The Great Big Dairy Free Easter Egg Hunt (2013 Part 2)

You may have already perused the first part of this little mini-series. You may already have decided on your choice of egg and purchased it, in fact, or you may well be despairing at the lack of choice and bemoaning your fate. Fear not! There is more - if you're prepared to take a little risk and shop online...

I was kind of driven to it, by the plaintive voice of Baby, asking, 'Is that dairy free Mummy?' as I wandered the aisles of the local stores, in search of dairy free Easter eggs. She was pointing at the brightly-coloured, foil-wrapped mini eggs, and I thought to myself, 'Where can I find some of those?'

These egg halves ARE dairy free!

Now, if like me, you like to 'feel the width,' or, 'try before you buy,' this may not come naturally to you. However, if you're in search of a little more variety, this Easter, it really is the only way!

It may be, for example, that you'd like something a little bit more child friendly, or you'd like a clutch of mini eggs for an Easter egg hunt, or you'd like something more bespoke and artisan or maybe you are being driven delirious by distant memories of cream eggs, which are no longer an option for you. Well, fear not! All is not lost, I may just have the answer for you!!

Ready for the hunt? This basket came from The Works.

Now, if you're looking for something suitable for children, you might like to cast your eyes over Tasha's Dairy Free Delights, Free From for Kids or D & D Chocolates. They all sell a range of chocolate novelties and eggs, specifically aimed at catering for people with allergies. Why do I highlight this? Because although 'Vegan' chocolates are made dairy and egg free, from what I can gather, these are not made (or sold) with allergies in mind and I'm not sure whether there may be cross contamination issues, for those who are extremely sensitive.

Free From For Kids and Tasha both sell branded dairy free products but Tasha also makes some chocolate novelties of her own. D & D also make their own products, which are gluten, dairy free and nut free. They also sell a range of carob and Turkish delight.

The other nice thing about Tasha's Dairy Free Delights and Free From For Kids, is that they don't appear to be priced outrageously - often dairy free food and chocolate is more expensive, due to being a niche market. However, I have noticed that it's worth shopping around and following the right people, because there are still bargains to be had!!

What do I mean? Well, I couldn't help noting that Waitrose has the Moo Free Bunny priced at £0.79. In my 'local' health food shop, you can buy the same bunny for £0.69. 'Bargainous!!' thought I, until I discovered that Emma at Love Lactose Free Life (who quite frequently has special offers) has these same bunnies priced at £0. 60 each!! The Moo Free eggs are also cheaper than I've seen in the shops - priced £3.79. 

The Moo Free Chocolate Bunny.

'Big deal!' you might say, 'what about post and packaging?' However, factor in the cost of petrol and parking, and actually, you may well have saved myself some money!!

Emma also stocks a nice selection of eggs from premium makes, such as Booja Booja, Mulu and Montezuma, with Inspiralled soon to be added.

Other good places to buy premium eggs are online Vegan sites, such as The Vegan Store Animal Aid, and, online Health Store, Goodness Direct. Be aware, though, that Goodness Direct also sell eggs containing milk, alongside those that don't, so pick carefully!! Viva, another Vegan site, have a slightly smaller selection but they look quite cute.

Now, back to that Vegan cream egg. Facebook and Twitter followers will perhaps already have picked up on this one, but I was astounded to learn, the other day, that such a thing did indeed exist!! I've not tried it yet, as I somehow couldn't justify to myself spending £1.20 on just one tiny egg, plus the cost of post and packaging (£2.75 for orders under £10). However, there are other chocolate novelties available from this site, so if you buy a few other bits and pieces, it may be worth your while. If you do happen to be interested (must admit I'm still tempted), The Chocolate Wendy House is the online place to go.

I have noticed, since mentioning the vegan egg, that D & D Chocolates sell something similar - some chocolate fondant egg halves (pictured above). They're £4.96 for a pack of four (plus postage and packaging), so they're still quite pricey! However, they have some special offers on at the moment, so check out their home page, for more details.

