Honest Box

Revision = hours of procrastination on the internet reading random blogs. Every so often, you find something that is just like AFAHOKKLSAD how did this bit of the internet exist and I didn't know?!?

THIS 'webhouse' super lured me in with it's promise of 'Send me something cool' / adorably cute website/ concept of sending snacks to offices to fill in the 'awkward gaps' of the day. Their 'Snackorium' is filled with cute goodies from British producers which are for the most part, pretty healthy and all amazing.

My box came a few days after ordering (£10 including delivery - it was my revision treat) and fit nicely through my (tiny) letterbox whilst still being stuffed chock-full of goodies!

THE BOX WAS ALSO TOO CUTE. IT HAD EASTER GAMES ON IT. (apologies for background easter eggs sneaking in on the snack-fun). 

^ free game of the day xo 

The box also came with a nice quote of things that they are more British than - 'saying sorry even though we have done nothing wrong'. On to the FOOD. 

1. Super Seedy Sustain Squares - Whole Plus

These are basically the result of recipes all over the internet which require you to blend up dates and a variety of nuts etc, but in cute calorie controlled bite-size portions which taste really ridiculously good. I am proud to say that a couple are still there, I've been trying to eat them as an 11am snack.

2. Furniss Dark Chocolate Ginger Mini Biscuits 

These unfortunately didn't make it through the night because I ATE THEM ALL BECAUSE THEY WERE PRETTY AMAZING. I think they were healthy-ish so it's fine. They were fab and there was a lot of them. 

3. Giant Roasted Corn Nuts 

These are ridiculous. They taste like barbecued chicken put into crunchy bitesize corn snacks (although I am pretty sure that there is no meat at all in there!) They were really, really good even though I'm not generally into savoury-ish foods and prefer more of the... 

4. Perkier Gluten Free Rocky Road

This was my favourite thing in the box. It was literally ordained from the rocky road god - although I am probably biased because I am obsessed with anything chocolate. Marshmallows is an added bonus. Gluten Free is there to kid yourself that it is actually probably good for you and part of a healthy post-Easter diet. My 'legs bums and tums' teacher today used a nice phrase, 'carving out easter eggs from your waist'. Anyway - this was literally so so so good, but unfortunately quite moreish and depletes itself very quickly. But leaves you happy. 

5. Braw Gluten Free Apple and Pear Bar 

This made me happy because I felt like I was eating a cereal bar which tasted really good and was not packed with lies about how it's healthy when it is actually packed with more calories and sugar than a kitkat. Cereal bars, though fabulously delicious and decievingly-cute are actually generally quite high in sugar and fat. This bar is gluten free with no added sugar/wheat/dairy etc so I really hope it isn't lying :'( It also isn't too moreish so I have actually made it last for quite a few days by eating small bites at a time. 

6 - Cheeky Chunk Chocolate 

This chocolate was very good. I gobbled it up sraight away after opening the box, it was too cute and easter-appropriate to last for long! It is also organic so I hope sort of healthier than normal? (definitely cuter anyway!)

7. Uncle Joe's Mint Balls

There was about 10 of these in the box, and at first I thought they were a pretty random addition but I slowly realised the master-plan behind them. They are quite typical mints (pretty guurd) but they are there to be eaten after you eat for example, a bite of delicious Rocky Road, to take away the temptation to EAT EVERYTHING IN THE BOX. Quite a good idea. 

A very cute addition is this teensy leaflet telling you where all your snacks were made. 

