NYC Eats 2015

Let’s start with the flight. After the experience I had flying to Orlando with Virgin earlier in the year I wasn’t expecting much of a change but I was pleasantly surprised. Before my flight I again confirmed with the special assistance department that I would need a special meal. They could offer Dairy & Gluten free but not Egg free. I opted for this choice and hoped there would be no egg.

I was served a fresh salad, roll, fruit and a spicy chicken with beans and rice. My biggest excitement came when I picked up the roll, turning it over to my delight I saw the magical word “BFree”. I was so happy. I love Bfree as a brand and for once I could eat the roll as it was also egg free. The meal was tasty and, well, fruit was to be expected so it’s better than nothing. My mid afternoon snack was more fruit but I managed to eat the tyrells crisps out of the normal snack box too. I also liked that ingredients were printed on the labels too. Thumbs up!

We arrived in New York early evening so we checked into our hotel and headed straight out to Bryant Park Winter Market. I’d noticed on Instagram that a lot of the stalls at this market were Vegan and one in particular sold great looking Chocolate so I made sure I found it. The stall was called Kaleidoscope – it sold Vegan Chocolate by Lagusta’s Luscious. I picked out a peanut butter toffee crunch bar and a Mint Chocolate Christmas Tree.

Chocolate bar heaven!

Another place I knew I had to visit was Two Boots Pizza. They have a big range of Vegan / Dairy Free Pizzas and also Gluten Free Bases. The closest one to us was located in the Grand Central Station Dining Concourse. I ordered a simple Cheese and Tomato Pizza. They use Daiya Cheese which melts great and has a lovely taste. The tomato sauce was really tasty and im 99% sure that the base was Venice Bakery as it was very similar to what I have at home and love. All in all delicious and I had my first New York Pizza experience. 

Day Two we were up early to head down to Union Square. The bus dropped us off right near Hu Kitchen which was another place on my list to try and visit. The shop is all about healthy clean food with no added nasties. They are Gluten, Soy and Cane Sugar Free with lots of Dairy & Egg Free options too. I needed warming up so we sat and had a Peppermint Mint. While there I purchased a Quinoa Crunch Bar which was gorgeous. Like a raw chocolate brownie with a layer of chocolate on the top. Mmm. Also picked up a few bars of their Hazelnut Praline Chocolate and a bag of Graham Bites which looked interesting.

While at Union Square I couldn’t resist a visit to Whole Foods. It’s an epic store which I could have spent hours exploring. From here I picked up the Dark Chocolate Justins Peanut Butter Cups (To eat while my husband is munching through his Reeses), Some cute gingerbread men cookies, Some Chocolate Mint Marshmallows and a Mint Choc Chip Nugo Bar. I had to restrain myself from buying any more due to carrying it around all day. I would have loved to have tried the Rice Dream Nog. The USA has so many more flavoured milk alternatives to us. I also picked up some Tortillas and Guacamole to snack on.

While walking between Union Square and Chelsea Market we came across a great store called Garden of Eden and it was full to the brim with different foods and had a decent selection of free from products. I picked up a bag of Salted Caramel Pita Chips which sounded fab and like nothing I’d seen before.

We stopped during the day to eat at Chipotle which I love. Everything is Dairy Free except for the Cheese and Sour Cream and everything is Gluten Free except for the flour tortillas. I adore their burrito bowls. You can choose what you add to your bowl so I had white rice with, chicken, fajita vegetables, salsa and guacamole. Yum! (We went on two occasions)

Day 3 we headed downtown to Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State and the One World Trade Centre. For lunch we ate at Mighty Quinns BBQ which was located in a lovely food court on Liberty Street. I checked out their website before the trip and it had a great allergen section. I chose to have the brisket with fries. The brisket was melt in the mouth tender and flavoursome and the fries where great. The server confirmed too that both were dairy & gluten free. They have a few locations around Manhattan so worth a visit.

That Evening we headed out to do a bit of shopping on Lexington Ave. I didn’t fancy a full meal so we stopped off at Blooms Deli to buy some meat to snack on. When in NYC you have to have some deli meat especially Pastrami and Corned Beef (not like UK corned beef). This was not cheap meat but It was so so delicious and worth every penny. 

