Whenever I find a new vegan product/brand/restaurant/anything that I love, I always like to share it with you guys on the blog, as I love reading blogs to discover new products to use and places to eat. One awesome brand I recently discovered is Ecomil.
Ecomil sells organic, vegan products including a range of delicious plant-based milks; they kindly offered to send me some of their products to try and I have become obsessed with the coconut milk! I have been having it in my morning smoothies and the coconut/banana/pineapple combo has been making it feel like I’m having a Pina Colada for breakfast every day! I’ll make sure to put a recipe up for the smoothie next week as it’s seriously so good and I think you guys are going to love it, because, let’s be real, who doesn’t want to have a healthy, delicious version of their favourite cocktail for breakfast?!
As a big fan of Ecomil’s coconut milk, I was excited when they asked if I’d like to collaborate with them and use their products to create a delicious vegan recipe for their website. I used the coconut milk to whip up these super simple and insanely delicious chunky banana & coconut pancakes with chocolate sauce!
If you’d like to make these pancakes, you can find the recipe on the Ecomil website under the vegan recipe section here.
Aaaand if you’re a fan of pina coladas, be sure to look out for my healthy pina colada smoothie recipe coming to the blog next week!
I have always been a big fan of Pret; in fact, I think one of my first ever posts on this blog was about how to eat vegan at Pret (if you wanna have a little cringe at my 2014 photography skills – or lack-thereof – then you can check that post out here). Naturally, I was therefore extremely excited to hear that Pret would be transforming one of their prime London locations – Broadwick St – into a fully vegetarian and vegan Pret ‘Veggie Pret’ for the month of June.
Fast forward a month and it’s great to read on Pret’s blog just how popular Veggie Pret has been, with sales in the Broadwick St shop up 70% on last year! What’s more, the vegan options have proved to be particularly big-sellers, with the top selling eight new products at Veggie Pret all being vegan! To keep up with the high demand for delicious veggie and vegan food, Pret executives have taken the very exciting decision to keep the Veggie pop-up open for the whole summer!!
As a long-time Pret lover, I knew I had to check it out, so headed to London to meet Matt for a big Veggie Pret lunch.
There were so many delicious options to chose from and Matt and I both like to eat a lot, so we decided shared 1 baguette (Artichoke, Tapenade & Olive) and 2 wraps (Avocado & Chipotle Chickpeas and Chakalaka); and as if that wasn’t enough I also had a Banana & Cashew Almond Shake, as well as a Cacao & Orange Pot (SO yummy!)
My favourite of the three was the Avocado & Chipotle Chickpeas wrap, whilst Matt loved the Arthichoke, Tapenade & Olive baguette. We both agreed that all of them were full of flavour and definitely something we would buy again!
The deliciously creamy almond milkshake has always been one of my favourite Pret drinks and I was not surprised to read that the Cacao & Orange Pot is one of the top 2 selling products at Veggie Pret, as it was absolutely delicious!
Following the popularity of the Veggie pop-up, Pret are now deciding what to do next, with Pret’s CEO’s blog mentioning that there are ‘some who would like to convert every fourth Pret into a Veggie Pret’ – how amazing would that be?!
If you’d like more to show your support for Pret’s efforts to make veggie meals more accessible (and delicious), be sure to visit Veggie Pret this summer and try out their abundantly varied menu! You can also fill out a review card whilst you’re there, giving feedback on what you loved and leaving some suggestions of what you’d like to see going forward.
Last weekend the JGV Compassionate Clothing Line had a stall at the Bournemouth Vegan Fair. As Matt’s lovely Grandma lives in Bournemouth (who btw at 90 years old is insanely cool, open-minded & banterous), we decided to make a weekend of it by travelling up on Friday lunchtime to spend some quality time with Grandma JJ, as well as checking out the Bournemouth vegan food scene.
AMALA CONSCIOUS FOOD ▷▷▷
We were really excited to hear that Bournemouth’s vegetarian restaurant Zoukinis had recently been transformed into a fully vegan restaurant, now named Amala. So, on Friday evening, we took Matt’s grandma for her first ever vegan restaurant visit to Amala.
