Veggie-Terror!

No, this is not a post about how The Boy won't eat his greens; far from it in fact!

We received a lovely orange box the other day wrapped in a hand-tied bow. Inside was a lovely selection of fruit and vegetables and a note from Innocent asking us if we could create a veggie-monster. The Boy had a good old look at the selection inside and was very intrigued with the kiwi! Wouldn't try it though!

Using the toothpicks which they provided, and spelling out the name with the special innocent glow-in-the-dark magnets (a full set; I almost jumped for joy!), we came up with this lovely lady:

Her name is Ms. Hel O Wyn and she was rather pleased to be visiting our house for the day!

However, she's now sat in a pot on the stove making a stew for tea tonight.

Innocent have a rather fabulous campaign on at the moment to celebrate Halloween and their new glow in the dark magnets. They want children across the land to get creating their very own weird and wonderful fruity freak or veg monster. It's very simple, just do the following:

  1. Cut, carve and create your fruity freak or vegetable monster from the weirdest looking fruit or veg you can find.
  2. Give it a name and spell it out in innocent magnets (how about 'Terry Able' or 'Aaaaaaaaaalan'.)
  3. Then take a picture of your spooky creation, post it in their scary halloween flickr gallery.
  4. When you've done that, email them (myfruitandvegmonster@innocentdrinks.co.uk) with your flickr name and a postal address (important so we know which picture is yours, in case you're one of the first thousand people).
  5. The first 1,000 entries win a very special set of limited edition halloween 0-9 number magnets which ALL glow in the dark (the perfect addition to your alphabet ones)

The competition runs until 7th November 2011.

And because we love food and hate waste, afterwards, why not use any leftover veg to make a stew like us?

We were sent a box of fruit & vegetables (& magnets, hurrah!) to take part in this campaign and help spread the word.

Review: Little Dish – Chicken & Two Veg Pasta

I'm mentioned several times that I am a fussy mummy when it comes to what I let The Boy eat. I try and cooke fresh foods for The Boy, but as a part-time working mum it's hard to do that all the time. We've also recently changed when The Boy has his main meal; he now has it lunch-time. My mum looks after him three lunchtimes a week, and I can't expect her to cook from fresh everytime for him. Therefore when I do my shop, I tend to pop a couple of toddler meals into the shopping trolley.

One of the brands that I trust is Little Dish. I've reviewed one of their new meals before, and it actually prompted me to start using them more regularly. The lovely Charlotte at Little Dish recently contacted me and asked me if The Boy would like to try their new recipe: Chicken and Two Veg Pasta.

I was quite eager as I have problems getting The Boy to eat chicken. This pasta dish is mixed with carrots and broccoli in a scrummy cheese sauce. Well, that's a guaranteed success straight away because he adores carrots and cheese sauce. The chicken was in small, diced pieces and was very tender. He absolutely wolfed it down.

Little Dish Chicken and Two Veg Pasta is available from Tesco stores nationwide now.

I was sent a Little Dish meal in order to review. They also sent a little cuddly cow for The Boy, which was nice! His opinion is unbiased and honest because he's two years old.

Hallowe'en: Devil's Cakes

When the lovely Jenny from Mummy Mishaps announced that her next 'I Love Cake' linky was going to be cakes for Hallowe'en I started to have a think. The toddler group that we belong to is having a Hallowe'en party and I'll need to take a plate of party food along so I decided to kill two birds with one stone: practise my cakes for the party and link up to 'I Love Cake' at the same time.

I decided on Red Velvet cupcakes. When I was looking for recipes I was intrigued by a couple of things. First of all, it's not just a sponge with red colouring in it. The colouring is achieved through mixing red food colouring with cocoa powder, and then added to the initial wet ingredients. I thought vinegar was a weird thing to put in but according to the never-wrong Wikipedia: "the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa". That's interesting thought I! Then I read on further and discovered that Devil's Food cake (a type of chocolate cake) and Red Velvet cakes often get mixed up in recipe books.

Perfect! I'm making me some Devil's Cakes!

