Sweeet Biscuits, Crisps and Juice on my Kitchen Table

You may have seen the TV adverts featuring the McVittie's Sweeet friends, in  the latest on-pack promotion from McVitie's, they are giving you a chance to win your own McVitties Sweeet friend.

McVities Digestives are such a classic, they are nice on their own with a cup of tea and they also taste great with cheese, the sweet wholemeal flavour acts as a perfect foil to a good cheddar or blue cheese.  Digestives can also be crushed for cheesecake bases or sprinkled on top of  yogurt, ice cream or crumbles.

The Chocolate Digestives take me right back to my childhood when they were a real treat, sweet and half covered with thick chocolate, they never disappoint.  Look out for the McVitie's sweeet friends on-pack promotion which runs until July 2015, you will have a  one in ten chance to win either the Chocolate Digestives kitten, the Digestives puppy, the BN owl and the Jaffa Cakes tarsier.  The on pack promotion will be present on 35 million packs across nine core McVitie's sweet biscuit and cake products including Jaffa Cakes, Chocolate Digestives and Hobnobs.

The sweeet friends are lovely and soft and cuddly and I'm sure there is someone in your life who would love to own one.  Find out if you are a winner by texting the unique on-pack promotion code from the promotional range on McVities's products.  There are also a number on no purchase necessary opportunities to win a McVitie's sweeet friend spanning across the McVities's website, social media and media promotions.

Rating:
sweeet friends 10/10
McVities Digestives 10/10
Chocolate Digestives 9/10


Sweet Greens Are Made Of These… New vegetable and fruit blends set the bar for juice flavour Don’t vegetate with the same old boring juices. Instead, reach for one of Cawston Press’ three new vegetable and fruit blends - ‘Sweet Greens’, ‘Sunshine Blend’ and ‘Radiant Roots’ - delicious and intriguing drinks that will revitalise your taste-buds.

Featuring nothing but pressed fruit and veg (Cawston never use concentrate) and all-natural ingredients, each is free from any added sugar, sweeteners, preservatives or colourings. The drinks are carefully blended and mixed with a little water to make them refreshingly drinkable. Crafted by the company’s Master Blender, Micah Carr-Hill, the distinctive recipes are inspired by juice bar culture and the fresh ingredients found in kitchen gardens. The balance of each flavour presented a significant blending challenge. Just finding the perfect mint for ‘Sweet Greens’ proved hard, as Micah wanted to replicate the gentle ‘grassy freshness’ of the mint from his garden, rather than the often harsh mint used in chewing gum and chocolate.

Rating:
Sweet Greens (39% apple, 30% Iceberg lettuce, 8% pear, 2% cucumber, lemon, water and garden mint extract)- This one really didn't do it for me, I found the cucumber and lettuce taste was overpowering and while I did drink the juice, I didn't find it pleasant.4/10
Sunshine Blend (26% apple, 24% carrot, 21% orange, 7% celery root juice, lemon and water) Really tasty and fresh flavour with a hint of sweetness 8/10
Radiant Roots (47% apple, 24% carrot, 8% beetroot, lemon, water and ginger extract)  This juice combo went down a lot better, the sweetness of the beetroot came through with only a hint of earthiness, the ginger came through well and this was an enjoyable drink. 7/10


Do you remember how as children you used to mix up all your snacks in one bag? We used to call it Duck Soup, I've no idea why but everyone would share their different crisps and snacks and even peanuts and we each ended up with a mixed up bag of 'Duck Soup'. Well Walkers have now created great big sharing bags already mixed up for us!

Labels: Cawston Press, Chocolate Digestives, McVities Digestives, Mixups, Walkers

posted by Janice @ 11:00 5 Comments

Drinks and Snacks on my 'Spring' Kitchen Table

Spring has definitely sprung now, after a beautiful sunny Easter weekend in Scotland, there can be now doubt about that.  I'm afraid I don't have any lovely outdoors photos for you, although I did spend a couple of hours in the sun on Saturday, shifting logs for our neighbours before heading back inside for more painting duties.


