Author: dcr

Celebrate Mother’s Day with Indie Bay

Posted on by dcr

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, but don’t worry, there’s no need to dash out to the shops last minute and pick the only card left on the stand. It’s never the one you would have gone for, but you couldn’t face not getting one, and now you’re left watching as lovely mum opens up a card with a weird “joke” picture on the front coupled with a caption that is both confusing and mildly offensive. You all laugh it off, but everyone knows what’s happened here…

 

ANYWAY!

We don’t want that any more than you do. That’s why we’ve created a downloadable greeting card that you can print off at home (without using up ALL your ink) to do with what you will. Stick it to card, colour it in, fold it into a paper airplane and fly it through the upstairs window. Whatever works!

And who says it’s only for mums? Take the chance to say “thank you” to any and all of the important caregivers and family members in your life. Sure it’s called “Mother’s Day” but you can still celebrate anyone you like. Like a true Indie!

Click here (or on the picture below) to open up the pdf, and either save or print it.

With much Indie Love.

Will

Indie Acts of Kindness: Update

Posted on by dcr

Last month we kicked off the Indie Acts of Kindness initiative, inviting you to nominate the teachers in your life that have gone above and beyond during this difficult year.

We’ve had loads of amazing responses, and have shipped dozens of snacks to nominees up and down the country.

Keep the nominations coming into thankyou@indiebaysnacks.com, and in the meantime we wanted to share some snippets from our favourite nomination letters. We have removed names for privacy purposes.

 

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Nominee: Miss P from  W Primary School

Nominated by: Rebecca

 

“When September rolled around and we were still stuck at home, we worried about what her school would do or say…Well T’s teacher Miss P totally stepped up and we’ve felt more a part of [the] Class and W school than EVER before!

 

She’s done several “window visits” where she will chat to T through our living room window. She has dropped off the class reading book to T and dropped off and picked up test papers. She has been utterly amazing and we could not have wished for more or asked any more of her.

 

And to top it all, she ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS has a smile on her face – Even when it was pouring with rain she stood at the window to chat with T and smiled through the rain.”

 

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Nominee: Ms. W

Nominated by: Emily

 

“She was amazing. Making sure the children could still get the care and learning experience they deserved, as well as preparing the school to be as safe as possible by organising PPE without it feeling overwhelming for children. She helped teachers to adapt their teaching style to deliver learning which didn’t leave children feeling too ‘out of routine’ – this can be vital for a special needs child. She even went as far as personally delivering children school meals or organising food vouchers for those who needed it. This is only scratching the service of the amazing things she has done for those who need it.”

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Nominee: Ms. D
Nominated by: Suzi

 

“… She is honestly the most persevering and tenacious person I know, working so hard and with so much love and kindness…”

 

Talk about heartwarming. We absolutely love reading your amazing nominations, so please do keep sending them in to thankyou@indiebaysnacks.com and we’ll send out another batch of “thank you” snacks soon!

Indie Acts of Kindness: Say “Thank you” with Indie Bay

Posted on by dcr
It’s been 11 months since 2020 began, but it’s still been the longest year we can remember.

Now more than ever, we need to find those unexpected moments of joy.
Now more than ever, we must be grateful to those working tirelessly to help us all through.
This holiday season and beyond, let’s spread some smiles with acts of kindness.
-Dafna, Indie Bay Founder

Here at Indie Bay, we recognise that everyone is struggling in one way or another right now.
We also recognise that there are people up and down the country going above and beyond to keep us all afloat, and we want to show them some appreciation!

Some of our team members have kids, and those kids are at school. They’re at school, and learning from some amazing teachers who have done everything they can to support everyone’s kids online, offline, during lockdown and beyond. We are infinitely grateful for our teachers. They are rockstars, and the rocks that keep families working – and sane – throughout these wild and unpredictable times.
We think that’s pretty incredible, so we’re doing what we can to recognise the astounding work of teachers across the UK.

If we could, we’d pay them all millions. Really. They deserve it! Unfortunately we don’t bottomless piles of cash. We do, however, have something else…
Whilst we might not be experts when it comes to vaccines and whatnot, we are experts when it comes to pretzels.
So we’ll help you say “thank you” to some of the amazing teachers in your life, by dishing out some oven baked Snacks with Benefits.
We welcome you to nominate the incredible teachers in your lives, your kids’ lives, your friends lives’, that have put in the graft, gone the extra mile, and kept everyone’s kids engaged, entertained and educated through 2020. Whatever the subject, wherever the school, we know that these awesome people deserve a great big “thank you” and we want to help you say it.

