I'd like to thank you, lovely reader, for coming to take a look at my blog, and I hope you'll come see us at our new home. We have our very own domain now (ooh, fancy!), so you can find us at:
I hope to see you soon!
Sunday 18 January 2015
We've Got A New Home!
Well, not me personally, but we do have a new online home!
I'd like to thank you, lovely reader, for coming to take a look at my blog, and I hope you'll come see us at our new home. We have our very own domain now (ooh, fancy!), so you can find us at:
I'd like to thank you, lovely reader, for coming to take a look at my blog, and I hope you'll come see us at our new home. We have our very own domain now (ooh, fancy!), so you can find us at:
Sunday 11 January 2015
Have a Lidl Bit Of Something Naughty
There's something about a new year that I always find exciting. I think it's a timey-wimey (oops, Doctor Who reference. How did that get there?!) version of snow. It makes everything fresh and new and exciting. And of course, with it comes the promise that we'll spend this year being the very best version of ourselves, especially when it comes to the d-word....dieting.
Now, while I'm all for eating healthily, being the best you can be, blah, blah, blah, the fact of the matter is that I LOVE naughty foods!! So while I could bombard you with promises of healthy recipes and low-fat versions of my products, instead, I choose to be the devil on your shoulder. The one who whispers in your ear, tempting you away from the salads and towards the gooey stickiness of a baked chocolate cheesecake, the buttery pastry or the fluffy, creamy cupcake.
And I do it without an ounce of shame!
BUT, not wanting to totally destroy my fan-base here, I'll take the opportunity to tell you about a new product I've had the fortune to come across. A week before Christmas, I won a giveaway through fellow blog-site Glutopia, and last week my prize arrived. A company called Howdah produce some gluten free Indian snacks (yay!!), so I've been trying them out over the last couple of days.
The first thing I have to point out is that NOT all of the snacks are gluten free; right now, the gluten free options (pictured above) are Masala Banana Chips, Peanut Pakoras and Peppered Banana Chips. So far, I've only tried the Masala Banana Chips and Peanut Pakoras. I expected the banana chips to taste like banana and surprisingly, they don't at all! It's an unusual flavour but really very nice. If you're a fan of spicy Indian food, chances are you'll enjoy these.
The peanut pakoras aren't as spicy, by quite a long shot, but I think the crispy case on them could do with being a little thicker. While they are a nice snack, the overwhelming taste, to my tongue at least, is pretty much one of roasted peanut.
Right now, these aren't available in a major stockist, but you can find a local stockist by visiting this page on their website.
Moving on, if you live in the UK and you're a coeliac, I doubt you'll have missed the fantastic news that Lidl have been stocking gluten free items of late. Wohoo!! My wonderful husband kindly nipped down to our local shop yesterday to check out what was on offer for me. He came back, filled with excitement, as they have a large quantity of items by Kelkin in stock. I'm sure you're all probably acquainted with that most delicious of their products, the Chocolate Teacakes.
The best part of these morsels is that they're fairly low in sugar and fat, so if you're on that horrible 'diet' word again, you can have one of these now and again without ruining your future bikini figure. Hurrah! Lidl also has Kelkin cereals, rice cakes, cookies, jaffa cakes and more! But make sure you get down there while stocks last!
Despite the fabulousness of Kelkin, one of my FAVOURITE finds has to be these lovely little chocolate bars!
In each chocolate bar-shaped box, there are 11 of these charming little rectangles of chocolate, each in its own individual foil wrapper. Inside, there is a rich, dark, crisp chocolate shell, encasing an extremely light and fluffy chocolate mousse. Because they're packaged like this, it's easy to avoid eating too much, and they work perfectly as a little after-dinner treat. Honestly, I think these would work well for a dinner party too.
So, it's shaping up to be a pretty tasty year! But it's time to add my own baking into the mix. I've signed up to have a stall at our local support group's AGM on 13th March, so I need to get my apron out and get back in the old baking saddle (so to speak!). There's a lot of work to be done, so I hope to have a lot of good things in store for you in the coming weeks!
Now, while I'm all for eating healthily, being the best you can be, blah, blah, blah, the fact of the matter is that I LOVE naughty foods!! So while I could bombard you with promises of healthy recipes and low-fat versions of my products, instead, I choose to be the devil on your shoulder. The one who whispers in your ear, tempting you away from the salads and towards the gooey stickiness of a baked chocolate cheesecake, the buttery pastry or the fluffy, creamy cupcake.
 |
| For example, dark and white chocolate baked cheesecake, anyone?! |
And I do it without an ounce of shame!
