Vegan Package Exchange

This post is to say a massive thanks to Poppy for my VeggieBoards vegan exchange package! It was amazing, and I wanted to make a post about some of the amazing vegan food they get in the states (that I am very jealous of).

I've actually already eaten a fair few of these products, and they were all delicious. In the box, I found:

-A handful of vegan outreach pamphlets on 'Why Vegan?'. I'm going to give them to people who express interest in going vegan.
-A card with a kitty on it, and a lovely message inside. Do not worry, Poppy, I love everything in my box - especially the 'candy'! (Candy, to us Brits, is something a little more specific... I won't go into it.)
-A catnip mouse for my kitty, Coco. If you put it down in a particular spot, she'll sleep in that spot. She also spent a long time licking the mouse's ear.
-A jar of dark chocolate peanut butter. It's like Nutella, but made with peanuts. This makes it awesome. Before I'd even unpacked the rest of the box, I had the jar open to taste some. I then put it on a toasted bagel. Heaven!
-Sour Patch Kids. That is the one American product I have been desperate to try, ever since I started watching Kyle XY, and moreso since I found out they were vegan. Now that I have them, I'm kind of scared to open them, though. I'm saving them for when I watch a movie this weekend. Although I keep stealing glances at the bag.
-Giant pumpkin spiced cookie. I had to chase my mother away from this with a stick.
-Peanut butter and coconut candy. I'm not normally a fan of coconut, but these are amazing. Crunchy and very peanutty. I love peanuts.
-Kettle Corn bar. I've always wanted to know what kettle corn is like, and now I have it in an exciting bar format.
-Cran-Lemon Twister. Similar to the Kettle Corn bar, but fruity. Or at least, I assume so.
-Choc Chip Cookie Dough raw bar. I kinda wanted to cook it, to see if it would turn into cookies. But before this thought could complete itself, I'd eaten it. It was gooood.
-Bumble bar. The last of the bars; from the wrapper, it looks like it should be made out of honey. It's not.  It's something to do with peanuts, and that's all I can tell you for now because I've yet to eat that one.
-Twist scrubber. For my pans. I've just started using organic, natural cleaning products, so this is a great addition to my small collection.
-Three kinds of vegan jerky. Aside from the sour patch kids, this is the thing I was most excited about. And I was right to be; seitan thai peanut jerky is the best thing I've eaten in a long time. I LOVED it.

Thanks again to the psychic Poppy, who seems to know exactly what I like without being told. If the rest of the box is half as good as what I've already eaten, we're on to a winner.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

One of those 'throw stuff in a bowl and see what happens' recipes. I wanted brownies, and I wanted to use my bar of dark chocolate to make them. So I did. It makes a fairly small amount (enough for an 8" diameter tin).

1 100g bar dark chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup soy milk
1/3 cup soy yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Put glass or metal mixing bowl on the saucepan, so that the bottom of the bowl is touching the water but not the bottom of the pan. Add the chocolate and the butter and melt together, stirring until there are no lumps.
Add the sugar to the chocolate mix and stir in. Remove from the heat, but keep the bowl over the water.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, before adding the liquid chocolate mix and folding together.
Add the soy milk and yogurt, and mix thoroughly until no large lumps remain.
Mix in the lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into a greased/non-stick baking tin. Cook at 180c for approx 25 mins, until a knife comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Notes:
-The lemon juice is just to cut through the sweetness of the mixture; if you want the brownies to taste of lemon, add another tbsp of juice and a tbsp of lemon zest.
-For extra-chocolatey brownies, add 1/3 cup cocoa powder and another 1/4 cup soy milk.
-Experiment with the types of chocolate. There's a spiced orange bar I really want to try this recipe with some time, replacing the lemon juice for orange juice and adding a pinch of cinnamon.