On the other side a popularity leaflet, if you do decide to order a box - which I mainly decided to get because it was a one-off payment (Graze and the like's cancellation policies seem a lot of effort) - mention my name (Leanne Maskell! :) ) and you will get it for £5! SNACKS FOR £5 YAY!! I would definitely recommend this if you are:

1. gluten free - everything is gluten free whoo 

2. An Anglophile - they seem to really love Britain and all it has to offer in the way of tasty treats! 

3. A student revising for your exams - they are fab to break up the monotony 

4. Sad and need happiness - everything in this box exudes happiness. There is no negativity (except snacks potentially ending but then you can replace it with the games on your box)

5. Happy and would like to get even happier - I LOVE MAIL. and I love snacks. 

6. Like food - and especially snacks. 

Also they are generally geared towards offices so I suppose if you are a 'real adult' with a 'job' then you could get them and take them to work and be super popular that day in particular :) 

Aritchokes

Today I made a fabulous 'London Discovery' (aka when people ask you where to go in London, and you feel like you should know more secrets than the best burger bars) - it has only taken me three years! Strolling along Holborn in the sunshine, the massive fruit and vegetable stall caught my eye '4 Avocados - £1' 

It couldn't be true - could it? More likely 1 avocado for £1 - even that would be a bargain. 

Alas no, it was true and I got all of the above (4 avocados, 1 huge mango and 2 artichokes) for £3 - precisely the amount of cash I had on me (probably a good job I didn't have more or I would have cleared them out!). They had SO much fresh fruit and vegetables, and so ridiculously cheap so if you are around Holborn GO! I didn't manage to take a picture of the stall but it's on the main road towards Covent Garden, complete with the traditional 'y'alright darlin?' sellers. 

I haven't been able to find 'whole' artichokes anywhere, only the (delicious) canned hearts, but my friend Katherine is always going on about them so I decided to give them a try! 

I had no idea what an artichoke even looked like, so to cut it in half and find a punky purple hidden centre complete with furry bits(?) staring back at me was quite suspicious. Off I googled and found a recipe from here.

Here is a quick summary of the (arguably more torturous yet delicious) recipe above. 

ingredients

1 whole artichoke

1 cup of chicken stock 

1 lemon

Couple of garlic cloves 

butter 

a bit of cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, and set the stock to boil. 

2. Whilst you wait, chop your artichoke in half, snip off the top leaves, peel the stem and finally carve out the pesky hairs with a spoon! (don't try to eat them, they don't taste good :( ) 

3. When the stock is boiled, transfer to a baking tray with the garlic and lemon juice, and lay the artichoke halves on top. Sprinkle a dash of salt, pepper and olive oil and pop it in the oven for half an hour.

 4. After half an hour, flip them over on to the other side and re-season. Pop back in for another 15 minutes. 

5. After 15 mins, sprinkle some cheese on the artichokes 'centre' - I missed out this step due to healthiness obligations but I bet it tastes pretty great! Put them back in the oven for a final 15 minutes.

5. Take them out - the leaves should be peeling off easily. Put the stock into a small bowl and add in some butter (up to you how much, obviously the more butter the better but it is optional).

Your artichoke will look all pretty like this. Now for what you will not find on the recipe linked above - if you are like me, an artichoke newbie, you now face the problem of how to eat it. 

I just assumed you gobble up the whole thing as nothing in the recipe said otherwise, but apparently no. Spitting out the leaves which I had tried to chow down, I returned to google. 

here are some instructions for eating! 

1. Place the artichoke face down on your plate. Peel off each leaf separately and dip the bottom into your bowl of fabulousness. 

2. Bite the bottom of the leaf where it is fleshy and scrape off with your teeth (quite weird to instruct but so good!) 

3. Continue to do this until you reach the elusive 'heart' - I had no idea what it looked like but presumed this was it: 

Looks sort of like a baby cauliflower - tastes INCREDIBLE. 

4. Eat the stem - it is almost good as the heart!

You will be left messy and flustered, but satisfied. Because artichokes are actually amazing, and you worked for your food! You will be left with an insane amount of leaves as such:

So that was my first delve into cooking/eating artichokes, but I was pretty impressed by the end of my trial/error period! They were worth all of the effort and at around 70 calories per GIANT artichoke, seriously low calorie and good for you as well as being an amazing tasting vegetable :) 

A couple of other random health foods I have discovered this week are :

Chia Pods

literally incredible, the most delicious chia pudding I've ever had!

and Coyo

Coyo is the creamiest yoghurt ever - yet it is vegan?  New love, if only it was a bit easier to find!

Hope you all have a great Easter! xx