My Best Organic

I’ve had a response from the lovely people at Goodness Direct telling me that you can in fact make requests regarding your fruit/veg box contents.  You just need to write a comment in the box entitled:  Other Instructions - anything else that will help us process your order.

They also very kindly shared a further voucher code with me that is valid until the end of February 2011.  It is for £10 off if you spend £35.  The code is 32233YTV.

Looking forward to my fruit box delivery tomorrow - last week’s has almost all gone - just the mango sitting lonely on the fruit dish, with only a couple of kiwi fruit for company x

32233ZLH

Use the above code to receive 20% off orders at Goodness Direct

We have had a break from Abel and Cole for the last couple of years, but have decided to try it again, particularly as they have a special offer at the moment of ‘buy three boxes, get fourth free’. There’s nothing like free food to tempt us!

We decided that we needed the large box - we are two adults (one with a normal appetite, the other with a massive appetite) and two young children. The box cost £17.75 and delivery was 99p. One of things I do really love about Abel and Cole is their packaging system. You receive your box - no excessive packaging and then you unpack your stuff, store the box for a week then give it back. For those of us who hate waste, it’s a great scheme, as Abel and Cole reuse their boxes.

What did we receive this cold January morning? 2 aubergines, a punnet of mushrooms, a lettuce, a large green pepper, a large head of broccoli, winter greens, fennel, a punnet of tomatoes, 9 potatoes, 5 carrots, a cucumber and 5 onions. So far we have devoured 4 of the carrots, which were incredibly sweet, the broccoli, which was beautifully fresh, some cucumber which was good and the potatoes - which made the most delicious roasts. I’m not sure yet what we’ll do with the fennel.

One of the advantages that Abel and Cole state on their literature, is that of customers being able to exclude produce they do not like. I spent about 15 minutes on their website marking off the veg we don’t eat - you’re allowed 20 ‘dislikes’. Unfortunately, the various types of squash take up a large number of our dislikes, so we’re going to have to put up with receiving some items we don’t usually use. Maybe it’ll be good for us. Maybe we’ll have various veg rotting in the back of the fridge for a while - I’m not sure. I’ll certainly try not to waste anything.

Does this box represent good value for money? I’m honestly not sure yet. The amount of veg does not seem that much considering that it’s supposed to be for 3-5 people for a whole week. I’m certain that five onions will not last more than a few days, and the lack of garlic will need to be remedied by ordering it as a separate item. Now I should start looking up some interesting recipes for aubergines…

For those who are curious about what you actually get in various box schemes, I am embarking upon a series of reviews. I do absolutely love Goodness Direct - they have the best product range and their fruit and veg boxes are fantastic value for money. Are there any drawbacks in their scheme? Yes - you cannot ‘exclude’ any particular produce you dislike, so you just have to get creative or give away anything you can’t use. The other slight negative is that they do not always deliver the day you expect, so you need to allow a couple of days for arrival.

What was in this week’s fruit box? We received 7 bananas, 1 medium size pineapple, 1 mango, 6 oranges, 8 kiwis, 5 plums and 8 apples. The quality is generally good. So far we have tried the bananas (ripe, not too bruised), the oranges (sweet), the plums (disappointing) and the apples (quite nice as far as apples go - my sons seem to like them).

The box cost £9.99 and definitely provided enough fruit for our family for a week. It is all organic. I think this represents great value, and having had their fruit boxes many times in the past, I would say this was fairly typical. Highly recommended. Oh - and you don’t have to sign up to receive one every week - just order as and when you want.

Kids Munch Free From Cereal With Authentic Appetite Appeal

With 2011 already upon us, organic cereal experts, Nature’s Path, will once again be leading from the front when it comes to cranking up interest and momentum in the fast-growing ‘free from’ sector. Already firmly established as the UK market leader within ‘free from’ cereals (42% market share), Nature’s Path has been collaborating with Coeliac UK members (internet forums) and Sainsbury’s for some while to create just the right look for it’s first kids specific cereal Munch, which like its adult-themed range before, will be donning an altogether more approachable and informal, UK specific look (launches in Sainsbury’s Feb 2011).

