Organic food in supermarkets

System

There are only 2 websites I think that let you design your own muesli in the UK, and then deliver it to you. The good thing is that its also all organic ingredients and so its really healthy and good for you.

I have used "http://uk.mymuesli.com/" in the last 2 months and found them good. They are based in Germany so the muesli is shipped from there but it only takes 4-5 days.

But I wanted to try "Alara" this time. http://www.alara.co.uk/index.php?action=mix

They're a British company which I prefer. I also prefered mixing it compared to mymuesli as although the website is a bit more boring and basic than mymuesli, you choose each percentage of what ingredient, eg 20% wheat flakes, 30% oats, 50% raisins. There are around 50 ingredients to choose from. Mymuesli don't let you do this, you have to choose one of their 10 or so "mixes" and then add your own ingredients. I found at least 8 of the "mymuesli" mixes contained wheat so its quite hard to find one you are really happy with.


The Alara muesli was delivered today well packaged. I bought 5kg of muesli and each was placed in 1kg brown well made bags with a label on the back with the ingredients and the name I chose for the mix. This is similar to mymuesli, although mymuesli pack it in very cool solid cylinders which is much easier to dispense than the Alara brown paper bags. The expiry date of the Alara muesli is December 2013, so around 9 months away. The expiry date of the mymuesli was only 3 months.


The taste of the muesli is great and tastes healthy. I'd say it was the same vs mymuesli.

Cost:
Mymuesli P&P - I think it was £6.50 to the UK no matter how many cylinders you ordered.
Alara P&P - £8 up to 20kg.

Alara also have a "initial setup" and "mixing charges" of approximately £10, so you have to order lots of muesli for these charges to be effectively hidden by the overall cost.

I paid £60 from Alara for 5kg of my created Muesli. 5kg of Weetabix would cost just £20 so its very expensive. The overall cost from Mymuesli was around 10% cheaper despite it coming from Germany. The 5kg of Alara muesli will give 100 servings (50g) so it works out at 60p per bowl. I think this is cheap for the most important meal of the day although can see why people wouldn't want to pay this much.


Overall - I think mymuesli makes a mistake by making you have to choose of their 10 mixes and then adding your own ingredients. If you're fussy like me, its possible most of their mixes are not suitable (lack of gluten free options too).
Alara you could add what % of any ingredient you wanted so it felt more customisable although the setup charges, dull website and the muesli coming in bags rather than cylinders wasn't great although I would still probably use them instead of Mymuesli because they're British and you can create the muesli exactly how you want.

sophlowe45

I made my own for a few weeks then couldn't be bothered anymore.

I used to use goats yoghurt, and brazil nuts, cashews and almonds and some dried fruit. I don't have any goat's yoghurt or milk anymore (was going through a phase of reducing regular dairy).

So, what options are there available for those who want to get the day off to a low GI, protein rich start. A cooked breakfast is obviously an option from time to time. However, as a stock breakfast item, my suggestion would be to go for Bircher muesli. The key ingredients used to make this are oats, plain yoghurt, nuts (e.g. ground almonds) and perhaps some dried fruit or grated apple. Proportion wise, I’d go for something like 3 cups of oats, along with 2 each of yoghurt, ground nuts and fruit. Mix these in a bowl with some water to make something the consistency of porridge. The end result will keep for a few days in the Tupperware container in the fridge.

http://www.drbriffa.com/2007/12/19/why-those-wanting-to-avoid-overindulgence-over-the-festive-season-should-eat-breakfast-but-not-cornflakes/

Edwardia

Ocado order for Wed am:

Ocado organic medium veg & salad box 20% off
Ocado organic shallots
Ocado organic brown onions 750g
Waitrose organic spring onions
Waitrose organic celery
Waitrose 2 organic bell peppers
Waitrose 2 organic romano peppers
Waitrose organic white cup mushrooms
Waitrose organic cooked beetroot 250g
Waitrose organic carrots 1k
Green Giant organic sweetorn 340g
Waitrose frozen organic green peas 500g very reasonable at 1.47
Waitrose 6 organic bananas 33% off flash sale

The Big Prawn Company responsibly sourced frozen clams 50g
Waitrose frozen Icelandic plaice fillets
Waitrose 2 South African sustainably sourced frozen hake
Ocado Alaskan pollack fillets 300g
Ocado undyed smoked haddock fillets 300g save 25%/kg

The Black Farmer organic chicken legs 550g
Waitrose 4 organic chicken thighs
Waitrose organic New Zealand lamb leg steaks

Free & Easy organic chickpea and vegetable curry 400g
Green & Black's organic chocolate ice cream 1/3rd off

2 x Clipper Fairtrade organic Earl Grey 80 teabags save 25%

Ecover stain remover
2 x Ecover Under the Sun fabric conditioner 1.5 L 1/3rd off
4 x Ecover Camomile & Marigold washing up liquid 1L 1/3rd off
2 x Ecover oven and hob cleaner 500ml save 1/3rd

This is a BIG shop for me.

Still waiting for Farmaround.. no email saying problem, my account says coming today.

Edwardia

berbastrike great review there :T thanks for sharing. I bought OH some Pimhill muesli which he likes. Must say he's not a really keen muesli fan, he just eats it as a change from organic porridge or organic Weetabix.

ASDA sells 24 Organic Weetabix for 2.88, Waitrose price is 3.09 :eek:

Tried the Laydilay organic mayonnaise from Riverford at lunch time.. hard to get it off the spoon, it kinda wobbles like jelly.. it's also full of holes which I suspect means they aerate it. Taste wise it was just ewww with a funny taste and texture just nothing like mayo should be. Fail. Avoid !