I bought theirs though, as they are gluten free and they also had this little box in stock. It was just what I was looking for - with Easter coming up, I'm aware that some of the Baby and Toddler groups, that we attend, may well be offering little ones chocolate eggs. I couldn't go unprepared now, could I? So I bought these, just in case...

These tiny eggs look great (above) in the little basket from The Works.

Update: I've just found this post listing dairy free Easter eggs available in Canada and the US. The list for British chocolates looks incredibly similar to our own!!

NB Please be aware that details about products may change. Check out our Facebook Page for further updates, or follow us on Twitter!

Similar posts:

The Great Big Dairy Free Easter Egg Hunt (Part1)

On the trail of the Dairy Free Easter Bunny! (Last years' post)

Be the Easter Bunny (Last year's post)

Oo! Ah! Chocolat!

Sweets for my sweet...

Food for Thought

'Food for Thought' is such a great name for a whole foods mini market, don't you agree?

We found them, for the first time, on Saturday in Guildford, following a bit of online research by The Hub. And what a find they were!

Tucked away in a side street, literally not much more than a few steps away from a main city centre shopping street, I can't help wishing that every town had one of these. Unfortunately, at the moment they have only two stores, one in Guildford and the other in Kingston.

Not quite as big as The Whole Foods market, that I visited, in Clapham, the other week, they nonetheless make good use of the space they've got and stock a pretty extensive range of specialist foods. In fact, it was a real Aladdin's Cave of goodies, I really had to restrain myself, from spending too much of The Hub's hard earned money!

The staff in the shop were quite friendly - one helpfully suggested that I might like to leave my cold purchases with them (whilst we shopped elsewhere) and return to pick them up later.  Bonus!! Being in town for the day, I happily accepted this offer.

However, I passed up the chance to buy more dairy free ice cream, - I've still got some in the freezer and was uncertain about getting it home. 

Co-yo's chocolate yoghurt soon found its way into my basket, though, closely followed by a larger tub of its natural version. I was delighted to restock my fridge with this dairy free yoghurt and was keen to try the chocolate flavour.

Another familiar face - Lucy's was in stock, as well. This time I bought a packet of mini cookies,  for taking out and about.

Amy's dairy, gluten and soya free macaroni cheese followed soon after - the first time I had seen this stocked any where, other than Goodness Direct or The Allergy Show. Its dairy and soya free version is not to be confused with their solely gluten free version, which seems to be much more widely available. Unfortunately, it's no good for us at all, as that version does contain dairy!

From the States and hard to find over here!

Joy of joys, their chocolate range was pretty good too - they stock my favourite chocolate bars, by Organica. Baby spotted their 'hamster chocolate' (Mini Moos by Moo Free) and, being a girl after my own heart, she made sure that also made it into my basket!!

All-in-all, it was a successful shopping trip. And now I know where they are, I'm sure that sometime or another I'll be back for more!!

Update:

This cream substitute really is quite yummy!

Just to let you know, I have been back. This time my top find was Soyatoo Rice Whip. Just like the squirty cream, I loved as a kid, this stuff is truly amazing! 

If you can't find it in your local health food store, try Amazon, or the Vegan Store. 

Okay, so I know, it's made with rice and there's a whole debate about rice going on right now (generally I avoid it as a daily milk substitute - just to be on the safe side) but I still eat rice, and being gluten free as well, have little choice but to consume it in baked goods too. Therefore, I think that in an occasional treat, like this hot chocolate (made with hazelnut milk) it should be alright.

Related Posts:

New to me - The Whole Foods Market

Avoiding the hop - doing Free From shopping online

Shopping Around
Heaven in a mouthful?

Heaven in a mouthful? Co-yo Coconut Yoghurt

Important update (21/02/18):

Due to a problem with a supplier, Co-yo has just announced a small amount of dairy has been found in one of their products. Please check out their Face Book page for further details, to see if any Co-yo you have bought has been affected. They have now cancelled this supplier.