For a food category already worth £108m (+18% growth 2010), many analysts believe that, with more consumers following a gluten free diet ‘because they feel better for it,’ diagnosis rates growing significantly (from 1-300 to around 1-70 of the population), growing supermarket attention and improved free-from accessibility courtesy of a proactive internet and health food sector, this once niche category could be worth £350m by 2012.

Nature’s Path is acutely aware of the key role it needs to play over the coming months, acting as a category champion to add a ‘little stardust’ to a food aisle that has historically been perceived as a little bland and tasteless. Prominent brand ambassadors are essential, not only in creating a healthy environment in which both Own Label and smaller specialist producers can succeed, but also in alleviating historical ‘free-from’ consumer concerns that their taste buds are often treated like second-class citizens.

With further adult and kids launches planned for 2011, Nature’s Path believes that it’s perfectly positioned to share its ‘ahead of the curve’ thinking (flax-centric cereals, ancient grains, organic and free-from) that has enabled this still fiercely independently family-owned business to become the largest certified ‘organic only’ producer in North America.

This post was submitted by ian Hills.

I love receiving my fruit, salad and vegetable boxes - I get quite excited about what delights will be revealed as I open the boxes. However, I have to admit that I have had to find new recipes in order to include some of the contents into my family’s diet. Take, for example this week we received a butternut squash. We’ve had quite a few lately and at first I struggled to know what to do with them. CAKES! This is the answer provided by Jamie in his book “Jamie at Home” - and the recipe works a treat. What I also really like about his recipe is that he uses olive oil as rather than butter - so great for those with dairy allergies or vegans. I also made the cakes with gluten-free flour and it still worked out fine.

We’re really happy to announce that Goodness Direct, who supply a fantastic range of organic foods and products, now have an affiliate scheme and we have joined it. I’ve been shopping with Goodness Direct for some time now, and have always received excellent service, and have enjoyed exploring their wide product ranges for new foods to try. They also stock a wide range of natural toiletries, among which they have Urtekram products.

Of course, one of the most appealing aspects for me is their range of chocolate - they have over 200 tempting chocolate treats. They stock Plamil (great for those with dairy allergies), Booja-Booja and Montezuma, among others. They also have an easy to use key that shows if each food is suitable for different dietary needs, which is a real time-saver.

Healthy food and healthy lifestyles for you and your planet.
We gather together everything that is good for you with fresh organic produce, fitness foods, vitamins and eco-friendly brands.
For special dietary needs you will find thousands of gluten free, wheat free, dairy free and other special diets foods all delivered directly to your door.

This post was submitted by Susannah.

Ethical Superstore are offering free delivery on all orders over £10 this Easter weekend. Offer ends noon 14th April. Enter code FSEW2009 at checkout to qualify.

This post was submitted by Susannah.

Ethical Superstore are currently offering £5 off when you spend £40 – Enter code at checkout to qualify – X5EGG (Ends 7th April 2009).
Happy shopping x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

My two year old son saw some other children eating biscuits recently - and started asking for them…so I put together this rather indulgent recipe this morning. The biscuits turned out really well - very sweet, but lovely. It also does not contain any transfats.

Ingredients

• 125g coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar (You could use less if trying to cut down; even with half a cup the biscuits would be sweet enough)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of plain flour
• Half a mug of self-raising flour
• Half a mug of porridge oats
• Half a mug of chopped up soft dried apricots

I used an average sized coffee mug for measuring.

Method

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees
• Cream the coconut oil with the sugar, egg and vanilla until quite light
• Add the flours, cinnamon and porridge oats until mixture starts to stick together
• Stir in the apricots
• Shape mixture into balls - each one should be about a tablespoon’s worth of mixture
• Place on baking tray/baking paper. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes
• Biscuits will still be quite soft when they first come out of the oven, but don’t worry, they will become crisp on the outside as they cool. They’ll stay soft and slightly moist on the inside.

This amount made about 25 biscuits - kind of lost count as my son and I ate quite a few as they came out of the oven!

This post was submitted by Susannah.