Archive for February, 2012
#SilentSunday 26/02/12
Posted in Uncategorized on February 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »
A Twitter Giveaway – Kellogg’s Special K Limited Edition!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged almonds, banana, calories, cereal, flaked almonds, giveaway, hazelnut, hazelnut clusters, kellogg's, limited edition, raisins, special k, strawberries on February 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I love a good cereal for breakfast, in fact, I could eat cereal at any point of the day and my favourite is absolutely, most definitely Kellogg’s Special K. In the previous years, it has helped me through two pregnancies especially in the first months when nothing else would stay down and even now, I class it as one of my own personal comfort foods and sometimes have a bowl just before I go to bed!
I’ve had my Special K with chopped banana, fresh strawberries, and I’ve even popped in some raisins from time to time but Kellogg’s themselves have gone one step further and better by adding deliciously crunchy hazelnut clusters and flaked almonds! This is a Limited Edition at the moment but will be available throughout stores later in the spring.
The gorgeous Kellogg’s sent me a few boxes to sample and sample I have! The hazlenut clusters and flaked almonds give the cereal an added crunch along with all the usual goodness that Kellogg’s provide, and of course the best bit is that it is only 119 calories per 30g bowl!!
As much as I really want to keep ALL the boxes to myself and slowly munch my way through them, I have decided to give a couple away to you lovely readers of my blog to share the yummy taste and to say thankyou for reading!
All you have to do is the following:
Tweet ‘I want to win a box of Kellogg’s Limited Edition Special K with @homemakeruk’
The competition is open to the UK and ROI only and the 2 winners will be contacted via Twitter Friday 9th March.
All words and opinions are my own. Good Luck!
English Provender Sweet tomato and Chilli Chutney – a review
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged a good dollop, apples, aroma, baguette, breadsticks, caramelised red onion, chilli, chilli chutney, chutney, cooking, English Provender, facebook, fig, flavour, glazed sultanas, ham, mature cheddar, moroccan, natural ingredients, olive oil, open pan method, organic, pear, ploughmans plum, pork pie, roasted tomatoes, sea salt, spiced, sunflower oil, sweet tomato, tomatoes, twitter, vegans, vegetarians, zingy on February 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »
*When the lovely folks at the English Provender Company asked if I would like to try a jar of their all natural Sweet Tomato and Chilli Chutney for a review, I jumped at the chance to do so! Anything that is foodie and contains no artificial ingredients at all scores highly in my opinion. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans, the deliciously zingy Sweet Tomato and Chilli chutney boasts a list of natural ingredients that include tomatoes, apples, roasted tomatoes in olive oil, sultanas glazed in sunflower oil, and organic sea salt amongst others.
They also use an open pan method of cooking which is a fairly slow process but one which reduces the ingredients down to a spectacular flavour and aroma that when I opened the jar to sample it, after a few minutes, the husband walked in wondering what I was cooking!
The first bite of the chutney on it’s own is nice and sweet which then develops into a sensational yet a ‘not too hot’ chilli and tangy taste. We tried ours with a pork pie (or two), breadsticks, and thick cut baguette with a mature cheddar cheese. I also sent the husband off to work with a ham and sweet tomato and chilli chutney sandwich!
At the moment, in the major supermarkets, you can find their Sweet Tomato and Chilli Chutney, Caramelised Red Onion Chutney and Ploughman’s Plum. The jars are clear with transparent labels so you can see the rich colours of the ingredients. You can also buy other delicious chutneys such as Moroccan Spiced and Apple, Pear and Fig from their online store along with ideas and recipes.
Visit English Provender Company to see their scrumptious ranges of chutneys and condiments and you can follow them on Twitter A Good Dollop and like them on Facebook too! for chances to win your own chutneys.
*All my own words and opinions.
#WordlessWednesday 22/02/12
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lettuce, onion, oregano, salad, tomato, tuna on February 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »
A Sneak Peak at Matalan
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged affordable, apples, bathroom, bedroom, breezy, carnaby street, Collection, Colour pop, decor, fresh, garden, Heritage, home, kitchen, living, luxurious, Matalan, mediterranean, Nautical, Pears, rich, sneak peek, spring, Summer, versatile, Vintage, warm on February 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »
*I love sitting on my sofa relaxing, coffee in one hand, catalogue in another and I squealed in delight (yes, even I, the unsquealy, squeal from time to time) when the postman dropped in the fabulous BRAND NEW Spring/Summer 2012 Home Collection from Matalan!
