happened:

The next day was andorians day. We woke up (sort of) early so we could paint ourselves blue. Before that happened, though, Robyn graciously made us tofu scramble for breakfast. I chose to consume it in collard wrap form with some salsa:

It was SO GOOD!

Ok so, then it was time for suiting up. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this in the past, but my andorian character is an OC named Lissan. We used a different kind of body paint this time, Mehron brand. It’s a slightly less green shade of blue, and I thought it worked quite well. I also chose to wear a different corset, it’s the one I originally made for my black Gardenia Mana costume.

In addition, Kate and Robyn let me use their dread wig, which looks 10 times better than the other one I was using.

When we got to the con, we were pretty heavily mobbed by photographers. A lot of people asked why we didn’t compete in the costume contest – to be honest, I don’t like cosplay contests because I find them boring. It was ok, though: this Kai Opaka cosplayer was the big winner of the contest and she definitely deserved it!

I took some shots of other cosplayers for VentureCosplay too. We also had a look around the dealer’s hall, where I saw a Starfleet Chip’n'Dip that I seriously need to own (at $175, it was too pricy for me to get now, but when I’m rich it’s the first thing I’m getting for my kitchen). At one point, Elijah from Priority One Podcast interviewed us for Priority One Episode 125. You can listen to the episode we’re in right here.

We went to the Avery Brooks Q&A, but our seats weren’t that good and it was hard to hear what anyone was saying. Regardless, it was brilliant to see him live and I appreciated the honesty and positivity in the words I could hear. Mr. Brooks’s love of kids was also extremely endearing. Lots of kids asked questions, and when they did, he invited them to come up to the stage, and it was way cute. I didn’t realize there were so many kids who love Star Trek too!

Oh and also at one point we went up to Michael Dorn’s table and I awkwardly asked if he was really a vegan (I had heard that he was, but wasn’t sure). He confirmed that he is indeed one and has been for like 7 years. Score!

Following the panel, we took at least 2000 more photos for con attendees before we decided to go take some photos in a nearby park because we saw these ridiculously pretty trees. It was Pogo’s idea, and I’m so glad we went, because the pics came out awesome!

Robyn and I were pretty tired after all that running around, so we headed back to the hotel. I made a delicious vegan grilled cheese with some sliced Daiya I got at Wegman’s. They don’t even sell sliced Daiya at any store near where I actually live so I was excited to try it.

Later on, Kate made some quesadillas with it too and they came out so freaking good.

The next day was a sad one, since it was the last day of con! We had waffles for breakfast (again) and packed up all our stuff. We got to the con hotel in time to catch some of Chase Masterson’s performance, she was gorgeous and incredibly sweet. Following her was the Rene Auberjonois and Ethan Phillips Q&A. I admit I’ve not watched much of Voyager, but I love Rene! They were incredibly funny together and I know it sounds silly but hearing Rene’s gravelly voice in person was rad. He was really eloquent and I loved both his interactions with the crowd and his answers to audience member questions.

We closed out our con experience by doing one more interview with Priority One and took this opportunity to get some pictures in front of the shiny Star Trek con lights:

We wanted to check out Philadelphia a little and to be honest, I wanted more Wink Frozen Desserts. I know, I know…. I’m pretty sure I’ve written more about food than I have about Star Trek in this entry. The following tweet from Ell and Vynni’s twitter account sums up my feelings on this topic:

Before driving back to MA we got dinner at a Thai place. I got “Jungle Curry”, not sure why it was called that but it was pretty ok. Not to brag, but the curry I make is better.

And yes, we actually did go out and get more Wink ice cream after this meal and ate it in the car on the way home!

Overall, this was among the best cons ever and definitely one of the best weekends I’ve ever had. It was fantastic to be able to attend only Star Trek related programming for an entire con, and not worry about missing anything, which is what usually happens to me at conventions with multiple categories of events. I met so many awesome new friends and seeing other people who love Star Trek as much as I do ruled. I feel so much more inspired in all ways since the con, which just goes to show that a little bit of fun is sometimes exactly what you need to motivate yourself.

