After eating lots of richer foods over Christmas I started 2012 feeling rather bloated and icky! I decided to focus on eating simple un processed foods during January, as well as avoiding coffee and alcohol. I wanted to just try and nourish myself as best as possible.

Towards the end of the year I had been sent products from Pukka Herbs and The New Zealand Honey Co to review, and I thought they would be perfect to save for use in January. As well as the products from these two companies I also included a couple of other products (purchased myself) to help with getting myself back on track:

Pukka Herbs sent me their Aloe Vera Juice and Chlorella tablets to try. I also bought some Linwoods Milled Flaxseed and some Dr Stuarts Tea as well as The New Zealand Honey Co products which came as part of this package full of natural immune boosting goodies:

Linwoods Organic Milled Flaxseed

I’d actually been using this for a long time anyway, but over January I made an effort to eat 1 tbsp a day, usually by adding some to one of my smoothies. Flaxseed is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids which because our body can not produce, means we need to obtain them via our diet. As a mostly vegan I can’t get my essential fats from the traditional oily fish so this is a great product for me. It is also high in dietary fibre which can help you to feel fuller and when mixed with water makes an excellent vegan egg replacer. As this is cold milled it is suggested that you store it in the fridge to prevent it going rancid. I also like that you can easily buy this from most supermarkets not just health food stores!

Dr Stuarts Detox Tea

I’m usually not a fan of anything that brands itself a ‘detox’ product in its own right but I love this tea! It has a really ‘clean’ flavour and I found that drinking it made my stomach feel better and less bloated. It includes dandelion and burdock root, milk thistle, sage, peppermint and liquorice. It was a really nice relaxing drink before bed.

The New Zealand Honey Co: Thyme, Manuka and Beech Forest Honey Dew Honey

I included honey in this delicious ‘black sesame jewel’ smoothie

Until I received these products I had not been aware of the health benefits of honey. I already knew it could be a great natural sweetener but these honey’s all have their own specific properties and health benefits. The thyme honey is high in antioxidants and is scaled against other foods like spinach and blueberries. The manuka honey is anti bacterial and anti inflammatory and the Beech Forest Honey Dew is high in natural sugars that feed the good bacteria in our gut (see the website for more information on how all these claims are established). All the honey’s are also 100% raw so will include their natural enzymes.

I was really impressed with these products. Each of them has a very unique flavour and I enjoyed including them in smoothies, porridge, yoghurt messes etc as well as just sucking on a spoonful at a time to give my general health a boost and with a hope of keeping any January colds and flu away. Due to its anti bacterial and anti inflammatory properties I also made a special effort to include manuka honey while I was recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction. Of course I can’t say it was just down to the honey but I didn’t get any infections in my mouth (I wasn’t on antibiotics either) and I also avoided the colds that were doing the rounds at work, yey!

Pukka Aloe Vera Juice

I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this product, I was concerned that it was going to taste awful but it certainly didn’t! Aloe Vera juice is reputed to aid digestion and beauty. The suggested intake is 5-6 tbsp a day taken before food. I tended to take 1-2 tbsp mixed with filtered water before bed. The taste was kind of light and grassy and quite pleasant. I definitely felt that this was soothing my digestive tract and tummy. I was also very impressed at the quality of this product compared to other brands of aloe vera I’ve seen since. The Pukka brand is free from synthetic preservatives and is cold pressed and unfiltered.

Pukka Chlorella Tablets

I had heard of chlorella before I received these tablets having been a long time fan of spirulina, a similar naturally derived algae. Chlorella is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet containing antioxidants, proteins and essential fatty acids. Its high chlorophyll content makes it very alkalising and good for detoxification as well as supporting the immune system. The suggested dose is working up to 6 tablets a day taken 3 times a day. I don’t like carrying tablets around with me so I tended to have two in the morning and two in the evening taken with my aloe vera juice. I also started chucking a few tablets in with my green smoothies. At first I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy these as in the past I’ve always used powders and added it to smoothies but now I would always go for the tablets as its much easier to take them than just being able to include it in your diet when your having a smoothie. Like the aloe vera juice, these are excellent quality, they are organic and cracked cell wall which means that they are easier to digest and assimilate the vitamins and minerals.

Of course I was also including my daily dose of Matcha Green Tea as part of the Tea Pigs Matcha challenge!

The results?

