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Did you know raw pumpkin seeds are actually good for you? I only found out when I was looking for more ways to add protein into my life. I’ve tended to mostly roast my seeds before eating, but it’s not necessary at all. Straight from the pumpkin, these little pale seeds also have iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc and magnesium. Don’t throw away those seeds when you’re carving up your pumpkins this year – get them in your bellies somehow. You can use them in soups, salads, sandwiches, porridge, cereal, pasta and even curries and stews.
I like to add seeds at the end for extra crunch. I haven’t tried adding them at the cooking stage, but I’ll be trying that over the next week before Halloween. We’ve ended up with far too much pumpkin to use…
2TeaspoonsGround Peppercorns. I used rainbow peppercorns.
1TeaspoonGround Nutmeg.
Salt & Pepper to Taste.
Water.
Method
Saute your onions in a little oil if you wish. I didn't this time round, as I was in a bit of a hurry.
Add all your ingredients, apart from the stock cubes to the soupmaker.
Top up with water, to above the minimum and below the maximum levels.
Crumble the stock cubes over the top, and mix well with a wooden spoon.
Make sure your lid in on properly.
Choose the smooth setting.
At the end of the cycle, I used my blend setting for another 10 seconds to purée the soup even more. Pumpkin can need a little longer to break down than other vegetables.
Highland Spring is on a mission to encourage healthy hydration. Because when you’re 100% hydrated, you’re much more likely to be on top of your game – mentally, physically and emotionally.
As a fairly newish runner, who’s only been pounding the streets and treadmill since January this year, I’ve been drinking more and more water as I train, and often carry some with me on a run now, if it’s over 5k. I find I need the hydration, even though other runners can often manage fine up to around 12k without any fluids at all.
The easiest way to stay hydrated for anything, is to drink water. Research has shown that 66% of us Brits feel we don’t drink enough.
For an experiment, I had the boys drink nothing but water for a full day, to see how they got on. For middler, it was simple. He loves water, and always has done. He happily went round with his bottles of H2O and needed nothing else at all.
For the other two, we had to change the format slightly, with the addition of a little squash, which did a great job along with the sparkling spring water. It tasted like a fizzy drink, and looked like a fizzy drink, but without much of the sugar and additions we find in the regular fizzy drinks.
I have to say, that apart from running hydration or in hot weather, adding a little squash and ice to fizzy water, is my favourite way to imbibe a drink that’s good for me.
We do tend to buy quite a lot of bottled water normally, so I’m used to incorporating it into daily life at some level, but it was lovely to have our delivery from Highland Spring, and to drink it, quite literally, all the time for a while. I tend to dislike tap water, and have to be organised, putting it into the fridge to try and reduce the chemical taint. It’s also nice to have spring water. I used to love going hiking when I was young, just to be able to drink the water streaming down from the hills, fresh and quite sweet to drink, just like my family would have, a few generations back.
I’ve always been someone who drinks a lot of fluid. It’s one of the reasons my diabetes was missed early on, as drinking a lot of fluid has never not been normal for me. If I ever have a headache, a glass of water tends to be the first thing I reach for, as it almost always seems to solve the problem. I’ve never been able to understand people who manage to get through a day with one or two cups of coffee…… My mum is one of those, and I don’t know how people who drink so little manage to survive. Just overnight, we can lose a fair bit of water weight while we sleep, just through breathing and surviving. If you’ve never tried it, weigh yourself before going to sleep and again when you wake up, to see how much lighter you are. I can lose a couple of pounds overnight, easily….
I often think children who struggle to concentrate at school can be helped along their struggles by keeping well hydrated. Without enough fluid, concentrating is tough going, even for me…
How to get water into daily life. Our tips…
Drink from the regular plastic bottle with sports spout for the kids bags when out and about. These also make great packed lunch additions.
For me, carrying a bottle while out for a run, and being able to bin it at the recycling station I pass on the way back is great. I don’t have to carry my hand bottle for so long. There’s nothing worse than carrying it when it’s empty, yet I still have a few kilometers to go.
I made Broccoli, Sweetcorn and Asparagus Soup using some of our Highland Spring this week. I wanted to see if it made a difference in comparison to using tap water, which can be a bit whiffy at times, due to the chemicals. My soup did taste more creamy that I’d expected, so perhaps it was the lack of chlorine in the water which made it extra tasty.
