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I was recently sent a couple of products to try and review for the blog, New Zealand Honey Co Honey Dew Honey and Good Hemp Mild and Light Oil.
I’ve been using Good Hemp Original Hemp Oil for a few months (purchased myself) so was looking forward to trying the Mild and Light version of my favourite oil.


I don’t like to use the original oil in cooked recipes as it is a cold pressed oil and heating it to high temperatures may cause the oil to change its molecular structure and not be as healthy (although the Good Hemp website advises using it for roast potatoes!) However I thought as the Mild and Light has a more neutral flavour it could be good in baking. The Good Hemp Oil really is an amazing product, I love both versions nutty flavour and only 1 tbsp contains 94% of the recommended daily intake of Omega 3! My favourite way to enjoy it has been drizzled over raw kale with lemon juice and using it to massage and wilt the kale, its really delicious!
I was also looking forward to trying out the honey. I am a ‘mostly’ vegan – so I do enjoy honey and bee pollen. I received the Beech Forest Honey Dew Honey in a convenient squeezy bottle. One of the great things about this honey, as well as its delicious taste, is that it contains pre biotic bacteria which can help support digestive health. This particular version has one of the highest antioxidant and pre- biotic rating of any honey world wide! I’ve been loving it on top of peanut butter spread rice cakes and drizzled over fresh figs:


I’d been using the honey and hemp oil together in my favourite salad – lemon and hemp massaged kale with figs, walnuts, honey and sea salt:


I loved the combo of the nuttiness and sweetness so I thought I might try and combine both ingredients in a couple of recipes!

Honey and Hemp Muffins (makes 12, vegetarian)

• 1 cup quinoa flakes (should also work with Scottish oats)
• 1/2 cup spelt flour (or flour of choice)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp ground flax + 1/3 cup warm water
• 4 tbsp Good Hemp Mild and Light Hemp Oil
• 1/4 cup applesauce (I used a pot of organic Apple and Mango baby food)
• 1/2 cup New Zealand Honey
• 3 ripe bananas, well mashed

Pre heat the oven to 180c. Begin by mixing the quinoa flakes, flour, baking soda and cinnamon in a large bowl. Prepare the flax egg by combining the ground flax and water and setting aside to gel. In a separate bowl combine the oil, honey, agave syrup and the bananas. Add the wet mixture to the dry and add the flax egg then mix well. Spoon into muffin cases filling 2/3rds full and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the muffins are a deep golden brown and a knife comes out with just a few crumbs on. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Enjoy!


Considering these are exceptionally healthy and contain no refined sugar they taste really good! They are moist and bananary with a mild sweet honey taste. They even passed the James taste test! Of course you can easily make these muffins vegan by replacing the honey with agave or maple syrup. You could also use coconut oil or another oil in place of the hemp if needed.
I also decided to make another recipe – why not when you have all your bowls and measuring cups out!

Honey and Hemp Granola (makes about 2 cups)

• 1 cup of oats (I used Scottish but rolled oats would probably be best)
• 1/4 cup whole almonds roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup flaked almonds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/3 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tbsp of Good Hemp Mild and Light Hemp Oil
• 3 tbsp of New Zealand Co Honey
• 3 tbsp of shelled hemp seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 180c. Combine all the ingredients except for the hemp seeds in a large bowl to form a slightly sticky mix. Spread mixture on to a baking sheet or baking tray and bake for 20 – 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes or so to prevent burning. The granola should be a lovely golden colour. Remove from oven and allow to cool then stir in the shelled hemp seeds if using. Store in a airtight container.


Its been a while since I made some regular granola (I’ve made raw granola a few times recently) and I’d forgotten how easy it is! This is really good, crunchy and crumbly with a mild sweetness. The hemp seeds enhance the nuttiness of the almonds too. Again, you can easily replace the honey with another liquid sweetener to make this vegan and use a different oil than hemp if required.
New Zealand Honey Co retails at £9.99 *edited - this is for a jar, a bottle is just £3.49* and a 250ml bottle of Good Hemp Mild and Light retails at £4.49. As with all good quality health food products, these aren’t cheap. Baring this in mind its probably better to use the honey ‘raw’ rather than in baking to reap most of its health benefits if your on a budget.
I would definitely purchase both of these products again as I think they are really versatile. Both products are excellent sources of nutrition and taste really good too.
Have you tried either of these products? What did you think? Have you tried using any unusual ingredients together in baking?

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope you are having a great week! I’m into day three of a crazy work week, roll on the weekend!

Thanks again to Jenn for hosting the WIAW party! These are my eats from Monday.

Quick OOTD: gold bow necklace: Forever 21, jumper: New Look, tan woven belt: Miss Selfridge, floral midi skirt: Dorothy Perkins, black tights: M&S, brown brogues: Topshop

I started my day with a mug of warm water with lemon juice before hitting the gym at 7am. I did my first workout of my new plan – 5 minutes warm up on cross trainer, about 20 minutes of lifting doing just a couple of sets of my new plan based on Female Body Breakthrough followed by 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. I increased my speeds a little and was glad that I managed ok! For breakfast I made a big green smoothie:

This contained spring greens, a large persimmon, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior, midori greens powder, berries powder, gums, ice and water and topped with some of my honey and hemp granola and bee pollen. I also made myself a cup of green tea to drink in the car on the way to work.

We were holding a big event in which I had to give a couple of presentations and generally oversee everything. Luckily the event and my presentations went very well! We had a buffet lunch but the kitchen very kindly gave me some veggie soup as the vegan option:

This was really tasty! I also helped myself to lots of hummus, veggies, an apple and a couple of clemintines:

After we got back to the office I was straight into another meeting – it was just one of those none stop days! I managed to snack on one of my Honey and Hemp muffins along with another apple and clemintine I’d taken from the buffet earlier:

Those muffins are gorgeous, such a nice texture!

After a quick grocery shop I made a really tasty and quick dinner: Thai Green Coconut Kabocha and Edamame Noodle bowl!

This was seriously good, I enjoyed every single bite! I started by frying off some vegan Thai green curry paste and fresh ginger in a little coconut oil. Then I added some reduced fat coconut milk, a pack of Clearspring Ramen Noodles and some hot water. I simmered the noodles until cooked and added the sachet of soya sauce that came with them followed by some frozen edamame, shredded spring greens and roast kabocha squash. I adore Thai green curry and this was just perfect! 

For a little dessert I had some Green and Blacks 85% dark chocolate with two chopped apples:

Lovely sweet end to a busy day!

Yesterday I had another packed day and a late night meeting for work but my mood was improved no end by two very exciting bits of news!

I’ve been chosen to feature in Healthy Magazine as a Healthy Hero! A blog reader kindly suggested that I enter, and yesterday I got an email to say I’ve been chosen! It includes a trip to London, lunch, a make over and a photo shoot with a chance to appear in the magazine! The editors of the magazine are hoping that some other people will enter too – see here for the details if you’d like to enter yourself or someone you know and spread the word!

My other piece of amazing news is that one of my recipes has been chosen to be included in the amazing Kris Carr new e recipe book! Kris is a mega girl crush of mine and I’m a huge fan of her book Crazy Sexy Diet. Out of over 300 entries only 50 have been chosen and mine is one of them! I entered my Apple Pie Green Smoothie recipe and I could not be more chuffed that it has been chosen.

I’m just super duper excited about everything right now! I’ve also been having some mega bolts of inspiration recently, everything seems to be coming together in my head at least and these two pieces of news are the cherry on top of my healthy cake ;-)

What are you excited about right now?