I don’t always think that one month is long enough to establish if your seeing benefits from a product, and of course this is no clinical trial, many other factors could have affected how I felt during and at the end of the month. Saying that, I did feel some instant benefits with the Dr Stuarts Tea and the Aloe Vera juice, it could also have been the improvement in my diet but I felt a lot less bloated and when drinking the tea or juice it was an almost instant relief and ‘cooling’ feeling in my body. The other biggest thing I noticed was an improvement to my skin:

Me, make up free (and yes I have non existent eyebrows and a big nose!)

I’m not sure if this pic does it justice but my skin has been amazing recently! I haven’t had a spot since before Christmas, but the best thing I’ve found is that the texture of my skin has improved. I used to have a greasy t zone and dry cheeks along with very visible pores and black heads on my nose and fore head. Now my skin is much finer and a lot less greasy. As I said this may not be just down to the products I’ve been using (I also started to use virgin coconut oil as a evening moisturiser) but either way I’m happy with the results!

As I always tend to say when I’m reviewing products, the Pukka stuff and honey ain’t cheap – see the links to the websites for prices (I think the ground flax and tea is pretty affordable and excellent for what you get). Apart from perhaps the chlorella, I wouldn’t be looking to use them on a frequent basis anyway, I would definitely get the aloe vera juice again if I was feeling particularly bloated and out of all the honey’s I would get the manuka again as I preferred the taste of this one, as well the benefits – I think it would be brilliant to have in the cupboard in case a cold or sore throat was threatening!

Overall, these products are great but none of them are a replacement for a good solid diet full of vegetables, fruit and other whole foods. It is worth noting that these products are actually whole foods in themselves though, I like these as little extras that are great to include from time to time to give me a boost when I can afford them.

Have you tried any of the products mentioned above? Would you ever try any of them? What are your thoughts on products such as these that often come with health claims?

I’ve had such a wonderful weekend, its been one of those when I haven’t had anything major planned but everything has just ended up being great :-) I caught up with my Mam and Dad as they have been on holiday for two weeks, spent some time with my wonderful two best friends including playing Zumba on the Wii (so much fun!), had a great relaxed run in perfect autumn weather (10k in 54.05), lots of pottering in the kitchen and dyed my hair red! I’m going to wait till next week for the big reveal but I love the change!

OOTD (before colouring hair!):

Scarf: Dorothy Perkins, leather hooded jacket: Topshop, tan woven belt: taken off a Miss Selfridge dress, floral tea dress: Florence and Fred at Tesco, tan bag: Mango, Gold bangle: Dorothy Perkins, cocktail ring: Topshop, skinny jeans: Old Navy, tan leather brogues: Topshop

Yesterday morning I popped into Durham to go to my favourite green grocers. They have the best range of produce I’ve came across locally, and each week they have a ‘password’ on their website that gives you 10% off! I got this huge haul for just £10:

3 pomegranates, 6 plums, 1 melon, 2 purple carrots, 2 russet apples, 2 large heads of romaine, 2 cucumbers, 2 packs of celery, 4 massive bunches of spinach, 2 avocados. I use the cucumber, celery and some of the spinach for my green juices (and then my raw juice pulp crackers). Such beautiful produce! I also scored a bag of red lettuce from my best friends garden.

I’ve been putting this stuff to good use in some of the tastiest eats I’ve had in ages! First up I made this fab breakfast, Carrot, Coconut and Raisin Porridge:

This was so good! It contained 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup of scottish oats and 2 1/2 cups of water cooked on the stove top with 1 tbsp of coconut flour, 2 large grated carrots, 2 tbsp of raisins, cinnamon, ground ginger and vanilla stevia mixed in then topped with more raisins, coconut butter, desiccated coconut and more cinnamon. I enjoyed with a cup of Cinnamon and Hazelnut Coffee, perfect autumn breakie!

Post run this morning I made the most delicious green smoothie:

This contained spinach, fresh mango, vanilla sun warrior, maca, berries powder, barley grass powder, msm crystals, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums then topped with leftover mango, pistachios, goji’s and coconut. This was so creamy and sweet!

I’ve had some gorgeous salads too:

Romaine, carrot, purple carrot, green pepper, cucumber, braggs, hemp oil, hemp seeds, raw sun dried tomato crackers, cheesy pumpkin seeds and nutritional yeast.

On Friday picked up an aubergine from Lidl for 67p so decided to try making my own version of Ani Phyo’s raw eggplant ‘bacon’. I thinly sliced the aubergine using my mandolin, salted it for 10 minutes then squeezed to remove the excess liquid. I then added some braggs, olive oil and nutritional yeast and dehydrated the slices for 5 hours till crispy (you could also bake this in the oven too). I used the ‘bacon’ in a salad:

This was just utterly wonderful! The salad included red lettuce from my friends garden, cucumber, red pepper, purple carrot, lots of dreamy creamy avocado dressing without the herbs and with nutritional yeast instead, topped with the ‘bacon’. I can’t wait to make a big raw sandwich with the ‘bacon’ too!