Use fizzy water to make your own drinks, including Bucks Fizz, with some orange juice, and a little alcohol if that’s your tipple. Fizzy water mixed with a little fresh fruit juice is especially awesome, and healthy.
If you can’t give up regular fizzy sodas, alternate them with healthy drinks and a water substitute in-between. Add some whizzed fruit to jazz up the taste. It’s easier to get young children into the habit of drinking water, so make the best use of their age while you can.
As adults, aim to drink around 6-8 glasses of water a day, or a couple of litres. The European Food Safety Authority recommends younger children drink smaller servings, around 150ml each, whereas older children need around 250-300ml.
Drink plenty of fluid the day before exercising. I find that if I’m well hydrated the day before a long run, I manage to run further. If I’ve been skimpy on fluid the day before, it doesn’t matter how much I drink on the day, I can’t go so far. Hydration really does help our performance.
The glass bottles look fabulous on a table during a meal. Very sophisticated.
Here’s the official skinny on water from Highland Spring….
Drinking water can make you happier: brain scans show that when you’re properly hydrated the parts of your brain associated with anger, fear and alertness are de-activated.
Lots of us visit the doctors for fatigue each year, when actually the problem could be due to dehydration. Keeping hydrated can help give you the energy you need!
When you’re hydrated, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard. It’s much easier for your body to pump blood through the blood vessels to muscles.
Staying hydrated before and during exercise helps avoid cramp. Hydration levels are affected by how long and how hard you are exercising, so if you are sweating or in a warm environment you might need to drink more than usual.
Highland Spring Water is natural water, that comes from Scotland’s beautiful Ochil Hills. If you want to see other people’s tips for using water, check them out on Twitter, at the hashtag #HyGreat
It had to happen, didn’t it? Soup in a Pressure Cooker from me….
This is an Instant Pot Recipe, or the 7 in 1 Pressure Cookers that do it all for us.
I imagine most pressure cookers work the same, and this is the first soup recipe in my brand spanking new machine, bought this week from Costco. There are times when I’ve got need of a larger pot of soup than my soup maker, but I still don’t want to spend the time standing over the stove. It helped that my pressure cooker has a soup setting, and I was keen to make the most of it.
Overall, broccoli and asparagus are the strongest flavours to come out in the soup. The taste of onion, leek and potato seem to blend into the green vegetables, giving a lovely texture that I didn't expect. I'd make this recipe x 1.5 or double it in future. This was just an orientation recipe that came out rather well. I'd also be tempted to stir in 50g of grated cheddar cheese at my next attempt with this.
Add the rapeseed oil, onion, garlic, stock cubes and leek to the bottom of the Instant Pot pan, along with 1 cup of water. Set the machine to saute, and stir until the strong flavours are well combined. This took a few minutes for me.
Add the remaining ingredients, along with salt and pepper to your taste. IMPORTANT: Ensure you don't go over your pressure cooker maximum levels for high liquid content.
Stir the mixture and select the soup setting, which runs for 30 minutes.
Allow the pressure to release naturally.
Using an immersion blender, whizz away until you get the texture you are looking for.
Serve, or use the keep warm setting if you need to wait for a while.
This is a great wee duo. Captain America is possible for two to play….
One child can happily wear the magnetic shield and gauntlet, allowing them to fend off the foam darts of the Nerf Slide Blast Armour when they comes flying toward them.
Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the youngest ones who began to play with this initially…. Scottish Dad and the oldest teen got their hands on the goods first, and decided to have a good old shoot out. It was pretty cool to see to big strapping lads play like little kids again……
The man did have a little trouble fitting the Nerf Slide Blast Armour onto his hand, but with careful shuggling, he managed just fine.
I’ve got three boys, and two nephews, so Nerf products are always well received in our house. I don’t think age is a barrier to enjoying these. At my sister in law’s house a couple of weeks ago, the kids, and by kids, I mean the grown up men, as well as the kids, ran about with Nerf guns, whacking the bullets off each other.
Even mum was able to get a few choice shots in with one of the rapid fire guns….. Who says Nerf is just for pre-teens?
For ages 6-10 (plus all grown ups).
These toys are great for all good superhero fans…..
Toysrus Hasbro Captain America Civil War Iron Man Slide Blast Armour. The Nerf Iron Man Slide Blast Armour toy is from the Captain America film, and a 2 year old even enjoyed himself with the armour here. The armour covers almost the whole arm of a child, clipping over the arm. You pull the trigger, hold down one button and then press the other to release the darts, which go a good few feet before falling gracefully to the ground if the miss their target. The fire action isn’t hugely powerful, so they landed without causing damage here, although they did end up being fired towards the ceiling on occasion.
Toysrus Hasbro Captain America Civil War Shield and Gauntlet. The shield and gauntlet is in two pieces. One piece goes on the arm, and the shield part snaps onto the gauntlet fairly firmly. I like how the shield comes off if a little one gets caught in a door etc, as the magnet releases. It’s fairly tough stuff, and kids can pop on and remove the shield without having to remove the arm gauntlet all the time. We did initially have an issue with the shield falling off easily, but found we hadn’t put it on right in the first place.
The descriptions tell us the shield can be thrown just like Captain America does. We found it tricky to get it to work like a frisbee, but it was easy to pull off and throw. I wouldn’t recommend trying to throw the shield back onto the gauntlet
With these toys, kids can role play as characters from the film. All they need to do, is snap on their goods and save the world at home, by pretending to be one of the best super heros ever imagines, blasting into fabulous imaginative play, which is always good for kids.
If only we could invent super powers to finish the complete package…..
Where to buy.
Available from all good toy stores, including Toysrus and Amazon. As of 12 October, 2016, the Shield is currently on offer at £11.99, with the Slide Blast Armour at £19.99.
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Disclaimer: Thanks to Hasbro for the Captain America Nerf Slide Blast Armour, Magnetic Shield and Gauntlet, which we received free of charge to test as part of the Toy Tribe. All opinions are our own.
Yep, Furby’s are back, and they’re jazzily souped up for this year. I know, raising the Xmas or Christmas as a subject has most people throwing their hands up in horror.
“But it’s October, go away,” I hear you all say in the back of my skull, as I chatter away with our most recent review toy.
Furby’s are now hi-tech, with lots of key features that change this to a far more interactive toy than any previous versions of the plush pal. I’m way too old to have had an original Furby, so this has been all new to me – completely….. Who knew how addictive these things really are? I spent about ten minutes giggling my head off when I switched it on. I’m easily pleased…..
Furby Plays Without The App
I woke Furby, and he said, “I’m so hungry, why you no feed me,” or something like that. And when I stopped speaking to Furby, it started whistling at me…. Then asked for “meatballs,” and “Gimme gimme.”
All we need to do with Furby out of the box, is tickle him, shake him, or pet the fur.
At one point, Furby asked us to turn him upside down. When middler did, he came out with “bat furby.” I don’t know who laughed the most. Me or the boy….. There are around 150 expressive animations, which work by the LCD eyes, ears and the light-up antenna, which we can press, and sometimes Furby sings….
Furby goes through a range of emotions and mood changes. He can be happy, sad, scared or excited, and they’re all amazing to watch.
There’s a sleep mask included, so now Furby sleeps all night long. I’ve heard stories from others, who’ve woken up Furby Booms and not been able to get them to sleep afterwards. Furby is pretty easy to wake up, and the eyes are amazing. Flickering through different emotions and images, they’re super cute. I love the heart one, and as much as I tried to capture it for the blog, I never seemed to click my shutter fast enough to show you.
Middler was too shy to let me take a picture, so you’ll have to put up with me… On the other hand, he’s had Bee-Boo on and yakking for the last six hours, so I might have to put Furby to sleep before he goes to bed, or I imagine Bee-Boo will be singing all night long…..
Furby Connect World App
Connecting our Furby to the Furby Connect World was really easy. Make sure Bluetooth is switched to “on” for your gadget. Open the app, switch on Furby and the screen guides you through connecting until Furby announces it, and lets you choose a name…. We named our Furby Bee-Boo, or Strong Beak.
With the app, Furby knows which time of year it is, so even on Valentines or Xmas, your Furby has a world of surprises for you. In the app, you can collect eggs and baby furblings, feed your Furby, and even take him to the toilet. When something new is downloaded to your Furby, his antennae will flash. Press it, and you’ll hear what the download is.
It’s important to realise that anyone can play the Furby Connect World app. You don’t need a Furby to play, although you’d get so much more fun out of watching your Furby Connect interact as you flick through the activities, and watch videos with our Bee-Boo. I am soooo looking forward to seeing my youngest nephew, who is 2, having fun with this toy….
Colours
Furby Connect is available in Pink, Purple, Blue, Turquoise.
Where To Buy
From all good toy stores. I did a quick search and saw Furby Connect in ToysRUs, House of Fraser, Argos, Amazon, and Smyths. I’m sure there are many more. If you’re a Twitter friend, you can see the chat at hashtag #FurbyConnect, and find out what everyone is saying about their new furry friends.
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Disclaimer: Hasbro provided our Furby Connect free of charge, as part of the Toy Tribe. All opinions are our own.
My middle boy quite likes a puzzle or two, and although he struggles with much of life, sitting with someone to do a jigsaw is very satisfying for him, when it’s one he can cope with.
For my review, I chose a 50 piece puzzle rather than a larger one. It’ one he is likely to be able to do for himself, with simply someone sitting beside him for a little support and guidance, and to give reassurance that he’s doing well. Wentworth have all kinds of puzzles, for all kids, big and small….as well as their parents, grandparents, and anyone looking for a little distraction time.
Wentworth Wooden Puzzles are suitable for everyone. The farm scene is something that he is passionate about. Actually, anything digger, tractor and farm related has him a very happy boy indeed. And as anyone knows, pleasing a special needs teenager is never an easy thing to do.
Wentworth Puzzles come in a broad range, to cover everyone. From art to animals, nature, nostaligia and dedicated children’s jigsaws.
Why Wentworth Puzzles
As a present, especially, they’re presented in a lovely box, with the puzzle pieces kept in a drawstring bag, which ensures they never get lost. It’s so easy to lose one or two small pieces from a box once it gets tatty, or has been well used.
The puzzles are made in the UK from sustainable sources, and are 100% UK made. On their website, you can even turn your own photo into a personalised puzzle. Now that’s a great and unusual present for anyone.
Children’s Jigsaws
Jigsaws have benefits for school-aged kids, at any time of the year, but especially during school holidays, particularly when encouraging them to take a break from technology. Mindfulness is the word Wentworth use, to explain the calming effect of a jigsaw puzzle on our moods. So, if jigsaws are good for those who suffer from stress and anxiety, it makes sense to include one or two in your Xmas shopping baskets over the next few months.
These are especially good for children, as the thick wooden pieces mean the edges don’t get dog eared and ripped easily, which is always a good thing if you want to pass puzzles down to younger children or donate them when you’re finished.
And in case you’re already on the lookout for your Christmas Shopping, how about this Farmyard at Christmas for a lovely post Xmas day parent/child bonding session…
Image Courtesy of Wentworth Wooden PuzzlesImage Courtesy of Wentworth Wooden Puzzles
Find Wentworth at their website, or below on social media.
When you chop your butternut squash, leave the skin on. It makes the soup extra creamy in texture, but chop your pieces quite small, as butternut takes too long to cook if it's left in big chunks. The skin breaks down nicely for the smooth setting, but I'd probably remove it for a chunky soup.
Add all your ingredients to the soupmaker.
Top up with water, to above the minimum and below the maximum levels.
Crumble the stock cubes over the top, and mix well with a wooden spoon.
This is what happens when you ask a child who’s in a hurry to take some pix for you. Ever so arty, squint and wiggly, slightly sepia photos, but there was nobody else around to help, and as I don’t get the opportunity to dress up too often, I thought I’d share a part of my life….
Wearing dressy clothes just isn’t usually on my radar, as I’m often uncomfortable in dresses. For holidays, perhaps one or two, but when I go out at home, it’s usually with a pair of black trousers and a nice top.
This is the first new dress I’ve had for going out, for around oh, 15 years or so…… I do have a function coming up, and was on the looking for something I could wear, and then again to anything else in the next wee while. I’ve still got a bit of weight to drop, but this dress will still fit, even if I go down a size. It’s a bit like magic material in this one.
