A Little Wishlist.

If it weren't for the fact that I've spent nearly all of January being particularly skint, I'd say that I've also been pretty good at saving, which is definitely something I want to try and get really good at this year.

With that being said, it's pretty difficult not to spy fun things to splash out on, besides, one of these things isn't even for me.

1. Eliza and The Bear 'Southern Wild' Sweatshirt – Having heard Eliza and the Bear on Xfm a couple of weeks ago, I've fallen for them. Their song 'It Gets Cold' was an instant favourite and 'Southern Wild' allowed me to be reminded of the wonders of the 'Beasts of Southern Wild soundtrack. The fact that this sweatshirt has a bear on it only sweetens the deal, I really like the colour and it's not going to be warm enough to go without some extra layers for a while so it would be a welcome addition.
2. Not Another Bill Subscription Box – This might be the best subscription box idea I've seen to date. I think they look to provide great 'boyfriend' gifts and with Moon's birthday coming up at the beginning of March it couldn't have been discovered at a better time! Not only do they post gifts from independent designers but quite a few past gifts have featured nice fonts and wood, two of Moon's favourites. I'm hoping that a three-month subscription will be fun and different, and perfect for a boy who never tells anybody what he wants.
3. Muffin-Top Mattress – A rather silly (grown-up) thing to get excited about but this mattress from Loaf.com looks like an absolute dream. My spare time has been a lot about sleeping recently and although this is a bit extravagant, it's probably about third or fourth on our list of 'home priorities' if we decide to stay put.
4. Month Toothbrushes – Spotted on the 'past gifts' section of 'Not Another Bill', these wooden brushes are so cute and definitely make me a little resentful of my boring electric toothbrush. They serve a practical use as well as looking great too and let you know how long you should use them for.
5. Scout Motto Doormat – This definitely makes me long for a door that comes in from outside, sadly the dark corridor that is our hallway just wouldn't do this cute doormat justice but it can just sit here until I can do something with it.

Are you looking forward to pay-day? What do you think of Not Another Bill?

Flavrbox for August

Another month, another wonderful box from my friends at Flavrbox. I really do look forward to new boxes each month and continuing to recommend them, I'm also pretty thankful for how much they've made me stand up and take notice of more independent brands in the last year and a bit.

I've definitely noticed a change in my food shopping habits, I now prefer getting fruit and veg from greengrocers, farm shops and markets now over the supermarket, there's so much more to see, which is funny considering the nearest supermarket to us is the size of an air hanger...





[Raspberry Coulis, Best of Taste Co.]
I really am not sure what to make of this, I think I liked it but only in so much that I liked it as a coulis and I don't really like coulis. My biggest appreciation for this was the great recipe for white chocolate cheesecake that it came with - and went very well with too. Sorry for the sloppy splodges but we weren't really sure want to do with it. I think if you love the tartness that raspberries can have sometimes and you like fancy dessert sauces you're going to like it because it was nice, it's just not really for me.


[Magic BBQ Dust Rub, Best of Taste Co.]
This is probably this month's little let down. We gave it a go with burgers and I must admit that it didn't add the amount of flavour to the meat that I was expecting. After my GBB winnings, maybe I'm a bit of a 'rub snob' but this didn't really do it for me. It was accompanied by some great ways to use it other than as a rub though, which I was pretty impressed by and given that I'm pretty overloaded with rubs now, that little card is sure to come in handy.


[Madagasgar Vanilla Fudge, Yum Yum Tree Fudge]
You can never go wrong with fudge. As we had it when the weather was so warm, I left it in the fridge and was a little worried it would ruin it, but it was still creamy and delicious, perfect for picking at every now and then.


[Italian Herb Peanuts & Hazelnuts // Zanzibar Nuts & Seads, Mr Filbert's Inventive Snacks]
These were great for snacks at work although my eyes did pop out of my head when I saw the calorie content. The Zanzibar Nuts & Seeds were really interesting with an orangey/gingery overtone, I think I liked them best out of the two.


[Sweet Chilli Jam, Eddie's Chilli Jam]
I remember trying a few of these when I went to Taste of London a couple of months ago, my favourite was their scotch bonnet one, but this one is pretty great too, perfect on crackers with strong cheddar. I'm always fascinated by the different kinds of jam people can make.


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Flavrbox for July.

WOWOWOWOW! This is my favourite Flavrbox in ages. Such generously-sized items and such great items at that, I'm not sure what more I can say. I've come away with a lot exciting finds in this month's box, admittedly there is one item I didn't try but that's simply because it's come to the time of year not perhaps when, it's too warm to eat (I can always eat), but it's not quite the right time for the kind of food it would be served with. There's really not that much criticism that I can find, I can't wait to try the item I missed once summer comes to an end, without meaning to wish the year away, of course!




[Blood Tonic Cordial, Mr Fitzpatricks – RRP: £4.25]
We are loving cordials in the little flat right now - not quite juice and little bit more special than everyday squash. We just picked up a couple of bottles of Belvoir Elderflower Cordial to go towards MoneySupermarket's upcoming barbecue challenge, but this Blood Tonic Cordial is really something special - without wishing to undersell it, to me it tastes like what can only be described as mixture of (old-school) Tizer and children's medicine but that's it's main selling point. It's so tasty, a little sweet to have all the time but a great pick me up. Flavrbox recommended to have it with sparkling water but I definitely prefer to treat myself and have it with lemonade instead. I just really wish I fully understood what it actually is.



[Split Dried Fava Beans, Hodmedod's – RRP: £1.90]
This is the item that I didn't get around to trying this month. I've found it's been far too warm for any of our usual go-to one-pot dishes and we've mainly stuck to salady things. I think they're going to be great in one of Moon's signature curries though and I can't wait to try them.


[Salt Selection Box, Devonshire Gourmet Salts – RRP: £6.00]
I really liked these, I do however have one criticism, I reckon they ought to have packaged these a little better. Unfortunately one of the packages arrived split with salt rattling in the overall box they came in, which is a bit of a shame. I just figured that as the amount provided was so generous and they're such nice products the packaging was just a little bit of a let down. My favourite was the smoked sea salt, and they've been pretty nice for all the tomatoes we've been going through, it's going to be exciting to have them with our home-grown ones.
Any tips on what to actually use them with would be much appreciated.


[Passionfruit Gourmet Marshmallows Little Delicious – RRP: £3.50]
This is about the third lot of marshmallows I've received in a Flavrbox and I have to say that these have been the best. They were full of flavour without being overpowering and they were really light - they actually weren't all that much like marshmallows at all, but they certainly were tasty. Having read Little Delicious' back-story, I'd actually love to give homemade marshmallows a try, I doubt I could top these beauties but I'd give it a shot (stay tuned for a #pinterestfail).



[Chilli & Garlic // Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt Pitta Chips, Soffle's – RRP: £3.00]
These are a great idea and after we were talking about how neat they were at work too. I started making homemade nachos a little while ago with the help of Innocent's HUNGRY, and was going to give pitta chips a try next, then these arrived and gave me a whole heap of other ideas. They were a lot different from what I was expecting but I really liked them. I think I prefered the Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt ones as they seemed to have absorbed the flavour a little better and the Chilli & Garlic ones were a little dry - I'd definitely get some dip for them if I were trying them again. How great is the packaging though? - definitely my favourite this month, so simple but really eye-catching and so cute. ♥


The brochures are getting fancier and fancier every month!
My favourite this month has definitely been the Mr Fitzpatricks' Blood Tonic Cordial, with the sea salt, purely based on presentation, being my least favourite, but I pretty much like everything, it was definitely the right box for me.

Don't forget to 'Like' Flavrbox on Facebook and 'Follow' them on Twitter, their Blog is also pretty up-and-coming too.

Have you give Flavrbox a go yet? If so, what did you think?

Flavrbox for June.

Flavrbox are well and truly back in my good books this month. After being a little bit disappointed with last month's box, they've offered up a whole stack of tasty treats this month that perfectly match both their price tag generally and their usual standard of quality that I've become accustomed to.

As well as being very happy with this month's box, I'm also super pleased because I won their competition to win two tickets for Taste of London next weekend! I've never really won anything that interesting before and to win it completely randomly even though I have a pretty good relationship with them anyway makes the prize all the more special.

I'm really looking forward to an afternoon up in London and doing something completely different from what I usually would. The only downside to winning, and it's not really a downside because it means I get a longer weekend, is that the tickets I won fall on a Friday - which kind of means it was difficult to get a guest (except not really because I'm taking my Gran along). My Gran and I don't really get a lot of chances to spend heaps of time together anymore since I moved away and I haven't seen her properly in ages so it will a great opportunity to do that, as well as enjoy some tasty new food at the same time. So, thank you Flavrbox for giving me a fun, food-filled day out, I'm pretty excited!





[Caramel and Sea Salt Popcorn, Joe & Seph's Gourmet Popcorn Chef & Connoisseur | RRP: £4.00]
I was pretty excited when I saw the beautiful packaging, but, and after all that good news I don't mean to start off on a bad note because it's totally not, this may have been my least favourite product of the box this month. I love popcorn, salty, sweet, it needs to get into a bowl ready for my face. This wasn't actually disappointing really, it was more because I was so happy I had some popcorn, that when it was nice but not anything different, it was a bit of a let down. I think it's the 'sea salt' part, I'm a big fan of mixing sweet and savoury so when I wound up with all sweet, it just left me feeling a little 'meh', like, 'hey, it's popcorn, it's nice but it's packaging is nicer'.