Well, the inscription on the lid proclaims it: 'Heaven in a Mouthful'. Wow! That's  a bold statement isn't it? I actually didn't need that statement to persuade me to dive in. I've been after this stuff for a good few months now - ever since I got wind of it somewhere online. 

Thick and creamy - yum!

Originating, in Australia, I was overjoyed to discover that Co-yo  coconut milk yoghurt had made it over here, but getting hold of it has been somewhat trickier than I imagined!

No supermarket over here seems to sell it yet (now widely available see update below). Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose etc. you're missing a treat! Ocado doesn't have it listed... yet - I'm going to suggest this one! Goodness Direct had it listed, but it wasn't in stock when I ordered it. I finally got my hands on it the other day, however, when I paid a visit to the Whole Foods Market in Clapham Junction (there's another in Kensington).

They had four flavours, in stock: natural, mixed berry, pineapple and some kind of chocolate version. Now, if you know me well, you'll know how much I love chocolate, but on this occasion, I passed that over and (mindful of The Hub's wallet) I chose just the first two. This was partly because I wasn't sure that this much anticipated concoction was going to taste just as wonderful as it made out, and I didn't want to waste money on it if it wasn't up to much.

Having now sampled, in fact, demolished both tubs, I can report the following:

I thought it was delicious! It's one of the tastes I've been missing since going dairy free and I'm delighted to have found it.

If you like the flavour of natural yoghurt (and I do) this is the nearest I have come to it - bear in mind that I can't tolerate soya milk, so I've no idea whether there are any soya yoghurts out there that can compare. However, unlike many natural yoghurts, it is not quite as sour (good in my opinion) but every bit as creamy!! There is a hint of coconut in the flavour (not as obvious in the mixed berry flavour) more so, than in coconut milk, but I like the taste of coconut, so that's fine by me!

I enjoyed both flavours, but the mixed berry was my favourite - a fine layer of blueberries  and blackberries nestle at the bottom of the tub, under a thick blanket of coconut yoghurt. The sweetness tempers the tartness of the yoghurt really well, without being sickly, or cloying, in any way.

Now I know that many of you will be wanting to know, what's in it. The ingredients list is refreshingly short. It contains:

Coconut milk (98%)

Tapioca Starch

Vegan probiotic cultures

So, it's dairy free (therefore lactose free), soya free, gluten free and contains no added sugar. There are also no added flavours or colours, yet, if not actually my idea of 'Heaven in a Mouthful,' it does come pretty close!

Yippee! 

I'm definitely going to get some more! However, at £1.99 for a tub (125 g) it is rather pricey, so I might not be eating it everyday!

Updates: 

Ocado does now sell Co-yo and it is now also sold in selected branches of Waitrose and Tesco!

Plain Co-yo also works great as a replacement for sour cream!


New Flavours: 
I've since tried the Chocolate flavour of Co-yo and I'm afraid I'm not a fan. I'm not sure how I expected it to taste, you may think differently, but it didn't work for me. 

I've also tried the Mango flavour. The layer of mango purée was fairly runny - it could perhaps have benefited from a few lumps of actual fruit, but... it was absolutely delicious! Will definitely buy that one again!

A new Morello Cherry flavour came to the market (see here), which I absolutely loved! Sadly I've only seen it in health food stores. I've not seen it recently and I miss it!

There's a new Vanilla flavour and a Salted Caramel flavour around, both yummy, but the vanilla is my fave!

If you found this post helpful, you may also be interested in the following posts:

There are alternatives - dairy substitutes

Have you tried Hemp?

Happy with Hazelnut?

Anyone for Almond Milk?

There are alternatives, but it's certainly not butter!

Wot no dairy! Wot no soya!

Ice - a - cream - oh!

