Well, hasn't the weather this gorgeous bank holiday weekend been beautiful?! We managed to get a BBQ at the in laws sneaked in on Sunday and we had one in our garden yesterday.
I made Tandoori chicken which turned out amazingly! I marinated 3 chicken breasts in some plain yoghurt mixed with Tandoori spices, lime juice and fresh coriander. It went down a treat, I'm only sad I forgot to take a picture.
We've been busy planning our summer holiday to Tenerife. Last year we went for a week, this time we're going for 11 nights. We discovered some beautiful little restaurants last time and the holy grail of yummy potato-ey goodness, Canary potatoes! Mmmm! I'll be stocking up on vanilla pods, mojo sauce and chorizo while I'm there. I'm not going until late July/early August, but I cant wait. I love Canary cuisine and my mouth is literally watering at the thought of a full fish platter, droooool!
I'll leave you on that while I go off and check flight prices for the umpteenth time!
Tuesday 7 May 2013
Sunday 14 April 2013
Grow Your Own!
So, where is the sun we were promised today?!
Yesterday we went to Wilkinson's as my boyfriend had been hassling me about a firepit and mini greenhouse he'd seen there for very little cost wise. As we've had such awful weather, the greenhouse has turned out to be a must, I haven't even been able to plant my veggie seeds and we're part way through April. I'm living in hope that we get some much needed sunshine very soon!
We picked up some seeds from Lidl at the beginning of the month, and have prepped the garden for the veggie patch. I live in a terraced house and my garden is mainly decked, but we have a small raised bed that had a couple of bushes in that we removed to transform in to a vegetable patch. We also picked up some seeds from good old Wilko's for next to nothing so I intend to spend today filling seed trays with compost and getting them sorted.
We picked up a fantastic Rosemary plant from Wilko's for £2.98, it is HUGE, and when you think about how much you pay for supermarket herbs, £2.98 is nothing. That is being transplanted to the veggie patch today. Its a pretty mature plant and we love Rosemary in our house, we have a rabbit called George and she adores the stuff too!
On to the mini greenhouse, you can find it online here, for the bargainous price of £10.
Yesterday we went to Wilkinson's as my boyfriend had been hassling me about a firepit and mini greenhouse he'd seen there for very little cost wise. As we've had such awful weather, the greenhouse has turned out to be a must, I haven't even been able to plant my veggie seeds and we're part way through April. I'm living in hope that we get some much needed sunshine very soon!
We picked up some seeds from Lidl at the beginning of the month, and have prepped the garden for the veggie patch. I live in a terraced house and my garden is mainly decked, but we have a small raised bed that had a couple of bushes in that we removed to transform in to a vegetable patch. We also picked up some seeds from good old Wilko's for next to nothing so I intend to spend today filling seed trays with compost and getting them sorted.
We picked up a fantastic Rosemary plant from Wilko's for £2.98, it is HUGE, and when you think about how much you pay for supermarket herbs, £2.98 is nothing. That is being transplanted to the veggie patch today. Its a pretty mature plant and we love Rosemary in our house, we have a rabbit called George and she adores the stuff too!
On to the mini greenhouse, you can find it online here, for the bargainous price of £10.
Image courtesy of Wilkinson's Website
Its not too bad for £10, its pretty windy today and its standing up really well. Its a good size for smaller gardens and will fit all the seed trays I'm filling today. The PVC cover fits well and I'll update you as to how it works when we get some sun!
We spent just under £48 in Wilko's on a heck of a lot of garden stuff (and some hay for the rabbits) which is brilliant. The same stuff in B&Q would be much more.
On to the foodie bits as our local Wilko's didn't have the firepit (you can find a selection here, I'm not so keen on the £20 one so I've told my partner that we'll get a better one come payday!)
I grabbed more seeds so we're going to grow:
Onions
Pak Choi
Carrots
Romaine Lettuce
Lollo Rossa & Lollo Bionda Lettuce
Kale
Leeks
Peppers
I'll probably pick up ready to pot young Tomatoes and Strawberries as I usually do from B&Q or Homebase. I tend to have more luck with those this late on in the year. They tend to clear them off towards the back end of April so I'll be looking out for those.