The restaurant has a great yogi/eco-friendly vibe, with the beautiful woodland themed décor sprinkled with delicate fairy lights.
Firstly, let me say that I absolutely love the fact that you’re greeted by a glass of warm lemon water – what a great way to start a meal! The menu features an abundance of healthy and nutritious vegan cuisine, something Matt and I as wannabe HCLF but in reality Junk Food Vegans are not used to, but were very excited to try.
For main course, Grandma JJ and I both ordered the burger with sweet potato fries, whilst Matt ordered the veggie filo pastry. Although usually a bit of a Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S when it comes to sharing food (Joey doesn’t share food), Matt let me try a bit of his pastry and we both agreed it was absolutely delicious!
The burger of the day when we visited was a quinoa patty and had a very sweet taste, which we discovered was due to the fact that it contained dates. Neither Grandma JJ or I are big sweet mixed with savoury lovers (the idea of putting pineapple on a pizza has always seemed beyond weird to me); however, if you love that kinda thing, which I know a lot of people do, then this would definitely be the burger for you! The burger was accompanied by sweet potato fries that were cooked to perfection, deliciously creamy vegan mayonnaise and coleslaw which I definitely could have eaten by the spoonful!
For dessert, Grandma JJ ordered the sorbet which she absolutely loved; Matt ordered the chocolate brownie, and I ordered the cheesecake. Matt has a very mild nut allergy and forgot to check if the desserts contained nuts; unfortunately both mine and his did, so I had the verrrry difficult task of eating two equally delicious vegan desserts #itsahardlife! The Amala team were really lovely and offered to bring Matt another dessert even though it was our mistake; but he was very happy eating the sorbet that came on the side of his brownie.
Thank you very much to Amala for inviting us to their lovely restaurant; it’s always great to find a new vegan spot and it makes me so happy that you can now find a vegan restaurant almost everywhere you go!
BOURNEMOUTH VEGAN FAIR RECAP ▷▷▷
Now, before this post turns into a book, I wanna quickly say a couple of things about the festival! The organisation was impeccable, making the festival one of the best I’ve ever been to. The stall layout was extremely spacious meaning it was comfortable for stall-holders and customers alike, not to mention the location was incredible with a beautiful view of Bournemouth beach. We were really lucky as the weather stayed mostly dry and sunny, but let’s be honest, of course there was a little bit of rain, we are in England after all.
It was great to get to hang out with so many of my favourite veggie business owners, as well as discovering a few new businesses/charities (check out my Bournemouth vlog at the end of this post for interviews with You Cork It, Solkiki and F.R.I.E.N.D). As always, I also love meeting clothing line customers/blog readers and nothing is cooler than seeing people walking around in my designs; I really do feel so lucky to have such awesome customers!
BOURNEMOUTH PIZZA CO▷▷▷
Finally, I can’t finish this post without telling you guys about Bournemouth Pizza Co. Lizzie, a lovely lady we got chatting to at the festival, told us about Bournemouth’s booming vegan food scene, and gave us a leaflet showing lots of places that have great vegan options. As soon as we saw that Bournemouth Pizza Co. offered a vegan cheese, we knew we had our Saturday night sorted! Pretty much as soon as they opened, we called to order: two large pizzas, a garlic bread, and a chocolate and banana calzone – is your mouth watering yet? I know mine is! Did I mention, they deliver? And this all came in at under £30? And it was insanely delicious. This place is basically heaven on earth for pizza lovers! Thank you very much Lizzie!!!!
VLOG OF THE WEEKEND ▷▷▷
We had such a great weekend hanging out with Grandma JJ, chilling by the beautiful sandy beach, meeting other lovely vegans and eating A LOT of delicious vegan food. I’m seriously considering a move to Bournemouth, as beautiful beaches coupled with a delicious and growing vegan food scene is basically everything I want in a place to live!
Be sure to check out my vlog of the weekend featuring our visit to Amala, our pizza night in, and a few interviews with awesome vegan business/charities at the Bournemouth Vegan Fair!
jadegreenvegan.com 