As you can see work continues around my Kitchen Table, in the background you can see the old laths awaiting a new coat of plaster.  The worktops are protected by sheets of cardboard and there is much painting going on.  What you need in these circumstances are some tasty snacks to keep you going.

First up are the Nice and Nobbly Organic, Gluten Free, Granola Bars from Nature's Path.  They come in two flavours - Trail Mix and Dark Choc Chip - and are a great alternative to the often taste-less and bland gluten-free products on the market.  They are very tasty, hold together well and I would definitely buy them.  9/10

Not many people can resist Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate and now they have combined their delicious creamy chocolate with two different biscuits, the semi-sweet LU biscuit and the savoury Ritz Cracker.
I preferred the LU biscuits and my husband preferred the Ritz Crackers.  What I liked about them was the way you were able to break the pack up into four individual biscuits, great for sharing. Cadbury Dairy Milk LU and Cadbury Dairy Milk Ritz are available in 35g bars, each with four mini segments (RRP £0.58) and in three bar multipacks (RRP £1.49). 8/10

Something different now,  from Vita Coco, currently Britain's biggest coconut water brand.
7/10

I hope you've enjoyed reading about the products I've been reviewing on my kitchen table, back soon with more recipes and reviews. 

I received samples of the products , I was not paid for these reviews and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Cadbury Chocolate, Cawston Press, Coco Cafe, fruit juice, Granola Bars, LU, Nature's Path, On my Kitchen Table, review, Ritz, Vita Coco

posted by Janice @ 20:15 18 Comments

On My Kitchen Table - New Year 2014

Well Christmas is past and the New Year is almost upon us.  Just before the start of the festive season the PRs seem to go into overdrive and offers of review samples tumbled into my inbox like  Christmas cards  popping through my letterbox.  I don't accept all the offers that are made, but try to choose products which are good quality and that I would be happy to share with my family and friends at my table as well as with you, dear readers, on Farmersgirl Kitchen Table.




We've been enjoying Whole Earth Crunchy Peanut Butter for many years, Mr Farmer is particularly fond of peanutty things.  The difference between the Whole Earth Peanut butter and the emulsified, trans-fat versions is marked and once you have tried it you won't go back.

There's a new nut butter from Whole Earth, it's 3 Nut and contains Cashews, Hazelnuts and Peanuts. It's got no added sugar and is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.   This  3 Nut Butter makes a really nice change and is great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!






As Whole Earth Foods also sent me some of their Peanut Butter too, I thought I'd use some in a recipe.  This isn't the most attractive of dishes, but it tasted pretty good, and was even better the next day.  I found this recipe for African Beef and Peanut Stew at The Kitchn.


Whole Earth 3 Nut Butter is available from most major supermarkets





The Qbag is perfect for this time of year when time is short and there is a lot of roasting going on!  Qbags are designed to be used on the barbeque to contain foods that might otherwise fall apart, they also have the huge advantage of keeping the food really moist and juicy as well as not making a mess of your grill or oven.

I don't own a barbeque and we don't have the weather for outside cooking just now anyhow.  So I cooked some minute steak with onions and stock inside one of the bags.

Minute steak can be quite tough to eat, it's cut thin and doesn't have a lot of fat, so only needs a short time in the frying pan.  However you can also braise it and it will be very tender.  I simply browned the minute steaks in a little oil, then added the sliced onions and browned them too.  I added a beef stock cube to about 100ml of boiling water until dissolved, then added to the steak and onions in the bag.  Then you simply scrunch up the foil part of the bag and place on a tray in the oven.   I cooked this for about 30 minutes checking through the handy clear window to see how it was doing.  You can even peel back the window to add ingredients or give your food a bit of a mix up if needed.

We really enjoyed the steak cooked in this way and it certainly saved on the washing up!

Qbags were available from the online shop, but this closed on 20th November.  Going forward, Qbag are partnering with trusted brands to get our products into your local shops. Look out for BacoFoil EasyCook Foil Bags in ASDA and Sainsbury's and buy 5 bags for £2.99.



