Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
This morning, I received a large hamper from Warburtons which was supposed to arrive last Saturday for our Blogger Night In. Unfortunately, they arrived too late and none of the bloggers could try them or bring them home. So I have given some away to my neighbours and friends as they now have short expiry dates.
Each time you go to buy a Chinese takeaway, are you tempted to buy a bag of prawn crackers? Sometimes in Chinese restaurants, they may serve you a basket of prawn crackers too. My children love it and we always have to stop them eating too many in case it spoils their dinner! In fact, prawn crackers are the simplest snack to cook! I always get the them from a Chinese supermarket and they cost less than £2. Uncooked, they are a small solid round shape.
My family and I always enjoy a scoop of ice cream as a dessert even through winter. We have all got a sweet tooth in this family. Today, I went to Tesco to buy a tub of Kelly’s of Cornwall Clotted Cream & Honeycomb which costs £3.99. Besides this flavour, they also sell with strawberry, blackcurrant, golden syrup, vanilla, chocolate, mint choc chip and raspberry in similar sized tubs. They also sell a mini pots range in four different flavours.
Believe it or not! I am hosting a Blogger Night In with 9 other bloggers who I have been chatting with for over a year! For one weekend, I am housing 9 bloggers in my house! Back in August, I wrote a blog post dedicated to all of them. There are 13 of us in this group and unfortunately, there are three of them who are unable to come.
Organix is a well know brand for baby food and snacks. They have built a 40 strong team to make delicious, nutritious baby and toddler food. They have a huge range of food suitable from 4 months onward.
Christmas has come early to our house when two scrumptious types of chocolates landed on our doorstep this morning! I still can’t believe that November is here and soon it will be Christmas. But it is no longer shocking to hear that people have starting to buy Christmas presents. It is always good to start shopping early! I will be sharing my Christmas list in my next post! Tesco have a range of affordable luxury chocolates created by master chocolatiers behind Hotel Chocolat and Harrods. They are priced from £4 to £20.
Farmers from Africa joined the team at the Eden Project in Cornwall. A mutually beneficial scheme, it is designed to help farmers in Africa achieve a sustainable future, whilst educating people how to use the increasing demand for the baobab fruit to change lives for the better. The baobab fruit powder is available in the shop at the Eden Project and online.
It comes in a powder form and has more vitamin C than six oranges, more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk and gives you 50% of your RDA of dietary fibre. Due to the high levels of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants baobab is said to be a natural boost to health and may also aid the absorption of iron from food, which is really important for children when their bones are growing. It is also believed that it can ward off winter colds, combat fevers, stomach upsets and can help as a general pick me up.
Early May, I had asked advice from Bright Grey about how to protect our financial future. We were lucky to get picked to have a personal chef cook a meal for us while my husband and I could have the time to chat about our financial future. We would like to thank Bright Grey for this fantastic experience! They sent Sophie Wright to cook a meal for us while we discussed our finances. It has been a long time since my husband and I have had the opportunity to sit down and chat about it. It is not something we do very often as I normally don’t handle it.
Food prices are always on the rise. Have you thought how to make your budget stretch? I love to cook for my family as you can be sure of what’s in there. There won’t be any nasty ingredients nor too much of the unhealthy ones. Sainsbury’s Live Well For Less have challenged a few parenting bloggers to share advice and savvy suggestions for using basics to create everyday food, without compromising on quality.
Last month, I received an email to invite me for a dinner with Chobani. I was wondering who or what is Chobani as I had not heard or seen them before. So I went to Google them and found out that they make strained yoghurt. Their yoghurt are made with only naturally-sourced ingredients, free of preservatives and artificial flavours. It is also fat free, it includes 5 live & active cultures and have twice the protein of regular yoghurt. They are safe for those with nut and soy allergies and suitable for vegetarians.
Some of you might know that I was not brought up in this country. When I first heard about Bonfire Night, I wondered if it is like how Little Britain did it in the show where people just burnt their old furniture. Of course, Bonfire is not about burning furniture but it is a celebration.
After reading Jenny Leonard 5 minutes cinnamon whirls blog post, she inspired me to make one too. But I instead made up something even quicker! This is a very lazy recipe and requires less ingredients.
Each week, my son has been asking me to make mantou as his fellow Chinese students are eating it for their tea during our weekly Chinese lesson. So I followed the Food Network website to make this but I have altered the recipe.
Last week, I was asked to go down to London for a very special mission! I had no clue what it was about until I received a very well packaged box. I told myself do not open the box until I am home. Somehow I managed to resist opening it, but it was probably just as well as they may have been gone by the time I got home and the family would not have been happy with me! I am very excited to introduce you to the Pringles Limited Edition flavours: Mint Choc and Sweet Cinnamon!
>Christmas is coming soon and these two flavours have just come in time to celebrate the season! They both come in their usual size tubes. If you have tried Pringles before, you will know each chip is nicely stack in the tin. The unique new flavours lightly consistently cover each chip.
As an ex-nurse, I am always quite careful what I give my children and do read the label before I buy. When choosing drinks for my children’s packed lunch, the ingredients are always of concern – are they full of sugars, sweeteners, artificial colours, flavours or preservatives?
