A Vegan Lunch at the Toby Carvery

At this time of year, we are all busily preparing for Christmas, which is rapidly approaching. Christmas shopping can be exhausting, especially when fighting the Black Friday crowds for a pre-Christmas bargain. So a good lunch after hitting the town is a well deserved treat.

Toby Carvery invited me for a post-shopping lunch at my local Telford restaurant. With the Christmas decorations, the seasonal menu and the Christmas tree, there is a festive atmosphere - perfect for enjoying after a spot of Christmas shopping. I invited my parents and my sister Paula to join me for a morning of shopping for the grandkids followed by a meal and they eagerly accepted the invitation.

We were seated at our table and offered drinks straightaway and then looked at the menus. We had worked up quite an appetite from shopping!

The menu for the carvery includes a section for vegetarians and vegans. The fact that a carvery, such as Toby offers these options is really impressive. I wish all chain restaurants could take a leaf out of Toby's book and make their menu accessible for those of us who choose a meat free diet. There were several options that we could pick from including the meat-free carvery, grilled aubergine stack and root vegetable roast.

We all opted for the Portobello Mushroom Bullseye Tart. As we are vegan, we asked our server what vegetables were suitable for us. She consulted with the chefs and came back to tell us that the cabbage was glazed with butter and the mash contained milk. However, the chef offered to make us our own mash and unglazed cabbage, which would be brought to our table when our mains were ready. This was a really nice touch that we appreciated very much.

From the carvery deck, we were able to have stuffing, peas, parsnips, carrots and roast potatoes. We then added some of Toby's vegetarian gravy. The mash and cabbage was brought out at the same time as our mains. Everything was piping hot and well prepared.

The mushroom tart was delicious with a whole Portobello Mushroom on a tasty savoury, mushroom sauce in a rich, crimped pastry case. The vegetables were all lovely, fresh, well cooked and delicious. We had a huge plateful each and all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Even though we were pretty full, we simply had to sample the vegan dessert from the menu - a chocolate and cherry torte. It was rich and dark and studded with juicy cherries. A nice combination that was nicely served with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Overall, we were very impressed with our meals and the price of around £10 a head for two courses is great value for money. The accompaniments to our main course were plentiful and we liked being able to help ourselves to what we wanted. The staff were all friendly and the chef who did us the extras was especially kind, making sure we were happy with what he'd made for us. It was a great experience and we enjoyed refuelling ourselves ready for our next round of Christmas preparations!

Check out the website at www.tobycarvery.co.uk.

What's New? A Round Up.

Things are definitely changing.  The weather for one!  Summer is but a distant memory and we are now in the grips of cold, wet and windy Britain.  It's time to dig out our jumpers and coats and wrap up warm, but at least we've got Halloween and Christmas to look forward to, so it isn't all bad!

Here is a round up of some the products and services I have recently experienced and what I think!

The Toby Carvery

As a family consisting mainly of vegetarians with one vegan in our midst, eating out can be tricky.  This weekend we visited our eldest son Joe, his fiancee Jade and our grandchild baby Ted.  We went to the Toby Carvery in Northampton, as Joe likes his meaty roast dinners.  We anticipated vegan Megan having to eat a plate of vegetables while her brother tucked into his turkey.  How wrong we were!  For a carvery, which prides itself on its meat, the Toby is the most veggie and vegan friendly restaurant chain we have been to. It offered five vegetarian options to go with the carvery vegetables, two of which were vegan.  The menu was clearly labelled and the dishes cooked to order.  We had vegan Nut Roast Wellington, a puff pastry case filled with a sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, nut and butter bean filling.  It was delicious.  They also have a vegetarian gravy, clearly labelled which was also gluten free.  Hats off to Toby Carvery for not overlooking your guests with different dietary requirements and for providing something delicious that can be enjoyed with all the roast dinner trimmings. All too often veggies have to settle for a disappointing bowl of risotto while the carnivores get a full dinner.  We like roast spuds and yorkies too!  Thank you Toby for realising this.  I wish other restaurant chains would take note!

Morrisons Big Christmas Bonus

I have started collecting my vouchers to claim a huge £40 off my Christmas shop! Simply collect 9 out of the 10 weekly coupons received when you spend over £40 and redeem them between the 16th and 31st December to get £40 off any transaction.  I really love all the special offers that appear at this time of year.  Don't miss out on this one!!

Swizzels Matlow Halloween Range

With Halloween approaching bringing the annual Trick or Treaters we are stocking up with sweets that we can dish out to the little witches, vampires and ghosts that come knocking.  I like Swizzels Matlow bags of individually wrapped sweets and lollies. Perfect for handing out on Halloween.  They include everyone's favourites such as Love Hearts, Drumsticks and Refreshers.

The Country Candle Company from QVC

These premium homemade candles from Wiltshire use quality wax and exceptional fragrances to produce hours of candlenight and scent to your home.  The little Sparkling Spice candle that we received smells absolutely gorgeous - a real Christmassy fragrance to get us in the mood for the upcoming festive season.  

Keep an eye on the QVC shopping channel and QVC website  for gifts for the home, fashion and beauty products, electronics and jewellery.  

Matey

Over a third of parents agree that bathtime is the best part of the day and a great time to bond with your child.  Yet, a further 23% of parents admit to finding it stressful as their children got upset by getting wet.  To help make bath time more fun and enjoyable for all parents, Matey has produced a limited edition bath time book written by a mum of two whose story was chosen by the judges to be published. The story featuring the Matey characters helps create an adventure around bath time.  I received a copy and it is a nice little bath book with rhyming text encouraging child interaction as they make things using the bubbles in their bath tub such as a beard or a shell.

Matey bubble bath is something I tend to buy every year as a stocking filler for Freddy.  He has a thing for Molly Matey and her long hair!  RRP £2.37

Snowflake The White Gorilla DVD

This film from Lionsgate features Snowflake, an albino gorilla who embarks on an adventure with her friend, a red panda called Jenga, to find a witch who could help her get what she wants more than anything - to be normal.

The film is a mixture of live action and animation, starting with Snowflake's capture from her homeland to her becoming an attraction in Barcelona Zoo to her big perilous adventure.  A rather odd bad guy plans to kidnap Snowflake to use her heart in an evil spell to get eternal life which adds to the drama.  Meanwhile Snowflake's first owner Wendy attempts to track her down and save her.

The film is dubbed using the vocal talents of Jeanette McCurdy, Christopher Lloyd and Nathan Kress.  Sadly, the lip sync of the live action parts of the film isn't great and if you can't get over that you will struggle to watch the film (Ian couldn't cope with it at all)!

If you can see past the lip sync issues, the animated characters are quite cute. It is quite an odd film though, set in a strange time and location!  The moral of accepting the differences in each other and recognising who you are inside is the message of this quirky film.

Certificate U
81 minutes
Available now at Amazon £8.00
(We received a check disc to watch the film).