I have to give a major shout out to my BFFs/roommates for making this con awesome. I’ve never been a part of the “cool kids cosplay club” or whatever you wanna call it, so its great to feel like I finally belong somewhere.

Love and light -
adorpheus
(Lissan sh’Zarath )

Since I started juicing, I’ve become interested in buying more organic produce. Apples, lettuce, cucumbers, and pretty much all the ingredients you’d use to make a green juice are on the dirty dozen, and I don’t really want to be drinking pesticides every day.

As of this post, I live in Thornton Heath, South London. There are no health food stores or organic food stores here at all. The grocery store closest to me is a Tesco, and their organic produce section is pretty lacking. To be honest, though, what finally prompted me to try an organic food delivery service was Tesco’s organic apples. I go through like half a crate of them a week because I use them in my green juice, and I was getting pretty annoyed with the Tesco ones. Despite the price, their organic apples are tiny and – I can’t stress this enough – they don’t taste like anything! I don’t know why they’re so flavorless, but they are. They were robbing me of green juice joy.

After looking around online, I glanced over a few different companies before I chose Abel & Cole. The main reason I chose them over some of the other organic box services is because they actually deliver to my postcode, and because I thought their prices were the best. Oh, and I’m not going to lie, their brand image is very warm and inviting.

To make things clear: this is a 100% honest review. I am not getting paid by anyone to write it, and I don’t get any free veg boxes from telling you about them (I don’t have any affiliate codes to share).

How it works

Ordering from Abel & Cole is not that different from ordering groceries online from a supermarket, except for the fact that virtually everything they sell is organic. The cornerstone of their delivery service is that they sell organic fruit and veggie “boxes” which come with a variety of seasonal fruit and/or vegetables. They choose what produce goes in the box for you each week, so its kind of a surprise what you’ll receive. If there’s a certain food you don’t like, however, there’s a place on the website where you can make note of what foods you don’t want to receive. You can opt to have a box delivered weekly, every other week, and so on.

Besides the fruit/veg boxes, you can order fruits, vegetables, supplements, baked goods, drinks, cereal, baking supplies, household goods, meat/dairy, dairy alternatives, and a ton of other stuff “a la carte” style in addition to your weekly box if you want. You can also opt to have individual items sent on a weekly basis, or a one off basis.

Choosing a box

Instead of going with a veg box or a mixed fruit/veg, I decided to go with a fruit box as my weekly box. This is mostly because I didn’t want to risk them giving me vegetables I wouldn’t know what to do with – I have a hard enough time figuring out what to make for dinner without throwing vegetables I’m unfamiliar with into it. I pretty much love all fruit though, so I knew regardless of what they gave me that I’d be able to eat it raw or juice it. Additionally, the Tesco closest to me sells a lot of organic vegetables, but barely any organic fruit, so I was more interested in being able to eat a wider variety of fruit.

Price

One thing that originally prevented me from eating more organic produce was the cost. The boxes from A&C are very affordable. Their small boxes are actually quite cheap at £6 for the fruit one and £11-12 for the veg one. Because I like a lot of food, I actually sprung for the medium fruit box, which is still only £11.50. If you’re into juicing, they also sell a juicing box that’s £16.50.

If you’re picking and choosing individual produce (rather than ordering a box), some of their veg IS more expensive than it would be at a regular grocery store, depending on how much you want. I go through 2kg of organic carrots a week, and at least 6 cucumbers – those are both significantly cheaper at Tesco, so I’ve opted to get them from Tesco instead (I admit that the A&C veg is probably fresher, though – the last lot of carrots I got from Tesco were a bit chewy). For most of the other stuff, though, the prices are about the same as you’d spend anywhere else.

