I think one word can pretty much sum up our Christmas – food! After a lovely few days it’s quite nice to emerge out the other side from a family Christmas. We had a traditional family Christmas and the days passed in a blur of baking, crafting, eating, and playing with presents. I don’t think I’ve ever made so many Lego sets in 48 hours! As I said we’re always follow the same Christmas traditions. Every year we enjoy the same meals through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We even make the same snacks too, such as homemade…
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Pizza is our weekend treat when we’ve been out and about all day. It’s a firm family favourite and is so quick and easy to cook that it leaves us more time for having fun. Our pizza brand of choice, Dr Oetker, has two fantastic, exclusive in-depth guides to help customers match their favourite Ristorante pizzas to different side dishes or wine. The guides (which can be downloaded here) include recipes created exclusively for Dr. Oetker which are perfect for family meals, girls’ nights in, parties and other occasions. They are for anyone who is looking for something tasty to…
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This evening after a very busy day we enjoyed a Fajita and Film Night from Santa Maria (previously Discovery Foods). As the weather turns colder and nights in and lazy Sundays with the little ones become more appealing, Santa Maria sent us a lovely hamper filled with Santa Maria products including tortillas, fajita seasoning mix and squeezy bottles of guacamole and salsa. We love making fajita’s at home but there were a couple of products we hadn’t tried before, such as the tub of Onion & Garlic Dip, jar of Red Jalapenos and Sweet Chilli flavoured Nacho Rolls. All I…
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There’s something about this time of year that makes me want to make good food for the family. Today I wanted to share my recipe for Sweet potato and tuna fish cakes. It’s a simple recipe, quick if you use left-overs (which I’m a big fan of doing) and a great use of store cupboard essentials, such as canned fish which is really convenient for family mealtimes. Ingredients to make Sweet potato and tuna fish cakes: 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cubed Princes tuna chunks in brine lemon juice black pepper vegetable oil Two slices of bread or breadcrumbs bunch…
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I love to save money, by recycling and upcycling or scouring my local charity shops for a bargain. I like cooking for my family but sometimes I can be pretty thrifty in the kitchen too. Faced with leftovers from yesterdays’ delicious homemade curry, I thought I would use the leftover rice to make egg fried rice for today’s dinner. Ingredients needed to make egg fried rice: rice (1 day old works well with this recipe) spring onions 2 eggs peas oil soy sauce Add a dash of oil to a wok or saucepan, add your cooked rice, peas and chopped spring…
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Have you ever tried making your own pasta? I was challenged to make my own ravioli, from scratch, and I have to be honest and say this made me very nervous. I can whip up a cake or follow a recipe with pretty good results but the idea of making my own ravioli from flour and eggs was slightly scary. Fortunately I was provided with the 00 grade pasta flour, a Lakeland ravioli stamper and the ASK Italian recipe book. Yesterday afternoon I gathered all the ingredients and set to work. I made the ravioli in a couple of stages.…
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First of all I need to say how lovely the ASK Italian cook book is! The recipes are mouthwatering as are the photographs and it’s a real joy to sit and look through it. You may remember I’ve been working with ASK Italian over the last few weeks on their campaign to #respectthepasta. My first challenge was to enjoy a family meal at our local ASK Italian, and the second challenge was to cook the perfect pasta at home. The latest challenge was to try and recreate a dish from the ASK menu in my own kitchen. I was sent…
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I’m currently working with ASK Italian to promote their brilliant campaign to #Respectthepasta! A couple of weeks ago I visited my local ASK Italian in order to tell you about their delicious menu. This week I wanted to share some tips for cooking the perfect pasta at home. ASK Ambassador Theo Randall, has had a huge hand in creating some of the delicious menus at ASK Italian, he has also created a set of rules for creating perfect pasta: Pasta DO: -Use LOTS of boiling, well-salted water -Cook for two minutes less than the packet instructions and finish cooking in…
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I’m currently working with BritMums as a “Shortcut Eggspert” to promote yummy British Lion Eggs. Sometimes it can be hard work providing the family with three meals a day and I frequently rely on eggs for cooking quick and tasty breakfasts, lunches and main meals! I was set a challenge of cooking a main meal in minutes with British Lion Eggs. I’ve tried a couple of recipes over the last few weeks but our favourite has to be omelettes. Today we went to our first car boot sale of the year and we needed something substantial and quick when we…