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

Cake, Snacks and Slow Cooker Liners on my Kitchen Table

It's always exciting when a parcel arrives and, as a food blogger, I receive quite a few packages full of delights.  This month I have three very different products to share with you.


I've had cakes through the post in the past which tasted manufactured rather than homemade.  I was interested to see whether the cakes from Sendmecakes would live up to their description as homemade.  The slim box dropped through the letterbox and when I opened it, I couldn't believe how many slices of cake were packed in there.  Each slice is individually wrapped in cellophane and tied only with a piece of raffia which opens easily when you pull at the bow.

The cakes have no fondant icing, no butercream and no 'fake food' ingredients.  They stay moist for days (recommended to be kept in a cool place and eaten within 5 days of dispatch) and each one contains fruit or veg, herbs and spices and only natural extracts.

There is a full list of Varieties and Ingredients, my box contained the following:

Apricot Bakewell Sandwich - probably my favourite slice, so moist and tasty
Lemon and Stawberry Jam Sandwich - a traditional Victoria Sandwich with a real home made taste.
Kent Apple Cake - there were a couple of slices of this cake as it's one of the signature bakes.  It's a lovely homely cake.
Treacle Toffee Drizzle - that's the slice pictured above (half a slice on the plate), sweet crunchy toffee topping, soft sweet cake.
Original Brownie - dense brownie with a true chocolate taste
Apricot Slice - oaty, apricot traybake
Super Seed Flapjack - probably my least favourite, just too many seeds but oh so good for you.

I cannot recommend these cakes highly enough.  You could certainly pass them off as your own, they taste home made.  A box of these cake slices would be an ideal gift for Mothers Day, a birthday, New Home or Get Well Soon.

The Ultimate Bake Box costs £22.00 including UK postage 
A Gluten Free Slice Box costs £22.00 including UK postage
100% Cake Box costs £20.00 including UK postage
Kent Bramley Apple Cake costs £17.00 including UK postage

Rating 10/10

Slow Cooker Liners

Slow Cooker Liners are something I had read about in US Slow Cooker cookbooks and online recipe sites, but I had never seen them in the UK.  I actually spotted these on Twitter and have been sent a sample pack of 4 liners for review.

I've been asked what the point is of Slow Cooker Liners and I can see where people are coming from with this, it's really not so difficult to clean your slow cooker as most models have removable crocks or non-stick metal pots.  There are, however some instances when I would welcome not cleaning out the pot after making a particularly messy or sticky recipe which requires soaking and scrubbing.  In addition, the liners claim to keep your Slow Cooker like new, reduce wear and tear and lock in flavour.

I would also recommend them for making Double Dinners, where you cook two separate dishes at the same time/  I couldn't get the liners at the time, so used roasting bags. 

I made Dhruv Baker's 'Yellow Curry' from his book Spice.  It's loaded with turmeric which is notorious for staining everything.  The liner worked perfectly, they are BPA free food grade plastic so the dinner had no plastic taste and the CrockPot only needed a little bit of a wipe round.

I wouldn't use the liners every time but it would certainly be worth having a pack in the cupboard for particular dishes, double dinners and when you just can't face the washing up!

Slow Cooker Liners - £1.39 pack of 4
Rating 7/10


Snack Attack!

SUNBITES UNVEILS EXCITING NEW ADDITIONS TO SNACK RANGE
Sunbites, the extraordinarily tasty multigrain snack from Walkers, announces the arrival of three new products set to tantalise our taste buds. The new scrumptious additions include Crispy Crackers, Pitta Bakes and Crackers & Dip.

Labels: cake, crisps, Reviews, SendmeCakes, slow cooker, Slow Cooker Liners, snacks, Sunbites, Walkers

posted by Janice @ 20:01 13 Comments

Walkers Mighty Lights - Review

I have a bit of a confession to make...I just love crisps and snacks, I would probably choose them over cake and chocolate.  But I'm very aware of the fat and calorie count in the average pack of crisps so I try not to buy them as they are just too tempting.

 
I would normally choose ready salted crisps and the Lightly Salted Walkers Mighty Lights were very tasty.  They are thick and the ridged texture helps with the crunch.  I don't know exactly how they are made but from looking at them I think that they are made with re-constituted potato (as with many other brands) rather than sliced potato, they are less greasy and have more of a baked flavour than a fried one. The flavour is good and I could detect no artificial taste that you sometimes get with reduced fat products.   I have also taste-tested the Cheese and Onion flavour and the Roast Chicken flavour, they both tasted as you would expect for these flavours and were not over-seasoned, allowing the potato flavour to come through.


I really liked that the bags are 25g which is quite enough, particularly for children's lunch boxes. 

Labels: crisps, reduced fat, review, Walkers, Walkers Mighty Lights

posted by Janice @ 13:36 2 Comments

Walkers Hoops and Crosses - a sponsored post

 There's a new snack on the block!  Walkers have brought out their new Wholegrain Hoops and Crosses for your 'cheeky monkeys'.

Now, I'm not really a snack-eater, the occasional kettle chip may pass my lips but I don't keep them in the house or the whole bag is scarfed down before you know it.  However, I was quite intrigued by the wholegrain and lower fat nature of the Walkers Hoops and Crosses.

• Each bag has 85 calories 
• Hoops and Crosses are made from wholegrains, have no artificial colours or preservatives 
• They come in three flavours – all suitable for vegetarians (prawn cocktail, roast beef, salt and vinegar) that's quite a trick making meat flavours for vegetarians!

I decided that as this product was aimed at children, I would enlist the help of my two year old grandson to test the Walkers Hoops and Crosses, he loved the monkey and ate up and enjoyed the Hoops and Crosses. His mum and dad managed to try a few too and declared that they tasted just like Monster Munch, a less healthy snack but one they enjoyed as children. It was a big thumbs up from my family.

I was paid by Walkers for this post, but was not required to give a positive review and my opinions are my own.

Labels: Hoops and Crosses, low fat, snacks, Walkers, Wholegrain

posted by Janice @ 21:38 1 Comments