Send your nominations to thankyou@indiebaysnacks.com, telling us who you want to say thank you to, and explaining exactly why you want to say it. We promise to read every single email, and ship out some crunchy goodness to the people nominated in the emails we love.

From December onwards, we’ll be selecting a handful of teachers each month to ship out a great big box full of oven baked goodnesss to show how much we all care.
Like we said, when it comes to pretzels, we know what we’re doing, and we know that spreading the Indie Bay joy like this will help put a smile on anyone’s face.

Puffed Pastry Tarts: Tomato, Ricotta, and Olive

Posted on by dcr

These perfectly puffed pastry tarts are simple to make, and tastes just as good the next day as it does fresh from the oven.

Serves 6

You’ll need:

  • 320g puffed pastry (shop bought saves the hassle of making your own, and many of them are vegan!)
  • 150g cashew ricotta cheese
  • 50g pitted black olives, sliced
  • 15g oregano leaves, chopped
  • 4 tbsp black olive tapenade (make your own if you like)
  • 300g tomatoes, sliced
  • Quinoa & Cracked Pepper Indie Bay Pretzel Bites
  1. Whack your oven up to 200C so it’s ready when you are.
  2. Roll out your pastry and cut into 6 rectangles. Using a sharp knife, score a 1cm border around the edge of each rectangle. This marks your “crust” which will puff up in the oven.
  3. Mix the vegan ricotta, 25g of the olives and the oregano (save some for sprinkling on afterwards if you’re feeling fancy)
  4. Spread the tapenade across the middle of your pastry bases, taking care to avoid that border!
  5. Top with ricotta mixture, sliced tomatoes and an elegant scattering of the remaining black olives.
  6. Bake for 25-30 mins, until the borders are puffy and golden.
  7. Sprinkle over crushed Indie Bay Bites for a bit of extra crunch, then get stuck in!

Colouring Sheets to Beat Lockdown Boredom

Posted on by dcr

We’ve made some fantastic colouring sheets to keep the kids (or yourself…) entertained, and are keen on something with a pinch of creativity, then we’ve got great news for you!

We’ve turned our lovely Indie Bay Landscapes into awesome sheets that’ll keep creative minds both young and old occupied at least until their next packet of pretzels.

Just click the links or images to download whichever sheets take your fancy, then print them out and get colouring! There’s 7 different designs ups for grabs, so scroll down to find one that fits the bill, or nab them all.

You can either do your own thing, or if you’re looking for inspiration, take a look around our website for some ideas on how to colour in your Indie Landscapes.

Send us a pic to hello@indiebaysnacks.com or share on social media (@indiebaysnacks) and we’ll make sure our followers get to see your amazing artwork.

Colour me drawing for Super seeds landscape sheets
Download here Superseeds Landscape
Colour me drawing for Smokin' BBQ landscape sheets
Download here Smokin’ BBQ Landscape
Colour me drawing for Rock Salt landscape sheets
Download here Rock Salt Landscape
Colour me drawing for Dark Chocolate landscape sheets
Download here Dark Choc Landscape
Colour me drawing for Easy Cheesy landscape sheets
Download here Easy Cheesy Landscape
Colour me drawing for Milk Chocolate landscape sheets
Download here Milk Choc Landscape
Colour me drawing for Cracked Pepper landscape
Download here Quinoa & Pepper Landscape

Sustainability at Indie HQ: First Steps

Posted on by dcr

In the last quarter of 2019, we were joined in the office by our wonderful Indie Intern, Anna. As well as being a cracking addition to the team, she’s also very environmentally minded, and she soon set about improving the way we do things here at Indie Bay with a focus on sustainability.

Here’s a cheeky blog post from her, telling you what she’s been up to!

With the climate in a state of crisis, here at Indie Bay HQ we have made some changes behind the scenes in a bid to do our bit. From the outset, we would like to make it clear that we know that we are not perfect, but we are trying, and while we are learning and improving we would like to keep our Indies in the loop.

Materials:

We have made some changes to our send-out packaging. The vast majority of it is now recyclable or compostable. We bade farewell to plastic packing tape and are now using fully recyclable tape with a natural rubber based gum. Our old glossy stickers have been replaced by some altogether more sophisticated matte versions which are completely recyclable. It’s a good start… but that’s not all!