Ingredients:

  • 60g room temperature butter
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 10g cocoa powder
  • 20ml red food colouring
  • 20ml black food colouring
  • 1½tsp vanilla extract
  • 120ml buttermilk
  • 150g plain flour
  • ½tsp salt
  • ½tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1½tsp of white wine vinegar
  • chocolate spread
  • strawberry jam
  • milk chocolate
  • orange & black vermicelli

1. Cream butter and sugar, then add the egg and mix together.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla essence to make a thick, dark paste.

3. Add to the butter mix and stir in thoroughly.

4. Add half the buttermilk and beat. Then add half the flour and mix in. Repeat until all is used.

5. This is a really cool science bit: add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Watch it fizz! Beat well until really smooth.

6. Put a spoonful of cake mixture into the cases, enough to cover the base. Place a small amount of chocolate spread in the centre of each one, and then pour another spoonful of mixture on top; enough to fill two-thirds of the case.

(As I had spare mixture from the 12 that it's supposed to make, I wanted to see what it would like as a black cake. I added a further 20ml of black food colouring (Asda sells it) and put jam in the middle instead of chocolate spread)

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a pre-heated oven (170°C).

8. Melt some milk chocolate in a bain marie and pour into the centre of the cake. Smooth over to cover the top and then sprinkle some vermicelli on the top.

9. ENJOY!

Pop over and see the other entries into 'I Love Cake': The Hallowe'en Edition using this widget thing below. The linky will be open from Saturday 15th October and will close at the end of the witching hour (ie. Midnight) on Halloween itself Monday 31st October.

I Love Cake
ShowOff Showcase

Getting Nakd

We've recently been given the oportunity to get Nakd.

Isn't it a lovely selection pack?

Nakd bars are made from nothing but fruit, nuts and natural flavouring. They are also 100% unprocessed. What's more, each bar is gluten, dairy and wheat free, suitable for vegans and, this is the best bit for more, even counts as one of your five a day!

Did I mention that they taste yummy?

Mum's tried and approved of the Berry Delight and I've munched on the Cocoa Orange. Hubby can't wait to get to grips with the Cashew Cookie and the Pecan Pie, while I think The Boy is going to like the Gingerbread bar.

All the bars are moist, light, chewy and extremely succulent. They also fill the gap really nicely and at only 135 calories (on average) with 1g of saturated fat, they're hardly going to break the calorie bank that day!

Nakd bars are available from all the big supermarkets and also directly through their website.

We were sent a selection pack of bars for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

A Drizzle of Honey

The Boy and I have been making cakes again. He loves it so much and is getting so good at mixing the ingredients together, he's really got the hang on holding onto the bowl while whisking and stirring. I used to love cooking with my mum when I was little, and I want him to enjoy cooking so that I've raised a self-sufficient son!

So today's really simple (but very scrummy recipe) is:

Honey and Raisin Cupcakes

  • 4oz self-raising flour
  • 4oz butter
  • 4oz caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • couple of handfuls of raisins
  • squeeze of Beech Forest HoneyDew

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

Whisk in the eggs, adding a little flour if it starts to curdle.

Add the flour and mix.

Fold in the raisins.

Put a spoonful of cake mix into each case (enough to cover the base) and then drizzle some honey on top. Put another small spoonful of cake mix on top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 170°C.

Remove from oven and while still hot drizzle honey over the top. It will soak into the top of the cake, leaving a crispy residue.

Enjoy while still warm!

We were sent a squeezy bottle of  New Zealand Honey Co.'s Beech Forest Honeydew to review. It made scrummy cakes and our tastebuds opinion is unbiased and honest.

I've added this to Reluctant Housedad's 'Recipe Shed' linky (where the theme is Bakes and Cakes) and to The Crazy Kitchen's 'Cooking With Your Toddler' linky.

