Cruelty Free Shop January 2017 Mystery Box

A quite break in the Melbourne posts. This is a nice short post, which I can manage easily. An update on Sahara is at the end of this post, with her cute kitty photo.

For Christmas this year I again got a six month Cruelty Free Shop Vegan Mystery Box subscription. The first box turned up this week. And this is what was inside.

• Orgran Outback Animals Chocolate Cookies: I haven't had these before, but I have had a lot of the other Orgran products including their vanilla kids cookies. They are in cute animal shapes, which makes me feel a bit weird eating them, but they are fun for a snack.
• Nature's Charm Jackfruit: I enjoy making assorted jackfruit dishes, and while I have a few tins in my cupboard already I am always happy to have more. Pulled BBQ jackfruit is very delicious.
• Global Organic Black Beans: I was low on black beans, so this is very handy!
• Just Wholefoods Lemon Jelly Crystals: I don't know if lemon would be my choice, I much prefer strawberry or raspberry, but I am planning to use this in some sort of fun dessert. I do find that sometimes this brand of jelly sets very soft, so just be aware of that if you are using it to make anything that requires a form to be held.
• The Chocolate Yogi Astral Cruch: I am generally pretty pick about raw chocolate, except for Loving Earth with is the best. But this is meant to be very good. It doesn't have coconut oil in the ingredients, so I am keen to give it a try.
• GoMaxGo 2Fer Bar: I was cautiously optimistic when this first came out as I used to love Twix bars. Unfortunately this was nothing like a Twix bar, and I am not a fan.
• Eco-Vital Fruity Gummy Bears: These seem like a fun snack or decorating option.
• Hurraw Almond Cardomom & Rose Lip Balm: I love the flavours and smells or Hurraw, though generally I don't find the lip balm itself strong enough for my dry dry lips. But this sounds delicious... must not eat it.
• Emma & Tom's Cocoa and Coffee Bean Life Bar: I love Emma & Tom's bars, though will be gifting this one because I do not love coffee.

This month's box is nice, though there is nothing particularly stand out for me. I have five more boxes to go, and will continue to share with you!

I do just want to make a note as well regarding chocolate. This year I am striving to only buy fair trade chocolate (see theFood Empowerment Project's Chocolate List for more information). Obviously when signing up to boxes, I am not in control of what is put in the box. I know that GoMaxGo chocolate is not fair trade. I am not sure about The Chocolate Yogi or Emma & Tom's. Orgran is on their approved list. I am planning on doing a post at some point about my adventures in fair trade chocolate from an Australia perspective (a lot of the brands on the approved list are not available here).

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Sahara Update



Sahara had her surgery on Thursday in the end, the surgeon was sick on Tuesday. The surgery itself went well, and her recovery from it has so far been good. She was in hospital for two days, but came home with me yesterday afternoon. She seems fairly well in herself considering she had major abdominal surgery three days ago. On the good news side of things, the liver lesions are benign changes. That has been confirmed on histopathology from the lab. Unfortunately the mass in her colon is definitely cancer. Most probably lymphoma, though I am still waiting on the final final confirmation from the lab. Lymphoma is the best option in a long line of crappy options, as it tends to have the best response to chemo (though the drugs that she has been on to control her IBD for the last four years may interfere with that, we just have to wait and see). I'll update you again when the final result is in.