Author: Mum Scottish

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Review: Wentworth Wooden Puzzles

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.

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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.

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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…

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Image Courtesy of Wentworth Wooden Puzzles
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Image Courtesy of Wentworth Wooden Puzzles

Find Wentworth at their website, or below on social media.

Disclaimer:  Thanks to Wentworth Puzzles for our review Puzzle.

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Soup Maker Recipe: Cream of Butternut Squash Soup

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Lesley Smith

Soup Maker Recipe: Cream of Butternut Squash Soup

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes
Servings: 4 -6
Course: Soup Maker Recipe
Cuisine: Soup
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 400 g Butternut Squash.
  • 150 g Leek chopped.
  • 150 g Onion chopped.
  • 200 ml Milk.
  • 2 Vegetable Stock Cubes.
  • Salt & Pepper.
  • 1 Teaspoon of Ginger spice.
  • Water.

Method
 

  1. 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.

  2. Add all your ingredients to the soupmaker.

  3. Top up with water, to above the minimum and below the maximum levels.

  4. Crumble the stock cubes over the top, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

  5. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.

  6. Make sure your lid in on properly.

  7. Choose the smooth setting.

 

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Me. Yes. In a Dress!

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….

lesley-4Wearing 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.

lesley-jd-dress-2From 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.

lesley-shoesSo.  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…

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Disclaimer: Thank you to JD Williams for providing the dress for my function.

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Skoog 2: Making Sweet Melodies

For the budding musician in all of us.

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.

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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.

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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.

 

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What’s the best soup maker machine for me? Kettle Style?

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.

I’ll share those too.

Happy Reading.

Lesley

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Jealous Sweets. Vegan and Gluten Free.

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.

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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.

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We tested Sour Beans, Tangy Worms and Fizzy Friends.

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jealous-sweets-4Weirdly, 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.

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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.

 

 

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Can you do a whole week of shopping in Aldi?

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.

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I must admit, I felt a wee bit sorry for my checkout assistant when I got to the till.  My trolley was heaving.

aldi-trolleyI 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.

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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.

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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.

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Disclaimer: Thanks to Aldi for our vouchers to use for the Aldi Shop.  All opinions are my own.

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Budget Meals: Peas Pudding Recipe

A lot of us are watching the pennies right now, so making meals that are both healthy and filling can be challenging on a budget.  With few ingredients, and whatever is in your cupboard, adding things to split green peas is fairly simple.

This makes a fairly large batch, so unless your diners don’t eat large portions, halving the quantities might be a good idea.

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Lesley Smith

Peas Pudding Recipe

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings: 10
Course: Mains
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 250 g Green Split Peas Dried
  • 150 g Onion chopped.
  • 150 g Leek chopped.
  • 50 g Butter.
  • Water.
  • 3 Vegetable Stock Cubes.
  • Salt and Pepper.
  • Herbs of Your Choice.
  • 1 Crushed Clove of Garlic or 1 Cube of Frozen Garlic.
  • 200 g Bacon Turkey or Chicken Strips.

Method
 

  1. Put the green split peas into a fairly large pan, with around 1.5 litres of water. Bring to the boil and let simmer for around 40 minutes. You need to keep a close eye, as the water can boil off pretty quickly. You may need to top up the water levels.

  2. Drain the green split peas, then pop them back into the pan, add all the other ingredients and adding 1.5 litres of water again. Mix well, and bring to the boil, letting this simmer until the water reduces by about two thirds. Be careful you don't leave this alone as it will burn quickly if you do. I added a good measure of salt and pepper at this stage. Some people add basil and thyme, and even rosemary, but I know my boys wouldn't eat that, so I leave it out.

  3. Add your slushy peas mix to a baking tray, and let it set in the oven for around 25 minutes, at 180 degrees C. Your oven might take slightly less time, or more. It won't set firmly at all, but will be easy to cut when it's ready.

  4. I cook my meat separately, and add it to the top of the peas pudding in the last five minutes, before removing from the oven. Some people add it when it first goes into the oven, and cook it as part of the dish.

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Review: Abakus Dried Jujube Fruit (Red Dates)

I don’t choose to try things, unless I know my kidlets or I will actually use them, so two items came top of my list recently, one of them being the jujube fruit

I’m a date snob, in that the only ones I like are Medjool dates, and I eat loads of them in a month.  They stop me craving sweets, and as they taste so caramel like, I never feel the need to eat any sweets.  That’s why I said yes to trying the Jujube dried fruit.