BUT, not wanting to totally destroy my fan-base here, I'll take the opportunity to tell you about a new product I've had the fortune to come across. A week before Christmas, I won a giveaway through fellow blog-site Glutopia, and last week my prize arrived. A company called Howdah produce some gluten free Indian snacks (yay!!), so I've been trying them out over the last couple of days.
 |
| Gluten free snacks from Howdah |
The first thing I have to point out is that NOT all of the snacks are gluten free; right now, the gluten free options (pictured above) are Masala Banana Chips, Peanut Pakoras and Peppered Banana Chips. So far, I've only tried the Masala Banana Chips and Peanut Pakoras. I expected the banana chips to taste like banana and surprisingly, they don't at all! It's an unusual flavour but really very nice. If you're a fan of spicy Indian food, chances are you'll enjoy these.
The peanut pakoras aren't as spicy, by quite a long shot, but I think the crispy case on them could do with being a little thicker. While they are a nice snack, the overwhelming taste, to my tongue at least, is pretty much one of roasted peanut.
Right now, these aren't available in a major stockist, but you can find a local stockist by visiting this page on their website.
Moving on, if you live in the UK and you're a coeliac, I doubt you'll have missed the fantastic news that Lidl have been stocking gluten free items of late. Wohoo!! My wonderful husband kindly nipped down to our local shop yesterday to check out what was on offer for me. He came back, filled with excitement, as they have a large quantity of items by Kelkin in stock. I'm sure you're all probably acquainted with that most delicious of their products, the Chocolate Teacakes.
The best part of these morsels is that they're fairly low in sugar and fat, so if you're on that horrible 'diet' word again, you can have one of these now and again without ruining your future bikini figure. Hurrah! Lidl also has Kelkin cereals, rice cakes, cookies, jaffa cakes and more! But make sure you get down there while stocks last!
Despite the fabulousness of Kelkin, one of my FAVOURITE finds has to be these lovely little chocolate bars!
In each chocolate bar-shaped box, there are 11 of these charming little rectangles of chocolate, each in its own individual foil wrapper. Inside, there is a rich, dark, crisp chocolate shell, encasing an extremely light and fluffy chocolate mousse. Because they're packaged like this, it's easy to avoid eating too much, and they work perfectly as a little after-dinner treat. Honestly, I think these would work well for a dinner party too.
So, it's shaping up to be a pretty tasty year! But it's time to add my own baking into the mix. I've signed up to have a stall at our local support group's AGM on 13th March, so I need to get my apron out and get back in the old baking saddle (so to speak!). There's a lot of work to be done, so I hope to have a lot of good things in store for you in the coming weeks!
Sunday 4 January 2015
A Brilliant Start To The Year! Review of Quorn
Hello and Happy New Year to you all!
It's great to be back, and I have a great way to start because last week, I heard some great news!
The lovely men and woman at Quorn have recently announced that they're making a number of their existing products gluten free. Yay! You may be aware, especially if you're a coeliac vegetarian like myself, that Quorn products have mostly been considered unsafe for coeliacs for a very long time. In fact, for some time now, the only safe products I've been aware of have been the Fillets and the Chicken-Style Pieces, so this is very exciting news!
Now, a number of my carnivorous readers might well ask why someone who turns their nose up at meat would want to eat anything that resembles it. And it's a very fair question. Before I went herbivore, I actually loved meat! Roast chicken, chicken nuggets, sausage rolls...all tasty stuff. But one day, when I was 8, I got halfway through a roast dinner with (oddly) a sausage roll, I suddenly couldn't stand to eat dead animals any more. My Dad was MAAAAD!!! I refused to touch anything else on the plate. The switch was flipped and that was it.
Anyway, my point is that, for many of my fellow veggiesaurs, giving up meat is less a case of like/dislike, and more a case of guilt or disgust at eating flesh (not that I have a problem with anyone else doing it, mind). So, given that, and the fact that it's difficult to get a huge variety of vegetarian AND gluten free foods, the announcement from Quorn is a Godsend.