Bessant and Drury's Dairy Free Ice Cream

Ice, Ice Baby

Are you getting enough... Calcium? 

Getting enough? Vitamin D for you and me.

Avoiding the hop - shopping Free From online

Anyone else do the 'Hop'? 

No I don't mean a dance, as such, I mean the process by which you do your weekly Free From shopping. If you're anything like us, it means hopping from one supermarket to the next, in order to locate the various products that we need. I just can't get everything I need from one place - this is compounded by the fact that we are dealing with more than one kind of allergy. 

Two supermarkets near me stock the liquid I need to do my washing (to prevent 'Baby's' eczema), one of these stocks the gluten free pasta I prefer, either of these might have the bread I can tolerate, neither of them will stock 'Baby's' dairy free chocolate drops. And that's just the beginning! Some of the products I need are only obtainable from health food shops. 

To make things easier, for ourselves, we have found it generally makes sense to do some/most of our shopping online. I have investigated a few other ways of getting Free From items - I visit our local health food shops fairly often, but I wanted to buy some biscuits that I found at the Free From show, and found that I could not find them locally. It was then that I turned to the Internet.


Amazon

I shop fairly often online with Amazon for various items, but was astonished to discover that you can also buy some Free From products from them - including my biscuits! However, you have to be prepared to buy in bulk. The biscuits weren't too bad - just four packets at a time, but ice cream cones by the same company have to be bought in packs of six boxes.  Therefore you need to consider whether you have got the space to store it, something which (if you're anything like us) we don't have a lot of!!

Pros

• If items are eligible for 'Super Saver Delivery,' you get a small amount of money off and don't have to pay extra for delivery.
• Buying in bulk can be cheaper.
• Using Prime can save money on delivery costs.
• You can get items that you can't find locally.

Cons

• They can't always specify a day/time for delivery, so you need to be at home during work hours to receive a delivery. If you are not in very much during the week (let's face it most people are at work during the week) and do not have an understanding work place (who'll let you receive parcels at work) then you'd find it difficult to shop with them. 
• Amazon purchases are often over packaged - not very eco-frendly.
• You need space to store items bought in bulk.
• You have to know which product you are looking for, when using their website - I haven't found a 'Free From' section!
• you can now buy some products within two hours - for an extra fee of course!

Goodness Direct

I've also experimented with shopping online from Goodness Direct - they're like an online health food store. I'd heard of them through various avenues and thought I'd give them a try, to see how we got on. However, having tried it once, although as a first time customer they've sent me a 10% discount code for my next order, I'm not sure that it will be an avenue that I'll be exploring again all that soon - unless they have products that I really want, that I really can't get elsewhere. This is mainly because of delivery problems.

To be fair, it wasn't Goodness Direct's fault - it was the delivery firm that couldn't seem to operate the door entry system to our block of flats, but frustrating nonetheless, as I will not get those two days of my life back! 

I wouldn't have worried too much, if it wasn't for the fact that I had ordered some chilled items. I was worried that they would perish unless they arrived fairly soon - which was why I had waited in for them. As it was, I had to dispatch The Hub off to collect them from the depot when he got home from work (rather than wait for them to try and redeliver the next day).

Pros

• Good if you don't have much access locally to good independent health food stores or if you don't have well-stocked supermarkets nearby (although Goodness Direct say they can't deliver chilled or fresh produce to some rural locations). 
• Wide range of products.
• They highlight common allergens and list ingredients for each product.
• Delivery is free (except for chilled/frozen items) if you spend £35 on products - this can easily be managed, especially if you buy in bulk.
• Delivery is free for all goods, if you spend over £75 on products.
• You can pick up your order from Goodness Direct, if you live near their base (Daventry, Northamptonshire). You need to give 24 hours notice but this way, you can avoid delivery charges. Great if you live near enough!