Abakus Jujube

Image Courtesy of Abakus Foods

The Jujube fruit, from Abakus Foods, is known as a red date, and has been eaten in Asia for thousands of years.  Jujube tells me that it’s used in Chinese Medicine for vitality and wellbeing.  As a natural sweetener, it was worth a try, and I wondered if the dried Jujube fruit might be an alternative for my Medjool date obsession.  It’d be nice to have something slightly different.

Dried Jujube Fruit jujube-fruit-3

You know when you open a pack of sweets, and five minutes later the pack is empty, depsite resolving only to try a couple?  Yup, that was me.  Couldn’t stop popping these into my mouth.

They tasted sweet, quite dry and spongy, with a slightly nutty taste to me.  It’s very pleasant indeed.  I could quite easily eat these instead of sweets though, which is always a good thing when it comes to fruit.  At 289 calories per 100g, a whole pack from Abakus only weighs 40g, which is the perfect snack size.   At 115 calories for about 14 of these red dates, it’s a great snack for me.  They’re a source of antioxidants and have no added sugar.

I’m hoping I can find these easily in shops to be honest.  They lasted me longer than a packet of crisps.

Suggestions from Abakus are to enjoy as a snack, add to porridge, salad and soups, use in baked goods and add to smoothies.  The actual dates, I’d just eat as they are.  I did eat them as they were.  I wouldn’t need suggestions for how to use these, they’re among my new favourites.

Jujube Crisps jujube-crisps-2

Jujube Foods says these are crunchy, light and sweet.  I found them slightly chewy crunchy, but that was fine, as they’re really really good, and would be much better for me than a packet of crisps when I’ve got a craving.  They are slightly higher in calories at 350g per 100g or 72 calories per 20g pack.

They make a decent snack, and would look awesome as part of a party susan, if that’s even what they’re called nowadays, with the lovely bright red colour on the outside and the pale middle.

Jujube Powderjujube-powder

This would be fab for adding to smoothies, desserts and sweet baking.  I actually quite liked just eating the powder, as it’s more of a crumbled biscuity texture.

I’d quite like to see how it performed as the base for a cheesecake, but that could work out rather expensive, so perhaps I’d try it to reduce how much of a biscuit base I use.

What do I think?

I had a look to see where I could get some of these, but my local supermarket doesn’t stock them, so I’ll have to head to Abacus itself.  Keep an eye out for these on the shelves though, especially if you like dates, and would like to try one with a nutty flavour.   I ate both packets of dried fruit and the crisps at once sitting, since both packets were open.  I couldn’t help myself…….  I’d all good intentions of adding these to cooking, but they didn’t last long enough, although that’s fine at 187 calories for the two packs.  That’s a good sign in my world, especially when it’s a healthy food.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Abakus Foods for the review samples.

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Operation Clear Out the Cupboards Soup Recipe

One thing about taking an unplanned for holiday, is that it impacts on the budget, so this week, I’ve been carrying out operation clear out the cupboards, and the fridge and freezer.  It’s a great excuse to use up all those things lurking in the back and might never see the light of day, until they’re out of date by a year or two.  I can’t be the only one who finds things like that……

My first port of call was the freezer, for all those half or nearly empty bags of frozen stuff that I keep in reserve to add to other dishes.   Out came the frozen bags of butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, onion and peas.  I have a fridge drawer full of cucumbers the man grew, and loads of tatties from the plot, so it was easy to make a lovely big pot of soup.

It’s not the prettiest soup in the world, but it filled a fair few bellies a couple of times over.  What can you make from the depths of your cupboard or freezer?

operation-clear-out-cupboard-soup

Lesley Smith

Clear Out the Freezer Soup Recipe

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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings: 10 + Bowls
Course: Soup
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Butternut Squash cubed.
  • 500 g Potatoes peeled and cubed.
  • 180 g Onions finely chopped.
  • 200 g Cucumber peeled and cubed.
  • 250 g Leek washed and chopped.
  • 100 g Carrot sliced.
  • 200 g Petit Pois.
  • 2.4 Litres Water. 1,75 kettles full for me
  • 4 Vegetable Stock Cubes.
  • 1 Tablespoon Marmite.
  • Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method
 

  1. Add all the ingredients to the pot. Many were frozen, and if I'd had more time, I'd have given the onions and leek a quick fry first, but on this occasion, I just lumped them all into a big pot.