We also picked up 4 windowsill herb pots, they were 2 for £3 I think. I chose:
Rocket
Sweet Basil
Sage
Coriander
Our Bearded Dragon, Bruce, devours Rocket so it is great to be growing my own and knowing where it has come from. I adore Coriander and haven't had luck growing it before, but hopefully I'll have better luck this time! Sage I love to put with Pork or Onions and its amazing in a Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto. Basil is just one of those herbs that is so handy to have. I cook a lot of Italian dishes so its a staple to have on the windowsill.
We also bought 2 lots of Anya seed potatoes and some King Edward seed potatoes. They'll see us through the Summer and in to the Autumn no problem.
I look forward to using my own produce to make lots of delicious food, there's nothing like your own veg being on your plate and its great to have a ready supply to harvest. It saves me so much money as a bag of Rocket from the supermarket is approx £1, if I have it on hand I can pull what I want off the plant and not worry about the rest of the bag going slimy or soggy.
So, off I go to pot up seeds on my lounge floor (I do have wooden floorboards for ease of cleaning!) I'll try and post some pictures up later.
Today we're having a belated 'Homemade Pizza Night' instead of a Sunday Lunch and I am going to try and make a cake too if I get time. Have a great day whatever you are doing, and if you're out in the garden, I hope the sun is shining!
Saturday 13 April 2013
Hello Fresh Review
So, I love fresh food. I work really varied hours and I don't always get time to do a full supermarket shop and I refuse to live on ready meals.
I was referred to Hello Fresh by a lovely lady I know through a Facebook group. She raved about the fact they deliver the just the right amount of ingredients for the planned meals in a box for either 3 days or 5 days, and there is no wastage. They do boxes for 2 or 4 people, 3 or 5 days, and you can view the upcoming weeks recipes here and put your deliveries on hold if you don't fancy the meals.
I was intrigued, she passed me a code for £20 off my first box which took the total of a 5 day box for 2 people down to £29 (usually £49).
Now at £49 a week I was dubious. Could I buy the ingredients for 5 days worth of meals in a supermarket for £49? I concluded that actually, I probably couldn't unless I spent hours scouring the aisles or a good hour in front of the PC ordering a long list of items from Tesco/Sainsburys/Waitrose. And inevitably the one supermarket you're doing the online shop with never has 1 or 2 ingredients so I have to venture out to get them anyway. Also unless you have a great local butcher, you have to buy a big packet of mince etc, instead of the exact amount the recipe asks for. Its all a bit of a hassle for someone as busy as I am, so Hello Fresh offered to take the hassle on for me and provide me with everything I needed.
I waited with anticipation for the first delivery. I received an email to say it had been shipped overnight and would be delivered by APC Overnight the next day by 4pm. Brilliant I thought. So the box arrived at work around 10am. I started to worry about whether or not the ingredients would be ok in the box at the back door until 5pm. It hadn't been warm, but I didn't know what to expect. I needn't have worried, they pack the ingredients with a wool type material and lots of ice packs (that you can refreeze and reuse for picnics or lunches!) The wool insulates the ingredients and helps the ice packs keep everything cool, so far so good!
I got the box home. Be warned, they can be particularly heavy so I learnt that walking a fair way to my car with it was HARD WORK! I started to unpack the ingredients when I got home and was really impressed. No supermarket online shop bashed fruit or barely in date veg here. It was perfect. The box was split in to 'zones', tins and dried food at one side, meat and veg/perishables at the other. It made the box a dream to unpack! You get a welcome pack and the 5 recipe cards to follow for the meals, sometimes you might even get the odd freebie (I've had organic juice, strawberry jam, raw food bars and some lovely sea salt and peppercorns in my boxes).
You get at least one vegetarian dish out of the 5 for the week, which if you're like me is fine, but if you have a house full of serious carnivores you might struggle. I just added a bit of leftover chicken to my veggie dish which was fine. Just as an update, there is a plan to enable you to swap one meal if you don't like the sound of it, this is only available for the 3 meal boxes at the moment, but should be available for 5 meal boxes soon.