[English Truffle Oil 100ml, Truffle Hunter | RRP: £4.95]
Flavrbox pulled of another sneaky combination of things you can bung into one recipe this month. Funnily enough, this truffle oil was perfectly designed to go with the porcini pieces and risotto rice; that recipe was a total success by the way. Since trying it out in risotto, I've used it with green beans and as a part of a dressing and it's worked really well, it smells awesome and does add some depth the flavour, I think it's just my unsophisticated pallet that's not quite able to totally put my finger on what it is that I really like about it. I thought the size was pretty good generally too, more than enough to sample once, but not so much that I'm drowning in truffle oil forever.


[Porcini Pieces, L'Aquila | RRP: £5.95]
I stupidly added this whole packet to water ready to cook with a risotto, but half of it was more than enough, I'm hoping add the rest to some kind of Chinese stir fry next. These were great for disguising mushrooms in a mushroom risotto and I even managed to get my friend, who has either never eaten mushrooms or just generally hates them, to eat the risotto and he went back for seconds(!) - score: 1 to mushrooms. They were really nice and the water from them made a great stock. I'm not a fan of the smell of the water though, but that's more of a personal thing, it was mainly because after I'd left them soaking all day, they were all I could smell as soon as I'd walked through the door from work.


[Gluten Free Muesli, Alara | RRP: £3.50]
BEST MUESLI EVER! You're reading the words of a muesli-hater, but I think I may be converted, this is practically all I ate for breakfast last week and I couldn't get enough of it. I'm actually a little sad that the box only lasted me around 6 days, but cereal isn't something I would eat every day normally so I think it would probably go a lot further if I had it as a staple. It's just got such a great range of textures and it actually has taste, I was a little bad a couple of times and added sugar though (sorry, not sorry).


[Carnaroli Risotto Rice, Seggiano | RRP: £3.50]
It's been claimed that carnaroli rice is better for risottos than arborio, which is funny because arborio is meant to be the one you buy. I have to say that I don't disagree with that statement though. Having made two baked risottos with the two different kinds of rice, I definitely think that the one with this rice was less stodgey and therefore, in my opinion, much nicer to eat. I found that the rice wasn't all stuck together in the same way it was when I'd cooked risotto before, so it actually felt like it was a little easier to cook too.


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Subscribe to next month's box and get £5 off with the code BLOG13.

Flavrbox for May.

I'm sad to say that this month's Flavrbox was the biggest disappointment. Nothing on offer really matched up to 'my kind of thing' and I wish even if that was the case that it had been the kind of thing I could have fobbed off on gifted others, as you can probably tell, it wasn't really.

I guess I feel a little guilty about writing a negative review, but given that I've been so positive about every other box, I think it's safe to say this month's box was just a total blip - after seeing Instagrams of this month's, I can't wait to get my chops around what's on offer.

Flavrbox seem to be going through a bit of a change, with fancy new leaflets and a more regularly updated blog, it looks like there are some really exciting things happening at Flavrbox HQ and I can't wait to find out what's coming up next.



[Linguine Organic Pasta, Seggiano]
We mixed this up with some parmesan and the pesto that also came in this months box, and despite reading that you could 'taste the quality', I'm honestly not sure I could tell the difference between this and our more purse-friendly pasta. It was nice, but it was just pasta, it was nice to have a bundle of items that could be mixed in to one dish though and I'm sure this will definitely all get eaten, so that's definitely something.


[Panforte Di Sienna, Seggiano]
I think there definitely could have been a bigger variation of brands in this months box, but I've noticed a few other blogs have noted a variety of products so I guess the sting of not really liking anything is worsened by this overload of Seggiano products. This panforte just didn't agree with my taste buds at all, it was kind of chocolatey but very bitter and the texture was a little strange, maybe I'm not sophisticated enough but I just couldn't get my head around it.


[Raw Basil Pesto, Seggiano]
Now, I said I didn't really like anything but this wasn't even like it 'was the best of a bad bunch', I actually loved this. I put it on an Italian salad for our Eurovision party and it's so tasty. I love basil and although I wouldn't go out of my way to have pesto, this was delicious and you could definitely see the difference in quality compared to both more common brands and own brand options.