Recipe ShedThe Crazy Kitchen

Review: Diet Chef

I have the dieting capabilies of a mouse faced with a cheese mountain. That mouse would be no more capable of scuttling away from the fromage festivities than I am when it comes to my favourite foods. I really need to develop some will and staying power! My problem is that once I've done the diet for three weeks and have lost it, I sabotage it by thinking "ha! I showed you body, I can lose weight when I want to!" and reach for a slice of bread and jam (my downfall). I also do the food shopping, albeit online, and if I get bored I buy 'niceties' which are very naughty!

When I was asked if I'd like to try some of the range of Diet Chef I agreed thinking, "Why the hell not?". I was sent a day's meals and told not to eat anything else. For one day, surely I could manage that?

Well I didn't get the chance to, because when it came it included a meat shepherd's pie. I'll give many things a go for reviews, but I'm not about to give up thirteen years of vegetarianism, so Mr. TheBoyandMe stepped in and offered to do the review. My Knight in shining tinfoil!

Note: the food reviewed is part of a subscription-based diet scheme. Talking to a doctor or qualified medical professional is always advised before starting any diet. Diet Chef themselves also recommend taking part in light exercise.

When the Boy's Mummy asked me to review a day's worth of meals from Diet Chef, I decided to give it my best shot (he's lying, he offered!). My food reviewing skills may be more Gyles Brandreth than Giles Coren, but just to do it properly, how about if that is the ONLY food I eat that day (thankfully, coffee is allowed)? That way it'll be a test not just of how good the food is, but also if the quantity is sufficient to remove the temptation to snack.

The meals provided were just a single days worth of a diet subscription plan that can last for several months at a time. Diet Chef recommend adding fruit and vegetables, and to drink at least one litre of water per day.

Breakfast: Chocolate granola, 195 calories

I'd never had granola before, so decided to eat it with milk like a normal cereal; this added a few extra calories but made it more palatable to my tastebuds, and gave an overall effect of eating crunchy coco-pops. To add a bit of bulk (breakfast being the most important meal of the day, after all) I also added some chopped strawberries to keep me going until lunch.

Lunch: Tomato and pasta salad, 264 calories

Mixed in with some steamed vegetables, this tasted a lot better than you'd expect from diet food, with a slightly creamy taste rather than the tomato assault I feared. I'd actually say that I preferred the taste of this over and above the standard tomato pasta sauces that ready meals often contain.

Snack: Salted popcorn, 107 calories

There's not much I can really say about popcorn. Soft, salty, with a few bits that stick to your teeth for a week afterwards. But, come 3pm, very much a diet-saver.

Dinner: Cottage pie, 235 calories

Taking out the calories can often mean also removing the taste; not so in this case, and if I hadn't known in advance that it was diet food I'd have been none the wiser. Served again with vegetables, in quantity it was indistinguishable from a 'normal' evening meal and, if a fully committed dieter would easily have been enough to see me until breakfast.

Conclusion

I admit that at the end of the day I did give into temptation with a late-night snack and beverage (although the latter are allowed in moderation anyway), but had I been eating these as part of a longer-term diet plan I may well have held off. In addition, as we were provided with these foods for review there wasn't the same impetus that would exist had I been a fully paid-up subscriber to the diet plan.

Overall, if these meals are representative of the entire range, then there's enough flavour and variety there to keep anyone happy. As they don't need to be refridgerated and can be microwaved, they are also extremely convenient to both store and cook, and therefore suitable for someone who doesn't have time for a more 'traditional' diet plan.

I was sent these products for review. Mr. TheBoyandMe's opinion is honest and without bias.

ShowOff ShowCase: The One About Food

There seems to be a tsunami of food posts around at the moment! Linkies, competitions, recipes. You name it, most bloggers have got one or two posts in the past few weeks to do with culinary delights.

Being the type of person who hates to miss out on anything, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and choose 'food' as this fortnight's theme for ShowOff ShowCase. However, it doesn't have to be recipe to rival Mrs. Beeton or Mr. Ramsey; it could be a tale of food, a memorable meal, a humourous tale involving shellfish or sweetcorn.

Dig out your old posts that meet the very vague criteria, whack my badge at the bottom and link it up. See if other people enjoy your experiments of  being a Fanny or a Heston.