Image of Indie Bay packaging showing use of paper tape, recyclable stickers, and recycled label paper, improving sustainability

Food and Drink:

Rather than getting weekly Ocado food deliveries, we have signed up to Oddbox’s fruit delivery. There’s two big upsides to this:

1.We get to enjoy our fruit knowing that is has been saved from the bin.

2.We are entertained by the various shapes and sizes that get sent our way, as shown below…

employee demonstrating variation in size of produce from Oddbox, a fruit delivery service that focusses on sustainability

Annabel (smiling, wonky-apples-in-hand above) has said “goodbye” to her beloved bottled sparkling water and “hello” to a fancy schmancy Sodastream. Not only has it received a good review from Annabel, it uses recyclable gas cartridges to do its fizzing. We have also switched to fully recyclable coffee pods from our friends at Cru Kafe, and have sorted out a new food waste bin for the kitchen. That means no more banana peels being sent to landfill.

 

Utilities:

We’ve even gone as far as switching our energy supplier. We now enjoy our office lighting and PC power courtesy of Bulb energy.  As well as energy providers we’re changing our bank, as it turns out not all banks are as well behaved as they could be…

 

So, we have started taking lots of small steps towards becoming a more sustainable business, but know we have a long way to go. If you have any suggestions or feedback please do send them our way!

 

Pumpkin Spiced Vegan Muffin Recipe

Posted on by dcr

These tasty, autumnal bakes are inspired by the ever-growing phenomenon of pumpkin spiced EVERYTHING. Even if you don’t buy into the world of PSLs (Pumpkin Spiced Lattes) etc., this tasty vegan muffin recipe is worth a punt, and might put you a little out of your comfort zone with some interesting ingredients that can stay in your repertoire forever. We’ve even linked them up for you so you know where to find them or how to make them!

showing product of pumpkin spiced vegan muffin recipe including crunchy pretzel topping

INGREDIENTS
METHOD
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Neatly arrange muffin cases in a muffin tray and get annoyed that they won’t stay put. Don’t worry, the batter will hold them in place.
  2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
  3. Prepare your flax egg by adding 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then pouring in 3 Tbsp of hot water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy. (or prepare your alternative egg as appropriate)
  4. Then add the brown and white sugar, pumpkin purée, vanilla, melted coconut oil and apple cider vinegar (if using) to the mixing bowl.
  5. Add your not-an-egg.
  6. Mix together with a spoon until well combined. The batter will be thick.
  7. Lastly, add the pecan nuts and stir in.
  8. Divide the batter evenly amongst the cases in your prepared muffin tray. Add some lightly crushed bits of Indie Bay for a tasty crunchy, crumble style topping!
  9. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
  10. Whip them out of the oven, leave to cool for 10 mins in the tray, then move to a wire rack to cool fully.
  11. (If you’re feeling naughty, you can whizz up a cream cheese glaze with 50g of cream cheese, 1 tbsp milk and 2 tbsp icing sugar.)

Although we’re pitching these as healthy-ish vegan muffin recipe (the pumpkin totally counts as 1 of our 5-a-day right?) the glaze is totally worth it. Trust us.

 

Bites with Benefits Just Got Cheeky

Posted on by dcr

Our cheeky bites are here! Pretty much since we launched Indie Bay Snacks back in 2016, people have been telling us how delicious they would be if we coated them in chocolate.

It’s not that we weren’t listening, it’s just that we were unbelievably busy building up brand awareness, distribution, getting along to trade and consumer shows, and doing all that with a tiny team! Now that we’ve grown the team, we’ve found the time to really get stuck into new product development, or NPD as it’s known in the trade. As a result, we’ve finally realised the dream shared by so many of you wonderful Indies, and by us of course: Chocolate Coated Pretzel Bites!

We call them Cheeky Bites, becasue they’re still full of benefits, but just a bit… cheekier!

We say they’re still full of benefits, and that’s because we used the same base dough for our new Chocolate Bites as we do for our Superseeds variety. All those lovely seeds and grains mean they’re the bites with the best protein and fibre content, so even though there’s a cheeky layer of chocolate on our new bites, they’re still a source of fibre, with a decent protein content, and only about 150 calories per portion. The Dark variety are actually HIGH in fibre, and they’re vegan friendly too, so anyone can get stuck in on the Cheeky side of Snacks With Benefits.

Here at Indie Bay, we’re pretty sure these are going to be a game-changer, but don’t just take our word for it. Grab a Cheeky Taster Pack or a full case from our shop and enjoy some #HappySnacking!