The meals are tasty and take no longer than an hour tops to prep and make from scratch. I found the most time consuming aspect is the chopping and prepping, which if you have a mini chopper or food processor, this would take much less time.
There's always a good mix of meat and fish, and the meals are really filling. I have enough for at least 3 meals from my 2 person box, so there are always leftovers for lunches or quick dinners if one of us isn't in. I forgot to mention the little brown paper bag of bits you get as well, so if your recipe requires a herb or spice or even some grated hard cheese, they pop all these pre-weighed bits in the brown paper bag in their exact quantities. Genius!
I would recommend these boxes without a doubt. Worth every penny and I even found myself BETTER OFF at the end of the first month as I hadn't wasted anything and I hadn't splurged on opportunist bits in the supermarket. I've popped a picture of my favourite meal on from the boxes I've had. Find the code for £20 off your first box below. Enjoy!
£20 off code - enter with your first order at Hello Fresh - YW9Y5V
I was referred to Hello Fresh by a lovely lady I know through a Facebook group. She raved about the fact they deliver the just the right amount of ingredients for the planned meals in a box for either 3 days or 5 days, and there is no wastage. They do boxes for 2 or 4 people, 3 or 5 days, and you can view the upcoming weeks recipes here and put your deliveries on hold if you don't fancy the meals.
I was intrigued, she passed me a code for £20 off my first box which took the total of a 5 day box for 2 people down to £29 (usually £49).
Now at £49 a week I was dubious. Could I buy the ingredients for 5 days worth of meals in a supermarket for £49? I concluded that actually, I probably couldn't unless I spent hours scouring the aisles or a good hour in front of the PC ordering a long list of items from Tesco/Sainsburys/Waitrose. And inevitably the one supermarket you're doing the online shop with never has 1 or 2 ingredients so I have to venture out to get them anyway. Also unless you have a great local butcher, you have to buy a big packet of mince etc, instead of the exact amount the recipe asks for. Its all a bit of a hassle for someone as busy as I am, so Hello Fresh offered to take the hassle on for me and provide me with everything I needed.
I waited with anticipation for the first delivery. I received an email to say it had been shipped overnight and would be delivered by APC Overnight the next day by 4pm. Brilliant I thought. So the box arrived at work around 10am. I started to worry about whether or not the ingredients would be ok in the box at the back door until 5pm. It hadn't been warm, but I didn't know what to expect. I needn't have worried, they pack the ingredients with a wool type material and lots of ice packs (that you can refreeze and reuse for picnics or lunches!) The wool insulates the ingredients and helps the ice packs keep everything cool, so far so good!
I got the box home. Be warned, they can be particularly heavy so I learnt that walking a fair way to my car with it was HARD WORK! I started to unpack the ingredients when I got home and was really impressed. No supermarket online shop bashed fruit or barely in date veg here. It was perfect. The box was split in to 'zones', tins and dried food at one side, meat and veg/perishables at the other. It made the box a dream to unpack! You get a welcome pack and the 5 recipe cards to follow for the meals, sometimes you might even get the odd freebie (I've had organic juice, strawberry jam, raw food bars and some lovely sea salt and peppercorns in my boxes).
You get at least one vegetarian dish out of the 5 for the week, which if you're like me is fine, but if you have a house full of serious carnivores you might struggle. I just added a bit of leftover chicken to my veggie dish which was fine. Just as an update, there is a plan to enable you to swap one meal if you don't like the sound of it, this is only available for the 3 meal boxes at the moment, but should be available for 5 meal boxes soon.
The meals are tasty and take no longer than an hour tops to prep and make from scratch. I found the most time consuming aspect is the chopping and prepping, which if you have a mini chopper or food processor, this would take much less time.
There's always a good mix of meat and fish, and the meals are really filling. I have enough for at least 3 meals from my 2 person box, so there are always leftovers for lunches or quick dinners if one of us isn't in. I forgot to mention the little brown paper bag of bits you get as well, so if your recipe requires a herb or spice or even some grated hard cheese, they pop all these pre-weighed bits in the brown paper bag in their exact quantities. Genius!