Day 4 We were around the Central Park area. There was another nice Winter Market at Columbus Circle. I found a stall by a company called Raaka who sell raw vegan chocolate. Of course I had to purchase a few bars, settling on the Maple & Nibs and Pink Sea Salt bars. I’ve now got lots of chocolate to get us through Christmas.

Later in the day I had to collect an order I’d placed with a company called Cookie Do which was located a few blocks from our hotel. I’d found them whilst trawling the internet and saw that they catered for different diets. I placed an order for a tub of their edible Snickerdoodle Cookie Do, and also a dozen baked Choc chip Cookies. My husband had the “normal” nuts for nuts Cookie Do tub which looked amazing full of M&M’s and Reeses. My Snickerdoodle was scrummy eaten from the tub with a spoon mmm. The cookies were yummy too with big chocolate chips throughout. We need this in the UK.

Our flight home started with a breakfast of fruit three ways (I had to giggle to myself). A Fresh Fruit pot, Dole fruit in juice pot and a packet of dried fried. Lol. It got better though, for lunch I was served a salad, Chicken with potatoes, gravy and sautéed fennel which was actually tasty for a plane meal, there was a Dairy, Gluten and Nut free Roll too but nothing to say it didn’t contain egg so I gave that a miss, and of course more fruit.

I also want to mention an app that I used and found really helpful. It is a Map app that doesn't use internet data, just gps signal so was free to use while out and about. I populated it at home with all the suitable restaurants, shops and other locations we wanted to visit and found it really handy to use while we were out and about to find the closest place to get safe food or directions. It's called Maps Me.

So, another trip I didn’t go hungry on and I managed to find lots of things I wanted to try. There were a lot more places I’d researched too but time just flew by and there was no way I could have visited them all unfortunately. The flights were a great success food wise compared to the last one. As always the USA is a fab place for special diets and I’d highly recommend a visit if you get a chance.

Orlando Food Haul 2015

If you know me you know I like a good suitcase haul. If you didn't see last years post it explains how I pack things to bring them back to the UK as unscathed as possible. Again travelling Premium Economy this year allowed me to bring back two extra suitcases filled will goodies. Not all food...but mainly.

Here is everything I brought home...

My last visit to Wholefoods Orlando was a bit like supermarket sweep. One of the things I grabbed as I was dashing round the store was this Follow Your Heart Ranch. I saw ranch dressing everywhere in Florida and i'd never tried it so when I saw this I knew I had to take it home. This was a chilled item so I had to pack it with ice packs to keep it cool. Its dairy, egg, gluten free and vegan. I've been using it on salads and as a dip and I really like it. Once its gone its gone though as I don't think this is available in the UK. Sob.

I know some people find Chia seeds weird. I'd probably describe them as frog spawn. But I actually really like them. Mamma Chia is a popular brand in the usa with lots of flavours. I'd actually brought these to drink while I was there but didn't get round to them so I wrapped them up to bring home. I really enjoyed both flavours. Are there any of these drinks in the UK?

While in the airport we were spending our last bit of spare cash on snacks. I spotted these Dry Roasted Edamame. They were free from Gluten & Dairy so I purchased. I really enjoyed them as a savoury snack.

Ah Tostitos. I love Tostitos. We usually buy the scoops but this year they had these new rolls which we loved. They were great dipped in salsa or hummus. Always amazes me the selection of Tortillas that the USA have compared to our selection. I also found the little tortilla trays in target and thought they were cute so I will use them for mini tacos or for salsa.

There are a lot of Justin's nut butters (including the peanut butter cups) in the usa. I found these little chocolate hazelnut butter packets in target. They are perfect size for a snack.

I noticed these bread crumbs in all three of the supermarkets, Walmart, Publix and Target. This one is free of dairy & egg too. I've used it already sprinkled on top of lasagne to make it crispy. It worked really well. I need to try them next to coat some chicken strips or prawns.

Random find but I had this brand of iced tea last year and was interested in trying this combination. I've not yet drank them but i'm looking forward to them. I love the cute packaging too.

