A zero waste blog. Join me on my journey as I reduce my waste and move towards a simple, vegan and zero waste lifestyle.

Showing posts with label Edinburgh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh. Show all posts

Where To Bulk Buy in Edinburgh | The New Leaf Co-op

on
Monday 18 June 2018
Want to know where to bulk buy in Edinburgh?

Well The New Leaf Co-op has all your zero waste needs.

I discovered this shop last year, and these days I can often be found there scooping chickpeas into jars and looking at all the shelves of spices.

The store is open from Monday to Saturday and is the best place in Edinburgh to buy in bulk. The shop sells loose fruit and veg, bread without packaging, and lots of bulk foods including grains, pulses, pasta, spices, herbs, dried fruit, cleaning products, and they have a nut butter machine!!


 




The staff will happily weigh all your jars and containers for you, but there's also paper bags in the shop if you don't have your own. You can also take your own washing up bottles and fill them with washing up liquid,

I still had a quite a bit of food in my cupboard so I only needed a few things when I popped in at the weekend.


I picked up some chickpeas, vegan chocolate drops, organic apricots, exotic muesli, and rice. I was really excited to find the vegan chocolate drops cause finding vegan chocolate in bulk is not something that happens every day. Plus, it tastes delicious!

If you're in Edinburgh then you should definitely take a visit to The New Leaf Co-op. Remember you don't need any fancy jars or anything. I used a katsu curry sauce jar to fill with apricots and my boyfriend's takeaway container to fill with rice.

This is Edinburgh's biggest bulk buy store, but I'll be blogging about other places in the city you can do some zero waste shopping in the coming months. If you have any suggestions, then please let me know in the comments.

Birthday Celebrations

on
Sunday 14 January 2018
So that's it, I am officially 31 (and still completely in denial about it).

This week, I celebrated another birthday and while I don't look any older (well, that's what I'm telling myself) I have now reached the grand old age of 31.

I took the day off work like I have done every year of my adult life (well apart from one year when an old boss made me work) so my mum came through to Edinburgh so we could spend the day together.

Ever since I was born, my mum has made my birthday cakes and they always taste a million times better than any shop bought cake. This year, she made me a vegan chocolate dinosaur cake and it was amazing!! She even used Biscoff spread (!!!) between the layers. I've been eating it every day this week, and luckily there's still some left to snack on today.


We spent the afternoon at Holyrood Palace and the Queen's Gallery, which we've both been wanting to go to for a while, especially since I've become obsessed with The Crown. You're not allowed to take any photos inside, but here's one of me in my favourite Gryffindor scarf standing in the remains of Holyrood Abbey.


After that, we took a way up the Royal Mile for my birthday lunch at Paradise Palms. It's a great veggie/vegan bar and restaurant in town which is decorated with neon lights and palm trees. I had nachos topped with 3 bean chili, kiwi salsa verde, guacamole, blackbean dip, pickled chillies and vegan cheese. We also had a portion of the buffalo cauliflower, but it was a little too spicy for both of us.


I was back in work on Wednesday and of my colleagues made me a vegan chocolate cake which the office all enjoyed. I also caught up with some friends, went for pizza, played pinball, and then spent some time with the rest of my family as my brother turned 21 this week too.

I guess turning 31 wasn't too bad after all!

Edinburgh's newest supper club

on
Sunday 3 December 2017
Supper clubs seem to be the thing of the moment, and Edinburgh's newest one certainly doesn't disappoint.

Last night, I went to Century General's first ever supper club with a group of colleagues and friends from OneKind. We've become regulars at Century General over the past few months thanks to their coffee (I'm still not a coffee drinker, but I hear it's very good) and giant vegan cinnamon buns. So when we heard the first Century General Supper was going to be vegan, we knew we had to go.

For the first course, we had a delicious beremeal bannock with white bean and roast garlic puree. If you're not familiar with a beremeal bannock (which I wasn't), it's bread made using an ancient grain from Shetland. It's something I've never had before, but I'd definitely recommend it if you ever come across it because it's really tasty.


The next course was salt baked vegetables, salsa verde and candied hazelnuts. I'm not really a fan of nuts, so I did pass on the candied hazelnuts, but the rest of the dish was really good. Judging by all the empty plates around me, it seems like everyone else really enjoyed it too.


After that, we had my favourite course savoury course of the night which was braised lentils, neep gnocchi, leeks and jus. I've never had gnocchi made with anything other than potato before, but this neep gnocchi was delicious.


It wouldn't be any kind of supper without dessert and for this course we had chocolate tart, coconut ice cream, apples and pears. I pretty much inhaled this dish the minute it was put down in front of me, and I could have easily had seconds. It was the perfect finish to a fantastic evening of food. We also had bowls of cabbage on the table for us all to share which complimented the dish really well too.


To go with each course, we were given beers from Tempest Brewery. I've never been the biggest beer fan but I would definitely have two of the four beers again, especially the Mango Berlinner which turned out to be one of the best beers I've ever tasted. 


We were also given a couple of samples from Fife based natural company called Bodylushious to try. I got rose and lavender soap and jasmine body butter. They smell so good, so I'll do a full review once I've had a chance to try them out.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the first ever Century General Supper went really well, and I can't wait to see if they do another vegan one in the future.

(photo credit: Century General)


Vegan Club Sandwiches

on
Friday 10 November 2017
Vegan club sandwiches

A couple of weekends ago, I found myself at The Caffeine Drip in Edinburgh for the first time. I'd heard lots of great things about this South African café and bakery, but for some reason I've just never found myself at that part of town, even though isn't really that far away from my flat.

It isn't a vegan café, but they have so many different vegan options that you wouldn't be disappointed. I was there around 1.30pm so I was unable to order of the breakfast menu but if you go early enough you can pick from vegan French toast or a tofu scramble with added sides of vegan bacon or haggis.

On the recommendation of my friend, I ordered the vegan club sandwich which came with grilled vegetables, caramelised onion hummus, tomatoes, avocado and spinach. I also had it with rustic fries because I'm never going to turn down the chance to have chips. I think I'd have to put it up there in my top 5 favourite sandwiches of all time (that's right, I have a list) but it hasn't taken the top spot with goes to Meatless Mike sandwich from Ike's in San Francisco.

They also have a variety of vegan burgers, sandwiches and wraps and the most incredible vegan hot chocolate I have ever tasted. One thing to keep in mind is that it can be really busy so you might not get a table straight away, but it's definitely worth waiting on one if it's crowded.

You can check out the full menu on their website here.