It is the most awesome sneak preview of fresh and fantastic ideas to decorate your home and Matalan have once again shown their strength of style with fantastic affordable prices that allows you to have a whole new house without breaking the bank!
Whilst smiling like a fool and drooling over the pages, I decide over and over again what I want, which is pretty much everything and then some.
Matalan have four key themes in store for us this Spring/Summer. Vintage, Harbour, Heritage and Colour Pop.
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Each has it’s own strength of character with Heritage and Colour Pop giving us bold, bright and luxurious colours whilst Vintage and Harbour give us a soft, fresh and breezy outlook on decor . Every room in the house can have it’s own story and character with these versatile ranges.
My personal favourite is the Vintage and I’ve already earmarked several pieces for our home when the range debuts across the stores but having more of a look at the catalogue I can’t stop poring over Colour Pop this year which gives us a living style worthy of Carnaby Street colours!, a fabulous rich Mediterranean look for the garden, and a warm bamboo style called Apples and Pears for the Kitchen!
For such a home decor novice as myself, the sneak peek is a God send. I can picture how I want things to be where we are now, and with plans to move house in the next couple of years, these timeless designs are easily transportable.
I find myself one step closer to having a home that is adorned with lovely bits and pieces. The beauty of the price is that it is so affordable, you can buy a few
*extras* as well. At least that’s what I’m going to tell The Husband.
So if you’re in the mood for updating your collection or fancy re-doing rooms, here is an exclusive SNEAK PEEK for you too so that you can start making those plans to have fabulous new stuff for your home this Spring/Summer!
*This is not a sponsored post. All words and opinions are my own.
#SilentSunday 19/02/12
Posted in Uncategorized on February 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
What’s your favourite appliance?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged appliances, automobiles, beko, buckingham palace, cooker, crockery, freezer, fridge-freezer, gadgets, gas, gas cooker, gizmos, manchester, mosi, mugs, museum of science and industry, pans, planes, pots, rice cooker, steamer, trains, white city on February 14, 2012| 2 Comments »
Last Sunday, we took the children to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It is totally an awesome place to go to and full of all the things little kids like…planes, trains, automobiles and gas cookers…ahem..ok, that’s just me then but the section on gas had a fabulous cooker from the late fifties bought right here in Manchester, and used daily until 1993. It reminded me of an old blog I wrote about favourite appliances…What’s yours?
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I love my kitchen. Granted I could do with it being a bit bigger, ok well A LOT bigger, like Buckingham Palace size bigger, but it’s my kitchen and at the moment, it works well enough for me.
I have most mod cons, a dishwasher that was handed down to us and other appliances that have been treated with kid gloves to make sure they last us as long as possible and I have other gadgets and gizmo’s that I haven’t even used yet. A food processor that was given to us as a wedding gift is sat in its box in my father’s garage because we simply have NO ROOM, hence needing a bigger kitchen. I also have a steamer and rice cooker, again they are wedding presents (we’ve been married 8 years folks) that are still sat pristine in their boxes hidden away until the time of their unveiling!
We have a number of serving dishes, some mismatched crockery, flasks, other bits and bobs, pots and pans and a gazillion mugs. I can’t wait for the time when I can sort these things out and regain some peace in the chaos that lurks behind my cupboard doors.
Last Summer, we lost our fridge-freezer to the big appliance yard in the sky. The freezer part was so broken and mangled that everything in the fridge would just freeze up and we ended up with a lot of waste that just broke my heart.
After scouring the internet to check out prices, brands, sizes and then going on a ‘reccy’ mission in White City, Manchester, we settled on buying two separate appliances. I didn’t want the same thing to happen again and feel quite happy that if something goes wrong with one of them, then that is the is the only one we have to replace.
Because I didn’t have a working freezer for such a long time, I have to admit now that our freezer is absolutely my most favourite appliance. It holds an incredible amount of food that I batch cook amongst the usual suspects like ice cream, fish fingers, some vegetables and pizza!!! It sits in the utility room which reaches temperatures of -15ºC in the dead of winter but being a BEKO, it can withstand fluctuations of outside temperature from that extreme to much higher ones.
I absolutely cannot do without my freezer and want to know what YOUR favourite appliance is and why you can’t do without it! Feel free to comment below with your recommendations!!
#SilentSunday part deux
Posted in Uncategorized on February 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »
#SilentSunday 12/02/12
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lavender on February 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »