Hello everyone,
Caroline Oldham
Well, the weather is certainly hotting up and so is that pollen count! If you suffer from hay fever, make sure you have your allergy tablets with you. I have heard from a number of people that eating local honey can actually deter hay fever in your area, so it might be worth giving it a try.
If you don't suffer then here is my recommended product this week, move over honey incoming The Groovy Food Company Agave Nectar. These products are absolutely wonderful and I am so glad they are now apart of my 'essentials' cupboard. I have been looking for alternative sweeteners for a long time so these are just perfect. I did a taste test on the two following products, both delicious in their own right as they are better for different things.
Agave Nectar: Light Amber & Mild
Taste Test- similar to a honey but full of flavor and tastes less like sugar more like a sweet syrup. I used this as a sweetener in my morning coffee and on my porridge, absolutely delicious.
Agave Nectar: Rich and Dark
Taste Test - more along the lines of a maple syrup, better for items or cooking that needs that extra bit of sweetness. I would recommend this on your pancakes and also in a plant-based smoothies or juice that needs a little sweetening.
The Groovy Food Company also do a lovely coconut oil, which I find is great for cooking, especially eggs for breakfast in the morning or turkey bacon for some reason it seems to go really well together.
So make a note of these products as I am going to share with you my Strawberry and Apple crumble which I use the agave syrup to cook the fruits in: http://blog.biteappy.com/blog/vegan-apple-strawberry-crumble/
Restaurant Hangout of the Week
We have some good friends of ours who live in Northampton so we decided to go for some dinner, we have just got engaged and our friends are getting married in August so it was a great time to catch up. The Smoke Pit is a heart steakhouse located in the centre of Northampton. I really liked the feel and interior inside the restaurant, it is fairly rustic and full of character will cool paintings on the wall which you can buy.
The menu is very meat orientated although there were a few vegetarian options on there, a great place to eat if you like to follow the Paleo diet as it is purely meat and sweet potato fries. I am actually not a huge meat eater but every now and again I do like to indulge in some meat, and it just so happens that our friend had pre-ordered us the Chateaubriand, which is a mixture of beef fillet and tenderloin. It was large when it came and we always order our meat medium, we chose a couple of sides including coleslaw and Greek salad which complimented it really well.
The servers I thought were excellent, I warned them of my coeliacs and they were so careful, every time they put something on the table they stated it was gluten free and made sure that I did not try things that weren't. I would recommend checking The Smoke Pit out if you are ever in Northampton and are a big fan of meat!
Until next time.
Tagged in Caroline Oldham