Ordering and Delivery

As someone without a car who lives 2 miles from the store, I almost always order my groceries online. So it’s worth noting that Abel & Cole’s delivery charge is only 99p – this is less than all the major grocery stores. Tesco’s cheapest delivery charge is £3 for a weekday delivery and goes up to £6 on the weekends, but don’t hold your breath on getting one of the cheapest slots. Furthermore, you have to be at home to receive the order from most grocery stores, where as A&C will drop off your box(es) in a location of your choosing if you’re not home. On the other hand, though, you don’t get to choose what day or time of day A&C deliver your boxes. This doesn’t bother me, and they deliver to CR7 on Fridays which I’m ok with.

Sometimes they run out of certain things, so if you order something specific and it isn’t in stock, they’ll send you an email letting you know that. They ran out of apples one week, for example, and I had to get my apples from Tesco that week instead.

They also often send free gifts, and you can let them know if you’re a vegan, so they won’t send you something you don’t want to eat. Thank god for that! The only options they have are vegan/vegetarian though – you can’t specify allergies or anything else. They sent me a loaf of bread one week and a free carton of soya milk the week before that. If I were coeliac or allergic to soy, I’m not sure what I’d have done with the gifts (as it were, I don’t normally eat gluten because it makes me sleepy – but I made an exception that week because, come on, free bread. I took a lot of naps that week).

They send you booklets with every box and I got a free “veg box guide” (above) with my first box that has some really good looking recipes in it, including vegan ones.

Lastly, they send most of the produce without plastic on it, which I’m happy about. So far the only things I’ve ordered that came in plastic were a punnet of spinach, herbs, chilies, and some cucumbers.

I wish you could understand how good this tasted

Variety

One of the other things that inspired me to order from them was the variety of stuff they offer. The produce offered by Abel & Cole changes with the seasons, and they have a lot of stuff you just can’t get at a Tesco or Sainsburys – organic or otherwise.

I was only really interested in the produce they sell – but if you care about pretty much any other organic products, Abel & Cole probably sell it. From a vegan point of view, you like veggie burgers, meat substitutes, soy yoghurt, and/or ready meals, they sell a bunch of vegan AND gluten free products in this section that I’d never seen even at a Holland and Barrett.

Additionally, they sell a bunch of vegan and organic alcoholic drinks, which I’ve definitely never seen anywhere else. I’m not that much of a drinker, but I ordered a bottle of wine for a stew I was making and it was so nice to not have to do research to figure out which brands at the supermarket are vegan and/or organic – all the information is laid out for you on the Abel & Cole website so you don’t even have to think about it.

The only thing I’m a little disappointed so see they don’t offer is a vegan milk other than soya milk. They don’t sell hemp milk, rice milk, or almond milk, for example. It’s possible there isn’t enough of a demand for it, or it might be because most of the organic brands of almond and hemp milk available in Britain are laughably expensive (when I lived in Bath, there was a health food store that sold organic hemp milk for £8 a carton – seriously). They only just started selling almond and hemp milk in Tesco here this year, so I think this will change in the near future.

The Taste

Ok, so, this was the entire reason I ordered from them in the first place. I wanted better tasting apples. To be honest, I have always been skeptical about whether or not organic/locally grown/whatever food tastes better than conventionally grown, as people sometimes suggest.

Speaking of hard-to-find produce, maybe I’ve been living in “The Thornton Hizzle” too long, but Swiss chard is something I’ve never seen in an actual British grocery store (Sainsburys or Tesco). I’ve heard some Tescos sell it, whatever, I’ve never seen it. As a leafy green enthusiast, I’ve been wanting to try it for years. I ordered 2 bunches of it in addition to my fruit box. When it arrived, I used some of it in my green juice, and I also threw together this lentil soup with it.

I can’t stress how completely delicious this soup was, and I’m convinced the chard had a lot to do with that. I didn’t even use vegetable stock (I didn’t have any), and it still tasted incredible. The chard added an amazing amount of flavor and texture, I may post the recipe if you guys are interested in it.