More lovely comfort food. These Heck Sausages 
are very good indeed.  There is a whole range of different flavours, but so far I've only tried the 97% pork sausages.  What I can say is that they really taste of meat and are well seasoned with no artificial taste at all, they are also gluten free.  I'm looking forward to trying the Pork and Apple and Chorizo Style sausages and will report back to you when I do.

Heck Food is a small family run business, farming and making sausages from pork shoulder.  The quality shines through.  Well worth trying.  Heck sausages are available at many supermarkets for around £2.98 for 400g.





Cheese is perfect for snacking, quick lunches and suppers or as part of a cheeseboard after a celebratory meal.
 

This year, why not bring some originality and flair to the table and wow your guests with an innovative cheeseboard.  Instead of the usual cheese pairings of quince jelly, pineapple, a salty cracker and the odd decorative grape, Castello has created more inspiring combinations based on molecular science.






Three of the Cawston Press sparkling drinks have been awarded prestigious Great Taste gold medals.
It’s no mean feat – Great Taste is the world’s largest and most rigorous food awards scheme, involving over 400 judges and thousands of hours of blind tasting.
Here’s some of the judges’ comments about the gold medal winners. The word ‘lovely’ keeps cropping up!
“Quaffable drink; lingers comfortably; lovely apple on the nose; lovely natural appearance; very clean, zesty and refreshing; would make a delightful alternative to an alcoholic drink; the carbonation added a lovely sparkle”
The range of sparkling drinks are available from selected Tesco, Waitrose stores and online via Ocado.


End a dinner party in style this festive season and earn yourself a reputation for creating a truly memorable cheeseboard with the help of Port Salut and cheese expert Juliet Harbutt. Here’s her top ten tips for pulling together a show-stopping centre piece.

• A slate or marble cheeseboard, decorated with a few autumnal leaves and berries is great for making a lasting impression

• Ideally a cheeseboard should include five to ten cheese from the seven different types, but don’t over cater – allow approximately 75-100g per person

• Offer a range of shapes – logs, wedges, cylinders, squares – and cut blocks of cheese into different shapes for an attractive finish

• Try to provide a separate knife for each type of cheese so that more guests can help themselves at once and there is less cross contamination of flavours

• Ideally buy cheeses you have tasted and had cut at the deli from the original cheese, or buy pre-pack cheeses as near to their best before date as possible for the best taste

• Before serving ensure all the cheeses have come to room temperature – a slither will take 5 minutes and whole Brie will take at least an hour so best to serve similar sized portions

• If you are lucky enough to have a whole or half Stilton don’t pour Port into it; rather than adding to the taste of either, it is an old tradition used for style not taste

• Ideal accompaniments to the cheeseboard include: oat cakes, rustic breads, pickled walnuts, savoury, mildly spiced chutneys, mixed nuts, dried fruit or fresh apples or pears

• As well as wine, beer & cider also go very well with most types of cheese so encourage guests to have fun experimenting with their pairings

• Impress your friends and family with your newly acquired expertise with these quick facts:
• 95% of cheeses are suitable for vegetarians

• Stilton is just one of 90 British blue cheeses on the market Box-out: Visit the Port Salut website at www.portsalut.co.uk for Juliet’s downloadable cheese guide, listing all her cheese recommendations for the perfect dinner party cheese board.


And finally, it's time to sit back and relax with the lovely Feel Good Food magazine from Woman and Home.  I'm a bit of a magazine addict and love these themed food magazines from Woman and Home.  The award winning Lir cupcake chocolates were perfect to savour while reading about food!







I was not paid to review any of these products, but was supplied with samples for review.  All opinions are my own.

Labels: Apple juice, Castello, Cawston Press, cheese, Heck Food, Lir chocolate., New Year, On my Kitchen Table, peanut butter, Port Salut, Qbag, sausages, Tickler, Whole Earth, Woman and Home

posted by Janice @ 08:00 1 Comments