I would recommend these boxes without a doubt. Worth every penny and I even found myself BETTER OFF at the end of the first month as I hadn't wasted anything and I hadn't splurged on opportunist bits in the supermarket. I've popped a picture of my favourite meal on from the boxes I've had. Find the code for £20 off your first box below. Enjoy!
Butterflied Chipotle Chicken with Re-fried Beans and Avocado, Coriander and Pepper Salad
£20 off code - enter with your first order at Hello Fresh - YW9Y5V
Foodie Friday Goes Live - The Journey So Far
I've been thinking about creating a food themed blog for a while. I've rediscovered my love of baking recently (thanks to the Great British Bake Off for that) and wanted an outlet for my creative thinking and musings...
Foodie Friday popped in to my head as I love to start my weekend on a Friday (obviously!) and Friday has traditionally become 'Homemade Pizza Night' in our household, although last night it was Chilli Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato wedges, anyway I digress.
People seem fascinated that I am a good cook or that I like to cook. I think this is because I have so many other creative outlets (jewellery making, millinery, sewing) that they forget how passionate I am about food. I knew I'd reached new heights when I seriously considered buying a Kitchen Aid with my Christmas Selfridges vouchers instead of a designer handbag, and don't get me started on my Le Creuset addiction...
I recently applied to be on Come Dine With Me. Fueled by my love of food, I thought it would be an easy £1000 in my pocket (think of the Le Creuset/Kitchen Aid/Espresso Machine I could buy!) and I met the researcher and was filmed in my home. I ultimately decided that because of prior work commitments, I just couldn't throw myself in to the production the following week, so I withdrew. I didn't really want to be seen as dim or unintelligent either. I was assured that this wouldn't be the case, but I am conscious of looking like a bit of an idiot at the best of times, so I don't really need any help in that department!
I learnt to cook from a young age and it has stuck with me through to my late 20's. I associate food with family and happiness, so I love cooking to feed people and spoil them with gorgeous goodies.
I cook a lot of Gluten Free recipes, mainly as I live with someone who has Coeliac Disease, so I have to be really careful about my ingredients and how I cook the food I'm making. When it comes to pizza, I've cracked the Gluten Free pizza base recipe to a tee, but I generally tend to use Wheat Flour for my own base as I love the feel of the dough when I'm kneading it. Gluten Free baking doesn't need to be difficult, some of my recipes are tried and tested and honestly better than Wheat Flour recipes!
So welcome to my blog and hopefully I can offer some food inspiration with my recipes and ideas.
Foodie Friday popped in to my head as I love to start my weekend on a Friday (obviously!) and Friday has traditionally become 'Homemade Pizza Night' in our household, although last night it was Chilli Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato wedges, anyway I digress.
People seem fascinated that I am a good cook or that I like to cook. I think this is because I have so many other creative outlets (jewellery making, millinery, sewing) that they forget how passionate I am about food. I knew I'd reached new heights when I seriously considered buying a Kitchen Aid with my Christmas Selfridges vouchers instead of a designer handbag, and don't get me started on my Le Creuset addiction...
I recently applied to be on Come Dine With Me. Fueled by my love of food, I thought it would be an easy £1000 in my pocket (think of the Le Creuset/Kitchen Aid/Espresso Machine I could buy!) and I met the researcher and was filmed in my home. I ultimately decided that because of prior work commitments, I just couldn't throw myself in to the production the following week, so I withdrew. I didn't really want to be seen as dim or unintelligent either. I was assured that this wouldn't be the case, but I am conscious of looking like a bit of an idiot at the best of times, so I don't really need any help in that department!
I learnt to cook from a young age and it has stuck with me through to my late 20's. I associate food with family and happiness, so I love cooking to feed people and spoil them with gorgeous goodies.
I cook a lot of Gluten Free recipes, mainly as I live with someone who has Coeliac Disease, so I have to be really careful about my ingredients and how I cook the food I'm making. When it comes to pizza, I've cracked the Gluten Free pizza base recipe to a tee, but I generally tend to use Wheat Flour for my own base as I love the feel of the dough when I'm kneading it. Gluten Free baking doesn't need to be difficult, some of my recipes are tried and tested and honestly better than Wheat Flour recipes!
So welcome to my blog and hopefully I can offer some food inspiration with my recipes and ideas.
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