My Best Organic

This is really easy and tastes amazing. It’s suitable for vegans and those with dairy allergies but does contain nuts.

Ingredients
100g (approx) Brazil nuts
250g (approx) soft dried dates

Finely chop the nuts (yeah, I use my poor old blender)
Blend the dates
Mix together - easiest done using your hands to kind of press the mixture together
Press mixture into shallow tin and cut into small squares

This amount of mixture made about 30 squares each measuring approximately 2 cm
Next time I make it I’m going to try to include a few rough-chopped dried cherries to add a bit of a sour kick to the taste and a bit of drama to the texture x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

As it’s Fairtrade Fortnight, our friends at Ethical Superstore are offering free delivery on all UK orders up until 6th March. It’s usually free if you spend more than £15, so if you’ve been eyeing up a couple of products, but were loathe to fork out for delivery, now’s your chance x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

We’re really happy to share the news that one of our affiliates, Biome Lifestyle, have just released a new voucher code giving 10% on all purchases. This is great timing, considering the (slight) improvement to the weather in the UK. Don’t know about you, but I actually ventured into my garden on Saturday! Biome Lifestyle sell a great range of outdoors products for gardeners as well as lots of cool interior stuff.

Among my favourites are:

• Recycled plastic trugs (lovely colours)
• Eco-friendly wallpaper (The wallpaper is printed on paper made from 100% FSC timber sources using purely water based inks for printing, with no harmful VOC’s or solvents. The range of designs is great, catering for contemporary and more traditional tastes)
• FreeLoader solar charger (charges all hand-held devices for free)

All you need to do is enter BIOWG0209 at the checkout to receive the 10% discount (Expires 20th March 2009) x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

We have now launched our Social Networking component of our My Best Network. Using the Ning platform, which allows anyone to create their own social network, we have themed our own network and invite you to join us on there. “But I already have Facebook…” you may wonder. Facebook has in my opinion become unwieldly, too many apps, too much information, the irony with Facebook is that the more friends you have, the harder it is to actually keep up with what they are all doing because of the masses of information you get presented.

A ‘niche’ Social Network can be less anonymous, have more of a community feel and immediately more intimate and relevant. Plus, the My Best Network promotes positivity and what better place to socialise ? You want to hear about the good stuff, you don’t need other people to tell you the wrongs of the world! I’m sure you all feel it yourselves. So join us, share with us all the things that are the Best in your life…

I’m so upset! I just noticed that Gossypium (who sell organic and fairtrade cotton and clothing) have the most gorgeous pyjamas on special offer - half price to be exact. But they’ve sold out of my son’s size! It’s really unusual for me to see toddler nightwear that I really like as most of it for boys is just not cuddly-looking.

This post was submitted by Susannah.

This recipe only takes five minutes to prepare and about 15 minutes to cook. It’s great with veg and nuts (or chicken if you’re a meat-eater).

Ingredients
1 onion - peeled and cut in half
1 or two cloves garlic - peeled
2 fresh tomatoes - cut in half
1 tin coconut milk
1 teaspoon paprika
1 or 2 teaspoons korma mix (Infinity Foods in Brighton do a great one)
pinch seasalt

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, this makes enough sauce for about four people. It is quite a thin sauce, but very tasty.
Steam-fry veg/chicken for couple of minutes
Add sauce and bring to bubble. Simmer gently for 15 minutes or until all cooked

Gorgeous - and a real hit with children, too, as it’s mild and quite sweet x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

Here are some of the best special offers currently available:

Ethical Superstore

• Suma Prepacks Organic & Fairtrade Brown Basmati Rice 500g £1.79
• Suma Organic Apple Juice Concentrate 400ML £2.88 (usually £4.10)
• Percol Fairtrade Organic Espresso Coffee 250g £2.75 (usually £3.45)
• Suma Prepacks Organic Omega Seed Mix 125g £0.89

Ecotopia

• Envirokidz Organic Koala Crisp - 325g £1.20
• Peter Rabbit Organics Peach & Apricot Fruit Puree - 80g £0.66
• Village Bakery Organic Four Fruit Bars - 45g £0.30

Goodness Direct
50% off the following

• Biona Organic Worcestershire Sauce 140ml
• Goodness Organic Sundried Tomato Halves 250g
• Kallo Organic French Onion Stock Cubes 6 x 11g
• Tartex Vegetarian Roasted Onion & Pink Peppercorn Pate

Ecotopia currently have a sale on food items - amongt their selection is a great range of Organic Chinese and Japanese products which can be difficult to find in supermarkets. Blue Dragon Egg Noodles are available from as little as 71p a pack, which seems like very good value to me. They also stock Organic Brown Rice and Udon Noodles in the Japanese section - gorgeous and so quick to cook.

This recipe is suitable for vegetarians, vegans and those allergic to dairy.  It does contain nuts.

I don’t know about you, but in the morning I want to be able to give my little boy a really healthy breakfast which doesn’t involve too much fussing in the kitchen, or that creates too much washing up.  Anything that requires a saucepan at 6.45am is just not acceptable.  My son refuses to eat porrige, so that’s handy!

The best breakfast so far has got to be homemade chocolate spread on toast.  This chocolate spread can be made up and used for a few days if stored in the fridge.  It’s so nice it probably will not last longer than that anyway.  

The Chocolate Spread Recipe

• 125g  organic dates
• 75g organic walnuts
• 1 heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder

Method

Put dates in a small saucepan and put in a couple of tablespoons of water.  Cover and simmer for a few minutes until starting to soften

Blend softened dates, walnuts and cocoa powder together

That’s it!

My son has a cup of organic rice drink and two slices of wholemeal bread with ‘Pure’ spread and chocolate spread.  The best thing about it, is that if he decides he’s had enough, I get to finish it for him x

As I sit typing this, I have a piece of Green & Black’s Butterscotch chocolate slowly melting in my mouth. Wow, it’s gorgeous. I’ve had quite a few cravings during this pregnancy, but this has to be my favourite so far. Just a minute; got to go back to the fridge to get another square.

That’s better…although I could easily polish off the whole bar in one sitting. Unlike with some other chocolate, Green & Black’s leaves a nice clean taste in your mouth. It’s not cloying or overly sweet. It’s just right. They don’t use bulking ingredients in their products, either - no cheap ingredients to ruin the quality of their products. I’m so pleased to see that their available range seems to be expanding - what a great excuse to taste-test them all! Well, I do have to ensure I do my product research x