A week or two after that, I got some Williams pears in my fruit box. The pears were not ripe yet when I got them, so I put them in a bag with some bananas for a few days. When they were ripe, I ate one with low expectations because I don’t normally like pears that much. Well, apparently I’ve been eating the wrong pears, because these ones tasted orgasmically good. Seriously. I can not possibly describe how good they were. I ate all 6 of them in one day, they were SO freaking good.

So what about the apples? For starters, the ones Abel & Cole sends me are bigger than the ones Tesco sells. They’re also a lot uglier. Luckily, I don’t care how ugly they are because I’m not interested in eating the most beautiful looking apples, I want the ones that are going to actually taste good. And the ones Abel & Cole sells are completely delicious. I can barely believe the difference they make in my green juice – I actually can enjoy drinking it again! Shocking, I know.

I could probably talk for days about some of the other incredible things I’ve eaten thanks to them. I never knew grapefruit could taste so good!! And don’t get me started on the mangoes.

Overall

I didn’t care about organic food before I ordered from Abel & Cole. I mean, sure, avoiding pesticides is good, but organic food is so much more expensive, I usually questioned whether or not it was worth it. After ordering from them, my mind is completely changed. They’ve pretty much re-ignited my passion for fruit and veggies. From now on, I’m not buying anymore conventionally grown produce – period (not even stuff on the “Clean Fifteen”).

If you have been thinking about ordering from them, you should just stop reading this now and go order from them.

If you’re still puttering around because of the cost of organic vs. conventionally grown like I was, I’m gonna be blunt here – it’s worth the price, so suck it up. Do you want to eat produce free of pesticides or not? Do you care enough about your own well being to maybe set aside some of your other pointless expenses in order to get food that tastes better and is better for you? Here’s a huge tip: stop going out to eat and start cooking! I’m probably (…definitely) poorer than you. Once you make a commitment to doing something for yourself instead of constantly using your lack of money as an excuse to stay stuck, you’ll often be surprised by the abundance that’ll come to you as a result. I know I have.

If you’ve been reading my twitter you’ll probably know that as of the first, I have to move back to the US, and not because I want to. I’m going to miss a lot of things about living here, but Abel & Cole’s deliveries will be what I miss the most. Their food, gifts, and friendliness have helped make my last few weeks here better than any of my previous years. I’ll cherish the book they gave me, and I’m so grateful that they helped change my mind about organic food. Someday, when the home office decides I’m allowed to live here again, the first thing I’ll do when I get back on UK soil is restart my deliveries – plus I’ll get a veg box too! I wish there was some other way I could express my gratitude to them, but this post will have to be it.

Love and light –
xxxxxxx
adorpheus

Happy St. Patrick’s day! I am spending today heading to the Veg Fest in Hove, but I figured that before I head out, I’d share with you the raw green smoothie recipe that’s been my go-to on days when I’m not making green juice.

Apparently around this time of year, a certain fast food chain makes shamrock shakes (McDonald’s? I have no idea). I’ve never had it, but I can bet it tastes like a bunch of sugar and chemicals with green food coloring dumped into it. Instead of trashing your body with garbage like that this St. Patrick’s Day, try this super easy, creamy, super food shake instead (ok, you could probably mix in a shot of homemade vegan baileys if you want to be a little naughty).

Easy Shamrock Shake
+ 3 ripe bananas, peeled and frozen
+ 25 to 50 g spinach or collard greens depending on your preference
+ 1 TBSP maca powder or cacao nibs or 1 tsp of spirulina (see note)
+ a few splashes of filtered water, coconut water, or almond milk

Put the first three ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender (don’t use a cheap blender for this!). Add a splash or two of the water on top and then process or blend until creamy (I use a food processor and it takes about ten minutes, in a Vita Mix or other high speed blender it’ll probably take no time at all). If you’re using a food processor, be sure to stop and scrape down the sides every few minutes.

Note: I pretty much always use maca in this recipe because I love it, but if you use spirulina, it’ll come out even more green! If you go for the cacao, I recommend nibs, not powder! For some reason, the nibs just add a perfect flavor and crunchy texture that the powder is lacking… plus the shake will stay green! Cacao powder will turn it kinda gray. You can also use a combination of any of these – I did one tablespoon of maca AND one of cacao nibs in this recipe before and it was delicious.

