HEALTH FOOD HAUL

My beautiful bounty of health food

Just got in from a fabulous morning out with my dad and have jumped straight on my laptop to blog it. Rest of the family are away so we went to the local town of Petersfield and visited this great health food shop called 'The Bran Tub' then loaded with goodies headed over to a health food cafe called 'The Natural Apothecary'. Seriously I'm buzzing from this trip, we never get specialized health stores this good in where I live. So here are the things I chose to buy and some pictures of the health food cafe for you all!

 Ok, this is my first try at kale chips and seriously I don't know why you would choose potato crisps over these. THEY ARE AMAZING. These ones are, raw, vegan and gluten free and as they're raw the chips are made though dehydrating them so no oil is needed for baking or frying. The cheesy taste comes from nutritional yeast and cashew nuts so not only do you get the goodness of kale but B12 and protein  from the yeast and nuts. Admittedly they are a little pricey (£3.95 for the tub if you cant see) but I would pay the money again for it with out a thought. Its worth it for the nutrition and intense crunchy savory hit you get.



Here's the Miso paste I got. Now I adore Miso soup and this Miso paste looked really interesting as it's a field bean barley Miso that's 'live' and unpasteurized. Because this Miso is made from field bean barley it means it's produced locally in the UK as the beans and barley can be grown in the cool climate of rainy Britain. Also being used to white Miso I thought it would be interesting to try a darker version as it's ment to have a deeper stronger flavor. If your anemic (like moi) or vegan or even vegetarian and need your B12, Miso is high in it and it can also help your immune system so get it down your gullet lads.

Next is some Buck Wheat puffs! Originally I was looking to see if they did Quinoa puffs but then I found these! I had trouble deciding between these and the Millet Puffs but these had less fat in them (however the Millet had more protein, you win some you lose some). BigOz are a great organic company, all there cereals are gluten free, nut free, GM free and dairy free. BigOz also support some thing called 'Project Le Monde' which helps underprivileged communities in Uganda, so you can feel good while eating your cereal. These buckwheat puffs taste nuttier (and better) then your average rice krispie and have 2.91g of protein per 30g serving which isn't bad for a cereal..

As you can see I've already got in and had a square of this chocolate bar and I can happily say it's wonderful. It's a raw, vegan organic bar of chocolate goodness with goji berries and vanilla. I don't really need to say any more..

 
 To the left is some smoked tofu. Again it's organic which is great and it's a slightly different make to what I normally buy. See, I often buy 'Dragonfly Organic Tofu' which is made locally in Devon but this tofu had less packaging, was cheaper and looked pretty good so I thought, why not? I normally grill my smoked tofu with a little soy sauce to really bring out the smokiness. I really want to try some different tofu products as tofu is really good for you, it's literally just a block of protein and fiber.

 This is the best Jam ever. Honestly.

 It's a high fruit jam and has no added sugar, instead it uses fruit juice concentrate to give it that jammy sweetness. This means its brilliant for diabetics, low GI diets and controlling the amount of refined sugar you intake. PLUS it tastes delicious. I've had these jams before  but never the black cherry one but its so darn good. In nearly every spoon full you get a whole juicy cherry and the jam really tastes of sweet lovely fruit rather then sugar, which I like. A lot.

Get this jam you will thank me.

I also bought (that isn't individually pictured) vegan cheddar cheese, white tea with goji berry and some cartons of strawberry coconut milk alternative, all of these I am exited to try. Below are some pictures of 'The Natural Apothecary Cafe'. The decor was beautiful, there were cushions with tea cups on them, floral wall paper, and quaint little details like a gramophone and miss-match light bulbs. Me and my dad shared a detox juice that contained broccoli, orange, pineapple, milk thistle, macca powder and few other things and a flowering green tea called 'flying snow'  that had coconut shreds in the flower. The Juice was actually really nice and refreshing and the after taste of the broccoli was surprisingly pleasant and went really well with the pineapple. And the tea! Well I think my self as a tea connoisseur and this tea was really wonderful. It was delicate and floral with a sweet coconut after taste and what made it even better was the fact you could see the flower opening up before your eyes. I will definitely be returning.