From JD Williams, the lace detail dress is part of the Together range, and at £85, it’s a good price for an occasion dress. It’s part of their maxi dress lineup and there’s another one that I’m itching to get my hands on. I’ll have to wait a while for that one I think.
I changed the straps underneath for something more comfortable and supportive for me. I’m not averse to changing something if it’ll be more practical for me.
So. I’d had the dress in my wardrobe for a while, and had just been waiting for a pair of shoes to wear with it.
Finally, in Matalan, I found a bargain for £6 a couple of days ago, so although they’re not navy, they go fine, and I needed insoles for them. I bought them too big, so I could put in nice squishy soft insoles. I don’t do sore feet….
This could be the only time anyone sees a photo of me in a dress for going out in the UK this year. I often wonder if I’m the only dress adverse person out there, but I’m sure there are many others, just like me. I have to say a big thank you to JD Williams for persuading me that I could actually wear a dress over here in cold, wet and windy Scotland, and still be comfortable.
As for the shoes, I’m not quite sure I’ll be able to wear them for too long at a time. On the night, I suspect I’ll be carrying a nice comfy pair of flatties with me, just in case…
Disclaimer: Thank you to JD Williams for providing the dress for my function.
Imagine being a child, and then imagine being a child, or an adult, who can never learn to play their own music…. Then imagine being a child or an adult who not only can’t learn to play their own music, but also doesn’t have the manual dexterity to operate a keyboard, or press the tiny button on an app. It’s a significantly difficult thing to even begin to imagine for most of us.
We all seem to enjoy and want to play music at some level, especially if we’re young, disabled, or even musically challenged, but how do we do it? Sometimes, just listening isn’t enough, and music apps can be pretty challenging to learn, even for those of us who don’t struggle to read and write, or find it difficult to learn new things.
Skoog asked me to review their cube music box, which I think would be fabulous for schools, parents, clubs and music groups, and not just for those with special needs. I can think of many hours over the years that all my boys would have spent with one of these if we’d had one.
The Skoog is an easy to play instrument for almost everyone, and I mean everyone who can reach out and touch. With a special needs youngster, I am always on the lookout for things that are good fun and easy to use. You don’t have to be musical, or know anything about pitch, scales, instruments or anything to use it.
Skoog says “The easy-to-play instrument for everyone. Free the musician inside.”
I’d been looking forward to this one for a while, and rightly so.
How to use the Skoog
The Skoog is so very simple it’s incredible. Just a little light pressure on the foam, and it activates perfectly. For people who have no ability to apply pressure, it’s even adjustable, so that simply resting a hand on the Skoog should get it going. The battery life is around 10 or so hours, and works within around 10 metres of the iPad, so they don’t need to be next to each other to work perfectly.
How does it work?
The Skoog has 5 big soft buttons, one on each side as a visual aid, and helps control the little cube. The whole Skoog is touch sensitive though, even the area around the buttons, but just not the bottom that rests on your table or desk, or knee.
Setting up your Skoog
My version works via Bluetooth, but as our grown ups iPad is a second generation one, it doesn’t work as it’s so old, so we went to the PC to make the most of it initially, and hooked up ours via the cable rather than Bluetooth at the beginning. I downloaded the Skoogmusic for PC direct from their website, knowing I could go to the app when one of my children actually gets off his iPad mini at some point. It’s always nice to know that it’s accessible for those of us who are still on old school type machines too, but it’s far preferable to use the iPad for us.
With setting up, I was being extremely dim, when it’s actually pretty simple.
The Skoog is designed to be best used via Bluetooth I think. Make sure your iPad is updated to the current software, and to get the best use out of it, install Garageband alongside it. When the Skoog is charged, log onto the Skoog app from the Apple Store, press the button on the bottom of the Skoog to turn on the Bluetooth, and when you see the blue light flashing, use the app to connect your Skoog, not the general iPad settings. When the Skoog is connected, the bluetooth light stays lit.
It’s compatible with iPads supporting bluetooth low energy. This means iPad 3rd & 4th Generation, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, mini 2, mini 3, iPad Pro + onwards. Our old iPad 2 is not compatible. Thankfully, we have an iPad mini, and we got it set up, when I updated to ios 9, but Garageband needed to be updated too, for the best effect. Unfortunately, it’s not available for Android yet, but I’m sure if enough people ask for it, it’ll be considered.