The first thing I tried was pepperoni, or as I call it 'fakeroni'. I tried it on top of a pizza and it was surprisingly good! I never had real pepperoni, so I have no frame of reference, but the texture was soft, yet firm, and a little smokey and spicy. It made a very welcome change to usual veg-loaded pizza and for only £1.75 a pack, it's not too pricey!
Next up, I tried the Quorn Bacon, or as I call it 'fakon'. This stuff was very interesting. You can buy it either as rashers or as slices in the shape of normal bacon. Fried in a small quantity of oil for a couple of minutes, it smells and tastes nothing really like I imagine real bacon smells or tastes BUT it is actually a very nice alternative, and costs just £1.75 for a pack that lasts for a few small meals. I had it with a cooked breakfast...scrambled eggs, baked beans, toast, grilled peppers and fakon. Perfect!
My latest trial was the Family Roast. Ideal as an alternative to roast chicken, it cooks in just under an hour from frozen and is stunningly moist and chicken-like in texture! But the best bit?! Today, I re-heated slices of it, alongside some of yesterday's gluten free stuffing, and had a faux chicken and stuffing sandwich! I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to do that, and boy was it worth the wait!! Sadly, my husband took the pic on my phone after I'd already started eating and it's not a great one, I'm afraid! But rest assured, it was wonderful!
So, that's it for now but I see a LOT more Quorn in my future!
In the meantime, one of my New Year's resolutions (yes, I do like to keep them) is to work on making my cakes look pretty. I was given a few things to help me 'pretty-up' my cakes, so I hope to show you some of that next time. But for now, if you have any resolutions this year, I'd love to hear them!
It's great to be back, and I have a great way to start because last week, I heard some great news!
The lovely men and woman at Quorn have recently announced that they're making a number of their existing products gluten free. Yay! You may be aware, especially if you're a coeliac vegetarian like myself, that Quorn products have mostly been considered unsafe for coeliacs for a very long time. In fact, for some time now, the only safe products I've been aware of have been the Fillets and the Chicken-Style Pieces, so this is very exciting news!
Now, a number of my carnivorous readers might well ask why someone who turns their nose up at meat would want to eat anything that resembles it. And it's a very fair question. Before I went herbivore, I actually loved meat! Roast chicken, chicken nuggets, sausage rolls...all tasty stuff. But one day, when I was 8, I got halfway through a roast dinner with (oddly) a sausage roll, I suddenly couldn't stand to eat dead animals any more. My Dad was MAAAAD!!! I refused to touch anything else on the plate. The switch was flipped and that was it.
Anyway, my point is that, for many of my fellow veggiesaurs, giving up meat is less a case of like/dislike, and more a case of guilt or disgust at eating flesh (not that I have a problem with anyone else doing it, mind). So, given that, and the fact that it's difficult to get a huge variety of vegetarian AND gluten free foods, the announcement from Quorn is a Godsend.
The first thing I tried was pepperoni, or as I call it 'fakeroni'. I tried it on top of a pizza and it was surprisingly good! I never had real pepperoni, so I have no frame of reference, but the texture was soft, yet firm, and a little smokey and spicy. It made a very welcome change to usual veg-loaded pizza and for only £1.75 a pack, it's not too pricey!
Next up, I tried the Quorn Bacon, or as I call it 'fakon'. This stuff was very interesting. You can buy it either as rashers or as slices in the shape of normal bacon. Fried in a small quantity of oil for a couple of minutes, it smells and tastes nothing really like I imagine real bacon smells or tastes BUT it is actually a very nice alternative, and costs just £1.75 for a pack that lasts for a few small meals. I had it with a cooked breakfast...scrambled eggs, baked beans, toast, grilled peppers and fakon. Perfect!
 |
| Add caption |
My latest trial was the Family Roast. Ideal as an alternative to roast chicken, it cooks in just under an hour from frozen and is stunningly moist and chicken-like in texture! But the best bit?! Today, I re-heated slices of it, alongside some of yesterday's gluten free stuffing, and had a faux chicken and stuffing sandwich! I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to do that, and boy was it worth the wait!! Sadly, my husband took the pic on my phone after I'd already started eating and it's not a great one, I'm afraid! But rest assured, it was wonderful!
So, that's it for now but I see a LOT more Quorn in my future!
In the meantime, one of my New Year's resolutions (yes, I do like to keep them) is to work on making my cakes look pretty. I was given a few things to help me 'pretty-up' my cakes, so I hope to show you some of that next time. But for now, if you have any resolutions this year, I'd love to hear them!
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