Grape Jelly! or jam as we call it. I like anything grape flavoured (even the fake grape flavour). We dont tend to get grape jam over here so I always pop one in the suitcase.

These cute little biscuits may well have been my favourite haul purchase. I loved both flavours and I loved how tiny and sweet the little bunnies are. Not all Annies products are free from everything but i'm so glad these were free from dairy, egg and gluten because they were amazing.

I know we can now get a few Enjoy Life products in the UK now but I liked the sound of these. 

I found these baking mixes in Target and i've wanted to try the Cherrybrook Kitchen mixes for a while but on any UK websites they are really overly priced. I found them a lot cheaper in the usa. I've made the chocolate chip cookies and the brownies and they worked great and tasted great.

I used to love Oreo's so these two brands are great alternatives.

You can find Chex in all the supermarkets. There are lots of flavours to choose from. I brought home my favourites.

S'mores are very American, I think the closest we can get in the uk to a Graham style cracker is a digestive biscuit. Last year I made s'mores as desserts after summer bbq's. I'm looking forward to trying these crackers and using the square marshmallows.

I buy these crisps every year. They are a dairy free cheesy puff which reminds me of Wotsits. I love them. 

Wholefoods had a great selection of different pastas. I decided to try these two. I used the brown rice pasta lasagne recently in a lasagne and really enjoyed it. I like how it has a wavy edge.

I kinda miss sometimes being able to grab something cheap and simple. Lots of cuppa soups and instant noodles contain either gluten or milk so when I spotted these for under $1 in walmart I popped some in the trolley. I know they aren't the most nutritious of foods but it was nice to pop them in a mug at work and have them as a quick lunch. 

We love using our coffee machine and as much as we like nice Artisan ground coffee we are also drawn toward the cheaper flavoured brands too. Dunkin Donuts do some fab flavours and yes its probably not the best quality but we like it. Our favourite find this year was a cherry flavour which we had while we were there. The chocolate donut is also really nice. I'm going to use these for iced coffee's this summer.

Finally, last year I brought the Twinings Cold Brew teabags from the UK area in Epcot. I didnt go into Epcot this year but while we were there my sister did so she picked me up the four flavours they do. I love them in summer as they are so refreshing. I also found in Walmart the Salted Caramel Black tea which is so nice. I also brought some sleepy tea for bedtimes.

So that brings my 2015 USA Eats series to an end. I hope you have enjoyed reading all my posts and I hope they will help you plan an amazing holiday in Florida. If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments or find me on twitter.

Favourite Fast Food Eats in Florida 2015

Over the last few years if I needed some fast food we always called at Chick-fil-a as I knew I could have the grilled chicken nuggets and waffle fries. I love them dipped in Polynesian sauce.

We only went once this time but I had my old faithful nuggets & waffle fries. Yum!

This year a new restaurant/take away had appeared on the main stretch of road that we traveled down every day (192 West Bronson Memorial Highway). It is called Pollo Tropical. I started by dropping them a little email to ask about allergies. They replied really quickly and sent me a full list of allergens.

A few days later when we were in need of some quick food we decided to give it a try. The man behind the counter was very helpful in telling me which options I could pick and he double checked his allergen lists. I decided to have a TropiChop which is a rice bowl with chicken and different toppings. I had rice, black beans, chicken, tomatoes and corn. There was also salsa and other sauces available.

This place became my new favourite. I was nice to be able to have something that wasn't fried and there were no fries in sight. I considered it a nice healthier option for when we were needing a lighter meal. It was really tasty too.

Not so much fast food but while we were out at Brevard Zoo (nice day out if you like animals) I spotted a sign for chocolate coated frozen bananas they were Dairy & Gluten Free. Unfortunately the cafe was closed so I was unable to try them but when I searched for the website it seems that they are sold in lots of locations around Florida.

On my return I really wanted to try and make them for myself. I froze some bananas on lollipop sticks and made a raw chocolate with cocoa butter, raw cacao & maple syrup. I dipped the frozen bananas in the raw chocolate and covered with sprinkles, cacao nibs and sea salt. Then popped them back in the freezer to set. All three combinations were yummy and they make a great summer treat.