You could also probably use chlorella, wheatgrass, or a mix like Vitamineral Green, but I’ve never tried any of these so I can’t be sure how it’ll taste!

Wishing you angel blessings this St. Patrick’s Day -

Xxxxxxx
adorpheus

Today was garbage day. A few days ago, one of my less considerate roommates put a bag of rubbish outside on the ground, because there wasn’t enough room in the barrel. As this was the kitchen trash, it was full of food scraps and delicious juice pulp, so of course the next morning the bag had been completely destroyed by animals. This resulted in rubbish being strewn all over the front yard.

I was hoping whoever did it would own up to it and clean up the mess they had inadvertently caused. After many days of garbage in the front yard though, I realized that was not going to happen.

I was getting pretty sick of seeing a shitty pile of kitchen scraps every time I look out my bedroom window, so this morning, I decided to suck it up, put on some gloves and go out there and clean it up myself.

I have an irrational fear of mold. I can’t explain why, I just hate it – I have to hold back a shriek every time I have to handle moldy food, even when its just to throw it in the bin. There was this one time when I was a kid and I made a sandwich on moldy bread and didn’t notice it was moldy until I took a bite (I literally screamed when I saw it), maybe that’s where it comes from, not sure. So I wasn’t looking forward to this, but I prepared myself mentally.

As I was cleaning it up, I realized that because it had been so cold lately, none of the food was even moldy – it was pretty much all frozen. So cleaning it up was actually easy and not scary at all. The gloves made a huge difference too, I’m really grateful we had them. Less than ten minutes later, I had cleaned up all the trash.

I put all the rubbish into a new bag and put the bag in the barrel, where it would be protected from animals ripping it open again.

I was totally proud of myself, plus we have a clean garden now.

So I think the moral of the story is suck it up and clean up the rubbish in your life instead of whining about it, even if you don’t think it’s your fault, because it won’t actually be so bad when you just do it. Then you won’t have to deal with rubbish in your front garden.

Or something like that.

Love and light -
Xxxxxxx

I stayed at the Riverhouse Backpackers Hostel. I’ve stayed – and lived – in a lot of hostels in my time but this was definitely the nicest one yet. I arrived on a Tuesday night. I met a new friend from Korea in my room and we went to have a drink, it was awesome.

Ceramics are one the few art forms I care about (well, that would be found in a museum anyways) so coincidentally they are the only thing I took photos of:

I went back home to Thornton Heath that afternoon! I still miss it, I wanna go back!

2013

I would write about my resolutions for this year, but my main resolution is to make more miracles! And that’s all there is to say.

Fun fact: this is the first entry I’ve written entirely on my iPhone. Thanks, Poster app!

Xxxxxxx

Happy Halloween, blog family. Today is the last day of Vegan Month of Food. I decided to participate in veganmofo completely on a whim, literally the day before it started, but I’m so happy I did. I’ve discovered so many wonderful blogs and recipes from it. It’s been a bit of a crazy month between working on my record and writing these posts. It was a major challenge for me to post almost every day, but I succeeded in reaching my goal of at least 20 posts, so yay!

Ok so as a quick aside, I tried the tesco cheese I reviewed in this post in a grilled cheese and it was amazing and I have updated the post to reflect this information.

Today’s recipe is sugar-free pumpkin cinnamon rolls. These cinnamon rolls are not super sweet on their own, but you can add +10 sweetness by glazing them, putting icing on them, or eating them alongside some vanilla ice cream. I don’t have a big sweet tooth so I don’t bother to glaze mine, and I am also lazy, but there’s a fantastic glaze recipes here on Chocolate Covered Katie, or if you know of any other recipe, use that.

