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Gousto food delivery

I quite often tell the story of when Bee went off to university for the first time, and had to share a flat with seven other students. In that entire flat of eight apparently grown up people, Bee was the only one who knew how to use a washing machine.

Isn’t that shocking??

On the one hand I was proud, but on the other, kind of embarrassed on their behalf. How had these young adults grown up without being taught how to do basic tasks around the house? It quickly became clear that what they lacked in washing machine skills, they most definitely did NOT make up for in the kitchen.

Teaching children how to do things for themselves like cooking, cleaning, catching trains and generally taking care of themselves, is surely what parenting is all about? Yes, you have to look after them a bit, and make sure they don’t walk into roads and stuff, but ultimately your goal is to equip them with the skills to function as an independent adult, not shelter them from all responsibility. If your child goes off to university never having used a washing machine, then something has gone wrong.

It’s one of the reasons I really like trying out recipe box schemes like Gousto.

Gousto is the compromise between simply handing your child a hardback Delia Smith and a Tesco Clubcard, and driving yourself mad trying to cook delicious yet wholesome meals for a whole family EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Instead you get to cook from scratch, but without the hassle of having to decide what to make or go shopping for ingredients. View Post

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We’ve been in our new house for about seven weeks now. It feels like WAY longer, which I’m taking as a good sign because that must mean it feels like home right?

One of the things that I’ve been meaning to do since we moved in is to put up a picture on the plain white chimney breast wall in our living room. We had a family photo shoot done before we moved with Life is Crawsome, so I had been thinking that one of those photos would be nice. But then I was a bit nervous about having a giant ME smiling down while I watched TV, so I decided a mirror might be a better option.

It was brilliant timing actually, as Exclusive Mirrors had been a touch previously asking if I fancied taking a look at one of their mirrors, so I said ‘yes please thank you very much’ and picked the Claremont round gold mirror.

‘This Claremont round gold mirror is oh so stylish with its uniquely designed frame,’ the website told me. ‘The stunning mirror is finished in a luxurious gold and comes complete with wow factor frame. Perfectly suited to either a contemporary or traditional setting the mirror is extremely versatile.  Customers have the option with this Claremont round gold mirror to feature it either on its own or alongside other stylish furniture and accessories to create a fabulous appearance.’

Luckily the quality of the mirror is not reflected by the quality of the description writing.

(See what I did there? REFLECTED? I’m so good at this.)

Here it is, with me in it obviously:

review mirror exclusive mirrors

Isn’t it beautiful?

It’s just over a metre in diameter and so fills the chimney breast perfectly. I loved the fact that it looked like a huge flower. I painted the wall this lovely turquoise colour especially to really make it stand out and I love how the colour comes through each of the petals. View Post

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Created in association with Heinz 

Heinz No Added Sugar Spaghetti Hoops review

I’ve always had this morbid fantasy about what’s going to happen when I die.

(Bear with me…)

In my mind I picture a scene a bit like this one in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. I imagine that once I’ve answered a series of questions to confirm it’s me, that I’ll be given a huge book full of statistics on everything I’ve ever done – number of hours spent asleep – 233,601; number of sandwiches from school packed lunches that I’ve thrown away at 3.30pm – 3,296 – that sort of thing. Some of it might be in graph form, because whoever is in charge will appreciate that I like a good graph.

Under the category ‘Family Teas > 1995 – 2010 > Tinned’ I expect there to be a fairly substantial entry for spaghetti hoops. Or, as it has always been known here, ‘ghetty’. (A bit like the images but without the hefty legal bills.)

With Alphabetti Spaghetti limited to special occasions only, number one in the chart would definitely be Heinz Spaghetti Hoops.

Heinz No Added Sugar Spaghetti Hoops review

There is just something wonderful isn’t there about the way you can gather them up on your fork? I remember quite vividly as a child the thrill of lining them up neatly on every other prong, so as not to crowd them, and seeing how many I could fit on before an adult said ‘stop messing about with your hoops and just eat your tea.’

Both of my children have always loved Heinz Spaghetti Hoops. A tin of Heinz Hoops is a staple in our cupboard – a sure-fire way to please everyone when they were small.

I ask Belle what she likes most about Heinz Hoops. View Post

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Who is your local hero?

Take a minute to think about it, because there always IS one. It might be that mum at school who is forever organising fundraising activities for the local playgroup at the same time as being a foster parent, or that guy a couple of streets away who you know spends his weekends collecting donations for refugees.

Perhaps it’s someone who came to the rescue in your hour of need. It might even be a whole group of heroes – a local community group who use their spare time to make a difference in the lives of others. Or maybe you work for a local charity and you have one volunteer who always goes above and beyond.

Whoever they are, they could be in for a treat. Pork Farms wants to throw them a party! Hoorah! 

To give you a flavour of things, here’s what happened at some of last year’s pop up parties:

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This is a post about salted caramel.

I hadn’t given a lot of thought, past vague annoyance, to salted caramel as a concept until I did a poll on Twitter about scones. (It’s afternoon tea week.) Someone replied to my poll saying that they had actually just come onto Twitter to complain about the fact that they had seen a salted caramel scone which, we agreed, is all kinds of wrong.

Firstly, scones should be plain. The jam and the cream are the stars there. But that’s not the point. The point is that SALTED CARAMEL HAS TAKEN OVER THE WORLD.

too much salted caramel

(Not literally obviously, that would be impractical.)

Salted caramel needs to get back in its box.

Salted caramel was fun and exciting for a little while back in 20XX*, but JUST STOP NOW. Yes, yes, it was very clever, putting something so sweet with something so salty, (salt), but enough already. We’re over it.

I had a quick look at all of the different salted caramel things you can get now and it’s just stupid.

Salted caramel rice pudding, salted caramel coffee, salted caramel tequila, salted caramel lip balm, SALTED CARAMEL GREEN TEA?! Nope. If you’re looking to build a bit of muscle you can even get salted caramel flavour ‘impact whey protein’, whatever that is.

That’s enough salted caramel. We tasted your salty sweet goodness and we liked it, but hush now.

*I was going to do some research and pin it down but I didn’t want salted caramel to WIN.

Image – by MaraZe/shutterstock