The sound comes out of your iPad, and not the actual Skoog, which confused my middle child for a while. It can connect via USB to PC or Apple Mac, but does need the accompanying software. I’d recommend going the iPad route.
Apps to Use with Skoog
How genious. The Skoog lets you connect to apps to interact. Hold onto your hat here. It’s amazing and opens up a whole new world of things to do with your Skoog 2.
Skoog says:
Skoog can talk to any app that supports MIDI. Examples are Garageband, NOISE by Roli, Nanologue, Orphion and ThumbJam. It is also compatible with Network MIDI, which will allow you to connect your Skoog to apps on any compatible device via your WiFi network.
What did we think?
It’s fabulous. When my kids were younger, they’d have spent endless hours popping the buttons on this, and my special needs boy is finding it incredibly easy to use. I think any school would find this amazing when coupled with the Garageband app on an iPad, never mind what else it can do. When I played music, it searched through the music to see if it could find a score for the song. I haven’t had the time to play around with that yet to see how it works, but I’ll let the boys figure that one out.
My Final Thoughts and Where to Get Your Own Skoog 2
As a toy / music maker / sensory tool, it’s well thought out and does far more than I expected. We’ve had ours a wee while now, and while they’re not cheap, retailing around £199, the value for money in this, far outweighs the price if it can be done for a school, kids group, or hospital. It’s sturdy, and as it’s squishable, I imagine it’s hard to break.
I can’t even begin to say how good I think this is, especially for children who struggle to control the regular music apps for themselves.
We’re really just beginning to find out what this nifty little gadget can do, a couple of months after getting it, and it’s going to get a lot of use here.
Find out more at Skoogmusic. You can buy it at the Apple store online or at Amazon. Apple even have a new section for Accessible Accessories, which included the Skoog. That’s brilliant recognition for this gadget.
Honestly, if you’re looking for a fabulous gadget to supplement a school music department, or you’re part of a parent teacher association, you don’t have to look further than this as an unputdownable teaching aid and sensory gadget. Try and find somewhere that has one, and give it a go for yourself if you think your budget could stretch to one. My middle boy tells me there’s one at his special school, which is really great news.
I did try to take my own video, but the ones from Skoog actually demonstrate this far more beautifully than I ever could. We’re looking forward to many long years with our Skoog.
Disclaimer: A very heartfelt thanks to the people at Skoog for providing us with our review Skoog 2.
Ok, so I’m in the market for a new soup maker, but which is the best soup maker? I make soups so often, that my kids should really go around with vegetable heads…… Since I’m going through all the options, I thought I’d share what I turned up with you all, and hope I can make my decision by the end. I don’t know how to take reviews on websites, so I’m just comparing functions for what I could do with them, apart from making soup.
My current model is a Morphy Richards Soup Maker, with non stick coating, and saute function. I have cherished my machine, but I’d also like a different option, and to keep my existing one as a spare or back up. There may even be days, I use my old machine, alongside a new one, as quite often, I need more soup than a small machine can handle at once, and it would save me from making two batches back to back.
The drawbacks to a largish household, is massive food output……and I make so many soup maker recipes, that whichever machine I choose, has to stand up to a lot of use, and I mean a lot… And these days, we don’t want just a blender that cooks soup. We want to use it for other things.
There seems to be two styles available on the market. The jug style, which I mostly use, and a blender style, which I have not had the pleasure of using yet.
Kettle Soupmakers (This post contains affiliate links, served as images.)
Morphy Richards
The one I have currently is dependable, finishes soup pretty well, and is actually cheaper than when I bought mine. It’s easily identified by the rounder handle on the top. I’ve had two of these in the last few years. The update to my Morphy, is the new version, with a slightly flatter handle, and is a bit more expensive. Both versions seem identical to me.
Capacity 1.6 litres
Functions: Saute
Soup Features: Smooth & Chunky
Additional Features: Juice & Blend
Pause: Yes
I can’t see what the difference is between the two styles, apart from the different lid, but I’d be happy for someone to enlighten me. Some do come with a serrator blade, which others don’t, so I’d look out for one of those if I were buying Morphy Richards again.
