Healthy Tweeting

It's the end of January, your good intentions for a Healthy New Year are starting to fade. Fear not, we're here to help. Check out our Healthy Tweets tab on.fb.me/xb6qfW.

For the last week, our grassy van has been driving around Ireland packed full of  delicious innocent smoothies. We've been to Dublin and Cork to help offices stay healthy.

 

All you need to do is follow us on twitter @innocentIreland and tweet us what you're doing to stay healthy using the hash tag #healthytweets. Our grassy van is hooked up to a clever GPS thingy, so you can track it here on.fb.me/xb6qfW.

Not on twitter? Don't worry, tell us where you are and what your office are doing to keep healthy in the comments below and you might get a visit from our grassy van. Our van is out and about today and tomorrow.

 

 

Yam must read this

Feedback Madagascar is one of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that we support.The project we support promotes yam farming with training on yam cultivation techniques, the creation of demonstration plots and household plantations. Working with twelve community forest management associations, over 250 people are already producing and yams are taking off.

Famous for providing the fuel for Usain Bolt’s sprinting successes, the yam is commonly confused as a sweet potato (they are un-related), they are similar in properties.

 “Anyone for yams?”

The project is based around the Malagasy rainforest, where people are reliant on inadequate rice and cassava harvests; the cultivation of yams reduces the impact of the annual famine and dramatically ups people’s nutritional intake.

And yams are fun. To raise awareness of yams and their benefits, alongside rainforest conservation, there are now yam festivals. Associations take stands, organise competitions, cook offs, speeches and full-on carnival singing and dancing.

As part of the project, training on culinary techniques is included to make the most of the yam.

Here are 6 of their suggested recipes:

1. Yam Pudding
2. Yam Crisps
3. Yam Pizza
4. Yam Soup
5. Yam Salad
6. Baked Yam

If you fancy trying your hand at Yam Pudding, here is an embellished Western version:

Ingredients:

800g grated uncooked yams

300g milk

120g golden syrup

3 eggs

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

120g brown sugar

1tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground nutmeg

• Preheat oven to 160˚c
• Grease baking dish (approx 8”x8”x2”)
• Combine all ingredients
• Bake until a knife comes out of mixture clean, approx 1 hour.
• Serve warm with cream or ice cream

For more information on Feedback Madagascar, please visit our innocent foundation page: www.innocentfoundation.org/ or their own website: www.feedbackmadagascar.org

Brighten up your street visits Carlow

Directions to Carlow, check, address for the next Brigthen up your Street winner, check, keys to a grass covered van full of innocent orange juice, double check. So, that's how it went down on Saturday morning before we hit the road to Borris, in County Carlow.Ellen, from Borris, had entered our innocent Brighten up your Street competition asking us to pick her street because ''all my neighbours are so friendly and warm and I think it would bring some well deserved sun to them all". When, we arrived in Borris, we couldn't agree more.

We delivered innocent orange juice to Ellen and her neighours and met some lovely people along the way. Here's the lovely Ellen taking her Brighten up your Street delivery.

 

This weekend we'll be making our very last Brighten up your Street delivery so if you fancy having your street brightened up by a free delivery of orange juice from innocent Just click here and tell us why.

Brighten up your street visits Galway

Another weekend and another lovely street brightened up with a free delivery of innocent orange juice. Over the weekend, we popped over to Galway to visit Brighten up your Street winner Aine Burns-Fitzpatrick. Aine wanted her street brightened up with a free delivery of innocent orange juice because "We have a nice little estate on the outside of town and have street parties so if we won we would all be drinking innocent at our next party". We liked the sound of an orange juice party.

Here's the lovely Aine taking her Brighten up your Street delivery.

Fancy having your street brightened up by a free delivery of orange juice from innocent? Just click here and tell us why.

Brighten up your street visits Cork

Last weekend we took a trip down south in our grass vans to deliver innocent orange juice to two lucky innocent brighten up your street winners. We had a great time meeting the winners and their neighbours. Here's how it all went down...

First up, we stopped by Douglas, Cork to deliver orange juice to Marie Bott and all her neighbours. Marie wanted her street brightened up by innocent "because i have great neighbours who are always there to help each other but with all the rain recently & the dark evenings we haven't been out the front catching up with each other - this would be a great reason to get talking again." We couldn't agree more. Here she is with her lovely kids and one of our orange juice delivery ladies.

Next stop was a trip to meet Eileen McGreevy in Carrigaline, Cork. Eileen wanted her street brightened up by innocent "Because with all the depressing weather we are having we could do with some brightening up. " We said no problems to Eileen and gave her and all her neighbours a free delivery of innocent orange juice.

Here she is with along with a few lovely neighbours.