I’ve been enjoying some serious snackage these last few days as well, here’s some of my favourites:

Home made raw salted cashew and almond butter stuffed dates

Honey crunch apple (£1.50 for 5 huge apples from Lidl, these give pink ladies a run for their money!) and Ghirardelli 100% cacao dark chocolate

Rice cakes with crunchy peanut butter, New Zealand honey and bee pollen

I have been sent this honey to review, this is where the ‘mostly’ in mostly vegan comes in, I do still enjoy honey and this combo was delicious!

I’ve also enjoyed finishing off my bag of miniature dark chocolate Reece’s Peanut Butter cups, lots of frozen grapes and this huge bowl of popcorn with peanut flour and a chopped russet apple on the side:

I’ve continued my ongoing squash obsession – I think the squash I’ve been getting from the green grocers (I bought this one last week) is a buttercup. It really is gorgeous, I roasted it up with coconut oil and made a Buddha bowl with quinoa, edamame, parsley and steamed greens with shoyu:

Then I used the rest of the squash tonight in a parsley filled socca wrap with tahini miso dressing and roasted broccoli and cauliflower on the side:

Squash is so amazing in a socca, especially with the tahini miso sauce!

I’ve also made some raw macadamia butter and I have some cheesy herb raw juice pulp crackers and flatbread in the dehydrator right now! I love productive weekends, especially in the kitchen! I’ve been really enjoying making the most of the seasonal cheap produce available and trying to save some money by making my own stuff. Big Budget Challenge post will be coming soon!

I’m also very happy this Sunday evening knowing that I have no work to go to tomorrow, bliss!

How has your weekend been? I know this question is usually reserved for What I Ate Wednesday’s but since I’ve eaten some well tasty stuff this weekend – what’s the tastiest thing you’ve eaten recently?

Don’t forget to enter my international giveaway for the vegan cookbook Blissful Bites – check it out!

I was recently sent a couple of products to try and review for the blog, New Zealand Honey Co Honey Dew Honey and Good Hemp Mild and Light Oil.
I’ve been using Good Hemp Original Hemp Oil for a few months (purchased myself) so was looking forward to trying the Mild and Light version of my favourite oil.


I don’t like to use the original oil in cooked recipes as it is a cold pressed oil and heating it to high temperatures may cause the oil to change its molecular structure and not be as healthy (although the Good Hemp website advises using it for roast potatoes!) However I thought as the Mild and Light has a more neutral flavour it could be good in baking. The Good Hemp Oil really is an amazing product, I love both versions nutty flavour and only 1 tbsp contains 94% of the recommended daily intake of Omega 3! My favourite way to enjoy it has been drizzled over raw kale with lemon juice and using it to massage and wilt the kale, its really delicious!
I was also looking forward to trying out the honey. I am a ‘mostly’ vegan – so I do enjoy honey and bee pollen. I received the Beech Forest Honey Dew Honey in a convenient squeezy bottle. One of the great things about this honey, as well as its delicious taste, is that it contains pre biotic bacteria which can help support digestive health. This particular version has one of the highest antioxidant and pre- biotic rating of any honey world wide! I’ve been loving it on top of peanut butter spread rice cakes and drizzled over fresh figs:


I’d been using the honey and hemp oil together in my favourite salad – lemon and hemp massaged kale with figs, walnuts, honey and sea salt:


I loved the combo of the nuttiness and sweetness so I thought I might try and combine both ingredients in a couple of recipes!

Honey and Hemp Muffins (makes 12, vegetarian)

• 1 cup quinoa flakes (should also work with Scottish oats)
• 1/2 cup spelt flour (or flour of choice)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp ground flax + 1/3 cup warm water
• 4 tbsp Good Hemp Mild and Light Hemp Oil
• 1/4 cup applesauce (I used a pot of organic Apple and Mango baby food)
• 1/2 cup New Zealand Honey
• 3 ripe bananas, well mashed

Pre heat the oven to 180c. Begin by mixing the quinoa flakes, flour, baking soda and cinnamon in a large bowl. Prepare the flax egg by combining the ground flax and water and setting aside to gel. In a separate bowl combine the oil, honey, agave syrup and the bananas. Add the wet mixture to the dry and add the flax egg then mix well. Spoon into muffin cases filling 2/3rds full and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the muffins are a deep golden brown and a knife comes out with just a few crumbs on. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Enjoy!