Sugar Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from here
Makes 8 Cinnamon rolls
For the rolls:

• 1 packet dry yeast
• 3 TBSP Granulated Stevia or NuNaturals Stevia Baking Blend
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1/4 cup (61g) pumpkin puree
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups flour

For the filling:
• 1/2 cup (122g) pumpkin puree
• 1 cup granulated Stevia
• 1 TBSP Pumpkin pie spice
• 1 banana, mashed (about 1/2 cup)

Method: Proof the yeast by mixing it with the water and the stevia in a small bowl. It should bubble and look foamy. Once done, add the yeast mixture to the nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and whisk in the pumpkin until it is mostly dissolved in the water.

Add 2 cups of flour to the water mixture one cup at a time and start kneading the dough. As you knead the dough, add the remaining cup of flour little by little. I usually knead the dough for about 15 minutes.

Roll the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl with a towel over it to prevent it from drying out. Set aside the dough to rest for an hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling by mixing all the ingredients – either in a food processor or by hand.

Preheat the oven to 175 c / 350 f. Once the dough has risen, divide it in half. Take one half of the dough and roll it out into a 9″x13″ rectangle, and spread half the filling on it, leaving 2 inches at the bottom like this:

Starting at the top, roll the dough until you reach the part with no filling. Then, wet the dough at the bottom a little with some water and finish rolling, like this:

Placing the roll fold side down, cut the roll into 4 equal pieces and place on a cookie sheet or other oven-safe dish.

Repeat the process with the other half of the dough and filling.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Once cool, add icing. Eat. In my opinion, they taste even better the next day!

I love you all and thank you for putting up with my posts all month.

Until next time…

xxxxxxx
adorpheus

Because I’ve been posting a lot about sugar free baking and cooking, I’ve been getting questions here and there about how to properly use stevia in sugar free baking, since there are so many varieties of it. So I’m writing this post about it now, since tomorrow’s recipe is going to be sugar free!

But first, check out the above vintage orange measuring cups I got from Ritas Garden on Etsy! I can’t wait to bake with them. There’s even a 2/3 cup measure! OMG!

Ok so there are basically four types of stevia: the uncut kind, the liquid, the granulated kind for baking, and the packets.

Pure Stevia in its “uncut” form is over 200 times sweeter than sugar. It comes in a powder. Therefore, when you’re using this kind, you use a tiny amount – 1/16th of a teaspoon of the powder would be more than enough to sweeten a cup of coffee. Because of the amount of guesswork involved, it’s very difficult to use this kind of stevia in baking (though people have tried, as it used to be the only kind of stevia available). It works best for things like coffee, hot cocoa, tofu pudding, or chocolate sauce – things where you have to add sweetener to taste.

Stevia liquid is similar to the above – you use it in tiny amounts to flavor things. 4 drops of alcohol based stevia liquid is enough to sweeten a cup of tea. Because of this, it is also best used the same way – when you need to sweeten something “to taste”. The main difference between the liquid and the uncut powder is, in my experience, the liquid dissolves better in cold and room temperature beverages (like lemonade, or when making sugar free maple syrup or chocolate sauce), while the powder dissolves better in hot beverages like tea and coffee. I do not know why.

Granulated (or baking blend) stevia is stevia combined with filler material so it is appropriate for use in baking. Usually you can use it on a 1 to 1 ratio with sugar. In plain English, that means it can be used the exact same way as sugar in all recipes. Most of the time it comes in a standard granulated form, but it also comes in in a powder. Be warned that while most stevia powder is free from milk and other allergens, not all stevia powder is vegan – sometimes it is mixed with lactose or other milk-based fillers. I know, for example, that Trader Joe’s sells 2 kinds of stevia powder – one that comes in packets and one that comes in a bottle – and the one that comes in a bottle is made with lactose (the packets are vegan though).

Speaking of which, stevia also comes in packets (either powdered in packets, or in little tablets in packets). These are mostly for sweetening tea and coffee, but I’ve been known to toss a couple packets in a recipe here or there. Despite this, however, I don’t recommend trying to bake with the kind in packets unless, again, you’re only going to use 1-2 packets. Most of the time it will not work with the same ratios as the granulated stuff above.

Unlike most artificial sweeteners, the taste of stevia varies from brand to brand and not all of them are good. Some brands taste good in small amounts, but will turn whatever you’re making bitter if you use too much. Other brands just don’t taste good at all.

I haven’t sampled every brand, but I have tried a lot of them. I’ve said this already, but NuNaturals makes the best tasting stevia (liquid, uncut powder, and baking blend). Pretty much everyone agrees on this. The main downside is that their Baking Blend is not calorie free, so if you avoid sugar for diet reasons or if you count calories, that may be of concern to you. It definitely is to me, so I usually use Stevia in the Raw for baking instead, it is also great in coffee and tea. The Trader Joe’s packets are good in small amounts, but, like I said above, they don’t work in baking or pretty much anything where you’re going to use more than 2 packets. More than that will turn whatever you’re making bitter.

I’ve also tried the Whole Foods brand liquid, and the Truvia packets – I didn’t really like either of these that much, but I’d like to try the other varieties these brands offer.

Hopefully this will clear some things up and you’ll be making sugar-free sweets in no time.

The last day of veganmofo is tomorrow! And it’s also Halloween! Sadly, I have no Halloween plans at all this year, other than sharing a recipe with you guys. It’s too bad, I love Halloween.

Until then…

xxxxxxx
adorpheus

Hello mofoers!! This is the sequel to my other post about the line of Free From vegan cheese substitutes at Tesco.

Tesco Free From Soya Medium

I think this is supposed to be a cheddar style cheese, versus the mild which is supposed to be like mozzarella. Uncooked, the cheese tasted good. Since the package shows nachos, I again decided to follow the “serving suggestion” and make nachos with it.

I’m not sure if its because I cooked this slightly longer than the pizza, but this cheese was WAY better texture wise than the one I reviewed last time. It also melted easily and it tasted really good. I was pleasantly surprised. It even had a bit of real-cheese style stretchiness, which most vegan cheese is definitely lacking. I was officially impressed. While I do want to try making nachos again, I’d really like to try grilled cheese with it. It was a little drier than Daiya (which could be seen as a good thing – Daiya is a little bit greasy at times), but with a few improvements, I think this could be as good. Next time I make a pizza, I will probably mix this in with the soya mild.

UPDATE

The day after I wrote this post I made the above grilled cheese with this and it was amazing. The cheese melted easily and was stretchy too. I’m so excited I can finally have decent vegan grilled cheese in this country! Thank you, Tesco. I used to think Sainsbury’s was better than you, but after this, I’ve pretty much changed my mind on that one.

Tesco Free From Creamy Style Garlic and Herb Spread

Supposedly there is a plain version of this that is supposed to be a straight-ahead cream cheese substitute, but they only ever have this garlic and herb version at the Thornton Heath Tesco. It’s too bad, I’d really like to try the plain version to see how it compares to the Tofutti cream cheese, and to make a cheesecake with it. I’m not really a cream-cheese-on-bagel for breakfast type girl, but I love a good vegan cheesecake and I haven’t made one in years.

Since it is a cream cheese substitute (I think), I decided to try it on a bagel. It was… not bad. I don’t really like flavored cream cheese that much, and like I said, I’m not a big bagel eater or whatever, so I’m probably not the best judge… but I didn’t think it was nearly as good as Tofutti’s. If you can get Tofutti instead, I would say go for that. Like I said in the last post, there is no Holland and Barrett in Thornton Heath (by the way: WTF, H&B), so I don’t have that option, unless I want to go all the way to Croydon central to get some (I don’t). Maybe the plain kind is better, though – I hope the Tesco near me starts stocking it so I can try it.

Oh, one other thing – if you like tofu omelettes, I bet any of the Tesco cheeses, including the above cream cheese or the other cheddar style spread would be great on an omelette. I’m not really a fan of tofu omelettes myself, unfortunately. I have yet to find a vegan omelette recipe that I loved… but maybe someday.