Go on, for this is The One About Food!

ShowOff ShowCase

 

YumYum in my TumTum! (Review)

I think sitting down together at teatime is a really important family activity as it teaches your little ones so much; social skills, conversational skills and how to behave at the table. I think it has contributed to The Boy's ability to sit at the table happily for over half an hour eating alongside us.

Recently he's shown a massive development in his ability to feed himself with a fork and spoon, but is starting to show an interest in using a knife. I've looked around and most sets that are available for his age bracket and hand size don't have knives in them. Therefore when we were asked to review a cutlery set by the lovely people at TumTum, I jumped at the chance!

They sent us the TumTum Tiny Double-sided Cutlery Set (which has a handy travel case for when you're out and about) and were very generous in also sending us the TumTum Tiny Dining Set (with scooping corners).

The cutlery has a very clever and engaging mix and match the double sided handles to change the character, with a good bowl shape on the fork, a straighter edge on the spoon, and most importantly the knife is not too sharp and is angled for easy cutting (stabbing in The Boy's case!). The dining set has a beautiful autumnal design on the plate of a hedgehog sweeping leaves, while the bowl has a mole digging in the sun. Most importantly about both of these is that they have a scooping corners which provides a stopping point to allow peas, beans and any other 'round' food to be easily loaded onto forks or spoons. There's also a fabulous rubber rim on the bottom to stop it sliding around! Both of these products are BPA, phthalate and PVC free, and dishwasher safe!

As you can see, The Boy absolutely adores them and he feels so grown-up eating from them. The pattern on the bowls is also an incentive to get him to eat because he has to clear the food out of the way (by eating it of course) before he can see what the picture is! This meal-time, he's just put the fork and spoon together and 'baa-ed' at daddy! Most amusing!

The double-sided travel cutlery set retails for £12 and the tiny dining set with scooping corner is £14.

We received these products in order to review. My opinions is honest, as always.

Courgette and Chocolate Cake

Last Summer I went to a picnic meet-up with my baby and toddler group. One of the mums had brought along a courgette cake which I wasn't at all keen on trying, but actually tasted really nice. I've had it at her house a few times since and it is really quite scrummy. The one thing that I noticed it is that although it's moist, it is actually quite bland. The courgette doesn't really come through and therefore the cake just tastes of, well, cake.

I decided to have a go at making this with The Boy this morning, and had the idea of adding chocolate to give a contrasting flavour. I knew I had the ingredients and there were courgettes waiting to be used up in the fridge. Only, they'd gone too far and had to go into the compost, which is when Mr. TheBoyandMe was despatched to pick up more!

Courgette & Chocolate Cake

Ingredients: 220g plain or wholewheat flour, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 1 teaspoon mixed spice, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 250g sugar, 200ml vegetable oil, 60g of butter, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 2 medium courgettes coarsely grated, 1 large handful raisins, half a bar of milk chocolate, handful of chocolate chips.

Prior to cooking sprinkle a teaspoon of salt into the courgette, place in a sieve over a bowl with a piece of kitchen towel and a plate on top to weigh it down. The excess juice from the courgette will be removed.

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

2. Add the egg with a little flour to prevent curdling.

3. Add the remainder of the flour and whisk.

4. Add the oil and vanilla essence and mix together thoroughly, the mixture will be runny.

5. Stir in the remainder of the dry ingredients and the raisins.

6. Gently fold in the courgettes and chocolate chips, along with the melted chocolate.

7. Mix thoroughly and then divide between cake cases. This recipe made 20 individual cakes.

8. Place the cakes in a preheated oven at 150°C for 30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

9. We drizzled white chocolate on ours to add some colour.

These cakes are moist and really tasty. The Boy and Me (ha!) made them before Chef Brother came over to see us, and I was nervous about giving him one. He said they were really tasty and would be perfect for Christmas time, he then ate two! Wahoo, thumbs up if ever there was one.

The irony is that The Boy doesn't like them!

The Crazy Kitchen

I Love Cake

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