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Thursday 14 October 2010

My Birthday and Graze Box

Hope everyone is enjoying the week. I actually cannot believe it's Thursday already, this week has been non-stop! It was my birthday on Monday, I had a really nice day. Luckily I was on the early shift at work so after opening my presents from Mike and his mum and sisters I got my shift out of the way and was home by just gone half two. When I got home I was greeted by Mike and a cheeky monkey truffle which I forgot to photo but it was yummy and cute!

What's in the bag?

Tada! Nigella!

It's a huge book..


The recipe I plan to make first... Mexican lasagne.

The most yummy looking desert.. hazelnut tiramisu! YUM!

I love the little 'make ahead' and 'freeze' notes - very useful IMO

I also had a Pandora bag to open!


Pretty!!

This charm was from Mike, it's actually not an official Pandora one but it's cute isn't it and I'm certainly not one to care about the labels!


My doggie charm which his sister Emma picked out for me
I can't wait to fill it up with pretty charms, I already have a very expensive wish list forming....

We went to an Italian restaraunt my mum likes for my tea, I hadn't been before but the menu looked nice and veggie friendly. I forgot to take any pictures cause I'm a dopey so and so! But it was nice, if a little posh! We shared a garlic bread and some bruschetta for starters, they were both nice but the bruschetta portion was tiny! For mains Mike and I shared a mushroom pizza and a pasta dish. I was so surprised by the pasta dish.. It was 6 (not very big) pieces of ravioli and it was almost a tenner!!! The meat eaters portions were good but the veggie portions were tiny! At least it left room for desert - tiramisu, of course! The food was nice but I couldn't believe the prices... If I was footing the bill it would not be in my budget - my parents can't have minded since they chose it but still, I didn't like the prices - I'm too much of a bargainista!

We did have a lovely night though, we had part of the restaraunt to ourselves and the music was quiet so we could all talk. Isn't it the worst when you go out to eat and you can't hear yourself think? Unfortunately on my birthday I was the party pooper!! We went home at about 9.30.. knowing I had to be up at 5 and had been up at 5 that day was making me fall asleep!

I got the chance to try a graze box for free the other day, I'm so glad I did, I've been loving it so far! It's been great to have in my bag at work and I loved the fact that you got a surprise when you opened it

Close up so you can see what's inside...

Honey bee good - honey caramelised peanuts, cashews and pecans ate all of this yesterday in one of my breaks at work, loved it! I'm a sucker for caramelised nuts! Despite the fact the portion looks fairly small it was actually very filling and satisfying. I guess I have eyes bigger than my belly as my gran would say!

Love mix - a fruit mix including cherries, gojis and apricots. I love that the sweetened fruits are sweetened by concentrated fruit juice instead of sugar, I always pay more for that if I buy them that way so it's a big plus for me. This was really yummy!

Golden honey nut hazels were lovely too, I'm a sucker for caramelised nuts! Again, these were really decadent and satisfying.


Swallows and amazons, a mixture of brazils cherries and organic mango, it was really nice, I liked having a bite of nut with a bite of fruit, yummy :-)

I was supposed to get a graze box yesterday but it never arrived :-( so gutted! I reported it on the website and since today it still didn't come in the post they refunded it so can't complain. I hope it still arrives though, they make perfect treats for breaktime at work and I was totally looking forward to it making an appearance in my pack-up!

By the way - try your own graze box for free with this code KVRTFJ1 you won't regret it!

20 comments:

  1. Those graze boxes look great but thats a couple of times I've heard that their delivery is poor. I'll still probably give them a try though! Glad you had a good birthday, shame the resturant meal wasn't a little better. I can't wait to read the Nigella cookbook now!

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  2. Oh wow, those nuts all sound so good. And um, happy belated birthday girl!!! I love getting new cookbooks (and jewelry of course).

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  3. awwwwwwww! happy birthday! loved all the surprises. cookbooks are so much fun. hazlenut tiramisu sounds delish! and adorable bracelet!!! i love what you said- name brands/ labels also don't matter to me and actually elliot and i joke that i want a fake diamond b/c 1. i don't know the difference and 2. i don't care about real diamonds anyway... i told him to get me a puppy and we'll name it "diamond" and that way he would have gotten me a diamond :)

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  4. Happy Birthday! Lovely gifts and a very nice dinner. Very nice! I'm not into labels, either. That's cool.

    The graze box looks interesting. Will look into that for U.S. customers. I find the BEST stuff from your posts.. thank you! I emailed the Mule Bars guys earlier in the week, after reading your post. Want to try those.

    *hugs* from Orlando!

    p.s. ~ love, love, love cookbooks.

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  5. Ahh Laura, I thought I must have just gotten unlucky, that's disappointing as the contents were great!

    Thanks Heather :-)

    Lacey, I love the puppy idea!! So cute :-)

    Robin, I hope the mule bar people send you some to try they were really nice. Not sure if they ship to America though, let me know if you get some!

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  6. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

    A graze box sounds great. I was disappointed that they are only in the UK (or at least not the US).

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  7. happy birthday! awesome gifts and it sounds like the day was spent with awesome company too. can't wait to see what you make with that cookbook. very pretty charm bracelet too! i've been getting into jewelry more and more lately (i go through phases) so i'm in love with them at the moment hahah :)

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  8. Thanks Luke :-)

    I'm not a big jewellery wearer, I just have my few pieces that I wear all the time, the bracelet will be one of those hehe

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  9. Happy Birthday Laura!! What a beautiful bracelet, I love charms :)

    Sounds like a really nice celebration meal...even if it was a little pricey.

    Those nuts looks really good...mmmmm

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  10. Happy Birthday! Looks like you got some pretty nice gifts! I have a Pandora necklace but have yet to get a charm to put on it.

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  11. Happy birthday for this week! Sounds like you had a lovely time.
    I have had graze boxes for a while now and they are so good at refunding if anything is wrong, their customer service is excellent.
    ;)

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  12. Thanks guys! Yeah graze were decent about refunding it, I guess it got lost in the post, or the postman got hungry haha!

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  13. Happy happy Birthday! Great gifts you got there =)

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  14. Happy birthday! Sounds like you had a nice day, and good gifts!

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  15. Happy birthday! Glad you had a lovely day (and a good stash of pressies!) Is the Nigella book very veggie friendly? I'll be interested to read some reviews of her recipes.

    Must admit that I'm a bit sceptical about graze boxes though. They seem like a lot of packaging and hoo ha for basically some nuts and seeds that I can get from a health food shop... Am I missing something??

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  17. Thanks Julie and Lauren :-)

    Thanks Alison, the Nigella book isn't veggie friendly as it is but I plan on vegifying the recipes, a few of them are already veggie like the mexican lasagne but most will need some alterations.. I guess that's essentially all the graze boxes are, I just like that they're portioned out and it's a surprise what you get in them! Honestly I don't think I can afford to get one every week but if I had more disposable income I definately would!

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  18. Glad you had a happy birthday! Sounds like you cleaned-up well! Excited to try the Nigella cookbook!
    ~Allison
    Fit&Fab Living

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  19. Happy Belated Birthday Laura! You scored! Look at all of the wonderful gifts:) You totally deserve it!

    Have a fantastic weekend!

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  20. Thanks Julie! Hope you have a great weekend too :-)

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