  2. Top up with your water, to above the level of your vegetables. You can add more water later if you need to, and some salt and pepper.

  3. Stir well, and bring to the boil, then simmer gently until the vegetables are cooked.

  4. Use a potato masher to mash down some of the vegetables, to thicken the soup slightly, but still leave enough to give the soup some body.

  5. Add the frozen peas, and when they're completely defrosted and heated, your soup is cooked.

operation-clear-out-cupboard-soup-2

 

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Quick and Easy Millionaire Shortbread Recipe

This came about due to a child who opened a tin of caramel, just to put a couple of spoons on his ice-cream.  He then added some to a piece of cake, heated it in the microwave, and proceeded to sip it with a spoon.  In order to ensure he didn’t finish the entire tin and end up on a sugar high, I quickly grabbed what was left of the tin, around half, and scooped it into a little bowl while I smushed up some Digestives.

Would I use this kind of caramel again – you betcha – although the finished result is far more runny in the caramel stakes than caramel you actually cook up on the stove.  This was much faster and with the caramel cold, the chocolate can go almost immediately on the top.

millionaire-shortbread-2

Lesley Smith

Quick and Easy Millionaire Shortbread Recipe

5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings: 8
Course: Baking
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • Half Tin Caramel.
  • 8 Digestive Biscuits. I used Tesco.
  • 60 g Butter.
  • 200 g Chocolate. I used Tesco value milk chocolate as that's what I had. I could have got away with less chocolate.

Method
 

  1. All I did here was smush the digestives in a small pan, with a steak tenderiser. It was fast, and much preferable to putting the biscuits into a bag and smushing them that way. Less mess and no chance of the bag bursting.

  2. Add the butter to the biscuits. I did think about microwaving, but as the digestives were in a pan, I just put in the butter, and heated it up. I used soft butter, otherwise, having the biscuit in at the same time as the butter could have ended up with toasted digestives.

  3. Once the butter is melted and mixed in with the biscuits, take off the hob and put it into a small cake tin. I had some paper cases, so used one of those. It was about 6 inches in diameter. Spread the biscuit base and pat it down with the back of a spoon.

  4. The caramel is cold, so I didn't wait for the base to cool. I simply spread the caramel over the top, and gently made sure the whole base was covered.

  5. No need to wait for your other ingredients to cool, as with the cold caramel, it was straight onto the chocolate. I melted it in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, then stirring madly, until all the chocolate was nice and gooey. Spread over the top, pop into the fridge, and take it out before completely cool, to score the top of the chocolate. Pop it back into the fridge for a while, and the base will be easy to cut and break up.

millionaire-shortbread-7

 

 

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Quick and Easy Apple Turnovers

Ever wondered what to do with that spare apple or two that nobody wants, or the odd ones that fall from the tree?  My youngest came home from school, all fired up to show us what he’d made so quickly with an apple at school.

Apple Turnovers 3

Who am I to say no to that…..

No measurements, no being picky, this is just a pinch here and there and off you go.

I’d a block of 425g Puff Pastry, and we used about a third to a half for this.

Yield: 4-4.5 Apple Turnovers.

Ingredients

  • Puff Pastry – around 200g.
  • Sugar.
  • Milk.
  • 2 Small Apples or 1 Large.

Method

  1. Roll out the pastry, to an approximate large square.

    Apple Turnovers Prep 4

  2. Cut the pastry into smaller squares, so that you have four. Tidy the edges if you feel you need to. Littlest had made a couple of his more of a rectangle, so we had to fiddle around with it a bit at the stuffing stage.

    Apple Turnovers Prep 3

  3. Peel, core and chop the apple, then divide it up into your pastry pieces, in the centre.

    Apple Turnovers Prep 2

  4. Fold the squares over, point to point, then press down on the edges with a fork.

    Apple Turnovers Prep 1

  5. Brush the tops with milk, then sprinkle on sugar before piercing the turnovers.  Then, simply bake in pre-heated over at 220 Degrees, or following your own pastry pack advice, for around 15 minutes.

Apple Turnovers 2