Tefal
Capacity 1.2 litres
Soup Features: Smooth & Chunky
Additional Features: Blend, Keep Warm and Easy Clean
Von Shef
The Von Shef by Domu UK, is one I had my eye on for a while, but am disappointed not to see a non stick coating on it. It’s more like my very first first soup maker, but still a good price.
Capacity 1.6 litres
Soup Features: Smooth & Chunky
Additional Features: Blend
Hometech
Capacity 1.6 litres
Soup Features: Smooth & Chunky
Additional Features: Simmer & Pulse
Salter
There is a Salter Soupmaker, but I can’t find a product image, so it’s a comparison only.
Capacity 1.6 litres
Soup Features: Smooth & Chunky
Additional Features: Blend & Clean
Conclusion
From these, my choice would be the Morphy Richards again. You might have different needs, or not need the extra functions that I use, and can buy a cheaper model. Before I decide, I’m off to look at the other styles. Perhaps I’ll go for a whole new world of soupmaking, to compare with my kettle soup maker, rather than having two of the same one.
I think I’ll go and research the blender style now. My heart slightly sank, as I was actually hoping I could find a slightly larger capacity soup maker, but it seems not.
Remember back to when you were a kid, unless you’re like me, and you can’t remember that far back…
Joking, but what were your favourite sweets?
I know when I think back a couple of decades, I used to like fizzy sherbet and all things face wrinkling. I don’t know many people who didn’t. I also have boys, for whom, the more sour the better when it comes to sweets, so trying the new Jealous Sweets seemed like a good idea.
Image Courtesy of Jealous Sweets
When I used to think of gluten free sweets, I tended to think of cardboard sweets with no taste. Thankfully, the advances in making confectionery over the years has improved to the point where it’s impossible to tell at all.
I was convinced I wouldn’t be tempted to eat any of them, as the sophisticated grown-up I’ve turned into wouldn’t like something so obviously childish!
So – I went for sours and fizzies, to make sure I didn’t. Nope, that didn’t work. The little pinky round sweeties that were sour beans, were my downfall. I popped one into my mouth and then another, and yet another. To the point where I boxed them back up and sent one of my boys packing, to hide them where I couldn’t find them…. I am diabetic after all…..although a little of what you fancy does no harm at all.
We tested Sour Beans, Tangy Worms and Fizzy Friends.
Weirdly, we all liked a different one. For me, it was the Sour Beans. Middler and youngest preferred the Tangy Worms and the man liked Fizzy Friends. When my middle boy tried the Sour Beans, he puckered his face up, but not with the Tangy Worms. Go figure!!!!
The pretty boxes would make for great stocking fillers, and persuade adults to revisit their inner child.
About Jealous Sweets
The people from Jealous Sweets say:
Come and live the Jealous Life with us
The story begins with two university friends Imran and Taz. Both with respectable careers in the city, in chartered accounting and banking. They couldn’t deny the temptation to escape the city and do something that would make others jealous.
Armed with a belief in a life less boring, the pair created the Jealous brand – with a mission to create irresistibly enticing products and set out first to tantalise the tastebuds of adults around the world with their Jealous Sweets.
Colourful, tasty, and free from anything artificial, at around 170 calories for a 50g pack of sweets. No artificial flavours or colours. Gluten-Free, vegetarian, vegan and no alcohol.
Sweets come in 50g for £2.50 and 200g for £8.99 online. They’re also sold, among others, in Claridge’s, Selfridges &Co and Harvey Nichols.
You can even buy them at Amazon. (Affiliate Search Box)
Flavours
Yummy Bears
Tropical Wonder
Fruitilicious
Sour Beans
Tangy Worms
Fizzy Friends
Grizzly Bears
The sweets created by Jealous Sweets, are beautifully grown up. The ones I liked were lip smackingly eye watering, but oh so good.
Great presents.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Jealous Sweets for our samples.
As part of the new Facebook launch of Aldi in Scotland, they set me a lovely challenge. At the moment, there are around 300 Scottish products in the stores up our way, so it’s a good choice for local food and Facebook is where you can ask any questions directly.
