Organic food in supermarkets

Kirri

Callie22 wrote: »

If you fancy making your own vegan cupcakes then I can highly recommend 'Vegan cupcakes take over the world' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz - in fact I'd recommend any of her books, but the baking ones (cupcakes, cookies, pies) are especially good. I was a baker and even I find it hard to veganize baking recipes, but these work really well.

I do want to buy a book but for some reason most vegan books I've seen so far seem very Americanised with either weird ingredients or measurement in cups.. I like ounces for cakes as I grew up with that for cakes (despite being in a metric era) but will accept metric grudgingly :rotfl:

I've got a new recipe to try for a vegan fudge cake but given my vegan attempts so far I've not been impressed. The only benefit is it stops me eating cake!

Edwardia, yes the C&tC ones. £2.69 on Ocado and £2.99 in Wholefoods iirc.

Callie22

Kirri wrote: »

I do want to buy a book but for some reason most vegan books I've seen so far seem very Americanised with either weird ingredients or measurement in cups.. I like ounces for cakes as I grew up with that for cakes (despite being in a metric era) but will accept metric grudgingly :rotfl:

Yes, these are American - I have quite a few vegan cookbooks (mainly Isa Chandra and Dreena Burton) and it's not easy to find interesting UK ones. The cupcakes one isn't too bad, the measurements are in cups but there aren't too many odd ingredients, but I do agree that generally a lot of the US vegan cookbooks are full of stuff that we've got no chance of buying here. However, it's not really necessary to get the books, as a lot of the recipes are on their blogs. I'd recommend Oh She Glows as an interesting blog too, and 101 Cookbooks (Heidi Swanson) - that's not vegan but she does a lot of wholegrain/natural cooking and has published two lovely books.

And I agree with you about measurements! I was brought up cooking in old money and kilos still don't make sense to me, I have to convert everything to pounds and ounces before I can get an idea of it in my head.

Edwardia

Just chipping in and saying that my mother, grandmother and college lecturer all cooked in Imperial but I learned metric at school because Canada is metric as well as UK and France. In eastern Canada they use cups too as so close to US. I have measures but also have found them on sale in UK even in supermarkets. So as long as you follow the recipe and don't go off piste, it should work OK if you stick to ONE set of measurements.

Sometimes weird ingredients aren't as weird as you think.. you'll find scallions, eggplants, graham flour, powdered sugar, bell peppers, rutabaga, arugula, canola oil, cilantro and zucchini in any decent supermarket.

Edwardia

For those who drink Vive soya milk, paulineb reports seeing it for 25p in Home Bargains https://www.homebargains.co.uk compared to 1.25 in Tesco.

Also there are loads of Koka noodles - a case of 30 is only 7.50. If you're veggie/vegan you'd have to check ingredients on a flavour by flavour basis and if you're gluten free or low carb they probably aren't suitable.

I found the manufacturer https://www.tridale.com and the website says the instant noodles are free from MSG, additives and preservatives. If you eat wheat/gluten free have a look for Koka rice pho noodles, they might be suitable.

I do still believe that organic is healthier but the Blue Dragon organic egg noodles are a bit tough, ditto organic shirataki noodles eg Zero Noodles.

Also, for many people leaping straight into organic food would be difficult or impossible but just choosing food without additives can be a big health improvement.

My liver enzymes normalised in three weeks. We have only one liver and it is the weapon of last resort in filtering out and neutralising all the toxins we get exposed to by eating, by slapping stuff on our skin, breathing, using chemicals , drinking fizzy drinks/alcohol.. everything. The human body was never designed to deal with all that.

Changing to food without additives shouldn't cost anything extra at all. It's just a question of looking at labels. Supermarket websites will give you information on products as well. If you're not sure about an ingredient simply Google/search the name of it and Wikipedia and up will come all the info so you can decide.

You can decide. That's the key thing. Us putting ourselves in the driving seat not just allowing manufacturers to put stuff in our food for their own ends.

Kirri

Has anyone tried the rice noodles on A&C?

Edwardia

Not had the Thai or brown rice noodles, no. Had a look on mysupermarket and not one of the supermarkets had organic rice noodles.

I had a Chinese neighbour who said all UK supermarket noodles she tried were rubbish so she used spaghetti.

On that assumption, Doves Farm organic gluten free rice spaghetti 500g is £2 from Ocado and Sainsbury's compared to 250g King Soba organic rice noodles 1.79 and brown rice noodles 1.99 at Abel & Cole.

Ocado also has Rizopia organic gluten free brown rice spaghetti pasta 500g for 3.95.

Planet Organic has the same brand rice noodles as A&C but A&C cheaper.

How about trawling through Japan Centre ?
http://www.japancentre.com/items?search=organic

Wai Yee Hong only has three organic noodles none of which are rice IIRC
http://shop.waiyeehong.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=0&keyword=organic

However they have a couple of pages of rice noodles if you want to look for non-organic veggie/vegan but additive free

https://www.wingyipstore.co.uk doesn't have organic rice noodles but has organic seaweed, green tea and spinach varieties. There are 56 pages of results for 'rice noodles' !

Input rice noodles on the A&C website and it included Tideford organic rice pudding which OH likes although I think I bought it from Ocado. 1.15 for 125g seems expensive though. ASDA stocks the organic version of Ambrosia rice pudding 400g can for 94p currently on offer 3 for £2.

Kirri

and think these are new, haven't seem them before, have only seen the organic hay, for your organic small furries:

http://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/organic-barley-biscuits.html

http://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/organic-rabbit-food.html (not sure about the inulin in this, thought it gave humans digestive issues??)

Kirri

and onto nail varnish as I've just done my toenails... (I don't do fingernails any more as I think it ruins them).

Used Zoya in a lovely metallic purple, forgot I had this.. it's formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate and camphor free apparently. Think this brand is stocked in Wholefoods.

I also have some Orly nail varnish which I think is another brand with less iffy ingredients in.

Edwardia

The only nail varnish I have is black .. for covering up marks on heels Used to wear it though, was a bit Goth when OH met me

Dozey_crow

Hi all,

Just a quick drop in to let you know that ASDA have Jordens organic porridge oats 750g for £1.

Been absent of late because our bunny isn't well... We have been introduced to the joys of syringe feeding Kirri.
Many thanks for all of the links. I like to have a look and see what is what.
Had a look at OCADO but won't be placing an order. £40 minimum is to much we dont spend that much in one go or in one place. Also I go to Waitrose regularly and can get bargains ( organic spinach 29p on Sat) so it just doesn't compute for us. Shane though because without the minimum order amount I would have bought a few things.