Cons

• Like Amazon, they can't specify a delivery day/time.
• They charge £3.50 extra for ordering frozen/chilled products - for extra packaging.
• You have to order a minimum of six frozen/chilled products at a time - apparently to keep them cool during transit.
• They don't deliver weekends, bank holidays or days following bank holidays either (as I discovered).
• They can't deliver chilled/frozen products to some rural locations.
• There's not much that they can do about it, but I worry that their chilled packaging is not very 'eco-friendly' - what can you do with gel packs that have been enclosed with chilled/frozen goods, in order to dispose of them without harming the environment?

Ocado

Having investigated these other options, to be honest, my preferred form of online shopping (I'm truly sorry for those of you, who have issues with this company) remains Ocado.

Lemon Van - all the vans are named!

Why Ocado?

I'm not paid by them to say this (or anyone, for that matter) but we choose Ocado for the following main reasons:

• You can book a specific time slot - A major plus, in my book! I hate waiting around for a delivery and not knowing when it's going to arrive (as I'm doing today, in fact). With Ocado, we can book a specific time slot and the delivery runs pretty reliably to time. In fact, they are usually early, but that's probably because we live so close to their depot.
• They stock a good range of ordinary groceries as well as an expanding range of Free From products, so although we still can't get everything, we can get most of our needs this way. 
• If they're out of stock, you can usually see this on their website - rather than finding out when they turn up at your door, with some random substitute. This way, you can choose your own alternative products.
• There are very few substitutions - when we shopped with another supermarket in this way, there were quite frequent substitutions, some of which were fairly random. Even when Ocado do substitute, they do so intelligently, so we rarely turn the substitute down.
• They price match with Tescos on branded products - OK, this may be off-set by the delivery charges but then we're saving on our own petrol by reducing the number of journeys that we might have to make in the week.
• They appear to be open to suggestions - you can recommend products that you'd like them to stock. This doesn't mean that they'll automatically take up your suggestion, but it's a step in the right direction. They now stock my pasta - one less reason to do my shopping hop.
• They sucked us in, with a good deal on the delivery (quoting The Hub here)!

Other pros:

• Products are placed in colour-coded bags - green for frozen, red for chilled and purple for general groceries.
• Chilled and frozen items are stored at the correct temperature during transit.
• They will carry your groceries in for you.
• They recycle your shopping bags - they take away any old plastic shopping bags.
• Sometimes they send you a sample of some product that they think you might like - not always useful, but can be sometimes!

Cons:

• There's a lot of ground that they just don't cover - yet! Sorry to those of you who can't yet get Ocado deliveries in your area. I'm rooting for you!
• You need to spend a minimum of £40, but these days, that is fairly easy to do anyway.
• Eggs might get broken in transit, but you can call them about it and complain. To avoid this, we now buy our eggs locally. The same also goes for bread - which can get squished.

Anything else?

• For some reason long life milk substitutes are often put in bags containing refrigerated items. Not sure why!!
• Sometimes, one item is randomly placed in a carrier bag all of its own, which seems a bit wasteful. I just hope this is offset by recycling the bags! 
• If you return your bags they now pay you 5p a bag, but thie isn't terribly accurate if you're returning them in bulk!
• I like my raw meat packaged separately from my cooked meat and yoghurts - Ocado don't see this is a problem, but I am not convinced! Therefore we no longer buy these in the same order.
• Apparently if you live in an area where Ocado don't yet deliver, you can register online with them anyway, and they will notify you when they do. However, don't hold your breath, if you live in Scotland, or anywhere where there isn't a Waitrose, as that's where Ocado get most of their products!

Obviously, these are not the only options for shopping Free From online. They just happen to be the ones that I have explored so far.

Please note: 

This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's).

Enjoyed this post? Found it useful? You might like the following posts too:


Shopping with Food Allergies in the UK


Shopping around dairy free



Alternative Stores



Fancy a date... at the Allergy and Free From Show 2014?

So how about you? How do you get on with Free From shopping?