I wanted to write about the Aldi experience, as there was just so much choice on offer, but could I do a whole week of shopping in the one place? I normally flit about between several shops, but I have gone to Aldi in the past. It’s not that far away and has a big choice of food and necessities, but is it possible to do a whole week in one place? I have to feed the equivalent of 6 adults, with three of them being teen boys. They eat enough for two or three adults each, so we go through a lot of food, and often cheap fillers too, such as lentils and pulses etc.
I went in, armed with £100 of vouchers, to also cover necessities like washing up liquid etc etc, not just food. I came out with a heaped trolley, that ended up as £119, but I’d added new bathroom scales, kitchen scales, a small wok, and a single egg pan, as well as a little stocking filler towards Christmas, so if I’d taken those out, my bill would have been under the £100, for everything we need for this week, and most of next week too. We have a plot, which is furnishing us with lots of fruit and veg just now, so it was mostly cupboard things we needed. I don’t buy terribly much in the way of frozen food, but there was loads of choice.
I was also resolved to try a lot of non branded goods. I’ve done this for a while, but often reverted back to the brands, and although I used to shop at Aldi quite often, I’d got out of the habit. I’m pleased to say, that with the amount of goodies I came home with, I’m kicking myself for not going so much recently, and I’m going to sort that out from now on.
One of the things I worried about, was getting my high protein yoghurt, but I found a Greek Style Fat Free version with over 7g protein per 100g, so I’m happy with that.
I must admit, I felt a wee bit sorry for my checkout assistant when I got to the till. My trolley was heaving.
I started putting my stuff on the belt, and it just seemed to go on and on and on and on. She asked if I wanted a hand, then came round to help me put it on the converyor belt, with a smile.
When I finally got it all through and back on my trolley, I did it as fast as I could, trying not to hold up the shoppers behind me.
My last experience with a competitor shop went badly, with the assistant huffing and puffing on me, and being quite sarcastic, but I didn’t have that in Aldi. I wish all customer service assistants were as nice.
I asked to take her photo when we were finished, which gave her a bit of a surprise, but she took it all in her stride, and was still smiling when I left. No doubt, she’ll be worried about where it ends up…. I forgot to tell her.
I half expected the trolley to be around £200+ with all I’d put in it, especially since I’d added the scales etc, but it was a lovely call to find it wasn’t anywhere near what I’d expected it to be.
As for what was in the shop. Oodles of choice. I think I actually like this. I bought non branded crisps, washing liquid and fabric conditioner, non branded biscuits, bread, rowies, croissants, fruit, veg, some meat, and so much that I can’t quite believe I got this much for the money. I had to put some of it on the shelf at the back of the room to get it all into the picture. Much of all this will last us for much longer than a week, especially the staples like rice and pasta. We use a lot of tinned fruit too, so I liked picking up the choices to try a few different types.
I even found a substitute for my youngest’s obsession for cheesy pasta. I did sneak in a few bottles of my diet irn bru though. Good to see one of my favourites on offer. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a supermarket and came out with four little bags for over £100. This doesn’t compare. I’m actually quite shocked to be honest.
The choices on the shelves were pretty large and far more than I remembered Aldi to have. The seasonal items were in aisles in the middle, with lots of baking and a fair few Disney items that would make great Christmas pressies if someone was quick enough. I remember seeing fishing gear, some gadgets, baby yarn, and a lot of paint and paintbrushes etc.
There’s nothing surer than I’ll be back. It’s great value for money, and given the food my family goes through, having treats in the budget is a good thing.
So, the question I was asked, about doing a whole week of shopping at Aldi!
Yes, it can be done, and quite well too. I’ve got my yoghurt, so I’m happy. That’s one of my must haves. I’m sure we all have our own favourite branded treats, but in many cases, we can’t tell the difference at all.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Aldi for our vouchers to use for the Aldi Shop. All opinions are my own.
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Weirdly, we all liked a different one. For me, it was the Sour Beans. Middler and youngest preferred the Tangy Worms and the man liked Fizzy Friends. When my middle boy tried the Sour Beans, he puckered his face up, but not with the Tangy Worms. Go figure!!!!
I started putting my stuff on the belt, and it just seemed to go on and on and on and on. She asked if I wanted a hand, then came round to help me put it on the converyor belt, with a smile.
Can I put cooked garlic mushrooms in the fridge for a couple of days
Neeps is just short for turnips.
Made this last night and it as perfect , i never made bread before and its the first time i…