Considering these are exceptionally healthy and contain no refined sugar they taste really good! They are moist and bananary with a mild sweet honey taste. They even passed the James taste test! Of course you can easily make these muffins vegan by replacing the honey with agave or maple syrup. You could also use coconut oil or another oil in place of the hemp if needed.
I also decided to make another recipe – why not when you have all your bowls and measuring cups out!

Honey and Hemp Granola (makes about 2 cups)

• 1 cup of oats (I used Scottish but rolled oats would probably be best)
• 1/4 cup whole almonds roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup flaked almonds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/3 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tbsp of Good Hemp Mild and Light Hemp Oil
• 3 tbsp of New Zealand Co Honey
• 3 tbsp of shelled hemp seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 180c. Combine all the ingredients except for the hemp seeds in a large bowl to form a slightly sticky mix. Spread mixture on to a baking sheet or baking tray and bake for 20 – 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes or so to prevent burning. The granola should be a lovely golden colour. Remove from oven and allow to cool then stir in the shelled hemp seeds if using. Store in a airtight container.


Its been a while since I made some regular granola (I’ve made raw granola a few times recently) and I’d forgotten how easy it is! This is really good, crunchy and crumbly with a mild sweetness. The hemp seeds enhance the nuttiness of the almonds too. Again, you can easily replace the honey with another liquid sweetener to make this vegan and use a different oil than hemp if required.
New Zealand Honey Co retails at £9.99 *edited - this is for a jar, a bottle is just £3.49* and a 250ml bottle of Good Hemp Mild and Light retails at £4.49. As with all good quality health food products, these aren’t cheap. Baring this in mind its probably better to use the honey ‘raw’ rather than in baking to reap most of its health benefits if your on a budget.
I would definitely purchase both of these products again as I think they are really versatile. Both products are excellent sources of nutrition and taste really good too.
Have you tried either of these products? What did you think? Have you tried using any unusual ingredients together in baking?

Next week it will be 1 year since I had a nasty cold! This is a pretty spectacular thing for me, in the past I used to get regular colds and at least twice a year they would be really nasty ones – I particularly suffered from bad head colds and I hated them! Since I started to clean up my diet and exercise better the number of colds I’ve had has reduced significantly, and as I said, it has been a year since I can recall having one!

Does anyone else find that when the Christmas holidays come round (or any holiday for that matter) that they come down with a cold or other illness? I think that for me, a mix of my body being able to relax, late nights, alcohol and eating a little less than stellar seems to leave me more susceptible to colds and bugs.

I’m absolutely determined to avoid getting ill this year and it must have been fate as last week I was sent this amazing box of goodies from The New Zealand Honey Company:

I reviewed one of their honey’s here, and I was very impressed. This kit is full of natural products that are renowned for enhancing your immunity. It includes:

• Garlic
• Ground ginger
• Dried Blueberries
• Lemon Juice
• Lavender Oil
• Peppermint tea
• Thyme Honey
• Beechwood Honey Dew Honey
• Manuka Honey

The honeys included in the kit are more potent than the honey in the squeeze bottles – these all have high levels of pre biotics and antioxidants as well as having anti bacterial properties. I’m really looking forward to using all these goodies and hopefully they will help to keep me fit and well over the holidays. I tend to try and avoid taking drugs and painkillers unless I’m feeling extremely poorly, so having some natural alternatives is great. In addition to using these I’ll be sticking with some of my tried and tested methods for keeping colds at bay:

• Keep my intake of fruit and vegetables high – Over the holiday period I’m going to make an effort to make sure that I still eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables (including a good proportion of them raw) – this will not only benefit my immunity but will also help to stop me feeling sugared out!
• Keep starting my day with warm water and lemon – and add some of that honey!
• If I feel like I’m coming down with a cold I usually try and make a pre emptive strike by taking a Berroca tablet, Emergen-C sachet or other evanescent vitamin C:

When I’m wanting to boost my immunity I also enjoy lots of my garlic filled Leek, White Bean and Greens soup, green smoothies and I drink hot water with fresh lemon juice, grated ginger root and honey. 

Yesterday morning I got up feeling a bit yuck so I added some of the Thyme Honey to my usual pre workout banana snack and my usual warm water and lemon juice:

The honey tasted good and has an almost medicinal flavour. Fingers crossed I won’t end up with a full blown cold!

I’ll properly review those honey’s when I’ve used them for a while to see if I do feel they have supported my immunity. Here’s hoping to an illness free festive season!

How do you look after your immune system? Do you prefer natural remedies to drugs? What are you doing to try and stay healthy this winter?