Abel & Cole. Sainsbury's and Tesco organic mayonnaises are all excellent.

http://izzylane.bigcartel.com/category/stock-clearance
stock clearance page for ethical fashion house Izzy Lane.

Called Farmaround and Diane was going to call the driver Oliver to find out where he was and get back to me. I've had no messages and the Farmaround office closed early without Diane getting back to me.

So the likelihood of me ever ordering from them again seems somewhat low at the moment..

vincenta

Thank you Edwardia!
Just received email from ocado with appology and partial refund!
I was asked to write best before date and batch number as they will investigate quality of food.
Hopefully next time my veg box will be much better
To be honest I don't like to complain but organic veg cost much more than non organic and when I pay more to get better quality food I expect it to be fresh and edible.
I didn't complain about fennel because there were note that sometimes some vegetables can be substituted.I love avocado but what to do with fennel???!

Edwardia

:T vincenta !

fennel.. we love it.. we slice and mix with sliced onion then put in an ovenproof dish, chuck in a bay leaf and a grind of black pepper and then put grated cheese on top and pour a teeny bit of milk down the sides so the fennel has a little bit of moisture to cook in.. Bake in the oven til you can smell it with foil on top then whisk the foil off to get the cheese all golden. You can mix breadcrumbs in with the cheese to stretch it - fresh or dried (will be crunchier).

Fennel and celeriac mash.. it's more mush than mash but tastes great.

Sliced fennel in salad or in strips in HM coleslaw.

Just a few ideas..

Still no Farmaround..

Edwardia

Left at 6pm to go to ASDA and pick up a jumper I'd bought click and collect in their sale for OH. Not sure it was a good idea to take him as he bought Ice Man 1-4 and Happy Feet 2.

Got trimmed organic leeks £2, organic green beans and large Higgidy quiche = dinner with winter purslane instead of spinach in borani esfanaj.

Some pages back I mentioned ASDA Extra Special organic 100g dark chocolate bars for £1 and yay the local store has them. I like my chocolate 90% cocoa and Lindt so OH volunteered to tast test.

Extra Special in association with Leith's School of Food and Wine 70% cocoa organic Dominican dark chocolate with cocoa nibs is a big hit.

I tried a square and for me it's too sweet but I like the texture, it has a rich distinctive flavour and I reckon at £1 it will give Green & Black's serious competition. OH says it's not bitter, has a slight crunch from the nibs in places, full of flavour, very luxurious for the money.

OH bought ASDA organic baked beans 64p and Heinz organic baked beans 75p with the intention of doing a taste test later.

We stocked up on ASDA own brand organic whole/chopped tinned tomatoes as well.

20:22 and no sign of Farmaround.

rufydoofyM

Hi,
Before I catch up here I'd like to tell you what we had for dinner tonight. The most amazing beef brisket cooked in the slow cooker with onions and carrots and served with boiled spuds and purple sprouting broccoli. I took the net off the beef (1.3kg) and browned it in a little olive oil and transferred to the slow cooker, then tossed the whole carrots and halved onions in the same pan before adding them to the slow cooker. Seasoned and covered with boiling water. It was on high for 3hrs and then low for 5hrs. It was so tasty and cost much less to cook in the slow cooker compared to the oven.
Everything was organic and all but the broccoli came from Riverford.
At the equivalent cost of £7.65 per kg it is the cheapest organic beef I have found and cheaper even than the non organic in Ocado and Sainsbos at £8 per kg and not much more than Tosco at £7 per kg.

There is lots of lovely stock now for soup later this week. Going to add some crazy jacks soup mix (not tried this before) and extra veg. I often make chicken stock and soup but never with beef.

Have decided to do alternative meat and veg orders with Riverford and stick with A&C for dairy, eggs the odd extra bit as and when depending on offers.

We also tried the Riverford bacon and chipolatas both now our preferred and have some steak mince in the freezer for a chilli next week.
Really impressed with Riverford meat although some does work out much more expensive than else where some is real value.:)

bornintoit

rufydoofyM wrote: »

Hi,
Before I catch up here I'd like to tell you what we had for dinner tonight. The most amazing beef brisket cooked in the slow cooker with onions and carrots and served with boiled spuds and purple sprouting broccoli. I took the net off the beef (1.3kg) and browned it in a little olive oil and transferred to the slow cooker, then tossed the whole carrots and halved onions in the same pan before adding them to the slow cooker. Seasoned and covered with boiling water. It was on high for 3hrs and then low for 5hrs. It was so tasty and cost much less to cook in the slow cooker compared to the oven.
Everything was organic and all but the broccoli came from Riverford.
At the equivalent cost of £7.65 per kg it is the cheapest organic beef I have found and cheaper even than the non organic in Ocado and Sainsbos at £8 per kg and not much more than Tosco at £7 per kg.

There is lots of lovely stock now for soup later this week. Going to add some crazy jacks soup mix (not tried this before) and extra veg. I often make chicken stock and soup but never with beef.

Have decided to do alternative meat and veg orders with Riverford and stick with A&C for dairy, eggs the odd extra bit as and when depending on offers.

We also tried the Riverford bacon and chipolatas both now our preferred and have some steak mince in the freezer for a chilli next week.
Really impressed with Riverford meat although some does work out much more expensive than else where some is real value.:)

I have been debating whether to start buying meat from Riverford so thank you for this post. I am trying to keep away (as much as possible) from supermarkets but I also have an award winning market near me that I haven't been to yet so considering that also.

sophlowe45

Ethical superstore free postage and packing for orders over £15 has ended

I did already place an order but decided I wanted more things.