Fancy having your street brightened up by a free delivery of orange juice from innocent? Just click here and tell us why.

 

The Knitting and Stitching Show

Last weekend we headed along to the wonderful knitting and stitching show in the RDS Dublin for a our second year in a row. Once again, it was a 4 day knitter's paradise with yarn, knitting needles, and of course knitters, as far as the eye could see. We had our very own innocent big knit stall and we had loads of big knit little hats knitted on the spot and dropped off by some wonderful people. We'll be announcing on the grand total number of hats this Friday so stay tuned to our facebook page .

Here are some pictures from our four lovely days at the knitting and stitching show.

 

 

 

Brighten up your street special deliveries

We packed up the innocent vans (really made from grass) with carafes of new innocent orange juice last weekend and headed for not one, but two Brighten up your street deliveries.

First stop was to Rachael, in Abbeywood Crescent, Lucan who asked for her street to be brightened up because "Its a really young area and there are loads of kids around, they would love a to get a surprise from Innocent :-)" We couldn't have agreed more so we stopped off in Lucan and made a free delivery of innocent orange juice to Rachael and all her neighbours.

Here's a picture of the lovely Rachel and our delivery ladies.

Then it was on to pay a visit to Dawn from Hopkins Haven in Monasterevin. Dawn asked for her street to be brighten up because "all the kids are out there having a ball together us mammies and daddies need something to refresh us while we look on !" We were delighted to oblige, so we took a spin to Kildare in our grass van and surprised Dawn and all her neighbours. Here's Dawn and her lovely daughter meeting the innocent orange juice delivery girls.

We'll be making more Brighten up deliveries in the coming weeks so make sure to get your entry in soon.

Click here to enter.

Knitting and Stitching show competition.

And the winners are...

A big congrats to our 4 winners below. Each will be receiving a pair of tickets to pop along to the Knitting & Stitching Show in the RDS.

Sarah McDonagh
Fiona Finn
Kathleen O'Brien
Bernadine

If you're planning on going along be sure to say hello, take the weight off and knit a little hat with us.

Competition closed.

 

You probably noticed lately that we've gone a little knitting mad. We've been going all out to reach our goal of 80,000 little hats as part of the innocent Big Knit and to raise €20,000 for Age Action. Last year we paid a visit to the fantastic Knitting & Stitching Show in the RDS and we're popping back again this year, since last time was such a great success.

We'll be there knitting, chatting and giving out drinks to tired shoppers from the 10th to the 13th November and we have 4 pairs of tickets to give away to some lucky big knit knitters out there. Just answer the following question to be in with a chance of winning.

To which charity do we donate the money raised by the innocent Big Knit? Post your answers in the comments below and we'll pick our 4 winner from a (knitted) hat.

 

 

 

Toy Show Experience ticket giveaway - Competition update

Competition update.

Congratulations to our winners below. They'll each be getting a family pass for this week's The Toy Show Experience at the Convention Centre Dublin. We'll be dropping each of the winners a mail shortly with all the details.

Claire Ryan
Laura Brown
Jennifer
Joanne Leonard
Michelle Long
Dani
Karen Lloyd-Peate
Sarah O'Meara
Eilis Collins
Ursula Hayes

Thanks so much to everybody who entered. There were some great Halloween costumes.

Competition now closed.

The long weekend is over, but, hey, that leaves everybody with a 4 day work week. Not too shabby. Just in case anyone is suffering from return to work shock, we've a nice surprise competition for you all. We have family passes to give away for the Toy Show Experience in the Convention Centre Dublin this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The show has over 3,000 sq metres of toys for children of all ages with all the top toy shops, lots of fun entertainment for kids, loads of competitions, Santa's workshop and a toy hospital.

To be in with a chance of winning a family pass, let us know in the comments below, what your ever best Halloween costume was...

Keep an eye on our facebook wall this week to see if you're a winner.

Our first brighten up your street delivery

Our brighten up your street competition has been up and running for the last few weeks on facebook and we've had loads of great entries. On Saturday, we headed out to the first lucky winner in Blackrock, Dublin to deliver refreshing innocent orange to Leonie Lawlor and family, and all her lovely neighbours.

Leonie's reason for wanting to Brighten up her Street was "We have a great mix of people who've lived on this road for years and people who are new to the area - I know everyone would enjoy a surprise of an Innocent Juice delivery on their doorstep". Well, we couldn't have agreed more, and we hope our delivery of orange juice brightened up the cold morning for Leonie and all her neighbours. We'll be visiting and brightening up more streets in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on our facebook wall for the latest updates. To be in with a chance to brighten up your street and win a free delivery of innocent orange for all your neighbours, just click here.