Our food adventure : Wholefoods Market Cheltenham

Hello, It's Mrs M here.

Remember in my last post, I touched upon my love for Wholefoods Market? The amazing supermarket which I became obsessed with whilst we were in Florida... well this week I have some exciting news.  ( even more exciting if your a lover of Wholefoods in the UK.)

Being a person who's always always loved dairy and eggs until three years ago, life and food became tricky when I had to stop eating the above, with soya in a matter of a day.  Last week I tried eating products with eggs and dairy in them, and boy was I ill, I could barely breathe, to the point I was contemplating ringing the hospital in the middle of the night... no more eggs or dairy for me!

Well, I'm starting to feel a bit happier about the thought of being a 'Vegan' for the rest of my days... ( I'm still not that happy with the term 'Vegan' - not sure why though ... I usually just say I can't have meat, fish, eggs, dairy or soya, but i suppose 'vegan minus soya' is a quicker explanation, right? )

Due to being slightly miserable about eating the same meals, we decided to go on a little adventure.

You're right! You guessed it, a Wholefoods Market in the UK! I was so worried about feeling let down when we were on our way over there, as i knew they didn't have the Daiya that I pine over, and I knew they didn't do other things like hoagie rolls, or the coconut ice cream, and yoghurts I love in America, because the night before I'd spoken to the team leader in charge of the produce, I'm not sure if it's ok to add his name, but let's call him , Mr Helpful. {Because that's what he was!}

Mr H at Wholefoods was amazing, and told me to ask for him when I got to the store. When I arrived he came over and greeted me, which was lovely. He is very knowledgeable and you can tell how much he really cares about his customers and the job he does. I was so grateful to him for listening to me go on about how much  I LOVE Florida, and Wholefoods Market on Turkey Lake Ave, and lots of other random things....  we had a lovely chat.

Mr H, introduced me to the team leader of Health & Beauty ( lets call him Mr Info)  who was also a Vegan, and interestingly had done a raw food diet for 6 months, ( I've been reading Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet) so we had a lot to chat about, and he had so many interesting facts to tell me about foods, and how they will benefit me, ( and Opeie, I explained he still has Mama milk - which thankfully didn't phase him) and was totally inspiring in the way that he spoke about the food that we eat. He also knew the answer to everything I asked him, gave me a sample of Vegan Raw protein powder which I've tried and love, and it was so helpful and I felt so relieved that I wasn't the only person in the world with these dietry issues. So Mr I, and I found me some great things to eat!

 

One of the things I love about Wholefoods Market is that everything looks so damn tasty! They have so many different types of veggies, fruits, salads, herbs, spices and things, it's a beautiful thing. If I could afford to, i'd buy everything from there. But sadly my grocery budget doesn't stretch that far :( 

They also have a real good selection of all the things I love, stocking all Pukka products, Doves Farm, Nakd, and they do their own range which is called Fresh & Wild ( instead of the 365 range in the USA)

One thing I was hoping to find was coconut milk yoghurt, as the one in Florida was delicious, and I've not been able to find one in the UK, so when I saw this... 

Gorgeous So Yo Coconut milk yoghurt.

Amy's frozen Vegan meals.

....... I was in heaven! The Co Yo Coconut dairy, soya free yogurt was on offer too! ( And may I add, It is the most amazing yoghurt ever!)

It's not all overly, overly healthy foods, Cheltenham Wholefoods Market have a vast selection of wines, beers and desserts, chocolates, a amazing bakery which makes everything from gluten free cookies, cakes and breads, regular cookies biscuits, breads, rolls etc, and they seem to specialise  with the most amazing cupcakes ( which Opeie and Seth had the hard task of sampling) and so many other things. ( Including a resturant which i will visit next time and let you guys know about!)

 

Notice how the Sam Adams beers have gone down? haha!

So after about 2 hours of chatting and being shown around the store with Mr H and Mr I, I had a trolley full of veggies, vegan foods, US Beers, cupcakes, almond milk, coconut yoghurts and lots of other things. Opeie was very very happy, as the kind lady at the till even gave him some cute stickers. ( The staff are so helpful and lovely! ) Thanks to the staff at Wholefoods Cheltenham.  See you again! x