[Sweet Garlic Cloves in Oil, The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight]
To my disappointment these weren't to my taste when having with nibbles of sundried tomatoes and olives as I would usually serve them. Saying that, it's pretty useful to have peeled garlic around ready to add into things so that's mainly what we've used it for and it's working out pretty well - even if the oil goes everywhere(!)


[Rovies Organic Green Olive Paste, Odysea]
I'm desperate to find a use for this and I think it will work really well with some really cheesy crackers, sadly all I had to hand was oatcakes and it just wasn't a nice marriage. Overall the taste of this olive paste is pretty bitter so I think it needs something kind of creamy to set it off. It's got potential, I'm just not sure how to unlock it, suggestions are very welcome. :)
Really don't let my thoughts on this month's box put you off, I think the great thing about Flavrbox is that it doesn't give you a choice so you're able to try things you perhaps wouldn't normally pick up. So, I knew I didn't like what was on offer this month, so I wasn't surprised, but the quality is still clear and it's still worth the price tag.

Use the code: BLOG13 to get £5 off your first box, they also make great gifts, or why not share the wealth and split items between a group of you?

Be sure to follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook, they post such fun food-related things. ♥, like the great 'Cut Food' Photography they posted a few days ago.

Flavrbox for April.

I'm not sure how it works out with Flavrbox months, is it like magazines? So they'd call the last box for March but I got it (and ate it) in April, so I'm going to say my most recent box was April, if anyone at Flavrbox HQ has any issues with this, just let me know...


Let's get down to it then, here I am, on the last day of the month (April's a sneaky one, isn't it), already anticipating next month's box. As usual, this month's Flavrbox was full of things I knew I would like as well as things I'd never even thought about trying before.

One of the most impressive things by far though was Flavrbox's cheeky little redesign, did any other subscribers notice this? As if the packaging wasn't a designgasm already, they just upped their game, good work ♥.

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[Aivar Meze, Pelagonia] RRP: £3.75

I don't mean to kick this off on a bad note but this was a little bit of a disappointment. Although I did really like it when I received it back in December, I would have preferred to try something new. None the less, now it's warming up, I think this will go really well with our upcoming barbecues.

[Vegetable Crisps, Scrubby's] RRP: £2.80

I love a packet of vegetable crisps, and I have to say these were much nicer than standard Tyrell's ones that I've bought in the past. They seemed to have a lot more flavour and were much less greasy as sometimes vegetable crisps tend to be. A major plus, although I know it's just luck, was the fact there were actual whole crisps in each packet, rather than smashed up bits that aren't even worth bothering with. They're a bit pricey for me in real life, but I'd definitely pick them up for a special occasion if I saw them.

[Clapton Grass-Fed Beef Jerky, Shoreditch Kitchen] RRP: £4.50

Oh my goodness! This was almost too good to share. I really wasn't expecting this to be as nice as it was, I don't think I've ever really eaten jerky before but if it's all flavoured as nicely as this one I'll definitely be keeping my eye out. It was one of those where it's a gentle heat that builds up, which is much nicer than things that are so hot they just taste like fire, you really got a depth of flavour with it, I'm just sorry there wasn't more.

[Black Bean Kit, Cool Chile Co.] RRP: £2.40

I was a little bit miffed when I saw it was a bit more effort than I wanted to put in to prepare these black beans, but it was so completely worth it! I was going to make re-fried beans as suggested with the kit but I found an awesome recipe for Black Bean Tortilla Soup that was just too good an opportunity to pass up. I accidentally misplaced most of the kit after soaking the beans in water overnight (really weird, the water goes purple), so I made up my own chilly mix and they absorbed the flavour really well. I've found the spices again though so I'm ready for round-two if we manage to pick up any more Mexican black beans. I was so proud of my culinary skillz, I even posted them on Instagram (what else is new, that's all I ever post on Instagram).

[Persian Nougat, The Exquisite Range] RRP: £7.50

I actually really wasn't looking forward to this at all, I hate rose-flavoured things and this just sounded vile to me. Moon hates nougat too so as an attempt to wash my hands of it, I brought the box into the office. Everyone gobbled them up and, actually I really liked it too! The rose flavour was so much more subtle than I was expecting and the texture was lovely - think gooey without being gooey. I was really impressed, particularly by how well the pistachios complimented the whole thing. Yet another item from this month's box that was almost too good to share, I can see how it won it's gold stars!

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It really is impossible to fault Flavrbox's value and if you're into food then it's definitely worth it as a surprise gift to yourself each month. Even if you don't like what you got, share it out, I always love bringing the slightly more obscure products into work and letting everyone try them, I haven't been let down yet - except by the amount of calories in the Chai Latte when everyone was on their diet kick a couple of months ago.